Kamala Harris: Government shutdown 'will not end with a wall'

By CAITLIN OPRYSKO 01/11/2019 08:24 AM EST

Sen. Kamala Harris insisted Thursday that the ongoing government shutdown, now in its 20th day, "will not end with a wall," ruling out the border security measure that President Donald Trump has demanded as a prerequisite for his signature on any government funding legislation.

Harris (D-Calif.) appeared on CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Thursday to promote her new book, where the host asked the California senator — who said she “might” run for president — how she sees the partial shutdown ending in light of negotiations being at a stalemate.

“How does it end? It has to end with the government running and functioning. It has to end with us setting back up the government — it will not with a wall. It will not end with a wall,” Harris told Colbert.

The White House and congressional Democrats have remained at an impasse since before Christmas over President Donald Trump’s demands for $5.7 billion to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, driving a quarter of the federal government into a shutdown that is poised to become the longest in U.S. history if it extends past Friday. Over half a million federal employees will miss their first paychecks Friday due to the shutdown, which Harris said was already taking a toll.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/11/kamala-harris-government-shutdown-border-wall-1096930