On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” CNN Chief Political Analyst David Axelrod stated that with the government shutdown, Democrats “saw a lever of power here to try and force” Republicans on health care.

Axelrod said, “I’m sure there’s politics on both sides, but the fact is, Democrats decided to plant a flag in the ground because, this month, people are getting their notices that their healthcare premiums are going to go up astronomically if they buy health care through the Affordable Care Act. And they saw a lever of power here to try and force a solution to that.”

He continued, “So, the question is, why don’t the Republicans and the president just sit down and negotiate this one issue and move forward? But the food thing is egregious. It’s not — one of the things that should be said is that, in a study I saw, the folks who used these benefits tend to be more from counties that voted for Donald Trump than counties that voted for Harris. So, they’re actually hurting their own constituents by doing this. And it’s not a game of chicken that should be played because there are real lives affected, and a lot of them are children. And I don’t think that’s going to sit well with the American people. Just sit down and negotiate and move forward, give people health care that they need, some security about their healthcare premiums, and let these benefits go. Obviously, they’re trying. The president was the one who said, we’re going to stop doing this on November 1. They don’t have to do that. They’ve moved other monies around. ICE, for example, is getting funded, but he won’t fund this. Now, he’s looking for leverage, and that’s a — and there are a lot of hostages in play here.”

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