As usual, Politico nailed it.
Today, Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan wrote the top of the fold article, “Congress may snub Trump on wall, risking shutdown: Senate Republicans privately acknowledge that they’re unlikely to pass a funding bill that will satisfy [Trump] (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/17/trump-border-wall-congress-funding-bill-snub-649563).
As Everett and Bresnahan explain, tomorrow, West Virginia’s Republican senator, Shelly Moore Capito, will meet with Trump and the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Alabama’s Richard Shelby. Senator Capito is the Chair of the subcommittee which overseas spending on homeland security.
Trump is increasingly frustrated with Congress’ failure to fund his
Wall — his signature campaign promise — and he insists on shutting down the government in September if he can’t persuade the Republican-led Congress to appropriate enough money for his wall. And Sen. Rand Paul (TP-Kentucky) has called spending billions on a border wall “outlandish”, so he will probably vote with the Democrats against any wall funding.
Let’s not forget that Trump got his base all revved up when he said he would make Mexico pay for the wall.
Trump wants as much wall money as he can squeeze out of Congress, but Senator Capito needs to get 60 votes in the Senate, which Republicans control by only one vote, and Sen. McCain is battling cancer and it is very hard, if not impossible, for him to travel.
So we sent associate solitary reporter Melissa Smith, who covers Congress for us, to meet with Senator Capito, to discuss the matter.
“Melissa,” the senator began, “It’s really simple. I’m just going to tell Mr. Trump that he can’t have his wall.”
“So, Senator Capito, you’re going to make Trump capitulate?”
“Exactly! So, Melissa, come with me to the White House tomorrow, and you’ll see just how tough this plain ol’ West Virginia gal can be!”
Smith immediately agreed, and told Senator Capito that she’ll wear her most beautiful dress to the meeting in the Oval Office.
Correction: in yesterday’s post, we quoted from the motto of Jeff Sessions’ church in Mobile, but we got the quote wrong. The motto of Ashland Place United Methodist Church is “Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors.” But alert reader Margaret Meadows caught our typo, where we said that the church’s motto is “Open Heats” instead of “Open Hearts.” Meadows has suggested to us that we need a better amanuensis. Any volunteers?