Calling the partial government shutdown the result of a “two-week tantrum” by President Trump, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the funds for the border wall the president wants will never pass the Senate.
“If you want to open the government, you must abandon the wall, plain and simple,” the New York Democrat said in his remarks on the Senate floor. The Senate opened at noon Saturday for a rare session, just days before Christmas.
His Saturday comments echoed those he made Friday to Vice President Mike Pence, one of the administration’s negotiators.
Trump and Senate leaders failed to come to an agreement this week that would garner the necessary 60 votes in the Republican-controlled Senate. Negotiations have stalled over $5.8 billion in funding for a border wall, which passed in the House’s version of the spending bill Thursday.
“Everyone knew yesterday, long before the House vote, that the president’s wall lacked 60 votes in the Senate. It has proven to lack even 50 votes. It will never pass the Senate. Not today, not next week, not next year,” Schumer said.
Calling the wall expensive and ineffective, Schumer said the majority of Americans do not support its construction.
“The wall is President Trump’s bone to the hard right. It’s no way to spend $5 billion, on a political bone,” Schumer said. Trump is slated to have lunch Saturday with GOP leaders who are in favor of the wall.
