Jeh Johnson was the head of Homeland Security under Obama and during a recent appearance on CNN, he broke with his party, suggesting that Democrats should vote to reopen the government.
Johnson said that what he fears is that the minority party will start doing this every time they have a chance to bring the country to a standstill over a particular issue.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer recently said that he is fine with keeping the government closed until planes are falling out of the sky, so no one knows how long this is going to continue.
Transcript via Breitbart News:
On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson discussed the government shutdown and said, “I’m going to break from the party line here on this. I’m a Democrat. I’m with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Sen. Angus King (I-ME).” And urged Democrats to vote to re-open the government or else there will be a precedent where keeping the government open is linked to something else.
Johnson said, “Ten years ago, Republicans wanted to shut down DHS over immigration, and the motivation for me was a worker — a lot of these people do live paycheck to paycheck — a TSA worker from West Orange, New Jersey came to me and said, Mr. Secretary, I have stage four cancer. I need my paycheck for my co-pays. And that was my motivation.
I’m going to break from the party line here on this. I’m a Democrat. I’m with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Sen. Angus King (I-ME). The problem I see here is that, to pass a budget, you need 60 votes in the Senate. And what is happening each year now, and what I fear is going to happen in the future, is, the minority party wants to link that to some other very, very important issue.
Watch the video below:
Jeh Johnson says Senate Democrats need to end the shutdown and stop hurting federal workers for their pet issue
“I’m gonna break from the party line here on this. I’m a Democrat. I’m with John Fetterman and Angus King… The most basic function of Congress is to fund the… pic.twitter.com/70Xmcp2CKW
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 11, 2025
What we have here is the same problem that we have had for years. Democrats hate President Trump more than they love the country. That is going to have to change at some point.