Schumer Responds to Criticism Over Handling of GOP Bill: ‘I’m the Best Leader for the Senate’

Schumer made comments to CBS a day after his tour promoting his book on anti-Semitism was postponed amid planned protests.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) leaves the Democratic caucus lunch at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 13, 2025. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has responded to Democratic criticism of his voting to advance a Republican government-funding bill, saying he is “the best leader for the Senate.”

“We have a lot of good people,” he told “CBS Mornings” on March 18. “But I am the best at winning Senate seats.”

Schumer’s comments followed his support for a GOP spending bill that exposed divisions within the Democratic Party in its approach to resisting Trump administration policies. Many Democrats opposed the package, citing its cuts to non-defense spending and the GOP’s failure to work with Democrats on the bill.

Schumer last week voted to advance legislation, known as a continuing resolution (CR), that funds the government through Sept. 30.

“I knew when I took this vote there'd be a lot of protests, but I felt I had to do it for the future, not only of the Democratic Party but the country,” he told “CBS Mornings.”

He said that “as bad as that CR bill was—and it was bad—a shutdown is 10 times worse.”

“We would have had half the federal government we have now,” he said. “So I thought I did the thing a leader should do: Even when people don’t see the danger around the curve, my job was to alert people to it—and I knew I'd get some bullets.”

The now-law includes about a $6 billion increase in defense spending and about a $13 billion reduction in non-defense funding.

Schumer made comments to CBS a day after his tour promoting his book on anti-Semitism was postponed amid planned protests from groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, which is pro-Palestinian, and Sunrise Movement, a climate action group.

Congressional Democrats criticized Schumer, who has been Senate Democrat leader since January 2017, for not blocking the bill.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a March 15 video that what Schumer did was “an absolute failure of Democratic leadership.”

“While I totally understand my colleagues who didn’t want to catapult us into a shutdown, I actually think that the American people would’ve understood that Republicans have an obligation to negotiate with Democrats,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Murphy said he backs Schumer as Senate Democrat leader.

“Leader Schumer has a very difficult job. I don’t envy the job that he has,” he said on March 16.

“I think Democrats in the Senate, when they’re not included in negotiations, when they’re iced out, when our people are going to be hurt, should stand their ground,” Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) told NewsNation.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) initially declined to comment on Schumer’s cloture vote but later said that the two agree more than they disagree.

“Chuck and I agree on the overwhelming majority of issues moving forward, including our effort to oppose the largest potential Medicaid cut in American history, and we’re all going to have to come together,” Jeffries said in an MSNBC interview on Monday.