Chuck Schumer on Governing With (Or Without) Trump

Warning: This episode contains strong language. Last spring, the political picture for Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, was downright bleak. President Trump was back in the White House. Schumer’s Democratic caucus was largely powerless to stop him. And restless Democratic activists were calling for Schumer to resign. Fast forward to this week. Democrats have roared back to power in both the Senate, where the party flipped seven Republican seats, and the House. And now Schumer, who personally recruited several of the winning candidates, is poised to become the next Senate majority leader with an unambiguous goal: reining in Trump. On Thursday afternoon, I visited Schumer’s office in the U.S. Capitol to talk about all of that during a 45-minute interview. In between profanity-laced descriptions of the president, Schumer laid out his plans for Senate Democrats over the next two years, including investigations into the Trump administration and legislation seeking to lower Americans’ cost of living. Guest: Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority leader. Photo: Alex Kent/The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.