Democrats can finally enter negotiations over a potential government shutdown with power over Donald Trump, the president’s biographer says.
On a new episode of his Inside Trump’s Head podcast, Michael Wolff claims that, with just six days to go until the deadline, it’s not Republicans who have the advantage for once.
“The Democrats have the leverage here,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles. “They can decide whether the government will be funded or not funded.”
A government shutdown, which last occurred in December 2018 and lasted 35 days, would entail the closure of government functions deemed non-essential. Not only would certain federal workers not be paid, but this time around the Trump administration has directed agencies to draft plans for permanent layoffs.
At present, there is no agreement in sight to avert a shutdown. House Republicans have proposed a seven-week stopgap funding bill, while Senate Democrats have put forth a continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of October.
Wolff said Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, will be influenced in the coming days by the backlash he received from the left during shutdown negotiations in March. That month, he ended up supporting a Republican bill to keep the government open—and promptly heard about it from liberal groups and other Democrats, some of whom floated a primary challenge.
If Schumer continues to maintain a united front with other congressional Democrats, that prior episode will be a factor, according to Wolff.
“I think it cost him. He took a meaningful hit on that. Democrats think that he caved. And because of that—that and other things—he is facing some amount of opposition in New York,” Wolff said, alluding to those primary threats as well as the upcoming New York City mayoral race. “Schumer has been a senator for life, so I’m not sure if opposition actually is meaningful, but it might be… So, I think he’s scared, and that will influence what he does now.”
Schumer’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
“It’s a perfect opportunity for the Democrats to put a stake in the ground,” Wolff continued. “To create an event that people can rally about for, finally, the Democrats to say ‘no’ to Donald Trump.”
The opportunity couldn’t come at a more critical time. Eight months into Trump’s second term, Wolff believes that “Every assumption about how this country functions is under attack.”
“This is a critical, critical, critical moment,” he emphasized. “It’s that weird sense of going out in the street and everything is good, and you can get your cappuccino and you can get your this, and everything seems—in the moment—normal. At the same time, you realize everything is changing.”
The administration’s threats against late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel and ABC’s parent company, Disney, have been especially concerning due to the free speech implications, he said.
“I think and would hope that the learning is that people are angry and they’re not going to take it anymore,” Wolff said.
“What has to happen most of all is that the Democrats have to show a level of commitment, a level of crisis. They have to recognize what’s going on. They have to express what’s going on, and they have to recognize what’s going on. I mean, if there is not a way found to oppose Donald Trump, the entire thing is over.”
When reached for comment, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast: “Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s–t and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
Find and subscribe to Inside Trump’s Head with Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes of incomparable insight into the psyche of the world’s most talked-about man drop every Tuesday and Thursday evening on YouTube and Wednesday and Friday mornings on other podcast platforms.
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