Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued Friday that President Trump will never negotiate an end to the partial government shutdown on his own, and said he needs help because he’s a “terrible negotiator.”
“Left to his own devices, President Trump can keep the government shut down for a long time,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “The president needs intervention, and leader McConnell and Senate Republicans are just the right ones to intervene.”
Schumer, D-N.Y., credited Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., with being an able negotiator who could help find a resolution to the shutdown, which is now two weeks old. But he theorized that McConnell is staying on the sidelines because he can’t work with Trump.
“Probably because he realizes this president, President Trump, is erratic, unreliable and sometimes even irrational,” Schumer said. “In sum, President Trump is a terrible negotiator.”
House Republicans late Thursday passed legislation to reopen the government, and fund the Department of Homeland Security through early February. Schumer said that bill would allow for more time to find a resolution to the debate over Trump’s proposed border wall.
Democrats are refusing to pass any bill that funds the wall, and Trump has said he won’t sign a bill without that money. That impasse has led to a partial government shutdown among nine federal agencies that will enter its third week on Saturday.
