Bay Area Democrats were out in force Wednesday arguing that blame for the government shutdown should be pointed squarely at President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans.

Congressman Eric Swalwell, flanked by state and local leaders as well as community groups, issued a clear and direct message: the shutdown is being caused by Republicans. Their statements come in response to Trump publicly saying Democrats forced negotiations to break down by pushing what he called a $1.5 trillion wish list of demands.

Swalwell scoffed, saying Democrats weren’t asking for anything new, just a call to restore critical funding that was there before.

“This Republican shutdown will hurt people in their health care,” Swalwell said. “It’ll hurt our air traffic controllers and their ability to protect

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