Washington Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York criticized Democrats for their push to shut down the government following the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. York believes that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will proceed with the shutdown despite the tragic circumstances surrounding Kirk’s assassination last week during an event in Utah.
“It does look stupid but I think they are going to continue to do it in part because government really does have deadlines, these are actual arguments, and Congress has to do something whether the atmosphere is tragic or not,” York stated during an appearance on The Hugh Hewitt Show on Wednesday.
To prevent a government shutdown after the September 30 deadline, Republicans require the backing of at least seven Senate Democrats to overcome the filibuster. In March, Schumer successfully voted to keep the government open with support from several Democrats, but he now claims that “the situation is much different.”
York anticipates that Democrats will persist in opposing the spending bill despite the recent tragic events. “The everyday fight that constitutes so much of government, and that’s what this is, does look particularly petty in comparison to a huge life and death event that we just witnessed,” he remarked.
He also noted that Schumer appears to be anxious about alienating the more progressive members of his party. Following Kirk’s assassination, speculation has arisen regarding the political beliefs of the suspect, Tyler Robinson, but authorities have indicated that Robinson adhered to leftist views.
York commented that the left is in “complete denial” regarding Robinson’s true motives. “They are just twisting themselves into pretzels to try and deny what is right in front of their face by the way in Tyler Robinson’s own words, so again beliefs can be even more stubborn than facts,” he asserted.
York concurred with Hewitt’s assessment that Democrats have not been “reading the room” since Kirk’s assassination. “We’ve been having this debate for a while on the nature of political violence, and the one thing we have seen has been just complete denial on the left that there was political violence on the left because they believe with all their heart that MAGA is a violent extremist authoritarian movement, and that January 6 typifies MAGA,” he explained. “That is what it’s about and they talked away the Butler assassination attempt on President Trump.”
