Lieberman: Trump should keep making deals with Dems

Former Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is encouraging President Trump to keep making deals with Democrats.

“[Trump] can get a lot done, but it is only going to happen if there are not only Republicans, but Democrats along with him,” Lieberman told radio host John Catsimatidis in an interview that aired Sunday on AM 970 in New York.

“It was really interesting to me when President Trump negotiated that agreement with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, which extended the budget and the debt limit and got the assistance to the victims of the hurricanes quickly,” Lieberman said, referencing a deal made last month between Democratic leaders and Trump to prevent a government shutdown and offer hurricane aid.

Trump’s surprise deal with minority leaders Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) signaled that the president was willing to defy Republican guidance and reach across the aisle on policy. {mosads}

Trump reached out to them again later in the month to discuss the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program as well.

“Frankly, from a negotiating point of view, and I’m the last person who should be giving advice to Donald Trump about negotiating, if he begins to negotiate some agreements with the Democrats, it is going to make some of the Republicans who have been pushing him to do things he doesn’t want to do a little more reasonable in negotiating with him, too,” Lieberman said. 

Lieberman chairs the centrist group, No Labels, an advocacy group encouraging bipartisanship. . The group aims to build a grassroots moderate movement, with a short-term focus in early-voting like Iowa and New Hampshire.