Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) supported shutting down the federal government “to feed the far left of his party because he didn’t have the courage, the will to lead the far left,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said during an event with Breitbart News on Monday.
“He was being led by it, Senate Democrats were being led by it. But here’s the problem — you then shut the government down and you’re creating a heightened expectation that you are going to have an end result that you are never going to get,” Zeldin said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) at a news conference on day 29 of the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, October 29, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“And Senator Schumer is smart enough to know that he was never going to be able to deliver on the expectations that he and his colleagues set for their own base. So, now the government opens, you have a record-long shutdown, and the left isn’t saying, ‘Hey, great job Senator Schumer.’ They’re actually flipping out, like saying ‘You need to go.’ And it’s because of expectations that Senator Schumer created,” he continued.
Zeldin said Democrats need to speak clearly about what their values are and begin “challenging that activist base of their party because they’re feeding it right now, and they’re letting it take over and consume their party.”
He pointed to the election of Democratic Socialist Muslim Zohran Mamdani as New York City Mayor and Democrat Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, who was still elected despite a text scandal in which he repeatedly wished for his political opponent and his children to be gunned down.
WATCH — Lee Zeldin: NYC Is Going to Have to “Survive” the Reign of Mamdani:
“It’s a dangerous road to go down right now,” Zeldin said. “…This is something that Jay Jones said not that long ago. And the Democrats chose to double down and support this guy, even though [it happened] right after Charlie Kirk was assassinated. “
“And Zohran Mamdani gets nominated, and now he’s elected,” he continued. “Now he’s next mayor of New York City. I’m from New York…and I’m scared for this city that it is not going to go in the right direction. They have economic issues that are going to get worse — budgeting, fiscal issues that are going to get worse. They have public safety issues that unfortunately are going to go in the wrong direction, and residents and businesses are going to flee.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
