That shutdown was triggered by a budget impasse over funding for President Trump’s proposed border wall, when Democrats rejected the amount requested.
The current events are being driven by the far-left base of the Democrat Party, Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) said on Washington Watch Tuesday.
Each chamber has passed three of the 12 annual spending bills, bills that have now gone back to a conference committee to work out the differences.
The House has also passed a continuing resolution that would maintain current spending levels and fund the government through Nov. 21. It’s a so-called “clean CR” with no new policy riders or changes to the existing agreement.
Another vote is scheduled for today, Wednesday, according to JustTheNews.com.
According to the Senate calendar, the upper chamber will vote on the continuing resolution that failed to pass the 60-vote threshold on Tuesday, in a 55-45 split.
The resolution received support from Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, Maine Independent Sen. Angus King, and Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who voted with all Senate Republicans, except for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who voted against the resolution.
Schumer angered far-left base
Democrats threatened a shutdown in March, months into Trump’s second term. When they didn’t follow through they heard about it from the outer reaches of their party, Lankford told show host Tony Perkins.
“This goes back to March when Chuck Schumer and about 10 Democrats voted to be able to keep the government open. Their far-left liberal base just went apoplectic on them and attacked them and said, ‘You can't do anything with Trump. You shut the government down, you fight him at every time.’ Be the resistance, right? The problem is it just hurts the country. It doesn't hurt President Trump,” Lankford said.
Joining Schumer then, with a shutdown hours away, were Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., John Fetterman, D-Pa., Gary Peters, D-Mich., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.
Schumer said at the time it was better to keep the government open and debate issues such as border security and asylum limits favored by Republicans and Ukraine funding favored by Democrats than to present Trump with the “gift” of a shutdown.
The far Left revolted in March
The passage of a continue resolution was met with frustration and division among Democrats, Fox News reported.
This time, among Democrats, Schumer himself is listening particularly close to the fringe of the party.
He faced immense criticism, even calls for his resignation, in March.
Now Schumer argues that things are different: since March, Republicans have passed tax cuts and spending cuts that reduced funding for health programs, including Medicaid. So, from his point of view, Democratic concerns are more acute now.
How he handles the shutdown fight may affect not just local but statewide perceptions — whether he is seen as standing firm or giving ground.
No high-profile candidates have formally announced a primary challenge against Schumer, but there’s been widespread speculation that New York U.S. House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could run for the seat.
In the spring, Ocasio-Cortez led Schumer by 19 points in polling for a hypothetical matchup.
Schumer has served in the Senate for 26 years after serving 18 years in the House.
The shutdown is “all about Chuck Schumer’s personal politics,” Lankford said. “Multiple Democrat senators that I’ve talked to have said, ‘hey, we should just keep (government) open right now, keep it going, except for Chuck Schumer and the politics that he’s in right now.”
The New York City mayor’s race is a quick real-life explainer for the problems Schumer is facing, Lankford said.
Polls by Marist and New York Times/Siena show socialist Zohran Mamdani leading the field by more than 20 points. Former mayor Eric Adams recently dropped out of the race.
“New York politics have shifted hard, hard, hard to the far, far, far left, and Chuck Schumer is trying to be able to fight off the far-left socialist in his own party on it. We’ll see where that goes,” Lankford said.
Some kind of win, any kind of win
Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-Florida) told American Family Radio’s Jenna Ellis in the Morning the shutdown, a strategy reversal after multiple examples of Schumer-led Democrats working with Republicans, is the Democrats’ effort to find a win … any way, somehow, some way.
“You have nine different times in the previous administration where Republicans worked with Chuck Schumer to deal with this exact same scenario," he recalled. "And now you've got the Democrats who are just trying, I guess, to find a foothold, some way to find a semblance of a party. They feel like this is their solution.”
