--- title: April Fools Day 2017: Chuck Schumer Ditches Flip Phone description: For April Fools' Day, Chuck Schumer tweeted that he was ditching his beloved LG flip phone for a smartphone canonical: https://time.com/4722100/chuck-schumer-april-fools-joke/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-01T21:35:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:28.056Z og:title: Chuck Schumer Made the Ultimate Dad Joke on April Fools' Day og:description: He will "never" give up his outdated phone og:url: https://time.com/4722100/chuck-schumer-april-fools-joke/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf48462e70fc9839e/6988c0e386f68ebbd66e415a/chuck-schumer-new-york-cell-phone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: chuck-schumer-new-york-cell-phone og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chuck Schumer Made the Ultimate Dad Joke on April Fools' Day twitter:description: He will "never" give up his outdated phone twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf48462e70fc9839e/6988c0e386f68ebbd66e415a/chuck-schumer-new-york-cell-phone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Made the Ultimate Dad Joke on April Fools' Day > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 1, 2017 9:35 PM UTC  With a flip phone in one hand and a "no signal" sign in the other, Sen. Charles Schumer speaks in New York on Jan. 17, 2016, about improving New Yorkers' cellphone service—by tracking dead zones where calls are regularly dropped. With a flip phone in one hand and a "no signal" sign in the other, Sen. Charles Schumer speaks in New York on Jan. 17, 2016, about improving New Yorkers' cellphone service—by tracking dead zones where calls are regularly dropped. Julie Walker—AP  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 1, 2017 9:35 PM UTC Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted Saturday that he was finally going to ditch his 1990s-era LG flip phone. Then the Democrat tweeted that the announcement was just an April Fools’ joke. > [](https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/848246315976974336) The senior senator from New York is often seen walking around Capitol Hill with the outdated mobile device practically glued to his ear. “I bought 10 of them in case they run out,” he told [_The Huffington Post_](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/22/chuck-schumer-phone%5Fn%5F5609861.html) in July 2014. One would think that the politician would need to be able to answer emails on the fly at all hours of the day, but he thinks smartphones pose a security risk. As [WGRZ-TV](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/26/schumer-flip-phone/82295264/) summarized the argument that he made at a March 2016 news conference in western N.Y.: --- > “” --- > [](https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/848212740049182721) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4722100/chuck-schumer-april-fools-joke/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4722100/chuck-schumer-april-fools-joke/"},"headline":"Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Made the Ultimate Dad Joke on April Fools' Day","datePublished":"2017-04-01T21:35:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:28.056Z","description":"He will \"never\" give up his outdated phone","url":"https://time.com/4722100/chuck-schumer-april-fools-joke/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Congress","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf48462e70fc9839e/6988c0e386f68ebbd66e415a/chuck-schumer-new-york-cell-phone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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