Vice President J.D. Vance sharply criticized Democrats in an interview on Thursday night, accusing them of âinflicting pain on Americans all for nothingâ after Congress voted to reopen the federal government following the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Speaking on Fox Newsâ âHannity,â Vance said the 43-day shutdown â which ended after President Donald Trump signed a short-term funding bill on Wednesday â exposed how far the far-left wing of the Democratic Party was willing to go in its opposition to the administration.
âHereâs what the Democrats actually accomplished,â Vance said. âThey caused a lot of stress for our troops. They made our air traffic controllers not get paid. They caused flight cancellations. They made families think they wouldnât get their food benefits. All for literally nothing.â
Vance argued that Democratsâ real motivation was not fiscal policy, but political sabotage. âThey donât care if the troops donât get paid. They donât care if they shut down the airline industry,â he said. âThey donât care if they have to burn the entire country down in order to get Trump.â
The vice president said the final agreement that reopened the government was identical to one Democrats had rejected six weeks earlier.
âWe could have struck this exact deal 45 days ago,â Vance said. âIn fact, we met with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and said we will pass this exact deal. They said no.â
Vance said that moderate Democrats privately admitted their partyâs strategy was âcrazyâ but were afraid to challenge the far-left faction.
âThey all feel a little bit like theyâre being held hostage,â he said, adding that several Democratic senators had worked quietly with the administration to broker the final deal.â
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The legislation passed the House in a 222â209 vote, with six Democrats joining Republicans to support the measure. Trump called the deal âa clear message that we will never give in to extortion,â blaming Democrats for âtrying to hold the country hostage.â
Vance praised the presidentâs resolve, saying Trump âknew this was going to happenâ and had warned that Democrats would eventually have to back down.
âThe president said every day that eventually Democrats were going to realize this was an absurd position, and thatâs what they did,â he said.
The vice president also predicted the standoff would have lasting political consequences, particularly for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), whom he said had âended his own careerâ by embracing a failed strategy.
âThis was politically stupid. It was a huge mistake,â Vance said. âThe American people saw through it.â
According to Vance, the shutdown exposed what he called a fundamental difference in priorities between the two parties.
âWe care about Americans. They care about illegal aliens,â he said. âThey made that super clear with this government shutdown fight.â
Republicans have framed the end of the shutdown as a vindication of Trumpâs approach, pointing out that the final package included no new spending increases or policy concessions to Democrats. The White House also touted that the measure restores pay for furloughed federal employees and stabilizes food programs affected by the lapse in funding.
Vanceâs remarks come as the administration begins efforts to repair the economic damage caused by the six-week shutdown. Air travel disruptions, delayed federal contracts, and paused infrastructure projects have been estimated to cost the economy billions of dollars in lost productivity.
Despite the criticism from the left, Vance said the administration was focused on âmoving forward,â crediting the presidentâs leadership for breaking the impasse.
âThe Democrats thought they could score political points by hurting the country,â he said. âInstead, they hurt themselves. And the American people wonât forget that.â

