House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is called out President Donald Trump and Republicans as the government shutdown dragged into its seventh day on Tuesday.
The Senate failed for the fifth time on Monday night to pass two competing Republican and Democratic bills that would temporarily fund the government.
Republicans, in their proposal that passed the House last month, hope to fund the government until late November to buy more time to work on annual spending deals. In a separate stopgap bill, Democrats are looking to extend Obamacare subsidies before they expire at the end of the year, as well as undo cuts to Medicaid in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that passed this summer.
Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly threatened mass firings of federal workers — an idea proposed by White House budget director Russ Vought, who announced he put federal funding on hold for projects in Democratic-led cities including New York and Chicago.
While speaking on the MeidasTouch Network late Monday, Jeffries shot down Trump’s claim that there are pending bipartisan talks on health care underway to end the government shutdown.
While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said “we have a negotiation going on right now with the Democrats that could lead to very good things.” He later added that “we are speaking with the Democrats,” but did not specify who he was referring to involved in talks.
Jeffries called Trump’s claim a “stone-cold lie” in an interview with the progressive network.
“I have no idea who the president, the Trump administration, JD Vance, Speaker Johnson, John Thune, or any of that crew are talking to, because they certainly aren’t talking to House Democratic leadership,” Jeffries said.
He went on to say there is “no evidence,” based on his conversations with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), that Republicans are “talking to anybody” on the Democratic side of the aisle to reopen the government.
Shortly after Trump had signaled progress in discussions, Jeffries also addressed reporters in the Capitol, dismissing the prospect.
“I do not know of any Democrats who have spoken to President Trump or members of his administration on this issue of reopening the government, enacting a bipartisan spending agreement, and addressing the Republican health care crisis,” Jeffries said.
Schumer issued a statement clarifying that Trump’s claim “isn’t true.”
“But if he’s finally ready to work with Democrats, we’ll be at the table,” Schumer added.
Jeffries expanded on Schumer’s remarks while speaking to reporters: “If President Trump is ready to have that conversation, and is ready to talk about health care, and is ready to talk about the Affordable Care Act tax credits — and extending them — we of course look forward to sitting down and having that engagement.”