House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she will not agree to a deal to fund President Donald Trump’s desired border wall and she deflected blame for the government shutdown in a teased interview with Savannah Guthrie on Wednesday.
“Are you willing to come up and give him some of this money for the wall?” Guthrie asked in the clip tweeted by NBC’s Today Show. “Because that’s apparently a sticking point.”
Pelosi answered, “No, no. Nothing for the wall. We’re talking about border security.”
“Are you willing to come up and give him some of this money for the wall?” –@SavannahGuthrie
“No.” –@NancyPelosi
“Because apparently that’s the sticking point.” -Guthrie
“No, no. Nothing for the wall.” -PelosiFull exclusive interview tomorrow on TODAY pic.twitter.com/6zHKXJjPbb
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 2, 2019
Trump told reporters that he was willing to let the shutdown continue “as long as it takes” for him to get the funding for the wall.
The president has demanded over $5 billion in funding for the wall. Conversely, Democrats came out with a proposal that would reopen the government and it would provide slightly over $1 billion for “border security,” but none of that would be allocated for a wall.
NBC also teased the interview, which is scheduled to air Thursday morning, during the Nightly News With Lester Holt.
WATCH:
Guthrie asked, “If you and the Democrats don’t meet halfway, if you don’t compromise, then why isn’t the shutdown partially your responsibility, as well?” (RELATED: House Dems Release Plan To End Shutdown — No Wall Included)
“It has nothing to do with us. It has the president saying I will hold six agencies of government hostage to my campaign promise that I was going to build a wall, and that Mexico was going to pay for it,” Pelosi added. “That is so ridiculous … Mexico is not paying for it, A. And B, we have better use of funds to protect our border.”
The clips were released the same day Pelosi and other Democratic leaders met with the president and Republican lawmakers.