Profile
Sections
Local
tv
Featured
More From NBC
Follow NBC News
news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
WASHINGTON — After days of clashes within the party over last week’s government shutdown fight, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries D-N.Y., are trying to get back on the same page.
During separate appearances Tuesday, the two congressional Democratic leaders sought to return their focus to battling President Donald Trump and his agenda, particularly the potential Medicaid cuts his Republican allies in Congress are eyeing in their party-line bill for taxes, immigration and other policy priorities.
Schumer sat for a pair of national TV interviews Tuesday morning and defended his decision to accept a Republican bill to keep the government open. He vowed to stay on as the party’s leader in the Senate amid blowback from fellow Democrats, after postponing events this week to promote his new book, citing security concerns.
“One of the things I am known to be very good at is how to win Senate seats. In other words, I’m a strategist in terms of recruiting candidates, helping the candidates run campaigns and winning,” Schumer said on ABC’s “The View.” “Look, winning in 2026 — in the House and Senate, which would stop Trump once and for all — is vitally important.”
Speaking to reporting during a “Medicaid Day of Action” in Brooklyn, Jeffries said he and Schumer spoke over the weekend after the two disagreed sharply on the GOP’s six-month funding bill.
“Sunday we had a good conversation about the path forward, particularly as it relates to making sure we all speak with one voice in the effort to stop these Medicaid cuts from ever being enacted into law,” Jeffries told reporters.
“We remain united in stopping these Medicaid cuts,” he said.
The remarks from the two New York Democrats indicate that they are prepared to agree to disagree on last week’s shutdown showdown, now that Trump has signed the bill into law, and link arms to focus on the battle ahead.
Jeffries said multiple times Tuesday that he has confidence in Schumer to remain Senate Democratic leader, telling reporters, “Yes, I do.”
It was a notable shift from last week when he repeatedly dodged that question at a press conference.
For his part, Schumer heralded the Jeffries event on protecting Medicaid. And the two leaders put out a joint news release on the topic Tuesday.
“And I’ll tell you one thing: We are totally united in one thing — many things — but one thing above all, we are united in going after Trump and showing the American people that he is making the middle class pay for the tax cuts on the rich,” Schumer said on “The View.” “Today, we’re doing it on Medicaid.”
Schumer also praised Democrats in his conference, calling Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, “great spokespeople” for the party. He said he put Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Tina Smith, D-Minn., in charge of digital social media, and commended Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for hosting rallies in Republican areas around the country.
Among Democrats, outside advocates and the party base, tensions remain high after 10 members of the Senate Democratic caucus, led by Schumer, voted to break a filibuster on the GOP-led stopgap funding bill that cuts domestic programs and gives Trump flexibility on how to use government funds as he seeks to dismantle federal agencies. In recent days Schumer has faced a torrent of criticism from House Democrats, some of whom have questioned his leadership.
And the progressive organizing group Indivisible called on Schumer to resign as the party’s Senate leader.
“After weeks of constituents demanding that Democrats use this rare, precious point of leverage on the government funding bill, Schumer did the opposite. He led the charge to wave the white flag of surrender. But Indivisible has no intention of surrendering to Trump, Musk, and congressional Republicans,” Indivisible co-executive director Ezra Levin said in a statement Saturday. “Senator Schumer should step aside as leader. Every Democrat in the Senate should call for him to do so, and begin making plans for new leadership immediately.”
The remarks by the two leaders on Tuesday illuminated the source of their disagreement on how to battle the GOP measure.
Jeffries maintained that “as House Democrats, we stand by our decision to oppose the Republican spending bill, because the partisan Republican spending bill that was not negotiated with Democrats, it was written by Donald Trump and House Republicans, would hurt families, hurt veterans and hurt seniors.”
All but one House Democrat voted against the bill, which passed narrowly as every Republican except Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted in favor of it.
But while House Democrats were counting on their Senate colleagues to hold the line and filibuster the measure, Schumer said Tuesday the strategy was predicated on stopping the bill in the House, as after it passed, senators had no choice but to accept it.
“The problem was it came so fast,” Schumer said on “CBS Mornings.” “Hakeem and I had a strategy which was to try and get a bipartisan bill, which meant in the House, the Republicans would have not been able to pass it. Only at the last minute did it happen that they all voted for it.”
He added that was “no off-ramp” to reopening the government if it shut down, saying: “I thought I did the thing a leader should do. Even when people don’t see the danger around the curve, my job was to alert people to it, and I knew I’d get some bullets.”
Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.
Kyle Stewart is a field producer covering Congress for NBC News.
Frank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC
