Shortly after President Donald Trump doubled down on his pitch for Congress to greenlight $5.7 billion for a border wall in a prime-time address Tuesday, several Georgia GOP officials indicated they were standing firm behind the commander-in-chief.
“The president is right,” tweeted U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, shortly after the speech. “We need to build the border wall. Democrats have supported a border wall in the past, what happened?”
Georgia U.S. Sen. David Perdue, one of Trump’s top D.C. allies, said Trump showed “leadership by speaking directly to the American people” in his first Oval Office speech. And he echoed the president’s comments that the situation on the Southern border is a “national security crisis.”
The same went for Pooler Congressman Buddy Carter. The three-term Republican said he will “continue to call on my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to come forward with a realistic compromise plan to secure the border for the safety of all Americans."
Read more: Trump mentions Georgia killing in border wall speech
The same sentiment wasn’t being expressed on the other side of the aisle.
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, joined party leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in blaming Trump for the shutdown, which has left roughly 800,000 federal workers – including nearly 16,000 Georgians -- furloughed or working without pay.
"The President is rejecting bipartisan bills that would re-open government over his obsession with forcing American taxpayers to waste billions of dollars on an expensive and ineffective wall – a wall he always promised Mexico would pay for!” Johnson tweeted.
The social media comments show many Georgia officials aren’t wavering on Trump’s demands for wall funding even as the partial government shutdown enters its 19th day. It is now the second-longest federal funding lapse on record and is expected to extend longer as the president plans a visit to the Texas border on Thursday.
Local lawmakers have largely been relegated to the sidelines as the standoff has remained at the most senior level on Capitol Hill. All have voted with their party leaders on spending legislation in recent weeks.
Read more: Trump border wall speech: Read the full transcript
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