Trump: Shutdown could go on ‘months or even years’
Aides keep channels open over weekend with growing stakes
WASHINGTON — With no shutdown resolution in sight, President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders agreed Friday to additional staff-level talks over the weekend, during a White House meeting at which Trump indicated he could keep parts of the government closed for “months or even years.”
Trump met with the congressional leaders for the second time in three days amid an impasse over Trump’s funding demands for his proposed wall at the U.S.Mexico border. Democrats emerged from the lengthy meeting to report little if any progress
“We told the president we needed the government open. He resisted. In fact, he said he’d keep the government closed for a very long period of time, months or even years,” said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Trump spoke more positively about the session, which lasted roughly two hours, calling it a “very good meeting.” But he confirmed he made the comment about the possible length of the shutdown.
“Absolutely I said that,” Trump said, but he added that he hopes it won’t be that long.
The meeting on the 14th day of the shutdown came after House Democrats muscled through legislation to fund the government, but not Trump’s proposed wall. Several Republicans crossed over to join them.
As the impasse over border funding dragged on, some GOP senators up for re-election in 2020 voiced discomfort.
But Trump dug in ahead of the meeting, writing in a letter to Congress, “Walls work. That’s why rich, powerful and successful people build them around their homes.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said even though the new Congress has convened since the last session at the White House, “the basic steps that are needed to end this unfortunate standoff really haven’t changed at all.” He has said measures approved by the House are nonstarters on his side of the Capitol without the president’s support.
“Any viable compromise will need to carry the endorsement of the president before it receives a vote,” he said.
As progress has stalled, some Republican senators want action. Cory Gardner of Colorado said Congress should pass bipartisan bills to fund government “while we continue to fight for more border security money.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that if McConnell and Senate Republicans stay on the sidelines, “Trump can keep the government shutdown for a long time.”
“The president needs an intervention,” Schumer said. “And Senate Republicans are just the right ones to intervene.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump and Senate Republicans should “take yes for an answer” and pass the legislation — without money for the wall — that the Senate approved on a voice vote last month.
“We’re not doing a wall. Does anyone have any doubt that we’re not doing a wall?” Pelosi said Thursday night.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is close to Trump, said he spoke to the president Thursday about a potential compromise package that would include border wall money and some way to provide legal standing for the young immigrants here illegally, but working or attending school under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump ended the program. But a lawsuit to allow it to continue is making its way through the courts.
“He’s open-minded to this,” Graham said in an interview, but he added the president “hasn’t committed.”