It was a rough night for self-proclaimed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at a CNN town hall on Wednesday, October 15 — and conservatives are still laughing. The event, meant to discuss the ongoing “Schumer Shutdown,” turned into an embarrassing spectacle when a Republican college student asked a simple question about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s failed leadership. Sanders, red-faced and rambling, completely lost his composure.
The town hall, hosted by CNN and featuring Sanders alongside “Squad” radical Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), was supposed to be a friendly platform for the left to justify why they’ve kept the government closed for more than two weeks. Instead, it turned into a disaster — especially for Sanders, who looked utterly unprepared to answer basic questions about the Democrats’ responsibility for the crisis.
The fireworks began when Rohan Naval, a Republican student from American University, challenged Sanders directly. “How does this long-lasting shutdown reflect on the leadership of Sen. Chuck Schumer?” he asked. The crowd quieted — and Sanders froze.
The Vermont socialist immediately went into defensive mode, launching a wild tirade that sounded more like a campaign stump speech than an answer. “Well, I think it reflects more on Mike Johnson’s leadership and President Trump’s leadership,” Sanders blustered. “You think it’s a good idea to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the richest people in the country and then make massive cuts to healthcare for working-class people?”
The crowd looked unimpressed — and Naval wasn’t buying it. Calmly, he shot back with facts: “Chuck Schumer has voted for continuing resolutions 13 times in the last four years, and he has the opportunity to vote for one again, but he’s refusing to come to the table.”
That’s when Bernie really started to unravel. The 83-year-old senator stammered, waved his arms, and started shouting about “Republicans not talking,” even though Senate Majority Leader John Thune has publicly confirmed that the GOP is in ongoing negotiations to end the shutdown.
“I think… look, as I have said, there are 53 Republicans in the Senate, correct? They need 60,” Sanders sputtered. “What does that mean? It means you have to talk to the other side. Mike Johnson is not talking. John Thune is not talking. President Trump is not talking. That is the problem.”
It was a disastrous performance — and the clip quickly went viral online, with conservatives mocking Sanders for being unable to defend his party’s chaos.
Meanwhile, Schumer himself has been openly bragging about his strategy to prolong the shutdown. Speaking to Punchbowl News, he admitted that Democrats had planned it all along: “Every day gets better for us,” he said smugly. “We knew that healthcare would be the focal point… Their whole theory was — threaten us, bamboozle us, and we would submit in a day or two.”
In other words, the Democrats are deliberately keeping the government closed to score political points — and Sanders just got caught trying to cover it up on live television.
Even the White House seemed nervous about Schumer’s comments. Deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson slammed the Democrat strategy in a statement to Fox News, saying, “Chuck Schumer just said the quiet part out loud: Democrats are gleefully inflicting pain on the American people over their push to give illegal aliens free healthcare.”
For a party that claims to “fight for working families,” Democrats sure seem comfortable holding those same families hostage to fund their far-left agenda. And as Bernie’s meltdown showed, even their loudest voices can’t defend it anymore.
In the end, the CNN town hall meant to rally support for Schumer’s shutdown instead exposed the truth — the Democrats are out of touch, out of excuses, and out of control.
