Schumer Says He's 'Not Stepping Down,' Calls Trump a 'Lawless, Angry Man'

Chuck Schumer delivered a defiant message amid growing calls for him to step down as the Senate Minority Leader. In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, the Democratic leader said he was not planning on leaving his post.

Schumer has received backlash since helping to avert a government shutdown by aiding the Republicans in passing their stopgap spending plan over the objection of the majority of his fellow Democratic Senators and House Democrats. He has lost favor with many of his fellow party members, especially those who believe the Democrats need a more aggressive tactic to go against President Donald Trump.

But, Schumer says that despite the fallout, he is not done yet leading the minority party in the Senate. He defended his decision to vote for the bill in order to avoid the “horror” of the government shutdown, saying he believed he was doing the “right thing for America” and for his party. It was a decision he says he made out of “pure conviction.”

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“Look, I’m not stepping down,” Schumer told host Kristen Welker, stating that he knew he would get backlash for his decision. “A shutdown would be 15 or 20 times worse. Under a shutdown, the Executive Branch has sole power to determine what is, quote, ‘essential.’ And they can determine without any court supervision.”

He went on to tell Welker that Democrats are “united” in fighting Trump “every step of the way,” and that their goal is “to make Donald Trump the quickest lame duck in modern history by showing how bad his policies are.”

Schumer also said that “democracy is at risk” under Trump, responding to his recent call to impeach a judge who ruled against him on deportations of immigrants alleged by the U.S. to be Venezuelan gang members. Trump’s call for the judge to be impeached earned him a rare, and public, rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts, who stood firm against the notion of the impeachment of judges over judicial differences.

“Look, Donald Trump is a lawless, angry man.” Schumer said in response to a question about whether or not the U.S. is at constitutional risk. “He thinks he should be king. He thinks he should do whatever he wants, regardless of the law, and he thinks judges should just listen to him.”

If Trump defies the Supreme Court, Schumer says the Democrats will “rise up” against him, and that the public may as well. “It will trigger a mass movement from one end of the country to the other, something that we haven’t seen in a very long time,” he predicted.