Sen. Chuck Schumer faced fresh calls to step aside as the Senate Democratic leader on Wednesday after he broke with the overwhelming majority of his caucus and voted against a pair of resolutions aimed at preventing the Trump administration from selling more US bombs and bulldozers to Israel.
“Mr. Schumer, you are out of touch with the base of this party, and with your own caucus,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who first called on Schumer to resign as Democratic leader last year, said in a short video posted to social media following Wednesday’s votes. “Step aside.”
The two resolutions, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), called for halting the sale of around $450 million worth of bulldozers, 1,000-pound bombs, and related military equipment to the Israeli government, which has repeatedly used American weaponry to commit war crimes in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, and Syria.
Despite facing record opposition from the Senate Democratic caucus—with 40 votes against the sale of bulldozers and 36 votes against the sale of bombs—the resolutions failed to pass, as Senate Republicans united against them.
But strong Democratic opposition to new US weapons sales to Israel was seen as evidence that the party is slowly catching up to its base, which overwhelmingly supports restricting American military aid to Israel.
“The fact that 40 of 47 Democratic senators voted to withhold military hardware from Israel is a new high-water mark in holding Israel accountable for violating US and international law,” said Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy.
Williams went on to rebuke Schumer, who has led the Senate Democrats for nearly a decade, for opposing the resolutions “against the supermajority of his own caucus and Democratic voters.”
“It’s well past time for him to step aside for leaders who actually represent the views of the party’s base,” said Williams.
The votes on the Israeli arms measures came after the Senate rejected another war powers resolution aimed at withdrawing US forces from the illegal assault on Iran, which President Donald Trump launched without congressional approval—and in partnership with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—in late February.
Schumer vocally supported the Iran war powers resolution. But one of his colleagues, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), said the efforts to end the US-Israeli war on Iran and the push to halt weapons sales to Israel are interconnected.
“A vote to approve arms sales to Israel at this time would be seen as a message of approval for Trump and Netanyahu’s disastrous war against Iran. I will not send that message,” Markey said in a statement late Wednesday. “Why would we send American military weapons that could prolong, escalate, or worsen this horrible situation in the Middle East? I say no more.”
J Street, the pro-Israel liberal advocacy organization, similarly connected the two fights following Wednesday’s votes.
“We continue to oppose Trump and Netanyahu’s war of choice against Iran, and applaud those senators whose principled stand in today’s vote reflects the American public’s strong opposition to both the Iran war and to Israel’s actions in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank that undermine efforts for peace in the region,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the group’s president.
Chuck Schumer is controlled opposition.
He’s literally said his job is to “keep the left pro-Israel.”
So obviously he’s doing a shit job at that. But also you’d think the Senator from New York’s job would be to represent the people of New York…
“the left”
*cuck scammer is a back stabbing snake
This fucking loser has got to go.
Chuck’s days are numbered, as are those of anyone else in aipac’s pocket. Primaries for everyone.
His job needs to go to AOC. And once Schmuck is gone, it’s time to after that back-stabbing bitch Gillibrand for shanking Al Franken with Schmuck’s help. They’re both MAGA shadow operatives and traitors.
Keep dreaming. As much as I hate him, he’s always played to his base: conservative New York jews. There’s literally no other Democrat they’d vote for. New York is closer to swinging than people realize: any progressive primary contender would lose in the general.
New York just elected the most progressive mayor in history. What the fuck do you mean?
New York City did. Chuck is running at the state level, and the rest of the state ain’t all blue. That’s why he’s comfortably gotten re-elected while imagining that he’s appealing to a conservative Long Island couple for the last 25 years.
And even on the topic of New York City, Mamdani wasn’t initially backed by the party and he spent his first 100 days pushing the boulder uphill on most of his key initiatives. His predecessor, Eric Adams, was a centrist who campaigned as “tough on crime.” And he got elected in response to everyone thinking De Blasio was too far left (he wasn’t). The city was run by Republican mayors for the 20 years before De Blasio.
My first reply was pretty aggressive. Sorry about that. My emotional regulation is not so good late in the day. Still I don’t think we need to cater to perceived centrism. I can acknowledge that Mamdani had to overcome 2 parties to get elected, but he won the NYC mayoral race by 9.5 points despite running against an independent candidate endorsed by the incumbent mayor and with massive investment in his campaign by AIPAC and a laundry list of Republican PACs. I think that’s significant enough of a spread to overcome the thought that being leftist makes you unappealing to upstate independent voters. Given Mamdani’s performance so far, if he can keep gaining support through political action, I see no reason why a leftist candidate endorsed by Mamdani in a state election would struggle to win Shumer’s seat. Personally. I understand others may disagree, but we tried Shumer’s strategy and it led us to Trump.
I wish chuck Schumer would step into a coffin
