Democrats, Republicans Blame Trump Administration For Shutdown

Jan. 22--Democrats and Republicans have reached one agreement over the paralyzing budget impasse -- they both blame the White House.

As the federal government headed into day three of an avoidable shutdown, senators from both sides of the aisle pointed fingers at the Trump administration, saying its stubborn immigration demands threw the country into unnecessary chaos.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) scrapped a planned vote, saying late Sunday the next chance for passage of a funding bill would come at noon Monday, ensuring an unwanted day off for nonessential federal workers.

President Trump, who ran for office as a savvy dealmaker who could fix broken government, took no action on the crisis Sunday other than to tweet that the Senate should change its filibuster rules to let spending bills pass by a simple majority.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) criticized Trump's top aides, saying they undercut his ability to cut a decent deal.

Graham singled out White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, a hard-line conservative who has advocated a restrictive immigration policy. "As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we are going nowhere," Graham told reporters. "He's been an outlier for years."

Graham said a deal could have been reached if Trump could get the naysayers out of his ear.

"I've talked with the President -- his heart is right on this issue," Graham said. "He's got a good understanding of what will sell, and every time we have a proposal, it is only yanked back by staff members."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer placed the blame squarely on Trump, whom he accused of backing out on several deals to keep the government funded.

"He can't take yes for an answer," Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor. "That's why we're here." Calling it the "Trump Shutdown," he lambasted the President over not doing enough to strike a compromise.

Schumer said he was close to a deal with his fellow New Yorker on Friday, in which he'd back approving financing for a border wall in exchange for a vote on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. "The President picked a number for the wall," Schumer said. "I accepted it. It would be hard to imagine such a more reasonable compromise."

But McConnell took Schumer to task, saying he made a "political miscalculation of gargantuan proportions."

Senate leaders scheduled a vote for noon Monday on a continuing resolution that would fund the government while the two sides continue negotiations on a budget deal. The shutdown is the federal government's first since 2013.

"The shutdown should stop today," McConnell said Sunday night. "And we'll soon have a vote that will allow us to do exactly that. So let's step back from the brink. Let's stop victimizing the American people and get back to work on their behalf."

All sides have been negotiating in the shadow of Trump's "shithole countries" comments -- about taking in immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and several African nations -- which torpedoed immigration talks with Congress on Jan. 11.

Trump, meanwhile, blamed Democrats for the shutdown because they supported fixing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects about 800,000 undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children from being deported.

Trump ordered the existing version of the program to be shut down in March.

"Great to see how hard Republicans are fighting for our Military and Safety at the Border. The Dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unchecked. If stalemate continues, Republicans should go to 51% (Nuclear Option) and vote on real, long term budget, no C.R.'s!" Trump tweeted Sunday, rejecting any continuing resolution to keep the government open.

That so-called nuclear option would require a simple 51-vote majority instead of the 60 necessary to end a filibuster. Members of both parties panned the move as a nonstarter.

"The Republican Conference opposes changing the rules on legislation," a McConnell spokesman said in a statement to the Daily News.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) argued the nuclear option would destroy the upper chamber, taking key leverage away from the minority party.

"I can tell you that would be the end of the Senate as it was originally devised and created going back to our Founding Fathers," he said Sunday on ABC News' "This Week."

One suggested option to reopen the government is to fund it through the start of February, with a promise to vote on DACA before then.

Gov. Cuomo said Democrats would be "crazy" to give in to Trump on the wall.

"The wall was always just his symbol of being anti-immigration, and we are the exact opposite here in New York," Cuomo told NY1. "Our symbol is the Statue of Liberty."

With ERIN DURKIN

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