Transcripts For CNNW At This Hour With Kate Bolduan 20180118

Extension. A lot of people up here saying does this mean he does not understand the policy, is it a poorly worded tweet . Or is he really undercutting the republican strategy to try to push this shortterm spending plan forward. Many members really scrambling up here to try to really decipher what that tweet means for the overall negotiations, and the fact that Republican Leadership is now pushing to try to hold a vote this evening to get the shortterm spending plan through the house. Thats not to say there is a lot of complicated efforts on the senate side that they also have to overcome. We will hear from speaker of the house paul ryan in just a few minutes. Certainly top on the agenda is what do you think President Trump meant by that tweet, how does this impact the plan to vote on it tonight and certainly the biggest fact is that this is under 40 hours to a potential Government Shutdown and no plan as of now. Yeah, which made that such a stunning tweet. Sunlen serfaty on the hill, thank you. Also this morning, the president is reportedly furious at his own chief of staff. A source tells cnn that the president hated remarks by john kelly in which he said the president had changed his views on a border wall between mexico and the u. S. The president venting some of his frustration in this mornings twitter storm saying in part, the wall is the wall. It has never changed or evolved from the first day i conceived of it. Lets get to the latest from the white house and cnns abby phillip. Tell us about what seems like it may be a rift between two key players in averting a Government Shutdown here, abby. Reporter thats right. Some very direct pushback from the president to john kellys commts on fox news and also in a meeting with Congressional Hispanic Caucus members yesterday. Now, john kelly had been tasked with sort of leading this effort on behalf of the president , trying to broker a deal between the two sides. But in the process he seems to have undercut the president himself and President Trump is, as you mentioned, fuming according to this source and hated the comments that he made in this interview. Take a listen. Hes very definitely changed his attitudes towards the daca issue. And even the wall. He has evolved in the way hes looked at things. Campaign to governing are two Different Things and this president is very, very flexible in terms of what is within the realm of the possible. Reporter now, remember that john kelly came into this administration with sort of midway through and tried to put his own stamp on it. But clearly that is chafing at the president right now on this on the daca issue. Unclear how that rift will be resolved, brianna. Abby phillip at the white house, thank you so much. I want to bring my panel in to discuss this. We have mark preston, david drugger with us and rebecca berg as well. Im so curious what you guys think in the midst of all of this, the last thing the white house needed was to be bigering amongst itself. When you look at the president s tion to what john kelly saidhen clearlyohn kelly was tryingo smoot things over with critical democrats, i mean, what do you think about it . The art of the deal, brianna, clearly. It shows that the president really doesnt have a strategy here. Hes lashing out at his chief of staff at a time when the administration really needs to be speaking with one voice on this issue. If only just to be able to make the case to republicans on capitol hill, especially on the house side, and the immediate future, to pass this shortterm spending measure, keep the government open. I mean, it is just a total disaster for the president to be out there at this late hour undermining his chief of staff and the work hes trying to do. And how does the president , david, go to the pentagon, which that seems smart, go to the pentagon, use this as for optics, say that democrats are hindering the funding of the military, which is a case that can arguably be made about a Government Shutdown, wherever you want to put the blame as a partisan, you know, you may do that, but as hes doing that, he seems to really be just proving that hes hes as much the problem if not the bigger problem here. The president always had difficulty adjusting to what it means to negotiate major legislation. At a time when republicans desperately, i mean, the president as well, desperately want to keep the focus on the tax reform bill that he signed last month, all of the good news that is coming out of that in terms of job creation, and investme for corporations that are benefitting from the Corporate Tax cuts, the president is blowing up his partys plan to jam democrats on the continuing resolution and to keep the government open by appearing to say that he does not agree with this idea of including c. H. I. P. , which is Childrens Health insurance. For the poor, this linchpin of the cr plan that is the republicans way of trying to get democratic votes and force them and force the issue and force them to support this thing. I want to interrupt you, listen to President Trump at the pentagon. Were here to support our countrys military. If the country shuts down, which could very well be, the budget should be handled a lot differently than its been handled over the last long period of time, many years, if for any reason it shuts down, the worst thing is what happens to our military. Were rebuilding our military. Were making us bringing it to a level its never been at and the worst thing is for our military. We dont want that to happen. Im here to support our military. Our military has to be the best in the world by far. And as you know, it has been depleted over the last long period of time. And when we finish, there wont be anything like it. We need that now, almost more than at any time in the past. So im here for our military. Im here to support our great, great and very powerful military. And were going to keep it that way. But were going to make it much better and thats what were doing. It also means jobs. You see whats happening with respect to jobs, you see what happened yesterday. Apple and now it was Just Announced that theyre giving each employee a lot of money. So our tax cuts and our tax reform has turned out to be far greater than anybody ever anticipated. And im sure the democrats would like to blunt that by shutting down government. But, again, the group that loses big would be the military and were never letting our military lose at any point. Were going to fund our military. Were going to have a military like we have never had before, because we just about just about never needed our military more than now. Thank you, all, very much. Thank you. Okay, mark preston. We need to fact check something the president said. Hes raising this specter. Why you heard democrats and republicans say it is important to get through this budget process, allow the military to move forward with future plans, construct a better budget, hes raising a different specter, that entirely the military funding is going to be cut off. Thats not true. Thats not true at all. Hes being very vague in how hes saying this right now. Yes, there needs to be a budget in place, not only for the military, but also for domestic priorities. Were going on the fourth continuing resolution stopgap measure to try to keep the government funded. As far as the military goes, in 2013, president obama signed a law that ensured that 1. 4 million active military members and reserves and dod contractors would get paid during the shutdown at that time. So the military can get funded. There is no way congress is not going to allow the military to get funded. Specifically if we run into a shutdown right now. So hes playing very fast and loose with the facts. So where is the truth actually had it comes to this argument that he should be making . Both sides always play this game, right, when the republicans forced a shutdown because they wanted to try and get rid of obama care, the democrats very effectively said the republicans were putting Vital Services at risk and threatening National Security by cutting off funds and making us look like a laughingstock. The truth is, whoever makes the argument to the voters that the voter accept is where this thing ends up. Mark is right, the military will be just fine, the president is beg little loose there to try and win polal argument, which makes you nder though, why the president would blow up the deal that republicans think they have to force the democratic votes they need in the house and senate to keep the government open. Not only for all of the Vital Services, military and otherwise, that they say may be threatened, but also so they can focus on tax reform and keep the news and the attention where they want it, rather than in a Government Shutdown where you end up in a tit for tat politically over who is to blame for washingtons dysfunction. What do i wonder Congressional Republicans think about this, rebecca, when they saw that tweet go out, and just to be clear, it is not as if this was a proposal that came out five minutes ago from house republicans, this is a proposal to have a shortterm funding measure with a sweetener for democrats for Childrens Health insurance, for poor americans, on it, we have known about this for a little while now. The vote is scheduled for tonight. And then he tweets out completely undercutting it. He knows the im assuming the president is aware that the vote is tonight. What did republicans think about that . Republicans have seen this movie before, brianna, a week ago when the president tweeted about fisa in advance of that house vote. Is that the same . It seemed like he didnt know what he was talking about . It seems like he skdoesnt exactly know what hes talking about here either. There is no reason he wouldnt support the Republican Leaders position on this. No reason he wouldnt support the deal that they have crafted to try to keep the government open. And so it really does throw into question what is his strategy here when hes coming out on multiple occasions tweeting things that undermine the republican strategy that are supposed to help him. Republican leaders are acting in such a way that they hope will help the administration this is supposed to be something to benefit the president as well. Do you think it feels left out that theyre brokering a deal i cant look. Im not going to try to shrink the president. The white house put out a statement support the parameters of the plan and in talking to my sources on the hill immediately after the president tweeted this morning, they were trying to figure up what he meant. They said they didnt know. And the hopeful interpretation from them was that he misunderstood the deal and thought that the c. H. I. P. Component was only for as long as the 30day cr. And if he knew it was a sixyear c. H. I. P. Authorization, he would be he would support the deal that his white house said he supported, but they really dont know and they have not yet figured it out. That is so baffling to me, david, that the president wouldnt know that it is a sixyear c. H. I. P. Extension. I give him credit for knowing. I assumed he knows and i assume that he blew up the deal because he didnt like it. The fisa thing was complicated. There were different parts of fisa to understand. Still seemed like as the president he should understand it, but i would argue that that wasor complicated than Something Like this. This is a pretty straightforward deal. 28day extension of funding, sixyear c. H. I. P. Extension. One, two. I think that we have to stop for a second and forget about the details of the deals and just go up to about 50,000 feet and look down at this situation right now. Could you imagine president ronald reagan, president bill clinton, president barackobama, president george w. Bush, president George Herbert walker bush, president nixon for that matter, coming out and saying day in and day out that they feel aggrieved, that theyre being attacked, not only by their enemies, but inside as well. Can you imagine to have a president of the United States come out and be critical of his chief of staff who is trying to go up on capitol hill and solve the problems that he has created himself . So basically when you look at this whole situation, and we talked about this for the past year right now, all of these problems have been created by President Donald Trump and they have been created because he feels aggrieved, feels like hes the victim. Hes the most powerful person in the world. And i know a lot of people out there might not believe that hes the most powerful person in the world. Yet, we hear the petty and trivial little snarks and snicks from him that is just absolutely ridiculous and that is in part why were seeing washington right now frozen, not only on this deal for the cr, but on daca, and just about everything else. Incredible lack of discipline overall. And where does it leave us then . Were looking, rebecca, at a potential Government Shutdown, the clock is ticking toward tomorrow. Right. And so the big question with the house vote, which is going to come first on this, is what do the conservatives what do the House Freedom caucus ultimately decide. And the fear after the president s tweet is that they might be emboldnd nelldened now a shortterm spending measure from moving forward. The Republican Leadership position had been hopeful that the president and the administration could persuade these members of the House Freedom caucus to go along with a shortterm spending deal because it is what the president wanted. But if the president doesnt want it or if there is some doubt about that, that might emboe embolden the conservatives to stop this. I think paul ryan may have news for us when he deliver his Weekly News Conference coming up shortly. Will he have spoken to the president personally by the time he goes before reporters . Thats going to be the first question we ask. If you want to know why Mitch Mcconnell will only do an immigration bill that has Donald Trumps definite support, it is because of chaos like this, they dont want to make any assumptions and be caught taking tough votes for nothing. Very good point. All right, thank you, guys so much for being with me here. We are going to await an interview from senator Lindsey Graham with our dana bash. Were also soon going to hear from the House Speaker paul ryan here in several minutes when he holds a News Conference on capitol hill. Were going to bring that to you live. Heartburn. No one burns on my watch try alka seltz ultra strength heartburn relief chews. With more acidfighting power than tums chewy bites. Mmmmm. Amazing. I have heartburn. Ultra strength from alka seltzer. Enjoy the relief. The great emperor trekking a hundred miles inland to their breeding grounds. Except for these two fellows. This time next year, were gonna be sitting on an egg. I think were getting close make a uturn. Uturn . Recalculating. Man, we are never gonna breed. Just give it a second. You will arrive in 92 days. Nah, nuhuh. Nope, nope, nope. You know who im gonna follow . My instincts. As long as gps can still get you lost, you can count on geico saving folks money. Im breeding, man. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. I use herpecin l. Re, it penetrates deep to treat. It soothes, moisturizes, and creates an spf 30 barrier, to protect against flareups caused by the sun. Herpecin l. Welcome back were waiting right now as you can see in the live pictures coming to us from capitol hill. Paul ryan is going to speak there amid this shutdown fight in his weekly address. His press conference there. Just moments ago, cnns dana bash sat down for an exclusive interview with a key republican, senator Lindsey Graham. Dana, youre joining me now, tell me about what he said. Reporter well, he literally just came by here in between a flurry of meetings to try to keep the government open, which as we know as youve been reporting the deadline is tomorrow at midnight. The question, though, so many questions for him, is not just about that, but about the Central Place that he has had in the chaos surrounding immigration and relations with the president. I started there. Dick durbin said you guys got sandbagged. First and foremost, who sandbagged you . Do you believe it was the white house chief of staff . All i can tell you is that at 10 00 on thursday morning, he met with talked with senator durbin, senatorurbin indicated we had a bipartisan propos, he ran through it with the president , the president said that sounds very good, lets talk about it. I think the president actually gave some interviews with the washington journal or somebody about 10 30 saying he feels like were close to a breakthrough. So all i can tell you is i dont know what happened between 10 00 and 12 00. The meeting did not go well. And we are where we are. What john kelly said publicly is that he got the details of the proposal from the perspective of conservatives. And he realized that what youre saying is something that he was convinced that what you are saying and talking about is i think john kelly is a wonderful man. An American Hero if there ever was one. Hes done a good job of creating order out of chaos, but on immigration, ive been dealing with it for ten years, i know where the bandwidth exists, what you can and cant do in phase one, and there is still some room. The president laid out a pretty good idea, but there is people here in the white house that are outliers. People in the staff, working in the senate, that are well known, to be completely are you talking about Steven Miller . Name names. There are people around the president am i right that youre talking about who have an irrational view of immigration. They always have. If you follow that lead, well never get anywhere. Let me tell you where we can go. You won an election based on we have to secure or border. Hats off, you deserve to start securing our border, youre right about a wall, we need a wall, we need to start the wall now, youre right about the kids are wonderful kids, im sure there are a few bad people, mostly good kids, youre right about compassion and security and love, thats the way you get a deal. All i can tell you is that youre not going to get comprehensive on the republican side, which a lot of people are pushing you. You have begin stinkgood instin. Close the deal. Lets close it. Is john kelly one of the people around the president that is irrational when it comes to immigration . I dont think hes irrational. I think hes never please cloz d closed a deal before. It took us weeks to get a border proposal. He accused a lot of us of fiddling around. Ive been working on this for ten years. We still dont have a plan from the white house, what diversity lottery should be replaced with. We still dont what they want on chain migration other than comprehensive. All i can say is that the border pro prosal i got we can support, there is no way to get all of that for the daca. Here is what i tell folks. The democrats got to have leverage for the rest of the 11 million. If they give us all we want on border and go to meritbased immigration, why would they ever expect us to deal with the rest of the 11 million Illegal Immigrants . Conversely, what if we legalized the 11 million, do you think they would ever, democrats, deal with us on border and meritbased immigration . We have no leverage. So phase one is a down payment on everything. Can you tell me what happened in that meeting . In your own words . No. I can tell you this. Why not . Because i want to make sure that i can keep talking to the president. I told him what i thought. Thats more important to me than anything else. He did call those countries shole countrys . You can keep asking me all day long and ill say the same thing. Why dont you ask me if hes a racist . Thats my next question. Ask me. Do you think hes a racist . Absolutely not. Let me tell you why. He can be as dark as charcoal and lilly white, it doesnt matter as long as youre nice to him. You can be the pope and criticize him, it doesnt matter, hell go after the pope. You can be putin and say nice things and hell like you. Heres what i found. Hes a street fighter. It is not the color of your skin that matters, it is not the content of your character, it is whether or not you show him respect and like him. And if he feels like youre off script, you dont like him, he punches back, and as president of the United States, the only advice i can give you is that the street fight is over. We need a leader. And you got here by being a street fighter, you beat me, you beat everybody else, and mr. President , you have the ability to bring this country together. What i saw tuesday was really amazing. So what we need is that president to come back, close a deal to get defense spending because we desperately need it, give the kids a better life because they need it and they the country is behind you there, and lets start moving on and getting things done. The country is with you, mr. President , on securing the border. The country is with you on helping these daca kids. There are people around you who are giving you advice that is just beyond what the market will bear. There is real estate markets and political markets. He himself, according to our reporting, made calls after everything blew up in that meeting, saying that he is happy that this is good for his base, his base likes him. This is exactly the kind of racebaiting you cant stand in your own republican base. Doesnt that bother you that he thought that it getting out there that he called those countries i dont know who he called. I didnt like what was said. I spoke up. But here is what i believe about trump. If the pope is critical, he goes after the pope. If putin is nice, hell say nice things about the pope. I really dont believe the color of ones skin matters with President Trump. What you say about him matters more than anything else. You dont have to agree. Thats what i was going to ask you as well, you spent the better part of this year doing exactly what youre talking about. Killing him with kindness. Getting to know him, golfing, talking to him frequently on the phone, and it seems to have blown up in your face. No i dont feel that way at all. How come . Because i think were going to get a deal. The tuesday trump, that guy, thats the guy i play golf with. Doesnt it bother you that the president of the United States has a different personality and outlook between tuesday and thursday . If you dont understand that there are more than one politician, all of us, everybody on you have a lot of consistency, it is not a question of whether or not you stand on a certain place. Im not here to analyze President Trump. Everybody says hes healthy. Heres what hes got to do, heres what i got to do. I got to show some flexibility. The proposal we wrote is not the bible. It can be added to. There is not much, but we can add to it. John kelly, i admire him greatly, general kelly needs to get the team down there to help us all get to yes. If we just used President Trumps guidelines tuesday, well get there. It is just not about immigration. We need to get the military better funded. And ill say this without hesitation, there is no way we as republicans are going to get a deal on all of the things we want and lead these daca kids behind. I think we should do both. We should get defense spending to help the military that is under siege, and go ahead and get the daca kids right with the law. I think most americans would appreciate that. And finally on this, i have to just ask you this, people who know that ive covered you for a long time come up to me, it is striking how many times ive heard what is going on with Lindsey Graham . Why is he thinking that he can have such an effect on the president . This has been over the past year. What is the answer to that question . Hes president. Hes going to make a lot of hard decisions on north korea and iran. Every president before him put him in a bad spot with north korea. Hes got right instincts on iran. He needs not only my help but a lot of peoples help. He ez t hes trying to fix a broken little system. I liked the president. I liked playing golf with him. I dont always agree with him. I respect the fact that he won the office. And im not in the resist camp. Im not going to tell him everything he wants to hear. Im going to be me. And at the end of the day, i want to help this president because i owe it to the people of South Carolina and to the can country. We should all want him to be successful. You have to go. How is john mccain . I visited john last week. Very pleased with his progress. Hes making progress. We laughed a little bit, we cried a little bit. And i admire him greatly and im hoping that he can come back and be with us. Thank you, senator. I know you have a government to keep open, so i appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks. Speaking of dana bash with us now, in that interview just minutes ago, he also talked, senator graham, did, about the shutdown deadline. What did he say to you . Thats right. I started by asking him about the latest president ial tweet that threw his own Party Leadership and the plans into chaos this morning when he tweeted that the chip funding, the funding for the Childrens Health initiative thatou republicans were planning on attaching to a government funding bill, i order to try to entice democratic votes to do it on a shortterm basis, the president said, it has to be done on a longterm basis, which is completely against what his own administration said in a policy statement just yesterday. But what Lindsey Graham said, thats well and good, but that proposal would have been doa here in the senate where i am now. The point being it is still very much up in the air, even if that goes through in the house. What is going to happen with this deadline. He said hes working with other republicans here in the senate to try to somehow find a way to, as part of a shortterm bill to keep the government running, put language in with a promise at least that theyre going to deal, not just with immigration and with the dreamers, but also as you heard him say there many times, with military spending. Dana bash, fascinating interview with senator Lindsey Graham, thank you for that. We appreciate it. And any moment now, were also going to be hearing from the House Speaker, paul ryan. Live pictures coming to us from the location there in the Capitol Visitor Center where hes going to speak to reporters in his Weekly Press Conference momentarily. Were going to bring that to you live. Psoriatic arthritis tries to get in my way . Watch me. Ive tried lots of things for my joint pain. Now . Watch me. Think id give up showing these guys how its done . Please. Real people with active Psoriatic Arthritis are changing the way they fight it. 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It is working for families, it is working for businesses. Tax reform is working for our economy. Yesterday apple announced 2500 bonuses for its employees, as well as the largest investment any company has made in response yet to tax reform. Remember this is not just happening of the biggest of companies as well. I was in north prairie, wisconsin, last friday. I visited zero zone. It is a company that makes refrigerator display cases. We talk about how tax reform is going to help them expand and hire more people. These kinds of decisions are taking place across the country. This is such a change in the past year. Now the conversation is about growing and expanding. Now workers are coming home and telling their families they got a bonus so they get a raise or better benefits. I mentioned just yesterday, a worker at the chrysler plant in belvedere, came to my sons basketball game, hes going to get 4,000 more as a result of the bonus and tax cut. Tax reform is working and it is helping to improve peoples lives. Which is exactly why we did it. Next, i talked at csis this morning about how critical it is that we fully fund our military. It is first responsibility of our government and rightow this is an urgent responsibility as our military faces a serus deterioration of its readiness capabilities. Unfortunately, democrats dont seem to share that urgency at all. They continue to hold military funding hostage over unrelated issues and deadlines that dont exist. Now theyre threatening to shut down the government altogether over these unrelated issues. It is just unconscionable. Our men and women in uniform need our help, they need these resources so they can do their jobs and do it safely. Dont take my word for it. Here is what senator schumer himself said in 2013, let me read you this quote. This is from senator schumer. Quote, we believe strongly in immigration reform, we could say were shutting down the government until you pass immigration reform, it would be governmental chaos, closed quote, Chuck Schumer, october 6th, 2013. This strategy is governmental chaos. I could not agree more, we should not be playing these games. The most responsible thing we can do is avoid that chaos and pass this continuing resolution that were bringing to the floor. Address the real deadlines that are here, the real deadlines by continuing the funding for our military, extend the Childrens Health Insurance Program, and instead of our men and women in uniform being treated like bargaining chips, we can keep working on getting the resources that they need. Now, continuing resolutions are not ideal. That is why the house passed all 12 of the appropriation bills ahead of schedule before the fiscal year. The only reason anyone is even necessary, the only reason we had to pass the cr today is because democrats refuse to close on a spending agreement taking it hostage for an immigration deal. Again, the most responsible thing we can do for our military and for the country is to keep the government open. Pay our troops, put aside the games, move forward, and continue to negotiate with each other in good faith. Questions. Chad . [ inaudible ] were doing fine so this bill i have confidence well pass this because members understand why on earth with we wouldnt to have a Government Shutdown, hurt the military and sequester on the military starts kicking in in due time, that is not in anyones interest. And so why we would want to feed the idea we should use our troops as a bargaining chip . I think it is unconscionable that democrats would walk away from c. H. I. P. , from funding our military, for something that is not a deadline. Let me tell you one thing, chad, look at the states are going to be shutting down c. H. I. P. In days. Alabama, connecticut, kentucky, louisiana, oregon, virginia, washington state. These are states that are running out of c. H. I. P. Money if we dont get this thing passed. I cant imagine why somebody would want to vote against doing that. Talking about the democrats. You dont have congress on your side of the aisle that you can carry this bill with only republican votes. I didnt say that. I said i think the democrats should join us in passing this bill. I feel like were in a good place. You said c. H. I. P. Needs to be renewed right a way. The president signaled he didnt think it should be included in the spending bill. How do you negotiate with democrats and your own members if youre not sure where he stands . I am sure where he stands. He fully supports passing this legislation. I just talked to him after my csis speech. So i didnt see what he wrote, but ive spoken with the president , he fully suppors passing what were bringing to the floor today. I was going to ask you about the same thing, because you say you didnt let me go to the next question. C. H. I. P. Should be part of a longterm solution, not a 30day or shortterm extension. Is that causing you problems . It is not causing us problems at all. C. H. I. P. Funding is unique in howt works. Because some states are doing fine. They have more money. Some states dont. And these shortterm patches dont fix those problems. So you really do have states that are actually legitimately running out of money and the shortterm patches dont fix those states. Right behind these seven states are a whole other tranche of states that will run out of money. We figured out on a bipartisan basis how to renew and extend the c. H. I. P. Program, a Bipartisan Program he does understand c. H. I. P. Yeah. Broadly beyond c. H. I. P. , though, the Senate Majority leader said yesterday has concerns the president hasnt indicated yet what hes willing to support on a deal for dreamers. Are you confident that youre clear that on what the president would and would not support . Yeah, the president wants a balanced deal, he wants maneuverability, he said this at the white house event that you guys were all invited into that you talk about, which is he wants to have security, he wants to have a balanced deal, the purpose of getting daca right is so that we fix daca once and for all and dont create a new daca problem that we have to address five and ten years down the road. So the president is clearly giving legislators room to negotiate but wants a balanced deal. The president made it clear that the deal he was presented with by graham and durbin is not a balanced deal and doesnt support that. What ive been making clear is were not going to bring a bill through here that the president is not going to support. What would be the point of passing something that doesnt go to law. Well pass a balanced deal, but, again, what does this have to do with our military . What does this have to do with preventing the Childrens Health Insurance Program from shutting down and all of these states in a few days . What does this have to do with making sure the men and women who are out there right now putting their lives on the line need what they what we can give them . What does this have to do with our funding for our troops . It has nothing to do with funding for our troops and we should not use it as bargaining chips. Is this because of ohio state in the big ten championship. Next question. Just to follow up on marys point, because of what leader mcconnell said about not knowing where the president is, last week you had to serve as translator in chief to a fisa tweet. These are tough votes for you, tough votes for your conference. Is it helpful, do you feel the president is helpful to the process of getting 216 or 218, whatever you need . Hes going to the pentagon today to make the poi about why our military is under duress, why our military needs funding. Hes supporting getting this done. And the president likes to do things in an unconventional way. Does he it with his phone. But actually does help us with our members. Politico is reporting that mr. Mcconnell is making contingency plans for a possible shutdown. Are you making those plans and are you open to a one, two or threeday cr im not going to negotiate to the media, but the thats up to the Senate Democrats. If the Senate Democrats want to shut the government down, if the Senate Democrats want to deny funding for our troops, if the Senate Democrats want to stop c. H. I. P. Funding for unrelated issues, thats a choice they would make, i dont think it is a good choice for them to make, but that would be their decision to make. In the back. Im nash jenkins with time magazine. This will be the fourth time in as many months that you guys have had to pass the cr. Why is that . Why want me to read my opening again . I mean it is a legitimate question. Im not trying to belittle your question. Why are we doing this continuing resolution . Because Senate Democrats are not allowing appropriation bills to even be brought up for a vote. Because theyre attaching unrelated issues to cap negotiations. So shouldnt we have regular order on appropriations. Congress agrees on the spending appropriations tohose levels. That is how appropriations are supposed to work. The hse passed all 12 appropriation bills ahead of schedule this year. The senate hasnt brought up one appropriation bill. Thats not Mitch Mcconnells fault. Thats the fault of the fact that it takes 60 votes in the Senate Democrats of refusing to even exercise the power of the purse and now theyre refusing to get a cap agreement so we can get the power of the purse exercise, we can fund the military, fund things like basic health care, fund things like opioids. Refusing to do that over unrelated issues. Thats why we are where we are. Andy . You are aware that senator mcconnell has not attempted to bring up an appropriations bill and that the Senate Appropriations committee has not drafted i am aware. They know they dont have 60 votes to proceed on this thing. I wish they didnt have to get 60 votes, but it is because of that. Maybe make more of an effort to demonstrate the points youre making by moving to go to legislation. Of course i would. Im a house guy. I always want to see the senate do more on the legislative calend calendar. Theyre pretty busy with their executive calendar getting personnel through. I sympathize with the problems, but i would love to see people have to vote on these things. Mr. Speaker, what is your taste to National Security lawmakers who worry every day under cr damages the military . The cr is not good for the military. But what is worse for the military is a Government Shutdown. What is even worse for the military is a Government Shutdown followed by a sequester, which would happen if we dont pass a cr. We also passed what we call anomalies. We passed things in the crs that give the military the flexibility they need during the time of the cr to do what they need to do, but clearly less than ideal. I gave a speech this morning at csis about this. What we know for a fact, you can ask secretary mattis the same question, is that not passing a cr is much worse and much more damaging for the military, especially when it is followed up with the sequester. Mr. Speaker, we have been talking about Senate Democrats today, but i want to be clear on the house and where youre getting the votes for the cr in the house. Is it coming from the defense hawks in Freedom Caucus members who have been reluctant to support it i feel like were making good progress, having great conversations and i think our mber do notant to reward using the militar as a hostage in this moment. Okay. I want to bring my panel back in to discuss this. Mark preston with us, David Drucker and rebecca berg. That was he was spinning, he was trying really hard there, the House Speaker was, but a lot of reporters doing some good work there, mark preston, and reminding him you have the majority in the house, you have the votes if you can wrangle them within your own party to fund the government. And hes lambasting this idea of attaching unrelated measures to budgetary issues, hes doing the same thing to try to tweet sweee pot for republicans. Hes supposed to have allies in the senate, which he does, and an ally down at 1600 pennsylvania avenue, which he doesnt, because he doesnt have the full backing of the white house to get anything through. What is interesting there is, and for our viewers out there, you only need 218 votes in the house to get this stopgap measure passed in the house of representatives. He has way more than 218 votes. His problem is he doesnt have what is known as the Freedom Caucus, the hard core conservatives that dont want to vote for another cr. He is depending on democrats to come across the aisle with this with this carrot of c. H. I. P. Funding for six years to come get him to 218. Funding for Childrens Health insurance, thats what c. H. I. P. Is, Childrens Health insurance, thats for less fortunate americans who have children religrel relying on this. To have an ally in thete help house, a strong president who can make a consistent case to these members of the Freedom Caucus or from districts where trump won by huge margins and he has that sort of political pull that Political Capital to make his case. This is where it would help to have the president out there, making the case, consistently, to these members of the house. Certainly would help republicans if the president was leading in front and trying to get all of these cats herded in the same direction, which is very difficult. I have a little sympathy for paul ryan and i thought it was an epic piece of trolling when he recounted that tweet from that statement from Chuck Schumer during the 2013 shutdown that you shouldnt use you shouldnt use anything as a hostage to try and get something done through government funding. Look, all politics is situational. What are you seeing democrats do . Theyre leveraging their Senate Minority you need 60 votes to try to extract as much as they can from the republicans who are trying to turn it around on democrats and blame them for holding all sort of things ho s hostage, in order to get something done, trying to paint it as unfair th. This is the same thing republicans did when they tried to defund obamacare with the shutdown, they complained that president obama was twisting the truth because the military wasnt going to be threatened, the troops werent going to be threatened and there was nothing untoward about a partial shutdown that wouldnt really hurt people anyway. We now have seen the rolls there is a republican in the white house. The last two times there were big shutdowns, there were democrats in the white house. There is nothing saying republicans cant have a Government Shutdown. I wonder if things will be different this time. The reason reporters remind this speaker he has a majority is because this is something the house will be dealing with first. So even if there arent the votes in the senate, you deal wlt hou with the house first. If something can move through the house, youll have a lot of democrats saying, okay, im facing tough reelection, i think ill have to go along with this. So the focus really is on the house right now, not on the senate, as hes making it all about. The other thing, too, this is where i think it really frustrates people outside of the beltway in washington. What were seeing rht now is the federal government in the act of closing down. The democrats are playing the only card they have, and thats the United States senate, to try to get what they want. At the same time you have paul ryan right now trying to offer a Little Something as well. Thats not necessarily related, so when people look at washington they say to themselves, what is go on there . How can you not get this done . And im going to blame them. Because all of these politicians on the hill are worried about their own voters. If they thought their voters were going to reward them for compromising and giving a little, they would do it a lot easier. Both parties have a very restive face that dont want to see them work with the other, and thats whats happening. I want to turn now to the russian investigation. President trump is now eager to speak with special counsel robert mueller. Thats according to lawyer ty cobb. He says talks are under way about a possible meeting, though there is a big concern. The president is very eager to sit down and explain whatever is responsive to the questions. Do you have any fear of a perjury trust . No, but i think it would be foolish to not proceed without considering that possibility. Now, President Trumps former chf strategist steve with bannos also preparing to talk to mueller. They have reached a deal for bannon to be interviewed by prosecutors instead of appearing before a grand jury. Bannons lawyer says his client will answer any questions from the special counsels team, but that was not the case when bannon faced congressional investigators earlier this week. He he infuriated both republicans and democrats by refusing to answer, citing congressional privilege. Sara murray is joining me now. Sara, tell me whats going on now. Certainly not easy to do by angering both sides, but bannon did just that. He said he couldnt remember anything that went on during his tenure in the white house. The committee actually subpoenaed him, and this was six is hours of closed door testimony, Steve Bannons attorney was on the phone with the counsels office, and the White House Counsels Office came back and said, you cannot talk about your time in the white house, which was very frustrating to lawmakers. He is not going to be on the hill today. The committee is giving him a little bit more time until the end of the month, and bannons lawyer put out a pretty striking letter that weve been reporting on today that basically said, look, we need the white house and the hill to get on the same page about what we are actually allowed to talk about next time steve bannon comes up here. Because you saw the reaction from lawmakers yesterday, brianna, they were certainly not impressed by bannons appearance. What was fascinating to find out, sara, was that the white house chief of staff john kelly said the Trump Administration did not instruct bannon to invoke executive reconcile, the two accounts . Thats one thing were trying to figure out today and were asking the white house about. Was john kelly trying to be deliberately misleading or is there some gameplaying going on in terms of semantics . Its possible the white house did not officially assert executive privilege, but theyre basically protecting their right to do so in the future. So when the White House Counsels Office was on the phone with bannons lawyer, they didnt say, hey, were asserting executive privilege here, they said, we prefer you dont talk about the transition, you dont talk about your time in the white house. Dont do that because you may want to use this privilege dn theli but when you saw those reblican and democratic lawmakers come out of that hearing earlier this week, they basically said, look, this seems like a pretty questionable way to use privilege. Its a pretty broad interpretation. Yes, it certainly is. Tell us about bannon apparently slipping up. He did reveal a detail about some discussions. This is according to axios. Theyre calling it a slipup steve bannon made. He apparently did mention that he had conversations with other members of the white house, sean spicer and others, about the meeting don jr. Had with russian officials. This came after steve bannon was instructed not to talk about the transition, not to talk about his time in the white house, so it was called a slipup even though he was not to be talking about this time period at all. Still ahead, could we be heading to a Government Shutdown . Were following the very latest on capitol hill and well have more after a quick break. Inkle ® works in just one week. With the fastest retinol formula available. Its clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. One week . That definitely works rapid wrinkle repair®. And for dark spots, rapid tone repair. Neutrogena®. See whats possible. We know life can be hectic. Thats why, at xfinity, weve been working hard to simplify your experiences with us. Now, with instant text and email updates, youll always be up to date. You can easily add premium channels, so you dont miss your favorite show. And with just a single word, find all the answers youre looking for because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. Download the xfinity my account app or go online today. Welcome to inside politics. Im john king. Thank you for sharing your day with us. Steve bannon gets more time. They give the president a few more days to prepare for his russia meddling questions. Plus, trump is back and in full force. Last week he blew up a bipartisan immigration plan. Today undermining congressional leaders at the worst possible moment. Just 36 hours now to a possible government