It’s Day 4 of the current government shutdown, and the Trump administration is threatening to use the moment to fire federal workers. In this episode, the Opinion columnists David French, Jamelle Bouie and Michelle Goldberg debate what this power struggle means for Democrats, Republicans and, most importantly, the American people.
‘If You Don’t Want This Consequence, Don’t Vote for Republicans’
This week, the round table convenes to discuss who wins and who loses when the government shuts down.Below is a transcript of an episode of “The Opinions.” We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the player above or on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
David French: On Tuesday — we’re recording this on a Wednesday — Democrats and Republicans in Congress were unable to come to an agreement on a spending bill to keep the government operational. And as a result, we are in another shutdown.
The power struggles that got us here and the strategies to consider are really important to understand whatever ultimately becomes of this. So let’s just start at a very, very high level. Michelle and Jamelle, what’s your quick, top-level immediate reaction? Michelle, do you want to go first?
Michelle Goldberg: Well, I think Democrats had no choice but to shut down the government. I do think that their messaging has been weak and incoherent, and I don’t have super high hopes for them actually accomplishing anything significant.