Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) held a closed-door meeting in which he squashed his party’s plans to reopen the government until after Tuesday’s elections, fearing that a deal before the election could dampen Democratic turnout, according to Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R., Okla.).
“Last week, Liz, I know [Senate minority whip] Dick Durbin wanted to break with the Democrats and reopen the government,” Mullin told Fox Business host Elizabeth MacDonald on Tuesday. “Chuck Schumer in a private meeting with the other Democrat senators said that if you’ll just wait till after the election, I’ll release the handcuffs. I added the handcuff part, but based on paraphrasing what he said.”
“The reason why is because they’re afraid their base wouldn’t show up today in Virginia, New Jersey, and in New York,” Mullin went on.
Mullin’s comments came on Election Day, the same day Punchbowl News reported that some centrist Democrats had begun “warming” to Senate majority leader John Thune’s (R., S.D.) offer to reopen the government.
Democrats’ victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City may complicate the situation, however, Punchbowl wrote Wednesday. While “around a dozen Senate Democrats are engaging with Republicans on the contours of an agreement to reopen the government,” some Democratic senators are now pointing to the election wins as “evidence that the public is with them—and that they shouldn’t cave now,” the publication noted.
“It’s been about politics. It’s never been about policy,” Mullin said Tuesday. “It’s been about holding the American people as leverage points, regardless of the damage [Democrats] caused to the livelihood of these individuals. But elections are more important to the Dems.”
Read the full article here
