This is the longest shutdown in US history

Several House Democrats who have been invited to the White House to meet with President Trump said they have been given little to no information about what the meeting would entail and have either rejected the invite or wouldn’t confirm whether they would attend.

The invitations did not all go out at once, but over the course of the evening last night. Reps. Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Lou Correa of California, two co-chairs of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, both declined the invitations, according to sources. 

“It’s kind of a mess,” one Democratic member who had received an invitation told CNN.

White House strategic communications director Mercedes Schlapp confirmed that rank-and-file Democrats were invited to the White House.

“We want to work with rank-and-file Democrats. Obviously what we’re seeing right now is that Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi has refused to provide a counter offer … So we’re gonna talk to those individuals, to those Democrats, see if we can make some inroads. The President also will be bringing over the Problem Solvers Caucus so that’s another opportunity to talk to congressional members. We want to be able to come to a solution and negotiate," she said.

Some background on the meeting: Trump and his team are deploying an age-old legislative strategy — go after the most vulnerable members of the opposite party and try and pick them off. In this case, invitations were sent last night to a group of moderate House Democrats hailing from districts Trump won in 2016. This is the next play — following last week’s public messaging blitz — to try and shake loose congressional Democrats who, to this point, have shown very little day light between one another.

As to whether there are splits in the Democratic caucus the President can take advantage of, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said this: “We are totally united. Totally.” 

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