Speaking during a real eyebrow raiser of a Saturday, October 18, appearance on Fox News Channel, Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett came out swinging against the Democrats in a way that surprised Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany, threatening to bring “extreme measures” against the Democrats to end the current government shutdown.
For reference, the shutdown started on October 1 after the Democrats in the Senate refused to go along with a spending package pushed by Republicans to keep the government open, and as such is now one of the longest shutdowns in American history. With no end in sight, other than potential hopes that some of the more sane Democrats are willing to defect from Schumer, the administration is evidently looking at other ways of ending it.
Such is what Hassett indicated when speaking ot McEnany on Saturday, noting that Congress is still at a standstill and the government needs to be funded, so more “extreme measures” could potentially be taken if the shutdown starts to grind on endlessly toward the four-week mark.
Saying as much, Hasset noted that the administration is starting to look at other options than relying on the buffoons in Congress for how to end the shutdown, saying, “If they don’t open the government next week, I really don’t know how long it’s going to take, maybe the republicans going to have to take extreme measures.”
McEnany, evidently shocked at the suggestion, said, “Wow. What would that look like?” Responding, Hassett explained, on that point, “Well, on our side, the president has said that legally, if they shut the government down, then we don’t have the money to do stuff, so we can stop it forever.”
Continuing, Hassett further explained that the administration can start cutting programs the Democrats like as a way of pressuring them, said, “And we can stop virtually anything that we want, other than defense and so on, and national security matters. The president can pick the Democrats’ favorite things and stop them forever, legally.”
Putting that in the context of how the government and funding process should be working, Hassett said, “And he’s yet to do that, he’s hoping for an amicable solution, hoping that the Democrats open up the government maybe next week. And then if they’ve got a policy dispute with us on something, then that’s what Congress is for. We’ll talk to them about whatever they want to talk about, and we’ll see how it goes.”
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Then, contrasting that idea of how things could work with what the Democrats are now up to, he said, “But to shut the government down, really, this is the third time that they’ve done it since President Trump’s been in office, and so if you extract from COVID, they pretty much shut the governor down every time he’s president as much as they can.”
Concluding, Hassett hammered Chuck Schumer over the shutdown, arguing, “And it just shows how unpatriotic they are just ignoring their constitutional duty to be a moderating influence in America. You know, shame on Chuck Schumer for that.” Watch Hassett here: