Schumer rescinds offer to Trump on border wall funding
GOP senator says move by Senate’s top Dem step back.
The Senate’s WASHINGTON — top Democrat has withdrawn an offer that would allow President Donald Trump to fulfill a signature campaign pledge: Construction of a wall along the U.S-Mexico border.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., took back his offer late Sunday through an aide, according to a person familiar with the situation, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about ongoing talks.
The decision to withdraw the offer to negotiate over the construction of a border wall comes as Schumer is facing strong criticism within his ranks and from liberal organizations angered that he didn’t push harder for an immigration deal as part of an agreement to reopen the federal government.
By signaling a willingness to pay for construction of a border wall, Schumer was offering to help Trump fulfill a cornerstone campaign pledge — after little consultation with most Democrats.
Schumer and Trump met at the White House last Friday and dined on cheeseburgers with senior aides as they tried reaching an 11th-hour deal to avert a government shutdown. They were unable to hammer out an accord, sparking a threeday partial government shutdown that ended Monday evening.
On Tuesday, two Republican senators, John Cornyn, R-Texas, and David Perdue, R-Ga., revealed that Trump and Schumer discussed a $25 billion package to pay for security measures along the southern border. That sum is far larger than the $18 billion the Trump administration told lawmakers this month that it would need to build out fencing and wall along the border over the next decade.
During the discussion, Trump and Schumer agreed that most of the $25 billion would be appropriated at the start, with other amounts doled out in future years, according to a person familiar with the meeting, granted anonymity to speak frankly about the exchange.
Aides to Schumer did not return requests for comment.
Over the weekend, Schumer described the meeting several times in public remarks, saying that Trump “picked a number for the wall, and I accepted it.” At other points Schumer said he “reluctantly” agreed to discuss constructing a wall — but never revealed the sum.
Aides to Trump have disputed details of the meeting.
Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said, “Once Schumer started talking about the president backing away from the deal that never existed, he said he offered the president everything on the wall and the military. That just wasn’t true ... The president knew Schumer was mistreating him.”
“It is great to be on a winning side of a shutdown debate,” Mulvaney said in an interview with The Post on Monday. “I can tell you right now from first hand experience, Chuck Schumer is in a tough spot.”
Matt House, top spokesman for Schumer, said, “Director Mulvaney once again isn’t telling the truth. Senator Schumer offered the president everything he asked for on the border and more than he asked for on defense.”
In exchange, Schumer has been seeking Trump’s support to legalize the status of young undocumented immigrants whose futures have been cast into doubt by the president’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on March 5.
Schumer and most Democrats voted Monday to end the three-day government shutdown after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that he intends to bring up a bill addressing DACA and other immigration matters in February.
Perdue, who did not attend the White House meeting on Friday, but said he has learned details about it, said that the agreement over $25 billion is an encouraging sign.
“The question is now, is how do you wrap the rest of this around the deal, and that’s where we are, and I’m very hopeful that we’ll get this done,” he said.
Cornyn dismissed the focus on paying for border wall, saying that Democrats “are obsessed with that topic. But it is clearly part of a system of border security infrastructure that everybody agreed is needed.”
He called Schumer’s decision to withdraw acceptance of the $25 billion sum “a step backward. If he wants a solution, that’s a step backward.”