Schumer Warns Speaker Johnson Against Repeating McCarthy’s … – U.S. News & World Report

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer delivered a stern warning to the new House speaker on Tuesday, urging him not to “repeat the mistake” of his predecessor by bowing to the right flank of his conference while previewing what is likely to be the first major clash between the chambers since the GOP’s change of leadership.

“I say to Speaker Johnson – I plead with him – don’t repeat the mistake of McCarthy and others and just follow the hard-right in a partisan way,” Schumer said at a weekly news conference. “It’s not good for the country, it’s not good for the House, it’s not even good for the Republican Party. I hope he will change his ways.”

The New York Democrat’s warning came as he spoke in fiery opposition to the House Republican aid package for Israel, which stands apart from the White House’s requested package by leaving out humanitarian aid for Gaza and funds for Ukraine, while also being paid for by cuts to IRS funding that Democrats have called a “poison pill.” House Republicans unveiled the $14.3 billion aid package on Monday, and the full House is set to return Wednesday to begin work on the legislation.

Schumer criticized Johnson, Louisiana Republican, for taking “a purely partisan action” in his first major legislative act, telling reporters that the GOP package is “woefully inadequate” and has the “hard right’s fingerprints all over it.”

But the new speaker, elected just days ago by a unanimous Republican conference, is wasting little time as the House makes up for a weeks-long stalemate during the leadership fight. He’s setting up major confrontations with Democrats – pushing forward on aid for Israel this week along with government funding bills with a deadline to fund the government quickly approaching, while he’s taken to the airwaves to make pointed jabs at President Joe Biden and not shied away from flexing his conservative credentials. So far, Johnson has seemed to trudge a path forward largely aligned with the wishes of those on his conference’s right flank, all but dooming the legislation’s prospects in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Along with the aid package for Israel, the House is set to move forward with appropriations bills this week, which are expected to be marked up below the threshold agreed upon in the debt ceiling deal with the White House, making a standoff with the Senate certain as a Nov. 17 deadline to fund the government quickly approaches.

“Speaker Johnson should learn from the examples of Speaker Boehner, of Speaker Ryan and of Speaker McCarthy,” Schumer said. “If you try to let the hard-right run your caucus, it’s going to lead to real problems for you, your party, your House and your country.”

But Johnson, who won the speakership due in part to his low profile and lack of enemies in the conference after three previous GOP nominees couldn’t seal the deal, is no moderate. Though he’s not an outspoken conservative flamethrower like Rep. Jim Jordan, who GOP centrists blocked from gaining the gavel, a Johnson speakership marks a dramatic shift to the right for the conference. And though he faces the same difficulties as former Speaker Kevin McCarthy did with a razor-thin Republican majority, how he fares with the faction of hard-liners that ultimately ousted McCarthy is another story.

So far, Johnson appears to be keeping them at his side, as he takes an aggressive stance with Democrats that foreshadows clashes to come.