ast. when life keeps you up... zzzquil helps you fall asleep in as little as 20 minutes. tonight washington is broken again. your politicians are failing you again. and you probably think it's the same old story, but it's not. we've never seen anything like this in modern times. the president is a republican, the house and the senate are republican, but the president seems to want to make a deal with a democrat, and the president's own inner circle doesn't trust him enough to let him. this is k.c., d.c. good evening. i'm kasie hunt broadcasting live tonight from the russell rotunda, the senate office building just a stone's throw

from where at this very hour senate leaders are scrambling to try and figure out how to avoid day three of a shutdown. in a sign of progress, chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell met at the capital. the first time they've spoken since friday, under pressure to end this. that came on the heels of a bigger bipartisan meeting earlier in the day. >> when was the last time you saw 22 senators meeting day after day, and the number of senators keeps growing with each meeting that we have? and each one of them is committed to getting to a solution. >> it is absolutely our goal to make sure that there are discussions today with opportunities for compromise yet tonight. and so that is absolutely critical that we not continue this, number one, on behalf of the country, but i think also resolution gets more difficult the longer we wait. >> senators jeff flake and

lindsey graham have been leading the high stakes game of shuttle diplomacy inside the u.s. capital. with mcconnell and schumer barely speaking through the weekend, graham and flake have been trying to find a way out of the mess by convincing mcconnell to all but abandon the president. >> we can't any more, you know, say that we'll only move forward if the president moves forward. and if he's with us. we just can't do that. this president has changed his mind several times on this, i will say that. >> somebody's got to lead. the white house staff has been pretty unreliable. the house is locked in. so, i think the senate is the best body to lead the country to a result. >> an excellent choice of hat there from senator lindsey graham. what could break the impasse? a public promise to put an immigration bill on the senate floor by february 8, regardless of whether the president will say he supports it. the current deadline, 1:00 a.m., when the senate is set to hold another critical vote to reopen government. if it happens earlier, you'll

know they've found a way out. but for now there has been no breakthrough. so, we wait. >> first problem in a government shutdown is you get to be dumb, not dumber. that's the best you can hope for, is to be dumb, not the dumbest guy in the room. >> joining me tonight in moments senator bennett who is sick of governing by continuing resolution. later chris coons will bring us the latest from inside his party's negotiations happening right now. plus congressman mark meadows, does getting the government back open run through him and his freedom caucus in the house? plus congressman charlie dent, in 2013 he reached across the aisle with his own plan to keep the government open. will he and other moderates try again? all day there have been hints of breaking this logjam, of course, including the latest round of meetings. so, joining me now to break it all down is senator bennett of colorado. senator bennett, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us tonight. >> thank you for having me

>> i know none of you expected to be here late on sunday evening. tell us where things stand. is there any hope of this logjam breaking tonight and not having a shutdown? >> i think a lot of people here hope that's true. i'm one of those people. i'd like us to reopen the government, continue the discussions that we're having on a whole range of issues, not just immigration, but we'll just have to see what happens later tonight. >> senator schumer came out of this meeting with mitch mcconnell. neither one of them said much about what was going on. but our sources tell us that there was -- they're not log jammed, so to speak, while they did not make a deal. do you think it's realistic to think that tonight somebody could come out and say, hey, we're going to vote for this continuing resolution that we go through the eighth? >> there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to be in that position as long -- because there is not a mystery here what's at stake. we've got four months of negotiations that i was part of to try to address the president's concerns about immigration. but also resolve the issue for the dreamers. and we've got that work. we know where we need to be on

the caps, the budget caps. we know where we need to be on c.h.i.p.. and so i think we ought to be able to get it done. now, this place makes a practice of making everyone's life as miserable as possible. i'm not talking about the senators, but the american people as well. and often sells for the lowest common denominator deal. that's what i've seen year after year after year for ten years. so, that could also happen. >> i feel like i should ask you, do you plan on running for election to come back to such a miserable place. >> well, we need to fix it. >> what do you think -- what kind of commitment do democrats need? what does chuck schumer need from mitch mcconnell in order to have you all support the shorter-term resolution? is it mcconnell going to the floor and saying, i'll do this? what would it take? >> probably won't surprise you to know there is probably a range of view in my caucus, which is why i hope we'll have a caucus meeting tonight to discuss it. what we can't continue to do is kick this can down the road. we just can't do it any more. the president in september

stripped the dreamers of their status, and the march 5th deadline is looming and we don't do anything well around here ever at the last minute. so, i think we need to find a way to assure that we're going to continue to work to resolve that issue as well as deal with other really important things like in colorado, we're trying very hard to make sure that we get the forest service budget turned around so we can deal with the fire fighting that we've had to do all throughout the west, not just my state. >> of course. i want to show you there is a pretty tough ad out from the president's campaign focus the on the shutdown. let's take a look and we'll talk about t. >> [ bleep ] >> that's illegal immigrant charged with murdering two police officers. >> you killed [ bleep ]. >> it's pure evil. president trump is right. build the wall. deport criminals. stop illegal immigration now. democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants. president trump will fix our

border and keep our families safe. >> i'm donald trump, and i approve this message. >> that ad is produced by an outside group and -- >> donald j. trump is an outside group? donald j. trump for president is an outside group? >> is not done -- is done from a political organization. it's not not done for people working inside the white house. >> i think we can safely say that was not an outside group. that's a pretty tough message. what is your response to that ad? >> i say that's appalling. i don't say its a democrat or republican. i say it as an american. the president should be trying to bring the country together than dividing us. it's unconscionable and stupid for him to do it in the middle of these negotiations. at least he was honest to put his name on t. it wasn't an ad that said we're children for super pac -- >> do you feel like democrats have overplayed their hand at this stage? when you guys were cheer led into doing this. you had activist groups but

broader parts of the democratic base saying stand up for this, shut this down, don't fight. are you hearing from them? are they cheering you on still or has that kind of gone silent? >> well, they really want to get something done here because they're not -- for them, this isn't political. they've got a bunch of kids they represent. >> doesn't it seem like you stand to lose out politically from this? does this seem like it's going to be a bad move for democrats in the end? >> i think, speaking personally now, i think the fact that we have had 36 continuing resolutions which are temporary budgets for the ten years that i've been here, four since this fiscal year began, the fact that we can't pass a real budget and haven't since i've been here, which has meant we have aircraft that the air force has, marine corps has they can't fly because they can't get parts. we can't train our pilots. >> what do you say to people, though he, the president is being told according to reports late tonight democrats are really feeling the pressure of this and that chuck schumer has to cave at some point. do you think that assessment is correct? >> i think that when you're in a situation where the president

who needs to be part of this negotiation can't state what his negotiating principles are, or restates the negotiating principles every, every, every day, when the white house is run by the president, the senate is run by republicans, the house is run by the republicans, it's nuts to say that they don't have responsibility for this. but the more important question is how are we going to get out of this and how are we going to get into a place where we're actually doing the people's business instead of this nonsense every month or every two weeks or every one week, or every six weeks. and instead, can give some predictability to the people in my state who depend on these federal programs, give the military the predictability we need and plan for the future. while we're sitting here shutdown, the iranians are waiting for us to figure this out. the chinese aren't waiting for us to figure this out. the russians aren't waiting for this to figure out. >> there is a lot else to worry in the world. senator, thank you for your time

tonight. keep us posted, fipgers crossed on behalf of all of our viewers out there. again thanks very much. >> in the russell building, it looks a lot better than it is these days. >> thank you. i disagree. i like being here. but so far we're going to keep moving on. republican leaders have said no negotiations over immigration until the government reopens. here is vice-president mike pence in jordan visiting men and women in uniform, breaking with precedent and not leaving politics at the water's edge. >> in the senate has decided to play politics with military pay. but you deserve better. you and your families shouldn't have to worry for one minute about whether you're going to get paid, as you serve in the uniform of the united states. so, know this. your president, your vice-president, and the american people are not going to put up with it. [ applause ] >> and then there was this last night from the president's son.

>> the only reason they want to shutdown government is to distract and to stop his momentum. honestly, i think it's a good thing for us, you know, judge, because people see through it. i mean, people have seen a year that's incredible, that's been filled with nothing but the best for our country. america first policies, and they're happy with where we are as a nation. >> but we have not yet heard from the president himself. the white house released these photos of him phone in hand at his desk, empty desk, and he's tweeted, quote, great to see how hard republicans are fighting for our military and safety at the border. the dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unk4ekd. if stalemate continues, republicans should go to 51%, nuclear option and vote on real long term budget, no crs. the white house said the president has spoken with kevin mccarthy and john cornyn and chief of staff john kelly has spoken with leader ryan and mcconnell. but they say he's not talking to democrats.

as for the president's role in ongoing negotiations, here's what senator susan collins had to say this afternoon. >> what about president trump, do you need president trump to be involved in this process, senator? senator? >> the senate is an institution of its own and i think we should proceed on what we believe is the best route forward. >> i want to bring in nbc's mike vakara. mike, from your reporting you've been running around in the halls all day all weekend with the rest of our team up here. >> yeah. >> where do things stand as of this hour? i know mcconnell and schumer, their meeting broke up just a little while ago. >> right. kasie, i think one of the positive things that we can take from today is what didn't happen. we didn't see a lot of press conferences. we saw mcconnell and schumer take the floor when the senate opened somewhat, six hours ago, and do the usual per funktery bashing of each other. went through their message points. afterwards they were laughing and talking with each other when

the cameras panned away. you are absolutely right. the public posturing of this may be nearing an end. i've never seen a time, kasie, in my time here walking these halls whether it's the last few days, the last few years when senators have been so disgusted with themselves. we saw michael bennett in your interview a moment ago, i think reflected that. lindsey graham, he in his orange had wandered across the second floor of the capital a few minutes ago, kasie, and he echoed the same thing. this is not our finest hour. those 22 senators that have been gathering in susan collins' office i think share a common conviction this is not a good look for the senate. they want the federal government to reopen before the workweek begins in ernest tomorrow morning at daybreak and it sinks into people across the country who may be otherwise occupied watching football over whatever over the course of the weekend. you're right, schumer and mcconnell did meet. we believe it was off the senate floor, far away from cameras. their aides were very mum.

we hardly saw either of those leaders over the course of the last few hours. they are trying to get something done, trying to extract that promise that those moderates say they want that mitch mcconnell will move something on immigration, some sort of concrete guarantee that something will move on immigration. it leaves open a number of questions. what about the base that you were asking michael bennett about? will they be satisfied? will chuck schumer be satisfied with this? after all, what do they get out of it if it's sort of a wink and nod? certainly chuck schumer wouldn't accept that from the president after yesterday. he took to the senate gallery in a press conference and said negotiating with the president is like negotiating with jello. a lot of moving parts here, and still some question over who is authorized to make a deal. we haven't started talking about the house, whether paul ryan would be interested at all in taking up any kind of immigration bill that came from the senate if in fact it were to clear the senate. kasie? >> right, ryan signaling today they would potentially do this

three weeks c.r. continuing resolution to keep the doors open. i think your point is well taken, seeing as typically the house is where immigration measures have gone to die in recent years. mike vakara, thank you so much. keep us posted throughout the night. still to come, we have much more from capitol hill as congress renegotiates to reopen the government. going to bring in my panel, plus michelle grish a.m., chair of the congressional hispanic caucus. and later, what, if anything, did we learn from the last shutdown? who stands to lose the most? plus, we are joined by former senator saxby champe bliss. kasie d.c. live from washington. back after a short break. createg this extravagant? or make a back seat that feels nothing like a back seat? why give it every feature you could want, along with a few you didn't know you needed? it's simple. you can build a car, or you can build a cadillac. come in now for this exceptional offer on the cadillac ct6. get this low-mileage lease on this 2018 cadillac ct6

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i wasn't aware that the jerry springer show was in syndication. the way we've done things around here the past ten years, pretty much sucks. you put a gun to my head and said make a bet, i'd make a bet but try to layoff most of it. that's the reason aliens won't talk to us. they look at us, god, this is the united states congress. my constituents felt for a long time our country was founded by geniuses but being run by idiots. i'd like to go back to america but i'm stuck in washington, d.c. and i'm going to stay here and get this done. >> if you're a student of senator john kennedy like we are here in kasie d.c., this has been a graduate level course. welcome back to kasie d.c. we are in the russell rotunda in

capitol hill. joining me eli stokols. also with me correspondent for pbs news hour, yamiche alsendor. i'm going to put you on the spot and ask if you think the government will be shutdown tomorrow. late night negotiations have any hope? >> i tried to stop making predictions january of last year. >> 2016, you and me both. >> i would predict that this doesn't end tonight. >> yamiche? >> i don't predict this ends tonight mainly because both sides seem so dug in on what they want out of this. and the white house seems to be pretty much not playing a huge role here, which even though it's going to at some point have to come down to what does donald trump actually want. fchl senators in the room talking with the white house sticking in their heels, i don't understand how they wouldn't make that deal. >> let's explore a little bit. you say what does donald trump actually want. my central question is donald trump seems to want one thing when he's in the room with chuck schumer and then somebody else seems to talk him out of it.

which is the truer trump self? i think to a certain extent he's being pushed by hard liners to a place he doesn't want to go. >> they're the hard liners we didn't always identify as hard liners. john kelly was supposed to be someone to soften the president, be considered the adult in the room. we're starting to see the john kelly head of dhs have hard line immigration stances i think he pushes the president on. the most remarkable thing i heard all weekend was when chuck schumer said to you donald trump put a number on the table for his border wall, chuck schumer said yes you can you can have it, he reneged on the deal. that is remarkable because it shows if donald trump got what he he wanted and turned around and reneged, i have no idea what he wants and chuck schumer doesn't know what he wants. >> $20 billion for a border wall, that's a lot of money. why doesn't he want that? you have to step back and look at the inaction from the white house and conclude -- and the way that this president, whether he's a weather vein or some calculation to it, all the

whiplash and mixed signals sent out leading up to the shutdown, you have to step back from this and wonder if they're not okay with where things are, if they think this isn't leveling the playing field politically. you have to ask because of the wall deal, schumer put $20 billion on the table and they said no, does this president really want to build the wall or do they want to retain that as an issue and say democrats wouldn't let us build this wall. >> it seems remarkable to me, in some ways a sign of the pressure chuck schumer is under he has been willing to publicly go out and say i'll build the wall. luis said how high. i want to look at something al cardenas had to say to chuck todd on "meet the press." let's take a look and then chat about it. >> no one in our party is saying, look, i'm not for this bill, but i've got a lot of empathy for these million families. i mean, look, i can see why somebody would not have -- would not be for this policy. 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 never met a dreamer and yet she's going to deport a million people, 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 a presidential candidate's support is, do you care -- does he care about me? >> i have to say, when you listen to republicans who are very connected to these immigrant communities, marco rubio, carlos, others, they talk about this issue in a completely different way than the white house is talking about it. the white house is using the phrase "chain migration." they are using more numbers than anything else, not necessarily talking about these kids as people sometimes. that does seem like a shift to me because when we started this debate, republicans were saying, hey, we really want to help these kids. >> this was litigated in the 2016 campaign. i see al cardenas on television. i think back to when i was calling him and he was helping jeb bush out, remembering the republican primary, jeb bush was articulating the exact same

position on immigration, trump wiped the floor with these people. not by conveying empathy to the country, but to the hard line some semblance of strength by democr demagoguing. when you bring clips like that, you say what about this? they say, we won, this is settled. >> we won with that. i can't help but think that part of why mitch mcconnell keeps saying we want the president to weigh in on this, the republicans in this body are terrified to do anything without cover from their hard line president. >> i think that that's true, but i also think that additionally that these dreamers are really appealed to each individual senator, these young people have showed up with their t-shirts and for years and years and years to explain their specific stories. i think the republican senators and republican congress people have actually had way more experience actually meeting these people in town hall meetings. so, i think there is also this idea, there is a movement dreamers had that was really about humanizing dreamers,

humanizing people saying if this was your kid that was brought here, what would you want them? that flies in the face of how donald trump ran. the rnc did this big report that told them they needed to be -- they need to essentially embrace immigration embrace diversity. donald trump won and that got blown up. now essentially donald trump doesn't really feel any pressure from that community. >> in the last 24 hours, we have seen a major shift in democrats' approach to the wall as we were talking about and negotiating with the president. here's congressman luis gutierrez. >> this is not about a wall because if it were about a wall, as despicable, as hurtful as degrading i feel a wall really is about symbolically, because i don't really believe it's about security. it's about saying to latinos and to people from latin america, you're not welcome, you're dangerous, it's not about a wall. we'll build them a wall. tell us how high he wants it.

but free the dreamers. >> tell us how high. let's bring in the chairwoman of the congressional hispanic caucus, democratic congresswoman michelle grisham. thank you for being here tonight. i really appreciate it. >> thank you, kasie. >> i want to start by asking you about your recent meeting with the white house chief of staff john kelly. can you explain to our viewers a little bit about when you met with him, how that fits into all of these negotiations to reopen the government? and what did the two of you talk about? >> so, that meeting occurred early last week. i think it was tuesday. that meeting was based on general kelly's request. we've had several meetings before that. i can telling you that the conversations were a bit tense. this conversation had a whole different tone, but general kelly did not offer anything and we asked repeatedly. we've given [ inaudible ]. we've given you for daca. we've been negotiating buy camera. everything you said generally

that you wanted, and yet we don't seem to have the right kind of movement or signal from the white house. and he really didn't give us much in terms of specifics, except, as you know, he indicated that the campaign candidate trump was far different than president trump. and he really tried to minimize in that meeting that we were really talking about a 20 to $30 billion 2000-mile structure, a wall. and so, as you know, it changes every single day. >> congresswoman, do you agree with luis gutierrez and with chuck schumer? do you think that the wall should be built if dreamers can stay here? >> so, the position of our hispanic caucus and my position -- i've got legislation, build bridges, not walls -- is a wall is unnecessary, impractical, and doesn't do any of the things we want it to do. but clearly makes a statement about the united states. but doesn't it indicate and fly in the face of so many hard line

republicans in the white house who have said that democrats can't move on any of these issues? if you have luis gutierrez, one of the most ardent champions of immigration community rights and issues related to immigration reform who says, we will do whatever it takes to meet you on your issues if it means that we are going to protect these dreamers, tells you that they are not negotiating in good faith and they are not providing the bipartisan work or the work of democrats any space for success. and luis and schumer are clearly indicating that they are willing to do that. >> do you think that chuck schumer should not put the border wall on the table? do you think that was the wrong move? >> you know, i wasn't in that room, so i don't know what any of those conversations were. and i don't have the language of the durbin/graham proposal. i don't think spending that kind of money on a wall makes any sense if the real issues by many reasonable republicans is we

have to have an operational and secure border, then it makes no sense at all. but i do appreciate that there are signals by democrats that there is openness to try to provide proposals, so there may be structures that we need to reinforce or add along the border. and if that's what that meeting meant, well, then, i think that many members of the hispanic caucus and many democrats would be open to those ideas. but the devil is in those details. and, again, the white house, we never know what it is that they want. so, it tells me they don't want any of this. they created the daca crisis. that was done on purpose. democrats gave them a three-month c.r. to keep government open so they could address this and many other issues, and they won't do it. >> congresswoman -- >> they're using this for cover. >> do you think that this shutdown is worth it? >> a trump shutdown, for me, none of this should be

happening. they did this to americans, and i -- we gave them, members of house and members of the senate, gave republicans who as you know control both chambers, countless opportunities to do a multitude of things that would keep the government open. >> so is that a yes, it's worth it? >> no, it is reflecting right back. why would they do this to all of us? what's worth it is if this gets the white house clearly engaged to tell republican leadership to give us a vote on a multitude of things that would open up government and would solve the daca problem, that would be amazing. but the trump administration is unwilling to do that and this is what they got. and i'm appalled that we are right here right now in this environment. >> congresswoman, michelle luhan grisham, thank you very much, i appreciate it. >> thank you, kasie.

>> my panel is sitting tight. when we return we're going to talk to saxby chambliss. as we go to break, this ugly confrontation from last time around in 2013. we're back after this. >> i'm sorry, the park service is, as someone who worked at this site, i'm sorry that you feel this way. >> people traveled with their family and how do you look at them and say, how do you deny them access? i don't get that. >> it's difficult. >> it should be difficult. >> it is difficult. i'm sorry, sir. >> park service should be ashamed of themselves. >> i'm not ashamed. >> you should be. >> this woman is doing her job just like me. i'm a 30-year federal veteran. i'm out of work. >> the reason you are is mr. reid -- >> no, it's because the government won't do its job and pass a budget.

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join today for free. we can now simulate the exact anatomyh care, of a patient's brain before surgery. if we can do that, imagine what we can do for seizures. and if we can fix damaged heart valves without open heart surgery, imagine what we can do for an irregular heartbeat, even high blood pressure. if we can use analyze each patient's breast cancer to personalize their treatment, imagine what we can do for the conditions that affect us all. imagine what we can do for you. welcome back to kasie d.c. we are live from capitol hill. as lawmakers look for a way frant frantically to open the federal government tonight, there were dire warnings what would happen politically if the government were shutdown in 2013 if that happened. by the end of october that year,

approval of congress hung at just 12%. when people in the washington post abc were asked how they felt about their congress members, they got higher marks. 54 president disapproved of president obama's a perform ans, 67% disapproved of the tea party. 77% disapproved of hill republicans overall. by march republicans were leading on the generic congressional ballot and one year after the shutdown in november, republicans took back control of the senate, undoing the wave of democrats who had been elected with president obama in 2008. and of course ted cruz, one of the people who was most directly blamed for the 2013 shutdown, went on to be one of the last men standing in the race for president. when all was said and done, he returned home to texas, getting a hero's welcome. this was after the shutdown, in

an eight-minute standing ovation. >> and having spent the past month up in d.c., it is really great to be back in america. [ applause ] >> the house republicans marched into battle courageously. and the senate republicans should have come in like the calvary to support them. unfortunately, a significant chunk of senate republicans instead came like the air force and began bombing the house republicans, our own troops. >> joining me now is one of the men who was in the middle of all of that, former republican senator of georgia sax saxby chambliss. we miss seeing you in the halls. we bummed into each other a few weeks or months ago. thanks for coming on the show tonight. >> sure, kasie, good to be with you. >> talk us through how you think this ends. do you think that democrats are ultimately going to decide this was the wrong move politically?

>> no, i don't think they'll suck it up and do that. kasie, i've been through any number of shutdowns during my 20 years in congress. and nobody ever wins in a shutdown. in fact, everybody loses. but the people that lose the most are the american people. they're expensive. they cost us militarily, in every department. it's simply expensive and it really works on the morale of the people that do the hard work of running the government every day. so, politics being politics, we know we're going to have this situation from time to time, but what i'm hopeful of is that instead of putting out our military and our folks who do the day-to-day operations of running the government, that our members of the house and members of the senate say, okay, let's give another two weeks, another three weeks. we are the ones that ought to be sacrificing and not the american

people. it's just go 24/7, whatever it takes and let's iron this out. there's a lot of common ground here. there are very few peripheral issues that have caused the shutdown. and this is one time that they really do need to step back from it and say, let's just sit down in the room together and let's shut the door and let's don't open it until we resolve these periphery issues that continue to divide us. >> sir, you were in the house of representatives in 1995 when there was a shutdown then, and you were of course here, we walked through the 2013 shutdown. in both of those cases, the white house and congress were controlled by different parties. this one, republicans are in charge across the board. what's different about this shutdown than previous ones? >> well, you're right. the democrats were in charge of the senate in 2013 when we had our last shutdown, and i was in the middle of that. and we had a democratic president, a democratic senate, and a republican house.

but the democrats in the senate did not have 60 votes, much like what you've got now. even though republicans are in control in the senate, it takes 60 votes to get anything done on the legislative calendar, and that's what they're dealing with. so, democrats as a minority party have a lot of rights and privileges under the senate rules. i hope nothing provokes a change in that, even though we're going through tough times right now. but that's all the more reason that they ought to step back and say, let's just resolve these differences and we're going to give you something, you give us something. the problem with that, kasie, is -- and this is part of my frustration and what caused me to leave in 2015 -- compromise is now a four-letter word in washington. and the longer this goes, the more difficult it's going to be to find that common ground and to find compromise. >> sir, you've worked for -- you did work for many years with the

majority leader mitch mcconnell. what is your advice to him? should he step -- put the senate out there on his own and leave president trump behind in this negotiation? >> mitch is a very smart politician. in my opinion, i think when you look at what he's had to deal with, he's done a very good job of leading republicans in the senate. i was a supporter of his wheni e was there. what i would do, since he now is a majority leader, i'd just keep calling these votes. make everybody stand up and say, no, we're going to continue this shutdown. just call them over and over again. but mitch knows what he's doing. he's got a plan of some sort. i'm not -- mitch tends to hold things close to the vest sometimes, and i don't know whether these are being communicated or not, his ideas. but he's got a plan for how this

is done. i think the more times you put people out there to take a stand and to make these hard and tough votes on the shutdown itself, the more likely you're going to see this come to an end. >> i have to say there are a lot of republicans that i have talked to on capitol hill who have said to me, please, can you figure out what is mitch mcconnell's plan and let us know? we all hope that he has one. so, we will wait and see if that comes to pass. senator, thank you so much for your time tonight. really appreciate it. >> thanks. good to be with you. >> you, too. when we come back, congressman charlie dent joins me on set. we're back live right after this.

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that's excellent. it's 14-7. we're up in the second quarter. so, for all of you sitting here watching this shutdown coverage with baited breath instead of watching the football game, there is your update. thank you for sticking with us. sir, what is going to unfold tonight? do you think -- what are the odds they can get to a deal in your view? >> i don't think they get to a deal tonight. first the government must reopen. once the government reopens, it is incumbent on us to find a buy part son buy camera agreement. we can get off of this treadmill of continuing resolutions which is very frustrating. this budget agreement is critical. we're not going to get a budget agreement until there is some consensus on daca, you know, the dreamers. and pairing that up with border security. and then the real issue will be if we ever get a bipartisan agreement on daca, to pass out of the senate with 60 votes -- >> could that ever pass in the house? >> yes, it would pass in the house. the question is could it get a majority of the majority. the answer is probably not. so, the pressure will be on the

speaker of the house to vote on some kind of a dreamer daca security border bill. >> what do you know about what the speaker is telling the president behind the scenes? they are in regular contact. is essentially the speaker telling the president don't cut the deal? >> i don't know what the president wants to do on the issue. i think his position has been shifting at times. so, i really think the issue is we need to pass the bill. give certainly our marginal members in the house an opportunity to vote for it and hopefully he'd sign the bill. i'm not really sure where he is. this is a long time coming and there is not going to be a budget agreement until this daca issue somehow resolved. >> do you think that the president is a reliable negotiator at all? >> well, i haven't had to negotiate with him. so i really can't comment on that. but clearly there is some frustration. senator mcconnell voiced it, i guess last week, that he wasn't quite sure where the white house was on some of these issues and it was frustrating to him. certainly we heard what senator schumer said yesterday about the

jello comment. i think it's important that the white house be very clear with us where they are. and i hope they can support something that comes out of the congress in a bipartisan manner. >> one question that keeps coming up as which tick through president trump's tweets on this topic or others is at what point do congressional republicans make or break from the president? and this seems to be a situation where, from a policy and agenda perspective, there actually could be a break. they could say, we're not going to listen to what you're going to do, mitch mcconnell could put this bill, you talk about on the floor of the senate, hold the vote, put it to the house potential through over objections. possibly there would be a veto in that sort of scenario. do you think congress needs to reassert itself here? >> absolutely, we should reassert our article 1 powers. frankly there is a way out on this daca issue in the house. do a queen of the hill strategy. there are several bills. there is of course graham/durbin. the hurd aguilar bill, the problem solvers bill. i say put them out on the floor. whichever vote gelgts the most

votes advances. that's the way out. >> let's talk a little about the details of the problem solvers bill you mentioned. you are a member of the problem solvers caucus. what is in that bill that's different, for example, from graham/durbin? >> the differences are fair lynn negligible. they really are. i think they have more to do with the family migration piece as well as the diversity visa program. i think that's where thes ar differences are. >> you use the the phrase family migration. the white house keeps saying chain migration. it's a sticking point in this debate. would you urge republicans to use different words here? >> i would. because our immigration system is more geared towards family reunification. about two-thirds reunification, one-third towards skills. a lot of us clearly would like to see it shifted, two-thirds on skills, one-third based on family unification just because it's the case in canada and australia. i think that is a less offensive term and we're trying to get --

we're trying to make positive changes in the immigration system. i think it is important we bring democrats in and not use language that might push them away. >> congressman charlie dent, republican pennsylvania. we're sorry to receive you leave the leafing the house. fly, eagles, fly. we watch congress try to put an end to the shut down here in washington. ♪ are you reluctant to eat in public because of your denture? try super poligrip® it holds for 12 hours to reduce denture movement, helps provide better bite, seals out 74% more food particles,

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right now in a number of states, the laws allow a baby to be born from his or her mother's womb in the ninth month. it is wrong. it has to change. >> welcome back to "kasiedc." that was the president misspeaking. all weekend hundreds of thousands taken to the streets for women's rights movements across the country. we sent our producer to both the march for life and the women's march here in d.c. and had her ask demonstrators at each one a very simple question. >> one word to describe donald

trump. >> i have no words. >> interesting. >> interesting. >> donald trump is repulsive. >> i would say explosive. >> donald trump is unfit. >> a mess. >> he is wonderful. >> i'm very proud to say he's president of our country. >> donald trump is the president. >> my president. >> our president. >> donald trump is not my president. >> donald trump should not be president. >> donald trump is great. >> misguided. >> amazing. [ cheers and applause ] >> ignorant. >> so ignorant. >> ignorant. plain and simple. >> the best president we've had. >> a horrible president. >> donald trump is uninformed. >> uneducated. >> donald trump is an effective president. >> nothing good. >>well, that pretty much illustrates the divide we've been dealing with up here on capitol hill. i want to get the final thoughts from you all now. where do we go from here? >> it's hard to see where we go from here, because the president, i think, is trying to figure out how to obviously get the government back open. because i think his party raemzs

it's not going to be good for either side. it's hard to see what president trump will settle on. will he settle on letting the democrats have some sort of victory here? or dig in and drag it out until wednesday? and i think it comes back to is he going to allow people to influence him? are the people of john kelly and steve miller going to influence him or listen to chuck schumer. >> i think he's fuming he had to spend the weekend away from his party and here in d.c. >> obviously he gets antsy. he has been quiet publicly. so we've seen a couple of pictures that the white house sent out yesterday. not a lot of tweets. they said he's done for the day. not going to see him again. a couple of hours ago even with this going on. he's receded. we know he doesn't stay behind the scenes for too long. i think republicans on the hill would appreciate if he stays out of the way a little longer. but, you know, the politics of this are tough on both sides. i think republicans, somewhat are, are okay if the blame is

split on the shut down. that's okay for them given how, you know, the political head winds have been blowing so strongly behind democrats for several months now. >> yes. we'll see. >> thank you both so much for your time tonight. when we continue, another hour of "kasie dc." closed door negotiations going on all day and mark meadows. ask him about the ongoing talks with the white house. and the team of producers is on the verge of a shut down themselves. nevertheless, we will have the casey dvr as we follow breaking news and a potential 1:00 a.m. vote tonight to keep the government open. can i help you? it's me. jamie. i'm not good with names. celeste! i trained you. we share a locker. -moose man! -yo. he gets two name your price tools. he gets two? i literally coined the phrase, "we give you coverage options based on your budget." -that's me. -jamie!

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a government shut down. >> shut down show down. >> chaos in the capitol. >> a shut down coinciding with the one-year anniversary with the trump president. >> it's a shut down. >> it's an amnesty shut down. >> we're trying to solve the problem the president created. >> this is seoully done by the senate democrats. >> it's the president's responsibility. >> it's his shut down. >> i think the blame game is ridiculous. >> it's being run by idiots. >> it's unbelievable. >> the government should not be shut down. we should open the government back up. >> the government should be open. >> we cannot open the government without senate democrat support. >> we're never going to build a 2,000 mile concrete wall.

>> i think the wall was great idea in 15th century. >> i think the wall is is a monumental waste of taxpayers' money. >> the coauthor of the arts of the deal made calls from the oval office. >> he's been on the phone and trying to find a resolution. >> he has been engaged. >> he's committed to getting it done. >> we feel like we're making progress. >> i think we're making progress. >> the president has not called, quote, everybody in a room." chuck schumer used jell-o. that's another way of saying jell-o. >> it seems a lot of senators know about jell-o. >> the first problem in the government shut down you get to be dull. >> welcome back to kasie dc. live tonight from capitol hill. we moved from the studio a couple of blocks over because the federal government is shut down. and at this hour, lawmakers are scrambling minute to minute to find a way to get it working again. i want to start with my colleague garrett who has been

running through the halls all weekend with the rest of our capitol hill team. garrett, what is going on? what is the latest? we know that mcconnell and schumer met earlier. did anything come out of that? >> it's a waiting game. this they struck a deal, they're not talking about it. i have to tell you, there's a disconnect between the rank and file senators, particularly the ones who are part of that group of 20 to 25 bipartisan senators who met earlier today trying to come up with solution to this. and the leadership. at least in how they're talking about it publicly. i got a real sense of optimism from the democratic and republican senators who are part of that group earlier today. then they broke camp. they went and talked to the leadership. the leaders themselves met and since then most of what we've heard has been from people like john cornyn saying he doesn't think there's going to be a deal tonight. he thinks tomorrow morning we'll wake up in a shut down still. and i can't help but think about a group of democrats like mark warner and tim kaine, ben cardin

of maryland. the folks with lots of federal workers in their states who wake up tomorrow morning and not go to work. combine that with the pressure of the protests that have been going on outside the capitol tonight from drooemers saying keep up the fight. there's a lot of pressure on democrats, in particular, to figure out how and what they might be willing to do to get out of it. it doesn't seem like there's a deal in the works. >> it strikes me that we're waiting minute by minute for what mitch mcconnell is going to decide to do. is he going to walk away from the president or not? is that the sense you get, as well? >> it's sort of depends. in talking to the bipartisan senators today, it seems like they really wanted to decouple this issue from the president. like you're saying, make this 100% a senate issue. let the chips fall where they may with the president. and i think that would probably be mitch mcconnell's choice. but i'm not convinced chuck schumer is 100% on board either. if the democrat leader said we want to make sure whatever we

get done leads to a deal with the president. that hangs it up, too. but, yeah, i think that's the route within republicans. are they willing to say we as the senate and senate republicans willing to be part some kind of agreement that might get 60 votes and let the chips fall where they may with the house of the president. or do they have to stay in lock step as a way to get out of this. i don't know, kasie. you know mitch mcconnell better than i do. he seems fairly confident in his position now. so whether he decides to make that split or not. i don't know if he feels the pressure to do that yet. >> we'll be waiting and watching, of course, garrett haake, thank you very much. for now, let's bring in democratic senator chris coops of delaware. thank you so much for taking the time to be with us tonight. we appreciate it. >> thank you, kasie. great to be on with you. >> can you tell us a little bit. take us behind the scenes of the negotiations that have been going on all throughout the day here on capitol hill and talk us

through, also, what you think so far the leadership reaction to the talks has been >>well, kasie, i've been hard at work in the capitol all day, literally, since first thing this morning meeting with republican and democratic senators individually listening to them and their concerns folks from a broad range of backgrounds. and joining with the others in this group of 20. we spent several hours together sharing what we heard from others in our caucuses and trying to come up with a strategy that would be acceptable to both sides. kasie, in some ways it was among the most encouraging hours i've spent in seven years here. there are some terrific and capable senates here. there's not a lot of trust between our caucuses. and in particular, in our caucus, that president trump won't jerk the wheel of the bus left and right again. we've been here several times. we had what seemed a promising agreement. a bipartisan deal that senator graham of south carolina and senator durbin of illinois presented to the president after he asked for one.

in a famous exchange he blew it up. last friday, senator schumer, a leader, had a long and productive one-on-one meeting with president trump and staff and felt optimistic they come to an agreement about all the issues we face about spending and community health centers and children health insurance program and daca and disaster relief to have it walked back by the white house two hours later. to get our leaders to share the framework we've approached, i think it would be a big step forward. i'll tell you, kasie, what i'm most hoping we'll hear at some point this evening is leader mcconnell recognizing that on that list of five things that we need to negotiate and move forward on is daca and d.r.e.a.m.ers along with border security. in his speeches friday night and last week he was saying there's no urgency. we don't need to address this. it's about illegal immigration. when, in fact, i think there is urgency to addressing all five of these issues. we shouldn't be doing another

short term cr if we don't have agreement about what is on that menu to negotiate and by what deadline. >> senator, you mentioned your colleague senator lindsey graham. i want to show you about what he had to say in the hallways earlier today and ask you about it on the other side. >> to my democratic friends, don't overplay your hand. the government shut down is not a good way to get an outcome legislatively. we learned that as republicans. so therefore it makes sense to me with the commitment to move immigration. >> are democrats overplaying their hand? >> well, we'll have to see, kasie. in some ways it's up to the american people. what we've heard so far there are lots of folks who, like those of us who voted against the 30-day cr without any agreement about what we moved forward on. i'm sick and tired of short term crs. the pentagon, the assistant to the secretary of defense sent out a message friday night. no more short term crs.

we need to invest in defense. we tried on friday night to move ahead a one-day continuing resolution and three-day continuing resolution so we can keep negotiating and those were rejected. part of our challenge here, kasie, is that both parties have been harden ing their position. i would like it us to get moving forward. i don't think it's constructive to have the government of the united states shut down. it doesn't help us domestically or overseas. it's more important we come to an agreement that moves us forward. we have the unaddressed issues that have stacked up over months. it's time for us to find a frame work to move forward. >> you mentioned that theres a real lack of trust between the democratic caucus and the republican conference. what kind of commitment do you need to see from mitch mcconnell around immigration for you and senator schumer and others to be willing to say we'll reopen the doors of the government? >> i have a lot of sympathy for leader mcconnell. how are you supposed to negotiate when you don't know when your president is going to

accept or not accept. he's in a box in terms of being able to negotiate on many of these issues. how much is acceptable to the president on disaster relief? that's tough to predict. what will he accept in terms of a border wall or security? i think leader schumer made a forward-leading offer on friday and he rejected it. i think ultimately what matters is senator schumer and mcconnell can come to an agreement that each trusts is a commitment that we will address all of these issues by a time certain. >> senator, could you vote for a bill that fully funded the president's border wall? >> you know, i would really struggle with fully funding, if by that you mean something like $30 billion in a year. >> we heard it was close to $20 billion that was put on the table at the meeting on friday. >> part of our challenge is exactly what we're talking about. in his campaign, candidate donald trump talked about a concrete law stretching from sea

to shining sea. one continuous physical wall on our southern border. as president, at least general kelly's chief of staff, suggested his actual views may have matured. a number of folks in our bipartisan group today were saying the department of homeland security has a more nuanced and more detailed proposal about border wall systems and security. i could support robust investment in border security that would ensure that we have control of the southern border. i don't think it's wise to build a 2,000-mile concrete wall. i also don't think that's what's on the table anymore. i think we're talking about significant increased investment so we've got control of our southern border. i voted for that in the comprehensive immigration bill five years ago. i would be willing to vote for that again. we would have to get real clarity and finality about other immigration issues, such as daca in order for us to move ahead on something that addresses border security and the status of

drooemers. >> senator chris koontz. please keep us posted. >> thank you. members in both parties are telling us that they don't want to be here. and they're also not sure how we got here. so how did we? let's walk through that critical day, friday. it started with a 10: 45 a.m. call from president to schumer. over cheeseburgers he told the president he could fund the border wall to the tune of $18 billion in exchange for protections for dreamers. he headed back to the capitol but shumer her kept the cards close to the vest. >> we made some progress but we still have a good number of disagreements. schumer said no way.

in the next call, the president said he was going over the objections from conservative republicans and his own staff in making this deal. the "washington post" reporting that congressman mark meadows met with the president on friday afternoon. by saturday it was finger pointing. >> chuck schumer said i'm giving you everything you asked for the wall and then when pressed admitted he wasn't it. that's the type of negotiation that mr. schumer has been engaged in with the president. >> that say you offered $1.6 billion. >> the person who said it was not in the room. he doesn't know the truth. i do. >> how much did you offer the president? >> i'm not giving you a number. he put a number on the table. we took it. >> the white house now tells the "washington post," quote, senator schumer's memory is hazy.

his account of friday's meeting is false. the take away from this the president is saying he wants one thing. people who work for him are saying he wants something else. joining me now to hopefully try to clear up some of the confusion is republican congressman from north carolina and chairman of the freedom caucus. mark meadows. thank you so much for joining us. you have been in the center of all of this. let's start with friday afternoon. what did you tell the president? >> we had a conversation about what had happened. actually 24 hours before what you just outlined. i can tell you, this president was fully engaged. there were a number of things i wanted in this continuing resolution. president called twice to ask that i stand down and said what bewant to do is make sure that we keep the funding about the funding of the government. not have other issues on the table.

and we did. and we, obviously, passed it in the house and moved it forward. >> he called you to say the house needs to get it done. don't stand in the way. >> correct. >> the deal that even senator schumer is talking about. he did a press conference that said we have major disagreements right outside the white house. so it's in his own words. you don't have to look at the president's words. senator schumer is there. you know, we've got very serious senators over there, but they're not making serious offers. and really what we're talking about right now is immigration. but that's not in the continuing resolution. this is about funding our government. has nothing to do with immigration. and, yet, we're going to hold our military men and women hostage so we can get a deal that, really, the president -- >> where is the president in this? >> the president is very clear. >> very clear on what? >> let's clear it up. >> he's said what he wants is border security. >> okay.

>> and schumer said you can have your wall. >> according to senator schumer it's a seven-year deal of $20 billion. and when you look at the seven-year deal, senator schumer can't even give that. you can't bind one congress to the next on an appropriations that takes on an annual process. >> you're saying schumer was saying, okay, we'll pay for the wall but over seven years. you may not be in office. >> a down payment on the wall is not the wall. but that's only one-third of what this president has asked for. he asked for it in the china migration. >> family migration. >> into diversity lottery in exchange for dealing with these individuals who have deferred status in making sure they don't get deported. he's told me a number of times. he wants a deal. he told me that is recent as the last 48 hours. he wants a deal. yet we somehow have a press event. that's what i would call it with senator schumer, a press event, he knows how to get press.

he comes out, and calls the president a liar. when, indeed, that's not the factual basis of what actually took place. >> what transpired behind the scenes? administration official is telling nbc news tonight that trump and schumer's conversation on friday was derailed by the white house chief of staff, john kelly and stephen miller who share a hard lined stance on immigration. is that your understanding? >> that's not my understanding. and anybody who would suggest that this president can be manipulated by his chief of staff or stephen miller doesn't know this president in a real way. >> why do people come out of the meetings with two totally different accounts. >> i can tell you senator schumer has an agenda. his agenda is to play to his base, which he thinks this is a winning issue. if we want to be factual, you covered stuff on capitol hill for a long time. why didn't schumer when they had the majority at pennsylvania avenue here in the senate, a

60-vote majority, and in the house. why didn't they solve this? >> it wasn't a problem, initially. the senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill and it died in the house. >> let me be clear, you're saying that president obama made it an issue by giving deferred action? >> i'm saying president obama, by executive action, at that point the democrats did not have 60 votes in the senate. the president revoked it and we're here. but republicans are saying you want to fix it. >> we do because president obama made it an issue when we did the executive order. and with actually this president says we're going to give you a period of time to debate it in congress. that ends on march 5th. will there be a debate in the senate? without a doubt. on the house floor? without a doubt. and the normal time frames what the president outlined. to suggest that immigration hasn't been an issue as recent

as a decade ago, you're not making that suggestion. i'm not making it. so when we look at that, why didn't they solve a problem of illegal immigration? some of the issues we're dealing with when they had control. now what they want to do is use it as a political wedge and, frankly, hold our government hostage. >> what do you say? the halls of this constitution have been filled with these people. they have been quite politely, in many cases, walking up to members like you. members in the senate and saying i'm afraid i'm going to be deported. how did you look at those kids? >> those viewers that are watching, and, let's face it, there are 16 to 23 years of age now. so they're not small kids. >> but they were. they've never known another home. >> if they're watching tonight, there's two messages. one, this president wants to address it, finally, and quit kicking the can down the road. there's a deal out there to be made so they don't have to fear

any deportation. i can tell you that the country that they only know, if they want a secure country, a secure border for the country they've come to love. >> but at the same time republican refusing to talk about it as long as the government is closed. is that your position? >> it is. you brought a new thing into the debate that had nothing to do with the debate in the house the other night. and so as we look at that, i've talked to my democratic colleagues. we were making good progress, kasie. >> democrats? >> yes. i've talked to democrats. we're making news here tonight. >> oh. when was the last time you talked to president trump? >> well, i've talked to him within the last 24 hours, certainly. >> where is the conversation now? >> i think he's hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. >> is he calling you with updates or asking for updates? oh, no. i normally ask him. he doesn't ask me for updates. and so in doing that, i wanted him to know that we're serious

if the government opens back up to really work in a way that maybe some that would suggest that i would be willing to negotiate on immigration will have a news flash. i'm willing to engage with the most liberal on this particular issue define consensus. i wanted to make sure that he knew that. because sometimes we put people in a particular box, and we don't ever let them out. and i'm here to say tonight to those viewers that are here, we're willing to find a deal. now as long as the government is shut down, we're not going to do that. >> and this deal that chuck schumer said he put on the table. >> he didn't put a deal on the table. i know enough about what went on. if you want to have senator schumer and me together, we'll come back. >> why don't you give us a little piece of information. >> when you look at the things he talked about, he went outside the white house and said it was a good meeting. but a number of differences. those number of differences are

what i would say -- >> give me one of them. >> i think what we're looking at on the funding some of the funding levels they're talking about. it's a democratic leftist wish list. >> on domestic spending? >> on domestic spending. it was not just immigration related. when you look at those things, i say that without divulging any of my personal conversation with the president, which you know i won't do. >> does the president think it's going to be a long shut down? >> he's hoping for the best. he's prepared for it to be a long time. i think he talked to his staff about being prepared. yet at the same time it doesn't -- it's not the president's decision. it's chuck schumer's decision. >> or mitch mcconnell could say i'm going to walk away without the president. i'm going to do what the senate is going to do. >> let me say this, that hasn't worked well for mitch mcconnell in the past. you have to have the house, the senate, and the president sign off on anything. and i can tell you here today,

we can fund the government and open it up in a few short hours if the democrats in the senate just say yes. and then what happens, you and i can go back to talking about the progress we're making on immigration reform. not just on where we are tonight with the government shut down. >> all right. >> as you roll your eyes. >> i'm not rolling my eyes. [ laughter ] we'll see. thank you for the conversation. just ahead we're going to bring in our panel, former john boehner spokesman michael steele and rachel bait. we'll ask michael if he's having flashbacks. and tim ryan has questioned his party's leadership. we'll check his temperature on how the shut down has played out. you're watching kasie d.c. live from capitol hill. coaching means making tough choices.

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joining me now here on capitol hill congressional reporter for politico, rachel, and managing director of hamilton strategies, and former press secretary to john boehner. michael steele. thank you for taking time from, i don't know if you're watching the vikings/eagles game. i'm going start with the question we asked, michael. are you having flashbacks? yeah. the thing is, as stupid and counter productive and damnful and doomed as the shut down in 2015 was, we knew why we shut

down the government. i have no earthly idea why washington democrats shut down the government this weekend? over too many crs, daca, trump. >> rachel, do you think that democrats are losing the messaging battle here. do you think there's a sense they're starting to believe it? >> yeah. i think we're seeing democrats get a little nervous here. that's why republicans were hopeful that tonight they would come together with some sort of deal and reopen the government for three weeks and potentially move to some sort of immigration deal before the next cr. but it sounds like that's falling through. and the reason i say that because john cornyn said an hour ago that why would we reward democrats for bad behavior? the tentative agreement would be a promise of a potential vote on immigration on the senate floor. and cornyn doesn't want to give them that. statement, you have senate democrats who want more. they want the house to also promise it.

>> and that's the sticky point. >> we can't do that. senator mcconnell can promise that the senate will do something or will not. he can't promise that president trump will do something. but the limits of the power of the united states senate extend to the united states senate. and that's the only thing senate democrats in the minority but using the filibuster to shut down the government can hope for. some agreement to keep working on the bipartisan spending and immigration legislation that they have been working on for months. >> michael, your former boss, john boehner, sort of, you know, hung it up one day unexpectedly because of the frustration around the right wing of the republican conference. we were talking to mark meadows. the leader now of that faction in the house. and do you have any sympathy for speaker ryan in attempting to manage that situation? >> i thought this question was going to go the other way. if i had any sympathy for senator schumer.

but is stuck because the base of his party hates the president so much. and. >> not just the base of his party. it's broader than ted cruz and the house nax shut down the government in 2013. >> i think they're facing the same problem. the difference between intensity and perception. shutting down the government to protect the d.r.e.a.m.e.rers is not. the same way in 2013 the base of our party looked at it and said obamacare is unpopular. and shutting down the government was not popular. >> there was a poll out this morning from cnn that basically showed that the polling of americans who thought republicans should be in congress versus democrats had narrowed tremendously.

it's clear that washington democrats haven't done themselves any favors. >> you can stress the say, i would say from the 2018 democrats in particular. there were a handful of them, obviously, that voted with republicans. clare mccall skill, it was watching her as it unfolded on friday night. he was sitting at her desk by herself. this is the first time we saw a handful of senate democrats break ranks and vote with republicans. it shows you they're worried. >> for the red state democrats shutting down the government to protect illegal immigrants is

poisono poisonous politically. congressman tim ryan is standing by. we'll talk to him as we follow breaking news on capitol hill. as we go to break, this video of vladimir putin in an ice bath just because. "kasie dc" live from inside capitol hill. back after this. ♪ ♪ there are two types of people in the world. those who fear the future... and those who embrace it. the future is for the unafraid. ♪ all because of you ♪ ♪

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welcome back to "kasie dc" we bring in house appropriations committee member tim ryan. great to see you. thank you for being here. i'm sorry we're here tonight. >> yeah. >> talk us through where things stand now with the shut down. are democrats winning this argument? >> you know, i think in places like ohio, i mean, people think that the whole thing is a mess. but the real issue is that donald trump is in charge. republicans have the senate and the house. they're responsible for getting these deals done. i think senator schumer has shown a lot of good faith. he's put a lot of money on the table for trump's wall, for example. i think we're willing to comprise. that's what it's about. but it seeps like the president has gone back on his word with senator schumer, senator graham, you know, senator durbin.

also, also before he made promises to senator collins and flake about voting they'll have. he's not bargaining in good faith. >> senator schumer held the line here. he's under a lot of pressure with the anti-trump sentiment. he said i'm going listen to you and fight. i'm not going to back down and sign on to the bill. do you think that ultimately that was the right decision? >> i think so. i kind of wish we would have framed it in the broader sense of the budget. why are we here right now? we're here right now because the republicans have not been able to pass a budget. and within the budget are priorities. they talk about the defense spending. of course, you want to make sure that the military contractors have consistency so they can invest in the long-term projects that russia is investing into. that china is investing into. but it's also about pensions. you know, we're going to have the leftist agenda that the democrats. we're talking about pensions for

coal miners and pensions for teamsters. if they don't get fixed, you'll have people that work 35 or 40 years of their life driving truck away from home or climbing in the coal mines and have their pensions cut in half. that's a people agenda. >> all of this you're talking about, it's much harder to explain. it's more complicated than republic the trump campaign put out an ad saying democrats are for illegal immigration. illegal immigration being their phrase. >> if trump was worried about illegal immigrants he would have accepted senator schumer's deal to give him billions of dollars for border security. democrats are for border security and more people on the border. we're for making sure there's a legal system for people to get in. we want people to pay a fine. we want people to pay their back taxes, if they're here. pay a fine. pay their back taxes. learn english, if they don't already know it. and fix the problem. i mean, what are we beating

around the bush for? we know we need more border security and how to get 11 million people undocumented here assimilated into the country legally. let's do it. >> you have been somebody who had a lot of advise for your party leaders. >> a polite way of putting it. >> we sent our producer to the women's march. she asked them for advice to you and your party. we'll take a look and talk about. >> congressional democrats are a little bit confused. >> trying. >> trying. >> trying really hard. >> congressional democrats are trying. >> they're trying. but they need something. >> nay need to work a little harder. >> democrats are well meaning. >> congressional democrats are divided. >> democrats have the right idea. >> ineffective. >> missing the point. >> congressional democrats are silly. >> they seem disorganized. they need work but going in the right direction. >> impotent. >> your reaction, sir? they seem to think you're d

disorganized and well meaning but not effective. >> we're on the heels of big losses electorally. we're getting our act together. i think we're focussed on being against the president in a lot of what he's putting forward. because we don't think his ra racist sexist agenda is good for the country. we're fighting that. i would like us to be a little bolder. i wish the whole debate with immigration that started from our side as a path way to citizens and negotiate down to daca as opposed to start at daca. i think we could have been bolder talking about pensions and these things. again, this is about the budget. >> it sounds like you're saying that democrats should not make this primarily about the d.r.e.a.m.ers. >>well, they're equal, in my estimation. here are the d.r.e.a.m.ers. let's remember trump created the dreamer problem. he's the one that reversed president obama's executive order. so we have to fight for our d.r.e.a.m.ers. these are young kids.

i was meeting in them with my office in last week. we were in tears these kids that want to go to medical school or in law school in the university of cincinnati that are worried about getting tossed out of the country. that should not happen in the united states. we're going to go to the mat for them. i also tear up when i'm watching the teamster tell me they were driving truck away from home and missed their kids' soccer games and baseball games and now their pension will go from $3500 a month to $1,500 a month. those are human beings in our society that we need to take care of. and some philosophy for ideological adherence isn't getting either of them. >> do you think it will help the democrats win back the house or hurt? >> i think it's hurting everybody. to be honest with you. i don't think it's good for republicans or democrats. it's ridiculous. we have to figure it out, which is why i hope tonight we can come together. i think at the end of the day, it will have a modest benefit for democrats. because trump is this great deal

maker who is supposed to come here and waive his magic wand and he's making matters worse. he's blowing up a lot of these comprises that were already there. at the end of the day, democrats will get the benefit. >> congressman tim ryan, we'll see if your prediction turns out to be right. we have much more "kasie dc" live from capitol hill. coming up next. i was getting all these leaves and i was going back generation after generation. you start to see documents and you see signatures of people that you've never met. i mean, you don't know these people, but you feel like you do. you get connected to them. i wish that i could get into a time machine and go back 100 years, 200 years and just meet these people. being on ancestry just made me feel like i belonged somewhere. discover your story. start searching for free now at ancestry.com.

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for those who never settle, it's either mercedes-benz certified pre-owned, or it isn't. the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. now through february 28th. only at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. welcome back to "kasie dc" we've been talking about the game that has been played in washington all weekend. the blame game. and the question, of course,

who, once this is said and done at the moment we're not sure when that might be, who will ultimately be held responsible and potentially punished at the ballot box by voters in 2018 and 2020. we went out to the women's march and march for life to ask people who they thought deserved blame for the shut down. >> the government shut down is because of the republicans. >> i would blame, ah, the democrats for that. >> i think the republicans are absolutely to blame. >> definitely without doubt the republicans. >> the republicans, of course. they run everything. >> i suspect it's the republicans. >> it would be the democrats. >> i believe trump is to blame. >> trump. >> trump did it. >> trump. trump shut down. >> the blame is donald trump. >> trump. >> donald trump. >> absolutely the president. >> many people choose to blame the president, but he's just one man. >> i would blame congress. >> i think all of them went home for christmas. so they're probably all to

blame. >> both parties, honestly. it's the whole country's fault. >>ennestly. >> everybody is to blame. >> probably all of us. >> all of us. sitting here watching this unfold. michael steele, you were here for the last shut down. and it didn't actually seem like republicans in the end took much at the ballot box for this. how do you evaluate how it played out? >> we had a long period to recover before the midterms which was helpful. in this case, one of the biggest and most justified criticisms of president trump he's the chaos president. he's an agent of chaos. he has chaos whenever he goes. rather than providing a serious alternative, washington republicans created more chaos. i can't imagine how it's to their benefit. >> do you think democrats are starting to worry they could be cast in the wrong light here. i feel like they went in strong on friday. there was a lot of pressure. and a lot of intensity around the idea they were going to hold the line. i feel like that's been fading a little bit. does your reporting back it up? >> absolutely i would say that's

true. i think that's why you're hearing them say it's on republicans and on president trump. and there is a lot to be said about that argument. president trump said as recently as a week ago that if congress presented him with a bipartisan deal that addressed daca, addressed border security, that addressed various immigration policies, he wasn't going to, you know, squawk about it and pick and choose on things. he would accept it. and there was a bipartisan proposal put together in the senate and he said it took them steps backwards. so, you know, he's saying one thing and doing something else. democrats do, absolutely, have a point here on that. >> right. there was no immigration provision in the government funding bill that the democrats voted against after that. i mean, look, donald trump is many things. he's not a united states senator. he didn't vote to shut down the government. and presented with a bill that kept the government open and they voted no. >> mitch mcconnell the day before said mr. president, tell us what you want and maybe we'll do it. >> the president's decision on immigration is a little more scrambled than i would like.

>> there's not a lot of clarity. please stay with us. up next the government shut down nears hour 45. we'll get garrett's latest report coming up next. or make a back seat that feels nothing like a back seat? why give it every feature you could want, along with a few you didn't know you needed? it's simple. you can build a car, or you can build a cadillac. come in now for this exceptional offer on the cadillac ct6. get this low-mileage lease on this 2018 cadillac ct6 from around $549 per month. visit your local cadillac dealer. need a change of scenery? the kayak price forecast tool tells you whether to wait or book your flight now. so you can be confident

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there is the united states capitol on this night as the government shutdown continues at this hour. for more, i want to bring back in garrett hake. i'm not sure we necessarily have -- oh, actually, forgive me. the producers just got in my ear to say that mcconnell is speaking tonight on the senate floor at 9:00. that is some news here just in as we are nearing the end of our 8:00 hour. mitch mcconnell, the majority leader, set to speak at 9:00 p.m. on the senate floor. what we could hear from this, it could go either way. we have been planning a vote tonight at 1:00 in the morning. for those of you watching who are senate junkies like me, you will know the word cloture. many of you, that probably doesn't matter too much. but that was the time at which that was to expire and the vote was to be forced. the question of course, if he's going to go to the floor and announce they will have a vote earlier than planned and maybe

democrats will go along with it. or are we going to see day three of the shutdown? >> reporter: as i was walking over here, i walked with john kor anyo cornyn. he has been a pessimist about the of doing a deal all day. he's been sort of down playing that possibility. he said that she is more optimistic than he has been at any time thus far in this shutdown. now, he wouldn't be specific about why. the most he would say is that he feels like democrats are realizing that their position has become untenable. but it's note worthy because cornyn has been the first person really to shoot down the ideas of these various deals that have popped up over the course of the day. for the first time over the last three days, i saw him with a little spring in his step,

saying he's feeling a little bit more optimistic. i don't know if that means mitch mcconnell is going to announce something here, but it is a note worthy turn as we're studying the details from the number two man in the party up here. >> the thing we talked about as being critical to the negotiations was whether or not mcconnell was going to make some sort of immigration-related commitment, saying, lo inin ins we'll see something on the floor. that seemed to be one of the options on the table. >> reporter: mcconnell's in a jam here because the last thing he wants to do is make it look like democrats succeeded in any meaningful way. he doesn't want to set the precedent that if the government shuts down, the people who decide to make that choice are going to get what they want out of it.

but he can in some ways throw them a bone that's not obvious, a deal to make a deal later, a promise, a commitment for something else down the line gives him a little bit of flexibility. it's also the kind of thing that makes democrats nervous. think about that bipartisan group today. of all people who are in there who should know that a promise is only a promise when it's kept is susan collins who traded her vote on tax reform for a promise to get some health care related issues brought to a vote. that hasn't happened yet. that gives mcconnell the most flexibility, but i think it makes the democrats most uncomfortable, is entering a deal that's open ended. >> i'm going to open up this conversation for a minute. if you talk to anybody in the hallways, please grab them and bring them over here. i don't know if we've good nighted our roving camera that chases you through the hallways.

we'd be happy to take any of that if you can get it. i'd like to extend a formal invitation to any senators or members of congress that may still be here. please ander by the russell rotunda. let's chat about this a little bit. this is what we were waiting for, obviously. michael steele, what's your sense? if you were mcconnell, what would you next move be? >> i think this is the contour of what can bring this to an end. you can't reward bad behavior for shutting down the government. that invites chaos in the future. but you can make a commitment that you'll address these issues that they've been working on in a bipartisan way for months and months leading up to this point. both the spending bill and the caps and getting more defense funding and immigration. >> if that's all democrats get out of this, then they have totally lost this fight. republicans already said they wanted to find a solution for daca by march 5th when daca

expires. if they went into this shutdown fight saying we want to get this fixed now, if all they're getting is a commitment to address it at some point down the road, that really shows you they are worries and trying to find a way out now. >> it strikes me there really was -- and i would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the negotiations of 20. there seems to be a real mood shift over the course of the weekend. democrats on friday night were behind closed doors in the lbj room of the capitol with chuck schumer. this is after we later learned how friday all unfolded where schumer goes to lunch, he thinks they have a deal, he comes back to try to sell it. he gets a couple calls from the president but then a call from john kelly saying, look, this is too liberal. it's off the table. then you had the d.r.e.a.m.ers

there saying hold the line. they come out and say we're voting this down. there was some solidarity, some excitement. that excitement seems gone today. >> on friday a lot of people were still thinking about those controversial remarks that president trump made about immigrants coming from africa, coming from haiti. that really fired up the democratic base and made democrats say we could hold the line on this. but that changed after the shutdown because people are thinking about potential federal government employees not going to be paid. you have people serving in the military who are not going to be getting their checks right now. government checks are a big deal. >> to have any chance of getting a senate democratic majority after 2018 is going to run through bright red states, most of which the president won by double digits, huge, huge margins. these are places where shutting down the government over illegal immigration is not particular.

>> west virginia, north dakota. these are all places where they could potentially lose the senate. i'm a few seconds early but it is almost the top of the hour at 9:00 p.m. i'm casey hunt. we are still insood tide the ro on capitol hill. we are waiting with bated breath. we have been waiting all day for senator mitch mcconnell. he is now set to speak this hour on the senate floor. at this hour, lawmakers are trying to find a way to get government working again. and the question is now what could possibly end the stalemate. a resolution could come in the form of a short-term spending bill with a public promise to put an immigration bill on the senate floor by february 8th. the deadline had been 1:00 a.m. the senate was set to hold a critical vote to reopen the fwom government. here is mitch mcconnell earlier today. >> if nothing changes, the cloture vote will be