John Fetterman criticizes Sanders over government shutdown vote stance
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On Thursday’s episode of “Next Question with Katie Couric,” Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., criticized Rep., accusing him of putting 42 million Americans at risk of “mass food insecurity” amid a fight between Republicans and Democrats over health subsidies and the recent government shutdown.
Couric asked Fetterman what she thought of people like Sanders who insist that Democrats voting with Republicans to reopen the government “opens up the possibility of kicking 15 million people off of Medicaid and doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling premiums for 20 million Americans.”
“You know, Bernie should answer why it’s okay to leave 42 million Americans facing mass food insecurity, or explain why it’s okay to not pay the military for them and the tens of millions of Americans who will be flying,” Fetterman responded.
JOHN FETTERMAN SPREAD WITH DEMOCRATS ON LOCKDOWN VOTE, SAYS PUTTING AMERICA FIRST WAS ‘An EASY CHOICE’
Fetterman questioned why Sanders was okay with allowing “42 million Americans to face mass food insecurity” during the government shutdown. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images; Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Eight Senate Democrats broke with their party leadership to vote in favor of the continuing resolution (CR), which passed the House on Sunday night. President Donald Trump signed the bill Wednesday, officially ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
The disagreement between Republicans and Democrats stemmed from disagreements over various health care provisions to be included in a potential funding measure. Trump and Republicans claimed Democrats want to provide health care to illegal immigrants and pointed to a provision that would repeal a portion of Trump’s tax and domestic policy bill, known as the “big, beautiful bill,” that reduces Medicaid eligibility for non-U.S. citizens.
Democrats have pushed back on that characterization and said they want to permanently extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of 2025.
The stopgap spending bill Trump signed does not extend these subsidies through the end of the year, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) agreed to vote on legislation to continue these credits in December.
FETTERMAN SAID DEMOCRATS SENT THE ‘WRONG MESSAGE’ WITH GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN FUNDING STRUGGLE
President Donald Trump signs the funding bill that will end the US government shutdown at the White House in Washington, DC, on November 12, 2025. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
Continuing to push back on Sanders’ criticism of Democratic senators (including himself) who voted to pass the CR, Fetterman acknowledged that while he shared “some of these priorities for expanding tax credits,” the two senators had a “different tactic” in approaching the solution.
He also added that there are “no guarantees” of getting funding for ACA loans because “everything will depend on Trump and he really has the ability to change everything.”
“So the idea that it’s simple to get to a challenging situation that doesn’t exist. And for me, that’s a risk I refuse to take,” he continued. “And to them, they have a different view. But for a committed Democrat, I think our party needs to accommodate that.”
After the CR passed on Sunday, Sanders attacked the eight Democratic senators who joined Republicans in advancing the resolution, calling it a “very, very bad vote” in a video posted on his X account.
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Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont holds a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, November 5, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Tonight, 8 Democrats voted with Republicans to allow them to move forward on this ongoing resolution,” Sanders said. he said. “And to me that was a very, very bad vote.”
The Vermont senator argued that the measure “doubles, and in some cases triples or quadruples, the health care premiums for more than 20 million Americans,” adding that “people can’t afford it when we’re already paying the highest prices in the world for health care.”
He continued: “This leads to 15 million people being kicked off of Medicaid. Studies show that means nearly 50,000 Americans will die needlessly every year. And this is all done to give a trillion dollars in tax cuts to the 1%.”
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Sanders’ office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom and Diana Stancy contributed to this report.
