Trump to meet with Democratic leaders Thursday with shutdown looming
President Donald Trump will meet this week with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to discuss government funding ahead of a looming shutdown deadline, according to four people granted anonymity to discuss the plans, which have not been publicly announced.
One of the people said the meeting will be held Thursday. It’s unclear if the top Republican congressional leaders will participate. Both the House and Senate are out of session this week, with funding set to expire at midnight Sept. 30.
Republicans and Trump have been pushing for a “clean” seven-week stopgap spending bill, while Democrats have introduced an alternative measure that would extend government funding for four weeks while attaching other demands.
The meeting comes after Schumer and Jeffries, frustrated with GOP congressional leaders refusing their two previous attempts to set up a meeting, sent a letter to Trump on Saturday asking for a sitdown. Trump told reporters over the weekend that he would be happy to meet but warned “I don’t think it’s going to have any impact.”
Democratic leaders, under intense pressure from their base to mount a visible resistance to Trump, are angling to make the government shutdown fight about health care. They are pushing for concessions from Republicans on an extension of health insurance subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, as well as a rollback of the Medicaid cuts in the GOP’s recent domestic policy megabill.
But Republicans have warned they won’t agree to attach any of the Democratic demands to the stopgap bill. While there is some GOP support for an extension of the expiring subsidies, party leaders argue that is an issue to tackle later this year.
Punchbowl News first reported the planned meeting.
Another question surrounding the meeting is whether cameras will be allowed in the room. In December 2018, Trump met with Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who was weeks away from becoming speaker. The meeting, broadcast live on cable television, devolved into a heated 17-minute argument over who would shoulder blame for a shutdown.
A record 35-day shutdown began less than two weeks later.
Myah Ward contributed to this report.
