Senator supports end of shutdown, border wall
In TV broadcast, Graham urges Trump to open government, but to declare national emergency if no deal is reached
WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday that President Donald Trump should agree to reopen the government and continue trying to hammer out a deal with Democrats on funding his long-promised border wall — but that the president should declare a national emergency if no progress is made in three weeks.
In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Graham maintained that Trump is not going to give up on his demand for more than $5 billion in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
But he argued that reopening the government and attempting to find a legislative solution, then declaring a national emergency if those talks don’t bear fruit, is the best way forward.
“I would urge him to open up the government for a short period of time, like three weeks, before he pulls the plug. See if we can get a deal. If we can’t at the end of three weeks, all bets are off. See if he can do it by himself through the emergency powers,” Graham said.
Waiting three weeks would take the negotiations past Trump’s State of the Union address later this month.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that more Americans blame Trump and Republicans in Congress for the shutdown than congressional Democrats. Fifty-three percent of respondents blame the president and Republicans, while 29 percent blame Democrats. Thirteen percent blame both equally. More Americans remain opposed to the idea of a border wall than support it, the poll found, although the margin has narrowed over the past year.
Trump continued making his case for the wall in Sunday morning tweets, arguing that it “will bring down the crime rate throughout the entire Country!” He again sought to blame Democrats, who he said were “everywhere but Washington as people await their pay.”
Trump also suggested that he is open to including protections for Dreamers, who were brought to the country illegally as children, as part of a deal. But last week, Trump shot down a deal floated by Senate Republicans that would have included those protections, and he has repeatedly said that he plans to wait until the Supreme Court rules on the matter before seeking to negotiate with Democrats on it.
“Democrats are saying that DACA is not worth it and don’t want to include in talks,” Trump said Sunday. “Many Hispanics will be coming over to the Republican side, watch!”
As pressure to end the shutdown continues to mount, some Democrats have begun urging Senate Republicans to take up House-passed legislation to reopen the government, regardless of whether the president agrees.
Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said on NBC News’ Meet the Press” that centrist Senate Republicans who sought to broker a deal last week should step forward and make an appeal to their party’s leader in the chamber, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
“It’s time for those centrists to speak up in their own Republican Senate caucus and tell Mitch McConnell, ‘The party’s over. We want this to end, there’s no excuse for the shutdown,’ ” Durbin said. “The Republican-controlled Senate and a handful of senators will make that decision.”