Democrats, left empty-handed in shutdown, turn fury on Schumer

By Fox News · Fox News

Frustration is boiling over among Democratic ranks against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., after walking away from the longest government shutdown on record largely empty-handed. Some argue that Schumer squandered key leverage and failed to steer his caucus through the chaos to victory. "I think that people did what they could to get us out of the shutdown, but what has worked in the past isn’t working now," Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said. "And so, we need to meet the moment, and we’re not doing that." Slotkin, like others in the Senate Democratic caucus, "wanted something deliverable on the price of healthcare." The core of their shutdown strategy was to force Republicans and President Donald Trump to make a deal on expiring Obamacare subsidies, but that didn't happen. SENATE VOTE TO END GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IGNITES DEMOCRAT CIVIL WAR Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., argued that getting rid of Schumer would be difficult. "Chuck Schumer is part of the establishment," Sanders told MSNBC. "You can argue, and I can make the case, that Chuck Schumer has done a lot of bad things, but getting rid of him — who’s going to replace him?" Other Democrats weren’t so resigned. Graham Platner, a Democratic Senate candidate running to replace Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, placed the collapse of Senate Democrats' unified front squarely on leadership. "The Democratic Party at the leadership level has become entirely feckless," Platner said in a video posted by Our Revolution, a political action organization started as an offshoot of Sanders' presidential campaign. "What happened last night is a failure of leadership in the most clear terms," he said after the Senate passed the bipartisan deal Monday, sending it to the House. "Senator Schumer is the minority leader. It is his job to make sure his caucus is voting along the lines of what’s going to be good for the people of the United States. He could not maintain that." Schumer and congressional Democrats walked away from…