Hakeem Jeffries Dodges When Asked If It’s Time for Democrats to Get New Senate Leadership
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) declined to say whether Democrats needed new leadership in the Senate Friday when asked about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) support for a GOP funding bill.
House Democrats are opposed to a Republican continuing resolution bill to fund the government for the coming months. Schumer expressed his opposition to the bill this week but changed his mind Thursday.
Schumer took a beating from House Democrats and others in the party after he announced he wanted to work with Republicans to avert a Saturday government shutdown.
Jeffries was peppered with questions about Schumer at a Friday afternoon press conference and refused to publicly support the embattled Senate leader.
“We’re gonna continue to support Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits, and public schools, while Donald Trump and House Republicans try to take a chainsaw to these important priorities of the American people,” he said. “We’ll see what happens over in the Senate. There are still undecided and undeclared senators, and we anxiously await that vote.
Jeffries was asked by a reporter, “Is it time for new leadership in the Senate?”
He replied, “Next question.”
Earlier in the conference, Jeffries was asked by a different reporter if he had “confidence in his party’s Senate leadership?”
“Next question,” he said.
Sixty-six House Democrats sent Schumer a letter Friday to make their opposition to his support of the continuing resolution clear. Marianna Sotomayor with The Washington Post reported Friday:
Dozens of House Democrats sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) on Friday to express their “strong opposition” to his support for advancing a Republican-authored stopgap spending measure, which the lawmakers called a “partisan continuing resolution that legitimizes President Trump and the Republican party’s dismantling of government.”
Watch above via C-SPAN.
