As Republicans are caving and trying to flee the government shutdown, Trump is demanding a large downpayment on his wall.
Senate Majority Leader McConnell is meeting with Democratic Leader Schumer after Republicans didn’t just lose, but were humiliated in a pair of shutdown-related votes on the Senate floor.
Sen. Lindsey Graham took to the Senate floor to talk about what Trump wanted in exchange for a 3 week CR:
Sen. @LindseyGrahamSC: "I just got off the phone with the president. I told him we're talking about a 3-week CR…he gave me some indications of things he would want for a 3-week CR…that I thought were imminently reasonable." #GovernmentShutdown pic.twitter.com/hHsvzNoN8u
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 24, 2019
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Trump then sent out Press Secretary Sarah Sanders with a ransom demand, as provided to PoliticusUSA, “Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Chuck Schumer are meeting now to see whether or not they can work out of the deadlock. As was made clear to Senator Lindsay Graham, the 3 week CR would only work if there is a large down payment on the wall.”
Trump makes it clear that he is holding government workers hostage
The statement from Sanders made it clear. Trump is not going to release his government worker hostages without wall money. Since House and Senate Democrats are refusing to pay Trump’s ransom, they are going to have to find a compromise that will get 67 votes in the Senate and survive a Trump veto. The Congress is going to have to work around Trump because he is not going to accept anything less than US taxpayers paying for the wall that he said Mexico would fund.
Republicans are trying to cave. They are trying to cut and run, but Donald Trump is threatening to turn Republicans in Congress into his new hostages if they try to free the government workers.
As the Republican Party is being destroyed, Trump thinks that he is winning the shutdown.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
