As you may have heard, Sarah Sanders took questions from reporters today for the first time in a while in an official press briefing.
During the briefing, she explained why Trump reopened the government:
“The President has opened the government on the basis that Democrats have signaled to us that they're willing to actually get serious about a real deal and get serious about fixing the border.” –@PressSec pic.twitter.com/Or4A5k31Hl
— GOP (@GOP) January 28, 2019
Here’s more via Fox News:
President Trump agreed to re-open the government for three weeks because Democrats signaled they’re willing to negotiate on border security, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday.
“The president opened the government on the basis that Democrats have signaled to us that they’re willing to actually get serious about a real deal, and get serious about fixing the problem at the border, including funding for a border wall,” Sanders said during her first briefing in 41 days. It was also the first briefing since Trump agreed to sign a three-week spending package Friday.
Sanders said Monday that Trump “doesn’t want to go through another shutdown.”
“That’s not the goal,” she said. “The goal is border security and protecting the American people. Ideally, Democrats would take these next three weeks to negotiate in good faith, as they indicated that they would, and come up with a deal that makes sense, that actually fixes the problem.”
If a deal doesn’t happen, Sanders suggested that the president would declare a national emergency in order to get funds to build a barrier on the southern border.
“If they don’t come back with a deal, that means Democrats get virtually nothing,” Sanders said. “That will… force him to take executive action that does not give Democrats the things that they want.”
So there’s the official word from the White House.
But as Levin said last week, the bottom line is really what matters at the end of the day. No matter what you think of Trump’s tactics, if he gets the wall built without selling out over amnesty, that will be a big victory and one he can take to the bank in 2020.