Vice President Mike Pence would not rule out another government shutdown if Congress does not deliver funding for the president’s proposed wall along the U.S. southern border, in a Wednesday morning interview on CBS News.
WATCH: Can you guarantee there won’t be another government shutdown?
“Well, I think our hope is that there’s not but I can’t make that guarantee, @JeffGlor. The simple truth is Congress needs to do their job.” — @VP Pence https://t.co/SwVoAcEVYV pic.twitter.com/ydPKN1vO8t
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) February 6, 2019
Pence defended Trump’s decision to shutdown the government for nearly 35 days in December and January in a bid to force Congress to provide $5.7 billion in funding for a border wall.
“I never think it’s a mistake to stand up for what you believe in,” Pence said.
Trump said 11 days ago he would allow the government to reopen for three weeks while a bi-partisan committee tried to forge a solution to his demand, saying that if they could not come to a solution, he would declare a national emergency and build the wall with military funds. The president maintains his demand for $5.7 billion in border wall funding.
As I said on @CBSThisMorning, there’s a crisis at our Southern Border, and the American people see that @POTUS is absolutely determined to keep his word to secure our border and END the crisis of illegal immigration. pic.twitter.com/Op0J5SpiMu
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) February 6, 2019
Trump’s efforts to facilitate the funding through Congress, however, were quickly stymied with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s declaration that the negotiations would give no new wall funding. The president said after Pelosi’s comments that, “they’ll probably be overly generous with things that you don’t need in terms of money. They’ll give you more money than you need for things that won’t help very much. And they’ll give you money for good things, too. But based on what I hear and based on what I read, they don’t want to give money for the wall.”
Trump also appealed for wall funding in his State of the Union address.
“Simply put, walls work and walls save lives. So let’s work together, compromise, and reach a deal that will truly make America safe,” Trump said.