Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., walks to his office at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Monday. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., walks to his office at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Monday. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Schumer has rescinded offer to Trump on border wall funding

The top Democrat is facing strong criticism within his ranks and from liberal organizations.

  • Ed O’Keefe and Sean Sullivan The Washington Post
  • Tuesday, January 23, 2018 12:09pm
  • Nation-World

By Ed O’Keefe and Sean Sullivan / The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The Senate’s top Democrat has withdrawn an offer that would allow President Donald Trump to fulfill a signature campaign pledge: Construction of a wall along the U.S-Mexico border.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., took back his offer late Sunday through an aide, according to a person familiar with the situation, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about ongoing talks.

The decision to withdraw the offer to negotiate over the construction of a border wall comes as Schumer is facing strong criticism within his ranks and from liberal organizations angered that he didn’t push harder for an immigration deal as part of an agreement to reopen the federal government.

By signaling a willingness to pay for construction of a border wall, Schumer was offering to help Trump fulfill a cornerstone campaign pledge – after little consultation with most Democrats.

Schumer and Trump met at the White House last Friday and dined on cheeseburgers with senior aides as they tried reaching an 11th-hour deal to avert a government shutdown. They were unable to hammer out an accord, sparking a three-day partial government shutdown that ended Monday evening.

On Tuesday, two Republican senators, John Cornyn, R-Texas, and David Perdue, R-Ga., revealed that Trump and Schumer discussed a $25 billion package to pay for security measures along the southern border. That sum is far larger than the $18 billion the Trump administration told lawmakers this month that it would need to build out fencing and wall along the border over the next decade.

During the discussion, Trump and Schumer agreed that most of the $25 billion would be appropriated at the start, with other amounts doled out in future years, according to a person familiar with the meeting, granted anonymity to speak frankly about the exchange.

Aides to Schumer did not return requests for comment.

Over the weekend, Schumer described the meeting several times in public remarks, saying that Trump “picked a number for the wall, and I accepted it.” At other points Schumer said he “reluctantly” agreed to discuss constructing a wall — but never revealed the sum.

Aides to Trump have disputed details of the meeting.

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said, “Once Schumer started talking about the president backing away from the deal that never existed, he said he offered the president everything on the wall and the military. That just wasn’t true…The president knew Schumer was mistreating him.”

“It is great to be on a winning side of a shutdown debate,” Mulvaney said in an interview with The Post on Monday. “I can tell you right now from first hand experience, Chuck Schumer is in a tough spot.”

Matt House, top spokesman for Schumer, said, “Director Mulvaney once again isn’t telling the truth. Senator Schumer offered the president everything he asked for on the border and more than he asked for on defense.”

In exchange, Schumer has been seeking Trump’s support to legalize the status of young undocumented immigrants whose futures have been cast into doubt by the president’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on March 5.

Schumer and most Democrats voted Monday to end the three-day government shutdown after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that he intends to bring up a bill addressing DACA and other immigration matters in February.

Perdue, who did not attend the White House meeting on Friday, but said he has learned details about it, said that the agreement over $25 billion is an encouraging sign.

“The question is now, is how do you wrap the rest of this around the deal, and that’s where we are, and I’m very hopeful that we’ll get this done,” he said.

Cornyn dismissed the focus on paying for border wall, saying that Democrats “are obsessed with that topic. But it is clearly part of a system of border security infrastructure that everybody agreed is needed.”

He called Schumer’s decision to withdraw acceptance of the $25 billion sum “a step backward. If he wants a solution, that’s a step backward.”

Even if Trump pressed for tens of billions of dollars in border wall funds, senior members of his administration have told lawmakers that they believe such construction is unnecessary.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week that “A concrete wall from sea to shining sea” would not be built, according to attendees. Instead, “a physical barrier in many places” is what the administration is requesting. Kelly used the term “physical barrier” several times during the meeting, attendees said.

Instead of a wall along the entire span, “we need 700 more miles of barrier,” Kelly said – a concession that a physical barrier does not need to stretch the entire length of the border.

Kelly also said that there will be no wall “that Mexico will pay for.” Trump vowed as a presidential candidate to force Mexico to pay for construction of the wall.

Some Democrats on Tuesday said they would reluctantly agree to Trump’s security demands if it means protecting young immigrant “dreamers” from being deported once DACA expires.

“Anything you put up you can take it down. But you can’t bring back kids that have been deported,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., a vocal opponent of Trump’s immigration stance. He added that he’s willing to go along with more money for border protection since it likely will be held up by litigation anyway.

During the private meeting with Hispanic lawmakers, “Even Kelly admitted there will be lawsuits,” Gutierrez said. “In my mind, it’d be pretty difficult to build, so why don’t I go and support it and get the dreamers and put them in a safe place?”

Far from Washington, opposition to a border wall remains strong, as does fear that policymakers will permit the construction of more physical barriers between the two countries.

“A border wall is not the answer to the immigration issue, as it adversely impacts border communities and drives migrants to more remote areas of the desert, possibly to their deaths,” Mark J. Seitz, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso said on Tuesday. “Perhaps this is not a big deal to folks in Washington, but it is on the border, which is still part of the United States.”

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Nation-World

FILE - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II looks on during a visit to officially open the new building at Thames Hospice, Maidenhead, England July 15, 2022. Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II is under medical supervision as doctors are “concerned for Her Majesty’s health.” The announcement comes a day after the 96-year-old monarch canceled a meeting of her Privy Council and was told to rest. (Kirsty O'Connor/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Queen Elizabeth II dead at 96 after 70 years on the throne

Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century died Thursday.

A woman reacts as she prepares to leave an area for relatives of the passengers aboard China Eastern's flight MU5735 at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Tuesday, March 22, 2022, in Guangzhou. No survivors have been found as rescuers on Tuesday searched the scattered wreckage of a China Eastern plane carrying 132 people that crashed a day earlier on a wooded mountainside in China's worst air disaster in more than a decade. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
No survivors found in crash of Boeing 737 in China

What caused the plane to drop out of the sky shortly before it was to being its descent remained a mystery.

In this photo taken by mobile phone released by Xinhua News Agency, a piece of wreckage of the China Eastern's flight MU5735 are seen after it crashed on the mountain in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday, March 21, 2022. A China Eastern Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board crashed in a remote mountainous area of southern China on Monday, officials said, setting off a forest fire visible from space in the country's worst air disaster in nearly a decade. (Xinhua via AP)
Boeing 737 crashes in southern China with 132 aboard

More than 15 hours after communication was lost with the plane, there was still no word of survivors.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. Street fighting broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city Sunday and Russian troops put increasing pressure on strategic ports in the country's south following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere that appeared to mark a new phase of Russia's invasion. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
Ukraine wants EU membership, but accession often takes years

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request has enthusiastic support from several member states.

FILE - Ukrainian servicemen walk by fragments of a downed aircraft,  in in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. The International Criminal Court's prosecutor has put combatants and their commanders on notice that he is monitoring Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has jurisdiction to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity. But, at the same time, Prosecutor Karim Khan acknowledges that he cannot investigate the crime of aggression. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak, File)
ICC prosecutor to open probe into war crimes in Ukraine

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet confirmed that 102 civilians have been killed.

FILE - Refugees fleeing conflict from neighboring Ukraine arrive to Zahony, Hungary, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. As hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians seek refuge in neighboring countries, cradling children in one arm and clutching belongings in the other, leaders in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania are offering a hearty welcome. (AP Photo/Anna Szilagyi, File)
Europe welcomes Ukrainian refugees — others, less so

It is a stark difference from treatment given to migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

Afghan evacuees disembark the plane and board a bus after landing at Skopje International Airport, North Macedonia, on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. North Macedonia has hosted another group of 44 Afghan evacuees on Wednesday where they will be sheltered temporarily till their transfer to final destinations. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
‘They are safe here.’ Snohomish County welcomes hundreds of Afghans

The county’s welcoming center has been a hub of services and assistance for migrants fleeing Afghanistan since October.

FILE - In this April 15, 2019, file photo, a vendor makes change for a marijuana customer at a cannabis marketplace in Los Angeles. An unwelcome trend is emerging in California, as the nation's most populous state enters its fifth year of broad legal marijuana sales. Industry experts say a growing number of license holders are secretly operating in the illegal market — working both sides of the economy to make ends meet. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
In California pot market, a hazy line between legal and not

Industry insiders say the practice of working simultaneously in the legal and illicit markets is a financial reality.

19 dead, including 9 children, in NYC apartment fire

More than five dozen people were injured and 13 people were still in critical condition in the hospital.

15 dead after Russian skydiver plane crashes

The L-410, a Czech-made twin-engine turboprop, crashed near the town of Menzelinsk.

FILE - In this March 29, 2018, file photo, the logo for Facebook appears on screens at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York's Times Square. Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and rabble rousing after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 elections in a moneymaking move that a company whistleblower alleges contributed to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, invasion of the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram in hourslong worldwide outage

Something made the social media giant’s routes inaccessable to the rest of the internet.

Oil washed up on Huntington Beach, Calif., on Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Crews race to limited damage from California oil spill

At least 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of oil spilled into the waters off Orange County.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.