As Sen. Chuck Schumer came under fire from progressives like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for backing a Republican stopgap spending plan, President Trump on Friday heaped unlikely praise on the Democratic leader for declaring he’d vote to avert a government shutdown.
Ocasio-Cortez led a chorus of outrage at Schumer, accusing him of betraying grassroots Democrats who want to see some spine from their leaders as Trump and billionaire buddy Elon Musk slash the federal government.
“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 told CNN’s Jake Tapper Thursday night. “To see Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk,” could result in “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 site. “This could lead to something big for the USA, a whole new direction and beginning.”
Big chunks of the government would cease operation at Friday’s end without a new funding measure signed into law by Trump, who has voiced his support for the House legislation. It comes after bipartisan funding talks collapsed earlier this year, prompting House Republicans to introduce a six-month stopgap spending bill.
The measure passed the House earlier this week with support from just one Democrat, but in order to overcome a filibuster, it will need the backing of at least eight Senate Democrats, who face bearing the blame of a government shutdown should they oppose the bill.
That includes Schumer, who declared his intention to support the measure during a speech on the Senate floor earlier in 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” continuing resolution instead would be the better option.
Ocasio-Cortez was quick to blast Schumer’s support 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 told Tapper.
It would also turn the federal government into a slush fund for Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” she said of the “deeply partisan” GOP plan. She also contended the onus should be on Republicans — not on their rivals across the aisle — to push the bill through and to keep the government up and running. That’s the message she sending out to her base, she said, adding that she was “texting, calling,” and “sending carrier pigeons,” to mobilize constituents against Schumer’s intention to submit and push the GOP plan through.
“Everybody knows that Donald Trump is president, that Republicans have the Senate and Republicans have the House,” said 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.”