WASHINGTON (TNND) — The disconnect between Democrats on how to handle the government shutdown and combat the White House is playing out in calls for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step down from his leadership post and highlighting the ongoing divide on the party’s path forward.

Schumer has drawn stiff criticism from some of his party for breaking with a majority of Democratic lawmakers to vote to approve the Republican spending bill to avoid a government shutdown to pass and get signed into law this weekend. His sudden support for the bill, which just 10 Senate Democrats and one House lawmaker voted for, came after he initially said he would oppose it.

The senate minority leader argued that a shutdown would empower President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to do whatever they wanted and would be a disservice to its staff and the public.

“A shutdown would allow DOGE to shift into overdrive,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Friday.

His rationale for supporting the bill has not been universally received in the party, with many lawmakers arguing that he wasted the limited leverage they have to shape policy through a potential shutdown that could have yielded a bipartisan compromise. Prominent House Democrats had pushed their Senate colleagues to hold out their votes to get Republicans to agree to a temporary stopgap to get additional time to find a bipartisan deal.

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who worked closely with Schumer as the chambers’ Democratic leaders, urged senators to “listen to the women” and to block the bill.

“Let’s be clear: neither is a good option for the American people. But this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable,” she said in a statement.

Democrats who supported the bill argued that sending the government into a shutdown is never good policy or politics, but their critics have argued that it was a risk worth taking with few other levers to pull to get Republicans to the negotiating table.

“While I totally understand my colleagues who didn’t want to catapult us into a shutdown, I actually think that the American people would’ve understood that Republicans have an obligation to negotiate with Democrats,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on “Meet the Press.” “This is the first full-year spending bill since I’ve been in Congress that was written only by the Republican Party. So yes, it would have been a risk.

“I understand the decision that many of my Democratic colleagues made. But I think the American people want us to take risks right now in order to save our democracy.”

Beyond the second-guessing of the Senate Democrats who voted to pass the funding bill, there is some growing sentiment about whether Schumer should continue to lead the party.

When asked at a news conference whether it was time for new leadership in the Senate, House Minority Leader Jeffries responded, “Next question” and refused to say whether he still had confidence in Schumer. There have also been bubbling questions about whether another candidate should challenge Schumer in a primary election in 2028.

“It’s a reflection of the Democrats’ frustration about not being able to slow down all of what Trump is doing,” said David McLennan, a political science professor and director of the Meredith poll. “Schumer is sort of the target, but I think it’s more a reflection of just the general frustration.”

The backlash to his support of the bill also prompted Schumer to delay his book tour. A spokesperson said the tour was being rescheduled due to “security concerns.”

The internal debate is the latest event highlighting the divide within the party on how to combat Trump and Republicans.

Democrats have been hit with an essentially endless stream of executive orders, cutbacks to government agencies and GOP-led plans to slash taxes by trillions of dollars and give the White House more discretion over the spending of government funds. It has resulted in countering strategies on tone and style in messaging against it and debates over how best to directly challenge the administration and win back voters that shifted to Trump and congressional Republicans.

They have struggled to come together on a cohesive message in opposition to Trump and his agenda and are facing blowback from voters. A new poll released Sunday by NBC showed only 27% of voters have a positive outlook on the Democratic Party in a trend of souring polls for Democrats.

The party has debated whether to shift its policy platform to be more progressive, centrist or something else since Trump’s election win after losing parts of voting blocs that had been key elements of their coalition. Much of the platform remains unsettled moving forward and could change drastically by the 2026 midterms, where they are facing an uphill battle to reclaim a Senate majority but could have better odds in the House.

“It’s in part messaging, but it’s in part, ‘what do you stand for?’” McLennan said. “If they don’t have their fundamental policy principles, it may not matter who the messenger is or what the message is if you aren’t clear on what you’re standing for.”