Ex-Dem strategist says Democrats privately admit shutdown must end soon

Former Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine asserted on Tuesday’s “The Morning Meeting” that Capitol Hill Democrats have texted him that the ongoing government shutdown will reach its conclusion in short order.

The shutdown commenced on Oct. 1 after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer led nearly all Senate Democrats in blocking a bipartisan clean continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government. Turrentine predicted on the 2WAY show that more moderate Democrats would begin planning to end the shutdown within the next week.

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“Even texting with people on Capitol Hill here on the Democratic side, they know that this cannot go on too much longer,” Turrentine said. “There’s no talk of, ‘Yeah, we’ll do this through Thanksgiving.’”

“They’re like, ‘Yeah, we know this is going to have to end pretty soon.’ Again, the question is: who blinks?” he added. “And I do continue to think that by the end of next week, that middle part of the Democratic Party is going to start talking about, ‘How do we get out of this?’”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries did not answer directly when CNN host Erin Burnett asked him on “OutFront” Monday whether the shutdown would extend past Thanksgiving.

“[O]ur view is that we as Democrats in both the House and the Senate, Leader Schumer has been clear that we’ll sit down with anyone, anytime, anyplace, either here at the Capitol or back at the White House in order to reopen the government, find a path toward a bipartisan spending agreement,” Jeffries said. “But that agreement actually needs to meet the needs of the American people and improve the quality of life of everyday Americans, while at the same time, decisively addressing the healthcare crisis that Republicans have created.”

Nearly all Senate Democrats voted down a funding measure on Monday, marking the eleventh consecutive failed attempt to reopen the government. Thus far, only a handful of Democratic caucus members have crossed party lines to vote for the stopgap bill to end the shutdown.

The longest shutdown in U.S. history was 35 days and occurred during President Donald Trump’s first term. If the present shutdown extends past Nov. 4, it will break this record.

Federal workers are set to miss their first full paycheck on Friday. Congressional Democrats have so far opposed a standalone bill to pay troops and federal employees working during the shutdown.

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