Hundreds gathered in Brooklyn, New York on Friday to express their discontent with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his support for advancing a GOP budget extension.
On Thursday, Schumer said he was backing the Republican continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown, breaking with his Democratic colleagues in the House, who argue that doing so will enable President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to continue slashing away at federal agencies.
The message at the early morning rally outside the 74-year-old’s New York City home was clear: “vote no or go.”
Organized late Thursday night by Indivisible Brooklyn, a progressive group that’s been pushing Democrats to fight back harder against Trump’s agenda, the rally was the product of a massive online backlash against Schumer’s capitulation on a six-month continuing resolution that includes billions of dollars in budget cuts.
“He is not the leader for this moment,” Lisa Raymond-Tolan, an Indivisible Brooklyn organizer, told rally-goers. “We need him to fight back or get the f*** out.”
“Block cloture — no help for fascists,” one sign read. “Schumer, you f****** coward,” read another.
Speaking to Salon, Raymond-Tolan said the protest was “a testament to how many people are upset,” noting that hundreds “came out at 8 o’clock in the morning on a weekday to let the senator know that he is off course and capitulating to fascism — and we won’t stand for it.”
The Brooklyn demonstrators’ message to Democratic leadership? Tear up the old playbook.
“Throw out decorum. Throw out bipartisanship. We can’t play by old rules. We need to stop, obstruct, block, delay, throw sand in the works that literally every opportunity,” Raymond-Tolan said.
Schumer, along with a number of other Democratic senators, plan to back cloture on the Republican CR, meaning that the GOP could pass the measure with a simple majority, waving through a budget that all but one Democrat in the House rallied against.
Schumer told reporters on Thursday that while the GOP budget proposal was terrible, “allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”
But critics say the Trump-Musk shutdown has already begun. Social media users argue the party was in a position to extract concessions, including a continuing resolution without cuts or a bill binding the executive branch to spending commitments made by Congress.
“The Senate thinks its voting to avoid a government shutdown. The shutdown is already happening, and it is permanent,” University of Michigan Public Policy professor Don Moynihan wrote in a post on Bluesky.
Protesters said Schumer, whose office lines go straight to voicemail, wasn’t getting the message.
“We’ve been here outside of Chuck Schumer’s house for years, and people will say, ‘Why are you bothering him?’” Julie Peppito, a Brooklyn resident whose mother will be impacted by the GOP budget’s cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said in a speech to the crowd. “Well, look where we are.”
The organizers behind the rally said the senator’s inclination towards inaction is not an option in the second Trump era.
“It’s not hard to rally the troops because people are really f****** angry,” Indivisible Brooklyn organizer Jennie Spector told Salon. “[Schumer] has incredible power to stop [the CR] and to put the brakes on it… But he doesn’t do that, and he doesn’t know how to use his power. And we, the people who he works for and who elected him, need to tell him what to do. That’s why we’re here.”
You know people are furious when they show up at an 8am protest at @schumer.senate.gov house. Chuck you are betraying us. It’s not too late to change your mind and actually fight back! @indivisible.org @socialists.nyc @riseandresist.bsky.social @marisakabas.bsky.social @50501newyork.bsky.social
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— Indivisible Brooklyn (@bkindivisible.bsky.social) Mar 14, 2025 at 8:36 AM
It isn’t just the party’s left flank voicing opposition to Schumer’s concessions. Moderate Democrats Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and former Biden adviser Neera Tanden were among those who urged the Senate minority leader to “grow a spine.”
House Democrats — including the subject of his own Brooklyn protest over feckless leadership, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — also condemned the planned vote for cloture on Thursday night, with party leaders releasing a statement arguing that the “far-right Republican funding bill will unleash havoc on everyday Americans.”
And demonstrators were clear with Schumer: He needs to act or get out of the way. Amid rumors that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., may be consdering a primary challenge against Schumer, some expressed support for ditching the old guard Democrats. “I wish AOC was my senator,” one sign read.
The demonstration marks the latest salvo in the party’s internal battle over its opposition strategy to Trump. Groups like Indivisible and MoveOn, and some Democratic elected officials, have urged Congressional leaders to take the threat of Trump’s lawlessness more seriously, leading an unsuccessful push to demand that Schumer use his power to slow down the administration’s cabinet confirmations.
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