The White House said Tuesday morning that Democrats are only opposing funding for a border wall to keep President Trump from notching a political win.
Trump’s director of legislative affairs, Marc Short, noted that more than two dozen Senate Democrats voted for 700 miles of border fencing in 2006, but now are threatening to shut down the government over funding for Trump’s border wall.
“Many Democrats, don’t forget, many Democrats in 2006 voted for the Secure Fence Act,” Short said on Fox News. “They all voted for 700 miles of border wall.”
While former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and 23 others all voted for the bill in 2006 while they were in the Senate, others have noted that the 700 miles of fencing is not identical to Trump’s plan for a border wall. Still, Short said the level of opposition from Democrats indicates they oppose it for “political reasons.”
“But now they don’t want to fund it for political reasons,” he said. “They don’t want the president to have a win.”
“We think it’s important for our national security that we begin to build that border security,” Short added. “So that will happen at the end of the year.”
On Monday, Trump indicated he would insist on funding for the border wall in the fiscal year 2018 spending bill that Congress is expected to deliver in the coming months.
“Our country needs a wall,” Trump said.
