President Donald Trump publicly endorsed the package during a White House event last week, putting new pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to take action. | Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images Congress Trump lobbies McConnell on criminal justice overhaul

President Donald Trump called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this week to press for action on a criminal justice measure that has long divided McConnell’s GOP, according to three sources familiar with the conversation.

Trump’s Tuesday call to McConnell comes as the criminal justice bill creates tension within the Senate Republican caucus, with Arkansas’ Tom Cotton repeatedly slamming legislation supported by multiple senior GOP colleagues. The intra-party schism underscores McConnell’s long-running reluctance to spend a week or more of floor time on a criminal justice proposal that splits his party — despite winning the president’s vocal endorsement.


McConnell had warned Trump last week during a meeting at the White House that the Senate likely would not have time left on the lame-duck session’s already crowded docket to take up the criminal justice bill, which would lower mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offenders while creating new prison training programs aimed at reducing recidivism.

That conversation suggested that McConnell would ultimately pump the brakes on a bill backed by Trump and some of his closest allies in the Senate, including Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). But both Rand and Graham took to the TV airwaves on Sunday to tout the criminal justice bill’s prospects.

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Paul was joined by his wife, Kelley, in spending the week trying to whip up pressure on McConnell in Kentucky through numerous media appearances. McConnell is up for reelection in 2020 and has made a point of staying firmly tuned into his conservative state as he runs the Senate.

McConnell told the president, in an interaction first reported by the New York Times, that there may not be time on the Senate calendar for a long and drawn out debate with a key government funding deadline on Dec. 7 and a farm bill on the line. But Paul said he wants people to know that if criminal justice reform stalls out this year, McConnell will be "single-handedly stopping criminal justice reform."

“He has complete and absolute power to allow this to happen ... I don't think it’s over yet. He’s resisting somewhat," Paul said in a Tuesday interview. “It’s important that everyone knows he has power.”

For all his talk about the timeline, McConnell also wants to avoid further cleaves in his conference. And there's no chance of the bill coming up and passing through the Senate without an ugly fight. Cotton and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), another supporter of the criminal justice legislation, foreshadowed what that battle would like in a bitter Twitter battle about the bill this week.

Cotton called for hearings on the bill and said it will give "early release" to hardened criminals. Lee said Cotton was spreading "fake news" about the bill he supports.

“I support prison reform. I oppose sentencing reduction for serious offenders,” Cotton told reporters last week.

McConnell spokesman Don Stewart reiterated the Kentucky Republican's previous comments on the criminal justice bill, that the majority leader has pledged to conduct a whip count of GOP senators and to consider making floor time if the legislation were shown to have 60 votes in the chamber. That whip count hasn't yet occurred, given that the deal was formally released on Thursday.

Trump publicly endorsed the package during a White House event last week, putting new pressure on McConnell to take action. The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, has been working for months on the bill and helped convinced Trump to throw his weight behind it.

The president’s embrace of the legislation marks a stark shift from his pre-midterms messaging, which was characterized by divisive partisan barbs. Since the election, Trump has emphasized bipartisanship and sought to find areas of compromise with the newly ascendent House Democrats.

“Today’s announcement shows that true bipartisanship is possible,” Trump said in announcing his support for the measure last week, “and maybe it’ll be thriving, if we’re going to get something done.”

But even if something can get done in the Senate, the House will still have to take another vote on the deal before it can get to Trump's desk to become law. That vote would likely take place in mid-December, when House Republicans who have lost the majority are likely to have little desire to stay longer in Washington.

And it’s unclear if Democrats will join Trump’s call for unity. No Democratic lawmakers participated in the president's criminal justice reform event last week.

The criminal justice agreement does count three influential liberal Democrats as initial cosponsors, however, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) — who had come out against a narrower, prisons-only version of the bill that passed the House on an overwhelming bipartisan vote earlier this year.

Booker told POLITICO last week that he would be "reaching out" to others in the Democratic caucus to help rally support for the criminal justice bill.

"This is not a perfect bill," Booker said. "But I’m not going to let perfect be the enemy of the good when the lives of thousands of people hang in the balance."

Some Republicans like Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) are willing to take up the bill next year when Democrats take control of the House. But that might require rebuilding a fragile compromise that has little more than a month to be signed into law before Washington enters a new phase of divided government.

“We have a carefully balanced agreement now that can pass both houses and get the president’s signature,” said one GOP senator who supports the bill. “If we wait until the next Congress the concern is: What would be demanded of the House of Representatives side would probably more aggressive than what we can pass through the Senate and get signed by the president.”