Roxane Gay

issue that we're facing because, you know, Trump, for example, is trying to frame this current government shutdown as a Democrat problem when he has the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch.

There is no check.

There is no balance.

It's all Trump all the time.

So what do you mean that you are going to lay responsibility at the feet of Democrats?

And then what is going on with the Democrats that they are not in front of every single camera they can find and every single microphone they can find putting the blame for what's happening directly at their feet.

The Democrats are being so weak and they'll say, oh, we're not in power.

You're in office, so you have some kind of power.

I don't think you're overthinking it at all.

I think it's an impossible situation.

And

If the Democrats would own it, I would probably reconsider how I'm feeling about the way in which they're proceeding.

If they would say, yes, we did what had to be done because we are willing to lead.

But they don't even seem to have that capacity to own it.

They are always hedging and hawing.

They're always sort of working from a place of listening to advisors and pundits and polls instead of listening to their instincts and forgetting about whatever three-dimensional chess game they think they're playing and just contending with what is actually happening.

So I would be very open to seeing them try anything.

anything, because I don't purport to have all the answers.

It's very easy to sit from my office and say they're being weak, which they are, but I also don't know how we proceed given the extent of what we are dealing with right now.

But I do know that something different has to happen.