Hours before the first major elections since President Donald Trump’s win last November, Sen. Bernie Sanders offered a stern warning for Democrats about the party’s closed-door talks to end the shutdown.
Inside a tense, three-hour meeting at the Capitol on Tuesday, a fiery Sanders urged Democrats not to yield to Republicans without a real victory on health care. The Vermont independent was armed with fresh polling from a Democratic-aligned firm that showed voters would punish the party for giving up with nothing in return, according to a person familiar with his remarks.
“It would be very strange if on the heels of the American people rewarding Democrats for standing up and fighting, we surrendered without getting anything,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said. “I think we are in an enormously strong position right now.”
During a private call of House Democrats on Wednesday afternoon, lawmakers, including senior Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, urged each other to call their centrist Senate colleagues directly to make the case against the emerging deal. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries signaled on the call that he was keeping the pressure on his Senate counterpart, according to two people familiar with the discussion. Outside Democratic groups, too, have swiftly mobilized to ramp up pressure on centrists.
RunDownTheHighway on
Yesterdays results prove that there is no reason to back down to the republicans…
ETNevada on
Stop fighting each other and unite against Trump and you’ll likely win
MotherMilks99 on
Honestly, centrists cozying up to Trump’s shutdown games while progressives fight for real health care just feels like déjà vu of Democrats snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
PracticalChipmunk789 on
Feel the Bern!
Lightbringer10000 on
Yes the message to the establishment dems .. blue hot dogs
Get the fuck out
barneyrubbble on
Capitulating at all here just plays into the MAGA fever dream narrative. Hold tight; make the Republicans own their shit show.
JollyJulieArt on
I fucking hate centrist. They are just Republicans that aren’t craziest enough to be MAGA.
Bare minimum. Bottom of the barrel. Get nothing done, yet gets all the benefits. Indifferent to accountability. bUt BoTh sIdEs. Fucking centrists
XcuseMeMisISpeakJive on
They had better not cave, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
samuel-dunstan on
Centrist dems, or as every other Western democracy in the world calls them, conservatives.
amprather on
After the elections on Tuesday there is absolutely no reason for the Dems to give anything. The GOP owns this, the election proved that. Even Trump’s two brain cells can see that the shutdown hurt the GOP.
If anything the Dems should be demanding the House be called back in session to provide a completely clean CR with ACA funding.
The GOP should assume that every week the government stays close they are giving the Dems another point in 2026. If the Dems are +10 now, that means they will get the House back easily. You get to +15, the Senate also comes into play. +20, you are talking a GOP wipeout in 2026 across the country.
ShamelessCatDude on
Fuck. Yes. Do it more, voters. They have phones for a reason
Kendal_with_1_L on
Fuck you centrists.
Umami-Ice-Cream on
Democrats have zero reason to bend.
Hold the fucking line.
sedatedlife on
Absolutely to open Republicans must agree,to fix the health care make sure all federal employees get back pay. SNAP recipients receive the full amount of November benefits. All this at a minimum maybe some guarantees that Trump will not be allowed to make the changes to social security they are planning early next year.
Vegetable-Seaweed591 on
PLEASE Dems, add restoring the food bank shipments and SNAP funds cut in Trump’s ugly bill to your demands.
We’ll never be this focused on food security as a country again. Call out the GOP for their heartless cuts and help feed Americans at the same time.
Don’t give in!
boriskin on
Most of the comments here are utterly misguided.
Democratic Party is supposed to be a big tent party, that’s the only way for it to succeed.
Disagreements and discussions are normal, but it doesn’t mean that whoever you disagree with is a devil. And I’m not talking about Republicans who sold their souls to one.
And it’s hilarious that many here are totally oblivious to the fact that it was mostly centrists that won on Tuesday.
Avoidtolls on
Chuck needs to step down and write more angry letters.
General_Pie_5026 on
Schumer is probably sad. He was ready to cave.
R34ct0rX99 on
Folding now makes zero sense. Folding now means the past weeks mean nothing. Holding the line and getting compromise is the only thing that makes the shutdown mean something.
oswharton on
Schumer will fuck us. That feckless POS has never met a fight he can’t throw.
10PMHaze on
Harry Truman had a sign on his desk, “The buck stops here.” Ultimately, the president takes responsibility for the direction of the country … Except now. Our current leader blames everyone but himself, and is providing no leadership.
Many years ago, Matt Groening wrote a book, Childhood is Hell. In it, he had a set of excuses when thing go wrong:
1) Deny culpability (I didn’t do it)
2) Blame someone else.
3) Declare it was an accident.
He also suggests to not use all 3 …
Megotaku on
Americans are entering the first month of having to pay their insurance premiums without the subsidies Republicans shutdown the government to prevent. **Why the fuck would you back down now?** Aside from the blowout elections, Americans are about to feel real pain as a consequence of Republican’s plans and this isn’t a plan they could ever feasibly pin on the Democrats since they’ve been saying from day 1 that the shutdown is to holdout for these subsidies about to hit half the households in the U.S.
VELOCIRAPTOR_ANUS on
They do not need to settle. Hold the line!
Time-Warthog2000 on
“Centrists”
GlobalIncident7623 on
Schumer and his ilk need to hoof it out of here. That stuff doesn’t work with these clowns. They take your olive branch and beat you over the head with it like the primitives they are. Time for some new blood and some new tactics.
26 Comments
Hours before the first major elections since President Donald Trump’s win last November, Sen. Bernie Sanders offered a stern warning for Democrats about the party’s closed-door talks to end the shutdown.
Inside a tense, three-hour meeting at the Capitol on Tuesday, a fiery Sanders urged Democrats not to yield to Republicans without a real victory on health care. The Vermont independent was armed with fresh polling from a Democratic-aligned firm that showed voters would punish the party for giving up with nothing in return, according to a person familiar with his remarks.
By Wednesday morning, Sanders and his colleagues in Congress [pointed to Democrats’ blow-out victories](https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/05/politics/democrats-shutdown-deal-elections?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit) — including in Virginia, a state with thousands of furloughed federal workers — as the most powerful evidence yet they needed to keep fighting.
“It would be very strange if on the heels of the American people rewarding Democrats for standing up and fighting, we surrendered without getting anything,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said. “I think we are in an enormously strong position right now.”
During a private call of House Democrats on Wednesday afternoon, lawmakers, including senior Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, urged each other to call their centrist Senate colleagues directly to make the case against the emerging deal. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries signaled on the call that he was keeping the pressure on his Senate counterpart, according to two people familiar with the discussion. Outside Democratic groups, too, have swiftly mobilized to ramp up pressure on centrists.
Yesterdays results prove that there is no reason to back down to the republicans…
Stop fighting each other and unite against Trump and you’ll likely win
Honestly, centrists cozying up to Trump’s shutdown games while progressives fight for real health care just feels like déjà vu of Democrats snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Feel the Bern!
Yes the message to the establishment dems .. blue hot dogs
Get the fuck out
Capitulating at all here just plays into the MAGA fever dream narrative. Hold tight; make the Republicans own their shit show.
I fucking hate centrist. They are just Republicans that aren’t craziest enough to be MAGA.
Bare minimum. Bottom of the barrel. Get nothing done, yet gets all the benefits. Indifferent to accountability. bUt BoTh sIdEs. Fucking centrists
They had better not cave, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
Centrist dems, or as every other Western democracy in the world calls them, conservatives.
After the elections on Tuesday there is absolutely no reason for the Dems to give anything. The GOP owns this, the election proved that. Even Trump’s two brain cells can see that the shutdown hurt the GOP.
If anything the Dems should be demanding the House be called back in session to provide a completely clean CR with ACA funding.
The GOP should assume that every week the government stays close they are giving the Dems another point in 2026. If the Dems are +10 now, that means they will get the House back easily. You get to +15, the Senate also comes into play. +20, you are talking a GOP wipeout in 2026 across the country.
Fuck. Yes. Do it more, voters. They have phones for a reason
Fuck you centrists.
Democrats have zero reason to bend.
Hold the fucking line.
Absolutely to open Republicans must agree,to fix the health care make sure all federal employees get back pay. SNAP recipients receive the full amount of November benefits. All this at a minimum maybe some guarantees that Trump will not be allowed to make the changes to social security they are planning early next year.
PLEASE Dems, add restoring the food bank shipments and SNAP funds cut in Trump’s ugly bill to your demands.
We’ll never be this focused on food security as a country again. Call out the GOP for their heartless cuts and help feed Americans at the same time.
Don’t give in!
Most of the comments here are utterly misguided.
Democratic Party is supposed to be a big tent party, that’s the only way for it to succeed.
Disagreements and discussions are normal, but it doesn’t mean that whoever you disagree with is a devil. And I’m not talking about Republicans who sold their souls to one.
And it’s hilarious that many here are totally oblivious to the fact that it was mostly centrists that won on Tuesday.
Chuck needs to step down and write more angry letters.
Schumer is probably sad. He was ready to cave.
Folding now makes zero sense. Folding now means the past weeks mean nothing. Holding the line and getting compromise is the only thing that makes the shutdown mean something.
Schumer will fuck us. That feckless POS has never met a fight he can’t throw.
Harry Truman had a sign on his desk, “The buck stops here.” Ultimately, the president takes responsibility for the direction of the country … Except now. Our current leader blames everyone but himself, and is providing no leadership.
Many years ago, Matt Groening wrote a book, Childhood is Hell. In it, he had a set of excuses when thing go wrong:
1) Deny culpability (I didn’t do it)
2) Blame someone else.
3) Declare it was an accident.
He also suggests to not use all 3 …
Americans are entering the first month of having to pay their insurance premiums without the subsidies Republicans shutdown the government to prevent. **Why the fuck would you back down now?** Aside from the blowout elections, Americans are about to feel real pain as a consequence of Republican’s plans and this isn’t a plan they could ever feasibly pin on the Democrats since they’ve been saying from day 1 that the shutdown is to holdout for these subsidies about to hit half the households in the U.S.
They do not need to settle. Hold the line!
“Centrists”
Schumer and his ilk need to hoof it out of here. That stuff doesn’t work with these clowns. They take your olive branch and beat you over the head with it like the primitives they are. Time for some new blood and some new tactics.