PolitiFact put Jon Stewart’s attack on Chuck Schumer under the microscope after the comic said Schumer had “fought tooth and nail against half of these” Democratic Senate winners. The fact-check lands at a moment when Democrats have just retaken the Senate and Schumer, their 75-year-old leader, could soon be running the chamber as majority leader.
Stewart made the remarks on Nov. 5, two days after the election, on his weekly podcast. He argued that Democrats should stop treating Senate seniority as the party’s organizing principle, saying Schumer did not deserve the credit some were giving him for the party’s wins. That made the question simple enough to test: did Schumer fight these candidates, or help bring them in?
The evidence pulled the answer in both directions, but not equally. Schumer recruited at least five of the winning Democratic Senate candidates, including Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Mary Peltola in Alaska, Josh Turek in Iowa and Scott Colom in Mississippi. He also said he flew to Columbus twice to persuade Brown to run. Brown won by five points, Cooper by 20 points, and Turek by five points, while Peltola was narrowly ahead as of Nov. 6 and Colom was leading in a close, uncalled race.
That matters because Stewart’s criticism was not a broad swipe at the party. It was a claim about Schumer’s role in the race for the Senate majority itself. On that point, the record showed Schumer also supported alternative candidates before the primary in three states, then closed ranks once the nominees were settled. In Iowa, his allies pushed Turek in the successful primary bid over state Sen. Zach Wahls. In Mississippi, Schumer told The Daily he had invited Colom and his father to his Brooklyn home before Colom was even in the race.
The friction is in Stewart’s arithmetic. Schumer did back other names before primaries were decided, but he also actively recruited winners who helped deliver the chamber back to Democrats. Michael Cohen put it bluntly, saying he gives “most credit” to Donald Trump for the flip, but would rank Schumer second because “he recruited these candidates.” Representatives for Stewart did not respond to the inquiry, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also did not respond.
Schumer, for his part, signaled he does not expect any serious fight over the next step. In a Nov. 6 interview with ’ The Daily podcast, he said he did not expect a challenge in the election for Senate majority leader and added, “Our caucus is focused on moving forward. Everyone’s very happy with what we all did.” That leaves Stewart’s complaint narrowed to a harder claim than he made on air: Schumer may have clashed with some preferred candidates before the primaries, but he also recruited at least five winners and was central to the victory he was accused of undermining.
