Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer has delayed his book tour this week for “security reasons” following the backlash over backing a Republican spending bill.
The Senate Minority Leader announced Thursday that he would advance the Republican bill to avert a government shutdown, branded a “tremendous mistake” by some in the Democratic Party.
Schumer was scheduled to appear in New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore this week to promote his new book titled Antisemitism in America: A Warning, but now the events have been postponed.
“Due to security concerns, Senator Schumer’s book events are being rescheduled,” a spokesperson told Politico in a statement. The Independent has contacted Schumer’s representatives for further comment.
Schumer argued that a government shutdown would hand President Donald Trump and Elon Musk even greater power and momentum to cut the federal workforce.
“The Republican bill is a terrible option, but I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” Schumer said last week.
But angry advocates protested outside the senator’s New York residence Friday over his decision to back the bill. Protesters held signs saying: “Fight for us” and “Someone please do something,” The City reported.
The move allows Republicans to move toward their major goal of passing massive legislation to extend the tax cuts Trump signed in 2017, increase defense spending, beef up funding at the U.S.-Mexico border and expand oil exploration.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also hit out at Schumer last week. “I cannot urge enough how bad of an idea it is to empower and enable Donald Trump and Elon Musk in this moment. It is dangerous and it is reckless,” Ocasio-Cortex told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“Any Democrat who helps to pass funding bill with blank checks for Musk and Trump will be cursed by it just like [Hillary] Clinton and [John] Kerry were by their votes for the Iraq war,” Murshed Zaheed, a Democratic strategist and a former senior leadership aide for former Senate majority leader Harry Reid, also told The Independent.
Anger over Schumer comes as support for the Democratic Party has hit a record low, according to two damning polls released over the weekend.
An NBC News poll of registered voters found that just 27 percent of people viewed the party positively.
It also revealed that 65 percent of Democrats wanted Democratic lawmakers to stick to their guns – even if this slowed things down in Washington – while just 32 percent believed that bending to Trump to gain his support on legislation was key.
A second poll, released by CNN and conducted by SSRS, also presented dismal findings for the party. Only 29 percent positively favored the Democrats – a record low in CNN’s polling since 1992.
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