The chances of a government shutdown on October 1 are high. In fact, the possibilities of a shutdown may be even greater now than they were for the 35-day government shutdown from mid-December, 2018 until late January, 2019. That is not to say the government will shutter. There are just a number of factors which are working against keeping the government open this time around. In fact, few saw the government shutdown of several years ago coming.

Hunter Biden’s former business partner and fellow Burisma board member, Devon Archer, met with then-Secretary of State John Kerry just weeks before the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma was fired in 2016. Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired on March 29, 2016, less than four weeks after Archer met with Kerry at the State Department in Washington, D.C., according to a State Department email.

Political advisers to both President Biden and Vice President Harris were reportedly annoyed with Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom over a planned debate with the Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential hopeful. “It’s disrespectful,” an outside adviser to Harris said, according to a report from NBC News on Sunday. “Joe Biden is running with Kamala Harris. That’s the Democratic ticket.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, competing for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, sidestepped Sunday on whether he would support Donald Trump if the former president is convicted in any criminal case, arguing that President Biden, too, “has trampled on the Constitution of the United States.”  “I signed a pledge to be on that stage to say I would support the Republican nominee.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 81, defended President Biden, 80, against voter critiques that he lacks the energy and vigor to continue leading the United States. “I met with the president … five or six weeks ago, we had a great discussion. He seemed fine to me,” Sanders, an independent, told NBC News’ Chuck Todd on “Meet The Press” Sunday morning.