A federal worker who has been furloughed under the government shutdown said on MSNBC that he wishes President Donald Trump would put his much-vaunted negotiating skills to work in resolving the government shutdown.
J. David Cox and David Fitzpatrick of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) told MSNBC anchor Yasmin Vossoughian that their union is less than impressed with Trump's handling of the crisis so far.
"I'd rather be at work at this time," Fitzpatrick said, "and hopefully this doesn't go on long enough that I'm not going to receive pay."
Vossoughian said that 48 percent of the public blames the president and the GOP for the shutdown, to which Cox agreed, saying, "The buck stops with the president."
"When Mr. Trump was running for president, he said he was the great negotiator," said Fitzpatrick. "And here we are, his first test and it doesn't look like he's such a great negotiator in my eyes."
Vossoughian asked if that means Fitzpatrick blames Trump for the shutdown.
"Well, he's the guy that ran on that," Fitzpatrick said. "So get the Congress together, get the two houses together and negotiate. As union leaders, we do it every day, we negotiate with management."
"So, show your skills," he said. "Get out there and negotiate and let's get back to work."
Watch the video, embedded below:
