Schumer Won’t Say If He’d Oppose Primary Challenges to Sinema and Manchin

H ow scared is Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer of the progressive base? Scared enough to risk his majority and the entire Democratic legislative agenda.

In an interview this week, Schumer would not say “if he would stay neutral or support Manchin and Sinema if they face primary challengers in the next cycle,” CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere and Manu Raju report.

“I am focused on 2022, getting things done, and winning the election on 2022,” Schumer told CNN. “I’m not at all focused on 2024 right now, and neither should anyone else be. That’s just how you lose in 2022.”

Schumer’s refusal to push back against Democratic primary challenges to the relatively moderate Democrats from West Virginia and Arizona in 2024 is stunning for at least three reasons.

First, Schumer is majority leader in a 50–50 Senate only because Manchin was reelected in 2018 in a state that overwhelmingly voted for Trump — twice. He’s only the majority leader because Sinema won her seat in 2018 in a state that went for Trump in 2016 and gave Biden only the narrowest of victories in 2020 (one-third of one percentage point). Senate majority leaders usually try to do everything they can to support their most vulnerable members — but Schumer is doing the opposite.

The Left’s anger toward Sinema and Manchin is off the charts because Schumer raised the stakes on voting legislation before holding a doomed vote on changing the Senate’s 60-vote rule — a rules change Schumer knew well in advance that Manchin and Sinema would never support. The move was a transparent attempt to pin failure on Manchin and Sinema, and now Schumer can’t say whether he’d oppose primary challengers running against the duo. Schumer’s behavior stands in stark contrast to that of GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who did everything he could to support the reelection of Susan Collins in deep-blue Maine even after Collins helped sink the bill to repeal parts of Obamacare and voted against the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

The second reason that Schumer’s comment is baffling is that congressional Democrats are still hoping to cobble together some of the pieces of the “Build Back Better” bill and spend another $1.7 trillion on whatever Manchin and Sinema might give them. How is the Senate majority leader going to woo both moderates if he can’t even bring himself to say he opposes efforts to purge them in 2024?

Third, Majority Leader Schumer is one defection away from becoming Minority Leader Schumer. I doubt Joe Manchin is going to bolt the Democratic caucus and join the GOP anytime soon, but toying with backing a primary challenger (or at least not opposing one) is exactly the kind of thing that could tempt Manchin to leave the party. Why increase the odds of the worst-case scenario even a little bit?

The only reason for Schumer to risk the Democratic majority — and with it the Democratic agenda — is that he’s terrified that the progressive base’s anger at Sinema and Manchin will spill over into anger at Schumer. He is reportedly worried about a left-wing primary challenger in New York:

The filing deadline for a primary challenger in this year’s U.S. Senate race in New York is April 7. If that deadline comes and goes without Schumer fielding his own challenger, he may finally work up the courage to say publicly that he opposes primary challenges against Sinema and Manchin.