Senator Tells Voters Exactly Who’s To Blame For Government Shutdown

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said the festering U.S. government shutdown is a “tsunami of Donald Trump’s creation.”

As the shutdown enters a new week with Congress still struggling to pass a bill to fund the government, Booker told ABC News’ “This Week” co-host Martha Raddatz that he’s not focused on lobbing the blame at either political party.

Instead, he said he’s more concerned about the impact the shutdown is having on Americans’ health and personal finances.

“I don’t care about the blame game. I care about Americans, losing their health insurance, rates of death going up, hospitals being crushed, medical services ending in places in rural America,” Booker said. “This is a tsunami of Donald Trump’s creation.”

He continued, “The pain, the hurt, the fear that’s going to rise amongst millions of Americans who are going to lose health insurance.”

Booker then pleaded with President Donald Trump to “come to the table” and help Americans amid the shutdown stalemate.

“Dear God, just come to the table and do something to help Americans,” he continued. “This is truly, for many Americans, existential. We are getting calls from Republicans in my state who are part of hospital boards.”

Noting that “people will start getting their notes about their health care premiums going up in a matter of days,” Booker added, “We need to deal with the crisis of the American people.”

Booker’s comments came after the president blamed Democrats for the layoffs associated with the shutdown.

“It’s up to them,” Trump told reporters Sunday morning. “Anybody laid off that’s because of the Democrats.”

Watch Booker’s appearance on “This Week” below.