Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said one could not rule out a shutdown this week.
Mulvaney said, “Let’s talk first about how close we are to the deal. I honestly don’t know because it depends on who you listen to. And in fact, I think what we’re seeing now in these negotiations, again, the White House at the request of all the parties on the Hill sort of stepped back. We’re still participating, still listening and we’re still talking but not leading the negotiations. We are sitting there and watching what’s happening. What we hear is just as varied as what you played out. Sort of depends on who you talk to. I heard there may be a deal as with as much as 1.2 or $2.5 billion for a border fence. Then I hear that there may be zero or as little as $800 million for the border fence. One Democrat who wants to not only reduce the spending in year but go back and take money away from previous years that hasn’t been spent year. So it’s all over the map and I think it’s all over the map because of the Democrats and all over the map.”
Host Chuck Todd asked, “We cannot definitively rule out a government shutdown at the end of the week?”
Mulvaney said, “You absolutely cannot and here’s why; let’s say the Democrats prevail and the hard core left wing Democrats prevail. It was a Democrat congresswoman who put out a tweet yesterday about $0 for DHS. So let’s say that the hard core left wing of the Democrat party prevail ins in this negotiation and it’s a low number for the wall, he can’t sign that.”
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