This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Pressure Builds on Republican Senate to End Government Shutdown as Trump Prepares a Visit
Trump Storms Out of White House Meeting with Democrats on Shutdown
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Trump, hours after making a direct televised appeal to the nation, is facing growing uneasiness within his party that threatens to undercut his use of a prolonged government shutdown to pressure Democrats in Congress to pay for his long-promised border wall.
WASHINGTON — President Trump slammed his hand on a table and stormed out of a White House meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday after Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said she would not fund a wall along the southern border, dramatically escalating the confrontation over the government shutdown.
As the cracks in Republican unity spread, Mr. Trump was to visit Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a lunchtime meeting with Senate Republicans designed to shore up support for his position. It could also expose still more unease among Republican moderates, and even among some conservatives restive about the mounting costs of a partial shutdown in Day 19.
Stunned Democrats emerged from the White House meeting declaring that Mr. Trump had thrown a “temper tantrum.” The president’s allies accused Democrats of refusing to negotiate. Then he tweeted that the meeting was “a total waste of time.”
“We can walk and chew gum at the same time here,” Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, told reporters Tuesday, indicating that she was in favor of the solution that Democrats have proposed: passing a stopgap spending measure for border security while the debate continues, and a longer-term package to fund the rest of the government through September.
The afternoon altercation came after President Trump appeared to rally nervous Senate Republicans around his strategy to keep parts of the government closed until Democrats accede to his demand for $5.7 billion for a border wall.
She followed up on Wednesday, saying she had warned Mr. McConnell last month of her misgivings about keeping the government shuttered but had wanted to give bipartisan negotiations to resolve the impasse time to progress.
Emerging from the lunchtime meeting on Capitol Hill, Mr. Trump declared that Republicans were “totally unified” even if he faced some questions about “strategy.” Largely, senators signaled that they agreed.
“There is a greater sense of urgency about where we are, and so you heard me express my concerns” publicly, Ms. Murkowski said. “I’m going to share my concerns with the president and the conference” Wednesday afternoon, she said. “I think they know where I’m coming from.”
“There was no discussion about anything other than solidarity,” Mr. Trump said.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, who chairs the appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security, said Tuesday that she could potentially support that approach, as well.
The president’s defiance, and his apparent success at lining up his restive party behind him — at least for now — all but ensures that the impasse will continue into the foreseeable future. Democrats reiterated their own entrenched position on Wednesday, insisting the president end the shutdown that has affected 800,000 federal workers and rippled through the economy before settling the border dispute.
Moderate Republicans who entered the room confident that senators were coalescing around the idea that the government should be reopened while the border security debate continues left disappointed, convinced that for now, the party would follow Mr. Trump perilously further into a shutdown with an uncertain end.
A handful of them, including Cory Gardner of Colorado, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and James Lankford of Oklahoma, pressed Mr. Trump on the mounting impact on federal workers and related industries in their states. His response was consistent.
“I was able to raise the issues that I have with using a shutdown,” Ms. Murkowski said. “He listened and urged that we all stick together.”
For now, at least, the president’s forceful response in the meeting and on television, has papered over cracks that threatened to upend his negotiating position.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, who chairs the appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security, said before the lunch meeting that she could potentially support reopening the government as talks continued on border security.
“I mean, I think I could live with that,” Ms. Capito said. She said she expected pressure from federal employees and voters in her state would only mount the longer the impasse drags on. “I’ve expressed more than a few times the frustrations with a government shutdown and how useless it is, so that pressure’s going to build,” she said.
“I mean, I think I could live with that,” Ms. Capito said. She said she expected pressure from federal employees and voters in her state would only mount the longer the impasse drags on. “I’ve expressed more than a few times the frustrations with a government shutdown and how useless it is, so that pressure’s going to build,” she said.
Two other Republicans up for re-election in Democratic states in 2020, Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado and Susan Collins of Maine, have already called for votes to end the shutdown without resolving Mr. Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion for a physical border barrier. And despite repeated lobbying by Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials, a handful of moderate Republicans in the House already voted with Democrats to reopen the government and will likely vote Wednesday afternoon for a measure to reopen the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service and other financial agencies.
But she apparently did not speak forcefully in the private lunch with the president.
But misgivings are now appearing where they would not seem obvious. Senator Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican who has announced his retirement next year, lamented that government shutdowns “never work” and turn federal workers into “pawns.” Though they had not reached a point of direct intervention yet, he said, “we’re getting pretty close.”
Nor did Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, who lamented on Wednesday morning that government shutdowns “never work” and turn federal workers into “pawns.” Though Senate Republicans had not reached a point of direct intervention yet, he said, “we’re getting pretty close.”
It remained to be seen whether those cracks would crumble the president’s support, particularly after Mr. Trump used his first prime-time Oval Office address on Tuesday to try to build public support for his position by portraying the conditions on the border as a crisis. Democrats, he asserted, were hypocritically blocking border security and putting the country at risk. Both sides were expected to sit down again later Wednesday afternoon at the White House to pick up what have been basically fruitless negotiations so far.
During remarks at an unrelated bill signing ceremony earlier in the day, Mr. Trump said he believed Republicans and Democrats were “working together.” But he said he would continue to consider declaring a national emergency at the border — a deeply divisive option even within his own party that could allow him to use money allocated for the military to build a border barrier.
“I think we might work a deal, and if we don’t we might go that route,” he said, adding that he had an “absolute right” to declare such an emergency.
Democrats, who are confident Mr. Trump is taking the brunt of the blame for the impasse, showed little evidence of capitulation.
The House vote on an individual spending bill is the first of several this week that are intended to pick off uneasy Republicans by reopening closed departments one at a time. And in the Senate, Democrats had managed to grind unrelated foreign policy legislation to a halt in an effort to ramp up pressure on Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, to relent on his insistence that he will not put any bill to reopen the government up for a vote there without Mr. Trump’s support.
Echoing their televised response to Mr. Trump Tuesday night, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, tried to shift focus away from border security to the federal workers days away from missing their first paycheck. The government, they argued, needs to be fully funded before any discussion of a permanent solution to border security resumes.
“It’s a dark time,” Ms. Pelosi said, flanked by furloughed federal employees. “He has chosen a wall over workers.”
Other Democrats offered other warnings to the White House.
Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said he had warned Patrick Shanahan, the acting defense secretary, in a private meeting that a national emergency declaration by Mr. Trump would constitute a “major breach” of relations between the Pentagon and Congress.
“In my meeting with Acting Secretary Shanahan, I cautioned him that if President Trump directs D.O.D. to circumvent Congress in such a legally dubious way on such a major issue, Congress will have to re-evaluate its relationship with the department and judge whether each instance of broad flexibility granted to the department is worth the risk of abuse by President Trump,” he said in a statement.
So far, Mr. McConnell and Senate Republicans have shielded Mr. Trump from having to veto legislations to reopen the government. And even amid misgivings from some in the party, there were signs elsewhere support was intact among key senators.
“I think the ultimate goal is to find some consensus, but I don’t think the president is being unreasonable to ask what he is asking for,” said Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa who faces her own re-election fight next year.
Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said he similarly respected Mr. Trump’s position.
“We’re not going to take away his leverage to fight for something that everybody said they can afford but won’t pay for,” he said.
But if discomfort within the conference spreads, and there is fresh evidence the shutdown’s costs could imperil the party’s political chances, Mr. McConnell could come under increased pressure to enter the fray and nudge the president toward a faster resolution.
Still, on Wednesday, Mr. McConnell continued publicly to insist that the dispute was for Democrats and the president to solve. He has largely absented himself from negotiations, a position that appeared to be validated on Tuesday by a Politico and Morning Consult poll that found only 5 percent of respondents blamed congressional Republicans for the impasse, compared to 47 percent who blamed Mr. Trump and 33 percent who blamed congressional Democrats.
“I cannot urge my Democratic colleagues more strongly to get past this purely partisan spite, rediscover their own past positions on border security, and negotiate a fair solution with our president to secure our nation and reopen all of the federal government,” Mr. McConnell said in remarks on the Senate floor.
