Former Republican Senator To Trump: ‘Don’t Let Right Wing Whack-A-Doodles Run The Place’

In an interview aired on Sunday, former Republican Senator Alfonse D’Amato of New York urged President Donald Trump to push back against the far-right elements of his base of supporters, the Hill reports.

“Don’t let right-wing whack-a-doodles run the place. They’re out of their mind.”

D’Amato was interviewed following President Donald Trump’s decision to reopen the government, ending the longest and most expensive shutdown in American history. As detailed by a previous Inquisitr report, Trump’s decision to reopen the government after failing to get funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border is turning out to be unpopular, and it seems to be creating cracks in the core of his base.

Dozens of conservative journalists, authors, and media personalities openly criticized the president for caving, and even some Republican lawmakers told the press that the shutdown ended up causing harm to federal workers, and to the Republican party, without actually achieving anything.

But according to Alfonse D’Amato it is not only Donald Trump to blame for the situation. The former Republican senator blamed “both sides” for the issue, arguing that the failure to compromise is why the American people hold politicians “in disdain.”

“Both sides have acted in a disgraceful manner. They’re just worried about politics. They’re worried about the next election,” D’Amato said. “That’s why the American people hold politicians in disdain. They have earned that distinction because they obviously have put politics first and the nation is forgotten.”

The reopening of the government is only temporary. The two parties have only three weeks to reach a compromise. Unless they do, President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency and start building the wall.

Lindsey Graham wants Trump to declare national emergency if no border wall after three-week extension https://t.co/lh7sUCnHUk

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 27, 2019

However, declaring a national emergency would be an “extraordinarily aggressive” move that would stretch the limits of presidential powers, according to the New York Times, and invite a court fight.

“If no deal is done, it’s off to the races!” the president tweeted on January 25, reaffirming that the administration is willing to declare a national emergency if a compromise with the Democrats is not reached.

According to Alfonse D’Amato, the Democrats and the Republicans need to come together over the course of next three weeks, override partisanship, and come up with a solution. Politicians on both sides of the aisle, according to the former senator, need to demonstrate to the American people that they are willing to put country over party.

“I hope the politicians on both sides of the aisle don’t blow this,” he said. “They’ve got three weeks to do it. Demonstrate that we are above this bitter partisanship that exists.”