Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has high hopes about future fights with Republican leadership, according to a Tuesday report from Politico.
Republicans were unable to get a comprehensive health care bill passed last Friday, and Democrats think that means they can keep the pressure going by refusing to work with the GOP on avoiding a government shutdown next month, or confirming President Donald Trump’s appointee to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch.
“They’re in charge. Government shuts down, it’s on their back. We have leverage,” Schumer said during an interview with Politico. “The onus is on them.”
Schumer also thinks Republicans might not get the votes to confirm Gorsuch on their own if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell changes the rules of the Senate to require a 50 plus one majority vote, instead of 60.
“There’s been an almost seismic shift in the caucus” against Gorsuch, Schumer said. “I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion. … There are people in his caucus who really don’t want to change the rules, OK?”
Democrats have confidence that their continued opposition to the Trump administration will play well with mid-term Democratic voters in 2018, and the polls appear to back up that claim. Democratic voters overwhelmingly want their representatives to oppose Trump on almost every front, in order to preserve the legacy of the Obama administration.
Schumer has a history of making claims that didn’t turn out to be true. He “predicted” that Republicans would break ranks with McConnell and demand a vote on Obama appointee Judge Merrick Garland. Schumer also asserted that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 presidential election, sparking a “new generation” of Democratic candidates eager to capitalize on the huge win.
“I say what I think. Generally I have a pretty good record,” he said. “But I make mistakes. I sure did with the Hillary campaign. And the only consolation is, so did everybody else.”
Schumer’s office didn’t immediately return The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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