Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Jaime Harrison let a 13-year-old he knows interview him on “At Our Table with Jaime Harrison” in an episode posted on Tuesday, but the episode only drew 12 views on YouTube as of Tuesday afternoon.
The episode, which appears to have been posted at about 3 a.m. on Tuesday, was recorded shortly before news of a deal being reached to end the recent government shutdown, Harrison said on his podcast. The episode largely consisted of Harrison answering the teens’ questions about government shutdowns.
WATCH:
“What is a shutdown?” was the teen’s first question. Harrison ranted for about 3 minutes explaining it.
“So do these government shutdowns happen a lot?” the teen followed up.
Harrison’s answer included blaming President Donald Trump for the shutdown.
“The frequency of our shutdowns have been increasing. And one of the things that it seems very consistent that when Donald Trump is president, we have the longest shutdowns that we ever had,” Harrison said. “He is a president that now has a record for the two longest shutdowns in the history of this nation. And it’s even more odd when the shutdowns take place when it’s one party that controls the White House, the House, and the Senate.”
“[I]t’s very odd to see someone, one party, to control all three entities … and to have a shutdown and then have that shutdown be the longest in the history of this nation. Ultimately what you want is for, you know, Republicans and Democrats to sit down and put the American people first,” he added. “But it seems like we have a president right now… who doesn’t want to negotiate, who doesn’t want to sit down.”
When the teen asked why shutdowns occur, Harrison attacked Speaker Mike Johnson.
“Mike Johnson, who’s the speaker of the House, just doesn’t know what he’s doing and could not pass the appropriations bills that fund our government,” the former DNC chair said. “And when you can’t do those bills and then send them to the Senate, and then the Senate agrees to the bills and then sends them over to the White House, then you have this type of dysfunction.”
“[I]n the House, you can pass a bill with a simple majority. But in the Senate, you need sixty votes because of the filibuster rule. You need sixty votes to pass any legislation to get it to move on so it eventually goes to the White House,” he added. “There aren’t sixty Republicans in the Senate and that means they need some Democratic support … Donald Trump has them so focused on gridlock rather than trying to find some cooperation to move the country forward.”
The shutdown finally ended on Wednesday when Trump signed a spending package into law, funding the government through the end of January and concluding a 43-day standoff with Democrats.
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