FIGHT HOUSE
Trump spars with Dems in Oval Office reality show Prez: I’ll risk gov shutdown for border wall
As the cameras rolled on another episode of “The Real Politicians of DC,” President Trump argued with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer over the wall.
A routine Oval Office photo op with Democratic leaders turned into a reality-TV-like donnybrook Tuesday, with President Trump angrily threatening to shut down the government if Congress doesn’t fund his longpromised border wall.
“If we don’t get what we want one way or the other, whether it’s through you, through a military, through anything you want to call, I will shut down the government,” a visibly angry Trump told Sen. Chuck Schumer as reporters gawked and the cameras rolled.
“Absolutely. And I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck,” the president continued, gesticulating vigorously as Schumer smirked. “The people of this country don’t want criminals and people that have lots of problems, and drugs, pouring into our country. So I will take the mantle. I will be the one that shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it. I will take the mantle of shutting down, and I’m going to shut it down for border security.”
The meeting, which included Rep. Nancy Pelosi, began cordially, with Trump noting progress on bipartisan support for criminal-justice reforms.
The fireworks — featuring finger-pointing, interruptions and angry shouting, mostly by Trump — began after the talk turned to the border wall and Pelosi said voters don’t want a “Trump shutdown” of the government. “A what?” Trump fired back. “You have the White House, you have the Senate, you have the House of Representatives. You have the votes,” Pelosi responded, referring to the loom- ing partial shutdown of the government on Dec. 21 if there’s no budget deal.
“No, we don’t have the votes, because in the Senate, we need 60 votes,” the president said. “The problem is the Senate, because we need 10 Democrats to vote, and they won’t vote.”
Pelosi didn’t leave it there: She told Trump he also didn’t have the votes in the GOP-controlled House.
“House Republicans could bring up this bill if they had the votes immediately and set the tone for what we want,” she said.
“If we thought we were going to get it passed in the Senate, Nancy, we would do it immediately,” Trump replied. “We’d get it passed very easily in the House. We would get, Nancy, I’d have it passed in two seconds. It doesn’t matter though because we can’t get it passed in the Senate because we need 10 Democrats.”
But the California Democrat wasn’t buying it.
“There are no votes in the House, the majority votes, for a wall,” Pelosi insisted.
“That’s exactly right,” Schumer interjected as the roughly 17-minute debate continued.
“If I needed the votes in the House, I would have them in one second, we’d be done,” Trump insisted, hammering away at the issue. “It doesn’t help because we need 10 Democrats in the Senate. It doesn’t help for me to take a vote in the House where I will win easily with the Republicans.”
At several points in the conversation, Pelosi urged that the discussion continue without the press, whom the president had invited.
But Trump ignored her request as astonished reporters were witness to a raging political bat-
tle, the sort that is usually reserved for behind closed doors.
Raising a sore point for Pelosi, Trump noted that she has to be careful what she says because some Democrats are still trying to block her from becoming the House speaker.
“I also know that, you know, Nancy is in a situation where it’s not easy for her to talk right now, and I understand that,” Trump said, sparking an immediate comeback from the veteran lawmaker.
“Mr. President, please don’t characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as the leader of the House Democrats, who just won a big victory,” she shot back.
“Elections have consequences, Mr. President,” added Schumer.
“That’s right,” the president responded. “And that’s why the country is doing so well.”
Later, Pelosi called the con- frontation “wild” and boasted that she and Schumer goaded the president to “fully own that the shutdown was his.”
“It’s like a manhood thing for him,” the California congresswoman said back at the Capitol. “As if manhood could ever be associated with him. This wall thing.”
Trump repeatedly claimed that work on the wall was already underway when it fact there have only been repairs to existing sections.
That led Schumer to remind him that, “The Washington Post gave you a lot of Pinocchios because you constantly misstate how much of the wall is built.”
Vice President Mike Pence was also in the room but appeared to say nothing, sitting silently with his hands on his legs above his knees.
Asked afterward to describe the atmosphere in the private meeting that followed the public quarrel, Pence said, “candid.”
Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Chief of Staff John Kelly and adviser Stephen Miller were also present.
Trump earlier Tuesday sought to pressure Democratic congressional leaders into supporting his demand for billions to build the wall, threatening to have the military build it. He wants $5 billion for the wall in 2019 while Democrats offered only $1.3 billion.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said he hasn’t given up hope that a shutdown can be averted, adding that sometimes “magic” occurs ahead of Christmas, when lawmakers are eager to get home.
“I’d like to see a smooth ending here,” he said.