Democrats unified in border wall fight
Party solidarity frustrates Trump
WASHINGTON — Hoping to crack Democratic unity as the partial government shutdown reached Day 25, President Donald Trump invited a handful of moderate Democrats to the White House on Tuesday for lunch and a chat.
None showed up. That despite the fact that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., jokingly encouraged them to go, confident the rank-and-file Democrats would only better appreciate the challenges she says she faces in dealing with Trump.
It was the most striking example yet of Democratic unity in the face of the nation’s longest government shutdown, a rarely seen solidarity in the party that appears to be frustrating Trump and congressional Republicans.
“This is my first time ever invited to the White House,” said Rep. Lou Correa of California, one of the invited Democrats and a leader of the party’s so-called Blue Dog Coalition of moderate Democrats. “It would have been nice to go to work something out, but under the proper terms. To have a government shutdown hanging over you is not the way to start” a negotiation.
Trump has tried a variety of approaches to get Democrats to break. He’s invited Democratic leaders to White House negotiating sessions; stormed out of one of those sessions; applied public pressure with an Oval Office address and border visit; publicly attacked Democrats on Twitter; and, now, tried to pick off moderate Democrats who could be interested in a bipartisan deal on their résumé or who hail from swing districts where he is popular.
But while several moderate Republicans in the House and Senate have broken ranks to call for immediately reopening the government without Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in border wall money, no Democrat has publicly suggested that Democrats should give in on the wall in order to reopen the government.
“We are totally united, totally,” said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House.
In their first standoff with Trump since they seized control of the House, Democrats seem to be embracing a strict, uncompromising position with a president known for changing his mind and backing out of deals.
Pelosi has pledged that Democrats won’t negotiate on wall funding or any border security measures until the government reopens.
That hardline stance — uncommon in a party perhaps better known for internal divisions and a willingness to negotiate — has frustrated Republican leaders.
“It is a real challenge when the Democrats won’t even give an offer back,” said Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House minority leader.