Jeffries: Trump hasn’t given Johnson ‘permission’ to meet over shutdown

[Thiệu Ngô]

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Monday that President Trump hasn’t granted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Republicans “permission” to negotiate about the government shutdown, which is in its 13th day.

By Lee Ann Anderson

“Speaker Mike Johnson and I have not met because Donald Trump has not given them permission to meet,” Jeffries told MSNBC. “We know that until Donald Trump gives them permission to meet, they’re going to continue to hide as it relates to sitting down and negotiating a bipartisan agreement.”

Earlier on Monday, Johnson said the shutdown is on its way to becoming the longest shutdown in U.S. history, beating out the 2018-2019 shutdown that lasted for 35 days, unless Democrats accept the GOP-backed stopgap bill to reopen the government. The bill has failed to advance in the Senate seven times.

“Republicans are eager to return to the actual negotiating table to finish out full-year appropriations and do work on all the other matters before us, but we won’t negotiate in smoke-filled back rooms, and we won’t negotiate as hostages,” Johnson said at a press conference on Capitol Hill.

Johnson has kept the House in an extended recess during the shutdown, canceling weeks of scheduled votes in an attempt to pressure Democrats into passing the stopgap funding measure.

Democrats have said they aren’t going to cave to the GOP, demanding the extension of subsidies through the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of the year. Republicans, meanwhile, have said such policy does not belong in a short-term funding bill.

Jeffries told MSNBC’s Katy Tur that Democrats were ready to talk to find a solution.

“So we’ve made clear from the very beginning, we’ll sit down with anyone, anytime, anyplace, to find a bipartisan path forward toward reopening the government,” he said, but added that the solution did not involve passing a continuing resolution to fund the government now and talk about health care later.

“Well, there’s definitively no reason to ever trust the Republicans, particularly as it relates to the health care issue and the Affordable Care Act,” Jeffries said.