United States Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer informed his Democratic colleagues that he would back a Republican-led six-month funding bill to avert a government shutdown as doing otherwise would be too risky.
"I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down," Schumer said in a major concession on the Senate floor, adding that in a shutdown, Trump could decide "to cherry-pick which parts of the government to reopen in a protracted shutdown."
"While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse," he said. "In short, a shutdown would give Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE the keys to the city, state and country," he added.
