Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) lashed out at the Trump Administration, Republican Senators and their supporters after backing down on his threats of a government shutdown. While speaking with MSNBC, Schumer referred to Trump and his supporters as “ba**ards” who are “destroying democracy.”
On Wednesday, Schumer threatened to shut down the government by refusing to give Republicans the votes they needed to invoke cloture. While Republicans control the Senate by a three-seat margin, they needed 60 votes in order to avert a shutdown, leaving the responsibility with Democrats.
“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort but Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their [continuing resolution] without any input — any input — from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday.
“Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR. Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass,” the Senate minority leader continued in an explicit threat to shut down the government.
A little under 24 hours later, the New York Times reported that Schumer was walking