Vice President JD Vance forecasted on Wednesday that the federal government shutdown would be brief due to moderate Democrats already starting to ‘crack.’

Vance appeared alongside press secretary Karoline Leavitt at the White House press briefing, the first since the government shutdown began. 

He was questioned whether the shutdown would be prolonged, as Republicans accused Democrats of wanting to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants, while Democrats claimed Republicans were spreading falsehoods. Democrats have been opposing a funding bill over expiring Obamacare subsidies, which are not accessible to illegal immigrants.

‘I can’t predict what congressional Democrats are going to do,’ Vance stated, later adding, ‘I actually don’t think it’s going to be that long of a shutdown.’

‘This is a pure guess from the Vice President of the United States because I think you already saw some evidence that moderate Democrats are cracking a little bit,’ he continued.

The betting site Polymarket on Wednesday showed most users were less optimistic than Vance, with the fewest participants betting on a short shutdown and over a third predicting it would extend past October 15.

On Wednesday afternoon, a Senate procedural motion on a House-passed spending bill that required 60 votes failed 55 to 45. 

Though there are 53 Republicans in the Senate, libertarian-leaning GOP Sen. Rand Paul voted against the motion, while three senators in the Democratic Caucus supported it – Sens. John Fetterman, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Angus King.

Fetterman and Cortez Masto hail from purple states, while King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats, is a bit of a maverick. 

The next Senate vote isn’t expected until Friday, due to the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, so the government shutdown will at least stretch until the end of the work week.  

At the briefing, Vance pushed that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer was pushing his party too far to the left and that’s why the shutdown occurred.  

‘Chuck Schumer is terrified he’s going to get a primary challenge from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,’ Vance charged, name-dropping the 35-year-old New York congresswoman who’s extremely popular in progressive circles.

‘The reason why the American people’s government is shut down is because Chuck Schumer is listening to the far-left radicals in his own party because he’s terrified of a primary challenge,’ the vice president continued. ‘So I’d invite Chuck Schumer to join the moderate Democrats and 52 Senate Republicans, do the right thing, open up the people’s government, and then let’s fix healthcare policy for the American people.’      

When it was her turn at the podium, Leavitt relished that Schumer hadn’t been able to hold his party together. 

‘Sen. Schumer was not expecting three moderates to break with him last night,’ Leavitt said. ‘In fact, last night, you heard Sen. Schumer say he can’t guarantee that he will be able to hold his caucus together.’ 

The press secretary encouraged other Senate Democrats to buck the party. 

‘And so again, we encourage Democrats to have the courage to do the right thing, do what you have done 13 times previously, and vote for this clean continuing resolution to keep the government funded,’ Leavitt said. 

This time around, the White House has upped the ante by threatening to lay off federal workers when traditionally they’ve been furloughed. 

President Donald Trump even hinted that he would try to target Democrats with firings, something Vance denied. 

‘We’re not targeting federal agencies based on politics,’ he answered.

Vance was also pressed on why this time was ‘different’ – why federal employees were potentially facing being fired.

‘We haven’t made any final decisions about what we’re going to do with certain workers,’ Vance pushed back. ‘What we’re saying is we might have to take extraordinary steps.’ 

Leavitt said that the federal layoffs were ‘imminent.’