dan, obviously going to the white house this evening, the president will play a role in these talks. >> reporter: that's right and you look back a few days ago when the president said he wanted to sit down with these key congressional leaders and to hash out an agreement and if that wasn't done, they do come back the next day and the day after that well, here we are with a meeting, another meeting set for this evening and the president has been actively involved in these meetings along with the vice president, the chief of staff and others, i'm told that sometimes it is just the four, the president, the vice president, of course, the speaker of the house and the senate majority leader inside those meetings. the president very actively involved, at least that's what the white house is telling us. wanting to see a deal, as dana is pointing out, the republicans and democrats no one wants to get to a shutdown, but at this point trngs is unclear how they will be able to hash this out over the next few hours but certainly hopeful that in this meeting tonight, some compromise can be made and a deal can be reached so a shutdown is averted. >> listen, dan, we heard senator