Chuck Schumer says ‘every day’ of government shutdown ‘gets better’ for Democrats

Schumer made the comments to Punchbowl News in an interview on Wednesday in his congressional office. “Every day gets better for us,” Schumer claimed regarding the shutdown.

“It’s because we’ve thought about this long in advance and we knew that health care would be the focal point on Sept. 30 and we prepared for it … Their whole theory was — threaten us, bamboozle us, and we would submit in a day or two," he added.

He went on to insist that the GOP is "feeling the heat" of pressure to open the government back up. GOP senators, on the other hand, have placed the blame squarely on the Democrats, with many calling it the "Schumer Shutdown."

Utah Senator Mike Lee posted a video to X on Wednesday, saying that the government is on "day eight of the Schumer Shutdown" with the "Democrats very much wanting to continue to use your taxpayer dollars to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, as well as many aides in the Trump administration, are confident that they are in the better position over the Democrats on the issue. The Trump administration has also talked about conducting mass layoffs for federal workers as a result of the shutdown, meaning some federal workers who have been furloughed since the start of the shutdown would not be coming back to work.

Although some Democrats have claimed that their proposal would not help fund healthcare coverage for illegal immigrants, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) admitted to as much in an appearance on Fox Business last week.