Conservative group targets Dem leadership over shutdown fight

A conservative group is targeting Democratic leadership over the potential government shutdown, slamming Democratic lawmakers who in 2013 criticized the use of threats to shut down the government as a negotiating tactic.

The video, released by America Rising PAC, features Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) speaking about the negotiations and 16-day shutdown several years ago.

“But we want to negotiate without a gun to our head. Speaker [John] Boehner comes in and he says basically it’s sort of like this. Someone goes into your house, takes your wife and children hostage and then says, ‘Let’s negotiate over the price of your house,’” Schumer says in the 2013 clip.

{mosads}“You know, we could do the same thing on immigration. We believe strongly in immigration reform. We could say, ‘We’re shutting down the government. We’re not going to raise the debt ceiling until you pass immigration reform.’ It would be governmental chaos,” the Senate minority leader adds.

The threat of another government shutdown is looming over lawmakers. Congress is struggling to strike a deal to keep the government’s lights on as Democrats push for a fix to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children from deportation.

“Democrats can’t escape their rhetoric on government shutdowns. They’ve said it themselves — disrupting the functions of government in the name of political posturing would result in ‘governmental chaos,’” Alexandra Smith, America Rising PAC’s executive director, said in a statement.

While Republicans are trying to blame the threat of an impending shutdown on Democrats, Democrats argue President Trump is threatening a shutdown to acquire funding for his proposed border wall.

Trump has said the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, a signature promise of his 2016 campaign, “must be part of any DACA approval.”