Schrier says she hasnt made a decision about whether shed cave to the P
Schrier doesn't yet know if she'd cave to the President on wall funding. Courtesy of Kim Schrier's Campaign

In an interview with Q13, newly elected Congresswoman Kim Schrier (WA-08) said she hasn't yet "made a decision" about whether she'd cave to President Trump's demands and vote to give him billions of dollars for his racist border wall in exchange for opening up the government. Even though she referred to the wall as “ineffective, expensive, and a poor use of taxpayer dollars” in the same interview, and even though it sure sounds like she doesn't approve of the President's negotiating tactics here, for some reason she remains cautious about committing to never voting to spend billions of dollars on a racist monument obtained by holding 800,000 paychecks hostage. Her current position breaks with the messaging from Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nanci Pelosi, who have told Trump in no uncertain terms that they won't give him any more wall funding to reopen the government.

This is beyond disappointing. This is Dino Rossi.


Because Q13 didn't explicitly ask if Schrier would vote to fund a wall in exchange for reopening the government, though the Tweet frames it that way, I asked Schrier's staff directly. In a statement, Schrier gave me the same line: "I don’t have new legislation to make a decision about yet. When I have something to review, I will make a decision and vote my conscience."

Sound familiar? That's because Dino Rossi gave a similar line every time didn't want to answer a question about how he'd vote on a bill as a Congressman. He wouldn't even say he'd vote for the GOP tax cuts because he hadn't seen the legislation first.

But on the substance of the thing: In a 2010 interview Rossi said he wanted "a tall fence with a high gate." At the one-and-only debate between Rossi and Schrier in fall of 2018, Schrier criticized him for supporting the wall. She differentiated herself from him by saying she supports a stand-alone bill to prevent Dreamers from being deported back to countries they don't call home. She was willing to stand up for immigrants and their families then, and now she doesn't know if she'd vote to fund Trump's wall? Even after "diagnosing" the President's behavior as "a tantrum," she still doesn't know if she'd ever vote to fund a dumb, expensive, environmentally disastrous, inhumane border wall under any circumstances?

Other Washington Democrats don't seem so confused on the issue. In a statement, Rep. Derek Kilmer said "the wall is not an effective way to address this issue." Rep. Jayapal called it a "fantasy," adding that "The American people are sick and tired of his border wall obsession." Those are the correct answers. "I haven't made a decision" is the wrong answer.

When voters picked Schrier over Rossi in 2018, they thought they were voting for someone who wouldn't bullshit them about basic moral principles. Looks like they may have been mistaken.