Speaking on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time on Monday night, former Sen. Rick Santorum made a claim that was immediately dismissed by hosts Chris Cuomo and Van Jones: that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had said President Trump wasn’t going to get a single dollar for any new wall constructed on the southern border.
As Newsbusters reports, the exchange occurred as the trio discussed who had been intransigent over the border wall, Trump or the Democrats who oppose him. Santorum stated, “Do you support Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer saying the President isn’t going to get a single dollar for any new wall?”
Cuomo replied, “That’s not what they’re saying.”
Santorum insisted, “You think that’s a reasonable negotiation position?”
Jones echoed Cuomo: “Hey, that’s – that’s not what they’re saying.”
Cuomo reiterated, “That’s not what they’re saying.”
Santorum stuck to his guns: “They are saying that.”
Cuomo, stuck in place: “That’s not what they’re saying.”
As Newsbusters shows in the video below, at one point CNN’s own Jake Tapper acknowledged, “I know that Speaker Pelosi had said, ‘We didn’t want to give even more than one dollar to the border wall.” Another segment showed a reporter saying to Pelosi, “In this situation, would you accept even a dollar of wall funding for this president in order to reopen the government?” Pelosi answered, “A dollar? A dollar? One? One dollar? Yeah, one dollar.”
A third segment shows Schumer saying on the floor of the Senate, “It will never pass the Senate. Not today. Not next week. Not next year … If you wanna open the government, you must abandon the wall.” A fourth segment shows Pelosi blustering. “We’re not doing a wall. Does anybody have any doubt that we’re not doing a wall? So that’s that.” Asked if she was worried about backlash, Pelosi answered, “No, it has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the wall is an immorality between countries. It’s an old way of thinking.”
On Sunday, Rep. Steve Scalise, the current GOP whip in the House of Representatives, appeared on ABC’s This Week with host George Stephanopoulos and stated, “Clearly, you’ve seen a number of offers put on the table by President Trump to try to resolve this issue. Not one single time, George, has Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer put a counteroffer on the table except a dollar. Nancy Pelosi said a dollar. That’s not serious, we all know that. It’s time for them to come to the table.”
The logical inference to be drawn from Pelosi and Schumer’s most recent statements is that they will not fund a wall at all. In months past, there were offers made by Democrats to give funding for a wall — but they were also accompanied by demands regarding illegal immigrants that made the deal unpalatable to President Trump. Other barriers included Trump feeling that the deal offered by Democrats did not do enough to curb legal immigration or was designed for security at the border that wasn’t sufficient.
Video below: