Schumer Tells Trump: No Deal on DACA If Cotton's Involved

By Cathy Burke | Thursday, 18 Jan 2018 10:04 PM

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told a defensive President Donald Trump there would be no deal to fix an Obama-era program protecting young illegal immigrants if hardline GOP Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is involved, Politico reported.

In a private exchange with the president Wednesday, Sen. Schumer also assailed White House staffers involved in talks over the fate of some 800,000 illegal immigrants protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Politico reported.

According to Politico, which cited unnamed sources, Trump grew defensive during the exchange.

Cotton's role in a Jan. 11 Oval Office meeting over a potential Senate bipartisan immigration compromise — in which the president was accused of using vulgar language about Haiti and some African nations — has become a flashpoint for Democrats.

Cotton told Politico that Schumer did not want him in the room "probably because I would get a good deal, and he wants a bad deal."

On the Senate floor Thursday, Schumer said White House chief of staff John Kelly "has insisted that Sen. Cotton and Rep. [Bob] Goodlatte [R-Va.] be in the room for negotiations on DACA."

"There is no deal that Sen. Cotton or Rep. Goodlatte could forge that could earn the majority of either the House or the Senate . . . If Sen. Cotton and Rep. Goodlatte have veto power over an agreement, everyone knows there won't be an agreement," Schumer said, Politico reported.

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/tom.../18/id/838081/