It’s not every day that you hear a sitting Democrat publicly call out Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — especially on CNN. But that’s exactly what Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) did on Wednesday, and in doing so, he cracked open a rift that’s been simmering under the surface of Democrat shutdown politics all year.
Appearing on CNN News Central, Moulton delivered a stinging critique of Schumer’s leadership, directly tying the current government shutdown — the second this year — to what he described as the Senate leader’s failure during the first.
“We’re in this second shutdown of the year because of how ineffective Schumer was at handling the first shutdown,” Moulton said bluntly. “When all of us stood together in the House to block the Republicans from shoving their bill down our throats, the Senate just gave in under Schumer.”
The jab is more than rhetorical. It points to a fundamental split within the Democratic ranks: one faction that still believes they can win by holding firm and using procedural leverage, and another — embodied by Schumer — that routinely folds under pressure in the name of pragmatism. Moulton may have couched his criticism by saying Schumer isn’t “ineffective every single day,” but the damage was done. The accusation of failed leadership is now in the open.
Still, Moulton didn’t stop there. In a whiplash-inducing pivot, he also turned his fire back on Republicans, citing none other than Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) as a reason they deserve the blame.
“When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene…blames this shutdown on Republicans because she says her own family will not be able to afford health care if Republicans get their way, that tells you something about who’s at fault here.”
It’s an odd argument — to criticize Schumer’s collapse in the Senate and still try to pin the shutdown on Republicans. But it underscores the Democrats’ current messaging crisis: they want to maintain the narrative that GOP intransigence is driving the shutdowns, even as internal fractures reveal a party unable to enforce its own strategy.
What Moulton’s comments really expose is that the Democratic Party is fraying at the seams on shutdown tactics. The “blame Republicans” narrative doesn’t hold up quite as well when one of your own is on national television saying that leadership on your side botched it — and twice at that.
It also raises a deeper question about strategy: If Democrats couldn’t leverage their unity in the House, and couldn’t maintain their position in the Senate, what exactly is their endgame? Because from the outside, it appears they’ve managed to alienate moderate voters, frustrate their base, and now publicly divide their own ranks.
And while Moulton’s critique might have been intended as a warning shot — a plea for a new approach — it’s likely to echo far beyond Wednesday’s broadcast. When your own caucus begins pointing fingers at leadership on friendly networks, it’s not a messaging blip. It’s the beginning of a breakdown.
