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Trump inauguration anniversary marred by shutdown, protests
WASHINGTON, Jan 21, 2018 (AFP) – Donald Trump’s first anniversary as US
president was marred by chaos Saturday as lawmakers traded bitter
recriminations over a government shutdown while mass demonstrations erupted
in cities across the country.
The famed Statue of Liberty was among the federal sites that were shuttered
on Saturday. But the real impact of the shutdown won’t be fully felt until
Monday morning, when hundreds of thousands of public sector workers are set
to stay home without pay.
Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell on Saturday night tried to head off
that possibility, setting a key vote for a funding measure for 1:00 am (0600
GMT) Monday.
“I assure you we will have the vote at 1:00 am on Monday, unless there is a
desire to have it sooner,” he said in a statement.
Highlighting the deep political polarization, crowds estimated to number in
the hundreds of thousands took to the streets of major US cities to march
against the president and his policies.
“This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted
to give me a nice present,” Trump, who is in Washington instead of
celebrating at his Mar-a-Lago resort as originally planned, wrote on Twitter
in reference to the shutdown.
“Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are
with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border,” he
tweeted, later accusing the opposition party of “holding our Military
hostage.”
The impact of the shutdown would be felt acutely if it lasts into the
coming work week. Essential federal services and military activity are
continuing, but even active duty troops will not be paid until a deal is
reached to reopen the US government.
– ‘Holding pattern’ –
There have been four government shutdowns since 1990. In the last one in
2013, more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave.
“We’re just in a holding pattern. We just have to wait and see. It’s
scary,” Noelle Joll, a 50-year-old furloughed US government employee, told
AFP in Washington.
Joll was also affected by the 2013 shutdown, but “this one feels a lot more
ominous,” she said.
A deal had appeared likely on Friday afternoon, when Trump — who has
touted himself as a master negotiator — seemed to be close to an agreement
with Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer on a measure to prevent
the expulsion of undocumented migrants who arrived in the United States as
children.
But no such compromise was in the language that reached Congress for a
stop-gap motion to keep the government open for four more weeks while a final
arrangement is discussed. And Republicans failed to win enough Democratic
support to bring it to a vote.
Congress reconvened for a rare Saturday session, where leaders of both
sides were meant to hammer out their differences to prevent the shutdown from
stretching into Monday. Instead, they traded accusations of responsibility
for the shutdown.
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Schumer said trying to negotiate with Trump “was like negotiating with
Jell-O.”
“It’s impossible to negotiate with a constantly moving target,” he said.
“President Trump is so mercurial it’s been impossible to get him to agree to
anything.”
Meanwhile, McConnell said Schumer “took the extraordinary step” of
preventing the legislation from passing and thus “plunging the country into
this totally avoidable mess.”
“We’re dysfunctional right now,” said Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who
voted in favor of the funding measure on Friday night.
“If we can’t open the government back up and work through our differences,
it would be a travesty.”
“Tomorrow this should come to an end. The true, unacceptable silliness that
we go through must stop.”
– Anti-Trump protests –
Democrats have accused Republicans of poisoning chances of a deal and
pandering to Trump’s populist base by refusing to fund a program that
protects 700,000 “Dreamers” — undocumented immigrants who arrived as
children — from deportation.
Republicans have a tenuous one-seat majority in the Senate, but on Friday
needed to lure some Democrats to their side to get a 60 vote supermajority to
bring the motion forward. They fell ten votes short.
The measure brought to Congress would have extended federal funding until
February 16 and reauthorized for six years a health insurance program for
poor children — a long-time Democratic objective.
But it left out any action on the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals
program, known as DACA, that affects Dreamers.
White House officials insisted there was no urgency to fix DACA, which
expires March 5.
As US lawmakers wrangled over government funding, protesters turned out in
cities including Los Angeles, New York and Washington to express their
opposition to Trump, and their support for women’s rights.
Protestors hoisted placards with messages including “Fight like a girl” and
“A woman’s place is in the White House” and “Elect a clown, expect a circus.”
The president meanwhile posted a deadpan tweet referencing the rallies
protesting his policies, urging people to “get out there and celebrate the
historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation
that has taken place over the last 12 months.”
Later Saturday, he tweeted again about the “unprecedented success for our
Country, in so many ways, since the Election.”
Hollywood celebrities were among those who turned out to the protests.
“We have a racist in the White House, we have a sexist in the White House
and we have a pathological liar in the White House who is tearing away at the
fabric of our democracy,” actor and producer Rob Reiner said at a rally in
California.
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