After almost three weeks into a government shutdown, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is wondering what President Donald Trump is doing to end the standoff.
Calling out the president for his passive approach during a Monday press briefing, The Hill reported Jeffries said, “Donald Trump definitively needs to get involved. He needs to get off the sidelines, get off the golf course, and actually decide to end this shutdown that he’s created.”
Though the president met with top Democrats and leaders of the GOP to hash out a compromise during closed door meetings two days before the shutdown started, he’s avoided talks with either party since the federal government’s budget expired on Oct. 1.
Democrats refuse to vote for the spending bill without concessions, namely an extension on Affordable Care Act subsidies, while top brass within the GOP say they won’t negotiate until stopgap legislation is passed to get the government going again.
Jeffries said Trump’s decision to stay out of the fray was strategic, telling the reporters, “We know that House and Senate Republicans don’t do anything without permission from their boss, Donald J. Trump.”
“And the reason why there have been no negotiations ― zero negotiations since Republicans shut the government down ― is because Donald Trump clearly wants the government shut down,” he added. “He wants to inflict pain on the American people.”
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“And this will not change until Donald Trump gives Republicans permission to sit down with Democrats.”
