Schumer says he will not support 7- or 10-day stopgap to avoid shutdown

[BumRushDaShow]

24. You need to become a CSPAN junkie to see how they operate in Congress

At the start of every 2-year Congressional session, "leaders" are chosen as well as either "Chairs" (for the party in the majority) or "Ranking Members" (if the party is in the minority) for all the Committees. It can be a fierce battle as you might have noted with some of the Ranking Member slots like for the House Oversight Committee and House Judiciary Committees.

Democrats CHOSE Schumer after we lost the Senate in 2024 as he had been the Majority Leader before then (since 2020). Prior to 2020, Democrats were last in control of the Senate in 2013, where Harry Reid was the Majority Leader. We then lost the Senate in the 2014 election and didn't regain it until 2020 (barely as it was a tie but swung to (D) due to having the Presidency and Vice-Presidency where the VP is technically "the President of the Senate" and can break ties). At that time, Schumer was the Democratic Caucus Vice-Chair (and Dick Durbin was the Assistant Majority Leader to Reid), and Schumer ran and won the top leadership job.

So from that era, the Caucus had a record of his work in a leadership position. I know that Durbin decided to remain as a Whip vs running for Minority Leader.

ETA and IMHO - Schumer was fine for the "past" but we are in a "break glass" moment, where all bets are off and a different style/tactic is needed (i.e., I get what you are saying but they are not going to completely toss out protocol now but should we make it to the 2026 election, he'll be toast).