Trump Threatens Portland & Are Dems Going to Cave Again? | The Week Ahead

So the federal government is set to run out of money tomorrow. As usual, Republicans are counting on Democrats to bail them out and keep things running. So are Democratic congressional leaders really going to fold again?

“We don’t want a shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday’s Meet the Press. “We hope that they sit down and have a serious negotiation with us.”

If you read that mealy-mouthed statement, you’d think that this was a routine policy disagreement between the parties. You wouldn’t know that the last nine months have been marked by Trump marching us to autocracy by firing competent government workers and replacing them with hack loyalists, dispatching ICE and troops to U.S. cities, and ordering the Department of Justice to indict his political enemies like James Comey.

It’s time for Democrats in power to wake up, Sam argues.

“This era is singularly unique and different than all times before. And so it requires a different kind of thinking and a different kind of strategy,” he says.

And no, Democrats won’t get the blame for a government shutdown. They never do, notes Susan — who’s covered four of them at both the state and federal level.

“Trump breaks everything. This is just this is just one more example in a long line,” she says.

Meanwhile, Trump is threatening to send troops to Portland. He claims the city is in fire cuz he saw it on tee-vee! And MAGA influencers are claiming that Christianity is under attack because a gunman shot up a Mormon church in Michigan and set it ablaze, even though we have no idea what the motive was. But millions of people will believe this disinformation anyway.

“You can create the world that you want by what you consume online and who you associate with,” Susan notes.

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