Kaine Tells House Dems To Stay In Their Lane As Criticism Mounts Against Schumer

Sen. Tim Kaine defended Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday against growing calls ― including from some House Democrats ― for the New York lawmaker to step down after the controversial vote to reopen the government, with the Virginia Democrat telling his colleagues in the other chamber to essentially stay in their lane.

Democrats had made it clear that they would not vote for the GOP’s funding bill unless it included vital health care subsidies, an amendment that Republicans refused to include throughout the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. 

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Kaine was one of eight Democratic senators to side with Republicans on voting for the spending bill that didn’t include the health care demands, leaving many Democrats furious at the capitulation.

More than a dozen House Democrats have called for Schumer’s ouster over what they say is a lack of leadership, despite the lawmaker himself not voting for the GOP bill. 

“The question is what is the future of Democratic leadership? Who is going to be effective? And most Democrats around the country just don’t think that person is Chuck Schumer,” Rep. Ro Khanna told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” 

“I mean, he doesn’t inspire confidence. He’s not bold. He’s out of touch with the grassroots. He’s someone who cheer-led us into the war in Iraq. He doesn’t have the moral clarity on Gaza. He couldn’t say Mamdani’s name,” the California Democrat continued. “And this was the final straw where he was not strong on fighting for health care.”

A spokesperson for Schumer’s office did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

In a separate interview on the same NBC show, Kaine stressed that he does not “need a permission slip from” Schumer to vote a certain way. He also shot back at the House Democrats calling for Schumer to step down, toting the leader’s legislative wins under the Biden administration.

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“Being the minority leader is tough. In the Senate we have some tools in the minority, but not many. We don’t control what’s on the floor. And you know if you’re dealing with senators … it’s not exactly like senators just get in line and follow the leader,” the senator said.

“I don’t tell Ro Khanna or AOC or anybody else who you should pick as your House leader, because I got a full-time job being a senator,” he continued. “I don’t need to freelance opinions about House leadership. They should focus on their own leadership and let senators do what we need to do to keep this country moving forward.”

Khanna on Sunday named several senators he believes would make an ideal Democratic leader in the Senate ― one of them Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), who has fiercely criticized his colleagues who voted with Republicans. Murphy told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that Schumer will have to explain next week how the Democratic caucus will run moving forward.

“We can’t continue to operate like this in a Democratic Senate. This is not the first time that a small group of Democrats have crossed over to support Republican measures that give Donald Trump more power,” Murphy said.

“So, I’ve been candid with [Schumer] and my colleagues that Democrats are going to lose this democracy if we continue to allow Republicans to cleave off 10 or 12 or 15 of us. So we’ve got some hard conversations as a caucus moving forward. We can’t continue to be split like this or we won’t save our democracy.”

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