Pelosi is "very bad for our country," Trump says in exclusive CBS News interview
Days before a State of the Union address in which he's expected to stress unity, President Trump said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is "very bad for the country," in an exclusive interview with CBS News "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan.
The president also suggested Pelosi "doesn't mind human trafficking," or she wouldn't oppose funding his border wall. Mr. Trump sat down for nearly an hour in the White House Blue Room Friday afternoon in a wide-ranging interview that will air on "Face the Nation" Sunday morning and prior to the Super Bowl.
"Well, I think that she was very rigid — which I would expect — but I think she's very bad for our country," the president said, when asked what he learned after negotiating with Pelosi in recent weeks. "She knows that you need a barrier. She knows that we need border security. She wanted to win a political point. I happen to think it's very bad politics because basically, she wants open borders. She doesn't mind human trafficking or she wouldn't do this."
Brennan's interview with the president comes days before his first State of the Union address in a divided government, and two weeks before government funding for several federal departments and agencies runs out on Feb. 15. The president continues to insist on billions for his border wall and has threatened to declare a national emergency at the border, which would give him the unilateral authority to use military funds to build a wall without a congressional appropriation. Pelosi postponed his State of the Union speech, which would have taken place this week, citing the government shutdown. She then re-invited the president to deliver his address Tuesday.
Mr. Trump said Thursday he doesn't think lawmakers will reach a deal to fund his border wall. Mr. Trump told Brennan that Pelosi is doing a "terrible disservice to our country."
"She's — she's costing the country hundreds of billions of dollars because what's happening is, when you have a porous border and when you have drugs pouring in, and when you have people dying all over the country because of people like Nancy Pelosi who don't want to give proper border security for political reasons — she's doing a terrible disservice to our country," the president told Brennan Friday.
Pelosi's deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill responded to the president's remarks, saying, "The president knows, bluster aside, that Democrats are committed to securing our borders while upholding our values as a nation. The president should stop undermining bipartisan efforts to do just that."
"President Trump's recklessness didn't make us safer, it undermined our security with 35 days of border patrol agents, DEA agents, FBI agents and Homeland Security personnel missing paychecks. Democrats have put forward strong, smart and effective border security solutions in the bipartisan conference committee, while the President still refuses to take a second shutdown off the table," Hammill said.
Hammill added that Pelosi also has a "record of fighting human trafficking and supporting the Violence Against Women Act."
For nearly two decades, presidents have sat for interviews ahead of the Super Bowl. CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz first interviewed then-President George W. Bush before the Super Bowl kicked off in 2004.
This was the president's fifth on-camera interview with CBS News since he took office in January 2017.
More of the interview will air on "Face the Nation" Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m., and before the Super Bowl at 3:30 p.m.