President Donald Trump spoke to reporters again this afternoon following his contentious public spat with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi on the border wall and a possible government shutdown.
Trump directly said he would be “proud” to shut down the government in the name of fighting for border security.
During a bill signing this afternoon, Trump said the meeting was “very friendly” and stood by his comments. When asked about owning the idea of a shutdown, he said, “I don’t mind.”
He elaborated:
“I don’t mind having the issue of border security on my side. If we have to close down the country over border security, I actually like that in terms of an issue, but I don’t want it to be an issue, I want it to be something that the country needs… We need border security, and part of border security is a wall. So I don’t mind owning that issue.”
And if the fight is on border security, Trump added, “I think I win that every single time.”
President Donald Trump and Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi bickered at length on Tuesday in an explosive public meeting at the White House over the president’s promised border wall and threat to shut down the government if Congress doesn’t fund it.
“If we don’t get what we want one way or the other … I will shut down the government,” Trump said during a highly unusual fight that played out in front of the press before the official meeting began. “I am proud to shut down the government for border security. … I will take the mantle of shutting it down.”
If Trump and Congress can’t agree to a funding bill by Dec. 21, large parts of the federal government will run out of operating authority. The Defense Department, however, is funded through the end of next September.
Trump said it was unlikely that he would strike a deal Tuesday with Pelosi, a California Democrat who is expected to become House speaker next month, and Schumer, a New York Democrat who is the Senate minority leader.
“We may not have an agreement today,” he said. “We probably won’t.”
The House Freedom Caucus, a group of Trump’s Republican allies in Congress, demanded Monday night that $5 billion be included for the wall in any spending bill, while the Democratic leaders have been open to accepting less than $2 billion.
Earlier in the day, according to two sources who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity, Pelosi told House Democrats that she and Schumer would offer the president a deal to pass six appropriations bills and a yearlong extension of current funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Short of that, she said, they would agree to a basic extension of funding through Sept. 30, 2019, for all seven appropriations bills, including the one that funds Homeland Security.
Before Trump took ownership of a possible shutdown, Pelosi took an early dig at him in her opening remarks and noted that his party still controls both the House and Senate until January.
“We must keep the government open,” she said. “We cannot have a Trump shutdown.”
“A what?” he snapped at her.
“You have the White House, you have the Senate, you have the House of Representatives,” Pelosi responded.
But, she noted, not all Republicans are on board with his plans to build a physical barrier.
“There are no votes in the House, a majority of votes, for a wall,” Pelosi said.
“If I needed the votes for the wall in the House, I would have them in one session,” Trump countered. “It would be done.”
But for two years, he has been unable to muster those votes for his core campaign promise during the 2016 election — a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that Trump vowed Mexico would pay for.
Vice President Mike Pence watched Tuesday’s spectacle unfold in silence as Trump and the Democrats also fought over the results of last month’s midterm elections and their meaning.
Outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly and presidential advisers Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller were also in the room for the meeting.
Pelosi urged the president to stop bickering in front of the media.
“This is spiraling downward,” she said.
The private portion of the discussion was brief, as Pelosi and Schumer emerged quickly to talk to reporters outside the White House.
Schumer said Trump threw a “temper tantrum.”
Later, back at the Capitol, he said the meeting was “productive” in that “the president showed what he wanted: shutdown.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a top Trump ally, cheered the president on from the sidelines of Twitter.
“Great job sticking to your guns on border security, Mr. President!” he wrote. “You are right to want more border security funding including Wall money. They are WRONG to say no.”
Graham also advocated for Trump to add into the mix a provision protecting certain undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children from deportation to put pressure on Democrats to approve money for the wall.
Likewise, some Democrats took to social media to back their leaders.
“Remember when Mexico was going to pay for the President’s wall?” Rep. Val Demings of Florida tweeted. “Shutting down the government over this foolish idea would be wildly irresponsible. A shutdown would cripple the economy and degrade transportation security during the holidays.”
Donald Trump lied multiple times and threw a very public temper tantrum during a photo op at the White House with Senator Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi over the southern border wall funding and averting a government shutdown, which Trump said he would take full credit for.
Trump, who promised his supporters Mexico would pay for a wall, instead demanded the American taxpayers pay for his wall.
President Donald Trump opened his communications strategy Tuesday morning with a series of tweets focused on the current immigration problems, particularly on the Southern U.S. border.
Trump has threatened to shut down the federal government if Congress does not approve the appropriate budget allocations to build the border wall that was so central to his campaign in 2016, despite the fact that candidate Trump repeatedly promised that Mexico would be paying for the wall.
Despite the large Caravans that WERE forming and heading to our Country, people have not been able to get through our newly built Walls, makeshift Walls & Fences, or Border Patrol Officers & Military. They are now staying in Mexico or going back to their original countries…….
…..Ice, Border Patrol and our Military have done a FANTASTIC job of securing our Southern Border. A Great Wall would be, however, a far easier & less expensive solution. We have already built large new sections & fully renovated others, making them like new. The Democrats,…..
….however, for strictly political reasons and because they have been pulled so far left, do NOT want Border Security. They want Open Borders for anyone to come in. This brings large scale crime and disease. Our Southern Border is now Secure and will remain that way…….
…..I look forward to my meeting with Chuck Schumer & Nancy Pelosi. In 2006, Democrats voted for a Wall, and they were right to do so. Today, they no longer want Border Security. They will fight it at all cost, and Nancy must get votes for Speaker. But the Wall will get built…
….People do not yet realize how much of the Wall, including really effective renovation, has already been built. If the Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our Country, the Military will build the remaining sections of the Wall. They know how important it is!
Monday morning and President Donald Trump is tweeting – this time cribbing from Fox News’ morning talk about Democrats’ inability to find a “smocking gun.”
“Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony,” Trump tweeted, in re GOP-ers in House Judiciary Committee having hauled Comey back in for a day’s worth of grilling, mostly about Hillary Clinton’s emails according to Comey, talking to reporters at end of Friday. Transcript to come.
“No Smocking Gun…No Collusion,” Trump boasted in his early morning tweeting.
“That’s because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly calling it a campaign contribution…which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s – but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me).
“Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun…No Collusion.” @FoxNews That’s because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,…
….which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s – but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me). Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!
A brief moment on Monday’s Fox and Friends First was the catalyst for an early-morning tweet from President Trump.
This is an amazing admission of guilt, and an amazing misspelling of “smoking” twice, but let’s also walk through the lies in this tweet.
First, James Comey testified in a closed door session a few days prior on the demands of House Republicans, who pulled him in to ask questions about Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email server. An obvious ploy to change the national conversation away from Trump by Republicans… not Democrats.
And second, a lawyer for the Department of Justice accompanied Comey to the hearing and any time a Republican Congressman asked him questions prying into the Robert Mueller probe, the lawyer instructed Comey he couldn’t comment about an ongoing investigation.
So Republicans and Fox News framed this very basic understanding of our justice system to their their viewers as “James Comey refused to answer questions.”
After watching Senator Richard Blumenthal on TV, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to attack him again and nickname him “The Dick.”
Many times when Blumenthal has spoken out against Trump, Trump has fired back with shots at the Connecticut Democrat over his admission that he “misspoke” about his service during Vietnam following critical reporting on the subject. On the campaign trail, he spoke of his service “in Vietnam,” but he never served in Vietnam. The New York Times called him out at the time for the “misleading way he often speaks about that period of his life now, especially when he is speaking at veterans’ ceremonies or other patriotic events.”
Trump once again went after Blumenthal and this time just straight-up called him “the Dick”:
Watched Da Nang Dick Blumenthal on television spewing facts almost as accurate as his bravery in Vietnam (which he never saw). As the bullets whizzed by Da Nang Dicks head, as he was saving soldiers….
Trump was probably responding to Blumenthal’s Friday night appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball, in which he said the walls are closing in on the President:
"This sentencing memorandum is a bombshell … The pieces of the mosaic, or the puzzle, are coming into place and the walls are closing in on Trump and his inner circle including his family." @SenBlumenthal on #Hardball. pic.twitter.com/vv7Dzoa1uI
After the White House spent a week talking about the importance of decorum, President Donald Trump over the weekend fired off a tweet alluding to profanity in reference to California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff.
Trump made either a typo or an intentional decisionon Saturday when he tweeted about Schiff — the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who will become the committee’s chair in the next Congress — and compared his name to the word “shit.”
“So funny to see little Adam Schitt (D-CA) talking about the fact that Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker was not approved by the Senate, but not mentioning the fact that Bob Mueller (who is highly conflicted) was not approved by the Senate!” Trump wrote.
Whitaker became acting attorney general earlier this month after Trump fired now-former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He’s a controversial figure and, like the president, has repeatedly criticized Mueller, the special counsel heading the Russia investigation.
So funny to see little Adam Schitt (D-CA) talking about the fact that Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker was not approved by the Senate, but not mentioning the fact that Bob Mueller (who is highly conflicted) was not approved by the Senate!
As incoming House Intelligence Committee chair, Schiff has said he will continue to push the Russia investigation, reviving the committee’s probe and backing Mueller even if Trump or his allies try to intervene.
President Trump just removed Jeff Sessions. He wants an Attorney General to serve his interest, not the public.
Mueller's investigation and the independence of the DOJ must be protected. Whitaker and any nominee must commit to doing both.
He appeared on ABC’s This Weekwith Martha Raddatz on Sunday (hours before Trump tweeted about him)and said he believes Whitaker’s appointment is unconstitutional, as he should be subject to Senate confirmation.
“Constitutionally, it has to be subject to confirmation,” Schiff said, calling Whitaker’s appointment “flawed” because of statutory issues and because “he was chosen for the purpose of interfering with the Mueller investigation.” Vox’s Andrew Prokop has a full explainer of the controversies surrounding Whitaker’s appointment, including questions about its constitutionality.
Trump hasn’t amended the “Schitt” tweet
Trump and the White House spent a lot of time complaining about the need for decorum last week as part of its ongoing battle with CNN and journalist Jim Acosta, whose press credentials the Trump administration revoked earlier this month.
“There must be decorum in the White House,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement after a judge last week ruled to temporarily restore Acosta’s credentials.
“Decorum. You can’t just take three questions and four questions, and just stand up and not sit down. Decorum. You have to practice decorum,” Trump said on Friday during a bill signing when asked about the CNN ruling.
Trump appears not to be concerned with his own decorum, considering Sunday’s tweet. The message could be a typo — the president is also the person who brought us “covfefe” and often makes mistakes in his tweets. But he also could have deleted and redone the tweet with the correct spelling, which he did not. And Trump is quite a fan of nicknames, including Crooked Hillary, Little Marco, and Lyin’ Ted.
The tweet garnered a swift reaction online.
CNN’s Manu Raju pointed out the timing after the White House’s call for decorum.
Trump calls for “decorum” at the White House and then a couple days later calls the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee “Schitt”
Former top government ethics watchdog Walter Shaub tweeted that the office of the president was made for “better things than an infantile tweet misspelling a congressman’s name like a curse word,” but said the “real crime” is Trump firing heads of agencies for investigating his campaign.
The Office of the President was made for better things than an infantile tweet misspelling a congressman’s name like a curse word. But the real crime is its corrupt occupant being allowed by a morally bankrupt congress to fire the heads of agencies for investigating his campaign.
Schiff also responded and alluded to the written questions the president is expected to soon submit to the special counsel as part of the Russia investigation.
Wow, Mr. President, that’s a good one.
Was that like your answers to Mr. Mueller’s questions, or did you write this one yourself? https://t.co/Yd27sayt7C
President Donald Trump claimed today that the stock market is having “big headaches” because of the Democrats.
The Democrats taking the House means they will be able to conduct investigations, and Trump borrowed a phrase that Mitch McConnell has used before – “presidential harassment” – only this time in reference to the market:
The prospect of Presidential Harassment by the Dems is causing the Stock Market big headaches!
“The prospect of Presidential Harassment by the Dems is causing the Stock Market big headaches!” he tweeted.
Trump recently said at a jobs event that if the midterms didn’t go well for the GOP, “I think you’re going to lose a lot of money.”
Axios reported on Monday that “there are at least 85 topics that Democrats have said they’d target — or are expected to target — in the forthcoming torrent of investigations and subpoenas to be directed at the Trump White House.”
President Donald Trump will soon be on the receiving end of something he didn’t see much from a Republican-led Congress: orders, backed up by subpoenas, for officials to answer questions on controversial policies like the dispatch of thousands of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Two can play that game!” Trump wrote Wednesday on Twitter.
Now that Democrats have won control of the U.S. House of Representatives, they will be able to force administration officials to testify and provide documents. That will subject Trump’s decision-making — as well as his personal finances and potential conflicts of interest — to deeper public and private examination by key committees, as the national focus shifts to the 2020 presidential election.
President Trump on Wednesday took a victory lap after the midterm elections, saying Republicans defied the odds by stopping a so-called “blue wave” of Democrats from taking control of both chambers of Congress.
“There was a big day yesterday. Incredible day,” Trump said during a White House news conference. “The Republican Party defied history to expand our Senate majority while significantly beating expectations in the House.”
Trump suffered a major blow on Tuesday when the GOP lost control of the House, but the president has downplayed that defeat, arguing he feels vindicated by the results in the Senate, where Republicans look like they’ll gain three or four seats.
The president noted that of the 11 candidates he campaigned with during the final week of the race, nine won.
“This vigorous campaigning stopped the blue wave,” he said. “History will really see what a good job we did in the final few weeks.”
Trump blamed GOP losses in the House on the high number of retirements and large fundraising totals for Democrats, as well as negative media coverage that he said “set a new record.”
He also called out several House lawmakers by name, saying their failure to embrace him led to their defeats even though they ran in districts where he is unpopular.
“Too bad Mike,” Trump said of Rep. Mike Coffman (R), who lost in Colorado. The president also appeared delighted that GOP Reps. Carlos Curbelo (Fla.), Barbara Comstock (Va.) and Mia Love (Utah) were all defeated while distancing themselves from him.
“Mia Love gave me no love. And she lost. Too bad. Sorry about that Mia,” he said.
Taking over the House is a major victory for Democrats, allowing them their first chance to act as a check on Trump. They are expected to carry out aggressive investigations of Trump’s businesses and administration, a dynamic that could pose a real challenge for a president who has not had to worry about a political opponent with power.
But Trump immediately went on the offensive to try to turn the public against the coming onslaught of House oversight probes, painting them as an “investigation fatigue” designed to cause gridlock and stymie his agenda ahead of the 2020 election.
“If that happens, then we’re going to do the same thing and government comes to a halt. And I would blame them,” he said.
Trump appeared to be sending a warning to Democrats that he could use them as a foil, but also dangled the possibility of bipartisan deals on infrastructure and drug pricing.
“It really could be a beautiful bipartisan type of situation,” Trump said.
President Trump on Monday downplayed the possibility that Democrats could demand his tax returns if they retake control of the House in Tuesday’s elections.
“I don’t care. They can do whatever they want and I can do whatever I want,” Trump said when asked if he was concerned Democrats may go after his tax returns if they win the majority.
Trump spoke to reporters upon arriving in Fort Wayne, Ind., for one of three campaign rallies he was set to hold on Monday. He suggested that a Democratic majority would force the White House to “have to work a little bit differently.”
“It’ll all work out but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Trump said, expressing confidence in Republicans’ chances on Tuesday. “I think we’re doing very well in the House. I think we’re doing very well in the Senate.”
Democrats and critics of the president have suggested that Trump’s tax returns could reveal potential conflicts of interest, and liberal groups have urged Democratic lawmakers to demand the president’s filings should they regain control of the House.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said last month that compelling Trump to turn over his tax returns would be “one of the first things we’d do” if Democrats win back the House majority.
Under federal tax law, the chairmen of congressional tax committees can request tax returns from the Treasury Department and review them in a closed session before voting to make all or parts of the returns public.
While Trump may protest such a request, the decision would ultimately fall to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Mnuchin told The New York Times earlier this month that he would work with the department’s general counsel and the general counsel for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to address any requests should Democrats win the House.
The president broke with decades of precedent when he opted not to release his tax returns during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The White House has repeatedly brushed off questions about releasing Trump’s taxes after the election, claiming the documents were under audit and therefore could not be made public. Financial experts, reporters and lawmakers have noted that the president could still request that they be released.
Calls for Trump to release his returns intensified following a New York Times report that cited records and interviews indicating the president engaged in “dubious” tax practices to shield income from his father’s real estate empire from taxes. Trump and the White House blasted the story, though they did not refute specific claims.
