Vice President J.D. Vance predicted on Wednesday that the government shutdown will likely end quickly because some moderate Democrats could be willing to work with Republicans.
Only three Democrats sided with Republicans to keep the government open, while the remainder of the party voted to shut it down over their demands to extend tax credits in the Affordable Care Act. Vance told Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy that the shutdown likely will not last long because congressional Democrats understand the “fundamental illogic” of their actions.
“The big holdup is, of course, that you guys say illegal immigrants are getting taxpayer funded healthcare, Democrats say you’re lying. That makes it feel like it could be a really long shutdown. Is this going to be a long shutdown?” Doocy asked.
“You know, I don’t know. I can’t predict what congressional Democrats are going to do, Peter. But I actually don’t think it’s going to be that long of a shutdown. This is a pure guess from the vice president of the United States, because I think you’ve already saw some evidence that moderate Democrats are cracking a little bit. They understand the fundamental illogic of this,” Vance said.
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Vance said that Democrats have changed their tune on shutdowns and now believe that they must get every policy proposal they want to keep the government open.
“For years, every single one of us, we can remember [former President] Barack Obama on the White House lawn, we can remember [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer, we can remember [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi for years, in Chuck Schumer’s case literally decades, we’ve heard them say you don’t shut the government down over policy disagreements. Republicans think this thing about healthcare, that thing about healthcare. Republicans think this thing about immigration, Democrats disagree.”
“Whatever those disagreements are, you don’t shut down the government over it,” the vice president continued. “For the first time since the Democrats have been in politics, they are now saying that unless we get every single policy item that we demand, we’re gonna shut down the people’s government. They’re trying to take a hostage, and we’re not gonna let them.”
Senate Minority Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blamed President Donald Trump for the shutdown in a joint statement on Wednesday, stating that Trump refused to negotiate with their party.
“Over the last few days, President Trump’s behavior has become more erratic and unhinged. Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos,” the statement read. “The country is in desperate need of an intervention to get out of another Trump shutdown.”
The vice president also said at the briefing that Schumer is listening to the far-left wing of his party because he is “terrified” of losing his seat to Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez if she decided to launch a Senate run.
Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and independent Maine Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, were the three who voted alongside Republicans to keep the government open. Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul joined Democrats, stating that the stopgap funding bill did not include enough spending cuts.
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