WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has agreed to meet with the top Democrats in Congress as a government shutdown nears at the end of the month.
The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, per a source familiar with the negotiations.
“After weeks of Republican stonewalling in Congress, President Trump has agreed to meet this week in the Oval Office,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a joint statement on Tuesday. “In the meeting, we will emphasize the importance of addressing rising costs, including the Republican healthcare crisis. It’s past time to meet and work to avoid a Republican-caused shutdown.”
The highly anticipated sitdown between Trump and the two Democratic leaders at the White House comes amid a tense standoff with top Republican leaders ahead of next week’s deadline to fund the government.
The Republican-controlled House last week narrowly passed a “clean” short-term funding bill, but Democrats rejected it and called it “dirty” because it does not address health care, including expiring tax credits for people who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
“The cost of living in our country is way too high,” the two Democratic leaders wrote in a letter to Trump on Saturday. “Tens of millions of Americans are on the brink of their healthcare costs increasing by thousands of dollars per year, risking bankruptcy for many families. We do not understand why you prefer to shut down the government rather than protect the healthcare and quality of life of the American people.”
Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images
Republicans, meanwhile, have accused Democrats of seeking to shut the government down by opposing the bill to keep the government running while lawmakers hammer out a broader spending agreement.
Trump said over the weekend that he is willing to meet with the Democratic leaders but that he didn’t see the point in doing so.
“I will, but they don’t care about crime,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “They want to keep men in women’s sports. They want all this stuff. They don’t change. … I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to have any impact.”
On Monday afternoon, the White House press office blasted Democrats for demanding concessions in exchange for supporting a government funding bill.
“The party of open borders, violent crime, and transgender for everybody is now jeopardizing military pay, critical care for veterans, firefighter pay, disaster relief funding, and many more programs on which Americans rely — while President Donald J. Trump and Republicans are committed to keeping the government open with a clean funding extension,” the White House said in a press release.