It's now the second day of the partial government shutdown, which will go through Christmas and shows no signs of stopping.
The shutdown comes after the White House rejected stopgap legislation passed by the House and Senate—which would have kept the government fully operational until 2019—because lawmakers didn't cave to President Donald Trump's demands for an additional $5 billion dollar allocation for border wall funding.
As is often the case in government shutdowns, those in Washington are trying to deflect blame from their own party and, in the case of the GOP, from their President.
But if the results of a recent poll from C-SPAN are any indication, keeping the blame from Donald Trump may prove to be difficult.
An overwhelming 80% of respondents blamed the President for the government shutting down. In addition to Trump rejecting the continuing resolution put forth to keep the government open, the consensus is likely due to statements made by Trump in a contentious public meeting with likely Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY).
During that meeting, Trump said he'd be "proud" to shut down the government, before stating unequivocally that a shutdown would fall on his shoulders:
“I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it. The last time you shut it down, it didn’t work. I will take the mantle of shutting down. And I’m going to shut it down for border security.”
Days later, his tune had changed:
But as Twitter users are pointing out in the replies to C-SPAN's poll, they won't be forgetting Trump's words.
Things only got worse for the President.
Many thought blame for the shutdown extended to the President's party as well.
With this being the third shutdown in two years, some traced the root of the problem back to the electorate.
But far and wide, it was Trump who got the blame.
Still, one person found a silver lining for the President.
It's growing more and more likely that the shutdown will drag on until the inauguration of the new Congress on January 3rd.
@GregAbbott_TX/X
