Scott Jennings didn’t hold back Monday night when he clashed with former Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg over who’s really responsible for the ongoing government shutdown.
Appearing on CNN’s Newsnight, Jennings reminded Hogg that Democrats were the ones who passed Obamacare — and also the ones who built in the 2025 expiration date for the law’s subsidies.
“David, you would admit that the ACA was a Democrat legislation, yes? And you would admit that the subsidies that we’re talking about now were passed by Democrats, yes?” Jennings said. “And you would admit that the sunset provision in the subsidies, which comes up at the end of the year, was in place because of Democrats, yes? Now, you want to make it a Republican problem.”
The exchange came after Hogg claimed Democrats were refusing to support a GOP continuing resolution because they didn’t want to be “complicit” in raising premiums for millions of Americans. Jennings shot back that Democrats were the ones connecting unrelated issues to the funding fight.
“You could open the government today and then you could negotiate with Republicans about ACA,” Jennings said. “But under duress, under a hostage-taking situation, connecting disconnected issues — and now you’re throwing SNAP onto it, you’re throwing all the federal workers who aren’t being paid onto it — all because of this fight that you wandered into because of your wing of the Democratic Party.”
Jennings accused Democrats of engineering the shutdown crisis by refusing to pass a clean continuing resolution that would reopen the government without the $1 trillion in added demands for Obamacare subsidies and other programs.
“You all led to this SNAP crisis. You all led to this crisis of the government being closed, and you don’t know how to get out of it,” he said.
The fiery panel capped off a tense few weeks in Washington, with Democrats under growing pressure as the shutdown nears its fifth week. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has faced backlash from the left for previously working with Republicans to avoid shutdowns, while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hinted she may challenge him in 2028.