Nancy Pelosi Says There Won’t Be Another Government Shutdown

Even as Donald Trump raises the heat on funding for his border wall, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicted that there won’t be another government shutdown. While speaking with Politico, Pelosi said that the issue of a second shutdown is “too hot to handle,” asserting her belief that a bipartisan panel would reach an agreement before the February 15 deadline.

During an interview on Wednesday, Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol that she was confident the government would remain open, avoiding a repeat of the 35-day partial government shutdown that took place at the end of last year and the beginning of this year.

“There will not be another shutdown,” Pelosi said. “No, it’s not going to happen.”

The record-long shutdown turned out to be politically unpopular for the president and Republicans. Pelosi predicted that a repeat shutdown would be too damaging to the GOP to entertain a second time.

“I have a club that I started, it’s called the ‘Too Hot to Handle Club.’ And this is a too-hot-to-handle issue,” she said.

Pelosi told the news organization that she believes the House-Senate panel will reach an agreement before the mid-February budget deadline and that she will support a compromise from that panel but stood firm on refusing to provide any new money for the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump has mulled the idea of declaring a national emergency in order to obtain funding for the wall, an option that is increasingly becoming his clearest option to getting the funding that he wants. But the idea has created division within his own party. Per the New York Times, Majority Senate Leader Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky warned Trump that declaring a national emergency could ignite a schism within the party that could result in a vote to overrule his declaration.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, on the other hand, called for Republicans to stand with the president to avoid a war within the party.

I’m speaking with reporters at the Capitol as @HouseDemocrats continue our efforts to keep government open & working #ForThePeople. https://t.co/zEbgAq1iu5

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 7, 2019

Pelosi also weighed in on Trump’s attack on House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. The president called Schiff a “partisan hack” who is only looking to raise his own popularity.

“When [Trump] makes an assault on Mr. Schiff and congressional responsibility for oversight, he is making an assault on the Constitution of the United States, the separation of powers, co-equal branches of government,” she said. “We honor the institution in which we serve, the Congress of the United States. I hope he would honor it, too.”