VietPress USA (Jan. 18, 2019): Today is the 28th day of partial federal government shutdown
that
has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without paychecks —
represents the first major overture by the president since Jan. 8, when he
delivered an Oval Office address making the public case for his border
wall.
President
Trump and his aides have said he will not budge on his demand for $5.7 billion
in funding. Democrats have panned the number and said they will not negotiate
until the government reopens, raising questions about how Trump might move the
ball forward.
President
Trump said on Friday that he'll be making a "major announcement" on
the government shutdown and the southern border on Saturday afternoon as the
standstill over his border wall continues into its fifth week. The White
House declined to provide details late Friday about what the president would be
announcing. But Trump was not expected to sign the national emergency
declaration he's been threatening as an option to circumvent Congress,
according to two people familiar with the planning.
Instead, Trump was
expected to propose the outlines of a new deal that the administration believes
could potentially pave the way to an end to the shutdown, according to one of
the people.
Trump's Friday evening tweeted announcement came after House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday canceled her plans to travel by commercial plane
to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan, saying Trump had caused a security risk by
talking about the trip. The White House said there was no such leak.
It was the latest turn
— and potentially the most dangerous — in the high-stakes brinkmanship between
Trump and Pelosi that has been playing out against the stalled negotiations
over how to end the partial government shutdown.
I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse.
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Trump plans to make 'major announcement' on shutdown, border
The White House declined to provide details late Friday about what the president would be announcing. But Trump was not expected to sign the national emergency declaration he's been threatening as an option to circumvent Congress, according to two people familiar with the planning.
Instead, Trump was expected to propose the outlines of a new deal that the administration believes could potentially pave the way to an end to the shutdown, according to one of the people. They were not authorized to discuss the announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The move — on Day 28 of a shutdown that has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without paychecks — represents the first major overture by the president since Jan. 8, when he delivered an Oval Office address making the public case for his border wall. The president and his aides have said he will not budge on his demand for $5.7 billion in funding. Democrats have panned the number and said they will not negotiate until the government reopens, raising questions about how Trump might move the ball forward.
In a video posted on his Twitter feed late Friday, Trump said both sides should "take the politics out of it" and "get to work" to "make a deal." But he also repeated his warnings, saying: "We have to secure our southern border. If we don't do that, we're a very, very sad and foolish lot."
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said only that Trump was "going to continue fighting for border security" and "going to continue looking for the solution" to end what the administration had repeatedly referred to as a "humanitarian and national security crisis at the border."
While few would argue that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border, as the demand for entry by migrants and the Trump administration's hardline response overwhelm border resources, critics say Trump has dramatically exaggerated the security risks and argue that a wall would do little to solve existing problems.
Trump will be speaking from the Diplomatic Room at 3 p.m.
Trump's Friday evening tweeted announcement came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday canceled her plans to travel by commercial plane to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan, saying Trump had caused a security risk by talking about the trip. The White House said there was no such leak.
It was the latest turn — and potentially the most dangerous — in the high-stakes brinkmanship between Trump and Pelosi that has been playing out against the stalled negotiations over how to end the partial government shutdown.
And it showed once again the willingness of the former hard-charging businessman to hit hard when challenged, as he was earlier this week when Pelosi suggested postponing his State of the Union address until after the shutdown.
Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, said the back-and-forth "gives new meaning" to tensions between the executive and legislative branches.
"There are public back and forths," he said, citing relations between past presidents and House speakers. "But this kind of tensions, preventing the speaker from visiting the troops and the speaker suggesting the White House leaked information about a crucial flight, this is one more example of where Trumpism brings us into new territory."
The political stakes are high as the shutdown moves into a fifth week, with hundreds of thousands of federal workers going without pay and no outward signs of resolution.
Sanders on Friday stressed the importance of a looming Tuesday deadline to process paychecks, when the government will need to decide if workers get another round of zeros on Friday's payday.
"One of the key reasons that the president did not want Speaker Pelosi to leave the country is because, if she did, it would all but guarantee the fact that the negotiations couldn't take place over the weekend," Sanders told reporters.
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