complicated midterm election year for the president's party, no question about it. so the reality is no one knows exactly how the politics would play out if a shutdown happened, if a protracted shutdown happened. but the white house, despite the president blaming democrats throughout the day, saying the military would not be funded, et cetera, the reality is republicans do control the levers of power here. and yes, they do need democratic votes in the senate, no question. but they are beginning this evening with, you know, wondering what can change tomorrow. now, there is not much trust and credibility left between the president if there was much to begin with, and the democratic leaders or the democratic senators. he has a few relationships like joe mansion of west virginia. he is going to vote for this. but beyond that, it's hard to see what the president himself can do on this. don, you get the sense, and i've covered a lot of these potential shutdowns and a few actual shutdowns, the one back in 2013. that was devastating to the
chances of ending, preventing a government shutdown by not understanding what the child health insurance program is all about. and its role in the resolution of the congress passing. so i think this is all par for the course for the most unqualified most ignorant chief executive in the long history of our glorious republic. >> want to respond to that jonathan? he did send out a tweet this morning that was the opposite of the position the republicans had, and he had to be schooled by the speaker of the house as to what was actually happening with the legislation they want. >> a government shutdown is a very complicated thing. what's happening now, the worry over this thing, there's a lot of negotiations. max, that was quite a litany you just laid out there. let's see what happens. >> a pretty accurate summary of the trump presidency, i'm afraid after a year. >> your opinion, very good. >> you want to finish your thought?
>> so president obama has kept a low profile since leaving the white house, but he's expected to play a larger role in the leadup to the 2018 midterm elections. should the republicans be concerned about that? >> i think president obama wants to be helpful, wants to be a team player. one of the criticisms throughout his time in office was that he wasn't as helpful to democratic candidates as he could have been when he wasn't on the ballot, but we'll see. there's a potential that he could energize part of the democratic party, even though i think the best person who has energized the democrats right now is president donald trump. and republicans might actually, they could tuesduse it to their benefit in that it could bring one of the key boogie men to things that aren't going well and point to president trump.
>> i would not want to be a red state democrat going home and explaining why i voted against chip and i'm holding chip hostage over 800,000 non-u.s. citizens. >> first of all, good luck with trump staying on any message other than his own, whatever that might be at whatever moment in time. and so we know that he is completely incompetent in terms of staying on any message. in fact, we saw mcconnell practically beg him publicly to let him know, to let him and the republicans know where he stood on any deal. and that right there, i think, speaks volumes about why we are where we are at the moment. and it's because president trump is clueless when it comes to understanding policy, when it comes to understanding even where he stands on something. he promised he was at a certain place in public with the media, with the cameras in the room. he promised he would sign a bipartisan deal if it was brought to him in a bipartisan
liar, but totally ignorant about policy. you can't argue what he has to say because he's liable to change his mind five minutes later. you saw this last week when he almost blew up authorization of the ordinance act until being told by congressional leaders and his own aides that they are actually in favor of it. then he blew up the deal on immigration with his appalling and abhoring racial comments at the white house, and this week he seems about to not avoid a government shutdown without knowing what the children's role is all about in the resolution that congress is passing. i think this is par for the course for the most unqualified and most ignorant chief executive in the long history of our glorious republic. >> do you want to respond to that, jonathan? he did say on the tweet this morning that it was the opposite of the position the white house -- or that the republicans
>> it was in october. he believes and a lot of people believe that it cost him the election. now, they had a whole year until the midterms, and of course republicans did well, but they had a year to recover. >> so listen, scott, president trump likes to call himself the deal maker. how much do voters hang this on him if the government does shut down? >> well, i think matt's right. there will be blame to go around for everybody. he needs to pay attention to the messaging coming out of the senate republicans tonight. for the first time than i can ever remember, republicans actually have a good argument on the shutdown. tonight the democrats showed us their hand, they showed us their priorities. we have 9 million kids on chip. they voted to abandon them tonight in favor of 800,000 people who are not citizens on daca. and there's no deadline on daca. so the democrats have a clear messaging portal here than they've had on previous shutdowns. whether the president gets blamed or not is highly depend whether he stays on message if the government does shut down. >> good luck with that.
that he could energize a democratic party, although the person who has energized the democrats right now is president donald trump. they could use it to their benefit in that it could help bring one of the key bogeymen back into the headlines, back into the spotlight, and they could try to divert attention from things not going quite as well in the country and the congress and point to president obama and blame him for everything. >> two new polls released today, trump's global approval rating 37%. who is with the president and who isn't here? it's gone from 34 to 37 and gone back around that number, right? >> it might creep up to 40 depending on how the average works out in the poll that's involved at the time. i think the republicans in large part are still with him. some are with him for different reasons. there are people i would call
exactly how the politics would play out if a shutdown happened, if a protracted shutdown happened. but the white house, despite the president blaming democrats throughout the day, you know, saying the military would not be funded, et cetera, the reality is, republicans do control the levers of power here. yes they do need democratic votes in the senate, no question. but they are beginning this evening with, you know, wondering what can change tomorrow, now there's not much trust and credibility left between the president, if there was much to begin with, and the democratic leaders or the democratic senators. he has a few relationships like joe manchin of west virginia. he's likely to vote for this. he is going to vote for this. but beyond that, it's hard to see what the president himself can do on this. don, you get the sense, and i've covered a lot of these potential shutdowns and a few actual shutdowns, the one back in 2013, that was devastating to the party in power here. so you have to wonder when the sun comes up tomorrow in washington, presuming that it
that long and the government is shutdown. how does he explain that? >> i think he'll probably blame it on the democrats, but the republicans are in control of everything. they are more in control of everything since the 1920s. it seems to me a pretty bloody nose for him. the whole idea is preposterous. the government has already spent most of the money. that's where the debt ceiling. these are all nonsense arguments, by enacting all this legislation they're spending the money. now they're having this conversation about whether or not we should keep doing it. it's like you charged the credit card and you get the bill and you're suddenly having second thoughts. >> should we keep paying, should we pay the bill. don't miss fareed zakaria.
deal? >> republicans can say, we're putting a cr forward that would fund this for six years and democrats are walking away. so, that's number one. number two is the fact that although daca is very important, protecting dreamers is very important, it's not imminent. it's not -- it's not like it's going to start deporting people tomorrow if this doesn't happen. especially since we have that court injunction of a week or so ago. and then lastly is, frankly, just the optics of the fact that most likely scenario where this would actually happen is if democrats filibuser, that, i think, makes it very hard for the media to blame republicans entirely. i think at the very least, it would be a lot of -- >> i want -- people -- the media is not going to blame anybody. i guess people who come on the media. >> one of the problems -- >> can i give the counter -- >> you can, but you know democrats sometimes have a propensity to choke at the end.