Democrats are losing Schumer’s Shutdown war in the media, which became apparent when Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) told George Stephanopoulos Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he’s ready to pay for President Donald Trump’s border wall if that’s what it takes to get a DACA deal.

“I think the wall is a monumental waste of taxpayer money. It’s to build a monument to stupidity, and it’s just idiotic,” Gutiérrez said. “Having said that, if that’s what it’s going to take in order to put 800,000 young men and women in this country — dreamers — and put them in a safe place and put them on a course to full integration in our society, if that’s what the hostage-takers of the dreamers, if that’s their ransom call, I say pay it.” (Dreamers are would-be beneficiaries of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM, Act.)

This is the same Gutiérrez who wants to impeach Trump. Did the fiery Illinois Democrat see Saturday’s headlines in the mainstream media?

Such as this headline on Bloomberg News: “Shutdown Starts as Senate Democrats Block GOP Funding Plan.”

Or this one from The New York Times: “Senate Democrats Block Bill to Keep Government Open Past Midnight, Shutdown Looms.”

Or the Associated Press’ declaration that “Senate Democrats derail bill to avert shutdown.”

Even The Washington Post got in the act, with a headline declaring “Shutdown could hurt Democrats seeking re-election in Trump states.”

Such headlines provide a stark contrast to the media’s near-unanimous conclusion that Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and the first Republican congressional majority in 40 years made a huge mistake by shutting down the government for nearly two weeks in 1995.

The AP headline is especially important because hundreds of media outlets across the country picked it up on Saturday.

Overall, the mainstream media’s reporting remained overwhelmingly biased in Democrats’ favor, but the cracks like those above suggest the accuracy of Brian McGuire’s observation during a Saturday panel on CNN:

“I think it is a huge gamble on the Democrats’ part. If you read The New York Times, it is clear that Democrats are hoping in November people forget about the shutdown. They are gambling that people forget about this, and they feel like they need to do this right now to appease their base. But hopefully by November other voters in these red states will have forgotten about it, and that shows where the leverage is here, and that is on the Republican side.”

McGuire is former chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Pollsters are noticing the danger to Democrats as well, as The Washington Post reported early Sunday that “some Democrats also quietly conceded that the impasse — if it is seen as a fight over immigration — holds risks for vulnerable senators, even if they voted to keep the government open.”

The Post reporters added that “a super PAC allied with Senate Democrats commissioned a poll in 12 battleground states in early December 2017, and it found that in more conservative states, blame for a shutdown would be split between Trump and Republicans and Democrats in Congress. But when interviewers asked respondents about a shutdown that might be tied to the legal status of dreamers, Democrats absorbed more blame.”

Schumer’s Shutdown is not 1995 revisited.

Senior editor Mark Tapscott can be reached at mark.tapscott@lifezette.com. Follow him on Twitter.​

(photo credit, homepage and article images: Rally at US Sen 0364 Senator Charles Schumer [1], [2], CC BY-SA 2.0, by Edward Kimmel) 

William M. Finley Blogger for the coalition for Trump

Dr. Gary Katz 1st
Liaison Officer at USMC and IDF
Mr. Finley has successfully surpassed [by a very wide margin] the now decaying and irrelevant trash NYT. Congratulations, Bill! By the way, I frequently pass along some of Mr. Finley's posts and many of his accurate and pithy introductions and analytical commentary to a group of Prime Ministers, military officials, and people of integrity...from all walks of life. With respect & Appreciation, Dr. Gary Katz