\n After two years of Republicans fighting to push Trump\u2019s agenda through Congress with their narrow majorities, Democrats hope the president\u2019s dwindling approval numbers<\/a> will help them secure control over both chambers and usher in a new wave of leaders on Capitol Hill.\n <\/p>\n \n Though Schatz superstitiously knocks on wood when his potential ascent is mentioned, he is widely viewed as the likely choice to succeed retiring Sen. Dick Durbin as Democratic whip next year.\n <\/p>\n \n In a wide-ranging interview for \u201cInside Politics Sunday,\u201d the Hawaii Democrat laid out an aggressive, yet pragmatic, approach for taking on Trump if he secures the No. 2 role in a Democratic majority in January.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think you find common ground where possible and you stand your ground when necessary,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen it comes to our core values, core American values, it\u2019s going to be a fight.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n That fight could come over issues such as confirming a potential fourth Trump appointee to the Supreme Court or confronting the threats by some Democrats to impeach the president for a third time.\n <\/p>\n \n While some nominees in Trump\u2019s first term received sparse Democratic support, largely from former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, Schatz made clear the bar could be even higher if the president has the opportunity to make another appointment to the high court.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe would certainly execute on our role of advice and consent, take it very seriously,\u201d he vowed. \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019d be able to ram anybody through.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Schatz, who already is a member of Senate Democratic leadership, said he believes the president has done \u201ca million impeachable things,\u201d but he weighs the matter of impeachment as an \u201cimportant tactical question.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n A Democratic-controlled House, presumably led by now-Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, would have choices to make, Schatz noted. Those include whether to impeach Cabinet secretaries first and when to take action against Trump as the next presidential campaign cycle begins in earnest.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIf they moved an impeachment to the Senate, I think it\u2019s very likely predictable how everyone would vote. But for that very reason, I think they should measure twice and cut once,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n It will take more than just a fighting spirit to score Democratic wins across the country, Schatz believes, promoting what he calls \u201can affirmative vision for America.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n He sees healthcare and tariffs, as well as curbing \u201cforeign policy adventurism,\u201d as areas where a Democratic-led Senate could push back on the Trump administration and win over voters.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe reason that the public is not behind this war is they never bothered to make the case for it,\u201d Schatz said, explaining that Democrats would approach the war in Iran with a congressional vote over whether to authorize Trump\u2019s use of military force.\n <\/p>\n \n While then-President Joe Biden boasted a return to normalcy as Democrats rose to power across Washington in 2021, Schatz doesn\u2019t think that\u2019s what Americans desire now, even as they grow more wary of Trump.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cFirst of all, that\u2019s probably not even possible, mechanically speaking, but second of all, that\u2019s not actually what people want,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Democrats must grapple with broad unfavorability ratings that have plagued the party in recent years, which Schatz ascribes to a view of Democrats as \u201cdisconnected from what people were going through economically.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPrices were too high, and we had an 80-year-old president, and I think one of the reasons that people are starting to turn around politically is that prices are even higher, and we again have an 80-year-old president,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of work to do in terms of recovering the trust that we once had, especially with working-class voters, but I think we\u2019re on the way to doing that by demonstrating a little bit better discipline, and a little bit better focus than usual on the cost of living,\u201d he continued.\n <\/p>\n \n Still, he thinks sweeping election-year agendas are \u201coverrated,\u201d arguing the party will litigate the strongest positions on issues such as healthcare and cost reductions during a likely raucous 2028 presidential primary cycle.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cLots of people will have lots of proposals, but I\u2019m not particularly interested at this stage in settling all those questions before November,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Schatz is leaving the door open to one day becoming now-Minority Leader Chuck Schumer\u2019s successor, but insisted it would be \u201cobnoxious\u201d to talk about that aspiration publicly.\n <\/p>\n \n But he\u2019s far from the growing chorus of Democrats<\/a>, including many running in key Senate races, who want Schumer to be ousted over discontent with his ability to guide his caucus through Trump\u2019s second term.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cLook, candidates are going to do whatever they need to do to win, but it is very common, whether it was Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnell or John Thune, to be critical of the people in power,\u201d he explained, affirming he has 100% confidence in Schumer\u2019s leadership.\n <\/p>\n \n Many of those candidates who want to see 75-year-old Schumer go are among a younger wave of progressive Democrats urging generational change within the party.\n <\/p>\n \n Schatz, 53, said some of that shift is already happening \u2014 more than half of the most recent class of Senate Democratic freshmen are in their 40s and 50s \u2014 but the fresh energy Democrats are craving has more to do with ideology than age.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhat I think people are looking for is vigor and a sort of new way of doing things. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re always looking at the question chronologically,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n But inspiring the party with newness doesn\u2019t simply mean a broad pivot to the left, Schatz said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe beauty of a winning political coalition is, at some level, it doesn\u2019t always make sense. There are going to be, you know, your Fettermans and your Platners and your Bernies and your Joe Manchins,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Schatz pointed to Trump\u2019s \u201ccontradictory coalition,\u201d spanning from traditional hawkish conservatives to anti-interventionist right-wingers, that helped him defeat then-Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThat\u2019s how you cobble together a winning coalition, is to allow the tent to be wide enough so that you actually have some very serious disagreements,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n As heir apparent to the whip role, Schatz could soon be in charge of attempting to align the likes of Sen. John Fetterman, a brash Pennsylvania Democrat<\/a> who has occasionally sided with Republicans on issues such as government shutdowns and Israel, and Graham Platner, Maine\u2019s Democratic Senate nominee<\/a> who holds progressive views and is weathering a series of personal scandals.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cTalking, talking, talking\u201d would help him bridge those gaps, Schatz said. \u201cThere\u2019s an old saying in Hawaii that everything in Hawaii is political except politics, which is personal, and I continue to think politics at this level is about relationships.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of social work, it\u2019s a little bit of understanding how people are motivated and animated and why they\u2019re here, and I think if I can stay there and be useful to members, then I can play a constructive role.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary Sen. Brian Schatz laid out an aggressive, yet pragmatic, approach for taking on President Donald Trump if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-717495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sen.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/c-gettyimages-2281322693.jpg\")
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