Several of them are planning to deliver a message the president does not often hear from his own party: your flagship bill is dead, and it is time to accept that reality.
Trump accepted an invitation from Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the GOP steering committee chair, to pitch the SAVE America Act, his top legislative priority. But a growing number of Senate Republicans, including some who lost their seats to Trump-backed primary challengers, said Monday they intend to use the closed-door meeting to press the president to abandon the elections bill and turn to other business.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who recently lost his bid for a fifth term after Trump endorsed his opponent, told reporters he will be “front and center” at the lunch. “It will be important if it actually is a constructive exchange of different opinions, and hopefully we can all get on the same page,” Cornyn said. “Right now, we’re not in a great place.”
Cornyn, a veteran vote-counter, dismissed any suggestion that the bill could be salvaged through sheer will. “I’ve been around here long enough and been through enough battles and counted enough votes to know that it doesn’t just magically occur, no matter how much you wish it would happen,” he said.
Departing senators urge a pivot
Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, both of whom are leaving the Senate in part because of Trump’s influence, said they will also attend the lunch and urge the president to move on. Cassidy noted that he is a co-sponsor of the bill but acknowledged the political reality. “It doesn’t have the votes, and so it’s time to talk about something else,” he said.
The invitation comes at a particularly tense moment in relations between Trump and Senate Republicans. Lawmakers have grown frustrated with the president’s singular focus on the elections bill, have openly questioned elements of his approach to the Iran deal, and worry that his habit of blindsiding them with sudden policy reversals is undermining their ability to hold the majority in November. The Wednesday lunch could bring weeks of simmering interbranch tensions to a head, with several outgoing senators prepared to speak plainly about what they see as a political dead end.
