The Daily Reid: WTF Chuck

America is falling apart, while Chuck Schumer's on a book tour

Timing is everything.

Last week, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, sold out the tens of millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid, food stamps, Meals on Wheels and more, along wth Hakeem Jeffries and his House colleagues and the 2 million or so federal workers who are getting doged daily (when not being likened to the real perpetrators of the Holocaust in a Musky retweet), by leading a troop of 9 Democrats and one Independent Senator to write Donald Trump the beautiful blank check he demanded of Republicans. And then he launched his book tour. From Forward:

In Antisemitism in America: A Warning, Schumer — who in 2021 became the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in U.S. history — also calls out pro-Palestinian protesters who, he writes, can cross the line from legitimate criticism of Israel into dangerous antisemitic rhetoric.

Calling Israel’s war in Gaza “genocide” or chanting “from the river to the sea” fuels antisemitism and endangers Jews, Schumer argues, whether or not those who use such language realize its implications.

Schumer also did an interview with the New York Times on the book, during which he had this answer when it comes to the detainment by the Trump regime of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University grad student who seems to have been spirited off to New Orleans:

What do you make of what happened last weekend when ICE arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate who is Palestinian, an activist and a green-card holder, who was one of the few participants in last year’s campus protests to identify himself publicly. Apparently Trump has made good on his campaign pledge and is set to deport him because of his participation. I don’t know all the details yet. They’re trying to come out, and there’ll be a court case which will determine it. If he broke the law, he should be deported. If he didn’t break the law and just peacefully protested, he should not be deported. It’s plain and simple.

What does breaking the law mean to you in this context? It’s a legal issue, and it’s, what are Columbia’s rules, and what does it mean breaking them, and what are the legal rules? What did he do? I don’t know what he did, I don’t know what the charge against him is. So it’s a little premature to make a decision, except if he didn’t break the law, he should not be deported. If he broke the law, he should.

He didn’t elaborate on what would be lawbreaking about protesting the bombing of schools, mosques and essentially every building in Gaza. But Ok... Here was the reporter’s follow up:

That sounds easy. But when we’re talking about the right to protest, breaking the law, not breaking the law — those things can be weaponized for political purposes. You can arrest political protesters, put them in prison, but they’re actually taking part in what is their constitutionally protected right. Well, if they’re just protesting, and they’re arrested, they shouldn’t be arrested for protesting as long as they go by the rules. Look, I get protests in front of my house all the time, but they have to have a permit and they have to obey certain rules. There are rules. But the bottom line is we have courts, and Khalil will go to court. And I have a lot of faith that the judge will give a fair ruling. It’s not the Trump administration, it’s an independent federal judge. [The day after we spoke, Schumer tweeted that Khalil should be punished by the legal system only for breaking criminal law, not for breaking university rules.]

Schumer’s seeming lack of empathy on this matter tracks in some ways with his head in the sand view of his own leadership of his party. Per sources, he is calling around in a bit of alarm about the furious backlash he’s facing over his Trump-aiding Senate surrender. But he seems to think that it’s only progressives who are in opposition. In fact, it’s much broader than that.

Schumer has a book tour stop in Baltimore today, and he is set to face protests from Jewish activists, progressive groups like MoveOn also plan to be there. Will update you later on how things play out.

Meanwhile, nature abhors a vacuum, and so the leadership vacuum in the Democratic Party is crying out to be filled. And AOC seems ready to step up.

What she offers New Yorkers and national Democrats is an emerging, young voice who is unbought and unbossed, meaning she raises money the old fashioned way — from individual fans — rather than from major corporate donors. Watch this space.