Richard Shelby says ‘The dialogue is good’ as wall deadline nears
President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi struck starkly different tones in their border security standoff Wednesday, as Trump planned a rally in a Texas border city he says exemplifies the need for a wall and Pelosi said she’d back any bipartisan deal congressional bargainers produce. The contrasting pathways — with Trump set to appear before raucous supporters and Pelosi signaling compromise — came with just over a week until a Feb. 15 deadline for negotiators to reach agreement or potentially face a renewed partial government shutdown. House-Senate bargainers say their talks have become increasingly substantive and some lawmakers — including Pelosi herself — expressed hopes that negotiators might produce an accord as soon as Friday. Participants said the two sides were narrowing differences in their talks. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, Republican-Tennessee, a negotiator, said Democrats were showing some flexibility in the semantic dispute over the type of physical barriers they would accept while Republicans seemed potentially willing to limit where the structures might be built. “That basically sets the stage for a very reasonable, flexible negotiation,” he said. Other unresolved questions include the amount to be spent on border security, and whether — as Democrats have proposed — to reduce the number of detention beds for migrants available to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Fleischmann said. “If they come up with a bipartisan agreement, I’m happy to support it,” Pelosi, Democrat-California, told reporters. She said she hoped Trump would take “the same hands off” approach. Democrats have been in a position of strength in the talks, after Republicans lost House control in November’s elections, Trump forced a record 35-day federal shutdown and surrendered without getting $5.7 billion he’s demanded for a wall. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican- Kentucky, has also given bargainers a green light to seek a deal that he’s said he hopes Trump would find “worth signing.” If Pelosi and McConnell embrace a bipartisan agreement, it could isolate Trump and pressure him to accept it without re-escalating the fight. Trump has threatened a new shutdown or a declaration of a national emergency to access other budget funds if he’s not satisfied with a deal — steps members of both parties oppose. Bargainers met Wednesday privately for nearly two hours with federal border patrol and customs officials to hear their recommendations on how to secure the Southwest border. But several lawmakers emerged with differing conclusions. No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Richard Durbin said lawmakers were told the top priority was technology that could screen vehicles for drugs or migrants at border ports of entry. “They don’t rule out barriers, they don’t rule out fencing, but that isn’t the first priority,” Durbin told reporters. But Sen. Richard Shelby, Republican- Alabama, said the officials suggested a three-pronged approach using barriers, technology and personnel. He said the closed-door session was constructive. “The dialogue is good. The tone is good. We’re talking about substance,” Shelby said. He also said that in a phone conversation with Pelosi, “I just said, ‘Look, can we reach a yes on this in any way or are we wasting our time.’ She said, ‘No, keep working together,’ and she would like to see a legislative solution, the sooner the better.” In comments that suggested a potential avenue for agreement, some lawmakers suggested that giving local officials a say would be pivotal. “We can probably get there on some sort of enhanced barriers with local input,” said another negotiator, Rep. Henry Cuellar, Democrat-Texas. Democrats have proposed spending as much as $1.6 billion for border security including some types of physical barriers, but it remains unclear how much more money they’d accept as part of a deal. Cuellar said $5.7 billion for the wall is “not going to happen.” Meanwhile, the White House said Trump will hold his first campaign rally of the year next Monday in El Paso, Texas. His campaign manager, Brad Parscale, tweeted that the rally will be held “less than 1000 feet from the successful border fence that keeps El Paso safe!” In his State of the Union address Tuesday, Trump cited El Paso as once having “extremely high rates of violent crime. He asserted that with its wall, “El Paso is one of the safest cities in our country.” In fact, El Paso has never been considered one of the nation’s most dangerous cities and its trends in violent crime mirror national swings. In 2005, the city had a murder rate of 2.5 for every 100,000 residents, compared with a national rate of 5.6. By 2010 after the wall was built, El Paso’s murder rate had dropped to 0.9 for every 100,000 residents, compared with a national average of 4.8. Rep. Veronica Escobar, Democrat-Texas, tweeted that “El Paso has been one of the safest cities in the nation long before the wall was built in 2008. #WallsDontWork.” “El Paso is safe due to its people, the good community relations with law enforcement, and the trust of all communities in our local institutions,” Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights, said in a statement. “El Pasoans should be offended by the way the president used our community to advance his racist and xenophobic agenda.” Republished with permission from the Associated Press
Del Marsh pre-files bill to allow Alabamians to donate state income tax return monies to fund border wall
As federal lawmakers face a Feb. 15 deadline for reaching a deal on border security, an Alabama state senator has a solution of his own. Anniston-Republican, Senate President Pro Tempore Del Marsh on Tuesday announced that he has pre-filed legislation that would allow taxpayers to check a box on their Alabama tax returns to donate to We Build the Wall, Inc. “As I talk to people in my district and around the state, border security is the number one thing I hear about,” Marsh explained. “This is obviously an issue that has people very concerned and one that needs to be addressed.” Under Marsh’s proposal, if an individual desired to donate to We Build the Wall they would be able to check a box on their state income tax return and designate the amount of their tax return they wished to donate. Currently, Alabamians have the ability to check off contributions on their tax returns for many different entities including the Alabama 4-H, Alabama Aging program, Arts Development Fund, and USS Alabama Battleship Commission. “It is obvious that many people in the Federal government have little desire to address border security, so this is an easy way for people in Alabama, if they choose, to check a box and make a donation in support of building a border wall,” Marsh add. We Build the Wall, Inc. is a Florida-based non-profit raising funds to build the wall along the United States border with Mexico for national security purposes. It was launched in December by 37-year-old Brian Kolfage, a triple amputee who received a Purple Heart while serving in Iraq. At the time of publishing it has raised over $20 million through a GoFundMe campaign. The 2019 Regular Session of the Alabama Legislature begins March 5.
Ann Coulter: Mo Brooks a ‘terrific’ choice to primary Donald Trump in 2020
Ann Coulter, a conservative pundit once supportive of President Donald Trump who is now deeply critical of him, has suggested that Congressman Mo Brooks would be a good choice to challenge him for the Republican nomination in 2020. AL.com reports that Coulter said during a podcast interview that Trump has not done what he was elected to do. “We put this lunatic in the White House for one reason,” she said, which was to build a wall along our southern border. When host Michael Isikoff asked Coulter if she wanted a primary challenger to Trump in 2020, she said no, “I want him to build the wall, end anchor babies, deport dreamers …” If he does not do that, she said, a primary challenge would inevitably happen and “Mo Brooks is terrific.” Mo Brooks has a track record of staunch support for the border wall. He has twice introduced the Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order (EL CHAPO) Act, which would use seized from drug cartels to pay for the border wall. “No nation can exist without borders and the EL CHAPO Act, which would reserve billions in assets forfeited to the U.S. Government by drug kingpins to be used for border security, is a significant step towards funding President Trump’s border wall, thereby restoring America’s control of her borders,” Brooks said in a press release. In his first campaign ad of 2017, Brooks promised to do whatever it takes to get the border wall funded. “I am willing to do whatever it takes in the Senate to ensure President Trump’s promise to the American people is kept,” Brooks said in the ad. “I’ll aggressively oppose every single spending bill that doesn’t fund the border wall and expose every Republican establishment Senator who sides with the Democrats against our President.” He continued “and if I have to filibuster on the Senate floor, I’ll even read the King James Bible until the wall is funded. And you know what, Washington could benefit from that.” Brooks has praised President Trump’s decision to use military force along our southern border, saying “Until Congress gives President Trump funding for the physical border wall, his decision to send troops to the border, consistent with his Constitutional power as commander in chief, not only sends a strong message to the world that our borders will be secure, but more importantly preserves America’s national sovereignty.” He continued to support a military presence against the illegal immigrant caravan. Initially a fervent supporter of Trump’s candidacy and presidency, Coulter soured on the president when immigration policies failed to meet her expectations.
Mo Brooks reintroduces ‘EL CHAPO’ Act to make the Mexican cartel funds pay for border wall
When it comes to ways to pay for the U.S. border wall with Mexico, Alabama’s 5th District U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks certainly has a creative idea: use funds tied to the prosecution of Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. On Wednesday, Brooks reintroduced the “Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order Act,” or the “EL CHAPO Act.” The EL CHAPO Act reserves approximately $14 billion in assets forfeited to the U.S. government as a result of the criminal prosecution of El Chapo, the former leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, as well as other drug lords, for border security funding – to include construction of the U.S.- Mexico border wall. “Radical Open Borders Democrats would rather shut down the government than provide taxpayer funding for a border wall that helps prevent thousands of American deaths each year,” said Brooks. “Fortunately, there are other ways to build a border wall, enhance border security, save American lives, and end the government shutdown that is slowly but sure hurting America’s economy and American citizens.” He continued, “Congress should end the shutdown by passing the EL CHAPO Act that, over time, funds border security and a border wall by using billions of dollars in seized drug and blood money profits from drug cartels and drug lords and reapplying those drug forfeiture monies to border security and construction of a border wall. The EL CHAPO Act kills two birds with one stone. On the one hand, it shifts drug and blood money to border security and a border wall, thus helping to save the lives of thousands of Americans who die each year at the hands of illegal aliens or because of America’s porous southern border. As a bonus, the passage of the EL CHAPO Act ends the battle over the government shutdown.” Original cosponsors of the House version of the EL CHAPO Act are: Congressman Andy Biggs (AZ-05) Congressman Mike Bost (IL-12) Congressman Kevin Brady (TX-08) Congressman Bradley Byrne (AL-01) Congressman Jeff Duncan (SC-03) Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01) Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) Congressman Mark Green (TN-07) Congressman Jody B. Hice (GA-10) Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-03) Congressman Steve King (IA-04) Congressman Mark Meadows (NC-11) Congressman Ralph Norman (SC-05) Congressman Bill Posey (FL-08) He added, “Walls have worked since the dawn of time. Ancient civilizations employed walls to keep their citizens and property safe from harm. Today, physical barriers and fencing surround America’s most secure locations— the White House, Fort Knox, the federal supermax prison in Colorado; all have high physical barriers around them. Why? Because they work. It is absurd for anyone to argue border walls are ineffective.” The United States averages 60,000 illegal border crossings per month. “The EL CHAPO Act funds a large portion of the border wall without using taxpayer dollars and provides an alternative funding mechanism for the border wall,” Brooks explained. “With the EL CHAPO Act we can end the current impasse and resulting government shutdown. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer should listen to the American people and come to the negotiating table so we can secure our border.” Brooks sponsored the EL CHAPO Act in the 115th Congress as well. His bill is the House companion legislation to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s Senate bill by the same name.
Parker Griffith says Doug Jones “dead man walking” over stance on border wall
With no end in sight of the government shutdown, there’s more at stake than the border wall that President Donald Trump is demanding and the paychecks that are being held up for federal employees. According to voters and insiders Senator Doug Jones may be seeing his reelection chances slip away as well. Jones is quoted by the New York Times as saying, “I’m just not going to throw money at anybody who is with a gun to my head,” referring to Mr. Trump’s $5.7 billion request for the wall. “Let’s get the government open.” Former Representative Parker Griffith, a conservative Democrat and early supporter of Jones told the Times, “He’s a dead man walking.” Griffith followed by noting that the electorate math doesn’t favor democrats saying, “He leaned into his base, and his base is not big enough to elect him.” Jones, who filled the seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions when he became Trump’s first Attorney General, is widely considered to be one the most vulnerable senator in the country. CNBC listed the seat as one of the seven most likely to flip. The Hill listed it as one of five “most competitive”. They reported that, “Alabama is the only solidly Republican state where a Democrat will face reelection in 2020, and while Jones doesn’t yet have a top-tier challenger, the GOP is already eyeing his seat as its best pick-up opportunity in the next election.” In a story titled, “Can Doug Jones win a full term in Alabama” Roll Call analyst Stuart Rothenberg for Roll Call said, ” I don’t think Jones has much chance at all of holding on to his seat next year.” Alabama state Republican Party Chairwoman Terry Lathan told the Washington Times “I’m already calling him, ‘One and Done Doug.’ Our people are champing at the bit, and I’m telling you it is on fire right now in my state.” Ann Lynch, an 86-year-old retired schoolteacher, told the New York Times, “I voted for Jones, I did, but he doesn’t support the wall. I don’t like that, of course. I think we need it. Trump knows we need it.” In the same story, small business owner Angie Gates echoed a similar sentiment. “For us, because we’re a small town, the shutdown is kind of difficult. But there’s also things in politics that may be worth doing. If Doug Jones doesn’t support the wall, I don’t support him.” However, fellow small business owner Pam McGriff, a 56 year-old Republican, would be willing to change her vote if Jones would change his mind. “If he would go up there and balk the Democrats, like Schumer and Pelosi, and say, ‘Hey, I think Trump is right,’ and all that kind of stuff, I wouldn’t mind splitting my ticket.” Sheila Pressnell, 61, agreed. “Senator Jones, bless his heart, he’ll be a one-term senator. The only reason he got it was because he was up against a child predator.” Some disagree, saying that pandering would be transparent and would ultimately backfire. John Anzalone, a Democrat pollster in Alabama said “He’s a guy who’s going to be true to himself. Authenticity is what sells in a place like Alabama.”
Poll: Immigration among the top concerns in 2019
As much of the U.S. government remains shut down over President Donald Trump’s insistence on funding for his border wall, nearly half of Americans identify immigration as a top issue for the government to work on this year. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted shortly before the shutdown began finds that both Republicans and Democrats are far more likely to include immigration in their list of top issues facing the country this year compared with a year ago. Overall, 49 percent mentioned immigration in an open-ended question as one of the top five problems they hoped the government addresses in 2019. By contrast, 27 percent mentioned immigration in December 2017. Partisan divides on the best solutions remain deep. Republicans continue to be more likely to cite immigration as a top issue than Democrats, an indication of the GOP’s greater intensity on the issue. But it’s an increasingly important issue to members of both parties. The poll found that 65 percent of Republicans say immigration is one of the top five problems facing the country, up from 42 percent in 2017. Among Democrats, 37 percent cite immigration as a top issue, compared with just 2 in 10 a year ago. Roughly two-thirds of those who named immigration as a top priority express little confidence in the government to make progress this year, including a third who say they are “not at all” confident. About a third say they are at least moderately confident in the government to make progress on immigration. This follows a year of intermittent deadlocked negotiations and standoffs between Trump and Democrats in Congress. Although both Democrats and Republicans are increasingly likely to name immigration-related issues as top priorities for the government, other polls show that their opinions on the issue diverge dramatically. For example, a December poll by CNN found that 78 percent of Republicans and just 8 percent of Democrats supported building a border wall. And with their party still in control of the White House and the Senate, Republicans are more optimistic about the government making progress on immigration this year. Among those who prioritize immigration, Republicans are more than three times as likely as Democrats to express some confidence that the government will make progress. That includes David Hoyt, a 77-year-old retired school superintendent and registered Republican in eastern Iowa. “We waste too many resources with illegal aliens,” Hoyt said. “If people want to come here, let’s have them do it legally. I don’t understand why people don’t understand the word ‘illegal.’” Hoyt says he’s also focused on the economy, and its healthy state is why he’s satisfied with the country’s direction and Trump’s performance. “People are busy,” Hoyt said. “I can tell the economy from the number of semis on the highway, and it’s loaded.” Chris Butino, 31, is a Democrat and a firefighter in Cortland, New York, who’s been disappointed by Trump’s rhetoric and actions on immigration, especially against refugees. Trump has sharply curtailed the number of refugees accepted by the U.S. and taken steps to limit who can claim asylum as more migrants from Central America try to do so at the Mexican border. “We’re America — we’re the wealthiest nation in the world in terms of resources, and saying we’re not going to take in the poor, huddled masses,” Butino said. “We can maintain our own safety, but we can also be generous.” The economy remains a top priority for Americans, with 62 percent citing related issues, including mentions of jobs, unemployment, taxes and trade. Nearly half of Americans also identify health care as one of the top five issues facing the country, unchanged from one year ago. A traditionally Democratic issue, health care is named by Democrats more than Republicans (56 percent versus 43 percent). There was a sharp rise in environmental and climate issues after a year of wildfires and hurricanes, a change that is largely driven by Democrats. Overall, about a quarter of Americans mention the environment as a top issue. About 4 in 10 Democrats include the environment as a priority, compared with just 8 percent of Republicans. The share of Democrats naming the environment has grown 11 percentage points since a year ago. The poll was conducted in December before the stock market gyrations and government shutdown. Gil Parks, a retired CPA who’s become a rancher in Texas, is fine with the shutdown. “It’s only 25 percent of the government,” he said. Parks, a 59-year-old Republican, is optimistic the country could be in for a long stretch of economic growth, in part because of the partisan acrimony fueling the shutdown. “If you look back in history, the economy did best when government couldn’t get in the way,” he said. With Democrats assuming control of the House of Representatives, the inevitable gridlock could preserve the economic expansion, Parks argued. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be optimistic, but feelings about the country are mixed even within the GOP. Six in 10 Americans are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country as a whole, including 79 percent of Democrats and 42 percent of Republicans. Among Republicans, that’s a slight increase from 33 percent who were dissatisfied with the state of the country in October. Still, Republicans are far more likely than Democrats today to say they’re satisfied with the way things are going in the country, 39 percent to 9 percent. The unhappiness on both sides of the aisle is palpable to John Rossetti, a 47-year-old code enforcement officer in Youngstown, Ohio. “There’s a really different, negative environment,” Rossetti said. “Everywhere you go, it’s there — just a very negative atmosphere.” Rossetti describes himself as a moderate to conservative Democrat who didn’t support Trump in 2016 but was rooting for him to succeed. Now he’s disillusioned and pessimistic about the future, and he’s not alone. Americans are more likely to think things in the country will get worse in the next year than that they will get better,
Steve Marshall calls on Congress to fully fund Donald Trump’s border wall
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall isn’t mincing words — he wants the new Congress to fully fund President Donald Trump‘s border wall with Mexico. On Thursday, Marshall called on the new Congress to fully fund a border wall to protect Americans and uphold the rule of law. He also criticized incoming U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for deliberately ignoring border security by pushing a budget plan that funds every remaining federal agency for the balance of fiscal 2019 except for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “It is the fundamental role of government to provide for the safety and security of its citizens and yet many in Washington, D.C., shirk this basic duty in order to score political points,” said Marshall. “Shame on them and shame on Speaker Pelosi for turning a blind eye to continued security threats to Americans by refusing to fund a border wall and the vital operations of U.S. Homeland Security. Marshall continued, “As Alabama’s Attorney General, I am deeply troubled by the steady stream of dangerous illegal drugs entering my state and the impact it has on our citizens and law enforcement. Drug trafficking, human trafficking and many violent crimes committed in Alabama can be traced to criminal elements crossing our country’s borders and the failure of current efforts to secure our border.” Marshall made the request less than a day after news broke that a previously deported illegal immigrant was charged with first-degree rape of a juvenile in Alabaster, Ala. “This week, we learned that a criminal alien previously deported for drug crimes illegally reentered the country—even returning to Alabama where his original crimes were committed—and was charged with the rape of a minor. Where does it end? When does it end? It ends with a border wall as the backbone of a serious and effective border-security strategy that protects Alabamians and all Americans.” Attorney General Marshall participated in a White House panel on protecting America’s borders in August 2018.
Day 13: New Congress, same old impasse over Donald Trump’s wall
The partial government shutdown entered a 13th day Thursday with House Democrats prepared to pass their plan to reopen government and President Donald Trump accusing them of playing politics with an eye on the 2020 election. Both sides appeared at an impasse over Trump’s demand for billions of dollars to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Congressional leaders will meet with Trump on Friday to try for a resolution. The new Congress convenes Thursday with Democrats taking majority control of the House, and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, expected to be elected speaker, said they’d quickly pass legislation to re-open the government — without funds for Trump’s border wall. “There is no amount of persuasion he can use” to get her to fund his wall, Pelosi said in an interview airing Thursday on NBC’s “Today” show. She added: “We can go through the back and forth. No. How many more times can we say no?” Trump shot back Thursday, accusing the Democrats of playing politics. “The Shutdown is only because of the 2020 Presidential Election,” he said on Twitter. “The Democrats know they can’t win based on all of the achievements of “Trump,” so they are going all out on the desperately needed Wall and Border Security – and Presidential Harassment. For them, strictly politics!” The Democratic package to end the shutdown would include one bill to temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels — with $1.3 billion for border security, far less than Trump has said he wants for the wall — through Feb. 8 as talks would continue. It would also include a separate measure to fund the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Housing and Urban Development and others closed by the partial shutdown. That measure would provide money through the remainder of the fiscal year, to Sept. 30. The White House has rejected the Democratic package, and Republicans who control the Senate are hesitant to take it up without Trump on board. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called it a “total nonstarter.” Trump said ahead of his White House session with the congressional leaders that the partial shutdown will last “as long as it takes” to get the funding he wants. In public, Trump renewed his dire warnings of rapists and others at the border. But when pressed in private Wednesday by Democrats asking why he wouldn’t end the shutdown, he responded at one point, “I would look foolish if I did that.” A White House official, one of two people who described that exchange only on condition of anonymity, said the president had been trying to explain that it would be foolish not to pay for border security. “Could be a long time or could be quickly,” Trump said during lengthy public comments at a Cabinet meeting, his first public appearance of the new year. Meanwhile, the shutdown has closed some parks and leaving hundreds of thousands of federal employees without pay. Democrats said they asked Trump directly during Wednesday’s private meeting held in the Situation Room why he wouldn’t consider their package of bills. One measure would open most of the shuttered government departments at funding levels already agreed to by all sides. The other would provide temporary funding for Homeland Security, through Feb. 8, allowing talks to continue over border security. “I said, Mr. President, Give me one good reason why you should continue your shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said afterward. “He could not give a good answer.” At another point Wednesday, Trump told Pelosi that, as a “good Catholic,” she should support the wall because Vatican City has a wall, according to a congressional aide. Trump has mentioned the Vatican’s centuries-old fortifications before, including at the earlier Cabinet meeting. But Democrats have said they don’t want medieval barriers, and Pelosi has called Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border immoral. “I remain ready and willing to work with Democrats,” Trump tweeted after the meeting. “Let’s get it done!” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said that there’s no need to prolong the shutdown and that he was disappointed the talks did not produce a resolution. He complained that Democrats interrupted Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen as she was trying to describe a dreadful situation at the border. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on Fox that Pelosi will be “more able to negotiate” once she is elected speaker, as expected Thursday. The two sides have traded offers, but their talks broke down ahead of the holidays. On Wednesday, Trump also rejected his own administration’s offer to accept $2.5 billion for the wall. That proposal was made when Vice President Mike Pence and other top officials met at the start of the shutdown with Schumer, who left saying they remained far apart. On Wednesday Trump repeatedly pushed for the $5.6 billion he has demanded. Making his case ahead of the private afternoon session, Trump said the current border is “like a sieve” and noted the tear gas “flying” overnight to deter arrivals. “If they knew they couldn’t come through, they wouldn’t even start,” he said at the meeting, joined by Cabinet secretaries and top advisers, including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. With no negotiations over the holidays, Trump complained he had been “lonely ” at the White House, having skipped his getaway to Mar-a-Lago in Florida. He claimed his only companions were the “machine gunners,” referring to security personnel, and “they don’t wave, they don’t smile.” He also criticized Pelosi for visiting Hawaii. She responded Thursday, saying, “The president may not know this, but Hawaii is part of the United States of America.” She says she was available on 24 hours’ notice. The partial government shutdown began on Dec. 22. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Hill leaders to attend White House briefing on border
Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are expected to attend a briefing on border security at the White House as the government remains partially shut down and President Donald Trump asks in a tweet, “Let’s make a deal?” The partial government shutdown began on Dec. 22. Funding for Trump’s pet project, a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, has been the sticking point in passing budgets for several government departments. The briefing is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, the day before Democrats are to assume control of the House and end the Republican monopoly on government. The exact agenda, however, was not immediately clear, according to a person with knowledge of the briefing who was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the top incoming House Republicans — Kevin McCarthy of California and Steve Scalise of Louisiana — planned to attend, according to aides. The departing House speaker, Paul Ryan, was not expected. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who is expected to become speaker on Thursday, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer planned to attend. Pelosi said Tuesday that Democrats would take action to “end the Trump Shutdown” by passing legislation Thursday to reopen government. “We are giving the Republicans the opportunity to take yes for an answer,” she wrote in a letter to colleagues. “Senate Republicans have already supported this legislation, and if they reject it now, they will be fully complicit in chaos and destruction of the President’s third shutdown of his term.” The White House invitation came Tuesday after House Democrats released their plan to re-open the government without approving money for a border wall — unveiling two bills to fund shuttered government agencies and put hundreds of thousands of federal workers back on the job. They planned to pass them as soon as the new Congress convenes Thursday. Responding to the Democratic plan, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders late Tuesday night called it a “non-starter” and said it won’t re-open the government “because it fails to secure the border and puts the needs of other countries above the needs of our own citizens.” Trump spent the weekend saying Democrats should return to Washington to negotiate, firing off Twitter taunts. After aides suggested there would not necessarily be a traditional wall as Trump had described since his presidential campaign, Trump stated that he really still wanted to build a border wall. On Tuesday morning, after tweeting a New Year’s message to “EVERYONE INCLUDING THE HATERS AND THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA,” Trump tweeted: “The Democrats, much as I suspected, have allocated no money for a new Wall. So imaginative! The problem is, without a Wall there can be no real Border Security.” But he seemed to shift tactics later in the day, appealing to Pelosi. “Border Security and the Wall ‘thing’ and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker! Let’s make a deal?” he tweeted. Whether the Republican-led Senate would consider the Democratic bills — or if Trump would sign either into law — was unclear. McConnell spokesman Donald Stewart said Senate Republicans would not take action without Trump’s backing. “It’s simple: The Senate is not going to send something to the president that he won’t sign,” Stewart said. Even if only symbolic, the passage of the bills in the House would put fresh pressure on the president. At the same time, administration officials said Trump was in no rush for a resolution to the impasse. Trump believes he has public opinion on his side and, at very least, his base of supporters behind him, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The Democratic package to end the shutdown would include one bill to temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels — with $1.3 billion for border security, far less than the $5 billion Trump has said he wants for the wall — through Feb. 8 as talks continued. It would also include another measure to fund the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Housing and Urban Development and others closed by the partial shutdown. It would provide money through the remainder of the fiscal year, to Sept. 30. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Chief of staff John Kelly: Donald Trump backed away from wall months ago
President Donald Trump long ago backed away from his campaign pledge to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, his outgoing chief of staff said, as the president’s demand for “border security” funding triggered a partial government shutdown with no end in sight. John Kelly, who will leave his post Wednesday after a tumultuous 17 months in the job, said in an exit interview with the Los Angeles Times that Trump abandoned the notion of “a solid concrete wall early on in the administration.” It marked the starkest admission yet by the president’s inner circle that his signature campaign pledge, which sparked fervent chants of “build that wall” during Trump’s rallies and is now at the center of a budgetary standoff, would not be fulfilled as advertised. “To be honest, it’s not a wall,” Kelly said, adding the mix of technological enhancements and ‘steel slat’ barriers the president now wants along the border resulted from conversations with law enforcement professionals on the ground. The partial shutdown began Dec. 22 after Trump bowed to conservative demands that he fight to make good on his vow and secure funding for the wall before Republicans lose control of the House on Wednesday. Democrats have remained committed to blocking the president’s priority, and with neither side engaging in substantive negotiation, the effect of the partial shutdown was set to spread and to extend into the new year. In August 2015 during his presidential campaign, Trump had made his expectations for the border explicitly clear, as he parried criticism from then-rival Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor. “Jeb Bush just talked about my border proposal to build a ‘fence,’” he tweeted. “It’s not a fence, Jeb, it’s a WALL, and there’s a BIG difference!” But on Sunday White House counselor Kellyanne Conway called discussion of the apparent contradiction “a silly semantic argument.” “There may be a wall in some places, there may be steel slats, there may be technological enhancements,” Conway told ‘Fox News Sunday.’ “But only saying ‘wall or no wall’ is being very disingenuous and turning a complete blind eye to what is a crisis at the border.” Meanwhile, neither side appeared ready to budge off their negotiating positions. The two sides have had little little direct contact during the stalemate, and Trump did not ask Republicans, who hold a monopoly on power in Washington until Jan. 3, to keep Congress in session. Talks have been at a stalemate for more than a week, after Democrats said the White House offered to accept $2.5 billion for border security. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told Vice President Mike Pence that it wasn’t acceptable, nor was it guaranteed that Trump, under intense pressure from his conservative base to fulfill his signature campaign promise, would settle for that amount. Conway claimed Sunday that “the president has already compromised” by dropping his request for the wall from $25 billion, and she called on Democrats to return to the negotiating table. “It is with them,” she said, explaining that Trump is not reaching out to Democrats. Democrats maintain that they have already presented the White House with three options to end the shutdown, none of which fund the wall, and insist that it’s Trump’s move. “At this point, it’s clear the White House doesn’t know what they want when it comes to border security,” said Justin Goodman, Schumer’s spokesman. “While one White House official says they’re willing to compromise, another says the president is holding firm at no less than $5 billion for the wall. Meanwhile, the president tweets blaming everyone but himself for a shutdown he called for more than 25 times.” After canceling a vacation to his private Florida club, Trump spent the weekend at the White House. He has remained out of the public eye since returning early Thursday from a 29-hour visit to U.S. troops in Iraq, instead taking to Twitter to attack Democrats. He also moved to defend himself from criticism that he couldn’t deliver on the wall while the GOP controlled both the House and Senate. “For those that naively ask why didn’t the Republicans get approval to build the Wall over the last year, it is because IN THE SENATE WE NEED 10 DEMOCRAT VOTES, and they will gives us “NONE” for Border Security!,” he tweeted. “Now we have to do it the hard way, with a Shutdown.” He was set to have lunch Sunday with Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, who said he hoped to end the shutdown by offering Democrats incentives to get them to vote for wall funding. “To my Democratic friends, there will never be a deal without wall funding,” Graham said Sunday on CNN. Graham is proposing to help two groups of immigrants get approval to continue living in the U.S: about 700,000 young “Dreamers” brought into the U.S. illegally as children and about 400,000 people receiving temporary protected status because they are from countries struggling with natural disasters or armed conflicts. He also said the compromise should include changes in federal law to discourage people from trying to enter the U.S. illegally. “Democrats have a chance here to work with me and others, including the president, to bring legal status to people who have very uncertain lives,” Graham said. It was unclear if the president or Democrats were open to such an approach. A previous deal that addressed the status of Dreamers broke down last year as a result of escalating White House demands. As he called for Democrats to negotiate, Trump brushed off criticism that his administration bore any responsibility for the recent deaths of two migrant children in Border Patrol custody. Trump claimed the deaths were “strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally.” His comments on Twitter came as his Homeland Security secretary met with medical professionals and ordered policy changes meant to better protect children detained at the border. Trump earlier
Donald Trump: ‘I can’t tell you when’ government will reopen
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that parts of the federal government will stay closed until Democrats agree to put up more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border to deter criminal elements. He said he’s open to calling the wall something else as long as he ends up with an actual wall. In a Christmas Day appearance in the Oval Office, Trump issued a lengthy defense of his desire for a wall, saying it’s the only way to stop drugs and human traffickers from entering the country. In a nod to the political stakes he’s facing, Trump said he wants the wall by “election time” in 2020. The promise of a border wall was a central component of Trump’s presidential campaign. “I can’t tell you when the government’s going to be open. I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall or fence, whatever they’d like to call it,” Trump said, referring to Democrats who staunchly oppose walling off the border. “I’ll call it whatever they want, but it’s all the same thing,” he told reporters after participating in a holiday video conference with representatives from all five branches of the military stationed in Alaska, Bahrain, Guam and Qatar. Trump argued that drug flows and human trafficking can only be stopped by a wall. “We can’t do it without a barrier. We can’t do it without a wall,” he said. “The only way you’re going to do it is to have a physical barrier, meaning a wall. And if you don’t have that then we’re just not opening” the government. Democrats oppose spending money on a wall, preferring instead to pump the dollars into fencing, technology and other means of controlling access to the border. Trump argued that Democrats oppose a wall only because he is for one. The stalemate over how much to spend and how to spend it caused the partial government shutdown that began Saturday following a lapse in funding for departments and agencies that make up about 25 percent of the government. Some 800,000 government workers are affected. Many are on the job but must wait until after the shutdown to be paid again. Trump claimed that many of these workers “have said to me and communicated, ‘stay out until you get the funding for the wall.’ These federal workers want the wall. The only one that doesn’t want the wall are the Democrats.” Trump didn’t say how he’s hearing from federal workers, excluding those he appointed to their jobs or who work with him in the White House. But many rank-and-file workers have gone to social media with stories of the financial hardship they expect to face because of the shutdown, now in its fourth day. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leaders of Congress, said Trump “wanted the shutdown, but he seems not to know how to get himself out it.” Trump had said he’d be “proud” to shut down the government in a fight over the wall. He also had said Mexico would pay for the wall. Mexico has refused. Trump followed up on a Monday tweet in which he said he “just gave out a 115 mile long contract for another large section of the Wall in Texas.” Neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to follow-up questions, despite repeated requests. The reference to 115 miles was unclear. Trump may have been referring to 33 miles of construction in the Rio Grande Valley that is set to begin in February, part of a total of 84 miles that Congress funded in March, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Asked who received the contract, Trump replied: “Different people, different people.” He did say he envisions a wall so tall, “like a three-story building,” that only an Olympic champion would be able to scale it. He also compared Democrats’ treatment of him over the wall to their defense of James Comey after Trump fired him as FBI director. “It’s a disgrace what’s happening in our country but, other than that, I wish everybody a very merry Christmas,” he said. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Donald Trump on verge of giving up best chance to secure wall money
Donald Trump‘s loyal supporters cried “Build the wall!” throughout his 2016 presidential campaign. Come 2020, they may well still be chanting for Trump to make good on his signature campaign promise as prospects dim for him to deliver on a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump appears likely to give up his last, best chance to secure money from Congress for the “beautiful” wall he’s long promised to construct, as he backs away from his threat to partially shut down the government on Friday. Now, with the Senate having passed a temporary funding measure to keep the government open through Feb. 8, Trump’s mission will go from difficult to near-impossible when Democrats take control of the House on Jan. 3. The unfulfilled pledge also threatens to hang over his re-election campaign, potentially depressing his base and dealing his political rivals a powerful talking point. “I thought if you’re going to have a fight, now’s the time to have it,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of the president who warned that it’s only going to get more difficult to get the money when Democrats take over. “When you draw lines in the sand like this, it ends up haunting you in the future,” the South Carolina Republican warned. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., called on Trump to veto the temporary funding bill, warning that it would cause “major damage” to the president’s re-election effort. “The base will just go crazy,” he said, referring to Trump’s most loyal backers. Trump is hardly the first president to be confronted with the challenges of passing a legislative priority through Congress, but the lack of progress on an issue so closely identified with his bid for the White House may prove to be a costly failure. He had promised to begin working on an “impenetrable physical wall” along the southern border on his first day in office, but little headway has been made. A March funding bill included money for 33 miles (53 kilometers) of barrier construction in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, but work there has yet to begin. Other work has merely replaced existing barriers that had been deemed “ineffective,” not added miles. The president’s allies expressed anxiety Wednesday that Trump was, in the words of some, “caving” on the wall and warned of the potential backlash from his supporters and the impact it could have on his re-election effort. The failed promise, they argued, could weaken turnout and leave him more vulnerable to challengers. Conservative commentator Ann Coulter published a column that called Trump “gutless” and said in a radio interview that she won’t vote for Trump in 2020 if he doesn’t deliver on the wall. “Nor will, I think, most of his supporters. Why would you?” she asked, arguing that Trump’s time in office will one day go down as “a joke presidency that scammed the American people.” Some within the administration cautioned that it was still possible Trump would change his mind and end up rejecting the stopgap funding bill, prompting a holiday shutdown that could also be politically damaging. Trump had said last week that he would be “proud” to have a shutdown to get Congress to approve a down payment on the wall. Trump had originally demanded $5 billion to begin building the wall this year, but the White House acknowledged this week that he is willing to settle for far less. The temporary measure offers just $1.3 billion for border security fencing and other improvements. That money cannot be used for new wall construction. The president had little choice. Even in the GOP-controlled House, Trump did not have the votes to get $5 billion in wall money, and House Speaker Paul Ryan declined to bring it to the floor. The White House is instead putting its faith in a potential work-around, with Trump telling allies he’ll be able to make an end-run around lawmakers by using the military to fund and carry out construction, though such a move would face significant pushback from Congress as well as legal challenges. “Because of the tremendous dangers at the Border, including large scale criminal and drug inflow, the United States Military will build the Wall!” he tweeted Wednesday. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that the president had also directed every one of his Cabinet secretaries “to look and see if they have money that can be used” for wall construction. But Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told MSNBC that there has been strong opposition to using Defense Department dollars for border wall construction. And he said that Trump can’t do so without lawmakers’ signoff. “Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, do not think the DoD money should go towards building a wall on the border,” he said. “We have many other national security priorities that are vastly more important.” The president’s conservative backers insist that Trump should not back down from his demand for $5 billion from Congress. “Trump should not sign this bill and leave for Mar-a-Lago, and tell them it’s not gonna get signed and their precious government’s not gonna get back up and running ’til there’s $5 billion,” wrote radio host Rush Limbaugh. On “Fox & Friends,” Trump’s favorite and most-tweeted-about morning show, conservative blogger Michelle Malkin described his latest move as a “cave” and a “blink.” Questioning White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade said the president has “no leverage,” while co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked why Trump was “softening” his position. “The president is not softening his stance. He has a responsibility to keep the government moving forward and he has a responsibility to get border security,” Conway responded. Former Trump campaign adviser Barry Bennett said it was too soon to panic. “He must have a trick up his sleeve because I can’t imagine he would just walk away from it,” Bennett said. Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said that while the base would be “unhappy” if border
