Democrats believed they had Trump cornered on the wall.
With Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House and Chuck Schumer having over 40 votes in the Senate to block any border wall, Congressional Democrats thought the shutdown would ruin the President.
But Mike Pence just dropped a serious hint about Trump’s next move that has Democrats shaking.
Vice President Mike Pence held a border security briefing at the White House on Monday, revealing to reporters that President Trump is looking at all available options to end the shutdown.
The announcement caught Democrats, who believed Trump was on the verge of caving in on the wall, completely off guard.
Fox New reports that Pence told reporters, “the White House Counsel’s office has been looking into the legality of President Trump declaring a state of emergency to authorize the construction of a border wall without approval or funding from Congress.”
“There has been a precipitous rise in illegal immigration at our southern border, particularly unaccompanied children and families,” Pence said. “Democrats don’t dispute the facts of the problem at the border. That is the foundation for finding agreement on solutions.”
Pence’s comments come after President Trump pushed through the idea of declaring a national state of emergency and directing the Department of Defense to construct the wall, without Congressional action or authorization.
Pence has been laying the groundwork for building the wall for weeks.
Over the past week, the Vice President held meetings with Congressional officials on both sides of the aisle, centered around border security and building the wall.
The meeting ended with no firm commitment by Congressional Democrats to build a wall, though President Trump characterized it as “productive”.
Pence’s comments, however, appear to be aimed at convincing Congress to work with the President rather than continue to obstruct his agenda.
It would be difficult for President Trump to find a more perfect candidate to spread his message to Congress.
Pence is the ultimate insider in the Trump White House, having long connections with Congressional leaders in both parties thanks to his years in Congress.
Pence’s negotiation work has also exposed how far the Democrats have moved to the left on immigration as well.
On Monday, the Vice President revealed that the White House was willing to cut the amount of money it would ask of Congress to build a wall in half, yet Senate Democrats refused the offer again.
Pence’s meetings are starting to reveal that Democrats aren’t serious about securing the border or even ending the shutdown for that matter.
All they care about is destroying Trump and ruining his chances of winning re-election in 2020, and they see the shutdown as a means to do both.
But Pence hinted at Trump’s remarks before he spoke to the nation on Tuesday night, telling reporters that, “There is an ongoing humanitarian and a national-security crisis at our border.”
“The president will address that in his remarks to the nation tomorrow night,” Pence added.
Trump’s remarks certainly did not disappoint.
We will keep you up to date with any new developments in this ongoing story.
