More Americans blame Trump, Republicans for shutdown than Democrats: Survey
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Close to half of Americans blame President Trump and Republicans for the current government shutdown, according to a new poll.
In the poll from The Washington Post, 47 percent of respondents said “Trump and Republicans in Congress” are “mainly responsible for the federal government partially shutting down,” while 30 percent pinned the blame on “Democrats in Congress” for the shutdown.
In the survey, 66 percent of respondents said they are either “very” or “somewhat” concerned over the shutdown, while 34 percent said they are “not too” or “not at all” concerned.
The Post poll took place Wednesday, featuring 1,010 people and a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
The federal government formally went into a shutdown at 12:01 a.m. EDT Wednesday in the wake of congressional leaders being unable to come to a deal over a stopgap spending bill, leaving lawmakers struggling over how to move forward.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday evening he had not heard from the White House since a sit-down with Trump and other congressional leaders.
“We haven’t heard from the White House since the White House meeting on Monday. The president has been behaving, you know, somewhat erratically and in [an] unconventional fashion in the context of the government shutting down,” Jeffries told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.”
“Clearly, they wanted to shut the government down, unfortunately,” he added. “We’re ready to work together to bring it back open, but to do it in a way where we enact a spending agreement that’s bipartisan, that meets the needs of the American people, while at the same time addresses the Republican health care crisis that is devastating everyday Americans all across the country.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told The Hill, “I think there are a lot of Democrat people who are looking for a way out. They want an off-ramp here.
“There’s a good amount of outreach going on and conversations being held. We’ll see where it goes.”
Al Weaver contributed.