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White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed that no Democrats were present, citing instead nine Republican members of the House who will do so.
"Today, the President has offered Democrats and Republicans the opportunity to meet at the White House for lunch," Sanders said in a statement. "Unfortunately, no Democrats will be present, and the President is eager to hold a working luncheon with House Republicans to resolve the border crisis and reopen the government." It's time for Democrats to come to the House. table and conclude an agreement. "
As negotiations are completely halted, President Donald Trump and his allies wish to pressure Congress Democrats to oppose their refusal to give extra money to Trump for his promise of a fence wall. But the White House's attempt to shed light between the moderate members of the Democratic caucus and its leaders does not seem to have borne fruit, at least at Tuesday's meeting.
Several Democrats in the House who had been invited to the White House told CNN before the meeting that they had received little or no information about what the meeting would imply and that they either rejected the invitation or did not want to confirm their presence. . The invitations were not all sent at the same time, but during the night from Monday to Sunday. They consisted of a three-line email asking only if the member would "attend a lunch at the White House tomorrow, January 15 at 12:30 pm". according to a copy read to CNN. The email was sent on behalf of the president.
"It's a bit of a mess", told CNN a Democratic member who had received an invitation, after asking how it had been organized.
Democratic representatives Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Lou Correa of California, two co-chairs of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, both declined the invitation, sources said.
For their part, Democratic House leaders said that they had not sought to prevent their members from going to the White House, but that they wanted to be informed of the situation. The real intention of the meeting from Trump's point of view.
"Does he invite people to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to actually try to solve this problem or create a photo shoot to project a false sense of bipartisanship?" New York representative Hakeem Jeffries, chairman of the Democratic Caucus, told reporters earlier Tuesday.
