The shutdown today: Trump lashes out after Dems reject offer
President Donald Trump lashed out at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after Democrats made clear they would not accept his proposal to fund a border wall in exchange for temporarily protections for young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children and those fleeing disaster zones.
Trump had billed the plan as a compromise, but Democrats said it didn’t go nearly far enough, prompting a flurry of Sunday morning tweets.
“Nancy Pelosi and some of the Democrats turned down my offer yesterday before I even got up to speak. They don’t see crime & drugs, they only see 2020,”Trump wrote. He also accused the California lawmaker, without evidence, of having “behaved so irrationally” and moving “so far to the left that she has now officially become a Radical Democrat.”
Pelosi responded with a tweet of her own, urging Trump to “Re-open the government, let workers get their paychecks and then we can discuss how we can come together to protect the border.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer also dug in during an appearance in New York.
“If he opens the government, we’ll discuss whatever he offers, but hostage taking should not work,” Schumer said.
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QUOTES OF THE DAY
“No, Amnesty is not a part of my offer,” Trump tweeted in response to criticism he’s also getting from the right. “It is a 3 year extension of DACA. Amnesty will be used only on a much bigger deal, whether on immigration or something else. Likewise there will be no big push to remove the 11,000,000 plus people who are here illegally-but be careful Nancy!”
“You’ve got to start by opening the government. What we cannot do, and I’ve actually had Republicans as well recognize this, is that we cannot reward the kind of behavior of hostage taking. Because if the president can arbitrarily shut down the government now, he will do it time and again,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
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WHAT’S COMING NEXT
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has agreed to bring up legislation this week based on the proposal Trump outlined Saturday.
But Democrats say there’s little chance the measure will reach the 60-vote threshold usually required to advance legislation in the Senate. Republicans have a 53-47 majority.
It’s also unclear how McConnell will bring Trump’s plan forward – or when voting will begin. The Republican leader is a well-known architect of complicated legislative maneuvers. One question is whether he would allow a broader immigration debate with amendments to Trump’s plan on the Senate floor.
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WHAT REMAINS CLOSED
Nine of the 15 Cabinet-level departments have not been funded, including Agriculture , Homeland Security, State, Transportation, Interior and Justice. Some iconic National Park facilities are shuttered as are the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo in Washington. Nearly everyone at NASA is being told to stay home.
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WHO IS AT WORK BUT NOT GETTING PAID
Employees of the Transportation Security Administration are among the estimated 460,000 federal employees who have been working without pay. The agency has been experiencing far higher than usual unscheduled absences during the shutdown – and now the agency says staffers have been calling out of work because they can’t afford to get there.
According to a Sunday release, “many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations.”
Indeed, the agency said that, on Saturday, 8 percent of employees skipped work compared to 3 percent a year ago.
The disruption has forced screening area closures at some airports, including at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, where “Checkpoint A” was closed Saturday.
Still, TSA reports that, on Saturday, 99.9 percent of passengers waited less than 30 minutes and 93.8 percent waited less than 15 minutes.
