Democrats offer Trump 'Republican path' to reopen government after White House meet: 'Why would he not do it?'

By CHRIS SOMMERFELDT
| NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
JAN 02, 2019 | 1:55 PM



House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speak to the media after meeting with President Trump at the White House on Wednesday. (Jacquelyn Martin / AP)



Flabbergasted Democratic leaders left the White House on Wednesday questioning why President Trump is refusing to reopen the government — even though they are willing to pass a spending bill that Republicans previously supported.


Speaking after a closed-door border security briefing with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, presumptive Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she had informed the President that the incoming Democratic House majority will pass a measure to reopen the government first thing Thursday.


The restart package is modeled after a bipartisan measure the Senate passed overwhelmingly days before the government shuttered on Dec. 22.


“We’re asking the President to open up the government,” Pelosi told reporters, as the crippling shutdown dragged into its 12th day. “We are giving him a Republican path to do that. We would he not do it?”




The measure — which even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) championed — would not put up any taxpayer cash for a border wall but keep the Department of Homeland Security running at current spending levels through Feb. 8 and provide full funding for the eight other closed Cabinet departments.


That way, Democrats say Congress can continue to discuss disagreements on DHS spending without putting some 800,000 federal employees out of work or without paychecks.


“We asked (Trump) to give us one good reason why you should continue your shutdown of these eight Cabinet departments while we’re debating our differences,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “He could not give a good answer.”


The shutdown kicked in after Trump refused to sign the Senate-passed bill after at first intimating he would do so.


The President’s last-minute flip-flop came after right-wing pundits and TV anchors ridiculed him for not making sure the bill earmarked at least $5 billion in taxpayer money for the construction of a massive wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump spent the entire 2016 campaign promising Mexico would pay for the behemoth barrier.


Ahead of Wednesday’s border briefing, Trump maintained during a Cabinet meeting he’ll keep the government shuttered for “as long as it takes” to strong-arm Congress into funding a wall.


“Government could be shut down for a long time,” Trump said. “As long as it takes.”


Incoming House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said after the border talk that Trump had invited the congressional leaders back to the White House for further discussions Friday. “We want to open this government up,” McCarthy added.


McConnell, who also attended the rendezvous, was less optimistic and reiterated he won’t put any bill before the Senate that Trump won’t commit to signing.


“I don’t think any particular progress was made today,” McConnell said.


Wednesday’s high-stakes shutdown discussion was Trump’s first with Democrats since an explosive Oval Office meeting with Schumer and Pelosi on Dec. 11 that ended with the President boasting he’d be “proud” to close the government if he didn’t get wall cash.


“I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down,” Trump told the Dems at the time. “I will not blame you for it.”


Museums and galleries part of the Smithsonian network became the latest shutdown casualty Wednesday, as they ran out of cash from a previous appropriation and closed down. The now shuttered cultural institutions include the National Zoo, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of History and the National Portrait Gallery.


Meanwhile, Trump suggested there may be some wiggle room on how much taxpayer cash he’ll accept for a border partition but declined to give specifics and struck a defiant tone.


“All this is, is to tell Chuck and Nancy, and some others...how bad it is, how dangerous it is and why we need a wall,” Trump said ahead of the briefing with Nielsen.


The President also complained he had been “lonely” this Christmas, having scrapped his Florida plans in light of the shutdown. His only companions, Trump said, were the “machine gunners.”


“They don’t wave, they don’t smile,” Trump said in an apparent reference to White House security personnel.


Democrats remain unanimously against providing any money for a barrier they deem expensive, ineffective and immoral. They are offering to tuck away about $1.3 billion for general border security as long as it isn’t used for a wall.


Schumer stressed Democrats aren’t against securing the border — they simply don’t want to waste taxpayer dollars on a pointless project. The New York senator also begged Trump and Republicans to let the government reopen while they work out their differences.


“We hope that they will not use the American people, the millions who depend on these departments and the workers who are either not working or not getting paid, as hostages,” Schumer said. “We hope that won’t happen.”


With Denis Slattery

Donald Trump
Democratic Party
White House
Republican Party
U.S. Senate
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Kevin McCarthy