The GOP leaders, right wing pundits, Russian bots are at it again in regurgitating the latest GOP talking point that both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party lawmakers as well as the republican President Donald Trump are at fault for the 2019 longest government shutdown in US history because the US Congress would not allocate $5.7 billion dollars for his US SW border wall.

Most Americans are well aware that going back to the years of 2017 and 2018, that most of the GOP members (3 out of 4) in the US congress were singing a different sour tune about the efficacy of the presidents US SW border wall than from the tune they’re singing today in January 2019. As the GOP lawmakers continue to support the president’s government shutdown, harming hard working public servants who were forced to forego their paychecks or have them delayed, remember that those past 2017-2018 GOP lawmakers’ comments regarding the wall will become fodder for future Democratic Party campaign ads.

So despite President Trump never getting the funding for his wall beyond $1.6 billion dollars when both houses in the US Congress were led by republican majorities in 2017, 2018, why did he think, that the 2019 US House being led by a majority of Democrats would do anything differently?

The answer is, he didn’t expect them to accede to his demands to grant additional funding for his US SW border wall. Whether it was in 2018 when he did not negotiate in good faith with the Democratic Party leaders of the US Congress over the DACA immigration issue, or in 2019 with his unrealistic demands, based on lies that there’s an immigration security crisis at the SW border requiring the building of his wall, he was never intending to negotiate in good faith with members of his own party or with Democrats.

He had wanted his shutdown in 2017 over inadequate funding for his wall but cooler heads prevailed where he didn’t act. He wanted the shutdown in 2018 for the same reasons where, there was a 3 day January 2018 shutdown but Democrats ended it despite not garnering concessions for DACA dreamers. This time in 2018, he managed to convince himself that he could earn political points with s shutdown by shifting the blame onto Democrats for not conceding to his demands, as they now are the majority party in the US Congress. In addition, he would benefit by consolidating the support of his base of voters by catering to his hard-line anti-immigration backers.

To think that President Trump with his GOP cohort in the US Senate, the Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would allow the suffering of 100s of thousands of federal government employees to continue, via this shutdown since December 22nd with no end in sight, so they could score political points is unfathomable, but both these GOP leaders are more than up to the task.

See: Dear GOP, There’s Ample Data Proving That Trump’s Shutdown Over Funding For Wall Is A Sham

See: President’s History Of Demands For His Wall Proves His Current 2019 Stance Is A political Stunt

See: There Are Corporate Donors In Favor Of Small Government Who Are Cheering Gov Shutdown

Here is the rest of the story…

This time, the FOX News reporter, Shep Smith challenged his FOX TV collegue, Chris Wallace on this issue,

I saw this tweet by Andrew Wortman on 1/18/19:

As per a 1/18/19 Raw Story report, Fox News’ Shep Smith schools his colleague for framing shutdown as a problem caused by ‘both sides’ by  Dominique Jackson,

On Friday (1/18/19), Fox News host Shep Smith said that President Donald Trump is to blame for the government shutdown. This is mainly because the president said that he would own the shutdown in an effort to get his border wall. The shutdown is headed into its fourth week and millions of Americans are being impacted.”

“While interviewing his colleague Chris Wallace, Smith called him out for blaming “both sides” for the shutdown. Smith argued that it “was all on” Trump.”

“The president said I’m shutting down the government. I’ll own the shutdown. I’ll carry the mantle and he shut the government down. That’s that,” Smith said.”

“I mean it takes two to tango,” Wallace said.

“There’s no tango here. The president said I’m ‘shutting the government down,’” Smith responded.”

“Smith then explained that the Democrats won the majority in the House during the midterm election in part because they promised that Trump would not get his border wall.”

“He said, “The president in the midterms said ‘you have to vote for Republicans because the Democrats aren’t going to give us a wall.’ The Democrats ran in the mid-terms in 2018 saying ‘we’re not giving him a wall.’”

“They won 40 seats plus in the House of Representatives and they’re not giving him a wall.  [Trump] closed down the government. That’s what happened. He can reopen it tomorrow just like he closed it down. It’s all on him,” Smith said.”