DPCC Chair Cicilline: Trump Is Pretending To Keep Americans Safe
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman David Cicilline, Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on Erin Burnett OutFront on CNN to discuss the Trump Shutdown. Despite the chaos and crisis created by the White House, Democrats are focusing on fighting for the people to lower health care costs, increase pay, and clean up corruption in Washington. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video
"Well, no. But I mean, we should remember, Erin, this is a proposal that was already passed by the Senate unanimously, 100-0, so what we're going to do tomorrow is bring to the floor two bills: one which will fund the six other departments - bipartisan agreement has already been achieved with respect to those departments – [and] separate out the point of contention, that's the Department of Homeland Security, do a shorter stopgap for that, so fund the rest of the government through the end of the fiscal year, those six departments, then take the Department of Homeland Security, give it a shorter time for him to give us an opportunity to negotiate these outstanding issues. But the President isn't serious about wanting to reopen the government. He said that he wanted to shut it down. He said that 25 times. I think, frankly, he doesn't really have an interest in reopening the government because he's using it as an opportunity to really distract from a lot of very serious issues facing his White House and this Administration. There's an easy solution here, we're going to present it tomorrow like adults, we're going to fund the government, send it over to the Senate. I think they're going to be hard pressed not to pass it. They already passed it."
"I don't think it's a futile waste of time because I do think that the American people need to see the Democrats doing the right thing, swiftly moving to reopen the government. Then they're going to have to put pressure on the Republicans in the Senate to do their job. They don't work for the President of the United States. They work for the American people. They should be serving their constituents, not the President. They've already passed this proposal before Christmas. They ought to do it again to reopen the government. Then we can have a real debate about what is the smartest way to secure our borders. Democrats believe we should have secure borders but we should do it in a smart way, invest in technology, drones, cargo inspection, satellites, more personnel. Let's do it in a way that actually achieves the objectives, not just some 19th century solution for 21st century problems, this big concrete wall that supposedly Mexico was going to pay for."
"Well, I think this is one of the difficulties in trying to negotiate the resolution of a matter with someone who doesn't always tell the truth and someone who doesn't keep his word. If you remember, the President approved the prior deal. That's why the Senate voted for it unanimously, because he had agreed to this idea of funding the six departments and doing a short-term CR for the Department of Homeland Security so we could work out these issues. Then he changed his mind after the Senate voted. So, I think, again, there's a lot of trepidation about negotiating with someone whose word you can't trust, who seems to change his position with some frequency. I think if we do reach a deal, we're going to have to find some way to have the President commit to it so that he actually keeps his word, but I think it's what makes a very difficult negotiation even more difficult. You just don't have a sense where the President really is and whether he's going to actually stick with the position he takes."
"I think it's a very serious question. I think the President is having considerable difficulty keeping people in his cabinet for a lot of obvious reasons. People are leaving in droves. I think he's found it difficult to keep people. I think he's a particularly difficult person to work for from all the things we've seen, so I think it's challenging. These are difficult and challenging times, but to do it without a proper staff of qualified people makes all this work more difficult and I think the President has sort of, particularly with the departure of Secretary Mattis, sort of the only adults in the room have left and so I think it's a real challenge, and the President's surrounded by folks who are just sort of cheering him on, telling him he's right, rather than confronting him with reality."
"Well, I think he recognizes Secretary Mattis is very well respected. His resignation was accompanied with a very strong letter of rebuke of the President's foreign policy and criticism of the President. We all know the President doesn't take well to that but I think this is, again, what I said at the beginning of the show. I do think that the President's changed the conversation to talk about the shutdown. He lost Secretary Mattis. The Trump Foundation was closed because of persistent illegalities. He's lost the gentleman who was in charge of the diplomatic efforts and the fight against ISIS, ISIS. He saw Michael Flynn's sentencing hearing blow up considerably. He knows Michael Cohen's cooperating, the walls are closing in on the Mueller investigation. I mean, it hasn't been a good couple weeks for the President, and what does he do? He changed the subject by saying, I want to shut the government down and all the discussions about that. So I don't actually think the President is serious about wanting to end the shutdown. He could do it by signing bills the House passes and telling the Senate to do the same. I just don't think right now he's interested in reopening the government. I think he likes the distraction. He likes the chaos. He, I think, thinks he benefits by pretending that he's fighting to keep America safe when we've appropriated $1.7 billion over the last 2 years for border security, the Department spent less than 6% of that, so sure we have to do more, but they haven't even spent what we've appropriated so this is a make-believe fight that he's doing because he thinks it helps his political future and ignites his base but it's an easy problem to resolve if he were serious about reopening the government and moving forward."