White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave little direction to the Congress Tuesday on what the White House wants to come out of negotiations to fund the government, just hours after she indicated that, contrary to his threats, President Donald Trump might not shut down the government over his demands for border wall funding.
Asked at a press briefing Tuesday what the White House’s current demands for border wall funding are, Sanders provided little detail: “We’re disappointed in the fact that [the Senate has] yet to actually vote on something and pass something. When they do that, we’ll make a determination on whether or not we’re going to sign that.”
Sanders on Trump's demands for border wall funding: "We wanna see what the Senate can pass." pic.twitter.com/W39FwW5vAf
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 18, 2018
On the other hand, Sanders said, Trump has asked agencies to “look for funding that can be used to protect our borders,” though she later acknowledged it wasn’t at all clear what legal authority the administration had to use agency funds for a wall.
“I would use attorneys that work here at the White House and in agencies that— that’s their entire job, is determining whether or not something is legal, and we’re looking to those individuals to find out those specific pots of money that can be used for that,” she said.
She also wouldn’t say whether, if the agencies could find wall money in their existing budgets, that would mean Trump would stop demanding the money from Congress: “We wanna see what the Senate can pass,” she said.
Separately, Sanders tried to defend Trump’s bizarre assertion that his proposed changes to NAFTA — the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Congress must still approve — would mean that Mexico, technically, would pay for the wall “just by the money we save,” in the words of a Trump tweet.
The trade deal, she said, “would provide additional revenue through that deal that would show that Mexico is paying for the wall.”
But trade benefits go to private citizens, a reporter objected, not the U.S. Treasury.
“He’s talking about the general revenue that comes from that,” Sanders responded.
So a tax? the reporter asked.
“No, we’re not taxing,” Sanders said. “We’re talking about additional revenue that wouldn’t have existed without the President getting a new deal.”
She added, cryptically: “There have a been a number of things that we’ve looked at in which we know will have additional revenue that comes in through the USMCA.”
Sanders claims USMCA will pay for border wall: "We’re not taxing, we’re talking about additional revenue that wouldn’t have existed … There have a been a number of things that we’ve looked at in which we know will have additional revenue that comes in through the USMCA.” pic.twitter.com/cHqYkqm4hL
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 18, 2018
