Trump wooing Red State Democratic senators on Supreme Court pick, agenda
WASHINGTON — President Trump has invited Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Manchin, Jon Tester and Joe Donnelly to the White House for lunch on Thursday, a sign of their potential clout in Trump’s Washington and as he faces an initial — and critically important — test of whether his agenda will face four years of gridlock on Capitol Hill.
The invitation arrived on Tuesday amid a bloody confirmation battle over Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, who was approved by the Senate by the narrowest of margins, with Vice President Pence coming to the Senate to cast a tie-breaking vote. USA TODAY confirmed the invitation with three congressional aides and a White House official.
The fight put on vivid display a hard fact: namely, that if Trump wants to get anything done in Washington — beginning with tax reform and replacing Obamacare — he’ll need Democratic support. And that support begins with the handful of Democrats who represent conservative states he won by at least a 20-point margin.
According to the White House official, the invitation was also extended to some Republicans.
While Trump was able to jam DeVos through the Senate with a simple party-line majority, the battle over his Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, is up next, and he is likely to face a 60-vote threshold. Republicans have 52 Senate seats and it's the same majority needed to pass most major legislation, meaning Trump will need at least eight Democratic allies from now on.
Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide
Read more:
Schumer says Dems will demand 60 votes to confirm Gorsuch
Schumer: Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch avoided answers like the plague
Why 'cloture' and 'nuclear option' are keys to Trump's Supreme Court pick
According to the invitation, Trump said he want to discuss “judicial issues,” according to two Senate aides who were not authorized to speak publicly. Aides to Manchin, Donnelly and Heitkamp confirmed they will attend.
The stakes — both for Democratic leaders signaling a fierce wall of opposition to Trump’s agenda and for Trump in currying the favor of these Democrats — could not be greater. Partisans on both sides see the Gorsuch vote as an initial test of Democrats’ willingness — or not — to break with their leaders who are under intense pressure from the party’s grassroots base to stymie Trump.
Yet, even if Trump is able to successfully woo the five, many of the Democrats from swing states that he won may be willing to put up more of a fight, including on Gorsuch. These include Sens. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Bill Nelson of Florida, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.
On the one hand, Senate Democrats face a daunting map in 2018. Outside Republican groups are already targeting a number of them, including Donnelly of Indiana and Baldwin, with television ads that run throughout the month of February. "Those five senators really kind of are in a tough spot, but politically, based on the way their state votes, based on the political ideology of their state, really have no choice on how they have to proceed," said Ian Prior, a spokesman for the Senate Leadership Fund, a political action committee aligned with Senate GOP leadership.
Yet Democratic leaders say Trump is making it easy to pursue a no-compromise approach. After campaigning as non-ideological economic populist who would bring jobs to the country — and who was willing to take jabs at leaders in both parties — he is prioritizing the most controversial items of his agenda, including the travel ban on majority Muslim nations and executive orders on the environment.
He is also the first president in decades to omit a member of the opposing party from his Cabinet. Plus, Trump has attacked as a “so-called judge” the federal district court judge who issued a suspension of his travel ban.
“His nomination comes at a perilous time in the relationship between the executive and judicial branches,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday. “President Trump has shown a deep contempt for an independent judiciary that doesn’t always bow before him. It is more important than ever that the Supreme Court be prepared to serve as a check” on executive overreach, said Schumer.
Plus, much like the Tea Party conservatives who ousted moderate Republicans in recent cycles, some progressive Democrats like filmmaker Michael Moore are already threatening to put up primary competition to Democrats who vote for Gorsuch. Unlike a Cabinet nominee, Gorsuch would, at the age of 49, be getting a lifetime appointment to shape the court and have the final word on major U.S. decisions for generations.
Thursday’s meeting shows Trump is beginning an early courtship of Democrats from states he won by the biggest margins, including Tester of Montana (20 points), Manchin of West Virginia (42 points) and Heitkamp of North Dakota (36 points). Initially there was even talk that Trump may have courted Heitkamp and Manchin to join his Cabinet.
Trump’s strategy is also in comparison to former President Obama, who faced criticism from some of these same Democrats that he rarely did the customary schmoozing with Capitol Hill that helps grease the wheels of government.
Unless Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell makes a controversial decision to change the rules, called the “nuclear option” — which Trump is urging — Trump will need them.
