Sunny Hostin had blunt words for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) during his appearance on “The View” Tuesday morning.
The New York senator has come under fire recently after he and nine other Senate Democrats seemed happy to give up any leverage against Republican efforts to demolish federal agencies and shut off government spending without congressional approval.
The outcry over Schumer’s actions led him to postpone a book tour on Monday over “security concerns,” but he went on “The View” on Tuesday anyway, possibly hoping for a sympathetic panel.
However, Hostin didn’t get that memo. Although she called Schumer a “friend,” she bluntly told him that she wasn’t impressed by his recent actions ― or lack thereof.
“I think you and nine other Democrats caved. I don’t think you showed the fight this party needs right now because you’re playing by a rule book where the other party has thrown that rule book away,” Hostin said.
“So, in my view, what you did in supporting that GOP partisan bill that Democrats had no input in, you cleared the way for Donald Trump and Elon Musk to gut Social Security, to gut Medicare, to gut Medicaid. Why did you lead Democratic senators to play by that book that the Republicans are not playing by?”
Schumer agreed with Hostin that his GOP counterparts aren’t playing by the “rules,” but insisted he is up for the battle.
“OK, first I’d say, Sunny, no one wants to fight more than me and no one fights more than me,” he said.
Schumer also claimed the bill he signed ― which he says he “hated” ― “does far less damage” to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid than would have happened otherwise.
He said the “bad” bill that he voted for has “many fewer cuts in that bill than there would be in a shutdown,” and said he had to choose between “bad” and “devastating.”
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“One chops off one of your fingers, the other chops off your arm? So I want to fight, and we are fighting every day,” he said. “Today, we’re fighting them on Medicaid. Tomorrow, we’re going to fight them on, you know, the next few days on tariffs. We’re going to fight them on Social Security, but I want to win and fight smart.”
You can see the exchange below.