all right. that is wrapping up this hour of "msnbc live." "andrea mitchell reports"er starts right now. and right now on "andrea mitchell reports" wheel and deal. the president is going to huddle with congressional leaders and his cabinet to talk about the border at the white house and his main sticking point the wall. >> the wall is not old-fashioned. the wall is 100% foolproof. you are looking at wheel, and i guess they would say that the wheel is old fashioned, but it has been around for a long time. arrested in moscow, an american jail and accused of spying. jim whelan's brother denies he s

is the brother of a spy. and he should not be doing this as a new member of the senate senate. >> and the question is raised as not only in the senate as a possible critic of the president, but what is he going to do as 2020 approaches? >> good day and happy new year, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where president trump and congressional democrats are starting 2019 by talking today, for the first time since before the government shutdown 12 days ago. the president is already signaling the opposition to nancy pelosi's plan to pass the resolutions tomorrow approve d y the the senate to authorize spending for six departments and a stop gap bill to keep homeland

security open until the 8th, and no money for the wall. this meeting today is billed as a session of border security to be held many if white house situation room which is unusual in itself. this political battle is taking a toll on hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed or without pay. here in washington, almost all of the smithsonian zoos are close and some national parks are open, but relying on the state funding to remain open. joining me is hans nichols at the white house, and garrett haake and also correspondent ann guerin, and also analyst rick tyler, and also congresswoman donna edwards. hans, to you, this afternoon the president is going into the cabinet meeting and then the democrats and republicans, and they have not talked in all of this time. what is the signal coming from sarah sanders and what the president, himself, has been saying on twitter?

>> we will have a sense of how serious the president is about negotiating with officials by the elength of the meeting. if it is a long meeting, maybe it is a global look at what he wants to accomplish, and if he wants them to express the agenda, that means the president may have a tolerance for a longer shutdown. however, it is a shorter meeting, and so if he is going to tell house democrats as well in that situation room, that is a sense that we are on a fast track to the end stage of the deal. i am looking at how long the meeting is going to be, and of course, the twitter feeds of all of the reporters in there, and see if we can get anything realtime and then get the tape out here to get to everyone.

andrea? >> garrett, covering the white house as you do, what is the strategy here. the democrats take over tomorrow, and he is losing leverage and they have the votes to pass the measure, and then back to nancy pelosi, it is on the senate's problem,and they have passed it. so how can they say they don't agree with it any longer? >> andrea, the strategy is to seize as much of the initiative and to the degree they have it leveraged as the white house possibly can. both of the meetings today, the cabinet meeting and the wall border security or whatever you choose to call it briefing this afternoon, and both of those came together very quickly in the last 30 hours or so, and both of them are timed today, the day before congress returns and are precisely to get the president out there to try to get the white house out there as much as possible.

they know that they don't have the leverage to need to get what he really wants, and $5 billion up for a wall, and so they want to know what else they could get. >> garrett headache up on capitol hill, and how much of the box is mitch mcconnell in as the senate conveen, because they have 53 republicans, but they kapt do anything without the house going along with it. >> that is right. when the democrats pass these spending measure, sits going to be increasing pressure on mitch mcconnell to solve this and satisfy all of the parties. he has said in the beginning of the shutdown, he won't put anything on the floor that the president does not support, and he got boxed in allow norg vote on the clean cr that was passed be avoice vote. overwhelming support for it, and only to the president to

withdraw. and if it is good enough two weeks ago and why is that not good enough now. for mcconnell, this is not un m unfamiliar, because he has been able to negotiatet in and out of the shutdowns with members of both of the aisle. and this issue is one that most senate republican s as are not d up about the border wall. it is not the kind of thing that gets the senate republicans out of bed in the morning bushes they will be put in a position to have a very dug in democratic base and democratic controlled house, and also a republican president who is demanding the wall as a keystone of this border security agenda and regardless of whether or not the rest of the party is along for fight. >> to make your point, lindsey graham came to have lunch with the president over the break, and home alone for the president, because he complained

he was not in mar-a-lago, and supposedly the democrats were out of town, and both republicans and democrats, but despite the complaint, for lindsey graham to give him some political cover, and it does not have to be a wall, this or that, and then the president reverted to the wall strategy. >> and lindsey graham in his interview with the secretary of defense was giving him the out, and trying to say, it is a metaphor for border security, and lot of people could believe in that, but he has doubled down on the idea of the concrete wall b. tow give you an idea of what the southern border wall is like, it is 950 miles long, and less than 800 miles of p physical barrier. half of the barrier is p pedestrian wall, and the other is veehicle wall, and you could walk up and run over it. but i say this as an idea of the

$5 billion wall is not going to, where does this wall go in the 1,200-plus miles of wall, and how does donald trump get this done when the current wall cost s over $7 billion, itself. >> it is showing you that the numbers are out of whack. and donna, pretend that you are a freshman democrat coming in, and so far nancy pelosi as the speaker designate is showing a lot of political savvy here. >> tomorrow, the democrats are going to demonstrate a unified party when it comes to standing up against this president and what that means. there is not going to be a wall. the vote that is going to be taking place puts mitch mcconnell in a bad place. the senate overwhelmingly and even by voice vote voted for the bill on the house floor tomorrow and back over to the senate.

the senate republicans have nowhere to go and the president has nowhere to go, and he needs to accept the $1.3 billion, and the other 1.3 billion that he got last year, and he has not spent, and that is 2.6 billion for the barrier, and the voices of the american people say that we want people to go back to work. there are reports of trash in the national parks and museums are closed, and these are the things that begin to hit the americans in a real way. i they republicans are going to be feeling that particularly in the western states. >> and garrett haake, just to give you an indication of what t the president is saying in the cabinet room. to you and hans, our southern border is like a sieve, and we need the wall. >> this is from the camera pool, and we will play it when they come out, but from the first cabinet meeting going around the table, we have a different cast of characters except for four members that were holdovers of

the original cabinet when they went around and talked about how great the president was with the exception of of course secretary mattis. garrett, we don't know going to happen now, because the president is not looking as if he is going to budge. >> and the difference is very small. remember at one point there was over $10 million on the table for border security. and the issue of semantics matters here, because democrats do not want a wall or concrete structure anywhere on the border or the ports of entry makes any sense whatsoever. if he had come into the cabinet meeting and said i want to build a fence where it matters and hire more people and deploy more

drones, we could have had a deal, but this wall which is so powerfully symbolic to both sides. it is very difficult for him to find an off ramp. and we have people all over the time the, and we just saw chuck schumer going into nancy pelo pelosi's office, and not about that quote, but where are we now, and schumer said that we are giving a good offer, and they are trying to separate it from the wall, and see if the president is going to take it nup good faith. the democrats are trying to get an exit ramp and get him off of the rhetoric he is using so long, and he is blowing right by the exits. >> and hans, in the role of pentagon correspondent and all of the double duties here, and you were down at the border with the troops, and you have seen the situation down there, and you know better than any of us how easily this could be resolved with drones and other

kinds of barriers and not a concrete wall. >> the rhetoric from the president is important, because he is saying two separate things. one, he can get so much done with the democrat, and andrea, that is important, because it means potential room for olive branch, but the other is contra can dikt ri, and he is using the word wall, and talking about the southern border like a sieve, and when he is using that retei rhetoric, he is demin fiis dimi possibility for the deal. you mentioned my time on the southern border, and you mentioned in texas, a bunch of army corps of engineers stretching together some wire. and he seems to think that helps, but now he want to mix some concrete, and pour the

concrete. the president has been inconsistent of what the barrier should look like, and sometimes a spiked pointy wall and others it is a concrete wall, and other times, he is perfectly happy with the wire stretched out across the rio grande. >> and garpt, as we understand from t from the people in the cabinet office with him, he is talking about the tweets over the holiday. he has been talking about the alleged 10-foot tall wall that the obaobama's residence, but according to the neighbors, there is no such fence. >> yes, we went out to talk to the neighbors, and took pictures of the house. you can't just like walk up to it and knock on the door, but there is not a ten foot p fence either, and i have no idea where he got that from. and just this morning, he had two falsehoods in about one

sentence in the tweet about mexico is paying for wall in the form of replacement of nafta, and that is not true, and also said that much of the wall is already built, and that is not true. so we are not sure where he is on all of these things today, and hoping that both of to meetings today give us some clarity. >> well, we might assume that where he got the 10 foot wall from, rick tyler who is tmz who has been the first to posted incorrectly that there is a 10-foot wall around the obama home. the obama home is secured by the secret service which is consistent with the presidential compound. >> consistent with the neighborhood. >> in fact, we know the people who sold it to them in fact. >> there is no wall in the southern border, and not one mile of wall, and no wall on the north earn or the southern border, and the problem is that more than half of issues with

immigration does not have to do with border crossing, but with visa is overstays. and the number one offend ers with apologies to my friends in canad canada, but it is canada. >> and donna, the drug trafficking comes through the northern border. >> yes, looking at the number of visa overstays is doubling the people crossing the border illegally everyday, so i don't know what the president is talking about. to me, the president is continuing to dig himself in, but the if you have been to the border, and i have been there, that you could not put up a border, because it has natural and physical barriers to crossing. so what is going to happen here the house democrats and republicans in the senate are going to have to get together and present the president with a bill, and he going to be faced with the option of signing it or not to get this over.

>> garrett, is there any chance that the republicans will at some point, the republicans in the senate, they will decide to make deal with the house democrats, and give it to the president, take it or leave it? >> that would be extremely challenging, and highly unlikely at this point. mitch mcconnell has dealt with nancy pelosi before, and there is always the possibility they could strike a deal, but the the idea of splitting off from a president who is incredibly popular in the base of the republican party, i don't see it getting off of the ground. that is why i believe we will be stuck in the shutdown. >> it is approaching a record if it is passing 20, 21 days, and at 12 days already. thank you, rick tyler, donna edwards and all of you. and now, mike pompeo is

answering questions about the surprising case of an american held in moscow. i am a family man.

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we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. nearly six full days after his arrest, u.s. diplomats in russia were able to meet with former marine paul whelan, the american accused of spying by russia despite an international treaty that demands appearance

with an attorney. his brother spoke to msnbc earlier today. >> it seems that he is doing well and he gave them a list of things that he needed, and we have a better sense of how to go forward in et goinging his legal counsel. >> this morning mike pompeo said on a trip to brazil, that the u.s. is seeking clarification from russia about the charges, and if the appropriate is not in the report, then it is demanding that he be released. but we have heard former ambassador mcfaul said that this case is unusual. >> and yes, it is unusual.

when someone is a accused of being a spy, they show film, and take camo or disguises or anything that they take in the process of it, and none of that so far. we don't know a lot about paul whelan and we know that he work worked with warner, and discharged from the marines with some issue, and we are not sure what, but discharged honorably, a and so this is not a person that they would use on a spy issue, and on the other hand, he was interested in rush sharsiarn russia social media, and so they would notice him right away. >> yes, the security forces would pay attention, and say who is this person? when he visited russia, he probably had a degree of

shadowing him. if they wanted to have a pretext, and they don't need much of a pretext, but if they wa wanted to take that in this atmosphere, we don't know. he may have been working with someone else, but we don't know about this case. there is something odd about it. >> what is odd is that as you note, two tours of duty in iraq, and according to his records, and an account of being a marine, and this is what his brother had to say. >> no way that paul was a spy. he had a law enforcement career, and so i know that he would be aware of the risks of being in a foreign country, and he would

not do anything to braeak the law, and i cannot imagine that he would break spy laws in any country let alone russia. >> he makes a point. this is an experienced guy and not the average tourist. >> i don't anything that mr. whelan just said, and right at this point knowing what we know, and if we had to make a bet, yeah, this is putin seeing something on a transak chunnel text, and back in 2010 we did a spy swap -- >> a big one. >> yes, and we have maria butina after a fair trial has plead guilty and maybe he is going to have this person sequestered away knowing that so far trump has not resisted him on major i issues, in fact, agreed with him in so many that he may want to

set up a spy swap with maria buti butina. >> and she is not charged with being a foreign agent, but for not registering. this is what mike pompeo had to say when asked about this today. >> we have made clear to the russian, the expectation that we will learn more about the charges, and come to understand what it is he is accused of, and if the information is not appropriate, we will demand his immediate return. >> i want the ask you about general stanley mcchrystal, and he was on martha raddatz, and he said something very personal about the president. >> if you were asked to join the trump administration, what would you say? >> i would say no. it is important for me to work for people who are basically

honest and tell the truth the best they know it. >> you think that he is a liar? >> i don't believe that he tells the truth. >> is trump immoral in your view? >> i believe he is. >> and president trump's response according to the critics was way beyond the scale of what general mcchrystal replied in a general question. and he said, he got fired like a dog from obama, and final bust of big dumb mouth, and hillary lover. and he was not fired, but offered his resignation after a conversation in paris by some of the subordinates that was embarrassing to the white house, taand the president accepted th letter of resignation, and so fact chaeki inchecking that. and for if president to be talking about a man who is so

well known for his work in afghanistan and doesn't that raise questions? >> in fact, i'm a dog lover. >> yes. don't we all. >> and my dog would be offended by the tweet. and the second point is that stan mcchrystal is as everyone has said and i had this personal experience with him working in 2003 when he was the head of special operations, and this is one of the finest generals that the united states has ever produce and admiral mccraven who has defended stan mcchrystal, and so, yes, in any contest here between the issues of integrity and truth-telling, stan mcchrystal is on top. the president is i think way off base here in that kind of criticism about someone who essentially saved many american lives with the work he did in afghanistan and iraq. >> we should point out here this is coming after a four-star retired marine general jim

mattis who was the defense secretary was per p mimitted toe with no farewell ceremony or honors at all from the white house. and forced innobly because he wanted to tie up loose ends. >> this contrast s wis with the president's earlier remarks about my generals, and he seemed to embrace the generals as a class of people that he could trust and admired and obviously, something has happened along the way, and i think that the something is disagreement. he does not tolerate well people who disagree with me, and even though in this case they have superior experience and integrity as well. >> thank you very much for all of your context, and coming up, opening shots.

mitt romney kicking off his career with a blistering attack on the president. a blistering on the president. i thought i married an italian. did the ancestrydna to find out i'm only 16% italian. so i went onto ancestry, soon learned that one of our ancestors was eastern european. this is my ancestor who i didn't know about.

well, he has not even before

sworn in as a new senator, but one day before that takes place, mitt romney is reigniting his public will feud with president trump. he has written a scathing washington postop-ed saying that se senior persons of less will experience, and the abandoning of allies that fight alongside us, and the president's thoughtless claim that we have been a sucker in world affairs define his presidency down. and romney says with the nation so divided and angry and resentful, a leadership quality of character is indispensable, and that is where the incumbe incumbent's shortfall has been the most glaringing. well, president trump firing back on twitter. here we go with mitt romney, but not so fast. is he a flake? he should be happy for all republicans. be a team play and win. joining me now is mike murphy,

and i kind of screwed up that quote, but you saw it on the screen. and so, former adviser to jeb bush and howard cain, and do you see this shift coming in? >> well, it is spot-on, and true an consistent. and he has been one of the few people in the are republican party who has been brave enough to call out on the president on the misbehavior, and he published an op-ed in "salt lake city tribune" saying much of the same. so now that there is interest in what he wants to do, he is going to frame it. and people should read the whole article, because he says i won't be the day-to-day commenter or tweeter on the president, because i will have a few ideals, be bnd that consistent with who he is. >> are some of us completely out

of line to be thinking that the whole republican senate has lost bob corker, and jeff flake, and, let's see, alexander, la mar alexander is a lame duck not running for re-election, but in the current senate, so p few republican critics willing to stand up, and hoar you have mitt romney who agrees with the president on a number of the domestic policies, but disagrees with the character and the approach and the demeanor and general life, and is this the potential 2020 run? >> i don't think. so, i would love to see mitt romney run, but i don't believe so. he is putting out a marker. and as in the past, when he has called out the president, and

acts gaiagainst the national interests, mitt sounds more like the senators i have heard privately and not publicly, and they wish that he would grow up a little bit, and the loss of general mattis in the incredibly important moment where we have ad hoc and dangerous, and ignoring the national security people, and the long term strategy stuff is serious. so what mitt is doing is preemptively putting down what he believes should be done. and not be afraid to work with the president when it is for the values of the party or the interest of the country, and he should be applauded, and several s senators are quietly nodding in agreement. >> yes, we talk to them off camera, and critical of the president, and uncomfortable, and some of them worried about the primary challenges in this

year, and 1920, and you have susan collins, and lindsey graham who are less to be independent, and here you have mitt romney, a national figure coming in with six years to play around with, and euk neekly supported by in home state. >> and he has a real base there, and utah is interesting, because it is not only the republican state, but it has always had moral state of the president. and so an opponent got 26% when he ran against trump, and so mitt is talking about himself, and constituents, but he is going to work hard to pass an agenda, and working in a bipartisan manner when the policy is right. one thing is that the op-ed is not a johnny jump on trump, but it is the politics that he thinks that the country should

be following, and i think that he is going if be doing that, and others should come to join him. >> i agree with you. and thank you very much. and the speakers of the class, the new arrival at the hilla and battle over the border wall. max rose from stat tenth island is going to join me next on "andrea mitchell" on msnbc. i'm alex trebek here to tell you

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with democrats taking control of the house tomorrow, amidst a government shutdown a new class of democrats is promising to shake it up here in washington including the newly elected staten island congressman max rose who is pledging to donate his salary to charity until the government reopens. happy new year. >> happy new year to you, too. >> and you have been elected there, and you are stand big the will rogers' statue there on capitol hill, and first time we have talked to you since your victory. congratulations to you. >> thank you very much. >> you from staten island and joined by another one of of your classmates mikie sherrill, and she was army and you are navy, and you were saying and maybe some others that you are not taking the salary until the

government shutdown is over. >> this is dereliction of the du duty, and this is a disgrace, and what we doing is to use government shutdowns as negotiating tactic, and hundreds of thousands of people going without salaries right now in the holiday season. it is disgusting and it has to end. i refuse to take a salary until it is fixed. >> what do you say to nancy pelosi, because you don't want her to succeed? >> well, my message is to the president of the united states. and let's make sure that we have the facts straight here. there was an agreement to something, because the house leadership planned on agreeing with somebody, and so did the house, and then the president saw a few people on fox news say he needed to change his mind, and then he goes back to the wall. and we have to are reopen the government and people can have sensible discussions, and sensible debates of how the

pres preserve the security and the values at the same time. this should not be too much to ask. we went to the moon, and world war ii, and we are trying to open up a government again? it is up believable. it is shocking, and i know that the people who just elected me in south island and south brooklyn are tired of this bickering, and these debates, and the high per partisanship, and they want us to get back to work, and that is why i am here. >> can the president grab the stage, if you will, because he has a long cabinet meeting, and the cams ra a, cameras are rolling, and when we get that to you as soon as we can. and do you believe that nancy pelosi who is going to be the big day tomorrow with the democrats coming to town, and they want to show that they can have a series of things done,

because you will vote on it. >> well, it is a low par in terms of getting things done, because all we want to do is to reopen the government again and then have a sensible debate about how the preserve the security, en os fforce the bord and maintain a sound immigration system, and like i said before, it is not too much to ask. but looking at the rhetoric that you just used, and everybody is looking for this to be a reality tv show. oh, the president is going to one-up nancy pelosi, and he is going to say something crazy, and she is going to have to tweet back to him. this is not a reality tv show, and we have to stop acting like children, and quite frankly at this point, we are acting un-american. i would like to see is change the culture here, and that is why so many of us decided to the raise our hand and run for office, and get elected and when we spoke about these things during our campaigns, it was not just rhetoric. okay. i know that everybody likes to

think it is poll tested, but nothing is going to change. this new class is looking to change politics in the country, and that is what we are all about, and that is what we will see in the coming weeks. >> are you voting for nancy pelosi tomorrow? >> no, i am not. i have been consistent about that, and i find it shocking in many ways that there is a conception that suddenly, i will flip-flop on this, and for more than a year, i ran in my campaign, and not only changing politic, and also holding myself to my word. people are so sek and tired of politicians lying, and i am going to the -- >> hasn't she shown that she s is going to stand up to the president, and who else in the democrats could take on the president in a showdown? >> well, nobody there. is an unbelievable class of freshmen here, and unbelievable group of politicians on both sides of the aisle. many people can do the job, but

that is not the point here. the point is that i am going to the hold my word, and i'm going to maintain the values that i ran on which is that i am not going to flip-flop when times get tough. look, nancy pelosi is going to be the speaker, and that is clear as day, but i also ran on cleaning up politics in this country, and getting the corporate pac money, and federal lobbyist money on having a generations long infrastructure bill, and health care and we are not oflip-flopping on them either, but we can't wait to get back to work and do something about it. >> congressman-elect brent rose. thank you for being with us. and elizabeth warren is head odd to iowa.

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this is a moment in america where people really want to get the focus back on the things that touch their lives. about things like student loans and what it costs to get a prescription filled and how

social security needs to be strengthened. >> elizabeth warren moments ago at the massachusetts state house before heading to iowa this weekend. joining me now is nbc's senior political editor mark murray and nbc's national political reporter mike memali who was in massachusetts yesterday? >> monday? >> monday when she declared. two days ago. the holidays. the whole week seems, feels strange. so, here she is kicking off a campaign already going to iowa. what was her calculus in getting out front so quickly? >> i think she wanted to lay down a marker. this is a big field in 2020 among democrats and more than we saw in 2016 a lot of democrats claiming to be the leader of the progressive wing of the democratic party. and so, by announcing early she had a pretty good run even on a slow news day of the announcement getting the message out and with rachel maddow tonight. she'll return to the senate cloak room and see a lot of competition tomorrow here in washington and so being the

first one out there as we know a lot of other democrats are ready to announce their own plans, as well. she wants their announcements judged against her own and look at bernie sanders. there' questions of his plans. this is maybe an attempt to nudge him out as he's still considering his plans. >> and that senate cloak room, mark, so crowded with candidates. here warren is trying to do something that might not be so successful on social media and compete perhaps with beto o'rourke. this is warren opening a beer on new year's eve. >> hold on an s.e.c. i'm going to get me a beer. and so there she goes. trying to show i guess that she can be as social media friendly. beto o'rourke had how many people gathering to watch him cooking chicken last week? >> i think the candidates we'll see a very diverse and wide open

field since 1992 for democrats. and they all bring different strengths and weaknesses in this perspective field. for elizabeth warren, some of the strength she brings she's been a successful fund-raiser having raised some $42 million in the 2012 race against scott brown. of course, you know she is progressive and also that she is somebody who's laid out some very detailed policy proposals on ethics reforms as well as to restructure corporate boards. to me maybe her biggest weakness is candidates with success in 2018 for democrats weren't those who labeled themselves as progressive or the most progressive. they often kind of came from the pra mattic center left and the challenge for elizabeth warren and bernie sanders if he gets in is can you end up being somebody seen as a progressive at the extreme part of the left and win in states like florida?

we saw gillum not have success and can they be winning candidates? >> and then you have joe biden, mike. someone you covered intensively. he's supposed off in the u.s. virgin islands according to his wife's twitter account. they're having their family, you know, vacation as well as a big decision to come. >> that's right. we know that the poholidays wera critical time with him being happy with making a run for the white house and hernandfamily a having one on one time with dr. biden and i understand one more family discussion in january and then i think if the decision has been made to run it comes out fairly quickly and more than likely than not see a decision not to run yet. see how the field develops. he has the luxury as somebody who's an elder statesman in the party to marshal the connections

to have a formidable campaign. he has the time to wait. >> mike, mark, to be continued. here we go for 2020 and tonight senator warren sits down with rachel maddow as mike said for her first tv interview since announcing the exploratory committee to announce the run. we'll be right back. and i don't add up the years. but what i do count on... is staying happy and healthy. so, i add protein, vitamins and minerals to my diet with boost®. new boost® high protein nutritional drink now has 33% more high-quality protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals your body needs. all with guaranteed great taste. the upside- i'm just getting started. boost® high protein be up for life look for savings on boost® in your sunday paper.

thanks for being with us. we'll be on capitol hill tomorrow for all the swearings in and the excitement there. follow us. here's chris jansing in for "velshi & ruhle." >> thank you. great to have you back. good afternoon, everyone. i'm chris jansing. ali and stephanie are off. it's wednesday, january 2nd. let's get started. the very first face to face between president trump and democratic leaders since the partial shutdown began 12 days ago. >> this meeting in the situation room where it's very unlikely there will be cameras. from donald trump, border security and the wall thing and shutdown is not where nancy pelosi wanted to start as speaker. the response from pelosi? that the president gave democrats a great opportunity to show how we'll govern responsibly and quickly pass our plan to end the irresponsible trump shutdown. >> the main problem here is he's worried about the investigation that's breathing down his neck