In what Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described as the latest "temper tantrum" by the nation's most powerful elected official, President Donald Trump simply walked out of a White House meeting on Wednesday afternoon after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said she would not grant him the funding he has requested for the wall he wants built along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Watch:
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer: President Trump immediately got up and walked out of their meeting when Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats wouldn't agree to fund a border wall. "We saw a temper tantrum” pic.twitter.com/opMQi7Qpu1
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 9, 2019
Pelosi said the president appeared to be "insensitive"—or have no understanding about—the predicament that the government shutdown is having on furloughed federal employees and those working without pay.
"He thinks maybe they could just ask their father for more money," Pelosi said, referring to the president's understanding of the financial insecurity of federal workers. "But they can't."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Trump doesn't understand financial insecurity that federal workers face during the shutdown: "He thinks maybe they could just ask their father for more money. But they can’t” pic.twitter.com/PwcUykCXrp
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 9, 2019
Meanwhile, in a tweet, Trump confirmed that he just said "bye-bye" and left the room when Pelosi gave him an answer he didn't like. The president called the meeting a "total waste of time."
A more complete version of the Democratic leadership's post-meeting remarks follows:
.@SpeakerPelosi following meeting with President Trump: "It's cold out here and the temperature wasn't much warmer in the Situation Room."@SenSchumer: "The president just got up and walked out." pic.twitter.com/0px8qTlva1
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 9, 2019
The latest failed meeting between Trump and the Democratic leadership comes as dozens of unions are set to hold a rally in Washington, D.C. on Thursday to highlight the deep financial pain the president's "senseless and manufactured" shutdown has caused for hundreds of thousands of workers and demand that the government be reopened immediately.
In addition to the economic impact Trump's shutdown has had on federal employees, a Public Citizen report published Wednesday detailed how the lapse in federal funding has also seriously endangered crucial consumer, health, and safety protections.
"It's a crisis alright," declared Public Citizen's Rick Claypool, the author of the analysis. "This is just the tip of the iceberg, and I'm sure more ugly details will emerge if the Trump shutdown continues. And the longer it continues, the worse this crisis for consumer and worker safety will get."
