WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room Thursday on the 13th day of the partial government shutdown, as he continued to dig in his heels over his promised border wall.
"Without a wall you cannot have border security," Trump said, insisting he has never had as much support on any issue as he has gotten in the past week. Trump left without taking questions, as did his staff.
Meanwhile, House Democrats prepared to pass a plan to re-open government without funding Trump's signature promise. Trump is demanding billions of dollars to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, which the Democrats have refused. The White House has invited congressional leaders back for another meeting Friday, two days after failing to make progress during their first sit-down in weeks.
The new Congress convened with Democrats taking majority control of the House and returning Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi to the speakership. Democrats expect to quickly pass legislation to re-open the government — without funds for Trump's border wall.
"There is no amount of persuasion he can use" to get her to fund his wall, Pelosi said in an interview that aired Thursday on NBC's "Today." She added: "We can go through the back and forth. No. How many more times can we say no?"
Trump accused the Democrats of playing politics, as his White House signaled he was standing firm in his funding demands. Continuing to argue the wall is needed, he tweeted a video with images of what appeared to be migrants trying to rush the border and clashing with law enforcement, beneath the words "crisis at the border," ''drugs" and "crime." The video concludes with footage of Trump at the border along with audio from one of his rallies in which he vows to build his promised border wall and the crowd chants "Build the wall!"
Speaking on Capitol Hill, Vice President Mike Pence said the White House would work with Democrats and Republicans to "achieve the kind of agreement that will provide the border security that the American people need. And that means a wall, that means a physical barrier, but it also means a broad range of border security measures that'll make our country more secure."
The Democratic package to end the shutdown would include one bill to temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels — with $1.3 billion for border security, far less than Trump has said he wants for the wall — through Feb. 8 as talks would continue.
It would also include a separate measure to fund the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Housing and Urban Development and others closed by the partial shutdown. That measure would provide money through the remainder of the fiscal year, to Sept. 30.
The White House has rejected the Democratic package.