WASHINGTON – As the government shutdown passed its 31st day, President Donald Trump marked Monday's federal holiday with a wreath-laying at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. After he and Vice President Mike Pence stood for a moment of silence, Trump told reporters: "Good morning, everybody. Great day. Beautiful day. Thank you for being here. Appreciate it." The visit lasted less than two minutes on a very cold day. Trump said nothing about the partial government shutdown, two days after making a proposal that Democrats rejected as inadequate. Unveiled during a nationally televised speech Saturday, Trump's plan included an offer of three years of legal status for certain migrants in exchange for funding of his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats rejected the idea, in part because the proposal did not address a path to citizenship for migrants who include "Dreamers," people brought into country illegally as children by their parents. Trump criticized the other party in a morning tweet: "Democrats campaigned on working within Washington and 'getting things done!' How is that working out?" Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he plans to move Trump's proposal through the Republican-run Senate; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the Trump plan is a non-starter in the Democratic-run House. "His proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives," Pelosi said, "each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people’s lives."<doc-sep>(CNN) — President Donald Trump made a brief, unannounced visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the National Mall in recognition of the holiday honoring the civil rights icon. Trump laid a wreath Monday morning at the foot of the memorial alongside Vice President Mike Pence before quickly returning to his motorcade. “It’s a great day. A beautiful day. Thank you for being here. Appreciate it,” Trump told reporters as he stood before the large statue of King. The President’s visit to the memorial site – which is overseen by the National Park Service – came on the 31st day of the government shutdown, which has left the National Park Service unfunded. The President began Martin Luther King Jr. Day by touting economic growth on Twitter and releasing a presidential proclamation for the holiday. “Today we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear, that no matter what the color of our skin or the place of our birth, we are all created equal by God. #MLKDay,” Trump tweeted Monday morning. The proclamation cited job growth and new criminal justice reform laws as strides made during his administration. “We recommit ourselves to the advancement of equality and justice for all Americans, and to the full realization of (Martin Luther King Jr.’s) worthy dream,” it read. Soon after tweeting the proclamation, the President took to attacking Democrats. “Democrats campaigned on working within Washington and ‘getting things done!’ How is that working out?#2020TAKEBACKTHEHOUSE,” Trump tweeted. Last year Trump spent the holiday golfing at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida. A day ahead of the holiday last year, the President declared that he was “not a racist” following reports alleging he had referred to Haiti and some African nations as “s**thole countries” in a closed-door meeting about immigration. In 2017, Trump kicked off MLK weekend by zeroing-in on one of his frequent critics, civil rights activist and Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis. The Saturday ahead of the holiday, Trump tweeted that Lewis “should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results.” He also met with Martin Luther King III at Trump Tower in New York. The last three presidents often took part in service projects to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But like last year, Trump is not scheduled to participate in any service projects on the federal holiday he and every other US president have designated as a “day of service” since 1994. US presidents have typically observed the holiday publicly, making remarks or attending events honoring the day.<doc-sep>Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersSenate competitiveness bill includes B authorization for Bezos space company Sanders wants government to get 'piece' of US semiconductor companies in exchange for aid Poll: 51 percent oppose Sanders-led resolution to block weapons sales to Israel MORE (I-Vt.) in a speech commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday accused President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE of trying to divide Americans. "Today we say to Donald Trump: We are not going back to more bigotry, discrimination and division," Sanders said at an NAACP rally in Columbia, S.C. "We are going forward toward a non-discriminatory society where, as Dr. King reminded us, we judge people not by the 'color of their skin, but by the content of their character,' ” he added. ADVERTISEMENT Sanders said Trump has done what no other president in modern history has: "[I]nstead of bring us together as Americans, he has purposely and aggressively attempted to divide us up by the color of our skin, by our gender, by our nationality, by our religion and by our sexual orientation." Sanders, who is expected to run again for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 2020, called Trump a racist, a line he has repeated many times. He used the speech to tout many of his policy platforms, like a $15 an hour minimum wage and "Medicare for all." He also called for "real criminal justice reform" that includes investing in jobs and education, instead of "more jails and incarceration." Sanders also criticized the border wall Trump wants to build, arguing the money should instead be used to "put people in this country to work building the affordable housing we desperately need."<doc-sep>Bernie Sanders chose to spend Martin Luther King Jr. Day blasting President Trump and calling him a “racist.” The senator’s remarks came while he was speaking on the steps of the South Carolina State Capitol during an NAACP rally. “Today we talk about justice and today we talk about racism, and I must tell you it gives me no pleasure to tell you that we now have a president of the United States who is a racist,” Sanders said. “We have a president of the United States who has done something that no other president in modern history has done. What a president is supposed to do is to bring us together. And we have a president intentionally, purposely … trying to divide us up by the color of our skin, by our gender, by the country we came from, by our religion.” Sanders (I-Vt.) was joined by local leaders and lawmakers during the event — including New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker — but the others refused to launch personal attacks on the president and instead kept the focus on MLK Jr. and civil rights. “I’ve come to learn in this country that we have a common pain, but we seem to have lost a sense of common purpose,” Booker said. “We need each other. We must awaken a more courageous empathy.” The Democratic lawmaker added, “This is not a time for us to rest in our country. The work is not done. The dream still demands.” While neither has announced their candidacy, both Sanders and Booker have been pegged as potential hopefuls for the 2020 Democratic primary race. Booker told reporters on Monday that he was “not that far from making a decision” about a possible campaign. “It’s about them showing their presence,” said Q’ladrin Qourters, a student with the NAACP Aiken Collegiate Chapter who spoke to CBS News. “This will be my first time seeing their faces, so if it is their initiative of showing that they’re going to be for the youth and showing what they’re going to do then, hey, I’m all for it.”<doc-sep>
Senator Bernie Sanders strongly criticized President Donald Trump in a speech marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day that contrasted the president with the renowned civil rights activist. "Today, we say to Donald Trump: We are not going back to more bigotry, discrimination and division," Sanders, an independent politician from Vermont, said during a rally for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in South Carolina on Monday, as The Hill first reported. "We are going forward, toward a nondiscriminatory society where, as Dr. King reminded us, we judge people not by the 'color of their skin, but by the content of their character.'" Sanders accused Trump of failing to bring Americans together, arguing that the president has instead "purposely and aggressively attempted to divide us up by the color of our skin, by our gender, by our nationality, by our religion and by our sexual orientation." The progressive senator is expected by many supporters to run for president in 2020. He has been a regular critic of Trump since the 2016 presidential campaign, when he ran against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Throughout his long political career, Sanders has remained a prominent progressive voice in Washington, championing social issues before they were accepted by the mainstream political establishment. During the civil rights era, he was active with the movement and was arrested while demonstrating alongside black Americans. In his Monday remarks, Sanders also raised the issues of criminal justice reform, education and creating jobs. He took aim at Trump's proposal to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, arguing that funds required for such an expensive project could be used instead to "put people in this country to work building the affordable housing we desperately need." Former Vice President Joe Biden, who served under President Barack Obama, also attacked Trump in a speech at a breakfast to honor MLK hosted by the National Action Network. He argued that "forces of darkness" persist within the U.S., arguing "they have been deliberately reawakened again," Fox News reported. Dr. King's vision of ending the triple evils of racism, economic injustice and war is as important today as it was when Dr. King fought for those principles, and must motivate us in all of our work. #MLKDay — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 21, 2019 Biden, who is also weighing a possible 2020 presidential run, then pointed to Trump's response following a 2017 white supremacist rally in Virginia that left one counterdemonstrator dead and dozens injured. Instead of condemning the protestors associated with the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups, Trump insisted there were "very fine people on both sides." "Having a president of the United States make a moral equivalence between those who are spreading the hate and those who are opposing it," Biden said, "no president since the Civil War has ever, ever, ever uttered words like that." Prominent Democrats pointing to the clear distinction between Trump and MLK stand in contrast to Vice President Mike Pence, who on Sunday argued that the president was similar to the civil rights icon. His comments have been widely criticized and discredited by historians and activists. Princeton University professor Julian Zelizer told CNN on Monday morning that Trump's policies are actually "antithetical to absolutely everything Martin Luther King fought for."