CNN hosts have clashed with prominent Democrats this week as the party signals it’s willing to let tens of millions of Americans’ food stamp assistance expire in order to increase their political “leverage” four weeks into the government shutdown.
With some 42 million Americans set to lose access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in November, CNN hosts including Jake Tapper, Kasie Hunt, and John Berman have questioned leading Democrats on whether they truly believe it’s a worthwhile tradeoff to let millions go hungry as the party struggles to secure an extension to costly pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies.
Tapper pushed back at Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D., N.M.) after she claimed that the Trump administration and congressional Republicans are the ones “choosing to starve American children.” Tapper noted that Senate Democrats have blocked a House GOP resolution to reopen the government 12 times. “This is also a choice by Senate Democrats to not vote to open the government, yes, it is,” Tapper told Stansbury.
Leading Democrats, including Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.) and Rep. Katherine Clark (D., Mass.), said in interviews last week that the party is willing to let American families “suffer” by allowing food stamp funding to expire in November as “leverage” to secure an extension to Obamacare subsidies.
Meanwhile, The Hill reported that centrist Democrats in the Senate would have reopened the government “yesterday,” but are afraid to do so because they are “terrified of getting the guillotine” from their left-wing base, despite making no progress in negotiating an extension to Obamacare subsidies.
“We’re 28 plus days into the shutdown, what has that done right now to extend these Obamacare premiums?” John Berman asked Sen. Coons during an interview. “Nothing,” Coons admitted.
https://freebeacon.com/media/democrats-lose-cnn-as-party-uses-food-stamps-as-shutdown-leverage/