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Sen. Kennedy: Trump isn’t bluffing about government shutdown
By Bob Fredericks
December 12, 2018 | 2:01pm | Updated
(And the pantywaist pols start soiling their skivvies...)

GOP Sen. John Kennedy said Wednesday that he believes there will be a government shutdown following President Trump’s threat to do just that if Congress doesn’t give him more cash for his border wall.

“I think we’re going to have a shutdown,” Kennedy said, a day after Trump unexpectedly issued the warning during a reality TV-like Oval Office clash with Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

“For two reasons. Number one, President Trump has not looked to me like he was bluffing or is bluffing. And number two, I don’t think Speaker Pelosi is going to agree to anything because she’s worried about her speakership,” the Louisiana senator told CNN.

Analysts repeatedly noted that Tuesday’s surreal, 17-minute shoutfest was a glimpse of what America’s divided government will look like after Democrats flipped at least 40 House seats, with one North Carolina race still in question because of allegations of voter fraud.

But it also revealed divisions within the GOP itself, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) opposing a shutdown.

“I hope that’s not where we end up. I understand it was a rather spirited meeting,” McConnell told reporters when asked about Trump’s threat.

But others, notably the reliably pro-Trump Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), egged the president on.

“Great job sticking to your guns on border security, Mr. President!” Graham gushed on Twitter.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) cast doubt on Trump’s argument that he could easily have wall funding passed in the House.

“If I needed the votes in the House, I would have them in one second, we’d be done,” Trump told Schumer and Pelosi, who pushed back, telling Trump he could not get the votes.

But Ryan acknowledged that the GOP-led House has not passed any legislation that included the $5 billion in border wall funds that Trump has demanded.

And he said he had no stomach for a shutdown.

“We don’t want to have a shutdown, I have no interest in doing that. That makes no sense,” Ryan told the Washington Post.

Even Kennedy said a shutdown could be ruinous politically.

“We ought to try to figure a way out of this. Based on what I’m seeing, and I could be wrong and I hope I am because a government shutdown would not serve the people well,” he said.

Trump on Tuesday angrily declared that he would be “proud” to shut down parts of the federal government if he didn’t get the $5 billion.

“If we don’t get what we want one way or the other, whether it’s through you, through a military, through anything you want to call, I will shut down the government. Absolutely. And I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck,” a visibly angry Trump told a smirking Schumer in the Oval Office as the cameras rolled.

“The people of this country don’t want criminals and people that have lots of problems, and drugs, pouring into our country. So I will take the mantle. I will be the one that shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it. I will take the mantle of shutting down, and I’m going to shut it down for border security.”

Pelosi and Schumer urged the president to support a measure that includes a half-dozen government funding bills largely agreed upon by lawmakers, along with a separate measure that funds the Department of Homeland Security at current levels through Sept. 30.

The homeland bill includes about $1.3 billion for fencing and other security measures at the border.

If Trump rejects that, Democrats are urging a continuing resolution that would fund all the remaining appropriations bills at current levels through Sept. 30.

https://nypost.com/2018/12/12/sen-kennedy-trump-isnt-bluffing-about-government-shutdown/