Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said Tuesday the main reason Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) rallied Democrats to defeat a Republican funding bill and trigger a government shutdown is because he’s afraid of facing a primary challenge from firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in 2028.
“This is a Schumer hysteria act,” Mullin told Fox Business. “Schumer knows he can’t afford to vote for this,” referring to the House-passed government funding stopgap Democrats defeated Tuesday.
“Here you have a career politician who is more afraid of his reelection … than he is doing what’s right for the American people,” Mullin added. “This is what happens when you have a career politician.
“He is afraid of AOC over a clean [continuing resolution],” he said, referring to Ocasio-Cortez.
The Oklahoma senator alluded to the furious backlash Schumer felt from his party’s liberal base in March after he and nine other members of the Senate Democratic caucus voted for a Republican-drafted six-month government funding bill.
Ocasio-Cortez slammed Schumer’s vote at the time as “a tremendous mistake.”
Schumer defended his vote in March as picking the lesser of two evils as he warned a shutdown would give President Trump and White House budget director Russell Vought “the keys to the city, state and country” by empowering them to furlough federal workers and decide which government services are essential.
Mullin said Schumer is feeling pressure from his left flank to hold the line against the House-passed bill that would fund government through Nov. 21.
He pointed out that Schumer regularly voted for similarly clean short-term continuing resolutions in the past. Senate Democrats approved 13 such bills to keep the government open when former President Biden was in office and they controlled the Senate majority.
“What’s changed now is he’s scared of AOC,” Mullin said. “There’s no rational thinking where the Democrats are today other than the fact because of Chuck Schumer’s fear of AOC he’s willing to hold the American people hostage.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s allies say she’s weighing a possible primary challenge against Schumer in 2028, when he is up for reelection. But she is also mulling a run for president.
Ocasio-Cortez downplayed her future ambitions to run for Senate during an interview Tuesday with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.
“This is not about me in this moment. This is about people being able to insure their children,” she said.
“I saw some senators speculating about this, and I saw some Republican members of Congress saying, ‘Oh well, if we have this shutdown, it’s because of AOC,’” she said. “Well, if that’s the case, my office is open and you are free to walk in and negotiate with me directly because what I’m not going to do is tolerate four million uninsured Americans.”