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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) called President Trump’s behavior “erratic and unhinged” as government funding lapsed overnight.
In a joint statement, the top two Congressional Democrats said their party remains “ready to find a bipartisan path forward” but blamed Trump and the Republican party for leading the country into a shutdown.
“After months of making life harder and more expensive, Donald Trump and Republicans have now shut down the federal government because they do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people,” the New York Democrats wrote late Tuesday.
“Democrats remain ready to find a bipartisan path forward to reopen the government in a way that lowers costs and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis,” they continued. “But we need a credible partner.”
Schumer and Jeffries, who met with Trump on Monday in the hopes of coming to an agreement to avert a shutdown, pointed to Trump’s recent social media posts mocking the Democratic leaders, which were generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
“Over the last few days, President Trump’s behavior has become more erratic and unhinged. Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos,” the duo wrote.
“The country is in desperate need of an intervention to get out of another Trump shutdown,” the lawmakers added.
The partial government shutdown officially took effect at midnight.
Trump has warned that mass layoffs could coincide with any lapse in government funding.
