In meandering Oval Office remarks on Tuesday, President Trump compared Democrats’ attitudes to border security with their position on fired former FBI Director James Comey.
He claimed almost all Democrats were in favor of a wall and “the only time they went against it” was “when Donald Trump said, ‘I want to build a wall.'”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had offered Trump a deal earlier this year where Democrats would agree to $25 billion for border security, including a wall, if Trump supported an immigration deal that would have protected the so-called Dreamers, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Democrats pulled back their support when Trump refused.
[Related: Trump works to shift blame for shutdown to the Democrats]
“As soon as I said I want to build a wall, they were all against it. It’s like, take another example. Take Comey. Everybody hated Comey, they thought he did a horrible job. The Democrats hated him. They were calling for his resignation,” he said.
Comey, who Trump fired in 2017, came under fire from Democrats ahead of the 2016 election for releasing information about the investigation into then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails.
“Literally the day before I fired him, they were saying he should be fired. As soon as I fired him, they said, ‘Oh, what did you fire him for? That was a terrible thing to do,'” said Trump. “It’s a disgrace, what’s happening in our country. But other than that, I wish everybody a very merry Christmas.”
Comey had criticized the president Sunday on Twitter, noting that furloughed federal workers are affected by the fight over border wall funding that led to the shutdown.
“FBI families will spend Christmas without a paycheck,” he wrote. “This president promised Mexico would pay for the wall but innocent people are now paying the price for another lie.”
FBI families will spend Christmas without a paycheck. This president promised Mexico would pay for the wall but innocent people are now paying the price for another lie. Our thoughts are with hardworking public servants and their families.
— James Comey (@Comey) December 23, 2018
Trump said Tuesday that he was in Washington instead of with his family in Florida to be sensitive to federal workers. Furloughed federal employees will not receive paychecks during the shutdown but are typically granted back-pay once a shutdown ends.
“I just didn’t want to go down and be there when other people are hurting,” he said. First lady Melania Trump returned from Mar-a-Lago over the weekend to spend Christmas at the White House with the president.
Trump asserted federal employees are on board with the shutdown, telling him “‘Stay out until you get the funding for the wall.’ These federal workers want the wall,” he said.
