No sign of progress after Trump meets lawmakers on shutdown

[webfact]

No sign of progress after Trump meets lawmakers on shutdown

By Jeff Mason and Amanda Becker

 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting on day 12 of the partial U.S. government shutdown at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 2, 2019. REUTERS/Jim Young

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic and Republican congressional leaders emerged from a meeting with President Donald Trump on Wednesday giving no indication of any progress towards ending a partial government shutdown in its 12th day as Trump held fast to his demand for $5 billion in funding for a border wall.

 

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters that Trump asked congressional leaders to return to the White House on Friday for more talks aimed at ending the shutdown.

 

Democrats said they would proceed with plans to hold votes on Thursday, when they formally take control of the House of Representatives from Trump's fellow Republicans, on legislation that would end the shutdown without providing the wall money sought by Trump. The White House has called the two-part package a "non-starter."

 

"We're asking the president to open up government," Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the presumptive incoming House speaker, told reporters outside the White House after top lawmakers met with Trump and his homeland security officials behind closed doors.

 

Trump's demand for $5 billion in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border triggered the shutdown affecting about a quarter of the federal government and 800,000 federal workers. Before meeting with lawmakers, Trump said the shutdown would last for "as long as it takes" as he pushes for wall money - fiercely opposed by Democrats - as part of any legislation to reopen agencies shuttered when their funding lapsed on Dec. 22.

 

"It could be a long time," Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting, "or it could be quickly."

 

"We know that we have a challenge along the border," McCarthy said. "We want to solve that issue. We want to make sure we open this government up. And I think at the end of the day, the president, listening to him, he wants to solve this as well."

 

Pelosi noted that the legislation being presented in the House had previously won backing in the Senate, which will remain in Republican hands in the new 2019-2020 Congress that convenes on Thursday.

 

SITUATION ROOM

Trump's meeting with lawmakers was held in the White House Situation Room, generally used for high-level security concerns such as military planning.

 

The House legislation sets up the first major battle of the new Congress between House Democrats and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has said Senate Republicans will not approve a spending measure Trump does not support.

 

Trump made the border wall a key part of his presidential campaign. Before meeting with the Democrats, Trump called the border a "sieve," rebutted Pelosi's complaint that a wall was immoral, provided an estimate of the U.S. illegal immigrant population far higher than the figures most experts cite and made disputed comments about progress towards building a wall.

 

The visit by Pelosi and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer was their first to the White House since their sharp exchange with Trump in the Oval Office on Dec. 11 during which the president told them he would be "proud to shut down the government for border security."

 

He has since blamed Democrats for the shutdown.

 

Schumer said he hoped Trump and his Republican allies would not use the shutdown and the affected government workers as "hostages" to try to extract wall funding. Schumer said Trump "could not give a good answer" for his opposition to the House Democratic legislation that would provide stopgap funding for the Department of Homeland Security and funding for the rest of the current fiscal year for the remaining shuttered agencies to provide time to reach a border security compromise.

 

The $5 billion Trump is seeking would cover only a portion of the money needed for a border wall, a project estimated to cost about $23 billion. Trump had said Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico has refused.

 

Trump said he was open to working on a path to legal status for hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants known as Dreamers who were brought into the country as children, pointing towards a potential broader deal with Democrats that could resolve the shutdown.

 

Federal courts have blocked Trump's effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, begun in 2012 under Democratic former President Barack Obama, that protected the Dreamers from deportation and gave them work permits.

 

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Amanda Becker; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Cornwell; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Bill Trott and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-01-03

[Thailand]

Now it's going to get interesting with the house majority in opposition hands, the tweeter will be apoplectic!

[Prairieboy]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Before meeting with lawmakers, Trump said the shutdown would last for "as long as it takes" as he pushes for wall money

Reminiscent of a feudal lord hiding behind the castle walls fearing attacks from the peasants because of their mistreatment under his rule..

[helpisgood]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

 

"We know that we have a challenge along the border," [Kevin] McCarthy said. "We want to solve that issue. We want to make sure we open this government up. And I think at the end of the day, the president, listening to him, he wants to solve this as well."  [First name added.]

 

Just based upon the OP's reporting, a carefully worded statement by the very soon-to-be House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Republican) that, although supports border security and does not directly criticize the president, it's hardly a ringing endorsement of Trump's wall.  In fact, there's no mention of any kind of a physical barrier. 

 

Kevin McCarthy has risen to a high status within his party, so I think he's being a careful politician who probably believes that Trump's wall funding would be better spent elsewhere for border security or whatever, if spent at all. 

 

Also, I think McCarthy is calculating that things will get more complicated with the Dems controlling the House for the next term. 

[Tug]

Donald was fishing for a way to blame the dems for the shutdown it was just a dog and pony show 

[Berkshire]

It's amazing that the leader of the free world is controlled by the likes of Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, et al.  Trump was about to sign the funding bills without money for the wall until these blowhards started whining.  Trump then folded like a cheap suit.  Now he's willing to punish thousands of Americans to appease these nutbags.  Pelosi should never, ever, give in to this buffoon.

[Srikcir]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Trump's demand for $5 billion in funding for a wall

Now he's says $5.6 billion.

Mexico will pay for the wall - now he says Mexico has paid for the wall.

The wall will be built - now he says the wall is being built and/or has been built.

Trump blames Democrats for still refusing to negotiate.

But backstabs VP Pence after Pence went to Congress to support a funding bill with $2.5 billion for border security.

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/01/03/donald-trump-mike-pence-backstab-erin-burnett-monologue-vpx-ebof.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/

Meanwhile Trump makes ZERO concessions to the Democrats and Republican Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell continues to resist a Senate vote to fund all government agencies through the fiscal year (September 2019) with the exception of Homeland Security until he has firm backing from Trump on any funding bill.

Trump says he cannot make any concession because HE would look foolish to his minority base.

But it's okay for the Democrats to look foolish to their majority base.

 

Trump is not a failed negotiator.

He is simply incapable of negotiating with parties of equal power.

His mobster-like Cohen behavior may have served him well in NYC but not against the 10 million more Democrat vote margin than House Republicans in the 2018 Mid-Term election - the largest raw vote margin in a House midterm election ever. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/06/politics/latest-house-vote-blue-wave/index.html

Pelosi is not throwing away that Democrat base to satisfy Trump's ego.

 

[metisdead]

A troll post containing an offensive reference toward Trump has been removed. 

[marko kok prong]

Like having a three year old having a tantrum over sweets[ candy for our American friends] in charge of the world's most powerful country. No wonder he likes Kim jong un,i imagine their summits to be the two of them in a room stamping their feet and seeing who can scream louder.

[Mavideol]

Tremendous mistake.... you're FIRED

[farcanell]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

McCarthy said. "We want to solve that issue. We want to make sure we open this government up. And I think at the end of the day, the president, listening to him, he wants to solve this as well."

One can’t help but wonder if McCarthy is talking about the same president as is featured in the rest of the OP

 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

with President Donald Trump on Wednesday giving no indication of any progress towards ending a partial government shutdown

A president who, contrarily, had this message to give to the people’s of those divided states of America.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Trump said the shutdown would last for "as long as it takes" as he pushes for wall money

A president who is seemingly not that concerned about speedily reopening the government

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

It could be a long time," Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting, "or it could be quickly."

 

A president who is willing to cause more financial hardship and harm to his people

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Democrats said they would proceed with plans to hold votes on Thursday

Vs an opposition party, under fancy Nancy, who wants to act immediately to relieve the suffering caused by donal trump

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Trump asked congressional leaders to return to the White House on Friday for more talks 

The same donal trump, who is obviously a day late and a dollar (or five billion) short.

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has said Senate Republicans will not approve a spending measure Trump does not support.

But to his credit, the nation’s red leaders are abrogating all responsibilities for running the government, to their supreme leader.... heil Donald!... y’all might as well send all the republican senators home, after confirming proxy voting rights to the don.

 

 

[keemapoot]

1 hour ago, Berkshire said:

It's amazing that the leader of the free world is controlled by the likes of Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, et al.  Trump was about to sign the funding bills without money for the wall until these blowhards started whining.  Trump then folded like a cheap suit.  Now he's willing to punish thousands of Americans to appease these nutbags.  Pelosi should never, ever, give in to this buffoon.

Yeah, it's really true. I read an article where some guy had made an algorithm that tracked Trump's tweets and there was this astounding correlation that most of his policy tweets cam shortly after Fox and Friends was broadcast in the AM, and his tweets were substantially similar as the words out of Steve Doocy's mouth!  This time, the anlaysis showed it was Limbaugh, Coulter primarily.

[TopDeadSenter]

12 minutes ago, keemapoot said:

Yeah, it's really true. I read an article where some guy had made an algorithm that tracked Trump's tweets and there was this astounding correlation that most of his policy tweets cam shortly after Fox and Friends was broadcast in the AM, and his tweets were substantially similar as the words out of Steve Doocy's mouth!  This time, the anlaysis showed it was Limbaugh, Coulter primarily.

 If that's true, it's lucky he doesn't watch Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo.

 

 Are we still waiting for Nancy to get back from the Luau for talks to progress on ending the shutdown?

[attrayant]

31 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

 Are we still waiting for Nancy to get back from the Luau for talks to progress on ending the shutdown?

 

 

This is what the story in the OP is about.  Why didn't you read it?

[joecoolfrog]

7 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

This is what the story in the OP is about.  Why didn't you read it?

He doesn't read anything that shows Trump in a bad light , ergo he doesn't read anything !

[farcanell]

2 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

 If that's true, it's lucky he doesn't watch Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo.

 

 Are we still waiting for Nancy to get back from the Luau for talks to progress on ending the shutdown?

No.... we’re waiting for the donal to scoop his dummy outta the swamp, wash it off and stick it back in his pie hole.... and that’s just a starting gambit.

 

we’re also waiting on republican law makers, to stand up and consider doing their job, which isn’t to do trumps bidding, per say, but to act on behalf of the American people’s.... so your question should actually be;

 

“are we still waiting for republican senators to enter into talks to progress towards an ending of trumps shutdown?”