Several senior Senate Republicans insisted that their Democratic colleagues will eventually give in and help advance the House-passed funding bill before Friday’s shutdown deadline.
“I think … they’ll cave,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn said. “I mean, you’re talking about people who have been railing against Elon Musk and the Trump administration over reductions in force of the federal employees, and now they basically want to put all of them out of work by shutting down the government. So that seems to be, I don’t know how you reconcile those two positions,” he added.
He later said, “I think cooler heads will prevail, and I don’t see a see a shutdown. That’s certainly my hope.”
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham agreed. “It’ll work out between now and Friday. Nobody wins these things, so, you know, live to fight another day,” he told CNN.
What Democrats are saying: Separately, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said that he is “not sure at this point” if an amendment vote on a one-month stopgap bill would be enough to peel off some Democrats to vote to advance the House-passed package and avert a government shutdown.
“There are many of us who believe that if we’re going to resolve this and do it in a bipartisan fashion, now is the moment to seize that opportunity,” he said.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said that he would fight the House-passed version, saying that Democrats can’t give in on this funding bill.
“What the Republicans are doing is not a CR; it’s a license to destroy,” he argued.
“I cannot support giving them a license to destroy nor that surrenders or capitulates what I swore an oath to do, which is uphold the Constitution,” he added.
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal also dodged when asked if Democrats could take the fall. “Nobody wants a shutdown, and there’s a clear path to avoiding it. Let’s vote on April 11. Democrats are united in favor of it,” he said.
