yourself? >> style gives you a voice. it's freedom. >> "american style" premieres tonight at 9:00 on cnn. >> your style may be home in your pjs. good for you. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. the government shutdown breaks the record and brings a penniless payday. >> we have medical bills. we have mortgages. we have things that we need to take care of. plus, the two key players proposals.g insults, not >> the democrats, they don't give a damn about crime. >> federal workers will not be receiving their paychecks. he thinks make they can just ask their father for more money. >> and testing the waters. the new candidate for 2020. >> i am a candidate for president of the united states of america. >> democrats prepare for a crowded contest.

>> pronounce your name. >> kamala. just think of like the punctuation mark a comma and add an ala. the best stories sourced by the best reporters right now. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. to our viewers in the united states and around the world, thank you for sharing your sunday. it's now the longest government shutdown on record. workers missed their paychecks. new polling finds the american people squarely place the shutdown blame on president trump and his demand for a border wall. >> you will have crime in iowa. you'll have crime in new hampshire. you'll have crime in new york. you're going to have human trafficking. you'll have drugs pouring across the border. you'll have ms-13 and the gangs coming in. >> we have a country that is under siege. you could actually -- a lot of

people don't like the word invasion. we have a country that's being invaded by criminals and by drugs. >> plus new faces for the democrats as what will be a crowded 2020 presidential field begins to take shape. >> i have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week. >> we're going to make sure that the promise of america is available to everyone in this 21st century. >> our country is worth fighting for. and these ideals are worth fighting for. and if something is worth fighting for, then it's a fight worth having. >> up first, though drarksmatic new twists in the russia investigation. the president lashing out at a new account detailing how the fbi, just after the president fired its director, began exploring this question. might the president of the united states be working on russia's behalf? >> are you now or have you ever worked for russia, mr. president? >> i think it's the most insulting thing i've ever been

asked. i think it's the most insulting article i've ever had written. and if you read the article, you'd see that they found absolutely nothing. i can tell you this. if you ask the folks in russia, i've been tougher on russia than anybody else, any other -- probably any other president, period. but certainly the last three or four presidents, modern day presidents, nobody has been as tough as i have from any standpoint. >> that last part doesn't hold up to a fact check. with us to share their reporting, julia pace of the associated press, michael bender of "the wall street journal." nia-malika henderson and julie hirschfield davis. not a laughing matter for the fbi and is not a laughing matter for the special counsel who inherited the russia interference investigation. robert mueller was appointed by the trump justice department after the president fired fbi director james comey. "the new york times" account of the fallout among senior law

enforcement officials include this. the inquiry carried explosive implications, counterintelligence investigations, investigators had to consider whether the president's own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. agents also sought to determine whether mr. trump was knowingly working for russia or had unwittingly fallen under moscow's influence. you heard the president call that insulting. and his allies call it more proof of a rogue fbi and deep state determined, they say, to undermine the president. but investigators believe they had plenty of reasons to be worried. another weekend headline reminds us the president's actions when it comes to russia continue to raise questions. a day after the new account in -- "the new york times" account, "the washington post" detailing how the president went to great lengths to keep details of his conversations with vladimir putin secret from other top administration officials, even taking his interpreter's notes. on fox last night, this from the president. >> i had a conversation like every president does.

i have a one on one meeting with putin, like i do with every other leader. i have many one on one. nobody ever says anything about it. but with putin they say, oh, what did they talk about? we talked about very positive things because, look, we are beating everybody. our economy is the strongest in the world right now. anybody could have listened to that meeting. that meeting is open for grabs. you know, the whole russia thing, it's a hoax. >> no, anybody could not have listened to that meeting and the president did not deny taking his interpreter's notes so they can't be part of a record that his current team and future teams could go back and look at. the president says it's the most insulting question he's ever been asked. "the new york times" account, much of the reporting confirmed since by cnn, takes you inside that moment. comey gets fired. and we have some headlines. go back and remember those days. you know, trump told russians. he's bragging about firing

comey. he revealed classified information to the foreign minister. if you go back to those days, we're already investigating russian meddling. should we be worried? do we have to be worried about the president of the united states? >> well, right. and what my colleague's reporting describe, these are not idle questions the fbi agents sit around and sort of toss about. they had to have solid reasons for wondering these things. they don't just open a counterintelligence investigation because they're musing about some potential far-fetched idea. clearly there was enough questionable activity on the part of the president, enough things had happened to make them very concerned that they needed to answer these questions, and they were legitimate questions in the eyes of these investigators. and you saw that the -- one of the major issues was is this something that the president is knowingly participating in, sore this just something he's become caught up in unwittingly? those were the questions they needed the answers to.

for those of us seeing those headlines and wondering what was behind this, it's amazing to know this many months later that the fbi was actually taking those developments seriously enough to think that they needed to investigate them, and they still, as you pointed out, are the subject of the special counsel. >> now it's mueller's job. we now know that at least 16 trump official contacts, trump business orbit with russia during the campaign. we didn't know all that back then. we didn't know the president was lying about the depth of his russia business dealings. the fbi did know about this because they do the counterintelligence work. you read it. can you imagine being the junior fbi agent in the room. is the president -- the question is the president. huh? >> it's a really stunning development and again, we do know that mueller has been looking at this overall question but the idea the fbi was so concerned and had felt like they had reason to be concerned that the president himself may have been an asset. then you take the post reporting from yesterday where they say

that the president has been having these meetings with putin. and he's been taking notes from interpreters, not legislate oth -- letting other people in the room. no detail of his face-to-face meetings with putin. if there is no reason to be concerned if there is nothing untoward, if putin doesn't have anything on him, why are his interactions with russia so clouded. why always these actions he takes that raise more questions? if you know that people are interested in whether you have a relationship with russia, why don't you take steps to make your interactions with putin more transparent. make sure there are more people in the room and those notes are disseminated more broadly. he never takes that step. >> it could be a question for him right now. he talked about the idea these meetings were open. if they are open, why can't you release some of those transcripts now and have a follow read out. even in that interview with judge jeanine he said this is ab

absurd question but he never said, no, this and this never happened. so blanket sort of dismissal of the entire question in line of inquiry. but never any affirmative steps to point out what was wrong and show what he thinks actually happened in those meetings. it also goes to the fact that russians, obviously, know what happened in those meetings. putin likely has the transcripts of those meetings. that means they have leverage and know things the american public doesn't know and trump knows they know things. >> it's the continuing mystery about why he behaves the way he behaves knowing he's being watch and scrutinized about this. more information about what mueller may be doing as the president tries to get his new attorney general confirmed. important this week, in private, bill barr, the president's choice, a former attorney general from the george w.h. bush days promised democrats and republicans, i'm not going to mess with bob mueller. democrats want to get that on the record and grill barr about that but this is from senator

lindsey graham. bill barr saying, i don't agree with the president. >> i ask mr. barr directly, do you think bob -- mr. mueller is on a witch hunt? he said no. do you think he would be prayer to the president and the country as a whole? he said yes. he has a high opinion of mr. mueller and believes he's doing a professional job, dwoil a professional job and be fair to the president and the country as a whole and has no reason for mr. mueller to stop doing his job and is committed to allowing mr. mueller to finish. >> now again, democrats want to push on this front and push barr to promise to release all of the mueller report. not just pieces of the mueller report. but given the headlines this week, mr. barr's promises steam have greased the way for his confirmation. >> those comments are important. barr is not the first trump nominee to show some distance. it's important in this confirmation hearings for them to show some independence from the president.

what's going to matter is once he gets into office. but as -- in the sort of context of these russia questions, and as the president answers questions and sort of seems to get himself deeper every time. not denying that he's a russian agent. if there is any hope right now, or i should say optimism in the white house, it's the new team coming in. he's going to have a new attorney general, finally. and he has a new white house counsel who has put together -- restructured the office, added a dozen attorneys in there, and i know some of the folks who are on the outside part of this russia investigation for the president, there is some optimism that he's going to work with the outside counsel a little closer than mcgahn was. so there is a sense of optimism in the white house right now as they move forward on -- with this investigation. >> we'll see if that sustains itself as the democrats call up michael cohen. the president saying he's not worried. the democrats promising oversight. we're waiting to hear from

mueller who is going to answer eventually some of these big questions. up next for use new polling. the american people weigh in on who is to blamer in now 23-day partial government shutdown. re ! discover. hi. i like your card. i love all the cashback and security features, but i'm not going to pay an annual fee. i'm just not going to do it! okay. okay? discover has no annual fee on any of our cards. so it wasn't my tough guy act? no. we just don't have any annual fees. that's a relief. i've been working on that for a long time. if we had talked a month ago, that would have been a whole different call. i can imagine. excuse me, sir can i please have no annual fee? no annual fee on any card only from discover. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

to put on our website? i mean i would have but i'm a commercial vehicle so i don't have hands...

or a camera...or a website. should we franchise? is the market ready for that? can we franchise? how do you do that? meg! oh meg! we should do that thing where you put the business cards in the fishbowl and somebody wins something. -meg: hi. i'm here for... i'm here for the evans' wedding. -we've got the cake in the back, so, yeah. -meg: thank you. -progressive knows small business makes big demands. -you're not gonna make it, you're not gonna make it! ask her if we can do her next wedding too! -so we'll design the insurance solution that fits your business. -on second thought, don't...ask that. - with tripadvisor finding the right hotel at the lowest price is as easy as dates, deals, done. going on a work trip? dates, deals, done. destination wedding? dates, deals, done. because with tripadvisor all you have to do is enter the dates of your stay and we'll take care of the rest: searching over 200 booking sites to find you the best deal it's as easy dates, deals, you know the rest. (owl hoots) read reviews, check hotel prices, book things to do, tripadvisor.

and your mother told me all her life that i should fix it. now it reminds me of her. i'm just glad i never fixed it. listen, you don't need to go anywhere dad. meet christine, she's going to help you around the house. the best home to be in is your own. from personal care and memory care, to help around the house, home instead offers personalized in-home services for your loved ones. home instead senior care. to us, it's personal.

this is day 23 of the now record-setting partial u.s. government shutdown. and there's every reason to believe we'll be here marking the one month mark next sunday. the president demands billions for his border wall to reopen the government. the new democratic majority in the house says no. the republican leader of the senate playing pontius pilate, washing his hands any of responsibility. in a new "washington post"/abc poll, 53% of americans blame president trump and republicans in congress for the shutdown. 29% blame democrats. 13% blame both parties equally. that survey also shows two-thirds of americans oppose the president invoking a national virginia emergency to wall. the president stepped back now from a threat to divert military or disaster funding for border wall construction. >> i have the absolute right to call a national emergency. other presidents have called many national emergencies for things of lesser importance, frankly, than this. i have the right to do it.

i'd rather see the democrats come back from their vacation and act. i want to give them a chance to see if they can act responsibly. they should act responsibly. >> so no national emergency, for now but the fundamentals of the impasse. governments say, no, or at least no for now. their demand, first reopen everything except the department of homeland security and then negotiate over the border. >> let's separate our disagreements over border security from the government shutdown. reopen all the government agencies unrelated to border security and let's continue to work to resolve our differences. do not hold all of these workers as hostages, as pawns, as leverage. >> anybody see an off ramp here? and i guess the question, if you see this polling showing disproportionate blame going to

the president and republicans, would that be enough to cause republican cracks on capitol hill or are we dug in here? >> there's no off ramp that the president seems willing to take. that's the important question here. i think, obviously, republicans -- senate republicans were willing to take the off ramp in december of doing just exactly what chuck schumer was describing right there. just to reopen or to continue funding for the government while they punted this dispute into later this year. february was the date on the table at the time. but it seems like right now they -- republicans on capitol hill feel that they are sort of tied to president trump's strategy or, in this case, lack of strategy and unable to kind of cut and break with him on this and do their own thing because they are worried that they will alienate his base, which, in the end, is their base they need to be reelected to win primaries and it's -- i guess it's possible that those poll numbers if they continue to go in that direction and it becomes more profound that the nation is

blaming republicans for this, perhaps that will push them off of that position. but it's hard to see now how that happens because we're already seeing that the republicans are being blamed. there was a poll late last week showing that congressional republicans were getting less of the blame and they took a lot of comfort in that. but at the end of the day, i think they know if president trump and republicans writ large get blamed for this, they're going to be feeling the pain. >> we're in day 23. you go into another week of this, the fda says there's some problems with food inspections. epa, factory power plant inspections. faa, getting on an airplane. what about safety checks? small business administration loans held up. subsidies for farmers hit by the trade war. some vital wheels of the government are either stopped or slowed or stalled and then if you, around the country, this is not just a washington story. around the country, you hear more and more of this. >> my wife is on social security so i'm it for income.

>> so missing one paycheck will be a burden on you? >> oh, absolutely. >> especially with my recent surgery, we really had to come up with like backup plans immediately to figure out what we were going to do. my husband is in there making homemade bread because it's cheaper than buying a loaf at the store. >> we don't have months or years. we have creditors, medical bills. we have mortgages. we have rent. we have things we need to take care of. >> that is not the consensus view in the white house, john. inside the white house, they feel like there are a lot of these political pressure points that have been ameliorated. people are going to get food stamps for the next month. people are going to get their tax refunds. the 800,000 people who haven't been paid, how such that going to matter broadly in michigan and ohio and wisconsin? this is some of the things that the president is hearing inside the white house. and the anecdotes that matter are what -- are the president, inside the white house.

one aide told me it's not like the president is going to notice that the white house is half empty. so the white house budget office has made plans for this shutdown to go through the end of february. how to keep government running on a limited basis as efficiently as possible for another six weeks. i don't think that's the plan, but there are -- those are the contingencies. >> to me, this drives -- we talk to republicans. this drives republicans crazy about this because, yes, 800,000 americans, the country is far larger than that. it's 800,000 americans that are going to be missing potentially repeated paychecks. that's a big deal. that is an impact. >> big deal for them. big deal for the pizza guy in their neighborhood. the other small businesses in their community. >> it's not just their individual situation. one of my colleagues in huntsville, alabama, did a story about a company town down there. a lot of federal workers and contractors down there. this is a whole community that's going to be affected by that. they view this thinking in the white house, and mike is right

that's the thinking in there right now is shortsighted and if the president can't get his head around the potential long-term problems. >> we'll get back to that dynamic of the president blinking. does this help the president? people blame the president and republicans much more than the democrats. abc/"washington post" also asked do you support a border wall? 42% say yes. that's a minority, but it's up, 34%. the more the president talks about this, the numbers are move something. is there enough in there? the republicans are getting nervous but the democrats have to give the president something because there's some support for the border wall there. logic tells you that's your compromise. but, this is not logical. >> you look at who this democratic caucus is. led by nancy pelosi, the most diverse caucus that the democrats have ever seen, and they campaigned hard against this president. they see this wall as a symbol of xenophobia, of race baiting,

race mongering, and there's no way they're going to give the president what he wants on this wall. i think the other point is the idea that you can have a president who would shut down the government and then gets what he wants. that's the kind of person that i think democrats and probably republicans don't want to set either. so the democrats are incredibly dug in on this. >> you wonder if the president has missed his opportunity for this. he came into office in the main promise on the border wall. it was two years ago. there's been a midterm election since then. and, you know, using this -- a lot of people support the border wall. not a lot of people support using the national emergency as the excuse. remember a year ago, we were coming out of a shutdown a year ago. a shutdown that was over an immigration dispute a year ago. so, you know, there's a logical disconnect here for a lot of voters. >> to your point about the timing. the president had his own party. ran the show for two years. it was much easier to get a deal

before january. before nancy pelosi got a speaker's gavel. up next -- the democratic field gets some new entries and politicians say, oh, and yes they do, the darnedest things like take us along to the dentist. >> so i'm here at the dentist, and we're going to continue our series on the people of the border. i'm here with diana, my dental hygienist. diana is going to tell us about growing up in el paso. in eleven homes. ge, we'lle and every time we move, things change. apartments become houses, cars become mini vans. as we upgrade and downsize, an allstate agent will do the same for our protection. now that you know the truth, are you in good hands?

and the golden retriever er are very different. they eat, digest, and process energy differently. at royal canin, we developed over 200 precise formulas to transform every cat and dog into a magnificent animal. royal canin

welcome back. two new generation democrats stepped into the 2020 race. the former san antonio mayor and obama housing secretary julian castio declared his candidacy yesterday. >> we've always been our best when united by something bigger.

in this journey, together we will show that hope can be bigger than fear, that light can be bigger than darkness and that truth can be bigger than lies. and as long as we work for it, tomorrow will always be better than today. so let's go work. >> hawaii congresswoman and iraq war veteran tulsi gabbard told van jones friday she's in and will make a formal announcement this week. >> there's a whole host of issues that i'm looking forward to addressing. and there's one main issue central to the rest and that's the issue of war and peace. and i look forward to being able to get into this and to talk about it in depth when we make our announcement. >> castro is 44. gabbard, 37. both young and both long shots as democrats begin the process of deciding who and what they want. let's take a look at it. there could be 30 democrats or more thinking about it. what do the democrats want?

if they are looking. looking for somebody with blue collar appeal to reach out to trump voters, is that joe biden? ohio senator sherrod brown? maybe some other long shots? a former governor and mayor in this mix? we'll see. outspoken liberal? will bernie sanders run again? elizabeth warren has been the most active. what about the 2018 election? you looking for diversity? women? maybe an african-american candidate? plenty of potential choices for the democrats there. president trump is in his 70s. you want a new generation like castro who got in yesterday? another mayor here. members of congress as well. what does the party want? senator kamala harris, too, plans a formal announcement. she is using a book tour right now. you may call it a soft launch. >> we've had enough of these powerful voices that are trying to sow hate and division among us. i'm done with that. i'm really done with it. it's not because -- because it

is not only wrong from a moral perspective. it's unproductive if we actually want to be on a trajectory that is about achieving success and progress. it's counterproductive, and it is morally wrong. >> it is fascinating to watch the new faces, the diversity, the wide, big field of candidates we'll have. and that's my big question. let them all get in. let them all start to campaign. what does the party isn't before you pick a who, you have to say, what do we want to go up against donald trump? >> and i don't think people know yet. that's why you've got people coming out of all these events. i was at the one with kamala harris. about 1500 people there. it's d.c. they paid about $40 to get in there and get her book. some of them had issues with her in terms of her record on criminal justice reform. this was a real progressive. they want to see how she answers that. but warren has been in iowa. big crowds there.

she's very much talking about policy. very much talking about the rigged economy and corporations, and she would be a voice in terms of economic populism. but all of the democrats i talk to are glad the field is this huge. imagine if there are 30 people running, my goodness, you'll be touching every aspect of the party. every sort of ideology, and you are going to be setting up organizations in all of these states that eventually are going to be important in the general. >> what democrats want is a candidate who can beat trump. ultimately, that's more than their policy on health case, their policy on the economy. they want someone that can get up on stage and take on trump. they don't know if they want somebody who is going to go toe-to-toe and be just as aggressive as trump is. they don't know if it should be somebody who can rise above that. an experienced politician or a new face right now. that's what's going to make this so interesting. but i do find in talking to democratic voters and strategists, people deciding whether to jump on to this campaign, that's the driving factor. can i look at you and see you

defeating trump in november of 2020? >> if your tulsi gabbard and still in your 30s, can you make a name for yourself in the democratic primary when this is an old headline. hq in damascus? she had a meeting with assad, quite controversial. also said in 2000, as democrats, we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists. pro-assad with some, at least, questionable comments on gay rights. not a great place to start in a democratic primary. >> with this -- this reminds me of 2016 on the republican side. marco rubio, jeb bush, scott walker and all the republicans saying this is the best, biggest field we've ever had. and they ended up with donald trump. donald trump was not part of that discussion for the establishment republicans. it will be interesting what dynam ike if that similar dynamic plays out in the democratic party and also how

they handle trump. they'll have plenty of opportunities to handle trump. i don't know if kamala harris' book tour would be front page but it's not going to be front page as long as trump is shouting about this shutdown and making -- and threatening national emergencies. how are these democrats going to break through trump in something that his republican opponents were never able to do. >> one of the big questions, is it a completely new field? does bernie sand ers run again? he's having to apologize to women who say they were mistreated, abused in some cases in his last campaign. >> what they experienced was absolutely unacceptable and certainly not what a progressive campaign or any campaign should be about. to the women in our campaign who were harassed or mistreated, i apologize. our standards, our procedures,

our safeguards were clearly inadequate. >> he was the big surprise, the depth of his support a big surprise for the last campaign. does he run again or leave it to the new faces? >> that was take two for him on that issue. and i think that's an indication he wants to keep that possibility open for himself and would like to do that. i think there are those in the democratic party who would like to see him do that but there's this big diversity move to voices carrying forward the argument that he carried in the 2016 elections. this very progressive argument. and it was interesting after president trump gave his oval office address on the shutdown and the wall, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer did their response. bernie sanders did their own response. he used the word lie. the president lies. and to julie's earlier point. seems to be willing to be that person who would go toe-to-toe against president trump in a more aggressive they wway. i don't think he'll be the only one in that space but this

debate of who can beat trump will take a more definitive form and it won't be so much, we just want someone who can beat trump. a real debate about what that looks like. >> it's a great point because elizabeth warren, the most active out of the gate. in iowa last weekend. she's in new hampshire. a picture of her husband and dog who made the trip up to new hampshire. she was specifically asked, you didn't mention trump in your speech. she's had the pocahontas back and forth and dna back and forth with the president. does she need to pull back from that and not be in a constant war? >> this was part of her getting back to why she became a national star in the democratic party in the first place which had nothing to do with trump. it predated trump. got back to her views on economic policy, her brand of populism. so i think she was trying to recapture some of that. i dong th think that some of th democrats are going to try to define themselves.

they want to present differences between themselves and their rivals in the democratic party and present some affirmative vision for what they want to do but ultimately they'll have to prove to democratic voters they have a strategy because they were unable to do that in 2016. he's a difficult politician to campaign against. he has an ability to suck up all the oxygen and find the debate about him. >> there's some reason to believe he'll try to pick his opponent by engaging in some of the combat with him. anyone tells you may have any idea how the democratic race is going to turn out is making it up. >> sthe shutdown is about the wall and the pride and power. the president is in a stand down with america's most powerful woman. >> the buck stops with everybody. they could solve this problem in literally 15 minutes. with moderate to severe crohn's disease,

i was there, just not always where i needed to be. is she alright? i hope so. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications. and the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible.

i find china, frankly, in many ways, to be far more honorable than crying chuck and nancy. i really do. i think that china is actually much easier to deal with than the opposition party. >> the president during the back and forth this week. the partisan divide over the border wall and broader immigration policy is huge. one very big reason resolving the government shutdown is proving so difficult. but there's more to it. this is now a personal test of wills between the president and the new democratic house speaker. and it is the curtain raising battle in a washington with a changed political structure. it plays up the art of the duel and smartly frames the two key players. the president is obsessed with playing to his hard core supporters and his image as a dominant alpha male and caving would be an epic humiliation which would render him a lame

duck and weaken his position. and nancy pelosi would risk losing the confidence of the fractious caucus she controls. congress has spent the last two years kowtowing to the president and now has the power to thwart him. and that's where we are. two very proud, very stubborn, sometimes that's a compliment, often that's a compliment, people who show zero signs of blinking because they disagree on the border wall, but they understand this is bigger than that. >> the white house understands some of those dynamics, too. and they think that there is -- pelosi can't have her first deal out of the gate be a compromise over the border wall. where she wants to compromise, we'll see, but the -- what pelosi has done is told trump no. this is not a president who inside the white house hears no. gary cohn, the most famous

example so far of someone trying to subvert trump. when it came to tariffs, never said not to do it. let's wait until after tax reform. you sort of delay trump. what happened inside the meeting last week, trump said we'll lift the shutdown if, nancy, will you give us money for the wall after that? what did trump do? bye-bye. >> this is a president who hasn't been told no by congress and that's the real sea change here. he's staring down a congress with a leader in the house like nancy pelosi who sees no incentive to compromise with him. she feels like she has political momentum on her side given the results of the midterm elections. and so how the president tries to operate in this new di tammic will determine whether he can be successful over the next two years. he hasn't figured it out in termes of the shutdown. >> even if the national emergency is declared. something he said he'd do if no deal comes about, it's still not

clear how the government gets reopened. what does he sign? what comes out of the house that the senate agrees to? so this looks worse almost by the day. >> and the degree to which he has miscalculated and misunderstood nancy pelosi at this early stage in the game is quite striking. in the first situation room meeting right after the first of the year before she became speaker, he said, once you get past the speaker election, once you get the gavel, you'll be more willing to make a deal with us. are you kidding? she got more leverage, if anything, thaand was more willi to, in a mode of, i've got to give my people what they want. and it's what she wants, which is to say no to this wall idea. and now they are thinking, well, now that federal workers have missed one paycheck, then the democrats are going to go to the table. this is a supreme miscalculation of the political sort of

situation she's facing. as long as that's the case, he's not going to be able to do a deal with her. >> we're at day 23. i assume we'll be here at day 30. let's hope not for the 800,000 people. there's no reason to see an off ramp because of the big dynamics and two very proud, stubborn people. our reporters share from their notebooks and whether republican steve king may finally, finally have gone too far. for your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. pain from chest congestion can make this... when you have a cold, ...feel like this. all-in-one cold symptom relief from tylenol®, the #1 doctor recommended pain relief brand. tylenol®.

here we go!this. discover. hi. i like your card. i love all the cashback and security features, but i'm not going to pay an annual fee. i'm just not going to do it! okay. okay? discover has no annual fee on any of our cards. so it wasn't my tough guy act? no. we just don't have any annual fees. that's a relief. i've been working on that for a long time. if we had talked a month ago, that would have been a whole different call. i can imagine. excuse me, sir can i please have no annual fee? no annual fee on any card only from discover.

and the golden retriever er are very different. they eat, digest, and process energy differently. at royal canin, we developed over 200 precise formulas to transform every cat and dog into a magnificent animal. royal canin

let's head one last time around the "inside politics" table and ask our reporters to share something from their notebooks. julie? >> later this month, members of the republican national committee are going to be gathering in new mexico. one of the things they may be discussing is whether to formally endorse president trump in the 2020 election. two draft resolutions circulating among members. the fact the rnc could be considering this really shows

there's some real nervousness among republicans about the prospects of a primary challenge to trump. if the rnc comes out and endorses trump, it would make it all the more difficult for a republican challenger to use any kind of party apparatus, get on the stage with trump in a debate in a primary. most republicans you talk to think that regard fls what the rnc does, it would be almost impossible for a republican primary challenger to defeat trump in 2020. but there is real -- a real worry they could at least beat him up, damage him and weaken him going into the general election. >> pat buchanan would be an example from relatively recent history. michael? >> some of the holes in the trump administration right now. and let me paint a quick picture. the only cabinet meeting so far of 2019, president trump is seated next to an acting secretary of defense and acting secretary of interior. across from him is the acting attorney general, to the right is the acting head of the white house budget office. he's acting because the former white house budget chief is now acting chief of staff for the

white house. my reporting shows that trump is in no rush to make appointments or nominations to most of these spots. why? because there's a thought in the oval office that these acting chiefs are more beholden to the president now than they'll ever be. it's important in this moment if you are trying to squeeze $5.6 billion out of the pentagon, out of a jim mattis-less pentagon for a border wall between mexico and the u.s. >> also sounds a tad undemocratic. nia? >> i talked to a handful of democrats in south carolina. primarily black democrats. the subject was joe biden. beloved in south carolina but they had some harsh words to say about joe biden. a lot of sentences started with, i love joe biden, but -- he isn't showing any sense of urgency. he hasn't reached out to many folks in succeouth carolina. they have no idea what he's going to do. they have heard from warren and booker and even like merkley as

well. and they are trying to figure out at this point who they're going to back. a lot of that talent may go to something like booker or harris or beto. so flothere's a lot of frustrat on the ground in a state like south carolina where democrats will be so important and if you are joe biden, that may be the first state you want to compete in and could actually win because of their strong ties to folks in that state. so far they feel like he's letting a little grass grow under his feet as the others work hard and show a sense of urgency. >> now that you've put that on the record, delaware area codes popping up in south carolina. >> i'm going to continue to watch the fallout over steve king, the congressman from iowa's racist comments last week to our newspaper questioning why white supremacy and when white nationalism became such a bad thing. steve king has been in congress for 15 years. the notable thing this week or last week was some republicans now are coming forward and saying this is unacceptable.

you have kevin mccarthy, steve scalise saying this is -- he has to apologize for this. the question really is going to be whether we hear more from republicans and particularly from president trump on this issue. president trump was very close with steve king from the very beginning before he declared his candidacy. he was appearing with steve king in iowa. he was talking about a border wall long before trump was talking about a border wall. obviously president trump has faced some of the same questions steve king has faced about his rhetoric and whether he's been promoting racist thought and racist thinking on capitol hill and in washington. and so it will be very interesting to hear how the president deals with this. will he go anywhere near it? i wouldn't imagine so. there's going to be mounting pressure for the president to say something democrats are already calling for steve king to be dumped. >> about time for the other republicans but i wouldn't hold your breath for the president. most of the republican frustration about a shutdown with no exit strategy is directed at the president. but the vice president is also the target of a heavy dose of

criticism from republicans on capitol hill and from gop-leaning groups around town. on the hill, the big beef is pence had no clue the president planned his last minute about-face that led to a shutdown republican leaders repeatedly made clear to the president and the vice president they viewed as a big mistake. many gop establishment groups used the vp as their white house contact. they feel burned and view it as more proof pence has little influence on the boss. still, some veteran republicans say a vice president always focused on his own future should understand he's in a bad place at the moment. that's it for "inside politics." thanks for sharing your sunday morning. catch us weekdays as well. we're here at noon. don't go anywhere. next up "state of the union" with jake tapper including guests senator mark warner and ron johnson. stay with us throughout the day and have a great sunday.

unpredictable crohn's symptoms following you? for adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease, stelara® works differently. studies showed relief and remission, with dosing every 8 weeks. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection or flu-like symptoms or sores, have had cancer, or develop new skin growths, or if anyone in your house needs or recently had a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems. these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. talk to your doctor today, and learn how janssen can help you explore cost support options. remission can start with stelara®.

explore cost support options. hey, who are you? oh, hey jeff, i'm a car thief... what?! i'm here to steal your car because, well, that's my job. what? what?? what?! (laughing) what?? what?! what?! [crash] what?! haha, it happens. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. so get allstate... and be better protected from mayhem... like me. ♪

♪ investigating trump. a new report says the fbi investigated the president fearing he could be working for russia. as we also learn president trump reportedly concealed details of his meetings with vladimir putin. the white house calls the reports absurd. we'll ask the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee, senator mark warner, next. plus, historic shutdown. day 23 of the longest government shutdown in american history. and neither side is budging on the wall. the president says if democrats don't act, he will. >> i will