By Allison Pecorin
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that President Donald Trump would bear the blame for a government shutdown after he backed out of a meeting with Democratic leaders that had been set for later this week.
“Donald Trump is causing the shutdown. This is a Trump shutdown and he is barreling right toward it right now, and he knows he is going to be blamed for the shut down,” Schumer said in a news conference hours after Trump pulled out of the meeting.
Schumer’s comments came after Trump posted on his social media platform that he no longer intended to meet with Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to discuss a path forward on government funding before the Sept. 30 deadline. Democratic leaders have for weeks said Republicans must negotiate with them in order to secure the necessary Democratic support to pass a package.
In his post, Trump said, “After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive.”
Schumer mocked Trump’s reputation as a negotiator.
“This is not what the American people want or deserve. Donald Trump can’t even negotiate a budget bill with Democrats. This great negotiator. The kind of meeting we wanted to have that he just pulled out, it’s the kind of thing every president has to do,” Schumer said.
Both the House and Senate left Washington last week after the Senate failed to advance a GOP-approved short-term funding bill that passed the House, as well as a Democratic funding bill that included billions in health care agenda items.
Republicans say that a short-term bill is necessary to allow work on full-year appropriations to continue. But Democrats, who faced blowback in March for providing the votes necessary to keep the government open, say now is the time to fight for health care priorities.
“We Democrats are ready to work together to keep the government open for the good of the country and the good of the American people, but Donald Trump is simply ducking his responsibility as president,” Schumer said. “He says Democrats have a radical agenda. Really? Really? Tell the American people what is radical about protecting America’s health care.”
