'The View' hosts grill Chuck Schumer for supporting Republican-led funding bill: 'I think you caved'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer faced tough questions from the hosts of 'The View' on Tuesday, March 18, after he voted to advance a Republican-backed funding bill to avoid a government shutdown.

The move drew criticism from many, including the show's panel, who pressed him on his decision.

Schumer acknowledged it was a difficult choice and admitted he expected criticism for it, saying he "felt as a leader I had to do it."

Sunny Hostin calls out Chuck Schumer

The questioning began with Whoopi Goldberg, who addressed the controversy immediately, asking Schumer, "Why? What were you thinking, and why?"

Sunny Hostin was even more direct, telling Schumer, "It gives me no pleasure to say this to you, because we are friends, but I think you caved."

"I think you and nine other Democrats caved. I don’t think you showed the fight that this party needs right now, because you’re playing by a rulebook where the other party has thrown that rulebook away," Hostin continued.

Schumer conceded that her assertion was true, to which Hostin responded, "So, in my view, what you did really was, in supporting that GOP partisan bill the Democrats had no input in, you cleared the way for Donald Trump and Elon Musk to gut social security."

"To gut Medicare, to gut Medicaid. Why did you lead Democratic senators to play by that book that the Republicans are not playing by?" she added.

Chuck Schumer defends his decision to support funding bill

Chuck Schumer defended his decision by claiming that by supporting GOP's spending bill he chose the lesser of the two evils.

"First I’d say, Sunny, no one wants to fight more than me, and no one fights more than me. We got to fight smart. It is not true — that bill had far less — it was bad, I hated it," he said.

He added, "But it does far less damage to — social security, Medicare, Medicaid are far more susceptible to being eliminated, which is what that horrible Musk — can you imagine this guy Musk, a billionaire, saying $1100 for a senior citizen is not necessary? Or a Ponzi scheme?"

Hostin pointed out that there were still severe cuts in the approved bill, to which Schumer admitted it was "a bad choice" but argued that he chose the lesser of two evils.

"If you have two choices, one bad, the other devastating; one chops off one of your fingers, the other chops off your arm? So I want to fight, and we are fighting, we’re gonna fight every day," he said as per The Wrap.

Chuck Schumer calls Donald Trump's praise 'trolling'

Chuck Schumer also addressed in the interview the congratulatory messages from President Donald Trump on Truth Social and in media, dismissing it as an attempt to mislead the public.

"He was trolling me. I know this guy. He's trying to confuse people he always tries to confuse people," Schumer said.

When asked about concerns regarding leadership within the Democratic Party, Schumer reassured the panel that they had strong leaders.

"When we don't have a president, there is a lot of leaders. We have a great bench," he said. "As for the Senate caucus, of which I am the leader, I should be the leader."