Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and then-Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speak on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Hours later, at a White House briefing, Vance kept firing away at Schumer.
"The reality here, and let’s be honest about the politics, is that Chuck Schumer is terrified he’s going to get a primary challenge from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," Vance argued. "The reason why the American people’s government is shut down is because Chuck Schumer is listening to the far-left radicals in his own party because he’s terrified of a primary challenge."
HOW A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN WOULD AFFECT YOU
Johnson, pushing the same message, claimed Wednesday morning in an interview on FOX Business' "Mornings with Maria" that "there is one reason and one reason alone that Chuck Schumer is leading the Democrats off this cliff. He is trying to get political cover from the far-left corner of his base. He's afraid of a challenge for his Senate seat by AOC or someone like that."
While all sides are in the hot seat in the shutdown political battle, the one feeling the most heat may be the 74-year-old Schumer, who has led the Senate Democrats for nearly a decade.
The shutdown appears to offer the Democrat from New York a second chance, or a do-over after he faced fierce backlash from the Democratic Party base, which hungers for more vocal opposition to Trump's unprecedented second-term agenda after his move to vote with Republicans to avoid a government shutdown this past spring.
HOW THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IMPACTS THE ECONOMY
Schumer's move raised questions about whether he would face a leadership challenge in 15 months when the new Congress convenes, and whether he'd face a primary challenge from Ocasio-Cortez when the senator is up for re-election in 2028.
Ocasio-Cortez, who has long grabbed outsized national attention and who this year has teamed up with longtime progressive champion and two-time Democratic presidential nominee runner-up Sen. Bernie Sanders at rallies across the country, is thought to be mulling either a 2028 Senate bid in New York or a run for the White House.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., right, talk with reporters following their meeting with President Donald Trump and Republican leaders on the government funding crisis, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite - AP Photo)
Democrats insisted that any agreement to prevent a government shutdown, or now to end the shutdown, must extend tax credits for the popular Affordable Care Act (ACA) beyond the end of this year. Those credits, which millions of Americans rely on to reduce the costs of healthcare plans under the ACA, which was once known as Obamacare, are set to expire unless Congress acts.
But most Republicans oppose the extension of the credits and argue that the Democrats' demands would lead to a huge increase in taxpayer-funded healthcare for immigrants who entered the country illegally.
"I think it's important for the American people to realize that the far-left faction of Senate Democrats shut down the government because we wouldn't give them hundreds of billions of dollars for health care benefits for illegal aliens," Vance said in his "Fox and Friends" interview.
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But Schumer, speaking with FOX Business on Wednesday morning, argued that "the American people are on our side, completely and totally. They don't want their healthcare decimated."
And he charged that the White House and congressional Republicans "have refused to talk to us. They should come and talk to without conditions because the American people are suffering. Their health care is in shambles."
Fox News' Alex Miller contributed to this story
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blame-game-republicans-claim-schumer-forced-shutdown-because-hes-terrified-aoc-primary-challenge