Shutdown Day 14: No progress, new threats from Trump

Senate Republicans on Tuesday failed for an eighth time to advance a House-passed measure to temporarily fund and reopen the government, unable to pick up any new Democratic votes to support the measure.

That means the U.S. government shutdown will enter its third week Wednesday, its 15th day, as there was still no sign of progress later Tuesday in the standoff.

Another dubious milepost could come as quickly as Friday. If the shutdown is not resolved by then, it would become the second-longest in U.S. history. Only the 35-day shutdown in 2018-19 in a fight over President Donald Trump’s demand for border wall funding would have been longer.

At the White House Tuesday, Trump amped up his threats. That included dragging New York’s Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani into the fight. Trump told reporters he intends on Friday to release a list of "Democratic programs" that will be permanently cut under the shutdown.

"I’m not going to send a lot of money to New York, because I don’t have to," Trump said, asserting again that Mamdani is not a democratic socialist, but a communist — and ignoring the fact Congress appropriates money to cities and states under federal programs. He said, "The funding comes through the White House, and "I would not be generous to a communist who's gonna take the money and throw it out the window."

A Mamdani spokeswoman provided no immediate response.

House Republicans on Tuesday were still not in session. The chamber has not voted since Sept. 19, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) early in the day reasserted he won't call the House back until Senate Democrats lend their needed votes to the House-passed bill and end the shutdown.

Meantime, he and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) refuse to negotiate with Democrats over health care tax credits they want extended, before they expire at the end of the year — with language they insist be attached to the funding bill.

Johnson himself has been holding daily news conferences, however. On Wednesday, Long Island Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) will join the speaker. Topics will include the Trump administration’s actions over the weekend to ensure active military members did not miss their paychecks on Wednesday.

House Democrats did return to the Capitol and gathered in a closed-door caucus Tuesday night. After that meeting, some Democratic members — including those in the Democratic Women’s Caucus — marched to Johnson’s office to demand he swear-in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) to Congress.

Grijalva last month won a special election to replace her late father, former Rep. Raúl Grijalva, but Johnson has refused to swear her in. He says that will happen after the House returns to session — which he then insists will occur once the Senate Democrats agree to help pass the bill to reopen government.

Some Democrats have accused Johnson and Republicans of not wanting Grijalva seated because she will provide the final signature needed on a petition to force a floor vote on legislation calling on the Justice Department to release all of its files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.