this sunday on the one-year anniversary of donald trump's presidency a government shutdown. both sides blaming the other. >> this will be called the trump shutdown. >> they wanted the shutdown. >> president trump earned an "f" for leadership. >> were do some crazy things in washington, but this is utter madness! >> how did we get here, and what happens now? i'll ask the number two democrat in the senate, dick durbin and republican senator tom cotton who have also feuded over what president trump allegedly said about emgrants from africa, and white house director of legislative affairs marc short.

plus, our brand new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. where does president trump stand one year into his presidency, and the words supporters and opponents use to describe him. also -- hundreds of thousands of women march across the country protesting the president, many with an eye towards more women winning office this november. joining me for insight and analysis are "wall street journal" columnist peggy noonan, is nbc news national correspondent peter alexander, former obama deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter and republican strategist al cardenas. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning and welcome to the one-year anniversary of the trump presidency. actually it's day two of year two. democrats are calling it the

trump shutdown. republicans are calling it the schumer shutdown. whatever you want to call it this is what happens when both sides think they are on the winning side of a political argument. or as the "washington post" dan balz put it this morning, we are here because we have a deal-making chief executive who can't make a deal, a divided republican party struggling to govern and a democratic party tethered to its anti-trump progressive base. democrats want a deal now to protect immigrants who were brought here illegally as children, the so-called d.r.e.a.m.ers, republican leaders are opposed to put a d.r.e.a.m.er deal in a short term spending deal which could keep the government open. all of this comes as the president hits his one-year anniversary mark and our nbc/"wall street journal" poll shows the president's approval rating is at 39%, the lowest after a year, 57% disapproving. compared to where he was last february at the start of the administration, a little bit better, 44% approving and 48% disapproving.

because this president inspires such passion we asked supporters an opponents to describe them in their own words. here are the words supporters were most likely to use, positive, good, excellent, doing what he said he would do. it's very different from the words used by opponents of this president, embarrassing, disaster, chaotic, disappointing and hasn't delivered. changing the way washington works was one of candidate trump's signature campaign themes, but this weekend's shutdown shows that washington is working or not working just as it always has. >> negotiating with president trump is like negotiating with jell-o. >> one year to the day after president trump took office the federal government should down and the finger-pointing started. >> good morning, and welcome to the trump shutdown. >> this will be called the trump shutdown. >> the trump shutdown is all yours. >> day one of the senate democrats government shutdown.

>> what we're calling the schumer shutdown. >> schumer shutdown. >> both parties face political risks. ten senate democrats are on the ballot in states mr. trump won, and they depend on proving they can make government work. four of those democrats and new alabama senator doug jones voted to keep the government open, but for the first time in nearly 40 years the government is shut down while one party controls both houses of congress and the white house, and opponents are quoting citizen trump back to president trump. >> i actually think the president would be blamed. if there is a shutdown, i think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the united states. >> the problems start from the top, and they have to get solved from the top, and the president's the leader. >> a year after mr. trump took the oath of office promising to be a disrupter and change agent -- >> the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. >> the president finds himself in a deep hole.

57% of americans disapprove of the job he's doing, but it's the intensity of the disapproval that's so dramatic. with a majority of americans strongly disapproving, including every age group except americans 50 to 64. mr. trump promised to be the art of the deal president. >> i'm a deal-maker. i believe that i can put both sides together. >> i will negotiate deals that nobody can negotiate like i do. >> but ratings of the president's ability to change washington are down a net 18 points from a year ago. his capacity to get things done down 24 points, and just 19% give mr. trump high ratings for having the right temperament for the job. >> get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out. he's fired. he's fired! >> a majority of americans also feel negatively about the president as a leader, as commander in chief and as a representative of america abroad. one potential bright spot for

republicans, americans are the most satisfied with the economy that they have been in nearly two decades. the president is not getting the credit though, but republican incumbents hope that optimism will protect them in november. >> it's the economy, stupid. did you ever hear that one? it's the economy. >> joining me now is the president's chief congressional negotiator these days marc short. marc, welcome back to "meet the press." you're becoming a very familiar face i think to folks this weekend. >> thanks for having me back, chuck. >> where's the president? i say this because we didn't see him yesterday. didn't make a single public appearance. one thing about candidate trump, as we pointed out there a lot, he seemed to be the guy who says he was going to make washington work differently. washington looks exactly the way it did before he got into yesterday. why was he yesterday and why wasn't he involved in this? >> the president was involved, he was speaking to leader mcconnell and ryan and leader mccarthy. >> republican, republican, republican, no schumer, no pelosi. >> he met with schumer on friday

and that was well publicized and he spoke with secretary nielsen and met with secretary mattis to learn over 100,000 national guardsmen and reservists whose training was cancelled this weekend, who have to get here and pay their travel costs back home so the president is engaged in finding out what are the impacts of this. he's on the find trying to find a resolution to it and he had members over to the white house a week ago in a bipartisan bicameral fashion to get past this impasse. >> part of the issue seems to be that people come away from these meetings not sure what president trump stands for. let me -- here's mitch mcconnell just i think three days ago on the issue of daca and immigration. >> looking for something that president trump supports, and he's not yet indicated what measure he's willing to sign. as soon as we figure out what he is for, then i would be convinced they would were not just spinning our wheels.

chuck schumer used jell-o. that's another way of saying jell-o, is it not? >> as one of my colleagues said it seems a lot of senators know a lot about jell-o but the reality is where we've been in this process is the president put forward his proposal over about 11 months ago, sending it to congress. general kelly went to congress to say here's how we need to solve daca. the daca situation has been unresolved for deng aid and obama took actions into his own hands with an unconstitutional solution to the problem. we asked congress to fix it and send a long list and sent a refined list. we've been absolutely consistent in what it is we're asking for. four criteria, one the d.c. race, population, border security and ending chain migration and the visa lottery program. i might be a naive optimism and we're making significant progress and we'll get a deal and there are champions like senator durbin who will be hailed as a hero helping for making this happen. here's where we are, democrat are moving foetal alcohol spectrum disorder and saying, yes, we recognize -- >> they are giving you the wall.

>> right. >> full funding, 18 billion is what chuck agreed no. >> sometimes what democrats have done they will authorize it without appropriating it. democrats have voted to authorize lotsed of money it a never happens so we need to clarify that but we see progress. on our side they said they want the 670,000 daca population expanded. senator durbin made the case saying many people did not register and they should not be held harmful. we've been willing to expand that population and there's progress which leads us to, chuck, why are we shutting down the government? >> i guess then the graham/durbin say they put this offer out here hand chuck schumer saying, why not say, okay, seems like we have the parameters for a deal. democrats are willing. you guys are arguing over whether you'll appropriate it or not but seems as if -- chuck schumer what he thought he had an agreement of that the president changed his mind a few hours later. i guess the question i have for you is who is in charge of the president's position on

immigration because what -- look at lindsey graham. he calls them tuesday trump versus thursday trump. what's the difference here? >> president trump has been crystal clear on that and he's to the wavered. what lindy graham and senator durbin offered to the president was to say, here, we've narrowed it down to the four areas, when they came over to the white house and presented them they were woefully insufficient inside the four arrows. we narrowed down the broader debate no a smaller one. well feel like we're making progress on the overall discussion and we think we'll get to a solution. what befuddles us is we're not going to pay millions. you're troops or the border agents until what, we don't know what it is we're asking for. they said give us a shorter cr. tonight senate republicans are going to vote for a three-week cr and democrats are unwilling to give up the vote to keep the government open. >> one of the issues that the democrats have they just don't believe that the oral promise they get from the president will be fulfilled because every time they think they have one, somebody with a stiffer spine on

the immigration issue gets to the president. what do you say to that criticism? >> i don't think there's anybody with a stiffer spine than a p.i'll give you a different theory. when you look back over the last year and you see record tax relief, you see supreme court justice confirmed and more justices confirmed at the circuit court level than any year in the american history, repeal of the individual mandate and all the things the administration has done and they are being held captive by a base in their party that's angry and they are responding to that base. this is not about policy, chuck. it's purely about politics. >> do you know the same argument could be said then on the issue of daca which is an 85%, you know, depending on the poll you want to lock at, anywhere from 65% to 80% overall approval including among trump voters that the president's position on this is being held hostage by a small conservative base. >> we want to solve daca. we recognize these are people aged between 16 and 36 who have work permits. they wouldn't get the work permits unless they had a clean work record and they are product i have to society. we want to solve that and not on a different page of that. >> you're taking a very

conciliatory tone this morning. want to play an ad that you guys unveiled last night. >> i wish i could have called more [ bleep ] of those mother [ bleep ]. >> build a wall, stop i'll legal imgranges. democrats who stand in our way will will be complicit in every murder completed by illegal immigrants. >> tell me how that happens negotiations today. you're calling democrats accomplices to potential murderers. >> you know that ad is pronounced by an outside grouped. >> donald j. trump for president is an outside group. >> it's not done -- done from a political organization, not people working inside the white house, but let me talk about the basis of that ad. today what we have is over 2,500 people on a terror watch list trying to get into our country each and every day. each and -- each year. that's about seven per day, chuck, being apprehended or turned away. we want to solve the problem of

immigration coming in, and the threat that it potions to our country. i think that's a natural debate we should be happening. we shouldn't just say let's do this at some other point in time. >> if you want to solve this problem, is that the way to treat political opponents here? let me ask you this. is that ad helpful to you today? >> i think it's hadful to continue to raise awareness -- >> the tone of that ad -- you find the tone of that ad hopeful. >> it continues to remind people -- >> data, not tone. >> is the tone wrong? >> the data of the ad shows there are people coming across our border that pose threats to our country, yes. >> all right. marc short, i have to leave it there, and we've got you. we've got dick durbin and tom cotton. after the show is over will you solve this. >> i hope so. as many people have pointed out republicans who were all for a shutdown when president obama was in office are opposed to one now, but democrats, too, have had a change of heart. here's what three prominent democrats sounded like in 2013 when republicans were threatening to shut down the government over healthcare. >> you do not use the threat of shutting down government to try

to advance your policy agenda. that's just not the way it works. >> you can say we're shutting down the government. we're not going to raise the debt ceiling until you pass immigration reform. it would be governmental chaos. >> but if we're talking about competency and accountability and i have a question for the republicans. we just went through a government shutdown of your creation. who is going to be held accountable for that? >> well, joining me now is one of those democrats you just heard, from the number two democrat in the united states senate. it's dick durbin of illinois. senator durbin, welcome back to "meet the press." >> it's good to be here. >> i know you guys are hopefully going to go solve this problem after the show is over, but let me ask you this. why -- why draw the line in the sand now? it seems like to the average american you guys are fighting over how long the window of negotiation on immigration should be. one month or five days. the two weeks or three weeks. do you see how to the average american they are not quite sure why this is the line in the sand versus say a month from now?

>> let me tell you the average american feels frustration that we haven't solved the problem and many problems that we face here in washington, but let's put it in context, chuck. you understand the republicans control the white house. the republicans control the senate. the house of representatives and through their nominees even the u.s. supreme court. what we're trying to do is find a solution to a shutdown which we believe is a trump shutdown. you've heard it over and over. you played it early in your broadcast here, but the reason is pretty clear. when the president said on january 9th, and i was sitting right next to leer you send me a bill to solve the problem that he created on daca, i'll sign it. i'll take the political heat. within 48 hours lindy graham, republican of south carolina and i presented that bill to him, he rejected it out of hand. this last friday when chuck schumer was invited to the white house, he sat down with the president over lunch. there were two other people in the room. they hammered out an agreement where chuck schumer made major concessions on one of the major issues, the president's wall.

within two hours the white house called and said that deal is off. so if you wonder what kind of shutdown it is and who is to blame the president in both instances could have stepped forward to show leadership. >> why the sense of urgency now versus three weeks? >> nobody likes the situation we're in, but explain to me why you -- frankly why not draw this line in the sand in three weeks? >> this is the fourth cr this fiscal year. for those who are not following the insides of washington politics, it means a failure to pass a budget for the united states of america. this has to come to an end as well. there are people, even five republicans works voted against the -- the cloture on the continuing resolution because they are sick of the continuing resolutions. you say why don't we wait another three weeks, four weeks, it has to come to an end, and it will if and when the president shows the leadership that we expect of him as president. >> i want to get some clarity on durbin/graham, graham/durbin.

we'll call it durbin/graham because you're here. you say you handled all of this, all of the assets the president has but i want to get to chain migration and family myration. the real dispute does it apply just to the daca population or does it apply to all immigration overall? are you at all open to having larger changes to theism gracious law in the daca negotiations? >> the president made it clear on the january 9th meeting, he agreed with us there should be two fadeses. let's deal with the problem which he created on september 5th by eliminating daca, deadline march 5th. just a few weeks ago. let's sol that have problem now and not all the problems of immigration, and, yes, we did include a provision related to family reunification which breaks my heart. >> only applying to this population. >> that's right. >> they say it should apply entire immigration system. >> and senator cotton wants to

reduce legal immigration into the united states. i'm not one of those people. my mother was an immigrant to this country and i'm very proud to be serving in the senate under those circumstances, but what it comes down to this is this. lindy graham and i accepted the president's challenge, produced the bill he asked for. gave it to him 48 hours later, and the infamous white house meeting took place. >> let me ask you about that white house meeting. you've said you've not leaked the contents of that meeting. >> that's true. >> you amplified it though. why did you do that? >> because the president denied it happened. i was in chicago. i woke up the next morning. the story was in "the washington post" the night before and the president tweet it had didn't happen, and it did happen, chuck. >> i -- i -- i ask this because i played that ad that the trump campaign is playing. it's accusing democrats of being accomplices to crimes, to murders for some reason. not helpful to a negotiation obviously to do name-calling. this became personal for many of you, not helpful to this. do you regret that that became public? >> i'm sorry that it was said. i'm sorry that the president

denied it, but for the longest time we've heard that the driving force of the president's position on immigration is safety and terrorism. marc short said the same thing earlier. what we heard in the thursday meeting was much different. it really reflected something that i hope we'll not continue to subscribe to in this country. we're a nation of immigrants. that's part of our values. we want to keep america safe. that's our first priority, but let us not turn immigrants into criminals. let us not deport the d.r.e.a.m.ers. >> all right. what deal will you take to reopen the government? you accept the idea that you can't actually vote on the daca bill as part of reopening the government. obviously it's my understanding you'll accept reopening the government as long as there's a separate commitment to vote on daca but give me what you'll accept. >> there's two possibilities, up is that the president steps up as he said in the january 1th meeting and says i embrace the following approach to dealing with daca and the d.r.e.a.m. yergsorers. congress has met the challenge and here's what i'll stand by

and we can include it and pass it quickly. the alternative is to have competing ideas. senator cotton and i have dramatically different ideas, competing ideas on the floor of the senate and then, this is critical, and then are brought up in the house. remember when we passed comprehensive immigration reform in the senate with an overwhelming bipartisan roll call and speaker boehner and the republicans refused to even consider it. >> you want stand-alone bills voted on in the senate, but it's my understanding that you don't want the house to vote on a stand-alone. >> no. the point we're getting to is we need clear assurance if we can pass a comprehensive or a bill in the senate that it will be taken up in the house and won't be ignored. the march 5th trump deadline on daca is looming, and we want to solve this problem long before. >> all right. i want to end with where we started. why was february 16th a non-starter for this but january 321st was okay? i don't understand the difference. what's the difference between 14 days here. >> the dynamic here, we called for a one-day extension, a

three-day extension to put a looming deadline on this negotiation and bring this shutdown, this trump shutdown to an end as quickly as possible. now the republicans have come in instead of four weeks we'll take three weeks. what's -- what we need to have is a basic agreement on what we'll do in those three weeks, not just a calendar date. >> all right. senator dick durbin, i have to leave it there. honest life doesn't sound like we're very close, are we? >> i'm more positive. i really think there's conversations at every level, democrats and republicans. >> you think the government reopens before the end of business on monday? >> i won't make that prediction. i'm confident -- >> let me ask you this. if it doesn't open by the end of business monday do you think we'll be here for the long haul? >> we'll talk every minute of every day and i wish the president would help us. at some point his leadership would make the difference. >> senator dick turn, i'll leave it there. thank you, sir. when we come back, we'll hear from a republican in the senate who seems more indiana ♪ (music plays throughout) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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welcome back. one of the senate republicans who has taken a particularly tough stance on illegal immigration has been tom cotton of arkansas, and senator cotton joins me now. welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning, chuck. good to be with you. >> what would you say of what kind of deal the president will accept because there does seem to be the president tuesday trump i guess as lindsey graham likes to call him. you were in the larger meeting. he looked like he was willing to essentially accept graham/durbin and then a lot of people say you got to him and you stiffened his spine, so can you explain the president's position because it doesn't seem to be clear, as mitch mcconnell has said. >> chuck, i don't think anyone got to donald trump. donald trump studied the proposal that dick durbin and lindsey graham put before him and realized it didn't address any of the key priorities. it gave legal protections to the

people in the becomea program and gave mass amnesty to the parents as well, the people who created the problem to begin with. didn't give -- >> no citizenship. >> they weren't going to get citizenship. >> but it's an amnesty no matter what you call. it didn't give money to build any new border barriers, only to repair past border barriers or do anything to stop chain mig raise. here's what the president and i and senate republicans have been clear on. we're willing to protect the children in the daca program and if we do that it will have negative consequences. it will lead to more illegal immigration with children and that's why the security enforcement measures are so important and it will increase chain migration bringing more people into this country not based on their skills and so forth and that's why we have to address chain migration, a narrow, and focused package that should have the support of both parties. >> but your as you was saying to senator durbin it sounds like democrats are willing to accept

everything you're talking about on -- on a smaller population, like let's deal with the daca and daca-related population on all of those issues, that's part one, and then there's a part two that you deal with the larger immigration law changes. that seems very reasonable. why do you find that unreasonable? >> first, let me just say that congress hasn't gotten part one right for decades so it's important that we focus on part one, but, second, the proposal that senator durbin and senator graham put forward doesn't do any of those said. it doesn't just give legal protections for the 100,000 americans in the daca program and to millions of other people and include the parents who brought the kids here on the first place. on security, no-no border construction, only repair of existing construction. >> that's already changed. that's already changed. chuck schumer on friday gave him full funding for the wall, 18 billion on the table. >> were you in that meeting had? is i wasn't in the meeting either. >> okay. >> it's hard for the president to negotiate -- it's hard for the president or for senate republicans to negotiate when

the democrats sitting across the table don't get what they want. they run out and they misrepresent what was a good faith effort to listen and to build trust, claim that some ridiculous deal was made and then claim that the president walked away from that deal and the media pies it hook, line and sinker. the president and the senate republicans engaged on this issue have been consistent since september when the president ended president obama's unlawful program. the problem we have is for four and a half months the democrats have not been negotiating over these very real and very honest concerns >> what i don't understand is how do you not see it as progress that chuck schumer is even publicly saying you get full funding for the wall. louis gutierrez publicly saying you get funding for the wall. how is that not done? why is that not a done deal? the democrats say we've moved much parter. >> chuck, that's a good first step but devil is always in the details on immigration. it's a very complicated area of law. last week senator durbin and graham were saying you get funding for the wall. you don't get new funding,

funding to repair existing and it's one year. >> okay. >> that's an old offer. >> we've seen this time and time again in the immigration space, promises are made and not kept because we spend money on a year-to-year basis. second, you still have the problem of chain migration and creating an entire new group of immigrants that will be able to bring millions of new immigrants to the country without regard to their skills or education level or ability to get a job and stand on their own two feet. we have to solve those two negative side effects of giving legal protections to the daca population. that's the parameters of the deal we all agreed to a couple of tuesdays ago at the white house. >> do you think it's a fair stance that if you can't vote for a bill, the president shouldn't agree to it? >> look, we all serve in co-equal branches, the house, the senate and president and all make our independent decisions. i work with the president on this issue and work with senate and house republicans, i'm more than happy to sit down with any democrat as well. >> whatever the president eventually agrees to, will you support that bill hook, line and sinker? >> i can't make that commitment.

i'll evaluate any deal on the basis of merit and what's best for the people of arkansas. >> i've got to ask you about the infamous meeting ten days ago. did the president use a vulgarity? >> chuck, i'm not going to get into every word that was or was not said. i will say, as many people have said, kirstejen nielsen under oath, a lot of strong language was used, fair to say there was cursing behind closed doors. >> what i don't understand is in the first 48 hours if there was a controversy about whether it was said, you implied it wasn't said at all. you didn't -- and it made it seem as if you were accusing dick durbin of being a liar and lindsey graham of being a liar. >> as far as i know lindsey graham hasn't spoken on the record about this, chuck. here's the point that senator durbin represented that president trump used repeatedly, repeatedly used vile, racist, lays if the language. that's not the case. if he was, why didn't he slam

anything and slam his paper up and get up and walk out. what trump and others in that meeting expressed was astonishment that senator bushp and senator graham would bring a proposal that won't move us towards a skill-based system but towards a system where we're rewith regarding people based on where they come from, not who they are. the point of immigration reform is to judge people as individuals based on who they are and what they can contribute to society, not who they are and who they are related to. >> but to go back to the issue of trust on both sides, you i prime -- you let it sort of hang out there that dick durbin and lindsey graham were misleading the public completely and only now are you admitting, well, yeah, there was vulgarity used. that isn't what you said a week ago or ten days ago at the time. why? >> chuck, i've never denied that there wasn't strong language used in the meeting by lots of people. you know, i'm not a shrinking violet about these things. i've been in a command post overseas and i've heard salty language before. what i'm saying it's a gross mess representation. >> were you offended?

lindy graham appears to be offended. said he said his piece. were you offended by what the president said. >> >> i was not offended and nobody in the meeting expressed their offense. >> lindsey graham didn't make his peace? >> lindsey graham made a case about immigration policies, not about what the president was saying. >> he said he said his peace about what american ideals are about. >> yes, he did and that's part of immigration policy because immigration policy is a part of who we are, who we're going to bring to the country to become new american citizens. >> senator tom cotton, i'm going to leave it there. i'm going to leave it is there. >> when we come back, are there any winners in the shutdown battle, and we'll look at the tough new poll numbers for the tough new poll numbers for the president and we have a question about your brokerage fees. fees? what did you have in mind? i don't know. $4.95 per trade? uhhh and i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee? guarantee? where we can get our fees and commissions back if we're not happy. so can you offer me what schwab is offering?

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welcome back. panelists, nbc news national correspondent peter alexander, "wall street journal" columnist peggy noonan and former obama manager stephanie cutter and strategist al card nass. i feel like i'm banging my head against the wall. peter, i want to start with you a little bit. >> yeah. >> tell me how the white house is reacting to this criticism. here's the president bragging about his negotiation skills. >> we need a leader that wrote "the art of the deal." i will negotiate deals that noboko fujimura can negotiate that i can do. nobody can negotiate the things that i can do. the i'm a deal-maker. i believe i can put both sides together. >> i actually believed that candidate trump would bring people in the room. where was he yesterday?

>> he's been m.i.a. you heard marc short say he's been heavily involved. not engaged. made calls mostly to republicans. the meeting with chuck schumer backfired and republican operatives said to me they think this president is erratic and undisciplined and inconsistent which makes it tough for him to get engaged in a deal like this. >> yes. i think i would add, you know, looking at the history here of mr. trump meeting first in the public deal last week when he talked to everybody and he said make a deal. i can take the heat and then in the conversation with schumer, what i think we see is he's actually not good at making a deal. what he does is pull new york real estate moves on the american political scene. he's saying you know what, we've got a deal, it's so great, come back tomorrow, we'll going have champagne and sign it and they

come back and it's sort of i was thinking overnight, i got three or four more things, they are not that big and everybody goes you're jerking me around. >> right. >> so that's the part that i think that is not working and maybe he's not so deeply involved at the moment because his particular talents don't apply here. >> you know, al, i was talking to some republicans on the hill, and they do believe that if that were the straight-up merits of this, that they have got the winning hand here. democrats, they are negotiating over the window of negotiating daca, but they are -- they know the wild card here is the president, that he could blink. >> well, listen. i think this is such an easy putt i'm just perplexed by why it doesn't happen. it's a ining with hand for the president. allow him to continue the momentum he built after the passage of tax reform so a winning hand for the democrats because they showed that they got the republicans for the first time to agree on immigration reform that helped innocent people, a million

people so why didn't they make this deal and why didn't they agree to the president that president schumer spoke about is beyond me politically. for those who spoke upon principle on my side in, 2006 republicans did not want to vote on what the president proposed because they thought amnesty was a word hat that time that was poisonous and, number two, too many people would be coming to america when they thought we were soft. what's happened is there's 5 million illegal people here in america in 2006. now it's 12 million to 14 million. we failed to act and as a result of failure to act, failure to act was worse than passing a law, and so we haven't learned our lesson in 2018. >> stephanie, and i'm not asking you personally to defend this, but the democrats feel like it's hard publicly, how do you defend -- you saw the question i had to dick durbin. it looks to it the average american watching that you shut down the government because you couldn't agree on a window to negotiate. i think -- let me say a couple of things, and i will defend it.

i think what senator durbin said is what the american people believe, that you cannot negotiate with this president because it's like jell-o. he keeps moving the goal posts. he makes a deal one day and reneges on it the next and what democrats are saying we'll agree to an extension and agree to some date certain in the future to figure this out but we want tom assurances that we ear going to figure it out. what's going to happen between now and then? we're not just going to keep kicking it down the road, and when comes to the d.r.e.a.m.er population, you know, chuck, you had mentioned when you came over here you felt like you were banging your head against a wall. what was startling to me is you have the white house representative marc short who is very good in doing these shows acting very conciliatory and wanting to make a deal and then defends an ad that's basically calling democrats murderers and likening the draermer population. >> the president promised a bill of love. >> they are merging the two issues. i understand why they are

getting it. i've been in politics for years. >> i don't understand it. >> it's pete wilson 1994 california. >> you see the long-term damage. >> there is long-term damage. we're not learning our lessons. we didn't learn them in 2006 on immigration reform, and we ear killing my party now in this short-term deal because it's going to happen the same thing. we've got 50 million hispanics here now. we'll have 100 million in 20 years. what makes people think that this is good long-term policy for my party? >> bottom line is if -- if marc short was as conciliatory as he sound and that there really is a deal to be made here, why did the president waste an entire day yesterday? i've served in the white house and i've been through shutdowns. both democrats and republicans should have been sitting in a room yesterday trying to hash this out. if they really cared about the harm to the american people of shutting down the government, they should have made yesterday work. >> but it's my impress, i must tell you, it looks to me like to some degree the democrats are

overplaying their hand, and, unfortunately, obscuring something historic. what's historic? democrats and republicans and capitol hill and the white house right now are willing to trade changes in policy on daca for changes in policy on immigration on the wall. daca security which is kind of perfect and kind of where america is. you look at any of the polls. >> it seemed the obvious deal. >> you know, americans they don't like illegal immigration. they want it shut down. they don't real care how it's done. a wall, a droerngs june, just s down. at the same time we have illegal immigrants here. we marry them. we're at school with them. we know them. nobody is going to throw them out. regularize it as best you can. that's kind of where the american people are. it's fabulous that republicans and democrats have almost this mind meld and in the last minute it's getting screwed up by nonsense.

>> the most important sound bite you played from mitch mcconnell in the last several days saying we don't really know where the president stand on this. the president hasn't given republican leadership a sense of where they are on this. >> stephanie, i thought the democrats had the moral high ground until they failed to agree to extend this process for a short period of time. at that point, i said, you know, this shutdown is political. it's not on merit. >> it is. >> let me remind you schumer went to the white house and offered a short-term extension and basically gave the president everything he wanted. the president agreed to it. schumer leaves the white house. by the time he gets back to the hill the president has changed his mind. >> i think it's pretty clear to me democrats are from mars and republicans are from venus right here and they need a relationship book real, really badly here. let's pause in a moment. democrats believe taking a strong stance in defense of d.r.e.a.m.ers is good politics are. they right. to most people, i look like most people. but on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain.

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welcome back. data download time. the shutdown struggle is over -- ark. that's the program that protects children who were brought to the united states illegally by their parents and have essentially known no other country. so why are democrats willing to essentially shut down the government over this issue? well, last month's nbc news/"wall street journal" poll showed that 62% of the country believed congress should continue to protect those who receive daca status, the so-called d.r.e.a.m.ers. and our latest polling on this issue also shows that hispanics favor democrats to control congress next year by a whopping 64% to 19%, and it's not just the polling. the 2018 mid-term map shows how much daca could put the gop majority at risk. right now there are 52 republican-controlled districts where the hispanic population is higher than the national average, 17.8, and in 21 of those districts, more than 30%

of the population is hispanic. these are voters who take the daca issue to heart. they take it personally and may be motivated to get out to the polls in typically what's a lower mid--term turnout year and ten of the 52 representatives in those districts are already bolting for the exits, either retiring completely or running for higher office off. the 42 remaining incumbents do have a lot at stake in this current debate so where are the places we're talking about? 44 of these 52 districts are in border states, 12 in california and four in arizona and one in new mexico and 22 in texas and 5 in florida, and, yes, even as a floridian i do consider florida essentially a border state. but some of these districts are in places you may not expect, washington state, nevada, three in colorado, georgia, pennsylvania and new york. so the democrats do indeed take back the house this november, it could be because they fought for daca issue and they won districts like this,

republican-held districts with larger than average minority populations, and they are not just along the border. they are now more scattered around the country. when we come back, end game and a report from "nbc nightly news" anchor lester holt who is in north korea. >> announcer: coming up, end ga [ click, keyboard clacking ]

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>> announcer: end game brought to you by boeing, continuing our mission to connect, protect, explore and inspire. >> back now with end game. aren't you going to stick to the politics of this, and, stephanie, i want to hit you here with the democratic base that in some ways, it's 2020 politics that is drawing the line in the sand here about -- on daca. some of your former colleagues have a very popular podcast called "save america" tommy

pfeiffer, johnny vidor, jon favreau, doing a whip count of democrats on the cr and the whip count was between those and fight club and those in the waffle house, and they put donnelly, heitkamp and jones in the waffle house. how much is the base driving this outside? do you think democrats in the senate would have a spine, would draw this line in the sand without this kind of activity? >> let's remember what this is about. this is about the d.r.e.a.m.er population, more than 700,000 kids who came here through no fault of their own and have grown up as americans and are contributing to our country. democrats have been for that -- in fixing that problem for a very long time, for decade and most republicans have been, too. that's why it's an 80 plus supported issue, and i think everybody understands and i don't think anybody around this table would disagree that if the compromise were put on the floor of the house hand the senate, they would both pass that bill. drawing a line in the sand to get that done is not just a base

exercise, it's the right thing to do. >> but what does it is do to the red state democrats? >> they vote the the way they wanted to. >> is that helpful to be voted at wafflers by fellow democrats in. >> in some of those states maybe it would be. >> the same base issue for the republicans. it does seem as if the president is more worried about that base than thinking about the middle. >> well, all i know is that we did a reprogram after the '14 election and we have doubled down on the mistakes we agreed -- >> '12 to '13. >> yeah. look, for the republican party, the president had already tested daca, the base seemed to be okay with it. now that things have changed to the point where this bill passes, and it should, democrat are going to take all the credit for daca and we're taking none. stupid politics. number two, the second part that makes this stupid is the fact that no one in our party is saying, lock, i'm not for this bill, but i've got a lot of

empathy for these million family. look, i can see why somebody would not have -- would not be for this policy-wise. i don't understand it, but i can respect it, but there's no empathy. i saw the secretary of homeland security in front of the senate saying she had never met' d.r.e.a.m.er and yet she's going to deport a million people and break up all these families. where is the empathy in my party. people, you know, the number one important thing in america when somebody is asking for presidential candidate support is, do you care -- does he care about me? how do we tell 50 million people that we care about them when there's not a single word of empathy about the fate of these million people. >> can i say that trump base in my view would be very happy with a daca deal and an immigration wall enforcement thing, they would be happy, but it's more than they would be happy. the middle would be happy. centrists would be impressed. that's the way to play politics. it's odd -- sometimes i think

the president misunderstands his own base, doesn't really understand why it will like and what it will accept. may i say also i do not think, stephanie, that this shutdown would be happening if democrats in the u.s. senate did not feel that their own base was angry, restive, holding their feet to the fire and if they didn't think they can benefit because trump is so unpopular. >> look at all the people on the mall yesterday. >> he's high 30s. >> well, there's that. >> yesterday was not about the shutdown. yesterday was about a year or more than a year, a whole president's election. >> imagine if chuck schumer hadn't held his ground with all those people marching across the country. >> sometimes you hold your ground for a political reason, it's also the right thing to do, and that's where i think democrats are coming down here. >> there's another issue that i think, and it may be part of trump's first year and the way he's changed washington. i would say the shutdown rhetoric has been defining

deviancy down as our friend mr. moynihan would say. lindsey graham name calling tom could the tomorrow and tom cotton shooting back oh, yeah, you weren't at the kiddie table in the debate and a white house official called democratic senators losers instead of legislators and nancy pelosi with the bowl of doingy doo. >> oh, gosh, that was awful. >> it's all awful and it's the new normal. >> it is. as for the presidency, we just passed the one-year anniversary, two days into the second year. i think what we are seeing up close every day relentlessly is a post-heroic presidency, a presidency for a post-heroic era. people don't have illusions about how high and upstanding and rigorously upholding of values that the president is and at the same time everybody in politics around him sees it, sees that it plays fairly well for him, that he is sometimes

gross or abrupt or rude in his terminology so they do it, too. it does lower everything. we are living through a cultural lowering. >> but you know, the lowering of expectations here, leadership is talking to an echo chamber while more and more americans are informed about politics. it's a dichotomy. >> and it's all sort of twitter snark all the time public. >> it is, it is. >> before we go, my colleague "nbc nightly news" anchor lester holt is inside north korea, a rare look at kim jong-un's regime and comes less than three weeks before the olympics begin a few miles away in south korea which is why north korea may be opening its doors to the west. earlier leverett filed this report exclusively for us. take a listen. >> reporter: well, good morning, chuck. probably not the image you were expecting to see of north korea, and that's probably one of the reasons we were invited to come here, because it is not what you would expect, a modern ski

resort here about four hours outside the capital. we have come here to talk about the olympics which, of course, will be held in south korea, but we've learned that here they will be training both athletes from the north and south, a product obviously of the recent talks, face-to-face talks between the countries. none of it masking, of course, the issues that remain over the nuclear program and no signs that north korea is willing to dial that back and also, of course, the crippling sanctions which have created such hardship. again, you see no signs of hardship here, but it has taken a toll in this country. we'll have reporting this week on "nbc nightly news," but we'll send it back to you right now in washington. >> and that's what we all look forward to, much more of lester's reporting throughout the day, and be sure to watch lester live from the region after he has been around north korea tuesday on "nbc nightly news." that's all we have for today. we're open every sunday. no shutdowns here because if it's sunday, it's "meet the

press."

overnight eagles fans partied and celebrated into the wee hours of the morning as the city of brotherly love prepares to take on the reigning super bowl patriots in less than two weeks. no deal the government shuts down into thursday, with a vote scheduled at high noon. big night for hollywood. moments everyone is talking about from the screen actors guild awards. second day for marches of women all around the globe focusing their agendas on voting. meet the former nfl linebacker now tackling a new mission and he's having a big impact. "early today" starts right now. great being with you on a monday mor.