WASHINGTON �� President Donald Trump claimed Saturday to be negotiating with Democratic leaders to end a partial government shutdown. But when he convened a lunch at the White House, he invited only Republican lawmakers and officials �� mostly immigration hardliners.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said again Saturday that any deal that would reopen the Justice, Homeland Security, Agriculture, Interior and other departments will have to be negotiated by Trump and Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.
Trump claimed Saturday morning that he was "working hard" at the White House after canceling his planned trip to his South Florida resort. And he said on Twitter that he was pursuing a bipartisan deal.
"I am in the White House, working hard. News reports concerning the Shutdown and Syria are mostly FAKE. We are negotiating with the Democrats on desperately needed Border Security (Gangs, Drugs, Human Trafficking & more)," Trump wrote, "but it could be a long stay."
Vice President Mike Pence, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, White House policy adviser Jared Kushner, and White House legislative affairs chief Shahira Knight were at the lunch meeting, deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said.
The president, rather than hearing the views of Democrats who might be willing to approve money for a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, also invited a number of conservative immigration hardliners.
That list included House Freedom Caucus leaders Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Jim Jordan of Utah, both of whom helped persuade Trump to demand $5 billion for his wall project and to reject a Senate shutdown-averting stopgap that called for $1.3 billion for "fencing."
Also on the list were Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.; Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala. of Alabama. Graham has urged the president to "dig in" on his wall plans before and Lee voted against an immigration bill pushed by the Trump White House, in part because it would have offered citizenship to beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for young immigrants and increased the number of undocumented migrants eligible to be covered by that program.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., also got an invitation. He has introduced legislation to fund Trump's border wall.
Walters did not respond to an inquiry about why no Democrats were invited to the lunch meeting.
