) but we do have approaches to do and part of it is what we were doing in that committee with lamar alexander and patty murray was taking steps to get the cost of healthcare down on the exchanges and-- - is the messaging the problem? why didn't democrats do better last year? why don't democrats do better generally? - there are just, i mean how long do we have? - well (faint speaking). (evan and audience chuckling) yeah, i mean, look-- - i know you believe this and i know that others believe it but, obviously, we're at a place now in this country where the president won the election, whether or not he won the argument, you guys are not in control of either the white house or the congress and so-- - oh, yeah. - what's it gonna take to get back to get back? - well, in 2018, i don't know what we're going to do. i'm not a prognosticator but i think what we have to do is let people know they we're on their side and that means you have to go to rural and ex-urban areas in my state. there are a lot of trump-franken voters or franken-trump voters in my state. now i am co-chair of the rural health cauc

lamar alexander is is papart of discussion. he doesn't have a suite there where other leaders are. it's unclear exactly how much influence he can have over this process, alex. >> mike viqueira, thank you. >>> to jeff bennett, jeff, good sunday morning to you. we got the president really blaming the shutdown entirely on democrats. does that make it harder for senators to come to an agreement, that kind of publicity? >> the president suggesting democrats care more about undocumented immigrants than service members, it's hard to see how language like that entices them to work with the white house. it's as if democrats and republicans are still negotiating what the table should look like, right? as mike pointed out, you have this new line of criticism from the white house suggesting that the senate change its rules to prevent such impasses from happening again in the future. take a look at what raj shaw, the deputy white house press secretary had to say about this early this morning. >> we think the senate rules are candid. they don't make sense when you're dealing with somebody like c

proposed by bill nelson and susan collins on reinsurance, the bills proposed by patty murray and lamar alexander on c.s.r.'s and community extenders, the areas that help so many. we need to pass a disaster relief package. so many need help just as new york needed help years ago even though we didn't the get the support that we needed from states who need money now. we must protect the dreamers. the american people are clamoring for our two parties to work together to get things done. after a year of partisanship and strife during which the governing majority hardly attempted to compromise, we now must move forward in a bipartisan way if we're going to finish the task at hand. on the budget, on health care, on disaster aid, on daca. i yield the floor. in the house commerce subcommittee oversight investigations how they hearing on the issue last week with representatives from hhs and the fda. [inaudible conversations]

this is bloomberg. ♪ mark: lamar alexander says members of congress are close to resolving five majors that could pave the way for a government funding deal. his comments came after president trump and chuck schumer held an 11th hour meeting at the white house, with schumer telling reporters "we still have a good number of disagreements. discussions will continue." would be a first since 2013 when president obama was forced into delaying implementation of the affordable care law. president trump's travel ban would restrict travel into the country from the six predominantly muslim nations. a high court will hear arguments in april and produce a ruling by late june. washington,ay in secretary mattis said the military must strengthen its competition with world powers, such as china and russia. threats fromowing revisionist powers, as different as china and russia are from each other. these nations are consistent with producing authoritarian the security decisions of other nations. ark: other departments echoed the remark from secretary mattis. a chinese official said the oilly sinking of

i note that lamar alexander behind him as well. it's bob corker that just amazes me right now given their war of words the last couple months. he joined the president on air force one and they struck up a friendship. the president is not too shabby of a golfer. they seemed to have buried a hatchet here. whoever was in charge of the microphone at that desk has now disappeared. we can't track that individual down. obviously, that was a big mistake. the president making light of it. he was reminding folks, look what's been happening in the markets and the economy and look at this $5.5 trillion in tax cuts. we wonder where he got that figure. that's the gross total of tax cuts offset by about $4 trillion in revenue raisers. you get the $1.5 tax cut cost. it began in $5.5 trillion and the number raises to offset that prompted all of this. anyway, back with my guests, katie, did the president make good on just forcing that point across? letting people know, there might be a lot of people paying attention to this michael wolff book. he di

we will ask lamar alexander, stay close. okay folks! let's team up to get the lady of the house back on her feet. and help her feel more strength and energy in just two weeks yaaay! the complete balanced nutrition of (great tasting) ensure with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. ensure. always be you. an iceberg...there's a lot going on underneath that i can't see. new crest gum detoxify works below the gum line to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. new crest gum detoxify. >> harris: of fox news alert on immigration. we just heard from the white house about the president saying he is receptive to a path to citizenship for dreamers. we also learned that chief of staff john kelly will head to capitol hill, they are working on getting the framework double four divisions of border security to it and the dreamers are component of what they were talking about. that is big news. let's bring in republican senator lamar alexander of tennessee, he is part of that immigration group that's been worki

other side, you have lindsay graham talking to senator cornyn and others, senator grass lee, lamar alexander trying to peek in. going from group to group to try to get some, iron out some details that perhaps allow some negotiation to go forward. if the bill is changed substantially, it has to go back to the howls. it could be -- to the house. could be approved by a voice vote but there's a potential problem if it's changed significantly over there. i think that they're trying to get to a continuing resolution with a possible promise that they're going on move on to immigration in this short period of time. >> shannon: interesting, on the house side they were trying to get their measure passed and they say, quote, we've done the work, it's up to the senate now. that was one of the things that many in the freedom caucus said they would push for. they wanted a guarantee for their votes, that there would be a legislative vehicle, maybe the goodlatte bill, they wanted that, they wanted to it get to a vote. there was a trade-off there. so that happened enter-party. may have to happen across the a

i know only one support by republicans, but lamar alexander is interested in doing a bipartisan bill, which would have to look somewhat different than your legislation. where do you see the biggest flashpoint between what you are pushing and what you might see in a bipartisan bill in the senate? rep. foxx: i talk to lamarr on a regular basis and he was excited we were moving forward with the act. i can't wait for you to get it passed out of the house and send it over to us. as you know they have been , focused on health and have much larger assignments of health legislation in the committee. i do not know for sure that lamarr will be able to put together a post secondary bill or reauthorization, the higher ed will. my emphasis is on getting our bill out of the house and to the senate. then we will work much more closely on what is going to be possible. we passed the schools act, which rewrote workforce development legislation back in 2013. it sat in the senate for 14 months, and the senate was not able to write its own legislation so they took up the skills act, changed its title. we

list of them that she wanted to speak to and that includes arizona as of jeff flake tennessee's lamar alexander pat roberts from kansas nebraska instead fisher and of course south carolina carolina lindsey graham that big name there so these are the people that she knows already are on her side but she needs them to get behind the ball and start pushing president trump in the direction of saving enough to not axing the agreement now the next round of talks for nafta are due in two weeks in montreal so that's why the pressure is on right now yeah and you mentioned in those list the senators alex a pat roberts he's actually from kansas he's the chair of the senate agriculture committee and that reminds me i know we do talk about the auto sector being impacted by daft a lot on this show it will do it again but how about agriculture how will agriculture fair and how has it fared so far with nafta like agriculture is huge and we know any way you turn it this agreement as it stands has created about one point one trillion dollars worth of trade between canada mexico and the states even when you take

trump: senator lamar alexander is here. senator pat roberts. [applause] pres.mp: thank you, pat. oh, does he love the farmers. pat, does he love those farmers. right, pat? stand up, pat. do you love the farmers, pat? yes. [cheers] pres. trump: he'll come in -- we're talking about a different subject, he'll say, what about the farmers? that's good. that's why they love you. representative diane black -- terrific woman. [applause] pres. trump: representative marsha blackburn. marsha. [applause] representative scott desjarlais. i love that name. [applause] pres. trump: hi, scott. thank you, scott. right from the beginning. representative chuck fleischmann. [applause] representative david kustoff. thank you, david. [applause] pres. trump: representative phil roe. [applause] pres. trump: i talk about zippy, so i don't have to mention zippy duvall. i'll talk about him in this speech. [applause] pres. trump: tom nassif. where's tom? tom? thank you, tom. and mark morris, state senate majority leader. all right, i've done my job now. all right? okay. [applause] pres. tr

senator lamar alexander is here. senator pat roberts. thank you, pat. does he love the farmers, pat. does he love those farmers, right, pat? stand up, pat. do you love the farmers, pat? he'll come come in, we're talking about a different subject, he'll say, what about the farmers? that's why they love you. representative tie an black, terrific woman. representative marsha blackburn. marsha. representative scott desjarlais, i love that name. hi, scott. thank you, scott. right from the beginning. representative chuck fleischmann. representative david kustoff. thank you, david. representative phil roe. i talk about zip by, soy don't ave to mention zip by duval. i talk about him. om nasauf, and mark mor sis, state senate majority leader. all right, i've done my job now, all right. ok. i've done my job. . did i leave out anybody? i hope not. always trouble when you do that you left out one person, for the rest of your life, they never speak to you. so it's always very dangerous. thank you very much. i'm also thrilled to see one of my good friends and early s

i want to give kudos to senator lamar alexander, republican of tennessee, senator patty murray, who is a democrat from the state of washington, senator collins, republican of maine, and senator nelson of florida, a democrat from florida. they have come up with a plan that they want to include in this measure which can help to keep health insurance premiums affordable. who doesn't want that o coming up next on c-span connect una. after that prime minister's questions. ♪ >> this weekend q&a, harvard law feltman.ofessor he describes james madison. what are the three lives of j madison that you wrote about? >> the first life is the one that is most famous red that is where he created the constitution. not only in our country but also the greatest constitutional

americans will lose health insurance and the premiums will go up and i want to give kudos to senator lamar alexandersenator patty murray, senator collins, republican maine, and senator nelson of florida and the democrats in florida and they've come up with a plan that includes in this measure which can help to keep health insurance premiums portable. who doesn't want that? disaster relief, i can't wait to vote for disaster relief for texas, florida, for california, frederico, for the virgin islands and my state has received that kind of relief in the past and i want to stand up and help other states. that is something that should be included in the cr and is not. finally, let's get this right for the department of defense. let's give general mattis, sector defense, the resources he needs to spend money wisely and in defense of this country and to make sure we never come in second in the war. it's a long litany of things that are being postponed and postponed and postponed again. for goodness sakes, let's not postpone any further. i think it's time for a st. louis chicken dinner in the united states

tennessee has always been very well represented, but lamar alexander is one of the great senators here. i'm just grateful that he -- that he is standing side by side with me on this, because the songwriters of america have been mistreated for years and years and years, and it's time to change it. it's time to get some equity and some fairness into this system. i think lamar has outlined that about as well as it can be outlined. i just want to personally express my appreciation to you for what you have said here today. with that, mr. president, i would like to ask unanimous consent that anna binelli, a detailee of the senate committee on finance be granted floor privileges for the duration of the congress. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hatch: thank you. mr. president, earlier this week, the se voted to pass a continuing resolution to

lamar alexander and tim kaine. there is growing optimism the senate will be able to muster the votes necessary to advance a three-week funding measure to reopen the federal government. discussion of a coalition of roughly 20 bipartisan numbers. according to lindsey graham, all the issues are on the table. senator mcconnell says he are doing it all. we are going to do it all. immigration, a major issue. senator graham said outside of that meeting earlier today. you may see about this evening as late as 1:00. the senate is live this afternoon. you can follow that over on c-span2. we go to dan for republicans. washington. caller: thank you for receiving my call. shutdown isme the basically over the fact of the illegal immigration, and the daca. under the was put in obama administration. now there is good to it and bad to it. i cannot see why our elected officials cannot come to terms on this. it is very easy to do this. first of all if they are brought here illegally, being kids or whatever, they are still here illega

because at one point, senator lamar alexander of tennessee forcefully tossed the stick toward senatorrginia, nearly shattering a glass elephant belonging to collins. wow! >> jon: whoa! >> stephen: a heated discussion almost destroyed the symbol of the republican party. i think the full details are available in this month's issue of "heavy handed metaphor magazine." ( laughter ) oh, that "fat cat" article, that "fat cat" article looks going good. everybody loves metaphors. the kids love metaphors. washington's still reacting to the news of president trump's alleged affair with porn star stormy daniels. ( thunder ) ( laughter ) that's enough. that's enough. that's enough, jim, thank you very much. thank you. a little bit of that goes a long way. and the latest person to weigh in is vice president and man practicing his smile in the mirror, mike pence. when asked about the story, pence told reporters he was not going to comment on the latest baseless allegations against the president. first of all, these are not baseless allegations. she says he rounded the bases. ( laughter ) second-- i

other side, you have lindsay graham talking to senator cornyn and others, senator grass lee, lamar alexander trying to peek in. going from group to group to try to get some, iron out some details that perhaps allow some negotiation to go forward. if the bill is changed substantially, it has to go back to the howls. it could be -- to the house. could be approved by a voice vote but there's a potential problem if it's changed significantly over there. i think that they're trying to get to a continuing resolution with a possible promise that they're going on move on to immigration in this short period of time. >> shannon: interesting, on the house side they were trying to get their measure passed and they say, quote, we've done the work, it's up to the senate now. that was one of the things that many in the freedom caucus said they would push for. they wanted a guarantee for their votes, that there would be a legislative vehicle, maybe the goodlatte bill, they wanted that, they wanted to it get to a vote. there was a trade-off there. so that happened enter-party. may have to happen across the a

. >> harris: lamar alexander told me yesterday that he thinks it should be more like 70 or 80.ut this issue is so incredibly important that they really need a lot of bipartisan buy-in. and that's what makes these negotiations lengthy and difficult. but he was really feeling good about it yesterday. we'll see what happens. they said no day without talk is a something happened. >> sandra: mitch mcconnell saying february 8. it's been made increasingly difficult by the fact that crying chuck schumer took such a beating over the shutdown that he is unable to act on immigration. there was a democrat in the white house and they had a chance and had promised to fix this issue i did absolutely nothing on it. >> harris: 's has been one of those third rail issues that nobody has wanted to touch because the truth of the matter is, you do have to do all those other things on the border. even democrats know this. they may not be a fan of the wall as they say because it's 14th century or whatever but when i corrected some i've interviewed, it's a wall system, border security, other things. we

lindsey graham was on, flake on it, lamar alexander, it was good, it had border enforcement, and it hadd breaks for people who came here illegally and you couldn't get a vote in the house because the speaker wouldn't let you vote. why would it change now? why would we have a vote on immigration now that never got one before? >> because the senate democrats have tremendous leverage here. we desperately need a budget agreement to fund our troops and other aspects of the government without a continuing resolution. that's important to many republicans. truthly, a lot of republicans like myself and others who want an agreement on daca. there are plenty. will hurd of texas, plenty are working hard to come to an agreement. many of us have embraced graham-durbin proposal which we think is a reasonable step forward. there are plenty that will vote for it. i believe we can get the votes for a dauk aagreement but the speaker must allow the vote on the floor. >> the speaker is holding it up. you can hear this ad by the trump campaign put out called "complicit." here is a small portion of the ad. >>

senator lamar alexander, a moderate republican from tennessee spoke to reporters earlier today and compared the government shut down to chemical warfare. let's take a look. >> we have no business shutting down the government as a bargaining chip. government shutdown should be the equivalent of chemical warfare. it ought to be banned. >> whenever the guy wears a sweater, you know he wants to make peace. a nice, soothing texture. there are republicans around the edges who don't want this fight. young people brought in by their parents, they're not law breakers, look like they're here to stay. can they have a good life or not? >> remember a couple of weeks ago president trump was talking about the daca solution as a bill of love. have you noticed how the red rick has really hardened as they get into the finger pointing. they don't talk about daca anymore, they talk about protecting illegal immigrants. i would urge people to watch the way the rhetoric -- >> law breakers. >> exactly. and crimes. so what's happening is rather than finding that common ground, you know, the rhetoric is pushing peop

[applause] senator lamar alexander is here. senator pat roberts. [applause] thank you, pat. does he love the farmers, pat. does he love those farmers. right, pat. stand up, pat. do you love the farmers, pat? yes. [applause] he will come in, we're talking about a different subject because, what about the farmers? that's good, that is why they love you. representative diane black, terrific woman. representative marcia blackburn, marcia? representative scott desjarlais. i love that name. hi, scott, thank you, scott, right from the beginning. representative chuck fleishman. [applause] representative david kustof, thank you, david. representative phil rowe. [applause] i talk about zippy. i don't have to mention zippy duval. i talk about him. [applause] tom nash, where is tom? thank you, tom. and mark morris, state senate majority leader. all right, i have done my job, now, all right. okay. i have done my job. did i do a good job? did i leave out anybody? i hope not. always trouble when you do that. you leave out one person, for the rest of your life they never speak to you, so. i

other side, you have lindsay graham talking to senator cornyn and others, senator grass lee, lamar alexander trying to peek in. going from group to group to try to get some, iron out some details that perhaps allow some negotiation to go forward. if the bill is changed substantially, it has to go back to the howls. it could be -- to the house. could be approved by a voice vote but there's a potential problem if it's changed significantly over there. i think that they're trying to get to a continuing resolution with a possible promise that they're going on move on to immigration in this short period of time. >> shannon: interesting, on the house side they were trying to get their measure passed and they say, quote, we've done the work, it's up to the senate now. that was one of the things that many in the freedom caucus said they would push for. they wanted a guarantee for their votes, that there would be a legislative vehicle, maybe the goodlatte bill, they wanted that, they wanted to it get to a vote. there was a trade-off there. so that happened enter-party. may have to happen across the a

lamar alexander of tennessee.lcome back to the show. >> thank you very much. >> let me start with the white house proposal. how should we look at it. is it an opening bid in negotiations or their end point. >> it is what a president ought to do. the job of the executive is to lay out some suggestions and our job is to consider them and show respect for them. i hope we can do -- what we can do as senator schumer was saying, have our own process. senator mcconnell puts a bill down on the floor on the 8th and we'll have amendments and have 70 votes and if the president could support it, the house is likely to pass it or more likely to pass it and the president will sign it. so that is -- the president is doing what -- if a president didn't start the process, the process usually doesn't work. >> let me restart with the sticking point that chuck schumer brought up which is the -- the family sponsorship issue. the white house wants to essentially change immigration law for everybody. i believe the previous graham-durbin

the report here that lamar alexander tossed the stick to you at one point and he missed and it chippedglass elephant ornament. we have five seconds but let me ask you, is it you or lamar, who's paying for the new glass elephant? >> listen, lamar's a great guy, i'm glad it was lamar throwing a stick at me. some of the other members, i might have been a little more worried. lamar actually brought a basketball the next day so we could make sure as we exchange the stick, that we wouldn't maybe do as much damage. >> all right, there you go, mark warner, senator from virginia, thank you for taking a few moments. this is andrea mitchell reports. . i even accept i have a higher risk of stroke due to afib, . a type of irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. but whatever trail i take, i go for my best. so if there's something better than warfarin, i'll go for that too. eliquis. eliquis reduced the risk of stroke better than warfarin, plus had less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis had both. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your

other side, you have lindsay graham talking to senator cornyn and others, senator grass lee, lamar alexander trying to peek in. going from group to group to try to get some, iron out some details that perhaps allow some negotiation to go forward. if the bill is changed substantially, it has to go back to the howls. it could be -- to the house. could be approved by a voice vote but there's a potential problem if it's changed significantly over there. i think that they're trying to get to a continuing resolution with a possible promise that they're going on move on to immigration in this short period of time. >> shannon: interesting, on the house side they were trying to get their measure passed and they say, quote, we've done the work, it's up to the senate now. that was one of the things that many in the freedom caucus said they would push for. they wanted a guarantee for their votes, that there would be a legislative vehicle, maybe the goodlatte bill, they wanted that, they wanted to it get to a vote. there was a trade-off there. so that happened enter-party. may have to happen across the a

he has had a number of conversations including with lamar alexander, marco rubio.io himself told me that scott will make a decision after the end of this legislative session, which will be in march. of course, we'll see what the political environment is then. perhaps he may not want to dig into his big, personal fortune to take a risk on a very -- would be a challenging senate run. and of course, he got that political gift from the white house after the interior department decided to suddenly abandon this decision to allow offshore drilling off the florida coast. but, it shows you the depths and the lengths that the administration is trying to go to help a political ally. >> if he says no after that, it will tell you everything you need to know about the political environment. margaret? >> well, as president trump gets ready to mark his first year in office since his inauguration, the vice president is who i'll be keeping my eye on. i'll actually be with him. he is traveling the end of the week to the middle east for this trip that was supposed to happen about a mo

at one point, senator lamar alexander of tennessee forcefully tossed the stick toward senator mark warneria after warner interrupted him, nearly shattering a glass elephant belonging to collins. [ light laughter ] so the elephant nearly shattered because republicans couldn't agree on immigration policy. do you think there's any chance they picked up on the symbolism? [ laughter ] "hey guys, i don't want to cause alarm, but is it a bad omen that our bickering almost broke the symbol of our party? oh, don't be silly. it's a coincidence. okay, but also, the oil painting of ronald reagan is crying real tears." [ laughter ] senators then apparently agreed to use something less dangerous. after that incident, collins suggested using a small rubber ball and alexander also brought his own basketball, because it'd be safer than a stick. a republican senator, who was in the room, said there were no injuries. there were a couple of close calls, but everything worked out fine. did everything work out fine? because from the sound of things, the people were trusting to fix immigration can't be trusted

lamar alexander, republican, patty murray, democrat, came together with our help committee and we put in place legislation to help stabilize the insurance markets. that's the kind of bipartisan health care effort. but this was a -- this wasn't just a question of being partisan, this was a group of administration officials trying to take away protections from people as a way to somehow induce a political deal. we're not going to allow that to happen. and we won this round. we got the document we're seeking. but we're just beginning to fight. this is going to be a long fight. unless, unless, they want to work with us on ways we can lower costs and improve coverage. but so far, they haven't been willing to do that. if they want to fight, we're willing to fight. >> all right, senator, thank you so much for joining me this morning. and thanks for getting that document. >>> comie ing up next, presiden trump prepares for his first physical as commander in chief. what tests will he undergo? what can we expect to learn? nbc's doctor in the house john torres has some answers next. whoooo. when

and you see members of that common sense caucus, coalition, senator lamar alexander, senator lindseyham, jumping up at this news of his comments, saying this is presidential leadership, trying to lock him into that position. meanwhile, senator cotton, the news everyone's concerned about in that bipartisan caucus is that they've gotten senator marco rubio to join forces with them. senator cotton and senator perdue and others see any legalization of the d.r.e.a.m.ers as a promotion of amnesty for future d.r.e.a.m.ers, and that's why they're going to work very hard to bring the president right back. >> even if it just leads to let's say legal status as opposed to full citizenship? >> they think it's a forgiveness of amnesty and it will lead to the same problem again. >> tal-of-been doing a lot of excellent reporting on this for cnn. the president's going to apparently be -- he said, at least the white house said on monday they were going to be releasing a whole new policy on immigration, he's going to spell out precisely where he stands. do we know precisely where he stands? [ laughter

i want to give kudos to senator lamar alexander, republican of tennessee, senator patty murray, who is a democrat from the state of washington, senator collins, republican of maine, and senator nelson of florida, a democrat from florida. they have come up with a plan that they want to include in this measure which can help to keep health insurance premiums affordable. who doesn't want that on either side of the aisle? disaster relief, i can't wait to vote for disaster relief for texas, for florida, for california, for puerto rico, for the virgin islands. my state has received that kind of relief in the past, and i want to stand up and help other states. that's something that should be included in this c.r. it is not. and finally, let's get this right for the department of defense. let's give general mattis, the secretary of defense, the resources he needs to spend money wisely in defense of this country, to make sure we never come in second in a war. it's a long litany of things that are being postponed and postponed and postponed again. for goodness sakes, let's not postpone it any fu

lamar alexander behind it. and it didn't get to the house because the house refused to vote. it could happen the same way later in february. >> yeah, i mean, and look, the scope of this when you're talking about daca versus that comprehensive program five years ago, it is a narrower scope. again, you saw the patrolling on th -- polling on this the other day. 84% of the public -- this cuts across all political parties -- they want daca to be a permanent fix. the trouble that democrats were running into here was when you said what about priorities, do you want the government to stay open as the number one priority, or do you want this daca fix as the number one priority? on that one, keeping the government open outrated fixing daca by more than 20 points. so i think in this instance over the weekend, to the extent democrats were starting to feel some heat here politically, it was that. do they look like they're choosing the wrong priority. but now, look, if you reopen the government, if you take that issue of prioritization away, you're looking at a pretty narrow, as it relates

at one point senator schumer pointing out senator lamar alexander, senator lamar a known republican and a deal maker. then just a few minutes ago, senator schumer and mitch mcconnell walking off the floor. there's not a ton of detail in terms of what's actually going on right now, but i just spoke to a staffer who was on the floor, has just walked off the floor and told me essentially they're trying to figure something out right now. it doesn't mean they're going to get there. by all accounts, things are still in a pretty bad place. but the recognition, the reality of nothing kind of sharpens the senses like a near-death moment or a near-death experience. right now people are on the floor trying to discuss a pathway forward. and as i noted, the two most important people in the united states senate, the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, the senate democratic leader chuck schumer walked off together off the floor with their staff. how is this going to end up? it's an open question but what's important to know is while this vote is clearly going down, the votes are already cast with

. >> tennessee's lamar alexander is one of 22 moderate senators who met trying to craft a compromise.ade any progress in there? >> i think we're talking to one another. >> one sign leaning toward getting closer, the finger pointing has subsided. >> listen. it's not a win for us. the first part of a shutdown is you get to be dumb, not dumber. >> that bipartisan senate group is meeting as well. the tricky balance here, jeff, both sides are looking to save faith and end this, but they also need to show they got something out of this mess too. >> tricky balance to say the least. nancy cordes, thank you very much. >>> president tru suggested killing the figure buster. he tweeted that republicans should go to 51% nuclear option, changing the senate rule that requires 60 votes to end debate. chip reid is at the white house with more on this. good morning. >> good morning. republicans on capitol hill rejected the president's suggestion of using the nuclear option, and so far the president has been unable to convince the key players to agree to a compromise that would keep the government open.

. >> reporter: tennessee's lamar alexander is one of 22 moderate senators, democrats and republicans, who met this weekend trying to craft a compromise. >> made any progress in there? >> i think we are talking to one another. >> reporter: the finger-pointing has subsided, at least for now. >> listen, it's no win for us. first prize in the government shutdown is you get to be dumb, not dumber. >> reporter: meeting shortly to discuss mcconnell's latest offer and that bipartisan senate group is meeting again too. the tricky balance here is that both sides are looking to save face but they also want to show that they got something out of this mess as well. >> nancy, thank you. president trump suggest the senate can end the shutdown by killing the filibuster. the president tweeted yesterday that republicans should go to 51% nuclear option. changing the senate rule that requires 60 votes to end debate. chip reid is at the white house with more on this. chip. >> reporter: good morning. republicans on capitol hill rejected the president's suggestion of using the nuclear option and so far the

senator lamar alexander chose health education labor and pensions committee.this is two hours. >> the senate committee on health education labor and pensions committee will come to order. debbie talk about the opioid crisis the number one public health changes good out witness today's sam quinones. the author of dreamland, a true tale of america's opioid epidemic. senator murray and i will each have an opening statement and then i will introduce the witness. then we will hear from mr. sam quinones and senators will each have five minutes of questions. this is the only witness i suggest if you want to take more than five minutes, to say whatever he has to say, we welcome that but there will be plenty of conversation back and forth for members of the committee. mr. sam quinones it is unusual to have a single witness at our hearings. but this is an unusual topic. one that you quote - a professor is probably the worst man-made epidemic in history. the challenge this crisis presents has captured the attention of every member of this committee. your research and wri

but senators like dick durbin and lamar alexander who remember what daylight looks like are here to remind us on how healthy a process that should be. remember, in a senate in which the minority party, the barely minority party, i should add, is not for an entire year able to get even one amendment voted on on one piece of meaningful legislation, in a senate like that, mr. president, everybody loses, or maybe i should say virtually everybody loses. unanimous consent, partisan ram job or nothing is no way to govern and no way to run a senate. i yield the floor. mr. flake: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. flake: one day into a government shutdown, we are in a hole as a body. i was just talking to one of my colleagues who said that we ought to spend less time worrying about who threw us in this hole or how we ended up in this hole, and more concern about getting out of it. i hope that we can dispense with the signs of the trump shutdown, the schumer shutdown, and realize we're in a shutdown situation. now let's climb out of it. there are ways to do that. i b

won't withdraw at one meeting in early december, a source says senator lamar alexander asked litehe'sere senator who supported withdrawing, and he couldn't they're convening regularly to discuss the issue, and a white house official says the discussion of withdrawing is premature. the montreal round beginning january 23rd is being called make or break. in canada just today, is suing over lumber tariffs it says are unfair so we will see where this all goes one thing the people are watching very closely is this monday when president trump will address the foreign bureau convention midday in nashville all of this is coming as the white house has called a temporary truce on that trade rhetoric during tax reform, but that's over now. with tax reform in the rear view, so there are questions about whether their stance will change now we'll see in the next few weeks ahead. back to you. >> all right, kayla, thank you kayla tausche in washington for us >>> coming up, nike bouncing back, finishing 2017 on a high note, gaining nearly 20% in just the past three months. what's in store for the stock

right now in a room maybe negotiating with mark warner lindsey graham, and, you know, tim kaine, lamar alexander heads prevail. >> are you worried about republicans seem to take blame could argue why, for just about every government shutdown most of the historians experts say that are you worried as gather this time may be different if not why not? >> no because at the end of the day the truth is it is the president evendz up taking the blame, when government was shut down during the obama administration, its great to see you republicans took blame, the truth is when it came to voting, okay, it was democrats that got hit the president was in white house they lost more seats during that congressional election 20150. a few things one shut down sometimes short-lived moot for second i hope this is short-lived secondly the president trump stayed in 2013 on fox, that it is all about leadership, president has 2 lead we can take every quote every politician said democrat make it republican, republican, make it democrat. >> i am saying from a presidential perspective, obama lost a lot of seats in 14 post

republican senators got behind the deal -- mike rounds of south carolina, lisa murkowski of alaska, lamar alexander collins of maine. but senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said he would only bring a vote up for something he knows that the white house actually supports. >> i'm looking for something that president trump supports and he's not yet indicated what measure he's willing to sign. as soon as we figure out what he is for then i would be convinced that we are not just spinning our wheels going to this issue on the floor. >> elizabeth, what a remarkable thing for a republican majority leader to say about a republican president one day before the government shuts down -- "we don't know what our own president wants." >> that's not surprising given the president has been all over the map on this one. you saw in the roosevelt room the other day he seemed to be very receptive to a deal on dhaka. seemed very open to immigration. you see what happened two days later when he made the comments about how he didn't want certain immigrants from certain countries here and what he said about them. it's

democrats and republicans got together from senator coons and senator flake and senator graham and lamar alexander: meeting again today. brian: i don't know if that will be part of the conference. but the leadership was brought n rand paul made the most sense. put it in writing after you pass this budget, this continuing resolution which is ridiculous, have to pass a two-year budget, put in writing we'll take up right away immigration by march 6th. that should not be a problem. steve: keep in mind whatever the senate passes regarding immigration and "dreamers" it is not a done deal in the u.s. house of representatives. it is good possibility if it is not strict enough republicans won't go for it. ainsley: democrats are saying daca. all republicans we interviewed will vote to keep all the kids here in the country. they came over, their parents came here illegally, they're not going to penalize them. they have a heart. brian: what circumstances inside daca? you're citizens tomorrow. no, you're on the path and your parents should not be. ainsley: you're on the path, vet you, make sure you're making c

of me and on top of that repeal of the mandate which i knew we had to fix for the healthcare lamar alexanderle getting bonuses. their companies are going to be able to expand, buy new stuff and you are on the wrong side of that you look at what the president talked about yesterday, he talked about how we need some immigration reform, obviously. and oven working o you have been that for a while. take a look back at the things he has accomplished. >> steve, he and i have had this conversation, the president and i. i said i hope it works out. i think we could have had a permanent for the working person, too. we are betting on the come the next administration is going to say. steve: tax cuts. >> no, no. i agree. brian: 40 seconds left. you have a common sense coalition. >> yes, i do. brian: boast hope of getting something done on infrastructure. should you had give people hope out. >> there i think we will give people help. we stopped the shut down and come together. 25 strong. evenly split, democrats and republicans that have set more in the last week working face to face than since i have been

guys like joe manchin and lamar alexander are fed up.y were supposed to be the voice of moderation originally with the senate but they haven't been for 20 years. ainsley: i know we are talking about washington. this goes back to what your grandmother always told you just do the right thing. fund the government. do all this other stuff and he wouldn't be dealing with this today. steve: chuck schumer is in trouble with his base because his base is outside of his house in brooklyn with the protest signs. the president of the united states tweeted this out yesterday. crying chuck schumer understands after humiliating defeat that if there is no wall, there is no daca. we must have safety and security together with the strong military for our great people. meanwhile, chuck schumer, here he is talking about how his base steamed. >> liberals and a rot of democrats are furious with you right now. what's your response to all that anger? >> well, look, we have advanced the cause. what people have to understand and i think most people do, most of th

senator lamar alexander will join in the fray. work yet but we'll push it forward. steve: the president made it very clear at the beginning of the week he wanted. only one of the things was in there, it was only partially in there. mark levin took a look what is going on over the last 48 hours and what has been going on the last couple weeks and has this on vision. >> as an american citizen to watch this is repulsive. watch the mob media doing what they're doing. last week we were told the president is mentally unstable. for months before that we're told he is colluding with the russians. today we're told he is racist. what happened to the author michael wolff. three days ago he was in thing. he is gone. he is on to something new, known liar dick durbin leave as confidential meeting with the president and other senators. relied on by the media because they want to rely on him. like they wanted to rely on the author. they want to push this president out. they talk about 25th amendment. they talk about impeachment. brian: why i can