Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday on Fox Business that his Democratic colleagues must explain to the American people why they keep voting against bipartisan measures to reopen the government.
Amid a government shutdown which began on Oct. 1, the vast majority of Senate Democrats rejected a House-passed, bipartisan funding measure for the tenth consecutive time on Thursday — with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer refusing to back down from his demand that Congress also address expiring Obamacare subsidies. Appearing on “Kudlow,” Thune said that Democrats must begin explaining to the American people their repeated votes to shut down the government while important national priorities remain unfunded.
“They’re going to have to start explaining [to] the American people why they they consistently vote to shut down the government at a time when there are important priorities that need to be funded,” Thune said. “Whether that’s air traffic control or TSA [Transportation Security Administration] or border patrol, law enforcement, our troops obviously first and foremost. Those are all things that very shortly you are not going to get paid … if the government doesn’t open up.”
Thune argued that the Democrats’ strategy is politically unsustainable, predicting that the mounting public pressure from the shutdown will soon force them to abandon their partisan demands.
“They had their big protest this weekend, got all their left-wing groups satisfied all over the country,” Thune explained, referring to Saturday’s string of nationwide “No Kings” rallies. “And seems like at least now they [Democrats] ought to come back to their senses and realize that shutting down the government’s not good for anybody — and I think they’re starting to feel the heat on that. It’s just not a defensible position in the long term.”
Only three members of the Senate Democratic Caucus — Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, Democratic Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Independent Maine Sen. Angus King — have thus far crossed party lines to vote in favor of stopgap measures to fund the government.
CNN senior data analyst Harry Enten reported Monday that the 20-day government shutdown has not damaged President Donald Trump’s standing with voters.
“It comes down to the blame game. A game I loved to play when I was younger. Blame Trump for the shutdown a great deal in 2018 slash 2019, 61% more than three and five Americans blame Trump a great deal for that particular shutdown,” Enten said. “You come over to this side of the screen. Look at this. It’s a different world. It’s a different world. Forty-eight percent of Americans blame Trump a great deal for this particular shutdown.”
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