Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said Sunday that he wouldn’t rule out building a border wall “in certain instances.”
“I would not rule out a wall in certain instances. The notion that we can’t have barriers is just something that’s not true," he said on ABC's "This Week" when discussing Democrats’ to negotiate on President Trump’s insistence on building a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Thompson called on the president to be consistent in his demands, however.
"You have to have a plan and the plan that the president initially started with is not where he is now, and so we don’t know where he will be tomorrow," he said.
"But clearly, Democrats are for border security. But we are not for this constantly moving the ball just for a talking point," he continued.
Democrat Congressman Bennie Thompson, Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, says that Democrats have historically supported border barriers and are not ruling out supporting border barriers pic.twitter.com/8VAnnLnWHp
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 20, 2019
"I would not rule out a wall in certain instances," Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson says, but "you have to have a plan and the plan that the president initially started with is not where he is now, and so we don’t know where he will be tomorrow" https://t.co/kljcbS9MBX #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/6W4oeDq9Qj
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 20, 2019
In an effort to move forward in negotiations with Democrats, President Trump proposed a temporary DACA fix on Saturday in exchange for $5.7 billion in funding for a border wall. Democrats have so far rejected that offer, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling it a “non-starter.”
The stalemate over border wall funding has led to the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history, which began on Dec. 22.