WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump told congressional leaders Friday that he would keep the federal government closed for “months or even years” amid a dispute over border wall funding, as the White House scrambled to unify the GOP behind Trump while some Republicans are showing impatience with the now 2-week-old shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that during a contentious and nearly two-hour meeting inside the White House situation room, Democrats told Trump: “We needed the government open.”
“He resisted,” Schumer said. “In fact, he said he’d keep the government closed for a very long period of time, months or even years.”
The lack of progress on breaking the shutdown impasse came as the administration worked behind the scenes to shore up support for Trump’s wall demand.
The newly Democratic-controlled House passed a package of bills late Thursday that would reopen the federal government without paying for Trump’s border wall, drawing a swift veto threat from the White House and leaving the partial shutdown no closer to being resolved.
But two Senate Republicans who are up for re-election in 2020 broke with Trump and party leaders on their shutdown strategy, saying it was time to end the impasse even if Democrats won’t give Trump the more than $5 billion in border funding he is demanding.
The comments from Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Cory Gardner of Colorado — the only Senate Republicans running for re-election in states Trump lost — pointed to cracks within the GOP that could grow as the shutdown continues.
Collins, a moderate who is on the ballot in November 2020 in a blue state, has also argued that legislation that would fund other parts of the government such as the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development shouldn’t be held hostage to disputes over the wall.
Collins, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, indicated support Thursday for an element of the Democrats’ approach.
“I’m not saying their whole plan is a valid plan, but I see no reason why the bills that are ready to go and on which we’ve achieved an agreement should be held hostage to this debate over border security,” she said.
Vice President Mike Pence called about a half-dozen House Republicans late Thursday to urge them to vote against the measures, amid White House worries that broad GOP defections would give the Democratic effort bipartisan backing.
Two Republican officials confirmed the calls, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Ultimately, just five House GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats on a spending bill that would operate the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 8, and seven Republicans supported separate legislation that would reopen the rest of the federal government through Sept. 30. GOP officials feared the defections could have been much higher had the administration not gotten directly involved.
Pence’s efforts reflect a growing anxiety among congressional Republicans over the shutdown that has halted paychecks for 800,000 federal workers but shown no signs of ending anytime soon — trapping GOP lawmakers between the president’s push to fund his signature campaign promise and the shutdown’s spreading consequences.
Pence’s outreach centered primarily on moderate members and those who hail from the Northeast — some who ended up voting for the bills, and others who didn’t. The vice president’s pitch to Republicans centered on two main points: The country needs funding for a wall, and Congress shouldn’t kick the can to February, when the stopgap funding for DHS would have expired under the Democratic strategy.
The vice president also pointed to language in the funding bill passed late Thursday that would reverse the so-called Mexico City policy, which denies U.S. assistance to foreign groups that offer or promote abortions. That provision was included in the version of the spending bill passed unanimously by the Republican-led Senate Appropriations Committee last year, which Democrats are now using to try and end the partial shutdown.
Before the leadership arrived at the White House, Trump sent a letter to all members of Congress urging them to pass not just legislation funding a border wall — or a “physical barrier” — but revisions to statutes and legal settlements that restrict detention of migrant children.
“Americans have endured decades of broken promises on illegal immigration,” Trump wrote in the letter to lawmakers. “Now, is the time for both parties to rise above the partisan discord, to set aside political convenience, and to put the national interest first.”
Yet Republicans have struggled to stay unified in the face of the shutdown, provoked by a clash between Trump and congressional Democrats over the amount of border wall funding the president has demanded from Congress.
McConnell was frustrated about Trump reversing himself on a short-term funding bill last month — legislation Republicans thought the president would sign — that would have kept the government open. And the top Senate Republican complained to allies about how unreliable the president was to negotiate with, as well as how the president listened to what McConnell deemed as unproductive forces.
Schumer has sought to involve McConnell more, telling White House senior adviser Jared Kushner in a recent meeting that McConnell needed to be a more active participant. But McConnell has told advisers and other senators that he does not feel the pressure or the heat to get more involved, and that his members are not currently itching for the shutdown to end.
“He’s the leader of the Senate. Part of this shutdown,” Schumer told The Washington Post in a brief interview Thursday. “When he just tosses the ball over to Trump, he’s somewhat complicit in the shutdown because Trump is organizing it, Trump is the impetus for it and McConnell is going along.”
Josh Holmes, a McConnell adviser, said he saw his main role as keeping the caucus together.
“He knows exactly where the leverage points are on negotiations like this. He’s certainly not going to provide Democrats with an opportunity to exploit Republican divisions,” Holmes said. “So he’s going to provide a unified front here to get the president the best deal he can.”
Washington Post writers Lisa Rein, Damian Paletta and Sean Sullivan contributed to this report.
