Key Democrats on Saturday expressed openness to President Donald Trump‘s proposed wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, a dramatic turnaround for the party as it seeks to extend protections for people who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said early Saturday morning that, in a Friday meeting with the president, he offered to put the wall “on the table” in a potential deal to avoid a government shutdown.
Later Saturday, Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a longtime opponent of Trump’s wall, told reporters that he would back off his opposition to the president’s plan for the barrier, in order to protect recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
“It’s not about a wall. We’ll build him a wall. Tell us how high you want it. But free the Dreamers,” the lawmaker said, according to journalists on Twitter.
Earlier this week, Gutierrez told the New York Times that Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, told the House Hispanic Caucus that “a 50-foot wall from sea to shining sea isn’t what we’re going to build.” Trump later insisted that he had not changed his mind about the wall.
During the 2016 election, a wall along the American border with Mexico was a cornerstone of Trump’s populist, nationalist pitch to voters, and the idea remains a point of contention in the president’s relationship with Congress.
Yet Democrats have largely resisted Trump’s calls for billions of dollars to build the barrier, and any indication they are willing to budge is likely to anger their liberal base.
Schumer revealed his offer to Trump in remarks on the floor of the Senate minutes after the chamber failed to pass legislation that would have averted a shutdown.
On Friday, Schumer had a 90-minute meeting with Trump in the Oval Office. Only Kelly and Schumer’s chief of staff, Michael Lynch, were in the room with the senator and the president. Afterward, Schumer had a positive take on the meeting, although he did not say a deal was struck.
Still, the New York Democrat said Trump had walked away from the proposition. The White House has said that it would prefer addressing immigration issues separately from a measure to fund the government.
The Senate minority leader’s remarks followed those of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who blamed Democrats for the Senate’s failure to approve a bill passed by the Republican-controlled House on Thursday.
Schumer, however, rejected that characterization and pointed out that four Republican senators – Mike Lee of Utah, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky – voted in earnest against the continuing resolution. The New York Democrat then turned his ire on the president himself.
“The blame should crash entirely on President Trump’s shoulders,” Schumer said. “This will be called the Trump shutdown because there is no one who deserves the blame … more than President Trump.”
A White House representative did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment about Schumer’s remarks.
