In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the president and some of his closest Senate allies are seizing on the moment to try to do something the polls have foreclosed until now: approve taxpayer funding for the president’s White House ballroom project, under the guise it will improve event security.
But even as Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Eric Schmitt (R-MO) introduce legislation for this, it is clear the idea still does not have a viable path in Congress, Semafor reported on Monday.
“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,” said the report. On the flip side, “GOP leaders are reluctant to add language approving the ballroom — which a federal judge recently ruled must get Congress’s signoff — to a forthcoming party-line immigration funding plan that can skirt a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.”
Republicans are planning to use the reconciliation to pass a “skinny” bill that solely funds immigration enforcement, getting around the need to negotiate with Democrats on adding oversight provisions for ICE and Border Patrol to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. However, some GOP members have been fighting this plan for weeks, demanding the bill include more.
“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,” said the report. “‘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.’”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who is currently facing a tough re-election this cycle, also disapproved of the idea, telling Semafor, “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 are certain historical preservation groups that still have concerns.”
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