good to be with you on this sunday. it is day 9 of the partial government shutdown with no clear end to the impasse in sight. today republicans calling on democrats to negotiate. >> i do believe that the president would like to work with us. i think senator schumer, who i've worked with for years, would like to fund the government. the question is when do we stop the blame game and get to serious negotiations? >> the president asked for $1.6

billion in his budget proposal for the next year. the appropriations committee which senator schumer shares and is a ranking member of, agreed to that. the president moved the goalpost and said, nope, i want 5 billion. positive lit siliticizing t two children migrants on the border. >> i don't like the president being used as pawns -- >> isn't that what the president just did? >> the president did not want these children to come on the perilous journey to begin with. >> the president has not held a press conference since thursday. they said he will remain in new jersey instead of traveling to mar-a-lago to be with his family. joining me now is nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett. geoff, what more can you tell us? >> reporter: hello, janice.

it seems it hinges on the definition of a wall. we've seen the demand from a week ago has come down from a concrete barrier to the president saying he would be fine with some steel fencing, steel slats, as he calls it. interestingly, we heard from john kelly, an exit interview he gave the "new york times" where he says the white house early on in the administration moved away from this idea of a concrete wall, even as president trump, for the past several months, has been talking about it. he says, kelly says, because border patrol agents had told him what they really need is more law enforcement and more technology along the border. that is actually something that democrats say they would be open for funding, border security. and we also can add to this lindsey graham, the president's ally and friend who at any moment now is supposed to be on his way here to have lunch with president trump to talk more about this, earlier in the day

lindsey graham was adding his voice to this entire debate, making clear what he wants to see in any kind of deal. take a look. >> president trump is not going to walk away from this fight without border security funding, money for the wall, for lack of a better way of saying it, and democrats have a chance here to work with me and others, including the president, to bring legal status to people who have very uncertain lives. i'm not asking anybody to do something new, i'm just asking people to sit down and rearrange the deal that was offered before. >> reporter: but overall, the fundamentals of this debate have not changed. getting funding for this border barrier, whether it's a concrete wall or steel slats, that's as much a personal victory for donald trump as blocking funding for a wall would be for democrats. frances? >> geoff bennett for us at the white house. thank you. outgoing chief of staff john kelly giving that exit interview to the los angeles times, as

geoff mentioned, this statement on the border wall. to be honest, it's not a wall, kelly said. later in the piece he's quoted as saying, the president still says wall, often he'll say barrier or fencing. now he's headed toward steel slats. but we loved selling concrete wall early on in the administration. going to writer for the l.a. times who interviewed john kelly exclusive. you have information to share with us in this article. let's start here with that wall quote. immediately generating headlines, it really stood out to me upon reading it. in what spirit did he say that? >> well, we were having sort of a larger conversation about some of the areas in which it seemed that there were distinctions between the positions of john kelly and the president. and sort of before he joined particularly the white house as chief of staff, as you know, he was secretary of homeland security, and he had expressed

some views on some of the key immigration and border security issues that the president had run and won on, had expressed some differences. one of those was about the wall. you'll remember that john kelly, rather early on, was sort of forced to walk back some comments in which he suggested the president was evolving or learning on the wallisch issue because kelly had talked to border protection, border patrol agents who said look, we don't need a solid concrete wall, what we need is barriers in certain areas, technology and more personnel. >> here's the thing, when it comes to reading that line, many are reading and going, hey, i think this is kind of him pushing back against the trump wall rhetoric. there's that interpretation. that your sense? >> we did talk about to some extent -- i referenced, of course, the shutdown and how it is primarily over the president's demands for this 5 billion for the board wall arde

this gap between rhetoric and reality when it comes to some of these key issues. i think that probably john kelly wouldn't suggest there is as much distance as it seems, but if the president is sort of clinging to this -- to, frankly, his trademark of a wall whereas others like kelly and homeland security professionals, border professionals on the ground are saying, well, it's not quite that, then it does suggest that there is this gap between rhetoric and reality, and it raises questions about what is politics and what is practical policy. >> the question also is during this entire time, what was it like there in the west wing? we've heard the expectations of him being the adult in the room, but also there is this general chaos in the west wing also we've been hearing about. did he leave that impression or reject it? >> he certainly left the impression, particularly at the beginning, that there was this chaos. the way that john kelly frames his tenure, which clearly was

rocky. i mean, there is lots of reports of he called it palace intrigue, interagency rivalry. there were many reports of that that were clear, some of which were contributed to by john kelly who is known as being a pretty affable guy but also a hot temper. he made it pretty clear in particular there was no process in place for briefing or informing the president, that the transition had been very chaotic, and he suggested that it poorly served president trump when he was making some of these key decisions in the beginning. john kelly will make the argument, sort of defend his tenure, that he brought in a process, he brought in order. while people may not have always liked president trump's decisions, he did his best to make them the best informed decisions that they could be. now, i think other people would suggest that he was not successful at being the adult in the room because of the chaos that we continued to see, but joas not to make

policy, but to implement the policy and inform the president as best he could. >> also what struck me when he says he defends that time measuring what the president did not do when kelly was there at his side. what are examples of that? >> i think we can just sort of see particularly in the past couple weeks -- i mean, we saw the resignation, a much more public resignation, kelly sort of kept his own counsel of secretary jim mattis particularly over the announcement of the decision to withdraw troops from syria and withdraw a significant amount of troops in afghanistan. so i think if we see the before and after, if kelly discussed with the president on december 7th, it was announced on december 8th, that he was going to be resigning, and then a week later we see that president trump has made this announcement about troops -- withdrawing troops in syria, withdrawing troops in afghanistan, i think

that is a pretty good example, potentially, of what john kelly and others prevented the president from doing. >> you mentioned general mattis. you can't help but compare because you have general mattis who left his post with that scathing letter critical of the president, and then you have john kelly's approach which seems tame by comparison. do you think there was a holding back here, and was there an overall impression that he left you about the president as a whole? >> certainly describing working very closely with the president, sort of spending every waking minute of a 15-hour day with the president, and describing almost a sort of intimate relationship. kelly has always sort of framed himself as the good soldier taking the orders from the commander-in-chief even until the end, perhaps despite personal now his legacy sort of being very closely associated with some of the controversies of the trump

administration. but portraying himself as the good soldier, i don't think he would necessarily believe that it was appropriate for him to sort of make this public rebuke, especially having spent so much time with the president. i do want to say that on many issues, even kelly's defenders were surprised the degree to which he seemed fairly aligned with the president in a way they didn't necessarily expect. >> interesting how you end your article saying, you know, for that 18 months with the policy clashes, the personality clashes, he stuck around out of duty. was it your sense he liked the president? >> i don't think -- the emphasis in the interview, at least, and i think we can see from kelly's other comments is basically that it wasn't about whether or not he liked the president. it wasn't about his personal opinions. it was about how he could best bring order to the white house and provide as much information as possible before the president

made his decision, but then once he made that decision, it wasn't his role necessarily to question it but to implement it. but others would suggest that sort of military thinking maybe didn't serve john kelly or the president in a way that it could have because it's this idea of sort of following the chain of command, and you know many suggest that perhaps john kelly should have stood up if there were disagreements that he had with the president on these controversial issues from the family separation to the travel ban when he was homeland security secretary and so on. >> you write what he said, military duty personnel don't walk away. fascinating read. thank you for that. >> thanks. to new action on the government shutdown, i want to bring in laura basso, political reporter for the "washington post" and also alex, political reporter for nbc news. let's talk about the political shutdown and to what kellyanne conway said this morning as what

the president wants to see happen followed by joakim jeffries. >> i have spoken with the president and he said he is ready to receive a counteroffer from the democrats. it's been many, many days since the house passed its $5.6 billion for border security. it's not restricted to just a wall, but they need technological enhancements, a steel barrier, things the president has talked about from the oval and elsewhere. >> we're certainly prepared to provide additional funding for enhanced fencing technology, drones, satellites, lighting, sensors, cell phone towers and the things the experts have clearly indicated would improve our border security. >> so, alice, let's start with you. are both sides more in line on this than they pretend to be?

>> kellyanne conway is right. it was shocking walking around the white house how little was open, how many offices were closed. you would think they would be burning the midnight oil trying to make negotiations. this really was not happening. that's because the government has a good reason to hold out, and that's january 3rd when nancy pelosi and the democrats will take over the house. they have a much stronger position to negotiate a hand and they can pass something. they plan to pass something that day, so they're waiting for that. they also said they're not even going to consider or offer from the republicans or the white house until president trump publicly endorses it, and that's because he's backtracked on so many of these offers in the past, they say it wouldn't even be worth taking it up. >> they just want to hear it from his mouth directly. laura, we were talking about it being politics, principle.

you've got the money and democrats seemed more than willing to pay more than 5 billion in the past for border security. >> right. and i think what they don't want to do is give trump his wall, especially considering the fact that trump made a deal already with senate democrats. the senate passed a bill to fund the government unanimously after making a full deal with donald trump both sides had agreed to, then donald trump reniged on this deal and started blaming nancy pelosi, who is not even head of the house yet. it's technically run by paul ryan right now. so i don't think democrats are likely to cave. the late est was a referendum o trump and his proposals. they said, we don't want a wall, and john kelly said is not something the white house has been pushing on internally. i think the democrats are looking for a win here. i think they are prepared to spend more money on border

security, just not the wall that trump is talking about. >> where is the give here, alex? you have senator graham, a close confidant of the president, who says he won't back down until he gets that money. you mentioned he was actually speaking publicly about what he wants. what more is needed? >> frances, i think one side will just have to cave, which neither side is eager to do that, so instead i think we'll get something where both sides can save a little face and claim some victory. in the current government funding levels, if they just passed a clean resolution on capitol hill. there's still $1.3 billion for border security in there, not specifically for a wall but all the things hakeem jeffries was talking about. so they could bump that up a little bit, president trump could claim he got a little bit

of a victory, while democrats sass could say they didn't give $5.6 billion for the wall. >> what do you think about all this, laura? >> i don't think trump will get the wall that he thinks he wants. but he has a way of spending things, so i think democrats will get what they want and trump can spin it into a big win. regardless of what happens, my point is i think trump will claim a victory. >> so much has got to happen before we even get to that point. alex, laura bassett, thank you. who has the better optics in this shutdown? can the democrats walk and chew gum at the same time, or will they get bogged down in investigations when they take over congress in a few days? steve cohen joins me next. ins me in the palm of his hand ♪

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the president tweeted yesterday, where are they? he wants to make a deal on border security. >> they haven't gotten a phone call from the president. >> kellyanne conway, counselor to president trump. i want to bring in now congressman steve cohen in tennessee. he sits on the judiciary committee and introduced articles of impeachment in november 2017. congressman, i want to get your reaction first on what kellyanne

conway just said. is the president ready to make a deal? >> the president will make a deal on anything but he won't keep a deal. he said he would be proud to have the mantle of the shutdown and wouldn't blame the democrats and now he's blaming it is dthe democrats. before he agreed to a $1.5 billion deal and then turned away from it when rush limbaugh, his mental and intellectual guide, told him not to, and laura ingram. the problem is he doesn't tell the truth, he doesn't keep a deal, and the comments about nancy pelosi being in hawaii had disingenuousness. the president goes tomorrow on the taxpayer's dime and speaker pelosi is in hawaii on her own money and her own time with her family. >> does he understand the optics of that, sir, that on this day of the government shutdown that nancy pelosi is in hawaii and the president is tweeting again. what do you think of the optics

of that who say, you know what, maybe they should be headed back at least physically, symbolically being there to show that they're ready for a deal? >> i think you have to make a deal with rush limbaugh and laura ingram. that's who he listens to and he won't agree to a deal unless they agree to it. the optics of hawaii aren't great, but hawaii is in a great state. she's in america and she's in one of our great 50 states. >> i want to ask you about kellyanne conway defending the position of laying the blame of the deaths of two migrant children and blaming the democrats. what do you make of that? >> that's absurd. they would have left the oppression and the lack of opportunity that they had in guatemala whether or not there was a border security or not. if they came up, they should have had healthy facilities. the child that most recently died, i read, had the flu. and a better response would have been that the flu kills tens of

thousands of people every year. people don't realize how deadly the flu can be and is and that people should get vaccinated. but the problem is they bellied up to the anti-vaccers and they're afraid to tell people, get your child vaccinated, this is the reason this child died. they could have done that and maybe saved some families' lives. but they're afraid to face the truth about what possibly caused the children's death. 47% blame donald trump for the shutdown and 33% blame democrats. does it make it more difficult to cut a deal when it comes to this border wall? are the republicans laying the blame on the democrats so the democrats can just hold out? >> we do have two different focus groups in this country.

president trump's focus group is his base, 35% give or take, who are his defenders in case he's impeached and can keep him in office. i think he's concerned about being impeached. i think he wants to keep the senators supporting him and being -- having their base, which is his base supportive and deluded by the constant lies he puts out through fox news and through other sources, his tweets, and he's looking to them and the democrats are looking to another group that are not just democrats but responsible republicans. maybe they're called rockefeller republicans, maybe they're called wolf republicans, who realize this president is causing a cancer on the american system, that the presidency has a cancer upon it and therefore there is a cancer upon our government and our republic, and we can't have -- general stanley mcchrystal said the other day he couldn't work for this guy

because he works for people who are honest. he is not honest and there is a problem with the country not having faith in their government and respecting the truth. >> congressman, let's talk about the work at hand here. you said the shutdown will not get in the way of the investigation, so what is the priority for you and your colleagues when you take control next week? >> our priorities are what they were during the campaign, and that is providing americans with health care, and if they have preexisting conditions, they can continue to get insurance, that prescription drug prices come down, that insurance and health care is available to people, that we create jobs through an infrastructure bill and that we get into the culture of corruption that we've seen with secretaries price and zinke and pruitt who have all left under shame of this administration. this is the most ethically challenged administration since -- i don't know, since maybe ever. they're terribly ethically challenged. we're also going to look into this president. the american public wanted a check and balance on president

trump, and we're going to have hearings that have not gone on in the last two years over the president's biggest challenge, the oversight. instead they were stuck on e-mails and anthony weiner's laptop. they should have been looking at what's on the face, but they did everything but oversee what i'm going to say will be the most corrupt administration known to this country. >> what will you look at first? you ran down your priorities as far as getting down to business at the start of the year when you take over, but on these investigatio investigations, what will you focus on first and also make sure the other priorities don't get watered down from it? >> we have many, many committees in congress and they each look at different things. my primary committee is judiciary and the other is transportation. on judiciary i'll be on the constitution of civil rights and liberties subcommittee and more likely will be the chair.

chairman nadler had a lot to do with what we get engaged in there. but i think emoluments is what we'll look at. we'll look at the pardon power and look at voting rights and make sure people have a right to vote in this country. >> steve cohen, tennessee, thank you for being with me on this sunday. >> thank you, and happy new year. >> happy new year to you. why special counsel robert mueller think investigators need to look into president trump's golf course. president trump's golf course. as someone in witness protection, i can't tell you anything about myself. but believe me... i'm not your average consumer. that's why i switched to liberty mutual. they customized my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. and as a man... uh... or a woman... with very specific needs that i can't tell you about-

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new today, employee documents at the president's new jersey golf club are reportedly being collected as evidence by federal and state investigators to determine whether it violated immigration laws for allegedly providing fake green cards to unauthorized immigrants. according to the new york daily news, the attorney representing five undocumented former bedford employees said they met with the fbi after they received a referral from robert mueller's office. joining us is msnbc contributor jill banks and the founder of george mason law. as we get started with you, first, jill, the special counsel

referred this case to the fbi which is pretty much the same thing that michael cohen in that scenario with the campaign finance violations. what does robert mueller's involvement tell you about what prosecutors may be looking at here? >> it sounds to me from what i've read that the lawyers for these undocumented workers went to mueller, and mueller, recognizing that it wasn't part of his core investigation, reported it to the appropriate authorities to start investigating. i don't know why anyone is surprised. we've long known that undocumented workers were hired at mar-a-lago. we also know that models were used by the trump modelling agency who were not here on work visas but were here on tourist visas, et cetera, et cetera. some polish workers who had helped build trump tower sued him for wages they were owed and they were not documented workers. so this is a long pattern that is now coming to the fore,

rightfully so. we need to know all about the activities of all american citizens, including the president of the united states. >> sure, and the extent of knowledge when it comes to that and his involvement. so jamil, you have the attorney for the undocumented workers who said in an interview with msnbc earlier this month that there was no proof that the president knew about it, but how much responsibility does he have to bear here? can ignorance be a defense when these people were there, cleaning his room, making the beds there? >> ignorance of the law isn't an excuse. when you're running for president or are the president, obviously your howhole history doing these sort of things will come to light. he's in a big fight over immigration right now. it's a question of whether he was hiring or whether his company was hiring undocumented immigrants is a huge problem for him politically. what takes place here is unclear. it's unclear what the new attorney general is going to do, what the fbi is going to do. it's not part of the core mueller investigation, but it

does go the president's credibility when he's fighting with immigration right now. >> and when it comes to fake green cards and the mueller investigation, jill, there is a new report in time magazine when it comes to paul manafort, saying he was millions of dollars in debt with a russian oligarch in 2016 and said he owed us a lot of money, including briefings on the election. so how does that go, jill, when it comes to the russian investigation? could it be that others in the campaign knew about these attempted meetings as well? >> no doubt they did. it is a wonderful story in "time" that lays out what sounds like a spy mystery story involving ex-spies and pressure on manafort at the very time he was working for free for donald trump. why would he be working for free when he was deeply in debt and had no other income? it makes no sense except to say he was trying to pay back the

russians by doing work for the president. and whether the president knew or not, other people in the campaign, surely gates knew and gates stayed on even after manafort was let go. so it's going to be something that will end up being a major story. >> and jamil, where do you see it going as far as it being damaging to donald trump when it comes to everybody looking at this? is this one thing that with the continued digging, this may be what gets him? >> it's hard to know in particular. a stack of things are piling up. you have rudy giuliani coming out and saying, look who has done a crime. each one of these things adds up as we continue going forward, and we've got, as jill said, a russian former intelligence official talking to the campaign chairman about whether he might get briefings, and he needs to pay off his debt to a russian oligarch who ran the biggest

aluminum company in the world. these things just keep piling on top of one another. it's not whether the president did know or didn't know. it's problematic. >> new york ag put these piles together and here we go. jill and jamil, as always, thanks for your perspective. thank you. >> thank you. seeking answers. who is to blame for the deaths of two migrant children, and what can be done to prevent any more tragedies at the border? one hour pickup order?

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new criticism from some democrats today about the death of a second child passed away. meanwhile, kirstjen nielsen looked at some of the home land sites. john is the direct of i.c.e. thank you for being here. when we look at what comes out of this tour in arizona, what is something she may accomplish during this trip? >> i think what she may do here is see that the cdc provides more informational screening. we've already taken an approach to the humanitarian crisis. what that means is the children being held in lockup facilities, and frankly short-term detention, holds them for no

more than 72 hours. when you put children who are very vulnerable in a facility like that, it's just inevitable that something tragic is going to happen. >> given that, and given also your experience as head of immigration and customs enforcement, what is your solution? what would be your best advice to make sure this doesn't happen again? >> i understand we want to enforce the law here and we need to have a secure border. we had a zero tolerance policy different during the obama administration. but we have in place a legal framework that works for asylum seekers. we've seen a dramatic shift at the border going from mainly adult males trying to sneak into the united states to families, including migrant children. we have the legal framework in place to deal with this, but we have a new surge of families. it's not catch and release. we put them into deportation

proceedings and you have the hearings. it's a solution that would be humane but no less soft at the border. it's just a touch of an enforcement policy. >> why is that when you talk about this legal framework that is necessary, so again when it comes to death after death, we're not reporting on a third death any time soon? >> it's the president himself. the president seems fixated on this notion that we need to detain individuals, and seems fixated on kind of eradicating the asylum laws that have been in the united states for decades now, put in place after world war ii and looking at the failures in the world who are facing persecution. the laws are in place for a good reason. 90% of these individuals are not qualifying for asylum. the only problem is the courts are overwhelmed because of the recent surge and we don't have the judges. judges are much cheaper in detention, much, much safer. you can have a security policy

that provides no loopholes and nobody taking advantage of our laws but at the same time protects the health and safety of children. >> i want to ask you when it comes to the president, he had some tweets that he thought about closing the southern border. is that feasible? >> no, that's not feasible. primarily they're put in place for national security like a war outbreak or serious contingency disease. this would cost us billions and billions of dollars in trade going out both sides of the border. finally, look, at the end of the day here, the president wants a wall to deal with this problem. a wall is not going to solve this problem. a wall is designed -- first of ah, there is a tremendous amount of physical structure at the bor bor border. the wall is supposed to stop people from getting into the country. what we're seeing here is entirely different. they're not trying to evade capture. more than half these people are walking up to the ports of entry

and making their asylum claims. no, i don't think any of these solutions the president has offered have been effective, and frankly we would all be better off if we took the policy out of this, found the resources to deal with the surge and let the professionals handle the problem. >> when it comes to research, the president looking to slash money in guatemala and honduras. what profit would that be? >> they profit greatly off bringing these people north. the reason these people are vulnerable to the message of the smugglers is there is tremendous gang violence and economic despair in those countries. i'm not sure how effective foreign aid is, but cutting off foreign laid only push more people here. i understand how frustrating it is that the population is moving north. but we need to deal with it, and instead of changing the laws and using detention to try to stop

this which are ineffective, we need to research the problem and deal with it within a framework that works. >> thank you for giving us your solutions. >> thank you. what will cost the president dearly in 2020. maria ramirez?

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new details about president trump's motives on the standoff over border wall funding. there is a new article on reassuring his most ardent supporters in his new run for president, a tactic that may work to protect himself. msnbc political analyst zerlena maxwell. she previously worked for the clinton campaign. reena, you got that article. i want to read more of it for you before we talk about it. from a long-time trump adviser who spoke in a position of anonymity said trump has been spooked not by the mentors but by a brutal rebellion on the

righ right earlier this month when he talked about the border wall. they said, the president into this position in the stand off. is that the case? is that's what's keeping him from not budging? >> that's it. there aren't many things that scare this president but losing his base is really one of them. that's because he routinely plays to them. i've said this president is not much of a strategist. i've called him out on not knowing ha know ing what he doesn't know. i think he knows what he's doing and his long term strategy is to win the popularity contest that he thinks the presidency is and to win re-election. he doesn't care what happens to republicans in the house. he cares about his base re-electing him. he continues to feed them. i'm probably one of the very few republicans out there that wants to see speaker pelosi take the

g g gavel later this week. i wish she had not gone to hawaii even though it was on her own dime. >> do you say that's the case? it's about 2020 when it comes to the president and the standoff? what's driving it for him and the democrats? >> for the democratic caucus is you have a younger, browner congress full of women and the wall is a non-starter. i'm not a member of congress but we democrats have offered enhanced border security funding that would do any number of things to enhance our national security interests but the wall is a non-starter and the president knows that. that's what's driving the agenda for democrats. unfortunately, what's driving the republicans is rush limba h limbaugh, laura ingraham and any right wing pundits who are not

thinking dulgadults. it's a sad day. >> the wall is non-starter, what do the democrats have? it would out weigh the political costs they pay? >> they are going to move forward with variety of spending plans. we have to stop pretending as if

president trump wants the wall. this is a big show that he's fighting for the wall. not necessarily getting it. the policy underlying this entire fight is preposterous. a wall will not work. it's a bad idea. it's bad policy. if republicans really wanted to come to the table and say we agree that we're not going to get funding for the wall but maybe we'll get some more high-tech advancements in border security. something that democrats will come to the table to negotiate about. we have to stop pretending as if president trump really cares about getting that wall specifically. >> you brought it up when it comes to this. the president is at the white house. he sent his tweet saying i'm ready for this deal. you mentioned nancy pelosi being in hawaii.

talk about the optics of that. >> it just energizes the base. the administration is conflating border security as a national security issue which is so important to republicans and energizes the republican party on the whole. 85% total of republicans really support this president in refusing any funding bill that doesn't include over 5 billion for this wall. i have to respectfully disagree there. this president is concerned with objects. he loves big shiny objects. he knows his legacy is mixed. he's like a child.

>> i just think the wall is bad idea. we all know it. i think as serious people we need to stop pretending that the president really cares about the wall as a policy matter. he cares about it as a branding matter because he ran on it and that was part of his chant. he cannot admit he lied about that. we're at a moment where he literally is being stubborn and keeping the government closed because of some part of his fight over his ego instead of being the leader he's supposed to be as the president of the entire country. not just the base of the republican party. >> his goal is to paint democrats as obstructionists. >> i got to get don in here too. >> i want to bring in nancy pelosi and talk about her being in hawaii. >> that's what i was going to say. i don't understand why that's a

topic of discussion. the idea of nancy pelosi being on vacation three days before she takes over the most important -- one of the most important jobs in this country is insane. the last time i checked, every has mobile phones, they all work. if the president wanted to speak with her, he could do so. he doesn't want to come to the table to have serious discussions about the wall or anything else. it's a tremendous amount of gaslighting for kellyanne conway to say the democrats don't want to talk. democrats were in the house for a five-minute session and offered a funding bill. they don't want to have a discussion. the idea that her being in hawaii is an issue here, it shows for the next two years they will personalize nancy pelosi and attack her. >> glad we got you in there. we'll have to leave it at that. thank you so much. two members of congress talked to richard lui about all of this in our next hour. we have republican matt gaetz of

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this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. we're now approaching the top ocht hof the hour. this does it for me. my colleague takes it from here. richard, take it away. thank you so much. good afternoon to all of you. thanks for being with us. closed for business with the