a.b. stoddard. i've got nothing on this, a.b.t seems like everybody we interview tells us something different. the republicans are saying, yeah, i think we may be able to get there but then the more hardliners they are, the less they seem to be on board. they don't want to have daca on it. some do. on the democrats' side, it's the mirror image. what does that tell us? >> i think the republicans want to blame democrats and say we didn't get nine. it was talked a lot about during the campaign and why that needs to be a yes vote. if you have house freedom caucus members baulking and making it a republican on republican violence story, that's bad for everybody. i don't think anyone wants a shutdown. i've covered these long enough to know that miracles do happen at the 11th hour and people fold. i don't think it would be a daca give but i bet it would be more military certainty and more military spending to bring the freedom caucus members on board so all of the pressure is on senator manchin and heitkamp and don nolly and those up fo

a.b. stoddard.lk a lot with you on this program about is the president strategic or is he impulsive. when you read through this, it's so much more disturbing than that. he's neither. he's not strategic. yeah, okay, he's impulsive, but it's actually worse than that. the picture michael wolff paints is complete -- >> michael wolff, who was defending the president early on in his report and saying the media was too negative about him. remember the source matters as well. >> we will get to that, how he explains his reporting. if you take this book at face value, it paints such a disturbing picture of how the president is behaving and the people around him know it. and they're trying to manage around it. here is one -- this is a reporter's note from michael wolff about some of his process. and what the people around the president told michael wolff. hoping for the best with their personal futures as well as the country's future depending on it. my indelible impression of talking to them and observing the

a.b. stoddard. i don't know if you caught it in there, john, but another little dig at the first amendment by the president saying our libel laws are weak, demonstrably false, the envy of this universe is the way we treat the first amendment. anybody who travels the world knows that. a little bit of a nod to maybe hoping we can get laws back that we had in the 1700s where it is wrong to criticize the government. what do you make of his defense so far to what happened in the book? >> the laws didn't work out for john adams. one-term president. keep that in mind. freedom of press is something the president is uncomfortable with. now he is confronting it in terms of michael wolff. saturday morning that tweet storm, he's got the relationship leadership at camp david, he opens up the day with this tweet storm that culminates with calling himself a very stable genius. when you call yourself very stable genius, it is evidence of either. it is insecurity and opposite of presidential. this is the tone and te

a.b. stoddard. if you were looking for a sort of boilerplate republican conservative speech, well-delivered, as you said earlier, often poetic. >> a.b.: everything was there that every republican wanted to hear, with with the exception of addressing a surging debt and our entitlement programs, which is boilerplate republican. other than that, it was as conservative as it gets. he never mentioned draining the swamp. i wonder what steve bannon is thinking tonight. he hit hard on immigration talking about crime by immigrants before talking about a compromise, may be to let his supporters know he's going to stick to his promises on a wall and other matters for immigration hawks. every message -- his line on trade that makes republicans nervous, but didn't promise any new tariffs or anything that sounded like a trade war or anything with which he disagrees with the mainstream of his part party. >> shepard: off in the press dome a question with this president is not what sort of policies is he about to sug

a.b. stoddard. who will be in the meeting with this president a few hours from now, let me bring that up on screen. it is a big group that is trying to figure out a solution for the d.r.e.a.m.ers, by our count 12 republicans, eight democrats. david gregory, possibly too many cooks in the kitchen. this is not the narrow scope that jeff flake was hoping for. >> this is not where a deal gets made. this is where there's a lot of posturing and where lines get drawn. a spending bill that could result in a government shutdown. bottom line for both sides, the president wants his border wall. he has also wanted resolution on daca for children of undocumented immigrants. he has come out in favor of that as well. nevertheless, i think he's going to really dig in on the wall. it was a key campaign promise. it's something that he would love to give republicans to campaign on in their seats in a very tough election year. nobody wants the government to shut down. i think republicans in the white house want it less

a.b. stoddard. if you were looking for a sort of boilerplate republican conservative speech, well-delivered, as you said earlier, often poetic. >> a.b.: everything was there that every republican wanted to hear, with with the exception of addressing a surging debt and our entitlement programs, which is boilerplate republican. other than that, it was as conservative as it gets. he never mentioned draining the swamp. i wonder what steve bannon is thinking tonight. he hit hard on immigration talking about crime by immigrants before talking about a compromise, may be to let his supporters know he's going to stick to his promises on a wall and other matters for immigration hawks. every message -- his line on trade that makes republicans nervous, but didn't promise any new tariffs or anything that sounded like a trade war or anything with which he disagrees with the mainstream of his part party. >> shepard: off in the press dome a question with this president is not what sort of policies is he about to sug

a.b. stoddard, jake sherman and hugh hewitt. you can watch hugh's show on msnbc tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. >>> a legal longshot. the uncommon step the trump administration wants the supreme court to take on daca. >>> in the last hour, president trump shared a message with people taking part in an anti-abortion march in washington. he talked about his first year in office but not the government shutdown that is just hours away. >>> much more to come here on msnbc. hi...so i just got off the phone with our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. so the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight- four weeks without the car. okay, yup. good night. with accident forgiveness your rates won't go up just because of an accident. switching to allstate is worth it. >>> welcome back. i'm david gura. inside the white house right now, president trump meet with democrat chuck schumer talking about how to avert a shutdown that would take place just before midnight tonight. senator lindsey gram who we've been following

a.b. stoddard. they are sending the pheplg, i am still in charge, i still do the messaging. what do you guys want to know? what do you think the relationship is today with john kelly and donald trump? >> there is credible reporting like maggie haberman indicates that president trump has had discussions the last week or so about his reaction to john kelly going out and sort of going off message. i think john kelly is way out of character for john kelly's conduct these last six months. to go to a group in a room full of liberal democrats about building awe wall knowing a group like that would leave that out. we had that discussion on your show. of course then he went to fox and said the president's views have evolved between the campaign and the office of the presidency. so that is just naturally something john kelly would know would enrage president trump. >> is president trump -- >> i believe he is doing it to push back because internally his pushback wasn't working. he has been really entitled to this. a great debate on immigration. and i think that it is a known fact that

a.b. stoddard. great to have both of you. a.b., interesting to hear how president trump has decided to handle this and interesting to hear how people in prez president obama's national security council coming out with support of president trump tweeting that he stands with the -- i'm paraphrasing, but he's thinking of the iranian people here and how repressed they've been. >> right. i think it's pretty much concluded, mostly privately but now publicly by many who were in the obama administration that president obama's efforts to warm communications with the regime to lay the groundwork for the iran nuclear deal did not allow him, diminished his ability to take an opportunity with the revolution june of 2009 with those protesters, protest ing ahmadinejad's election. we're at a point where there's obviously lots of criticism of the iran deal here. president trump is poised to perhaps withdraw from it early in this year and then, of course, in the streets of iran, the people are saying that the deal that president rouhani drew up

a.b. stoddard, associate editor at real clear politics and host of "no labels radio" on sirius xm and charlespinion editor for "the washington times" ." he was asked at this appearance with the norwegian prime minister whether the wall was essential in any daca deal and he said absolutely. >> we got clarity on this because we didn't have clarity yesterday. in the 55 minute meeting with members of congress, the president seemed to be all over the place and there was a moment where senator feinstein said why don't we just do daca now, legalize everybody and if you can get what you want after that. and the president seemed agreeable to that but i think if you look at the transcript of the whole meeting, look at what he says. when the president says i want to do daca, he means to legalize the daca recipients and to build a wall and to get rid of chain migration. and the visa lottery. >> bret: in his mind, the legislation for daca, means everything. >> shorthand for that whole package. >> bret: where are we on the negotiations? >> the problem is the president did not make himself clear. it scared

a.b. stoddard. i was joking with kellyanne, is nobody the president's new code name. if nobody talks about hillary clinton, that must be his code name because he talks about her all the time. and he just proved it this morning. but the larger point he's making is that this investigation needs to be about her. what is the strategy? how is it being received by those around her? >> well, it's two-fold. one, politicians, like a foil, donald trump is not the first to spend his time how obama should have cleaned up the mess before he arrived. and hillary clinton is crooked and on and on. it serves to discredit the fbi and the department of justice so anything they will be finding on russian meddling, conclusion, or financial crimes is something he can criticize later because they failed, in his view, to properly investigate hillary clinton and her server and on and on. it is always about hillary clinton. this is part of a larger campaign to discredit bob mueller and the department of justice and the fbi. >> so, david, as you know, the president now will not commit to sittin

a.b. stoddard. what do you make of the house versus whohole controversy. the republicans coming to the president's defense. nobody denies the comparison he drew saying why do we need people from haiti and africa who i am terming brown people. i know we just met with the prime minister of norway, but he brought up that contrast. it seemed obvious why. nobody denies that comparison. what is this all about? >> if you look back at the last couple of days starting thursday night, this unbelievable scare in hawaii and two u.s. senators accusing another of lying. imagine the perspective of friends and foe all around the world hraorlooking at the unite states in the last 72 hours the accusations by senator cotton and purdue that senator durbin is lying when there is a difference between just s-house and s-hole is really extraordinary. there are so many ways they could try to pro tract the president and say this did not go on. but he said this is a gross misrepresentation. senator cotton said he didn't hear any derogatory comments about individuals or persons. that

a.b. stoddard from real clear politics as well as most of no labels radio on sirius xm.y of "the federalist." welcome. byron, we have now learned that in recent weeks, special counsel robert mueller and his team have interviewed the following, and it's quite a list. mike pompeo, dan coats, mike rogers, directors of the cia, national intelligence, nsa as well as attorney general jeff sessions and former fbi director james comey. does that give you a clue where this investigation is headed? >> i think everybody is right when they say it appears to be focusing in on possible obstruction of justice or alleged obstruction of justice. conversely, it doesn't seem to be as focused on collusion between russia and the 2016 trump campaign. i think that's clearly true, the fact they are talking about talking to the president anyway which would presumably be the last thing they would do in this, does suggest mueller is moving pretty fast. i think we saw a lot of news on two completely separate tracks today, all of this mueller stuff and at the same time, news on the dossier, the text

a.b. stoddard, columnist at real clear politics. did you hear nancy pelosi on this?ten. >> that plan is a campaign to make america white again. it's a plan that says over 50% of the current legal immigration will be cut back. that many people will be sent out of the country. >> shepard: for the moment at least, the far right hates it, the left hates it. where are they going with this? >> a true compromise is when everyone is missable. it's a good starting possible. it's clear as senator cardin indicated that this is not the final plan. president trump admitted that he's likely to massage his priority list once more as he's done several times. this is not really ultimately where it's going to end up. shep, this is comprehensive immigration reform, this is a massive restructuring of immigration policy that has been in place for a minimum of half a century. a real cut back to legal immigration that the democrats will fight. in terms of getting a deal, democrats have to make the decision, are they going to do a shut down fight on february 8 or are they going to continue

a.b. stoddard. i remember, david, being taught one of the most dangerous combinations in politics is ignorance and arrogance. and it seems is to be on on full display this morning with the president of the united states. he was wrong with what he was saying during the campaign, whether he knew it or not. and now he refuses to admit any error, even thoef general john kelly was trying to do him a favor. he was trying to make trump's mind-set go into the realm of the reasonable and trump winds up undercutting him just minutes ago. >> and one more layer which is chaos. governance by chaos here. it is impossible to predict where we're going to land on this government shutdown. as it pertains to the wall, which is your question. if we get to this as part of an overall daca settlement, i think the president is looking for victory. he wants to say that he won on this issue. i don't think there is any question about that. he will define what the wall is, what security is consistent with the mandate that he b

a.b. stoddard. former white house press secretary ari fleischer.ns can be laundry list but sometimes they can have an overall message. seems like this message from the excerpts and with the president said today is about unity. >> that's exactly what donald trump needs to preach tonight. this is going to be his biggest audience of his presidency. you're going to have sometimes 50 million people watching. it's an unfiltered chance to show people who you are and what's in your heart. the forum in which the president delivers that speech, it is made for presidents. there's going to be applause for what he says. it's in a signal to people at home when they hear the reinforcement of what he's saying through applause. everything favorable for the president. his weakness is his unfavorable ratings. still underwater. estate of the union like this, especially if it's unifying, is a chance to fix it. move the numbers in donald trump's direction. >> bret: it is, a.b., the one time when all of government comes together. whether they are on the same sheet of mus

a.b. stoddard "real clear politics" associate editor and kevin kelly, managing partner. scott, let me start with you, what walmart workers are receiving, those are just crumbs, crumbs. >> yeah crumbs. nancy pelosi, i guess she did one thing for me today, melissa, that was make me hungry. crumbs i guess those are what, thousands or hundreds of dollars created in your 401(k) in the last year or so, from the best, we have highest balances average 401(k) balance we ever had because of stock market because of donald trump's policies and gifts he is giving out to corporate america taken away during the obama administration. those are crumbs i guess. crumbs are million jobs created last year. higher wages. multiyear highs we did not see in the obama administration. more crumbs off the sandwich, to me that is a great sandwich to be falling off of, if you want to take a bite of this economy going forward you will be pretty happy being american worker and investor in the 401(k) in this economy. melissa: yes. let them eat cake. ab, i have seen study after study, that give walmart w

a.b. stoddard, and our political correspondent dana bash is still with us as well.a, the president's comments about a pathway to citizenship, he said maybe over the next 10 to 12 years, assuming they're honest and they're doing the right thing, paying taxes, have a good job, they could get a pathway to citizenship. it's caused a lot of heartburn among some of his fellow republicans in the senate and house. >> yeah. and let's just be clear, this is exactly what was on the table before the shutdown, before it blew up. so it is not a surprise that if the president is re-engaging, which he clearly is, on the idea of some sort of border security for some sort of legislative fix to the issue of the d.r.e.a.m.ers being here and keeping them here legally that a pathway to citizenship is possible. hearing him say that, hearing it out of his own mouth is new and is a whole different ball game, and that is why he's getting the title amnesty don from the -- >> from breitbart. >> from the breitbart publication that in whose eyes he could generally do no wrong. it's a shot across

a.b, stoddard/columnist, realclearpolitics"the idea that he's going to put 200,000 salvadorians up tomake the democrats dig in harder and try to make this a shutdown fight."protectees like orlando zepeda have until september 2019 to find a legal way to remain in the u-s or face deportation.orlando zepeda/immigrant"it's worse than when i left el salvador because now we have the other problems like the gang members that are doing bad things over there, especially forcing kids to go join them."i'm john lorinc reporting. ( darya ) hospitals are being flooded with emergency room visitors... all because of the flu. california health authorities say e-r's are seeing on average 50 to 60 more patients per day than usual. in california 27 people younger than 65 have died from the flu since october. ( darya ) here in the bay area there have been 4 flu deaths in santa clara county and 4 in contra costa. doctors say the best way to avoid the flu ...is ge

a.b, stoddard/columnist, realclearpolitics"the idea that he's going to put 200,000 salvadorians up toin harder and try to make this a shutdown fight."protectees like orlando zepeda have until september 2019 to find a legal way to remain in the u-s or face deportation.orlando zepeda/immigrant"it's worse than when i left el salvador because now we have the other problems like the gang members that are doing bad things over there, especially forcing kids to go join them."i'm john lorinc reporting. ( darya ) hospitals are being flooded with emergency room visitors... all because of the flu. california health authorities say e-r's are seeing on average 50 to 60 more patients per day than usual. in california 27 people younger than 65 have died from the flu since october. ( darya ) here in the bay area there have been 4 flu deaths in santa clara county and 4 in contra costa. doctors say the best way to avoid the flu ...is getting a flu shot. ( jam