House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy Thursday accused House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of "holding the country hostage" over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program by fighting against a budget agreement unless the DACA issue is solved.
"She has been trying to shut the government down over an issue that does not expire until March," the California Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program. "What is happening is you are playing politics with our military women and men. We're trying to get a budget agreement now for the military so we can start that build-up that we need to keep America safe, and she is holding everything up over this, and to me that is wrong. You should not play politics with the military."
Republicans are showing good faith by working to solve DACA, but "you can't just deal with DACA by itself. You will be right back at the same situation in another year."
Instead, the border must be secured, and chain migration and the Diversity Visa program must come to an end, said McCarthy.
"This is a good opportunity because the other issues we put to the side, but there are four areas where we can talk about, find common ground and solve this problem," he added.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, was "very clear" in his meeting earlier this week at the White House about immigration, even though he had at first sought funding for a border wall, but on the other hand said he'd sign what came across his desk.
"The president was very clear in that meeting," said McCarthy. "What we narrowed down the four areas that we will discuss and meet on. It's DACA, it's border security. This is not unusual. Remember, just a short time ago, a few years inside the Senate when there was a senator named [Joe] Biden and Hillary Clinton, they voted for funding along the border for a wall. Sen. [Dianne] Feinstein voted for that. This is not an unusual place where we want to see something happen that you voted for even a few years later."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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