WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested in a Sunday sit-down that President Trump would like to “abolish” Congress.
“The 🏅impression you get from the president is he would like to not only close government, build a wall, but also abolish Congress, so the only voice that mattered was his own,” ꦡPelosi said in an interview with
Pauley asked if it was “bluster” when the president told Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Congressional leaders at a meeting Friday that he woul💃d keep the government closed for months or even yearౠs in order to get his proposed border wall. The government has been partially shut down for two weeks and one day.
“Well, I hope so, but the fact is he’s said it a💧gain and again,” Pelosi answered.
She explained that the purpose of🦩 Friday’s White House meeting was to get the government reopened.
House Democrats passed two bills Thursday night that would separate out Department of Homeland Security funding so that every other impacted government agency would have funding through the fiscal ꦗyear.
The second bi𓂃ll would fund the DHS through February so negotiations over the border wꦐall could continue.
Thos🍒e bills aren’t even being considered in the Senate, as the president has said he wouldn’t touch ♎them.
“Well, the speaker has awesome powers, but if the president of the United States is against governance and doesn’t care whether people’s needs are met or that public employees are paid♈ or that we can have a legitimate discussion, then we have a problem,” Pelosi said. “And we can take it to the American people.”
While Pelosi talked about getting the public’s sentiment on Democrats’ side, the president continued to threaten calling the border security issue a national emergency, so he could get military funding to build a wall – completely going around Congress.
“ꦿI may decide a national emergency depending on what happens over the next few days,” Trump said at the White House Sunday morning.
His press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, confirmed on “Fox News Sunday” that declaring a nati🍒onal emergency was on the table.
“We’re looking and exploring every✱ option available that the president has,” Huckabee Sanders said.
During her conversation with Pauley, Pelosi talked about how important it w🍷as for Trump to treat Congress like an equal.
“What matters to me is that he recognized the Congress of the United States is the first branch of government, that we’re a co-equal branch of government and that we are, we represent the people,” Pelosi said. “And when we go to the table to speak to him that we’re respectful of the branch that he repre♓sents, the office of the president, and we want him to be res✨pectful of the branch of government we represent, co-equal.”
Pauley then aske🌜d Pelosi if Trump needed to be reminded of that.
“I don’t kno🅺w, we’ll see,” the new speaker said. “We shall see.”
“It isn’t so much about him, it’s about the office that he holds, the presidency of the United States,” Pelosi continued. “Sometimes, I think I res🅠pect the office🌱 he holds more than he does.”