As Sen. Chuck Schumer got here beneath fireplace from progressives like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for backing a Republican stopgap spending plan, President Trump on Friday heaped unlikely reward on the Democratic chief for declaring he’d vote to avert a authorities shutdown.
Ocasio-Cortez led a refrain of concern at Schumer, accusing him of betraying grassroots Democrats who need to see some backbone from their leaders as Trump and billionaire buddy Elon Musk slash the federal authorities.
“There are members of Congress who … walked the plank and took innumerable risks in order to defend the American people, in order to defend Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare,” Ocasio-Cortez instructed CNN’s Jake Tapper Thursday night time. “To see Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk,” might lead to “a wide sense of betrayal.”
Trump made the political calculus even trickier for Schumer Friday by commending his rival for agreeing to vote Friday in favor of the GOP plan.
“Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing — Took ‘guts’ and courage,” Trump wrote on his social media web site. “This could lead to something big for the USA, a whole new direction and beginning.”
Large chunks of the federal government would stop operation at Friday’s finish and not using a new funding measure signed into legislation by Trump, who has voiced his help for the Home laws. It comes after bipartisan funding talks collapsed earlier this yr, prompting Home Republicans to introduce a six-month stopgap spending invoice.
The measure handed the Home earlier this week with help from only one Democrat, however in an effort to overcome a filibuster, it would want the backing of at the very least eight Senate Democrats, who face bearing the blame of a authorities shutdown ought to they oppose the invoice.
That features Schumer, who declared his intention to help the measure throughout a speech on the Senate ground earlier within the day on Thursday. He argued a shutdown would grant President Trump and Musk “carte blanche to destroy vital government services,” insisting that siding with their “very bad” persevering with decision as an alternative can be the higher possibility.
Ocasio-Cortez was fast to blast Schumer’s help for the GOP funding plan, describing the measure as an “extreme spending bill” that “sacrifices and completely eliminates congressional authority.
“And so, to me, it is almost unthinkable why Senate Democrats would vote to hand the few pieces of leverage that we have away for free when we’ve been sent here to protect Social Security, protect Medicaid and protect Medicare,” the Democratic congresswoman instructed Tapper.
It will additionally flip the federal authorities right into a slush fund for Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” she mentioned of the “deeply partisan” GOP plan. She additionally contended the onus must be on Republicans — not on their rivals throughout the aisle — to push the invoice via and to maintain the federal government up and working. That’s the message she sending out to her base, she mentioned, including that she was “texting, calling,” and “sending carrier pigeons,” to mobilize constituents in opposition to Schumer’s intention to submit and push the GOP plan via.
“Everybody knows that Donald Trump is president, that Republicans have the Senate and Republicans have the House,” mentioned the Democratic congresswoman.
“They have the keys to the entire United States government,” she continued. “And if Republicans wanted to avert a shutdown, they can. … If they need Democratic votes, then they can negotiate with Democrats to get those votes. It is simple.”
