Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Monday called for the Democratic Party to shake up its leadership as rage mounts toward Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other party members who voted to end the government shutdown.
Khanna praised the “good news” that “there’s a new generation of leaders” who won during last Tuesday’s elections while speaking on “The Don Lemon Show.” But he called the party leadership “mindboggling.”
“It’s people who are out of touch, who don’t understand the political moment that we’re in,” he said.
Khanna praised New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill (D), New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D) and Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D) as being the new leaders of the party.
In calling for Schumer to be ousted from his leadership role, Khanna said that someone “jokingly, or maybe it was serious, described me as a backbencher.”
“I said, ‘No, the problem is those of us in the back need to get to the front,'” Khanna said. “This party needs a change in the leadership.”
On Sunday, Khanna wrote on social media that if Schumer cannot keep his caucus unified against a government funding bill that doesn’t extend enhanced health insurance subsidies, then he should not lead Senate Democrats.
Schumer’s leadership was called into question after eight moderate Democrats strayed from the party to vote for a congressional resolution to reopen the government. Democrats maintained their positioning by arguing for the extension of those enhanced health insurance subsidies before they expire at the end of the year.
Khanna was not alone in criticizing Schumer over the current path out of the shutdown. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Monday that the party leadership, as Khanna said, is “in many respects, is way out of touch with where Democrats in general are, where many independents are, where the grassroots of America are.”
“Look, what you got right now, Chuck Schumer is part of the establishment,” Sanders said. “And I’m sorry to say that many people in the Democratic caucus are part of that. I would say we have eight or nine out of 47 people who I would consider to be progressives. So you can argue, and I can make the case, that Chuck Schumer has done a lot of bad things, but I think getting rid of him, who’s going to replace him? Who is going to replace him?”
After news broke about the deal struck between Senate Democrats and Republicans, Sanders said it had been “a very bad night.”
