Sucking up...

Trump cozies up to GOP during impeachment — including Mitt Romney and Susan Collins

The president will meet with some of his Republican critics ahead of a likely Senate trial that will decide the fate of his presidency.

By BURGESS EVERETT

President Donald Trump is aggressively courting Senate Republicans as impeachment bears down, and on Thursday, he'll come face to face with two of the most unpredictable jurors in any Senate trial: Mitt Romney and Susan Collins.

By day's end, the president will have hosted more than 40 Republican senators at the White House since autumn began, mostly for weekly lunches that address a series of issues but also usually include a side of impeachment. Another group will head to the White House on Thursday, leaving just a handful of Republican senators untended by the president.

Romney has said it would be “wrong and appalling” for Trump to request foreign countries to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, prompting Trump to call Romney a “pompous ass.” But the Utah Republican seemed to be keeping an open mind heading into the meeting, even if impeachment comes up.

“It’s the president’s meeting. Whatever he wants to talk about, he can talk about,” Romney said. “I wasn’t expecting an invitation, but I’m happy to hear what the president wants to talk about.”

A separate group of Republican senators, including Mike Lee of Utah, will meet with White House counsel Pat Cipollone on Thursday, according to a source familiar with the matter. Cipollone is regarded by Senate Republicans as the chief impeachment strategist at the White House and the meeting is likely to include some discussion of the forthcoming Senate trial that will occur if the House impeaches Trump.

The flurry of activity highlights the increasingly urgent task at hand for Trump: Making sure the GOP caucus understands his side of the Ukraine saga, not just through his tweets, but from him personally. If the 47 Democratic Caucus members stay united and vote to remove Trump from office, the president needs the support of as many of the 53 Senate Republicans as possible, both to avoid his removal from office and to keep the party from splintering ahead of his 2020 re-election bid.

“For him, this is deeply personal. And he wants an opportunity to be heard,” said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) in an interview. “He knows in the end that Republican senators are going to be sitting and listening to the arguments on this, and I think he just wants an opportunity to provide a defense,”

Trump isn’t the only one doing the talking. He’s also listening for signs of how some of the party’s most senior elected officials feel in such a volatile atmosphere, said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.). Trump is eager to gauge the “general demeanor” of senators with “the impeachment process as the context," Braun said.

Trump has made party solidarity a priority, often grumbling that Democrats are more unified and don’t have rogue voices like Romney. The lunches and outreach to senators in meetings and phone calls are all part of Trump’s effort to put Republican disarray behind him as his presidency is imperiled.

“He’s got a perspective on the Republican Party: That we don’t communicate very well, we don’t stick together very well. So it’s an attempt to sort of bond us,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). “We’re going to get through this impeachment thing, it will come to the Senate, we’ll vote it down and we’ll get on to the people’s business next year.”

The intense outreach began right before Trump released a read-out of his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr, when Trump called into a White House meeting with senators and House Republicans to review the conversation before its public release. Then in late October, Trump began hosting lunches with roughly nine GOP senators at the White House.

In the lunches, Trump has told senators to review his phone call with Zelensky, cited moderate Democrats’ opposition to impeachment and complained about the House process. But he and GOP senators have also discussed strategic questions that could help shape the Senate trial.

At one lunch, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) asked Trump whether he preferred Senate Republicans to quickly clear Trump and dismiss any articles of impeachment or hold a longer trial that allows his lawyers to more fully defend him. The president’s response surprised Cramer: “You guys will have to figure it out.”

In Cramer’s view of the lunches, Republicans "weren’t there as part of a strategy session, we were there as probably more of a discovery session.”

One White House official said the gatherings have been helpful to get synced up with GOP senators but added “it’s too simplistic” to think everyone is automatically on the same page. "They have their agenda, and we also have ours," said the official.

The low-key approach from Trump reflects a lighter touch since Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged him to avoid attacking sitting GOP senators who criticize him.

Collins has rebuked the president for asking China to probe Biden and has been quicker to push back against Trump’s controversial conduct and rhetoric than most Republicans.

But Collins has also studiously avoided commenting on the impeachment proceedings because of her likely role as a juror in a Senate trial. A person familiar with the White House meeting set for Thursday confirmed her attendance.

In addition to Collins and Romney, GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Rand Paul of Kentucky, John Hoeven of North Dakota and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia have been invited to the lunch on Thursday. Senators are not given a list of fellow attendees beforehand, nor are they given an agenda before heading to the White House to dine with the president.

The topics can range from Turkey to China to trade policy to impeachment, depending on the news of the day. Attendees have included at-risk Republican incumbents like Cory Gardner of Colorado, Martha McSally of Arizona and Thom Tillis of North Carolina; sometimes it’s a private meeting with McConnell.

But the group lunches consistently include members of just one party, a tactic Democrats say suggests Trump’s only goal at these lunches is to win acquittal from a potential Senate jury.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) recently likened the move to jurors “sitting down with the probable defendant to discuss the case.”

“He has so shattered the norms on what is proper that these lunches look like instances of bad taste. But in fact, he’s obviously lobbying the jury, so to speak,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) of Trump. “If the American people were ever to focus on it, they would probably find it to be repugnant.”

Republicans don’t see it that way, not even those who lack close relationships with Trump. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has not attended any of those meetings but dismissed any charge that they are improper.

“If he wants to talk about what he feels is an improper process or if he wants to talk about what’s going on USMCA or whatever is on his mind, he is the president and he’s got every opportunity to invite anybody over to have those conversations,” Murkowski said in a recent interview.

Even though they amount to crucial party meetings, the lunches have largely flown under the radar.

Attendance lists aren't produced beforehand by the White House press office, and unlike at many of Trump’s events, cameras are not let in. But given Trump’s penchant for calling GOP senators at all hours, the outreach hasn’t surprised anyone in the Republican Conference even if the timing of the gatherings intersects with impeachment.

“I don’t think getting together and having conversations about issues, that there’s anything wrong with that ,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “Senators will do their duty as they see it [on impeachment], regardless of a free lunch."