something. it's hard not to be on the fence about this border wall. >> a wall. or a slat fence. or whatever you want to call it. >> jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> thank you for joining us. anderson is next. good evening. the president of the united states believes that building a wall along the border with moex ko is important enough to shout down the government. to go on national television tomorrow night to alert the nation about what he says are the consequences of congress not funding it. a threat so dire he might declare a national emergency and order the military to build it and it's his prerogative to make that case. might not hold up in court, but he can and might. try again his prerogative. and just to make it clear, it's not our job to argue for our against walls or shutdowns or anything that one party or another wants. it's up to elected officials. what is our job is to point out when officials are making their

case disenjgeneraine yously. he made a claim on friday b about the wall that's been thoroughly debunked. here's what he said on friday. >> this should have been done by all of the presidents that proceed ed me and they all know it. some of them have told me. that we should have done it. >> some former presidents he said have claims, told him, they should have done it. keeping them honest, there's no evidence that any living former president did say that to him. jimmy carter today became the latest to deny it or have a spokesman deny it. bill clinton's denied it and said they haven't talked since the inauguration. george windchill bush's spokesman said they haven't. president obama's whose prefused to comment, blasted the wall. the president's claim on friday, excuse me, was made up. add it to the list. the president now u also seems to be making up the concession

and suggesting democrats will go along with it. >> and as i told you, it's going to be a steel border and that's going to give us great stress. they don't like concrete to we'll give them steel. steel is actually more expensive than concrete. but it will look beautiful and it's very strong. it's actually stronger. >> steel. catnip to democrats. now keep iing them honest, whetr you agree or not, the democrat's position is no money for the wall. not no money unless it's steel. so unless they're saying the complete opposite, the president is making that up as well. now if fairness, negotiators often say different things in public than in private, it's just that a president who makes up imaginary secret supporters doesn't have a lot of creditability when talking about what goes on behind closed

doors, which is messed up. they're saying a wall is is essential to stop terrorists as well as criminals and drulgs! we're looking at a national emergency because we have a national emergency. just read the papers. we have a crisis at the border of drugs. of human beings being trafficked all oaf the world. they're coming through. and we have an absolute crisis and a criminals and gang members coming through. it is national security. it's a national emergency. >> now the president speaking generalities which makes it hard to fact check what he said. his surrogates are more specific. here's sarah sanders. >> 90% of the heroin that comes into this country comes athrough the southern boarder and 300 americans are killed from that every single month! according to information from border protection and the dea, the majority of hard drugs like heroin seized by customs and border production comes through ports of entry, not through gaps in the wall or on the backs of

unlandfall border crossers. it arrives in packages and cargo with people trying to enter the country lawfully. the white house is throwing around a big number of big or known terrorists making it sound like they are crossing into u.s. from mexico. >> we know that roughly nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally and we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is to add our stuff to the border. >> now, i don't say this often, but i'll let my fox news colleague take this because his facts are correct. >> wait, wait. i know the statistic. i studied up on this. you know where those 4,000 people come, where they're captured? airports. >> not always. certainly a large -- >> department says there haven't been any. >> it's by air, by land. >> that 4,000 figure appears to be from a recent homeland security presentation to

congress and it's misleading. think write represents individuals all oaf the world who are blocked from traveling to or entering the u.s. not necessarily along the southern southwest border. some were stopped before they boarded flights. some before they even obtain eda visa. now to be exceedingly generous to sarah sanders for a minute, maybe she got confused with these numbers. >> has stopped over 3,000 what we call special interest aliens trying to come into the country on the southern border. those are aliens who the sbel community has identified are of concern. >> all right, so sounds like she's talking about terrorists there. there's no uniform definition of the term special interest alien, however her predecessor, john kelly, did sort of spell it out u. they are he said from parts of the world where terrorism is prevalent or nations that are hostile to the united states. 2016 department of inspector general's report defined those

countries as those quote that are of concern to the national security of the united states based on several u.s. government reports. but special interest alien doesn't appear to mean terrorist because in a july 2017 state department report says i'm quote ing, no credible information that any member of a terrorist group has traveled through mexico to gain access to the united states. which is a far cry from 3,000 or 4,000. they're saying zero. the vast majority have been economisted by u.s. citizens or immigrants. now you can make the case -- but u the president is not arguing on that basis. he's not trying to persuade americans to face a threat that actually exists because according to the government's own statistics, the threat comes in many places that have nothing to do with the southern border. the president is asking ameri n americans to sign on to extreme measure frs the shutdown to a b possible state of emergency unless an honest pretenses. more now on the state of talks

and the president's address to the nation tomorrow. jim acosta joins us from the white house with that. so do we know why the president felt it necessary to address the nation tomorrow night? >> anderson, i think there's a recognition inside the white house that they are losing this argument. this shutdown wall argument and that is reflective in the fact that the president is having a rare oval office address to the nation tomorrow night. i was just told by a senior white house u official in the last several minutes this is only going to be about seven to eight minutes, but that will command a lot of air time. a lot of networks including cnn are going the run this. then on thursday, he's going down to the border with mexico to try to talk about what they deem to be a crisis here at the white house and speaking of that, i was in a briefing today, off camera, pane and pad brief ing with mike pence and the homeland security secretary and the word they used time and again crisis. they're going try to make the case to the american people tomorrow night with the president in the oval office

with all the trappings of the presidency and so on all around him, that the country faces a crisis and just begs the question if it's such a big crisis, why are they republican lawmakers saying they're willing to open up the government without this wall funding and if it is a crisis, how can they build a wall quickly enough to meet that crisis. and so on. and so there's a lot of unanswered questions here at the white house. even the president's own allies have been b saying these tweets an gaggles you're doing with reporters here and there, it's not convincing the american people and that's part of the reason why he's going to be coming out here and going down to the border on thursday. >> do we know how serious ly th president is considering declaring a national emergency? is it a negotiating tactic? >> i talked to a very key republican aide to a key senator up on capitol hill earlier today who said at this point, there's a recognition that this may be a negotiating tactic on the part of the white house. vice president pence said today

though that the white house counsel's office is looking at this. so it does sound like it's a live option. as you mentioned earlier, there's a lot of lawmakers on capitol hill and it's a possibility that you could have lawmakers on both sides who would support a challenge to that in the court and the challenge would essentially say there is no national emergency right now, so the president can declare a state of emergency. they can make things up, but just because they make things up about what they see is happening across the border with mexico, that doesn't make it so. one other thing i should point out, when we sat down with the vice president, the homeland security secretary today, they promised us a fact sheet that was going to try to inform the american people about all of these things they've been talk ing about over the last several days, i suppose clean up some things they've been saying. we've still not received that at this hour. >> appreciate it. the bottom line according to people on both sides is not very

encouraging in terms of the shutdown stopping. no progress yet. the pain is coming. for some it's here. one point, phil matingly pay as you go spending rules could force cuts to medicare. the stakes are growing, whether it's the kind of crisis the president sees or one that millions could be feeling. i spoke b about it with one of those republicans jim was just talking about. brian fitzpatrick, who voted last week with democrats on bills to reopen the government. >> congressman, with the president poised to dig in more on the shutdown with the speech tomorrow night, visit to the border on thursday, do you have any reason to believe the shutdown is going to be resolved anytime soon? >> i sure hope so, i through a shutdown and saw how detrimental it is. having to make decisions on

essential versus nonessential employees. getting furloughed, it's not a good situation. under the current circumstances, we have the tsa. negatively impacted. air traffic control. border control. customs and border protection. the coast guard. our entire national security apparatusfunded. >> the president says the situation at the border is a national emergency. and he might bypass congress and use military funds to build the wall. do you see this as a national emergency? >> there's two questions. number one, can he legally. the second is should he. the can is a question of -- title 50 of the u.s. code. as far as whether he should ott not, i think this is an issue that needs to be b revolved by

congress in a bipartisan manorer and that's going to require both friends on the left and right to come to the center and come to a consensus solution to this. because the democrats control the house. republicans control the senate. so by necessity of this, it will be a bipartisan solution. we have to get the government reopened. >> so i take it from that, you don't believe when the president says it's a national emergency, you don't believe it is in the sense the president means. >> no, i think it needs to go through congress. there are a lot of these people same people anderson that complain that when the prior administration took executive action on daca that they said he acted outside of authority. my question is do you believe this would be the same thing. we need to be consistent. >> lastly, have you gotten blowback for your vote to reopen the government? >> well, you hear from certain constituents and you welcome through your rationale. i don't see any lodger whatsoever so shutting the

government down. it is a dangerous thing. people that haven't lived through it may not understand that. and to that point, i'm encouraging every single one of my colleagues to do what several of us are doing. which is to forfeit our pay during the shutdown. not just delay it. r forit it. because then we'll feel the pain these federal employees living paycheck to paycheck will feel. just looking at aviation security, the tsa and air traffic controllers, if they're not getting paid and they're fatigued and not on the ball as far as their job goes, that makes us less safe. we need to think about these things. >> yeah, that's the irony. the larger issue is national security, the shutdown is harming national security. >> and specific to the border. cvp, the coast guard and border patrol all fall under dhs. dhs is not being adequately funded. having a debate while we're defunded border security. >> appreciate your time.

thank you. >> thank you, sir. just ahead, more on the political dimension, especially the question of who pays the price as voters out there start feel i feeling the pain. the price millie. later, not so fast, the president's 30-day troop pullout has sprouted conditions. the president says he never said it would happen quickly. we're chemoing them honest ahead. stressful. this music is supposed to relax me, though. ♪ maybe you'd mellow out a bit if you got geico to help you with your renters insurance. oh, geico helps with renters insurance? good to know. yeah, and they could save you a lot of money. wow, suddenly i feel so relieved. you guys are fired. get to know geico and see how much you could save on renters insurance. of every great meal is always the potato?t bite that's why it should always be an idaho potato. only genuine idaho potatoes have the perfect taste and texture to get your meal started right.

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in a little more than 24 hours, the president will talk to the country about the crisis as he sees it on the southern border then on thursday, he'll duodown there. some of the people he meets will likely be working without pay. president on friday said they support him on the shutdown. not everyone is is happy, but for now, how the politics plays out. that's an open question which we want to get into with gloria borger, michael cap cuto and pa. we have the president threatening to declare a national emergency to get a wall

build billion build. >> i think this president is reeling because he's not winning the narrative here and he's just trying to change it. he's trying to create a crisis. where i believe one does not exist. and if you look at the poll, you have 62% oppose the building of the wall. you have a majority of the people who say they blame the republicans and the president more than the democrats for shutdown. so what the president is trying to do with the speech tomorrow night the reset and say look, this is a crisis here. and here is why and that's why he's going for the photo op at the border at well. we've been talking about wall. the president has been talking about this for what, more than a couple of years. and questions can be raised if it is a crisis and has been a crisis, when he controlled both houses of congress, why didn't it get built? >> michael, what about that?

do you think at this point, the president should bypass congress and declare a national emergency? >> i don't think the wall got built because we couldn't find the intestinal fortitude to get it done. i live about 18 miles outside of buffalo, new york and 48 hours over this weekend, we had nine opioid overdoses. three people dead and we talk about you know, the children being smuggled across. the women being assaulted across as they come up north to go across the border, but 94% of opioids that are abused in the country come across the board e and whether it's by car or by tractor trailer or body carrier, it's got to be dealt with. from here in buffalo, where we just had nine overdoses an by the way, inflyover country, we had 45,000 people die of opioid deaths. 94% of those coming from across the border.

it's a crisis up here. whether it's a crisis on the boarder k i'm interested to see the case the president's going to make. >> paul, do you see it as a crisis? >> there is an opioid crisis, yes, but not an illegal immigration crisis. we have fewer undocumented folks here today than ten years. the president goes to the board e, he hasn't announceded where he's going to go. where ever he stands on border, he'll be in a district where the local member of congress opposes his wall because every member of congress who represents the border says we don't need a wall. they oppose it. so i hope he listens to them. but i'm terribly worried that for political purposes he's going to try to assert some sort of national security argument for extreme emergency powers. this time tomorrow, we may be in constitutional crisis. he seems to admire putin and

erdogan and the new president in brazil, who all have moved to consolidate a radical power in away outside of our constitution. i think that's what this president has up his sleeve. i think he's looking to try to assert a really radical presidential powers here. >> gloria, the real test of this is going to come i guess starting friday, which will be the first time the vast majority of federal workerers do not get a check. how much could that change the calculus? >> then you may have a real national security crisis because then you're talking about the tsa and border patrol and people who are not showing up at work who need to show up at work and i think what's been tuiasosopoing to me about this is is the lack of the president's empathy in talking about the people who the 800,000 people losing their paychecks who won't be able to pay their mortgage. he said at various times either

they're democrats or they support me or they'll make due. i think none of that is actually true. i think these are you know, these are people who want to support their families. and i think this focused the democrats as well as focusing the president when people start realizing that these people are out of work, they're servi thei out of work an efb at that point starts getting blameded and you know, paul has live d through this. it becomes kind of a pox on all your houses. maybe they'll do a deal on dreamers and figure out a way out of this. >> michael, the argument you make is powerful. the counterargument is according to the statistics and the majority of hard drugs like heroin and feintal are comeing through legal points of entry. through porder, you know actual border crossings smuggled in

vehicles and through cargo and the mail and things like that. >> right. that's true. according to the dea, but about 25% or so comes with body carriers. the idea of the wall is this part of an integrated solution. there's a need for a lot more border patrol offices, technology as well. the idea of the wall wall is that you stop the overland smuggling of those drugs at 25%. you force it to go through the ports of entry in the vehicles and you bring in more personnel and technology to get them there. to me, it's a crisis levels up here in small town america and i think if we can do something like that, we can address this open oid epidemic before it kills a lot more people and by the way, we can't address it unless we stop the overland smuggling which is done theroug the body carriers. it will never work without an integrated solution. >> paul, is the opioid argument a valid one in terms of building a wall? >> it's not the one u the

president's using. there is a crisis with opioid addiction and i think this president has been pathetic in how he has addressed that. i think michael is correct in that there's a crisis and a lot of good people are dying. i don't think this president has focused on it sufficiently and i wish he would, but the wall is not going to fix the opioid over dose problem. it could be counterproductive to it by pulling resources away from interdiction and treatment and putting it into concrete. it would be i think a huge mistake. it's not the argument the president's wruzing. he may throw that against the wall tomorrow night, too. >> i think he should though. >> maybe he should, but what he's trying to el us is that people who are in the main are fleeing and trying to find asylum. obeying our laws. they're presenting them at our board e and he's trying to say that's a threat to national security so that we're somewhat

al-qaeda. >> appreciate it. thank you. we'll be talking to you again. coming up k the president ins s insists his stance on withdrawing troops in syria hasn't changed after his national security adviser appears to walk it back. keeping them honest, next. [deep breath] i receive travel rewards. i visualize travel rewards. going new places! going out for a bite! going anytime. rewarded! learn more at the explorer card dot com.

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today, the president tweeted his intentions on syria are no different. keeping them honest, that's not exact hi true. what the president said is different. the apparent reason he tweeted that today is that john bolton has contradicted what seemed to

be b the president's policy. yesterd yesterday, bolden told reporters that the united states will leave syria if turkey promises not to attack kurdish allies there. in a news conference, bolton refer today a conditional withdrawal. >> we're going to be discussing the president's decision to withdraw, but to do so from northeast syria in a way that makes sure that isis is defeated and is not able to revivise itsf and a become a threat again and to make sure that the defense of israel and our other friends in the region is assured. and to take care f those who have of those who have fought with us in isis and other terrorist groups. >> you may remember just a few weeks ago, the president claimed isis had been wiped out. he said we have defeated isis in syria, but only reason for being there during the trump presidency. originally, the president had a 30-daytime line to withdraw the

troops, which was later extended to four months, then yesterday, the president said this. >> we are pulling back in syria. we're going to be removing our troops. i never said wee doing it that quickly. but we're decimating ie inine i. when i was elected president two years ago, isis was all over syria and iraq. we've wiped out isis in iraq. >> they were doing it quickly, 30 days. the same day he claimed vikt oi over isis, he said they're claiming back now, they're quote getting ready, you're going to see them soon, meaning u.s. troops. >> our boys, our young women, our men. they're all coming back. and they're coming back now. we won. >> keeping them honest, the only thing that's happening now is that the old policy seems to be back in place. joining me now is colonel ralph peters. thanks for being with us. should it come as a surprise these plans for a 30-day

withdrawal are now being walked back and whether the president wants to admit they are or not. >> we couldn't leave in 30 days unless you wanted to leave behind very expensive military equipment, classified gear. so it was another example of the president not having any idea whatever he was talking about. as far as policies go, there's no consistency. the president is very child like. he's loyal to the other kid he's playing with at the moment. on the phone with erdogan. they were pals. erdogan says you know, the kurds bad people, terrorist. we can take care of that. and trump impulsively makes this announcement. now you have bolton trying to walk it back further because the job is not done. and it's a problem on multiple levels, anderson. first of all, any u.s. presidential announcement on policy that pleases putin, the iranian, al assad and isis is inherently a flawed policy.

but secondly, it's not just about tkurds, although they're very important. the best ally we've had in the middle east, they're doing the fighting on the ground. t not just about the shame, the disgrace of betraying the kurds. a global issue for the united states because after the president attacked nato and stirred doubt about whether we'd support our nato allies, now he's threatening to walk away when the kurds said he wasn't going to do it. alliances are critical. the president himself said we can't be the world's policeman. we don't want to be. you better have some other cops on the beat and we need allies and we are alienating them as fast as president trump can. >> it's one of the things in afghanistan that our troops for years had been trying to do is get people afghans off the fence and try to convince them that you know, that we have their back for the long-term. this certainly sends as you

said, a message to the kurd have been fighting with u.s. interests for a lot of loss of life on the side of the kurds. but i mean either isis is defe t defeated or not. how are they supposed to believe when the president says one thing one day and a different thing another. >> regrettably, you can't believe what president trump says. you cannot believe it. he is the most liar i've seen and not only public life, in my personal life. children don't lie with this sense of conviction and he's child like. i think i really believe that when trump says these things on some level, he believes them. counterfactual though they may be. but trump is ultimately a symptom of greater problems that we have. and one of the problems frankly anderson is that in the hyper media age, everybody wants a

president they can have a beer with. i want a president i can have a beer with, who's qualified to lead our country dmesically and aboard. it has been over a quarter century since we have had a fully qualified president from either president from either party who knew domestic and foreign policy. the pattern is straightforward. back to jfk or further. american presidents, particularly democrats, from both party, come to the office with a strong domestic agenda. stuff they want to get done for america. and foreign policy consumes them. to elect a president who is not conversed and capable of running a grown up foreign policy is a danger to our country and the world and president trump, we've had bad presidents before. bad foreign policy presidents. we have absolutely hit bottom and it's, it's frightening. >> it is the sort of announcing policy on the fly that is particularly surprising or shocking.

it's as you said, a conerversatn with erdogan and he makes an announcement and everybody else in the administration has to play catch up to lessen the impact of it, follow through on it or reverse it without embarrassing the president. >> yeah. and it's difficult because the adults have left the room. the kids are ripping the house up. they're home alone. and if you look at the what's left, the people advising trump on foreign policy, both officially and unofficially, if you u try, you're trying to find somebody who's capable. it's like judging a beauty contest in a leper colony. there's just nothing left. and the president, not sure you can even call them policies. they're impulses. he just gets an idea this his head and says or hears something on far right radio or he's something's whispered on fox news or announced on fox news

and suddenly, that's our national policy. that's not how you do policy and again. even if this, i wish president trump would turn around and be a great president, but he is so f farer for our country, policies foreign and domestic. >> i want to check in with chris see what he's working on for the top of the hour. >> happy new year, my brother. you were great on new year's. they love you in puerto rico, my brother. they love you in puerto rico. >> you looked like you were having a good time. >> why not go there. the place is great, they need the money. so picking up on your conversation. with peters. the reason that we're dealing with the problem with the wall in part is because it was the mother of the president's jumping to an easy solution. what we see in foreign policy now is actually an extension of this farce versus fact that we're dealing with with the wall on the border.

something that somebody gave them that kind of appealed to his gut sense of what kind of problem the created a simple solution that people can grab on to and it worked in the campaign and now, they're caught. they can't surrender on the wall because he doesn't want to capitulate, doesn't want to seem as though he's not keeping a prom promise, but we're dealing with a fiction. you know this better than anybody. you've been down on the border more than anybody. the wall he says he wants to build was never going to happen. the fencing that is there that they need more of he's now slowing saying -- going to test how long the shutdown is affecting people's lives. >> thanks very much. that's in about 20 minutes. coming up, our interview with congresswoman cortez, probably the most well-known new member

of congress. even some democrats are worried she may move the party too far to the left. my interview with her coming up.

the 116th congress was sworn in last week. a record number of women have been elected to the house of representatives and one is

getting the most attention. congresswoman cortez. 29 years old. never run for elected office pfr and was working as waitress and bartender when she launched her campaign. she managed to unseat one of the most powerful democrats in house. like bernie sanders, she's a democratic socialist, believes in college, climate change, she's been described as an inspiring and idealistic insurgent. depends on who you talk to. few rookie members of congress have put such bold ideas on the national agenda and stirred up so much controversy before they were even sworn in. i spoke with her for a report last night. >> there are people that say you don't understand how the game is played. do you? >> i think it's really great for people to keep thinking that. >> you want folks to understama

quou. >> absolutely. that's how i won my primary. >> winning that primary shocked the democratic establishment and in november, she became the youngest woman ever elected to congress. >> we have made history tonight. >> just a few days later, as soon as she got to washington -- she paid a visit to climate change activists who were occupying her party leader for nancy pelosi's office. she was the only newly elect ed member of congress o who decided to drop by during the sit in. she call ed on pelosi to create select committee on climate change without any members of congress who accept money from the fossil fuel industry. nancy pelosi is incredibly powerful. >> she absolutely is. and you're occupying that office. >> i could have thrown up that morning, i was so nervous, but i just kind of kept coming back to

the idea of what they were fighting for wasn't wrong. i had also sat down with leader pelosi beforehand and she told me her story. she came from activism and i knew that she would absolutely understand how advocacy can change the thiede l on really important ibs. >> she and her allies manage d o get more than 40 members to support the climate committee. >> good morning. >> nancy pelosi agreed to create it, but it's not what cortez had in mind. pelosi granted the committee limited powers and did not ban members who take money from the fossil fuel industry. for her, it was an early lesson in congressional politics and another one came when she defied pelosi and voted against the speak er's new house rules. was not joined by many other progressive democrats. she told us she's determined to keep fighting for a green new

deal. a highly ambitious proposal that would convert the entire u.s. economy to renewable sources of energy in just 12 years while guaranteeing every american a job at a fair wage. zero carbon emissions. no use of fossil fuels within 12 years. >> that is the goal. it's ambitious. >> everybody having to drive an electric car? >> it's going to require a lot of rapid change that we don't even conceive as possible right now. what is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible? >> this would require raising taxes. >> there's an element where yeah, people are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes. >> do you have a specific tax rate? >> you look at our tax rates back in the '60s. and when you have a progressive tax rate system, you're tax rate you know say from zero to

$75,000 may be 10% or 15%. et cetera. but once you get to the tiptops, on your $10 million, sometimes you see rates as high as 60 r or 70%. doesn't mean all are taxed at a high rate, but it meeps as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more. >> what you are talking about just big picture is a radical agenda compare d to the way politics is done right now. >> well, i think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country. lincoln made the radical decision to sign the emancipation proclamation. roosevelt made the radical decision to establish programs like social security. >> do you call yourself a radical? >> if that's what it means, call me a radical.

>> she doesn't seem to be viewed by a radical by her constituents in new york 14. the district that includes parts of queens and the bronx. she was born in the bronx. her parents met in puerto rico. her father owned a small architectural business, her mother cleaned houses to help make ends meet. by the time she was ready for preschool, her parents made a down payment on a small house in the westchester suburbs. it was 30 miles and a world away from her extended family still living in the bronx. >> what was it that brought your parents here? >> schools. my mom wanted to make sure that i had a solid chance and a solid education. >> do you feel like you were living in two different worlds? you were spending a lot of time in the bronx and here. >> yeah and just growing up that way and with my cousins who were all my age, too, feeling like we had different opportunities depending on where we were physically located. >> she did well in school and with the help of scholarships,

loans and financial aid, attended boston university. in her sophomore year, her father died of cancer. >> we were really working on the classic american dream. and overnight, it was all taken away. my mom was back to cleaning homes. and driving schoolbuses to keep a roof over our heads. >> she moved back to the bronx after graduating college and spent the next few years working as a community organizer and advocate for children's literacy. in may of 2017, the one bedroom apartment she shares with her boyfriend became her makeshift headquarters as she launched a seemingly improbable run for congress. she was working as waitress and bartender at the time. like many members of her generation, she says she had student loans . i really understood the

frustration that working people had across the political spectrum. when anybody is saying the economy is going great, we are at record levels, there's a frustration that says, well, the economy is good for who? >> unemployment is at record lows. >> i don't think that that tells the whole story. when you can't provide for your kids, working a full-time job, working two full-time jobs, when you can't have health care, that is not dignified. >> a group of bernie sanders supporters who now call themselves justice democrats encouraged ocasio-cortez to run for office and gave her training and support. she built a grassroots coalition that took on the democratic machine by going door to door. >> hi, i'm alexandria. >> arguing that she could represent the district better than a ten-term incumbent who spent most of his time in washington. >> have a good day. >> please welcome alexandria ocasio-cortez. >> her victory made national

news, and she soon had a higher media profile than many veteran lawmakers. some saw in her primary victory, a craving for change within the democratic party. house democratic leader nancy pelosi drew a more limited conclusion. >> they made a choice in one district. so let's not get yourself carried away. >> but president trump rarely missed a chance to suggest that all democrats were socialists and would lead the country to ruin. >> venezuela. venezuela. how does that sound? you like venezuela? >> when people hear the word "socialism" they think soviet union, cuba, venezuela. is that what you have in mind? >> of course not. what we have in mind, and my policies most resemble what we see in the uk, in norway, in finland, in sweden. >> how are you going to pay for all of this? >> no one asks how we're going to pay for this space force. no one asked how we paid for a $2 trillion tax cut. we only ask how we pay for it on

issues of housing, health care and education. how do we pay for it? with the same exact mechanisms that we pay for military increases, for the space force, for all of these ambitious policies. >> there are democrats, obviously, who are worried about your effect on the party. democratic senator chris coons said if the next two years is just a race to increasingly unrealistic proposals, it will be difficult for us to make a credible case that we should be allowed to govern again. >> what makes it unrealistic? >> how to pay for it. >> we pay more per capita for lower outcomes than many other nations. and so for me what's unrealistic is what we're living in right now. >> since the election, some conservative media outlets have focused on ocasio-cortez with an intensity unusual for a rookie member of congress. >> her views, her policy positions are actually downright scary. >> she's been accused of being

dishonest about the true cost of her proposals and the tax burden they would impose on the middle class. she's also been criticized for making factual mistakes. >> one of the criticisms of you is that your math is fuzzy. "the washington post" awarded you four pinnochios for some statistics on pentagon spending. >> if people want to really blow up one figure here or one word there, i would argue that they're missing the forest for the trees. i think that there's a lot of people more concerned about being precisely factually and semantically correct than about being morally right. >> but being factually correct is important. >> it's absolutely important. and whenever i make a mistake, i say, okay, this was clumsy, and then i restate what my point was. but it's not the same thing as the president lying about immigrants. it's not the same thing at all.

>> we've started the wall anyway and we're going to get that done. we're going to get it. >> you don't talk about president trump very much. >> no. >> why? >> because i think he's a symptom of a problem. >> what do you mean? >> the president certainly didn't invent racism. but he's certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things. >> do you believe president trump is a racist? >> yeah, yeah. no question. >> how can you say that? >> when you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog whistles of white supremacy, when you look at how he reacted to the charlottesville incident where neo-nazis murdered a woman versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, it's night and day. >> in response, the white house deputy press secretary told us congresswoman ocasio-cortez'

sheer ignorance on the matter can't cover the fact that president trump supported and passed historic criminal justice reform and has repeatedly condemned racism and bigotry in all forms. one of the new things ocasio-cortez has in common with the president is an often and sometimes combative presence on social media. a conservative writer tweeted that jacket and coat don't look like a person who struggles. she called him out on what she calls misogyny. >> would you be taking a creep shot of steny hoyer's behind and sharing it around? why is there more comfort in doing that to me than there is in doing it to any other member of congress? >> eliminating the influence of corporate money and politics is another one of ocasio-cortez' signature issues. most of her campaign funds came from small donations of $200 or

less. she did accept some money from labor unions, but she refuses to take any contributions from corporate political action committees. she's angered some of her colleagues in the house by encouraging primary challenges of democrats who accept corporate money or oppose progressive policies. >> these are politically dangerous tactics that you're using. you've heard that. >> yeah. >> do you believe it? >> it's absolutely risky. it requires risk to try something new, but also we know so much of what we've tried in the past hasn't worked either. >> well, there's of course a big difference between the idealism of a campaign and the reality of governing. it's a challenge for any new lawmaker. someone who knows the dynamics well is mia love, a republican recently defeated in the midterms but she's with us now and we're thrilled. thank you for being here. >> thank you. i'm excited to be here. >> we are very excited to have you here. it's great to have your voice. it is -- it's one thing to campaign. it's another thing to actually

be part of a party. >> right. >> and to get things done. what should alexandria ocasio-cortez and all the other new members of congress, what should they expect? >> well, she hasn't asked my advice. i'm sure she's not going to. but i would say there are some people that really care that are there, that could really help. and so people are going to be looking and seeing if she's going to be a show pony or a work horse. they are going to want to know whether you're willing to put in the work. when you want to get a bill through, you have to convince your colleagues to support that bill. >> because she's calling for primary challenges against some democrats, which has already angered some democrats. >> right. so you've got -- i would also say my motto was not to let perfect be the enemy of a really good win. so if i can move the ball down the field, i love football so i use football analogies a lot. if i can move the ball down and get a first down, that's really

good progress. >> you're talking about compromise. >> i'm talking about getting as much as you can out of it, even if it's not 100% of everything that you want. as long as it's making significant changes in the right direction, at least you're doing that. right now even when you're looking at the arguments between the shutdown, no one is getting anything, right? you're just seeing two sides argue. but obviously we're on completely different sides of the aisle and different sides -- we don't agree on any political things that i can see. but i would say that there are people that you need to work with. i was in the congressional black caucus and i found areas where i could agree, where i could work with members on the other side of the aisle in the congressional black caucus. >> is it more difficult if you come into congress being well known? you came in being very well known. >> look, everyone there had to fight their way there. every single person was on the battlefield in campaign mode. some were more visible, some

were not. and so everyone there has had to work hard. so i would say don't underestimate the other people that have been there that worked hard that are representing their districts and see what you can do to make sure that you're working with them. i did everything i could to work with whoever would help me on policy and i was able to get quite a bit done. >> do you see this shutdown, i mean do you see a resolution in sight? >> look, i think the darn thing was dead on arrival, especially when you're looking at the open negotiations with schumer, pelosi and the president and he said, well, if you don't give me border security, then i'm going to own the shutdown. they were like, great, i'll take it. i think he should have said, hey, you need to give me border security or else you're going to own this shutdown. it's going to be yours. now, one of the things that i don't think anybody is talking about is the fact that the democrats can actually go in and ask for whatever they want. if they say, okay, fine, we're

going to fund border security at $5.7 billion, we are going to -- we want tps, we want daca. they could probably get it. but i would like to -- go see what you can get and give him what he wants. i would like to see somebody propose that and see what actually happens. >> mia love, it's great to have you here. welcome. the news continues. i want to hand it over to chris. "cuomo primetime" starts right now. >> thank you, anderson. i am chris cuomo and welcome to "primetime." this shutdown may be the worst one ever. we're going on three weeks. no paychecks for hundreds of thousands of american families. this is the emergency, not the border. i'll show you the difference between the farce of this new wall and the facts of this shutdown. we have a democrat who actually supports the president's wall here. we'll go one on one with senator joe manchin of west virginia. and then we have what this shutdown is