matt lewis, scott jennings, maria cardona, there you are. i'm like where are my people?ou are my people. welcome to the program. this could be the first government shutdown in history where the white house and congress are controlled by the same party. i mean, what does that tell you about the state of the republican party now or maybe the state of the administration? what's going on? >> it's not good. i don't think a shutdown's good for anybody. it doesn't make republicans look competent, and i would say this. normally, i've always been in the camp, i was a big, i was a big critic of republicans in 2013 during the shutdown where ted cruz tried to defund obamacare and i thought it was a fool's errand and i always think republicans get blamed for it. i think there's a chance this one works out different for a number of different reasons, in the senate it would likely be a democratic filibuster that would lead to it. again, doesn't make the republicans look good, but i think it could shake out, if we do get a shutdown, it could play out differently. >> meaning the democrat

with us scott jennings and joe trippi. ce close to a potential shutdown says we are definitely heading there. we'll see what happens in the senate. if they get there, that would be what happens on the mark of the president's first year in office. how bad is it for him? > i think the president needs to maintain message discipline on this. for the first time in my memory, on a shutdown issue, the republicans actually have a strong hand to play. what the democrats did, over the last 24 hours, is reveal their priorities. they are putting the undocumented immigrants, the daca people, as a priority over the c.h.i.p. kids. there is 9 million u.s. citizen c.h.i.p. kids. they are shutting down the government over the daca issue. so, if i'm a red state democrat, and i got to go home and explain that, i don't know how i'm going to do it. and the republicans are setting back and letting them do it. back in 2013, when the government shut down, the republicans had a terrible hand to play, this time around it is much better cards on the d

. >> i want to bring in brian fallin and scott jennings, welcome to the program, here we are brian and scott, in the middle of all of this, what's your reaction. brian first. >> this vote that's happening right now is a show boat, it's a sham, don. they could have had it last night, in fact, chuck schumer tried to get consent from mitch mcconnell to have it last night. we've known since yesterday this thing didn't have 60 votes, we could have spent today negotiating in good faith on a bill that could have kept it open tonight. this vote's going to go down, and the real negotiating can start. they want mitch mcconnell and donald trump to hold up their end of the bargain and do what they promised several months ago. in december, the last time congress pun theed on the continuing resolution, mitch mcconnell promised to democrats and republicans alike, he told jeff flake to his face he would give him a vote on any bipartisan deal they could strike on daca. senators from both sides of the aisle came up with that deal, mitch mcconnell is refusing to give it a vote on the senate floor. donald

scott jennings, to you, where is the republican leadership? is it appropriate that we haven't heard from a single member of republican leadership in congress this morning almost now going on 16, 17 hours after these comments were first reported? >> it's a good question. i suspect they're going to wind up having to say something. i think they were all getting out of town yesterday. i doubt they will be able to escape another 24 hours without having to respond to it. >> why should you want to escape this? why should anyone want to escape this? if your life is dedicated to public service, shouldn't some things be beyond party? >> well, like i said, i don't think they're going to be able to go throughout the day without having to respond to it in some way and my suspicion is they are going to disapprove of the president's remarks and say something about their own principles regarding what they want as a final outcome here on the topic of the meeting which was getting to a deal on immigration reform. so, you know, i suspect that there's probably so

bush scott jennings and jesse o'connell with us as well. want to challenge you a little bit with the question which is we hear democrats say so often that nknow the white house is not cooperating enough, but jeff sessions was not subpoenaed, he spoke to mueller's team. is this some of the cooperation and transparency that democrats would like to see? >> well, look, we certainly welcome any cooperation with the investigation. this has been an ongoing investigation since donald trump took over the presidency essentially and we welcome the transparency in that. i think that what is most concerning about all of this is that as you said, this is the first time we have seen this reach a cabinet level position of the president. we already have seen this investigation lead to four indictments to folks who pled guilty already at the highest levels of trump's campaign. so i'm not sure that this is cooperation so much as they got to talk to these folks because americans want answers to this question. it is outrageous that donald trump continues to sug

here to discuss, scott jennings and anna navarro and rick wilson. hello everyone, happy new year. good to be back, good to have you on. >> i'm sure you love being in new york, you just came from a week in florida. that's got to have been so, so, so tough. >> it was a little chillfully florida, when i look back at five degrees -- >> it was so cold, iguanas are falling from the trees. that's how cold it was. >> i still went to the pool. since the publication of michael wolff's book, president's advisors have been defending his mental fitness, you saw chris ruddy moments ago, watch this. >> no one questions the stability of the president. >> i've never questioned his mental fitness. i have no reason to question his mental fitness. >> president trump is capable of leading us. >> i've enjoyed working with him, i don't think he's crazy. i think he's had a very successful 2017. >> the reality is, is the president is a political genius. >> all right. so anna, republicans seem closer to the president than ever now. and they keep saying crazy, i read the book and never heard crazy in the bo

>> i want to bring in our cnn political commentator, presidential assistant to president bush, scott jenning. scott, what if this was a topic of discussion among the staff. how would you handle it? >> it's strange. a lot of things about this presidency are unprecedented. we're dealing with issues for the first time we've really never dealt with. one of those issues, of course, is the president's ability to change the course of conversations in the blink of an eye. sometimes i see these tweets that he does like the one today and i try to put myself in his shoes, and today, think about it, he's endured 72 hours of the most brutal news cycles you can endure. this book and the subsequent coverage has questioned his fitness for office, has questioned whether he's smart are has questioned whether he's a child, which is what some people alleged in the book. it hurts. >> it's not the first time people like bob corker previously tweeting he's in an adult day care center. >> sure. but my point is this, for three straight days he's been watching and consuming this coverage. i would submit if any one of

. >> scott jennings, tomorrow will be one year since we were all in washington and the president was inaugurated. how might he react to this, the one-year anniversary of him being in office and you've got protests all over the country, and the government is shut down? >> well, the way to react -- i do agree with brian. the way to react this weekend would be for donald trump to pull everybody together and say, okay, i'm in for a year. you guys are ruining my anniversary weekend. we're not walking out of the oval until we have a deal. the democrats have said the only thing they'll accept is something on daca for the d.r.e.a.m.ers. so if the president were to pull everybody in, clearly state his position, give the republicans time to make sure whatever his position is can pass in both chambers, that would be a big win. so that would sort of validate the tactics tonight. they've kept him off television tonight. the congress is going to shut down the government. he steps in tomorrow morning, say, and pulls everybody together. they forge a deal that gives everybody what they want, includin

joining me for perspective, maria cardona and scott jennings. scott, just three days ago, senators purdue and cotton couldn't remember what the president had said and now they suddenly remember he didn't say it, but in the meantime there's been this huge global backlash. how do you explain this sudden shift? is it believable? >> you don't explain it. it's certainly an odd way to try to message out of something. there have been other reports that the president was bragging to people that he knows that he did say it and he thought it would help with his base. a few days later we have people trying to come in and clean it up. at the end of the day, this is been a blown messaging operation coming out of this unfortunate incident. what's really important is they get the policy right and boris talked about it in his report. we cannot shut down the government and we cannot leave these d.r.e.a.m.ers hanging. they do need a solution. they deserve a solution. when all is said and done, what i hope the republicans is able to do is what the president said ea

bush scott jennings, and parea car doe. that and both side is not happy, scott, so is a white house proposal a clear compromise? >> i do believe it is a compromise. the president ran as one of the most hardline immigration kand its that we have had -- candidates that we have had in history and now he is saying that i understand that we have to come ppromise to the give a l to give something to everybody, and he realizes that doing the right thing for the dreamers is something that people in both party supports, and he is also are going to continue to have the hand on the pulse of the american people when it comes to border security. i believe that the american people believe that we can do it all, and fix the dreamer issue and support security. i believe it is complicated bid, and i believe that donald trump is oh, so close, to doing something that neither over the two presidents could do which is to sign come pre hprehensive legislation into law. >> you agree, maria, that the president's planb is do-able? >> not the way it

ryan lizza and scott jennings. good evening to you. ryan, president trump tried to pull off his own saturday night massacre except he couldn't. what's your reaction to this? >> it is part of a pattern we've seen for a year with this investigation whether it was demanding loyalty from comey and then of course firing comey, telling comey to back off the flynn investigation, trying to get sessions not to recuse. i guess the bright spot is that as hard as he has tried to get the people in his administration to stop this investigation, there have been some breaks. and the fact that he relented when mcgahn threatened to quit means there are some breaks on this president, or at least people in that administration that at the very least saving him from himself. but i think it's -- it's a pattern and it adds to the mounting evidence that there's a serious obstruction case here, whether it's one that can be proved in court, who knows. but the evidence is obviously mounting. >> what do you think of this, scott? when you think of robert mueller, f