Pelosi, Schumer Plead to Trump: ‘Let’s Debate’ Border Funds ‘in Private’
A wild scene played out in the White House Tuesday after President Trump summoned the incoming speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and the Senate Minority leader, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to negotiate the federal budget, including funding for the border wall.
The meeting was attempted to avert a government shutdown. Reporters were summoned after the parties apparently made headway toward an agreement.
Things took a turn, however, when Pelosi began threatening there would be a “Trump shutdown” if they couldn’t come to terms. Trump eventually said he would be “proud” to shut down the government is he was doing so to protect the border.
"If we don't get what we want," Trump said. "I will shut down the government ... I am proud to shutdown the government for border security."
Pelosi and Schumer began pleading with Trump not to discuss their budget negotiations in front of reporters, but instead keep their talks "private." Pelosi said they came in “good faith” and never intended to discuss these negogiations “in public view.”
Speaking of the border wall, Schumer said: "It doesn't solve the problem."
Trump quickly shot back: "It totally solves the problem."
Schumer and Pelosi appeared unprepared to debate the issue in public, and Schumer asked Trump, “Let’s debate in private.”
Here’s a rush excerpt of the exchange:
TRUMP: “We need border security. People are pouring into our country including terrorists. We have terrorists — we caught 10 terrorists over the last very short period of time. Ten. These are very serious people. Our border agents, all of our law enforcement has been incredible, what they have done, but we caught 10 terrorists. These are people that were looking to do harm. We need the wall. We need — more important than anything, we need border security of which the wall is just a piece. It’s important. Chuck, did you want to say something?”
SCHUMER: “Yes. Here’s what I want to say. We have a lot of disagreements here. ‘The Washington Post’ today gave you a whole lot of Pinnocchios because they say you constantly misstate how much of the wall is built and how much is there, but that’s not the point. We have a disagreement about the wall, whether it’s effective or not —“
TRUMP: “’The Washington Post’ —“
SCHUMER: “— not on border security, but on the wall. We do not want to shut down the government. You were called 20 times to shut down the government. You said, ‘I want to shut down the government.’ We don’t. We want to come to an agreement. If we can’t come to an agreement, we have solutions that will pass the House and Senate right now and will not shut down the government. That’s what we are urging you to do. Not threaten to shut down the government.”
TRUMP: “If you don’t want to shut down the government —“
SCHUMER: “Let me just finish. Because you can’t get your way — let me say something, Mr. President. You just say, ‘My way or we shut down the government.’ We have a proposal that Democrats and Republicans will support to do a C.R. that will not shut down the government. We urge you to take it.”
TRUMP: “If it’s not good border security, I will not take it.”
SCHUMER: “It’s very good border security.”
TRUMP: “If it’s not good border security, I will not take it.”
SCHUMER: “ It’s what —“
TRUMP: “Because when you look at these numbers of the effectiveness of our border security and when you look at the job we are doing —”
SCHUMER: “You just said it is effective.”
TRUMP: “Can I tell you something?”
SCHUMER: “You just said it is effective.”
TRUMP: “These are only areas where you have the walls. Where you have walls, Chuck, it’s effective. Where you don’t have walls, it’s not effective.”
PELOSI: “Let’s call a halt to this. We have come in here with the first branch of government. Article One. The legislative branch. We are coming in in good faith to negotiate with you about how we can keep the government open.”
SCHUMER: “Open.”
TRUMP: “We are going to keep it open if we have border security. If we don’t have border security, Chuck, we are not going to keep it open.”
PELOSI: “We will have border security.”
SCHUMER: “You are bragging about what has been done. We want to do the same thing we did last year this year. That’s our proposal. If it’s good then, it’s good now and it won’t shut down the government.”
TRUMP: “We can build a much bigger section with more money.”
SCHUMER: “Let’s debate in private.”
TRUMP: “We need border security. I think we all agree that we need border security.”
SCHUMER: “Yes, we do.”
TRUMP: “See? We get along. Thank you, everybody.”
REPORTER: “You say border security and the wall. Can you have border security without the wall?”’
TRUMP: “You need the wall. The wall is a part of border security.”
REPORTER: “Can you explain what it means to have border security?”
TRUMP: “Yeah. We need border security. The wall is a part of border security and you can’t have very good border security without the wall.”
PELOSI: “That’s not true. That’s a political promise. Border security is a way to effectively honor our responsibility.”
SCHUMER: “The experts say you can do border security without a wall, which is wasteful and doesn’t solve the problem.
TRUMP: “It totally solves the problem and it’s very important.”
PELOSI: “This spiraled downward from when we came at a place to say how do we meet the needs of American people, who have needs. The economy, people are losing jobs and the market is in a mood. Our members are already —“
TRUMP: “We have the lowest unemployment that we’ve had in 50 years.”
PELOSI: “People in the Republican Party are losing their offices now because of the transition. People are not —“
TRUMP: “And we gained in the Senate. Nancy, we gained in the Senate. Excuse me. Did we win the Senate? We won the Senate.”
SCHUMER: “When the President brags that he won North Dakota and Indiana, he is in real trouble.”
TRUMP: “I did. We did win North Dakota and Indiana.”
PELOSI: “We came in here in good faith and we’re entering into this kind of a discussion in the public view.”
TRUMP: “But it’s not bad, Nancy. It’s called transparency.”
PELOSI: “I know. It’s not transparency when we are not stipulating to a set of facts and we want to have a debate about you, confront some of these facts.”
TRUMP: “You know what? We need border security. That’s what we will be talking about. Border security. If we don’t have border security, we will shut down the government. This country needs border security. The wall is a part of border security. Let’s have a talk. We will get the wall built and we have done a lot of wall already. It’s a big part of it.”
After the meeting, Pelosi and Schumer spoke to reporters outside the White House. Pelosi told reporters she wanted to keep their negotiations private because it would be rude to correct Trump in public. [Video]
“I hear the reporters or Fox reporters saying why did we not want transparency in this discussion,” she said. “We don't want to contradict the president when he was putting forth figures that had no reality to them, no basis in fact. We had to if we are going to proceed in all of this have evidence-based factual, truthful information about what works and what doesn't. I didn't want to in front of those people say you don't know what you are talking about."
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