tom tillis is interesting. he's pretty part line, doesn't like to cause drama.dsey graham has been outspoken. the fact that tom tillis is on one of these bills signifies a shift in the way the republican party is handling to me. >> if in fact the president were to fire him, there's recourse, right? it's not as if he would just disappear from the investigation immediately. >> well, if the bills pass. we don't know if they will make to it the floor. but yes, in theory, the fact that we've seen now two different bills today before this "wall street journal" announcement but all within hours means there's really an appetite for blocks to make sure that president trump doesn't do this. the graham-booker bill would stop it before it happens so if they wanted to fire him, they would have to go in front of a panel of judges and say here's why, lay it down. the tillis coons bill would be after the fact. it's less intense. mueller could go back and appeal his firing in front of judges and say i was wrongfully terminated. you'll see different but the same idea. they want m

one of the interesting things when i read one of the stories about this today is tom tillis approached with this idea. can you tell us a little more about that? >> that's right. senator tillis and i serve on the judiciary committee together. and he came up to me on the floor and asked if i would be interested in moving on a bill quickly to provide back end protections for the special counsel. if the president tries to fire special counsel robert mule are of the senators that graham and booker have introduced would provide some speed bump, a three-judge panel that would have to review that to see if it's appropriate. the bill that i've introduced with senator tom tillis would allow the special counsel to go to court and sue to be reinstated and a similar three-judge panel would review whether or not he had been inappropriately removed. each approach takes a different side. pre-firing or post-firing so so that if any one of the bills moves forward we've got greater protections for bob mueller and for this important special counsel investigation. >> however good these bills are and how ma

tom tillis' approval rating is 21 percent. and nancy pelosi 27 percent. chuck schumer 26 percent. and mitch mcconnell impressive 15 percent. and despite of two years of nonstop vitrol, trump is beating all of them. and it is it true, some is lacking. it is true that president trump did a lot even without congress to make our life better. consumer confidence and stock market and businesses starting up and wages even and gd. and foreign policy. he has a lot of challenges and his team is forging new alliiances and make sure our allies pay their fair share and not get suckered in a trade deal that zaps our wealth and independence. president trump stream lined regalwayses and red tape in the federal department and given relief to the vets in the va. a phenomenal justice confirmed in the supreme court. and has 29 more to be approved. and on trade. put cheaters on notice and changed the behavior of offending a nations as a result. other than than bernie sanders, he's the only american politician to get tens of thousands of people to show up in a hot summer day a

and we know he talked to senator tom tillis and doesn't like the idea congress wants to make it harder for him to fire the special council. what do you think the senate majority leader seeing as his role in dealing with the russian investigation? >> i think he has consistently said this is going to be handled by the senate intelligence committee. and it is being handled there in a bipartisan way. so i think he has confidence in the senate's abt to do a thorough investigation. and he'll wait patiently for the results of that investigation. >> and then hunter, just again, broadly speaking because so much needs to get done in september. based on what you have seen, so far, what's the number one lesson that you hope the president has learned up until this point to get things done with congress, starting in a week? >> well, again, i think the point that i would keep coming back to here is that with leader mcconnell and who i've known for 30 years, with him it is never personal. it's about winning, advancing the cause, and i think that what you're going to see when they come back after labor

a new senate bill by tom tillis of north carolina. it would be retroactive to mueller's appointment, a three-judge panel would be placed. otherwise, the special counsel would be reinstated. the bill's co-sponsor stressed the need for true i understand and all the key he justice department decisions. >> this is an opportunity to show to the american people we're serious about independence. we're serious about being held to a higher standard. and the department of justice is unique among cabinet positions. on the one hand, the president nol natures the fbi director or the a.g. just after they're confirmed, i want they will to be independent. >> this is co-sponsored that would block the president from firing the special counsel without a judge's approval. when it is investigating the president, as is now the case. adam schif tweeting, if true that mueller has impaneled a grand jury, all the more important that congress protect his independence. joining me, a member of the senate judiciary committee. how concerned are you about the presid

this legislation pushed by tom tillis of north carolina with chris consequence of delaware would killhe president's chance to fire mueller. this is a real difference of interest. trump doesn't want to be investigated, you know, like an audit of everything he's ever done and everything he might have done. and the republican party is saying well, we'd like to look clean on this. there is a difference of interest here. >> yes. and, you know, this is really -- this is a very big catch-22, because we want to focus on things that we can get done and we're not getting anything done and we need to unite. and that's one of the things that the democrats have over the republicans is whether we agree with our policies or not -- >> you're not answering my question. no. the question is should the republican party be the good government party making sure that robert mueller has a clean -- a free hand in investing the president or should they tie his hands a bit to give the president a break here, a partisan break? what is the right thing for the republican leadership to do, help trump or help the pr

and you have republicans, tom tillis and of course lindsey graham saying, look, we want to send a signal to this administration that if you try to do this, it will be a real problem. you have to couple that with what else is going on in the senate. they are holding sessions to prevent the president from making a recess appointment because, again, this all comes down from the idea that the president would have to potentially remove the attorney general to, therefore, be able to fire bob mueller. but it's also possible that he could write this out of the regulations. it's possible that's part of his presidential power as well. and these bills are designed to essentially say you can't do that. and i'm told that all of these senators are on the same page and the question is the constitutional mechanism for how you do it. they were all talking off the senate floor right before they left for the recess to try to figure out how they could make their case most effectively all four of them together. >> thanks so much. somewhere in washington there's not capitol hill. all right. to help break this

republican tom tillis is one of the sponsors. >> we don't want to restrict administration's authority or the department of justice from removing a counsel, we just want to make sure to the american people they can be convinced it was done for the right reasons. >> let's get to david wright, joining us live. given the president's predicament, a growing number of republicans are already testing the waters for a possible run in 2020. and the vice president is shooting down reports he's one of them. >> reporter: that's right. the vice president went so far as to release a statement saying he's 100% focused on the president's agenda and on the president's re-election. otherwise are both laughable and absurd. >>> next to the nationwide manhunt for an accused rapist who made an escape. here's ron claiborne with reports the fbi has joined the search. >> reporter: tonight, a desperate manhunt in ohio and beyond for an escaped inmate armed with a deputy's gun. >> we've yet to find him. has possession of a firearm, up to 30 rounds of ammunition. he has to be getting cold and hungry. >> reporter:

. >> lou: tom tillis himself comes out as a sponsors of the legislation that republicans sponsor andarticularly bright here. >> i spend a great deal of time in north carolina and i hear from north carolina residents are so livid at him. the words rage. they can't believe it and feel betrayed and his voters and constituents north carolina wrans are saying it is outrageous to be part of the this legislation and he said this is around for a long time. it is absolutely directed at president trump. and the voters are not going to forget this. voters will have long memoriless. >> lou: to me tillis is shocking and a sellout and obviously not being bright here. i just can't imagine how dumb the republican party leadership is until i looking at the the rank and file like lil ils. what in the world? >> and whatever, maybe there is a good principle here in some sort of you know, principled stance here, i don't know. but the idea that this is how they are going to priorityize their efforts is stunning to me when they can't do a simple thing like fulfill a promise to remove obamacare. >> and it r

. >> lou: tom tillis himself comes out as a sponsors of the legislation that republicans sponsor andng to be kind as i can. he's not particularly bright here. >> i spend a great deal of time in north carolina and i hear from north carolina residents are so livid at him. the words rage. they can't believe it and feel betrayed and his voters and constituents north carolina wrans are saying it is outrageous to be part of the this legislation and he said this is around for a long time. it is absolutely directed at president trump. and the voters are not going to forget this. voters will have long memoriless. >> lou: to me tillis is shocking and a sellout and obviously not being bright here. i just can't imagine how dumb the republican party leadership is until i looking at the the rank and file like lil ils. what in the world? >> and whatever, maybe there is a good principle here in some sort of you know, principled stance here, i don't know. but the idea that this is how they are going to priorityize their efforts is stunning to me when they can't do a simple thing like fulfill a promis

bullying tweets reinforce for me the need for a piece of legislation that i am helping to lead with tom tillis and others, bipartisan coalition, to prevent firing of the special counsel robert mueller, who he has also sought so intimidate. and the kinds of statements we've seen about drawing red lines around financial dealings, about calling the investigation a witch hunt or a hoax and the attacks on the team that robert mueller has assembled all point to a looming constitutional crisis if the president proceeds with firing robert mueller, and that's why preventing it for stalling that kind of constitutional conflagration is the suggestion by all of us, supporting democrat and bipartisan colleagues who are intent on showing the law, and nobody is above the law, including the president. >> i assume you've seen the reports throughout that for his father-in-law and donald trump and his company competed in building deals if new york city and there is a personal animosity there. what can you tell us, if anything, about that? >> it is not about me. it is aboutupholding the rule of law and protecting

yesterday, tom tillis, a mainstream -- >> we had him on the show. >> exactly. they don't think the investigation is running off the rails. >> the president -- >> i would caution unsubstantiated theories. the trump organization is a private organization. julie, to you, who has been so patient, let me get you in here. i thought it was telling when the president seemed to change his tone and his words to describe the investigation. no longer was he dismissing it, he was talking about the integrity and the honesty of it. listen to this. >> i just hope the final determination is a truly honest one, which is what the millions of people who gave us our big win in november deserve and what all americans who want a better future want and deserve. >> julia, is something different now? >> it is. i thought it was a fascinating shift. in the past, we have heard the president talk about this as a witch hunt. he was talking himself, his associates, his family, his white house. last night, he tied it to all supporters making a case, it's not that they are coming after me, they

i thought very notable that someone like tom tillis that doesn't have a reputation for being a maverick introduce the legislation that the leadership is going to get a pro forma session. we haven't seen the same thing in the house. what do you make of that in. >> the reason for that is the difference in the nature of the two chambers of congress. in the senate the senators have a stronger sense of power. each individual senator has more influence, clout, much more leverage to sort of gum up the workings of washington than the house do. and house members are constantly freaking out about their elections. and that affects the way that you think about law making and think about the white house. senators have more breathing room. they have sfrongstronger senses self. plenty of them aren't running for reelection and that makes it easier for them to buck their parties when they need to. >> betsy is right, it is power and independence but fundamentally it's courage. we're seeing courage among republican senators. we have not seen the courage among the republican house members. >> and paul ryan

. >> tow you have tom tillis, a republican from north carolina, not associated with any kind of never trump fashion in politics. he is on board for this. i think lindsey graham as well. you're not seeing that. >> we're still waiting for someone the white hat to come riding in to save us. i tell constituents at home, we have to save ourselves. they keep looking to other way. we have to make sure the american people understand that we were attacked. that we were just, we are just as vulnerable going into the next election. if anything comes out of this, the criminal probe aside, we must make sure the next election is secure. that's why i wrote the independent commission investigation to take this out of congress and put in independent appointed experts on the case. >> the u.s. reporting late faye the president has sent private messages to the special counsel, robert mueller. he appreciate what's he's doing. he asked me to share that with him and that's what i've done. do you think it is appropriate? >> it is so odd. it is the same check-in calls that he would make with comey is that ask

conference are coming to his defense with several senators including jeff flake, orrin hatch, and tom tilliseting support for their embattled leader. >>> president trump declaring the opioid crisis a national emergency. the surprise announcement coming two days after health and human services secretary tom price indicated the president would not be making the declaration, suggesting it wasn't necessary. the president now vowing to spend a lot of time and money on the problem. declaring the opioid crisis an emergency means federal and state agencies will receive more resources to fight it. the bipartisan white house commission studying the epidemic told the president last week that declaring a national health emergency would be an immediate help. >>> president trump's new immigration plan would cost 4.6 million jobs by 2040 according to a study by the president's alma mater, the university of pennsylvania. it found the u.s. economy would shrink 2% under the proposal. last week trump endorsed the raise act, that's what it's called, the aim to preserve american jobs by curbing immigration. most

one was tom tillis pushing a bill to protect him from being fired by trump, something donald trump'saising a question in this new report why did he call so much about the bill. pollster jeffrey pollack has advised that the committees for the senate and the house. and he is an interesting plit kwal voice to have on this story. you and i were just digesting this. and you pointed out another quote in this article. this is want a trump critic. this is a republican senior aide, brand-new, quote, it seems he's always just focused on russia. >> yeah. i mean, there's no question that this guy seems obsessed with russia, and that's what -- that's sort of what some of this comes out of. and i get asked this question all the time when is the russia thing going to matters to the voters because right now it has not by and large. >> the polling you see says it doesn't matter to any voters. >> it certainly matters to the democrats, but by and large not with republicans. his numbers have broken a little bit with republicans frankly over the past couple of weeks over the various chaos that we've seen

senator tom tillis, republican from north carolina.e introduced a bill that could protect robert mueller if he's fired by president trump. is this seen as an act of aggression? >> the republicans much more apt to buck the white house. on issues like health care, russia. they passed that russia sanctions. legislation the president was forced to sign even though he didn't want to. this is remarkable. a democratic senator from delaware to put in this legislation saying if the president fires mueller there's going to be an explosion. i would wonder if the president tried to take that step. >> george, thank you. george has a big show this morning going one-on-one with kellyanne conway and chris coons and republican senator thom tillis. and will discuss the new bill which will protect mueller. thanks. >> we want to move to a scare in midair. severe turbulence. tossed passengers and crew around the cabin. the ceiling covered by drinks that went flying in the air. >> at least ten people taken to the hospital and abc is at laguardia at new york

venting his frustration to two gop senators, the first tom tillis of north carolina. what can you tell us? >> tom and chris coons are sponsoring a bill that would prevent the president from firing robert mueller. and what we hear is that the president vented his unhappiness with this bill and made clear to tillis that he didn't want it to pass. tillis' office said, hey, it was a cordial conversation. mind you, the president may have cordially informed him he doesn't want his bill going anywhere. >> we need to remind viewers when robert mueller was nut putt in place, the president said, fine, put a special prosecutor in place. i'm okay with it. bob corker was speaking last friday about the president and his ability to get anything done. >> absolutely. >> i want to share that for a minute. >> the president has not yet -- has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate. >> i mean, this for me has been stunning. i watched it over and over. bob corker saying that the president hasn't shown the stability or the compe

>> we're talking about senator bob corker and senator tom tillis. this was on two separate matters.talk about the russia sanctions bill. this is the bill the president dragged his heels on signing, and senator till us got a call about the bill he's sponsoring to prevent the president from firing robert mueller. >> one of the senators, tillis, has a bill to protect special counsel mueller. did that come up in a conversation? >> it did. a source told us that the conversation became tense concerning the mueller bill. trump expressed unhappiness with the bill and said he didn't want it to pass. tillis' office said the conversation touched on many things and the conversation was cordial. it is possible that trump cordially informed his opinion on the fueler bi mueller bill. >> steve, when you hear about manu's reporting, about this potential other avenue to try to have a meeting or gain information, what do you make of sort of this drip drip? >> anderson, it is very, very consistent is what i've seen from russian operations over the years. if you're running an operation where you're tryi

. >> reporter: politico reporting president trump called senator tom tillis earlier this month to discuss a bill that tillis had designed to protect special counsel robert mueller from being fired. in a separate phone call in july, the president expressed frustration with the russia sanctions bill, voicing his concerns about the president's temperament weeks later. >> the president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability, nor some of the confidence he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful. >> president trump today meeting behind closed doors with director of office and management budget nick mulvaney expectied to be a fierce debate over raising the debt ceiling. also reporting the president is ready to roll out the military ban on transgender individuals. >>> joining us is cnn political analyst maggie haberman, white house correspondent for "the new york times." maggie, isn't the questianswer question of which trump is answered by the president, when he said they don't want me to say. when he's on the teleprompter -- obviously tied to it. lucky if he can move his head

. >> reporter: politico reporting president trump called senator tom tillis earlier this month to discuss a bill that tillis had designed to protect special counsel robert mueller from being fired n. a separate phone call in july, he expressed frustration with the russian sanctions bill, voicing concerns about the president's temperament weeks later. >> the president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability, nor some of the confidence he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful. >> president trump today meeting behind closed doors with director of office and management budget nick mulvaney to discuss the debt ceiling rise and the fierce debate that will take place with senate republicans. he's also reportedly preparing to roll out the military ban for transgender individuals. >> suzanne, thank you very much. let's bring in our political panel. we have cnn political analyst john avlon and karoun demirjian and cnn correspondent michael warren. just to cover the whiplash of what president trump has been saying in the past week, lest anybody has missed it, the differing tone,

. >> shepard: this sunday, chris will talk with the north carolina republican senator tom tillis. he's co-sponsor of one of two bipartisan bills that are designed to protect the special counsel, robert mueller should president trump decide that he needs to be reassigned in some way. that and much more this sunday on "fox news sunday." that's on your local fox station. check your local listings for times. the white house new chief of staff is trying to whip the west wing into shape. our next guest says general john kelly's no nonsense approach seems to be working. the next question, will it hold. fascinating new pronouncements out of the white house. we'll lay them out next. super-cool notebooks. done. that's mom taking care of business. but who takes care of mom? office depot/office max. this week, filler paper just one cent with five dollar minimum purchase. ♪taking care of business. at the lexus golden opportunity sales event before it ends. choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for $299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. your

then trump called tom tillis working with chris coons on a deal to protect the special counsel robert from any attempt by the president to fire him. the president was reportedly unhappy with the legislation and didn't want it to pass. >> joining us now is nbc's kristen welker live at the white house. first, we have to separate this into two. if the president wants to go after mitch mcconnell and paul ryan specifically about not getting the republican agenda done, well, one could argue he has a point, trying to save himself and blame it on them. on the other side president trump going after members of his own party for not protecting him in terms of russia, now you're talking obstruction of justice. >> reporter: and it is striking, steph, because both of the points speak to the broader argument, which is that the president is not afraid to effectively wage war with his own party and take him at that. we have confirmed he had that conversation with senator bob corker and then remember you had the public comments from senator corker really questioning the president's leadership skills, a

tom tillis wrote that mcconnell is the single biggest reason why neil gorsuch is now a supreme court justice. jeff flake of arizona wrote mcconnell does a tough job well. he has my support. and dean heller of nevada tweeted i look forward to mcconnell's leadership as we look to reduce americans' taxes. joining us now from washington, reporter for axius sarah curber. good to talk to you this morning. hearing the president there from new jersey, from his golf club, he didn't exactly give mcconnell a thumbs up, a vote of confidence saying, look, basically if he doesn't get all of these things done, tax reform, repeal, replace, et cetera, infrastructure reform, then ask me that question if i want him to step down. what's the strategy here? >> i think what the president is trying to do is to align himself in a way that's going to make more sense with the american people, so if you are to take a look at some of the more recent polls, look at the cnn-orc poll that came out the other day, the president's approval rating may be low. it's at 38%. congress's is lower. when you ask the american

>> we reported here that senator tom tillis had received such a conversation with the president in whichsident criticized the senate's consideration of legislation to prevent the firing of robert mueller, the special counsel. so the president does seem really focused on this. it seems to me from the tweets and the public statements that he's already running sort of a run against washington, knock the bums out of office kind of campaign. the problem here is that we're in august of 2017. the president is not up for re-election for another three years and three months or so and congress isn't even up for 1 1/2 years. it's not clear what the strategy is to get his legislative agenda done and if he has any realistic understanding of the mechanics on capitol hill. >> shepard: what about the threat of a government shut down? how real is that? do we know? >> it's fairly real. if the president will be insistent that there has to be funding for the border while despite the fact that he said the mexicans were going to pay for it, it's possible that there will be a shut down. the democrats won't go

. >> reporter: republican senator tom tillis, meanwhile, cautioning the president against any move to fire the special counsel. tillis is co-sponsoring a measure which would bar the president from directly firing any special counsel. >> it would just be another piece of fodder, or fodder for people who are trying to discredit what i consider to be one of the most important parts of the administration. and the fbi within the department of justice. >> reporter: and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, he would not comment on which individuals might be the subject of the special counsel's probe, but he did insist that the president has not directed the justice department to investigate particular people. that, despite the fact that president trump has often pressed publicly for the d.o.j. to investigate hillary clinton. rosenstein, though, did stress that is just not the way the justice department operates. wolf? >> all right, jessica, thank you. jessica snyder reporting. >>> now let's move to major developments involving north korea, its vow to retaliate against the united states for

a bipartisan group of senators is pushing forward with adding safeguards, including republican tom tillis of north carolina. take a listen to this. >> what would it mean, senator tillis, if the president fired robert mueller? what would the consequences be in your view? >> it's another example. to me the reputation of the department of justice has suffered from hits in the past. our effort here is just to take that offer the table, any sort of removal, but we don't have any specific evidence to suggest the president is going to do that. this is policy that lives beyond this administration incidentally. >>> moving away from washington, federal officials are investigatoring an explosion at a minnesota mosque. it happened in bloomington just outside of minneapolis. officials there say a bomb was thrown inside the imam's office early saturday morning just as worshippers were praying. no one was hurt, but minnesota's governor is calling it an act of terrorism. he visited the site yesterday along with other elected officials, including congressman keith ellison who is calling on president trump

another bill has been put together by tom tillis, republican of north carolina along with chris coonse democrating from delaware. if the special counsel were to be fired, they would get an appeal process a 14-day window where they would go before the three-judge panel that oversees the special counsel and make their case to that three-judge panel to stay on. chris coons said earliter reason they're moving in this direction and the reason he thought there were two bills introduced prior to the word that came about the grand jury was because there was concern that there could be an effort to fire robert mueller. you heard what trend franks said there. one wonders, some have whispered privately in the past few minutes, could this infuriate the president further and increase the calls to fire robert mueller and that's why some of these members of congress bipartisan, both sides of the aisle, say they want to protect the special counsel. john cornyn, the republican whip in the senate, he was asked earlier today about the leak investigation and some of the news that was coming out of the wh

tom tillis is a pretty kind of standard issue back bench senator relatively new senator and making athis from somebody like him who was a member of leadership when he was in the state leadership is pretty significant. >> anna? >> i think this is going to be really hard for trump. he had no legislative wins. the senate will stay until they pass health care. clearly, they're not. they're out for the rest of august. >> some big things they have to get done. they have to pass. the government funding bill. they have to raise the debt ceiling. really difficult things. >> charlie, i had a conversation yesterday with the top administration administration official. the question was like, dude, september is going to be intense. >> it's going to be very, very intense. lead-off with this debt ceiling. you can't get that through with just republican votes. are there going to hot butt issues. is the trump administration going to draw a line drawing a wall. by insisting on cost sharing payments. you can imagine a lot of scenarios where that -- you have a lot of political chicken by played. so i don

>> earlier this month president trump talked with senator bob corker from tennessee and also tom tillis from north carolina, and they are both about russia. for corker it was about trump trying to press him, who is the senate foreign relations committee chairman to not go forward with the russia sanctions bill. corker told him, frankly, it has bipartisan support. this bill is going to get passed and trump was very, you know, angry that this power -- it would crimp his power because he wants to be able to set the agenda with russia. >> for a guy who penned a book titled "the art of the deal" the president has been criticized for not doing enough, for not getting out there, for not arm-twisting, for not making phone calls in regards to getting legislation passed in the last six or seven months or so, in the beginning of his presidency. it seems as if, daniel, when it comes to the russia investigation,ing wh inwhen it bob mueller, that's when he is willing to make the phone call and willing to make deals and do some arm-fwtwisting there. >> it doesn't seem like he is actually bringing in l

whoever the rizer was who got no f when you're president and go after mitch mcconnell and you call up tom tillis and i do all these things that politico is reporting this morning. those are the people you need to become a great president. he need all these people and he shouldn't be firing indiscrip nantly at them. >> that's what we were talking about yesterday, what didn't make sense. and what i don't understand why trump supporters don't even get this is that everything he is doing is hurting his agenda. pass tax reform. >> to pass regulatory reform all of these people, he's just hooting himself in the foot politically. it makes absolutely no sense and yet he still keeps dpog it dlajt there's a famous story where but eisenhower succeeded as prz because he apfrm won't help him uk sed n he had fail as president. >>. ffrm or have they given up on that snm this as the white house permanent come him really try to oug pufrpgs sure there's the paper flow. in the idea he can control the president is just -- he can't. he knows that to a certain, tent. and so the focus seems to have been on the staff an

trump by politico calling up senators, pushing them to back off certain russia bills, bob corker, tom tillis huckaby sanders says. >> one of many pained responses to similar questions. i feel for congressional staffers on background, reports we're tripping over saying we're on our own, we're bereft of leadership. they're sending a lot of mixed signals, at one time they want a bill, any bill, that they're consigned on health care, now they will let them do cash carry reform, get us something. at the same time, they intervene repealing measures, like now we want the funding for a wall. they had many opportunities to claim a victory there. they had the opportunity to go for a border tax, whatever you think of a border tax, it would be paid for the wall, mexico sort of would have paid for it. they had a upical billion dollars for border security. they could have claimed victory, instead they are robbing themselves of victory saying, we want more. >> john, a senior administration official told npc trump and mcconnell haven't spoken in weeks, to use their terms. despite what sarah huckaby sanders