>> no one's definition of executive privilege. >> lewandowsky said he was unprepared. >> we should have subpoenaed him today. >> it just doesn't wash. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning. welcome to your "new day". 41 hours and counting until a government shutdown. house republican leaders facing a major test today. we'll see if they can move forward with a vote to keep the federal government funded. it is not clear if they have the support within their own party to pass it. republicans and democrats are struggle to go find common ground.

we're already seeing both sides blaming each other for a potential shutdown tomorrow. house republicans scrambling to secure support for a short-term budget resolution ahead of tomorrow's government shutdown deadline. a member of the house gop whip telling cnn they are confident. but as of now, cnn's count shows

they do not have the votes. a key concern, the roughly 30 conservative hard liners in the freem caucus who oppose another short-term fix. >> are you in a position right now to vote yes for what's out the there. >> what they elect us to do, fund defense. hold the line on nondefense and do what the election was about on immigration. >> it faces more uncertainty in the senate. lindsey graham announcing wednesday he will not support the short-term bill because it deprives the military of long term funding assurance. >> i'm not going to vote for c.r. the democrats seem to be willing to increase military spending. many reps are willing to have a daca fix. and those who don't want to combine the two are just i think very naive. >> reporter: democrat manchin

will support the short-term bill. >> we have to operate the way we are supposed to do and to punish 300 million plus people is not functional. >> reporter: if all remaining republicans vote yes, senate leadership needs 10 more votes from democrats. >> translator: revulsion toward that was broad and strong. >> reporter: five democrats have said they will not backed the the continuum resolution. senator graham continue to go push for a bill he co sponsored but president trump rejected but garnering growing support in the senate. majority leader mitch mcconnell giving this blunt response when asked why he has not yet brought the gang of six bill to the floor. >> i'm looking for something that president trump supports. and he has not yet indicated what measure he's willing to sign. as soon as we figure out what he is for, then i would be convinced that we were not just

spinning our wheels. >> reporter: the white house pushing back. >> the president has been pretty clear. there's been plenty of discussion back and forth. we'd be happy to contact the leaders office another time about this. >> reporter: chief of staff john kelly further muddying the waters telling a group of democrats that mr. trump was uninformed when he repeatedly made this signature campaign promise. >> but we will build the wall. mexico is going to pay for the wall. >> reporter:. >> very definitely changed his attitude toward the daca regime and even the wall. he has evolved in the way he has looked at things. campaign to governing are to different things. >> reporter: so al sis and chris, already the president is responding to his own chief of f point byoint refuting some of the claims john kelly made in private and in public yesterday. the president wrote just this morning his view on the wall has never changed or evolved since the first day i conceived it. on the issue whether it will be

a solid wall or a virtual wall of some kind, he said it was never intended to be built in areas where there is never protection. and he promises once again contrary to what john kel good said yesterday, that mexico will pay for the wall whether directly or indirectly. so the president already this morning pushing back a little bit on his chief of staff from that building right behind me. alisyn and chris. >> all right, abby. joining us now is david gregory, associate editor of real clear politics a.b. stoddard. i remember, david, being taught one of the most dangerous combinations in politics is ignorance and arrogance. and it seems is to be on on full display this morning with the president of the united states. he was wrong with what he was saying during the campaign, whether he knew it or not. and now he refuses to admit any error, even thoef general john kelly was trying to do him a favor. he was trying to make trump's mind-set go into the realm of the reasonable and trump winds

up undercutting him just minutes ago. >> and one more layer which is chaos. governance by chaos here. it is impossible to predict where we're going to land on this government shutdown. as it pertains to the wall, which is your question. if we get to this as part of an overall daca settlement, i think the president is looking for victory. he wants to say that he won on this issue. i don't think there is any question about that. he will define what the wall is, what security is consistent with the mandate that he believes he has. so he will take all comers, democrats, his own chief of staff, whatever he has to do to say this is what i always meant and this is what a wall has to look like. but it's got to be there. and i still think we're moving toward some finesse play here on border security that the president could live with short of the wall that he campaign said on that could be part of a

deal. but at the moment it is a little difficult to see that from here. >> a.b., i don't know why we are stuck on the wall. so many voices during the campaign said, that's not going to happen. that's not realistic. mexico is never going to pay for it. didn't people even then know at least certainly the conversation on cable news, that it was a hollow promise? i mean, it was -- call it what you want. it was an empty promise. it wn't going to happen. so the president is notvoing on it as his chief of staff says, he's waffling. because he goes back and forth by the day. and the only problem -- so we know that's what he does, that's who he is. the only problem is lawmakers, legislators are trying to figure out what to do about that. >> right. what i love about senate majority leader is when the s-hole hits the fan, he's very blunt. he said we have no idea where the president is. we can't move until we have

figured out what he is for. he is waffling. lindsey graham is waiting for him to waffle back to a position that would embrace a compromise with democrats. all of us know from watching last year that general kelly, chief of staff knows exactly what would happen if we went into a room full of liberal democrats and said the president's campaign plan was uninformed. as sure as the sun-woo come up this morning, president trump would push back and not like to be boxed in on that. no one does him any favors by trying to go to the television cameras or to a meeting and counter him like that. this is out of desperation to say he is involved and all of this stuff because they are trying to move him off what they are saying he is tripling down on this and they are trying to get to a place where they can compromise. they have to do it before march

5th. so it's clear that general kelly is frustrated. i don't know why else he would ever go and do this with the congressional hispanic caucus knowing it would leak to the press and invite a tweet back from the president this morning. >> let's not forget, i am sure the president has said, what he said publicly in that meeting, thaeplts this bill of love. he want as i big victory on immigration. let's not forget that.t he want. he want as i big victory on immigration. let's not forget that. >> it is a bill of love for him because he loves victory. >> he is waffling on what the wall is. but i don't think there is any question what john kelly knows and he is not happy with how this got reported out from the meeting, or maybe he expected it, they are still trying to push him to where they think he wants to be.

let's get something big on immigration, something nobody else can do. this is a president who would love that. i can do what obama couldn't do, what george bush couldn't do. >> he was there. a wgoeek a he had everybody in the room all saying the right kinds of things. we were marveling at this taking place in real-time. he said you guys figure something out. i'm on board. he went from that to being a real hindrance. where are we headed and why? >> well, obviously there's still fiscal hawks and defense hawks balking at the idea of a short-term extension which provides no certainty to the pentagon. that is driving the opposition on the republican side. if you're a senate democrat up for reelection in a state trump won, you hope it never gets to

counting your votes. it was held up by conservative republicans and therefore the whole mess is in their laps. they a are trying to assuage them in terms of the length of spending for defense and they get something over the line, it goes to the senate. at this point, the reporting is there is not nine democrats. , which leads to a government shutdown. when you listen to mitch mcconnell and senator graham, they repeatedly say we're not going to shut the government down. it is something not going to happen. i don't know what it is they would do to get there. if you're a democrat, you hope it gets bungled up on the house side. >> don't you think there is one other factor here, which is on the democratic side you have the joe manchin's in west virginia,

a state that trump won where he said we don't want to shut the government down. that's the wrong thing to do. a lot of democrats are feeling that pressure from their base to resist president trump, to push for this deal. that he wants what schumer is trying to manage here. >> thank you for walking us through that. 40 hours, 48 minutes, 6 seconds. >> it is five seconds now. the problem with the countdown clock. it keeps moving. the white house says the graham-durbin plan is dead on arrival. despite that, both men introduced their bill in the senate. see the disconnect? that's what we're talking about. they're supposed to be on the same page. we're going to talk to two senators who support it, and they'll tell us why. - [narrator] imagine a shirt that actually makes

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the clock is ticking. it's right there on your screen. as congress tries to avoid a government shutdown. there are several sticking points. but a major one is whether protections for d.r.e.a.m.ers will be included in any spending

bill. senators graham and durbin introduced a bipartisan plan for d.r.e.a.m.ers that the whi self senators still want to see the plan make it to the floor. joining us now is senator mike rounds, inspect senator angus king. they both support the graham-durbin bill. gentlemen, thank you for joining us. i know it's a busy morning. >> thank you. appreciate the opportunity stphrfp. >> angus, as of now, would you vote for the c.r. that is out there and floating around? >> no. and you mentioned the d.r.e.a.m. act. my frustration goes a lot deeper, chris. my issue, and i think mike agrees with me, i'm sick of voting for c.r.s. we have had five a year. this is the fourth this year. we have to close this escape hatch and stop voting for c.r.s and tell leadership they have to make their deals and we will get

it done. to kick it down the road for another month, we're not going to know anything then that we don't know now. so i'm just through taking these half steps. this is a terrible way to try to govern. >> senator rounds? >> i agree with angus. that's the reason why i'm opposing it as well. we both want to see an immigration policy put together. the proposal lindsey has been working hard on may not be perfect but a step in the right direction. it's a vehicle we can use long term to fix a lot of stuff that's in the immigration world today. but for me it's a matter of defense and a matter of trying to make sure that in the future the message is let's get our work done on time. it has been 44 years since we actually had a budget act that was workable. in the last 44 years in three cases have we gotten this done

on time. that's a terrible message to send. if i was in south dakota and we were doing this kind of stuff, they would throw us out of the capitol. >> i think one of the ways to look at this is these continuing resolution, i call ate a crappy resolution. c.r. doesn't really do anything. >> that's catchy, senator. >> it is a slow motion shutdown. the damage it's doing to the military, for example, in terms of training, contracting, it cost the government more money. 50 states. i can only speak for the one i know best, south dakota. th maine. the continuing resolution gives congress an out to avoid difficult decisions. they say, oh, things will be better in january or on february or march, and it never happens. >> so what's the guarantee. >> it is very damaging. >> what is the guarantee if men

of goodwill don't vote many yes tomorrow and we go into shutdown mode and we know there is incremental pain the longer it stays that way, you will get something done quickly enough to justify the pain and get us to fiscal efficiency. senator rounds? >> we have had four months with four separate continuing resolutions with a threat of a shutdown each time. it's not changing and there is no stability. if we continue on the current path, we will be asked february 16th for another continuing resolution that doesn't allow us to do the training, doesn't allow us to do the modernization, doesn't allow us to do the contracting necessary to upgrade our military forces. if it was a one-time deal, i voted for the first one when leadership asked in october. they said, look, we need time to work out the deal. we see no changes, no deal being done. >> chris, you have your countdown clock. you have 40 hours.

if people sat down around the table, we could resolve all of these issues. >> we're not trying to shut things down. for 44 years we have not fixed this mess. it's been three years since i got here. it hasn't been fixed yet. i want to be part of a solution not an ongoing problem. >> understood. it is not easy for me to test you guys on the idea of, well, you should do it anyway because it doesn't matter if it's in efficient. at least it's something. i accept your position. the idea of immigration for a sticking point -- it isn't for you, gentlemen. you're not saying that's why you would vote no on the c.r. it is not because immigration or daca is included in it, correct? >> correct. for me. >> and i think it ought to be included in it. as i say, i think the issue is deeper. a month from now a year from now it will be something else. the point is we have to fix this

terrible system. >> senator, but this is easier to test. because you do not have the same deadline. look, i'm not being insensitive to the pain that's happening on a daily basis the people who are having expiration of their work permits and the anxiety and families that are being split up. i see it. we cover it. i understand it. but the deadline for that is march, right? an artificial deadline. he set it. he could reset it if he wants to. why does it have to be in the . c.r. tomorrow? help me understand that, angus. >> he started the clock last september. i don't know what we will know in martha we don't know now. why can't we resolve it? we have a heavily negotiated bipartisan deal with i think we're now up to a dozen or more cosponsors both sides of the aisle. let's bring it to the floor. let's see how we can do, see if

there are amendments. we can make it better. there's no reason that can't come up as part of this package in the next 24 hours. >> there is one pretty big reason, senator rounds, and i will direct this question to you. the president kind of laughed this idea out of the office and got into the ugly comments about other countries. and it revealed to us a fundamental disconnect between the white house and the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell leader is. let me play you sound that shows this confusion, this disconnect. go ahead. >> i'm looking for something that president trump supports. and he's not yet indicated what measure he's willing to sign. as soon as we figure out what he is for, then i would be convinced that we were not just spinning our wheels. >> the president has been clear about what it will take to get us to the next phase by having a daca fix, along with border security, ending chain migration and ending the visa lottery

system. >> now, with the calf yet, senator rounds, that mitch mcconnell, does not have a lot of upside to say there is a disconnect if there isn't one, both of those gentlemen can't be right. what is the situation right now? does the majority leader know what the president wants or no? >> i think it depends on when you have spoken to him last and who was advising him last. let's just talk about this. he wants more security. i made a point of what when i agreed to be one of the supporters of this plan. we do want more in border security. it doesn't mean you build a huge, long wall. i want e verified and approved. but i also want visas. we will have a shortage of workers. >> as are we some maine. >> it is a horrible plan.

let's work our way through. i think the president has a good point. i agree with him. we can make that better. but simply walking away right now and saying that means we will shut down negotiations, that's not the way you do it. >> chris, i think it's important to realize the plan lindsey graham -- by the way, it was six senators. it wasn't just graham and durbin who worked this out.it addressee president id he wanted to address. it responded to chain migration, it responded to the visa lottery. >> not to his satisfaction. but, yes, they were e in there. >> this is like trying to hit a target behind a screen. you can't see where the target is. they thought they were meeting the roerplts he aoe tphuprequir enunciated. why warranty we get these people around the table with the president and work it out? i have a feeling if they get

into the details there is more common ground than they thought. >> i think he wants the best possible deal for border security, he wants to make sure it's right. and we're fine with that. >> do either of you believe whatever kind of wall, that's the the another point of confusion, kelly saying one thing, reasonable minds saying something else. the president on twitter doubled down saying it has never changed, never evolved. do either of you think mexico is going to wind up paying for the wall? >> no. >> no. >> not even an attempt to keep a straight face. angus, you're usually better keeping a straight face. rounds is a bad influence on you. you usually use the moustache for a straight line smile. >> let's go to a wall system. we're not talking about a wall. didn't the president's tweet

this morning indicate thaoe wasn't talking about a wall from sea to shining sea and there would be fences in some places, technology. the problem with the wall is it doesn't make economic or physical sense in many cases. and there are other better ways to provide security and a lot cheaper. it is like $30 million a mile. whereas more technology might be half a million dollars a mile. let's be practical here. >> look, you guys are in a tough position. it seems pretty clear by all indications the president wants a win on the wall. it's not about the truth. we knew he wasn't going to build a wall all the way across. when he said it, everybody would get angry. that will be part of the calculus. this was a great discussion. great to get where your heads and hearts are. senator rounds, welcome to the show. good to have you. senator king, as always,

appreciate it. tonight in primetime we will talk with tom steyer. he wants to get into politics. what are his goals? how close does he think he is? >> listen, a wall system, is that like a hair system for men? because there's some appeal -- >> was that a dig, by the way? every time you talk about hair i have to make sure my follicles are properly exercised. here's the thing, he wants a win on the wall even though it is an impracticality. this tweet, we have been following this a long time, you and i. this is not what he was saying during the campaign. kellyanne in our interview said since he's become president -- she's not in the business of making him look bad, he met with experts. did you know there were rivers involved. they are trying to sell it like he has new information like what a map is. >> chief of staff john kelly say

the president's positions on that wall were uninformed. what does that mean?

white house chief of staff john kelly told members of the congressional hispanic caucus that president trump's positions on the border wall during the campaign were, quote, uninformed. kelly also said attitudes towards d.r.e.a.m.ers and all sorts of immigration issues have changed as well. democratic congressman henry quay ar was in that meeting and joins us now. good morning. >> good morning to you. >> when he was running for president on the campaign trail and said they were uninformed, what did that mean? >> i think that means not onl for president trump but for any president, because i saw that under president obama, they will say certain things during the campaign. once they get in and the experts and other people come in to present the facts, there is an evolution process to this without a doubt. and i think that's what he's talking about.

most people don't understand the border. i get a kick on of folks that have never been to the border or might have been there a couple hours and they think they know the dynamics of the border better than some of us that have lived there. our mayors, our businesspeople, community members there. >> in fact, you made that point in that televised tuesday meeting that i want to get to in one second. this is where the president is on the wall this morning. the wall is the wall. it has never changed or evolved from the first day i conceived of it. once again, look, it's just confusing when the chief of staff says one thing, that the wall is not a wall. it is a hodgepodge of different technologies and fencing and idea and then the president says the wall is the wall. as you stand there today, do you understand what the president wants? >> at the moment, i don't. but maybe tomorrow there will be a different position. with all due respect to the

president, you know, if a chief of staff comes in and speaks for him, that should behe consistent message. you will have somebody say something, he will come back and want to clarify it. that unfortunately makes it hard when it's a moving target or trying to figure out where you want to end up on. he knows how to negotiate. i said to our leadership and other folks and i heard your prior guests. i was secretary of state in the state of texas. you roll up your sleeves, you sit down. you don't let staff negotiate this. you actually go in there and you actually talk about this provision, this provision, and you can get this done. >> is that the what the president is doing, rolling up his sleeves and getting it done negotiating or moving the target, as you just said? >> the target has been moved by him and other republicans.

back under president bush, we added a lot of border security. we added 654 miles of fencing at that time. the republicans said this is what we need. years later they're saying, no, no, no, we actually need more. the point i make, much if you put the most beautiful wall, 40% of undocumented persons that are here came in through a legal system, permit. >> and overstayed their visas. the wall doesn't solve that problem. we are sort of getting bogged down in trying to define all of this. this is the steuging point with funding the government and keeping the government open. how are you going to vote whether to keep the government open? >> i want to put leverage on the republicans because they have to earn their own votes. they have the majority. they should be able to govern.

so i certainly want to put the leverage on it. we have health care by the republicans. i don't think one single issue should shut down the government. >> so you are going to vote yes? >> i'm going to put leverage on by voting no. if my vote counts to keep the government open, i will vote yes. i want to put the pressure on the republicans so they can govern. they're in the majority right now. >> i understand. but you are saying two completely separate things. >> okay. let me say this. >> you're going to vote yes. >> i'm voting no. and we'll see if they have the votes. if we don't need my vote to keep it open and there's other democrats that we have talked about this, i want to put the leverage on the republicans. they've got the majority. they should be able to govn like we did when we were the majority. >> a right now, hours away, your vote is a no. you are not voting on the continuing resolution for this short-term budget deal.

>> that's correct. >> however, 11:59 tonight if they need your vote, you will vote yes to keep the government open. >> i'm not talking about the republicans. the public in general, if they need my vote, i will do that. >> i understand. but you're hoping between now and whenever the vote is tonight. your vote in the house, you are willing to vote yes but hoping to vote no. >> i will be voting no. if they need my vote to keep it open, i will go ahead and do that. we should have done this back before september 30th. we keep kicking the can down the road. >> right. >> we don't even have the top numbers. we have done our work in appropriations. the republican leadership have not given us top numbers. are we putting one new penny to defense and doing the equal amount for nondefense? those are the issues. we don't have top numbers. back when i was in the state

legislature, let me say this, we had thousands of bill. the most important was appropriations. here everything is port entry. we leave the appropriation bills to the end. this is a must-pass bill that we have to do. congressman cuellar, we will be watching. thk you vy ch for joining us this morning on "new day". chris. faced with all of this acrimony, the president is headed to pennsylvania to push his tax plan. there is a special election getting the white house's attention. what is it? what are the stakes, next. tv anncr: the big idaho potato truck pulled into town today and it's really a sight to see. oh man...let's go.... (distant) you comin', boy? sfx: (dog) gulp! woof. on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness,

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but maybe they'll work on that. this is the new 2018 ford f-150 it doesn't just raise the bar, pal. it is the bar. patriots fans got a little scary for you. tom brady was limited in practice. there's some kind of injury to his throwing hand. andy scholes has more in the "bleacher report". is this a hurt or an injury? >> you know, chris, we really don't know. all indications are of course he

will still play in sunday's afc championship game. "bleacher report" brought to you by the new 2018 ford f-150. brady hit that throwing hand in a minor collision during practice yesterday. he didn't skip skipping to the media. he had x-rays that showed no structural damage. sources telling espn the injury could affect brady on sundayment the belief is highways going to be okay. patriots take on the jaguars on sunday at 3:00 eastern. colin kaepernick announcing the next ten days we will donate $10,000 a day to social causes charity. the first is going to diva, it advocates for criminal justice reform. kevin durant matching him. and he went to twitter to thank

durant. >> k.d., thank you for continue to go uplift and empower our communities. we love and appreciate you. thank you again. >> kaepernick adding how all of his donations are being put to use. kaepernick7.com. >> so many people say he's taking a knee. he is putting his money where he is. >> that's right. >> thank you for all of that. today president trump heads to western pennsylvania where he plans to tout the economy and tax reform. the vice president plans to travel to the same area in a couple of weeks. all of this ahead of a special election. why is the white house investing so much political capital? we have an explanation. >> reporter: meet rick sacone often referred to as trump 2.0. >> i think sit an honor. i think people will respect that. >> he is a five-term representative in the pennsylvania house and a staunch trump supporter. >> would you b more likely to

support rick saccone or the democrat? >> saccone faces connor lamb in a special election in the 18th district. the seat vacated by tim murphy, anti-abortion, gop congressman who resigned after it was revealed he allegedly asked a woman he was having an affair with to have an abortion. it spreads across four counties and includes suburban communities. sit primarily white and working class. >> i don't know if you realize it, jason, you're in trump country, brother. trump won this area by 20 points. and i think maybe today he may be more popular than he was when he was elected. >> a loss in so-called trump country could have national repercussions. saccone's opponent, connor lamb, is a 33-year-old retired marine and former u.s. attorney. >> will you support connor lamb

for special election. >> lamb is not your typical democrat. he is more moderate and not afraid to take on his own party. he raised eyebrows when he said he would not support nancy pelosi as democratic leader. >> congress as a whole has failed to achieve the results people want. it is not a personal thing, but when that happens, it's time for new leadership. >> is that enough to gain points in a district that has not elected a democrat since 2000, despite having an edge in party registrati registration? paul is one of those democrats here who switched parties during the presidential election and is now behind saccone. >> conor lamb. >> across the district at haired wear store, more voters standing behind saccone. >> well, i think we need a supporter of trump and rick saccone is a supporter of him. >> they hope the president's popularity has wasn'ted here. that in turn could help with

white working class voters who they need in order to pull out a win here. still, democrats say they have an uphill battle. >> and who is this guy? a young looking you, yeah? >> lifelong democrat michael flynn says saccone's support for trump turned off voters. >> from what i have seen in the last year with donald trump and having mr. saccone said he's more trump than trump, that made my decision there. >> that settled it for you? >> that was it. >> i would hope there would be a backlash against what we have seen from trump. but i don't know. >> voters head to the polls here march 13th. jason carroll, cnn, westmoreland county, pennsylvania. that race will be one to watch. the republican national committee celebrating year one of the trump administration. should they be worried about midterm elections? we're going to talk live with the head of the rnc next. green . of being there for my son's

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the republican party gearing up for a difficult battle in the midterm elections. a sign of the challenge they face, a democrat won a wisconsin state senate seat this week in a district president trump won by 17 points. is that pour ten shows or just a one off. who better to ask than rana mcdaniel, the rnc chairman. >> thanks for having me. >> i will tee up probably the point you want to make most which is you may have challenges in front of you, but you've got a lot of money to deal with those challenges. this is a record year for you guys. tell me about it.

>> we just announced, we raised $132 million in 2017, the most any party has ever raised in an off-year year, getting ready for a midterm election. that's obviously going to give us a lot of resources to go across the country into the battleground states. we're already in 22 states, building our data and ground game. >> what is your sense at this point about how you will fare in the midterms? >> i knew coming in as chair, that the first midterm of a sitting president is tough on that party. the average loss is about 30 seats. we've been preparing for that all year. that's why we're already in 22 states. our data investment is huge. we know our likely voter universe, our persuadable universe. we customize a plan for each voter as to how to turn them out and what message to take to them. we knew there would be headwinds coming our way. what's been happening, seeing the economy humming, the tax

reform passing, the bonus checks being passed out, those are things that will help us win. that will show we'reoing things that are making our country better. >> you'll have a littl wait-and-see, especially economically. people have to wait and see what the tax plan means for them. bonuses, you wanted to give them out in '17 to maximize the tax benefit to those companies, but there's a wait-and-see. the president will loom large. what do you see happening right now with immigration and this potential shutdown, how concerned are you about that? >> you had a guest on, a democrat saying we're not going to shut down the government. >> is that what you heard? i wasn't sure. >> he said, if i'm the final vote, i'll vote for it. if they need me, i'll vote for it. i'm confident they'll get it through the house and senate. we need nine democrats vote. it will take nine democrats

working across the aisle with republicans to keep this government functioning. i think everybody across party lines wants to see our military funded. they want to see the chip program funded. >> one of the reasons we don't have a deal is an apparent disconnect between mitch mcconnell and the president. why would the two of them have a disconnect? >> i don't think there's a disconnect. >> mcconnell said exactly that, i do not know what he wants. >> the president said he wants to work with the d.r.e.a.m.ers, wants to work with that issue. we have to take care of the border at the same time. we can't put one in place and not put a fix in place so we don't find ourselves in the same situation 20 years from now. i think that's a very fair reqwest by the president. at the end of the day, we'll have to come together and fund the government and it will take nine democrats. we have not seen democrats work with republicans this year since the beginning of this president's term, democrats decided --

>> ronna, they're working with him right now. the president had this extraordinary meeting where he said you guys come with a deal. you got durbin, graham, the president's golf partner. they come back with a deal and two days later he goes back on his promise. >> they do the photo ops like joe donnelly and heidi heitcamp, they want to say they'll support tax cuts and then don't vote for it. we'll see what they do in the end with keeping the government funded. they came to the white house. that's the right thing to do. we'll need nine democrats to vote on it on behalf of the american people. >> another sticking point in terms of the comedy, the working together of the two parties is what happened in that second meeting when durbin and graham presented this plan and the president got ugly about his preference for who we wants in this country. part of the fallout wound up being the senate panel interviewing homeland secretary nielsen and her saying she

doesn't recall. she got into it with cory booker. you accused booker of mansplainig. why did you call it that? >> i think it would have been covered differently if it were a republican senator yelling or lecturing a woman coming before the senate, not giving her a chance to explain herself, grandstanding. i know he's auditions for 2020. i understand that. he was disrespectful and he did man splain to her. she deserved an opportunity to answer -- >> she was there for a long time. she was answering, she kept saying the same things. here is booker's response. i want your response to his response. >> sure. >> first of all, i'm glad they're finally attacking me. they attack senators almost every single day. it's a little insulting to say i should be treating cabinet secretaries one way or another depending on their gender. i'm standing here in my official

capacity challenging a cabinet secretary who is lying before the senate on an issue that affects my state as well as this nation, as well as us internationally, something as serious as her lying about overt bigotry coming out of the white house. ronna, let's puthe potential mendacity to the side we're not going to figure out who is lying and who's not, not today. in this age of recognizing women as equal once and for all, on all levels, why would he have to treat nielsen differently? she's so strong, so come tent, so empowered. why would he have to talk to her differently than he would to have a man? >> i don't think he should have to talk to her differently, but i will say he was disrespectful to her as the director of homeland security and he was n mansplaining. >> they talk to men like that all the time. >> a difference between how liz

beth warren a treated. >> the president calls her pocahontas. >> when democrats interrupt elizabeth warren, the media goes crazy. >> when? it's almost impossible to interrupt elizabeth warren. >> that's true. >> who says when warren gets interrupted people go crazy in the media? even the pocahontas thing gets laughs, that's about as offensive as you see. the president gets away with that on the regular. >> here is the deal. cory booker was grandstanding, lecturing her, didn't give her a chance to respond. it was disrespectful. he's auditions for 2020. oprah just got the headlines. now he got them. >> i'm not quibbling with your points. there's always politics being played, no question. it's just interesting. this woman nielsen is in charge of keeping the rest of us same,

the homeland security secretary. >> completely qualified. excellent at her job. >> that was a tough day for her. we'll see what it brichks out in the wash. one thing's for sure, she can handle herself. >> she sure can. >> ronna mcdonnell, thanks for being with us. you're always welcome on the show. thanks for having me. let's get after it. >> everybody else in america has a budget except the united states government. it's embarrassing. >> we want to do everything we can to avoid a shutdown. it will fall on the republicans' backs. >> what happens, i think you only have one place to look and that's to the democrats. >> he's definitely changed his attitude toward the daca issue and even the wall. >> as senators, we figure out what he is for, then i would be convinced that we were not just spinning our wheels. >> when they have no collusion, it seems unlikely you'd even have an interview. >> white house