Hot Mic Picks Up Schumer's Assessment of Senate Races

'We're going downhill' in Georgia, he tells Biden
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 28, 2022 9:28 AM CDT
Hot Mic Picks Up Schumer's Assessment of Senate Races
President Biden talks with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

After almost 50 years in politics, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer apparently still hasn't learned to be wary of hot mics. He was overheard delivering a candid, though mostly positive, assessment of Democrats' chances in Senate races to President Biden on the tarmac of Hancock Field Air National Guard Base near Syracuse, New York, on Thursday, USA Today reports. "The state where we're going downhill is Georgia. It’s hard to believe that they will go for Herschel Walker," he told the president, adding, "But our vote, our early turnout in Georgia is huge, huge." Polls show Walker is in a tight race with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. A Schumer spokesperson later said the senator "believes the Democratic candidates will win."

"It looks like the debate didn’t hurt us too much in Pennsylvania as of today," Schumer said of John Fetterman's Tuesday night debate with Mehmet Oz. "So that’s good." He said the party was "picking up steam" in Nevada, where Republicans are hoping to flip the seat held by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and polls show GOP nominee Adam Laxalt with a slight lead. The microphone didn't pick up any responses from Biden, who delivered remarks in Syracuse about Micron's $100 billion commitment to build a semiconductor plant. "We're here to celebrate one of the most significant investments in American history, and it's going to ensure that the future is made in America," he said, per the Democrat & Chronicle. "It's part of a broader story of the economy we're building that will work for everyone."

On the tarmac, Schumer was also overheard saying, "That seat, we're in danger in that seat. We'll see." Fox reports that it's not clear what seat he was referring to, though he was apparently responding to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who described the person as a "nice man" and a moderate who "always works with us." Most analysts predict that Democrats will lose control of the House and possibly the Senate in the midterm elections. One of the few exceptions is documentary maker Michael Moore, who correctly predicted Donald Trump's victory in 2016. In daily blog posts, he has been arguing that pollsters are wrong again and young voters will carry Democrats to victory in what he calls "Roe-vember," the Guardian reports. (More midterm elections stories.)

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