which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. ...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. thank you for sharing your day with us. president trump tries a hands-off approach when it comes to releasing the report. but it's hard to see the distress of his friend roger stone. a plan of the white house to

redirect money on wall construction if what nancy pelosi said today, congress tells the president no. there is a lesson to be learned in those blue states. president trump turned red. >> the experience of the industrial midwest is exactly the kind of experience that politics, forgive me, but here on the coast has been ignoring. >> thank you for showing the country that an outspoken progressive can win and win decisively in the heartland. >> a busy breaking news day. we will hear momentarily from the president. the president inviting reporters into the oval office as he signs an executive order from a short time ago after the speaker of the house said the president is not going to get his biggest wish. >> there is not going to be any wall money in the legislation. what does he say today, it

doesn't matter what congress does? really? a president who wants to have congress be completely irrelevant in how we meet the needs tof the american people? come on. let them meet their will. >> seven tweets including this. republicans are wasting their time in negotiations. democrats are not going to give money to build the desperately needed wall. i got you covered. the wall is already being built. i don't expect much help. this confrontation playing out. phil mattingly on capitol hill. so no, there will not be money for the wall. >> reporter: it's not a surprise that's her position because that's been her position pretty much throughout the course of this conversation, but i think it's interesting given the fact the congreference committee is meeting and she's telling them

behind closed doors to let these democratic members work their will, work their own and see what they can figure out. i was interested in something that happened later on in the press conference, john, when someone was asked about what about some type of enhanced fencing? there are clear red lines here, where the president stands and where democrats stand, but what is the gray area here? could you get some enhanced fencing, some type of win for both sides? that is probably the only way all people can agree on it. and pelosi said, if you're talking about the ax-looking vehicle barriers, if the president wants to call that a wall, he can have his wall. the republicans are saying, was she opening the door to something here, which probably underscores the moment we're in now, that people aren't really sure what's relevant and what's not and what tea leaves to read. if there's an opening is he ms l semantically on what type of barrier would fly, then perhaps

there is a deal. if no wall includes no border barriers, period, then there will be no deal and the president will likely have to operate unilaterally. john? >> operate unilaterally. we'll hear from the president and his take any minute now. phil mattingly, we appreciate that on the hill. julie hirschfeld davis, cnn's kaitlan collins. you covered the white house. can i connect those dots? they heard from the speaker, they decided the president is going to get the last word at least for this hour. >> i think from the president's tweets we saw that he had a lot to say about this specifically. nancy pelosi saying there is not going to be any money for the wall here, and it's the president trying to straddle this the last two weeks saying, we don't have to call it a wall. his aides were going out and skoldi i

scolding the media, saying they were the only ones doing it, and the president said, let's just call it a wall and quit playing games. then he undermined himself when he said let's call it a barrier with steel slats. it happened before nancy pelosi made that comment at the press conference today that the president is going to invoke a national emergency and bypass congress to fund that wall, and that feels only increased with her comment there won't be money for the wall. >> but she doesn't have to answer the question. she can say, look, negotiations just started. you all know my view, but let them talk when they're done. she deliberately said these things. >> absolutely, because i think part of the president undercutting himself in these tweets and undercutting what kellyanne conway said is it's less than what you heard. the president has to admit he lost. >> again. >> again. i think if democrats and

republicans in that room of the basement of the capitol can come up with a border security deal that is not the, quote, unquote, wall that president trump asked for, he could probably see himself clear of supporting that, but he can't bear the reality that democrats are going to come out of that room and say, you see? we said no wall and you got no wall. so that is the semantic importance of this. it's not just about the substance of it which, of course, is important, but there is some potential coming together on the substance. but on the message there is no possible coming together, and i think that's where the real fight is right now. >> he's also got aides in his ear at the white house who are telling him you need to deliver on this campaign signature promise. and he's very concerned that he will not have a victory on this going into 2020. it's very important to deliver on this. he campaigned on this. he started his campaign on this. this is the issue above so many others that he must deliver. >> also, when we think about the national emergency declaration, don't forget senate republicans

are over shutdowns. mitch mcconnell himself is sending strong signals. i don't want another shutdown on february 15, do what you have to do. that speaks to the emergency planning. there is no support in his own party for going down that road again. >> the interesting thing, too, if he does decide to go down that road, any appetite the government might have for getting some ground on border security that republicans actually want, that people who care about the issue would actually feel was progress, that will go away. if democrats believe he's going to do this unilaterally, there is no way they're even giving a dollar, i don't think, for a physical barrier of any kind because that is politically hard for them. if the president is going to short-circuit this, i think nancy pelosi will pull back even that little glimmer of, we can talk about what we'll do on fencing. >> the president may get a bill with no wall money, sign it so the government doesn't close down, then go to the next piece of paper and direct money for his wall. who do you trust more on border

security? president trump or the democrats in congress? 41% for the president, 50% for democrats in congress. not a huge gap there. he has punted on this one repeatedly. we are here because he keeps moving the line. >> so often, and if you look at even his twitter feed from this morning, it's unclear if the wall is being built, if he can't get the wall because of funding. the president is sending all kinds of messages because he fluctuates from one to the other because he doesn't want to capitulate on that promise because he's very sensitive to the criticism from ann coulter despite what she said to the "wall street journal." that is something front and center to the president. it's not as important to the aides and white house. they are a handful who fulfilled his promise. but he is dead set on walking away with a win. he doesn't care how he gets

there. he only gets $2 billion for the wall. in the end if it's not 5.7, the win is so important. >> they would rather have e-verify rather than a wall. they would rather have enforcement than a wall. the wall is a symbol, it is not a solution, in their minds. i'm talking about the hardliners. it's fascinating he's pushed so much on this because it's so politically charging and so important to him. >> if you watched lindsey graham last night on fox news who just made a point of noting, i just happened to talk to the president, and he said this. >> we're going to build a wall one way or the other. i just talked to the president ten minutes before i came on the show. >> i know for a fact, i was in the green room. >> the $5.7 billion represents 10 locations according to the department of homeland security that a barrier would make the most difference.

it's a professionally designed plan. the president is not doing anything crazy. what's crazy is that they're fighting him after having voted the way they did in the past. >> he's right that democrats in the past, including then-senators hillary clinton and barack obama voted for fencing and a wall in the past. however, we're not in the past. the democratic party has moved to the left because this is so personal to president trump. some democrats oppose it just because of that. >> and for that matter, democrats will discuss the idea of perhaps, you know, not a physical wall but a technologically based wall, sensors, other -- they're willing to go right up to the line of this physical wall the president envisions and they feel like that's enough. so democrats are left hanging here saying, we want to discuss border security. we'll even go above the 1.6 billion we had talked about before. >> what's interesting is before today nancy pelosi had been asked by manu raja multiple times if she was still a no on the border wall if they came to some agreement.

she wouldn't answer and draw a hard line in the sand, and the white house is paying attention to those comments. then she comes out today and pretty matter of factually saly this. i think a telling sign is these 17 bipartisan congressional negotiators were considered -- they were considering coming to the white house for a meeting with the president and his aides, and right now we're told that meeting is not happening this week. >> not happening this week. and one thing, as everybody knows, this is so personal for the president, but even he seems to forget the facts, if you will, the chronology. he was led here. he did an interview yesterday with "the daily caller." the person who interviewed him does not like the speaker paul ryan, but the president didn't correct this. i was going to meet on the big spending bill before. and paul ryan said, please don't do that, we'll get you the wall. and i said, i hope you mean that

because i don't like this bill. and then he went lame duck. and once he went lame duck it was just really an exercise in waving to people and the power was gone, so i was very disappointed. i was very disappointed. >> i think it's incredible how over two years the president has become increasingly angry at the fact that he wants fight the wall, and every single appropriations battle he's had and republican leaders -- republican leaders -- have consistently come back to him and said, this is not going to fly, not this time, we can't get a deal with that. not just because democrats don't want it, but frankly for the reasons frank said and many others, the republicans don't want it. they don't necessarily support it. or they're certainly not going to go to the mat for it and hadn't been willing to for all the appropriations battles we saw for the first two years of this presidency. he got real tired of being told no and we saw him veto that bill last year. december was the time he said

it's over. but the fundamentals haven't changed. there still is not support among democrats and even among republicans with these last two votes in the senate to have a fight over it. >> now the speaker has the gavel which makes a big difference. up next, hard drives, bank records, cell phones. that's just some of the evidence the special counsel says it has against roger stone. the kenya tea development agency is an organization that is owned by tea farmers. every week we sell this tea, we get paid in multiple accounts. we were looking for a bank to provide a safe and efficient technology platform to pay our farmers. citi was the only one that was able to ensure that this was done seamlessly. and today, at the touch of a button,

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i'm related to george washington. i didn't know that using ancestry would be so easy. you're smart,eat you already knew that. but it's also great for finding the perfect used car. you'll see what a fair price is and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. now you're even smarter. this is truecar. welcome back. we're waiting to hear from the president of the united states. reporters now in the oval office, and just moments ago some other breaking news. the russian special counsel making a brand new court filing cataloging some of the evidence it used and seized in the friday indictment of the long-time trump associate roger stone. what are we learning most of all? they have the pre-dawn raid. some controversy about the level of force or the level of personnel the fbi used there. what do they get? >> the type of things you would

get in this type of search, from financial and bank records, apple cloud accounts, things having to do with a cell phone. we know they took his cell phone and returned it a couple days later over the weekend. so the types of things you would expect when the fbi comes to your house and goes through and searches and takes a record. one of the things they've done today is they've put a protective order on this evidence, which is typical in these types of high-profile cases, to basically make sure that whatever is being shared as you prepare to go to trial that that stays within the people who are handling the case. >> is it true they already had this evidence on stone before they arrested and indicted him, but then they continued gathering additional information, gathering those electronic devices. they may have already had access to some of his stuff from icloud, but it seems like they did want the physical devices, so they went to his apartment in new york as well as his home in

florida, as well as a sort of storage space in florida. he apparently keeps his memorabilia there. they wanted to search that also, so it was pretty extensive. >> especially given the allegations at hand here. was he in contact with wikileaks? was it through second or third parties? what was the extent of that relationship? to back up the case they already had, here's what the president said about this. he says, i'm speaking for a lot of people who were very disappointed to see that go down that way, to see it happen where it was on camera on top of it. that was a very disappointing scene. you had 20 armed people, armored vehicles, and you had all of the other -- you know, many people know roger, and roger is not a person that would have to worry about from that standpoint. the special counsel said it was necessary. >> the day before they filed

with the court and they asked the court for permission to do it this way, and they got a judge's permission to do it this way because they were concerned about destruction of evidence. i think the president is giving voice to some things you're hearing from some parts of the right wing media, but look, when you have a witness or a defendant like this who is sort of out there making threats and, according to the special counsel, making threats against other witnesses, they're going to treat him a little differently. i think that's what you saw happen in florida on friday. by the way, on friday after he was arrested, roger stone said -- he commended the fbi and said they had treated him with the utmost respect. >> you mentioned -- if was goin to move on to something else, but you mentioned the republicans. we know when the republicans controlled the house, they repeatedly criticized the investigation, criticized the fbi. they lost the house, but the president has a new friend in lindsey graham, president of the judicial committee, who says he

wants the fbi to answer questions about why they did it that way at roger's house. >> this seems to me over the top, and i don't know what the message was being sent, but i personally didn't like it. i've been a prosecutor and defense attorney. it seemed to be sending the wrong message, that if you cross mueller, look what's going to happen to you. mueller, do your job, but these tactics are unacceptable given the level of threat here. >> the fbi would say they were doing what the boss ordered them to do there, and the special counsel's office would say, as you know, we went before a judge. we didn't just decide to do this on a whim. but will the fbi go in front of lindsey graham and defend themselves? >> they have to. he is the chairman of the judiciary committee now, so chris wray, i imagine, will have to pick up the phone and explain to lindsey graham. if he asks for an in-person briefing, he'll have to do that.

this is something fbi agents do routinely. >> we haven't heard much about the notion that roger stone allegedly lied to congress when he was supposed to be there participating in what you would expect to be a very important investigation, the notion that the russians meddled in our electi election, the fact that there was collusion. we haven't heard much from lindsey graham about that part. >> is there a possible solution they have selective outreach? >> it's their job to ask the questions and for the fbi to pr provide an explanation, but if i were lindsey graham, i would have more questions. >> he said there's nothing there, it's gone forever, it's cost $30 million, but he was asked about the potential release of the report when it's final. he said, i'm going to leave it to the justice department. they will make the decision as to what they do. the question was, would it be

matthew whitaker, the acting attorney general or whatever attorney general is in power. the president there saying he's washing his hands, it's completely up to them. i don't know if the democrats would believe that, but that's a different approach if you read his twitter feed. >> i think the president feels more comfortable now that jeff sessions is gone. that was an irritant. that was something that was certainly a reminder to him of where things really went wrong, at least according to him, which was jeff sessions' decision to recuse himself. they also then don't trust rod rosenstein. so the idea that a new trump pick, bill barr, someone who is, by all accounts, well respected, i think he feels a lot more comfort level that bill barr would be the one handling the end of this investigation. i'm not sure whether that's -- you know, that's exactly what he should be feeling right now, but that's how he feels, it seems like. >> because of the personal acts

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sherrod brown testing the waters in iowa. brown believes his blue collar roots help him better understand the iowans that helped turn their state red in 2016. telling "cbs this morning," the democrats need to fix the big damage they did in the last election. >> things are changing te cto nically in our kun. we can't nibble around the edges of the system that no longer works. the experience of the industrial midwest is exactly the kind of experience that politics, forgive me, but here on the coasts have been ignoring. especially in my party that's come at a terrible cost. >> so how exactly should the party go back to winning back those crucial voters? don't talk down to them. quote, it's about being able to create a message and persona for yourself that's not elitist in nature.

we have plenty of great coastal candidates running or looking at running but particularly in the primary, they end up talking to the bubble. it's a great point if you look, and we can put up the 2016 results. hillary clinton would be president had not this happened. iowa, which tends to swing back and forth, did, but wisconsin, michigan, ohio and pennsylvania, is not considered really the midwest, but it does have that same industrial base of voters. we're talking about the clinton administration. they're red, we're not. >> some of us would argue we're talking about a small swath of 80 or 90,000 voters that tend to be working class folks. brown hasn't technically declared, but it's hard not to look at his travel plans. iowa, nevada, south carolina is just a prelude to jumping in. but you also haven't mentioned amy klobuchar who is making a

decision any day now. she could provide a midwestern whisperer to these voters. >> you mentioned sherrod brown who is flirting with it. he hasn't officially decided. you mentioned his tour, iowa, nevada, south carolina. there is something to that. this is him last night trying to make the case that the democratic party better start listening to, respecting people who work with their hands. >> a year ago i said to the people of youngstown, don't move, we're going to rip down your factories and build new ones. he would reward people in mexico who built cars there instead of in michigan. he said those jobs would be replaced in like two minutes. well, we're still waiting. >> his point, and he won't say

it, he misled you about how it would work, and b, that hillary clinton didn't talk to you. >> there's been so much talk about the special counsel's investigation and what's going on with the president, but i think this is something that's going to be a major factor that's actually going to be something that voters will hold the president accountable for. maybe not the wall, that's a whole other argument. i do think the president promising to bring back manufacturing jobs, one of his key campaign promises didn't get as much attention as the wall did, but that is going to be something he has to answer for when he is running for reelection if voters feel like he hasn't brought back those jobs. especially the answer yesterday from fox that he's rebuilding this strategy to create thousands of blue collar jobs in wisconsin, and now they say it's going to be a technology hub that employs researchers and developers. still good jobs but very different jobs, and they don't employ the same kind of people that the president promised would get jobs if they elected

him. and speak to ing to reporters, said he wishes they would start talking about manufacturing jobs coming back to the u.s. but when you have a statement like what came from fox yesterday in this reporting, and the white house said they'll be disappointed, that's something they'll be held accountable for because the president directly tied himself to fox conn so much so that there is video of him putting a shovel in the ground and i think he's directly tied to that now. >> are we going to see sherrod brown, maybe amy klobuchar turn to kamala harris and elizabeth warren and say, i like you, you're close to the lead? >> i don't know if they'll say that in those terms, but the president's advisers are very anxious about that and they realize if a couple democrats were to get in this race and really talk about the issues, and not just talk about them in

a substantive way but craft a message that democrats did not have in previous election cycles, certainly not in 2016. >> there was trade stuff you could have taken from bernie sanders' speech. >> yes, but democrats didn't recognize that, and that could have been a liability and maybe the death of them since hillary clinton wasn't able to win. i think the issue is going to be whether some of these candidates you're talking about can craft that kind of message. not that just looks at the balance sheet and says you promised this and that and that hasn't happened, but actually get these voters energized and thinking this is an advocate for them in the democratic party that understands and will advocate for their concerns, and i think that's possible it could lead to a moment in the democratic party where you have a push/pull of someone like kamala harris and sherrod brown who is speaking a totally

different language that he believes they have to do if they're going to win in 2020. >> kamala harris can certainly utter that message but sherrod brown has been doing it for 25 years. so it comes more naturally to him. another thing we haven't talked about is medicare for all. there are two democrats in the mix that haven't signed on to that medicare for all bill, brown and klobuchar. >> how big is that window in the u.s. for how many candidates? when i was talking to democrats today, there is definitely an opportunity there, there is definitely interest, they are losing patience in the farm and factory states. but not for four people, maybe for one. >> iowa goes first, then you do new hampshire, south carolina, nevada. it will be interesting to see how this turns out. before you see democrat stacey abrams she'll deliver the response to the president's address next week. you'll see her in the super bowl. she's pushing for more in her

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double. the president tweeting optimistic words about the talks and predicting a final deal will come before he meets with president xi in what he calls the near future. there is nearly $6 million in pain and suffering for senator paul after he was attacked at his home in kentucky with his neighbor. they were arguing over the yard. >> my wife and i have had a tough year physically, and i'm still healing. i'm glad to have the court case over. you get on the internet and the hatred is so awful out there. political differences, religious differences and even day-to-day differences with the people who live around us. we have to resolve these things peacefully. president trump met this week with heidi cruz, wife of senator ted cruz. the two discussed the position of world bank president which

will soon be vacant. heidi cruz is a goldman sachs previous employee. she got in a bitter dispute with president trump, senator cruz telling the president to leave his wife alone. the spiritual guru to oprah winfrey says she wants to bring a more open and spiritual awakening to the country. >> we need someone to articulate what's really happening, the deeper levels of our moral dysfunction. i have a 30-year career in renaming and ddespirit these things. it's time to reform them.

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about a minute away from hearing from the president of the united states. he had extended conversation with reporters brought into the office with about 20 minutes of q and a back and forth. we know among the things discussed, does he have confidence in his intel chiefs? he slammed on twitter this week after they said things about the president. he talked about negotiations with china, he talked about manufacturing in the united states and he talked with congress about his desire for a border wall. democrats proposing a $55.8 billion funding bill for the department of homeland security that includes more money for customs and border protection, more money for disaster relief, more money for secret service and deployment, border security

technolo technology. it doesn't say the word wall. >> it's not going to say the word wall. that's the last word they want to say. but it does have money, and that may be the best trump could get. maybe he can make an argument that, look -- >> we'll see what he has to say about this. >> do you still have confidence in gina haspel and don coats to give you advice? >> i have difficulty with that. time will speprove me right, probably. iran is a big threat, and i think i did the right thing when i terminated the ridiculous iran deal. it included $8 billion in cash and lots of other bad things. if you'll remember, they took our 10 sailors out of waters

that people are disputing and made us look very bad. the payment was due the following day so they eventually let them go, which they had to. i disagree very much on that, and i also think, and you'll be seeing something next week, because you look at what's happened in syria with respect to isis and the caliphate. we took over a lot of area in the last two weeks. we've done tremendous in the last couple of weeks. at the same time we're consolidating and a tremendous amount of good things are happening. you even look at what's going on, and i can't tell you this is a guarantee because we're going in to close to 19 years being in afghanistan. for the first time they're talking about settling, they're talking about making an agreement, and we bring our people back home if that happens. we'll see what happens, but they're in very serious negotiations for the first time. there is a reason for that. so i think we're doing so well on oa foreign policy basis. you look at north korea. many of you will be traveling

with us to north korea for the meetings with north korea. we're going to a certain location. i think most of you know the location, i don't think it's any big secret, but we'll be announcing the location and the exact date it will be at the end of february. we made tremendous progress with north korea. when i came in, or let's is a at t -- say at the end of the last administration, it looked like we were going to war with north korea. now there is no missile testing, there is no rocket testing, there is no nuclear testing. we got back our prisoners as hostages, and we got back our remains. they're coming in. we've had some beautiful ceremonies in hawaii and other places. i just tell you that we are doing really well. our military is being rebuilt. it's very close to being rebuilt. we have tremendous amounts of new aircraft, new siphips, new

weapons of all kinds which we need because hopefully the stronger you get the less you have to use it. you should know that from being in school. the stronger we are, the less we'll use it. we'll have the strongest military by far that we've ever had. i didn't see the report from the intelligence. when you read it it's a lot different than what was covered in the news. but i think that iran is somebody, is a nation that we have to watch very closely. they sent up a rocket the other day, and it failed. but it was sent up. now, they can say they're sending it up for civilian purposes, but i don't think too many people believe that. they're doing tests and we don't want to be in a position where we're behind. we're not going to be leading from behind anymore. that's the story. i have great respect for a lot of people, but i don't always agree with everybody. okay?

[ inaudible question ] >> look, we're going to go into everything. you probably saw this morning i put out a statement. we're going into everything. this isn't going to be a small deal with china. it's going to be a very big deal or a deal we'll just poestpone for a little while. we've been dealing with china. i have a great relationship with president xi. the relationship of my people to chinese representatives has been very good. they're negotiating now. they'll be coming over here at about 4:00 and we'll be talking to actually one of the top leaders in china, as you know. i think that probably the final deal will be made -- if it's made will be made between myself and president xi. but we're certainly talking about theft, we're talking about every aspect of trade with the country, and we're talking about fentanyl, too. as you know, most of the fentanyl, which is killing 80,000 americans a year, it comes through china. and in china it was not

criminalized, and they've agreed to criminalize fentanyl and give it the maximum penalty. the maximum penalty in china if you're selling drugs is death. it's the death penalty. they've agreed to doing the death penalty for fentanyl. if it's shipped to the united states, that would be a very severe penalty. i think it will have a tremendous impact. we put that one item into the trade deal, the fentanyl. i think that's a very important item to put in. but they've agreed and agreed very readily. we really appreciate it, to criminalize the selling of fentanyl. steve? [ inaudible question ] >> i can tell you, there are a lot of people working. what happens, we're charging large tarriffs to large products coming in which hurts china. as you know, you saw the reports. out of 25 points we're paying

for 4 points of the 25. they're paying for 21. that's a big difference. we're taking in billions of dollars, and frankly we're creating a lot of industry. but the rate goes from 10% to 25% on march 1st, so they would like to do it. i would like to accommodate them if we can. i would like to accommodate china if we can get the deal done. it's a lot of work because this is a very comprehensive deal. we're talking about they're going to buy some corn -- they're going to buy corn. hopefully they're going to buy lots of corn and lots of wheat and lots of everything else that we have, but they're also talking heavy technology, heavy manufacturing services and everything else. [ inaudible question ] >> i think we can do it by march 1st. can you get it down on paper by march 1st? i don't know. i can say on march 1st, the tear -- tarriff on china goes to 9%.

tha that's a lot of tarriff. [ inaudible question ] >> i campaigned for stacey abrams. michelle obama campaigned for her and oprah campaigned for her, and all brian had was me. and he won fairly easily, fairly easily. so i hope that she does a good job. i respect her. i don't know her. i haven't met her, but i hope she does a good job. >> and your speech, sir? >> i think it's unification, it's industry, it's about the people you see here, it's also working with these people because they've been incredible. we have had some incredible rappra prks prp rapport and incredible

democratic support. they say we don't want to build a wall because it doesn't work or it's immoral. well, it's also immoral that people come here that shouldn't and kill people in our country, that's more immoral. part of it is going to be unity. >> nancy pelosi said this morning there is not going to be a wall in this deal. but she did say she would be open to other kinds of physical barriers. would you accept that? >> no, because if there's no wall, it doesn't work. she's just playing games. if there's no wall, it doesn't work. and we're building the wall right now. a lot of people don't know that, but we have a lot of wall under construction. we've given out a lot of contracts over the last three or four weeks. good contracts. a lot of wall is soon going to be under construction. we will be -- we're finishing up design on certain areas. the most important areas, the rio grande areas and others. we are building a lot of wall. i'm not waiting for this committee. and i've told a lot of people, i

don't expect much coming out of the committee, because i keep hearing the words, we'll give you what you want but we're not giving you a wall. if they don't give us a wall, it doesn't work. without a wall, it doesn't work. we have caravans right now coming up from honduras, who we gi give a lot of money to -- which is stopping, by the way -- but we pay hundreds of millions of dollars to guatemala, honduras and el salvador, and then they have caravans leaving their country coming up here. by the way, if you go to tijuana, they will be begging for a wall. they'll say please, please, mr. president, give us a wall. some people have suggested, let me take the wall along california. let's move it to arizona, let's move it to texas. and, you know, it would be a

very interesting statement. about nancy. so in california, they wanted the wall built in san diego so badly, and we built it. and probably i should have waited because as soon as it was finished, they stafrrted screaming, we don't want a wall, we don't want a wall, but they wanted a wall so badly. and it worked. no one is getting through. the moment it was built, they said, we don't want a wall. without a wall it doesn't work. it's very simple. i'm not saying this as a republican, i'm not saying it as anything other than a fact stater. without a wall it just doesn't work. >> mr. president, after listening to the hardship from many federal government workers as well as those who are contractors and who rely upon the federal government employees' finances to fund their businesses, are you willing to jeopardize the economy again and also your

presidency with people who are fearful of another government shutdown over the wall? i also want to ask if you heard about jussie smollett, the act or who was threatened with racial -- >> i think that's horrible. i've seen it and i think it's horrible. it doesn't get worse, as far as i'm concerned. as far as the people are concerned, a lot of people wanted me to stay out, but i didn't do it because people are getting hurt. what i think is the worst sin of all is the fact that we're allowing people to come into this country and sell drugs and human traffic and do all of these horrible things, that if we had the simplicity of a well-constructed, beautiful barrier or wall, they wouldn't be able to come into our country. that to me is the great sin. everybody knows it works. i watched this morning, early in

the morning, someone trying to justify walls are immoral. if walls are immoral, maybe we should take down all the walls that are built right now. you will see a mess like you've never seen before. i only say this. i was elected partially on this issue. not as much as people say, but partially on this issue. this is a very important issue. nothing to do with elections, nothing to do with votes, only to do with common sense and only to do with security. and if we don't put up a barrier or wall, a strong one, but one that looks good. in the old days they built them and they looked horrible, now they look really good. if we don't put up a physical barrier, you can forget it. our country will be a very unsafe place. people are coming in, drugs are coming in, human trafficking is coming in, which is so horrible. things are happening that won't happen after the wall is co