‘Legislative Terrorists’: Eric Schmitt Expects Democrats To Shut Down Government To Rig Midterms

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said Monday that he anticipates Democrats are planning to shut down the government just ahead of the midterms, calling them “legislative terrorists” who will hurt Americans in an effort to rig the election.

Speaking with a group of reporters on Capitol Hill, Schmitt said the potential for a government shutdown could be “the most under-reported thing … out there,” adding, “this is not your grandfather’s Democrat party. They’re hellbent on chaos, and they think chaos is their friend. It’s not good for the American people, but if they think that can get them a short-term leg up in November, they’ll do it.”

Government funding is set to expire Sept. 30, leaving Democrats more than a month to gamble on a shutdown being electorally beneficial for them.

Some Republicans in Congress are trying to push through changes that might neuter or stop a Democrat shutdown, like passing a bill that does not allow members of Congress to be paid during a shutdown, or have a shutdown automatically roll into perpetual two-to-four-week continuing resolutions (CRs) so that the real effects of a shutdown are not felt by most Americans.

Republicans need to “make it painful for them [congressional Democrats] if they want to do that, because the American people suffer,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt mentioned the last time Democrats partially shut down the government from February to April over funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the previous full shutdown from October through November, 2025, both of which posted records for the longest partial and full shutdowns in U.S. history. Democrats’ potential halt on government would follow the same timeframe as their shutdown last fall, which took place during off-year elections in Virginia and New Jersey, where Democrats swept wins across the board. Democrats relented on Nov. 12, little more than a week after Election Day.

“Despite what many of my appropriator friends want to believe, this is a new world, this is a new era,” Schmitt said. “This isn’t Ted Kennedy working with somebody on some bill: They’re legislative terrorists at this point. And look, you think about what they’re willing to do with ICE. It’s just an extension of defund the police.”

If it is not ICE in September, “it’ll be something else,” Schmitt added, and the inroad could be anything from the Iran war to health care. But it will be difficult to know until the moment happens, he said, because the ICE funding issue was itself a surprise, with Democrats agreeing to the Department of Homeland Security bill just a week prior to the shutdown. Ultimately, it seems Democrats will choose whatever option is most politically expedient, no matter what, because “they’re an intellectually bankrupt party that their sole, core operating ethos is Trump derangement syndrome. That’s it. I don’t think it’s that much more complicated,” Schmitt said.

According to Schmitt, part of the motivation is that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is both afraid of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., primarying him and also wants to retire as Senate majority leader before he is up for reelection in 2028. The 2026 midterms are seemingly his last, somewhat long-shot chance to garner that position.

“I don’t think he’s gonna be majority leader, but I think he thinks the politics are good for him,” Schmitt said.

“They’re really capitulating to this more radicalized base that they have,” Schmitt said, noting the violent, assassination-prep language (such as the labeling of conservatives as Nazis and ICE agents as the Gestapo) that has gone far outside the radical fringes of the media and onto the Senate floor.

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Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.