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CNN analyst says Democrats' 'crazy' government shutdown talk 'makes no sense politically'
CNN analyst Mark Preston blasted the "crazy" idea by some Democrats to initiate a partial government shutdown to protest President Donald Trump’s spending cuts.
While closing a "CNN News Central" segment on Monday, co-host Boris Sanchez remarked on how Democrats are now paving the way to shut down the government despite repeatedly warning against them in the past.
Considering the Democratic Party has recently been attacking the Trump administration’s efforts to scale back the government, Preston exclaimed the idea made "no sense politically."
"Crazy talk to do that," Preston said. "How can you argue for a government shutdown when you‘re arguing about government being cut? I don‘t understand that. I mean, it makes no sense politically to me, anyway. But what do I know?"
Earlier in the show, Preston admitted Trump is likely beating the Democrats in terms of political messaging surrounding government spending cuts.
"Let‘s just take a step back and think about what the American people think about Washington, D.C.," Preston said. "They think very little about Washington, D.C., right? So when they see President Trump going in there and you see Elon Musk going in there and saying, ‘I’ve just cut $17 million.’ He just said he cut a $17 million grant to teach, I don‘t know, tax advice in Liberia. Guess what? The person out in Kansas certainly doesn‘t care about what‘s going on in Liberia right now."
He continued, "So as far as the everyday American, whether it‘s Elon Musk who‘s cutting the money here or the bureaucrats who have been here for all these years doing it, it‘s all the same to them. And that‘s how Trump is trying to frame it."
Preston emphasized that Democrats "need to get it together" if they want to enact their political agenda and reclaim public approval.
"When Cory Booker was on with Dana Bash yesterday on ‘State of the Union,’ he gave a multi-pronged approach about how Democrats were going to take on Trump. The number one idea was the legal strategy. Okay, that should happen, but that should just happen. Number two, legislative and oversight. They don‘t have any oversight because Republicans control Congress. And then he wanted to put someone on the media," Preston said.
"And it is incumbent upon us to explain what is happening in the grander scope, not just 'Boom, boom, boom, this just happened. This just happened. This just happened.' Take a step back," he added.
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Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., notably floated the idea of a shutdown on NBC News' "Meet The Press" Sunday.
"This is on them. This is about whether or not they can get the votes. They are the majority. And if they cannot govern, then that's for the American people to see," Kim said.
"I've worked through multiple government shutdowns. I will be the last person to want to get to that stage. But we are at a point where we are basically on the cusp of a constitutional crisis, seeing this administration taking steps that are so clearly illegal. And until we see a change in that behavior, we should not allow and condone that, nor should we assist in that."
The next government funding deadline is March 15.
