Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the Democrats made a “major mistake” by shutting down the government.

According to Gingrich, the shutdown is “not what the Democrats hoped for.”

“[T]he Democrats made a huge mistake because what they should have done was pass the defense appropriations bill for the whole year — get it off the table, don’t threaten the men and women in uniform and their families,’ Gingrich told John Catsimatidis, host New York AM 970 radio’s “The Cats Roundtable.” “Instead, they stumbled into a situation where the Schumer shutdown cuts off funding for the American military on behalf of trying to get a deal for 700,000 people who entered the U.S. illegally.”

He added, “I am totally opposed to holding up as hostage the families and the men and women in uniform who are risking their lives to protect this country.”

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