On day one of the 2018 government shutdown, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) came out and claimed that he offered President Trump funding for his border wall in exchange for protection for so-called Dreamers via the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and he turned it down. Since then, the liberal media have been running around claiming that Trump was the reason an agreement couldn’t be reached. But during Sunday’s Meet the Press, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) chastised the media for buying the claim “hook, line, and sinker.”
The dust-up with NBC host Chuck Todd began after Cotton was explaining that the only real deal put forward to the President didn’t cover a wall and barely covered construction of new fences, mostly just repairs. “That's already changed. That's already changed. Chuck Schumer on Friday gave him full funding for the wall, 18 billion. Put it on the table. Done! That’s already changed,” snapped Todd.
Cotton shot back by asking if Todd was in the negotiating room, then explained the serious problem with Democrats and the media:
It’s hard for the President or for Senate Republicans to negotiate when the Democrats sitting across the table don't get what they want. They run out and they misrepresent what was a good faith effort to listen and to build trust, claim that some ridiculous deal was made and then claim that the President walked away from that deal and the media buys it hook, line, and sinker.
The media was quick to buy Schumer’s evidence-free claim without asking about how the Democratic position, which, for months, had been that a border wall was a “non-starter,” had suddenly turned into a capitulation. Especially after the party was touting that they had the votes to shutdown the government over DACA.
Todd continued by complaining that the President and Republicans still weren’t taking them up on the new public offer. “What I don't understand is: How do you not see it as progress now that Chuck Schumer even publicly is saying you get full funding for the wall,” he whined. “Louis Gutierrez publicly saying you get funding for the wall. How is that not done? Why is that not a done deal? They’ve already moved.”
“So Chuck, that's a good first step but the devil is always in the details on immigration,” Cotton reminded his host. “It's a very complicated area of law. Last week Senator Durbin and Senator Graham were saying you get funding for the wall. You don't get new funding, funding to repair existing and it's one year.” “That’s an old offer,” Todd argued, apparently still pushing Schumer’s new one.
Cotton reminded Todd once more that immigration negotiations had been filled with broken promises from lawmakers regarding what would be in a deal. “We've seen this time and time again in the immigration space, promises are made, and promises are not kept because we spend money on a year-to-year basis,” he stated.
Transcript below:
NBC
Meet the Press
January 21, 2018
10:46:44 AM Eastern(…)
TOM COTTON: On security, no-no border construction, only repair of existing construction.
CHUCK TODD: That's already changed. That's already changed. Chuck Schumer on Friday gave him full funding for the wall, 18 billion. Put it on the table. Done! That’s already changed.
COTTON: Were you in that meeting?
TODD: I mean… Do you…
COTTON: I wasn't in the meeting either.
TODD: Okay.
COTTON: It's hard for the President to negotiate -- it's hard for the President or for Senate Republicans to negotiate when the Democrats sitting across the table don't get what they want. They run out and they misrepresent what was a good faith effort to listen and to build trust, claim that some ridiculous deal was made and then claim that the President walked away from that deal and the media buys it hook, line, and sinker. The President and the Senate Republicans engaged on this issue have been consistent since September when the President ended President Obama's unlawful program. The problem we have is for four and a half months the Democrats have not been negotiating over these very real and very honest concerns.
TODD: What I don't understand is: How do you not see it as progress now that Chuck Schumer even publicly is saying you get full funding for the wall. Louis Gutierrez publicly saying you get funding for the wall. How is that not done? Why is that not a done deal? They’ve already moved. You’re the Democrats here and they say, “We've moved much farther.”
COTTON: So Chuck, that's a good first step but the devil is always in the details on immigration. It's a very complicated area of law. Last week Senator Durbin and Senator Graham were saying you get funding for the wall. You don't get new funding, funding to repair existing and it's one year.
TODD: That’s an old... That’s an old offer.
COTTON: We've seen this time and time again in the immigration space, promises are made, and promises are not kept because we spend money on a year-to-year basis. Second, you still have the problem of chain migration and of creating an entire new group of immigrants that is going to be able to bring millions of new immigrants to the country without regard to their skills or education level or ability to get a job and stand on their own two feet. We have to solve those two negative side effects of giving legal protections to the DACA population. That's the parameters of the deal we all agreed to a couple of Tuesdays ago at the White House.
(…)
