Skip to main content

Sarah Sanders Holds First White House Briefing Since Before Government Shutdown

Share This article

WASHINGTON – In her first White House briefing since before the partial government shutdown, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders doubled down on the president's demand for border wall funding.

"The President is committed to fixing the problem and its pretty simple, we have three weeks to negotiate in good faith," Sanders said.

Right now, a bipartisan effort is in the works to come up with a plan all sides can agree on.

President Donald Trump, however, doesn't have high hopes for negotiations with Democrats, saying he believes there is less than 50 percent chance for a deal.

At the center of the talks remains funding for the commander in chief's border wall to the tune of $5.7 billion.

"The goal is border security and protecting the American people," Sanders said. "The President does not want to go through another shutdown."

If lawmakers can't come to an agreement, the government might shut down again – or Trump will declare a national emergency to enable him to build the wall without direct congressional funding.

The last White House press briefing was on Dec. 18. Trump took to Twitter to explain the reason behind the lack of q&a in the West Wing briefing room.

Share This article

About The Author

Ben
Kennedy

Ben Kennedy is an Emmy Award-winning White House correspondent for CBN News in Washington, D.C. He has more than a decade of reporting experience covering breaking news nationwide. He's traveled cross country covering the President and scored exclusive interviews with lawmakers and White House officials. Kennedy spent seven years reporting for WPLG, the ABC affiliate in Miami, Florida. While there he reported live from Kingston, Jamaica, as Hurricane Matthew hit the island. He was the first journalist to interview Diana Nyad moments after her historic swim from Cuba to Key West. He reported