Vice President JD Vance gave his first public remarks on the federal government officially reopening, telling “Hannity,” the shutdown inflicted massive pain on Americans “all for nothing.”
“Here’s what the Democrats actually accomplished. They caused a lot of stress for our troops. They made our air traffic controllers not get paid. They caused a lot of flight cancellations. They had a lot of people thinking they weren’t going to get their food benefits. All for literally nothing,” Vance told Fox News host Sean Hannity Thursday.
The vice president said the far left is willing to “burn down the entire country,” accusing them of prioritizing their energy on attacking President Donald Trump.
“They don’t care if the troops don’t get paid. They don’t care if you cause billions of dollars of lost productivity. They don’t care if your shut down the airline industry… They don’t care if they have to burn the entire country down in order to get Trump,” Vance said.
Vance claimed the House deal that ended the shutdown was identical to one top Democrats rejected weeks earlier.
“We could have struck this exact deal 45 days ago,” he added. “In fact, we met with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and said we will pass this exact deal. They said no.”
However, the vice president also credited certain Democrats who steered clear of the partisan shutdown brawl, revealing the contents of behind-the-scenes political chatter.
“I do give a lot of credit for the moderate Democrats in the Senate who were with us from the very beginning,” Vance said.
“Privately, the Democrats would recognize the position of their far left was crazy. But they all feel a little bit like they’re being held hostage by their far left,” he added.
The vice president went on to praise President Donald Trump’s leadership during the 43-day standoff, saying they “knew this was going to happen.”
“The president of the United States said every day eventually, the Democrats are going to realize this was an absurd position, we’ve got to reopen the government and that’s what they did,” Vance said.
President Trump signed legislation to fund the government again Wednesday night. He signaled Monday the government would open soon, as consequences of a lapse in funding continued to snowball, including missed paychecks for federal workers and airline delays stemming from air traffic controller staffing shortages.
The bill keeps government funding at the same levels during fiscal year 2025 through Jan. 30 to provide additional time to hash out a longer appropriations measure for fiscal year 2026.
The measure also funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that more than 42 million Americans rely on through September. The program supports non- or low-income individuals or families to purchase groceries on a debit card.
Vice President Vance argued the shutdown effectively ended the career of Senate Minority leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., dubbing the 43-day ordeal “politically stupid” and a “huge political mistake” for Democrats.
“What an incredible juxtaposition of priorities,” he said. “We care about Americans. They care about illegal aliens, that’s been true for years. They made it super clear with this government shutdown fight.”
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