The hosts of Pod Save America ripped Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for supposedly orchestrating the Democrats’ shutdown surrender from the shadows.
Co-host Tommy Vietor compared Schumer’s maneuvering to a popular internet meme from the sketch comedy show I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson in which Robinson drives a hotdog-shaped car into a building, then tries to act as though he wasn’t the culprit, though he’s dressed as a hotdog.
“Chuck Schumer is Tim Robinson in the hotdog costume saying, ‘We’re all trying to figure out who did this,’” said host Tommy Vietor, a 45-year-old former Obama spokesman, in Tuesday’s episode.
“He voted against the bill, sure, but I think he orchestrated it with senators he knew were gonna retire or weren’t up. I don’t believe this spin for a second.”
Republicans needed 60 votes to break the Democrats’ filibuster on their budget, force a vote, and end the shutdown. Until Monday, they were five votes shy, when five new Democrat senators suddenly caved.
Though the 74-year-old Schumer wasn’t among them, none of the eight Democratic caucus members who voted to end the filibuster are up for re-election in the 2026 midterms, leading to suspicion that Schumer pushed them to break the filibuster without securing Affordable Care Act subsidies, the Democrats’ key demand in the shutdown fight.
“Did you gave them tacit permission, but you’re afraid to tell the public that? Or do you genuinely have no control over what members of your caucus do now? I think it’s likely the former, which means, why not just tell the truth?” asked co-host Jon Lovett, 43.
Democratic senators have denied that Schumer had a hand in orchestrating the shutdown deal. Dick Durbin, one of the defecting senators, said Schumer gave the deal neither his “blessing or curse.”
Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii said Schumer didn’t give his blessing to the shutdown deal.
“I can confirm that’s not true,” he said. “I’ve been in many of those rooms and he fought like hell against that.”
A senior Democrat aide gave a similar story, telling the Daily Beast, “Schumer worked to keep his caucus in the fight day in and day out for six weeks—the longest shutdown in American history."
Co-host Jon Favreau, a speechwriter during the Obama administration, said the defecting Democrats were an indictment of Schumer’s leadership, whether he orchestrated it or not.
“If you’re the leader, you’re supposed to be able to keep the caucus together on something like this. That’s sort of a test of leadership, and I don’t think he has that kind of support right now.”
The podcast hosts chalked up Schumer’s leadership as part of the Democrats’ “gerontocracy” problem, meaning the party’s leaders are too old and unwilling to cede power to a younger generation of Democrats that can communicate more effectively.
While several House Democrats have called on Schumer to be ousted as leader, the Pod hosts predicted that wouldn’t happen for at least another year.
“It doesn’t seem like you’re going to get 24 votes in that caucus or that you have someone else who is like willing to challenge him,” said Favreau.
“I do think this becomes more of an issue after ’26, especially if, somehow, we should take the Senate back and need a majority leader and not a minority leader. I definitely don’t think we should have Chuck Schumer if ’27 rolls around and we somehow have the Senate.”
