Updated

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., defended party actions in the House that ultimately led to President Trump declaring a national emergency, and blamed Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., for forcing Trump's hand to get a wall built on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“It was the House that passed the appropriation bill with $5 billion,” McCarthy told Fox News Radio's "Brian Kilmeade Show." “It takes 218 to pass, but what I think the American public and your listeners have to understand, in the Senate it takes 60 votes.

"It wasn't the president who shut down the government, it's Schumer.”

“It was the House that passed repeal and replace of ObamaCare,” McCarthy added. “It was the Senate that came one vote short, it was the House that wrote the tax bill that passed and went over, it was the House that produced the appropriation bills. So I mean when you sit down and look at history, this is probably one of the most productive Houses we've found.”

Last week Trump decided to avoid a second shutdown by signing compromise spending legislation to fund the government. But he also declared a national emergency in order to get the funds to continue to build the wall -- causing controversy on Capitol Hill.

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McCarthy also blamed the Senate Democrats for delaying appointments to Trump’s administration.

“Everybody sits back there and the Democrats say, 'Oh, you had the White House, you had Congress and you had the Senate,'" McCarthy said. “Yes we did, but we don't have the rule, why wouldn't the president have all of his appointments yet? Because in the Senate, they hold all that time up, it is the Democrats that are making this impossible."