I want the booze and antacid concessions for GOP offices.
Steve Schmidt on Pence’s performance at the meeting:
Maybe Pence was just trying to keep from checking out Nancy’s legs.
Good heavens, for Donald to say he’d be happy to shut the government down over this is manna from heaven for the Democrats. Way to give away any leverage you might have, O Master Negotiator you. And where the heck are these sections of new wall that you keep boasting of? Are they made of super fine material, like your new suit?
I’ve heard Pence’s performance compared to Elf on a Shelf. The rigidity, the vapid expression, just the eyes following …
I am sure that Individual-1’s base™ is only too happy to hear him say he’s going to shut down the government. He isn’t worried. The rest of the Republicans are, but not him.
On the other hand, Pelosi just won the fight for the speaker’s chair.
The only person in the room who lost reputation was Pence. His batteries definitely need replacing.
Or topping off his embalming fluid.
What was Pence supposed to do exactly? “Shhh, Mr. President, you’re embarrassing yourself!”
Trump was handling things exactly the way he wanted them to be handled: like a train wreck.
I think Pence got the short end of the stick here. He was probably told not to say anything, so why be there at all? Or he was told never to contradict Donald, so when Donald contradicts himself Pence has nothing he can say. In any event, Pence got humiliated for no particular reason.
I don’t think Trump really knows when he’s being played. He tried to be smart and get confrontational with Nancy and Chuck, so that it plays out well in front of his base, that he is fighting for the wall. Chuck goaded him into admitting that he’s threatening to shut down his own government, and once he took the bait they just probably chuckled to themselves and let it play out. Pence looked super uncomfortable throughout the whole conversation, and was probably wishing he was anywhere else in the world, but on that chair.
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To the people who count in their eyes, all that mattered was that Pence was in the room, on camera, staring down the libs while Trump put them in their place.
Hell with that, I’ll deliver the revolver and bullet (singular) to the Senate Majority leader’s office myself.
Given that Orange Julius Caesar just stepped into the biggest bucket of Brown Applesauce of the year, how far are Republicans going to go to help him clean it off? :dubious:
He was there just in case Trump felt like placing a water bottle on the floor.
In answer to the OP, it is only a partial government shutdown that is being threatened. Much of the government including Defense, HHS, Education and Labor have previously been funded well into 2019. The remaining portions ,including DHS, had sticking points in negotiations and so were only funded until Dec 21st.
Presumably you work for part of the government that falls in the first category.
Agree, and Trump thinks he has a bargaining chip with the shutdown threat, unless he gets $5B for building the border wall (the one Mexico was supposed to pay for).
Welcome to the Straight Dope. I removed a link you included to a commercial site. Such links are not prohibited per se, but yours looked like spam so I removed it.
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Thank you for actually answering the OP!
I myself work for the part of the government that isn’t yet funded, and would shut down.
Trump just threatened to step on his own dick if he does not get his way.
Brilliant 4D chess move, Mr. Trump!
Well, not defending Trump, but toadstools are hard to see and get stepped on all the time.
I missed it in whatever live news coverage it was on back in the US since I’m overseas, but here is the Wiki entry for “Individual-1”. Anyway, when did that moniker first get attached to the neon goblin in the White House?