...well almost anything. leave no room behind with xfi pods. simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. a lot of moving parts this hour. thanks for joining us. the president heads to capitol hill soon for lunch with senate republicans. many of them are worried even after the big oval office address last night that the white house does not have a sound strategy to end the government shutdown. plus big developments in the special counsel investigation, one is was rod rosenstein making plans to leave his post as

deputy attorney general. his mueller probe has infuriated the president. another is court documents that sharing internal polling data with a russian for the 2016 campaign. >> why all of the secrecy? why all of the lies and most serious, why is the campaign chairman for a u.s. presidential candidate providing campaign polling data to someone linked to a foreign adversarial intelligence agency? >> back to that in a moment, but we begin with a new and important promise today from president trump's choice to be the next attorney general. a promise delivered just as we learned the man who currently oversees robert mueller's russia investigation is heading for the exits. a source confirming to cnn the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein plans to leave the justice department in the near future. that has democrats nervous because rosenstein has weathered

the president's fuhry and defended the mueller probe. democrats worry that ag nominee william barr won't protect the special counsel because while in private practice barr offered a memo highly critical of the mueller probe, but barr began making the rounds on capitol hill including a meeting with the incoming chairman of the committee. senator lindsay graham says barr does not share the president's view that mueller is leading a witch hunt. >> i asked mr. barr directly if he believes mr. mueller is on a witch hunt? he said no. he has a high opinion of mr. mueller. believes in mr. mueller's professional job and he'll do a professional job as a whole and has no reason for mr. mueller to stop doing his job and is committed to allow mr. mule tore finish. >> manu raju is live on capitol

hill. that from lindsay graham. bill barr will have to say that directly to calm the democrats at his confirmation hearing and this is critical work for the president's choice. >> reporter: this will be essential after winning confirmation because there are some republicans who are concerned about his writings and about what he may actually view about how the mueller investigation should proceed and in order to get confirmed, of course, in the senate you cannot lose in this new senate more than three republican votes. right now 53-47, senate and several republicans are watching those words very closely and today's remarks essential in order to calm those republican nerves. in addition to making it clear that he believes that the mueller probe should go on according to lindsay graham, he also said he'd be willing to release the report that mueller eventually puts together. he'd be willing to, quote, err on the side of transparency according to lindsay graham and that's a big question going

forward, and over whether or not this report will be released to the congress and whether it would be released to the congress and suggesting he may do that. democrats will not be satisfied with that yet and they plan to push him much further to hear exactly what he has to say. he has not begun his meetings with democratic senators yet, but of course, next week are confirmation hearings and john, still criticism about barr today and adam schiff who does not have a vote because he's a member of the house, but house committee chairman told us that barr should recuse himself from overseeing the mueller investigation. those assurances are not at the moment calming any democratic nerves, john? >> bill barr has a ways to go. manu, thank you. here with me in the studio to share their insights mallika henderson and tariqa with buzz feed and julie hirschfield davis. he will have to reassure democrats and not just

republican, but this seems pretty well orchestrated to have a meeting with the new chairman of the committee lindsay graham who comes out and says bill barr can't take questions until he has the confirmation hearing. he doesn't think it's a witch hunt. thinks mueller will be fair with the president ask will not interfere with the investigation and the last part by manu, believes the report should be made public. all four of those points pretty big deal. >> think it's a very big deal. again, he's not necessarily bound by that and it will not ease the concern of democrats. this will most certainly be a partisan vote, but the fact that he is going to release it, i think that is probably the most important point and he's open to releasing it, but look, we still do not know how the hearings will go and it's at least a month until the confirmation vote and the vote is will the mueller report come out before then and the next month is important and this gives the sense that he is, you know, going to be more of a standard attorney general and not someone who is simply going to be a

lackey. >> he is on path to become the next attorney general and a question all of the more so because rod rosenstein plans to leave the justice department once or soon after bill barr is concerned and they know each other and they think barr will protect mueller and the like. i should note the acting attorney general is at the white house with the president right now and we couldn't get interrupted to see tape from the white house and there are questions about matthew whitaker and whether he would interfere and right now there is no public evidence at all that matthew whitaker would interfere. while in private practice, he's a former attorney general from the george h.w. administration, and gives unsolicited advice to the justice department about -- so james comey is fired and does that constitute obstruction of justice? quote, mueller should not be permit -- mule are's overly aggressive use of the

obstruction laws should not be embraced by the department and cannot support interrogation of the president to evaluate his subjective state of mind. now we assume his position with lindsay graham was, that was my personal opinion and now i'm going to be attorney general, but if you read that memo and you're a supporter of the mueller probe, that is a reason to grill him. >> right. if you read that memo and you're donald trump that is potentially the reason to want him as attorney general. none of what he says to senators that later relates to the public through senators because he's the one up for confirmation will bind him. nor what he tells senators at his confirmation hearings even though he is under oath to say what is the truth at the time and circumstances can change and i think that's why we're hearing a lot of democrats say okay, that's good for now, but our concerns still stand, and i think we'll hear even tougher questioning on some of these particular points that you mention are in his writings because democrats really do need to delve into the details of

this if they'll feel comfortable voting for him which is fairly unlikely. >> i would not rule out that he'll get more democratic votes than you think because of his history. when he served in the george h.w. bush administration. that's one. this is to lindsay graham, can he convince democrats that he means it? if he's credible. >> number two, how does the president react? we know from day one of the administration, the president views the attorney general as his guy, his defender. jeff sessions is gone because of that. rod rosenstein took a lot of harpoons from the president because he defended and supported mueller. what's the president's reaction going to be if he hears bill barr on his first day making the rounds on capitol hill saying, i support mueller and this is not a witch hunt. i will not interfere. >> i think this will be a balancing act that barr and frankly, other administration officials have had to walk in the last two years where they have to keep democrats and even moderate republicans satisfied

while keeping trump from lashing out on twitter as we see him do very often. i think one thing to note here is that some moderate republicans could start expressing concern as well because there are vulnerable republicans up for re-election in 2020. tom tillis is repeatedly brought up his bill to protect the special counsel. that was something he said he would re-introduce and you might see corey gardner and tom tillis bring up concerns with barr or protecting the special counsel. >> and again, for the moment rod rosenstein said he plans on leaving. our reporting is that number one, he's not going to rush out the door. number two, that part of his decision leaving is number one, he trusts barr and number two, he thinks mueller is past the critical point and mueller is now winding down and has what he needs to finish his investigation even though they authorized the grand jury for up to what? another six months. that tells you not short term and i want to go through the list and everyone at the white house now has a better rapport

with the president and they're back on better terms however he's the one who appointed robert mueller as special counsel. he supported the indictment of 25 russian nationals and supported the prosecution of paul manafort, and the prosecution of michael flynn and rick gates including the plea deals and raid on michael cohen's home and offices and cohen's charges and not mueller, but the justice department has to go through the attorney general's office. >> not only that, was there the reporting about conversations that rosenstein may have had with justice department officials and fbi officials about recording the president and maybe getting together on using the amendment against the president to oust him from office and somehow he weathered all of that and he ends up now, unceremoniously exited and dumped by the president and going out in an orderly fashion almost on his own terms having overseen the bulk of this

investigation. it was an interesting situation he's had over the last 18 months with this president and now he'll exit. >> and the acting attorney general, they want to question him. jerry nadler, the chairman of the house judiciary committee said, the justice department has said look, we are partially shut down. we just need some time. do democrats really think that's just a stall and do they have any evidence that mr. whitaker has actually done anything to mess with mueller? >> i think they do suspect that it's a stall, but i'm not sure that they're in the middle of this whole mess over the shutdown necessarily in the next couple, 24, 48 hours with the subpoena idea and i don't think they have primary evidence that he's done anything in particular, but i think there's a lot of suspicion given what he's said publicly in the past and given what his stance has been since being acting attorney general that he is somehow carrying trump's water in a way that he should not be, that's

not ethical and that he should be recused from these issues because of what he's said in the past and what he's done in the past. and so i think they'll keep trying to press and get in front of him and this is a manifestation of the subpoena power. they have the ability to force him to answer questions and i think they'll continue to press that. >> it's a sign of what the white house's plan is up for every request for house democrats. they're going to slow walk it and potentially challenge it here. so it's not going to be quite as easy and clean as somehow democrats would hope. >> before we go to break, i want to remind the viewers that rod rosenstein endured harpoons and has a sense of humor. >> joining other people in criticizing someone usually in an unfair manner. i also have experience with that. >> our decisions do not please all of the people all of the time in case you haven't noticed. >> the deputy attorney general has a few things to go back to washington and tend to. >> can i say --

>> i'll head straight back to washington, but you let the president know that his favorite deputy attorney general is here. [ laughter ] >> funny guy. up next, the president heads to capitol hill to meet with members of his own party. can he convince them to stick to his shutdown plan? but what i do count on... is boost® delicious boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals. boost® high protein. be up for life.

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this is a humanitarian crisis. a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul. >> democrats say there's a problem at the border, but not a crisis. they blame the president for the shutdown and they accuse him of manufacturing this crisis, choosing the wall over federal workers. >> my message to president trump and my republican colleagues in congress is simple. our federal workers just want to do their job. it's time that you do yours. >> take your path forward. take yes for an answer. instead, he has chosen a wall over workers. >> that's the democrats. later this hour the president heads up to capitol hill to visit with senate republicans and to be patient and hold firm. this afternoon congressional leaders then come to the white house. very few players on either side seem likely to blink at this

point. everyone's holding firm. in the words of one republican congressman last night, quote, nobody convinced anybody. cnn's abby philips is live at the white house. they're meeting right now. does anyone have a view of the off ramp? >> it does not seem that the white house has clear view of how this all ends. the shutdown is be coming clear. 800,000 on the verge of waking up without their first paychecks and in these meetings this afternoon as the president goes to the hill and meets with congressional bipartisan meeting on the hill later today and it is unclear if it is having impact if either side will move on the issue of how to re-open the govern the. reporters are in the room with president trump right now as we speak. he is talking about the shutdown and talking about this issue of whether he is willing to declare

a national emergency to bypass congress to build the wall. from the sounds of it, the president seems to be indicating that he would prefer to negotiate. he would prefer to resolve this with democrats and republicans in a room because everybody knows that if he declares a national emergency it basically takes negotiating with congress off the table. so we'll see more about where this all ends up and whether as you mentioned in this meeting with senate republicans in a couple of hours, the president will hear more concerns about whether the shutdown should continue beyond this 19-day mark. it's already approaching the point where we are in almost historic territory here and neither side has indicated that they are changing their positions. the president still wants his wall and democrats still want the government re-opened without changes to what they passed weeks ago and i think that this afternoon we will get the first indication of whether that's going to change at all before friday when these folks are waking up not getting paid for

the first time in weeks. >> abby philip at the white house, keep us posted. we'll get tape of the meeting as soon as we can. we go up to capitol hill. challenge number one is to keep the republicans in line. i don't want to overstate this, but a number of republicans have started to voice a bit of the jitters. the fear among republicans is when that friday comes and people don't get paychecks that the phones start ringing and the federal workers start saying enough, even if i support the wall i want my paycheck, thank you very much. we know so far susan collins, cory gardner and lisa murkowski have said let's end the shutdown and we'll negotiate over the wall, but let's end the shutdown. lamar alexander, and the conservative, pat roberts of kansas, he's retiring and marco rubio, florida, people more traditionally conservative. where are we? is it just concerns and grumbling, mr. president, we need to see a strategy or mr.

president, change course? >> ink it think it's rumblings spoke to lisa murkowski and she said she was going to bring this up not that she would get into a policy back and forth, but it's the issue of people are already coming into their offices and people are being affected by this shutdown and this is the wrong way to go, and we need to reopen while we continue to resolve the differences and those calls will start to grow. what will be interesting to see is in the past when there have been differences between republicans and the president on capitol hill when he goes to these senate lunches, oftentimes they will hold back and not say anything to his face. he's the president and he gives his monologue and maybe takes questions and maybe doesn't, you don't hear a lot of direct pushing on the president during these moments and it will be interesting to see whether he actually gets some of that today from people like senator murkowski and others and whether that affects their strategy because right now as abby said there isn't a strategy.

the president may be indicating that he'd rather negotiate with democrats than declare this national emergency, but there is no strategy for doing that because he's been unwilling to change his demands and the democrats are clearly not accepting them. there is no way forward and there is very little confidence on the part of senate and house republicans that the white house has a play here that they think can be effective going forward. >> and to that point as the republicans want assurances from the president that they see the off ramp. they pick up the paper and read that the president is not happy with what he's doing so far. peter baker writing that the president was grumbling that these people, meaning his staff, made him give the oval office address, that he didn't want to do it or making him go to the border tomorrow. that's not what he wants to do. that will not inspire confidence in members of his own party that even the president is not sure of what he's doing. >> then what does he want to do? he's in charge, but the buck never seems to stop with him.

he did want the oval office address because he liked the idea of it, but he didn't have anything new to say. that was the issue. so he can talk and talk, but there is no off-ramp for this and there is finger pointing and talking past each other. i think the question here is every time we've seen him go to capitol hill, you're absolutely right. he generally talks for most of the hour and doesn't take questions and most republicans aren't going to stand up in that venue at this point, but house republicans are also raising concerns about this. the president not necessarily pleased, i'm told, of the news coverage of the speech last night and look at the content. watch what conservative critics are saying because that's why this whole matter is happening. he was pushed into this by anne coulter and others. i don't expect much relief or give from them. so there is no off ramp. >> her message last night before the speech she tweeted an update, no border wall. >> she does every day. >> great speech, call congress. urging conservatives to call

congress and support the president. here's the question, in a normal washington this deal is pretty easy. the president did win an election on immigration. he has every right and every reason to ask for more border security money and part of this wall. republicans control the senate. they have leverage. democrats now control the house and they have more leverage than they did a few weeks ago. you split the difference the president gets $2 billion or $3 billion and they would support more border patrol agent, but we don't live in a conventional washington. nobody has to blink. >> and we live in a washington that the president is looking to see what anne coulter has to say, what rush limbaugh has to say and the entire conservative chattering class had to say. it seemed he was close to blinking on this and agreeing to this to keep the government open and then he heard from these folks that this would be a bad idea for him and what is odd, too, he's got people like lindsay graham who are really goating him into drawing this firm line and not budging and

saying if you budge this is the end of your presidency and that's not very helpful. >> lindsay graham who not long ago supported a past decision for all of the undocumented. >> it's to say, maybe you put daca into this and that doesn't seem like it's a likely thing. >> it doesn't seem that the president is in deal-cutting mode. he was sending mike pence to negotiate with the democrats in the last week and over the weekend and we all know at the end of the day it's what the president has to say and not anything that mike pence tells democrats that will actually lead to a deal. >> his best leverage for the deal is when the republicans still controlled the house and there is less leverage now. we'll see how it plays out. when redactions aren't really redactions. what the president calls the crisis at the southern border. custom and border protection figures do show the number of families arrested from crossing from mexico into the united states hit a record high for the

fourth straight month. border patrol agents apprehended 27,000 family members and that's in december and more than 240% hike when compared with a year ago. we'll be right back. i tell everyone to take the ancestrydna test

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this round's on me. hey, can you spot me? come on in! find your place, today, with silver sneakers... included with many medicare advantage plans. call the number on the screen now or visit getsilversneakers.com just moments away to hear from the president of the united states. he's been having a meeting in the oval office. the subject of the meeting human

trafficking legislation, but during that meeting in a crowded oval office the president we know talking about his address to the nation last night and what he views as a border crisis any his demand for funding for the border wall and the president is about to go up to capitol hill to make that case to senate republicans. let's listen to the president. >> okay. thank you very much. appreciate you being here. it hasn't been so long late last night, and we're having some very good times in our country. we're doing very well except for the border. the border is a big problem. it's a very dangerous problem and i can talk all about the job numbers and how well we're doing on the economy, the stock market's up. i guess now we're up over 30% since the election. so many good things are happening, but we have to take care of the border and we're all working together. i really believe the democrats and the republicans are working together. i think something will happen, i hope, otherwise we'll go about

it in a different manner. i don't think we'll have to do that, but you never know. in a few moments i will sign legislation continuing my administration's extensive efforts to combat the scourge of human trafficking. i spoke about it last night, human trafficking. it hits a nerve in many cases women and children grabbed and thrown into the backseat of a car or thrown into a van with no windows, with no -- any form of air, tape put across their mouths and they're brought across the border and they don't go through -- >> you heard the president now talking about human trafficking legislation. you heard him at the top of this event about trying to work with democrats and republicans to find a way out of the current government shutdown and the current impasse over his border wall and other immigration. cnn's abby philip still live at the white house. the president, very interesting and cooperative tone at the top saying i really believe democrats and republicans are

working together. they're not at the moment, but i wonder if that's a hint from the president about what he wants and then he did also say otherwise we'll have to go in a different manner. i hope we don't have to do that. that different manner would be a national emergency declaration where he would use pentagon funding to try to build a wall. >> reporter: yeah, john, it was a bit of a subdued tone going into these meetings and perhaps a good thing because sometimes going in blazing into these meetings is counterproductive, but as you point are pointed out what we've been hearing basically from both sides is there's not much negotiation happening at all. there are not offers going back and forth between the two sides in terms of how to end this shutdown and the president isn't changing his actual position. he is sounding a cooperative tone about wanting to be optimistic and negotiations will succeed and he has not changed his position on his border wall, whether that is different at 3:00 this afternoon, it remains to be seen. i think the president is staying

firm on this and hoping the democrats change their mind, but the politics of the democrats changing their mind is really not in his favor at the moment. at the same time, though, i think what you did hear is the president taking a step back from this national emergency conversation trying to say that the first priority is actually to work with lawmakers, to try to come to a resolution. how much time he gets for that process to play out given how this shutdown continues to play out and drag on for weeks and weeks is the big question. how long is he willing to give negotiators to work? it sounds like he would prefer not to declare a national emergency which would allow him to bypass congress, but would create a pandora's box of legal and potentially political problems for him and for his party going forward, john. >> abby philip, appreciate that at the white house. let's come back in the room and again, i want to be very clear. it is dangerous to overinvest in any one particular remark by the

president who has a history of saying a on monday and z on tuesday, if not by sundown the same day, but with just the tone, just the toni really believe the democrats and the republicans are working together, i really believe we can get a solution here and is that, again, this is a risk, is that a president who saw the morning-after reviews of the oval office address which made the gap wider did not make a solution any closer trying to say it's time to talk? >> it might be. >> i think he is trying to look like he is the more reasonable one. he is trying to, i think, make democrats into doing something that they very well may do, and he is trying to look like the adult in the room, if you will, but we have no idea what he's going to say by the end of the week or tomorrow when he visits the border or in 30 minutes. >> he was not -- he would not

say if he would sign appropriations bill and he would not say again and again, and would you sign other bills? he kept asking reporters, would you do that? would you do that? this is coming from the pool of reporters from the room and he would not say, but i do think there is consensus and they do not want him to declare a national emergency because that throws this into further chaos that it's much harder to get out of. >> what that reminded me of and underscored and not to be a cynic here is not necessarily a more conciliatory president and he's willing now to do a deal, but it reminded me of the meeting he had with chuck sh schumer and nancy pelosi where i'll shut it down and i'm proud to do it and when the mantel left he said hey, guys i think we can work together and do great things and i'll force republicans to do the deal. to me that speaks to the degree

that the president is living on another planet when it comes to dealing with congress. he does not know how to get a deal done and that is coming out in the whole shutdown mess. he does see that democrats right now are trying to take the mantel of being looking like the more responsible grown-ups in the room of people that are reasonable here and he wants to take some of that back, but i think it is also true that he does not know how to proceed here if he does want to get the deal he's talking about. given that he's not -- >> that part is the problem because he's about to go into a room, a private room for the senate republican lunch and a number of them are on the ballot in 2020. some of them were just on the ballot and their phones are ringing with federal workers who have been furloughed and trying to pay a mortgage or pay rent and pay tuition or buy gas for their car are asking what? if they don't know, if they don't have a clear direction from the president, this is not

a new thing, it's like a ping-pong ball, in the middle of this they want an answer from the president. what's your strategy? what's the endgame? and where are you willing to compromise? what are you willing to take? >> the president will definitely get grilled on all of those things when he goes into the senate lunch and i thought it was interesting based on the pool reports that we're seeing that the president for the first times did start addressing some of the concerns that democrats and some moderate republicans have brought up in terms of what about drones and modern technology? is the wall the best way to do this and drones won't stop thousands of people from coming in based on the pool reports. he also said something along the lines of walls work because they might not be modern technology, but they worked. so he's sort of pushing back on some of those comments that democrats and moderate republicans have been making on tv in the last few days and trying to get limb him to re-ope

government. >> he's pushing back and not moving in terms of what he wants to see, the $5 billion or so all for this wall. in some ways he is and maybe it could be a steel, flat wall arguing that that's how democrats wanted and that's really true. >> you wonder in what ways the president will learn things he doesn't really understand. he does seem to think that most of these federal workers are a, democrats and in the greater d.c. area. one of the reasons that lisa murkowski is so concern side there are a lot of federal workers in alaska and you wonder the republicans think this is a learning session. >> can i stop one second there? >> yeah. >> he's been president a month shy of two years. i'm sorry. the first couple of months, never been in politics before, ran a small family business and didn't have a board of directors and didn't have people speaking up to him and he is their boss, whether they're democrat, republicans, independents,

whether they vote or don't vote, whether they support him on some issues or no issues he's their boss, right? i'm past the point that these conversations and maybe the president would learn how the government works from this, really? >> i'm not sure that he does not that there are federal workers. >> i'm not disagreeing with you, it's just striking to me that republicans defend him and say he's about to learn. >> no, i'm not defending him at all. i'm just saying this is -- and he doesn't seem to understand that most of the people coming across the border are asylum seekers which is a completely legal process and that a wall isn't going to stop these folks from presenting themselves to border agents and getting into the system and waiting for asylum. in the pool report he said there are thousands pouring across the border and drones won't stop that. >> they also don't pour in by the thousands. >> yeah. >> let's go back and listen to more of the president's comments with reporters from the oval office. >> all of the other things, the

sensors and the drones and it is all wonderful to have and it doesn't matter if you don't have the wall. a drone isn't stopping a thousand people from running through and so we can all talk and interestingly, if you look, virtually every democrat over the last 15 years, they've approved what we're asking for. so i think we're doing something and i think we're getting closer, but we really have to think about the people of our country. this is not a fight i wanted. i didn't want this fight. we have to think about the people of our country and we have to do what's right at our border and many other places, but we have to do what's right at our border. human trafficking cannot be stopped if we don't have a steel barrier or a concrete wall, something very powerful. it cannot be stopped. we have the most talented law enforcement people in the world as far as i'm concerned right alongside me and behind me. it doesn't mean a thing if they're going to be driving

women and children through sections of the border where nobody is, where you can't be because you don't have enough manpower or woman power. you don't have much of anything. you have 2,000 miles of border. so you're not going to stop it, in all fairness, there's not much they can do. they can get them every once in a while, but the other way, we can eliminate the problem as it pertains to the area that is the worst problem. probably the world's worst problem. they come to the united states because we have the money. that's true with drugs and everything i said for human trafficking is also true with drugs. so we have to get past the politics and get back to common sense and it's a medieval solution. is it medieval. israel put up a wall, 99% successful according to bibi netanyahu. he came into my office and said what's with the wall?

we put up a wall with 99.9% successful. 99.9. i said you mind if i use that number? they'll fact check it and they'll say it was only 99%. the president told a fib. no, he told me 99.9. maybe he'll change it and make it 99, but they put up a wall and they don't have a problem anymore and we have to do the same thing. the united states must not incentivize or enable these evil crimes. instead, we should do everything we can to fight them and that's what we're doing. i call on congress to send me a funding bill to secure the border, build a barrier and help end this horrific assault on innocent life, to not mention the drugs, not to mention the gangs and the criminals, and i will very gladly sign this legislation having to do specifically with a horrible, horrible worldwide problem, human trafficking and it's my honor to do it and i very much

appreciate all of the democrats' support. i very much do. thank you. [ applause ] >> i'll explain to the press. for my whole life i've watched presidents, they sign one letter -- one letter. did you ever look at these? it's a disaster. i sign it with one pen and then i hand out pens and it works a lot better and it goes a lot faster. come on, where are they?

pass them around. we have enough. we have enough for everybody. we're pretty accurate in our count. where's my senator back there. we have lisa. we have to take care of the republicans. take care of the democrat, right? michael, you have it, right? stick around, fellas. >> mr. president, what do you say to those federal workers, security guard, secret service agent, tsa agents who are now going without pay? >> i think they have been terrific. these are terrific patriots. a lot of them agree with what i'm doing and i hope we'll have the situation worked out, but they want security in our country and so do i. that's all we want. we want security and we want common sense and we want security in our country. when you look at what's going on, immigration just went to very high on your list and even on your list. immigration's very high on the list, but we're not talking about just immigration and i would like and i'll say it in front of our democrat friends here, i would love to see a big

immigration bill where we really take care of the situation. i know you want to. everybody wants to. who wouldn't want it? it's quicker and easier to do this individually, but we would like to see real immigration reform in this country because we need it and it could be a beautiful thing and with all of the companies coming into our country. we have seven car companies who are announcing and have announced recently and we have many car companies and as you know, they're flowing in. we have the best job numbers virtually that we've ever had and for -- and the best ever and that's going to be beaten. so we have the best job numbers. we need people and we need great, qualified people. we want them to come in. so i think it's a great time right now because of that, we need people, rob. in ohio, you need workers and i know you feel the same way. everybody wants to see

immigration reform. it's just overdue and it's always been very political and maybe this will turn out to be a blessing in disguise, but john, i will tell you this. the people out there want something to happen at our southern border, whether it's human trafficking and whether it's drugs and whether it's criminals and whether it's ms-13 and the folks behind me know all about ms-13 and how violent and vicious they are and where they come from, and they all come from the same place and they all come in the same way and they come right across that border and we've thrown thousands out. i would say thousand, right, fellas? literally, ms-13 and you know a lot of it, i know that, rich. we've thrown thousands out a year and then they come back and we move them all of the way back to where they came from. all of the way back and they find a way to come back again. we need strong borders and we need immigration reform. beyond that, we need immigration reform. >> but these people have to go

without their paychecks. some are being forced to work without pay. some have been furloughed and -- >> they're all going to get their money and i think they're going to be happy and i will tell you and i say it often. many of those people that you're talking about so humanly the way you express it, but many of those people that you talk about are on my side. i've had so many people, the beautiful thing is with social media, the world can write to you. you take a look at social media, so many of those people are saying it's very hard for me, it's very hard for my family, but mr. president, you're doing the right thing. get it done. i've had so many of them. they're patriots. they love our country, and they want to see it be done. look, this is just common sense. they want to see it be done correctly. we need a barrier. we need to stop people from coming in the way they come in and if we don't have it, you can never have border security unless you have a steel barrier, a concrete wall, call it whatever you want, but without

it you'll never have -- you can have the greatest talent in the world. you will never, ever in a million years you will not have border security. it can't happen. >> why didn't you announce it last night and when might you -- >> because we might work a deal and if we don't i may go that route. i have the absolute right to do a national emergency if i want. >> what's your threshold? >> my threshold will be if i can't make a deal with people that are unreasonable. >> what's your message to republicans on capitol hill. >> i think we have tremendous republican support. i'll tell you what, i just spoke to people in the house. we have tremendous support. the senate has been incredible. mitch mcconnell has been incredible and if the president is not going to sign it i'm not going to waste my tom. rob portman is here and he can tell you, he's very strong on border security. we have tremendous support in the senate. we have tremendous support in the house and by the way, is it true that somebody, a congressman, he broke away

today? yeah. you know who else asked that? the democrats have that, too, because they have their people breaking away, too. you know why? because they know you need border security, but you don't report that, but the fact is that there is tremendous support. i would know without support i would be the first one to know i may be the last one, too, but there is tremendous support. right now if i did something that was foolish like gave up on border security, the first ones that would hit me are my senators. they'd be angry at me. the second ones would be the house and the third ones would be, frankly, my base and a lot of republicans out there and a lot of democrats that want to see border security. okay. what else? >> so why not sign the other bills so some of these workers can get paid? >> do you think i should do that, john? >> it's not if are me --

>> i watch your one-sided reporting. seriously, john, do you think i should just sign? >> well, the argument is on. >> tell me. tell me. >> it has nothing to do with border security. >> john, do you think i should just sign? >> these workers can start getting paid. the government -- >> you would do that if you were in my position you would do that? >> i'm not in your position. >> i'm asking you, would you do that if you were in my position? if you would do that you should never be in this position because you'd never get anything done. good-bye, anybody. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. >> thank you! >> the president of the united states taking questions and john karl of abc news being polite, the answer is you're president and i'm not to turn a phrase from john karl asking the president why not sign the other appropriations bills to re-open the government so most federal workers can go back to work. the president never lets facts get in the way of his argument. there are democrats who are wavering, too, on this border

shutdown. there's been no evidence of that so far. significantly, the president is going up to capitol hill to meet with senate republicans and many of them are nervous who have an exit strategy. in the middle of that he says let's do a big immigration bill. let's do a big immigration bill. the president walked away from a deal last year that was big, not huge, but big, where he could have legalized the dreamers, so-called daca recipients and gotten the money for his wall. the government is now shut down because the president doesn't have the money for his wall. what was that? so this is something in his third year of his presidency. he'll have to start dealing with his own record and what he did and didn't do. i'm not sure if he doesn't remember and simply moving on. he has a chance for that. now the big open question, the structure has changed since last year. the divided government has changed. i don't know if democrats as we were saying earlier would even give him the same deal that they did only three weeks ago. so that is the situation here.

i think the biggest point of all this, his credibility when he talks about the crisis at the border simply has evaporated in many respects because he's talked about it so much and you can only scream fire so many times. if there is an exit strategy and off ramp in the conversation i didn't hear it. >> he was all over the place and you get the sense if this is what he brings to this meeting and you can see why they're already frustrated and that will only deepen frustration. you can't negotiate with him because all over the place. >> he says this is not what i wanted. he did understand this is hard for federal workers and he's called them patriots and many of them on social media are supporting him. i'm sure some do. some clearly have made clear they want their paycheck, but not what i wanted. don't expect consistency department, this -- sitting in the oval office saying this is not what i wanted was the same president of the united states who just a few weeks ago with chuck and nancy said i will proudly shut down the government

if i don't get my border wall. >> what we see so often with the president he tends to make decisions in five and ten-minute increments. i'm sure this is not what he wants right now and this is a mess he finds himself in and he doesn't have a way out and while i do think he was sparring with john karl in the ending question, would you do that? would you do that? i do think he's turning to his advisers and turning to people around him and sort of looking for a way out of this because he has not given himself any way out of it and there's no good way to do it other than that, other than if he were willing to allow republicans in the senate who are in control on capitol hill to cut a deal and bring it to him and sign it which he has walked away from. we saw just a few weeks ago. mitch mcconnell -- >> mitch mcconnell's current position is i'm not going to bring anything to the floor that the president has not said that he would sign and enough democrats would not support because he's been burned because they just passed a continuing

resolution to keep the government going, that the white house told them the president was okay and he understood the math and the president flipped at the last minute. to that point the president and his advisers, especially those of you who cover the white house full time. who does the president trust? i don't ask the question to be flippant. he has a new chief of staff mick mulvaney, who was budget director and was house republican who you would think was the point guy, right? what's the issue? capitol hill and the budget. mick mulvaney has been almost missing in action. you hear it's jared kushner, his son-in-law who is calling up to capitol hill saying the president will give this oval address, and we are convinced this will swing our way. who is in first when it comes to the white house? >> no one in the room. he takes his cues and advice from outside advisers like sean hannity and like others and he has his finger on the pulse of what outside commentators are saying. certainly he listens to some of his advisers on technical

things, but i was told earlier in the week that he likes mick mulvaney just fine and doesn't want to hear the long presentations on the numbers. he's watching external advisers, i think. >> the president has said this on his own that he thinks his gut and instinct is smarter than what his advisers tell him. i think inside the white house if he sees people he actually trusts. he has been talking to mark meadows about this on capitol hill and he talked to mark gates who had lunch with him throughout the shutdown and has gone on fox news a lot and said that it's actually democrats who will feel the pain on this and not the president, so i think he's kind of surrounded himself in this sort of echo chamber of people that just tell him what he wants to hear and those are unfortunately, the people he trusts the most. >> he's the president of the entire country. if you listen to republicans from rock-solid states who don't have to talk to democrats, you're in trouble, but roour rig you're right. the president said contradictory

things in the last couple of minutes and i'll look foolish to my senators, my house members and my base if he doesn't hold firm on the wall. >> yeah. and he brings up the concrete wall again which is something that he had done away with because he's caving to the democrats who want the steel wall. he's a jello. >> he is right that in the senate barack obama and hillary clinton voted for a border wall and border fencing. he's right. it's simply because it's trump and not any other president. i just want a couple of hundred miles of wall and let's close with this national emergency conversation. >> he does not want to do it. it's not his first choice, declare a national emergency and use pentagon money to start building a wall and it would get challenged in the courts like that, but i might have to if i can't get a deal. that's going to be the biggest question when he goes to capitol hill. high threshold will be making a

deal. republicans are going to matt thornberry the house arms services committee, republican, saying he is not in favor of spending pentagon money. he is going to need a win and something he can declare victory on. things are so broken and that's what jared kushner is doing. what can we do to make it look like a win? things are so frayed because of the first two years of his presidency it makes this all the harder. what would be a win at this point? i guess the other question i have is if the president went back and was forced back into conventional thinking then i have to accept a compromise. he could have had 1.7, maybe $2 billion in wall funding and i don't know if nancy pelosi would bring that to the floor now and that was when republicans controlled the house a couple of weeks ago. can he eaven get that now? will she bring that to the floor. >> >> that's a question that democrats don't have to answer because of the government shutdown and that's why we're

hearing about the pain this is inflicting on federal workers and it seems that it's broadly supported let's re-open the government while we have the conversation. >> it's about the play out as the president heads to capitol hill. for our international viewers, "amanpour" is up next. for our viewers in the united states, brianna keilar starts right now. have a good day. ♪ ♪ i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters, under way right now, no collusion. looking more like yes, collusion as documents show the head of the trump campaign feeding sensitive data to the russians. the man who appointed robert muler and has been protecting the special counsel is heading for the exits. what this means for the russia investigation. plus one of the biggest skeptics of trump's own shutdown strategy is the president himself as new cracks start to show among