Friday’s rapid-fire turn of events that led President Donald Trump to cave on his demand for money for his long promised border wall in exchange for reopening the government had a number of Republicans publicly and privately complaining about the President’s handling of the shutdown, which went on for a record 35 days.
The first call came after a contentious Senate GOP lunch, in which, Republican senators vented frustration at Vice President Mike Pence about the lack of strategy to get out of the shutdown. McConnell told Trump that it was unclear how much longer he could get GOP senators to hold the line — especially if there were another round of votes to end the shutdown.
A few hours later, Trump called McConnell back with a new perspective. Trump made clear he wanted the shutdown to end, which led to the deal that was approved by Congress on Friday.
McConnell took to the Senate floor as the chamber voted Friday to reopen the government for three weeks. He flashed a quick smile at reporters as he walked off the floor to his office following the resolution’s passage. When asked if anything good came out of this episode, he said, « Well, we got the government open today. »
Funding for about 25% of the government expired on December 22, leading to hundreds of thousands of federal employees to go on furlough or to work without pay — as well as the shuttering of parks, long security lines and grounding planes at the airports and a raft of other side effects.
