JD Vance Tells Ben Shapiro Democrat Support For Shutdown Is ‘Cracking’

Vice President JD Vance told Ben Shapiro that he believes that the Democrats’ resolve to continue blocking government funding was “cracking” less than one day into a government shutdown. 

Vance pointed to the support from multiple Democratic senators for a Republican-backed temporary funding bill on Tuesday night as evidence that some rank-and-file Democrats would soon abandon their opposition to the stopgap measure. The vice president made the comments during a Wednesday appearance on “The Ben Shapiro Show.” 

“You already see, I think, the Democrats cracking a little bit because they realize it’s such a preposterous position to say, ‘We’re gonna shut down TSA, we’re gonna not pay our troops because you guys won’t give us benefits for illegal aliens.’ It’s crazy, and I don’t think it’s a tenable political situation for them to be in,” Vance said. 

The Democrats who voted with Republicans for a bill that would continue federal spending at the same levels as the previous fiscal year were Sens. John Fetterman (PA) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NM). Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, also supported the temporary spending measure. 

Vance said that Democrats wanted another $1.5 trillion in spending, adding that they are “asking us to give taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits for illegal aliens.”

“Under the Biden administration, we would pay all of the hospital benefits for illegal aliens if they went to an American hospital,” Vance said. “So we turned that program off in President Trump’s ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill.’ The Democrats want to turn it back on, and that would cost, again, hundreds of billions of dollars.”

????NEW: @JDVance joins @benshapiro and DEBUNKS the Democrats’ claim that the gov. shutdown is NOT about taxpayer healthcare benefits for illegal aliens:

“The Democrats play tricks with words…There are two very specific ways…in which the Democrats are asking us to give… pic.twitter.com/FnhsmY136z

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) October 1, 2025

Vance blasted Democrats for backing yet another giveaway to illegal immigrants — free healthcare for those paroled after sneaking across the border. 

He accused Democrats of holding the government hostage and insisted they should wait until after funding is secured to push their policy fights.

“If they want to turn it back on, there is a clean, easy piece of legislation that nearly every Republican supports, they should just vote for it, turn the government back on, and then we can have the debate about health care policy that they seem to want to have. 

You can watch the full interview here.