Your Pre- and Post-Democratic-Capitulation Sunday Show Rundown

We watch so you never have to.

Not pictured is Chuck Schumer, whose feckless leadership pretty clearly facilitated this.

Normally, we watch all the Sunday shows and give you a rundown of all the dumb shit and lies said on them. That usually means we overwhelmingly cover more Republicans than Democrats, by default.

This week will be a bit different.

Last night and long after the Sunday shows were done, Chuck Schumer’s eight (pre-approved?) senators helped him pull Senate Democrats from the brink of effectiveness by agreeing to end the longest shutdown in American history for nothing more than a vague promise of a vote on the ACA subsidies by December.

Unlike Jack, Dems got the promise of maybe magic beans rather than actual magic beans.

Yes, the party that overwhelmingly won on Tuesday and has been winning the messaging battle on this shutdown decided to cave to a guy who was loudly booed for almost three minutes straight at a Washington Commanders game last night.

And before the First Circuit rejected the Trump DOJ’s request to pause a judge’s order to pay up November’s SNAP funds to the states.

This means the SCOTUS stay will/would expire within 48 hours, absent further action from the other justices.

While “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” it seems the road to Republican fascism is paved by the ineffectual cowardice of eight Senate Democrats. And, in hindsight, the hints of not only this Democratic Party’s eventual caving but their eventual future failure to renew the ACA subsidies were there on the Sunday shows.

On CBS’s Face The Nation, Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger told host Margaret Brennan her victory should not be seen as permission for Democrats to keep fighting.

SPANBERGER: Absolutely not. Our victory was a victory that was based on a campaign that was addressing concerns related to costs and chaos. […] Virginians need to and Virginians want to see the government reopen, and my expectation is that we will see a Congress, a Senate, and ultimately a president, driving us in that direction.

BRENNAN: But should congressional Democrats open the government and then talk about healthcare?

SPANBERGER: The government needs to open and it needs to open immediately.

And so forth.

Truly remarkable to be the beneficiary of voter enthusiasm, because elected Democrats were FINALLY fighting back without kid gloves and standing up to the fascist death cult that is the Republican Party, only to immediately undermine it by asking them to surrender. Spanberger has done this before, in the immediate wake of an election no less, but this one seems far worse.

Immediately, reports from people like Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl.news were leaking out that Senate Democrats were playing this clip to hype themselves to capitulate.

Finally, we know what the opposite of playing clips from Gladiator or Braveheart or Remember The Titans is.

Not that Chuck Schumer and his “Useless Eight” needed much encouragement since last Thursday, two days after the huge Democratic victories last Tuesday, they were already plotting this very outcome, as reported by The American Prospect two days ago:

It’s almost like this was all gonna end the same way, as far as Chuck Schumer was concerned.

So despite Schumer posting this days ago …

… and voting “No” last night …

… this certainly appears to be Schumer’s way to cave AGAIN and use retiring/not-up-for-reelection-soon senators to mask his lack of spine. Even this morning, Senator Jeanne Shaheen made it clear Schumer was in the loop.

Watching Senators Tim Kaine make jokes, Jeanne Shaheen tell us “no one wants to extend ACA tax credits more than I do,” and Maggie Hassan stating that now that Republicans got everything they want, they’ll “now finally have to come to the table” during a post-defeat press conference highlights how feckless and out-of-touch they are.

On the Sunday shows, Republicans did not seem to realize Democrats were about to hand them the win.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, on ABC’s This Week, struggled to even lie about the fictional tariff-funded bribes payments to Americans Trump has been promising, because even he could read that the GOP was losing.

BESSENT: I haven’t spoken to the president about this yet, but, you know, it could — the $2,000 dividend could come in lots of forms, in lots of ways […] You know, it could be just the tax decreases […] You know, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. Deductibility of auto loans. So, you know, those are substantial deductions that, you know, are being financed in the tax bill.

Translation: There is no proposal, no one is getting a $2,000 payment, and this is another wild, empty promise Trump threw out there for his cronies to intellectually zamboni.

On CNN’s State Of The Union and Fox News Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy explained that flying will remain a mess even after the shutdown ends because so many air traffic controllers are retiring.

Considering the Trump Administration's mass firing of air traffic controllers in February, Duffy’s giving a real “I Think You Should Leave” sketch vibe as he prepares to blame Democrats in the future for their incompetence.

This, but with a lot more fiery plane crashes.

On NBC’s Meet The Press, Senator James Lankford was telegraphing before this terrible deal to Kristen Welker that Republicans are not going to negotiate for ACA subsidies.

WELKER: Should the 300,000 Oklahomans who rely on ACA subsidies be prepared for their costs to skyrocket?

LANKFORD: We’re trying to find a way to be able to help.

Translation: Yeah, your health costs are gonna skyrocket.

And the House hasn’t indicated its position has changed from three days ago:

So while Chuck Schumer stated last night that “this fight will and must continue. Democrats must fight,” it certainly does appear that this was the fight.

THIS was the moment.

And eight Democratic senators (and unofficially Schumer?) cowered to assholes giving billions to scumbags spending $300 million on ballrooms, $200 million on private jets with no engines, giving $40 billion to that dancing Argentinian weirdo, and auctioning $64,000 Thailand vacation packages while Americans struggle with grocery and healthcare costs.

There are 47 Senate Democrats. Replacing Chuck Schumer as minority leader and Dick Durbin as whip would require just 24 votes.

Make it happen.

Wonkette will have more on the great Democratic caving throughout the day!

Have a week.

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