WASHINGTON – House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said President Donald Trump and the Republican Party are “marching the country” into a government shutdown over their refusal to meet with Democrats and strike a deal to save health care funding from cuts.

Jeffries told the Associated Press in an interview late Friday that he remained hopeful Congress could reach an agreement to prevent a federal funding lapse next week, ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline .

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But with Republicans having canceled next week’s House voting session and Trump canceling his meeting with the Democratic leaders this week, he said, “the onus is on Donald Trump to show some presidential leadership.”

“Donald Trump and Republicans are chaos agents,” Jeffries said. “At moments in time that

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