Mark Meadows: Let’s Stay in Congress Past Christmas to Get Wall Funding

House Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) told reporters on Monday that he remains willing to stay past Christmas to get President Donald Trump’s requested $5 billion in border wall funding.

Meadows told reporters that he does not think Democrats will give into Trump’s demands to give him his requested $5 billion in wall funding.

Meadows said he is “not very optimistic that Democrats are going to yield in providing $5billion in Wall funding.”

Trump has threatened to shut down the government if Congress does not give him his requested five billion dollars in wall funding in the December spending bill; if the government does not pass a spending bill before December 21, the government will partially shut down.

The North Carolina conservative also opposed a potential short-term spending bill that punts the wall funding fight to January, when Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will likely become the new speaker of the House.

“What makes January any better than December 21st? I’m willing to stay here through Christmas to get it done right on behalf of the American people,” Meadows said. “And we continue to punt. This is not to anybody’s surprise.”

Meadows continued, suggesting that if the government does shut down after December 21, he does not “think it would open back up until those discussions happen in earnest on a bipartisan basis” when Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives.

Meadows’ contention mirrored President Trump’s recent thinking, which, according to a Bloomberg report, suggested that Trump will likely not support a one-week- or two-week stop-gap spending bill to avert a partial government shutdown.

President Trump tweeted Monday that America can save billions of dollars every year with a wall along the U.S. border.

“Anytime you hear a Democrat saying that you can have good Border Security without a Wall, write them off as just another politician following the party line,” Trump wrote. “Time for us to save billions of dollars a year and have, at the same time, far greater safety and control!”