The Shutdown: Where We're At

Meeting between Pence and Schumer raises last-minute hopes of a deal
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 21, 2018 5:01 PM CST
The Shutdown: Where We're At
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is met by reporters as he returns to the Capitol from the White House on Friday.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Maybe? Just hours away from a midnight deadline, a high-profile meeting was raising hopes that a government shutdown could be averted, reports Politico. Mike Pence, Jared Kushner, and acting Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney met with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer at the Capitol to try to forge a compromise on the president's demand for $5 billion to build a border wall. “I’m feeling better now than I did an hour ago because that meeting is occurring,” said GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. “The fact that that’s happening represents progress.”

The meeting comes after Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected the idea of changing the Senate's filibuster rules to push through a bill containing the border money with a simple majority, reports the Washington Post. President Trump had urged him to do so earlier in the day. A week ago, Trump said he would be "proud" to have a shutdown over the wall impasse, but on Friday he made a reversal of sorts, reports the Hill. “The Democrats now own the shutdown!” he tweeted. Late in the afternoon, the president also tweeted an image of what the barrier might look like: "A design of our Steel Slat Barrier which is totally effective while at the same time beautiful!"
. (More government shutdown stories.)

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