Schumer Is 'Fighting For His Political Life': Senator Roger Marshall

As Washington careened toward a government shutdown on Tuesday, the Trump administration used federal websites and employee email lists to spread a simple, but unusual message: Blame the Democrats.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development posted a banner on its website Tuesday morning blaming the impending shutdown on the political left, a surprisingly partisan public communication, and one that could violate federal law.

“The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands,” the HUD website read. “The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.”

Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) shares his reaction on the possibility the United States government shuts down Wednesday, and talks about what can be done to prevent this. He also discusses whether or not he thinks the Trump Administration will fire people during the shutdown, how the potential shutdown can end, and Trump's effort to lower drug prices. Senator Marshall speaks with Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg's "Balance of Power."

Hours into the US government shutdown, the standoff is already shaping up as a political quagmire for all involved.

President Donald Trump has gleefully pinned the blame on “crazed” Democrats, in the hopes they will shoulder the political consequences. But the president could face blowback over his tumultuous leadership.

Meanwhile, Democrats are desperate to show their voters that they have the spine to take a stand against the Republican president and his policies, though they run the risk of struggling to stay united and force their message to break through in an environment dominated by Trump.

Politics are at the heart of this funding fight as both parties try to define their priorities ahead of next year’s midterm elections. The impact, however, could be felt even sooner. Trump’s administration has crafted plans for mass firings of government workers beyond traditional furloughs, advancing its goal of slashing the federal bureaucracy.

This shutdown also marks a role reversal for both parties. Republicans are pushing for an unconditional, short-term funding extension after trying to extract policy concessions on multiple past occasions by using the threat of a shutdown as leverage. Now, Democrats are the ones making policy demands.

Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are framing the fight as a clash over health-care coverage. Their challenge is to keep their party behind the strategy; Republicans would need only eight votes from Democrats to end debate and pass a funding bill. Three defected in the last vote Tuesday before the shutdown began.

Trump and Republicans have labeled their opponents irresponsible “hostage takers.” But Trump may face blame if he follows through on threats of large-scale dismissals. From the Oval Office, he doubled down on that message Tuesday, declaring: “A lot of good can come down from shutdowns, we can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want and they’d be Democrat things.”

Marc Short, who served in Trump’s first administration, argued that Democrats are driving the shutdown, but said Trump could lose his political advantage if he is not careful. “I think they have the upper hand, but the question is will Trump allow this to play out or will he inject himself into this,” he said.

The risks were on display after Trump’s Monday meeting with the Democratic leaders, when the president posted a crude AI-generated video depicting Jeffries wearing a sombrero and mustache while Schumer delivered a fake speech saying “if we give all these illegal aliens health care, we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us.”

Jeffries later denounced the video as “racist and fake” and posted a photo of Trump alongside the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, writing “this is real.”

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