After 43 days, you can whiz on the fire and call in the dogs, because the shutdown has been officially shut down.
At 10:39pm Wednesday night, surrounded at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office by dozens of Republican legislators, President Donald Trump signed the federal government into existence again. As our friend Guy Benson aptly noted, the irony behind who Democrats and their Resistance media allies tried to blame for the shutdown for six weeks versus the reality of the inevitable reopening couldn't have been more stark.
Curious to see all these Republicans applauding as the Republican president signs the bill they all supported to end a shutdown that Democrats insisted was Republicans’ fault (even as they, the Democrats, voted overwhelmingly and repeatedly to keep the government closed)! 🤔 https://t.co/a140SMTBUX
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) November 13, 2025
Even since Sunday night's Senate vote, sending the package of spending bills and a little something extra for a handful of Republican Senators which we'll get to in a bit, the process to get the government reopened was a ride bump-worthy of Mr. Toad.
Going into Wednesday, when it became clear that virtually all of Congress had successfully navigated their way back to the nation's capital for the vote later in the evening after the obligatory angry Hakeem Jeffries stall speech, the bill seemed like a lock to pass. New York's Mike Lawler, one of the more moderate Republicans in the House and a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, signaled that side of the House Republicans were fully on board.
Any House member of Problem Solvers who votes no on the Senate compromise CR to open up the government, should immediately resign from Problem Solvers and admit they aren’t serious about governing.
— Mike Lawler (@lawler4ny) November 10, 2025
And from the other side of the tent, the House Freedom Caucus, their chairman, Andy Harris, indicated that their wing of the party was on board to get the goverment opened up.
“I think we’ve reached a critical point where the SNAP benefits are running out, air traffic controllers are having problems, and our military is not getting paid. I voted to keep the government open seven weeks ago. I’ll vote this week to reopen the government.”…
— Rep. Andy Harris, MD (@RepAndyHarrisMD) November 12, 2025
There was a brief bit of drama for the Republicans, as late in the afternoon, Florida Republican Greg Steube discovered that the clean C.R. part of the Senate package was anything but.
After forcing the country to endure the longest government shutdown in history, the Senate's response is the furthest thing from a ‘clean’ CR. I could not in good conscience support a resolution that creates a self-indulgent legal provision for certain senators to enrich…
— Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) November 13, 2025
This little rider to the bill allowing Senate Republicans the chance to sue the federal government for having their phone records tapped by Joe Biden's Department of Justice and Special Counsel Jack Smith was a wrinkle Speaker Mike Johnson didn't appreciate. The handful of Senators who got illegally surveilled, which include Ted Cruz, Eric Schmitt, Marsha Blackburn, Ashley Moody, Lindsey Graham and a few others, were, and remain genuinely ticked that the Executive Branch lawlessly snooped on the Executive Branch last year. The House, even though they're also run by Republicans, felt violated themselves - not at what Biden's officials did to Senate Republicans, but what Senate Republicans did to them without letting them know about it ahead of time.
Speaker Johnson promised an immediate standalone bill to strip that rider out. Now that the cat's out of the bag, more than likely, the Senate will quietly go along with it and remove the rider without too much fuss. That promise to remove it later wasn't enough for Steube, however, and he was one of two Republicans to vote against the package. I say two, but really, Steube was the lone Republican. The other no vote belonged to Thomas Massie, whose existence in Congress should serve as a constant reminder that the GOP should be a big tent party, but even that big tent has edges, and Massie is almos always on the outside of that edge.
With such a thin majority in the House, with two no votes and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries vowing to hard whip every Democrat to, *checks notes*, vote no in order to continue the government shutdown being blamed on Republicans, tension rose late in the afternoon that if there were no Democrat defections, this bill may not make it after all.
Temu Obama Jeffries was hotter than a Solaire Infrared Grill after eight Democrats in the Senate caved Sunday night. He didn't have anything good to say about them in his Monday press conference.
Jeffries told CBS's John Dickerson that those eight are going to have to answer for themselves, and later said he was confident House Democrats would be united in opposition to the Senate deal.
Exclusive: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries tells CBS News’ John Dickerson that the eight Democrats in the Senate who voted with Republicans to end the government shutdown will have to explain themselves. “House Democrats are in this fight until we win this fight,” Jeffries… pic.twitter.com/yw6iAKw2rS
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) November 12, 2025
The fever swamp on the left, coming after Chuck Schumer rhetorically with torches and pitchforks after Sunday's vote, stood up for Jeffries earlier in the day Wednesday, believing that he would successfully keep his caucus in line.
Just pointing out that Hakeem Jeffries got TWO HUNDRED AND TWELVE House Democrats to hold the line.
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) November 10, 2025
Not one House Democrat cracked.
Not one House Democrat caved.
I’m going to remember that. pic.twitter.com/5wTP0y5vYL
That's the spirit, lefties. Jeffries kept them in line to close the government in the first place, so no reason he can't do it again to give the Republicans a black eye, right? Nah.
🚨 BREAKING: Hakeem Jeffries is privately fuming after SIX DEMOCRATS refused his orders, broke ranks and voted to reopen the government with Republicans.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 13, 2025
They "whipped" all Dems to vote NO.
Brutal, Hakeem! What a pathetic way to lose!pic.twitter.com/94A9TxXds0
After 48 hours of Jeffries and his number two, Catherine "Leverage" Clark twisting arms and openly threatening their members if they broke ranks, they lost six. As the vote tally continued deep into the night and the board looked really ugly in the unity department for the Democratic side of the aisle, you could hear the left-wing civil war that began in earnest three days earlier in the Senate break out on the floor of the House.
🚨 JUST IN: Democrats began SCREECHING at each other on the House floor when members of their own party defected and voted to REOPEN
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 13, 2025
“NO!!!! NOOOOO!!!!!!!”
*unintelligible screaming*
Democrats are in full meltdown mode 🤣🔥 pic.twitter.com/6wlCkAT31E
It was faint to the C-SPAN microphones, and their cameras were not trained in on the Democrat protesters of other Democrats, but we here at HotAir have the inside hidden footage of what the vote looked and sounded like.
In the aftermath of Donald Trump's decisive win in the 2024 election, a group of liberal women in Wisconsin held a "primal scream" event to express their stupidity.
— Grim (@MadWokeNews) November 28, 2024
This gathering at Klode Park involved loud screams towards Lake Michigan.#TrumpVictory #Election2024… pic.twitter.com/ecq9WBSWiT
After the House passed the package to reopen the government, relatively easily thanks to six Democrats joining the eight Senate Democrats to make this a truly bipartisan, bicameral effort, the ink was barely dry before everyone assembled at the White House for the President's signature. Trump, as you would expect, had some words to say about the 43-day circus and what it unnecessarily cost the country.
🚨 BREAKING - PRESIDENT TRUMP UNLEASHES: Democrats tried to EXTORT the people for hundreds of BILLIONS for illegals. $1.5 TRILLION. Which would've really hurt our healthcare! Today, we send a clear message...WE WILL NEVER GIVE IN TO EXTORTION!
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 13, 2025
🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/BTjgYKX7yU
The President also doesn't want you to forget who put you through this nonsense for the last month and a half.
🚨JUST NOW: President Trump has a MESSAGE for the American people ahead of the 2026 midterms. This is crucial.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 13, 2025
"I just want to tell the American people - you should NOT forget this. When we come up to midterms and other things, don't forget what they've done to the country!"… pic.twitter.com/nTYbtV8b3y
And to help jog your memory so you don't forget it was the Democrats who pulled this stunt, costing a boatload of money without getting a single tangible thing out of the deal in return, The White House audio/visual team in the Press Office issued this helpful video.
RIP DEMOCRAT SHUTDOWN.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 13, 2025
Oct 1, 2025 – Nov 12, 2025 pic.twitter.com/rTb6PiYmqI
I'm fairly confident when Sarah McLachlan comes to this morning, she's not at all going to be pleased to be singing along as the soundtrack to this video. But hey, you can't have huevos rancheros without breaking a few huevos, so she can join the other broken yolks on the left.
By the way, the White House wasn't the only ones getting in a last lick on the sombrero front. You'll recall that Vice-President J.D. Vance at a press conference after the first sombrero video came out, laughed it off and promised a hopping mad Hakeem Jeffries that the sombrero memes will stop the moment the government reopens. Well, Ted Cruz snuck in one more just under the wire.
As predicted, the Democrats have finally surrendered after 43 days of a government shutdown.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 13, 2025
And as promised, the sombrero memes will cease…after this one. 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/oNaeFcTz0c
What's next for the Democrats? The hard pivot. By tonight, you won't hear another word about the shutdown. It'll be as if it never existed - just like evidence of Donald Trump's illicit activies in the Epstein Files. And yet, the Trump-Epstein scandal that isn't will be the fabricated faux story that's covered 24/7...until Democrats conjure up other mud to fling at the wall. That's all the Democratic Party has. They're against Donald Trump and anyone or any entity that stands with Trump.
I'll leave you with this fun story which won't get a lick of airplay on CNN or MS-I-Picked-The-Wrong-Week-To-Quit-Drinking. Historically, unions have been the lifeblood of the Democratic National Committee. The national party has routinely counted on both obscene amounts of money in donations as well as dragooned union workers volunteering to door knock and staff election turnout programs in swing states. That may be ending very soon.
Ed Martin, the new chair of the DNC, has upset this particular union yet again.
The pandemic is long over, but the fight inside the Democratic National Committee over a full-time return to its office has just begun.
Years after many companies ordered their employees back to work, D.N.C. workers in the Washington area got the surprise news: Ken Martin, the party chairman, announced at an all-staff meeting on Wednesday afternoon that they would be expected to work in person at headquarters five days a week beginning in February.
Mr. Martin explained that a full-time return to the office was necessary to ensure that information wasn’t being siloed and that staff members would not miss out on time-sensitive decisions that will be made quickly in person ahead of the highly consequential midterm elections.
The complaints began almost immediately — both in the room and on Zoom, where his comments were streamed to those working remotely. People who participated in the call described a flurry of thumbs-down emojis and other online expressions of discontent.
It's actually hard to fault the union's stance here. I wouldn't want to work for the DNC in person five days a week. That's cruel and unusual punishment.
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