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2020 Democrats vote against Schumer deal

by Jonathan Easley - 01/22/18 1:40 PM ET

Nearly every Democratic senator considering running for president in 2020 voted against reopening the government on Monday, as furious liberals accused Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) of selling out the base in the immigration fight.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) — all voted against a spending measure to reopen the government.

So did Sen Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who could also run for president.

{mosads}Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is the only Democratic senator widely seen as a potential 2020 candidate to vote “yes” on the Schumer deal.

Schumer came under fire from liberal groups.

Credo political director Murshed Zaheed called Schumer “the worst negotiator in Washington” and said he got “outmaneuvered” by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

“Chuck Schumer has failed dreamers and let the entire Democratic Party down,” Zaheed said.

Senators were more measured in their comments and did not criticize Schumer directly. Well more than half the Democratic caucus — 32 Democrats plus Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine) — backed the deal.

Harris said Monday’s deal falls “far short” of the “ironclad guarantee” of protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era program that allowed undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children to secure approval to work and go to school here.

Harris said that she doesn’t trust McConnell’s promise to bring a DACA bill to the floor in the next month.

“I refuse to put the lives of nearly 700,000 young people in the hands of someone who has repeatedly gone back on his word,” Harris said. “I will do everything in my power to continue to protect Dreamers from deportation.”

The deal reached Monday would reopen the government and fund it through Feb. 8. McConnell has promised to bring an immigration bill addressing those protected under DACA within the next month. The program is set to expire in March.

“Now there is a real pathway to get a bill on the floor and through the Senate,” Schumer said Monday.

But the deal falls short of Democrats’ initial demands, raising questions among liberals about the point of the government shutdown and what they got in return for agreeing to reopen it.

Senate Democrats had initially demanded that Republicans agree in principle to a deal that would provide permanent protections for DACA recipients.