>> brennan: welcome back to "face the nation." we continue our conversation now with our panel of new house members. earlier this week we asked them about their priorities in washington. another topic of course all of you haven't been on the job very long but very quickly we did see one of your colleagues introduce articles of impeachment. house oversite chairman said that is premature. what do you all think? is that too soon? >> i think so. i'm a former federal prosecutor we certainly never made charging decisions before the fbi finis finished their investigation. i think we've got to let mueller finish his investigation then we can make some decisions. >> brennan: you're waiting on the mueller report? >> i am. >> that's premature. way too early to be talking about this, need to let the investigation run its course and i just think it's also something

that can be used as partisan lightning rod we need to avoid. >> brennan: what about the tone of this conversation. one of your colleagues, congresswoman from michigan was speaking to supporters used profanity said, you know, impeachment should be what we're talking about. maybe not the language but premise of -- >> i've from staten island i have no problem with profanity. what i have a problem with, though, is the fact that she is talking about this issue and urging action on this issue before the investigation has been completed, that will just continue this era of hyper hyper-partisanship that we have to move away from. i certainly object to it. >> premature. the gravity of that word is too big and too important to just throw it around. >> brennan: i want to also ask you about some of the things you campaigned on, you're from connecticut, in your home state the site of the sandy hook sho

shooting i know you've talked a bit given your time in the classroom, you thought a lot about this, what is it that you thinking actually get done, what are you going to try to do with gun control? >> well, i think that any conversation about arming teachers is not the response to gun control. i think we have to have background checks, we have to make sure that we are getting guns off the street. >> brennan: would you commend the trump administration on the ban on bump stocks that recently happened. >> yes. the first step. >> brennan: the first step. you served in afghanistan as we said, both president obama and president trump have wanted to draw down troops from that war zone. what do you think of that idea of a draw down or a full withdrawal? >> there's been a larger problem in terms of the way in this we have tried to overcome 2t ntury thats and that is that

one-year engagements without any type of long-term strategy. the key here in afghanistan, because we saw in iraq, invasion of iraq was absolutely foolish, but then we did with a withdrawal which was motivated by politics then we had to go right back in. we cannot afford to do the same thing in afghanistan but we also have to come to the realization that the only way in which we will stabilize that country is with some type of political reconciliation with the taliban and our responsibility as the part of international coalition to provide the freedom and space for that political reconciliation to be realized and i intend on playing a part in trying to contribute to that. >> brennan: that is not a small ask either to get talks with the taliban. >> it absolutely isn't but we have been at war in afghanistan now for 17rs. to po perspective united states m.g in t

we cannot just have perpetual war. but we also have to maintain our leadership on the global stage, when we make a commitment we stand by it and don't just try to exercise politics on the global stage. we have long term strategy, not governed -- >> brennan: sounds like what the trump administration -- >> what i just saw was announc announcement about withdrawal like that which took everyone by surprise. i believe that that is playing politics, that's a shame. i don't want to see americans put at risk. i've watched loved ones get hu hurt. i don't want to see that. we need to have long-term strategy that politics is what matters here that the united states military provide that room for diplomacy to take fashion. >> brennan: you also served, what do you think? do you support no withdrawal in total? >> you know, what i would add to

what max is saying, what i think is lost a little bit in the discussion of trump strategy is this idea that we don't have a good plan with our allies are at as a country when we are moving forward with our traditional allies in nato, for example. that is when we're able to get the space to have diplomatic relations when we bring world to bear. and so, when we're in an era where we're treating our traditional adversaries better than air a l lice that is making it more and more difficult for us to operate from a point of power on the world scene. >> brennan: would you support a draw down? >> we need to talk about that. but i don't think you can do it say, as we just announced in syria just pulling out. you have to have that long-term strategy. that is a piece that's missing. >> brennan: congressman, this week, not only new week in congress but also the beginning it seems of the 200 presidential campaign season.

i know. get ready. you just got your own campaign, it's exhausting but it's beginning. who do you think as people who just ran competitive and succe successful races, how do you win as a democrat in 2020 in a presidential race? >> you know, i think the 00 will be about 2020 not about 2018. there are certainly lessons you can learn i think from some of our races. >> brennan: like what? >> there's a hunger out there for people who are willing to speak honestly, who aren't just poll tested and holding back on what they really think. hunger out there for people who are trying to solve problems instead of just carrying a partisan banner. the country n e division are growing. i think we need a uniter to be our nominee. >> brennan: do you have anyone in mind from your home state? >> i certainly like my former boss, leon castro, a friend of mine, mentor of mine. we havlof political talent in texas.

>> brennan: what about the rest of you? >> if i could just add one important thing. obvious that election season starting again, what we can't do is campaign in the halls of congress. when it comes to things like infrastructure and reducing health care costs, we can't say, i don't want to give this president a win because it might improve his chances in 200. >> brennan: is that what you think is happening now? >> there's the potential. we've only been governing now for 24 hours. potential say, man, there's all this opportunity for consensus think about draining the swamp, right? everybody is running on anti anti-corruption now, in order to do something we have to be bipartisan which means everyone is going to win. if all we're thinking about is 020 that is a big, big problem the american people are going to suffer. >> going to win as democrats we need to run the races broacoit,he we througstricts likmi 11thdirict of ere i ran with a broad coalition of people on issues

that everyone in my district from progressives to conservatives agree on. things like infrastructure, bringing down health care costs, things like really focusing on our environment and how we move forward now not in 50 years. making sure we have universal background checks for gun purchases. these are things that the majority of americans agree on. democrats always at their strongest point, focused on families and issues that are going to move people forward. >> brennan: all that have requires working with republican senate and republican president. all of you willing to do that? >> here is the shocking thing. 2016 and 2018 were not that different just different political parties. think what donald trump ran on. put the racist stuff aside, it's difficult, he spoke about infrastructure, spoke about drug costs, he wants protect medicare and social security, draining the swamp we ran on many of pele rigre unite that they want sensible solutions to deal with the things that really cause them pain and suffering.

now with all responsibility to actually do something about it. >> brennan: thank you very much for this conversation. i wish you all luck as lawmake lawmakers. welcome to washington. we'll be right back with our reporters' panel. but one blows them all out of the water. hydro boost from neutrogena®. with hyaluronic acid to plump skin cells so it bounces back. neutrogena® so it bounces back. i realize i love you, but as long as you're with jessica, there can never be anything between us. listen cassie, there's no need to cry. besides, i've got really great news. you're leaving jessica? no. i just saved a load of money on car insurance by switching to geico. i sa i thought that meant something to you. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. pain from a headache whcan make this...ld,

...feel like this. all-in-one cold symptom re from tylenol®, the #1 doctor recommended pain relief brand. tylenol®. >> brennan: for some political analysis, dan balz is chief correspondent for the "washington post," ed o'keefe is the political correspondent right here at cbs news, shannon pettypiece is white house repo reporter for bloomberg news and mark landler covers for us the "new york times." ed, i'll start with you. did you hear any points of agreement or were democrats and republicans talking past each other? >> two of their best people were talking past each other and elsewhere as well. the staff meetings that are happening this weekend with the vice president is chairing is usually the kind of thing you see on maybe day two or three of a shut down. we can forgive the holidays, we can forgive the fact that people weren't in town maybe that's the

whatre we on, day 16 now this continues to stretch out and given that they're still at that preliminary point but still only beginning to define what border security means to everybody, still define how 5.6 or 5.7 billion gets spent. congress doesn't get back until tuesday night, wednesday morning that would suggest going to have meeting maybe initial votes i'm thinking a week from today government will probably still shuttered unless something suddenly arises that forces them to move faster. >> brennan: senator durbin doesn't see a way to get to $5 billion. senator graham saying no wall, no deal. any point of agreement here? >> there's not at this point other than both sides believe in border security. >> brennan: whatever that means. >> whatever that means. and i think it is remarkable that we have gone now two plus weeks and there has been absolutely no indication of where the negotiating could actually take place.

every time they sit down they seem to be farther away than they were and more dug in. it feels as though each side still believes that this can be a win-lose proposition. i win, you lose. that's never the way these kind of things end. we'll see if this a different situation. >> brennan: the senate could say, this is all campaign 2020 that they're gesturing towards, immigration is one of those issues that divides people but it makes them emotional and fired up as well. is that actually a conversation about border security or is a conversation about politics? >> well, there is certainly a lot of politics in this because we know that for president trump the wall has been central to his political message. and i know there are democrats who believe that he will never make a deal because he wants the issue more than he wants the wall, if you will. that is part of the hump that you have to get over these negotiations. but with the government shut down there's going to have to be solution at some point, this can't go on indefinitely.

president talked about this could go on for months or years, it's not going on for years but we're confident of that. but the question is how long each side is prepared to hold out. what we'll get to it some point, i don't know when, there will be enough, if you will, pain and suffering and complaints and issues that pop up as a result of the hardships caused by government being shut down that will eventually force a soluti solution. >> brennan: shannon, is that the cal calculus? we didn't hear answers about what to do about these hundreds of thousands of american workers who are waiting for paychecks. >> right. at this point both sides think they have a winning hand politically. no one is facing any real political pressure part that have again, holidays people weren't paying that much attention but for white house, democrats, they're not really feeling any political pain at this point. so that changes. at the end of this coming week when friday when federal employees starting thee will start noticing getting passport

renewed, going to national park on the weekend, then you give political pressure starting to ratchet up. because the sides are so far apart i don't think this ends without one side caving under political pressure, right now no one is feeling it. and there's no urgency. >> brennan: mark, one of the other things that may not be breaking through but is a big headline is national security advisor in israel making an announcement that seems yet another change in syria policy. the president said he was pulling troops out in 30 days, then we stretched that to 1230 days. now what's being described as total indefinite stay of u.s. troops in syria. are people depend knowledge on -- >> it is interesting. though we have come full circle where from where president trump announced this pull out and put a 30 day deadline on it. i think there's probably a great deal of confusion at the pentagon i think it's not an accident that we have not seen e

out and speak publicly about what the strategy is in syria. there's been a great lack of sing cronies tee between the white house and pentagon the question i have now is, how in sync is the national security advisor with his own president. president trump just a few minutes ago on his way to camp david repeated what he said over and over again, the troops are going to come out of syria soon. that is a very different message than what john bolton had a few hours earl arier. some of the caveats that he pit in place, namely the one that we would not pull out our troops if there was any threat that the turks would go after our curdish allies, that is by all cdz standard that cannot be met at all in the short term, i think a lot of people in the pentagon are skeptical the turks can be relied on not to go after the kurds. i think that we're in a very -- a moment of deep confusion about where this policy goes but i have to say, it isn't keeping with what we've seen from

president trump on troop deployment and withdrawal issues almost from the beginning of his presidency. he will say something dramatic, indicate a desire to termination to pull out and then as the machinery of the national security apparatus grinds on, the timetable suddenly slow do down, a lot more complicated. his words meet reality on the ground and i think that is the moment we're at but must be a very confusing one for our allies and our our adversaries. >> brennan: it's not been clear if the order has been given to troops to not pull out because they had been ordered to pull out. we don't know what the secretary of defense will be, either. >> that's a very interesting question, because a number of the obvious candidates for the defense secretary job are actually people who went on record fairly strongly against president trump's troop pull o out. lindsey graham being obvious example. some of the top tier candidates don't appear to be on the same

page. there are some other names that are being ban deed about but i'm beginning that filling defendant secretary job will be a little bit like filling chief of staff job, which you'll recall lot of people turned it down, mick mulvaney only agreed on acting basis. i wouldn't be surprised the ac acting defense secretary, pat shanahan we see in that job. >> brennan: wouldn't get to hear congressional hearings and on the record an explanation to the american people. more to talk about on the other side of this commercial break. we'll be right backish a moment. sfx: squeak

sfx: stair creak sfx: clink sfx: deep breath sfx: grunt sfx: tinny headphone music sfx: feet shuffling sfx: slice sfx: gasp sfx: inhale. exhale. sfx: lights scraping on roof sfx: metallic scrape sfx: grunt covered california. it's more than just health care. it's life care. ed gets copays as lowlily go to as zero dollars on medicare part d prescriptions. ed gets labels clear as day. and, lily.... lily gets anything she wants. ed knows he could just have us deliver his prescriptions.

but what's the fun in that? switch to cvs pharmacy. >> brennan: we're back now with more from our reporters' panel. we saw this week campaign 2020 take off even though we just started 2019. elizabeth warren, senator throwing her hat in the bring. how do you see democrats defining themselves? >> that is such an interesting question because i think we are going to go through a period which is hunger among democratic activists to figure out who the best person to take on president trump in 2020 there's stuff a range of opinions on what that will be.

we saw in iowa this weekend tremendous crowds that turned out for elizabeth warren, i think that is emblematic of the interest that people have and desire to hear from the candidates. i think that people are approaching that with an open mind, we know this is going to be a very wide open race, there are a few people like elizabeth warren or vice president biden or bernie sanders who have standing and networks and certain amount of name identification. but there are all kinds of other people who are going to be in this with different kinds of messages. my sense is that people are going to be reluctant to jump too quickly to one candidate and get behind that candidate and they are going to say as they all talk about in iowa, they're going to kick those tires for some months as they watch and wait and listen to what people are doing. >> brennan: lots of exploring without declaring, ed? >> yeah. senator warren was the first -- second to do it, leon castro the former secretary will make it official next week end.

but where is everybody else, you might ask? they are still mulling it. we have at least seven democratic senators who are thinking about it, big city and small city mayors, governor in inslee of washington state is thinking about it. we'll see in the coming weeks continued discussions about people saying i'm still thinking about it. i heard story from somebody who met the former vice president at an event said to him, my mother really wants to you run. >> brennan: this is biden. >> biden said, what's her name? her number. the next day he called this woman's mother and they talked for about ten minutes and he asked, do you think i should run? yes, absolutely, you should, if you do i will volunteer. he asked all these reasons why. that happened. they're all doing this. got to be tremendous for their ego. but whether or not it actually results in them running and taking the plunge is another matter because they have to factor in, can i stand up against somebody like elizabeth warren who has name i.d.

i distinguish myself in the field that will feature numerous women, several different minority candidates, find a way to play in the south, play in california, in georgia all these other places. it's going to be a tremendous competition and one that i think a lot of people are surprised hasn't been joined by others yet but i think that is because they realize this is going to be a tremendous exercise for them. >> brennan: it sounds, shannon, campaigning in the halls of congress based on the run down of candidates. >> we talk about this at the white house they are very clearly in 2020 mode. we could say they were in 2020 mode two years ago, but the white house is transition can into 2020 mode. you have these democrats who are exploring, making first tri, not trump who has a real campaign infrastructure behind him. it's not the trump tower, papers flying all over the place, they have actual campaign they have

raised millions of dollars. they have a big data operation, they are out of the gate and running and democrats are still trying to find where the star starting line is and deciding if they are going in the race. they also feel like despite how much criticism and how unpopular the president might be, also feel like they have something to run on, the whole slogan for 2020 is this, promise of made, promises kept. you might not like the promises that he kept but they're going to say that he did what he said he was going to do. he was not one of those politicians who came to washington and did a flip flop. he did what he said. they feel like that's a strong hand to run on. >> your point about campaigning in congress that panel discussion you had with the freshmen members, three of those four replaced republicans and they will run in districts that favor republican candidates. to watch those kinds of democrats now in congress twist in the wind as candidates go out and talk about progressive tax

rate, medicare for all agreeing with the president maybe we should withdraw our forces from syria is going to be really difficult for a lot of these people to make a mark here and somehow deal with maybe 15, 20 people running for president and their party. it's going to make things quite uncomfortable. >> brennan: mark, one of the things to pick up on promises made, promises kept, something the president prides himself on doing it has been a challenge for some of his aids who say sometimes, you need to change with the information flow. when circumstances change. you can't just keep to the promise because it was part of the original brand. afghanistan, when the president had that cabinet meeting inof tr this week he made some unusual comments, "wall street journal" came down hard on him. >> the president said in essence that the soviet union has been right to invade afghanistan. he offered a series of reasons for that that were not factually based he said it was anti

anti-terrorism move, it really wasn't. and he also attributed the collapse of the soviet union to their adventures in afghanistan which is not right, not totally wrong but many other reasons for the collapses. but to get back to the political point you were raising, i think the troop withdrawal debate is an interesting one because it is true that he ran on withdrawing american troops from foreign conflicts. i think -- >> brennan: so did obama. >> so did obama as you say many democrats. what i don't think has been tested maybe at least i'd love to see it tested more is just how resonant an issue is getting out of foreign wars is for president trump's base. we know where his base is on the border wall, we know that's why he's sticking to the wall so hard. i think that also explains this issue before christmas to announce the troop withdrawal. will be interested to see a little more maybe researching to how much voters really compare about pulling troops out. >> brennan: good question. we'll be right back.

>> brennan: that's it for us today. thank you all for watching. until next week for "face the nation" i'm margaret brennan. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ suspect in court. a 20-year-old man has been charged with capital murder in the fatal drive-by shooting. >> they charge him with capital murder in the death of jazmin barns. president trump again threatens to go round congress as the stand off with democrats enters its third week. >> this is the first president in history who shut down his own government.he he's fighting for the otec oameric a