Empty Chair Part Deux: Trolling “Chancy”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi were missing for a legislative strategy session at the White House with President Trump Tuesday afternoon.

President Trump called out the Democrat leaders for boycotting the meeting by leaving two seats conspicuously empty accusing them of being "all talk" and "no action." The President said he would blame Schumer and Pelosi if the government shuts down.  

"Meeting with 'Chuck and Nancy' today about keeping government open and working. Problem is they want illegal immigrants flooding into our country unchecked, are weak on crime and want to substantially raise taxes. I don’t see a deal!" Trump tweeted. 

The current funding bill expires on Dec. 8, leaving Congress less than two weeks to work out a deal or approve a stopgap bill to buy more time for talks. 

Democrats are demanding the inclusion of a measure that would allow certain young undocumented immigrants to continue to live and work in the U.S.  They want to provide a fix for people who benefitted from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama-era initiative that Trump cancelled earlier this year. 

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement, "It's disappointing that Senator Schumer and Leader Pelosi are refusing to come to the table and discuss urgent issues. The President's invitation to the Democrat leaders still stands and he encourages them to put aside their pettiness, stop the political grandstanding, show up and get to work. These issues are too important."

Trolling the two butthurt Dems with the empty seats in the Roosevelt Room reminded me of another notable empty chair scenario.  Picture it.  The year was 2012.  The Oscar-winning actor/director/legend Clint Eastwood entered the Tampa Bay Times Forum, the site of the RNC Convention, in dramatic fashion with the backdrop screen showing a large silhouette of him from the film “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”.  The speakers in the arena were blaring the score from the film. The crowd ate it up.

The long-time Republican, endorsed Romney at an Idaho fundraiser at the beginning of August, where he told reporters that he was backing the GOP presidential candidate "because I think the country needs a boost somewhere."

Eastwood addressed an invisible President Obama sitting in an empty chair.  He told the chair it was a “national disgrace” and maybe it was “time for someone else to come along and solve the problem.”

Laughter rang out in the arena as Eastwood pretended the invisible Obama was uttering colorful objections.

"What do you want me to tell Romney?" Eastwood asked the empty chair. "I can't tell him to do that to himself…you're getting as bad as Biden…of course, we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it."