Democrats need to stop infighting ‘as quickly as we can’: Sen. Whitehouse

Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said Sunday that Republicans forced Democratic lawmakers to choose between supporting a continuing resolution or a government shutdown, which would have allowed them to further slash the federal government.

He told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz that in past shutdowns, the executive branch has advocated for the government to reopen, but President Donald Trump's administration would have taken advantage of one.

“With these MAGA extremists in charge, they don't necessarily want to come out of shutdown, and they have tools in shutdown contingencies and nonessentialness determinations and riffing and things like that that they can use to destroy the government, just like doggy DOGE is doing, except with a veneer of legitimacy, with the authority of shutdown powers,” Whitehouse said in an exclusive interview.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and nine others in the Democratic caucus voted with Republicans to pass the continuing resolution. Whitehouse voted against it.

Schumer’s support sparked backlash among Democrats, with many calling for a change in leadership.

Here are additional highlights from Whitehouse’s interview:

On the dangers of shutdown

“When you understand how dangerous a shutdown is, it's even more, sort of, understandable why they would feel that way. And so I think what we need to do is stop the intramural fighting and bleeding as quickly as we can. We are in a fight for our democracy right now, and if we're having a fight in our dugout, we're not out on the field, and the other team is scoring runs.”

On what Democrats need to do

“They were both extremely, extremely dangerous options, and my view is that as Democrats, we need to stop the intramural quarreling about who voted what way and get back to work saving our democracy.”

On Democrats who voted for the continuing resolution

“I think that [Schumer] and the other nine colleagues of mine who made that decision made a very conscientious and principled decision after a lot of reflection. I'm not going to throw any of them under the bus for the choice that they made. When you understand how dangerous a shutdown is, it's even more sort of understandable why they would feel that way.”

On House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' non-answer on Senate Democrats needing new leadership

"That is not my agenda. That is not a helpful narrative right now. I think that obviously there is a lot of distress, back and forth, between the House and the Senate. That is not unheard of before. And one can read Leader Jeffries' answers as basically, 'Look, move on, I'm not going to dwell on internal infighting among Democrats,' and not necessarily like 'I'm throwing Schumer under the bus.' They've known each other a long time. They're experienced politicians. We need to pull this back together and get back to work."

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