Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Thursday called Democrats’ “agreements” with President Donald Trump “productive” and a “very positive step” toward protecting DACA recipients.
Outlining the conversation he had with the President and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Wednesday evening, he said the White House and Congress still need to work out the details, or “put meat on the bones,” of the agreement.
“We agreed that the President would support enshrining the DACA protections into law,” Schumer said, speaking from the Senate floor. “What remains to be negotiated are the details of border security with the mutual goal of finalizing all the details as soon as possible. While both sides agreed that the wall would not be any part of this agreement, the President made clear he intends to pursue it at a later time and we made clear that we would continue to oppose it.”
Trump corroborated Schumer’s statements Thursday morning before heading to Florida to assess Hurricane Irma damage, saying the parties are “working on a plan for DACA” and that the border wall would come “later.”
Schumer said Democrats are “for border security” but not the wall.
“We’ll never pay for the wall. It’s expensive, it’s ineffective, it involves a lot of difficult eminent domain, taking people’s property and apparently it’s not being paid for by Mexico,” he said. “ It sends a terrible symbol to the world about the U.S., about who we are, about what kind of country we are.”
He called the wall a “medieval solution to a modern problem” and said the two Democrats spoke with the President about different solutions that could incorporate “our best technology,” like drones, military sensory equipment and even rebuilding roads.
“There is still much to be done. We have to put to the meat on the bones of the agreement. Details will matter, but it was a very, very positive step for the President to commit to DACA protections without insisting on or even a debate about border walls,” Schumer said.
His comments come after there were conflicting reports about what kind of agreement the Democrats made with the President Wednesday evening.
Pelosi and Schumer put out a statement Wednesday saying they had come to a deal on DACA legislation and that funding for the border wall wouldn’t be included. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later said Trump didn’t agree to no funding for the wall.
Trump confirmed that he didn’t demand funding for the wall, both on Twitter and in speaking to reporters Thursday. Many prominent members of Trump’s base have spoken out against the President over the decision.
As long as it “bones” Donnie’s base, I’m good with it…
Just keep a careful eye on what gets thrown into the stew while you aren’t looking, chef Schumer.
The revelations by the co-author of “The Art of the Deal” are being proven true on a daily basis.
Structurally Unsound
Quite apart from Trump’s inability to keep the thread of any thought or intention long enough to deliver on any deal, this supposed deal never made any structural sense.
Trump could decide to just leave DACA in place. It’s an Executive Order, not a statute, therefore whether it continues or is rescinded is (almost) entirely at his discretion. He doesn’t need D votes to take either action, therefore Pelosi and Schumer can’t help him do it, and aren’t needed to help him do it.
Maybe you could still have some deal between the Congressional Ds and Trump whereby he lets DACA survive, and they give him something else in return, something apart from legislation. But everything I’ve seen written about this “deal” says that it was an agreement to seek a legislative solution. And the only thing the Ds are mentioned as agreeing to is greater funding for “border security”, as long as that doesn’t involve a wall. But the Ds are already for greater “border security”. That’s been one half of our messaging on the undocumented for decades. We’re for “increased border security” and “a pathway to citizenship”, and nothing an iota less nebulous. There’s zero concession for Ds to support more funding for “border security”.
Not that Trump and Congressional Ds can’t make any sort of deal anyway that means anything about any legislation, unless Trump is negotiating on behalf of the R Congressional leadership. Only that R leadership can allow any sort of legislation to come to the floor to be voted on. Any talk of a legislative fix covering the same ground as DACA that did not include the R Congressional leadership was just fantasy league baseball. Trump can’t bring legislation to the floor of either chamber, nor can the D Congressional leadership. The R leadership has to be on board and at the center of any deals that involve legislation.
People may be a bit disoriented by the event that was presented as a “deal” with Ds that Trump sprang on the R Congressional leadership whereby hurricane assistance and a raise in the debt ceiling would be passed as a package deal. But whether or not the R leadership really was as surprised as it seemed, this was an outcome they wanted anyway. They were undoubtedly quite happy to let Trump and the Ds take all the credit for this deal, because a clean raise, or a raise linked only to something they wanted passed anyway — hurricane relief — is something they dearly wished they could get but were afraid to embrace too openly for fear of their party’s complete idiots.
The R leadership was a silent partner to that debt-ceiling/hurricane “deal", but there can be no mistake that the swift passage of this deal clearly means that they dearly wanted this outcome, and managed to get there without taking the heat for it from their crazies. It is equally clear from the fact that this same leadership has not already got a legislative DACA fix on the floor to let Ds and their party’s non-crazies pass easily, that the leadership does not clearly want this outcome. Without them, there’s no deal that is structurally sound, or has any practical effect.
Trump v. Sessions has been an interesting battle, probably the strangest of them all in this Administration.