TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer Joins Morning Joe To Discuss Antisemitic Terror Attack In Boulder, Republicans’ “Big Ugly Bill,” And The Need To Stand With Ukraine

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss last night’s horrific and antisemitic attack in Boulder, Republicans’ partisan reconciliation bill, and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Below is a full transcript of Senator Schumer’s interview:

Jonathan Lemire: Mr. Leader, thank you for joining us. A lot to get to, but let's start right there with this attack—heinous, hateful attack in Boulder that, of course, comes just two weeks after the shooting in Washington, DC, that killed two staffers at the Israeli embassy. I know this is deeply personal for you. Just your thoughts here about this rising tide of anti-Semitic violence.

Leader Schumer: Well, you know, the Jewish people across America—and all Americans—should be horrified, and we are in great pain. This is only two weeks after the horrible shooting in DC, and a few months after a Jewish governor’s home was firebombed right on a Jewish holiday. This occurred on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which celebrates God giving the Torah to the Jewish people. It's just awful—awful—and there's just so much both pain and anger in our community about what is happening. This was an elderly group of people who were simply marching to free the hostages. As I understand it, they didn’t take positions on the details of the Middle East—just “free the hostages.” And this was done in a vicious, nasty way. Unfortunately, as we have seen, it’s not an isolated incident. And when anti-Semitism, which is on the rise in America—dramatically. Seventy percent of the religious hate crimes have been committed against Jews in America in the last year, we're only two percent of the population. When anti-Semitism rears its ugly head, it can just lead to terrorism and violence—as we have seen—if it is not fully rebutted by every corner in society.

Lemire: And certainly, we'll be watching for developments here as we learn them today, as the investigation continues in Boulder. Leader Schumer, let's turn now to the Republican legislation that passed the House and now heads to the Senate. As you're well aware, there have been some GOP voices objecting to elements of it. Give us your sense—and in particular—these cuts potentially to Medicaid which as you just heard, we just played Senator Ernst's, shall we say, unorthodox defense of it over the weekend.

Schumer: Yeah, that was kind of “unorthodox.” But in any case, the bottom line is simple: this bill is not big and beautiful—it is big and ugly. And the bill that came out of the House was even worse than what we had anticipated. Take health care, which you mentioned. It will not only greatly slash Medicaid—causing hospitals to close and thousands, probably millions of people to be laid off—but it will also now raise health care costs for many others. Tens of millions of Americans will have their health insurance rise dramatically because of the cuts that were made. And it’s infuriating. It’s doubly infuriating—the cuts are bad enough—but to do them and to give the money that they so-called “save” to billionaires, billionaires and wealthy people where a disproportionate amount of these tax breaks go, is outrageous. So we Democrats are fighting this on every front. We're not backing down—we're doubling down. And the more the American people learn about this, and particularly the new changes, the more outraged they will be. Abe Lincoln said it right: public sentiment is everything. And I guarantee you, Republican senators will be hearing the outrage from their constituencies.

Lemire: So Senator, we have so much to get to. Let's just quickly bounce around again. Yesterday, Ukraine launched a truly stunning attack deep inside Russia, delivering one of the most significant blows of the war. It comes, of course, as the Ukrainians and Russians are set to meet this week in Istanbul for the next round of peace talks. So with what happened over the weekend at the front of mind, what are your thoughts about what President Trump should be doing in terms of this conflict? We've yet to hear from him on what Ukraine did over the weekend. But we know at times he has been sharply critical of President Zelenskyy and unwilling to really punish Putin for not taking a ceasefire.

Schumer: Well, you know, he seems all over the lot. One day he praises Putin, the next day he criticizes Putin. He's not made it clear that we're in Zelenskyy’s corner. I hope on Ukraine, the President’s not the “TACO president.” Trump always loses the fight—Trump Always Cops Out is what TACO stands for. And what we should be doing—we should be much tougher on Putin. There’s a bill in the Senate led by Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s great allies, who's getting fed up, I think, even with Trump on this issue, that would impose really tough sanctions on Russia. Putin’s a bully. Unless we’re tough with him, he is going to continue to wage war on Ukraine. He viciously kills civilians. The move that Ukraine made was brilliant yesterday, but it was aimed at military targets. Some have called it the Pearl Harbor of Russia. The only way—he understands toughness. So we have to, number one, do these sanctions. Eighty-five senators, I believe—including myself and Senator Thune—are co-sponsors of this legislation. And we also have to make sure their air defenses are strong, and we supply them with the military needs they need to fight back.

Lemire: So senator, Elon Musk is sharing his opinions on the Trump administration in a new interview that aired over the weekend. The billionaire and Tesla CEO spoke with CBS Sunday Morning and at first said he wanted to keep the subject on spaceships, but then he began to talk about his time at the White House, sharing that he does not always agree with everything the Trump administration does.

[Begin clip]

Interviewer: Wondering what your thought is on the ban on foreign students—the proposal, I mean. You were one of those kids, right?

Elon Musk: Yeah, I mean, I think we want to stick to, you know, the subject of the day, which is like spaceships as opposed to, you know, presidential policy.

Interviewer: Oh, okay. I was told anything’s good, but...

Musk: No, well, no. [Break] It's not like I agree with everything the administration does. I mean, I agree with much of what the administration does, but we have differences of opinion. You know, there are things that I don’t entirely agree with, but it’s difficult for me to bring that up in an interview because then it creates a bone of contention. So then I’m a little stuck in a bind where I’m like, well, I don’t want to, you know, speak up against the administration, but I also don’t want to take responsibility for everything the administration is doing.

[End Clip]

Schumer: So he says he's in a bind. The American people are in a bind because of what Musk did. His DOGE—which, you know, didn’t do as much as he wanted it to do—but still did huge amounts of damage in terms of the firing of employees, the decimation of agencies like health care, like going after - making sure drugs and food are safe, nuclear energy is safe. The FAA—we need to bolster—and I believe they put a freeze on it. They didn’t hire new people. Over and over again, what Musk did with his DOGE is going to cause lasting damage to the American people. And just saying now he’s out of the administration and he’s in a bind—that’s ridiculous. He ought to be apologizing to the American people for what he has done. If for some reason he sees the light—I don’t know if he does or not—but that’s what we need: an apology and him to tell Trump to undo the damage that he has done.

Mika Brzezinski: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. We appreciate it.

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