Durbin: Schumer Made ‘Major Concessions’ to Trump

‘And they reached a basic agreement’

DICKERSON: But the Senate needs 60 votes, and Democrats are the ones who voted to not get to 60 and — who didn’t vote, I should say.

DURBIN: But let me just add — and I think this is key and why we call it the Trump shutdown — there was an effort made, at the invitation of President Trump, for Chuck Schumer to come to the White House on Friday and avoid this.

They sat down for lunch, four of them, both the president, Schumer. Each of them brought their aides, John Kelly and Mike Lynch. And they reached a basic agreement. In that agreement, Chuck Schumer made major concessions to the president to get this job done.

DICKERSON: Right.

DURBIN: Two hours later, the White House called and said: It’s over. We’re not interested.

DICKERSON: But — and I want to get to those concessions in a minute.

So, OK, so there’s a little sloppiness. Why not keep the government open and figure it out over the next few little period? You guys, you’re pretty close. Why shut the government down?

DURBIN: This is the fourth continuing resolution. There’s been a consistent failure by the Republican leadership in Congress to deal with these critical issues.

We don’t want to see this situation as it currently exists, but we want to see a solution that has meaning, and one that will serve this nation. We are lunching from one continuing resolution to the next.

You know what the secretary of the Navy said? Continuing resolutions have cost the United States Navy $4 billion, enough for us to make sure not only sailors are paid, but that we build the resources we need to keep the nation safe.

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