White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that the administration is “advocating” to keep the government open amid a congressional funding fight, though she preemptively blamed Democrats for any potential shutdown.
“If the government is shut down, it will be the fault of the Democrats, and it will only hurt the most vulnerable in our country: Our seniors, veterans, military families, increasing security for members of congress, which is something this White House and the administration supports,” Leavitt said in a press briefing.
Leavitt’s words echo President Donald Trump’s, who on Friday said Democrats “want to shut down the country” after Senate Democrats voted down Republicans’ stopgap measure to keep the government funded through November. That same day, Senate Republicans voted to reject a Democratic bill that would fund the government past the end of the month and avoid an Oct. 1 shutdown.
“Democrats know that the right thing to do is join with Republicans to pass this clean funding extension,” Leavitt said on Monday. “That is what the president wants.”
Democrats have said they will oppose a GOP funding bill because Republicans didn’t negotiate with Democratic minority leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
On Monday, Leavitt said the Trump Administration wants a “simple, clean budget extension.”
“This is the same budget that the Democrats approved six months ago, just adjusted for inflation,” she added. “Unfortunately, all of a sudden they want to shut down the government.”
Schumer and Jeffries have called for a meeting with Trump, though the president said he doesn’t think a meeting will affect funding fight talks.
“I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to have any impact,” Trump told reporters Saturday night. “They want all this stuff, they haven’t changed, they haven’t learned from the biggest beating they’ve ever taken, just about.”
