that are probably mostly within the scientific they might come out into the mainstream media. again, i think the most crucial value of what's going to happen over the next few years with the scientists who are studying this glacier is to put some of this data and observations into models that can help us understand what's going to happen in west antarctica over the next few years, a lot of uncertainty when it comes to glaciers. lot of uncertainty to our future and how we for instance might change our behavior and change our carbon emissions. the question is, being that, you know, can the scientists who are racing to understand this glacier, can they give us more information so we can make better decisions on the future? >> we'd like to thank jon gertn gertner for being with us this

morning. thank you so much, jon. >> thank you, appreciate it. day 18 of partial government shutdown. here to tell us where we have margos from the hill. where are we? >> this is the first day that the house and senate are coming back into session and vice president pence and homeland secretary nielsen will meet with house republicans tonight. >> when it comes to the house republicans themselves, even the senate republicans, where are they as far as commitment to this shutdown and what what president trump says. >> some dissensions starting to break out. seven house republicans voted with democrats to reopen the government. a few senate republicans have started saying it's time to open the government back up and end

this shutdown, now in its third week. at the same time, the trump administration is trying to hold strong with their party and so we're starting to see some signs of potential weakness on the republican side. >> the vice president coming down as well as the homeland security secretary, that gives more information to the democrats or reassure the republicans. >> it's designed to reassure the republicans. each side is still playing to their bases. we're not seeing realistic offers to the others that i can plausibly accept. what we're seeing is an attempt to keep the troops in line. >> so our guest will be with us to talk about these issues concerning the shutdown.

if you want to ask questions it's -- tweet your responses at cspanwj. what's the strategy? >> they're going to put up individual bills this week to reopen the government. for specific ayensies. to reopen national parks, very popular with the public. so, that's one particular vote that -- that even top republicans who aren't necessarily centrist who might worry about re-election in a come of years, even that is

something that might feel pressure. >> any play in the senate, do you think. >> well, mitch mcconnell is still saying he won't take any bill that the president won't b president won't sign. right now president trump is insisting he does not want to sign any spending bill unless there's money for the wall. >> we see the president makeing an address tonight. any resignation about that speech and what it might be about? >> late last night nancy pelosi and chuck schumer said they wanted equal air time after president trump speaks. right now we think the presidential address will be 8 to 10 minutes, then democratic leaders will issue a response right after that. >> part of the response is president trump keeps rejecteding the bipart san house passed bills, which have already

received strong bipartisan support in the senate. either chamber of commerce and mexico is not paying for it now that the television networks decided to air the president's address, it will be full of malice, misinformation. democrats must be immediately be given equal air time. will they get that air time? has that been reported? >> yes, some networks have said already they will air it. >> now we've seen the figure for this wall change from the president, 5$5.7 billion and additional money for humanitarian efforts. first of all, how is that playing out on capitol hill? >> that's the message that administration officials are trying to push now as we're entering the third week of the shutdown. yesterday vice president pence was also meeting with reporters, they said the word crisis, i believe it was said 35 times. they're trying to push the point beyond the national security and immigration standpoint that

president trump has long pushed this is a crisis that needs to be addressed. there's so many people fleeing from these countries that are so impoverished, and filled with violence that they're coming up here, something needs to be done about it >> we have called lined up for you. let's start with michael from north carolina. democrats line for our guest, christina marcos on this 18th day of the shutdown. go ahead. >> caller: good morning. my question is why can't the insurance companies help these people who have been furloughed? >> what about those efforts? what are we seeing as action from the administration or otherwise? >> that's the problem for a lot of these government workers, they rely on a paycheck, they still have obligations like mortgages, rent that they're used to paying on a monthly basis. one thing that the administration is trying to mitigate of the shutdown, people who live in affordable housing

complexes. the administration has been trying to work with landlords to try to give the tenants a break at this point because they're not getting the payments that they need in order to pay the rents. that's one way they're trying to help these workers survive a lengthy shut down. >> the treasury department announcing that some irs workers coming back to do the business of returns. was that meant to circumvent legislation passing from the house democrats to keep that very thing going? >> exactly. one of the bills this week that democrats were planning to put on the floor is a bill to reopen the irs. until yesterday it had looked like the irs wouldn't be able to issue refunds, even if people were starting to file their tax returns. the administration announced yesterday they'll still be able to issue refunds, which are very popular, americans wanted their money back understandably.

so that's one way they're also trying to mitigate the effects. so it's one strategy that rather than being able to simply reopen the government, they're looking for all sorts of ways to mitigate the effects. >> jerry is next. from utah. independent line. hi. >> caller: hi. thanks for taking my call. i think what with need to do is just look at the bottom line. what's the bottom line here? we have people invading our country. the minute they step over the border we have to pay for food for them, schooling, healthcare and the american people are being ripped off. i was a democrat, but the democrats are trying to turn this into a one-world new-world order, one-world government. if these were russians bringing

heroin, violence, we would shoot them. but because these are brown people, it's okay. the democrats are basically throwing america down the toilet. >> these are some of the people that president trump is responding to in this fight. this has been a key campaign promise since day one, building a wall. this is why president trump is holding firm here. for two years when republicans had total control of congress, he wasn't able to get this priority. now after democrats just won the house, he needs to show he's putting up a fight. >> amongst the republicans on this issue, how are the freedom caucus standing with the president on this? for those who pulled away, would you describe them more moderate republicans? the freedom caucus is standing

behind the president. the week before christmas, when the senate passed this spending bill to keep the government funded it was the freedom caucus that implored president trump to hold firm and not to just let this opportunity go. but the seven house republicans who voted with democrats to reopen the government last week, they primarily came from the centrist faction of the house republican caucus, that is the part that remains after the midterm elections. >> republican line from north carolina. mary ann, go ahead. sorry, mary ann, you're next up for christina marcos of "the hill." al is. >> caller: i certainly agree with the former contributor to your show. his message was great. i think we have too many democrats dressed in republican clothes, they are not standing with trump.

they have lied to the people out here. they're not doing what we have asked for them to do. i think it's dreadful they are not standing with trump. he's tried very, very hard. and the democratic party and especially nancy pelosi and shurmur, they are not there for the people. they are there for their own i wants. they are there for the extreme leftists who are not contributing anything today. thank you very much. >> we're still seeing both parties play to their bases. for democrats, they're fresh off this victory of the midterm elections. they see no reason to start negotiating or offering a dollar for the wall. the other day nancy pelosi suggested she would be willing to give president trump one dollar for the wall. >> aside from the events of the shutdown, a couple other things

going on this week, gun type legislation expected this week on the hill. tell us what's going to happen. >> today is actually the eight-year anniversary of gabby giffords, when she was shot in the head at a constituent event. to this day, she struggles to recover from that grievous injury. she'll be back on capitol hill today with speaker pelosi for a bill to require universal background checks for gun purchases. this shows what a priority this has become for the democratic party and how mainstream gun control has become for rank and file democrats. they have hr 8 to correspond with the eight-year anniversary. you saw a lot of democratic candidates in competitive districts campaign on gun tr control. >> talk about focusing on background checks versus other things under the gun control

umbrella. >> background checks could be more bipartisan. congressman peter king, republican from new york, endorsed similar legislation to this in the past. this is something that can garner unanimous support from democrats as well as pick up a fair amount of support from republican corners. as far as the vote itself, is it expected that republicans largely will sign on to this? will there be resistance? >> there will be some resistance, democrats should be able to pick up at least a fair amount of republicans. >> from our line from democrats, keith is in chicago. you're next up. >> caller: good morning. i'd like to start by saying to this reporter thank you for your service. particularly in this era when we have a whole political party that rejects facts.

that said, one thing i learned in school was objectivity. objectivity. objectivity. but let's be objective here. this president has a pattern of not misstating, not making gaffes, of outright lying to us, the people of america. the majority of whom -- i would like you reporters to remember that, it was a split decision. the referendum, the majority of people didn't want this wall or anything. all right? the majority of the person people. so you can't dismiss the popular vote. you have to take that into account. that's our sentiment. >> caller, with that in mind. what would you like our guest to specifically address?

>> caller: yes. why should the democrats give one dollar when the mantra was what are we going to do? build a wall. who's paying for it? mexico. it's null and void after that. >> thanks, caller. >> yes, nancy pelosi did suggest the other day she would be okay for a dollar for the wall. that would not get president trump far in building a wall on the mexican border. but right now democrats don't see any reason after this fresh midterm victory to give president trump much of anything. also you have to bear in mind that this shutdown began right before christmas. they let lawmakers go home for the holiday. nobody was really here for a couple of weeks. really it's not until this week and end of last week that they started to see the usual cycle

of these fights begin to play out. >> fast forward, when do democrats become uncomfortable with what's going on, particularly the shutdown and those who are not working day in and day out. >> i think we'll see the pressure go up this friday when these huchbds hundreds of thou workers won't get that paycheck. until now it was sleepy with the holidays, people were not paying attention. now people are starting to see and feel the effects of the shutdown. >> virginia in lynchburg, we'll hear from richard, republican line. >> caller: how are you doing today? how are you doing today? >> go on, sir. you're on. >> caller: yes. yes. you know, we're all talking about the shutdown, we're all talk talking we want our jobs back. we got some problems we need to take care of right now about the

environment. the oceans are rising. everybody says that's normal. it's not normal. because way back when there wasn't any cars, wasn't any pollution. that's why there wasn't that problem of the melting icebergs and stuff. you know, there wasn't any bad atmosphere. >> caller, we're talking specifically about the government shutdown. you may be referencing the -- >> we'll leave this conversation and go live now as newly elected members of the 116th congress discuss priorities for the legislative agenda including hr 1, this event hosted by the group end sit zensz ycitizens u. live coverage on c-span3.