Fox News host Jesse Watters isn’t pleased with the 11th hour drama over a potential government shutdown, venting his frustration Wednesday at congressional Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to blow up a bipartisan spending bill without another option in play.
Watters reacted to Trump and Elon Musk’s last-minute broadsides at the legislation, which was carefully negotiated by House Speaker Mike Johnson to avert the partial government shutdown that is set to occur if Congress can’t pass a funding bill by Friday at midnight.
Trump criticized the “foolish and inept” members of his party who had supported the bill, which he claimed was full of “all of the Democrat ‘bells and whistles’ that will be so destructive to our Country.”
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The Fox host took a similar approach to Republicans in Washington.
“Congress has had all year to get this done, and they always wait until the last second, and they try to pull a fast one, get caught, whine about Christmas, and promise they won’t do it again, and it’s the same every time,” he began. “Trump won because Democrats caused inflation, and now Republicans—with the help of Democrats—are causing inflation before they go on vacation.”
“I’m just not happy about this, and I was in a great mood when I woke up this morning,” he continued, before introducing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
The Republican politico responded that he supported a short-term solution to push off the shutdown deadline, and then passing a new bill before Trump’s inauguration.
“The obvious answer,” he told Watters, “is kill this bill, pass a very short continuing resolution to get the new Republican Senate installed, and negotiate a new bill before January 20 that covers the rest of the year and gets the job done.”
Regarding Congress’s current inability to pass a spending bill, Gingrich pointed to the narrow Republican majority and how some members wouldn’t vote for one regardless of what it contained.
“There are probably 15 Republicans who wake up every morning and say, ‘I know I’m going to vote no. What’s the issue?‘” he said.
Watters followed up by taking issue with the way Trump and Musk publicly inserted themselves into the negotiation process, thereby “ruining the momentum” generated by Trump’s electoral victory last month.
“You’re saying if Republicans can’t stick together now—and we’re going into this two years where they have the House, the Senate, the White House—if they can’t stick together on something like this, with all this momentum—everyone was in a good mood, I was in a great mood, Mar-a-Lago was in a great mood, the markets..." he said. “They’re ruining the momentum right now! Republicans. Right?”
Gingrich didn’t seem as bothered.
“Welcome to the American Constitution,” he said. “The founding fathers divided power up, and you can make speeches all you want, but you’ve got to get the votes.”
Trump, Musk and co-head of the DOGE agency Vivek Ramaswamy “are going to have to work the Republican conference [and] get them to understand they need a hundred percent on every key vote. Period,” Gingrich said.
What would help, Watters suggested, is a retreat.
“Why can’t he get a little Republican summit together, lock the doors, serve drinks, make some threats, do some horse trading, say, ‘I need everybody in for the next two years. I don’t want to hear any garbage out of anybody, or else I’m going to do something, which I can’t say,‘” Watters said. “Why can’t that work? Do they need to bring you in there?”
Gingrich reiterated his earlier game plan for a short-term resolution, assuming such a meeting was unproductive.
