Politics

No One Seems To Be Watching Hakeem Jeffries’ Livestream Trying To Blame GOP For Shutdown

Brookings Institute/Creative Commons/Flickr

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ YouTube livestream about the government shutdown garnered fewer than 100 views after running continuously for several hours through early Wednesday morning.

The livestream, titled “Stop the Republican Shutdown,” had 69 viewers as of 9:10 a.m. Eastern time after having been uploaded to the platform for seven hours. The government shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday after Congress failed to pass a Republican-led stopgap funding bill.

Three Senate Democrats — John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Angus King of Maine — voted alongside Republicans to keep the government open. Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul voted against the measure with Democrats, citing its lack of spending cuts.

Democrats demanded that the legislation extend enhanced tax credits from the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of 2025.

Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a joint statement to blame Republicans and President Donald Trump for the 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 … 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 country is in desperate need of an intervention to get out of another Trump shutdown,” the statement reads.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that Democrats need to “come to their senses” and work with Republicans to pass the funding bill.

A New York Times/Siena University poll found that 65% of Americans oppose Democrats shutting down the government.