Look What You Made Me Do
Sarah Huckabee Sanders scrambles to explain away Trump's pining for a government shutdown
On Tuesday, President Trump said that he'd "love to see" a government shutdown at week's end if Democrats and Republicans fail to agree on immigration legislation. In an all-too-familiar scene, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was forced to address and retract that claim during a press briefing only a few hours later.
"We are not advocating for the shutdown," Sanders said after she was asked about her boss' remarks. She quickly pivoted to blaming the minority party in Congress: "[A shutdown would be] the fault of the Democrats not being willing to do their jobs."
"The president wants a long-term deal and he wants to get a deal on immigration," Sanders insisted. Earlier on Tuesday, the president said as much, but warned a group of lawmakers and law enforcement officials that it was unlikely to happen: "You can say what you want," he said. "We're not getting support from the Democrats on this legislation."
On that claim, Trump is probably correct. Most Democrats are adamantly opposed to the immigration bill he has proposed, which would give DREAMers — undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children — a path to citizenship in exchange for funding the president's much desired but still unrealized border wall.