WHEN ELIZABETH WARREN STEPPED FOOT on the Senate floor Wednesday morning, it was to deliver a simple message for her Democratic caucus members: Grow a spine before the fall’s government-funding negotiations.
“I’m asking my Democratic colleagues to join me in using the power we have to fight back,” Warren said in a firm voice, speaking to a mostly empty Senate floor.
The speech was notable both for its topline message and barely hidden undertones. The September 30 shutdown deadline is two months away. But many Democrats are already fretting over how the party is going to handle the situation. More specifically, there is low-grade anxiety that there will be a replay of the last shutdown standoff back in March, when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer voted for the Republican government-funding bill—a move that caught his colleagues off guard and incited a wave of intense backlash, including calls for him to step down from leadership.
Schumer wasn’t in the chamber for Warren’s speech. But he seemed to be her target audience. Warren hails from the more populist wing of her party, and she has a pugnacious streak. In her ten-minute remarks, Warren stressed that Republicans could not be trusted to hold up their end of any budget agreement. She chided the GOP for “bowing down to their pretend-king.” And she warned lawmakers that “if Senate Republicans want Democratic votes for these funding bills, they should ask us what it will take to win our support.”
There are already signs that Schumer has heard and internalized calls for him to fight harder this time around.