TRANSCRIPT: On CNN, Democratic Leader Schumer Discusses The Senate Passage Of A Continuing Resolution To Avoid A Government Shutdown

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper this evening to discuss the Senate passage of the government funding bill and avoiding a painful shutdown.

Jake Tapper: Senator, thanks so much for joining us. So, Leader Schumer, you just voted to advance this spending bill, along with nine of the others who caucus with Democrats. Most of the rest of your party in the House and the Senate did not vote that way. They wanted to not support this Continuing Resolution to keep the government open. Do you understand why they voted the way they did and why so many of them are angry with you?

Leader Schumer: Well, let me say this. First, we always knew there would be disagreements, but I felt and those who voted with me felt that as bad as the CR was, and I know a lot of members didn't like the CR, a government shutdown would be far worse. A government shutdown gives Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE almost complete power as to what to close down because they can decide what is an essential service. If they determine that SNAP, kids shouldn't get food, is not essential, they can just cut it out summarily, they could fire half the workers in the federal government. It would have been a far worse consequence. Now, it wouldn't have happened for a week or two, but my job as leader is to lead the party, and if there's going to be danger in the near future, to protect the party. And I'm proud I did it, I knew I did the right thing, and I knew there'd be some disagreements. That's how it always is.

Tapper: Are you worried at all about your leadership position? We've talked to a lot of Democrats who are very angry.

Schumer: No.

Tapper: Senator Michael Bennett today accused leadership of having, quote, no strategy, no plan, no message.

Schumer: Look, I think I have the overwhelming support of my caucus, and so many of the members thanked me and said you did what you thought was courageous, and we respect it. I think my caucus and I are in sync, and everyone knew what I was doing and respected it.

Tapper: Why is the party even in this position? Some might say that you should have been bringing up appropriations bills last year, and then there wouldn't have been this need for a continuing resolution.

Schumer: Well, you better ask Mike Johnson why that was. We couldn't get bills done in the Senate because we couldn't get agreement from Republicans in the House, plain and simple. You need the House, the Senate, Democrats and Republicans to agree on appropriations bills, and they would not agree, plain and simple.

Tapper: A lot of Democrats seem to think that this is rolling over for President Trump, that if we're not willing, if Democrats – they say to me, if we're not willing to stand up for this, then what are we willing to fight over?

Schumer: Look, the CR was a bad bill, and I didn't like it, but it would be far worse to give Donald Trump the keys to the city and the country. We all know that Musk and DOGE and Trump want to decimate the federal government, and letting them shut down the government, allowing them to shut down the government, they would have done it. Within two, three weeks, we would have had the whole country and so many of the Democrats complaining. Why were they cutting this? Why were they cutting that? And here's another thing, Jake. There is no exit ramp.

Once you shut down the government, it is totally up to DOGE and Trump and Musk how long we’re in shutdown. We could have been in shutdown for months, and why did Musk and Trump want to shut down? Because they wanted this power to achieve their goal of dramatically shrinking, destroying, hurting innocent people in the government. Why did they want that? Very simple. They want to slash the government to smithereens so that they can give their billionaire friends a tax cut. We're against that. Shutting the government down would have made it much easier for them, and I'm glad we didn't do it, but we're going to fight them every step of the way, and now we can move on into areas where we have stronger footing. 

Tapper: So a lot of the House, I mean, every single House Democrat except for one from a Trump district in Maine voted against this Continuing Resolution, every single one. And one of the complaints we hear from House Democrats is they say, a lot of our members took some tough votes here, people from Trump districts voting against this, people from Republican states like Georgia voting against this, Ossoff and Warnock, for example, in the Senate. What do you say to them? 

Schumer: Well, very simple, it's a lot different in the House. You could have voted against this CR and still not shut down the government. The Senate, because of the 60-vote rule, you would have had to shut down the government, and that was far worse an outcome. The Senate and House are different. I respect what the House members did. I'm glad all of them voted against it, but as I said, it is much different in the Senate where if you would have voted against the bill and the bill would have gone down, the whole government would have shut down from one end to the other, creating dramatic and huge hardship for tens of millions of Americans, and again, there was no way to get out of it unless Trump and Musk wanted it. Again, ask yourself the question, why were Musk and Vought and DOGE so eager for us to vote for a shutdown? 

Tapper: Your counterpart in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, was asked a question about whether he had faith in your leadership, whether he thinks you should stay Senate leader, and his response was, “Next question.” 

Schumer: Look, Hakeem and I get along, we've known each other a very long time, but I expected when I did this, I think it was an act of strength, of courage, and I knew that most people wouldn't agree with me, but I'm confident I did the right thing, and I think history will vindicate that. You know, when you're in politics, you know what I've always said, the higher you climb up the mountain, the fiercer the winds blow, and the only way not to be blown off is to have your internal gyroscope. My internal gyroscope, my very thorough look at what would happen on either alternative, came to a strong conclusion, and that was that a shutdown would be much, much worse. 

Tapper: One last question, and then I know you have to go vote, and that is—

Schumer: Yeah, I got to go vote.

Tapper: Earlier this week you said that the Republicans didn't have the votes to pass this. That seemed to send a signal to a lot of Democrats that you were going to stand up against it, and then they got confused when you said you were going to vote for it. 

Schumer: No, if you would have listened to my speech, I said we didn't have the votes yet, but the Democrats preferred, and it would have been much better, and that's what we were united on middle of the week, a 30-day CR extension where the appropriators could have gone to work. But that night, the Republican appropriators said they're not going to come to a bipartisan agreement, which is really the only right way to go, and my members had to decide one way or the other. Enough of them decided to vote not to shut down the government, and that's the results we ended up with. 

Tapper: Democratic Leader Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, thank you so much, appreciate it, sir. 

Schumer: Nice talking with you, Jake.

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