Susie Wiles makes rare Capitol Hill visit to break Trump's legislative logjam
WASHINGTON, DC: White House chief of staff Susie Wiles made a rare visit to Capitol Hill this week, meeting privately with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and GOP Whip John Barrasso in an effort to jumpstart President Trump's agenda after months of gridlock.
The outreach comes as several of Trump's priorities have stalled in the Senate: the SAVE America Act, his preferred elections overhaul, hasn't advanced; a third budget reconciliation package remains unmoved; Republicans have kept the filibuster intact despite the president's objections; and two GOP senators have effectively blocked his pick for attorney general.
Susie Wiles presses John Thune for a path forward
Sources with knowledge of the talks told Politico that Wiles didn’t mince words with Thune and Barrasso.
She pointed out just how stuck things have become: no progress on the SAVE America Act, reconciliation, or the nominations piling up.
She wanted to know what, if anything, they could actually move forward with. Another source called the conversation honest and straightforward, but nothing concrete came out of it.
Thune told Wiles he’s ready to push the president’s agenda “whenever it has the votes”, a line he’s used before. He also reminded her that he simply doesn’t have the numbers to get rid of the filibuster, or pass the SAVE America Act in its current form.
“This was her attempt to say to Thune and [Senate GOP Whip John] Barrasso [that] ‘A lot is stalled in the Senate. SAVE/reconciliation.. nominations.. what can we do?” a person familiar with the private discussion said via text. The person, like others in this report, was granted anonymity to describe it.
The conversations were described by a second person as “candid,” but no breakthrough appeared imminent.
“Thune basically said: I want to move the president’s agenda whenever it has the votes,” the first person said.
Another person familiar with the meeting said it was about reconciliation, the SAVE America Act and the filibuster, among other topics, adding that nominees were not a focus of the meeting.
The person pointed to the Senate’s overwhelming record of approving the president’s picks, even as Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general hung in the balance Thursday evening.
Donald Trump’s agenda is very important to him
Sen John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of the senators holding up Blanche’s nomination, said he was told by Thune that the meeting was about the reconciliation bill, not Blanche.
The second person added that Wiles and the GOP leaders also addressed the upcoming midterm elections, as well as “relationship building” between the White House and Senate Republicans.
“You can’t show how high the importance of this issue is to the president other than bringing in Susie,” a former Trump adviser said.
“If there is an ability to land it, the president is certainly putting pressure on Susie to land it. It’s still an uphill battle.”
People close to Wiles describe her as a strategist by nature, who won’t let the perfect be the enemy of the possible.
“While the president remains focused on the one issue [the SAVE America Act] creating a major bottleneck, she will be instrumental in getting the rest of the administration’s agenda moving again,” said a person close to the White House.
Wiles’ visit came hours before Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) postponed Blanche’s nomination to be Trump’s top law enforcement chief.
On Thursday, Trump announced he would shelve Blanche’s nomination until next year when Cornyn and another Republican holdout, Sen Thom Tillis (R-NC), are out of office.
