Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) snapped at a right-wing influencer, asking, "Who are we kidding here?" over her question about food stamp funding amid the government shutdown as Republicans push to end the program ahead of the Nov. 1 deadline.
Schumer and other Democrats held a news conference on Wednesday when a journalist from Lindell TV, founded by MyPillow CEO and President Donald Trump ally Mike Lindell, asked a question that included misinformation about the multibillion-dollar pool used for emergencies to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, including government shutdowns.
The exchange was shared by the company on X.
"Wait a minute. Excuse me. It is not a dispute. It is fact they can use it and the Republicans say it," Schumer said.
"OK but there's only $5 or $6 billion to administer..." right-wing journalist Alison Steinberg responded, repeating Republican talking points about removing the program.
A testy Schumer shot back, "It does not cost $5 or $6 billion to administer."
"There's enough money to start feeding people right away, $6 billion is lot of money and they're using it for other things — $20 billion for Argentina, hundreds of millions for Kristi Noem's plane — who are we kidding here?" Schumer said.
"The bottom line is they can fund it just as in 2019, just as in other shutdowns, for a long period of time," he added.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) chimed in that the government could use the contingency fund of nearly $6 billion, which would give about three weeks of funding for SNAP, and that the Senate could have enough votes to pass bills from Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) — both of which Democrats support and would have about 60 votes for, she said.
"Why aren't they calling it up? They're not calling it up because the House isn't here to pass it. That's the way it works. The House would have to come here. They probably would have to vote on the Epstein files. But they're choosing to let kids go hungry instead of having to vote on the Epstein files. There's no doubt about it. They have been out for six weeks on vacation," Klobuchar said.
"Just think if they have all this money for Argentina, and all this money other things, they have enough money to keep funding SNAP and they know it," Schumer added. "And I just want to say what Luján said. [Speaker of the House Mike] Johnson just lies. He lied about immigration and the undocumented. He's lying about this. He just outright lies, plain and simple. It is not illegal and his own president has done it."
Dozens of states — both Republican and Democratic — are suing the Trump administration over the SNAP food stamp freeze.
