Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, defended himself on Friday in the face of a Democratic backlash to his decision to vote with Republicans for a stopgap spending bill to stave off a government shutdown, saying he was willing to take political hits to protect his members and their constituents from a longer-term disaster.

On a day of white-hot anger among many Democratic lawmakers and activists, some of whom gathered outside of Mr. Schumer’s Brooklyn home to protest his decision to shrink from a shutdown fight, the five-term senator shrugged off the prospect of a primary challenge that could cost him his job and said he was doing the right thing.

“There is no off-ramp,” for a government shutdown, Mr. Schumer said in an interview Friday from his office just off the Senate floor. “The off-ramp is in the hands of Donald Trump and Elon Musk and DOGE. We could be in a shutdown for six months or nine months.”

He sees his job as leader as taking the long view and trying to avoid that outcome, which would lead to Democrats being “far more accosted” by angry constituents and activists than they are at the moment.

So, for now, Mr. Schumer said, “I’ll take some of the bullets.”

The criticism was flying at him fast and furious on Friday.

House Democrats, including some of the party’s most senior members, and progressive activists characterized Mr. Schumer’s stance on the spending measure as a shameful capitulation to Mr. Trump and the G.O.P.

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