The Weekend Democrats Went to War — Against Each Other
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What sparked the internal conflict among Democrats?
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Over the past few days, a routine debate over government funding has exploded into an angry showdown over the Democratic Party's identity in the Trump era and whether its current leadership is right for the moment.
Hey there, Katie.
Hey, Michael.
You have many options of how to spend your Sunday. Appreciate you spending it with us.
Thanks for having me.
So, Katie, pretty much from the moment that Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second term, there has been this low-grade debate playing out inside the Democratic Party about how to counter him and what Democrats can do and should do about his role. really aggressive strategy of firing thousands of government workers, shutting down agencies, circumventing Congress in the process. And the question has been when would that internal debate really come to a head and become a public battle? And the answer, it seems, is right now. Because it all really just became a public brawl over the past few days. And that all seems to revolve around the actions of the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Yeah, that's right. I mean, look, I think there was behind the scenes for weeks now a lot of quiet agonizing over how to counter the Trump administration. And that sort of quiet agonizing turned into very public anger this week. And it all burst out into the open this week when Senator Chuck Schumer made a judgment call, essentially, about the best way to combat the Trump administration right now. And immediately that decision faced blowback from sort of all corners of the Democratic Party.
Right, who said, basically, we think you made the wrong call.
That's right. As of now, there is at least one major liberal activist group off of Capitol Hill, indivisible, that has called for Senator Schumer to step down as the party's leader in the Senate.
Good afternoon.
And perhaps most interesting, at least to me, was you saw some dissension from his counterpart over in the House.
Is it time for new leadership in the Senate? Next question.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York was pressed multiple times at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Friday as to whether he still had confidence in Schumer as the Senate minority leader.
Have you lost confidence in him, the fact that you guys see this so differently?
And Congressman Jeffrey's response each time was the same, which was to say... Next question. Next question.
Right. A remarkable moment where basically the number two Democrat in Congress won't say whether he supports the number one Senate Democrat. That's a huge, huge deal.
It was a stunning moment, and it was really remarkable to see this very public fissure.
Well, tell us how we got to this moment in such a short period of time where Democrats are truly, it seems, at each other's throat about the best way to operate in this first phase of the Trump administration.
So it starts with a fairly typical procedure up here on the Hill, which is we're staring down another government funding deadline. Lawmakers need to pass something to ensure the government doesn't shut down.
Right. We've only covered this, you and I, Katie, I don't know, 10 times in the last four years, something like that.
Yeah, exactly. Although this time the script sort of flips, right? Because normally what you and I are talking about is how these funding decisions pit Republican against Republican. Right. But what happened here is actually the opposite, is that for once House Republicans were able to unite around this spending bill that Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled. And the reason they were able to unite around this is sort of for two reasons. One is because it was an entirely Republican written bill. Democrats had no input into what this bill looked like at all. But two is because a lot of them were saying, look, it would be bad for President Trump if the government shut down. Let's ensure that he can continue the great work his administration is doing.
And that is actually what happened. House Republicans were able to pass this stopgap spending bill with really minimal drama. on their side, which is, I think, a fact that shocked a lot of Democrats. And in fact, all Democrats except one vote against it because they want to show that they are standing up to President Trump and that they're taking a principled stand.
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