Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer after a news conference on the government shutdown, in the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 5, 2025. (Tom Williams/Getty)
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., argued that getting rid of Schumer would be difficult.
"Chuck Schumer is part of the establishment," Sanders told MSNBC. "You can argue, and I can make the case, that Chuck Schumer has done a lot of bad things, but getting rid of him — who’s going to replace him?"
Other Democrats weren’t so resigned.
Graham Platner, a Democratic Senate candidate running to replace Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, placed the collapse of Senate Democrats' unified front squarely on leadership.
"The Democratic Party at the leadership level has become entirely feckless," Platner said in a video posted by Our Revolution, a political action organization started as an offshoot of Sanders' presidential campaign.
"What happened last night is a failure of leadership in the most clear terms," he said after the Senate passed the bipartisan deal Monday, sending it to the House. "Sen. Schumer is the minority leader. It is his job to make sure his caucus is voting along the lines of what’s going to be good for the people of the United States. He could not maintain that."
Schumer and congressional Democrats walked away from the shutdown stalemate in the Senate largely empty-handed, save for some victories on ensuring furloughed federal workers would receive back pay, the reversals of firings made by the Trump administration during the shutdown and future protections for workers.
Still, they fell far short of their goal to extend the expiring subsidies, which are set to sunset at the end of this year.
Those subsidies, initially passed as an emergency response to COVID-19 in 2021, were always supposed to be temporary. But Democrats fear that their sudden expiration could leave millions of policyholders with substantially higher premiums overnight if allowed to expire.
But as mounting pressure grew — and no sign of Republicans wavering on the subsidies — eight Democrats voted to put the government on the path to reopening.
To some onlookers, Schumer had held the party line for as long as possible.
SENATE DEMOCRATS EYE EXIT FROM RECORD-BREAKING SHUTDOWN AS PRESSURE INTENSIFIES
Sen. Ted Cruz speaks to reporters on his way to the Senate weekly policy luncheons at the U.S. Capitol, Dec. 6, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
On the other hand, many Democrats made it clear they believed Schumer had failed to effectively mount resistance to Trump's agenda on healthcare.
CNN data analyst Harry Enten compiled polls dating back to 1985 comparing the popularity of Democratic leaders among Democratic voters. Schumer, he found, was the least popular of them all.
"Chuck Schumer — his days are over. If he cannot keep his caucus together, he needs to go," Sunny Hostin, a co-host of "The View," told audiences on Monday.
"Chuck Schumer has not met this moment, and Senate Democrats would be wise to move on from his leadership," Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., said.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom summed up his thoughts in a one-word post to X.
"Pathetic," Newsom said.
Leo Briceno is a politics reporter for the congressional team at Fox News Digital. He was previously a reporter with World Magazine.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrats-left-empty-handed-shutdown-turn-fury-schumer