'You're not getting the wall': Chuck Schumer excoriates Trump in Senate floor speech as a government shutdown looms

Associated Press/J. Scott Applewhite

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., explains to reporters how his negotiations with President Donald Trump broke down yesterday as quarreling politicians in Washington eventually failed to keep their government in business, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018.

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the Senate floor to lambaste President Donald Trump over his demand that a spending bill to fund the government include $5 billion to fund a wall on the Southern border.
• "Abandon your shutdown strategy. You're not getting the wall today, next week, or on January 3 when Democrats take control of the House," Schumer said.
• If Congress does not pass and Trump does not sign a spending measure to fund the government by midnight Friday, the federal government will shut down.

As a government shutdown looms closer by the minute, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the Senate floor to lambaste President Donald Trump over his hardline demand that a spending bill to fund the government include $5 billion to fund a wall on the Southern border.

"President Trump has thrown a temper tantrum and now has us careening towards a Trump shutdown over Christmas. In a short time, the Senate will take part in a pointless exercise to demonstrate to our House colleagues & the President what everyone here already knows. There are not the votes in the Senate for an expensive, taxpayer funded border wall," Schumer said.

"So, President Trump, you will not get your wall," Schumer added. "Abandon your shutdown strategy. You're not getting the wall today, next week, or on January 3 when Democrats take control of the House."

While the Senate passed a continuing resolution to keep the government funded with the current budget appropriations, the House, which is still controlled by Republicans, passed a new spending bill with funding for the border wall 227-185 on Thursday.

The Senate, however, requires a 60-vote majority to pass appropriations legislation. Since Republicans only control the body by a majority of 51 seats, at least nine Democrats would have to vote for the spending package including wall funding for the budget to pass and the government to remain open.

If Trump does not sign a spending continuing resolution or bill by midnight Friday, the federal government will shut down.

Congress has been mired in chaos this week, as Trump initially signaled he would be willing to sign a continuing resolution that would ensure spending to keep the government open, before he made a last-ditch demand for wall funding while Republicans still control both chambers of Congress.

Read more: Trump can't make up his mind between funding the government or shutting it down - forcing senators to turn around from their holiday breaks and head back to DC

"Every Republican has already unanimously supported a clean extension of government funding. Democrats supported the measure because we do not want a shutdown. We had every indication the president would sign it. But President Trump, hounded by the voices of radical right, threw a temper tantrum," Schumer charged.

Schumer also blasted Trump for attempting to place the blame for a shutdown on Democrats in a tweet this morning, after claiming in a televised meeting with Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi that he would be "proud" to shut down the government over the wall.

"President Trump called for a shutdown no less than 25 times," Schumer said. "No Democrat has called for shutting down the government. Mr President: you cannot erase months of video of you saying you wanted a shutdown...you own a shutdown."