But Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, said that while he thought the shutdown was “going to drag on a lot longer,” Mr. Trump’s shift in wall materials could provide a semantic opening to advance the talks. “If he has to give up a concrete wall, replace it with a steel fence in order to do that so that Democrats can say, ‘See? “I think we’re going to have some very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” he said. Democrats believe they have a plan to bring new leverage to the negotiations. ”Those bills have little chance in the Senate, where Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has held fast to his pledge that he would not put any legislation on the floor that the president would not approve.

Source: New York Times January 06, 2019 22:48 UTC