During their fractious meeting on Tuesday, President Trump told incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer he had the votes in the House of Representatives to get $5 billion in funding for a border wall, but that he would not press the bill because he needed 10 Democratic votes in the Senate for the bill to pass.
Pelosi, who challenged Trump’s manhood after the meeting, told him to prove it and get the bill passed. A $5 billion wall request would not, she said, pass the House.
Well, GOP leaders in the House say Trump was right on both counts. He has the votes in the House, but not the Senate.
Thus, the Associated Press reported, “congressional leaders were digging in” for a fight to avoid a partial government shutdown, which Trump has promised if he doesn’t get the $5 billion.
Democrats Want Less Border Security
During the meeting on Tuesday, Trump stood up to the two Democrats and dared them to fight him on wall funding. After a few minutes of fisticuffs for which the leftist media had a ringside seat, Schumer accused Trump of wanting to shut down the government.
No, Trump started to say, but then he stood belt buckle-to-belt buckle with the New Yorker and challenged him:
You want to put that on my … I’ll take it. You know what I’ll say? Yes, if we don’t get what we want, one way or the other, whether it’s through you, through a military, through anything you wanna call, I will shut down the government absolutely. And I am proud, and I’ll tell you what, I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck. 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.
On the Senate floor, Schumer lambasted the president.
“The president has called for a shutdown at least 20 times since he came into office,” Schumer huffed. “You can add at least five or six more times from our meeting!”
Schumer accused Trump of a “temper tantrum” and holdings “parts of the government hostage for a petty campaign pledge.”
Added Schumer, “if President Trump holds to this position, that unless he gets his wall he’ll shut down the government, who will suffer needlessly? The American people.”
Schumer didn’t mention that taxpayers get a break when the government shuts down, but in any event, regardless of the House, where Trump can get his bill, the Senate doesn’t look good.
“That appeared unlikely Wednesday,” AP reported, “as Democrats reiterated their opposition to spending more than $1.6 billion on border security.”
Trump’s GOP allies told him to stand strong. “This is a fight we’re going to have. He needs to dig in and not give in,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, who tweeted his support the other day urging the same course.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said the central question is, “Who’s going to give? The president doesn’t look to me like he’s going to budge. I don’t think he’s bluffing.”
Kennedy said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi appeared to be calling the shots for Democrats, “and she’s not going to make any concessions because she wants to be the next speaker.”
Side Note: AP Misleads on Terror Attack
AP noted that Trump tweeted about the terror attack at the Christmas market in Strasbourg, France. “Another very bad terror attack in France. We are going to strengthen our borders even more,” Trump wrote. “Chuck and Nancy must give us the votes to get additional Border Security!”
“But the suspect accused of spraying gunfire at a Christmas market in the city of Strasbourg on Tuesday is a French native, not an immigrant,” AP reported to refute the president’s plea. “Police were hunting Wednesday for Cherif Chekatt, born in Strasbourg and well-known to law enforcement.”
Well, he might have been born in France, but he was no Frenchman.
The Guardian reported about his “Moroccan roots.” And though AP’s report on the attack noted that he had been “flagged as a possible extremist,” it also claimed, amusingly, that police “did not give a motive for the shooting.”
As he murdered innocents, Chekatt shouted “Allahu Akbar!”
Photo: AP Images
