Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) continues to back his promise that he won’t budge on his support for the demands President Donald Trump is making for border wall money, tweeting to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the House Democrats, “No Wall Money, No Deal.”
The South Carolina senator’s tweet on Friday comes amid Day 7 of the partial government shutdown due to the problems surrounding the wall’s funding.
Graham has previously said that the shutdown was a necessary measure in order to convince Democrats to offer more funding for the wall. Previously Democrats were negotiating with the administration over an offer less than the more than $5 billion Trump wants for the project.
The White House brought an offer between Trump’s $5.7 billion and $1.3 billion to the Democrats over the weekend, leaving Sens. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Pelosi, the Democratic leaders of Congress, to issue a statement saying it’s Trump’s fault for “plunging the country into chaos” and “The president wanted the shutdown, but he seems not to know how to get himself out of it.”
Incoming acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told The Associated Press that “there’s not a single Democrat talking to the president of the United States about this deal” and pinned specific blame on Pelosi.
“My gut was that [Schumer] was really interested in doing a deal and coming to some sort of compromise. But the more we’re hearing this week is that it’s Nancy Pelosi who’s preventing that from happening,” said Mulvaney.
Graham previously lambasted Schumer and how he feels the Democrats are to blame for the shutdown last week in a Fox News with Jeanine Pirro, where he accused them of waging “a silly, petty fight.”
“Senator Schumer, we’re not going to abandon the wall,” said Graham. “We’re going to build a wall, and to all those Americans who want us to abandon the wall and open up the border, that’s what this fight’s about.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story referred to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as a senator.