America is in the middle of a government shutdown, fueled largely by intransigence from two New York Democrats: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
For Schumer, the shift is especially striking. Just months ago, he warned that even the threat of a shutdown would be catastrophic — a position Senate Republicans now say proves his current stance is pure obstruction.
During and after the Senate’s vote to fund the government earlier this year, Schumer took heat from his left-wing base, both in and outside Congress. He repeatedly defended his decision, arguing that a shutdown would devastate the country.
“I had to do the right thing — for the country and our party,” Schumer said on NBC’s Meet the Press on March 23.
“The alternative being a shutdown makes things worse — much worse,” he told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes just ten days before.
Republicans are eager to highlight what they call Schumer’s glaring contradictions. Their messaging, obtained by the Washington Reporter, cites comments from Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Mark Warner of Virginia, and Mark Kelly of Arizona — all warning earlier this year that shutdowns would harm veterans, seniors, and federal workers.
Many Republicans believe that Sen. Schumer has decided on having a government shutdown because he is terrified of New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeating him in a primary for his Senate seat.
The representative was asked directly by MSNBC host Chris Hayes, on Tuesday if she believed that was true.
“There are some people I have seen who have the following theory of why Senate Democrats have not cut a deal where they give eight votes and move along. And that is that Chuck Schumer is worried about a primary challenge from you and is worried about the politics to his left flank. And so, because of that, worry about a primary challenge, he’s gonna shut down the government. Ergo, it is AOC’s fault that the government is shutting down, or that you’re somehow the fulcrum of this. And I wanna just ask you straight up, like, are you planning to primary challenge him? Do you think that’s why he’s doing this?” the host said.
“This is so not about me in this moment. This is about people being able to insure their children. And I will say, because I saw some senators speculating about this, and I saw some Republican members of Congress saying, ‘Oh, well, if we have this shutdown, it’s because of AOC,’” the New York Democrat Socialist, who typically likes to make things about herself, said to Hayes.
“Well, if that’s the case, my office is open and you are free to walk in and negotiate with me directly, because what I’m not going to do is tolerate four million uninsured Americans because Donald Trump decided one day that he wants to just make sure that kids are dying because they don’t have access to insurance,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“That’s what’s not gonna happen. And so if those senators think that we’re having a shutdown because of me, they’re free to enter my office and negotiate, because what we’re not going to do is allow all of millions of people in this country to not be able to afford their insulin and their chemotherapy. So, come strike a deal with me, if that’s what you really think is going on,” she said.