Chris Van Hollen chooses his words carefully when I ask him about Chuck Schumer. Yet the Maryland Democrat’s ambivalence about the Democratic Senate minority leader is clear. In the wake of the recent shutdown’s bitter ending, where eight members of Schumer’s caucus, including one independent, sided with Republicans to reopen the federal government, does Van Hollen believe Schumer is still an effective leader?

“I think we have to have a conversation in our caucus about how we’re going to move forward,” he tells me. “That includes both what we’re going to fight against in terms of the lawless Trump presidency, but also what we will stand for and what we’re gonna fight for.” Is Schumer encouraging that kind of Democratic self-examination? “I believe he recognizes that it’s going to be im

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