U. S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday accused President Donald Trump of putting American troops and civilians working in Afghanistan in danger by publicizing a planned congressional trip to the war-torn country, as tensions between the leaders spiked on the 28th day of a partial government shutdown.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U. S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday accused President Donald Trump of putting American troops and civilians working in Afghanistan in danger by publicizing a planned congressional trip to the war-torn country, as tensions between the leaders spiked on the 28th day of a partial government shutdown.
Trump later on Friday signaled he would turn his attention from the fight over congressional travel back to the budget standoff that has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without paychecks, posting on Twitter that he would make a “major announcement” on Saturday at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on the “humanitarian crisis” on the country’s southern border and on the partial shutdown.
The White House rejected Pelosi’s charge of endangering troops and civilians.
The Republican Trump administration, which on Thursday had blocked Democrat Pelosi from making the trip to Afghanistan, on Friday slapped a blanket ban on all U. S. congressional travel on government-owned or operated aircraft while the shutdown continues.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the administration was just trying to keep Pelosi in town so that negotiations could take place to try to end the partial shutdown, at four weeks already the longest in U. S. history.
“If she did (leave the country), it would all but guarantee the fact that the negotiations couldn’t take place over the weekend and federal workers – 800,000 federal workers – wouldn’t receive their paychecks because she wasn’t here to help make a deal,” Sanders told reporters.
