Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday that Democrats "own the shutdown" of the federal government, now more than a month long, calling it an "absolute fail."

Tapper said, “So, as you know, 42 million Americans, including 2 million Pennsylvanians, will not receive food stamp or SNAP benefits this month because funding officially lapsed yesterday. The White House says this is the fault of Democrats for shutting down the government. Democrats note that the Trump administration is not dipping into the contingency funds for SNAP, and they think that Trump is doing that to to pressure Democrats. How do you see it? Who do you blame for this?”

Fetterman said, “Well I mean, for me, fundamentally, I’m deeply, deeply distressed to know that 42 million Americans are going to lose their SNAP benefits. And now that’s one of the big reasons why I refuse to shut our government down."

The lawmaker has voted consistently with Republicans to pass a continuing resolution keeping spending at current levels, but there were not enough votes to overcome a Democrat filibuster that has kept the government closed as they demand a restoration of spending cuts made in the One Big Beautiful Bill passed in July.

"We're shutting it down"

"And again, I feel like the Democrats really need to own the shutdown. I mean, we’re shutting it down," he said.

He even seemed to reject the Democrats' given reason for their refusal to pass the CR.

"I know why they claim, because they want to address the tax credits, and I fully support that. I voted for all of their CRs, our CRs, every single time," he said. "And I refuse to put 42 million Americans in the kinds of food insecurity. Now, this is all all solved by just reopen our government and the people are now paid.”

In this way, Fetterman is much more genuine in his position than the leader of his party in the Senate, Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Crooked Chuck

Schumer keeps trying to blame the shutdown on Democrats, but in reality, it is pretty much all his fault.

Schumer singlehandedly engineered the shutdown to prove to the progressives in his party that he wasn't kowtowing to Republicans, which was the accusation Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) leveled against him earlier this year when he allowed a spending bill to pass just after Trump took office and the Senate flipped red.

He is very worried that AOC will primary him and he will lose his Senate seat, even though he's already 74 and not up for re-election until 2028.

Fetterman isn't having any of it--he's proving he has way more integrity than Schumer by being consistent in his positions no matter what side that puts him on.

“This is an absolute fail," he told Tapper. "It is actually embarrassing honesty if we can’t even keep the lights on.”

Good for Fetterman for having the courage of his convictions and standing by his principles. We need more politicians like him in both parties.