Democratic Senator Tears Up Over ‘Cruelty’ of Shutdown on MSNBC
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) teared up while talking about the pain Americans are feeling over food insecurities and high health care costs, as the Trump administration announced that SNAP will be “partially funded” in November.
Warner told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing on Monday, “What just kind of blows me away, you know, literally, one out of every eight Americans rely on food assistance. And this administration knew these funds were there. They could have said last week we’re not going to put people through the mental, emotional, and every other kind of stress..And it’s heartbreaking. There’s a level of cruelty and, you know, chaos here that– it’s just unprecedented.”
Warner called on President Donald Trump to take an active role in getting the government back open.
“And I just, I don’t know what, whether this president has any empathy at all. But if he’d get in the damn room, both sides will have to compromise. But let’s get the government open, get these benefits going, and not have this health care cliff come.”
Jansing said, “Maybe I’m misreading how I hear you — and senator, I’ve been following you and talking to you for a very long time — you sound emotional about this. Whether it is about SNAP, whether it’s about health care. Can you tell me? Is that motivated by the conversations you had this weekend? What did people tell you?”
“You know, I still hear, it’s kind of remarkable…The people saying, ‘Keep fighting,’ but I don’t — and some of them are federal workers. I got staff members who’ve gone now without a second paycheck. And, you know, many of them, they help support their own family members. You know, this is just a level of cruelty that I don’t– wouldn’t have expected from America.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has kept Republicans out of session for the past six weeks, making discussions on how to move forward difficult. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have scrapped Trump’s desire to do away with the filibuster to force an end to the shutdown.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
