CNN’s Dana Bash actually did something unusual on Sunday — she pushed back against Senate Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) during an interview about the ongoing Schumer Shutdown.
The government shutdown has now entered its third week, and there’s no indication that Congress is any closer to breaking the stalemate. The main sticking points remain Democrats’ push to extend and expand the Affordable Care Act and Republicans’ efforts to rein in ballooning Medicaid spending.
It was a rare moment of accountability from CNN, with Bash pressing Jeffries on the Democrats’ role in prolonging the shutdown — something the mainstream media has largely tiptoed around.
Bash questioned Jeffries about the lack of progress in reopening the government. “Republicans have gone radio silent since the shutdown began. No conversations, no meetings, no discussions. Donald Trump has held them back from even having a meaningful engagement to try and find common ground,” Jeffries claimed.
In reality, the GOP is ‘radio silent’ about caving to minority Democrats’ demands for $1.5 trillion more in spending, to include providing hundreds of billions in healthcare funding for illegal alients.
Bash pressed the issue, pointing out that the lawmaker is “right down the hall from [House Speaker] Mike Johnson’s office” and that “You could probably take a few steps and knock on the door and talk to him.”
Jeffries stammered, “Speaker Johnson hasn’t been given permission to have a conversation with me or Leader Schumer, and he said as much earlier today.”
Bash didn’t stop. “So you don’t think he would talk to you at all?”
Jeffries tried to rebound, saying, “We can have a conversation, but the problem is, that until they get a green light to actually have a meaningful discussion to try and find common ground and a bipartisan path forward, and a willingness to address the damage that Republicans have done to the health, the safety, and the economic wellbeing of the American people, the of course any informal discussion is not going to be fruitful.”
Jeffries continued: “We can have a conversation, but the problem is until they get a green light to actually have a meaningful decision to try and find common ground… any informal discussion is going to be not fruitful.”
Translation: Democrats have no interest in reopening the government. Their proposals aren’t serious, Republicans have repeatedly called them non-starters, and Democrats are hoping the old legacy media (that fewer and fewer Americans trust or watch) will once again help them win the messaging war at the ballot box next year.
WATCH:
But the clear takeaway here is this – it’s good to see Dana Bash be a journalist again rather than a shill for Jeffries’ party.