Trump warns off critics of shutdown deal: 'Be careful Nancy!'
by Daniel Chaitin
| January 20, 2019 09:03 AM
President Trump on Sunday took jabs at Democrats and sought to reassure allies who decried his deal to end the partial government shutdown.
In a Sunday morning tweet storm, the president repeatedly name-checked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who rejected his offer even before he pitched it in a televised address.
"Nancy Pelosi and some of the Democrats turned down my offer yesterday before I even got up to speak," Trump said in one tweet. "They don’t see crime & drugs, they only see 2020 - which they are not going to win. Best economy! They should do the right thing for the Country & allow people to go back to work."
The deal Trump pitched Saturday afternoon included extensions of protections for recipients of the Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programs in return for $5.7 billion for an additional barrier at the southern border.
Pelosi beat Trump to the punch, as details of his pitch came to light, putting out a statement saying his plan was a "non-starter." She said the plan was “a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people’s lives," particularly lamenting how the proposal does not achieve what Democrats have long sought for the "Dreamers," which is a pathway to citizenship or permanent legal status.
While Pelosi said the deal didn't go far enough, some of Trump's biggest supporters decried the president's attempt at compromise. For instance, conservative author and pundit Ann Coulter tweeted, "Trump proposes amnesty. We voted for Trump and got Jeb!"
Apparently aware of the criticism from the Right, Trump argued Sunday that "amnesty" had nothing to do with his offer.
"No, Amnesty is not a part of my offer," he said in another tweet. "It is a 3 year extension of DACA. Amnesty will be used only on a much bigger deal, whether on immigration or something else. Likewise there will be no big push to remove the 11,000,000 plus people who are here illegally-but be careful Nancy!"
Trump also took a shot at the speaker over her push to postpone the State of the Union address due to security concerns from a government shutdown. In what was widely viewed as a "tit-for-tat" maneuver, Trump then denied Pelosi and fellow Democrats a flight to Afghanistan, effectively canceling their trip.
"Nancy, I am still thinking about the State of the Union speech, there are so many options - including doing it as per your written offer (made during the Shutdown, security is no problem), and my written acceptance," Trump said. "While a contract is a contract, I’ll get back to you soon!"
Addressing the other extreme of the political spectrum, Trump claimed Pelosi is being unreasonable because she is "petrified" of her allies on the Left.
"Nancy Pelosi has behaved so irrationally & has gone so far to the left that she has now officially become a Radical Democrat," he said. "She is so petrified of the “lefties†in her party that she has lost control...And by the way, clean up the streets in San Francisco, they are disgusting!"
The partial government shutdown, which has left 800,000 federal workers without pay, is now in its 30th day. While there is some overlap in border security ideas in Trump's and the Democrats' funding solutions, Pelosi and her allies refuse to consider the president's demand for billions of dollars for a border wall until the government is reopened.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-warns-off-critics-of-shutdown-deal-be-careful-nancy
