Republicans are grappling with public polls showing the public places more blame on them, rather than the Democrats, for the shutdown, even as they argue they have the moral high ground in the shutdown fight.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Republicans stress that they put no partisan poison pills in a GOP-crafted, House-passed stopgap to fund the government through Nov. 21. Democrats in the Senate have repeatedly blocked that bill as they demand that Republicans first negotiate with them on health care issues, particularly on enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies expiring at the end of the year.

Johnson this week pointed to news coverage about the government shutdown while arguing Democrats are more to blame.

“If the Republicans were responsible for this shutdown, that would lead the news in every mainstream media outlet every single night, it would be top fold of every newspaper, on the front page every single day,” Johnson said in a Wednesday press conference, asserting that the press was trying to “give cover to the Democrats who’ve caused this.”

“The American people are not stupid, and we're in here every day appealing to their common sense and relating the facts,” Johnson said.

Yet poll after poll finds that slightly more Americans think Republicans are to blame for the shutdown than who think Democrats are at fault.

An Oct. 15-20

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