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PBS News Hour - Segments

Democratic and GOP strategists on the political fallout of the government shutdown

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

4.11K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's Day 15 of the federal government shutdown, one of the longest lapses in funding in U.S. history. To discuss the politics of the shutdown, Geoff Bennett spoke with Democratic strategist Faiz Shakir and Republican strategist Doug Heye. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Transcript

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0:00.0

This podcast is supported in part by the New England Innovation Academy in Marlborough, Massachusetts,

0:05.5

where today's students become tomorrow's innovators by discovering their passions and purpose while preparing for what's next,

0:12.1

reimagining education with a future-focused curriculum, entrepreneurial mindset, and real-world application,

0:18.1

currently enrolling grade 6 through 12, day and boarding students.

0:22.0

Learn more at NEI Academy.org.

0:25.1

And for more on the politics of the shutdown, we're joined now by Democratic strategist

0:29.4

Fas Shakir and Republican strategist Doug High. Great to see you both.

0:33.1

Good to be with you.

0:33.6

So there is a real disconnect between the pain that federal workers are experiencing and

0:38.8

the lack of urgency among lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

0:42.2

How do you make sense of that gap?

0:44.2

I think it's pretty simple.

0:45.2

And it's that history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.

0:48.0

If we go back to the 2013 shutdown, Republicans said, we have to fight Obamacare.

0:53.7

We didn't have a strategy to land a punch, to win the round, to knock down our opponent.

0:58.1

And it blew up in our faces.

1:00.0

Democrats right now, what are they saying?

1:01.4

We have to fight Donald Trump.

1:03.2

It's not clear that they have a strategy to win the round, to land a punch, to beat Trump.

1:08.2

And so we have this impasse where you have two parties that are essentially

1:11.2

communicating to their base. Everybody who was in that package you played earlier is caught in

1:15.9

the middle of these politics. And both sides not only think they can win, they think they are

...

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