When asked by reporters if Schumer should remain the minority leader, Ocasio-Cortez responded: "I think what is so important for folks to understand is that this problem is bigger than one person. And it actually is bigger than the minority leader in the Senate. You had eight Senate Democrats who coordinated…their own votes on this as well as you have two retiring members, many of them who are also up in several cycles from now, with the hope that people are going to forget this moment
The New York lawmaker added, “A leader is a reflection of the party, and Senate Democrats have selected their leadership to represent them. And so, the question needs to be bigger than just one person. We have several Senate primaries this cycle—I know I’m being asked about New York, that is years from now—I have to remind my own constituents because they think that this election is this year. We actually do have Senate elections this year, and my hope is that people across this country actually participate in their primary elections and selecting their leadership.”
Schumer’s leadership has come under fire following a pivotal Senate vote in which eight Democrats joined Republicans to end the government shutdown, defying his recommendations. Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, was among those openly stating, “Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced.”
Oh God I didn’t even know about Pelosi’s daughter until just a minute ago. Apparently she’s running for state senate not Pelosi’s seat, so not quite as bad as I thought.
Christine Pelosi passes on bid for retiring mother’s House seat
Also, didn’t know Schumer’s daughter is a lobbyist for Amazon! Jfc. Regardless, I’m still not buying that it’s a good idea to oust him right now.
I think he should be primaried and replaced, but given how hard the media is lobbying against him, it seems he has clearly pissed somebody powerful off more than he has really pissed off any of the Senate or House Democrats that I actually trust.
Either he was in on it the whole time, and let it happen, or maybe he legitimately opposed it this time, but didn’t believe he could stop the others from voting the way they did.
If he was really “in on it the whole time” though, he definitely doesn’t seem to be getting any kind of reward or protection. While I can see the argument that he possibly didn’t push back hard enough, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that he fully went along with what the establishment wanted, and is now also being punished by the establishment.
Like it can’t really be both. Why would they want somebody who has been so loyal out of the way?
I don’t buy that Ro Kahnna (who has been in Thiel’s pocket his entire career) is going on every news outlet that will have him and allegedly speaking on behalf of all “progressive” Democrats, but AOC and Sanders have both declined to put the blame fully on Schumer when asked directly.