Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Was Schumer First To Blink In Shutdown Negotiations?

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer emerged bruised from the three-day government shutdown, which is expected to end Monday after the Senate reached a compromise.

President Trump and the Republicans coined the term “Schumer Shutdown” on Friday, singling out the New York senator as being solely responsible for the federal government grinding to a halt. But after brokering a deal with Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell that allowed the government’s re-opening, Schumer found himself under fire again — this time from liberals in his own party who claimed Schumer had caved.

Schumer’s agreement to allow passage of the budget in return for McConnell’s promise to discuss a DACA extension in the near future was described as a sign of weakness by outraged liberals on Twitter, with Schumer himself being depicted by one activist as the “worst negotiator in Washington.”

Left-wing groups and activists had hoped to see Schumer and Senate Democrats stick to their guns and insist on resolving immigration issues before ending the shutdown. Schumer and moderate Democrats argued that they had secured a six-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program along with sufficient assurances that DACA will be next on the table.

Either way, within four days, Schumer has been the subject of two different trending hashtags: #SchumerShutdown on Friday and #SchumerSellout on Monday.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected]

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.