President Donald Trump said his Homeland Security officials will “make a plea” for the border wall with Mexico during a briefing for congressional leaders Wednesday at the White House as the partial government shutdown over his demand for wall funding entered its 12th day.
Meanwhile, House Majority Leader-elect Nancy Pelosi had her own message.
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Pelosi will “cut your head off and you won’t even know you’re bleeding,” Alexandra Pelosi, the California Democrat’s daughter, told CNN in an interview Wednesday morning. “That’s all you need to know about her.”
As if we needed a more clear sign about who is unwilling to negotiate, now we have the House leader’s family threatening violence if Democrats don’t get their way?
“She’ll cut your head off and you won’t even know you’re bleeding,” filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi says about her mother, likely incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is set to meet with Pres. Trump and leaders at the White House over the shutdown. https://t.co/ukXtn1xYxI pic.twitter.com/MR7DHEOpeT
— New Day (@NewDay) January 2, 2019
The president made his case anew ahead of the afternoon session with Democratic and Republican leaders about the migrants arriving at the border in recent days. He said the border is “like a sieve” and noted the tear gas “flying” overnight to deter them. He called the border “very tough” at keeping immigrants out.
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“If they knew they couldn’t come through, they wouldn’t even start,” Trump said at a meeting joined by Cabinet secretaries and top advisers, including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
The Cabinet meeting was the president’s first public appearance of the new year as the shutdown dragged into its second week, shut down some parks and leaving hundreds of thousands of federal employees without pay.
So far, Democrats have refused to re-open government, refusing to include money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The president “wants an agreement that reopens the government AND keeps Americans safe,” the White House said on Twitter.
Trump contended the Democrats see the shutdown fight as “an election point” as he celebrated his own first two years in office. He promised “six more years of great success.”
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The partial government shutdown began on Dec. 22. Funding for the wall has been the sticking point in passing funding bills for several government departments.
The Wednesday afternoon briefing with the congressional leaders is taking place the day before Democrats are to assume control of the House and end the Republican monopoly on government.
The session will be held in the high-security Situation Room at the White House, which is typically used to handle sensitive information. The location means the conversation will not be televised, unlike the volatile sitdown during which Democratic leaders talked back to Trump last month.
The Associated Press contributed to this article