Fox News ahead of imminent shutdown: “Republicans are blaming this on Democrats, but when I look at the votes, Republicans could not even get a simple majority to get past this bill”
Chad Pergram: “Republicans are in the majority of the House of Representatives but it's Democrats who they have leaned on repeatedly”
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From the December 19, 2024, edition of Fox News' Hannity
KAYLEIGH MCENANY (HOST): Meanwhile President-elect Trump is actively engaged, and this is a month before Inauguration Day. Trump is negotiating government funding deals, he's prodding allies like Canada and Mexico to fix their porous borders, and he's mapping out an ambitious legislative agenda. But first, Congress will need to pass a budget deal. Here now but the very latest on that, and there's a lot of breaking details on this, from Capitol Hill is Chad Pergram who's with us.
CHAD PERGRAM (GUEST): Kayleigh, good evening. You know you talk about the President-elect's legislative agenda in the new year, that kind of took a blow tonight because they can't even fund the government. Republicans are blaming this on Democrats, but when I look at the vote matrix here, Republicans could not even get a simple majority to past this bill. There were only 174 yeas on this bill, 38 Republicans voted no, and that demonstrates just how tenuous the majority is going to be in the new year. When you have the President-elect along with Elon Musk and others who blew up the bigger spending bill yesterday, they come back with a more svelte bill tonight. And they blow up on the floor. They couldn't even get it across the table when President-elect Trump pushed for that.
Now, of course Republicans are saying the Democrats should have helped out. I will point to every single bill that has dealt with fiscal matters this year and last year as well, this Congress, they have had to get Democratic votes to move this across the finish line. Republicans are in the majority of the House of Representatives but it's Democrats who they have leaned on repeatedly. Democrats today, they said, "We were not a part of this negotiation, the bill that we negotiated it, you guys threw in the dumpster, so we're not going to help." They whipped against this and only two Democrats voted yes.