The White House on Sunday accused Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of suffering from a “hazy” memory after he blamed President Trump for passing up a deal to fund a border wall and avert the current government shutdown.
“Senator Schumer’s memory is hazy because his account of Friday’s meeting is false,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
The haggling between Mr. Trump and Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, have become a focus of the blame game during the second day of the government shutdown.
“The president’s position is clear: We will not negotiate on the status of unlawful immigrants while Senator Schumer and the Democrats hold the government for millions of Americans and our troops hostage,” said Mrs. Sanders.
Earlier, Mr. Schumer said on the Senate floor that he had offered Mr. Trump a “very generous offer” to fund the border wall in exchange for granting permanent amnesty to so-called “Dreamers,” illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.
“The president picked a number for the wall, and I accepted it. It wasn’t my number. It wasn’t the number in the bill here. He picked it,” said Mr. Schumer. “But only hours after he seemed very open, very eager about that generous, tentative agreement — it was only tentative, there were no handshakes — he backed away from the last, best chance to avoid a shutdown.”
Mr. Schumer has insisted the president caused the shutdown by failing to strike a deal with Democrats.
A filibuster led by Senate Democrats killed a stopgap spending bill that would have funded the government for four weeks and extended the life of the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years, which triggered the shutdown Saturday.
Mrs. Sanders said the president and his team were addressing the crisis.
“We are continuing to work hard towards reopening the government and making sure our great military and their families, vulnerable children and the American people are being taken care of,” she said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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