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good evening. the president of the united states believes that building a wall along the border with mexico is important enough to shut down the government. important enough 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 says, he might declare a national emergency and order the military to build it, and it's his per loggive to make that case. might not hold up in court, but he can and might. again, his prerogative. just to make it clear, it's not our jobs to argue for or 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 disingenuously or dishonestly. sadly, yet again, that is what the president is doing. he made a claim friday about the wall that has been thoroughly debunked. here's what he said on friday. >> this should have been done by all of the presidents that proceeded me and they all know it. some of them have told me. that we should have done it. >> some former presidents he claims, have told him that they should have done it. keeping them honest, there's no evidence that any living former president did actually say that to him. jimmy carter today became the latest and the last former president to deny it or have a spokesman deny it. bill clinton's spokesman denied it and said they haven't talked since the inauguration. george w. bush's spokesman said they haven't. president obama's consistently blasted president trump's wall. so, unless obama is the president's secret admirer, the president's claim on friday was made up. add it to the list. the president also seems to be

making up that a 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. >> why do you think the democrats would agree to the border? >> they don't like concrete, so 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, keeping them honest, whether you agree with it or not, the democrats' position is no money for the wall. not no money unless it's steel, in which case, go wild. so, unless democrats are saying the complete opposite of their public position behind closed doors, the president is making that up, as well. now, in fairness, negotiators often say different things in public than they do in private, it's just a president that makes up imaginary secret supporters doesn't have a lot of credibility talking about what goes on behind closed doors which is pretty messed up, if you think about it.

the white house is saying a wall is essential to stop terrorists as well as criminals and drugs. >> 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 becomes being trafficked all over the world, they're coming through. and we have an absolute crisis and 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 specifically what he said. his surrogates are being more specific. here's sarah sanders on fox news. >> 90% of the heroin that comes into this country comes across through the southern border and 300 americans are killed from that every single month. >> now, keeping them honest, according to information from border protection and the dea, the majority of hard drugs like heroin seized by customs and border protection comes through ports of entry, not through gaps in the wall and not on the backs of border crossers.

it arrives in packages and cargo with people trying to enter the country lawfully through ports of entry. the white house is throwing around a big number of known or suspected terrorists, making it sound like they are crossing into the 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 at our southern border. >> now, i don't say this often, but i'll let my fox news colleague take this for a minute, because his facts are correct. >> wait, wait. i know the statistic. i didn't know you were going to go with this, but i studied up on this. you know where those 4,000 people come, where they're captured? airports. >> not always. certainly a large -- >> the state department says there hasn't been any terrorists that they found coming across the southern border from mexico. >> well, that 4,000 figure appears to be from a recent homeland security presentation to congress, and it's misleading. the figure, as the department of homeland security itself writes, represents individuals all over

the world who were 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 obtained a 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 intel community have identified are of concern. >> all right, so sounds like she's talking about terrorists there. and keeping them honest, there's no uniform definition of the term special interest alien. however, her predecessor at dhs, john kelly, did sort of spell it out. 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 special interest countries that

are, quote, those 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, quote, 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 of terrorist attacks have been made by u.s. s citizens or law full immigrants. according to the government's own statistic, the threat comes in many places that have nothing to do with the southern border. the president is asking americans to sign onto potentially extreme measures from the shutdown to a possible state of emergency on less than honest pretenses. more now on the state of talks an the president's address to the nation tomorrow, jim acosta joins us where the white house with that.

so, do we know why the president felt it necessary to address the nation tomorrow night? >> reporter: anderson, i think there's a recognition inside the white house that they are losing this argument. this shutdown/wall argument, and that's reflective that the president is having a very rare oval office address to the nation tomorrow night chl. i was just told by a senior white house official in the last several minutes this is only going to be about seven or eight minutes, but it will command a lot of airtime. 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, offcamera, it was a pen and pad briefing with vice president mike pence and kirstjen nielsen, and the word they use time and again, anderson, is crisis. they're going to 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 right now, and it just begs the question, if it's such a big crisis, why are there republican lawmakers right now saying they're willing to open up the government without this wall funding? and if it is a crisis, how on earth can they build a wall quickly enough to meet that crisis? and so on. and so, there's a lot of unanswered questions over here at the white house. even the president's own allies have been saying, listen, these tweets, these 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 tomorrow night and going down to the border on thursday. >> and do we know how seriously the president is considering declaring a national emergency to actually build this wall, or is it a negotiating tactic? >> well, 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. the president is considering it. he's been talking about this over and over again. 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 that there is no national emergency right now. so, the president can declare a state of emergency, they can make things up, as you've been pointing out, over here at the white house, but just because they make things up because of what they see is happening across the border with mexico, that doesn't necessarily 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 talking about over the last several days, i suppose clean up some of the things they've been saying. we've still not received that at this hour. >> jim ap costa, 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 already here. one point made by cnn's phil mattingley, current pay as you go spending rules could force cuts to medicare if congress doesn't act. the stakes are growing, whether it's the kind of crisis the president sees or one that millions around the country could soon be feeling. i spoke about it earlier with one of those republicans that jim acosta was just talking about, pennsylvania republican congressman brian fitzpatrick who voted last week with democrats on bills to reopen the government. congressman with the president poised to dig in even more on the shutdown, with the primetime 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, anderson, because the stakes are awfully high. you know, i lived through a government shutdown as an fbi agent back in 2013, and saw how devastating and detrimental it is. having, as a supervisor, having to make decisions on denver us nonessential employees. and in the fbi, everybody's

essential. professional staff getting furloughed right in the middle of investigations -- it's not a good situation. and under the current circumstance right now, we have the tsa negatively impacted. air traffic control, the border patrol, customs and border protection, the coast guard, the fbi, our entire national security apparatus is not being funded. it's a national security issue, for sure. >> the president says that the situation at the border is a national emergency and that he might bypass congress and use military funds to build a wall. do you see this as a national emergency? >> there's two questions there, number one, can he legally? and the second is, should he? and the can is a question of constitution law under article two of the constitution and title 50 of the u.s. code. i think if he does make that decision, anderson, it's going to get tied up in litigation. as far as whether he should or not, you know, i think this is an issue that needs to be resolved in a bipartisan manner,

both our friends on the left and the right to come to the center and come to a consensus solution to this, because the democrats control the house, the republicans control the senate, so, by necessity, this will have to be a bipartisan solution. and the stakes couldn't be higher. we have to get the government reopened. that's the most important thing. >> so, i take it, just from that, you don't believe, when the president says it's a national emergency, you don't believe it is, in the sense that the president means. >> i think it needs to go through congress. there are a lot of these people, same people, anderson, that complained when the prior administration took executive action on daca, they said he acted outside of his authority. my question is, do you believe this would be the same thing? we need to be consistent. >> lastly, have you gotten blowback from fellow republicans for your vote to reopen the government? >> well, you hear from certain constituents and you welcome through your rationale. i just don't see any logic whatsoever to shutting the government down. it is a dangerous thing. and 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. forfeit it. write a check back to the u.s. treasury, because then we'll feel the pain that these federal employees living paycheck to paycheck will feel. and just looking at aviation security, anderson, the tsa and air traffic controllers, if they're not getting paid and they're fatigued, and they're not on the ball as far as their job goes, that makes all of 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. vbp, the coast guard and border patrol all fall under dhs, and dhs is not being adequately funded right now. so, we're having a debate over border security while we're defunding border security simultaneously. >> congressman fitzpatrick, appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you, sir. well, just ahead, more on the political dimensions,

especially the question of who pays the price, as voters out there start feeling the pain. the price politically. later, not so fast. the president's 30-day troop withdrawal from syria. he never said it would happen quickly. quickly. we're keeping them honest ahead. a hoteur flight. d so even when she grows up, she'll never outgrow the memory of our adventure. unlock savings when you add select hotels to your existing trip. only with expedia. ♪ it is such a good time to dance ♪ ♪ it is such a good time to [ laughing ] ♪ scoobidoo doobidoo ♪ scoobidoo doobidoo [ goose honking ]

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90% saw significant improvement. taltz even gives you a chance at completely clear skin. don't use if you're allergic to taltz. before starting, you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection, symptoms, or received a vaccine or plan to. inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz, including worsening of symptoms. serious allergic reactions can occur. for all the things that move you. ask your doctor about taltz. 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 go down there. some of the people he meets will likely be working without pay.

the president on friday said that they support him on the shutdown. not everyone is happy, but for now, how the politics of this whole episode plays out, that's an open question we want to get into with gloria borger, michael caputo and paul begala. gloria, who do you think has the upper hand tonight? you have the president threatening to declare a national emergency in order to get a wall built, and a split congress with negotiations seemingly go nowhere. >> look, i think right now, this president is reeling, because he's not -- he's not winning the narrative here and he's trying to change it. he's trying to create a crisis where i believe one does not exist, and if you look at the polling, you have 62% of the people in this country oppose the building of a wall. you have a majority of people, according to a bunch of polls, who say they blame the republicans and the president more than the democrats for a shutdown. so, what the president's trying to do with this speech tomorrow night is kind of 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, as well. but i have to say, you know, we've been talking about a wall. the president has been talking about this wall for, what, more than a couple of years. and questions can be raised, if it is a crisis and 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, as gloria said, because we couldn't find the intestinal fortitude in congress to get it done. you know, i also believe that whatever it takes, i don't care how he pays for it, i think we need the wall built. 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 the opioids that are abused in this country come across that border, and whether it's by car or by tractor trailer or body carrier, it's got to be dealt with. and from here in buffalo, where we just had nine overdoses and, by the way, in flyover 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 border, i'm interested to see the case the president's going to make. >> paul, do you see it as a crisis? >> well, there is an opioid crisis, yes, but there is not an illegal immigration crisis. we have fewer undocumented folks here today than we did ten years ago. the president, when he goes to the border, wherever he stands on that border, he will be where

the local member of congress opposes his wall, because every member of congress who respects 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. i think -- this time tomorrow, we may be in a constitutional crisis. he seems to admire putin and erdogan and now bolsonaro, the new president in brazil, who all have moved to consolidate radical power in a way way outside of our constitution. i'm sorry to be so alarmist. but 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 all of this is going to come, i guess, starting friday, which will be the first time the vast majority of federal workers do not get a paycheck. how much could that change the calculus? >> then you may have a real

national security crisis, because then you're talking about 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 stunning to me about all of this is, the lack of the president's empathy in talking about the people who the 800,000 people who are losing their paychecks who won't be able to pay their mortgage. i mean, he said at various times, either, they're democrats or they support me or they'll make do. i think none of that is actually true. i think these are you know, these are people who want to support their families. i think this will focus the democrats, as well as focusing the president, when people start realizing that these people are out of work, their services are out of work, and everybody, at that point, starts getting blamed and, you know, paul has lived through this. it becomes kind of a pox on all you'

you're houses. so, maybe they'll do a deal of dreamers and figure out a way out of this. >> michael, the argument you make about the opioid epidemic is powerful. the counterargument is according to the statistics, the majority of hard drugs like heroin and fentanyl, are coming through legal points of entry, through cargo and through 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 officers, technology, as well. the idea of the wall is that you stop the overland smuggling of those drugs, that 25%. you force it to go through the ports of entry in the vehicles, and you bring in more personnel and technology to get it there. and to me, that's -- it's a crisis level up here in small town america, and i think if we

can do something like that, we can -- we can address this opioid 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 through the body carriers that's just not going to happen. it will never work without an integrated solution. >> paul, is that -- i mean, is the opioid argument a valid one in terms of building a wall? >> it's not the one 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. everything michael says is correct, in that there is a crisis and a lot of good people are dying. i don't think this president has focused on it sufficiently, i wish he would. but the wall is not going to fix the opioid overdose problem. and, in fact, it's -- it could even be counter productive to it, by pulling resources away from treatment and putting it into concrete.

by the way, it's not the argument the president is using. he may throw that against the wall tomorrow night, too. >> i think he should. >> he should, michael, but what he's trying to tell us is that people who, in the main, are fleeing and trying to find asylum, obeying our laws, and he's trying to say that that's a threat to national security so that we're somewhere al qaeda, that's dishonest. >> paul, michael, gloria, appreciate it. thank you. coming up, the president insists his stance on withdrawing troops on syria has not changed, after his national security adviser appears to walk it back. we're keeping them honest next. new chicken creati from starkist. buffalo style chicken in a pouch-- bold choice, charlie! just tear, eat... mmmmm. and go! try all of my chicken creations! chicken!

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today, the president tweeted his intentions on syria are no different from his original statements, that the united states will be leaving at a, quote, proper pace, while at the same time, continuing to fight isis. now, keeping them honest, that's not exactly true. what the president originally said is different. the apparent reason he tweeted that today is that national security adviser john bolton has contradicted what seemed to be the president's policy. yesterday, bolton told reporters that the united states will leave syria only under the condition that turkey promises not to attack kurdish allies there. later in a news conference with benjamin netanyahu, bolton again referred to a conditional withdraw. >> 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 not able to revive itself and a become a threat again and to make sure that the defense of israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured. and to take care of those who have fought with us against isis and other terrorist groups. >> well, you may remember just a few weeks ago, the president claimed that isis already had been wiped out. i'm quoting, he said, we have defeated isis in syria. my only reason for being there during the trump presidency. originally, the president had a 30-daytimeline to withdraw the troops which was later extended to four months. then yesterday, the president said this. take a look. >> we are pulling back in syria. we're going to be removing our troops. i never said we're doing it that quickly, but we're decimating isis. when i was elected president two years ago, isis was all over syria and all over iraq.

we've wiped out isis in iraq. >> keeping them honest, he said they were doing it quickly, 30 days. in fact, the same day he claimed victory over isis, he posted a video saying they're coming back now, full stop. that 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 retired you lieutenant 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 that they are or not? >> well, we couldn't leave in 30 days, unless you wanted to leave behind very expensive military equipment, classified gear. so, it was just another example of the president not having any idea whatsoever what he was talking about.

as far as policies go, there's no consistency. the president is very child-like in that he's loyal to the other kid that he's playing with at the moment. he was on the phone with erdogan, they're pals. erdogan says, you know, the kurds are bad people, they're terrorists. we can take care of that and blah blah. and trump impulsively makes this announcement. now, you have john 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 that pleases vladimir putin, the iranians, bashar al asad and isis is inherently a flawed policy. but secondly, it's not just about the kurds, although they are very important and they have been outside of israel the best ally we have ever had in the middle east. they're doing the fighting on the ground, not us. we're supporting them. but it's not just about the shame, the disgrace of betraying the kurds.

rather, it's 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 from the kurds, said he was going to do it. alliances are critical. the president himself said, we can't be the world's policeman. well, if we don't want to be the world's policeman, you better have some other cops on the beat. and we need allies. and we are alienating them as fast as president trump can. >> yeah, i mean, it's one of the things, in afghanistan, our troops for years have 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 kurds, and they have been fighting with u.s. interests for, you know, and a lot of loss of life on the side of the kurds. but i mean, either isis is defeated or it's not. how are the american people supposed to know what to believe when the president says one

thing one day and a different thing another? >> well, regrettably, you simply can't believe what president trump says. you cannot believe it. he's the biggest liar i've seen, not only in public life, in my personal life. children don't lie with this sense of conviction. and again, 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 this hyper-media age, everybody wants a president they can have a beer with. i want a president who is qualified to lead our country domestically and abroad. and it has been -- if we are honest, it has been over a quarter century since we have had a fully qualified president from either party who knew both

domestic policy and foreign policy, and the pattern is straightforward. going back to even jfk. american presidents, particularly democrats, but from both parties, 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 capable of running a grownup 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 frightening. >> it is the sort of announcing policy on the fly that is particularly surprising or shocking, i mean, it's, as you said, a conversation with erdogan and he makes an announcement, and it seems like everybody else in the administration has to play catchup to try to either, you know, 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. you know, 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, i mean, if you try -- you're trying to find somebody who's capable. it's like judging a beauty contest in a leper colony. i mean, there's just -- there is just nothing left. and the president, not sure you can even call them policies. they're impulses. he just gets an idea in his head, and he says it. or he 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 at this late date, i wish president trump would turn around and be a great president, but he is so fast a disaster for our country, policies foreign and domestic. >> colonel peters, appreciate your time. >> thank you.

>> i want to check in with chris, what he's working on. welcome back. >> happy new year, my brother. it was great watching you on new year's. they love you in puerto rico. >> you looked like you were having a great time. >> why not go there if you're going to go somewhere warm. the place is great, they need the money. so, picking up on your conversation with peters, the reason that we're dealing with this 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 him that appealed to his gut sense of what kind of problem to create and a simple solution that people can grab onto, and it worked. it worked in the campaign, and now, they're caught, right? they can't surrender on the wall, because he doesn't want to capitulate, he doesn't want to seem like he's not keeping a promise, but we're dealing with a fiction.

you know this better than anybody. you've been down on the border more than anyone of us who are covering it as anchors. the wall he says he wants to build is never going to happen. the bollard fencing that is there, he's now slowly, the president saying, this is what i always meant. it's not. but it is the reality. so, we're going to take people through what the facts are versus the farce and we're going to test how long this shutdown is going to keep hurting people's lives. >> facts versus farce. chris, thank you. appreciate it. that's in about 20 minutes from now. coming up, my interview with alexandria 0 kazuo cortez. probably the most well-known new member of congress. he's become a lightning rod for conservatives. even some democrat s worry she may move the party too far to the left. my interview with her coming up. ' better than♪ ♪a body has a right to ♪and shakin' me up so

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ed gets copays as lowlily go to as zero dollars onmy mouth! medicare part d prescriptions. ed gets labels clear as day. and, lily.... lily gets anything she wants. ed knows he could just have us deliver his prescriptions. but what's the fun in that? switch to cvs pharmacy. the 116th congress was sworn into office last week, even as the government remained in a partial shutdown. a record number of women have been elected to the house of representatives, and so far one newcomer is getting most of the attention from the left and the right. congresswoman alexandria

ocasio-cortez. she's 29 years old. never run for elected office before, and was working as a 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 universal health care, tuition-free public college, she's been described as both an inspiring and idealistic insurgent and a naive newcomer. 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 that first aired on "60 minutes" just 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

underestimate you? >> absolutely. that's how i won my primary. >> winning that primary shocked the democratic establishment and in november, alexandria ocasio-cortez 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, nancy pelosi's, office. she was the only newly elected member of congress who decided to drop by during the sit-in. she called 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 her office. >> oh, my goodness. 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're

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 needle on really important issues. >> ocasio-cortez and her allies managed to get more than 40 members of congress to support the climate committee. >> good morning. >> house speaker nancy pelosi agreed to create it, but it's not nearly what ocasio-cortez had in mind. pelosi granted the committee limited powers and did not ban members who take members from the fossil fuel industry. >> ocasio-cortez. >> for ocasio-cortez, it was an early lesson in congressional politics, and another one came when she defied pelosi and voted against the peeker's new house rules, but was not joined by many other progressive democrats. she told us she's determined to fight for what's being called a green new deal. a highly ambitious, some would

say unrealistic, that would convert the entire u.s. economy to renewable sources of energy in 12 years, while guaranteeing every american a job at a fair wage. you're talking about zero carbon emissions, no use of fossil fuels, within 12 years? >> that is the goal. it's ambitious -- >> how is that possible? you're talking about 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 in the tax rate? >> you know, you look at our tax rates back in the '60s, and when you have a progressive tax rate system, your tax rate, you know, let's say from $0 to $75,000 may

be 10%, is 15%. once you get to your tippy tops, on your 10 million decid$10 milx rates of 50%. it means that as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more. >> what you are talking about, just big picture, is a radical agenda compared to the way politics is done right now. >> well, i think that it only has ever been radical that has changed this country. abraham lincoln made the radical decision to sign the emancipation proclamation. frank list fr >> do you call yourself a radical? >> yeah, if that's what radical means, call me a radical. hello. >> she doesn't seem to be viewed as a radical by her constituents in new york 14. the racially diverse, liberal

and reliably democratic congressional district that includes parts of queens and the bronx. ocasio-cortez was born in the bronx. her parents had 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. yeah. my mom wanted to make sure that i had a solid chance and a solid education. >> did you feel like you were living in two different words? you were spending a lot of time in the bronx with your family and also here. >> yeah, and just growing up that way and with my cousins who were all my age, too, feeling like we all kind of 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. but 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 school buses 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 campaign headquarters as she launched a seemingly improbable run for congress. she was working as a waitress and bartender at the time. like many members of her generation, she says she had student loans to pay and no health insurance. >> i really understood the frustration that working people had across the political

spectrum, you know, 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? >> i >> 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. there is a lot of 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 really about. people, families who don't have an adjustment they can make.