In yet another Democrat misstep amongst many other such missteps in the Schumer shutdown that has lasted since September 30, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was left visibly angry and seething after a fiery debate with CNBC’s Joe Kernen about the causes of the ongoing shutdown and Democratic actions.
As background, Republicans have contended that the current shutdown is absolutely absurd, as it was sparked by Democrats wanting to cause a political scene with poison pill spending, such as on healthcare for illegal aliens, rather than just go along with a temporary, non-offensive stopgap spending measure put forth by Republicans.
Thanks to that Schumer Shutdown, nearly a million federal workers have been furloughed and a number of key government services have been suspended, with Democrats refusing to even countenance temporary solutions, like a one-year extension to Affordable Care Act subsidies, that would open the government back up.
Kernen, pressing Jeffries on the matter, noted that his party’s behavior was extremely frustrating and hypocritical, saying, “There was an election and Republicans were put in a position where they were able to pass the Big Beautiful Bill—or you call it the big ugly bill. To then say, ‘We don’t like any of that, so we’re going to shut down the government until you take back all the things that you duly passed through legislation.’ If Republicans had tried to do that to the Inflation Reduction Act or any of the acts that Biden passed, you’d be going crazy.”
Continuing with his very blunt criticism of the Democratic Party’s disaster of a House Minority Leader, the CNBC host told Jeffries that using a shutdown in this situation was “crazy,” saying, “After an election where the American people put Democrats in power, you’d be going crazy about using a shutdown of the government to get what you want.”
Adding to that, Kernen noted that the House has already passed the bill, and just a few Democrats in the Senate need to join in and get this ridiculous shutdown over and done with so the country can move on, saying, “You’re talking about the House. You’ve already passed this. The Senate has a bill that would reopen the government right now with five more Democrats.”
Jeffries got sullen and surly in reply, telling Kernen that it’s the Republicans who are to blame. He snapped, “What is bad precedent is the Republican refusal to engage in bipartisan negotiations. Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the presidency. So if the government shuts down, they’ve made the decision to shut the government down. They can reopen it right now if they choose to.”
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CNBC’s personalities, having enough, jumped in to note that Jeffries was lying, as Speaker Mike Johnson has already put forth a “clean” continuing resolution with no partisan spending in it, undercutting the claim pushed by Jeffries and others that Republicans are to blame. Seething, Jeffries ranted about the supppsed “health care crisis” and “Republican cruelty.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video