The Latest: Biden spokesperson warns of possible shutdown effects

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has rejected a bipartisan plan to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown, instead telling House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to essentially renegotiate two days before a deadline when federal funding runs out.

The sudden, new demands have sent Congress spiraling even as lawmakers are trying to wrap up work and head home for the holidays. House Speaker Mike Johnson is left to scramble ahead of a Friday deadline for keeping the government open.

Here’s the latest:

President Joe Biden’s White House is blaming Republicans for possible ramifications of a shutdown.

“Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in an evening statement.

Jean-Pierre called on Republicans to “keep their word,” warning that President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance had “ordered Republicans to shut down the government,” actions she said are “undermining communities recovering from disasters, farmers and ranchers, and community health centers.”

Republicans had mixed reactions to Trump’s insistence that an end of the year spending package also boost the debt ceiling to avoid an eventual default. But they generally deferred to the incoming president.

“President Trump has made clear he would like to see that,” said Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who will be the No. 2 Republican next year. “I understand his reasoning.”

Dealing with the debt ceiling now could give Trump “some runway to get his agenda implemented,” and Trump doesn’t want to be held “hostage” by that issue at the beginning of his term, North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd said. But he added that his state needs disaster money to help with recent flooding that was included in the bipartisan deal: “They need support and they need it right now and they need it this Congress.”

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., questioned how Congress could get the debt ceiling extended in two days before funding expires. However, he said, “I’m not sure how we do that.” The process normally takes months to negotiate, and many Republicans oppose increasing the debt limit. Rounds suggested that Congress should deal with it next year instead.

Trump is threatening to help mount challenges to any Republicans who “try to pass a clean Continuing Resolution without all of the Democrat ‘bells and whistles.’”

Trump said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday that angling to pass such a measure after Jan. 20, when he takes office, would only “bring the mess of the Debt Limit into the Trump Administration, rather than allowing it to take place in the Biden Administration.”

A “clean CR” is essentially a bill that extends existing appropriations, at the same levels as the prior fiscal year.

Trump said in his post that the situation should be dealt with before he takes office, writing, “Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried.”

More than 8 in 10 Americans share the same view of both men, whether positive or negative. About half (49%) have an unfavorable view of both Musk and Trump, and about one-third (36%) have a favorable view of both men. Only about 1 in 10 have a positive view of Musk but not Trump, and another 1 in 10, roughly, like Trump but not Musk.

About 7 in 10 Republicans have a favorable view of Trump and Musk, and they’re more likely than independents and Democrats to feel this way. About 4 in 10 white Americans have a positive view of both men, compared with about one-third of Hispanic adults and about 2 in 10 Black adults.

Many Republicans expected to vote for a continuing resolution by Thursday and head home to their families by the end of the week.

Instead, by sundown Wednesday, many lawmakers were in the middle of holiday and year-end celebrations with staff when they saw posts from the president-elect, effectively killing a carefully negotiated deal between Democrats and Republicans.

“I’ve been here 14 years, okay? So nothing up here surprises me anymore,” Rep. Steve Womack, a senior GOP appropriator, said. “We shouldn’t be in this mess.”

President-elect Donald Trump says he’s determined to “fight ’till the end” to get a debt limit increase from Congress. The end, alas, is probably a long ways off.

Congress last suspended the debt limit to January 2025 as part of a package negotiated by then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Even though the bill was signed into law, some House Republicans said it didn’t go far enough, and it ended up costing McCarthy his job when eight Republicans sided with Democrats to oust him.

It took months for McCarthy to negotiate the last deal. Now Trump is looking for Johnson to pass a debt ceiling extension some 48 hours before a partial government shutdown.

The president-elect is continuing to voice his displeasure with what he calls “the ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive Continuing Resolution,” which he says is “dying fast.”

Trump asked in a post Wednesday evening on the social platform X if anyone could “imagine passing it without either terminating, or extending, the Debt Ceiling guillotine coming up in June?”

Trump accused “Radical Left Democrats” of trying to “embarrass us in June when it comes up for a Vote,” saying he will “fight ’till the end” unless Democrats “terminate or substantially extend the Debt Ceiling now.”

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the debt limit is the total amount of money that the United States government can borrow to meet its existing legal obligations. In June 2023, lawmakers enacted legislation to suspend the debt limit through Jan. 1, 2025.

The top Democrat in the House is blaming Republicans for a government shutdown if one happens.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday evening in remarks from the U.S. Capitol that “House Republicans will now own any harm that is visited on the American people that results from a government shutdown, or worse.”

“An agreement is an agreement,” Jeffries concluded. “It was bipartisan, and there’s nothing more to say.”

Democrats have decried the GOP revolt over the stopgap measure, which would have also provided some $100 billion in disaster aid to states hammered by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.

Musk’s position with the incoming Trump administration isn’t technically part of a government department or agency, but he is continuing to use his massive megaphone on the social platform X to condemn the spending measure.

Into Wednesday evening, Musk reposted several messages from others criticizing the proposal to his more than 207 million followers.

Musk rejected the plan almost as soon as it was released late Tuesday night, posting, “This should not pass” in the wee hours of the following morning.

Musk, who along with Vivek Ramaswamy is heading up the new Department of Government Efficiency, has been leading the charge against the measure, warning, “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!”

It’s not an idle threat coming from the world’s richest man, who helped bankroll Trump’s victory and can easily use his America PAC to make or break political careers.

Donald Trump’s rejection of a spending bill that would prevent a holiday season government shutdown was a display of dominance from a president-elect still a month away from inauguration who remains hundreds of miles away at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. It reinjected a sense of chaos and political brinkmanship that was reminiscent of his first term in office.

The episode also showcased the influence of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who spent the day attacking the budget legislation as full of excessive spending. They kicked up a storm on social media — Musk even threatened to support primary challenges against anyone who voted for the measure — before Trump decided to weigh in himself.

“Kill the Bill!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X as he gleefully reposted messages from Republican House members who vowed not to back the bill.

Read more here.

If Congress doesn’t approve a continuing resolution or more permanent spending measure by Friday, the federal government could shut down.

This is all happening in part because when the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, Congress simply punted the problem by passing a temporary funding bill to keep the government in operation.

That measure expires on Friday.

When Congress is down to the wire on passing measures to fund the federal government, the term “CR” often comes up. What does it mean?

“CR” stands for “continuing resolution,” and it’s a temporary spending bill that lets the federal government stay open and operating before Congress and the president have approved a more permanent appropriation.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, CRs typically keep the same level of funding of appropriations from the prior year, or a previously approved CR from the current year.

The decision came as Republicans found themselves at an impasse over a package to fund the government before the Friday midnight deadline.

The term gets thrown around a lot during discussion of congressional spending measures. But what exactly is it?

The omnibus bill is a massive, all-encompassing measure that lawmakers generally had little time to digest – or understand – before voting on it.

There are a lot of spending measures all rolled into one, and sometimes that’s what happens if the dozen separate funding measures haven’t worked their way through the congressional spending process in time to be passed in order to fund the federal government.

Congressional Democrats were quick to condemn Trump’s rejection of the spending measure, saying failing to fund the federal government would cause hardship for many people but not wealthy Americans like the president-elect.

“Why do the billionaires — Musk, Ramaswamy, Trump — want to shut down the government for Christmas?” Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said in a post on the social platform X. “Because they still get paid.”

Murphy also said a shutdown would mean difficulties for “troops, TSA agents and other federal workers who won’t get paid,” adding: “It’s their kids who will suffer this Christmas.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has added his voice to Republicans opposing the spending bill, which he called “grotesque” and “an insult to Americans’ intelligence.”

In a post on the social platform X, DeSantis wrote that his former congressional colleagues were “hiding behind disaster relief funding.”

He noted that since 2022, his state has invested more than $3.5 billion in its own preparedness and disaster funds while still weathering “several catastrophic hurricanes.”

President-elect Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan Wednesday to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown, instead telling House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to essentially renegotiate — days before a deadline when federal funding runs out.

Trump’s sudden entrance into the debate and new demands sent Congress spiraling as lawmakers are trying to wrap up work and head home for the holidays. It leaves Johnson scrambling to engineer a new plan before Friday’s deadline to keep government open.

“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH,” Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a statement.

The president-elect made an almost unrealistic proposal that combined the some continuation of government funds along with a much more controversial provision to raise the nation’s debt limit — something his own party routinely rejects. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” they wrote.

Democrats decried the GOP revolt over the stopgap measure, which would have also provided some $100 billion in disaster aid to states hammered by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.

“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, joins a group of conservative Republicans to speak about the interim spending bill being crafted to avoid a shutdown of federal agencies, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., joins a group of conservative Republicans to talk about how Speaker of the House Mike Johnson moved to get an interim spending bill to avoid a government shutdown, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., joins a group of conservative Republicans to talk about the interim spending bill being crafted to avoid a shutdown of federal agencies, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., joins a group of conservative Republicans as they talk to reporters about the interim spending bill being crafted to avoid a shutdown of federal agencies, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, center left, speaks with Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., center right, as they join a group of conservative Republicans to talk about the interim spending bill being crafted to avoid a shutdown of federal agencies, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, the vice president-elect, leaves the Senate chamber as lawmakers work on an interim spending bill to avoid a shutdown of federal agencies, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, left, speaks to reporters as he joins a group of conservative Republicans, from left, Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., to complain about the interim spending bill being crafted to avoid a shutdown of federal agencies, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., confer before joining other conservative Republicans to complain to reporters about the interim spending bill being crafted to avoid a shutdown of federal agencies, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, joins a group of conservative Republicans to complain to reporters about the interim spending bill being crafted to avoid a shutdown of federal agencies, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, the vice president-elect, leaves the Senate chamber as lawmakers work on an interim spending bill to avoid a shutdown of federal agencies, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The shooter at a religious school in Wisconsin had two handguns with her but used only one in the attack that killed a teacher and a student and wounded six others, the city's police chief said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday, before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.

“We may never know what she was thinking that day, but we’ll do our best to try to add or give as much information to our public as possible," Barnes said.

The student who was killed was identified in an obituary released Wednesday as Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, of Madison. She was a freshman at the school and “an avid reader, loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band,” according to the obituary. The Associated Press' attempts to reach the girl's family by phone and email on Wednesday evening were unsuccessful.

The Dane County medical examiner Wednesday evening identified the teacher who was killed as 42-year-old Michelle E. West.

Barnes released the name of the shooter, Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, hours after the shooting on Monday. Barnes said the medical examiner would release the names of those killed, but the state's crime victims privacy law would bar releasing the names of those injured.

Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with her parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes said.

Police don't know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said.

“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”

While Rupnow had two handguns, Barnes said he does not know how she obtained them and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.

No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow's parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes said.

Online court records show no criminal cases against her father, Jeffrey Rupnow, or her mother, Mellissa Rupnow. They are divorced and shared custody of their daughter, but she primarily lived with her father, according to court documents. Divorce records indicate that Natalie was in therapy in 2022, but don’t say why.

Tension over police not releasing information had spilled over into a news conference on Tuesday, where Barnes left without taking questions. Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway grew increasingly terse in her responses as reporters asked questions she could not answer.

“It is absolutely none of y’alls business who was harmed in this incident,” Rhodes-Conway said. ”Please, have some human decency and respect for the people who lost loved ones or were injured themselves or whose children were injured. Just have some human decency, folks. Leave them alone. Let them grieve. Let them recover. Let them heal. Don’t feed off their pain. We’ll share what we can when we can and not before that.”

Barnes on Wednesday defended the police department's handling of information about the shooting because it has moved from a crisis response to the investigation phase.

“We’ve been trying to be as transparent as possible to give as much information as we can during the critical phase of this incident,” Barnes said. “Now we’re in the investigative phase. And so the information may not be as forthcoming.”

Tamrin Olden, a former police department spokesperson in California whose company provides communications training for law enforcement, said she advises departments to give routine updates with factual information after critical incidents and avoid unnecessarily delaying the release of information. She said that communications errors can cause frustration in the community, undermine the public's trust and compound the underlying tragedy.

“Your credibility gets tarnished and the incident sometimes gets remembered for these things rather than remembering and honoring the victims, which is where the focus should be,” she said.

The police department has had to correct some key misstatements since Monday, including that three and not five people had died and that a second-grade teacher, not a second-grade student, called 911.

Paul Bucher, the former Waukesha County district attorney who was involved in a number of high-profile cases, said the media has unrealistic expectations about how quickly officials should release information in high-profile incidents. His cases have included prosecuting former Green Bay Packers star tight end Mark Chmura for sexual assault in 2000 and being part of the team that dealt with the aftermath of a mass shooting at a church gathering in Brookfield in 2005 that left seven people dead.

“The government is fed up with the media,” he said. “They have no obligation to disclose anything to you at all. Based on the mayor’s statement, ‘this is not y’all’s business,’ that’s pretty indicative that they’ve had it.”

But Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council President Bill Lueders, a longtime Madison journalist, said Wednesday that authorities should be more transparent with the facts.

“It’s a problem that so little information has been released. I do not accept that this is necessary to protect the integrity of the investigation,” he said. “The public has a right to know.”

The school shooting was the latest among dozens across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.

But it stands out because school shootings by teenage females have been extremely rare in the U.S., with males in their teens and 20s carrying out the majority of them, said David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database.

Emily Salisbury, an associate professor of social work at the University of Utah, studies criminology and gender. She said that females typically turn their anger on themselves because American culture has taught them that women don’t hurt people, resulting in eating disorders, self-harm and depression. It’s difficult to speculate without knowing all the facts in Rupnow’s case, Salisbury said, but a girl resorting to the level of violence she displayed suggests she experienced severe trauma or suffered violence herself.

“It takes more provocation, more instigation for girls and women to become violent,” Salisbury said. “It’s a very high probability she experienced some sort of violence in her life that can lead to serious mental illness.”

Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school — prekindergarten through high school — with approximately 420 students.

Salisbury said the public shouldn’t assume that the school’s religious teachings mean its students are above bullying and ostracizing each other.

“They’re children,” Salisbury said. “As much as those (religious) values may be taught or discussed in the classroom in the culture of that school, kids are online all the time. Kids create their own culture through social media.”

This story has been updated to correct that Emily Salisbury is an associate professor of social work at the University of Utah, not an associate sociology professor.

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.

Police tape remained after a shooting Monday at Abundant Life Christian School on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024 in Madison, Wis. (AP photo/Mark Vancleave)

Dan Beazley stands with the homemade cross he brought from Michigan for victims of a shooting at Abundant Life Christin School on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024 in Madison, Wis. (AP photo/Mark Vancleave)

Supporters sign crosses during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Madison Police chief Shon F. Barnes speaks at a news conference Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway speaks at a news conference Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

People put flowers outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Flowers and candles are placed outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

People put flowers outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Flowers and candles are placed outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

A supporter signs a cross during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)