Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has a history of goading Republicans about government shutdowns.
Twenty-three years before the New York Democrat sparred with President Trump over his refusal to fund the government if he didn’t get money to build the border wall, Schumer tried to provoke then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich for holding government funding hostage.
As a House lawmaker, Schumer gave a minute-long House speech in 1995 that took Peter, Paul, and Mary’s hit “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and revised the lyrics to poke at Gingrich.
Gingrich had been flying on Air Force One with then-President Bill Clinton, only he was stuck in the back of the plane for the 25-hour flight. The two were supposed to negotiate a budget deal to keep the government funded, but Clinton never went back to see the most powerful House lawmaker.
Gingrich got revenge and later forced Clinton to pick between two budgets that forced the government to shut down.
“Mr. Speaker, when I heard last night that Newt Gingrich said he had shut down the government because he didn’t get the right treatment on an airplane, I was amazed. I couldn’t believe it,” Schumer said in his 1995 remarks captured in CSPAN archive video.
“So with all due respect to Peter, Paul, and Mary, and ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane,’ here goes,” said Schumer. “My bags are packed, I’m ready to go. I’m sitting here on Air Force One but sitting in the back ain’t much fun. They wouldn’t give me an aisle seat. The in-flight meal was mystery meat. Where’s the guy in charge?
“I’m going to complain, but the president won’t talk to me in light of Israel’s tragedy cutting Medicare’s not the first thing on his mind. I’m leaving on a jet plane. Don’t know when you’ll get paid again,” he said.
Following a 15-minute argument in the Oval Office Tuesday, Schumer told reporters Trump’s “temper tantrum” over border wall funding would not make Democrats flinch.
