Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman delivered a scathing indictment of his own party’s leadership, explicitly calling out Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer over the ongoing federal government shutdown, branding it an “absolute failure.”
In an interview posted on social media Thursday, Fetterman slammed the political maneuvering behind the budget impasse, which began on October 1 after the Senate failed to pass a continuing resolution.
Fetterman reserved his sharpest words for the idea that the shutdown could somehow benefit Democrats politically.
“Yeah, well, ask the hungry people on Saturday,” Fetterman retorted when asked about Schumer’s claims. “Americans are not leverage.”
Fetteerman emphasized the real-world consequences, dismissing the political contest as a “shi–y game show” and urging lawmakers to “be better than this and just open this up.”
Fetterman highlighted the imminent crisis facing millions, noting that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—commonly known as “food stamps”—for roughly 42 million Americans are slated to run out by November 1 without a resolution.
Drawing on personal experience, Fetterman described witnessing the growing need in his home state:
“My wife Gisele, she develops a free store in our community, and it distributes food three times a week, and her lines have already got longer and now I will encounter people that have no SNAP benefits starting on Saturday, and I don’t have an explanation for them… It’s an absolute failure.”
Fetterman continued, “Imagine being a parent with a couple kids and how you’re going to fill their refrigerator and pack their lunches and get on with their lives when the things that they’ve depended on now is gone…”
“Democrats, if we’re not allowed to just open this up, I mean, then our party has bigger problems than I thought we might have already,” Fetterman blasted.
He concluded the interview with an apology to the public: “I’m apologizing that we can’t even get our sh*t together and just open up our government.”
The shutdown, which began after the Senate could not gather the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster on a House-passed funding bill, continues to leave federal workers unpaid and critical services at risk as the November 1 SNAP deadline looms.
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