Trump to meet congressional leaders at White House amid shutdown
US President Donald Trump has invited top lawmakers from the US House of Representatives and the Senate amid a partial government shutdown over the funding of his border wall.
The leader and whip of both the Republican and Democratic parties have been invited, the Hill quote anonymous sources as saying in a Tuesday report.
The list includes House speaker Nancy Pelosi, incoming House majority leader Steny Hoyer, House GOP leaders Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, majority whip John Thune, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, and Democratic whip Dick Durbin.
“Border Security and the Wall ‘thing’ and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker! Let’s make a deal?” the president tweeted, without offering any details about the potential deal.
Pelosi later appeared to brush aside Trump’s suggestion, tweeting, “.@realDonaldTrump has given Democrats a great opportunity to show how we will govern responsibly & quickly pass our plan to end the irresponsible #TrumpShutdown – just the first sign of things to come in our new Democratic Majority committed to working #ForThePeople.”
As a result of the shutdown, some 800,000 federal workers around the country are either furloughed or working without pay.
In other tweets Tuesday, Trump criticized Democrats for not caring about “open borders.”
“The Democrats, much as I suspected, have allocated no money for a new Wall… So imaginative! The problem is, without a Wall there can be no real Border Security – and our Country must finally have a Strong and Secure Southern Border!” Trump tweeted. “One thing has now been proven. The Democrats do not care about Open Borders and all of the crime and drugs that Open Borders bring!”
Trump demands $5 billion, for which he is “proud” to shutdown the government but Democrats are not offering more than $1.3 billion.
Democrats remain doubtful, saying they expect the meeting to be more of a one-sided presentation from the White House than a discussion over the shutdown.
