Swalwell: Shutdown inevitable because McCarthy ‘lives in fear’ of losing his job

Rep Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) took shots at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday, saying he is leading the country toward a looming government shutdown because he refuses to negotiate with Democrats.

GOP infighting has dominated spending talks, as a group of hard-line conservatives fight the speaker — demanding deeper budget cuts than those proposed so far by McCarthy.

“He’s afraid that he would lose his job, so he puts his own job ahead of millions of others whose jobs will be at risk in fewer than about 30 hours,” Swalwell said in an MSNBC interview Friday night.

He called on McCarthy to work with Democrats and stick by a bipartisan budget agreement made earlier this year, which resulted in small budget cuts. While the Speaker has made attempts to push for wider cuts, a handful of conservatives said the cuts didn’t go far enough to curb spending.

The Senate passed a short-term funding bill Thursday, but attempts to do the same in the House have failed.

“MAGA Republicans tonight are the failures,” Swalwell said. “They have failed to govern, they have failed to fund and in their failure to govern and fund they have failed to protect.”

“Because he lives in fear, because he sees shadows every day and because he sees his own job as more important than anyone else’s, we are going to suffer through this shutdown,” he continued.

A government shutdown would start at midnight Sunday morning. It would shutter most government offices and services, including national parks, as well as force essential employees — including active duty military, border patrol and TSA agents — to work without pay.