WASHINGTON — Lefty California Rep. Ro Khanna on Sunday detailed why it’s time to finally chuck Chuck.
The Dem congressman said the failed tactics of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) during the government shutdown were the “final straw” and urged his party to find new leadership for the upper chamber, despite some of his colleagues railing against the Democratic infighting.
“[Schumer] doesn’t inspire confidence. He’s not bold. He’s out of touch with the grassroots. He’s someone who cheer led us into the war in Iraq. He doesn’t have the moral clarity on Gaza. He couldn’t say [New York City Mayor-elect Zohran] Mamdani’s name,” Khanna told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“This was the final straw, where he was not strong on fighting for health care,” he said of Schumer’s leadership, or lack thereof, during the Dems’ shutdown battle with the Trump administration.
Khanna, who has been one of the loudest Democratic voices in Congress demanding Schumer be replaced as the party’s Senate chief, credited him for being a “terrific” leader during the Democratic Biden era.
“I worked with him on the CHIPS and Science Act. That would not have passed if it weren’t for Senator Schumer’s leadership. Same with the infrastructure bill and IRA [Inflation Reduction Act],” Khanna said.
As for the recent historic federal shutdown, Schumer did not waiver and voted against the bipartisan deal to reopen the government.
But Khanna and other progressive reps faulted him for failing to prevent the party defections that allowed the shutdown to end without the party getting the concessions it demanded.
Schumer had already previously refused to block a GOP-backed bill to prevent a government shutdown in March, much to the chagrin of his left flank.
“Chris Murphy is a top leader. Cory Booker is a dynamic leader. Brian Schatz is a dynamic leader. I mean, Elizabeth Warren is someone whose ideology I appreciate. There are a lot of great talent,” Khanna said when asked for the party’s top Senate names.
Thus far, no sitting senator has called on Schumer to step aside, while Democratic candidates for the Senate from Maine and Iowa have expressed support for replacing him.
A source who advised Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign snipped of Khanna, “You cannot spell rookie without ‘Ro.’
“There’s a running joke about him in the halls: He’s chairman of the eye-roll caucus,” the source said.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who was one of the five Democratic flips to reopen the government, also insisted on “Meet the Press” on Sunday that”Chuck has been an effective leader.
Kaine further chided that critics such as Khanna should “focus on their own leadership and let senators do what we need to do to keep this country moving forward.”
Former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who has been flirting with a 2028 presidential run, urged Democrats to get past the infighting.
“Chuck Schumer is not the problem. Donald Trump and the rubber-stamp Republicans are the problem. Keep your eye on the prize. Focus on what’s important,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“Nobody does a firing squad in a circle like the Democratic Party.”
Emanuel said he actually wouldn’t have backed the shutdown, noting that historically, “The party that forces … a government shutdown over a policy has lost both.”
