Trump gets his border wall as House Republicans deliver the $5 billion
House Republicans delivered the $5 billion President Donald Trump demanded for his border wall on Thursday night but the measure is doomed in the Senate, increasing the likelihood of a government shutdown.
The vote is a symbolic victory for the president and his last chance to get the money he needs before Democrats take control of the House next year. But the victory is bittersweet.
While it passed the House, both sides have acknowledged it's dead-on-arrival in the Senate ahead of Friday's deadline to avert a partial government shutdown. And the lack of next steps has increased the odds that deadline won't be met.
'Everyone knows it can't pass the Senate. It's a cynical attempt, a cynical attempt to just hurt innocent people and do just what President Trump wants,' Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday night of the House measure.
The president needs 60 votes to move his border wall funding through the upper chamber, which means he needs 11 Democrats to vote in favor of his signature campaign promise. Democrats have vowed not to vote for it.
'The Trump temper tantrum may produce a government shutdown. It will not get him his wall,' Schumer said. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will bring up the House measure for a vote in the Senate on Friday.
After its expected failure, the next steps are unclear. One option is for the House to pass the continued resolution funding the government the Senate passed Wednesday, which would keep the government open but not fund Trump's wall.
The president has said he will not sign that measure. Trump has tried to turn the blame to Democrats with an accusation of playing games and politics when it comes to border security.
'Maybe he thinks if government shut down, he can golf more comfortably. That's not how it works.
Government must work even if you're golfing for two weeks,' House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday night, referring to the president's plans to spend the holidays at Mar-a-Lago.
White House officials said Trump would not leave Washington D.C. if the government shuts down. Trump said Democrats were playing politics with border security.
'The fact is we need the wall. The Democrats know it. It's only a game when they say you don't need the wall,' Trump said in a pre-recorded video that was posted on his @RealDonaldTrump account Thursday evening.
'You can look at their eyes and you can say 'well they're not telling the truth. ' They want to try to do anything possible to hurt us because it's politics,' he added. 'We're going to build a wall,' he noted.
Trump sent GOP leaders back to Capitol Hill to scrounge up votes for his border wall on Thursday afternoon after they tried to drop it from a must-pass spending bill.
They passed their first test when a procedural vote passed 221-179, setting up the successful final vote later Thursday evening.
Republicans came out to support the continued resolution to fund the government that contained $5 billion for physical barrier construction, $700 million for border security, and $7. 8 billion in supplemental funding for disaster relief.
But the president's pressure campaign on House Democrats may be futile given the zero odds of it passing in the Senate.
A measure that would keep the government open has already passed the upper chamber - only it doesn't contain funding for Trump's border wall.
GOP leaders, including the House speaker and Senate majority leader, were under the impression that Trump would sign it. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said of the miscommunication later that the misunderstanding was on them.
'Anybody that didn't know that the president wanted border security in any funding bill simply hasn't been paying attention,' she said during a gaggle with reporters outside the White House amid a downpour.
But Schumer and Pelosi said they'd work to pass the original funding measure the Senate approved on Wednesday - that doesn't contain the $5 billion in wall funding - ahead of Friday night's deadline to stave off a partial government shutdown.
Trump is putting his foot down, however, and refusing to consider a bill that doesn't give the wall funding to him. 'I've made my position very clear. Any measure that funds the government has to include border security.
Not for political purposes, ' he argued during an unrelated bill signing at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex on Thursday, 'for our country, for the safety, for our community.'.
Trump announced to an audience that included Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that is not backing down from his border wall as Republican lawmakers grumbled that the president was picking a fight he could not win.
And the clocking is ticking toward Friday's deadline for a partial government shut down. Trump stood firm at an agricultural event, where he strayed from the topic at hand to explain his current thinking on a spending deal and the border wall.
The president said the U.S. government is spending $275 billion on border security a year, increasing an amount in that has repeatedly debunked as substantially higher than reality.
'I am asking Congress to defend the border of our nation, for a tiny fraction, tiny fraction of the cost,' he said. 'Walls work, whether we like it or not. They work better than anything,' he contended.
The president insisted that a bipartisan bill that does what he wants could pass and must pass as a matter of national security, even as GOP legislators told reporters that it couldn't and wouldn't.
'This is not merely my campaign promise, this the promise every lawmaker made. It is the solemn promise to protect and defend the United States of America, and it is our sacred obligation,' Trump said of border security. 'We have no choice.'.
A government shutdown over the Christmas holiday was back on the table after President Trump told House Republican leaders a few hours prior that he would not sign a bill to keep parts of the government open beyond Friday because it does not include funding for his border wall.
Speaker Paul Ryan emerged from a meeting with Donald Trump at the White House to announce that he was going back to the drawing board after a presidential brow-beating that lasted more than an hour.
Ryan and the GOP's second-in-command, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, told reporters awaiting an update that Trump 'informed us that he will not sign the bill' that passed in the Senate late Wednesday evening 'because of his legitimate concerns for border security.'.
'We want to keep the government open, but we also want to see an agreement that protects the border,' the outgoing Republican congressman said. 'We have very serious concerns about securing our border.'.
McCarthy, who will replace Ryan as the top Republican in the House next year, cheerfully noted, 'We believe there's still time.
'The president said what the Senate sent over is just kicking the ball, just kicking the can down the road,' he explained.
'We want to solve this problem we want to make sure we keep the government open, and we're gonna work to have that done and have something happen.'.
The GOP leaders left without answering a cacophony of questions about how it planned to wrangle enough legislators for a vote with many lawmakers out of town.
An average of 40 lawmakers had missed votes on Wednesday afternoon as many lame-duck legislators have avoided Capitol Hill in the wake of their losses on Election Day.
Republican Whip Steve Scalise and McCarthy declined to answer multiple questions from reporters on Capitol Hill wondering whether the GOP has the votes for the president's $5 billion wall, as well.
'That sounds like a negative attitude,' Scalise said when asked if they have the numbers. Ryan avoided the main door of the Capitol outside of his speaker's office upon his return from the White House.
Scalise said the House will add the $5 billion it will take to build Trump's wall to the government funding bill the Senate sent the lower chamber on Wednesday night.
He also said disaster relief funds will be added to the package, perhaps in a move to sweeten the deal and help get the party votes.
Democrats have made it clear they will not support the $5 billion in funding for the wall.
The ball is now in House Republicans' court, and they'll spent Thursday afternoon frantically whipping their party to see if the votes are there to meet the president's demand.
Lawmakers have been warned multiple votes are expected in the House and to watch the schedule for changes. The president's spokeswoman reiterated Trump's demand for a border security provision that allows him to build a wall.
'President Trump just met with Republican Members of the House. Not surprisingly, they all feel strongly about Border Security – stopping the flow of drugs, stopping human trafficking, and stopping terrorism.
We protect nations all over the world, but Democrats are unwilling to protect our nation. We urgently need funding for border security and that includes a wall,' Sarah Sanders said.
A shutdown appeared to go from unlikely to unavoidable after a wild day of tweets from the president, who decided to go to the mat for his border wall at the eleventh hour.
Trump blasted GOP leaders in a tweet after a phone conversation with Ryan, who had previously promised him he would fight for the wall after the mid-term elections.
'When I begrudgingly signed the Omnibus Bill, I was promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership. Would be done by end of year (NOW).
It didn't happen! We foolishly fight for Border Security for other countries - but not for our beloved U.S.A. Not good!' Trump said. Prior to the meeting, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump is still weighing his options.
'The President is having a meeting with Republican House Members at noon today. At this moment, the President does not want to go further without border security, which includes steel slats or a wall.
The President is continuing to weigh his options,' she said. Trump called the House speaker during a closed-door caucus meeting and suggested he wouldn't sign a must-pass spending bill if it doesn't fund his border wall.
The White House had not taken a formal position on the bill that would delay the border wall battle until Feb. 8 at that point.
The president sparked panic early in the morning when he said he would not sign 'any' legislation that does not have 'perfect border security' hours after the U.S.
Senate passed a stop-gap spending bill that does not include money for a border wall.
The bill awaits a vote in the House, where last-minute negotiations were taking place to drive up the whip count. Disaster aid and wall funding were among the propositions that were being floated in the lower chamber as add-ons.
Conservatives were digging in and saying they wouldn't pass a bill, unless it includes an appropriation for the border barrier. If the bill doesn't pass or the president declines to sign it, parts of the government will close early Saturday.
Trump first suggested that he could oppose the legislation, because it doesn't fund the wall, in a morning tweet. 'The Democrats, who know Steel Slats (Wall) are necessary for Border Security, are putting politics over Country,' he said.
'What they are just beginning to realize is that I will not sign any of their legislation, including infrastructure, unless it has perfect Border Security. U.S.A. WINS!'.
At a closed-door caucus meeting Ryan insisted that Trump would sign the bill, a Republican congressman said, only to receive a call from the president mid-way through that upended the process.
It was not immediately known what was said on the call, but it caused chaos on Capitol Hill, where Ryan was about to host his final press conference as a GOP leader.
Ryan abruptly cancelled his news conference minutes later after Trump smacked GOP leaders in a tweet.
Nancy Pelosi, the current Democratic leader and expected House Speaker come January, called the situation a 'meltdown' as she spoke from the podium at her news conference.
'Republicans are in a state of disarray,' she said of the 'breakdown' among the ruling party.
Pelosi said her members would vote for a continuing resolution to keep the government open but would not support a bill that allows the president to build a wall.
'I think we've made that clear. We'll see what they come up with,' she said. 'But in terms of wall funding, that's a non-starter. I think they know that.'.
Trump suggested in his first tweet of the day that he could sign the short-term spending bill now and refuse to sign any legislation in 2019 that doesn't fund the wall, including a bipartisan infrastructure package both parties hope to pass.
Pelosi told reporters she thinks the president is unlikely to follow through on that threat. 'I believe the president wants to do an infrastructure bill.
I don't know that he'll throw a tantrum over it when he sees what the bill might be,' she said.
His mixed signals on what he would and wouldn't be willing to approve followed the White House's public announcement this week that it would be willing to accept less than $5 billion in funding for his border wall this fiscal year amid negotiations to keep the government open.
The vice president reportedly told senators during a Wednesday luncheon that Trump would sign the continuing resolution, staving off a shutdown just in time for the billionaire president to jet down to his private club in Palm Beach for his annual Christmastime visit.
The GOP's top vote counter, John Cornyn, told CNN that Mike Pence affirmed at a closed-press meeting that Trump would sign the bill that punts the debate over his border wall to next year.
Sen. Bill Cassidy revealed on Fox News on Thursday, 'The White House was in room when the deal was originally crafted.'.
That bill passed in the Senate by voice vote with a boost from Democrats and had the support of Pelosi, the top-ranking Democrat in Congress, in the House of Representatives.
Conservatives in the lower chamber were urging Trump not to back down, however, from his request for funds for the border wall.
House Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan said that this could be Trump's last chance to fulfill his most memorable campaign promise.
'Pelosi's going to be speaker,' he said on Fox News of the January takeover of Congress by Democrats. 'It's never going to happen.'.
The conservative group's head, Rep. Mark Meadows, who Trump recently turned down to be his chief of staff, said the group believes the president is getting 'bad advice' on how to play the spending fight.
'They know that he's promised not once, not twice but three different times that he would get border wall funding, and here we are about to punt,' Meadows told reporters on Capitol Hill, suggesting that Trump had been played by GOP leaders like Ryan.
Ryan told members of his caucus at a closed-door meeting on Thursday morning that he expects the spending bill to pass, CNN reported. New York Republican Chris Collins told reporters outside the meeting that Ryan also committed Trump to signing the legislation.
Trump apparently called Ryan minutes later and told him the agreement was off.
It remained unclear at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday afternoon what the president would do as he brought Ryan and other Republican leaders to the White House to hash the issue out.
Lindsey Graham, who has been hammering Trump on foreign policy moves this week, said on Fox News that the president should refuse to sign a bill that doesn't include funding for his border wall.
'If I were him I'd stand firm,' he said. 'That's a fight worth having.'.
Earlier in the week, the White House denied that Trump was mulling a short-term spending bill that doesn't fund his wall, but as a shutdown loomed the president's spokeswoman indicated that Trump would sign whatever the Senate sends him.
Sanders said Tuesday that Trump has also tasked every Cabinet secretary to look through agency funds to see what if anything they can redirect to the border wall.
'We are looking to those individuals to find out those specific pots of money that can be used for that,' she said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Trump has claimed he could tap the military or use money that's reaped from his new trade accord. 'Mexico is paying (indirectly) for the Wall through the new USMCA, the replacement for NAFTA! Far more money coming to the U.S.
For more infomation >> Trump threatens once again to shut down government over border wall - Duration: 2:54. 
For more infomation >> Here's how many of you would help pay for Trump's border wall - Duration: 0:33. 
For more infomation >> How General Mattis' Resignation Will Affect Trump | TODAY - Duration: 3:12. 
For more infomation >> Ryan Humiliated As Republicans Revolt, Stand With Trump On Border Wall Funding - Duration: 4:04. 
For more infomation >> Mattis leaving as Pentagon chief after clashes with Trump - Duration: 0:19. 
For more infomation >> Mattis Quits, Says His Views Aren't 'Aligned' With Trump's - Duration: 0:51. 
For more infomation >> MIGRANT CARAVAN LATEST NEWS TODAY. Trump Focuses On Migrant Caravan , House votes ON border wall - Duration: 10:35. 
For more infomation >> Mattis Quits, Says His Views Aren't 'Aligned' With Trump's - Duration: 1:51. 
For more infomation >> Donald Trump ដកទ័ពអាមេរិក ចេញពីប្រទេស Syria - Duration: 2:19. 
For more infomation >> Trump Administration Wants To Cut Back On Food Stamps For Able-Bodied Workers - Duration: 2:15. 
For more infomation >> Acting AG Matthew Whitaker Cleared To Oversee Trump-Russia Investigation - Duration: 2:26. 
No comments:
Post a Comment