TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer Joins Morning Joe To Discuss Trump Leading The Country To A Shutdown, Political Violence, And Freedom Of Speech

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke with Morning Joe to discuss Democrats' fight to avert a Republican-led government shutdown. Leader Schumer also responded to breaking news of the shooting in Texas by calling for action to reduce gun violence, and lauded Jimmy Kimmel's return to television on Tuesday night while condemning the Trump administration for their efforts to censor free speech. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks:

[Clip of breaking news footage from shooting at ICE facility in Texas]

Joe Scarborough: Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, first of all, your reaction to this terrible violence?

Leader Schumer: Well, the violence is just terrible. Everybody, right, left, center, I don't care what your politics are, has to speak out strongly against it. But, look, I think, and I don't know what's happened here and I don't know about the guns, but we need better laws on guns. I mean, we got something done a few years ago, but it's just rampant, and we have to do more. I'm the author of the Brady Law, the assault weapons ban. It's become almost every day one of these things happen, and we can't just sit there and do nothing.

Scarborough: And it happens at our schools all too often. When we saw the absolutely horrific news about Charlie Kirk that day, there was a school shooting in, I think, Colorado, if I'm not mistaken. Three people, three people. And so let's talk about political violence and talk about the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk. I'm curious, I know you talk to your members, I know Republicans and Democrats alike. What are they saying? What are they thinking? How do we move forward together?

Schumer: Well, we have to, you know, we had a good moment a couple of years back where Democrats - the only way you're going to get something done in almost anything, in the Senate, but certainly on this issue on guns, is for both parties to come together. I think there are more and more of the more mainstream non-MAGA people on the Republican side hearing of these shootings. We're all human, and we see, I mean, I didn't agree with Charlie Kirk. I still think of that image and cringe inside. It's horrific. And we all have to do more. We all have to do more, and we have to do something real. So much, we could do a lot. You know, the Brady Law, which we passed, I passed it 30 years ago, has kept tens of thousands of people alive, but there are many more things we can do about gun trafficking, about who sells the guns, how they get the guns. There are things we can do without impinging on the rights of law-abiding citizens to own guns. There's a way to do that, and we should do it, and I hope the violence like this horrible thing we just heard about and anywhere else brings people together to do something. But we also have to speak out against it no matter who. So I don't care what your politics are. You've got to speak out, and particularly if it comes from, "Your side," whatever it is, the left or the right, or whatever.

Jonathan Lemire: Yeah, certainly, Senator, to your point, guns - it's a nation awash with guns, but of late, we've also seen a rise in political violence, and it has occurred on both sides of the aisle. We've seen terrible tragedies like the lawmakers in Minnesota killed over, shot and killed over the summer, and of course, Charlie Kirk just a few weeks ago. What would be helpful in terms of rhetoric from the top, a note of unity?

Schumer: Yeah, look, it has to come from the top, and like on so many other things, Donald Trump is deficient in this, totally deficient. The day after Charlie Kirk, instead of just bringing Americans together to mourn, and let's forget politics, Ronald Reagan would have done just that. He would have brought together and mourned. Donald Trump's busy pointing fingers before he even had evidence. That doesn't help.

Scarborough: Let's talk about what's happening on the Hill. It looks like we may be moving toward a government shutdown. Can that be averted?

Schumer: I hope it can. We Democrats definitely want to avert a shutdown. We know how bad it is, and we're asking something very simple, Joe, for the president to sit down and talk with us. You know, he's not the king. He can't just dictate what happened. He said he doesn't need Democrats. Well, then he doesn't know how to count, because there are 60 votes in this Senate that you need to pass this, and he's got 53. And frankly, when I was majority leader for four years, the last four, we didn't have a shutdown. Why? Because I sat down and talked with Republicans, and we compromised. No one got everything they wanted.

Donald Trump is the first president, we're having a shutdown - as you saw, Hakeem Jeffries and I just made a simple, easy request. Sit down and talk to us. We can probably come to some agreements. There are a lot of people on his side who are upset about what's happening on some of the areas of healthcare, particularly the ACA, but others as well. Just sit and talk with us. So he did say yes. He didn't tell us, but you know, his press person said yes. And then a day later, yesterday, he says no, and he has this rant about radical Democrats. Is it radical to want people not to have their premiums go up $400 a month, $5,000 a year? Is it radical to tell a mother whose child has cancer that you're not getting treatment anymore, you're gonna watch your child die? No, it's not radical. And 68% of Americans think that this "Big, Bad Bill" was wrong on healthcare, and it's all the Democrats, two-thirds or three-quarters of the the Independents, but a third of the Republicans. So all he's gotta do is sit down and talk. It's such a simple request, and I think the American people understand that.

Lemire: And Leader Schumer, you said as you sat down, you told me that you found out, like the rest of us, that the meeting was canceled yesterday when he posted on Truth Social. So we have about a week until the deadline. So what happens now, and obviously there are real-world implications to any government shutdown. There will be federal workers who will, you know, but there's also the political aspect of this and the risk of receiving the blame.

Schumer: Yeah, look, it's simple. Ask the Republicans. First, they control the show. They have the presidency, they have the Senate, they have the House. So they're in charge. And God forbid there's a shutdown, which we don't want. The American people are gonna know they're in charge and say, what the heck? Or worse.

Brzezinski: Is there a chance of a meeting happening?

Schumer: I hope so. We are persisting. Our request to meet with the president is still out there.

Scarborough: Do Republican leaders on the Hill want that meeting to take place, though?

Schumer: That's a good joke.

Scarborough: There's some reports that right now they don't.

Schumer: Yeah, I still, look, the bottom line is there are reports they don't. And we did ask them, the reason we asked, we asked them for two months, Hakeem and I, to sit down and talk with us. That's what always happens.

Scarborough: Why won't they do that?

Schumer: Well, we learned why. Donald Trump said, "ignore the Democrats." So I think this really comes from Trump. And they're afraid of him. We haven't seen them buck him. Even if you hear chatter in the gym or as members talk to each other that what Trump is doing is wrong and bad, they don't buck him. They don't buck him. And he thinks he's king. And you can't be king. And look, the American people are learning about this. The view of Trump is declining because costs are going up, not just healthcare costs. Your energy costs are gonna go up because of what was in that BBB bill. If you take wind and solar off the grid, even if you believe in all of the above, you're gonna raise electricity prices. The tariffs, they're killing people. I just had one of my colleagues out in Iowa. All the farmers could talk about was how the tariffs were killing them. So people are getting really upset with Donald Trump. And it's because of what he does. He rants. Yesterday, he had a rant at the UN. He had a rant about why he wouldn't sit down with us. He doesn't deal with the issues. He's not being president. He's not up to the job. It's so easy to just sit down and talk to us. And we know we're not gonna get everything, but he's not even doing that. And the American people are gonna say, why won't he do that, WTF? There's no good reason.

Scarborough: I don't know what that stands for, but - so let me ask you this question. Regarding approval ratings, I asked Secretary Clinton the same question. I'll ask you, why is it that the Democrats' approval rating is so low? You talk about Donald Trump, but of course Democrats' approval rating as a party even is lower than his.

Schumer: Yes

Scarborough: Why is it, like for instance, with Hillary Clinton, I think she won the counties bordering Mexico and Texas by 60 plus percentage points.

Schumer: Yeah

Scarborough: In 2016, Donald Trump in 2024 won those outright.

Schumer: Yeah, well, I think, look, people are upset in general. They don't like the Democrats, they don't like the Republicans, and they don't like Trump even more than they don't like the Democrats. But here's what's really interesting, Joe.

Scarborough: The polls don't show that though, that's my question-

Schumer: Well, his numbers have gotten much, much worse today. There's an Ipsos Washington Post poll that shows, he's lower than he's been by a considerable amount, and it's gonna keep getting lower as all of these, especially the high costs of living, he's helping cause-

Scarborough: So what do Democrats need to do? What went wrong? How did they lose some of their most loyal voters? And what do they need to do to turn it around?

Schumer: What we need to do to turn it around is show working families and everybody that we're on their side. And we are doing that, and we're gonna continue to do that over the next several months. We have to keep hitting Trump, but we have to show we're on their side. And frankly, to win the elections, we have to recruit good candidates. I am optimistic about us actually taking back the Senate much more now than before, because really fine candidates are stepping up to the plate. And one more point on all those polls. Even though Democrats' numbers are low, when you ask people, who do you prefer, a Democratic senator or a Republican senator? We did it in the six battleground states, which were plus two, plus three overall. So it's not a Democratic or independent survey. 47-39, they prefer Democrats. And in a couple of the races where we have the two candidates, we win. So the people want to see what Democrats will do for them if we get in, but they also are really leery and dubious of Trump and the Republicans who follow him even more so.

Brzezinski: So what is the main message for Democrats? There's so many different criticisms that they could be taking on right now from free speech to you name it. What's the message Democrats should focus on to bring -

Schumer: The positive message is very simple. When I was growing up, you asked the average American, what is the next 10 years going to be like? The average person would say, if I work hard, I'm going to be doing better 10 years from now than I'm doing today, and my kids will do still better than me. People don't say that now, particularly younger people. Why? High costs for groceries and everything else. We have a lot of food monopolies here that we have to go after. Second, housing. You can't afford a house. When my wife and I bought our first home, it was a co-op, the down payment was like 4%. It's now 25 or 30%. We have to do much more on that. So we have to get costs down. We have to deal with housing. We have to get better healthcare for people. Taking away the healthcare is politically very much the wrong thing to do. So we have to be really strong about a good future. We have to be really strong about how bad Trump is for people's future.

Brzezinski: Affordability.

Schumer: Affordability, that's correct.

Lemire: Leader Schumer, I want to follow up what Mika said about free speech, obviously we've been talking a lot about Jimmy Kimmel returning to the airwaves last night.

Schumer: Yes, he did a beautiful thing, he was measured, he was calm but he was strong, he didn't duck the issue one bit.

Lemire: So when Kimmel was taken off the air there was a lot of story lines: well it was a business decision, these affiliates are trying to get this merger done, etc. But last night, Kimmel came back, the show aired, President Trump went on Truth Social and made it plain, that he does not think he should be on the air. He claimed that ABC is an arm of the DNC, claims these sort of illegal campaign contribution, said "I think we're going to test ABC out on this, let's see how we do." That's his explicit threat.

Schumer: This is a test of democracy. That is what dictatorships do. That is what autocracies do. Trump seems to have this penchant, anyone he doesn't agree with needs to shut up. That goes right - that's a dagger to the heart of America. One of the most beautiful things about this country since the Constitution and the Declaration is freedom of speech. And we are willing to disagree with each other but we let each other talk. He's losing that, and what Carr is doing, under Trump's direction is despicable. I demand that Nexstar and Sinclair put Kimmel back on the air. And if Carr says he believes in free speech he should demand they go back on the air, even though they don't agree with what Kimmel says.

Lemire: So take together, we just heard that threat, combined with what President Trump instructed his attorney general to do over the weekend., Pam Bondi, saying, "disregard the evidence, go after Letitia James, Senator Schiff, and the like." So put those together. Where are we right now?

Schumer: We are in a, we have to, this is the threat to democracy we are seeing in going, taking the Justice Department and making it into a political tool to go after your enemies and reward your friends. Those pardons he gave a while back were disgraceful. We have freedom of speech, the core of America. We have to fight this in every way, legislatively, in the courts. And there's going to be a big protest on the 18th, No King's Day again. He wants to be king. The American people have to rise up in every way, and they are. You hear more and more about this from people you'd never expect. I talked to a group of conservative business leaders the other day, and they were saying to me, they're just amazed that he would do this in outrage. He says, well, get up and help us do something about it.

Brzezinski: All right, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, thank you very much. Happy New Year to you.

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