After an 11th hour compromise was foiled by President Trump last night, ushering in a partial shutdown after the clock struck midnight, lawmakers from both parties (or at least those who haven’t already departed for the holiday) are vigorously working with President Trump to come to an agreement on border security funding – even as the president has made it abundantly clear that he won’t sign any bill that doesn’t include at least $5 billion in funding for his border wall.
And in a Saturday morning tweet that arrived somewhat later than usual (suggesting that the president was up all night engaging in contentious negotiations with Republicans and Democrats) Trump admonished the media for more “FAKE” reports about the shutdown and Syria (likely a reference to reports that Trump had considered another compromise on border wall funding) and insisted that “it could be a long stay” if Democrats didn’t agree to funding for the wall.
I am in the White House, working hard. News reports concerning the Shutdown and Syria are mostly FAKE. We are negotiating with the Democrats on desperately needed Border Security (Gangs, Drugs, Human Trafficking & more) but it could be a long stay. On Syria, we were originally…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2018
Trump added that the US was supposed to maintain a brief “three month” active troop presence in Syria, but instead we came and then “never left”. Whatever remains of ISIS, Turkey and other local countries should be able to handle it, the president said.
….going to be there for three months, and that was seven years ago – we never left. When I became President, ISIS was going wild. Now ISIS is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. We’re coming home!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2018
Trump’s laid bare his case for insisting on funding for his promised border wall in a video appeal published on his twitter feed earlier Saturday.
OUR GREAT COUNTRY MUST HAVE BORDER SECURITY! pic.twitter.com/ZGcYygMf3a
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2018
Many in Washington expect the partial shutdown could endure at least through the new year – and possibly longer – as Trump has shown no signs of backing down, instead pressuring McConnell to invoke the “nuclear option” to pass a funding bill with a simple majority (it has already passed the House).
via RSS http://bit.ly/2Q0Qjzy Tyler Durden