Trump welcomes a shutdown during Oval Office squabble with Pelosi, Schumer
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) sparred with President Trump over border wall funding.
President
Trump, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader
Charles E. Schumer berated each other on camera Tuesday over Trump’s
border wall, an Oval Office spectacle that underscored the distance
between the two sides as they confront a fast-approaching deadline for a
partial government shutdown.
The stunning
public spat, during which Schumer accused the president of throwing a
“temper tantrum,” ended with Trump declaring he’d be proud to shut down
the government to get the money he wants for his long-promised
U.S.-Mexico border wall. If the president follows through on the threat,
about 25 percent of the federal government would begin to run out of
money on Dec. 21, putting hundreds of thousands of federal workers at
risk of getting furloughed without pay just before Christmas.
The
two sides remain billions apart on border security — the president is
demanding $5 billion for a wall, and Democrats will offer no more than
$1.3 billion for fencing — and Tuesday’s talks brought them no closer to
a resolution. The three leaders pointed fingers, raised their voices
and interrupted one another repeatedly as they fought over policy and
politics, laying bare their differences for all to see.
Pelosi
(D-Calif.) and Schumer (D-N.Y.) had not expected the session to be
televised and repeatedly asked Trump to take the discussions off-camera.
But the president allowed the acrimonious encounter to continue for
nearly 20 minutes before kicking the media out of the Oval Office.
As the argument dragged on, Schumer lectured Trump that “Elections have consequences, Mr. President.”
Trump
claimed that, because she is working to nail down the votes to become
speaker, “Nancy’s in a situation where it’s not easy for her to talk
right now.”
Pelosi retorted: “Please don’t
characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as the leader of
the House Democrats, who just won a big victory.”
It
was the first meeting of the three leaders in more than a year, and if
it offered a taste of politics in Washington next year when Democrats
control the House, the capital is in for a rough ride.
And
while Trump has dangled shutdown threats in the past over the wall,
Democrats’ upcoming House takeover has given both sides incentives to
dig in, raising the prospects of an extended shutdown.
Republicans
are about to lose their grip on full control of Washington and know
this is their last chance to deliver on Trump’s border wall, a
presidential promise many GOP members echoed in their own campaigns.
GOP
congressional leaders had urged Trump to put off a shutdown fight over
the wall until after the midterm elections for fear of losing more
seats. The midterms over, the president appears to want that fight even
though few congressional Republicans have any desire for a shutdown.
Democrats
feel emboldened by their success in the midterm elections and are in no
mood to give in to Trump’s demands, especially with Pelosi and Schumer
facing pressure from liberals in their caucus not to back down. Trump
long promised that Mexico would pay for the wall but is now demanding
U.S. taxpayers foot the bill, a reversal that has hardened Democrats’
resolve against a project Pelosi has termed “immoral.”
During
the private portion of the meeting, Pelosi pressed Trump on his claim
that Mexico would pay for the wall, and he told her that the money would
come from the newly renegotiated North American trade deal. It wasn’t
clear how this would work, and Pelosi dismissed the idea, according to
an account she later gave fellow Democrats.
The
$1.3 billion proposed by Democrats would extend current funding levels
for border fencing contained in a spending bill for the Homeland
Security Department — a level that would give Trump no new money for
work on a wall.
Absent an agreement by the end
of next week, funding will run out for the Homeland Security Department
and other agencies including the Justice, Interior and Agriculture
departments. Those agencies, making up about 25 percent of the federal
government, are operating on a short-term spending bill Congress passed
last week to move the shutdown deadline. The rest of the federal
government, including the Pentagon and the Health and Human Services
Department, has already been funded through the 2019 budget year.
Any
shutdown would therefore be limited in scope, but there are still
numerous federal workers employed by agencies large and small that are
at risk of shutting down everything except operations deemed critical. The impact on the federal workforce and the public would depend on how long the shutdown lasted.
Pelosi and Schumer both implored Trump to steer clear of a shutdown.
“I
think the American people recognize that we must keep government open,
that a shutdown is not worth anything, and that you should not have a
Trump shutdown,” Pelosi said, to which Trump replied, “Did you say
‘Trump’?”
Trump initially said he did not want a shutdown either but in the end announced he was willing to close the government.
“I
am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck,” Trump
declared. “Because the people of this country don’t want criminals and
people that have lots of problems and drugs pouring into this country.
So I will take the mantel. I will be the one to shut it down. I won’t
blame you for it.”
“We believe you shouldn’t shut it down,” Schumer repeated.
During
the private part of the meeting, Pelosi told reporters later, she
warned Trump that if he doesn’t accept the deal Democrats have offered
him, the House will go ahead and pass it next year once under Democratic
control.
“We’re telling him we’ll keep
government open with the proposal that Mr. Schumer suggested. Why
doesn’t he just think about it? In fact, I asked him to pray over it,”
Pelosi said.
Pelosi told Trump the House would
not even be able to pass his $5 billion wall bill this session, with
Republicans in control. Trump insisted that the House could but it would
be pointless because it would not pass the Senate.
“Okay then do it,” Pelosi challenged the president.
“Nancy,
I’d have it passed in two seconds,” Trump said. House GOP leadership
aides agree that a $5 billion wall bill could pass the House, and it may
come up for a vote by the end of next week.
Trump
continued: “Nancy, I need 10 votes from Chuck,” referring to Senate
math requiring 60 votes to advance spending bills, necessitating support
from Democrats.
Schumer sought to interject
and told Trump: “We have solutions that will pass the House and Senate
right now and will not shut down the government, and that’s what we’re
urging you to do. Not threaten to shut down the government because you
can’t get your way.”
Trump replied: “You don’t
want to shut down the government because the last time you shut it down,
you got killed,” referring to a brief shutdown earlier this year that
Democrats provoked over immigration.
The
leaders also argued about the meaning of the midterm election results.
As Pelosi and Schumer pointed to Democrats’ resounding win in the House,
Trump said: “Excuse me, did we win the Senate? We won the Senate.”
“When the president brags that he won North Dakota and Indiana, he’s in real trouble,” Schumer remarked in response.
Vice
President Pence sat near Trump in an armchair the entire televised
portion of the meeting without saying anything. Later, in a lunch with
GOP senators, Pence referred jokingly to what had transpired, remarking
that the Trump the public sees at rallies is just like the one who
negotiates in Washington.
The private part of
the meeting did not produce immediate results, either, although Pelosi
told reporters at the Capitol later that “I think we’re actually in a
pretty good place” and that Trump will weigh the deal the Democrats
offered.
After Pelosi and Schumer exited the
White House, Schumer told reporters: “If he sticks to his position for a
$5 billion wall, he will get no wall, and he will get a shutdown. The
bottom line is very, very simple.”
Even after two turbulent years under Trump, the Oval Office throwdown had some senators shaking their heads.
“I
don’t think it’s something to be proud of, I think it’s something to be
resolved about. I’m ready to do this. Listen, enough is enough,” said
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).
Sen. Charles
E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said Trump felt compelled to keep the cameras in
the room because he is frustrated with media coverage of his
administration and wants to showcase his ability to govern and confront
Democrats to a large audience.
Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made clear after the meeting that he
opposes having a shutdown, saying that the public opposes government
shutdowns no matter who starts them. “I understand it was a rather
spirited meeting we all watched, but I’d still like to see a smooth
ending here, and I haven’t given up hope that that’s what we’ll have,”
he told reporters.
“The president feels that he
never gets a fair shake from journalists generally, and he’s going to
do everything he can to get his message out,” Grassley said.
But
Grassley, a veteran of the Senate, said the televised clash told him
little about the state of the talks over the budget and border security:
“It hasn’t solved one thing in terms of compromise. It shows people
he’s attentive and intent on not letting people down . . . the people
who are fearful of a caravan invasion.”
Sen.
Jon Tester (D-Mont.), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee,
held out hope that the Oval Office clash might have cleared the air to
allow serious talks to begin.
“You see it all
the time with objections that are raised, and then people come together
and get it done,” Tester said. “I think it was, although a bit
uncomfortable to watch, I think it was fine.”
[‘It’s like a manhood thing for him’: Pelosi’s power play with Trump serves as message to opponents]
Trump
had begun the day Tuesday by tweeting threats that if Democrats do not
provide enough votes to build the wall, “the Military will build the
remaining sections.” He did not elaborate on how that would be funded.
By
the end of the day, Pelosi was crowing over her performance in the
meeting, telling fellow Democrats privately that getting Trump to own a
potential shutdown was an accomplishment, according to an aide in the
room who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relate a private
conversation.
Pelosi gave this version of
events, according to the aide: “The press is all there! Chuck is really
shouting out. I was trying to be the mom. I can’t explain it to you. It
was so wild. It goes to show you: You get into a tickle contest with a
skunk, you get tinkle all over you.”
Mike DeBonis, Seung Min Kim, Robert Costa, Sean Sullivan, Damian Paletta and David Nakamura contributed to this report.
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