While Donald Trump’s “Pocahontas” slur at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) continues to draw ire, the president finds himself facing yet another problem. On Tuesday morning, he targeted “Chuck and Nancy” ahead of a previously scheduled White House meeting in a lengthy post. “Problem is they want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE Taxes,” he said of Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Senate and House minority leaders. “I don’t see a deal!” The pair took notice and decided to pull out of the meeting.
Meeting with “Chuck and Nancy” today about keeping government open and working. Problem is they want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE Taxes. I don’t see a deal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2017
In a joint statement released a few hours after Trump’s tweet, the pair declared, “If the President… isn’t interested in addressing the difficult year-end agenda, we’ll work with those Republicans who are”:
“Given that the President doesn’t see a deal between Democrats and the White House, we believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our Republican counterparts in Congress instead. Rather than going to the White House for a show meeting that won’t result in an agreement, we’ve asked Leader McConnell and Speaker Ryan to meet this afternoon. We don’t have any time to waste in addressing the issues that confront us, so we’re going to continue to negotiate with Republican leaders who may be interested in reaching a bipartisan agreement.”
“We look forward to continuing to work in good faith, as we have been for the last month, with our Republican colleagues in Congress to do just that,” Pelosi and Schumer concluded in their response to Trump’s insulting tweet. Senate Democratic leaders are scheduled to brief the press at 2:30 pm ET, during which Schumer is expected to shed light on he and Pelosi’s decision. As for the president himself, as of this writing, he has yet to respond on Twitter… so far.
UPDATE: While Trump himself has remained uncharacteristically quite regarding Schumer and Pelosi’s announcement, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders has not. In a statement to the press, she advised “Democrat leaders… to put aside their pettiness, stop the political grandstanding, show up and get to work.”
Statement from @PressSec tells Pelosi and Schumer to put aside their pettiness:
“The president’s invitation to the Democrat leaders still stands and he encourages them to put aside their pettiness, stop the political grandstanding, show up and get to work.”
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 28, 2017