Americans are hostages to Trump’s wall, says Clyburn who tells Senate to end shutdown
One South Carolina politician is not holding back when it comes to the government shutdown, President Donald Trump and Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate.
U.S. representative James Clyburn, the new House Majority Whip, released a statement Sunday criticizing the president and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, saying Trump is holding Americans “hostage.”
In his statement, the Democrat from Columbia said the House of Representatives plans to vote on “bills to reopen vital government services,” to allow federal employees to return to work.
He then put the onus on McConnell, R-Kentucky, saying in the statement it is “unconscionable,” to block votes on the “bills to reopen the government.”
“Not only are 800,000 federal employees’ livelihood in the balance, millions of Americans are suffering the consequences of this Trump Shutdown,” Clyburn said in his statement.
Clyburn pointed out the shutdown will have a reach that affects more than government employees.
Small business owners will not be able to get loans, food stamps will not be available and all those expecting income tax returns from the IRS will be left waiting, “unless the Senate, a co-equal branch of government elected by the people to serve the people, steps up and does its job,” Clyburn said in the statement.
After putting the Senate on notice, Clyburn put the president in his cross-hairs.
“The American people ought not be the president’s hostages over his ill-advised and ill-defined border wall. He is demonstrating with every day that passes that he is ill-equipped to negotiate his way out of this self-imposed crisis, and the American people are paying the price over his inability to govern,” Clyburn said in the statement. “It is time for the Senate to do its part to reopen the government and tell this president that enough is enough.”
This is not the first time Clyburn has been critical of Trump. After Democrats retook the House following the November 2018 elections, Clyburn wrote he would “oppose the President when he is wrong,” The State reported.
This story was originally published January 6, 2019 at 8:27 PM with the headline "Americans are hostages to Trump’s wall, says Clyburn who tells Senate to end shutdown."
