Sanders On Trump Siding With Dems: ‘Bipartisan’ Efforts Will ‘Continue’

After President Donald Trump shocked his own party and sided with Democrats on their proposal to increase the debt ceiling for just three months, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday she thinks the President will continue to reach across the aisle if that’s what it takes to make a “deal.”

“I think that the most important thing is that the deal got done. The President acted on it. And he worked with Democrats to get it done and I think he’s going to continue to work with whoever is interested in moving the ball forward to help the American people,” Sanders said at a White House press briefing. 

“I think the biggest message is that we’re a lot less focused on what makes Congress happy and what makes Americans better and stronger, and that was the decision that the President made that this was something that was important to get done and he was willing to work with Democrats to make sure it happened,” she said. 

Her remarks come after many Congressional Republicans expressed frustration with Trump for choosing the Democrat’s plan instead of siding with his party, which wanted at least a six month debt ceiling increase.

The debt limit increase was tied to a $15.3 billion Hurricane Harvey relief package, which passed both the House and Senate, with about 90 Republican voting against the measure in the House and 17 against it in the Senate.

Some Republicans, like Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), said they weren’t concerned with the President’s decision to side with Democrats because they think it’s a one-time thing. Meadows told MSNBC Friday that Trump’s move was a “one-off,” not a “trend,” because the President felt he needed to do something to get the hurricane relief funding in place.

But Sanders told reporters Friday that the President will continue to “have bipartisan efforts.”

“That was something that the President talked about during the campaign, and certainly something that I think the American people expect and one of the reasons they voted for him, and I certainly would expect to continue to see that,” she said. “This is a government that is always going to pay its debts and wants to make sure that our bills get paid and that we can support the needs that we have (in) our country, like we’re having to do right now in a time of disaster relief efforts and so that’s certainly a priority moving forward.”