Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., refused to say who he thinks is the leader of the Democratic Party when pressed about the topic on CNN.
During an interview that aired Wednesday evening, the New York Democrat deflected inquiries about the significance of former President Barack Obama planning to appear at multiple Democratic fundraisers in the run-up to the 2018 midterms.
“It is so rare for a former president not to help the party that they were part of,” he said when asked by host Chris Cuomo who is the leader of the Democrats. “It’s nothing new. It’s not unusual, it doesn’t say there’s a total embrace. It doesn’t say they’re going to campaign everywhere. That’s how it is. As for the head of the party, we don’t have a presidential candidate, but the leaders of the Democratic Party are pretty much on the same page when it comes to what we want to do.”
The question of who leads the Democratic Party has been a tough one for Democrats; for instance Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., acknowledged how his “silence” was telling when asked about it this week.
Asked if Democrats need more Obama, Schumer said Democrats are avoiding an “autonomous” strategy in races in favor of a case-by-case approach. But Schumer got defensive when Cuomo cited a Washington Post report that quotes him saying he asked Obama “to be involved in certain ways” to help Senate Democrats, seeking to retake the upper chamber, in the midterm elections.
When Cuomo said he interpreted what he was hearing as “So, Obama, yes. The Clintons, no,” Schumer rejected the suggestion that he was snubbing Bill and Hillary Clinton, whose roles in the Democratic Party has come under question following a disastrous 2016 presidential election.
“I don’t know, you’re putting words in my mouth,” Schumer shot back. “I said Obama offered to help do fundraisers and we said yes. It’s up to each candidate to decide which leaders of the party are good in their states and not.”
Hillary Clinton was brought up because Sen. Joe Manchin, a vulnerable West Virginia Democrat up for re-election, told Politico that supporting the failed Democratic presidential nominee in 2016 “was a mistake politically,” and complained about “Washington Democrats making it difficult to represent the interests” of his state, and even went so far as to suggest he might be open to supporting President Trump, a Republican, get re-elected in 2020.
Schumer claimed to speak “every so often” to both Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton, and said that if the Clintons offered to help fundraise, “of course we would consider it. Absolutely.” Schumer said he didn’t think the topic had been broached by the pair yet.
Though not directly tied to the 2018 midterms, Clinton is scheduled to speak at a Democratic National Committee Women’s Leadership Forum fundraiser in D.C. this month.
