Privately rallies House Dems

Jeffries privately rallies House Dems ahead of shutdown deadline

Jeffries gathered with his caucus shortly after party leaders emerged from a bipartisan meeting with President Trump Monday without a funding deal.

By Nicholas Wu and Mia McCarthy

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries privately rallied House Democrats Monday evening a day before government funding was set to lapse.

Jeffries told his caucus in a closed-door gathering that President Donald Trump seemed subdued during his meeting Monday with bipartisan congressional leaders, according to three people granted anonymity to describe a private meeting. Jeffries said he and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reiterated their position that health care was at the center of the government funding fight.

Jeffries also told his caucus that Democrats and Republicans could be negotiating ways to avert a shutdown, but that Republicans don’t want to, according to three other people with direct knowledge of the meeting. Republicans canceled House votes this week ahead of the shutdown deadline, while Democrats came back to Washington and plan to hold public appearances every day to keep up the pressure on the GOP. The caucus is scheduled to meet again Tuesday at 12:15 p.m.

The president “did more listening than speaking” during the White House meeting, said top Appropriations Democrat Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) describing Jeffries’ readout to House Democrats. “And interestingly enough, what [Trump] normally does is he carries on with a host of media in the room. [There were] none in the room because they don’t have a leg to stand on.”

“I think the focus of the conversation tonight was about what’s at stake with respect to doing everything we can to make sure that the health care of the American people is protected,” said Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.).

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi also earned cheers during Democrats’ closed meeting when she quoted a POLITICO story where a White House official, summing up the president’s position on Democrats’ demands, told Democrats to “go fuck yourself.”

Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, walked House Democrats through what to expect in a shutdown and what parts of their offices could remain up and running, according to two of the people. He noted interns would get hit particularly hard.