At least seven incoming Democratic senators are publicly refusing to back Chuck Schumer for majority leader, and the man in charge doesn't care — he says he's keeping the gavel whether they like it or not.

The stake is simple: a party that just won a comfortable majority in both chambers can't even agree on who should lead the Senate. The same voters who sent these freshmen to Washington did it with help from massive super PAC spending — and now the people that money installed are turning on the leadership that arranged the checks. Follow the money, and the revolt writes itself.

HotAir called it what it is: a Democratic civil war, noting that five senators-elect and a sitting senator are refusing to back Schumer, and that Elissa Slotkin has called for both Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries to step aside. The Guardian, by contrast, soft-pedaled the same facts as incoming senators simply wanting "someone other" than Schumer — and buried the sheer number of defectors deep in the story. Same facts. Vastly different urgency.

The defectors aren't hiding. Annie Andrews of South Carolina told Fox News's Bret Baier: "I still very much believe it's time for generational change on both sides of the aisle." Adam Hamilton of Kansas — the first Democrat to win a Kansas Senate seat in 94 years — told CNN on the trail he would not support Schumer, having pitched himself as independent from the party. Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan declined to back Schumer on CNN and said he wanted to consider other options. James Talarico of Texas, Juliana Stratton of Illinois, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota, and Troy Jackson of Maine have all also declined to support him, according to The Guardian.

That's at least eight public refusals — and HotAir reports the number is even higher when counting a sitting senator alongside the freshmen. Yet Schumer brushed it all off Wednesday: "I'll be re-elected as majority leader." He told reporters, "The issue is not me … the issue is focusing on the American people and what they want."

Classic Washington move: pretend the only people who matter are the ones who agree with you. No other Senate Democrat has officially challenged Schumer as of Friday afternoon, so the old guard holds the line — for now.

Here's the part the establishment press won't connect: the super PAC spending that HotAir flagged helped deliver the very seats now fueling the revolt. Party leadership poured money into races for candidates who are now publicly distancing themselves from that same leadership. The donors bought the seats; the senators-elect brought their own agenda. That's not cohesion — that's a transaction gone sideways.

HotAir also noted Donald Trump emerging as Schumer's "most unlikely defender" — a detail The Guardian didn't touch. When the Republican president-elect is doing more to prop up the Democratic leader than his own freshmen, the realignment story writes itself.

Schumer, 75, has led Senate Democrats since 2017. The question isn't whether he has the votes today. It's whether a leader who can't command the loyalty of his own incoming class can govern a caucus that just ran against him to get elected.