don't know what that means. and a buckingham palace source said prince philip passed an eyesight test following the crash. with that, we want to say we hope you make good memories today. >> "inside politics" with john king starts 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. democrats reject as far too little a new immigration proposal the president calls a reasonable compromise. so the government shutdown hits the one-month mark as the president holds firm in his demand for a border wall and hopes his new proposal might help shift the shutdown blame. >> both sides in washington must simply come together, listen to each other, put down their armor, build trust, reach across the aisle and find solutions.

it is time to reclaim our future from the extreme voices who fear compromise and demand open borders. >> plus, unprecedented followed by unfathomable. the special counsel issues a statement challenging a big buzzfeed report about the russia investigation and the president, for once, anyway, has kind words for the man he routinely savages. >> it was a total phony story. and i appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night. i think it was very appropriate that they did so. i very much appreciate that. >> and women march nationwide to show their opposition to the president. this as we are reminded the democratic field for 2020 will break a record. perhaps as many as five women in the running. >> i'm going to run for president of the united states. because as a young mom, i will fight for your children as hard as i would fight for my own. >> all of us love our children,

and all of us want our children to have that chance to have a piece of this beautiful country. and look out into the future and see their own future. it's about the future. >> with us this sunday, eliana johnson of politico, michael share of the "new york times," cnn's phil mattingly and seung min kim of the "washington post." we begin with the president's new plan to open the government. democrats call it a joke, a nonstarter. immigration hard-liners and the president's own republican party mock it as amnesty. we can be certain the president's package, as is, is not the elix ir to end the now month-long partial government shutdown. but will it shake up the stalemate in a meaningful way? the republican senate promises to take up the white house plan in the week ahead just as the democratic house considers a very different border security package. democrats entered that competition confident they hold the policy and the political high ground. and a big part of the president's goal saturday was to

soften his tone in hope of shifting or at least spreading the blame. >> by incorporating the priorities of rank and file democrats in our plan, we hope they will offer their enthusiastic support, and i think many will. this is a common sense compromise both parties should embrace. >> most of the proposals you see there are familiar, $5.7 billion for new border walls or barriers, plus new funding for humanitarian assistance, drug e detection technology and border agents. he's offering protection for 700,000 so-called dreamers and 300,000 immigrants whose status is set toex pyre. so the president gives a little. it would be time for the democrats to come to the table and give a little. that's in a traditional washington. we do not live in a traditional washington on this two-year

anniversary of the trump inauguration. that's reinforced for us. will this move the ball? >> at least in the near term, no. democrats have already rejected it at the leadership level and i haven't heard rank and file splitting in any way. there's a flaw in the thinking that, oh, there's now a new policy on the table and, therefore, democrats will have to meet them in the middle or present their own policy. for democrats, this is about the government is shut down. their base line has been reopen the government. we're happy to have conversations. the idea they'd move off that line would be probably even more significant than what the president put out last night. that's been their base line. it's not short game. it's long game. they are thinking, we don't want to give him anything on this issue because if we do, next time there's a funding bill, a debt limit, anything, he's going to go back to this strategy because he got something out of it. to your point, if there's a very distinct possibility this draws democrats in, maybe starts to shift the blame more and democratic, on the rank and file, starts to feel the

pressure and it jars something loose. it's not a policy for policy trade or negotiation. it's a base line of if you're not willing to reopen the government first, democrats aren't willing at all to talk about the policy. >> so the democrats say, no, nonstarter. most of it is repackaged. most of it is stuff you took away as chuck schumer put it. now you're trying to give it back. what about on the republican side? is this the president's deal, take it or leave it, or, knowing how much turmoil, quicksand i call it the immigration issue causes among republicans, is he willing to do more, even though the initial reaction from the hard right on this was, whoa. >> as phil said, the base line for democrats is reopen the government. and i think the problem is, and the president has said, the base line for the president is he wants the funding for his wall. and he said repeatedly, nancy said she'd only give me $1. and so the president is unwilling to reopen the government in order to start negotiations because nancy

pelosi has said she won't fund this wall. and there is frustration among rank and file democrats that pelosi said this because they feel that she has boxed herself in from negotiating at all with the president over wall funding in particular. and it does seem that if the president is unwilling to budge from that position and pelosi is unwilling to budge from her position over giving any wall funding, we're at an impasse. >> so we're at an impasse. but what was striking yesterday is some of the president's language was harsh about the drugs coming across. i'll never yield the borders to the radical left. some of it was an effort to soften his tone. nancy pelosi says i'll give him a dollar. the president won't back off from the $5.7 billion. but this is not the sea to shining sea wall. >> the plan includes $5.7 billion for a strategic deployment of physical barriers or a wall. this is not a 2,000-mile

concrete structure from sea to sea. these are steel barriers in high priority locations. >> a lot of democrats have voted for barriers in high priority locations. the president was trying to sound more reasonable. >> and the administration and the president himself has been trying to walk the whole concrete wall idea back for some time now because we have heard the phrase steel slats for a while. a new talking point i heard a lot from republican senators this week is previous presidents got walls or fences. why can't this president get new fencing? he's only asking for 230 miles. but i thought another interesting story line yesterday was the re-emergence of mitch mcconnell. he's been on the sidelines. he wanted trump and the democratic leaders to figure this out which is a very unusual position for the majority leader. but sources told me yesterday after mcconnell saw the disinvite from the state of the union by nancy pelosi this week, that was the turning point for

him. he was irritated that about -- what happened. he felt nancy pelosi would no longer negotiate in good faith and that's when he got on the phone with the president and intervened and cooked up this plan together. we don't expect this bill to get 60 votes in the senate but it is interesting to see how and what compelled him to interject himself back into this conversation. >> he saw the conversation go from the fifth grade level to the third grade level. i'm not joking. the sad part is, i'm not joking. the sad part is i'm not joking. >> part of the problem here is the lack of any sort of trust on the -- there's a lot of water under this bridge on this issue in particular. and, you know, when presidents make these shifts in tone that you showed, often people understand that that means something. and the problem with this president is, given the fact that people have seen him be in one place one minute and literally a half hour later be in a completely different place, in part because the

administration doesn't speak with one voice on this. you have steven miller in one place and jared kushner in another place and the president kind of in the middle and pulled back and forth between the two. and so that makes any sort of -- is this going to be the start of a serious negotiation? well, this is all in public. this isn't sort of privately them actually working things out. there's just so much mistrust. >> to that point, that's why mitch mcconnell said, mr. president issue let's do this but you have to gout publicly. if you want republicans to vote for something a lot of our base calls amnesty, even if it's temporary status. some conservatives call it amnesty. you go first, mr. president, so we know this has your seal of approval in a public way. does it move anything or do we get a house senate divide because house democrats and senate democrats -- house and senate members don't often think alike. senator manchin, just re-elected. nothing to worry about, but i'm hopeful the president's statement will allow us to immediately reopen the government. put west virginians back to work and start negotiating long-term

immigration reform. i look forward to working with my gop and democratic colleagues to make this happen so we can end this shameful shutdown. that from a more conservative democrat. if you're chuck schumer, you can't get 60 votes. you're on the phone to joe manchin saying, you didn't exactly mean that, did you? >> the vice president, the white house chief of staff mick mull vaughney, jared kushner, they did a briefing yesterday and two things emerged from that briefing. it's very clear that the white house is trying to drive awedge between democratic leadership. first between schumer and pelosi. now trying to drive a wedge between democratic leadership and rank and file democrats. and what they told reporters was the ideas the president proposed, which was, you know, three-year stay for daca recipients and for temporary protected status recipients, those ideas came from rank and file democrats, and we're reaching out to make a compromise with them.

the second was, the white house sees this not just as a way to end the shutdown but a jumping off point for comprehensive immigration reform. so it doesn't look like many rank and file democrats are departing from their leadership on this, but that's certainly the white house's -- >> i want to come back to the comprehensive immigration reform in the next segment because that scares a lot of republicans. will this break the logjam with the democrats? "the washington post" editorial says, make a deal. save the dreamers. those representing the dreamers, pro-immigration groups say we're not going to take any deal for your wall for temporary status. would the president accept a path to citizenship? they want negotiations over something like that. to the point as the democratic rank and file break, here's a democratic congressman. >> it's a nonstarter but let's step away because there's some good news to be gleaned from this. there's a negotiation going on. i'm not usually in the habit of praising the president.

we've come a long way from a 30-foot beautiful solid wall from sea to shining sea that the mexicans would pay for. that's, obviously, an absurd starting point, and we're not there. >> but is -- my question, is it a starting point or is it the president laying out a plan that's more of a public relations jesture to shift some of the blame and responsibility but not the start of negotiations? >> i think it's the starting point of something. 24 hours ago we're at the place of nothing. so anything, i guess, is better than that. what the congressman said is not really on message for where democrats are right now. that's going to be the issue that the democratic leader has to deal with. is democrats on the rank and file level are frustrated. democrats want government to work. they're hearing from constituents. democrats who represent places in maryland and virginia and federal workers around the country understand that on friday, they missed their second paycheck and that's a real problem. if they're seen as being the

ones that won't come across the table to put issues forward. i think on the policy side of things, these policies aren't the types of policies that democrats want to get behind. temporary status was an issue before the courts intervened before a six-month deadline was put into place. maybe that's forestall deportations. they're not there anymore. on tps and daca. the policy itself is not there. the big question is, does this jar something loose. >> add this realtime update on the question, twill jar something loose. the president tweeting this morning, nancy pelosi and some of the democrats turned down by offer yesterday before i even got to speak. they don't see crime and drugs. they only see 2020, which they are not going to win. best economy. they should do the right thing for the country and allow people to go back to work. this from the president. a nonstarter to start. senate and house will debate. the president is tweeting. up next, we'll continue the

question. immigration hard-liners are hardly the only republicans mad at the president. we're at the halfway mark of his term and there are big internal fissures on syria and russia. and voices of a shutdown in a week that could bring a second payless pay date. >> i have nothing, and i need to know, when is he going to open things back up, because i'm about to be evicted. >> i'm about to lose my car. my car is two months behind. i'm about to lose my medicaid, my car insurance. i'm about to lose my driver's license. >> he's missing with their life. the small people. the poor people. you know, the people that struggle every day. work paycheck to pay check to pay their bills. to make you everybody else... ♪ ♪ means to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can fight and never stop. does this sound dismal?

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wisconsin, arizona and north carolina. there is no doubt the shutdown is hurting the president's already weak political standing, even among core supporters. you see noteworthy declining from last month among white men and white women with college degrees and evangelicals. even some who support his wall aren't fans of shut down the government if you can't get the votes for it. immigration hard-liners warn the president better not back up on this or give up to much. the president flipped and sided with the hard-liners. his new proposal suggests he might now be willing to disappoint them. ann coulter tweeted this after the president's new offer yesterday. trump proposes amnesty. we vote forward trump and got jeb. here's my big question. you touched on this in the earlier segment. we're in she shutdown because the president listened to ann coulter and mark meadows and fox

news chatter and blink at the last minute. the proposal yesterday challenges the very people he sided with to start the shutdown. has he decided he's willing to pick this fight and sustain this fight with some people call it small but it is a very vocal piece of his base. >> i think this is a very risky gambit for trump. he has a lot more to lose than gain. he's fighting for something that outside his core constituency don't care all that much about. and so if he -- any concession that he makes, he's going to disappoint the people who have been supporting him throughout this shutdown. >> they yesterday at this briefing, jared kushner says and the president himself says, maybe let's get the government reopened and do this temporary deal and then have conversations about comprehensive immigration reform. that's hersy to the president's anti-immigration base because that means legal status or maybe citizenship for the dreamers. legal status or maybe dreamers for the other estimated 11

million. it may mean a new guest worker program. is this -- we talk about if only nixon can go to china, can only trump do immigration reform? will he do that heading into election? >> i think the answer is, no, he won't. read the book to find out. but, look, part of the problem is that we talk about his conservative base on immigration. it's not one monolithic group of people. yes, there are people for whom the wall is the most important thing. they showed up at his rallies. he liked the input he got and the applause and hooting and hollaring. but the wall isn't the only thing and there are lots of immigration hard-liners. he's got a lot of them in his administration and more on talk radio and fox news who care less about a wall and more about cuts to legal immigration because they think there should be fewer immigrants overall. they want, you know, changes in laws to asylum laws and other

things that they think will keep immigrants from pouring into the country in their words. and so when he -- when people think that he is going to sell out all of those other pieces for a wall, that creates a real instability in his base. and that's going to cause him political problems. >> he's a president who doesn't like to be reminded of this. he lost the popular vote. won with the electoral college victory. always had issues of -- he's the leader of the republican party but disagreements on syria. please don't withdrawal so quickly. disagreements on russia. not enough to stop the administration's effort but republicans splitting 11 of them in the senate, i believe it was, on this russia sanctions question. the president now, fissures in the party on syria and russia and alliances in nato. is he now going to bring it home and have fissures in the party and talk immigration reform? >> how many of the 53 senate republicans do support this plan? on the call that republican senators had yesterday,

according to a source who was briefed on it told me there wasn't a lot of dissention. everyone seemed to be on board with the plan but when the president's immigration plan was put forward last year during the last big immigration debate on the floor, only 36 republican senators voted for it because several of them do fundamentally believe we should lower the number of immigrants in the country or people who broke the law, even if they were children, should not be granted any sort of status for it. so right now the party seems unified but i'll be interested to see that final vote. >> if it's not going to get to the finish line and be signed into law, a lot of conservative republicans up for 2020 don't want to vote for what some of the base considers to be amnesty. even though they support it and some are willing to go beyond it, they will only go beyond it if it's going to go into law. here's an ad airing in iowa and maine, arizona, colorado, north carolina, georgia. can democrats make this case? >> it's the longest government shutdown in history.

food safety inspections stopped nationwide. pilots have warned our air security is now at risk. and across iowa, countless farmers cut off from the vital programs they rely on. tell joanie ernst, put iowa over part and demand an end to the shutdown. >> immigration tensions within the republican party. this is, sorry, to the 800,000 federal workers. this is about 2020. maybe it shouldn't be, but this is partly about 2020, and you see that. is there any evidence to prove the democrats in that superpac are increasing heat back hope on republicans? >> to some degree they are. the question is not whether or not cory carder in in colorado or susan collins in maine are feeling pressure. it's whether the republican congress is feeling pressure. the short answer is, no. the pool of people this could affect is very, very small. if you look at the number of republicans, and there are a large number of republicans up in 2020. the vast majority aren't in

purple states. they're in red states and cutting across the president would be far more detrimental to their election than responding to the president. and that's one element of this. it underscores a broader point as to why we're in this place. the incentives have not been aligned. the traditional way of folks facing re-election and hearing it from back home that need to come to the table, it does not exist in this regard like you would think it would. and the cracks that everybody has expected over the course of the last 30 days, regardless of democratic caucus or republican conference, simply haven't shown up because the politics aren't aligned in that regard and the policies, to your point about immigration and your point about hard-liners care more about interior enforcement than about the wall haven't lined up to create any incentive. >> and the president, again, the second time this morning, good morning, mr. president, it's -- he understands. he understands the sensitivity here and the differing definitions of amnesty within his own base. some think if you give any legal status to anyone that crossed

the border illegally, the president saying, no. amnesty is not a part of my offer. it's a three-year extension of daca. amnesty will only be used on a much bigger deal. there will be no push to remove 11 million people here illegally, but, no, amnesty is not a part of my offer. many people in his own base think it is. if you give any status, any protection to someone who came into the country illegally, they define that as amnesty. there's no one definition within the party. we'll continue the conversation. the president, obviously, understands the politics, not just with the democrats but within his own base. the women's march, year three. smaller crowds, but, yes, a celebration of big 2018 wins and of record-setting 2020 democratic presidential field.

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a look here. images from the third annual

women's march which took place in cities across the country yesterday. the crowd not as large as the first two and the march not without controversy, including allegations two national organizers have a history of anti semitism. most marchers focused on gains for women and the need to keep momentum building toward 2020. let's take a peek at the history. relatively rare to have serious contenders for president. margaret chase smith in 1964. you see hillary clinton, of course, the nominee in 2016. in many cases, the candidates who announce for president, the female candidates, don't even make it to the first primary. hillary clinton again, not only the nominee, first she had to go through the democratic primaries. look how important the women's vote was against bernie sanders. the lighter states where hillary clinton carried the women's vote in the democratic primary. a big part of her base and some ways a lesson for the democrats looking to follow her footsteps. and this year, we could have history. we will have history. at least three.

and could have as many as five women running for the democratic presidential nomination. some already campaigning. some teasing us a little bit. we could have five or maybe four women running for the democratic presidential nomination. what's interesting, despite the big push by women in 2018, the big success by women in 2016, the early 2020 polls, it's mostly men. kamala harris ties with john kerry at 4%. joe biden in the early polls. they tend to change in presidential contests. kamala harris perhaps getting ready to enter the race and kirsten gillibrand. she thinks women will power her or perhaps one of these other women to victory. >> the truth is, if we changed who is at the decision-making table, we would change everything. president trump has inspired so much hate, so much division, it's destroying common decency. it's corrupting the soul of this

country. together we can defeat that hate. together we can bring this country back together again. >> it's fascinating to watch these early days. that's gillibrand out in iowa. hello, iowa caucuses. she's very confrontational. very direct with trump. elizabeth warren trying to do a more biography and populism in the early stages. it's just fun to watch because we really don't know which approach is the approach that's going to light a fire among democratic voters. >> yeah. i think what we had seen for some time among the democratic candidates was they weren't willing to engage with trump directly. we've seep what happens. he punches back much harder. you saw that with elizabeth warren in particular. it will be interesting how the president reacts to kirsten gillibrand who he has made some -- some would say inappropriate comments about her in the past, but whether that tactic is going to really stand out in a democratic primary

where some of the voters do want people to punch back and be a fighter. at the same time, in the 2018 midterms, democrats were so successful because they had focused on a message. health care and the economy. >> five women candidates, possibly. likely four anyway. the question, amy klobuchar is the biggest question, whether she gets in. kamala harris is not officially in yet. tulsi gabbard is in. kirstin gillibrand is in. the women, just like the men have to say sorry and try to fix some things. here's gillibrand trying to explain when she's in the house, she had an "a" rating from the nra. here's how she explains it. >> i only really looked at guns through the lens of hunting. my mother still shoots the thanksgiving turkey. but when i became senator, i recognized i had a lot to learn about my state and all the 20 million people i was going to represent. >> people of all, president

trump is all the proof you need that people evolve. you can get elected president or win a nomination or win key primaries or caucuses as someone who changed your position. that's a colorful way to do it. my mother still shoots the thanksgiving turkey. it's interesting to watch some of these candidates right out of the box have to say, sorry, or explain why they changed their mind about some things. >> it underscores the democratic primary that they're walking themselves into. if only there was historical precedent of someone who vacillated on core positions. what strategy in terms of how you deal with the president. where is the democratic base on where you were six years ago, eight years ooh ten years ago versus what you're saying and doing now is another one of those things i'm really interested to find out. i think people aremakering inma of assumptions about what would work or where the democratic base is. health care was the key issue and also the inability for some candidates to be able to do both or to appeal to all of the

above. those are the questions we'll start getting answers to as polling starts to come out after these initial visits. the answers to those will dictate who becomes the candidate. >> and the best candidates can change that dynamic. for bill clinton it was you're pro business. bill clinton said i can win. barack obama was, you're young, appealing but african-american. is there any way? he said, yes. so the question is can the candidates convince the -- can the best candidate convince? for kamala harris, who we expect to get into the race. she was not a progressive prosecutor. one "new york times" headline. bloomberg says early no on wall may give her an edge in 2020. each of these candidates has pluses to sell to the base. some need some explaining. >> i also think another dynamic you're seeing which is the president who is the president focussing on? you saw an early focus from elizabeth warren, talking about her questionable native american

heritage. and there are many people who think the president is focusing on the people who he would like to run again. the people who he thinks he could beat rather than, you know, and i think there's some truth to that because he is -- he is a counterbuncher but also he's trying to choose his opponent, and he does best when he's got somebody to parlay against. and so i wonder how much attention democrats will be paying to that. and looking at the people that the president is not talking about. >> and to that point, we watch him. and if you wanted a break between 2018 and 2020, our apologies. they are out of the gates early trying to establish themselves and the martin luther king holiday tomorrow. the vice president and may aor bloomberg will speak. elizabeth warren will be back home in boston. these are just some of the events we know about. some other presidential prospects will be speaking. >> here's one thing, keep in

mind, we're so early and if you look back in the history of presidential politics, not much that happens this early on is really what ends up shaping who is going to be the nominee. and you have a situation now where president trump sucks out all the oxygen of every day. every day there's ten stories that we could cover and we can only cover half of them. it's possible there will be a little bit more, you know, time for these candidates to go to iowa, go to new hampshire, and test out their message. and not much of what happens now is going to be the determinant factor. it's going to happen later. >> my only disagreement is that the best candidates, if they have what it takes, they get the gut from those early travels. the base wants this. their base is shaped by that early. why the president is thanking the special counsel.

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this weekend will be remembered as the time two things that we never imagined could happen, happened. the office of special counsel robert mueller issued an unprecedented statement disputing a media report about its investigation, and the president then had kind words about a man he's routinely savages as the leader of a witchhunt. it came after buzzfeed said it had witnesses to back up michael cohen's claim that the president told him to lie about russia business dealings. mueller said buzzfeed's description and character zagss of documents and testimony obtained by this office regarding michael cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate. >> it was a total phony story. and i appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night. i think it was very appropriate that they did so. i very much appreciate that. i think that the buzzfeed piece was a disgrace to our country.

it was a disgrace to journalism. and i think also that the coverage by the mainstream media was disgraceful. >> two wows. >> never-ending battle between who he hates more. the special counsel or the media. apparently the media today, but -- >> but an unprecedented statement from the special counsel's office which says something in that story is wrong. buzzfeed is standing by the story, and the president is right. the media picked up that story and ran big with it, including fox news. the president's got a point. the question, buzzfeed standing by it. for the special counsel, that's a big deal. they never issue specific statements about media reports. >> i think definitely, the spokesman for the special counsel's team has become some sort of entity for his constant "no comments." i also want to point out that there's going to be a lot more

desire for the public to hear from michael cohen in the coming weeks. obviously, he's testifying before the house in early february. and just in some conversations with the intel committee chairman richard burr, he's not ruling out subpoenaing him before his committee either. so it will be interesting to watch to see if that comes. >> and because of stories like this and not just because of this one that's controversial, people saying they want to know what the special counsel knows. here's the president's choice for attorney general saying you may not get all of it. >> my objective and goal is to get as much as i can of the information to congress and the public. and these are departmental regulations, and i'm going to be talking to rod rosenstein and bob mueller. i don't know what, at the end of the day, what will be releasable. >> it's going to be an interesting debate. >> it will be, but recall that, i think barr's comments make

more sense when you know that this is a counterintelligence investigation. and i do think that barr is referring to those aspects when he said we don't know what mueller will have in that report, and it's likely that i think those parts are going to be what's blocked. there's going to be extraordinary scrutiny of any parts of that report that are blacked out. >> and democrats say if they don't like what they get, they subpoena it. bring mueller up and make him testify. we'll see if that works out. fascinating week behind us and interesting one ahead of us. our reporters share a page from their notebooks, clincludi another result. it's no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with fresh milk and real cream.

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let's head one last time around the "inside politics" table and ask our reporters to share something from their notebooks to get you ahead of the political news around the corner. >> the shutdown is having an internal cost to the trump administration. there are the 800,000 federal workers who aren't getting paid and contractors. and economic costs that we've heard about. but the internal costs are the president has a lot of vacant cabinet positions. acting cabinet secretaries in there. bill barr, the attorney general, his hearing was scheduled before this shutdown took place. we saw hearings on that. he's got an acting interior secretary, acting defense secretary, and since the

shutdown happened, we've had essentially no movement when it comes to filling those positions. and that's, i think, an interesting note that's been very little talked about since this shutdown began. it will be interesting to see if and when this ends if we see pick-up on filling some of those positions. >> or if months from now we're talking about the price of having them. >> the word that president trump and kim jong-un might have another meeting at the end of next month, possibly in vietnam, made me want to look back at foreign travel this president has done. the president took ten trips in the first two years overseas. ten overseas trips in the first two years of his presidency. that's exactly what president obama took in his first year alone. so president trump is well behind the pace of his predecessor. that's not a surprise since we know this president doesn't particularly like foreign travel. he doesn't like the formality of those trips. he's had a lot of tense interactions with allies

overseas. and he's canceled a lot of trips. canceled a regular trip to asia that presidents normally take sending mike pence. he canceled stops in ireland and colombia last year and this year canceled a trip to davos he was supposed to take. so it wouldn't be a surprise if what we find is this president is a homebody for the next two years of this term. although you can imagine if things get bad enough with nancy pelosi and the democrats and the mueller report comes out and things get really tough that he might think leaving the country and getting out of dodge is something that he wants to do more. >> he'll want to go hang out with his friends in nato. >> a lot of attention has been paid to the democratic chairman in the house and the pain that they can create for president trump. but quietly this week, the house financial services committee chair maxine waters, no fan of the president, and top republican on the panel, patrick mchenry, introduced a bill. it wasn't a sweeping roposal. something to tighten up the gray area of rules on insider trading. patrick mchenry and maxine

waters who are ideologically on complete opposite ends of the spectrum. both fiery and can be pushed into the corner, but they have a good working relationship. both respect one another's intellect and know-how. not a ton on the policy side of things is going to get done this year. everybody agrees on that. but keep an eye on these two. on small policy items, things that get through on a bipartisan basis, they may be the ones to do it. they'll probably also get in fun scraps to watch on the committee. but while everybody is focused on the partisanship or even on that committee itself, alexandria ocasio-cortez joining the committee. the two respect one another which given the current state of affairs is welcome. >> one of the little noticed but interesting part of bill barr's confirmation hearing is how forcefully the attorney general nominee talked about gun policy.

he called guns the epidemic of our time and more states need pass these red flag laws which allow guns to be seized temporarily from people deemed a threat. i thought it was interesting how forcefully he spoke. while the second amendment is the second amendment, that doesn't dissuade reasonable gun regulation. and while there was a lot of focus on the russia part of the hearing and the mueller reports you can see where gun issues could be an area of bipartisan cooperation should he be confirmed as attorney general. dianne feinstein, the top democrat on the committee, she's probably not going to vote for him because of the mueller stuff, but she seemed pleased with his answers when it comes to guns. >> that will be fun to watch heading into the president's re-election cycle. the intersection of politics and sports. the next championship team due to a white house visit isn't worried about fast food being on the menu. the boston red sox trying to balance respect and tradition with bad blood about trump, especially over his treatment of puerto rico. the red sox manager alex cora is

from puerto rico and makes no secret he thinks the president was too slow to help and is still doing nowhere near to help. cora respects the tradition and would find a respectful way to make clear his views about hardship back home. but he told reporters covering the team, he's torn and could change his mind. a team official tells cnn, right now just a few to maybe a handful of sox players are likely to skip but that official acknowledges that number could rise if the team's very popular manager decides to boycott. one out would be if the shutdown continues. the sox are scheduled two weeks from monday. team management going on the record saying if would be inappropriate to celebrate while so many people are going without a paycheck. keep an eye on that. pitchers and catchers get ready to report. that's "inside politics." catch us weekdays as well at noon eastern. up next, president trump's attorney general rudy giuliani and the democratic presidential hopeful kirsten gillibrand among jake's guests on "state of the

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♪ speaking out. in a rare statement, special counsel robert mueller's office disputes an allegation about president trump. >> i appreciate the special counsel coming out. >> but there remain many questions to be answered. we'll discuss the latest details with president trump's attorney general, rudy giuliani, next. plus, all in. new contenders in the 2020 democratic field laying out their goals for the next election. >> not only flip the senate, hold the house and defeat trump. >> a lot of challenges facing the american people that i want to help solve. >> senator kirsten gillibrand of new york, congresswoman tulsi gabbard of hawaii, interviews with each democratic candidate in moments. and -- let's make a deal. president trump makes a new offer to end the shutdown. >> common sense compromise both parties should embrace. >> but democrats say it's a nonstarter.