Wednesday on CBS’s “This Morning,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) commented on the ongoing partial government shutdown, accusing President Donald Trump of using “an extremist policy” to “hold the whole country hostage.”

Nagler said Trump “is feeling abandoned” by voters and some former members of his administration, so he is trying to appeal to his “extremist base.”

“This shutdown that President Trump has initiated proudly, he claimed it, is really blackmail of the American people because he is feeling abandoned, has been abandoned first by the voters, the historical 9 million majority for Democratic candidates for Congress a couple months ago,” explained Nagler. “He’s being abandoned by his own secretary of defense, by his chief of staff, by his former campaign manager. … Whenever he feels beleaguered, he returns to his base.”

“So what this shutdown is, really, is an extremist policy designed to appeal to an extremist base and hold the whole country hostage,” he added.

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