Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer dropped a bombshell Thursday night, vowing to vote yes on a House GOP funding bill to dodge a government shutdown by Friday’s midnight deadline.
From the Senate floor, the New Yorker waved a reluctant white flag, ensuring enough Democratic votes to push the measure past the 60-vote filibuster—and keep the lights on in Washington.
“It’s a terrible option,” Schumer growled, slamming the GOP’s “deeply partisan” plan as a far cry from a clean continuing resolution. “It doesn’t address this country’s needs.” But the alternative—a shutdown—was a beast he couldn’t stomach. “The consequences for America are much, much worse,” he warned, painting a grim picture of vulnerable families losing food, healthcare, and financial lifelines.
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Schumer laid the mess at Republicans’ feet, accusing them of forcing a “Hobson’s choice” that teetered on disaster. Yet his real dread? A shuttered government handing President Donald Trump and Elon Musk a wrecking ball.
“A shutdown would give Trump and Musk carte blanche to destroy vital services at warp speed,” he charged, conjuring visions of the duo—via their Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—slashing agencies, furloughing workers, and torching programs with no comeback. “They’d get the keys to the city, state, and country.”
The concession, a bitter pill after days of Democratic defiance, flips the script on Schumer’s earlier shutdown threats.
With the clock ticking, his pivot signals a pragmatic play to curb Trump’s reach—choosing the bill over a free-for-all power grab in Schumers’ eyes. Republicans, grinning at the flip, now eye a clear path to victory before the weekend hits.
PREVIOUS REPORT: In a clandestine twist, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) whispered to fellow Democrats over a private lunch Thursday that he’d nudge along a House GOP funding bill, hinting at a retreat from the brink of a Saturday government shutdown.
Two insiders, speaking anonymously to spill the tea, confirmed Schumer’s shift—first sniffed out by The New York Times—after days of party hand-wringing over the fiscal cliff.
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The drama kicked off Tuesday when House Republicans rammed through a funding patch to September, leaving Democrats out in the cold.
With the clock ticking to midnight Friday, Schumer’s hush-hush pledge suggests he’s ready to ditch the filibuster fight that’d need eight Democratic votes to clear the Senate’s 60-vote hurdle. He’s stayed mum publicly but is set to take the Senate floor Thursday night, likely to drop more hints.
Behind closed doors, Senate Democrats huddled again Thursday, emerging as a fractured flock—no united front in sight. A rebel faction, growing louder, swears to tank the GOP bill, digging in against procedural lifelines.
Yet whispers of a deal swirl: some Dems might greenlight it if Schumer can snag a vote on their 30-day lifeline, buying time for bipartisan haggling. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) isn’t spilling any beans on a handshake either.
As the shutdown shadow looms, Schumer’s backroom maneuvering could yank his party from chaos—or leave them clutching a compromise that’s tough to swallow. All eyes are on his next move.
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