President Trump claimed Thursday that most of the federal workers not getting paid during the partial government shutdown are Democrats — just days after he said they were on board with keeping the government closed until he gets funding for his border wall.
“Have the Democrats finally realized that we desperately need Border Security and a Wall on the Southern Border. Need to stop Drugs, Human Trafficking, Gang Members & Criminals from coming into our Country,” .
“Do the Dems realize that most of the people not getting paid are Democrats?” he added, without providing any evidence.
The shutdown, which affects some 800,000 workers, enters its seventh day Friday.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) blasted the president for using workers as political pawns.
“This is outrageous. Federal employees don’t go to work wearing red or blue jerseys. They’re public servants. And the President is treating them like poker chips at one of his failed casinos,” Warner .
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said federal employees “work for the FBI & TSA (not GOP or DNC).”
The head of the largest union representing federal workers said government employees are part of an “apolitical workforce.”
“A government shutdown doesn’t hurt any one political party or any one federal employee more than another, it hurts all of them,” J. David Cox Sr., head of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement.
The president’s tweet runs counter to comments he made in the Oval Office on Christmas Day, when he said that government employees support the shutdown until money is allocated for the wall.
“Many of those workers have said to me and communicated, ‘Stay out until you get the funding for the wall.’ These federal workers want the wall,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.
A poll conducted by the Government Business Council in 2015 found political parties are pretty equally represented in the federal government.
Forty-four percent of workers identified as Democrats, while 40 percent said they were aligned with Republicans. The remainder either were undecided or did not identify with either party.
The White House issued a statement late Thursday saying the administration submitted “ a reasonable, common-sense solution to Democrats five days ago” but have yet to hear back.
“The president and his team stayed in Washington over Christmas hoping to negotiate a deal that would stop the dangerous crisis on the border, protect American communities and reopen the government. The Democrats decided to go home,” the statement said.
About 25 percent of the government is closed and roughly 420,000 “essential” federal employees are working without pay after Congress failed to pass a spending plan last week.
Another 380,000 employees have been furloughed.
Negotiations to end the shutdown went nowhere Thursday, with no end in sight. No action was expected until after New Year’s Day.
Additional reporting by Nikki Schwab