thanks for watching today. keep the conversation going on msnbc.com/hughhewitt. see you next week saturday morning on msnbc. now to my colleague alex witt. >> all right. a thank you for that, hugh hewitt. have a good saturday. good morning to all of you. i'm alex witt at msnbc word headquarters in new york at precisely the half hour. a live picture of capitol hill where the next half hour congress will begin new efforts to end this government shutdown. there's no clear indication of whether and when both parties will be able to compromise on the spending bill with both sides now hurling accusations a lot each other. house speaker paul ryan calling the shutdown a dangerous political ploy by senate democrats. minority leader nancy pelosi calling republicans in competent and negligent. and here's what don bacon and

yarmouth told me last hour. >> we have until march to fix the d.r.e.a.m.er program. no, people are losing their legal status every day. and it's only march 5th. so we're talking now six weeks. we have to get these things done. now, primarily we don't want to go through the entire fiscal year with a month-to-month funding mechanism. this is not how the military wants to function. general mattis already said this is a disaster for the military. if you're not nih, you don't know if your research will be funded month to month or week to week. this is the government. we can't function this way. >> i see this as a schumer shutdown. nancy pelosi said she was proud that the democrats stuck together and shut down government. our federal employees aren't getting paid. i think it is reckless. i think in the end people will

see that democrats wanted the shutdown. i think this is a sign of dysfunction. and i think our citizens deserve better. >> in just a moment, we're going to go to the white house with kristen welker. first, we are beginning with kasie hunt on capitol hill. kasie, with a good morning to you. all of this went down around midnight. walk us through what happened while many of us were sleeping. >> reporter: alex, good morning. lawmakers and most of us were at the capitol late into the night, really until a few hours ago as a what is usually a private drama played out on the floor trying to prevent the government from shutting down. ultimately, there was no deal. this morning the u.s. government closed for business. >> 50-49. >> reporter: lawmakers failing to strike a compromise on immigration. protection for so-called d.r.e.a.m.ers went south despite last-minute negotiations after the vote was called. the senate chamber a lot times tense.

party leaders huddling on and off the floor. but no deal. >> the american people should expect better. >> this is no way to conduct the nation's business. >> reporter: after weeks of finger pointing, on friday, a frantic race to cut a deal. earlier in the day, a promising sign. the president asking democratic leader chuck schumer to lunch at the white house. even after cheeseburgers together. >> we still have a good number of disagreements. the discussions will continue. >> reporter: still both sides said then that things were looking up. >> we're close enough we can get there if we just stay at it. >> i think that's a positive step. i understand not a lot was accomplished. >> reporter: high-stakes negotiations continuing through the day and late into the night. leaders meeting behind closed doors with white house aides. another call from the president to schumer about a temporary fix. outside the capitol, senate democrats firing up the base at a late night rally with d.r.e.a.m.ers before coming back inside to debate what to do. early in the evening, republicans were still hopeful.

>> what's going to happen tonight? think you we will shut down? >> if there's a shutdown, then we failed the country. i hope not. >> i think there will be some deal. i can't imagine we're going to shut down. just try to get there >> reporter: with just hours left on the clock, the president weighing in on twitter not optimistic. not looking good for our great military or on our safety on the southern border. dems want a shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the tax cuts and what they are doing for our booming economy. not finished until after midnight with no obvious path forward. the blame game already beginning. >> government shutdown was 100% avoidable. the senate democrats chose to filibuster a noncontroversial funding bill. >> there is no one, no one who deserves the blame for the position we find ourselves in more than president trump. >> reporter: in the end, out of time.

d.r.e.a.m.ers still hanging in the balance. at this hour, it is just not clear how this all ends. it could start potentially in the house of representatives. they come back in session at 9:00 a.m. big meetings at 10:00 a.m. we expect they may strt to talk about doing a shorter term funding bill to try to open the doors of government back up. really at this point we just don't know what comes next. alex? >> all right, kasie, thank you for that report. the president is at the white house this morning, but he wasn't planning on spending his weekend there. he was supposed to be celebrating the first anniversary of his presidency. that is today. that is at his mar-a-lago resort. he is tweeting democrats giving him an anniversary president. kristen welker, with a good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, alex. the finger pointing had begun even before there was a shutdown. now this morning it's only escalating. the president is trying to put the blame squarely on democrats in a series of, tweets, alex.

safety in our dangerous southern border. and then the second tweet which you just read accusing democrats of playing politics, saying this is the one year anniversary of my presidency and the democrats wanted to give me a present, democrat shutdown. the president has shifting views when it comes to a shutdown, alex. during a spending tweet in may he said it would be good for the country. there is real concern about the political costs to republicans and to this president. after all, they control the white house and both chambers of congress. alex, as you mentioned, the president was scheduled to be in mar-a-lago to celebrate the one year anniversary of his inauguration. now that is postponed. what is on tap today? likely the president will be

working the phones, trying to twist arms behind the scenes trying to get this mess cleared up, alex. >> so then what you're saying is unless there is a deal, that president is not going to be flying south to florida and greeting his supporters who have paid a pretty hefty price to be with him this evening. >> right. at least $100,000 a ticket for individuals, alex. it goes up for couples. that is the thinking right now. that the optics would just be too bad for the president to be at mar-a-lago celebrating while the government is shutdown, that he needs to be here, working on trying to resolve this issue. this was announced yesterday. remember, he was supposed to depart yesterday. he is supposed to be there by now, alex. but really he's critical to the process. there was a temporary glimmer of hope when he invited chuck schumer to the white house. they had cheese burgers together. there was a sense that something

was being worked out behind the scenes. based on all of our reporting, they were close to getting something done, alex. but close wasn't good enough. we saw it all fall apart last night. >> we did indeed. kristen welker, thank you from the white house. >> reporter: thanks, alex. joe watkins, former white house aide to george h.w. bush "the new pc" practical consideration" and rick tyler, former cruz campaign spokesman and co-founder of foundry strategies. with a welcome to all three of you. as always on a regular super busy saturday morning this time, right? i'm going to zerlina first. this government standoff, how much is it about politics versus policy? break that down. >> i think it is mostly about politics. but there are important policies that both sides were negotiating over. we're in a really cynical moment. republicans are trying to say

democrats don't want to support chip funding. chip expired three months ago. what was holding up republicans from putting a clean chip bill on the floor. that would have passed easily. nothing. they waited until this moment when there was a crisis that was manufactured by the president by taking away daca and having all of these d.r.e.a.m.ers basically living in limbo. and they attached it to this necessary funding bill to say democrats only care about d.r.e.a.m.ers and illegal immigrants and don't care about the chip kids. pinning essentially d.r.e.a.m.ers against chip. i think when we're in this moment of purely cynical politics, it can be very disheartening as a citizen. republicans are going to own the shutdown because they literally control everything. so they can't say democrats are creating a mess in washington and it is so dysfunctional. when you're in charge, you own it. >> joe, i want to play what

chuck schumer said about all the events that led to the shutdown. let's listen in. >> during the meeting, an exchange for strong daca protections, i reluctantly put the border wall on the table for discussion. even that was not enough to entice the president to finish the deal. there is no one, no one who deserves the blame for the position we find ourselves in more than president trump. >> what do you make of that, joe? >> well, i think that what zerlina said is right on point. when you have the majority in the senate, the house and the white house, the burden is on you if you can't get the deal done. they said it rests at the feet of the gop. he's absolute lit right. it does. even though you needed 60 votes is in that vote to avoid a shutdown last night and they

weren't able to get it, the burden is is still on the republicans. the republicans have to learn to work with democrats. because a government shutdown is neither practical nor considerate. we don't have a good track record of doing that so far. if you look at the tax reform bill, there were no hearings, no democrat input on that. it is time for republicans and democrats to work together. and clearly they need to work together to get this deal done. president trump needs to show that he is the deal maker that he says he is by actually bringing the parties into the room and getting them to do the deal. and mitch mcconnell ought to know what the president thinks, by the way. >> but, joe, zerlina brought up the point that really republicans they did give in on chip. they gave six years to the democrats on chip. so they're saying -- i mean, what do they put democrats stuck between a rock and a hard place. you have to choose support for d.r.e.a.m.ers or children who need health insurance. >> health insurance matters, and

of course d.r.e.a.m.ers matter. they both matter. so it shouldn't be one way or the other. >> what about this new poll that shows 48% of americans are blaming the president and the republicans for the government shutdown. given reps control both the house and the senate, is it fair? who do you think deserves most of the blame here? >> let's start with some facts, policy facts. first of all, daca had nothing to do with the government spending bill. the democrats could have voted for a bill on the floor. there was nothing controversial about it. if they did that, the government wouldn't have shut down. let's get to the politics. the politics is chuck schumer and the democrats believe that the president, given his remarks, looks like a racist. and they're going to go to the wall for the d.r.e.a.m.ers. what will be remembered in the future is not that the government shutdown or who shut it down, whether the president is to blame or republicans or democrats are to blame. people will remember millions of d.r.e.a.m.ers and hispanics and

their children will all remember that democrats went to the wall for hispanics. they're trying to lock up this vote for not only this cycle but future cycles. it is cynical. it is politics. it may be good politics. chip was a bargain approximating chip. that's all it was. getting the democrats to come on board to get this funding passed. make no mistake, if the president's poll ratings were in the 60s and 70s, no way the democrats would go to the wall on this. they would do exactly what the president wants. the problem is he doesn't have any political capital, any political leverage. and chuck schumer is undermining all of these things in one bill. they will not remember daca is not part of the budget plan because people don't pay that close attention. when they have to pay attention, someone will get fired. i think that will happen to the republicans next fall. >> zerlina, i want to look at the poll, the way americans look at daca.

56% of the people say we have to reach a deal on government funding. that is more important on daca. does that give an indication where this may go? are democrats going to risk their support all for daca? >> yeah. well, no, i don't think they will risk their support by supporting daca. 87% of americans, according to polls, support daca and protection of d.r.e.a.m.ers. you're on the right side when you have 87% of the american people. >> they don't want a government shutdown? >> they don't want a government shutdown over that. but when you have president trump in the white house last week for the reality tv moment where he had an hour long bipartisan meeting saying bring me a deal, i'll sign it. then they brought him a deal and he said s-hole countries. president trump essentially did have specific actions that brought us to this point. so i think that, you know, i do agree with rick that this is a cynical moment on both sides. but i think donald trump owns a

lot of this because he said bring me a deal. they brought him a deal. and he didn't accept it because he is listen to go people like steven miller and tom cotton instead of doing what's right for the american people. >> all right. we'll take a break. we'll talk about poll numbers one year into the presidency and who the most popular trump is coming up. up next, the russia investigation. why was the house intelligence committee prevented from interviewing hope hicks? and next hour, questions of morality about the president. i'm going to speak with trump supporter reverend franklin graham. mom,

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white house communications director hope hicks did not appear before the house intelligence committee yesterday. her interview was postponed with very short unless. joining me now natasha bertrand with the liatlantic magazine. congratulation to you. >> they are centering around this testimony that hope hicks was supposed to give on friday. now, adam schiff has released a statement last night saying they were trying to derail the entire investigation by postponing hicks's testimony. it was because investigators are trying to work out on with the white house what she can and cannot answer. we saw with steve bannon's testimony earlier last week

there was a lot of conflicts because he kept invoking executive privilege. it was unclear what the cope of questions would be allowed to be in terms of what the intelligence committee could wi. now schiff is putting the blame on republicans. republicans are saying he's out of line. this has nothing to do with the white house. but the democrats are very skeptical of that because there's been so much partisan in-fighting among the committee over the last year. >> so i want to look at what happened yesterday with "in touch" magazine when it published its interview with stormy daniels, falling into allegations to payments of the adult film star who reportedly had an affair with mr. trump ten years ago. does this story raise concerns about allegations in the christopher steele dossier? >> absolutely. the story makes it much more plausible that the things that

the dossier says that president trump did when he was in moscow in 2013, going to hotel rooms with russian prostitutes, you know, various salacious accusations from the dossier, just makes those allegations all the more plausible. but it also raises questions about the potential for blackmail. which of course is raising alarm in the national security community. because you know it really is unclear how far the president and all of his men will go to kind of conceal misbehavior. and if they did, you know, set up llc's and pay hush money to certain people, does that put them in a position where foreign adversaries and for countries in general would be able to leverage it and hold it over the president in this administration. >> a little bit of brevity regarding this interview, but thank you so much. after a year in office, a member of the president's family, who is the most popular? you might be surprised by this one. when this bell rings... ...it starts a chain reaction...

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a new poll from the nbc news/"wall street journal" this morning, highlighting how polarizing the president's first year has been. people were asked how they felt about the first year. those who approved the job he's doing as president responded positive, excellent, accomplished a lot. also in the mix, the remark quit tweeting so much. now those who disapproved called it a disaster. embarrassing and chaotic and there are several references to perceptions of racism. let's bring back in selena maxwell, joe watkins and rick tyler. i'm curious to hear how each of you would describe the president's first year as president. you're here next to me, you go first. >> chaos, we've had a year of chaos ending in a shutdown. as the result of really chaotic negotiations. so i think that the president has failed as being the negotiator in chief as he ran on and the businessman who could get things done. and we've just had a year of in-fighting and chaos, that's not surprising. >> to that, the art of the deal, he's not been able to make a deal on this so far.

>> hey joe what were you going to use? >> i just, what happened in charlottesville was terrible. i thought the president missed an opportunity to stand up and say he supports civil rights and he's against nazis and white nationalists and racists. he could have taken that opportunity. but he missed it. he takes, he gets a plus for tax reform. he'll say that he got rid of the individual mandate. he'll say that he named a supreme court justice. but the tweets have been very polarizing and it hasn't been a good year for race relations. >> i'm going to take the polarizing from you. do you have a word, rick? >> lost potential. joe's right, there's some good things and also the defeat of isis is a territorial holder. the core deregulation was good, tax cuts were good. but he's not a deal-maker, he's a brand manager but he's done a terrible job with his brand this

yo year, being at 40%. the president could do so much better and get a lot more done if he could just control himself. >> i'm going to tell you the answer to the question of who is the most popular trump? it is -- melania. 48% favorability rating. no time to ask you guys questions about that i'm going to assume you're not surprised. thank you, good to see all three of you. appreciate that. the households a rare session with the federal government shutdown. but the senate won't reconvene until noon. a live report from capitol hill next.

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