Tensions erupted on Capitol Hill Wednesday as two members of the House of Representatives got into a screaming match on the eighth day of the 2025 government shutdown.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., confronted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., outside the latter’s news conference over a bipartisan compromise on enhanced ObamaCare subsidies, a key flashpoint in the fight over federal funding.

He also taunted Jeffries about whether he would endorse democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City — which Jeffries did not answer.

‘First of all, I don’t answer to you. You don’t even answer to yourself,’ Jeffries responded.

The heated exchange began with Lawler challenging Jeffries to sign onto bipartisan legislation extending COVID-19 pandemic-era enhancements to ObamaCare subsidies for one year.

Those subsidies are set to expire at the end of 2025 without congressional action, and Democrats have been demanding that the issue be addressed before they would agree on a federal funding bill to end the shutdown.

‘We’ve got a one-year extension, why don’t you sign on right now?’ Lawler asked.

Jeffries responded angrily, ‘Did you get permission from your boss? Did your boss Donald Trump give you permission?’

‘He’s not my boss,’ Lawler replied.

The two men spoke over each other for nearly five minutes, both accusing the other’s party of derailing the government.

‘You’re an embarrassment,’ Jeffries said, before confronting him for voting for President Donald Trump’s massive policy bill, the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act.

‘I voted for a tax cut bill that gave the largest tax cut to Americans in history — including, by the way, the average New Yorker getting a $4,000 tax cut. Are you against that?’ Lawler asked.

Jeffries responded, ‘You’re embarrassing yourself. The largest cut to Medicaid in American history — you voted for that.’

The House Democratic leader pointed his finger into Lawler’s chest, telling him, ‘You’re not going to talk to me, and talk over me, because you don’t want to hear what I have to say. So why don’t you just keep your mouth shut?’

‘Oh, is that the way to talk?’ Lawler retorted.

They continued debating the merits of the Republicans’ policy bill, though Lawler repeatedly tried to ask Jeffries if he would sign onto the temporary ObamaCare extension.

Jeffries then shifted the conversation to accusing House Republicans of remaining in their districts during the government shutdown — something Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., urged them to do in order to keep the focus on D.C. on Senate Democrats refusing the GOP’s funding bill.

‘You wanted Republicans to be here, I’m here,’ Lawler said. ‘And by the way, you can pass an [Affordable Care Act] extension right now. Sign onto this bill.’

Jeffries asked, ‘Mike, is your boss Donald Trump behind it?’

He argued it would take more Republicans than those signed onto the legislation to get it passed in the House as the fight further devolved into insults.

‘Are you mathematically challenged, bro?’ Jeffries asked.

Lawler said, ‘No, I think you are. You have 215 Democrats.’

The fight came hours after Johnson confronted a pair of Senate Democrats outside his office who were demanding the Republican leader swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz.

Senate Democrats rejected the GOP-led funding bill for the sixth time on Wednesday, all but guaranteeing the shutdown will extend into a ninth day.

The House passed a bill to extend fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels through Nov. 21 to give lawmakers more time to create a longer-term deal for FY 2026 spending.

But Democrats, furious at being sidelined in federal funding talks, have largely said they’ll reject any deal that does not include an extension of the expiring ObamaCare subsidies.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he might make a trip to the Middle East as Gaza peace negotiations continue. 

‘I may go there, sometime toward the end of the week. Maybe on Sunday, actually, and we’ll see,’ Trump said Wednesday from the White House as he kicked off a roundtable discussion event focused on the left-wing radical group Antifa. 

‘We have a great team over there, great negotiators, and there are, unfortunately, great negotiators on the other side also,’ Trump added. ‘But it’s something I think that will happen. Got a good chance of happening.’ 

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are currently in Egypt hashing out details of a potential peace agreement between Israel and Hamas in a war that has raged since Oct. 7, 2023. 

Trump signaled Wednesday that negotiations are going well.

‘I was just dealing with people from the Middle East, our people and other people, on the potential peace deal for the Middle East,’ he said. ‘Peace for the Middle East. That’s a beautiful phrase, and we hope it’s going to come true, but it’s very close and they’re doing very well.’ 

Trump unveiled a 20-point plan to end the Gaza war on Sept. 29, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the White House. The plan includes granting Hamas terrorists who give up their arms in favor of peace ‘amnesty,’ establishing Gaza as a ‘deradicalized terror-free zone’ and redeveloping the area so that it no longer poses a threat to its neighbors or residents alike. 

Trump warned Hamas that if it did not agree to the peace deal, the terrorists would face ‘massive bloodshed.’ Hamas announced Friday that it agreed to release all Israeli hostages, dead or alive, as part of Trump’s peace proposal. 

Israeli and Hamas officials convened Monday in the Egyptian coastal resort city of Sharm El Sheikh, located at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who is credited with helping facilitate the Abraham Accords during the first Trump administration, and Witkoff are in Egypt as of Wednesday to help negotiate an agreement. 

An Israeli diplomatic source told Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin that the negotiations are coming down to a shortlist of names for prisoners and how the withdrawal corridors will be managed. The source added that the Israeli cabinet is convening to vote on next steps, which signals the negotiations are moving along. 

A U.S. official source added that negotiations on Gaza are ‘down to a couple of points,’ and that progress is being made in Sharm El Sheikh. Mediators ended talks with the Palestinian delegation and are moving to speak with the Israeli negotiators as of Wednesday afternoon.

Trump added Wednesday that ‘negotiations are going along very well.’

‘We’re dealing with Hamas and many of the countries… all of the Muslim countries are included,’ he said. ‘All of the Arab countries are included, very rich countries and some that are not so rich, but just about everybody is included. It’s never happened before. Nothing like that’s happened before in our final negotiation, as you know, is with Hamas. And, it seems to be going well.’ 

Trump said he would leave Saturday or Sunday if he does make a trip to the Middle East over the weekend. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., got into a tense confrontation with two Democratic senators outside his office on Wednesday as anxiety runs high on Capitol Hill on Day 8 of the government shutdown.

Sens. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., gathered reporters outside Johnson’s office in a bid to publicly pressure the House speaker to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., who won a special election last month to fill her late father’s seat.

Johnson appeared to catch the Democrats by surprise when he crashed their media gaggle.

‘Reopen the government so we can get back to work,’ he said in response to Gallego asking about Grijalva’s swearing-in.

Gallego retorted, ‘This excuse just keeps on moving.’

‘We’re happy that she got elected. She’s filling her father’s seat. That’s fantastic. We have a long tradition here and a process of how we administer the oath to a member,’ Johnson said despite the Democrats’ attempts at interruption.

‘We’re going to do that as soon as we get back to work, but we need the lights turned back on, so we encourage both of you to go open the government.’

Gallego shot back that Johnson was keeping the House out of session in a bid to delay a vote on forcing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release files on the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

‘You just don’t want to vote on the Epstein discharge petition,’ Gallego said.

Johnson called the comment ‘totally absurd,’ adding, ‘You guys are experts at red herrings and distraction. It has nothing to do with Epstein. The House Oversight Committee is working on the Epstein files right now.’

Gallego called that an ‘excuse,’ prompting more back-and-forth between the men.

‘OK, you see, this is a publicity stunt. Let me tell you what’s happening. The House Oversight Committee is working on the release of the Epstein files. They are some of the biggest bulldogs in Congress, and the Republican and Democrat sides are working on that aggressively,’ Johnson said.

Gallego asked, ‘So why are you blocking her then?’

‘I’m not blocking her. I just told you,’ Johnson said.

At one point, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., joined the fray, telling the senators, ‘With all due respect, you voted multiple times to keep the government shut down, OK? The Republican members from Arizona voted to keep government open. So don’t sit here and try to lecture us about whether or not we did our job. We did our jobs. You did not.’

‘Get your people in and stop covering up for the pedophiles,’ Gallego said after more back-and-forth.

Lawler responded, ‘There’s nobody covering up for pedophiles, so knock it the hell off.’

Kelly, meanwhile, interjected multiple times that Democrats were fighting to extend enhanced ObamaCare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year without congressional action.

The standoff occurred just as Senate Democrats blocked the GOP’s federal funding bill for a sixth time, extending the ongoing government shutdown.

The House passed a bill to extend fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels through Nov. 21 to give lawmakers more time to create a longer-term deal for FY 2026 spending.

But Democrats, furious at being sidelined in federal funding talks, have largely said they’ll reject any deal that does not include an extension of the expiring ObamaCare subsidies.

Grijalva won her race on Sept. 23.

The House has not been in session since Sept. 19, and Johnson has signaled the chamber would not return until Senate Democrats agree with the GOP’s funding plan.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reminded business leaders on Wednesday that socialism already failed New York City when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and progressive activists rallied against Amazon’s plan to build a headquarters in Queens.

During Crain’s New York Business mayoral forum Wednesday morning, less than one month away from Election Day, Cuomo railed against the threat that Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s policies pose to the city’s economy. 

‘We are not socialists,’ Cuomo said. ‘We all saw the foreshadowing of the danger of this philosophy when we lost the Amazon project in Queens and 50,000 jobs due to socialist opposition.’ 

Cuomo told business leaders New York City is at a crossroads — it will either ‘decline dramatically’ under Mamdani or ‘pivot and actually see a rebirth.’

‘My opponent’s proposal to provide free everything funded by raising taxes is pure ideological fantasy,’ Cuomo said during his opening remarks. 

And Cuomo is pointing to one consequential business flop as proof that socialism has no place in the capitalist capital. 

‘We are a financial and commercial capital. We are a regulated capitalist economy,’ Cuomo said, clearly criticizing Mamdani’s self-identified ‘Democratic socialist’ policies and distaste for capitalism. 

During his tenure as governor, Cuomo courted Amazon to build its second headquarters in New York, personally urging founder and CEO Jeff Bezos to choose Long Island City and offering billions in state and city incentives, along with infrastructure and workforce commitments to seal the deal.

But the deal was met with mounting backlash from community activists and progressive lawmakers, such as Ocasio-Cortez, who rejected the estimated $2.5 billion in incentives for Amazon. 

‘Now what I DON’T want is for our public funds to be funding freebie helipads for Amazon+robber baron billionaires,’ Ocasio-Cortez wrote in 2018, ‘all while NYCHA and public schools go underfunded & mom+pops get nowhere near that kind of a break.’

In 2019, Amazon announced they had decided that ‘after much thought and deliberation’ not to move forward with their plan to build headquarters in Long Island City in Queens.

‘A number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City,’ Amazon shared in a statement. 

Alfredo Ortiz, CEO of Job Creators Network, told Fox News at the time that Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘reckless scuttling of the Amazon deal cannot be overstated.’

‘Not only did AOC cost New York 25,000 good-paying jobs, she sent a message to job creators everywhere that they were no longer welcome in her city,’ he said. 

Amazon had anticipated creating at least 25,000 jobs in Long Island City, with the governor’s office projecting the potential growth to 40,000 jobs over 15 years.

During Mamdani’s remarks at the business forum on Wednesday, the socialist candidate quoted Bezos, whom he described as ‘a man whose tax burden I would love to significantly raise.’

‘Jeff once said — not to me personally, but in public — ‘You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.’ And make no mistake, my friends: when I am mayor, this city is going to innovate,’ Mamdani told the room of New York City business leaders. 

But Mamdani’s plans to raise taxes on corporations and the top 1% of New Yorkers to pay for ambitious campaign promises, like free buses, free childcare and city-run grocery stores, have triggered skepticism among the business community. 

Cuomo, in particular, has seized on that skepticism in the race for Gracie Mansion, telling business leaders on Wednesday that ‘now is the moment for New York City to regain the crown as the greatest city on the globe.’

Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. 

The Trump administration is ramping up the consequences of a lingering government shutdown as a lapse in appropriations enters its eighth day, with no signs of ending soon. 

Now, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has floated plans reviewed by Fox News Digital that would not guarantee that federal workers currently furloughed from the shutdown would receive backpay — upending a 2019 law from Trump’s first administration in the aftermath of a 35-day shutdown.

The threat of furloughed workers failing to receive backpay increases the stakes every day that Congress fails to pass a funding measure — and puts greater pressure on Democrats as President Donald Trump continues to accuse them of creating the crisis. 

Trump told reporters Tuesday during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that Democrats were the ones who started the shutdown, even as Democrats have pinned the blame on Republicans, who control both the House and Senate. 

‘This is like a kamikaze attack. They have nothing to lose,’ Trump said of the Democrats, referencing suicide missions by Japanese aviators during World War II.  

Additionally, Trump said it ‘depends on who we’re talking about’ when asked about whether furloughed workers would be compensated after the shutdown ends.  

‘The Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, but it really depends on who you’re talking about,’ Trump said. ‘But for the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.’

The possibility of furloughed workers not receiving backpay, first reported by Axios, already comes as the Trump administration is moving to trim the federal government. For example, OMB already instructed agencies in September to craft plans for a reduction-in-force should a government shutdown occur. 

The move is a departure from the status quo, since furloughed employees typically return to their jobs once the government shutdown ends. 

But Trump signaled that permanent cuts would emerge in the coming days, and that ‘a lot of those jobs will never come back.’ 

‘We have a lot of things that we’re going to eliminate and permanently eliminate,’ Trump said Tuesday. 

The government entered a partial shutdown Oct. 1, amid a stalemate between Senate Republicans and Democrats over a short-term funding bill to keep the government open through Nov. 21. The House previously had passed the temporary spending bill in September. 

Three Senate Democrats joined Republicans to vote for the temporary funding bill on Sept. 30, but the measure didn’t hit the required 60 votes needed for passage.

Trump and Republicans assert Democrats want to provide illegal immigrants healthcare, due to a provision that would repeal part of Trump’s tax and domestic policy bill known as the ‘big, beautiful bill’ that scaled back Medicaid eligibility for those who aren’t U.S. citizens. 

Even so, Democrats have pushed back against these claims, and have said they want to permanently extend certain Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Republicans of not taking the shutdown seriously and are ‘refusing to address the health care crisis they created.’

‘It’s past time to get it done,’ Schumer told reporters Tuesday. 

On Wednesday, Senate Democrats did not get on board with Republicans’ temporary spending bill during a sixth vote resulting in the government staying shuttered. 

The White House said in a Wednesday statement to Fox News Digital that every shutdown comes with consequences and that Democrats ‘simply’ voted to reopen the government. 

‘Whether it’s our brave military members working without pay, business owners missing out on previously promised contract work, or families dealing with flight delays, everyone is paying the price for the Democrats’ radical demands,’ White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said. 

Fox News’ Alex Miller contributed to this report. 

A moderate House Democrat is splitting from his party leader on a compromise to extend enhanced ObamaCare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year.

The subsidies have been a key demand for Democrats in exchange for their support for legislation to end the government shutdown.

Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., is among the House Democrats backing a bipartisan bill aimed at extending those tax credits for one year.

But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called a one-year extension a ‘laughable proposition’ in comments to reporters on Tuesday. 

Suozzi, who also backs a permanent extension, said both sides need to begin negotiating at some point, even without a perfect solution.

‘A one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits is not acceptable. It’s a nonstarter,’ Jeffries said, referring to ObamaCare.

‘What world are these MAGA extremists living in right now to think that Democrats are going to go along with a one-year extension from a group of people, meaning the Republicans, who just permanently extended massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors?’

But it’s not just Republicans pushing that bill — the legislation has 11 total Democrat co-sponsors out of 25 total supporters.

Suozzi told Fox News Digital in response to Jeffries’ rejection: ‘Republicans and Democrats both need to step up to the negotiating table.’

‘This bill isn’t perfect — I’d prefer a permanent extension, and I’d gladly settle for a multi-year one — but right now, our priority must be stopping the massive health insurance premium hikes set to hit mailboxes in less than a month,’ Suozzi said.

‘We can’t afford to remain in a stalemate, each side waiting for the other to blink.’

A spokesman for Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, another co-sponsor of the bill, pointed Fox News Digital to comments the Democrat made on his Substack days before the shutdown.

‘Our bipartisan bill would extend the credits by one year. Our coalition already includes 12 House Republicans — an essential bloc of support for passing a bill in the GOP-controlled House. And Senate Republicans are already interested in a deal, too,’ Golden wrote in those comments.

‘As we negotiate, I see two sides who genuinely want to get to ‘yes,’ which gives me hope that we can avert price spikes and coverage losses in January. A government shutdown only jeopardizes that work.’

Golden was the lone House Democrat to vote for the GOP-led bill to avert a government shutdown last month.

The bill, called a continuing resolution (CR), would keep federal funding levels roughly flat through Nov. 21, while including added spending for national officials’ security amid the heightened political threat environment.

But Democrats, furious at being sidelined in federal funding talks, have largely said they’ll reject any deal that does not include an extension of the expiring ObamaCare subsidies.

Suozzi and several other Democrats supporting the one-year extension are also co-sponsors on legislation that would permanently extend the enhanced ObamaCare subsidies.

The office of Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., pointed out to Fox News Digital that he was also a co-sponsor of that bill but refused to comment on the one-year bill or Jeffries’ dismissal of it.

But that bill is likely a nonstarter for GOP leaders in Congress, who say that some reform is needed to the system if those healthcare credits are to be extended.

Fox News Digital reached out to the remaining eight co-sponsors of the one-year extension bill but did not receive a response to Jeffries’ comments by press time.

In May 2022, a cowardly traitor destroyed the sanctity of the Supreme Court, violating one of its essential values: secrecy. This degenerate leaked the draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that, a month later, finally did away with the 1973 constitutional abomination known as Roe v. Wade. Nearly three and a half years later, the leaker remains unnamed, even though he or she caused a summer of violent threats from leftists and constant harassment of a majority of the Supreme Court in their homes and at their children’s schools, in blatant violation of 18 U.S. Code §1507 and other federal criminal statutes — as well as the near-assassination of another justice and his family. This past Friday, the judiciary was betrayed again — this time directly by a sitting judge.

Nicholas Roske, a pet store employee from California, was very upset about the Dobbs leak. He was a fervent abortion supporter and wanted to stop the overturning of Roe. Instead of campaigning to elect Democrats who would implement his preferred agenda — the actions of someone who truly respects representative democracy — Roske extensively planned and prepared, then flew from Los Angeles International Airport to the area near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of the purported members of the majority according to the Dobbs leak. In a series of social media posts before his departure, Roske indicated his desire to assassinate three Supreme Court justices to preserve abortion rights.

Roske came well-prepared to kill Justice Kavanaugh. Among other things, he brought a handgun, nearly 40 rounds of ammunition, a tactical knife, lock-picking tools, a nail punch, a crowbar, a pistol light, duct tape, pepper spray, zip ties, and hiking boots with padding on the soles so he could move about the Kavanaughs’ home more quietly. Justice Kavanaugh lives with his wife and two teenage daughters. God forbid what would have happened had the other Kavanaughs tried to defend him. When Roske arrived, however, he found he could not go through with his plan because law enforcement was outside the Kavanaughs’ home. Realizing they had seen him, Roske called 911 and claimed to be suicidal, confessing his assassination plan to the dispatcher.

When police arrived and arrested Roske, he repeated his confession and explained why he wanted to kill Justice Kavanaugh. For the past three and a half years, he has sat in jail. Last Friday, he finally received his sentence after his guilty plea before Maryland U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman. Boardman was one of President Biden’s earliest judicial appointees — and one of his worst, which is quite a statement given some of the atrocious rulings Biden-appointed judges have handed down. Boardman’s sentencing of Roske, however, stands out as the decision most deserving of ignominy. The prosecution justifiably recommended a 30-year sentence. The United States has never had a Supreme Court justice assassinated; indeed, only one other attempt had occurred prior to Justice Kavanaugh’s brush with death.

Roske had a secret weapon on his side: his supposed mental illness of gender dysphoria. While in jail, Roske indicated that he was transgender and wished to be called Sophie and addressed with female pronouns. Boardman accepted this, musing at sentencing that a bright spot had come out of the attempted assassination of Justice Kavanaugh — that Roske’s mother now recognized his gender identity. Boardman referred to Roske as female. Then she delivered the coup de grâce, handing down a pathetically lenient sentence of eight years’ imprisonment followed by lifetime supervised release. Eight years. That, apparently, is the legal price one must pay for an act that, had it succeeded, would have torn at the very fabric of the Republic. The assassination would have changed history, as Roe would have been safe for decades to come. There is no doubt Biden would have nominated a leftist to replace Justice Kavanaugh, and the Democrat-controlled Senate would have gleefully confirmed the nominee. So much for the rule of law.

Judges must begin sentencings by calculating the appropriate range under the Sentencing Guidelines. The Guidelines are a starting point for district judges and are advisory. Boardman wrongly rejected a terrorism enhancement for Roske. If his conduct was not an attempt to commit an act of terrorism, nothing is. He wanted to murder three justices to change the outcome of one of the most contested cases in American history. In addition to that error, Boardman also made another: she issued a substantively unreasonable sentence.

Appellate courts, unlike district judges, must presume that sentences within the Guidelines range are reasonable. Boardman, however, gave a gargantuan departure in favor of Roske. There is precedent in several circuits for reversing sentences as substantively unreasonable. The Seventh Circuit did just that in United States v. Vrdolyak (2010), a case in which a leftist judge had absurdly given probation to a corrupt former Chicago Democratic alderman nicknamed ‘Fast Eddie,’ who had engaged in massive fraud. The Eleventh Circuit likewise reversed another leftist judge who had imposed a woefully lenient sentence in United States v. Martin (2005, 2006). That court made the mistake of remanding to the same judge for resentencing after the first reversal but did not repeat the error.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has rightly decided to appeal this abomination of a decision. If the leftist-controlled Fourth Circuit does not reverse Boardman, the Supreme Court must. Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, received nine and a half years in prison because she gave unauthorized access to the county’s election system in an effort to root out fraud. Her actions did not change one vote, and there was zero risk of violence. By contrast, Roske, who tried to murder a Supreme Court justice, received a year and a half less time. That disparity in favor of Roske is indefensible. Boardman even gave a sentence six months harsher to an identity thief a month ago than she handed to Roske.

Aside from Justice Kavanaugh, no other justice would need to recuse. In In re Neagle (1890), the Supreme Court heard a dispute related to the attempted assassination of Justice Stephen Field after California charged the deputy marshal guarding him with murder. On remand, the court that reverses this monstrous decision must order the case reassigned to another judge.

Boardman, a federal public defender for more than a decade, has shown she is incapable of issuing a sentence that will deter similar conduct. If this sentence stands, Roske will be out in about four years, given the time he has already served. Justice Kavanaugh and his family, however, will be impacted for the rest of their lives. And in Boardman’s court, it is abundantly clear that the lives of conservative justices do not matter nearly as much as a happy gender identity ending. The House must begin an impeachment inquiry into Judge Boardman immediately.

Senate Democrats blocked Republicans’ bid to reopen the government for a sixth time on Wednesday as pressure and threats from the White House increased.

It’s been ‘Groundhog Day’ in the Senate for eight days — but unlike the 1993 Bill Murray comedy, there’s been little, if any, forward progress among the cast of senators. Talks are still ongoing, but those have yet to take the leap to full-blown negotiations to end the government shutdown. 

The night before the vote Wednesday morning, a bipartisan group of lawmakers met to discuss the shutdown, and a way out, over Thai food in Washington.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said the group’s goal was to find a way to reopen the government and keep it open, rather than repeat the same cycle when funding runs out again Nov. 21.

‘We’re not working on a solution to reopen the government. We’re not negotiating. We have a clean CR they’ve got to accept,’ Mullin said. ‘Our whole goal is, how do we avoid, if we do reopen it, how do we avoid shutdown.’

Congressional Republicans are adamant that the best path forward is to pass their continuing resolution (CR), which would keep the government open until Nov. 21, add millions to bolster member security and include a fix to Washington, D.C.’s budget that was overlooked by the House earlier this year.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., intends to keep putting the same bill on the floor and hopes that fractures form within the Democratic caucus’ unified front. So far, however, only three Senate Democratic caucus members have split from the larger group: Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine.

But Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have made the fight to reopen the government about healthcare, specifically through the blunt instrument of expiring tax credits under Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

‘Nothing’s changed,’ Thune said. ‘We all understand, you know what they want to do, and we’re not averse, as I’ve said repeatedly, to have that conversation. At some point, they have to take ‘yes’ for an answer.’

While the credits don’t expire until the end of the year, Democrats argue that come the start of open enrollment on Nov. 1, Americans who rely on the subsidies will see a sharp increase in their premium costs unless Congress acts.

‘We believe that the pressure that the American people are putting on the Republicans, which are already seeing signs of cracking, are going to get them to come to the table, and we can negotiate a good deal for the American people,’ Schumer said.

But their ask isn’t totally one-dimensional, either. Their counter-proposal to the GOP’s CR laid out in sharper terms that they want a permanent extension to the Obamacare subsidies, to see guardrails put on President Donald Trump’s ability to claw back funding through the rescissions and impoundments process, along with a full repeal of the ‘big, beautiful bill’s’ healthcare title and the return of canceled funding for NPR and PBS.

‘Listen, this is a unique moment, a unique moment where we can demand that we’re only going to vote for a budget that helps our people and stops the lawlessness,’ Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said. ‘I want the ACA subsidies restored, but I also would be a sucker to vote for a budget that allows Trump to continue to get away with this level of corruption and allows him to just cancel the spending in the bill for states like Connecticut.’

Lingering in the background are the threats from the administration led by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought. He has already withheld nearly $30 billion in infrastructure funding for blue cities and states, and through a pair of memos, ordered agency layoffs and suggested furloughed workers may not receive back pay.

The latter move runs counter to a law signed by President Donald Trump guaranteeing back pay for furloughed workers after the 2019 shutdown, the longest in U.S. history.

While firings were thought to be around the corner, Trump appeared to give some breathing room on the issue on Tuesday.

‘I’ll be able to tell you that in four or five days,’ Trump told reporters. ‘If this keeps going on, it’ll be substantial, and a lot of those jobs will never come back, but you’re going to have a lot closer to a balanced budget.’

Still, Senate Democrats remained unfazed by the threats, particularly the latest of workers going without back pay.

‘I’m not sure Trump’s floating it,’ Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said. ‘He’s got underlings who were floating submarining one of Donald Trump’s accomplishments. It was Donald Trump that made that guarantee when he signed the bill in January 2019, and now he’s got functionaries in OMB suggesting they may go back on what he promised. I hope he takes pride in his work.’

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg is facing backlash after using an image of an emaciated Israeli hostage in an Instagram post allegedly showing Palestinians suffering.

The post read, ‘The suffering of Palestinian prisoners is not a matter of opinion — it is a fact of systemic cruelty and dehumanization. Humanity cannot be selective. Justice cannot have borders.’ It also included three images, including one of hostage Evyatar David, who was taken from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. 

The image of David was a still frame from a Hamas propaganda video. In the video, David appears extremely frail as he describes the conditions in captivity and says he hasn’t eaten for days. The part of the video that shocked many was when David’s captors forced him to dig his own grave.

Yeela David, Evyatar’s sister, commented on the post saying Thunberg needed to do research before posting ‘things you don’t understand.’ She then added that, ‘every minute you are not deleting the post, you are becoming a bigger joke. Embarrassing.’

The post, which contained multiple images, appears to have since been edited and the slide with David’s image is no longer visible. The comment section, however, is full of reminders that his image was there, with users decrying the ‘lies’ showcased in the post.

The slides were part of a collaboration post with Thunberg, Yasmin Acar, a member of the steering committee of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition; the Gaza Sumud Flotilla and two other accounts.

The first slide of the post read, ‘The world is rightly horrified by what the Sumud Flotilla hostages are enduring,’ referring to detainees arrested when Israel intercepted their fleet last week. ‘Their suffering is real and no human being should ever be subjected to such pain, fear or humiliation.’ The post then goes on to compare this to the plight of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, with the activists asserting that over 11,000 Palestinian ‘hostages and prisoners’ were held in unhygienic and inhumane conditions. 

The group also included a video from 2015 in their post showing Ahmad Manasra, who was 13 at the time. Manasra was arrested in 2015 in connection with a Jerusalem stabbing attack during what is often called the ‘Knife Intifada,’ according to The Jerusalem Post.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a screenshot of the deleted slide next to a zoomed-in version of the still image of David, declaring, ‘Ignorance blinded by hate is trending.’

‘Greta Thunberg posted about ‘Palestinian prisoners’ using the image of Israeli hostage Evyatar David – starved, abused, and forced by Palestinian Hamas to dig his own grave,’ the ministry wrote on X.

Thunberg, who became renowned for her climate activism while still in high school, has become a vocal critic of Israel since the war in Gaza began. She has participated in two Gaza-bound aid flotillas, both of which were intercepted by Israeli forces.

Fox News Digital reached out to Thunberg for comment.