Chuck Schumer Gonna 'Hope And Pray' Us Straight Into Fascism

It’s your Sunday show rundown!

After a week of the MAGA right trying to canonize Charlie Kirk as a martyr for free speech, with varying degrees of shamelessness, the Sunday shows reminded us that this real-time rewriting of history is made easier by feckless cowards who won’t push back on it.

And no one is a better example of that than Chuck Schumer.

The Senate minority “leader” was on CNN’s State Of The Union with Dana Bash.

Bash asked Schumer about Donald Trump publicly pressuring the Justice Department to target his political enemies, and Schumer had some strong words about that.

SCHUMER: I think it's a real threat to democracy, Dana. […] This is our rule of law. This is fundamental to our democracy, and we cannot let it stand. […] [W]e're going to fight strongly as we can in every way. […]

OK! So with a government shutdown looming in over a week, I’m sure Schumer is gonna finally play hardball and …

SCHUMER: Hakeem Jeffries and I have now demanded to sit down with Donald Trump, because that's the only way to avoid a Trump shutdown. The Republican leadership is listening to Trump, and not talking to us.

Wait, what? They’re requesting Trump take a meeting? That’s their gambit?

Bash was just as perplexed and asked an obvious followup. The answer was not very reassuring in this very long and painful exchange.

BASH: If nothing changes, are you going to vote no and urge your Democratic colleagues to vote no, which will end with a shutdown?

SCHUMER: Look, we hope it doesn't come to that …

BASH: But what if it does?

SCHUMER: […] So it's up to them, and I hope and pray that Trump will sit down with us and negotiate a bipartisan bill. That's how it's always been done in the past. That's how shutdowns have been avoided in the past.

BASH: And if he doesn't, I'm just confirming here, you will vote no? Is that correct?

SCHUMER: We are hoping -- Dana, we are hoping that he will negotiate with us.

BASH: And if he doesn't?

SCHUMER: So far, he hasn't. And we have had two bills in the House and Senate, and neither of them have passed. Our Democrats are firm. We need to get something done to relieve the distress the American people are in.

BASH: OK, that sounded like a yes, but you can confirm that, and then I want to move on. Is that accurate?

SCHUMER: The bottom line is, we must, we must get a better bill than what they have, plain and simple.

Our democracy is just livin’ on a prayer. And a hope. Chuck Schumer’s hope and prayer.

These are not the words or actions of a person doing everything they can to save what little we can of democracy before we are in a fully fascist state. This is Chuck Schumer (and apparently also Hakeem Jeffries) begging and pleading for the faintest of fig leaves so he can cave as he did before. It’s pathetic.

It’s also been clear for a while now that Schumer’s strategy is to do nothing and hope Trump is so bad that voters are willing to deal with ineffective Democrats. In fact, Schumer pretty much admitted it out loud.

BASH: Senator, you said earlier this week that Democrats — quote — "have a damn good chance" of winning back the Senate in the 2026 midterms.

SCHUMER: Right.

BASH: A CNN poll from this summer found only 28 percent of Democrats, these are your fellow Democrats, view your party favorably. How can you be so confident when you see numbers like that?

SCHUMER: First because of what Donald Trump is doing to America. It's amazing how bad it is. And when you ask people in similar polls, do you prefer a Democratic candidate or a Republican candidate, it's 47 Democrat, 39 Republican.

OK, that’s a generic Democrat and not Chuck Schumer, but sure, OK let’s be fair. What is the strategy?

SCHUMER: We have to do more to build up a strong, strong platform as to what we will do. And Hakeem Jeffries and I, House and Senate, are working on that.

Oh, OK. Building a strong platform, supporting popular candidates who can energize the base and get the turnout we need to win the midterm elections next year, like for instance …

BASH: Speaking of candidates, you have been asked numerous times if you will endorse Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor. You always say you're going to continue to talk. There are two key questions here that you haven't answered. One is, will you ever endorse him? And, two, what do you need from him to get your endorsement?

SCHUMER: OK. Well, first of all, I know him. We have had a good relationship in the past. And we had a good meeting two weeks ago, a very long meeting with a lot of serious questions. And all I can tell you is, I'm going to continue talking to him.

BASH: What's the holdup?

SCHUMER: I got to continue talking to him, and that's what I'm going to do.

BASH: Is part of the calculus, that if you endorse a Democratic socialist, you're worried it will be damaging to your party, maybe even your chances of winning back the Senate?

SCHUMER: I'm going to continue talking to him, Dana. You can ask me again.

Oh for fuck’s sake, just fucking retire!

Reminder: Chuck Schumer voted “yea” on a resolution to honor Charlie Kirk by unanimous consent earlier this week, but he still can’t endorse the Democratic nominee for mayor of the largest city in his own state. Truly a coward and enabler.

Fuck Chuck Schumer.

Have a week.

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