Tim Kaine says Donald Trump ‘lying’ or ‘delusional’ in claiming Democrats blocked DACA fix

Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine said Sunday President Trump was untruthful when he said Democrats blocked a DACA fix when he signed the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending package.

The president signed the bill on Friday, telling DACA recipients it’s Republicans who are on their side, not Democrats.

“He is either lying or he is completely delusional,” Mr. Kaine said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

Mr. Kaine said a Democratic president enacted the DACA program, officially known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals which protects children who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents, but it’s a Republican president, Mr. Trump, who is rescinding the program.

“President Trump opposes Dreamers or he could protect them with a stroke of the pen in the next five minutes if he wanted to,” Mr. Kaine said.

House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said she will continue to ask Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, to protect the Dreamers.

“We are disappointed that we did not reach agreement on Dreamer protections that were worthy of these patriotic young people,” she said in a statement last week.

In January, Democrats insisted on a DACA fix in exchange for funding the government, which resulted in a brief government shutdown over a weekend. But when lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill the next week, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, eventually backed down.

Mr. Trump, though, capitalized on the absence of a DACA deal on Friday when he signed the massive spending package.

“The Republicans are with you, they want to get your situation taken care of,” Mr. Trump said. “The Democrats fought us, they just fought every single inch of the way. They did not want DACA in this bill.”