A handful of Senate Republicans are expressing frustration with their party’s handling of the ongoing government shutdown. But Mitch McConnell is a long way from facing any sort of rebellion.

The Senate majority leader is standing firm in his resolve to not move a muscle on any government funding bill that would not have the president’s approval. That’s earned him scorn among Democrats given that he endorsed a funding bill that didn’t include the president’s much-sought additional border wall funding of more than $5 billion in December.

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But aside from some rank-and-file Republicans like Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Cory Gardner of Colorado who say Congress should again pass spending bills that don’t provide additional wall funding, McConnell’s allies say he’s facing little pressure to change his stance as the longest shutdown in history continues.

“They’re going to do what they need to do and advocate for what they believe their constituents want,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who served as McConnell’s deputy for six years. “But I don’t think that should be confused with what Sen. McConnell’s calculus is, which is: not to go through this effort of passing something the president won’t sign and then going through a potential veto override and all the conflict that would cause.”

He added: “All of us would like to reopen the government but not in so doing capitulate our responsibility for border security.”

With Trump now opposed to those bills for being light on border security funding, most Senate Republicans say they are too. And as leader of the Senate GOP, McConnell sees it as his job to stand firm behind that response and absorb all the Democratic attacks coming his way as they portray him as the only impediment to getting out of the shutdown.

There is some action behind the scenes as McConnell bides his time and waits for the president to cut a deal with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, negotiations that have been descending rapidly in recent weeks. Rank-and-file GOP senators met among themselves last week and then with centrist Democrats on Monday hoping to break the deadlock.

Yet even the senators who have proposed reopening the government without additional border wall funding don’t fault McConnell. Gardner is up for reelection in 2020 in blue Colorado and has been talking to senators in both parties about ending the shutdown, but he said that McConnell is “trying to find a way forward, just like the rest of us are.”

“Why isn’t there a rebellion on the Democrats’ side?” Gardner said, highlighting the party’s lockstep opposition to giving Trump more than $1.3 billion for fencing.

“That’s a good question,” added Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) as he walked by Gardner in the Senate halls.

But McConnell sets the Senate agenda and Democrats say he is shirking his duty as Senate leader by not bucking Trump. They insist that there are 67 votes, and at least 20 Republicans, who would be willing to override the president’s veto of a spending bill that doesn’t include the additional wall funding that Trump seeks.

Schumer said on Monday that McConnell is “out to lunch” in criticizing Pelosi, whose House majority is passing funding bills that the president won’t sign.

“It seems clear to nearly everybody but Leader McConnell that Congress needs to move forward without the president,” Schumer said on Monday.

The GOP leader had just taken to the floor to attack Pelosi for deeming the wall “immoral,” which he declared is “not a serious statement.” It was an attack line that should please the president, who is touting GOP unity at every chance he gets. And it was a floor speech that showed McConnell is not even thinking about giving Democrats what they want as he said that the “speaker of the House has decided that opposing President Trump comes before the security of our borders.”

Still, McConnell hates shutdowns and knows they are a political loser. He repeatedly said his majority was unlikely to oversee a lengthy shutdown, and he called a far shorter impasse in 2018 the “Schumer shutdown.” Democrats have returned the favor, trying to saddle McConnell with just as much blame as Trump.

McConnell “doesn’t want a shutdown. He’s facilitating the president’s shutdown. I hope there’s some give. I think we have the votes not only to pass these bills, but probably override these vetoes,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). “The president looks like he’s planning to stay this way forever, and I don’t think McConnell and the Senate can let that happen.”

At the same time, McConnell has much more to think about politically than just opening up the government and continuing on with business as usual. Funding the government without a border security increase would amount to all-out war on Trump by undercutting one of his chief political goals, risking ire from the GOP base for McConnell, Gardner and other Senate Republicans up for reelection in 2020.

And it would turn into a brutal intraparty fight between the Senate GOP and a president that most Republicans say the Senate can’t win. They do not believe there are the votes to override the president, even though the Senate passed a spending bill without new border wall money in December.

“You’ve got a president that has got to agree to something, or else you have to have two-thirds vote in the House and the Senate. And we’re not going to get that,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). “I know it is not popular what Mitch is doing. Everybody wants to jump in and do something. But he’s correct.”

The bipartisan group of senators on Monday discussed trying to reopen the government and then negotiate on immigration, according to Democrats, a similar proposal to last week’s discussions among Republicans. Trump shot down the proposal early Monday,

And even though McConnell is disengaged from the talks to try and strike a bipartisan compromise intended to win Trump over, Republicans involved in the talks don’t fault him for it. And most of them make clear that even as they keep talking, they certainly aren’t breaking away from the president — or from McConnell.

“Democrats are forgetting people elected the president. He’s made a reasonable request, and we have a Republican Senate and a Republican president,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who said he “bent over backwards” to accommodate former President Barack Obama. “Instead of focusing on what they don’t want to give the president, they should focus on what they want to add to the president’s request.”

House Democrats are rushing to formally punish Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) for controversial remarks he made last week that seemingly embraced racist terms, including “white supremacy.”

Rep. Bobby Rush announced he would be filing a censure motion on Monday to hold the Iowa Republican accountable for “his pattern of racist and xenophobic statements” going back to 2006. Shortly afterward, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) unveiled his own censure resolution, which specifically targets comments King made to The New York Times last week. Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa) has said he will sign on as a cosponsor.

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“He has become too comfortable with proudly insulting, disrespecting, and denigrating people of color,” Rush, a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement. “As with any animal that is rabid, Steve King should be set aside and isolated.”

Added Ryan: “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican, we all have a responsibility to call out Rep. King’s hateful and racist comments. It’s far past time that Congress holds him accountable.”

Separately, the CBC over the weekend demanded King be stripped of his committee assignments. King currently serves on the Judiciary, Agriculture and Small Business panels.

The move comes as both Democratic leaders have condemned King’s comments to The New York Times and Republicans have taken great pains to distance themselves from the remarks.

In the interview, King questioned aloud when terms like “white nationalist, white supremacist and western civilization” became “offensive.”

King later issued a statement saying he “rejects” the labels “white nationalism and white supremacy.” But his remarks are just the latest in a years-long pattern of using offensive and crude language to describe people of color.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest ranking African American in Congress, is also planning to introduce a resolution of disapproval in response to King, although it wouldn’t go as far as censure.

Clyburn’s resolution is expected to condemn white supremacy more broadly, according to a Democratic aide, and comes the same week as Martin Luther King Jr.’s 90th birthday.

But Clyburn said a censure motion against King would be an overreach in his opinion.

“I don’t think we in the House should be censuring somebody for what he said to a reporter,” Clyburn said Monday afternoon. “If it was something he said on the House floor, yeah maybe.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday said there is “interest” in action being taken against King but wouldn’t commit to anything at the time. Her office did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday.

Democrats are expected to discuss what to do next at their weekly leadership meeting Monday night.

A censure motion would be a severe rebuke and one that is used in the House only in the most extreme cases. The House has not voted to formally censure a member since 2010, when former Rep. Charles Rangel was found guilty of multiple ethics violations.

King is also set to meet Monday afternoon with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for the first time since his comments to The New York Times, a GOP leadership aide confirmed.

McCarthy told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “action would be taken” though he has not said how King will be formally reprimanded for his remarks.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also released a statement criticizing King’s remarks on Monday, saying he has “no tolerance for such positions.”

“Rep. King’s statements are unwelcome and unworthy of his elected position. If he doesn’t understand why ‘white supremacy’ is offensive, he should find another line of work,” McConnell wrote in a statement.

House GOP leaders have not yet announced whether King will be permitted to keep his coveted slot on the House Judiciary Committee, where he led the subcommittee on the constitution and civil justice.

King would be in line to become ranking member on that subcommittee, though Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the top Republican on the full Judiciary panel, has also blasted King’s comments.

“There’s no room in American values for the language that Steve King used,” Collins said in a statement last week. “Racism and white supremacy are wicked. They’re incompatible with what we know to be true, that every person is made with untold dignity and value.”

Laura Barrón–López contributed.