Schumer says Trump threatened to continue the shutdown for 'years'

As some fear the partial government shutdown could stretch on through much of January, President Trump is issuing a far more dire projection.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters Friday that in a meeting with Democrats, Trump said he's willing to leave the government in shutdown mode for "months or even years," The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey reports. This would conceivably leave nearly 800,000 federal workers without pay going into the 2020 election cycle — including, as CBS News' Kathryn Watson points out, members of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lawmakers have clashed over funding for border security, leading to the shutdown.

Friday's meeting, it appears, brought little progress, as Schumer says Democrats again pleaded with Trump to re-open the government but he resisted. Trump continues to demand $5 billion in border wall funding, an idea that is a nonstarter with Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters that the Democrats' meeting with Trump was "lengthy" and "sometimes contentious," per CNN's Manu Raju. Trump, on the other hand, called it "very, very productive."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up