Politics
WATCH: House GOP Leader Exposes Schumer’s Plan To Extend Shutdown For ‘Hate America Rally’
In a fiery press conference Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) of intentionally extending the ongoing partial government shutdown in order to wait for a fresh round of “No Kings Day” protests on October 18, which Scalise referred to as a “hate America rally.”
Schumer has repeatedly accused Republicans of causing the ongoing shutdown, despite the fact that just three Democrats have voted in favor of a House-passed “clean” temporary measure that will fund the government through late November. The measure requires 60 votes to pass in the Senate, meaning that at least seven Democrats must vote in favor.
Democrats have held out for a number of legislative wishlist items, including extensions of Obama-era Affordable Care Act (ACA) credits and billions of dollars in additional spending, some of which will go towards providing taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits for illegal aliens.
During a press conference held by House Republican leadership on Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) challenged Schumer on President Trump’s initiative to ensure that military service members and their families receive paychecks and benefits during the shutdown.
“Look, my understanding of this is they have every right to move the funds around, duly appropriated dollars from Congress to the Department of Defense. There were some R&D accounts that had not been spent, and that’s my understanding is that’s the money that’s being used to pay the troops right now,” Johnson told reporters.
” If the Democrats want to go to court and challenge troops being paid, bring it,” he added. “I’m grateful for a commander in chief who understands the priorities of the country, the necessity of national defense, and the urgency that we all feel and have voted for eight times. Republicans have voted in Congress eight times now between House and Senate to fund the troops and pay federal workers in all these essential jobs and agencies because we understand the necessity of that. Meanwhile, the Democrats voted eight times to block their paychecks. I’m grateful we have a president who is willing to step up and do the right thing.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise struck a fiery tone when he accused Schumer of intentionally delaying the shutdown in order to score political points with the upcoming “No Kings Day” protests.
Scalise, like Johnson, noted that Republicans have voted to reopen the government a total of eight times. “Where the contrast of Chuck Schumer throwing a temper tantrum here at home, just to appease the most radical elements of his base so that on the 18th when they have the hate America rally that everybody knows is coming, and that everybody knows Chuck Schumer needs to deliver a shutdown government to them to appease them,” Scalise declared.
“Well how about you think about us? How about you think about those families who are struggling today because of Chuck Schumer’s shutdown? There are real consequences to what Chuck Schumer is doing. Regardless of who he thinks he’s appeasing, he is hurting so many people, millions and millions of people.”
Democrats and left-wing fundraising giants have organized a number of top-down, “No Kings” anti-Trump protests as part of an effort to generate the appearance of popular support in recent weeks. The protests have received significant funding and organizational support from Soros-backed organizations like Indivisible, as well as other party financiers like Walmart heiress Christy Walton.
A fresh round of protests are planned for October 18, which are already being hailed as “historic” by networks like MSNBC.
