Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) gave a stunning reason for why President Donald Trump rejected a bipartisan deal to partially fund the Department of Homeland Security.

“The Democrats have offered to open up everything but ICE,” Kennedy told Fox News’ Will Cain Monday night. “Ted [Cruz] and I said, ‘okay, let’s accept their offer.’”

“At the same time, we would offer a bill for reconciliation where we don’t need any Democratic votes to do whatever we wanted to do with ICE,” he continued. “That way, we’re out of the shutdown, and DHS is back open. Senator Thune submitted that to President Trump, as is his right, he said no. No deals with the Democrats.”

Kennedy added that since the deal was rejected by Trump, Senate Republicans will attempt to fund all of DHS through a party-line budget reconciliation bill. He said the process will likely take longer, but it will satisfy the president’s desire that no deal be cut with Democrats.

Politico reported on Monday that Republicans may have a path forward to ending the shutdown, but said its unclear if they’ll be able get the House, Senate and the White House behind a bill.

Homeland Security staff, including TSA agents have been working without pay since the shutdown began on Feb. 14.

Watch Kennedy’s full interview here:

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