New York mayoral candidate, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a press conference on September 09, 2025 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo told “The View” on Monday it would be a “gift” to President Donald Trump if Zohran Mamdani wins the election in November and becomes New York City’s next mayor.
Cuomo said he’s the “last person” Trump wants to see as mayor, citing their relationship while he was governor of New York. “We fought on a daily basis,” Cuomo said.
He alleged that a Mamdani win would lead to a federal takeover of New York City and then use Mamdani as an example during other elections about the dangers of electing a far-left politician.
New York City’s mayoral race is down to three candidates after Mayor Eric Adams recently dropped out of the race.
After Adams announced he was dropping out of the mayor’s race, Cuomo gave him kudos and said his withdrawal indeed shakes up the race. He said that New Yorkers should be “afraid” of a win by Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
“I believe Mayor Adams is 100% sincere. I applaud his selflessness. You know, we often wonder, is it about us, or is it about a greater calling? And I think what Mayor Adams said today speaks volumes,” Cuomo said. “He said, I’m going to put my personal ambition aside for the good of the city, because he’s afraid of the result if Mr. Mamdani would have [sic] win the election, and we should all be afraid of the result,” said Cuomo.
And Adams no longer campaigning makes a difference, Cuomo said: “It’s not just about the polling. You know, the mayor was – is the incumbent mayor, so he is a potent force in the campaign; if he is not actively campaigning, that changes the entire dynamic of the race.”
Even still, Cuomo is running an uphill campaign after Mamdani delivered an upset win during the June Democratic primary. The former governor has been trailing the Democratic nominee in most polls and Mamdani has racked up major endorsements, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Cuomo has faced scrutiny during his mayoral campaign following his exit from the governor’s office four years ago as he faced mounting sexual harassment allegations.
Cuomo made apologies back in 2021 when the allegations surfaced, but has since insisted he did nothing wrong, despite a state attorney general probe alleging he harassed 11 women.
Mamdani and other opponents have contended that Cuomo is still unfit to serve in office.
The former governor lost the Democratic primary after three rounds of ranked choice voting by nearly 130,000 votes. Cuomo pressed on and announced shortly after the defeat that he would continue to run as an independent candidate.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court has declined to take up the appeal of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was contesting her prosecution and conviction on grounds that the government had violated a non-prosecution agreement made with Jeffrey Epstein before his death.
The Supreme Court did not explain its decision.
Maxwell’s attorney, David O. Markus said he was “disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s decision.
“We’re, of course, deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s case,” Markus said in a statement. “But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(CHICAGO) — The Illinois National Guard has received an official notification from the Pentagon authorizing a mission in Chicago, according to an Illinois official.
The official confirmed the mission will involve 300 Guardsmen tasked with protecting federal property under Title 10 authorities.
The Guard has not received mobilization orders, which means it will take a number of days to process and muster soldiers — and train them for the mission, according to the official.
At the very earliest, Guardsmen would be deployed in Chicago at the end of this week, the official said.
“The Governor did not receive any calls from any federal officials. The Illinois National Guard communicated to the Department of War that the situation in Illinois does not require the use of the military and, as a result, the Governor opposes the deployment of the National Guard under any status,” a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement.
The authorization comes amid escalating tensions in Chicago over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents on Saturday shot and wounded a woman they alleged was part of a convoy of protesters that rammed their vehicles during an “ambush.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Border Patrol agents opened fire on the woman in self-defense, alleging she was armed with a semiautomatic weapon and was driving one of three vehicles that “cornered” and rammed the CBP agents’ vehicles.
Describing the incident as “really strange,” Noem alleged that before the shooting, a caravan of 10 vehicles was following the CBP agents and officers through the streets of Chicago.
“They had followed them and gotten them cornered, pinned them down and then our agents, when getting out of their cars, they tried to run them over and had semiautomatic handguns on them to where our agents had to protect themselves and shots were fired and an individual ended up in the hospital that was attacking these officers,” Noem said in a statement on Sunday.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said talks remain stalled on the fifth day of the government shutdown, with Democrats seeking to undo Medicaid cuts and restore Obamacare subsidies and Republicans demanding a clean funding bill to fund the government into November.
“It’s really a moment of health care crisis,” Booker told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
Booker said he’s less concerned with which party is to blame for the shutdown and more focused on Americans’ health and personal finances that he said are at risk from the shutdown.
“I don’t care about the blame game. I care about Americans losing their health insurance, rates of death going up, hospitals being crushed, medical services ending in places in rural America. This is a tsunami of Donald Trump’s creation,” Booker said.
Here are more highlights from Booker’s interview:
On GOP criticism that Dems have supported past continuing resolutions They’re [GOP] not negotiating. Remember, the speaker of the House has kept the House out for the last two weeks. They’re not sitting down. And when he asks, “What’s different?” What is different is we are, for the first time in America ever, we’re on a moment where because of Donald Trump’s attacks on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, on the verge of tens of millions of Americans losing their health care and most of Americans experiencing a significant rise in their health care costs.
On whether he has any criticism of Democratic leadership
Raddatz: Do you have any disappointment in your party leadership?
Booker: You’ve seen Chuck Schumer go to the podium, negotiate with us, almost begging the president to bring the parties together, like he said, Donald Trump literally has said, it’s the president’s responsibility to bring the parties together and negotiate a way through.
Raddatz: So you’re fine, you’re fine with your leadership, with everything the Democrats have been doing?
Booker: I am proud of those people who are standing up right now and saying, we’re not doing business as usual in Washington with this many millions of Americans are literally going to be hurt because when they’re sick, they won’t be able to afford to go to a doctor, when they go to the emergency room, the lines will be two times as long we are in a crisis. We are in a crisis. We need a president to stand up and bring us together to help to solve the problems of American people.
The U.S. Capitol Visitors Center is closed to visitors during the federal government shut down on October 01, 2025 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The government shutdown is in its third day on Friday with senators set to vote for the fourth time on bills to fund the government. But with negotiations appearing stalled, it’s looking like the shutdown could extend through the weekend.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune stood firm Friday on the Senate floor — just hours before the chamber is set to take yet another vote on Republican’s clean seven-week government funding bill — and signaled his party’s unwillingness to negotiate with Democrats over their demands in order to open the government back up.
“This shutdown needs to end sooner rather than later, and there’s only one way out of it. Democrats need to vote for the clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution sitting right there,” Thune said. “All it takes is one roll call, vote, the government’s back open.”
In addition to the GOP-backed seven-week stopgap funding measure, the Senate will also vote on the Democrat’s funding bill that includes health care provisions.
Thune criticized the Democrats’ bill, suggesting that any health care negotiations could begin after they pass the continuing resolution. But with both Republican and Democratic leaders at a stalemate, it seems as if neither bill will pass.
Both bills have failed during the three previous votes since the government shut down on Wednesday at 12:01 a.m.
Thune said he does not expect to hold votes over the weekend and the next chance to try again would be Monday. This shutdown could go on at least six days if that ends up being the case.
Thune, meanwhile, is continuing his effort to recruit more Democrats to join the GOP-backed funding bill. And Democrats met Friday afternoon to discuss their next moves.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday that Republicans are to blame for the shutdown.
“The Republicans can reopen the government and make peoples’ healthcare more affordable at the same time,” Schumer wrote in a post on X. “Republicans are choosing to let healthcare costs go up for Americans across this country.”
Asked Friday afternoon if President Donald Trump is talking with Democrats to work to get them onboard, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Senate Republicans are speaking to moderate Democrats and that those conversations have “become very serious.”
Thune put pressure on Democrats during a press conference Friday morning.
“We have an opportunity to pick up a House-passed bill that if it passes the Senate, will be sent to the White House, the president will sign it and the government will reopen. It’s that simple and that straightforward. And that’s what we’re talking about. All we need is a handful more Democrats,” Thune said.
The majority leader said he hoped that Democrats “have a chance to think about” their stance over the weekend.
“I don’t know how many times you give them a chance to vote no, and hopefully over the weekend, they’ll have a chance to think about it. Maybe some of these conversations start to result in something to where we can start moving some votes and actually get this thing passed,” Thune said Friday. “But there’s nothing to be gained at this point by negotiating something that there’s nothing to negotiate.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson also would not commit to negotiating with Democrats on their $400 billion demand to extend the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
“Some of the issues that they’re bringing to the table and they’re demanding immediate easy answers for, are not easy answers and they take a long time to deliberate. That is the process. This is a deliberative body, and a very large one,” Johnson said. “We can’t snap our fingers, and he and I and two other leaders in a room go, ‘Oh, well, this is the resolution.’ That’s not how it works.”
As the Senate works to chart a path forward, President Donald Trump is once again teasing to looming federal firings, which the White House said are “very real” and could result in “thousands” of federal workers losing their jobs during the shutdown.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Friday defended President Donald Trump continuing use of social media to troll Democrats during the government shutdown, threatening targeted cuts and posting two deepfake videos featuring Project 2025’s co-author as the “Grim Reaper” and another mocking House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
In one post late Thursday, the president posted an AI-generated video depicting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought as the “Grim Reaper” while the administration threatens mass layoffs of federal workers and cuts to what Trump calls “Democratic Agencies.”
Trump met earlier Thursday with Vought, who co-authored and heralded Project 2025 the conservative policy playbook that has advocated for firing federal workers and the elimination of federal agencies.
“Russ Vought is the Reaper. He wields the pen, the funds, and the brain. Here comes the Reaper,” a voice sings in the video as Vought is depicted walking through the Capitol dressed as the character depicting impending doom.
Hours after the post, Vought posted on X that he was going to withhold federal funding for transit infrastructure projects in Chicago, a Democratic run city that has been the source of complaints from Trump.
Vought earlier in the week withheld funding for transit infrastructure projects for New York and New Jersey, also Democratic-run states.
In another post, Trump highlighted another AI-generated video of himself trolling House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries with a “TRUMP 2028” hat while they appeared to negotiate in the White House on Monday.
It was on Monday that Trump also posted an AI-generated video that depicted Jeffries with a fake mustache and wearing a sombrero in a Mexican stereotype.
Jeffries, who called Monday’s video “racist” and “bigoted,” was asked about the latest deep fake on Friday morning in an interview on MSNBC.
“It’s further confirmation that Republicans are the ones who were clearly determined to shut the government down because everything that President Trump has done subsequent to Monday has been unhinged and unserious. In fact, Donald Trump is in the presidential witness protection program,” the minority leader said.
“No one can find him when it comes to the government shutdown issue because he knows he’s responsible for having caused it. And the behavior, the erratic behavior that we’ve seen, is further confirmation of that unfortunate fact,” he added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed Jeffries’ comments during a briefing Friday, calling them “ridiculous fodder.”
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked, “The president has described this as an unprecedented opportunity to lay off additional workers. He’s posted a video likening it to the Grim Reaper. Which is it? Is this an opportunity to fire more workers or an ‘unfortunate consequence'” (as Leavitt has called it).
“He likes to have a little fun and both can be true at the same time,” Leavitt responded. “We don’t like laying people off. Nobody takes joy and if you think that, that’s very sad you view the White House and our staff as wanting to put people out of work. Nobody wants to do that but sometimes in government, you have to make the tough decisions.
Leavitt, however, dodged questions if the federal layoffs could happen after the shutdown ends.
Vice President JD Vance has defended Trump’s memes, contending on Wednesday that they were simply jokes to make fun of Democrats. He said he didn’t understand how Jeffries could consider the video Trump posted on Monday as racist.
Republicans on the Hill have argued that the federal workers are suffering the most during the government shutdown and have pushed Democrats to reopen the government to protect their jobs.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has echoed that message and claimed that Vought does not want to get anyone fired if he can avoid it.
However, he also defended the president’s memes when asked about them on Friday.
“Are they taking great pleasure or not? No. Is he trolling the Democrats? Yes. Because that is what President Trump does and people are having fun with this. But at the end of the day, the decisions are tough,” Johnson said.
“The effects are really serious on real people, real Americans. We support federal employees who do a great job in all of these different areas, but what they’re trying to have fun with, trying to make light of, was to point out the absurdity that is the Democrats position,” he said.
“And they are using the memes and the tools of social media to do that. Some people find that entertaining, but the decisions are hard ones and they are not taking any pleasure in that,” Johnson added.
Legal experts argued the Constitution and federal law allow only Congress to declare cuts to federal agencies or remove them entirely.
The White House has not provided more details on the legality of Trump’s threats, nor has it responded to questions as to how firing people who are not getting paid would cut down on waste.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has continued to use social media to troll Democrats and threaten targeted cuts with two deepfake videos featuring Project 2025’s co-author and another mocking House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
In one post late Thursday, the president posted an AI-generated video depicting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought as the “Grim Reaper” while the administration threatens mass layoffs of federal workers and cuts to what Trump calls “Democratic Agencies.”
Trump met earlier Thursday with Vought, who co-authored and heralded Project 2025 the conservative policy playbook that has advocated for firing federal workers and the elimination of federal agencies.
“Russ Vought is the Reaper. He wields the pen, the funds, and the brain. Here comes the Reaper,” a voice sings in the video as Vought is depicted walking through the Capitol dressed as the character depicting impending doom.
Hours after the post, Vought posted on X that he was going to withhold federal funding for transit infrastructure projects in Chicago, a Democratic run city that has been the source of complaints from Trump.
Vought earlier in the week withheld funding for transit infrastructure projects for New York and New Jersey, also Democratic run states.
In another post, Trump highlighted another AI-generated video of him trolling House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries with a “TRUMP 2028” hat while they appeared to negotiate in the White House on Monday.
It was on Monday that Trump also posted an AI-generated video that depicted Jeffries with a fake mustache and wearing a sombrero in a Mexican stereotype.
Jeffries, who called Monday’s video “racist” and “bigoted,” was asked about the latest deep fake on Friday morning in an interview on MSNBC.
“It’s further confirmation that Republicans are the ones who were clearly determined to shut the government down because everything that President Trump has done subsequent to Monday has been unhinged and unserious. In fact, Donald Trump is in the presidential witness protection program,” the minority leader said.
“No one can find him when it comes to the government shutdown issue because he knows he’s responsible for having caused it. And the behavior, the erratic behavior that we’ve seen, is further confirmation of that unfortunate fact,” he added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Vice President JD Vance have defended Trump’s memes, arguing they were jokes to make fun of Democrats. Vance said he didn’t understand how Jeffries could consider Monday’s video racist.
Republicans on the Hill have argued that the federal workers are suffering the most during the government shutdown and have pushed Democrats to reopen the government to protect their jobs.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has echoed that message and claimed that Vought does not want to get anyone fired if he can avoid it.
However, he defended the president’s memes when asked about them on Friday.
“Are they taking great pleasure or not? No. Is he trolling the Democrats? Yes. Because that is what President Trump does and people are having fun with this. But at the end of the day, the decisions are tough,” Johnson said.
“The effects are really serious on real people, real Americans. We support federal employees who do a great job in all of these different areas, but what they’re trying to have fun with, trying to make light of, was to point out the absurdity that is the Democrats position,” he said.
“And they are using the memes and the tools of social media to do that. Some people find that entertaining, but the decisions are hard ones and they are not taking any pleasure in that,” Johnson added.
Legal experts argued the Constitution and federal law allow only Congress to declare cuts to federal agencies or remove them entirely.
The White House has not provided more details on the legality of Trump’s threats, nor has it responded to questions as to how firing people who are not getting paid would cut down on waste.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
The U.S. Capitol Visitors Center is closed to visitors during the federal government shut down on October 01, 2025 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The government shutdown is in its third day on Friday with senators set to vote for the fourth time on bills to fund the government. But with negotiations appearing stalled, it’s looking like the shutdown could extend through the weekend.
On Friday afternoon, the Senate will vote on a GOP-backed seven-week stopgap funding measure and a Democrat funding bill that includes health care provisions. But with both Republican and Democratic leaders at a stalemate, it seems as if neither bill will pass.
Both bills have failed during the three previous votes since the government shut down on Wednesday at 12:01 a.m.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he does not expect to hold votes over the weekend and the next chance to try again would be Monday. This shutdown could go on at least six days if that ends up being the case.
Thune, meanwhile, is continuing his effort to recruit more Democrats to join the GOP-backed funding bill. And Democrats are expected to meet Friday afternoon to discuss their next moves.
“Until they have eight or hopefully more, 10 or more people, who want to decide they want to end the government shutdown, I’m not sure this goes anywhere,” Thune said of Democrats on Thursday.
As the Senate works to chart a path forward, President Donald Trump is once again teasing to looming federal firings, which the White House said are “very real” and could result in “thousands” of federal workers losing their jobs during the shutdown.
The president posted an AI-generated video on his social media platform Friday morning showing Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought as the Grim Reaper as the administration threatens mass layoffs for federal workers.
“Russ Vought is the Reaper. He wields the pen, the funds and the brain. Here comes the Reaper,” someone sings in the video as Vought is depicted walking through the Capitol as the character.
On Friday morning, Vought announced $2.1 billion in funding for a Chicago’s Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Project are being put on hold “to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”
It is the latest instance of the Trump Administration targeting projects in Democratic strongholds after the Trump administration put on hold $18 billion in infrastructure funding for New York City and cancelled $8 billion for energy projects in 16 states that voted with Democrats in the last presidential election.
Because of the shutdown, there was no jobs report released Friday, delaying an update to key economic data and snapshot of the labor market. More than 2,000 Bureau of Labor Statistics employees are currently furloughed.
(WASHINGTON) — The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) encouraged federal employees across the government — including at the Departments of Labor, Justice and Education — to create out-of-office email messages denouncing “Democrat Senators” for causing the government shutdown, multiple sources confirmed to ABC News.
In addition to the public statements on federal websites blaming the “radical left” for the shutdown, out-of-office automatic replies from the Department of Labor said the following:
“Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume,” the text of an email template provided to furloughed Department of Labor employees said.
Department of Labor email text
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provided the following template language to establish employees’ out-of-office notifications.
“Furloughed Employees: Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume,” the text read.
A template for essential federal employees, which the government refers to as “expected” employees, used similar language. Federal employees within the Departments of Justice and Education told ABC News they also received messages with similar language.
Excepted Employees: Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. I am only permitted to perform work that, by law, may continue to be performed during a lapse in appropriations. Therefore, I may not be able to respond to your message at this time. As soon as funding is restored, I will return your message.
The approach appears to differ with each agency. Some federal departments did not send out any out-of-office email guidance.
However, multiple furloughed employees at the Department of Education report their out-of-office replies were automatically reset to mimic the language above – without their permission.
“They changed our out-of-office message… [They] did it after everyone left,” one department of education staffer told ABC News. “[I’m] so pissed,” they said.
The employee added, “We as career government employees need to be neutral when carrying out our jobs. This is such bull—-.”
Several federal workers, including the education department staffer, expressed concern to ABC News that adding the messages to their email accounts would violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities during their official duties.
The education department employee, furious about the message, stressed that federal workers are supposed to “serve all people of this country.”
The employee continued, “That [automatic reply] message is what anyone seeking assistance from a government worker is going to see.”
Similarly, when emailing the White House press office recently, ABC News received an automatic response that read, “Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays… as you await a response, please remember this could have been avoided if the Democrats voted for the clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government open.”
The education department’s press office is also using the nearly identical automatic reply that OMB had provided to the Department of Labor. However, some automatic replies from individual press officers within the agency said that due to a “lapse in appropriations,” they would attempt to reply if it is allowable as an “excepted activity.”
Department of Education press office email text
“Thank you for contacting the press team. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations, we are currently in furlough status. We will respond to emails once government functions resume,” the text read.
In addition, when submitting a request for comment at the State Department, an automated message was sent to ABC News that stated, “Thank you for your inquiry. Please note that responses may be delayed due to the government shutdown caused by congressional Democrats.”
A State Department official told ABC News that some staffers who had been furloughed had similar messaging in their automated “out of office” replies, blaming the furlough on democrats.
And on its website, under a bright red banner, the State Department notes that website updates will be limited due to the “Democrat-led” shutdown, seemingly in line with messaging seen on websites across agencies in Washington.
The political messaging is exceedingly rare coming from the State Department, which for decades has conducted itself as a largely apolitical entity with career-based staff who typically remain nonpartisan. Meanwhile, scores of federal employees are expected to be fired as a result of the shutdown by the end of the week, administration officials said.
A view of the U.S. Capitol as the sun sets on September 29, 2025 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As the government shutdown enters its second day on Thursday, there’s no end in sight, with the Trump administration potentially firing some federal workers in the next day and Republican senators looking to peel off wavering Democrats to support the GOP’s government funding bill.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are working to recruit more Democrats to back their House-passed, GOP-backed seven-week stopgap funding measure that would allow the government to operate.
Majority Leader John Thune said that he believes rank-and-file Democrats will eventually break with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to pass a short-term funding bill to reopen the government.
“I think there are a lot of rank-and-file Democrats who are regretting letting Schumer lock them down into this rat hole,” Thune said in an appeared on Fox News’ “Hannity” Wednesday night.
Democrats hung together Wednesday afternoon to block, for the third time, a stopgap funding bill offered by Republicans. Democrats are insisting that any solution address their demands on health care before they vote to advance it.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House that the Trump administration, including President Donald Trump, are continuing to talk to lawmakers on Capitol Hill with aims to “encourage Democrats” to acquiesce and support the GOP short-term continuing resolution.
“The president, vice president, the entire team here will continue to work and talk to members on the Hill to try and come to a resolution to try to encourage Democrats to muster up the courage to do the right thing,” Leavitt said.
On Fox News Thursday morning, Leavitt said those discussions were happening specifically with “moderate Democrats and also with ally Senate Republicans who have good relationships with these moderates.”
Still, finger pointing continues as Democrats and Republicans trade blame for the shutdown.
On Thursday morning, Speaker Mike Johnson slammed Democrats and Schumer for the ongoing shutdown, calling their stance “selfish” and “reprehensible.”
“I don’t have anything to negotiate,” Johnson said, after saying the House sent a clean continuing resolution to the Senate that funds the government for seven weeks.
Democrats are hitting back with Schumer saying in a social media post that “Republicans shut down the government because they can’t be bothered to protect health care for Americans across this country.”
The blame-casting is extending online, too. In addition to the public statements on federal websites blaming the “radical left” for the government shutdown, the Office of Management and Budget encouraged federal employees to create out-of-office email messages denouncing “Democrat senators” for causing the government shutdown, sources told ABC News.
Trump said he has a meeting scheduled with OMB Director Russ Vought on Thursday to determine which agencies he “recommends” be cut — either temporarily or permanently.
Last week, the Trump administration threatened mass layoffs of some federal workers during the shutdown. Vought warned House Republicans on a conference call Wednesday that the administration will start firing federal workers in the next “day or two,” multiple sources told ABC News.
It wasn’t yet clear which departments and agencies could first be impacted, though the Trump administration has said it would go after projects in Democratic states — including putting on hold $18 billion in infrastructure funding for New York City and cancelling $8 billion for energy projects in 16 states that voted with Democrats in the last presidential election.
“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump said in a Thursday social media post about cuts during the shutdown.
Trump also wrote on social media late Wednesday night that he wants Republicans to use the shutdown as an “opportunity” to save billions of dollars by clearing out “dead wood, waste, and fraud.”
ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
