Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) drew condemnation from Republican colleagues for suggesting that the ongoing government shutdown is “leverage time” for her party despite its negative effects on federal workers.
“Shutdowns are terrible. Of course there will be families that are going to suffer,” Clark said in a recorded interview with Fox News. “We take that responsibility very seriously, but it is one of the few leverage times we have.”
While the clip was originally published by Fox News last week, several Republicans shared the clip Wednesday.
“They’re saying the quiet part out loud,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) wrote on X. “The Schumer Shutdown is all politics.”
“They continue to say the quiet part out loud. Democrats are using American families as pawns in their sick game,” Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) wrote. “Absolutely reprehensible.”
“Democrats are openly admitting they’re weaponizing this shutdown and exploiting the suffering of hardworking Americans for their own political games,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) wrote. “This is shameful.”
“Making the American public suffer is just ‘leverage’ for Democrat leaders,” Sen. John Husted (R-OH) wrote.
“Democrats don’t care that Americans are suffering from the government shutdown. This is shameful,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) wrote.
“Yet another example of how the #SchumerShutdown is all about political leverage for Democrats. American people are getting in the crossfires of this mess and Democrats don’t care,” Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV) wrote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) hadn’t publicly commented on the clip, but he shared some of the aforementioned posts on his own X account.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) set out a television monitor outside of his office to replay the clip of Clark over and over.
“Utterly shameful! The Democrats OPENLY ADMIT they are causing the shutdown—and using hardworking American families as their LEVERAGE,” Johnson wrote on X.
The White House also issued a statement on the clip Wednesday.
“As Democrats gleefully wield the suffering of Americans as a weapon in their demented political games, they’ve plunged the nation into chaos,” the statement said. “More than a million federal employees aren’t getting paid, Americans are facing excruciating delays at airports, food stamp funding is drying up, small businesses are teetering on collapse, and tourists are shut out of their nation’s capital.”
Then the statement quoted Democratic Senators like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who said of the shutdown, “Every day gets better for us.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) suggested that if “you reopen the government and we lose our leverage.” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) predicted that a bill that would pay the military, TSA agents, and law enforcement during the shutdown “just gives the President more leverage.”
“This is Democrats’ disgusting playbook: inflict maximum pain on Americans to cling to power. While President Trump takes decisive action to ensure service members get paid and critical nutrition assistance programs for low-income women and children remain funded, unhinged Democrats are doing anything they can to stop him,” the White House statement said.
“Don’t be fooled: the Democrat Shutdown isn’t about an honest policy dispute. It’s a malicious, calculated, twisted assault on our nation and its citizens — and Democrats must end it,” the White House added.
Clark reworded her messaging in a series of X posts on Wednesday in order to shift the blame to Republicans in Congress.
“Families are being crushed by the Republican health care crisis, and Trump responds by building himself a golden ballroom,” Clark wrote.
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“The most vulnerable people in America are losing health care so Republicans can pay for billionaire tax cuts,” Clark wrote.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Clark for comment.