Trump says GOP united in shutdown fight, urges them to 'stick together'
by Susan Ferrechio
| January 09, 2019 03:01 PM
Stick together.
That was the message President Trump delivered to an increasingly anxious Senate GOP conference as a government shutdown extended into a third week.
Trump emerged from a hour-plus private meeting with Senate Republicans and told waiting reporters that Republicans are standing behind his refusal to sign government spending bills until the legislation includes billions in border wall funding.
“They are with us all the way,†Trump said. “The Republicans are totally unified.â€
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told reporters about the meeting, “One senator after another after another expressed unity.â€
But Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Trump’s message to the GOP was “stick together,†and while not every senator stood up to speak, he said, “I didn’t see anybody object to that.â€
A small group of GOP lawmakers want Trump to agree to sign the spending bills now, despite the lack of wall funding.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska., who is among them, said she told the president she supports “the need for border security in the country and what we need to do from a humanitarian perspective, but a recognition that when the government is shut down, there are consequences and people are starting to feel those consequences.â€
The partial closure has hobbled dozens of government agencies and will leave 800,000 federal employees without paycheckson Friday. In response to her statement, Murkowski said Trump “urged us to remain unified.â€
Rubio said senators delivered statements and didn’t ask questions.
Trump did not say he would build the wall using the national emergency powers of the presidency but that it remained an option, Rubio said.
Trump said he plans to first try to win support from Democrats for a wall by not giving in on the federal funding fight.
“The president is not going to blink, he says,†Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said. “And he shouldn’t.â€
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/trump-says-gop-united-in-shutdown-fight-urges-them-to-stick-together