On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson discussed the government shutdown and said, “I’m going to break from the party line here on this. I’m a Democrat. I’m with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Sen. Angus King (I-ME).” And urged Democrats to vote to re-open the government or else there will be a precedent where keeping the government open is linked to something else.
Johnson said, “Ten years ago, Republicans wanted to shut down DHS over immigration, and the motivation for me was a worker — a lot of these people do live paycheck to paycheck — a TSA worker from West Orange, New Jersey came to me and said, Mr. Secretary, I have stage four cancer. I need my paycheck for my co-pays. And that was my motivation. I’m going to break from the party line here on this. I’m a Democrat. I’m with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Sen. Angus King (I-ME). The problem I see here is that, to pass a budget, you need 60 votes in the Senate. And what is happening each year now, and what I fear is going to happen in the future, is, the minority party wants to link that to some other very, very important issue. Affordable health care is critical, obviously. But I fear that this is going to happen every year, every September, October, November. The most basic function of Congress is to fund the government, turn the lights on, keep the government working, so that the 3 million people who are public servants are able to do what they do to serve all the rest of us.”
Host Kaitlan Collins then asked, “So you think that Democrats should vote to re-open the government?”
Johnson answered, “I believe that Congress should vote to re-open the government. Apparently, you need seven Democrats to make that happen in the Senate. I think that the mistake our democracy is making is linking the need for that 60 votes to some other issue, even though it’s a very, very critical issue. Because what’s going to happen is that this will occur every fall from this point forward.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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