Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is facing mounting calls to step down after he voted in favor of the Republicans’ spending package Friday. The Republican bill has been described as a “blank check” for the White House to keep defunding and dismantling government services and agencies. Calls have been mounting for New York Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to primary Schumer, who was joined by eight other Democratic senators in voting for the bill. “This was one of the most utterly embarrassing strategic blunders on behalf of the Democrats that I’ve seen,” says Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid. He criticizes Schumer for “his surrender” to Trump and Elon Musk’s drastic defunding of the federal government after Schumer himself had warned against it. “You don’t say there’s a fire, and then you give the arsonist a match and gasoline. And that’s effectively what Chuck Schumer did.”
