From PBS NewsHour.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters Wednesday that while he “can’t predict what congressional Democrats are going to do” and that he was making “a pure guess,” he didn’t think “it’s going to be that long of a shutdown.”

He repeated his argument that, in his view, Democrats shut the government down over health care policy disagreements.

“Whatever those disagreements are, you don’t shut down the government over it. For the first time since the Democrats have been in politics, they’re now saying that unless we get every policy item that we demand, we’re going to shut down the people’s government,” Vance said. “They’re trying to take a hostage and we’re not going to let them.”

The federal government shut down early Wednesday after negotiations and efforts to avoid a stalemate fell apart late last month. The shutdown is the first since 2018 and 2019, during President Donald Trump’s first term. That 35-day shutdown was the longest in U.S. history.

Watch PBS News for daily, breaking and live news, plus special coverage. We are home to PBS News Hour, ranked the most credible and objective TV news show.

Sign up for Here’s The Deal with Lisa Desjardins: https://to.pbs.org/41q6E8i
Subscribe for exclusive content in our newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe
PBS News podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG
Find more from PBS News at https://www.pbs.org/newshour
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Follow us:
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pbsnews
X: http://www.twitter.com/newshour
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/newshour
Facebook: http://www.pbs.org/newshour