Rep. Mark Meadows said Thursday that President Trump and congressional Republicans blew their chance at getting a border wall by failing to insist on billions in new funding.
Meadows, R-N.C., said on Fox News that conservatives believe Trump is a fighter, but is getting “bad advice” on the border wall. Meadows and other conservatives want Trump to veto a short-term spending bill this week because it doesn’t include border wall funding.
[Read more: Fox News host urges Trump to veto ‘crap’ bill with no wall funding]
“They believe that he’s getting bad advice,” Meadows said of how conservatives view Trump. “They know that he’s promised not once, not twice but three different times that he would get border wall funding, and here we are about to punt.”
“And I would argue, it’s not a punt,” Meadows added. “A punt actually helps improve the field advantage. This is a fumble, and we need to make sure that the president stays firm.”
“A lot of people are very nervous this morning about whether the president will cave or not,” he said.
But Meadows also blamed congressional Republicans for failing to make any effort to pass a bill this month that funds the border wall.
“We failed, we fumbled,” he said.
Meadows predicted that it would only get harder to pass a bill funding the border wall once Democrats take over the House next year.
“We had more than 29 more Republicans than Democrats last week. We could have passed it, and we didn’t,” he said.
“If we’re not going to fight now, when are we going to fight?”
[Also read: Trump unfollows Ann Coulter after she slammed him for border wall fail]
