Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) called for the Democrat Party to “own” the federal government shutdown and to reopen the government during an interview on Sunday.
In a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” CNN host Jake Tapper asked Fetterman who he blames for the ongoing shutdown of the federal government, which caused the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to temporarily run out of funding on Saturday.
“For me, fundamentally, it’s deeply, deeply distressing to know that 42 million Americans are going to lose their SNAP benefits,” Fetterman said. “That’s one of the big reasons why I refuse to [shut] our government down.”
“And again, I feel like the Democrats really need to own the shutdown. I mean, we’re shutting it down,” the Democrat senator added. “I know why they claim — because they want to address the tax credits, and I fully support that. I voted for all of their CRs, our CRs, every single time. And I refuse to put 42 million Americans in the kinds of food insecurity… All is solved by just reopen[ing] our government and the people are now paid.”
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Fetterman told Tapper that while the Democrat Party is supposed to be the party that is “fighting for working people,” every union impacted by the federal government shutdown is “demanding” that the Democrat Party vote to reopen the government. Additionally, the Pennsylvania senator noted that multiple airlines have also urged the government to reopen.
“And why do we really want to make flying less safe by forcing this kind of situation and making things that much [more] stressed? So it’s not something I support,” Fetterman said. “And I don’t want to be involved. We can find a way forward. We need to find a way forward. And we really, I do believe, we can achieve these kinds of tax credits, and this is something I support. But it’s the wrong tactic.”
According to The New York Post, Fetterman also described the government shutdown as an “absolute fail,” admitted that it was “embarrassing,” and claimed that federal workers have had to borrow over a third of a billion dollars to pay their bills due to the shutdown.
“Now people can’t count on their SNAP benefits, and now also WIC [Women, Infants & Children] and Head Start. These are the kinds of people why I’m a Democrat, fighting for people just like that,” Fetterman stated. “It seems like we’re moving against our core values to keep our government shut down.”
