Trump holds disastrous photo op with Schumer, Pelosi, threatens shutdown
Donald Trump’s scheduled meeting with incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer was, predictably, used as a pretext for another video photo-op.
It did not go well for the former reality TV sho host, who appeared to be looking for a quarrel. He got it — and it looks to have blown up in his face.
Trump: “If we don’t get what we want…I am proud to shut down the government… I’m not going to blame you for it.” We presume that Trump’s “we” is a reference to his shrinking base of xenophobic deplorables.
Schumer is trying so hard not to laugh because this is the sound byte he wanted. Lmao. GOP talking points are smoked for the rest of the year. pic.twitter.com/CR92NTgJTu
— That Blame Guy (@ImToBlame) December 11, 2018
The biggest takeaway is that Schumer maneuvered Trump into a petulant threat of a government shutdown. Trump looked and sounded like a middle schooler triggered by an inability to simply get his way. Pelosi and Schumer, for their part, played bad cop/good cop, with Pelosi reiterating the reality of an incoming House majority that will not be amenable to Trump’s border wall bluster as Schumer floated discussion and compromise to prevent a shutdown.
Nancy Pelosi never raised her voice. She spoke to Trump like you speak to a child with poor impulse control and behavioral problems. Nancy made Trump admit he didn’t have the votes for the wall funding. Schumer made him admit he that he would shut down the government.
— Elaine Taylor (@JessesLaw) December 11, 2018
Pelosi and Schumer spoke to reporters after the meeting, decrying a possible “Trump shutdown” which, they reiterated, Americans do not want. Schumer: “A shutdown hurts too many innocent people and this ‘Trump shutdown’, this temper tantrum that he seems to throw will not get him his wall and it’ll hurt a lot of people”