Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said both Democrats and some Republicans “recognize” they cannot negotiate with President Donald Trump about immigration until the government is reopened because that would be rewarding “hostage taking.”
Warner said, “Let me first of all step back and say let’s make sure we all know what’s at stake here. We have 800,000 workers that are either working or furloughed, not getting paid. We have hundreds of thousands of, we think about the Smithsonian here, all the folks who clean the toilets and serve the food aren’t getting paid.”
He added, “I would start with opening the government. We try to have some discussions. At least getting them paid would make some sense. Let me make clear that what the president proposed yesterday, increasing border security, looking at TPS, looking at the DREAMers, I’ll use that as a starting point, but you’ve got to start by opening the government. What we cannot do—and I’ve had Republicans as well recognize this—is that we cannot reward the kind of behavior of hostage taking. If the president can arbitrarily shut down the government now, he’ll do it time and again.”
(h/t Grabien)
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