Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) shredded President Donald Trump's latest threat to government workers during an appearance on CNN on Tuesday.
Coons joined CNN's Kasie Hunt on "The Arena" to discuss Trump's threat to not pay furloughed government workers back pay once the government reopens. Coons's comments come hours after the president told reporters that some government workers "don't deserve" to be paid once the shutdown ends.
"First, it is just illegal for President Trump to threaten not to pay furloughed federal workers," Coons said. "That's because of a statute, a law that President Trump himself signed in his first term, so he can threaten that, but it's not legal. Federal workers furloughed under a shutdown will be paid when the government reopens."
"Second, between the Republican majority in the Senate in the House and the Republican in the White House, they control whether or not this government is open or closed, what threats they're making, the ways they're trying to impose as much pain as possible," Coons said. "This is a Republican shutdown."
