The Daily Signal - Democrats Drown in Shutdown Chaos, State Department Blocks Abortion & DEI Foreign Aid | Oct. 2, 2025

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk, business. Democrat leadership struggles to respond to the shutdown amid internal chaos. The State Department completely obliterates decades of work from Hillary Clinton. I'm Tony Kinnett, host of the Daily Signals Tony Kinnett cast, syndicated nationally at 7 p.m. Eastern. It is Thursday, October 2nd, 2025. This is the Daily Signals, top news in 10. So far, the government shutdown is a complete communications nightmare for the Democrat Party, despite, according to Harry Enton's new polling data, a larger number of Democrats desire their

Starting point is 00:01:10 representatives and senators in Congress to hold the line and keep the government shut down for a while. What are we seeing? This is an American public that more so than ever before I've looked at the polling is willing to go to a shutdown. What are we talking about here? Well, let's take a look. What Americans wanted pre-shutdown?

Starting point is 00:01:27 Well, traditionally speaking, I got the 2013 numbers. the majority of Americans want compromise, no shutdown. If you go back to 2013, just 33% said stand on principle, even if it means a shutdown. Come to this side of the screen, we see an even split, right? 50% of Americans say they want a compromise, no shutdown. But up like a rocket, standing on principle, we see now 49% basically an even split on Americans either wanting a shutdown or, in fact, saying they want their side to stand on principle.

Starting point is 00:01:55 I think we're hearing a lot of that from Chuck Schumer. Which group has shifted the most in terms? terms of compromise or not. You know, it was so interesting to hear those clips of Chuck Schumer being played back from 2013 from all those past shutdowns. And just, yeah, and just from March, right? Potential shutdowns. And what has changed significantly is Republicans have always been willing to basically say, you know, we should shut down the government and stand on principle. But now Democrats, a significantly larger portion of Democrats say, you know what, let's stand on principle. What Democrats want to pre-shutdown? You go back to 2013, just 18 percent of Democrats

Starting point is 00:02:27 said stand-on-principle. The vast majority, 76%, three and four Democrats said compromise, no shutdown. Look at this side of the screen. Look at this percentage that said stand-on principle back in 2013. It was 18%. Now it's 47%, more than double. In fact, nearly triple the percentage of Democrats now say stand-on principle as compared to 2013. We see a much more even split among Democrats. The 52% is say compromise, no shutdown. The 47% who say stand-on principle. So far, there appear to be three approaches. From Democrat leadership over in the House, Hakeem Jeffries is still laser focused on the sombrero memes being made about him by the Trump

Starting point is 00:03:09 administration. And not just in one or two interviews, every single media hit, including several on the same network during the day, are committed to addressing having a P&G of a sombrero and a mustache pasted over his face. Here's a few of those. He's an unsurious individual. The Republicans are unsurious at this point. They have no interest in having a good faith conversation.

Starting point is 00:03:33 And all of the behavior, erratic, unhinged behavior that we've seen subsequent to that White House meeting should suggest to the American people who actually is trying to drive us toward a government shut down. I'm actually referring to some of his social media posts, which didn't seem to make a lot of sense. The sombrero in the mustache? Correct. And the president has been. and engaging in irresponsible and unsurious behavior. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to suggest that there were audio difficulties. And when asked about being blamed for the shutdown by a CNN anchor,

Starting point is 00:04:10 suddenly Schumer couldn't hear anything. The anchor did call him out on that. Every Republican who's gone on TV, the last 12 hours or so, has called this the Schumer shutdown. What do you say about that name? Senator Schumer, can you hear me? I can't hear Senator Schumer, can you hear me? I don't think Senator Schumer can hear me right now.

Starting point is 00:04:38 Maybe the government shut down included audio on Capitol Hill. The third way that Democrats appear to be trying to address this shutdown is by claiming that they are the ones who chose to do the shutdown in the first place, which is also what Republicans are saying. Here's Representative Maxine Waters, as well as Representative Tanedar from Michigan, talking about why they were the ones

Starting point is 00:05:00 who did the shutdown for illegal immigrant health care. Returning back to Detroit this morning after the Republicans failed to show up in the U.S. House, we got to make sure Americans have the health care that they need. And if that means we got to shut this government down, so be it. Do Democrats want to prioritize the health care of illegal aliens over a government shutdown? Because if the government does shut down,

Starting point is 00:05:26 Americans want to be a free will be a lot. Excuse me. Stop it right there. We're not prioritizing. what we're doing is saying simply we want to keep the government open and we want to work with the Republicans and have a bipartisan agreement to keep this

Starting point is 00:05:40 government open and health care is at the top of our agenda but are Democrats demanding health care for illegal aliens Democrats are demanding health care for everybody we'll get into some more speculation about how long this shutdown likely lasts later in the Tony

Starting point is 00:05:58 Kennett cast this evening because As Russ Vote, the director of the Office of Management and Budget for the White House, is on a funding freezing spreezing, freezing $18 billion in New York City Infrastructure Project grants, which of course directly impacts Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries' home state to, quote, ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles, end quote. He also canceled $8 billion in Green New Deal climate funds. during the period of the shutdown throughout the length of the government shutdown for states like

Starting point is 00:06:35 California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. With that much movement happening from the Trump administration side of things, it puts another side of pressure on Senate Democrats for the rest to defect from the Chuck Schumer crew and vote alongside Republicans and Democrat Senators John Federman, Cortez Mastow of Nevada, as well as Angus King, the Independent who caucuses with the Democrats from Maine, in order to reopen the federal government.

Starting point is 00:07:10 And in other news, the State Department has completely obliterated decades of work from Hillary Clinton. Beginning back in the reign of Bill Clinton in the 90s, the Mexico City policy, which was previously in place to make sure that no taxpayer dollars went to abortion promotion or projects abroad through foreign aid dollars usually coordinated by USAID in the State Department. Hillary Clinton made it a big portion of her life's work after Bill Clinton rescinded Mexico's city policy to encourage a large amount of pro-abortion work abroad. That was revivified after Barack Obama was elected and made Hillary Clinton his secretary of state.

Starting point is 00:07:57 2009 on April 22nd, she told a representative from New Jersey that, yes, as far as she was concerned, women's reproductive health care and women's health care in general necessitated including abortion, especially considering her visits to hospitals in Brazil and Africa. When I think about the suffering that I have seen of women around the world, I've been in hospitals in Brazil, where half the women were enthusiastically and joyfully greeting new babies, and the other half were fighting for their lives against botched abortions. I've been in African countries where 12 and 13-year-old girls are bearing children. I have been in Asian countries where the denial of family planning consigns women to lives of oppression and hardship. So we have a

Starting point is 00:08:52 very fundamental disagreement. And it is my strongly held view that you are entitled to advocate and everyone who agrees with you should be free to do so anywhere in the world. And so are we. We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women's health. And reproductive health includes access to abortion. That I believe should be safe, legal and rare. I spent a lot of my time trying to bring down the rate of abortions. And it has been my experience that good family planning and good medical care brings down the rate of abortion. During the first Trump administration, his State Department reincorporated the Mexico City policy and then Biden walked it back. Now here at the outset of the shutdown, the State Department is moving to close some of these loopholes indefinitely and scrape away this.

Starting point is 00:09:52 back and forthing to promote not only abortion services around the world, but also diversity, equity, and inclusion, hyper-gender studies and transition projects and racial discrimination and gender discrimination projects in U.S. foreign aid. We sat down with our White House correspondent Elizabeth Mitchell yesterday right before the show to talk about this incredible scoop on a major state department move. Big change because the term of administration is rewriting the Mexico City policy in a brand new way. So the Mexico City policy is what makes sure that U.S. funding does not go to foreign abortions. And so this is something that every Democrat administration has overturned and every Republican administration has brought back. So it was rescinded under Biden. Trump one

Starting point is 00:10:40 had the Mexico City policy. Rescended under Biden. Trump two brought it back. And now it's new and improved Mexico City policy because now it also includes a ban on funding for just. gender ideology and DEI programs. It closes loopholes that have previously allowed taxpayer funding for promotion of abortion. And it prohibits a broader range of non-governmental organizations from funding abortion. So this applies to all non-military foreign assistance. All non-military foreign assistance cannot fund abortion or DEI or gender ideologies. This is a really big win for the pro-life movement, a big win for conservatives in general.

Starting point is 00:11:20 If you go down to the description, you can find the link to that full interview. It is very much worth your time. It completely changes the very makeup of the State Department and how foreign funding will work decades in the future, long after the next administration, perhaps, tries to flip any switches that may no longer be there. Speaking of the description, head down and click the link to make sure you're subscribed to the Tony Kinnett cast. And join us tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern where we round up the daily news and nonsense. the best way we know how. I'm Tony Kinnett, and this is the Daily Signals Top News in 10. Take care.

The Daily Signal - Democrats Drown in Shutdown Chaos, State Department Blocks Abortion & DEI Foreign Aid | Oct. 2, 2025

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