Vance Torches Margaret Brennan Over Schumer Shutdown Narrative: ‘This Is Not A Negotiation’

Vice President JD Vance argued on Sunday that Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), were more interested in holding the federal government “hostage” than in negotiating an end to the ongoing government shutdown.

Vance, speaking with CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan, said that Democrats did not want to talk about health care — what they wanted was to use the shutdown to make demands until the White House and Republicans in Congress simply capitulated and gave them everything.

WATCH:

When pressed on why President Trump hasn’t met with congressional leaders at the White House to negotiate a deal to reopen the government, Vice President JD Vance tells @margbrennan: “This isn’t a deal-making. This isn’t a negotiation. This is hostage-taking.”

“If Chuck Schumer… pic.twitter.com/Io73ycakfW

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 12, 2025

“When I pressed Leader Schumer on this program just last Sunday about this, about reopening the government, and he said it’s going to take getting everyone in the same room with the President of the United States — only the five people including the president can solve it,” Brennan recalled, asking Vance why President Donald Trump has not demanded that congressional leaders return to Washington in order to get that done.

“Well, as Chuck Schumer said, it’s not all lawmakers, it’s the Senate leadership that really is driving this shutdown,” Vance replied, noting that the Republican-led House had already passed a Continuing Resolution that would reopen the government, at least temporarily.

“But the president says he’s a deal-maker,” Brennan interrupted. “Whey doesn’t he force a deal here?”

“Margaret, it’s a totally fair question, and the answer is because this isn’t a deal-making. This isn’t a negotiation. This is hostage-taking,” Vance declared. “Chuck Schumer has not said to us, ‘This is what we need,’ he’s said, ‘Unless you give us what we need, we’re going to shut down the government. That is a totally different thing.”

“If Chuck Schumer wants to come into the Oval Office or come to my house, he is welcome to talk about how to fix health care policy for Americans,” the vice president added. “But you don’t come into the Oval Office and say, unless you, the president of the United States, give us everything that I want, I’m going to shut down the government.”

Vance echoed the sentiments expressed late last week by CNBC anchor Joe Kernen, who challenged House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries directly about the demands Democrats were making.

“There was an election, and the Republicans were put in a position where they were able to pass the Big Beautiful Bill, or as you call it the ‘Big Ugly Bill.’ To then say, ‘We don’t like any of that, so we’re going to shut down the government until you take back all the things that you duly passed through legislation …’” Kernen began, arguing that if the shoe were on the other foot, Democrats would be angry — and rightfully so.

“If Republicans had tried to do that to the Inflation Reduction Act or the — any of the acts that Biden and that administration have passed — if they said we’re going to shut down the government because we don’t like any of those things you did, ‘we’re not going to pay our military, we are going to not allow the government to reopen until you do what we want’ – after an election where the American people put Democrats in power – you’d be going crazy!” he said.