Another day has passed and we’re getting closer to a government shutdown. The money runs out midnight on Friday unless a deal is struck on immigration. Let’s not forget that Senate Democrats once thought tying immigration reform to matters of the budgets was insane. Sen. Chuck Schumer, now Senate Minority Leader, said it would breed “governmental chaos” five years ago.
The negotiations have hit a snag after it was leaked that President Trump asked why are we letting in people from “s**thole countries.” The liberal media blew a gasket. While Sen. Dick Durbin has confirmed the president said this DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) couldn’t recall. Trump made these remarks while speaking with Senate Democrats and Republicans.
Durbin stopped by The View to discuss the immigration deal and the president’s remarks. There was a lot of background noise due to a demonstration held by rabbis and other Jewish leaders in the rotunda calling for DREAMER protections and a clean DACA bill.
Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, and company all lobbed questions critical of Republicans. Of course, she served up a question that allowed Durbin to call Cotton and Perdue liars. Alicia Menendez, daughter of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) who recently skirted federal corruption charges, asked for a response to Cotton’s charge about Durbin waiting so long to comment on this remark. Durbin gave Republican Lindsey Graham (R-SC) credit for pushing back on the president’s comments, though Joy Behar said Graham is not credible since he walks a waffled line with the Trump White House.
It’s funny we talk about this because Dick Durbin made up a story about a private White House meeting in 2013. It was during the negotiations over the debt ceiling, where Durbin said that one GOP House leader told then-President Obama, “‘I cannot even stand to look at you.” There was only one problem: it never happened. The Obama White House even denied such an exchange ever took place.
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Meghan McCain: “You have a history of misrepresenting statements from private White House meetings, and some say that you’ve actually done more harm than good to the DACA deal by revealing what Trump said in his private meeting. Do you think that’s true?”
Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois: Well, I can tell you what you hear behind me are the voices of democracy; demonstrators who are on Capitol Hill willing to be arrested in a non-violent way for the Dream Act. I believe the strength behind this, the energy behind this movement to help these DREAMERS, DACA protected, is stronger than ever.
McCain added that energy and consensus is all on the Democratic side, which does nothing to win over Republican votes. Hence, the reason why Democrats wanted to speak with Trump, who is more open to DACA protections than most on the Hill—and why Durbin’s actions over this kerfuffle over some vulgar remarks could derail negotiations. Durbin seemed hopeful that more GOP votes would come forward. Then, came the question about the looming shutdown
Meghan McCain: Senator, are Democrats willing to shut down the government on Friday over this DACA deal?
Durbin: I didn’t run for the Senate to shut down the government.
The Illinois Democrat added that the DACA/DREAMER bill has to be done this week, and that he was off to another bipartisan meeting to try and hash out an agreement.
Yeah, that’s all good and all, but let the record show once again that Durbin has done exactly what he accused his Republican colleagues of doing regarding WH meetings: lie about them. And a Democrat, the leader of his own party at the time, called him out. As much as I would like to keep hammering Durbin on the fact that he did straight up lie about a WH meeting to make Republicans look bad, we need to move on and look to what this bill is going to look like. Frankly, it’s seems pretty likely that shutdown theater is coming soon.
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