JD Vance Accuses Democrats Of Voting For Government Shutdown To Damage Trump’s ‘Negotiating Leverage’

Vice President-elect JD Vance lashed out at House Democrats for voting against a spending package endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump and accused his political opponents of opting for a government shutdown rather than give the incoming president “negotiating leverage during his first term.”

Republicans and Democrats stared down a looming government shutdown Thursday evening at the House. With the clock ticking toward a midnight deadline on Friday, lawmakers of both parties took jabs at each other over who would shoulder the blame if federal agencies grind to a halt.

Senators and representatives had scrambled throughout the day to rally support for a Trump-backed bill that included a short-term government funding extension, a two-year suspension of the debt limit, and substantial disaster relief funds. But in the end, Democrats rejected the plan.

Inside a tense House Democratic caucus meeting, members chanted “hell no,” underscoring their fury over what they viewed as a rushed, partisan maneuver engineered to give the incoming president early leverage in tough negotiations.

Speaking to reporters after the vote, Vance placed the fault squarely at the feet of Democrats.

Look, I’ll say one thing. The Democrats just voted to shut down the government, even though we had a clean CR, because they didn’t want to give the president negotiating leverage during his first term — during the first year of his new term. And number two, because they would rather shut down the government and fight for global censorship. They’ve asked for a shutdown and I think that’s exactly what they’re going to.

The vice president-elect ignored a follow-up question from reporters, pointing out that 38 Republicans also voted against the bill.

The defeated package had notably stripped out earlier bipartisan reforms aimed at reining in pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), intermediaries in the pharmaceutical supply chain. This omission angered lawmakers who saw a previous deal collapse after Trump abandoned it, leaving many rank-and-file members wary of placing their trust in top party negotiators.

With the House measure requiring a two-thirds supermajority and falling short, Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise vowed to find another path forward. Meanwhile, some Republicans pressed Johnson to shake up influential committees if certain members refused to greenlight new proposals.

But with no clear resolution in sight and Democrats entrenched in opposition, Washington faces the real possibility of a government shuttered by the weekend, testing the mettle of a divided and politically charged Congress.

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