U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a joint news conference with Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
During a joint news conference with the Prime Minister of Italy, Trump tantrumed and ranted about how a border security bill was needed, including his wall, even though Republicans lack the votes to pass what he wants.
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Transcript:
Q: Thank you, Mr. President. To follow up on what you were saying about the shutdown, sir, are you saying that you would be willing to shut the government down in September if it does not fully fund $25 billion worth of your border wall? And also deliver all of the immigration priorities you listed in your tweet or are you leaving room for negotiation there?
Trump: I’ll always leave room for negotiation. This has been many years. This isn’t just the trump administration. There have been many years, even decades. We have immigration laws. We have border security. We have all sorts of things going on that are — it’s disgraceful. We are doing a phenomenal job. We are setting records, but we have laws that don’t work. So we’re working around those laws and it’s unfortunate. I have to take my hat off to the border patrols for the law enforcement, to I.C.E., which really has been maligned by the Democrats. The job they do.
They go into these MS-13 nests. Nests of bad, bad people. Killers in many cases. And they go in there fearless and they do an incredible job and they get them out. They go to jail or get out of the country. I want to just take my hat off to I.C.E. And the brave people that have really been maligned by the Democrats. We need border security. Without a border, as this gentleman can tell you also, because the prime minister really was a very big factor in his win, and other people’s win in Italy, but it was a big factor in my win we, need border security. Border security includes the wall, but it includes many other things. We have to end the lottery. We have to end the chain. The chain is like a disaster. You bring one person in, and you end up with 32 people.
We have to end these horrible catch and release principles where you catch somebody, you take them and you release them. You don’t even know who they are. They are supposed to come back to a court case. They want us to hire thousands of judges. The whole thing is ridiculous. We have to change our laws. We do that through Congress. So I would certainly be willing to close it down to get it done. As you know, we are already approving things in various bills, including we are going to be taking care of the military. We always put the military and law enforcement very high. But I would be certainly willing to consider a shutdown if we don’t get proper border security.
The House rejected the immigration bill that Trump is threatening to shut the government down over by a margin of 301-121 last month. The votes are not there to pass anything close to what Trump is demanding, so the president can shut down the government before the midterm election and cost his party control of Congress, and it won’t do a bit of good.
Trump is trying to use the issue of a government shutdown to distract from the Russia/Michael Cohen scandals and rally his base for the midterms.
Democrats aren’t going to vote for his immigration bill or pay for his wall, so Trump better be ready to shut down the government in September or face another public humiliation when he caves.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
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