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Lawmakers have taken the first step toward reopening the government, after several Senate Democrats broke with their party on Sunday to support a framework to end the shutdown.
The deal was met with immediate backlash from inside the caucus, with many criticizing the Democrats for caving to Republicans and Donald Trump on the heels of last week’s high-profile election wins. However, on Monday’s “Morning Joe,” Joe Scarborough argued that those Democratic senators are making the right decision.
According to Scarborough, over the last 40 days, Democrats have succeeded in showing voters the Trump administration’s true priorities. “They have exposed a White House that is working overtime to give tax cuts to billionaires at the same time they’re working overtime to take SNAP assistance — to take food assistance — from working Americans,” he said.
He added the prolonged shutdown “exposed just how much the Republican Party hates the idea of helping working Americans, helping middle-class Americans who are struggling with health care.”
Scarborough said he hopes Democrats realize that Republicans “were never going to help” and urged those who have condemned the deal to “take a win.”
“All this fear and loathing and all this whining, I wish Democrats — for once, just once — could take a win,” he said.
The “Morning Joe” co-host said he believed that Democrats’ approach to the shutdown, by centering the fight around health care, has given the party a winning hand, politically.
“They should look to last Tuesday and look to next year, and understand that these government shutdowns, more than anything else, they define where the parties stand, and that stays in cement through the next election,” he explained, adding that Democrats are in a “good place” ahead of the midterms.
Scarborough said the deal does not represent a capitulation by Democrats, and he stressed that the American people would remember the party responsible for their pain. “The government shutdown is going to come to an end,” he said, “but the reality of what this Republican Party stands for today — the reality of what Donald Trump was fighting for this past week — that will stay with voters for years to come.”
You can watch Scarborough’s full analysis in the clip at the top of the page.