Schumer Melts Down At Trump As Dems Suffer Blowback From Shutdown

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer lashed out at President Donald Trump in a video posted Wednesday, offering a heated and emotional attack as public opinion continues shifting sharply against Democrats for prolonging the government shutdown.

“Donald Trump is a vindictive and heartless man. Never before in American history has a president cut off SNAP during a shutdown, including Trump in his first term,” Schumer claimed in the video.
“But now he is manufacturing a hunger crisis to bludgeon the American people so he doesn’t have to fix healthcare.”

But Schumer’s accusation ignores a basic constitutional fact: presidents do not write federal spending bills. Only Congress can pass appropriations, and the president’s role is simply to sign or veto what lawmakers send to his desk.

In this case, the Republican-led House passed a clean continuing resolution more than a month ago to keep the government open. It is Schumer who has instructed Senate Democrats to block that bill. While a handful of Democrats have broken with him, not enough have crossed party lines to reach the 60 votes needed to send the legislation to President Trump.

At the same time, Democrats continue demanding new federal spending and expanded subsidies tied to Obamacare — a law they passed in 2010 without a single Republican vote. During the pandemic, Democrats temporarily boosted subsidies to mask rising premiums, but they deliberately set those subsidies to expire in December.

Republican leadership has stated they are willing to discuss future subsidies, but only after the government is reopened. Schumer, instead, is holding government operations hostage to extract nearly $1.5 trillion in additional new domestic spending, much of it reversing cuts already approved.

Despite weeks of effort to frame the shutdown as Trump’s doing, even mainstream outlets are now acknowledging the political reality.

CNN has reported that the ongoing standoff is benefiting Republicans, not harming them.
ABC News has directly pointed the finger at Democrats for the impasse.
And now CNBC has joined the chorus of frustration, pressing Senate Democrats to restore government operations.

During a CNBC segment, co-host Joe Kernen challenged Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT):

“Are you ready to vote with the Republicans to reopen the government at this point, as a reasonable Democrat? Maybe others would follow you.”

Welch refused: “You know, I’m not there yet. Because we have had literally, Joe, no discussion whatsoever about how we’re going to deal with the spikes in premiums.”

Kernen fired back:
“This is the right way to do it? By people not getting paychecks at the TSA? This is extortion! You think this…in your conscience, you think it’s the right way to do it?”

Meanwhile, CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten revealed polling this week showing that Republicans are improving their standing among voters as Democrats continue to block reopening the government.

“You might think that given that Republicans are in charge of both the House and the Senate, a government shutdown might actually hurt the Republican brand. But, in fact, it hasn’t!” Enten said.

He pointed to a Quinnipiac poll showing Republicans’ congressional approval up five points since July — a direct reversal of the typical shutdown narrative.

“And that‘s the math that John Thune and Mike Johnson are looking at, saying, ‘Hey, why should we give in electorally speaking, when our brand has actually improved a little,’” Enten explained.