Don’t expect Democrats to be a rubber stamp for President-elect Donald Trump, new Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in his first speech of the the 115th Congress.
Despite being in the minority, Schumer said Democrats would hold Trump accountable, and said, “Americans cannot afford a Twitter presidency.”
“Making America great again requires more than 140 characters,” Schumer said, referring both to Trump’s campaign slogan and the maximum number of letters in a tweet.
The new minority leader succeeds Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, who did not seek reelection.
In a sharply worded 20-minute speech on the Senate floor, Schumer told the president-elect, “We will hold your feet to the fire.”
“As Republicans return majorities to both houses of Congress and we prepare for a Republican in the White House, the Democratic minority in the Senate has a very important task ahead of it,” he said.
Schumer highlighted his desire to work on behalf of “the middle class and those struggling to get there.”
“If the President-elect proposes legislation that achieves that — on issues like infrastructure, trade, and closing the carried interest loophole, for instance — we will work in good faith to perfect and, potentially, enact it,” Schumer said. “When he doesn’t, we will resist. But what we will always do is hold the President-elect and his Republican colleagues in Congress accountable.”
Schumer cited as an example Trump’s decision to nominate Representative Tom Price, an avowed critic of the Affordable Care Act who has introduced legislation to create alternatives to the plan, as secretary of Health and Human Services. Schumer said the choice of nominee was in conflict with campaign promises to protect Social Security and Medicare.
Schumer said Democrats would hold Trump accountable for his and Republicans’ promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and other issues.
“It’s not acceptable to repeal the law (Obamacare), throw our health care system into chaos, and then leave the hard work for another day,” he said. “What is your plan to make sure all Americans can get affordable health care?”
Schumer was also critical of Trump’s comments about Russian leadership. Schumer said it was “no foreign policy” for Trump to tweet “very smart” to Russian President Vladimir Putin after Putin did not respond in kind to President Barack Obama’s decision to force 35 Russian diplomats to leave the country — a move made in retaliation for Russian hacking which multiple intelligence agencies say affected U.S. elections.
Schumer added Russia’s interference in the country’s elections “should alarm Republicans and Democrats alike.”
“The president-elect must be held accountable on both sides of the aisle,” Schumer said.
Schumer cited a half-dozen other campaign promises Democrats intend to hold Trump accountable for, including:
Schumer also had a warning for the president-elect: “If you abandon change, and simply embrace shopworn, hard-right, pro-corporate, pro-elite policies — diametrically opposed to many of the campaign themes that helped you win working class voters and get elected — your presidency will not succeed.”