TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer Joins OutFront With Erin Burnett To Discuss Republicans Refusing To Engage In Government Shutdown Negotiations And Free Speech Concerns

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today joined CNN's OutFront with Erin Burnett to discuss the urgent need for Republicans to engage in bipartisan negotiations to prevent a government shutdown and to address recent threats to free speech, including the indefinite leave of Jimmy Kimmel. Below is a full transcript of Senator Schumer's interview:

Erin Burnett: All right, we're back with our breaking news this hour. And that is that Jimmy Kimmel's late night talk show has been pulled off the air indefinitely, and the context of this, of course, is everything. It came hours after the Trump-aligned chairman of the FCC threatened to take action against ABC and its parent company, Disney, over these comments by Kimmel two nights ago about the motive of the Charlie Kirk shooter.

[Jimmy Kimmel: We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it…]

Burnett: Brendan Carr went on that right-wing podcast and said that Jimmy Kimmel is a problem and that they could do this the easy way or the hard way. And then within hours, Jimmy Kimmel put on indefinite leave by ABC. Out front now, the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Senator Schumer, your reaction to this?

Leader Schumer: It is outrageous. It's a page right out of Xi's playbook. This is just despicable, disgusting, and against democratic values. Trump and his allies seem to want to shut down speech that they don't like to hear. That is not what democracies do. That is what autocracies do. And it doesn't matter whether you agree with Kimmel or not, he has the right to free speech. And so, it is just outrageous, it is indicative of autocracy, and I am just outraged by it. Again, this is what dictators do. This is what Xi would do. This is what Putin would do. We are not that country.

Burnett: Well, I want to read to you, Senator, what President Trump's son, Don Jr., just posted. He just posted and I'll quote, I'll read it to you, "They're not losing their jobs to cancel culture. They're losing them to consequence culture. Consequences and accountability are something Democrats haven't had to face in a long time." What's your response to that, that this is just a consequence?

Schumer: He has no understanding of what free speech is all about. It's not whether you agree or disagree with what the person said. They have a right to say it. They have a right to say it on ABC. They have a right to say it in newspapers. They have a right to say it to their friends and families. And this puts this country in a road that could go to autocracy if this keeps going. What democracies have been known for, what our founding fathers and our country has been proudest of, is we are a bastion of free speech. And they're trying to shut it down simply because they don't like what the person said. That is outrageous.

Burnett: It also, and again, as I've been clear throughout the program to say, you know, what he said should not necessarily be the point. But what he said was to speculate about what side of the political spectrum the shooter came from, right? It was not something to celebrate the killing in any way, actually. When the horrible assassination happened, he came out and spoke about it.

So, Senator, what can you do about it? I know you probably just plugged in, but I was talking to Anna Gomez, who's also a current commissioner at the FCC, Brendan Carr, of course, is the Chairman, and was asking her what could be done even within the FCC itself. And she said, well, that, you know, that she would come out and she would speak out for freedom of speech, for the First Amendment, that that's what she would do, right? So, it just raises the question to me about what really can be done. Is there anything explicit and specific that can be done, Senator?

Schumer: The bottom line is this, that first, when things like this happen, everybody from all sides ought to speak out against it. We ought to have conservative Republicans speak out against it. But second, the courts have always defended free speech. Let's see if they step up to the plate, because I'm sure there'll be lawsuits about this and there ought to be right away.

Burnett: Well, it comes in the context of the political division in this country, Senator, as you know, at a crisis level. And we're facing another possible government shutdown, which in all of this gets buried under it, but is at the heart of this divide. Democrats and Republicans dug in. One Democratic Senator, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, came out and specifically said in this moment, after Charlie Kirk's assassination, he is going to buck your party, Senator. He's going to support the GOP funding bill. And I wanted to play exactly what he said.

[Senator Fetterman: I would never, ever hold the government open as a hostage, saying, if you don't do this, then I refuse to keep our government open. That's our look. I mean, we were just talking about what happened to Kirk. Our country does not need more of that kind of chaos to shut the entire government down.]

Schumer: Look, the bottom line is very simple, Erin. For weeks and months, we have been saying to our Republican colleagues, simply sit down and talk to us and negotiate with us. That's how these budget bills have always been done. And we didn't understand. We've been asking since late July, Thune, Johnson, sit down with us. We have a different view of what should be funded and then you do. But the bottom line is we didn't understand that until last week when Trump came out and said, 'Don't negotiate with Democrats; don't include Democrats; we don't need them.' Well, Trump either doesn't know how to count or doesn't understand the Senate because you need 60 votes. They have 53.

We Democrats have now put out our proposal. Their proposal is status quo. The Americans are not happy. American people are not happy with that status quo. And what our bill says is control rising costs, which American people hate, fix health care, which the Republican "Big, Beautiful Bill" decimated. And the American people, I believe, will side with us because we are on their side. The Republican bill is not. But at the very minimum, negotiate. How can you put out a bill with no Democratic input and say that that's that? Well, we're not saying that's that.

And the bottom line is very simple. Donald Trump, aided and abetted by Thune and Johnson, are putting us on the road to a shutdown because they won't even sit down and talk with us.

Burnett: Senator Schumer, thank you very much. I appreciate your time tonight.

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