OAN Staff Blake Wolf
11:04 AM – Wednesday, October 15, 2025
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has officially accepted GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson’s invitation to hold a public debate — as the government shutdown enters its third week.
During a C-SPAN appearance last Thursday, Johnson (R-La.) stated that he would like to speak with Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on the network’s program “Ceasefire,” as both parties remain entrenched in their position, further extending the government shutdown.
“I’ll sit down with Hakeem Jeffries, my counterpart. I’d love to,” Johnson stated. “Sometime we’ll get that done.”
Johnson previously turned down a debate with Jeffries on the House floor, seemingly in an attempt to pressure Democrats into passing the spending bill in the Senate. He labeled the proposal as “desperate pleas for attention.”
“When the poll says that about 13% of the people approve of your messaging, then you make desperate pleas for attention, and that’s what Hakeem Jeffries has done,” Johnson stated at the time.
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The Senate failed to pass its 8th attempt at pushing through a continuing resolution to reopen the government, prompting Johnson to call for the debate as party leaders on both sides continue to blame each other for prolonging the shutdown — at the expense of Americans.
“I look forward to that,” Jeffries said on Tuesday. “We’re going to try to get it scheduled, absolutely.”
Jeffries and the Democratic Party have asserted that they will not support the spending bill unless Republicans include an extension of certain healthcare tax credits in the continuing resolution. Additionally, Jeffries alleged on Monday that Republicans have refused to negotiate since President Donald Trump “has not permitted them.”
“Speaker Mike Johnson and I have not met because Donald Trump has not given them permission to meet,” Jeffries stated in a Monday appearance on MSNBC. “We know that until Donald Trump gives them permission to meet, they’re going to continue to hide as it relates to sitting down and negotiating a bipartisan agreement.”
“We’ve made clear from the very beginning, we’ll sit down with anyone, anytime, anyplace, to find a bipartisan path forward toward reopening the government,” he continued. “There’s definitely no reason to ever trust the Republicans, particularly as it relates to the health care issue and the Affordable Care Act.”
Meanwhile, Johnson and Republican leaders contend that Democrats are catering to their “Marxist-rising base” by maintaining the holdout.
“They are trying their best to distract the American people from the simple fact they’ve chosen a partisan fight so they can prove to their Marxist-rising base in the Democrat Party that they are willing to fight Trump and Republicans,” Johnson stated on Sunday.
Johnson also issued a series of X posts on Wednesday, revealing: “To end the shutdown, Democrats are DEMANDING $1.5 TRILLION in new partisan spending. This is an unserious proposal made by unserious people.”
Johnson listed the Democrats’ demands, which he says includes $200 billion in healthcare benefits for illegal aliens, a repeal of the $50 billion rural hospitals fund, permanent COVID-19 subsidies without reforms, $500 million for left-leaning news outlets (by refunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting), $3.9 million for LGBTQI+ democracy grants in the Balkans, $2 million for feminists democratic principles in Africa, and “$2.9 million of your dollars for desert locust risk reduction in the Horn of Africa.”
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