Gillibrand: Schumer Can Bring Country Together, May Be Best American Alive ‘To Get Things Done’ In Congress

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), the failed 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate, suggested Sunday morning that Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) may be the best person “alive in America today” to bring the country together and get things done in Congress.

During a press conference, Gillibrand praised Schumer, who is poised to take the reigns as Senate majority leader, as the ideal Senate counterpart to President-elect Joe Biden to handle the COVID-19 crisis and “the financial collapse corresponding” to the pandemic.

“Chuck Schumer understands states and communities all across this country better than anybody, he’s worked to get people elected in every part of this country — red, blue, and purple — and he understands that this country needs to heal, that we have to bring people together, that we have to get things done,” remarked Gillibrand.

The junior New York senator added: “I don’t think there’s a human being alive in America today that could do a better job than Chuck Schumer in this moment to bring this country back together again, to get things done, to get the economy moving. His life and dedication to public service has prepared him for this moment better than anyone, and so I am so optimistic that in this new Congress, we will be able to govern, we will be able to get resources to our cities, our states, our communities. We’ll be able to help people who have no jobs get jobs, we’ll be able to help families that are hungry get food, we’ll be able to help kids that don’t have resources, the tools they need to study and learn in school.”

“I see everything as possible now because of that one change. And so I just want Senator Schumer to understand that he is the right person at this time for this moment to deliver the relief that hopefully President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris will bring forward,” she said.

Schumer, who has served in the Senate since 1998, became the highest-ranking Democrat in the body after Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) retired in 2017. In light of the GOP’s senatorial losses in Georgia, Schumer will soon begin his first stint as Senate majority leader, which will mean Congress will be under complete Democratic control.

Biden, who assumes office on Wednesday, has vowed to send a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package to Congress that contains $1,400 stimulus checks, $3,500 child tax credits, and a $400 weekly unemployment benefits boost to last until late September.

The president-elect also wants the relief package bill to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour. Although a $15 minimum wage has been a rallying cry among progressives for years, only states have enacted a $15 minimum wage.

Back in 2019, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blocked a House-passed proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, saying that such an increase would “kill jobs and depress the economy” in the midst of an economic boom. As The Washington Post notes, Democrats would need to gain 10 Republican votes in order to pass a federal minimum wage increase.