Mick Mulvaney, the incoming acting White House chief of staff, placed the blame for the continuing partial government shutdown on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Mulvaney made his comments Friday during an interview on TV’s “Fox & Friends.” He noted no progress has been made in ending the shutdown and getting funds to build a wall on the southern border.
Asked if there were any recent talks with the Democratic congressional leadership, Mulvaney said: “No, they left town.”
And he added: “Nancy Pelosi, in fairness, does not have the votes for speakership yet. She can not be seen by her party as being weak on negotiating with Donald Trump.
“We fully expect until she is elected speaker and has locked that vote up, we don’t expect to hear from the Democrats again.
“(Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer voted for border security in 2006. He voted for it again, I think, in 2011. It seems like Democrats really like border security when there is a Democrat in office and don’t like it when Donald Trump is in office.”
But Mulvaney said he believes Pelosi is the one standing in the way of any compromise.
“The more we're hearing, it is Nancy Pelosi preventing that from happening,” he said.
Meanwhile, Trump threatened on Friday to “close the southern border entirely” if he does not receive the funding necessary for the wall.
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