House Republican leaders hammered Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., over a comment he made yesterday in an interview with Punchbowl News about every day being “better” for Democrats as the shutdown goes on.
“I don’t even know how to comment on that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at a news conference with other GOP leaders. “It’s so stunning to me how callous he can be to play political games and use American citizens as the pawns in a political game.”
Johnson noted that the government shutdown has entered the ninth day and said the consequences are “very real, and he can mock it, and he can pretend like it gets better for him. It doesn’t. It doesn’t get better for the country right now; half of our civilian federal employees are on furlough.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said, “If you’re Chuck Schumer and a good day for you is defined by how much suffering you can impose on other people, including our men and women in uniform, maybe you need to look in the mirror and check yourself at the door.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had a poster made of Schumer’s quote and said on the chamber floor this morning that the impasse on funding “isn’t a political game. Democrats might feel that way, but I don’t know anybody 1else that does.”
Schumer’s office pointed to remarks he made on the Senate floor this morning that appeared to clarify his comment.
“Every day that Republicans refuse to negotiate to end this shutdown, the worse it gets for Americans and the clearer it becomes who is fighting for them each day,” Schumer said. “Our case to fix health care and end the shutdown gets better and better, stronger and stronger, because families are opening their letters showing how high their premiums will climb if Republicans get their way. They’re seeing why this fight matters. It’s about protecting their health care, their bank accounts, their futures.”
