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The White House can make all the threats it wants about executive power and shutdowns and national emergencies. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows she retains the authority of Congress to curtail him.
"There will not be another shutdown," she told told Politico in an interview Wednesday. "No, it's not going to happen." She says going there again would be "too hot to handle" for Trump and the Republicans after their disastrous 35-day shutdown. Pelosi remains firm that there will be no new wall money in the agreement House and Senate negotiators work out, and that there will be a deal by the Feb. 15 deadline.
She also has some advice both for her fellow House Democrats and for Trump in dealing with the new reality of a House that is not there to be his rubber stamp. In response to Trump's attacks on House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and his threats about investigations in his State of the Union, Pelosi dismissed the speech, saying "Don’t waste your time on this. This is theatrics, this is not government. […] We just take this in stride.”
And as for Trump, when he "makes an assault on Mr. Schiff and congressional responsibility for oversight, he is making an assault on the Constitution of the United States, the separation of powers, co-equal branches of government," Pelosi said. "We honor the institution in which we serve, the Congress of the United States. I hope he would honor it, too." Consider it a not-so-subtle reminder to Trump that he's not king anymore.