Pelosi on negotiations with Trump: ‘Nothing for the wall’

Likely next House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reaffirmed that Democrats will not give in to President Trump’s demand for $5 billion for a border wall as part of any legislation to end a partial government shutdown. 

“Nothing for the wall,” she said in an interview for NBC’s “Today” show set to air Thursday morning.

“Are you willing to come up and give him some of this money for the wall?” –@SavannahGuthrie
“No.” –@NancyPelosi
“Because apparently that’s the sticking point.” -Guthrie
“No, no. Nothing for the wall.” -Pelosi

Full exclusive interview tomorrow on TODAY pic.twitter.com/6zHKXJjPbb

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 2, 2019

{mosads}Democrats, who will officially take the House majority on Thursday, have repeatedly said they will not include any funding for a border wall as part of a spending bill to end the shutdown, which entered its 12th day Wednesday.

Pelosi and other congressional leaders huddled with the president at the White House Wednesday for an ultimately fruitless negotiation to try to bridge the differences between the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

However, Trump has shown no signs of letting up on his desire to attain funding for his signature campaign promise, saying at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, “The United States needs a physical barrier. It needs a wall,” adding that parts of the government will remain closed for “as long as it takes.”

Democrats plan to vote on legislation Thursday that would end the shutdown, but without border wall money. 

“We are asking the president to open up the government,” Pelosi said outside the White House following Wednesday’s meeting. “We are giving him a Republican path to do that. Why would he not do it?” 

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has already said the bill is a “non-starter,” and Trump invited congressional leaders to return to the White House on Friday to continue negotiations.

The White House last week proposed roughly $2.1 billion in wall funding plus hundreds of millions more for general border security, but Democratic leaders did not respond to the proposal. However, Trump said Wednesday he would reject that amount regardless of what Democrats decide, sticking to his demand for $5 billion.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he would not bring any spending bill to the floor that Trump himself has not publicly endorsed. Congressional Republicans have become increasingly wary of voting on any stopgap legislation after Trump signaled last month he would sign a Senate-passed bill that did not include border funding, only to say he would not sign it after facing backlash from conservative allies in the media and on Capitol Hill.

The shutdown has resulted in the furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal employees and the shuttering of several government agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture, Treasury, Commerce, Justice, Interior and State, among others.