𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐘 𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐄𝐑’𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐏 𝐓𝐎 𝐖𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐄 — 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐍’𝐓 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐇𝐈𝐌 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑 Chuck Schumer spent months trying to put Troy Jackson in the United States Senate. He took the meeting after Jackson’s own campaign made clear it didn’t want the national party’s help, then told reporters, 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘵, 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘚𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘯 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦. It worked. Jackson is Maine’s new senator, and Democrats just got the majority Schumer has been chasing for years. So Fox News asked Maine’s newest senator-elect the obvious follow-up: would he vote to make Chuck Schumer the Senate Majority Leader? 𝘕𝘰, Jackson said, flat, no hedge, before the panel back in studio even finished rolling the tape. He didn’t pretend otherwise. 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱, Jackson said. 𝘊𝘩𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱. Translate that out of senator-speak: 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭, 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐞, 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲, just told the country on camera that he’s 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 for the job Schumer has wanted back since Republicans took it from him. Fox’s own panel didn’t pretend to be surprised either. They called it a brewing civil war between the party’s “normy” wing and the DSA bloc that, in their words, had a really good night. 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞—𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐦. He got his majority back. Whether he gets to lead it is now somebody else’s decision. 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞.