Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) thinks that the federal courts are the best place for the Democrats to stand up to President-elect Trump.
In order to protect their goals, President Joe Biden and a Senate controlled by Democrats have spent the last four years filling the courts with Democrats. Now that the GOP controls the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, they will be one of their only defenses.
“I don’t know exactly what [Trump will] do. But I can tell you this: The judiciary will be one of our strongest — if not our strongest — barrier against what he does,” Schumer told Politico.
Schumer said he chose to lead Democrats in putting the courts first because Republicans did the same thing under Bush.
Republicans “came up with a strategy in the George W. Bush [years]: ‘We’ve got to control the bench’ and they made every effort to do it,” Schumer said. “When I became majority leader, I said, ‘This is something we have to work on, we have to focus on.’”
During Trump’s first term, he and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also put a lot of effort into picking judges. This helped the GOP gain a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court. Schumer took note of their work and said that Democrats wanted to break the record set by the Trump government.
“When we started out, we knew it would be a very difficult job to do more than Trump had done,” the New York senator said. “But we did: We got 235 — more than a quarter of the federal judiciary was appointed by our Senate and by the president.”
He said it’s about protecting their “legislative record” against future administrations and other challenges.
Schumer said that the process of approving so many judges was hard, especially when Republicans brought charges against them.
“We would go to members and persuade them in two ways: Persuade some of them to vote for these judges because the Republicans threw all kinds of charges — mainly false — against them,” said Schumer. “And second, I had to persuade them that this was really important. And one of the most important things we could do with our floor time, particularly in ’23, ’24, when there was a Republican House.”
Trump and Republicans have promised to cut back on many parts of the government to lower the huge amount of debt that the country has.
In January, the Senate will be run by Republicans instead of Democrats. Schumer will become minority leader, and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) will become majority leader, taking over from McConnell as the head of the GOP in the upper house.
The question of who will be the party’s leader after the election is dividing Democrats across the country. However, they are mainly sticking with their current track in the U.S. Senate.
“I am honored and humbled to be chosen by my colleagues to continue leading Senate Democrats during this crucial period for our country.” Schumer said in a statement. “Republican colleagues should make no mistake about it, we will always stand up for our values. We have a lot of work ahead — in the Senate and as a country — and in this upcoming Congress, our caucus will continue to fight for what’s best for America’s working class.”
According to a Senate Democratic leadership aide, Senate Democrats elected leadership for their return to the minority at a closed-door party meeting on Tuesday, including selecting Sen. Chuck Schumer for a second term as caucus leader. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) was also elected to a second term as whip.
Two Democrats advanced in the rankings, with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) securing the third position as chair of the Steering and Policy Committee. Klobuchar, the chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee and now ranked fourth in the Democratic leadership rankings, is taking a step forward.
Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat who ran for president in 2020 and has been in the Senate since 2013, will lead the Strategic Communications Committee.
According to the aide, every election was unanimous. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is anticipated to be the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s chair, although the appointment has not yet been made public.
“Schumer’s reelection as leader in particular signals trust from rank-and-file Democrats in their current leadership ranks. Despite a brutal November for the party writ large, Senate Democrats did win competitive races in Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and Arizona. They’re still publicly ambitious about their 2026 map and hopeful about their chances to take back the majority,” Politico reported.
“That positivity doesn’t extend party-wide. Multiple Democrats in the House are being challenged for ranking member seats. And Democratic pundits are still locked in a back-and-forth over what went wrong for the party which lost the House, Senate and presidency. Schumer himself has acknowledged the party needs to reflect on how it’s connected with voters and assess ways to adjust,” the outlet added.
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