WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) was on MSNBC Live today to discuss the Trump shutdown. Below are excerpts from the interview and a link to the video. “…Former Congressman Mick Mulvaney, who now is the acting Chief Of Staff… is somebody who voted to keep the government shut down over the urging of his own leadership in the Congress of United States after it had been shut down for 16 days… This is not a guy who is, I think, interested in making sure that the government is open and available and stabilizing for the American people, and I think that's unfortunate. I hope in this effort he understands that shutting down the government, I think, across the aisle, Republican and Democrats, think is a dumb way to go and a hurtful way to go and undermines the confidence of the American people and is undermining the confidence in the markets. This is a policy with great cost.”

“The President agreed to a [Continuing Resolution] to keep the government active until February 8. He agreed to that… All the Democrats in the House were prepared to vote for that and to move on and have these further negotiations without the government being closed down. In fact, yesterday, I went to the Floor and asked for recognition to make a unanimous consent request that he pass that agreement that the President agreed to on Wednesday and then decided… that he wasn't for it on Thursday. This is a very irresponsible action by the President. I hear the talk about his base. His base is the American people. His base is the people he swore an oath to serve and serve well. This is not some political event. This is a very serious adverse action the President of the United States has taken to shut down the government… It is unfortunate that a government shutdown seems to be a policy being pursued by Republicans to achieve what otherwise through the democratic process they can't achieve.”

“…I'm going to schedule a bill early on, maybe in the first couple of days, maybe the first day – we don't know what the situation is going to be at that point in time – to open up the government pursuant to the agreement that was reached and then was reneged upon by the President. The majority of the American people in polls indicate that they're not for the wall, and they certainly don't think shutting down the government over the disagreement as to whether the wall is an effective, efficient way to keep our borders secure. The public is with us and not with the President on that issue.”