White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday discussed the challenges associated with obtaining bipartisan consensus and finalizing a budget, saying Democrats are "penalizing the country" as the threat of a government shutdown looms.
Sanders appeared on Fox New's "Fox and Friends" where she said the White House is still "optimistic concerning the budget deal," but they want a "clean budget bill." She further explained the administration hopes Democrats don’t hold the funding of the government "hostage" over the political battle surrounding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program.
"We need to keep those two things separate. We're still hopeful that we could get a budget deal done–a clean budget–by the end of this week, and certainly hope we can make a deal on DACA and on border security and our immigration system," Sanders said. "This is something that needs to be done."
"Hopefully Democrats come to the table and really be serious about making a deal on both of these things that we want to get done," Sanders added.
"What's the problem? What is the issue that's holding this up?" asked by co-host Ainsley Earhardt.
"Sadly, I think it's really simple. I think Democrats don’t want to see this president be successful," Sanders said. I think he's had a huge year in 2017; one of the best first years of any president that we’ve seen. "
"You have win after win after win with this president, and I don't think they want to hand him another one," Sanders continued. "The problem is, what they’re doing is there penalizing the country, and that's a really really sad thing. And hopefully Democrats will stop doing that and they start putting their country before their party, and really focus on things they were elected to come here and do."
Sanders then encouraged Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) to join with some of their Democratic colleagues who support a clean budget bill and pass legislation this week to keep the government and military funded.