Tipsheet

News Media Rip Apart Democrats: What Did This Shutdown Accomplish?

It’s over, folks. The government shutdown is over—and Donald Trump has won. The Senate finally mustered the 60 votes (81-18) to re-open the government until February 8. If no immigration deal on Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals occurs before that date, the Senate will immediately hold votes for a DACA fix. Of course, in the three-week interim, the Senate will work to hash out a deal, and Children’s Health Insurance Programs is being funded for six-years. Didn’t Democrats get a promise for immigration reform, CHIP funding, etc. how is this a win for the GOP? None of the issues were ever really contentious. DACA fix was going to happen. CHIP was going to be funded. FISA is going to be renewed. This continuing resolution is a carbon copy of the previous legislation that was voted down, just with one week less of funding. The Democrats got nothing, only to show everyone that they’re willing to shut down the government for illegal aliens. This isn’t just the conservative take. Journalists from The New York Times, Boston Globe, Politico, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Bloomberg, and CNN were all wondering what the hell the Democrats were thinking if this was the end game.

Democrats’ messaging was all over the place. A CNN poll found that among Democrats, the split between those who wanted to avoid a shutdown or continuing DACA was 42/49 respectively. Dana Bash read the results and wondered if the Democrats were misreading their base. Moreover, anchors from the network had repeatedly fact-checked Democratic Senators on air over the weekend over the false narrative that the GOP controls everything; you need 60 votes to do anything in the Senate legislatively and the Democrats decided to dig in for illegal aliens. For the die-hard progressives in the Democratic Party, this is probably a body blow.

Bloomberg’s Joshua Green said in the end, the Trump position on immigration won.

So, bra-vo, Democrats; you got outplayed and outcoached. See you in the next bout.