DPCC Co-Chair Lieu: Reopen Government Mr. President Then Negotiate a Deal
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Ted Lieu, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on CNNto call on President Trump to reopen the government. Below is a transcript from the interview. Click here to watch the video
"I'm pleased that the Democratic proposal to reopen government with no strings attached actually got more votes in the Republican controlled Senate than Donald Trump's own proposal. I'm very pleased that six Republican Senators broke ranks with the President, including Mitt Romney. I'm glad he's showing that he's not a flake and that Mitt Romney is putting country above party. I'm hopeful that this will lead to talks to reopen government. And the democratic position has always been consistent and reasonable: reopen government, Mr. President. Negotiate a deal."
"Absolutely not. The principle at stake here is that we cannot allow Donald Trump to use the harm of a government shutdown as a negotiating tactic. We cannot allow any party or any person to take our federal government as a hostage and extract a ransom. We will not pay that. This is much bigger than one-eighth funding for a wall. This is about the principle. You can't put people's suffering and use that as negotiating tactic."
"I think Donald Trump should reopen government and then if he wants to do that, that's up to him. We can fight it out in the courts. But the Democrats in the Senate and in the House simply are not going to cave to Donald Trump's demands in the middle of a government shutdown. Now, if Donald Trump reopens government, then everything is on the table and I'm happy to consider the wall in the context of a large immigration reform bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship as well as permanent status for DACA and TPS recipients. So everything is on the table. Trump and McConnell just have to open government first."
"Today is Thursday, Wolf. That means Donald Trump is lying again. He told some whoppers. For example, with the invasion if you look at the Department Homeland Security's own data, border crossings are at an approximate 20-year low. If you look at the FBI's latest data, violent crime is down, property crime is down, and study after study shows immigrants, both documented and undocumented, commit less crime. In terms of drugs, approximately 90 percent of it goes through our ports of entry, not through places where there's not a wall. So a wall wouldn't even stop that. That's why I think it's important that we agree on basic facts and six Republican Senators seem to have done that today."
"Because Donald trump three weeks later will shut the government down again. If we cave in for his demand for a wall the first time - he will keep shutting down the government every time we don't fund additional parts of the wall. That's why Democrats have held firm and will continue to hold firm. It's not about the wall anymore. It's simply about not allowing the American President to use the opening of government as a concession. Think of how perverse that is – he's trading the opening of government for his demands. No American president should ever be doing that."