Is Chuck Schumer the Left’s Unlikely Savior?

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By Nathan Guttman January 25, 2017

Chuck Schumer has been called many things in his life. “Leftist” was never one of them.

But in the post-election era with his new role as Senate Minority Leader, the Jewish New York senator is now proudly carrying the title, as described in a recent article in The Hill which explained how Schumer is emerging as “new champion of the left.”

Initially, Schumer was all about finding areas of cooperation with the Trump administration and creating a “big tent” policy, but it didn’t take much for Schumer to learn that Democratic constituents aren’t interested in playing nice. Shortly after, Schumer was already willing to state that his views “are exactly the same as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.”

Schumer embraced the role of chief opposer to Trump in full. In recent weeks he has taken on the fight for keeping Obamacare and shot down compromise ideas raised by moderate Republicans. He is also leading the fight against some of Trump’s cabinet nominees, mainly that of Jeff Sessions, Trump’s appointee for Attorney General.

Trump has maintained a love-hate relationship with Schumer. Back in early January, Trump told Schumer that he likes him more than Republican leaders of Congress, but later he described the Democratic leader as a “clown”.

The two New Yorkers’ special relationship did not go unnoticed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who quipped after Trump’s meeting with congressional leaders this week: “I enjoyed listening to the president and Schumer talking about all the people they knew in New York.”

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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