House GOP letting Trump ‘gleefully’ call shots on shutdown, Biden campaign says

President Biden’s reelection campaign hit House Republicans Monday for heeding former President Trump’s calls to dig in on a government shutdown if they don’t get “everything,” saying that they are letting him be their lead political strategist on the matter.

“House Republicans are gleefully letting Donald Trump function as their chief political strategist at the expense of American families. Trump’s behavior is shameful, but unsurprising from someone who has demonstrated he couldn’t care less about the American people,” Biden-Harris spokesman Kevin Munoz said.

Trump insisted Monday that Biden will be blamed for a shutdown and urged Republicans to dig in to their demands, arguing that unless they “get everything,” lawmakers should “shut it down.”

Biden and his administration have maintained that they are not in favor of a shutdown and will spend this week emphasizing that hard-line Republican holdouts will be to blame if government funding runs out.

Munoz also argued that Trump, Biden’s top political rival and the front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, thinks a shutdown would help him politically.

“Let’s be clear what is happening here: Trump is directing MAGA House Republicans to  either slash funding for food safety, education, law enforcement, housing, and more, or completely shut down the government — which could delay cancer research, force federal law enforcement and troops to work without pay, and kneecap essential services hardworking Americans rely on every day,” Munoz said. 

“All because the former president believes this helps him politically,” he added.

Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline for passing a government funding bill, and House Republicans have not been able to agree among themselves over a strategy to do so. And, any partisan bill that can get passed in the House is unlikely to get support from the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The Biden campaign last week called out Trump for rooting for a shutdown, saying that the former president doesn’t care about the ramifications it would have for Americans families. The White House has outlined the potential ramifications of a shutdown, accusing House Republicans of putting the nation at risk and creating “needless uncertainty for families and businesses.”

The White House has called on Republicans in Congress to pass funding bills under terms agreed to during negotiations in May that led to an increase in the debt ceiling. And, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said last month that Americans should blame Republicans if a shutdown happens.