Sen. Kamala Harris Friday accused President Donald Trump of holding Americans hostage over with a shutdown over his call for border wall funding.
"The president is holding the American people hostage over this vanity project," the California Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe," as federal workers miss their first paycheck in the 21-day standoff between Trump and House Democrats. "This is a crisis of his own making."
Trump on Thursday, while in McAllen, Texas and the Rio Grande area to spotlight the region, edged closer to declaring a national emergency in order to bypass Congress, as reports surfaced that he could be considering using funds earmarked for Puerto Rico and other areas to finance the wall instead.
Harris Friday said Trump is engaging in "political manipulation," and putting national security at risk with his demands.
"(Trump) is choking the very people who are responsible for making sure we have public safety on a day-to-day basis," she said, referring to the thousands of unpaid workers, including members of the FBI and the Transportation Security Administration and the FBI.
"It's actually harmful on a daily basis to real people," she added.
Meanwhile, Harris said Friday she plans to decide soon about running for president in 2020.
"I believe our country wants and needs some leadership that provides a vision of the country in which everyone could see themselves," she commented.
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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