White House Says They Want to Avoid Government Shutdown Over Border Wall

The White House says they want to avoid a possible partial government shut down and will find other ways to get funding for the border wall President Donald Trump is asking for, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday. 

Trump asked Congress for $5 billion to fund his border wall, an issue that Democrats have refused to budge on. 

Sanders told Fox News Channel on Tuesday that: "We have other ways that we can get to that $5 billion." 

"At the end of the day we don't want to shut down the government, we want to shut down the border," said Sanders. 

Congress and Trump have four days left to make a funding deal before large portions of the federal government will begin shutting down. 

The White House was currently exploring other options to legally fund the wall, Sanders said.

“There are certainly a number of different funding sources that we’ve identified that we can use, that we can couple with money that would be given through congressional appropriations that would help us get to that $5 billion that the president needs in order to protect our border,” she said.

Schumer took to the Senate floor late Monday blasting Republicans for not having a funding deal in place before the deadline. "President Trump still doesn’t have a plan to keep the government open."

"So everyone knows the situation: even with a Republican Congress, no threat or temper tantrum will get the president his wall," he said.

During a meeting with Democrats Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi in the Oval Office last week, Trump said he would be "proud" to shut the government down over funding for the wall, which he called a national security necessity. 

Photo: Getty Images


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