Although I find Chuck Schumer offensive when he is silent, he could have saved his opinion of the flight attendant's request for management rather than become verbally abusive.
Although a proper retort might have been "...and you are...a Senator!" (for those who know Othello), Schumer was out of line.
Without going into details, I am affiliated with the airline industry. Many flight attendants are little Hitlers. Most others are very nice people. I must say that if I am on the phone regarding an IMPORTANT phone call, I will tell them I will be sure to turn off my phone before the plane is underway. I will apologize profusely and I will be very polite about it and “sound” very cooperative. If they don’t ramp it up, I wont. If they do, I will use the broke record technique. It works pretty well. I won’t call them a bitch, but I might be thinking it. Sometimes they are just having a really bad day.
I have not had to do that yet. I get my calls out of the way before I get on the plane. I’ve also NEVER had a flight attendant be all that uncooperative. After all, you attract more bees with honey.