But if you even have people like Jake Tapper calling out the strategy, you have to wonder who is making Schumer's decisions for him.


Chuck Schumer likes being a Senator. He knows the price his party is paying writ large and he knows that he will have to do a bunch of damage control after this is over *and* he also knows that the longer this drags on the worse it gets for his caucus...but he also knows that if he doesn't stick with this thing that he'll get a primary challenge from his left. Given the prevailing winds of New York State politics - winds that are about to blow an unabashed socialist into the Mayor's office in New York City - he can guess how that election would go for him.

So...he goes forth.

Schumer's best case scenario is if enough red-state democrat Senators break ranks and vote for the clean CR. Already Fetterman (PA), King (ME) and Cortez-Masto (NV) have defected. Five more need to vote for the clear CR.

Two obvious candidates are both Senators from Georgia, Warnock and Ossoff. They're from a very red state and can't afford to be lumped into the AOC wing of the democrat party. That leaves 3.

Some candidates could be Hickenlooper from Colorado, Mark Kelly from Arizona, perhaps a few others.