Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) urged his fellow Senate Democrats on Thursday to pass the House Republicans’ bill to keep the government open and avoid a shutdown.
“Shut the government down, plunge the country into chaos, risk a recession or exchange cloture for a 30 day CR that 100% fails,” Fetterman posted to X, adding:
The House GOP CR will then pass the Senate because it only needs 51 votes.
Total theater is neither honest with constituents nor a winning argument.
The centrist Democrat offered a similar message to CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesday night, saying, “If you shut it down, you will impact and hurt millions and millions and millions of Americans. And you run the risk of it slipping us into a recession or even all kinds of other things.”
Raju reported on his exchange with Fetterman and added, “And there’s just not much time here, Erin, because the house has actually left town. They are gone. They passed their bill on the narrowest of majorities just yesterday, and the Republicans are now planning to bring that chamber back.”
“So if the Democrats do, in fact block this bill, then that could lead to the shutdown and the consequences could be significant. They could be prolonged. And that is weighing very heavily on Democrats at this key moment. Doing that potentially could give Musk and Trump more power, which is why some believe that the shutdown could be averted. But not much time has left. Erin. 11:59 p.m. Friday night is the deadline for them to avert a government shutdown. And those negotiations will continue in the next two days to see if that could be avoided,” Raju concluded.
The Washington Post’s Benjy Sarlin replied to Fetterman’s post and added, “Fetterman is right that Democrats are telegraphing some kind of face-saving cave, but since he’s the only one 100% committed to voting to avoid a shutdown right now it’s kind of odd to antagonize them over it and make the cave harder.”
However, other pundits were quick to note that Democrats were also inching closer to a shutdown on Thursday. Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman wrote, “This sounds like we are heading toward a government shutdown,” after Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) announced Thursday he would vote against the CR.
