Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told President Trump before they met at the White House to negotiate an immigration deal he did not want Stephen Miller in the room, he recalled Friday.
“I had suggested when [Trump] called that we just have four people in the room: myself, my chief of staff, Mike Lynch, his chief of staff, Gen. [John] Kelly, and the president,” Schumer told the New York Times’ Michael Barbaro in a podcast published Friday. “And I said if you’re going to have Stephen Miller there or somebody like that, it’s not going to work. And he agreed.”
Miller, a White House policy adviser, has been accused of directing the White House’s negotiations on immigration toward more restrictive policies.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters Sunday that Miller was complicating Trump’s efforts to negotiate a deal with Congress.
“Every time we have a proposal, it is only yanked back by staff members. As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we’re going nowhere,” he said.
Schumer said Friday that describing Miller as a “hardline conservative would be putting it kindly.”
Schumer met with Trump in the Oval Office last week just before the government partially shut down.
The minority leader recalled spending an hour-and-a-half discussing the parameters of an immigration deal with Trump, including 15 to 20 minutes on the border wall.
Schumer said he agreed to funding for the border wall in exchange for protection for Dreamers, largely because he believed “it’s going to be next to impossible to actually build the wall.”
But Schumer rescinded that offer earlier this week.
During his interview with the New York Times, Schumer also recalled that Trump doesn’t appear to be following his diet.
The New York Democrat said he is trying to lose weight, as Trump is, and eats a cheeseburger without a bun for lunch. The meal was served to him at the White House.
Trump, Schumer said, had a cheeseburger on bun, along with “a whole lot of French fries.”
“I said you’re not really paying attention to your diet, and he said no,” Schumer recalled.
