McConnell says there's 'not going to be a government shutdown'


"There's not going to be a government shutdown," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told host George Stephanopoulos in an appearance on ABC's This Week Sunday. McConnell was responding to a question about whether Democrats would refuse "to agree to a deal to keep the government open unless the children of undocumented immigrants are protected" following President Trump's decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
"That's a ridiculous idea," McConnell said. "There is no crisis. The president has given us until March to address the issue of undocumented children who came into the country ... through no choice of their own," he continued, concluding that Democrats would not leave major programs unfunded and "shut down the government over an issue that is not an emergency."
McConnell also addressed the Alabama Senate race in which the GOP candidate, Roy Moore, has been credibly accused of sexual assault. "I'm going to let the people of Alabama make the call" of whether Moore should be in the Senate, McConnell said. Should he win, McConnell added, the "ethics committee will have to consider the matters that have been litigated in the campaign." Watch the full interview below. Bonnie Kristian
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliable
speed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutiny
Speed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures