Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said she was optimistic about the prospect of negotiating an end to the government shutdown after President Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that the ongoing standoff likely hurt Republicans on the ballot in Tuesday’s elections.
“I thought the president was pretty frank this morning about the fact that, you know, they lost, and accepting some lumps for that — which was probably not what the Republicans in the room wanted him to say publicly, but he did it,” Slotkin said in a Wednesday interview on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes.”
Slotkin said it seems the gravity of the shutdown is beginning to resonate with the president, possibly opening the door to ending the record-long standoff between the parties in Congress.
“And then he’s finally clicking in to the shutdown,” she continued. “I mean, that, for me, is really important because we need to negotiate with the decider, right? Donald Trump is the guy, the ‘Art of the Deal’ guy. He’s the guy who really tells the Republicans whether they can make a deal or not.”
“So, for those of us who are interested in ending the shutdown and having it be something important on health care, I want to get in the room with the decider. And so I’m glad that he’s clicking in,” the battleground Democrat added.
Trump summoned Republican senators on Wednesday to the White House, where he discussed the election results and the shutdown. He acknowledged the GOP had a poor night and ramped up calls for his party to eliminate the filibuster and begin passing legislation with a simple partisan majority.
“Last night, it was not expected to be a victory. It was very Democrat areas. I don’t think it was good for Republicans,” Trump said in remarks to GOP senators. “I’m not sure it was good for anybody. But we had an interesting evening, and we learned a lot.”
Trump argued polls shows the shutdown “was a big factor, negative, for the Republicans.” He also suggested his absence on the ballot was a factor.
In a statement to The Hill, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson blamed Democrats for the ongoing shutdown.
“The only reason the government was shut down at all, let alone for this long, is because the Democrats decided to hold the American people hostage to push their radical, far-left policy agenda of free health care for illegal aliens. American families have missed paychecks and benefits because of the Democrats’ irresponsible behavior. President Trump wants the government reopen – the Democrats can choose to reopen it at any point and they should do so immediately,” Jackson said in the statement.
An NBC News poll published Sunday found 52 percent of voters blame Trump and Republicans for the shutdown, while 42 percent blame Democrats.
Democrats have refused to support the Republican proposal to reopen the government without first securing commitments to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year, raising health care premiums for millions of Americans.
