Former Republican Party strategist and current Donald Trump antagonist Rick Wilson took a very dim view of the shutdown deal cobbled together by seven Democratic members of the Senate with one independent.
In a post on his Substack platform early Monday morning after Republicans were handed a 60-40 win that could allow Democrats to get a vote on Affordable Care Act subsidies in December — with no guarantees of passing — Wilson claimed the eight lawmakers who broke ranks were taken advantage of, and had damaged their own party in the process.
Accusing Democratic elected officials of craving “political death,” he added the eight got “played.”
Continuing in that vein, he wrote, “Conned. Rooked. Pantsed. Pumped and dumped. Rode hard and put away wet. It was a colossal leadership failure, and Chuck Schumer should resign as Minority Leader immediately if he had a shred of honor or shame.”
Dismissing Schumer quickly running out to claim he voted “no,” Wilson suggested the New York Democrat, who is the Senate Minority Leader, is not up to the job and that he could have killed the initiative if he wanted.
Now, he claimed, Democrats will have to live with throwing away the growing advantage they had over Republicans in the polls.
Calling the caving lawmakers “suckers,“ he wrote, “The Republicans cannot believe their luck. They get to end the shutdown, blame it on Democrats, and go back to the MAGA base and say, ‘We killed Obamacare at last!’”
“For all this sacrifice, you got a vote. You handed Donald Trump and the GOP a 2026 lifeline for a single show vote, one you know the House will kill and Trump will veto. Oh, bra-vo,” he wrote before adding, “I’ve seen some profoundly stupid things in my long run on this political racetrack, but that is the windswept pinnacle of Mount Dumba--.”
Suggesting Democrats will not get credit for ending the shutdown after bailing the president and Republicans out, he suggested they threw away gains made in last week’s elections and added, “Obviously, Chuck Schumer’s eight proxies decided to ignore the winning message and decided to rescue a Republican-made crisis and get…nothing. No policy win, no accountability, no political scalp. That breeds 'why do we even vote for these people?' energy…which is poison in a cycle where turnout is king.”
“It was the equivalent of telling everyone who has worked, marched, organized, voted, and donated in the last year, ‘Nah, never mind. Turns out we mean, ‘Yes, King Donald,'” he accused.
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