Raskin says shutdown would end political careers of Gaetz, Greene

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said that House GOP feuds over funding the government may end up killing the political careers of those pushing hardest for a government shutdown, notably Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)

Conservatives in the House have refused to work with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on passing funding bills without deep budget cuts, throwing the caucus into disarray and making a shutdown likely. The government runs out of funds at the end of the month.

Raskin theorized that the conservative push for a shutdown is actually former President Trump’s idea.

“Donald Trump is calling the shots across the board,” Raskin said in an MSNBC interview Friday. “He thinks he can shut down his indictments and the works of the special counsel and the Department of Justice and the federal courts by getting Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene and three other members of the ‘MAGA caucus’ to derail the House and shut down the government of the United States.”

“He’s badly mistaken because the attorney general, Jack Smith, and the prosecutors are funded by a continuing, indefinite appropriation to the Department of Justice,” he continued.

Conservatives need just five votes against McCarthy’s efforts to tank funding bills. Multiple efforts for temporary funding measures, including critical rules votes on defense spending, failed this week.

Raskin said that participating in what he believes is Trump’s shutdown plan can only hurt them politically.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz — who wants to run for governor of Florida, according to all the Republicans I serve with — should figure out right now that they’re just going to end their political careers by shutting down the government for no reason,” he said. “They should tell Donald Trump that his plan isn’t going to work.”

McCarthy said Friday that he would still like to pass a short-term government funding bill next week before the budget runs out Oct. 1.

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