The White House tried -- and apparently failed -- to stop House Republicans from defecting on Donald Trump's border wall by joining their Democratic colleagues in voting to reopen the government without wall funding.
Politico reported Wednesday that the White House engaged in a last-minute attempt to lobby GOP congresspeople that involved a speech from Vice President Mike Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
At the partially-televised speech, the Trump administration officials answered questions from House members about the specifics of the wall and reportedly left with "packets of border security statistics."
The report noted that that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) led a closed-door Republican conference meeting less than a day after Trump gave a televised address to the country pitching the wall amid the nearly three-week-long government shutdown.
Eight Republicans ended up breaking ranks and voting with Democrats Wednesday, including two -- Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) -- who'd voted against the Democratic spending bill the week prior.
Though the government shutdown over Trump's wall has dominated headlines for weeks and led to a million federal employees going without pay, the president's 2020 reelection campaign fundraised off his Tuesday address.
