House Majority Whip James Clyburn said Thursday that he is hopeful that now that President Donald Trump is delaying his State of the Union address until after the government reopens, he will also cooperate on a agreements to ending the ongoing shutdown.
“When I woke up earlier this morning and heard about that tweet concerning the president's position on the State of the Union, I did feel a bit more hopeful, and I remain a bit more hopeful," the South Carolina Democrat told CNN’s “New Day."
Clyburn and other Democrats are floating the idea of using the $5.7 billion Trump is requesting toward border security, but not for a physical wall.
“What we are trying to do is to come to a conclusion as to how best to secure the border efficiently, effectively and, I like to say, humanely,” Clyburn said.
"If you indulge me, I said I want to see a wall so high we can use drones and you would never get over it," he added, and "so you can use x-ray equipment and not get around it. So deep that you can use sensors to keep anybody from tunnelling under it. To me, how we accomplish that requires technology, not concrete barriers. That's where most Democrats are."
Trump himself has backed off the idea of a concrete wall, in favor of a slat fence, and agreed for erecting 234 miles of barrier rather than over 1,000.
But Clyburn said the first order of business is to put people back to work, and then work out the border details.
"I believe that Democrats would be in a better mood and the Republicans," said Clyburn. "You know, we had 10 Republicans vote with us yesterday on reopening the government. We'll have another continuing resolution today on homeland security. Hopefully more Republicans will be coming our way."
However, he said he does not think the Senate will pass a pair of bills Thursday to reopen the government.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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