Day 13: Dems prepare to pass funding plan, Trump digs in
WASHINGTON >> House Democrats prepared Thursday to pass a plan to re-open the government without funding President Donald Trump’s promised border wall, as Trump made a surprise appearance pledging to keep up the fight for his signature campaign promise.
Trump strode into the White House briefing room on the 13th day of the partial government shutdown, declaring that “without a wall you cannot have border security.” He then left without taking questions from reporters.
The appearance came hours after the new Congress convened, with Democrats taking majority control of the House and returning Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi to the speakership. Democrats expect to quickly pass legislation to re-open the government — without funds for the wall.
“There is no amount of persuasion” Trump can use to get her to fund his wall, Pelosi said in an interview that aired Thursday on NBC’s “Today.” “We can go through the back and forth,” she added. “How many more times can we say no?”
Trump is demanding billions of dollars to build his wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, which the Democrats have refused.
Congressional leaders from both parties met with Trump at the White House Wednesday, but failed to make progress during their first sit-down in weeks. The White House has invited the leaders back Friday for another round of talks that officials have suggested might be more successful now that Pelosi has been sworn in.
Reporters were told Thursday that White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would be holding a hastily called late afternoon briefing. Instead, out walked Trump, flanked by members of the unions that represent border patrol and immigration enforcement agents. It was his first time delivering remarks at the briefing room podium.
“You can call it a barrier, you can call it whatever you want,” Trump said. “But essentially we need protection in our country. We’re going to make it good. The people of our country want it.”
Trump said his meeting with the union officials had long been planned and just happened to come at “a very Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., center, talks with reporters as he walks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday after returning from a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House. opportune time.” He also claimed his refusal to budge was winning praise, telling reporters, “I have never had so much support as I have in the last week over my stance for border security.”
White House and Department of Homeland Security officials have spent recent days trying to make a public and private case that the situation at the border has reached a “crisis” situation that demands more money than Democrats have offered.
Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted an ominous video with images of what appeared to be migrants trying to rush the border and clashing with law enforcement, beneath the words “crisis at the border,” “drugs” and “crime.” The video concludes with footage of Trump at the border along with audio from one of his rallies in which he vows to build his promised border wall and the crowd chants “Build the wall!”
The Democratic package to end the shutdown would include one bill to temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels — with $1.3 billion for border security, far less than Trump has said he wants— through Feb. 8 as talks would continue.
It would also include a separate measure to fund the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Housing and Urban Development and others closed by the partial shutdown. That measure would provide money through the remainder of the fiscal year, to Sept. 30.
The White House has rejected the Democratic package.
“Why not fully fund the Department of Homeland Security? Why doesn’t the Pelosi bill do that?” said White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
On Thursday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer urged Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to put the House Democratic package on the Senate floor and send it to Trump.
“At this point, we need to take the lead here in Congress in the hopes that we can show President Trump the sweet light of reason,” Schumer said.
McConnell has dismissed the idea as a “total nonstarter” and a waste of time.
Vice President Mike Pence and Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney were on the Hill Thursday.
Mulvaney, a former member, was on the House floor during the vote for speaker. Pence, who was on the Hill swearing in new senators for a few hours, had an impromptu, brief chat with Schumer, encouraging him to attend the Friday meeting at the White House.
Trump has said the partial shutdown, which began Dec. 22, will last “as long as it takes” to get the funding he wants.