During an ill-conceived Tuesday morning meeting with Democratic Congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, President Trump painted himself into an uncomfortable corner once again with his insistence that a border wall is imperative to have effective border security.
Clearly, Trump thought he would have an advantage over the two longtime legislators on his “home turf” in the Oval Office, but he was on the defensive almost immediately. Trump wildly underestimated what the newly-empowered Pelosi — as the soon-to-be Speaker of the House — would bring to the room, and forgot that Senator Schumer makes his opponents look foolish almost at will.
When a reporter asked the one question that divides Republicans and Democrats on border security — “Can you have border security without the wall?” — Trump’s answer was immediate:
No, you need, you need the wall, the wall is a part of border security.”
Both Pelosi and Schumer pounced on the politically-inept President, with Pelosi calling it a flat-out lie and a mere campaign promise, and Schumer informing the press (and the media, who he addresses directly) that experts who have weighed in call a border wall unnecessary for security and wasteful in terms of spending.
Then Nancy called out the President for trying to force the debate in public for political points, rather than actually trying to work together to solve America’s problems.
People are losing their jobs, the market’s in a mood, our members are already–”
“Well, have the lowest unemployment that we’ve had in 50 years,” Trump interrupted. Nancy continued:
Sixty people of the Republican Party have lost, are losing their offices now because of the transition, people are not, the morale is not—”
“But we gained in the Senate. Nancy, we’ve gained in the Senate. Excuse me, did we win the Senate? We won the Senate.” Trump interjected once again, smirking.
That’s when Chuck, who had been happy to watch Nancy eviscerate the President as she so effectively does, spoke up. As everyone knows, Senator Schumer enjoys a joke or two, and he had one at Trump’s expense right on the spot:
When the President brags that he won North Dakota and Indiana, he’s in real trouble.”
The two states are famously very conservative — one being the Vice President’s home state and the other being the political proving grounds for every anti-abortion law in the country. Most analysts agree that the fact that the two seats were held by Democratic Senators before rested almost squarely on the strength of the Barack Obama ticket since they won the seats in a presidential election year that saw Obama win by a landslide.
“We did,” insisted the President. “We did win North Dakota. And India,” he declared, clearly flummoxed.
Trump wrapped up that portion of what spiraled quickly into a pointless back-and-forth with yet another repeat of the tired lie that “we’ve done a lot of wall already.”
Watch the hilarious exchange here:
Featured image via screen capture
