After CNN's Wolf Blitzer Blames Republicans for Gov't Shutdown, Paul Ryan Sets Him Straight
House Speaker Paul Ryan accused CNN’s Wolf Blitzer of not being truthful with the American people by implying Republicans are to blame if there is a government shutdown, since they control Congress and the presidency.
The speaker stated Friday on Fox News that Blitzer was reinforcing the Democrats’ messaging by claiming a shutdown falls on the Republicans’ shoulders alone.
“I think I saw Wolf Blitzer saying this on CNN the other day, ‘Well Republicans are in control of the House, the Senate and the White House — why would they shut down the government?’”
“(The Democrats) are hoping that they can get us into a shutdown and make Republicans look bad, when they’re the ones who get us into the shutdown,” Ryan said.
The speaker noted Democrats have the ability to filibuster appropriations bills, meaning the threshold for passage is not a simple majority, but 60-votes. Republicans currently only have a slim 51-49 majority.
“I think the Democrats are hoping the American people won’t know that they have their fingerprints all over this,” the speaker said. “That the American people won’t know that it is the Senate Democrats who are actually filibustering this.”
Ryan also called out Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for his hypocrisy in saying Republicans should go through the normal budgeting process instead of using short-term continuing resolutions.
“I found it interesting that the Senate minority leader, Senator Schumer yesterday said, ‘We should do an appropriations process.’ Guess what? … The House passed all the appropriation bills before the fiscal year deadline — Sept. 30 — and they have been sitting in the Senate since September,” Ryan told Fox News.
At a news conference on Thursday, Schumer stated, “Republican leaders in the House have offered a continuing resolution that doesn’t address the most pressing issues that face our country. Instead it just kicks the can down the road, CR after CR after CR.”
Ryan countered, “There’s one theme why … no action is happening: Senate Democrats are filibustering appropriations, funding the government, and now they’re filibustering a continuing resolution to keep the government open.”
Schumer also said 78 percent of Americans believe the Republicans will be to blame if there is a government shutdown.
By making that observation, the minority leader seemed to be calculating that a shutdown would work in his party’s favor.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Friday found 78 percent of Democrat respondents would blame President Donald Trump and the Republicans.
However, 48 percent of respondents overall said they put the blame on Trump and the Republicans, while 28 percent would point fingers at the Democrats and 18 percent would blame both parties.
Blitzer badgered Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson on Thursday, saying Republicans could avert a government shutdown by making an agreement on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Johnson responded that those negotiations are ongoing.
The deadline set by President Trump is March 5, further a federal judge in California ruled earlier this month that the administration could not end DACA for current enrollees.
While Republicans are ready to grant legal status to DACA recipients, Johnson stated, “We also want to secure our border.”
Democrats, so far, are unwilling to support a border wall.
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