Defiant Schumer to Dems: 'Look, I'm Not Stepping Down'

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk might be Democrats' enemies No. 1 and 1a, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has found himself high on the list, too, for his inability to appease the obstructionists seeking to stop the rooting out of waste, fraud, abuse, and the deep state.

"Look, I'm not stepping down," Schumer told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday amid calls by Democrats for him to get out of the way like they forced former President Joe Biden to do last summer.

"Our caucus is united in fighting Donald Trump every step of the way. Our goal, our plan which we're united on, is to make Donald Trump the quickest lame duck in modern history."

But running out the clock on Trump by obstructing and stonewalling the agenda American people voted for would have been made worse by voting for a government shutdown, and no amount of pressure will get him to ignore his "internal gyroscope," Schumer told host Kristen Welker.

"When you're on that political mountain, the higher up you are the more fiercely the winds blow: The only way you stop from being blown off the mountain is your internal gyroscope," Schumer said.

"My internal gyroscope said regardless of the fact that some people would not like it – which I knew – that I had to do the right thing for the country and for our party."

A continuing resolution to extend government spending – at Democrat President Joe Biden levels, by the way – is "bad," Schumer said, adding, but "a shutdown would be 15 to 20 times worse."

"Under a shutdown the Executive Branch has sole power to determine what is quote 'essential,' and they can determine without any court supervision: Courts have ruled it's solely up to the executive what to shut down," Schumer reminded liberals.

"With Musk and DOGE and Trump and this guy [Russ] Vought — V.O.U.G.H.T [pronounced vote, but spelled out by Schumer] I think is how you spell his name as head of OMB [Office of Management and Budget] — they would eviscerate the federal government.

"It would be devastating. Here's what makes it worse: There's no off ramp. Who determines how long the shutdown would last? Only those evil people at the top of the Executive Branch in the Trump administration."

Instead, Schumer vowed to be the leader of the resistance to Trump and what the 2024 election consequences could bring.

"I believe by 2026 the Republicans in the House and Senate will feel like they're rats on a sinking ship, because we have so gone after Trump because of all the horrible things he's doing and they will know it, see it, hate it, and act on it," Schumer said.

Notably, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. – herself ostracized by Democrats to remain in party leadership — claimed: "I myself don't give away anything for nothing; I think that's what happened the other day."

But Schumer gave fact and scope to the rejected former House speaker's latest miscalculation.

"What we got was avoiding the horror of a shutdown," Schumer said. "There was no leverage point. We could have asked for things and they would have just said no.

"Let's not forget, they control the House and Senate."

Vowing to lead the Democrats' obstruction of the president "in every single way," Schumer said he did the right thing to continue government spending at Biden levels through September.

"It was a vote of principle," he said. "Sometimes as a leader you have to do things to avoid a real danger that might come down the curve, and I did it out of pure conviction as to what a leader should do and the right thing for America and my party was."