It is said that everyone’s a critic.

But when it comes to the government shutdown, everyone’s an oracle.

Especially when trying to determine when it might end.

“[Democrats] are waiting to elect [Zohran] Mamdani, the communist, soon-to-be mayor of New York. And then I believe things will go back into business as normal,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., on FOX Business. “If we don’t reopen this week, then I believe it’ll happen at some time shortly before Thanksgiving.”

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Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., also offered her own prediction.

“I believe that this week could be the week,” said Capito on FOX Business.

But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wasn’t so sure.

“I don’t know what the predictions are based on,” said Cornyn on Fox. “We keep looking for some rational behavior on the part of the Democrats who shut down the government. But it was a dumb idea to start with. And it hasn’t gotten any better since.”

Everyone is now searching for a flicker of hope. A glimmer of reason as to why the government shutdown won’t deepen.

But all this week represents is another opportunity. There have been multiple inflection points along the way, but nothing has quite yielded the same opportunity to end the shutdown as this week.

Yes, emergency food aid for the nation’s neediest expired on Saturday. Air traffic is growing worse by the hour. Healthcare premiums formally spiked on Saturday – which is why Democrats balked at funding the government in the first place.

But none of those developments have truly forced the sides back to the negotiating table. That’s why some have settled on Tuesday’s elections as a potential turning point.

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Mamdani is the odds-on favorite to become the next mayor of New York City. Republicans are now projecting that the election is why the Democrats haven’t folded on government funding. They believe that certain election results – a win by the progressive Mamdani in New York coupled with what Republicans hope are losses by the moderate former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., running for Virginia governor and Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., running for New Jersey governor – will prod Democrats into action. Republicans believe such results will compel Democrats to see their party as out of touch.

“I hope the election tomorrow is a change. A sea change in all this,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “I hope that after everybody votes and they go in their room and they make the calculation that, well, ‘maybe, maybe we won’t have to hold that line anymore.’”

Republicans know the shutdown will end eventually. But if it ends soon, they want to shape the narrative that “Democrats caved because of the election results.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., expressed hope that Tuesday’s elections will be “a change.” (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Consider that Republicans have been forecasting the shutdown’s end for five weeks now.

“The cracks started to appear in the Democrat base,” proclaimed Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on October 1.

Republicans believed Democrats would cave in a matter of days once the shutdown started.

It never happened.

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The GOP then argued that Democrats were merely holding out until the “No Kings” rallies on October 19 concluded — that Democrats would have “shown they were fighting” by then.

“They won’t be able to reopen the government until after that rally,” forecast Johnson on Fox on October 10.

There was nothing of the sort.

Then the GOP amended its argument that Democrats were on the verge of giving in because federal workers were missing paychecks. Especially air traffic controllers.

“We’re getting to where the consequences of this are very real,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Fox on October 23.

That theory also fizzled.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., noted that “we’re getting to where the consequences of this are very real.” (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Republicans then pinned their hopes on the next missed paycheck, coupled with flight delays, expiring SNAP benefits, and spiking health premiums on November 1.

“The Democrats will collapse entirely,” predicted Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Fox over the weekend.

But nothing changed.

“We will not support a partisan, Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people,” proclaimed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. “That’s been our position. Week after week after week – and it will continue to be our position.” 

Say what you will about the Democrats’ strategy. But they haven’t folded.

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Keep in mind that Republicans have tried in vain to convince Senate Democrats since mid-September to accept a GOP spending plan which would only fund the government through November 21.

“It is now becoming close to a moot issue,” said Cornyn. “What are they going to do after, I don’t know.”

Thune proclaimed that the 21st is now a date which is “lost.”

Yours truly asked House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., what was the “drop-dead date” for Republicans to make another play call.

“With November 21st out there, it’s not a lot [of] time to resolve differences,” replied Scalise.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., was asked about the “drop-dead date” for another play call by his party. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

There’s now chatter about Republicans crafting another short-term spending bill through January.

“The longer sort of runway, the better,” said Thune. “I’m certainly listening to our colleagues and trying to figure out kind of where that landing spot would be.”

But there’s no guarantee either chamber could pass such a measure — especially if Democrats’ core demands remain unaddressed.

In his daily prayer to open the Senate session, Senate Chaplain Barry Black implied that the lawmakers needed help solving the crisis – simply because they were no closer to a resolution than they were in late September.

“Inspire our lawmakers to unite in putting out the fire of this government shutdown that has already burned far more than anticipated,” prayed Black.

It’s too unpredictable to make a sound prediction about when the shutdown will end. But if you predict enough things, you’ll eventually get something right.

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So how about this prediction:

The shutdown will end.

Eventually.

And that’s truly the only safe prediction anyone can make right now.

Millions of YouTube TV subscribers will likely miss “Monday Night Football” on ESPN and ABC News’ election day coverage as the blackout of Walt Disney-owned channels stretches into a second week.

“Monday Night Football” features the Dallas Cowboys battling the Arizona Cardinals. In addition, several important political contests are on Tuesday ballots, including the New York City mayor’s election, gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, and California’s Proposition 50 to decide whether officials can redraw the state’s congressional map to favor Democrats.

Disney on Monday sought a temporary thaw in tensions with Google Inc. after the two sides failed last week to strike a new distribution contract covering Disney’s television channels on Google’s YouTube TV.

“Despite the impasse that led to the current blackout, we have asked YouTube TV to restore ABC for Election Day so subscribers have access to the information they rely on,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “We believe in putting the public interest first and hope YouTube TV will take this small step for their customers while we continue to work toward a fair agreement.”

Google’s YouTube declined the offer.

“We agree that the right priority here is to give customers what they want,” the tech giant wrote in a blog post. “Unfortunately, your proposal would permit us to return Disney’s ABC stations only for a day and will cause customer confusion among those who may briefly see ABC on YouTube TV only to lose it again shortly after.”

More than 10 million YouTube TV customers lost access to ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels late Thursday after a collapse in negotiations over distribution fees for Disney channels, causing one of the largest recent blackouts in the television industry.

The two TV giants wrangled for weeks over how much Google must pay to carry Disney’s channels, including FX, Disney Jr. and National Geographic. YouTube TV — now one of the largest pay-TV services in the U.S. — has balked at Disney’s price demands, leading to the outage.

YouTube TV does not have the legal right to distribute Disney’s networks after its last distribution agreement expired. In its post, YouTube offered another option:

“We propose immediately restoring the Disney channels that our customers watch: ABC and the ESPN networks, while we continue to negotiate,” YouTube said. “Those are the channels that people want.”

YouTube has said that should the outage stretch for “an extended period,” it would offer its subscribers a $20 credit.

Spanish-language TelevisaUnivision-owned channels were knocked off YouTube TV in a separate dispute that has lasted more than a month. Televisa has appealed to high-level political officials, including President Trump and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr.

Last year, after Disney-owned channels went dark on DirecTV in a separate carriage fee dispute, Disney offered to make available to DirecTV subscribers its ABC coverage of the sole presidential debate between President Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

DirecTV viewed ABC’s offer as something of a stunt, noting the debate would be streamed. DirecTV countered by asking Disney to instead make all of its channels available.

That fee dispute resulted in a 13-day blackout on DirecTV.

ABC’s “World News Tonight With David Muir” is one of television’s highest rated programs. However, YouTube noted there were other options for election results.

“Disney can continue to livestream news information on the ABC News YouTube page,” YouTube said. “Its ABC local stations can also do so on their YouTube pages.”

Heightened tensions in the television industry have led to numerous blackouts.

In 2023, Disney and Charter Communications were unable to iron out a new contract by their deadline, resulting in a 10-day blackout of Disney channels on Charter’s Spectrum service. A decade earlier, Time Warner Cable subscribers went nearly a month without CBS-owned channels.

Programming companies, including Disney, have asked for higher fees for their channels to help offset the increased cost of sports programming, including NFL and NBA contracts. But pay-TV providers, including YouTube have pushed back, attempting to draw a line to slow their customers’ ever-increasing monthly bills.

More than 40 million pay-TV customer homes have cut the cord over the last decade, according to industry data. Many have switched to smaller streaming packages. YouTube TV also benefited by attracting disaffected customers from DirecTV, Charter Spectrum and Comcast. YouTube TV is now the nation’s third-largest TV channel distributor.

President Donald Trump said he believes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids “haven’t gone far enough” when asked about the federal agency’s tactics that have sparked protests and lawsuits.

Trump sat down for a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, who asked the president about videos of an ICE agent shoving a woman to the floor at an immigration courthouse, federal agents deploying tear gas in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood and smashing car windows.

“Have some of these raids gone too far?” O’Donnell asked.

“No. I think they haven’t gone far enough because we’ve been held back by the – by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama,” Trump replied.

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“You’re OK with those tactics?” O’Donnell pressed.

“Yeah, because you have to get the people out. You know, you have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people that were thrown outta their countries because they were, you know, criminals. Many of them are people from jails and prisons. Many of them are people from frankly mental institutions,” he claimed. “I feel badly about that, but they’re released from insane asylums. You know why? Because they’re killers.”

The Trump administration has carried out immigration raids on major American cities to carry out Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conduct an arrest in Chicago, Illinois, on January 26, 2025. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout via REUTERS)

The White House has repeatedly said federal agents are targeting criminal illegal migrants who are the “worst of the worst.”

Fox News previously reported on a leadership shakeup at ICE amid growing friction with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over deportation tactics and priorities.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, senior adviser Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino have pushed for a broader and more aggressive immigration enforcement approach, targeting anyone in the U.S. illegally to boost deportation numbers.

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Bovino and other DHS and ICE officials were named in a civil rights lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Illinois in early October and accused of using unlawful force to suppress peaceful protests and press activity around the Broadview ICE facility in Illinois.

It was filed by a coalition of journalists, media organizations and individual protesters.

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Trump told CBS News he believes his immigration mission will be complete once “many” of roughly 25 million people are deported.

“Well, it takes a long time, because, you know, probably I say 25 million people were let into our country. A lotta people say it was 10 million people. But whether it was ten or – I believe I’m much closer to the right number,” he said. “Of the 25, many of them should not be here. Many of them.”