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White House hints at deal that would drop Confederate leaders’ names from military bases.

Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, has privately suggested that Democrat could break the logjam on a bill that authorizes pay raises for troops by agreeing to repeal a law that provides liability protection to social media firms.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, has privately hinted that President Trump would drop his objection to stripping Confederate leaders’ names from military bases, which is threatening to derail the annual military policy bill, if Democrats agreed to repeal an important legal shield for social media companies.

Mr. Trump has threatened to veto the legislation, which authorizes pay raises for American troops, if it contains the base-renaming requirement, which drew bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.

Over the course of several conversations, Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, asked Mr. Meadows what might persuade Mr. Trump to sign the measure with the renaming requirement intact, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Mr. Meadows, according to the people, said that adding a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, considered the most consequential law governing speech on the internet, would help.

Such a deal would amount to a last-minute, sweeping overhaul of communications law, and a Democratic congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity to disclose internal discussions, said many lawmakers in the party viewed it as a nonstarter.

But the offer reflected the appetite at the White House to score long-shot victories on top priorities in the final days of Mr. Trump’s presidency. And it further complicated what could become a bitter fight on Capitol Hill over the issue of Confederate base names.

A White House spokesman declined to comment on the conversations. A spokesman for Mr. Smith also declined to comment, citing an informal policy of keeping details of such negotiations private.

Mr. Trump and his closest allies in Congress have agitated for a revocation of Section 230, which shields social media companies from liability for the content posted by users on their sites.

The Justice Department has written a legislative proposal intended to reform the law. And Mr. Trump signed an executive order several months ago intended to limit some of the Section 230 provisions.

Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent. She joined The Times in 2015 as a campaign correspondent and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on President Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia. More about Maggie Haberman

Catie Edmondson is a reporter in the Washington bureau, covering Congress. More about Catie Edmondson

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