This is what a party that sees its potential loss of power and has no idea what to do about it looks like.

Republicans control the entire federal government. Republicans decided not to work with Democrats to secure the votes needed in the Senate to keep the government open.

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House and Senate Republicans are angry because they got themselves into this mess by unilaterally deciding to end Obamacare subsidies. Republicans under the leadership of Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, and John Thune thought that paying for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans by cutting healthcare for tens of millions of people was a wonderful idea.

Republicans made that policy choice, so when Democrats decided to use their leverage to force a change, Trump’s party responded by trying to force Democrats to vote for a continuing resolution that they deemed unacceptable, and when that failed, Republicans shut the government down.

Because Democrats are more unified and have a better message, Republicans have gotten angry.

That anger boiled over at a Friday press conference.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune refused to nuke the filibuster to reopen the government because he claimed that if he did so, Democrats would get back into power, and there would be abortion on demand and two new senators from Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico.

However it was Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) who went way past Thune’s typical Republican fearmongering about Democrats, and delivered his own theory about why Democrats won’t do what Republicans want, “ This is about one thing and one thing only to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold as Leader Scalise just commented on a Hate America rally in DC next week.”

Video of Emmer:

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