It’s not a secret that US President Donald Trump promised to build a Border Wall between the United States and Mexico to reduce the wave of immigration. But the Wall isn’t built yet. And today, Trump threatened to shut down the government if Democrats do not vote for Border Security and Border Wall. So, it seems, the Wall will appear soon.
This video got over 245,000 views during less than 24 hours.
Fredricka Whitfield, CNN: Trump’s sticking to what fires up his base. Teeing up the immigration issue, he’s now threatening a government shutdown if congress does not fund his long-promised Border Wall and is already pointing the blame at Democrats. Trump’s hard line immigration stance is what helped him win the White House, and his promise to build the Wall was a key rallying cry on his campaign.
Donald Trump: We are going to build a great Border Wall.
Donald Trump: We will build a great, great wall.
Donald Trump: We’re gonna build the Wall, don’t worry about it.
Donald Trump: I promise, we will build the Wall.
Donald Trump: And who is gonna pay for the Wall?
Fredricka Whitfield, CNN: This new shutdown threat is happening as the government’s deadline to reunite separated children with their families has come and gone, more then 700 children still have not been reunited.
CNN White House corespondent Boris Sanchez is live from New Jersey, where President Trump is spending his weekend. So, tell us more about the Trump’s Border Wall shutdown threat.
Boris Sanchez: Hey there. As we’ve seen before, President Trump wants his Border Wall by any means necessary. This is not the first time that he’s made the threat to shut down the Federal Government over budget spending on his Border Wall. If you recall, last year we were in a similar situation with Congress having to pass continuing resolutions from September all the way to early 2018. And the President on Twitter is threatening to do it all over again.
He writes, “I would be willing to “shut down” government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch&Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country”.
In a separate tweet, he made this an issue for the midterm elections: “Congress must act on fixing the DUMBEST & WORST immigration laws anywhere in the world! Vote “R”.
R, of course, for Republicans, but some prominent Republicans are not on board with this plan. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsing was on one of the Sunday morning talk shows, he was asked about the shutdown. Listen to his response:
Senator Ron Johnson: Let’s hope not. I think, hopefully, most of appropriation bills will actually be passed. I saw he don’t like playing the shutdown politics.
Reporter: And how damaging would that be for Republicans ahead of the November races?
Senator Ron Johnson: I don’t think it’ll be helpful, so let’s try and avoid it.
Boris Sanchez: Now, sources close to some of my CNN colleges on Capital Hill have heard from people close to the Republican leadership, how speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had a meeting with President Trump earlier this week, telling him that appropriation bills were moving forward smoothly. And they told him that they didn’t want anything to distract or derail potentially the supreme court nomination of Brad Cavanaugh – a government shutdown certainly would. Sources indicate that the President was receptive to their message, but, obviously, on Twitter, he was threatening yet again.
Fredricka Whitfield, CNN: So, the President in his tweets was focusing on the Border Wall issue. House speaker Paul Ryan said, the President was willing to be patient for that kind of funding. Listen.
Paul Ryan: We walked the President through our strategy for appropriations, before the fiscal year. He agreed with our strategy. So, we think we have a unified strategy to make sure we’d get as many appropriation bills done as possible. As far as the Wall is concerned, we’ve got some Wall fundings already on the way, that is being funded, but I think it’s not a question of “if”, it’s a question of “when”. And the President’s willing to be patient to make sure that we get what we need, so that we can get that done.
Fredricka Whitfield, CNN: Hmm, patience. Well, if you look at the tweets from the President this morning, it doesn’t necessarily sound like he’s being patient about it all. So, where is the disconnect here?
Lynn Sweet, Washington Bureau Chief: Well, the disconnect is in a few places. We’ve been at this situation before when the Congress was willing to put some money in for a Wall, and then Trump says, I want all the money up front. With that, it’s very hard to get full project funding in a multiyear project. Look at these infrastructure projects. You never get all the money up front. And then, there’s a thought that Mexico was supposed to pay for this Wall. Where is that discussion? Now, that is something that Democrats will talk about, even if Republicans don’t want to. I mean, look at the sound that just ran from Paul Ryan, he didn’t factor in that. They’re silent on a Mexico pledge. But it does show that Democrats are willing to put more money for Border Security and the Wall in other places, in order to get compromise in broader immigration issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm9XULgu_EQ
