Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Rep. Mikie Sherrill trade blame over federal government shutdown as New Jersey governor race heats up amid military records controversy.
– EXCLUSIVE: The nation’s capital isn’t the only battlefield in the blame game between Democrats and Republicans over the first federal government shutdown in seven years.
The verbal crossfire is also playing out on the campaign trail in New Jersey, which is home to one of only two elections for governor across the nation this year.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli, in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital, pointed fingers at his Democratic rival, Rep. Mikie Sherrill.
After Sherrill, a four-term congresswoman, charged in a statement that „Washington Republicans have once again shown they’re willing to turn their backs on the American people in order to blindly follow Donald Trump’s demands“, Ciattarelli criticized his opponent in the combustible, competitive, and high-profile ballot box showdown.
„There’s nothing my opponent won’t blame on President Trump. As I like to say, if you get a flat [tire] today, it’s President Trump’s fault“, Ciattarelli argued, in a sit-down interview after taking part in a candidate forum hosted by Fairleigh Dickinson University.
With neither Trump and the Republican majority in Congress, nor congressional Democrats willing to lower the temperature, the government shut down early Wednesday morning.
Democrats insisted that any agreement to prevent a government shutdown, or now to end the shutdown, must extend tax credits for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) beyond the end of this year. Those credits, which millions of Americans rely on to reduce the costs of health care plans under the ACA, which was once known as Obamacare, are set to expire unless Congress acts.
But most Republicans oppose the extension of the credits and argue that the Democrats‘ demands would lead to a huge increase in taxpayer-funded healthcare for immigrants who entered the country illegally.
Sherrill, along with every other House Democrat except Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, voted against a GOP stopgap measure that would have temporarily averted the shutdown.
Ciattarelli, pointing to his rival’s vote in Congress, said, „I do know that there’s a bipartisan group of congresspeople that are trying to keep the government open. My opponent has decided not to be part of that bipartisan group, and she voted no. And so here we are.“
Sherrill, who has repeatedly linked Ciattarrelli to Trump, placed the shutdown blame squarely on Trump’s shoulders, writing in a social media post, „This is precisely the extreme MAGA agenda that @Jack4NJ wants to bring to NJ.
