{"id":20371,"date":"2025-10-28T21:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/20371\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T21:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:14:08","slug":"chuck-schumer-doesnt-need-to-endorse-wack-mamdani-for-nyc-mayor-gop-senate-leader-john-thune-tells-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/20371\/","title":{"rendered":"Chuck Schumer doesn’t need to endorse ‘wack’ Mamdani for NYC mayor, GOP Senate leader John Thune tells Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) likely feels no obligation to follow his House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries<\/a> and endorse Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani<\/a> ahead of next week\u2019s election, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told The Post Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m him,\u201d Thune said during an exclusive interview, \u201cand you know, he, this guy [Mamdani] is so far, he\u2019s such a wack<\/a>, that it just moves him [Schumer] even further out of the mainstream.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think Schumer feels like he\u2019s genuflected enough now with all of this \u2014 theatrics to his, that far-left crowd \u2014 that maybe that buys him enough goodwill,\u201d the South Dakotan went on, referring to the partial government shutdown that entered its fifth week Tuesday<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In an exclusive interview, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) suggested that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) likely wouldn\u2019t weigh in on the New York City mayoral race with an endorsement of socialist Zohran Mamdani. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he has to do it,\u201d Thune added later of the possibility of a Mamdani endorsement. \u201cI think he feels like on his ledger \u2014 and he\u2019s totally transactional \u2014 on his ledger, he\u2019s stored up enough goodwill\u00a0because he\u2019s fighting Trump on this shutdown now and that, maybe, that gets him out of having to do something. \u2026 crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffries (D-NY) became the highest-ranking congressional Democrat to endorse Mamdani<\/a> on Friday, giving the state legislator an extra boost ahead of early voting in the Nov. 4 election.<\/p>\n

Thune added that he and Schumer have had little direct discussion since the shutdown began Oct. 1, though lawmakers have offered several olive branches in the form of stopgap funding bills to pay certain sectors of the federal workforce, such as the military.<\/p>\n

The latest bid to advance a bill funding the government through Nov. 21 was blocked by Senate Democrats for a 13th time Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, public opinion polling for Republicans has improved throughout the shutdown, with a Quinnipiac University survey finding the congressional GOP has experienced a two-percentage-point increase<\/a> in their net approval rating since July.<\/p>\n

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Congressional Democrats have lost five percentage points from their net approval rating, per the poll, but Schumer is still holding out for a potential deal on hundreds of billions of dollars in health care subsidies expanded under former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

\u201cThune seems perplexed about what precisely it is that Democrats are pushing for,\u201d the Senate minority leader said in a floor speech Tuesday, \u201cbut he knows damn well what Democrats want \u2014 it\u2019s the very same thing that a vast majority of Americans want, including nearly 60% of MAGA voters: We want to lower healthcare costs, now.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new Manhattan Institute poll out Tuesday showed Mamdani ahead of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, 43% to 28%, with Republican challenger Curt Sliwa in third place with 19% support. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWe Democrats have been calling on Republican leaders to sit down with us and negotiate and address this crisis since the summer,\u201d Schumer added. \u201cBut even now, Leader Thune insists we should fix ACA [Affordable Care Act] premiums later, not right away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just days away from a healthcare crisis unlike any we\u2019ve ever seen, and Republicans from the Senate to the House to the White House are dithering about,\u201d the Brooklyn Democrat said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said all along,\u201d Thune responded, \u201cand I think it\u2019s totally true, that it\u2019s gonna take other Democrats to save him and to open up the government. I don\u2019t think he can ever get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is New York,\u201d Thune said after being shown The Post\u2019s front page Tuesday showing the state of the mayoral contest with Mamdani up by double digits, \u201cbut still, even for New York, that\u2019s a far-left swing.\u201d Josh Christenson \/NYPost<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he is so afraid of what happened last time and very thin-skinned,\u201d the South Dakotan added, referring to Schumer voting to keep the government open in March and attracting a torrent of left-wing<\/a> criticism. \u201cHe\u2019s not typically getting, you know, whacked by his base, but he is now.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new Manhattan Institute poll out Tuesday showed Mamdani ahead of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo<\/a>, 43% to 28%, with Republican challenger Curt Sliwa in third place with 19% support.<\/p>\n

Even without the Schumer endorsement, the 34-year-old is on track to get the keys to Gracie Mansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is New York,\u201d Thune said, \u201cbut still, even for New York, that\u2019s a far-left swing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reps for Mamdani\u2019s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) likely feels no obligation to follow his House counterpart Hakeem…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2065,2132,68,4008,13768,9,24,56,63,65,563,64,87,2134,855,58,82],"class_list":["post-20371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-chuck-schumer","tag-democrats","tag-exclusive","tag-hakeem-jeffries","tag-john-thune","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","tag-nyc-news","tag-politics","tag-republicans","tag-senate","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}