While Democrats are losing sleep over a late-night host’s suspension, Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) is sounding the alarm on a far more pressing crisis: a looming government shutdown by September 31, 2025.
The Daily Caller reported that Fetterman is frustrated with his party’s fixation on the indefinite suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” after controversial comments by host Jimmy Kimmel, while a high-stakes funding battle with Republicans threatens to grind the federal government to a halt.
Let’s rewind to earlier this week—on September 18, 2025, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer introduced the No Political Enemies Act, signaling a hard line against what he sees as overreach by the Trump administration.
Fast forward to Tuesday, when Schumer told reporters, “Democrats are unified,” painting a picture of a party ready to dig in its heels on the funding fight.
Unified? Apparently, Fetterman didn’t get the memo, as he’s openly pledged to support a Republican short-term funding measure—known as a continuing resolution (CR)—to keep the government running.
Meanwhile, Democrats rolled out their own CR on Wednesday, a hefty proposal packed with over $1 trillion in spending through November 21, 2025, including permanent extensions of Affordable Care Act subsidies—predictably declared “dead-on-arrival” by GOP leaders.
By Thursday, the Democratic caucus was buzzing, but not just about funding—much of their energy was spent railing against ABC’s decision to pull “Jimmy Kimmel Live” off the air after Kimmel’s remarks about the suspected killer in the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
House Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia even announced a probe into Kimmel’s suspension, while top Democrats demanded the resignation of FCC chair Brendan Carr, accusing the Trump administration of weaponizing federal agencies.
Schumer himself took to a press conference, declaring, “This is an assault on everything this country has stood for,” framing the Kimmel saga as part of a broader attack on democratic values—yet one wonders if the average American is more worried about their paycheck than a talk-show hiatus.
Fetterman, clearly exasperated after a Thursday caucus meeting, didn’t mince words, telling the DCNF, “Everything is turning into like a national freak out,” regarding the Kimmel debacle.
His point? If a late-night host’s suspension is a crisis, then shuttering the government is a catastrophe—and he’s not wrong to question why his colleagues seem more fired up about Hollywood than federal stability.
Speaking of shutdowns, Fetterman’s stance is a stark contrast to peers like Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, who argued on Thursday, “We do not have an obligation to fund the destruction of our democracy,” suggesting a willingness to let the government grind to a halt over ideological battles.
Look, cultural skirmishes over late-night TV are a distraction when the clock is ticking toward a shutdown that could disrupt everything from federal services to military pay—Fetterman’s plea for focus isn’t just pragmatic, it’s urgent.
Back in March 2025, Schumer supplied votes for a GOP spending bill to avoid a shutdown, citing the need to prevent Trump from slashing budgets, yet now he calls this fight “much different”—a shift that raises eyebrows when the stakes seem just as high.
So, while Democrats rally around symbolic fights, Fetterman’s willingness to cross the aisle for a clean CR might just be the dose of sanity needed to keep the government’s lights on—because, frankly, a shutdown helps no one, left or right.
