Schumer Pedals Back

And now Chuck Schumer is doing much what I said he should—he’s backpedaling on the remark of which I took note in an earlier post. The Washington Post reports:

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that he misspoke when he said that two justices appointed by President Trump to the Supreme Court would “pay the price” for a vote against abortion rights, but he defended his passion on the issue, saying his anger reflected that of “women across America.”

Schumer’s remarks on the Senate floor came a day after his comments at a rally outside the Supreme Court prompted a rare rebuke of a sitting member of Congress by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who said in a statement that “threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous.”

“I should not have used the words I used yesterday. They didn’t come out the way I intended them to,” Schumer told Senate colleagues Thursday. “I’m from Brooklyn. We speak in strong language. I shouldn’t have used the words I did, but in no way was I making a threat. I never — never — would do such a thing.”

In case you think the pushback on the remarks is just coming from a bunch of Republicans, here’s Laurence Tribe’s reaction to Sen. Schumer’s original statement:

“These remarks by @SenSchumer were inexcusable,” he tweeted. “Chief Justice Roberts was right to call him on his comments. I hope the Senator, whom I’ve long admired and consider a friend, apologizes and takes back his implicit threat. It’s beneath him and his office.”

I think that what happened was a Kinsley gaffe—Sen. Schumer got carried away in the moment and said what he really thinks.

At any rate I hope this is the end of the matter but I fear it won’t be. As I have pointed out many times before highly agonistic speech is to be expected in this era of video communications. It’s both effective and affective. Social media influencers are not long form journalists.