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Democrats are not convinced that the $400 million ballroom is needed, seeing little connection between the gunman who targeted the Washington Hilton and Trump’s long-sought venue, which is too small to host the correspondents’ dinner. Republicans are offering competing proposals to approve the ballroom, showing they aren’t on the same page.
And GOP leaders are reluctant to add language approving the ballroom — which a federal judge recently ruled must get Congress’ signoff — to a forthcoming party-line immigration funding plan that can skirt a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.
Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Katie Britt, R-Ala., said they would introduce a bill dedicating $400 million in customs fees to construction of the ballroom. Graham said he’s leaning on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to “expedite” the bill and that he wants it to be a standalone vote.
“I want to get it done yesterday, and I’d like to do it as a freestanding bill with an offset,” Graham said on Monday night. He added that he’s already started selling the bill to Democrats, some of whom are “rattled” by the attack.
But he has a lot of work to do. At the moment, Senate Democrats say the ballroom authorization lacks sufficient support in their caucus to get 60 votes. Moderate Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., decried political violence but said “I don’t see the connection” between the attack and the new ballroom.
“This ballroom has nothing to do with what happened at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., told Semafor. He said that other than Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., he didn’t know of any Democrats who support the ballroom: “It’s pretextual. It’s the Trump adoration society.”
“The only way this would actually be a response to security would be if the president was going to say, ‘Any of my meetings that are a big size will be in this secure location. I won’t go out.’ It’s a totally unrealistic, bootstrapping argument,” Welch said.
Graham actually said he would advise against doing more events like the correspondents’ dinner in hotels like the Hilton, saying Congress would “be idiots” to do so. But some Republicans also concede the ballroom might not be able to host every large presidential event.
“Everyone is appalled at the incident this weekend. And it does speak to a lack of security. But I’m not sure all of these events are going to be moved to the White House. And I know there’s certain historical preservation groups that still have concerns,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told Semafor.
Trump’s attempt to build the ballroom unilaterally is tied up in court, with an appeal pending to the finding that Congress needs to approve it.
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