As detailed by a previous Inquisitr report, the ongoing government shutdown is the longest in United States history. Some 800, 000 federal workers have been left without pay, and Donald Trump’s insistence of securing funds for his expensive border project is causing a major political crisis.
On Saturday, Trump offered what he described as a compromise to the Democratic Party, promising temporary protections for some immigrants, and mild tweaks in his administration’s immigration policy. The proposal was swiftly rejected by the opposition party, and numerous civil liberties organizations have criticized the president’s “compromise.”
In a Fox News interview broadcast Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence addressed the issue as well, the Hill reports.
Although the conservative network is not exactly famous for criticizing the Trump administration, its veteran journalist Chris Wallace did not hesitate to call Pence out to his face.
While discussing the shutdown with Wallace, the Vice President argued that what the American people want the administration to do is “work on their priorities,” but Wallace cut Pence out, observing that what the administration, in fact, appears to want is leverage.
“No, isn’t it really that you just want the leverage? And that you figure if you don’t keep the government closed, that then they’re going to go nowhere?”
But Pence refused to back down, pushing back against Wallace’s claim that the Republicans are looking for leverage against the Democratic Party, and putting pressure on its leaders in order to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and therefore fulfill one of Donald Trump’s key campaign promises.
Pence argued that American citizens “want border security” and said that 800, 000 federal workers impacted by the shutdown want the administration to “find a way to open the government.”
“You could open the government tomorrow,” Fox News host Chris Wallace responded to the vice president, repeating the claim several times.
Chris Wallace presses Pence: “You could open the government tomorrow” … “Isn’t it really that you just want the leverage?” pic.twitter.com/4hubr65EIi
— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) January 20, 2019
Wallace then went on to further question Pence about the issue, adding that the House of Representatives has passed a series of bills meant to fund government agencies severely impacted by the shutdown, “Why don’t you sign them and open the government and then you can negotiate about this?”
Vice President Mike Pence made a number of cable news appearances on Sunday. Pence discussed the ongoing shutdown in an interview with CBS News as well. Arguably the highlight of Pence’s conversation with CBS News ‘ Margaret Brennan was the vice president’s remark in which he likened Donald Trump to Martin Luther King Jr.
Mike Pence compares Trump to Martin Luther King Jr. on eve of MLK day: Both “inspired us to change” https://t.co/JCewvaxTdU pic.twitter.com/ON2ELTh7H8
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) January 20, 2019
Pence argued that, much like the famous African American civil rights activist, President Donald Trump is reaching across the aisle and offering a compromise in “good faith,” as per Raw Story .
