Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) told “Fox & Friends” on Friday that he thinks the government shutdown should continue “until hell freezes over” if funding doesn’t come through for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
“So, Congressman, how long should the president keep the government closed?” co-host Griff Jenkins asked Gohmert, who is famous for his eyebrow-raising remarks.
“Because we keep seeing people losing their lives without [a wall], you do it till hell freezes over,” the lawmaker answered, after noting that only about 25 percent of the federal government is closed. Before the shutdown, 75 percent of the government had already been funded until September 2019.
“Until hell freezes over,” Gohmert continued. “Because we owe it to our country.”
He also suggested that a wall would somehow be beneficial to nations south of the U.S. border. “And the best thing we could do compassionately for Mexico and Central America is not give them money that ends up in the hands of drug cartels,” the congressman said. “It’s to secure the border so the drugs quit coming and we don’t lose 70,000 more lives a year and Mexico becomes the top 10 economy because we get out the corruption. That’s compassion.”
As of Friday, the partial shutdown had lasted for seven days with no immediate end in sight. The government is unlikely to fully reopen before the new Democratic-controlled Congress is sworn in next month.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has been trying to put the blame for the shutdown on the Democrats.
“We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with. Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve!” Trump tweeted on Friday morning.
On Thursday, the president went so far as to say that the shutdown wasn’t “about the Wall” but “only about the Dems not letting Donald Trump & the Republicans have a win.”