There was actually a rare and hilarious moment on CNN when anchor John Berman pressed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about the government shutdown—and even threw the term “Schumer Shutdown” at him.
Schumer clearly wasn’t ready for that kind of pushback from CNN.
The exchange came Wednesday, right after Democrats voted to shut down the government in order to jam through taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens. When the anchor repeated what Republicans were calling the closure—the “Schumer Shutdown”—the Senate minority leader froze, awkwardly claiming he couldn’t hear the question. It was the kind of flustered non-response you give when you know the charge hits a little too close to home.
“Every Republican who’s gone on TV the last 12 hours or so has called this the Schumer Shutdown. What do you say about that name?” Berman said.
The camera then went to a live shot of Schumer on Capitol Hill, who sat there on camera saying nothing.
The anchor asked, “Senator, can you hear me?”
Before the Democrat senator said… “I can’t hear.”
The CNN host asked once more, “Senator Schumer, can you hear me?” But the minority leader just sat there.
“I don’t think Senator Schumer can hear me right now. Maybe the government shutdown included audio on Capitol Hill,” the anchor hilariously snarked.
During the interview, Schumer was asked about his previous comments regarding government shutdowns in 2013, 2019, and March 2025:
Those comments included calling it “a politics of idiocy, of confrontation of paralysis,” “self-defeating,” and “holding American workers hostage.”
“That was you three times in the past… what’s the difference?” the anchor said. At that, Schumer interjected with a lame excuse, claiming it was before Republicans had reportedly done “these horrible things to healthcare,” without further explanation.
Schumer can spin it all he wants, but his claim that Republicans pulled the plug on healthcare for illegal immigrants after his remarks in March simply isn’t true. Vice President JD Vance has already laid out the timeline in detail: that funding was cut back in January, the moment President Trump took office. In other words, Schumer is rewriting history to dodge accountability.
The vice president explained:
This is a Democrat talking point. They say, “We’re not actually trying to give health care benefits to illegal aliens,” and here’s why it’s not true. There are two Biden-era programs that explicitly gave the taxpayer health care money to illegal aliens that we turned off when President Trump took over in January. Program number one is there’s a lot of emergency healthcare at hospitals that are provided to illegal aliens that was funded by the federal government. We turned off that funding, and because of course we want American citizens to benefit from those hospital services, not to be taxed, and then to have those hospital services go to illegal aliens.
The second of which is, the Biden administration gave mass parole to millions upon millions of illegal aliens, and then they simultaneously made those parolees eligible for healthcare benefits covered by taxpayers. In the One Big Beautiful Bill President Trump and Congressional Republicans turned off that money for healthcare funding for illegal aliens, the Democrats want to turn it back on.
Schumer also found himself on the hot seat over the shutdown during an appearance on Morning Joe. In a moment that quickly went viral, a screenshot showed the Democrat flashing a thumbs-up—hardly the image of someone concerned about hundreds of thousands of federal workers being sidelined.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wasted no time sharing the photo, highlighting just how tone-deaf Schumer looked while his party owns this mess.
Few people have embodied Republican resolve during the Schumer Shutdown more than House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). From day one, Johnson has stood firm, calmly and consistently reminding the American people that Democrats are the ones responsible for grinding the government to a halt.
He’s made it clear this wasn’t about governing — it was about political “leverage” and keeping the party’s far-left fringe happy. While Democrats played games, Johnson kept the focus where it belonged: on reopening the government responsibly and exposing the cynical motives behind the shutdown.
“After this weekend’s ‘Hate America’ rallies co-sponsored by the Communist Party, I thought [Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would] finally do the right thing. But he’s still too terrified of his radical base — even admitting he’ll keep the government shut down while hardworking Americans suffer,” Johnson said at the time, which was day 23 of the Schumer Shutdown.
On Wednesday night — two days after a small group of Senate Democrats finally broke ranks to start ending the longest shutdown in U.S. history — the House of Representatives followed suit, voting 222–209 to take the next-to-last step toward ending the Schumer Shutdown. Six Democrats crossed party lines to join the GOP majority in voting to reopen the government, while two Republicans sided with Democrats in opposition.
Before getting to Speaker Johnson’s post-vote remarks, let’s take a quick look at the roll call — the Democrats who defied party leadership to end the shutdown, and the two Republicans who inexplicably voted with the Left to keep it going:
Good on these Democrats for defying their “Temu Obama” leader, Hakeem Jeffries.
Speaking to reporters after the vote, Speaker Johnson delivered the most important reminder of all: none of this chaos ever had to happen. He pointed out that House Republicans had already passed a clean continuing resolution back on September 19 — one that included no GOP wish-list items and was simply meant to “keep the lights on” so both parties could debate their priorities through the normal legislative process.
In plain English, this entire shutdown was a Democrat-made disaster. It was engineered and prolonged by House and Senate Democrats, led by Jeffries (D-NY) and Chuck Schumer — the same pair now pretending to be the heroes for ending the mess they created in the first place:
Here’s the official statement from the GOP leadership, which provided more details:
“The Democrat Shutdown is finally over thanks to House and Senate Republicans. There is absolutely no question now that Democrats are responsible for millions of American families going hungry, millions of travelers left stranded in airports, and our troops left wondering if they would receive their next paycheck. It was the Democrat Party that voted 15 times to keep the government closed and force the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
“All of it was pointless and utterly foolish. Democrats admitted they used the American people as ‘leverage’ and hurt their constituents on purpose — but they got nothing for their selfish political stunt. Voters will remember which party played political games in an attempt to ‘look tough’ to their base, while real people suffered.
“Now that Republicans have succeeded in ending the Democrat Shutdown, we look forward to continuing our important legislative work delivering results for the American people.”
President Trump signed the measure late Wednesday, officially funding the government through the end of January.
Let’s be clear: This was a Democrat-caused shutdown. And it was abjectly pointless. Only a party that hates the people they supposedly represent would do that.