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With the year winding down, 2025 has left many top Democratic figures wishing things had turned out differently — or maybe that the public had put its focus elsewhere. Here are the top political turkeys ripped by conservatives in the past year.
Chuck Schumer
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has received scorching criticisms from Republicans and Democrats alike in the wake of a 43-day government shutdown that left Democrats empty-handed.
Democrats led by Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., had refused to advance spending legislation to keep the government open past Oct. 1 without first considering extensions to supplemental funding for Obamacare.
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But by the end of a painful and highly visible shutdown — the longest in the country’s history — Republicans had rebuffed efforts to negotiate over the subsidies. Without an off-ramp or negotiating strategy, even the chamber’s most progressive members expressed doubts about continuing the shutdown.
“I just don’t get what the point is of delaying even longer,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said just moments after a key vote to reopen the government cleared the Senate.
Many Democrats in and out of Congress blamed Schumer for failing to either keep Democrats united in their standoff over the subsidies or for failing to deliver on some other sort of concession. Across both chambers on Capitol Hill, Schumer faces questions about his continued role as the party’s leader in the Senate.
Kamala Harris
The country’s worst kept secret got a fresh coat of paint in 2025 when a groundbreaking book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson took readers behind the scenes of President Joe Biden’s physical decline — and the effort to hide it.
Questions about what Vice President Kamala Harris knew about Biden’s cognitive state rebounded in the wake of the book’s publication.
Harris, who maintains that Biden could have served out another term, would eventually take his place as the Democrat on the ticket in 2024.
At the time, Harris’ stand-in for Biden was seen by many in the party as the obvious choice. But that view soured later when President Donald Trump stormed to victory in November and questions arose about whether Harris should have joined the calls for Biden to step down.
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The autopen
The presidential walk of fame at the White House features portraits of every president — except one. Instead of President Joe Biden, the Trump administration put up a picture of an autopen, a device used to mimic the signature of someone else, symbolizing President Joe Biden’s reliance on his inner circle to make presidential-level decisions.
The House of Representatives launched an investigation into just how much of his power Biden decided to delegate. In a report released in October, the House Oversight Committee slammed the Biden administration for what it called “invalid executive actions.”
“The report exposes how President Joe Biden’s top advisors, political operatives, and personal physician concealed the President’s mental and physical decline from the American people. The findings reveal that as President Biden’s condition deteriorated, his aides exercised presidential authority and facilitated executive actions without his direct authorization,” the report states.
Questions remain about just how far Biden’s use of the autopen went and whether the legal standing of sensitive decisions like pardons could receive a second look.
Andrew Cuomo
The former governor of New York attempted a political comeback in 2025 by running for New York City mayor. The bid, which came after disastrous management of the state’s nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic and sexual harassment allegations during his time as governor, did little to improve his political standing.
Cuomo failed to capture the Democratic Party nomination, losing to Zohran Mamdani by 7.7 percentage points. Refusing to call it quits, Cuomo launched an independent campaign. There, Cuomo again fell behind Mamdani — this time by almost nine points.
In addition to a personal loss, Cuomo’s defeat dovetails with questions about whether more traditional Democrats can still compete with the vision offered by far-left figures in the party.
“This campaign was necessary to make that point — a caution flag that we are heading down a dangerous, dangerous road,” Cuomo said in his concession speech. “Well, we made that point, and they heard us, and we will hold them to it.”
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Chuck Schumer — again
Schumer’s woes over the shutdown weren’t the only sore spot for the Senate minority leader in the last few months. The meteoric rise of Zohran Mamdani put this year’s biggest political turkey in a pressure cooker he could not escape.
Schumer first faced questions about Mamdani in the lead-up to the New York mayoral primary. Then reporters began to ask him if he would endorse Mamdani after the self-proclaimed socialist secured the Democratic nomination. And even in the closing days of the race, Schumer faced questions about whether he had made a decision to support the race’s clear frontrunner.
Through it all, Schumer gave the same non-answer.
“Look, the bottom line is very simple. I have a good relationship with him, and we’re continuing to talk,” Schumer told reporters less than a week out from the election.
While other Democrats, including Jeffries, also delayed in giving responses about Mamdani, Schumer’s refusal to speak on the New York City Mayoral race stands out.
Schumer’s dismissal of the topic fueled questions about the direction of the Democratic Party and whether its congressional factions could play along with the momentum of its leftward flank.
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That — coupled with questions about his management of the shutdown — has resulted in some Democrats wondering if the Senate’s top Democrat should move aside for someone new.
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