Schumer: Trump is 'plunging the country into chaos'

If the government shuts down, it will be due to President Trump "throwing a tantrum," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday evening.

During a press conference with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Schumer said Trump has backed away from the bipartisan spending bill that passed the Senate on Wednesday night because of pressure from the hard right. The bill did not include any funding for the border wall Trump has long promised. "The Trump temper tantrum will shut down the government but it will not get him his wall," Schumer said. The president, he added, is "plunging the country into chaos."

Pelosi said she was "shaken" by the resignation of Secretary of Defense James Mattis, one day after Trump said the Islamic State is defeated and U.S. troops should leave Syria, and praised his service. "You have leaders who have left the administration in dismay and the rest of them have left in disgrace," she said. "That's what this administration has been about."

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Mattis is "one of the few symbols of strength and stability in this administration," Schumer said. "Everything that indicates stability, everything that indicates strength, everything that indicates knowledge is leaving this administration." They don't want to be fear-mongers, Pelosi added, since this "great country can withstand just about anything, but it shouldn't have to."