Chris Hayes asks AOC point-blank if she’s ‘planning to primary challenge’ Chuck Schumer

WASHINGTON, DC: MSNBC's Chris Hayes flat-out asked Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) if Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is only playing tough with Republicans because he’s scared she might challenge him in a future primary.

On Tuesday, September 30, during an edition of All In, Hayes said there’s a theory floating around Capitol Hill.

“There are some people I have seen who have the following theory of why Senate Democrats have not cut a deal where they give eight votes and move along. And that is that Chuck Schumer is worried about a primary challenge from you and is worried about the politics to his left flank," he said. "And so, because of that, worry about a primary challenge, he’s gonna shut down the government. Ergo, it is AOC’s fault that the government is shutting down, or that you’re somehow the fulcrum of this. And I wanna just ask you straight up, like, are you planning to primary challenge him? Do you think that’s why he’s doing this?” the host asked.

AOC pushes back on rumors of challenging Chuck Schumer

Ocasio-Cortez didn’t hesitate to push back at Hayes’ question.

“This is so not about me in this moment,” she fired back. “This is about people being able to insure their children. And I will say, because I saw some senators speculating about this, and I saw some Republican members of Congress saying, ‘Oh, well, if we have this shutdown, it’s because of AOC.’”

“Well, if that’s the case, my office is open and you are free to walk in and negotiate with me directly, because what I’m not going to do is tolerate four million uninsured Americans because Donald Trump decided one day that he wants to just make sure that kids are dying because they don’t have access to insurance,” Ocasio-Cortez declared.

“That’s what’s not gonna happen. And so if those senators think that we’re having a shutdown because of me, they’re free to enter my office and negotiate, because what we’re not going to do is allow all of millions of people in this country to not be able to afford their insulin and their chemotherapy. So, come strike a deal with me, if that’s what you really think is going on," she added.

Trump threatens mass firings as healthcare standoff fuels shutdown

Hayes’ question came as the clock struck midnight on Wednesday, marking the first federal government shutdown since December 2018, when President Donald Trump’s border wall standoff triggered a brutal 35-day closure.

This time, the shutdown is fueled by Democrats demanding that Republicans restore healthcare cuts enacted over the summer. But with no agreement and no budget passed, about 750,000 federal workers are suddenly on unpaid leave. Trump has threatened to fire “vast numbers of people” and vowed to “do things that are irreversible, that are bad” in retaliation.

The sticking point is healthcare subsidies under Obamacare. Democrats want to extend Covid-era subsidies that kept premiums lower for millions, while Republicans refuse to budge. Schumer has made it clear he won’t move forward unless the subsidies are included, but Senate GOP leadership isn’t giving him an inch. 

It’s a tense moment for Schumer, who already infuriated his own base back in March when he went along with a GOP funding bill that kept the government open for six months without Democrats getting anything in return.

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