NBC’s Welker Continues to Push Tired “Constitutional Crisis” Narrative

KRISTEN WELKER: Senator Schumer, welcome back to Meet the Press.

CHUCK SCHUMER: Good morning, Kristen. Glad to be back.

WELKER: Well, it’s wonderful to have you. We are going to talk about your book, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning,” in just a moment. I do want to start with some news topics, this back and forth between President Trump and the judiciary. This week, the president called to impeach a judge who ruled against him on deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members, as you know. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts released a rare statement, rebuking the idea of using impeachment to settle judicial disagreements. Some constitutional scholars and fellow Democrats, Leader Schumer, say this is a constitutional crisis. Do you agree? Is the United States in a constitutional crisis?

SCHUMER: Yes, I do, Kristen. And democracy is at risk. Look, Donald Trump is a lawless, angry man. He thinks he should be king. He thinks he should do whatever he wants, regardless of the law, and he thinks judges should just listen to him. Now we have to fight that back in every single way. And we actually have had over 100 cases in the courts where we’ve had a very good record of success. So Donald Trump, infuriated by that success, said judges should be impeached. Let me tell – Donald Trump and the American people, Democrats in the Senate will not impeach judges. Full stop.

WELKER: President Trump said he would not defy a court order. Do you agree – do you believe him?

SCHUMER: I don’t trust him. We have to watch him like a hawk. Defying court orders is why our democracy is at risk and we’ll have to do everything to fight back in that regard.

KRISTEN WELKER: Senator Schumer, welcome back to Meet the Press.

CHUCK SCHUMER: Good morning, Kristen. Glad to be back.

WELKER: Well, it’s wonderful to have you. We are going to talk about your book, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning,” in just a moment. I do want to start with some news topics, this back and forth between President Trump and the judiciary. This week, the president called to impeach a judge who ruled against him on deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members, as you know. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts released a rare statement, rebuking the idea of using impeachment to settle judicial disagreements. Some constitutional scholars and fellow Democrats, Leader Schumer, say this is a constitutional crisis. Do you agree? Is the United States in a constitutional crisis?

SCHUMER: Yes, I do, Kristen. And democracy is at risk. Look, Donald Trump is a lawless, angry man. He thinks he should be king. He thinks he should do whatever he wants, regardless of the law, and he thinks judges should just listen to him. Now we have to fight that back in every single way. And we actually have had over 100 cases in the courts where we’ve had a very good record of success. So Donald Trump, infuriated by that success, said judges should be impeached. Let me tell – Donald Trump and the American people, Democrats in the Senate will not impeach judges. Full stop.

WELKER: President Trump said he would not defy a court order. Do you agree – do you believe him?

SCHUMER: I don’t trust him. We have to watch him like a hawk. Defying court orders is why our democracy is at risk and we’ll have to do everything to fight back in that regard.

WELKER: You know, I’m curious to know what that looks like, because in a recent interview, you said “Democrats will have to take extraordinary action if President Trump defies the courts.” Leader Schumer, can you be specific with me? What exactly is extraordinary action?

SCHUMER: Look, this is an extraordinary moment. It does require extraordinary action. If he defies the Supreme Court, then we are in uncharted territory that we haven’t been in for a very long time, and our entire democracy, this whole beautiful enterprise of democracy that we’ve had for over 240 years, is at risk. And look, I believe that if Donald Trump should defy the courts, public – the public will rise up. We will ri – Democrats will fight it in every single way. And I believe, you know, autocrats only succeed, Kristen, if the public lets them. But if the public is so, so angry and takes action, and certainly we Democrats will, it will trigger a mass movement from one end of the country to the other, something that we haven’t seen in a very long time.

WELKER: All right. Well, I do want to move to some of the discussions on Capitol Hill. Because of your decision, Leader Schumer last week, to clear the way to pass a Republican funding bill and avoid a government shutdown, you have faced calls from outside groups, even members of your own party, to step aside as minority leader. When asked about your future at a town hall, Senator Michael Bennet said, quote, “It’s important for people to know when it’s time to go.” Leader Schumer, are you feeling pressure to step down?

SCHUMER: Look, I’m not stepping down. And let me just say this, Kristen. I knew when I cast my vote against the C – against the government shutdown that it would be – that there would be a lot of controversy. And there was. But let me tell you and your audience why I did it, why I felt it was so important. The CR was certainly bad, you know, the continuing resolution. But a shutdown would be 15 or 20 times worse. Under a shutdown, the Executive Branch has sole power to determine what is, quote, “essential.” And they can determine without any court supervision. The courts have ruled it’s solely up to the executive what to shut down. With Musk, and DOGE, and Trump, and this guy Vought, V-O-G-H-T (SIC) I think is how you spell his name, as the head OMB, they would eviscerate the federal government. On day two, they could say, “Oh, SNAP? Feeding hungry children? Not essential.” On day four, “Mass transit? All transit? Aid to the states? Not essential. We’re cutting it.” On day six, “Medicaid? We’ll cut that by 20%, 30%, 50%, 80%. We’ll go after Social Security. We’ll go after the veterans.” Their goal is to just eviscerate the federal government so they can give more taxes, and their tax cuts, to the billion – to their billionaire class over there. And so it would devastating. And here’s what makes – one more thing. Here’s what makes it worse. There’s no off-ramp. Who determines how long the shutdown would last? Only those evil people at the top of the Executive Branch in the Trump administration. And one senator, Republican, told a Democratic senator, a colleague of mine, and this guy is close, this Republican senator is close to the DOGE Musk people. They would keep the government shut down for six months, nine months, a year, until everyone was furloughed and gone and quit. And there’d be no way to stop it. So I thought that would be so devastating to the republic and anger so many people, that we actually went forward with the shutdown, which would have even worse consequences than the CR. It was a vote of principle, you know? Sometimes when you’re a leader, you have to do things to avoid a real danger that might come down the curve. And I did it out of pure conviction as to what a leader should do and what the right thing for America and my party was. People disagree.

WELKER: To that point – yeah. To that point, I mean, some Democrats are saying they want leadership to show more fight in this moment. They think that’s what’s required. You were, of course, instrumental in urging President Biden to drop out of the 2024 race when he himself wasn’t convinced. I’ve had conversations with Democrats, Leader Schumer, who say this moment feels very similar. Are you making the same mistake that President Biden did?

SCHUMER: No, absolutely not. I did this out of conviction. And, look, in my caucus, we have a disagreement as to, you know, some people voted one way, some people voted the other. But we’ve all agreed to respect each other because each side saw why the other side felt so strongly about it. And our caucus is united in fighting Donald Trump every step of the way. Our goal, our plan, which we’re united on, is to make Donald Trump the quickest lame duck in modern history by showing how bad his policies are. He represents the oligarchs, as I said. He’s hurting average people in every way. And we are – through oversight hearings, we’re exposing what he’s doing, through the courts, which I mentioned, we’ve had some real success in, through legislation, and through organizing in all the districts throughout the country so that I believe, that when — because the Republicans are already nervous. You know, a lot of them said, “Don’t hold town hall meetings.” I believe by 2026 the Republicans in the House and Senate will feel like they’re rats on a sinking ship because we have so gone after Trump and all the horrible things he’s doing. And they will know it, see it, hate it, and act on it.

WELKER: Let me ask you about something Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday about your decision. She said, quote, “I myself don’t give away anything for nothing. And I think that’s what happened the other day.” Do you acknowledge that Democrats didn’t get anything in this fight, Leader Schumer?

SCHUMER: Well, what we got, at the end of the day, is avoiding the horror of a shutdown. There was no leverage point that we could’ve — we could’ve asked for things, they just would’ve said no. And because they control — let’s not forget, they control the House and Senate. They could force a vote, yes or no on the CR, without any additions. Patty Murray tried very hard to get them to add things and they said no. And, because of the rules of the Senate, they could force a vote, yes or no. It was a difficult vote. We talked about it in caucus a lot. And I voted because I thought, you know when you — I say to people, “When you’re on that political mountain, the higher up you climb, the more fiercely the winds blow.” And the only way you stop being blown off the mountain is your internal gyroscope. My internal gyroscope said, “Regardless, regardless of the fact that some people would not like it, which I knew, that I had to do the right thing for the country and for our party.”

WELKER: Just very quickly, Leader Schumer, because I want to get to your book, I want to play a moment of you —

SCHUMER: Yes. Yes, I’d like that.

WELKER: – a protest from last month, other Democrats protesting Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts. Take a look.

SCHUMER: I am going to stand with you in this fight. And we will win.

MAXINE WATERS: We will win.

SCHUMER: We will win. We will win. We will win.

WELKER: Leader Schumer, what do you say to members of your own party who feel like that type of resistance is not meeting the enormity of this moment, this political fight that’s required?

SCHUMER: Well, I said, you know, that was one day and one line. And – but we are fighting in every way, in the courts, in oversight, in legislation, in organizing. And we’re united. Hakeem and I are united. Our caucuses are united in moving forward on that way. And I think, if we fight, fight, fight, fight, as I said, we can make Donald Trump the quickest lame duck in recent history. His Republican colleagues will want to abandon him, and we’ll do very, very well in the 2026 election.

WELKER: All right. Let’s talk about your book, again, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning.” Leader Schumer, I read it. You talk about the rise of antisemitism here in the United States and globally, particularly after October 7th. I thought it was very notable that you talk about the fact that, on a very personal level, you have received antisemitic attacks, including online. You even talk about the concern that you have that your grandson could one day find that hateful content. Do you ever personally feel afraid for you and your family, Leader Schumer?

SCHUMER: Well, I don’t feel afraid for myself. You know, I’m from Brooklyn. Grew up in a tough neighborhood. What can I tell you? But I just worry about the effect, because once antisemitism is not rebutted, history has shown, 5,000 years of history, that it can metastasize into something even worse. It hasn’t done that yet here, although there’s – there have been many terrible things. Directly antisemitic things, a Jewish bakery, a stone is thrown through its window because, quote, “It’s a Zionist bakery.” The leader of the Brooklyn Museum, who is Jewish, lives near my house, her home I believe was smeared in red paint simply because she was Jewish. She had nothing to do with Israel. And I wrote this book – can I explain a minute why I wrote this book?

WELKER: Please.

SCHUMER: I felt I had to do something. I gave speeches on the floor about antisemitism, but I had to do more. And here’s why. We Jews, Jewish people in America, had what we call the “Golden Medina,” the golden age from 1950 to 2000. First, all of America was advancing. My family, from poor, into the middle class, and so many others of every different ethnicity. But antisemitism actually just receded dramatically because the shadow of the Holocaust and the horrors of the Holocaust were hanging over America like a curtain. So Jews who wouldn’t be allowed to live in certain neighborhoods were allowed. So Jews were admitted to different firms and professions, which they were discriminated against in. And it was a great time. In 2000, it began to change. Whenever there’s trouble, it begins to change. We had 9/11. You had all those conspiracy theories that the Jews knew about it and evacuated the towers. 2008, the financial crisis, the international Jewish conspiracy did it. But it really just jumped up dramatically and horribly after October six – 7th. So I’m writing this book actually, I felt impelled to do it at five – for five audi – aimed at five audiences. One’s my generation. Why are we going through this? And I wanted to show that me, I’m the highest elected Jewish – highest Jewish elected official in America, is feeling the same kind of worry that they are. Second, to their children. Their children are basically, the Jewish people’s children, are pro-Israel, pro-Jewish, but they don’t know the history of how Israel struggled, how the Jewish people struggled. Third, I’m aiming it at Christians of good will. They understand antisemitism is bad, but they sometimes say to themselves, “Hey, why are they making such a fuss over this?” Well, we have 5,000 years of history on our backs. And, as I said, it can metastasize. Third, I aimed it at both the hard right, and we’ve seen how viciously antisemitic they could be, but also at the hard left. I felt, as a progressive, I could talk to them about how some of their anti-Israel activity — I might disagree with it, but they’re certainly entitled to do it, and it is not antisemitic, has been sliding over into direct antisemitism. And fifth, Kristen, I would like all of America to read this. So I hope it will be reading in colleges and in high schools to learn, teach people the history. You know, of people under I think it is 25, 20% because the Holocaust was a fake. And another 50% don’t even know about. I believe the best antidote to anti, antisemitism is education. And that’s what this book does. And I think it does it in a sort of non-professorial, friendly — not friendly, but you know, engaging way.

WELKER: Well, it does. And, look, you are the highest ranking Jewish elected official ever in the United States. Leader Schumer –

SCHUMER: Yes.

WELKER: – do you think you will see a Jewish president in your lifetime?

SCHUMER: I think that’s possible. I do. America in general, you know is, we’re a beautiful people. You – glass ceilings are broken every day. So I hope — we’ve seen an African American president. I hope one day we see a woman president. Would be nice to have a Jewish president too.

WELKER: All right. The book is “Antisemitism in America: A Warning.” Leader Schumer, thank you so much. It’s an important read. Thank you for being here today. We really appreciate it.

SCHUMER: Thank you for having me.