By SARAH FERRIS (sferris@politico.com; @sarahnferris)

With an assist from Nolan McCaskill

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IT’S GETTING REAL: The House and Senate skipped town Thursday without a clue as to how GOP leaders plan to avert a politically painful government funding lapse next week. Even top Republicans are griping publicly that they’ve been left in the dark on the strategy, with no word from the White House, as they attempt to avoid being stuck in the Capitol on Christmas. Worse still, the House isn’t slated to return until Wednesday night, leaving just a 72-hour window for a spending deal that has eluded congressional leaders all year.

There’s been no sign of deal-making since Tuesday, when President Trump scrambled the GOP’s plans by relishing in a shutdown on national TV. Democrats say they’re waiting on Republicans, and Republicans say they’re waiting on Trump, as your host reports with Burgess and Anthony Adragna. Privately, some GOP spending leaders have begun drafting back-up plans to do just that, but they admit Trump could simply reject those bills.

In yet another shift, POLITICO Playbook reports this morning that Trump has begun to give signals that he might back a bipartisan funding package, even without his wall money, to avert a shutdown.

The exasperation on Capitol Hill is palpable, though plenty of lawmakers — particularly Democrats — hope that Trump could back down on his threat if he realizes he would need to stay in Washington in that two-week holiday stretch. More: https://politi.co/2Lh7dJl.

Related: Trump is scheduled to arrive at Mar-A-Lago for a 16-day holiday vacation on Dec. 21, the day of the funding deadline, the Palm Beach Post reports: https://pbpo.st/2UEUSCY.

FURY AT THE BORDER— Top House Democrats are calling for a “full investigation” into the death of a 7-year-old girl less than 48 hours after she was taken into Border Patrol Custody. That includes Rep. Joaquin Castro, the incoming chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who described a “humanitarian crisis” at the border. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, another top Democrat who will have oversight powers in 2019, shared her outrage on Twitter: “We must investigate her death FULLY, including CBP’s actions, and make certain that justice is served.”

MCCONNELL RELENTS — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has agreed to bring up a bipartisan criminal justice bill next week, teeing up a historic win for long-time advocates in both parties — and for Trump. But behind the scenes, Senate conservatives are still at the drawing board as they pressure McConnell to make changes in the bill, Burgess reports. The bill, which would be the biggest overhaul to U.S. prison and sentencing practices in decades, could pass the House the same week, delivering a victory to another big supporter, Speaker Paul Ryan, in his final days as speaker. More: https://politi.co/2SPBQrZ.

If and when it passes, Jared Kushner would deserve credit for months of personally lobbying key Republican senators as well as his efforts to build up support in the most unlikely of places: The Drudge Report. Kushner has quietly courted conservative media figures who he knows shape opinions of his father in law, as well as GOP lawmakers, Eliana Johnson and Burgess write. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said he would sometimes talk to Kushner five times a day as they were nearing the finish line: “He’s helped us navigate 1,000 storms.” Much more: https://politi.co/2QQztYx.

WE FINALLY MADE IT. Welcome to Friday and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, where we’re still chuckling at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s not-so-subtle shoutout to departing Sen. Jeff Flake on Thursday for once being named “the No. 1 most beautiful person on Capitol Hill.” I’m filling in for your host, Nolan, who will be back in the saddle next week.

THURSDAY’S MOST CLICKED: The winner was HuffPost’s report on the five Democrats who voted with Republicans on a controversial farm bill rule that included language blocking a vote on U.S. involvement in Yemen.

‘WE WERE SHOCKED AS SH**’ — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has almost certainly locked down the votes to retake the throne of Speaker next January. For weeks, she was short on support. But that changed in a one-on-one meeting with one of her fiercest critics, Colorado Rep. Ed Perlmutter, when Pelosi told him for the first time that she was open to term limits, as Rachael, Heather and Bres write in a juicy play-by-play of Pelosi’s return to power.

Perlmutter's meeting capped off several bad weeks for the Pelosi rebels. First, they struggled to recruit more than a handful of incoming freshman to their efforts, even those who had campaigned against Pelosi on the trail. All the while, Pelosi was picking off her opponents one by one, dangling subcommittee chairmanships and promises of floor votes to trigger the defections. Much more: https://politi.co/2zXzD6N.

Related: “She works harder than any human being I’ve ever known,” via the Washington Post.

AN OLIVE BRANCH — Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is offering an open invite for the Democratic party’s newbies in the House. McCarthy’s staff hand-delivered letters to the cubbies of every incoming House Democrat, offering in-person meetings to talk policy priorities next year, Roll Call reports. His note comes after dozens of Democrats-elect sent their own letter to Pelosi and her deputies, urging them to prioritize “legislation that improves the lives of those who elected us” over investigations.

A ‘WIDE OPEN’ PRIMARY?: North Carolina Republicans are bracing for an ugly primary battle if the state is forced to disqualify the results of last month’s 9th District seat, the Charlotte Observer reports.

Several possible GOP contenders are already being floated in the case of a do-over election, with some in the state GOP eager to distance themselves from the current Republican candidate, Mark Harris, whose campaign has been accused of voter fraud.

Related: North Carolina legislators approved rules this week that would require a primary before holding the next election, which is seen as an “admission that many state Republicans are eager to cut ties with Harris,” Laura Barrón-López writes for POLITICO.

‘ANYBODY-BUT-MCSALLY’ — Rep. Martha McSally is not Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s top choice to become the state’s next senator, the Washington Post reports. The Senate hopeful has fallen out of favor after a post-election memo from McSally’s campaign team, which partly blamed “Democratic fundraising, a geographic disadvantage and voter hostility toward President Trump” for her loss, as the Post writes. Ducey’s inner circle has interpreted that to mean she’s not owning up to her loss to Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

There are few other obvious GOP alternatives, however, and Ducey will likely be under pressure soon to pick a replacement for Sen. Jon Kyl, who was appointed to Sen. John McCain’s seat after his death. Kyl is expected to announce his departure soon.

A DOUBLE REBUKE — The Senate voted Thursday to withdraw U.S. military support from Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen in its strongest rebuke of Trump since the killing of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Senate also voted to blame the Saudi crown prince for his death, in a far more bipartisan bill that stands a better chance of making it to Trump’s desk, Marianne reports.

The House is not expected to take up the measure this year, but the votes “signal that Congress will take on Mr. Trump’s support of Saudi Arabia when Democrats take control of the House next month,” per the New York Times.

TODAY IN CONGRESS

The House and Senate are out.

AROUND THE HILL

Zilch.

TRIVIA

THURSDAY’S WINNER — Lindsay Underwood was first to correctly guess that Norman Thomas is the presidential candidate who when he was a child delivered a newspaper, The Marion Star, edited by a future president, Warren G. Harding.

TODAY’S QUESTION — From Lindsay: This U.S. president once said that this Washington institution was the one place in town where he could relax. Who was the president and what was the place? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your best guess my way: sferris@politico.com.

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