Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk: US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday accused President Donald Trump of putting American troops and civilians working in Afghanistan in danger by publicizing a planned congressional trip to the war-torn country, as tensions between the leaders spiked on the 28th day of a partial government shutdown.
Trump later on Friday signaled he would turn his attention from the fight over congressional travel back to the budget standoff that has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without paychecks, posting on Twitter that he would make a “major announcement” on Saturday at 3pm EST (2000 GMT) on the “humanitarian crisis” on the country’s southern border and on the partial shutdown.
The White House rejected Pelosi’s charge of endangering troops and civilians.
The Republican Trump administration, which on Thursday had blocked Democrat Pelosi from making the trip to Afghanistan, on Friday slapped a blanket ban on all US congressional travel on government-owned or operated aircraft while the shutdown continues.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the administration was just trying to keep Pelosi in town so that negotiations could take place to try to end the partial shutdown, at four weeks already the longest in US history.
Trump on Thursday had blocked Pelosi from using a military plane for a congressional trip with other high-ranking Democrats to Nato headquarters in Brussels and then Afghanistan.
Pelosi’s office then was prepared to fly commercially – an idea Trump himself raised – but on Friday morning announced the trip was being postponed because the administration had leaked details that could endanger the trip or the troops the speaker had planned to visit. A White House official denied this.
