Skip to main content

Va. Rep. Walkinshaw: Mass firing threat an ‘amateurish attempt to negotiate’ amid looming shutdown

By Nick Iannelli

Newly elected Virginia Rep. James Walkinshaw says that President Donald Trump’s administration’s threat of mass firing was an “amateurish attempt to negotiate” amid a looming government shutdown.

Walkinshaw, a Democrat whose Virginia district is home to many residents who are part of the federal workforce, talked with WTOP anchor Nick Iannelli on Thursday and shared what he said everyone in Congress should be doing.

Listen to the interview below.

The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.

US House campaigns are underway. Yet a redistricting battle triggered by Trump rages in some states

By The Associated Press
Candidates are campaigning and voting is underway in some primaries. Yet a national battle to redraw U.S. House districts for partisan advantage is still raging in some states ahead of the November midterm elections. Voters in Texas and North Carolina already have cast ballots in primary elections for U.S. House districts redrawn at President Donald Trump's urging. But the final boundaries for voting districts remain uncertain in Missouri, even though candidates already are filing for office. And they also are unclear in Virginia, where new congressional districts could hinge both on a voter referendum and court rulings. Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump triggered an unusual round of mid-decade redistricting when he urged Texas Republicans last summer to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterm elections. California Democrats reciprocated, and a tit-for-tat redistricting clash soon spread. So far, Republicans believe they could win nine additional seats in states where they have redrawn congressional districts, while Democrats think they could gain six seats elsewhere because of redistricting. But that presumes past voting patterns hold in November. And that's uncertain, especially since the party in power typically loses seats in the midterms and Trump faces negative approval ratings in polls.
Read Next Story

Related News

US House campaigns are underway. Yet a redistricting battle triggered by Trump rages in some states

Spanberger signs bill that could give Democrats more seats in Congress

‘The worst possible nightmare you’ve ever had’: 2-year-old, 3 adults dead in apparent murder-suicide in Woodbridge