Trump distrust keeps Democrats out of ‘gang’

Capitol Hill remains locked in a stalemate as the government shutdown trudges into its third week — and Democrats say their lack of trust in President Donald Trump is a major obstacle to negotiations.

In past legislative disputes, bipartisan coalitions known as “gangs” have formed to break the logjams. The groups have helped lay the early framework for major deals before getting buy-in from leadership and other lawmakers.

In the current funding lapse — which is already longer than most previous government shutdowns — those gangs are nowhere to be found.

“What good is an agreement by a gang of four or eight or 12, when the president of the United States regards himself as his own law and disregards the norms and rules?” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told CNBC.

There have been some bipartisan talks around Democrats’ key demand: an extension of enhanced premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums, which are set to expire at year’s end.

But no specific group has convened to hash out those details, or more broadly negotiate an end to the shutdown.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who supports extending the tax credits, said he’s had conversations with multiple Democratic senators, but no set group has formed.

“What’s different about this is I don’t sense any coalescing,” Hawley said. “There doesn’t seem to be any sort of momentum around people saying, like, ‘OK, really, we need to make a deal.'”

Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have maintained that no negotiations can happen until the government has reopened. They need support from around eight Senate Democrats to pass a stopgap bill that will temporarily resume federal funding at current levels.

Thune told MSNBC on Wednesday that he has offered Democratic leaders a vote on extending the Obamacare subsidies in exchange for opening the government.

But Democrats have expressed strong doubts about any handshake deal with Republicans.

“We need an ironclad path forward that decisively addresses the Republican health-care crisis.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“They can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer,” Jeffries said.

Asked for comment on the Democrats’ skepticism, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told CNBC, “The entire Administration has been crystal clear: the President is happy to have a conversation about health care policy but he will not do so while the Democrats are holding the American people hostage.”

Democrats are wary that Trump could torpedo any agreement they reach with Republican lawmakers, as he has done in the past. A bipartisan immigration reform proposal introduced last year, for instance, collapsed after Trump publicly opposed it.

Some Democrats are now calling on Trump to participate in negotiations himself.

“They seem to follow his lead on everything,” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said of his GOP colleagues on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday.

“That’s the way this ends,” Kelly said.

Further eroding trust is the Trump administration’s willingness to cancel billions of dollars in funding approved by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told reporters.

“There’s been a loss of trust between Senate Democrats and the Administration and the House because of what’s happened over the last six to nine months in terms of respecting bipartisan spending bills that were signed into law last year,” Coons said.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., of avoiding negotiations in order to appease progressives in his party, who excoriated him after he previously voted to fund the government in March.

“I think he’s afraid to reach some sort of deal like we typically do in these circumstances, because he’ll be attacked by his progressive, radical base,” Cornyn said of Schumer.

Schumer was part of the “Gang of Eight” that helped pass a bipartisan immigration reform bill in the Senate in 2013.

Hawley said Democrats were comfortable keeping the standoff going.

“I just think that folks seem to be pretty content, particularly Democrats, with leaving the government shut down,” he said.

Democrats have a reason to feel secure, at least for now: multiple polls show more Americans are blaming Republicans for the shutdown.

The latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey found that 53% of respondents would blame Trump, congressional Republicans or both if the shutdown caused significant economic harm, versus 37% who would blame Democrats.

The survey, which polled 1,000 adults nationwide from Oct. 8-12, carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%.