President Donald Trump makes a video call to service members from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard stationed worldwide in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 25, 2018. (Photo: Zach Gibson/SIPA/Newscom)
By Henry Rodgers, The Stream,
President Donald Trump said the federal government will remain shut down unless there is an agreement on some type of border wall or fence.
“I can’t tell you when the government is going to reopen … [Not until] we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it. I’ll call it whatever they want. But it’s all the same thing. It’s a barrier from people pouring into our country,” Trump said when talking to reporters on Christmas Day.
Trump’s comments come as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Republicans need to “abandon” border wall funding if they want the government to reopen, just less than 24 hours into the partial shutdown. Trump has not budged on the issue, despite Schumer’s comments, adding that it’s a barrier from dangers like drug smuggling.
“It’s a barrier from drugs. There is a problem in this world today called human trafficking … We are not going to let that take place. We are working so hard to catch these traffickers. They are bad people. We can’t do it without a barrier, we can’t do it without a wall,” Trump continued.
Incoming acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney warned it is “very possible” the partial government shutdown will run into 2019, as Trump insists funding for the border wall must be included.
The two parties will have to figure out an agreement, and the senators must be present for a vote on the Senate floor to send a bill to the president to sign and end the government shutdown.
Mushroom cloud over Hiroshima (Q55435471) Atomic Cloud Rises Over Nagasaki (Q55437339). Left picture : At the time this photo was made, smoke billowed 20,000 feet above Hiroshima while smoke from the burst of the first atomic bomb had spread over 10,000 feet on the target at the base of the rising column. Six planes of the 509th Composite Group participated in this mission: one to carry the bomb (Enola Gay), one to take scientific measurements of the blast (The Great Artiste), the third to take photographs (Necessary Evil), while the others flew approximately an hour ahead to act as weather scouts (08/06/1945). Bad weather would disqualify a target as the scientists insisted on a visual delivery. The primary target was Hiroshima, the secondary was Kokura, and the tertiary was Nagasaki. Right picture : Atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, taken by Charles Levy.
This image is a work of a US Dept. of Energy (or predecessor organization) employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
Official portrait of Vice President of the United States Joe Biden. 13 August 2009. Andrew Cutraro, White House photographer. This file is a work of an employee of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, it is in the public domain.