Pete King: GOP has ‘obligation’ to make concessions to Democrats on border wall

New York Rep. Pete King (R) said his party should make concessions to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) if the president is serious about reopening the government.

In an interview set to air Sunday with AM 970’s “The Answer,” King told host John Catsimatidis that both sides bear responsibility for the ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government, which Sunday stretched into its 16th day.

{mosads}“I’m basically critical of both sides here. I don’t think you should shut the government down over any one issue,” King told the radio host. “It’s a very dangerous precedent to set.”

“[The Democrats] have an obligation to negotiate honestly with the president. And also the Republicans have an obligation to make concessions,” he continued.

King doubled down on his call for “both sides” to compromise on funding for border security, accusing both the White House and Democrats in Congress of playing to their respective bases.

“There should be concessions made on both sides. If they want to make a deal, there is so much there that could be done,” King says. “Both sides are just appealing to their base. But that leaves out the great majority of the country: the middle of the country that does want to compromise.”

King’s comments come following remarks from White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that the president was willing to compromise with Democrats and take his demand for a concrete barrier “off the table” in favor of steel fencing.

“[The president] was willing to agree, and he mentioned this at the Rose Garden press conference, to take a concrete wall off the table,” Mulvaney said.

“If that is not evidence of our willingness to solve the problem,” the top Trump aide continued. “Because again, what’s driving this is the president’s desire to change the conditions at the border. And if he has to give up a concrete wall, replace it with a steel fence in order to do that so that Democrats can say, ‘See? He’s not building a wall anymore’ that should help us move in the right direction.”

Democrats including Pelosi have refused to budge on funding for the wall in a bill to reopen the government, pledging to offer nothing to the White House in terms of funds usable for construction of a border wall.

“We’re not doing a wall. Does anybody have any doubt about that? We are not doing a wall. So that’s that,” she said this week.