As the federal government shutdown reaches 30 days, CNN host Jake Tapper pressed far-left Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D–N.M.) on her party’s repeated votes against reopening the government and the growing strain on federal nutrition programs.
During the exchange, Tapper directly challenged Stansbury over Senate Democrats’ refusal to support measures that would end the shutdown.
“This is … a choice by Senate Democrats to NOT vote to open the government,” Tapper said.
Stansbury pushed back, replying, “No, it is not!”
Tapper then followed up:
“If you feel so strongly… why not ask the Senate Democrats from New Mexico to vote to OPEN the government so the SNAP funds…”
Stansbury responded, “I’m fighting for SNAP!”
The far-left Democrat congresswoman tried to claim Democrats were fighting for money already appropriated, but Tapper noted how said funds were only to last weeks at most and not a lasting solution whatsoever, to which Stansbury took offense and continued trying to spar with the CNN host.
The exchange highlighted the growing tension within the Democratic Party as the shutdown enters its fifth week. Despite Stansbury’s insistence that she supports federal nutrition programs such as SNAP and WIC, she voted against a House bill to keep the government open earlier this month.
Democrats in the Senate have voted 13 times against proposals that would have reopened the government, blocking short-term funding measures advanced by House Republicans, as well as a “clean” bill that would merely keep current funding levels on all programs. Even some Democrat senators, such as Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, joined Republicans in working to try to reopen the government despite the Democrats’ shutdown.
Those bills would have kept essential programs funded while broader negotiations continued, but Democrats chose to let the benefits run out to give health care to criminal aliens and extend COVID-era programs that Democrat-led congresses and Joe Biden set sunsets on.
As a result, agencies are running low on resources, and programs that provide food assistance to millions of families are nearing exhaustion of contingency funds. Both SNAP and WIC are expected to face service disruptions if Congress does not act soon.
Republicans argue that Democrats are using the shutdown as leverage for political gain — at the expense of families who rely on these programs. Meanwhile, Tapper’s questioning underscored the growing public frustration with the standoff, as Stansbury refused to call on Democrat Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján to support reopening the government.
With the shutdown now at 30 days and no compromise in sight, critical aid programs continue to hang in the balance.