Trump said the president should be blamed for a government shutdown

Watch Trump said the president should be blamed for a government shutdown - Rizzle on Dailymotion

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00:00CNN anchor Caitlin Collins resurfaced past remarks by President Donald Trump that directly

00:09contradict his current stance on the ongoing government shutdown.

00:13Collins recently aired several clips from before Trump became president, in which he

00:17insisted that the president, not Congress, should be held responsible when the government

00:21shuts down.

00:23The resurfaced footage drew renewed attention as Trump and his allies now blame Democrats

00:27for the current impasse.

00:29During a recent panel discussion, Collins reminded her guests, GOP analyst Scott Jennings and

00:35Democratic strategist Karen Finney, of earlier statements Trump made.

00:40Scott, one thing that people have been reminding me of today is what President Trump himself

00:44used to say before he was president, about what happens when there is a government shutdown.

00:49She said, before his presidency, Donald Trump frequently criticized sitting presidents for

00:54shutdowns, saying leadership failures at the top were to blame.

00:58I hear the Democrats are going to be blamed and the Republicans are going to be blamed.

01:03I actually think the president would be blamed, Trump said in one clip Collins played.

01:08If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president

01:12of the United States.

01:13He's the one that has to get people together.

01:15Trump's comments, made years before he took office, were part of a pattern in which he portrayed

01:20government dysfunction as a sign of poor presidential leadership.

01:24In another exchange, he told an interviewer, problems start from the top and they have to

01:28get solved from the top.

01:29The president's the leader and he's got to get everybody in a room and he's got to lead.

01:34The ongoing government shutdown began amid partisan gridlock over spending bills and health care

01:39funding. President Trump and Congressional Republicans have sought to pin responsibility

01:44on Democrats, arguing that the minority party is blocking funding to give all these illegal

01:49aliens free health care, a claim fact checkers have repeatedly ruled false.

01:54Democrats, meanwhile, have said the blame rests squarely on Trump and the GOP, who currently control

02:00both the White House and Congress. Collins' segment underscored this contradiction by showing Trump's

02:05own past insistence that ultimate responsibility lies with the president.