A junior Democratic senator said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's word cannot be trusted when it comes to the showdown over border security as lawmakers work to end the government shutdown.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, was on CNN and put the ball in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's, R-Ky., court.
"We can end the shutdown right now if Mitch McConnell brings the House-passed bills to the floor because those represent a compromise already, bills that the Senate already passed last year," Hirono said. "So, we could end the shutdown right now if Mitch McConnell would do the job as the leader of an independent branch of government, pass those bills, and end this shutdown.
"It is Mitch McConnell who I'm looking to because the president is so locked into his position. And as I said, he's a hostage taker. He's taken over 800,000 people hostage. His word is not good because he was supposed to be OK-ing the don't-shut-the-government-down bills that the Senate passed and which we thought the House was gonna pass. And at the last minute, watching Fox News apparently — I don't know who's running this country — but all of a sudden, he changed his mind."
Hirono added she has a term to describe Trump and what some claim is his penchant for changing what he wants.
"I call it the Tuesday-Thursday Trump," she said. "On Tuesday, he'll tell you everything that's great, and by Thursday it's all off the table."
The shutdown is well into its third week and began after lawmakers could not agree on funding the border wall Trump has promised since he announced his candidacy for president. The sides remain at a stalemate.
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