Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer is lying low this week while Congress is in recess instead of facing protests from Democrats who want him to resign from leadership for abandoning a government funding fight against President Trump and congressional Republicans.
Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, postponed a series of events scheduled this week to promote the release of his book on antisemitism, citing “security reasons.”
Frustrated Democratic groups planned protests surrounding Mr. Schumer’s book tour and stepped up calls for him to resign. Party members are angry that Mr. Schumer helped advance a Republican government funding bill that did nothing to check Mr. Trump and his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk.
“Now is the time to channel public anger, not hide from it,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, one of the groups that had planned protests.
“We warned last week that if Democrats caved on the funding bill, it would help Republicans by redirecting some of the anger away from Trump and toward Democrats, and Chuck Schumer just proved us right,” he said. “We hope other Democratic senators continue meeting with their constituents and demand that their leadership fight with backbone.”
In a weekend interview with The New York Times, Mr. Schumer said he knew his decision to greenlight the Republican bill to avoid a government shutdown would be unpopular among the Democratic base but added that Republicans could have used the shutdown to accelerate their dismantling of the government bureaucracy.
“I felt so strongly as a leader that I couldn’t let this happen because weeks and months from now, things would be far worse than they even are today,” he said.
Some Democrats and liberal groups are calling for Mr. Schumer to resign as the party’s leader in the Senate.
“Schumer may have avoided our protests by canceling his tour, but he can’t stop us from raising our voices. We aren’t letting up the pressure,” the Sunrise Movement said on social media. It asked followers to “take 30 seconds to send a message to all Democratic Senators urging them to call for Schumer to step down.”
More than 80 New York groups under the liberal Indivisible umbrella delivered a letter to Mr. Schumer’s office Monday asking him to give up his leadership post. They said he “surrendered” a rare moment of leverage for Democrats.
“We’ve demanded you fight against Trump, not give him legislative or political wins,” the groups wrote. “Leadership is needed now, and your failure to coalesce your caucus in this critical moment leads us to call for your immediate resignation from your Minority Leader role.”
Indivisible’s co-founder and co-executive director, Ezra Levin, said emergency meetings of local group leaders found a significant majority, including 82% in New York and 91% nationwide, want Mr. Schumer to resign as minority leader.
“Every Democrat in the Senate should call for him to do so, and begin making plans for new leadership immediately,” Mr. Levin said. “Indivisible will be encouraging our groups and activists to talk to their senators at town halls, community events, and office visits about the urgent need for a minority leader who’s up for the fight this moment demands.”
No Senate Democrat has called on the minority leader to step down. Mr. Schumer said in The New York Times interview that he had no plans to step down despite “spirited disagreement” about the government funding vote.
“I think we have mutual respect in our caucus, and we are all united, no matter how people voted on this vote, to continue fighting Trump,” Mr. Schumer said. “And I believe that we’re going to have some real successes.”
Unless Mr. Schumer changes his mind and steps down willingly, his leadership position in the caucus is likely safe through the end of the Congress. Expelling him would take a two-thirds vote of the 47-member Democratic Caucus.
That won’t stop liberal groups from calling for Mr. Schumer’s ouster or expressing disapproval of his leadership. Indivisible, Sunrise and other groups had been planning protests around his book launch events, including one scheduled for Monday evening in Baltimore.
The Baltimore book event and stops this week in New York, Washington and Philadelphia were canceled.
“Senator Schumer’s book tour events this week are being postponed for security reasons. We will work to reschedule this event at a later date,” notices on at least two of the event pages read.
Mr. Schumer’s Senate office deferred further comment to his external communications team for the book promotion, whom The Washington Times has contacted.
The Times also reached out to U.S. Capitol Police to ask about an uptick in threats or heightened security posture around Mr. Schumer.
“We cannot discuss any potential investigations or the security for any of the members of Congress,” the Capitol Police’s public information office said.
This is the first Senate recess week of the Congress, which has given Mr. Schumer time to promote his book, scheduled for release Tuesday. “Antisemitism in America: A Warning” discusses his experiences as the highest-elected Jewish official in America and sounds the alarm about the resurgence of antisemitism.
One of the postponed book events, a Tuesday evening gathering at New York’s Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, was scheduled to be moderated by Rep. Ritchie Torres.
Mr. Torres was among the Democrats who derided the “strategic miscalculation” of Mr. Schumer and other senators in his party who advanced the Republican government funding stopgap and gave up leverage to secure concessions from Mr. Trump.
“Bailing [Republicans] out without extracting anything in return is political malpractice,” the New York Democrat said in a social media post.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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