Political Analyst Steve Flowers Weighs In on Alabama Senator Richard Shelby’s Role in Border Security Deal
Alabama Senator Richard Shelby is in the spotlight for his role in negotiating a deal to fund some sort of border barrier and avert another government shutdown.
“He’s getting a lot of positive media press around the country because he’s a conciliator he’s not a partisan person that is trying to take one side or the other,” says Political Analyst Steve Flowers.
After meeting last week with President Trump, Shelby was given applause Tuesday by Trump in a tweet on the border security deal. Political Analyst Steve Flowers says Shelby’s confidence and support for Trump could also put him under fire.
“He’s used to it. he’s by far one of the strongest leaders in Alabama political history and so he doesn’t mind taking the heat or being responsible for getting things worked out,” says Flowers.
Flowers says if the president doesn’t agree to the compromise and decides to declare a national emergency declaration some in the republican party will not be happy.
“This shutdown is hurting Trump and when it hurts Trump it hurts republican party. So the republican leadership and the senate is saying look you can act crazy all you want to all these crazy childish things but after a while you’ve got to wake up we’re either going to cut you out of the budget and not give you any money at all or you’re going to act like a reasonable person,” says Flowers.
Flowers says with Shelby leading negotiations, he’s confident lawmakers will approve the deal.
“Shelby has more power than Trump. He writes the federal budget so Trump doesn’t want to make Shelby mad to the contrary.
The president has not said whether he’ll sign the border wall deal, but he did say earlier this week that he did not expect the government to shutdown again.
As part of the compromise, democrats dropped their demands that a cap be put on the number of immigrants. Immigration and customs officials can detain at any given time.
