President Donald Trump dismissed congressional Democrats’ demands ahead of a looming shutdown deadline in a Fox News interview Friday, casting doubt on whether a deal to keep the government open is even possible.
“There is something wrong with them,” Trump said about Democrats in a rare in-studio “Fox and Friends” interview. “If you gave them every dream right now … they want to give away money to this or that and destroy the country. If you gave them every dream, they would not vote for it.”
“Don’t even bother dealing with them,” he added. “We will get it through because the Republicans are sticking together for the first time in a long time.”
Lawmakers have until midnight on Sept. 30 to reach a funding deal. GOP congressional leaders are eyeing a “clean” stopgap that would keep current spending levels in place, with a few exceptions, until late November.
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said this week that Democrats will not vote for any such bill absent bipartisan negotiations. Both leaders have said that health care concessions, such as extending soon-to-expire insurance subsidies or restoring Medicaid cuts made in the GOP megabill, are essential to a deal.
Democrats have say in the matter because any funding deal will need 60 votes in the Senate, where the GOP has a 52-vote majority. But Trump on Friday suggested he was not aware of the mathematics.
“We have to get Republican votes. That’s all,” Trump claimed. Pressed about the 60-vote threshold, Trump responded: “No. We’re gonna do a — probably a continuing resolution, or we’re gonna do something. So we’re gonna do something,” he said.
“Here is the problem,” Trump quickly added, “the Democrats have: They’re sick. There is something wrong with them. Schumer is at end of the rope.”
Trump’s comments came after The Associated Press published an interview Friday with Schumer where he reiterated that Democrats would not support a clean GOP-led stopgap without securing health care wins.
The New York Democrat also said he was less reticent about sparking a shutdown now than he was in March, when he warned that a shutdown would only empower Trump to take more control of the federal bureaucracy.
Now, he said, “It will get worse with or without [a shutdown], because Trump is lawless.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s title.
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