>> the white house could have said look, we're going to loouz this vote and they don't have the votes to override. they invested tremendous capital, mike pence, working everyone over and it totally failed. it's striking to me they were not able to bring this home. >> and part of the reason undoubtly that they cared so much is they knew ultimately it's up to the courts to decide whether or not the president can essentially rewrite certain components of the pentagon budget. if they'd buy been a ibl to point at congress when they're in court arguing to defend what trump is doing and say look, constitutional scholars like the republicans in the senate agree with us and this is a partisan effort to keep the president from exercising his lawful authority, that would have been a useful argument that federal judges would have listened to.