White House Both parties aim to woo defectors as shutdown drags on It's unlikely, however, that members in either party would split with leadership as the fight for Trump's border wall stretches into its 24th day.

The White House and Hill Democrats are each targeting defectors in the other party as they push dueling strategies to reopen the government — yet another sign that the 24-day shutdown is far from over.

House Democrats on Monday announced a plan to take up a pair of short-term funding bills that would reopen federal agencies for several weeks without President Donald Trump’s border wall. They’re hoping to pick off support from wary House Republicans fed up with the weekslong partial shutdown and, ultimately, pressure the GOP-led Senate and Trump to get on board


At the same time, the White House is considering a last-ditch effort to woo moderate Democrats from red districts with the promise of a border security deal reopening the government, according to people familiar with the plans. Trump administration officials believe that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are too dug in to compromise. They're seeking to circumvent Democratic leadership and win over more moderate-minded pragmatists who are sick of the gridlock and eager to end the shutdown.

"I promised my constituents that I would put Lowcountry over party, and would be happy to speak with the president on the urgent need to reopen the government and get Americans back to work," said freshman Rep. Joe Cunningham. The South Carolina Democrat, who was slated to visit the White House to celebrate Clemson’s national championship football team Monday night, said he would be happy to return to the White House to discuss how to reopen the government.

Meanwhile, a small bipartisan group of senators met in the basement of the Capitol on Monday night to try to move talks forward. According to sources familiar with the meeting, Democrats said they could potentially compromise on border security but not until the government is reopened. Republicans agreed, according to two sources in the room — though Trump has rejected such an idea entirely.

"What's important is to recognize that you've got a bipartisan group of folks focused on forging a path through the wilderness," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) as she exited the huddle. "We're not going to just sit back and do nothing."

The White House strategy to try to peel away Blue Dog Democrats or those in the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus is a long shot, though the White House on Monday invited a group of House Democrats to meet this week to discuss border security. Trump has flip-flopped on funding compromises at least a half-dozen times since before Christmas. And though several centrist Democrats have expressed unease with the shutdown, it's unclear whether the White House could even convince these rank-and-file members to strike a deal because they simply don’t trust Trump.

Pelosi has also kept Democrats unified in opposing the wall, and so far, no House Democrats have publicly defected. And it’s highly unlikely that any Democrat would side with the president over their own leadership anytime soon, especially following news this weekend that the FBI investigated whether Trump is a Russian agent.

Additionally, several polls have shown a majority of Americans blame Trump and the GOP for the shutdown, easing the pressure on Democrats to compromise or cave.

In fact, several Democrats who had received an invitation to meet with the president said they would not be attending.

The jockeying between House Democrats and the White House comes as Trump signaled again on Monday that he would prefer to reach an agreement with Congress rather than take unilateral action. The president appeared to rule out — at least for now — declaring a national emergency to build the wall, an option he floated last week amid the standoff.

"Now I have the absolute legal right to call it, but I'm not looking to do that,” Trump told reporters Monday as he departed the White House en route to Louisiana.

White House officials cautioned, however, that the emergency declaration was still on the table. Such a decision, they said, would be a “last resort” if Congress is unable to find a way out of the shutdown.

A few hours later, House Democrats announced they would take up a pair of stopgap funding bills this week to reopen the government in their latest attempt to pressure Senate Republicans. One bill would restore funding until Feb. 1, and the second would last until Feb. 28. Neither would provide additional money for the wall.

Senators, meanwhile, began bipartisan talks that seemed to peter out last week. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) convened a small working group to try and figure out if there’s a way out of the shutdown by pairing border security with immigration reform. A group of Republican senators led by Lindsey Graham had considered just that before Trump panned it last week.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), while not part of the Manchin group, wished them luck.

“If they come up with something the president will sign, that will do it,” Cornyn said of the group.

Among the senators meeting with Manchin were Graham (R-S.C), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.). Heading into the bipartisan meeting, Coons was downbeat on chances for success.

“Lindsey Graham yesterday on Fox News says we should reopen the government, the president shoots it down this morning. I don’t know how we are supposed to make any progress without absolute clarity of what the president is willing to accept,” Coons said, adding after the meeting that it was a productive conversation but “if the president doesn’t reopen the government I don’t know what we have to talk about."

When he left the meeting, Coons, however, said the meeting was “constructive.” Both sides agreed to keep talking.

For now, there are few indications that the shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, is nearing a resolution, even after many federal workers missed their first paycheck on Friday. Both sides have dug in, with Trump demanding money for the wall and Democrats insisting that a wall is expensive, unnecessary and “immoral." The shutdown has brought the Senate to a standstill. Democrats are set to reject a foreign policy bill for the third consecutive time in the past week on Monday night in a protest vote over the shutdown.

Some of the president’s advisers believe there is a political advantage to the current stalemate, according to two people familiar with the matter. These individuals argued that the push for the wall is energizing the president's base. Indeed, Trump treated a speech to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s centennial convention in New Orleans as something akin to a campaign rally Monday, devoting much of his remarks to the wall in between digs at the “fake news media” and riffs about his election victory.

“When it comes to keeping the American people safe, I will never ever back down,” he said. “But we’re dealing against people who think if they can stop me against building a wall — they think that’s a good thing for 2020.”

Sarah Ferris and Gabby Orr contributed to this report.

