Vance Calls Out Schumer For Big Flip-Flop Over Govt. Shutdown

Vice President JD Vance is calling out Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s blatant hypocrisy, blasting the New York Democrat for reversing his decades-old stance against rewarding illegal immigration — this time with taxpayer-funded benefits hidden in a bloated $1.5 trillion spending package.

Vance shared a resurfaced 1996 floor speech in which then-Rep. Schumer railed against providing public benefits to illegal aliens, warning it would incentivize more lawbreaking. Fast forward nearly three decades, and Schumer is now threatening a government shutdown unless billions of dollars are earmarked for precisely that.

“Chuck Schumer once recognized that it was disastrous to give illegal aliens rewards for breaking the law,” Vance posted on X. “Now he wants to shut down the government unless we…reward illegal aliens for breaking the law.”

The government officially shut down at midnight after the House-passed continuing resolution failed in the Senate, garnering just three Democrat votes and falling short of the 60 needed. The GOP-backed measure was designed to keep the government funded while fiscal year 2026 priorities were negotiated.

Vance joined CBS Wednesday morning to hammer Senate Democrats for what he described as a “hostage situation.”

“Why are we in this position? We’re in this position because Senate Democrats decided they were gonna shut down the government despite the fact that the House decided to keep the government open… It was one faction of one branch of government – the far-left faction of the Senate Democrats – who decided to shut down the people’s government,” Vance said.

The vice president pointed out that ordinary Americans, especially struggling families, are the ones who suffer most from Democrat brinkmanship:
“There are people who benefit from low-income food programs, families like mine who benefitted from those programs, [who] are gonna see those programs disappear. There are critical services that the Democrats have taken hostage because they have a policy disagreement.”

Republicans note the irony of Schumer’s current position given his fierce opposition to a shutdown earlier this year, when he worked with the GOP to avoid disaster. At the time, he told Meet the Press: “I had to do the right thing — for the country and our party.” Schumer also admitted to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that a shutdown “would have been the greatest disaster we have.”

Now, however, Schumer appears to have caved to the progressive wing of his party and outside activist groups, turning his back on his own words to placate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the radical left.

The House’s continuing resolution would extend funding until November 21, providing time for lawmakers to negotiate next year’s budget. But Democrats, led by Schumer, are demanding new spending and subsidies tied to ObamaCare expansion — provisions Republicans say can be debated later without holding the government hostage.

Fox News reports the Senate will continue voting throughout the week until Democrats either yield or force the shutdown to drag on.

Meanwhile, House Republicans remain firm, refusing to return to Washington until the Senate acts on their responsible funding plan.