Karl Rove, who served as deputy chief of staff during the George W. Bush administration, is warning that the major players in the government shutdown fight, have already seen their reputations suffer.
Rove made his remarks in a column for The Wall Street Journal posted Wednesday night.
“That includes Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi and her House Democrats, and President Trump and congressional Republicans,” he said.
He noted no one had budged in negotiations so far.
“Negotiations have gone nowhere, since Democrats are confident that the shutdown will be unpopular, and Mr. Trump will take more blame for it than they will,” he said. “The calendar is also on their side. If they run out the clock until Jan. 3, the new Congress is sworn in, and a Democratic House majority replaces the current Republican one."
But he said a shutdown “could ruin the nation’s introduction to the Democratic House.” He said both sides need to seriously negotiate and compromise.
“If Democrats were wise, they would offer some wall funding in return for something more popular, like a path to citizenship for illegal aliens brought to the U.S. as children, who know no other country as home except this one," Rove said.
He noted that such a move would give Trump “some of his wall funding” and “end a situation that a vast majority want resolved."
“The only way America doesn’t lose is if both parties win something through negotiations, Rove said. "We’ll soon see if the nation’s leaders, Republicans and Democrats, understand this.”
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