President Trump engages in a contentious debate with the incoming House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in the Oval Office, Dec. 11, 2018 (video screenshot)

In a speech from the Senate floor Wednesday morning in which he blamed President Trump for the partial government shutdown — saying the country is “suffering self-inflicted damage” — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer let it slip that the American people voted for a wall by voting for Trump.

Schumer charged Trump “is using the American government as leverage in an attempt to extract taxpayer money for a border wall he promised Mexico would pay for.”

The New York Democrat said he hears talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh saying Trump promised a wall in the 2016 presidential campaign.

“No, he didn’t. He promised a wall that Mexico would pay for,” Schumer said. “He never said once, that I can recall, in the campaign, ‘But if Mexico doesn’t pay for it, we’ll pay for it.'”

Then came the words that grabbed Limbaugh’s attention on his show Wednesday.

“Of course, people voted for it! (pause) Or some. (pause) Not that many,” Schumer said.

Limbaugh, who played a clip of the remarks on his show, said, “See? He caught himself. He stepped in it so big at the end.”

“‘Of course, people voted for it,’ meaning: It’s the epitome of common sense to stop illegal immigration. ‘Of course, people voted for it.’ Schumer knows the drill,” Limbaugh said.

“He knows why people voted for Trump. This is manufactured, that Trump’s promise was exclusive with Mexico paying for it.”

Limbaugh likened Trump saying Mexico is going to pay for the wall to Trump’s remark, “Hey, Russia, maybe you can find the missing Hillary emails.”

“There isn’t a Trump voter out there who believes the wall was only going to be built if Mexico paid for it,” Limbaugh said.

Support for wall increasing

Schumer, the talk host said, made a “purposeful misrepresentation” of Trump’s intent.

The only response Democrats can muster, Limbaugh said, is to “to try to poke holes in what Trump said.”

Limbaugh believes Trump will prevail in the standoff over his $5.7 billion request for border-security funding opposed by Democrats that led to the partial government shutdown.

He cited a Washington Examiner story reporting a new poll shows support for the wall is at an all-time high.

While the ABC  News and Washington Post poll showed  a minority, 42 percent, support building a border wall, the figure was just 34 percent only a few months ago.

For the left, he said, it’s discouraging that the number of people supporting a wall is continuing to increase.

“And so all of this scuttlebutt that you’re hearing, the American people massively opposed to the wall, it isn’t true,” he said. More and more people are supporting it.”

Article printed from WND: http://www.wnd.com

URL to article: http://www.wnd.com/2019/01/schumer-admits-americans-voted-for-wall/