“Look, this was non-stop work for five days. Every night we thought we’d get it done, starting with Sunday night. But that’s not really how the Senate works,” said an official close to Mnuchin. “So he’d stay till midnight and the junior lawyers and staffers would keep working on language on what had been agreed to and hadn’t till 3 or 4 in the morning.”
Mnuchin was perhaps the only senior Trump administration official who could have spearheaded the talks.
Trump hasn’t spoken with Pelosi in more than five months, and their relationship is more frayed than ever, especially after Pelosi led the effort to impeach the president. Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who is leaving soon, has been largely sidelined, while Vice President Mike Pence is running the coronavirus task force.
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The World Health Organization has declared a global emergency over the new coronavirus.
(Pictured) A view of an unusually quiet Copley Square on March 25 in Boston, Massachusetts. A “stay at home” order was put into effect by Governor Charlie Baker in an attempt to slow the coronavirus.
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The statue of Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson is shown outside Nationals Park, home to the World Series Champion Washington Nationals, which looks deserted on the date which was previously scheduled for Opening Day, on March 26, in Washington, DC.
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Pine Glen Elementary School teachers wave to their students as they take part in a car parade through their school district, in Burlington, Massachusetts, on March 26.
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Jaime Casady uses an electrostatic sprayer to disinfect a shop in Seattle, Washington on March 26.
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People stand in line to get tested for the coronavirus at Elmhurst Hospital Center in the Queens borough of New York City, on March 26.
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An aerial view shows the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, shortly before sunset, with lighter than normal traffic, on March 25, in Los Angeles, California.
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In this image from video, the final vote of 96-0 shows passage of the $2.2 trillion economic rescue package in response to the pandemic, passed by the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on March 25.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference on the coronavirus, outbreak flanked by Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (R) and Vice President Mike Pence at the White House in Washington, D.C on March 25.
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A sign is shown at the Salt Lake City International Airport Wednesday on March 25 in Salt Lake City. Many airline flights are nearly empty as virus undercuts travel.
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A man has his temperature taken at a control point on a covered footbridge to be screened for symptoms before entering the Dell Deton Medical Center at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas on March 25.
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A man crosses the unusually quiet Hollywood Boulevard near the shuttered Pantages Theatre as the coronavirus pandemic continues on March 25 in Los Angeles.
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Exterior of the Dodgers Stadium on the eve of Major League Baseball's opening day which has been postponed due to the spread of the coronavirus on March 25 in Los Angeles.
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A police officer mans the entrance to a coronavirus testing center in Hansen Dam Park on March 25 in Pacoima, California.
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Dylan Kyriacopoulos, left, and his fiance Mary Williams visit an empty Lincoln Memorial in Washington on March 25. Officials have urged Washington residents to stay home to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
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People stand apart at a closed ticket counter at Grand Central Station on March 25 in New York City.
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A man bikes past boarded up businesses while walking his dog on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 25.
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Medical personnel are silhouetted against the back of a tent before the start of coronavirus testing in the parking lot on March 25 in Tampa, Fla. The testing is being done by appointment only.
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Pedestrians keep their distance in downtown Portland, Maine, just hours before a stay-at-home order goes into effect on March 25 to close all but essential workplaces in the city.
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A Florida Army National Guard looks on as people get tested for COVID-19 at a drive-thru testing center at Marlins Park on March 25 in Miami.
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A woman takes a picture of a sign in front of the closed Department of Labor on March 25 in New York.
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Lobsang Tseten meditates and practices breathing exercises alone to maintain social distancing at a playground, on March 25, in New York.
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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin talks briefly with reporters after arriving at the U.S. Capitol with White House Director of Legislative Affairs Eric Ueland and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on March 24 in Washington, D.C.
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Firefighters, police officers and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) respond to a medical call amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Seattle, Washington on March 24.
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Beach access has been closed after the announcement of a lockdown in Del Mar, California on March 24.
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Coba the Spectacled Owl is brought to see the Humboldt penguins while the zoo is closed to visitors, which will cause a $1.9 million loss, at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle on March 24.
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Stay home, Ohio. Stop COVID-19 sign is seen in Dayton, Ohio on March 24.
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Medics clean their equipment after transporting a patient into Life Care Center of Kirkland. The long-term care facility is linked to confirmed coronavirus cases in the state, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, in Kirkland, Washington, on March 24.
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The sunset over Manhattan is seen from Brooklyn Bridge Park, during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brooklyn, New York City, on March 24.
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Employees sew masks at Kaas Tailored, which is working with Providence to make thousands of masks and face shields for healthcare workers during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Mukilteo, Washington, on March 24.
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A nearly empty street is seen in Chinatown on March 24 in New York City.
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A woman has her temperature taken before being allowed to donate blood at a temporary blood bank set up in a church's fellowship hall on March 24 in Tempe, Arizona. Schools and businesses that typically host blood drives are temporarily closed due to precautionary measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, leading to extremely low levels of blood availability throughout the state.
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A man crosses the street in an empty downtown Houston on March 24. A Stay Home - Work Safe Order was issued Tuesday for Houston and Harris County residents to help fight the spread of COVID-19.
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President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence look over some notes as they participate in a Fox News Virtual Town Hall with Anchor Bill Hemmer, in the Rose Garden of the White House on March 24 in Washington, D.C.
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Kaye Knighton, 86, receives a visit from his daughter-law Darla Knighton at the Creekside Senior Living on March 24 in Bountiful, Utah. Window visits help seniors connect to families despite coronavirus restrictions.
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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to the media at the Javits Convention Center which is being turned into a hospital to help fight coronavirus cases on March 24 in New York City.
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Dr. Elissa Palmer stands on a ladder to test a patient in a truck for the coronavirus at a drive thru testing site on March 24 in Las Vegas.
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The USNS Mercy, a Navy hospital ship, departs the Naval Station San Diego and heads to the Port of Los Angeles to aid local medical facilities for patients, on March 23 in San Diego.
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Instructor Lucas Dela Cruz high fives with students during a live virtual lesson over Zoom at One Martial Arts as California continues its statewide "stay at home order" directing the state’s 40 million residents to stay in their homes in Millbrae, California on March 23.
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A resident of the International House in the Chinatown-International District walks up to grab a bag of free groceries dropped off by the InterIm Community Development Association from the Asian supermarket Uwajimaya in Seattle on March 23.
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U.S. Border Patrol agents listen to Washington Governor Jay Inslee's address on their car radio as he issues a "stay home, stay healthy" order at Peace Arch Historical State Park in Blaine on March 23.
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American Airlines passenger planes crowd a runway where they are parked due to flight reductions at Tulsa International Airport in Oklahoma on March 23.
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The sign in the windows reads "Alone Together" amid the pandemic, in Seattle, on March 23.
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A playground is seen draped in caution tape after California issued a stay-at-home order in Los Angeles on March 23.
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Jane Hassebroek who attends IS 318, begins the first day of digital classes after New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order closing public schools statewide, in Brooklyn, on March 23.
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U.S. President Donald Trump leads the daily coronavirus response briefing, facing more empty seats than normal as reporters spaced themselves with social distancing, at the White House, on March 23, in Washington.
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People walk pass a sign outside a closed restaurant on March 23, in Port Aransas, Texas.
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Times Square, which is usually very crowded on a weekday morning, is mostly empty on March 23, in New York.
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A resident of The Villages, Florida gets tested for the coronavirus with a nasal swab at a drive-through site that accommodates golf carts, on March 23.
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An elderly lady walks across the unusually empty Columbus Drive on March 23, the first work day since Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker gave a shelter in place order last week in Chicago. Illinois.
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Luz Estrada, left, hands a bag of lunch and a carton of milk to a student at Rockwood elementary school in Oklahoma City, as the city public school district holds their first day of providing free meals to students at 42 sites around the district during the coronavirus pandemic on March 24.
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Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, has been engaged in direct talks with Mnuchin over the past week. Leahy recalled a recent meeting he had with Mnuchin and Mulvaney.
“Very good discussions with Secretary Mnuchin,” Leahy recalled. “And then they asked me about Mulvaney and I said, ‘Very good discussions with Secretary Mnuchin.’ And that’s what it’s been now.”
So it fell to Mnuchin, who cut deals with Pelosi over a year-long budget agreement, as well as the previous $100 billion coronavirus response bill, to close the deal.
A person close to Mnuchin also noted that the secretary benefited from sharing Trump’s general disdain for hardline ideological positions. Mnuchin learned during the highly partisan tax reform debate in 2017 that building relationships with congressional Democrats really mattered — as did being viewed as speaking directly for Trump, to the limited extent that anyone but Trump himself can do that.
After the Monday cloture vote failed, Mnuchin and Ueland once again began going back-and-forth between McConnell and Schumer’s office on the second floor of the Capitol. A deal was possible, but McConnell and Mnuchin knew that Schumer had shown twice he could keep Democrats in line. They had to make some concessions.
Mnuchin and Schumer worked late into the night on Monday, with Mnuchin agreeing to an oversight board for the $500 billion fund to help distressed corporations. Mnuchin also agreed to tens of billions of dollars for hospitals, another key issue. Democrats were upset that the unemployment payments for coronavirus-related layoffs only covered three months, not four. Republicans gave ground on that as well, although they privately had said that was their intention all along.
Mnuchin and Schumer ended the night saying they were “very, very close,” and both predicted a deal on Tuesday.
The following day, Wall Street soared, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 11 percent, its second biggest day ever. The mood in the Capitol changed dramatically.
Tuesday brought another long round of talks between Mnuchin, Schumer and McConnell, with aid to states a key battleground. Republicans agreed to $150 billion for the “State Stabilization Fund” fund, above where they started but far under what Democrats sought.
At 1:37 a.m. on Wednesday, Mnuchin and Schumer announced they had a deal.
“The president said I got to live in the LBJ room for the last five days, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the unprecedented response from the Senate to protect American workers and American business in this situation,” Mnuchin said at the White House on Wednesday.
Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. A handful of Republican senators initially balked at the expanded unemployment provisions in the agreement, and then Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) threatened to retaliate. The final bill text wasn’t unveiled until after 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, a half-hour before the vote.
But after another long, stop-and-start day, a few minutes before midnight, the Senate voted unanimously to pass the bill. "We packed months of legislative process into five days," Schumer declared beforehand.
"We pivoted from impeachment to 100 to nothing on this rescue package," McConnell added. "This is about as flawless as you could possibly be."
Ben White, Heather Caygle, Nancy Cook and Betsy Woodruff contributed to this report.