I know that the battles are playing out in the court they are also playing out in protests and rallies Senator Chuck Schumer the minority leader in the Senate held a news conference that was a lot like a rally outside of the Treasury Department to counter some of the actions by Elon Musk take a look I am going to stand with you in this fight and we will win will win we will win we will win we will win are you satisfied with how your party is pushing Back In This Moment have Democrats found their footing
well I want to make sure that the American people see it across the board in terms of all the different prongs what's happening you know there there is the litigation side legislation the oversight the communication and I'll also add the mobilization that you saw there you know when it comes to litigation what we've seen so far dozens of lawsuits you know this is something that the you know the Senators we had been in touch with the state's attorney general ever since November talking about what comes next and you see so far right now the state's
attorney generals are three for three in terms of be able to move that forward you know now we're also proceeding with the legislation side we have the continuing resolution basically in a few weeks uh you know the the the Republicans are going to try to figure out how they move forward and they have for the last two years needed Democratic votes for every single continuing resolution and they should not count on that this time around okay you take me to my next question because your colleague Jeff Merkley basically said he's prepared to try to shut
down the government over some of these Sledgehammer actions that he's seeing by Elon Musk are you prepared to shut down the government to join Democratic colleagues who want to stand in the way of keeping the government open well you have to look at what the Trump Administration is doing right now they are simply trying to they are simply trying to they are simply trying to dismantle the government so yes look if we have to take steps to be able to hold them accountable use the leverage that we have to force it I cannot support efforts
that will continue this lawlessness that we're seeing when it comes to this administration's actions and for us to be able to support Government funding in that way only for them to turn it around to dismantle the government that is not something that should be allowed so just to be clear Senator you are open to voting yes to shut down the government to make this point this is on them this is about whether or not they can get the votes they are the majority and if they cannot govern then then you know that's for the American
people to see but I worked in government I worked through multiple government shutdowns I would be the last person to want to get to that stage but we are at a point where we are basically on the cusp of a constitutional crisis seeing this Administration taking steps that are so clearly illegal and until we see a change in that behavior we should not allow and condone that nor should we assist in that thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media
