Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) asserted on Monday that President Donald Trump has been operating in "good faith" during the government shutdown negotiations even though he reneged on an agreement that would have kept the government open.
During an interview on CNN, Arrington argued that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Democratic leadership were "irrational" because they have not accepted Trump's offer of three years of protection for young immigrants in exchange for a border wall and reopening the government.
"But I would say that the president has been operating in good faith," the Texas Republican insisted to CNN's Jim Sciutto. "And I think this latest proposal, with a three-year extension, is meaningful. And the Democrats have to move in good faith towards him or they're going to lose the support from the American people because they want reasonableness, and they understand the government has to compromise."
Sciutto interrupted to remind Arrington that Trump's negotiations did not meet the definition of "good faith."
"How is it good faith," Sciutto asked, "if the president supported before the holidays legislation to reopen the government and the Republican Senate -- Republican-controlled Senate did and then the president reversed on an agreement he previously supported? How is that good-faith negotiations?"
"Listen," Arrington stuttered, "the president has asked repeatedly [for] Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat [sic] leadership, if he were to do this that and the other that they are asking for, would they give him the proposal and mainly that fundamental component of physical barriers and she just rejects it out of hand."
"It's an irrational position," the congressman said of Pelosi. "It's irrational to say walls are immoral when in fact Democrats have voted for it, when in fact walls work."
Watch the video below from CNN.
