With the federal government on the verge of shutting down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey shared her thoughts during an interview on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” on Tuesday.
“It’s terrible for our country,” she said. “It’s just a sad commentary on where we’re at.”
And though neither side is showing any signs of budging, Healey placed the blame for the situation squarely at the feet of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
“The Republicans are in control of the White House and both the House and Senate, and look how disfunctional things are,” she said.
Watch the full interview below
The governor said she is especially concerned about the potential impacts for Massachusetts residents, whether it’s someone trying to get a passport or a small business owner lookign to apply for a small business loan.
“This just stops,” Healey said. “It’s totally irresponsible and a sign of the disfunction in D.C.”
She went on to continue to criticize the Trump administration’s announcements today regarding changes within the military, saying they’re just trying to distract from more pressing issues facing the nation.
“We’ve got inflation still, we’ve gotten tariffs. We’ve gotten nothing in terms of lowering costs. We’ve got people increasingly hurting, business orders have shut down. He’s made life very, very difficult for people across this country.”
Healey also criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s meeting Tuesday with hundreds of top U.S. military officials where he declared an end to “woke” culture and announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness.
“Pete Hegseth, our Secretary of War, he was a Fox News analyst… The idea that you would fly all these people in who are on important assignments and critically important missions, I worry about national security as a result of those reckless actions.”
“This is the type of rhetoric and theater that I’m talking about,” she added. “They’ll throw something out there in an attempt to create a distraction from a faily economy, the Epstein files, you name it. That’s what the MO is with all of this.”