WASHINGTON (AP) – Now, President Donald Trump genially calls them “Chuck and Nancy.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart, Nancy Pelosi, have used two White House meetings to become Trump’s dealmaking partners. But while they have a combined 67-year record in Congress of being willing negotiators, they’re also partisan Democrats perfectly happy to rumble.
“Let’s put it this way, it doesn’t matter,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview Friday when she was asked if she likes Trump following two recent interactions that yielded a budget deal and progress on immigration. She said she doesn’t know if Trump likes her, adding, “Right now, I want him to like the Dreamers,” the nickname for young immigrants the two Democrats and Trump aim to protect.
On Thursday, Schumer, D-N.Y., inadvertently shared his impression of the two leaders’ parley with Trump that moved an immigration agreement forward, catching uninvited Republican leaders flat-footed. At an open Senate microphone, Schumer said, “He likes us. He likes me, anyway,” and described warning Trump he’d be “boxed” if he only works with one party, adding, “He gets that.”
Both leaders’ comments were instructive.