Jake Tapper Confronts Chuck Schumer Over About-Face on Government Shutdowns: ‘I Want to Play Some of What You Said in March’

CNN’s Jake Tapper questioned Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) about the senator’s apparent about-face when it comes to government shutdowns.

Senate Republicans and Democrats are at a stalemate over legislation to fund the government, which shut down on Wednesday, when the Senate failed to pass a GOP-backed continuing resolution. Schumer and his caucus want an extension of Covid-era healthcare premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. However, Republicans aren’t budging and have falsely claimed that Democrats are attempting to secure government-sponsored healthcare for unauthorized immigrants, which is already illegal. Although Republicans control the chamber 53-47, seven Democratic votes are needed to overcome a 60-vote procedural threshold.

Schumer joined Friday’s edition of The Lead, where Tapper noted that back in March, Schumer and a handful of Democrats voted for a six-month government funding bill in exchange for no concessions.

“So, obviously, we were here six months ago, and you voted to keep the government open back then, “Tapper said. “And you seem to be against at the time of using a shutdown as a tactical move. I want to play some of what you said in March of this year – the last time the issue was up for debate – and then get your reaction.”

“I have said many times there are no winners in a government shutdown,” Schumer said at the time. “As bad as passing the CR is, as I said, allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option… Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open.”

“Now, obviously, back then there was a shorter timeline at hand, but isn’t the outcome the same?” Tapper asked. “I mean, President Trump is threatening a host of federal firings. He’s already frozen billions in funding to New York, your state, and other blue states.”

“Look, there’s a lot of difference between now and then,” Schumer insisted. “Back then, we wanted to see what they would do, and we’ve seen how horrible they are. The horrible healthcare cuts that they made were made in June in their so-called big beautiful bill. Trump even now says they want to change the name, they’re so embarrassed about it. And they hadn’t started doing these technical things called rescissions, which lets them undo the budget on their own, unilaterally. So the times are different, and we don’t want to shut down, that’s for sure.”

He added that Democrats have been asking Republicans to negotiate for months, to no avail.

Watch above via CNN.