NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Former Obama advisor David Axelrod appeared on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” on Monday, where he told the panel he believes Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is “in bigger trouble” within his own party as an end to the ongoing government shutdown approaches.
Host Anderson Cooper asked Axelrod whether Schumer “could be in trouble” with the “left flank” of the Democratic Party after eight Senate Democrats broke ranks Sunday night to vote in favor of a House-passed continuing resolution, a major step toward ending the government shutdown.
“I think he’s been in trouble — I think he is in bigger trouble now,” Axelrod responded. “My guess is that he won’t be leader of the party in 2027 after this election, unless something really surprising happens.”
BERNIE SANDERS RIPPED AFTER CLASH WITH GOP AUDIENCE MEMBER OVER GOV’T SHUTDOWN BLAME: ‘JUST GOT WRECKED’
Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Axelrod continued, noting that before Democrats dominated last week’s special elections, the party had been dealing with intense “internal strife.” But after its strong performance at the polls, the Democratic Party has “unified” over a bigger concern than internal policy disputes — President Donald Trump.
“I think one of the problems Republicans have to consider now is Democrats did do a very good job of shining a bright light on this Affordable Care Act issue and the general issue of health care costs,” he argued. “And now Republicans were steadfast in opposing a solution to it. Maybe they’ll change their mind. But this is a heavy burden for them to carry into the midterm elections.”
In March, Schumer caused a stir within the Democratic Party after he voted in favor of a continuing resolution (CR) bill, backed by Trump, which avoided a government shutdown at the time.
Some who viewed Schumer’s move to sign the CR as backing down from Trump called for the minority leader to step down from his position then.
“Look, I’m not stepping down,” Schumer said in a pre-recorded interview that aired on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in March. “I knew that when I cast my vote against the government shutdown that there would be a lot of controversy.”
BERNIE SANDERS CRASHES SCHUMER NEWS CONFERENCE, CRITICIZES DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERSHIP
Schumer defended his decision to vote in support of the Republican-backed CR to avert a government shutdown, despite the bill’s broad opposition from within the Democratic Party.
“The CR was certainly bad, you know the continuing resolution, but a shutdown would be 15 or 20 times worse. Under a shutdown, the executive branch has sole power to determine what is ‘essential.’ And they can determine without any court supervision. The courts have ruled it’s solely up to the executive what to shut down,” Schumer said.
Similar to in March, some members of the Democratic Party are once again blasting Schumer’s leadership, including Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
“Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced. If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?” Khanna said in a post on social media Sunday.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
To some Democrats, a failure to secure an extension — or even a partial extension — of the Obamacare subsidies was unacceptable.
“I cannot support a deal that still leaves millions of Americans wondering how they are going to pay for their healthcare or whether they will be able to afford to get sick,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said of the funding bill some of his Democratic colleagues supported.
“That’s not a deal. It’s an unconditional surrender that abandons the 24 million Americans whose healthcare premiums are about to double,” Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., said in a post on X.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and Leo Briceno contributed to this report.
Read the full article here
