releases: https://www.coons.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/video-sen-coons-on-possible-shutdown-that-would-be-a-striking-last-gasp-of-the-government-with-republicans-in-control-of-both-the-senate-and-the-house-and-the-white-house
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
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| https://www.coons.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/video-sen-coons-on-possible-shutdown-that-would-be-a-striking-last-gasp-of-the-government-with-republicans-in-control-of-both-the-senate-and-the-house-and-the-white-house | [VIDEO] Sen. Coons on possible shutdown: “That would be a striking last gasp of the government with Republicans in control of both the Senate and the House and the White House” | 2018-12-12 | 2018 | 2018-12 | Democrat | House | DE | Christopher Coons | C001088 | www.coons.senate.gov | legacy | 12.12.18 [VIDEO] Sen. Coons on possible shutdown: That would be a striking last gasp of the government with Republicans in control of both the Senate and the House and the White House Sen. Coons on border security: The only person who is publicly saying he would be proud to shut down the government is President Trump WASHINGTON U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Appropriations and Judiciary Committees, today joined CNN New Day to discuss the potential government shutdown. We had a hearing yesterday where the head of Customs and Border Patrol, CPB, was describing how much they built and how much more they could build. Frankly, there's an emerging gap between the leaders in the Administration responsible for border security and what they say will be wise investments and the president's grandstanding over demanding $5 billion more. The president keeps mischaracterizing the Democrats as wanting open borders and not being willing to invest in border security and that's not true,said Senator Coons. Video and audio availablehere. Excerpts from the interview are below: Sen. Coons on a possible government shutdown:I certainly hope not. The only person who is publicly saying he would be proud to shut down the government is President Trump and that would be a striking last gasp of the government with Republicans in control of both the Senate and the House and the White House. Sen. Coons on the border wall:Yes, I think that the average American, the average voter, just wishes we would work on problems to solve rather than greater problems to create. But, the reality here is that the vast majority of Democrats have voted for significant increases in border security.The fight we are having here isreally more over the symbolismof whether we are going to givePresident Trump $5 billion more for wallfunding when he already got 1.3billion this year that hasn't been spent yet for border security.We had a hearing yesterday where the head of Customs and Border Patrol, CPB, was describing how much they built and how much more they could build. Frankly, there's an emerging gap betweenthe leaders in the Administration responsible forborder security and what theysay will be wise investments andthe president's grandstandingover demanding $5 billion more.The president keepsmischaracterizing the Democratsas wanting open borders and not being willing to invest in border security andthat's not true. Sen. Coons on the border wall: We are both old enough toremember when Mexico was goingto pay for the wall.I think there's broad agreement that in order to make progress on immigration issues weare willing to work in abipartisan way on improvingborder security.I think that's a responsible part of being committed to having secure borders. But not in an unlimited amountand an amount clearly purely for publicrelations purposes. More on the wall:I suspect it will be broken the way the lastone was, the president willblink and we will end up appropriatesome money for the border security, we won't shut the government down, and we'll move forward. As someone who's on the Appropriations Committee, the committee responsible forall the spending decisions, wehave made more progress, come farther than at any point in my eight years, and so I know theleadership of both Republicansand Democrats of the Senate and the House is really hopeful we can get pastthis point without a dramaticshutdown a week beforeChristmas.There are other things going on here. We just passed a bipartisan farmbill yesterday out of the Senate and we areabout to take up and pass acriminal justice bill, and I'm hopeful we will send a strong bipartisan messagethat the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident journalist, bythe Saudis is unacceptable.And on Monday, Senator Tillis and Iintroduced a bill to create a new human rights commission here in the Senate in honor of the late SenatorJohn McCain. Sen. Coons on the criminal justice reform bill:Because it divides his caucus. There are a number of Republicansenators very strongly opposed to anykind of criminal justice reform,but eventually as they were doing in internal whip counts, seeing how many Republicansenators favored it or opposedit, the numbers became overwhelming and the majority leader waswilling to give this a votebecause it already passed theHouse, because it has support from theWhite House and because anoverwhelming majority ofsenators both Democrats and Republicans have endorsed this, andit's a bill Ico-sponsored and worked on over the last six years. This is an important bipartisan accomplishment. Sen. Coons on his colleagues' comments about Michael Cohen:That's sadly a pretty good summaryof the overall opinion of mostof my colleagues on the other side:I don't care about the presidenthaving made hush payments to aporn star just before theelection, he's doing a good job.Broadly speaking, many of mycolleagues think that betweenderegulation and tax cuts and aconservative Supreme Courtthat President Trump has accomplished thepolicy goals and that shouldlead us to overlook or forgive a lot of other thingsthat are destabilizing or undermining the law orare flat out illegal. Sen. Coons on the Democratic Party: As you know, what I haveurged my House colleagues andthe incoming Democratic majority to do is to take up andpass a series of strong broadbills, that would reduce thecost of health care, co-pays and deductibles, and would improve the quality of health careand would create morehigh-paying good quality jobs through investing in infrastructure, that would address the opioid crisis in a broader and more meaningful way, put those on the table,push them over to the Senate andsay let's get real things doneto help the average American,and call the question, see if we are able to getthings done on a bipartisanbasis.There are issues thatdeserve investigation and I amconfident that Jerry Nadler, the incomingchairman of the House Judiciary Committee will hold thepresident accountable for a number of issues that we just talked about. More on legislating: I would say start by showingthat we are committed tolegislating in a responsible andbipartisan way on the issuesthat I hear in Delaware affectthe average American, that's what they want us to do.The average American doesn'twant impeachment and shutdown, they want progress and solutions. And it's our job to hold thepresident accountable andimprove the transparency of theadministration, but I think our firstjob is to make sure it's clearwe are willing to legislate in aresponsible fashion that addresses the real problems theaverage American is waking upthis morning saying how can Ipossibly afford health care for my ailingmother, how can I afford retirement, and how can I afford tosend my kid on to college if hefinishes high school, and howcan I pay the health care bills?That's the sort of thing the averageAmerican sitting around their breakfast table before they head off to work and school is struggling with, andthat's what they want to see us do in Washington, not morebickering and fighting. ### Press Contact Sean Coit at 202-224-5042 orSean_Coit@coons.senate.gov | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |