‘Our Democracy Is Falling’: Dem Says Party Should Back Government Shutdown To Resist Trump

Some Senate Democrats, itching for a major showdown with Republicans, are advocating for their party to filibuster their way into a government shutdown this fall.

Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy is pushing a hardball approach during ongoing government funding negotiations, arguing that Senate Democrats should not work with Republicans to pass bipartisan bills to fund government operations for the upcoming fiscal year. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is under pressure from the leftward flank of his party to ratchet up his resistance to the president, raising the prospect the top Senate Democrat could follow Murphy’s lead and decline to support a government funding deal in September — sparking a shutdown.

“Every single day, there’s new evidence that our democracy is falling, and you’ve got to take stands. You have to take fights,” Murphy told Politico in an interview. “I just worry — every time that we go along with these appropriations bills, we’re putting a bipartisan veneer of endorsement on an illegal process that’s ultimately part of his campaign to destroy our democracy.”

The three-term senator has emerged as one of the loudest critics of the president during the first 200 days of Trump’s second term — voting against nearly all of the president’s nominees and Trump-backed legislation that has passed the upper chamber with bipartisan support. Murphy joined other leading Trump critics, including Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, on the first stop of the “F*** Around And Flip The House” tour on August 3 and is rumored to be considering a presidential run in 2028.