During an exchange with reporters outside the White House this Sunday, President Trump told one of biggest lies of his presidency.
Addressing Trump, Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News asked, “Mr. President, can you relate to the pain of federal workers who can’t pay their bills?”
Trump replied that he certainly could, and those who are financially threatened are on his side anyways.
“I can relate,” Trump replied.
“And I’m sure that the people that are toward the receiving end will make adjustments,” he continued. “They always do. They know exactly what’s going on.”
Trump went on to say that “many” of the people affected by the shutdown “agree 100 percent” with his tactics. Of course, there’s no evidence or method to support that claim.
As HuffPost points out, paychecks scheduled for this Friday will be delayed of an agreement over the shutdown is not reached.
The spurious claim that Trump can “relate” to people living paycheck-to-paycheck aside, he seems prepared to prolong their potential struggles if he doesn’t get the $5 billion for the wall he’s promised his supporters since before his campaign. Democrats have refused to entertain the idea.
In another exchange, O’Donnell asked Trump about his threat to declare a “national emergency” if he doesn’t get his wall funding.
“What would have to happen for you to trigger the national emergency?” O’Donnell asked. “What are you looking for, for you to use that power?”
“We’ll have to see how we do here … and you see where big surges of people are coming in and trying to get through the border,” Trump replied. “Some of that — a lot of that is my fault … because I’ve created such a great economy that people are pouring up, they’re trying to get jobs.”
It should be noted that federal workers have had their pay processed as usual up to this point. If the shutdown stalemate continues, it will be their paychecks starting on January 11 that are in danger of not being processed.
Watch the exchange below:
My question to the president, “Can you relate to the pain of federal workers who can’t pay their bills?” Pres. Trump:”I can relate…”. Watch: pic.twitter.com/WJCBHZQ15x
— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) January 6, 2019
Featured image via screen grab/CNN
