Senate Democrats caved and voted alongside Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), reaching across the aisle to pass the Republican-led continuing resolution Friday just hours before the funding deadline.
The CR advanced in a 62-38 vote, with 10 Democrats joining 52 Republicans to pass the funding bill.
In addition to Schumer, Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Gary Peters of Michigan, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine voted in support of the bill. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only GOP senator to vote against the CR.
Although the CR passed the House with a simple majority on Tuesday, the Senate required 60 votes for the CR to clear a procedural hurdle known as cloture. Because Republicans hold just 53 seats, they needed Democrats to join them and avert a shutdown.
'Democrats must not buy in to this false choice. We must fight back for a better way.'
While Democrats ultimately aided Republicans, many were furious with Schumer and other senators who sided with him to pass a Trump-backed funding bill.
Democrats, including Schumer, initially signaled that they would vote in lockstep to sink the CR and shut down the government. Many Democrats also proposed an alternative 30-day funding extension, which would allow them to negotiate a different CR. But Democrats are the minority party in both the House and the Senate, making this an unrealistic option.
Schumer quickly pivoted from his original advocacy for a shutdown and instead urged his colleagues to pass the CR, arguing that a shutdown is worse than an unfavorable funding package.
"It's not really a decision; it's a Hobson's choice," Schumer said in a floor speech Thursday. "Either proceed with the bill before us, or risk Donald Trump rowing America into the chaos of a shutdown. This, in my view, is no choice at all. While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse."
Schumer's reversal outraged his Democratic colleagues, sparking murmurs of potential primary challengers like Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
"I think it is a huge slap in the face, and I think that there's a wide sense of betrayal," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters Thursday.
It wasn't just the rank and file who were upset with Schumer. Without explicitly naming him, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) both disavowed Schumer's approach.
"House Democrats will not be complicit," Jeffries said. "We remain strongly opposed to the partisan spending bill under consideration in the Senate."
"Donald Trump and Elon Musk have offered the Congress a false choice between a government shutdown or a blank check that makes a devastating assault on the well-being of working families across America," Pelosi said in a statement Friday. "Let's be clear: Neither is a good option for the American people. But this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable."
"Democrats must not buy in to this false choice," Pelosi added. "We must fight back for a better way."
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On Tuesday, 25 Democratic senators released separate videos parroting the same script slamming President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
In the morning, Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) were mocked by X users for posting videos reciting near-identical lines before Trump's first speech to Congress.
'Who is writing the words that the puppets speak?'
However, as the day unfolded, more than two dozen Democratic senators posted similar videos echoing the same script, including Dick Durbin (Ill.), Chris Coons (Del.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Tim Kaine (Va.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Peter Welch (Vt.), Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), Martin Heinrich (N.M.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Andy Kim (N.J.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Mark Warner (Va.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Angela Alsobrooks (Md.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.).
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The senators' videos matched so closely that many followed the same movements for the introduction: reading the first line before taking a seat to continue reading the remainder of the script.
The video opened with a short clip of Trump vowing to lower the cost of living for Americans beginning on the first day of his presidency.
"S*** that ain't true," all of the Democrats stated. "That's what you just saw."
"Since day one of Donald Trump's presidency, prices are up, not down. Inflation is getting worse, not better. The prices of groceries, gas, housing, eggs, they're all getting more expensive. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has done nothing to lower costs for you," they said with slight variations.
"Instead, he's pardoned violent criminals who beat police officers on January 6," the videos continued, cutting from the senators to show a clip from the protest at the Capitol.
"He's letting Elon Musk take a chainsaw to vital government programs. And then, even worse, giving him access to Americans' most sensitive data — Social Security numbers, tax returns, health care bills," the Democrats stated.
They accused Trump and Musk of firing "thousands of essential workers" and freezing funding for "vital programs."
"Why are they doing this? Trump, Musk, DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] are taking these vital services away from you for one reason only: so they can give tax breaks to their billionaires' club," they added.
"Billionaires win; families lose. And that is the truth," the senators concluded.
Musk fired back at the Democratic senators for repeating the same lines.
"They are all actors reading a script," he wrote on X.
In a separate post, he called the senators "lazy propagandists."
"Who is writing the words that the puppets speak? That's the real question," Musk added.
Republican Senator Mike Lee (Utah) also responded to the controversy.
"It's almost like someone's telling Democrats what to say," Lee wrote.
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Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan announced Tuesday that he will not run for re-election in 2026.
Peters was first elected to serve in the House in 2008 and was eventually elected to the Senate in 2014. After serving two terms in the Senate, Peters said he would like to "go back to private life."
'After spending years ignoring illegal immigration and destroying his state's auto industry, Michigan is better off without him.'
With the anticipated vacancy, political heavyweights like former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg have already expressed interest in the Senate seat. At the same time, Michigan's mixed electorate could also give Republicans the opportunity to boost their Senate majority.
“I always thought there would be a time that I would step aside and pass the reins for the next generation," Peters said in an interview Tuesday. "I also never saw service in Congress as something you do your whole life."
“And that goes back to 2008, when I first won that House seat," Peters added. "I thought it would be for a matter of a few terms that I would serve, and then I would go back to private life.”
With Democrats potentially losing a seat in the Senate, Republicans are keen to take advantage of the upcoming vacancy.
"Gary Peters is reading the room," Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the NRSC chairman, said in a press release. "After spending years ignoring illegal immigration and destroying his state's auto industry, Michigan is better off without him."
"We're committed to giving them a fighter that will stand with President Trump to restore the economic prosperity and security of our country," Scott added.
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Senate Dems are doing roughly the equivalent of those 'copy and paste this or something bad will happen to you' emails from middle school.
Political control of the vital swing state is almost entirely up for grabs in 2026.
Throughout the hearing, the committee's Democrat senators used every opportunity to slander Hegseth and make complete fools of themselves.
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