President Trump remained focused on blaming Democrats and repeating his threats to carry out mass firings of federal workers on Sunday, the fifth day of the government shutdown.
Mr. Trump, speaking at the White House before attending an event in Virginia for the 250th anniversary of the Navy, insisted that Democrats would be to blame if he moved forward with job reductions that could be in the thousands. “Anybody laid off, that’s because of the Democrats,” he said.
Both sides appeared entrenched: Speaker Mike Johnson, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” accused each other of not being “serious” about ending the shutdown.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries,the House minority leader, complained that Republicans and Mr. Trump had “gone radio silent” for at least a week.
“What we’ve seen is negotiation through deepfake videos, the House canceling votes and, of course, President Trump spending yesterday on the golf course,” Mr. Jeffries said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “That’s not responsible behavior.”
Republicans have insisted that Democrats again agree to a stopgap plan, like they did earlier this year, to maintain funding and reopen the government. Democrats are refusing to advance the plan unless Republicans agree to roll back Medicaid cuts and extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, which make health insurance less expensive for nearly all who buy their own coverage.
The program, commonly known as Obamacare, “is a disaster,” Mr. Trump said on Sunday. He told reporters that he wanted to improve the program — a refrain he has repeated for years, without introducing a comprehensive plan to do so.
The shutdown has left hundreds of thousands of workers furloughed, and those working without pay are doing so under Mr. Trump’s threat of layoffs. The president has called the shutdown an “unprecedented opportunity” to enact changes, saying he would target “Democrat agencies” for firings. A group of unions representing federal workers has already challenged Mr. Trump’s plan, saying layoffs would be unlawful.
Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, offered no further details during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” describing Mr. Trump’s comment only as “shorthand for the agencies that generally are the favorites of the Democrats.”
Mr. Johnson fended off a question about whether he supported Mr. Trump’s plans for layoffs during his appearance on “Meet the Press.”
“We haven’t seen the details yet about what’s happening,” he said, adding that it was a “regrettable situation that the president does not want.”
Anushka Patil is a Times reporter covering breaking and developing news around the world.
Talya Minsberg is a Times reporter covering breaking and developing news.
The post Trump Renews Layoff Threats as Shutdown Accusations Continue to Fly appeared first on New York Times.
