Clyburn says he thought Senate Dems were 'on board' with opposing funding bill: 'What happened?'

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said he doesn’t know what happened late last week that resulted in Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and nine other Senate Democrats voting to advance the GOP continuing resolution to keep the government open.

In an interview on MSNBC this weekend, Clyburn said he thought Senate Democrats were “on board” with the strategy embraced by House Democrats — nearly all of whom opposed that very same bill — pointing to Schumer’s remarks on Wednesday, when he said the GOP’s continuing resolution didn’t have the votes to get through the Senate.

“You know, I don't know. I thought the Senate was on board. If you can remember when Leader Schumer announced that the votes were not there, I thought that this was the time for the whole country to focus on exactly who was where,” Clyburn said.

Clyburn pointed to Quinnipiac University polling data showing a plurality of the American public would blame either President Trump or the Republicans for a government shutdown. Thirty-two percent said in the survey last week that they would blame Democrats.

“When I saw the numbers, 22 percent of the American people said Trump was responsible. Around 31 percent said the Republicans were responsible. Add that up, I'm not good in math, but that's over 50 percent of the American people blaming the Republicans.”

Clyburn fiercely defended House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who Clyburn said was “blindsided” by Schumer’s support for the resolution.

“For the first 24 hours, they seem to be on board. And then all of a sudden, there's this change. What happened in the 24-hour period? I'm not sure, but nobody should be blaming Hakeem Jeffries for that,” Clyburn said.

Clyburn pushed back against those who say “we need new leadership.”

“Jeffries played it by the rules,” Clyburn said. “He played the game the way it ought to be played, and somehow he got blindsided.”

Schumer has defended his vote by saying a government shutdown would have been worse, effectively accelerating Trump’s efforts to close down government agencies he doesn’t like, but he has faced intense backlash within the party for not putting up a fight.