Bernie Sanders clashes with town hall attendee over Schumer leadership during shutdown

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., grew frustrated with a Republican town hall attendee on Wednesday after a question about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s leadership during the government shutdown.

Sanders took part in a CNN town hall with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., discussing the ongoing government shutdown. One of the questions during the event came from American University student Rohan Naval, a Republican, who asked Sanders how he thinks the shutdown reflected Schumer’s leadership.

“Well, I think it reflects more on Mike Johnson‘s leadership and President Trump‘s leadership,” Sanders answered. “This is a leadership that said it‘s okay to give a…well, how do you feel? You tell me. You think it‘s a good idea to give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the richest people in the country and then make massive cuts to healthcare for working class people?”

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“I think Chuck Schumer has voted for continuing resolutions 13 times in the last four years, and he has the opportunity to vote for one again, but he‘s refusing to come to the table,” Naval responded.

“I think…look, as I have said, there are 53 Republicans in the Senate, correct?” Sanders remarked. “They need 60. What does that mean? It means you have to talk to the other side. Mike Johnson is not talking. John Thune is not talking. President Trump is not talking. That is the problem.”

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Republicans have blamed Schumer for the shutdown, saying it was meant to appease the Democratic Party’s progressive wing. Last week, he came under fire by the White House for reportedly claiming that things are getting “better” for the Democrats during the shutdown.

“Every day gets better for us,” Schumer reportedly told Punchbowl News. “It’s because we’ve thought about this long in advance, and we knew that healthcare would be the focal point on Sept. 30, and we prepared for it… Their whole theory was — threaten us, bamboozle us, and we would submit in a day or two.”

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“Chuck Schumer just said the quiet part out loud: Democrats are gleefully inflicting pain on the American people over their push to give illegal aliens free healthcare,” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson said in a statement provided exclusively to Fox News Digital.

Fox News’ Rachel Wolf, Preston Mizell and Diana Stancy contributed to this report.