Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen blasted the lawsuit filed by 25 Democrat-led states against the U.S. Department of Agriculture over an expected lapse in food stamp benefits, calling it "idiocy" and accusing Democrats of creating the very crisis they're fighting against.
Knudsen appeared on Newsmax two days after Democrat leaders filed a lawsuit claiming the USDA is legally obligated to continue administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as the food stamp program, even during the ongoing government shutdown.
Knudsen said the states' case has "no strength" and mocked the legal action as "comical if it weren't so serious."
"You've got a situation here where [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have voted 13 times not to fund this program and to shut the government down," Knudsen said on Newsmax's "National Report." "And now they're turning around and suing the federal government they just shut down? I mean, this is just idiocy."
Knudsen said Democrats should focus on reopening the government instead of filing politically motivated lawsuits.
"A much better use of these blue-state AGs' and governors' time would be to pick up the phone, call Chuck Schumer and a couple of their senators, and let's get the government back open and get this SNAP assistance moving out to people who need it," he said.
The Montana attorney general acknowledged that the lapse in SNAP benefits will have real impacts — including on nearly 78,000 Montanans, many of them from tribal communities — but placed the blame squarely on Senate Democrats.
"This is largely a manufactured crisis created by Senate Democrats to try to create leverage ... over the administration to try to get funding for healthcare for illegal aliens. That's what this is all about," Knudsen said. "And you're going to make poor Americans pay for this by losing their SNAP assistance. I think that's really gonna undercut their case."
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