Virtual tours . Zipfile . Really big files . In seconds, not minutes. Just like that. Like everything. The answer is simple. Ill do what ive always done. Dream more, dream faster, and above all. Now, ill dream gig. Now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. Good evening. President trump went to capitol hill to meet with a Republican Party divided on immigration, but with increasing opposition to President Trumps specific policy of separating families on the border. Some of the president s harshest language included a word, infest. Which is normally not associated with human beings. And also the administrations efforts to gaslight the public on the issue despite what our eyes, our ears and the facts are saying. More than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents. And as you know, according to the president and others, this is consequence of existing laws and not a recent decision to enforce a zerodecision. The question has been whether this new policy which remember dhs secretary nielsen. From their moms and dads as a deterrent. Keeping them honest the administration cant keep the story straight. Are you intending for this to play out as it is playing out . Are you intending for parents to be separated, are you intending to send a message . I find that offensive. Which is interesting and weird because after a few hours after she was so offended, the attorney general said, wait for it, that the policy is being used to send a message. No one was being prosecuted for this as a factor in a fivefold increase in four years in this kind of illegal immigration. So, yes, i hope people will get the message and come through the border at the port of entry and not break across the border unlawfully. This is something he has also said publicly before the policy went into effect. And john kelly said this more than a year ago. Mixed messaging aside. It was reportedly discussed in the early months of the administration. As of the consequences we are seeing played out now. Quoting the source, people foresaw that using that was going to result in a blowback of humanitarian concerns. Keeping them honest, none of this was a surprise. It was discussed, the consequences were considered first as something to fear and later that view changed. This was not some random effect of a law that had been on the books for a decade. The president chose to set in motion the policy that made it happen. Today though he doubled down. First came a string of tweets including this one. Democrats are the problem. They dont care about crime and want Illegal Immigrants no matter how bad they may be to pour into our country. And infest our country, like ms13. They view them as potential voters. Now the verb infest is defined by websters to spread or swarm. Or to live in as a parasite. Later today, he spoke out, making a series of nonfactual statements. Do you know, if a person comes in and puts one foot on our ground, it is essentially welcome to america, welcome to our country. You never get them out because they take their name, they bring their name down, they file it and then they let the person go. And they say show back up to court in one year from now. One year. But here is the thing, that in itself is ridiculous. Like 3 come back. Actually, according to Justice Department figures for 2016, that percentage is more like 75 . The president also said this. And it got so crazy, that all of these thousands, we now have thousands of judges, border judges, thousands and thousands. He says there are thousands and thousands and in reality there are 335. But who is counting . Finally to the central point, the policy, the president refused to take any responsibility. We have to get the democrats to go ahead and work with us because as a result of democrat supported loopholes and our federal laws, most illegal immigrant families and minors from Central America cannot be detained together, or removed together, only released. These are crippling loopholes that cause family separation, which we dont want. We dont want it, he says, this thing he caused and this thing he says he travelled to the capitol to try and fix. Dana bash, what more are you learning about what took place in the meeting today . Reporter the president came and met with house republicans. And the republicans were hoping that he would come and change things for them. He would make clear that he is very much behind one of the immigration bills that the leadership has on the table and he effectively said he supports both of these bills. What does that mean . According to multiple members coming out of the meeting, they didnt think he moved the ball very much. One member said it was uneventful. If the president is coming to rally members to support legislation, uneventful is not the term you want used to describe it. Having said that, there is some hope among the republicans who are pushing this broad immigration bill that at least his presence here could help. The other side to that is i talked to one member who remembered the president saying he was behind a big spending bill. This member voted for it, only for the president to, in the words of this member, throw them under the bus. And one other thing, anderson. On this issue of children and separating children from their families, what i am told that the president did behind closed doors is talk about it in the political context, talking about the images and the optics about how bad it is politically much more so than about the policy in general. And that rubbed some republicans the wrong way who i talked to who are saying, wait a minute, it is not just about the optics, it is about what we are doing to these children. How much momentum is there in congress to do something about this child separation policy in particular . Reporter it is a hard question to answer. To a person, republicans and democrats say they want this to stop. But when you are speaking about republicans who run congress, it is not clear how they are going to get this done. For example, these two bills that they are talking about in the house of representatives, possibly bringing up as soon ooze is this week, they dont know if they have the votes for them. Both of them have language to deal with this child separation issue. Even if one of them passed, which is a big if, it includes broader immigration language. For example the border wall, funding that. And even if one of those pass, it is really doubtful, very doubtful that the senate would bring it up. On the flip side, the Senate Majority leader says they are united on a fix to this horrible problem and you have the democrats who at least some of them, would need to support it saying no, we are not going to do this, because we think the president can do this with the stroke of a pen. And that is what it is in a nutshell. And the president didnt take any questions tonight from house republicans. And so that means despite all of this outrage about this policy, he didnt hear it personally from any republicans that he was in the room with tonight. Dana bash, thanks very much. Kaitlan collins is there for us now. What has the white house said about the meeting. Reporter we saw the president go there and give a pep talk to get behind these bills. He clearly didnt do that. Instead it was one of his greatest hits rallies. He talked about everything under the sun while touching on immigration here. There was confusion on whether or not the president supported the compromise bill. That led to the white house issuing a statement, saying that the president endorsed both house immigration bills, saying he wants the one that built the wall, cancel the visa lottery, \curb chain migration and solve the crisis. The point of this meeting over the family separation issue was to get president ial momentum behind one of these bill and that didnt happen and people in the white house do not feel the prospects for either bill passing looks good right now. What do you hear about the president s reaction . Reporter the president in that meeting praised her. Gave her a shoutout. That is unusual because her and the president have not been on good terms. They have often butted heads and he often credits john kelly oe with bringing her on, and having the president select her. People inside the west wing are praising the testy briefing performance. One that has been widespread criticized. But in the west wing, they think she did a good job sparring with reporters during the briefing and defending the administration. Clearly, thats something that has made the president proud here, anderson. During the meeting the president said he had heard from his daughter ivanka trump on this issue. She had criticized hit, shown him the pictures, telling him that it needs to end. We should note that is not something that ivanka trump has said publicly. Thank you. Jeff merkeley, joining us now. Thanks for being with us, senator. According to house members with the president tonight, the president thinks the images of these children in Detention Centers are bad, but he does have the power to change this policy. Why do you think he refuses to at least acknowledge that he has that power . Former president s feel the buck stops here. Good or bad, they explain the decision. If they feel theyve made a mistake, maybe theyll change it. In this case, we have a president who is incapable of taking responsibility for what hes done. Do you have a sense if we are any closer to a resolution to this problem . Another day that goes by is another day that these kids get separated from their parents. I am very concerned that we are going to end up in the quicksand of the legislative process and be stuck. Maybe tar sand is a better way to put it. That is why we want to keep the president in the middle of this. He caused it with the stroke of his pen and he can end it with the stroke of his pen. And things are not getting better. When we heard the Homeland Security secretary be offended because of people saying it was about deterrence. What does the president do . He comes to the capitol hill and frames this legislative leverage for this wish list of poorly thought through egregious legislative changes. Hurting children to create legislative leverage. It is evil. So when the president says this is about democratic obstructionism, what do you say . Well, i would say no democrat held the pen that created this policy and no democrat can hold the pen that can end it. That is a president ial pen. Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell said today there is unanimity within the republicans. Do you take him at his word, and are you and your fellow democrats willing to work with him in a comprehensive way that goes beyond this particular issue, or do you want to focus on this issue . When he had his stakeout today, he said it shouldnt be this broader bill. Which i was heartened by. And then i heard he was leaning towards the ted cruz bill, and it is about locking the children up along with the parents so instead of handcuffs for the parents it is handcuffs for all and second of all, instead of having two weeks of a trial. Its a kangaroo court. No way they can get the documentation from their home country and prepare a case and prepare for asylum in this short of a period of time. I am concerned that Mitch Mcconnells strategy is a strategy that does further harm. What do you say to the president and his supporters and other republicans who say, look, in the past, the policy hasnt worked, that many people are basically released with their kids. They disappear into the united states, and 75 may come back and appear in court like they are supposed to, but 25 dont. There was a Case Management program enacted or put together to improve on this. And the only report i have seen on this, is that they have had a 99 response rate. People showing up for their hearings. It costs far less money than imprisoning people. I havent seen an independent assessment that is accurate. But the idea of having a Case Management that tracks people. Makes sure they turn out. And keeps the family together so we are not inflicting harm, makes a lot of sense. That is the program that the president ended a year ago june. Why did he end it . It sounds like it was working. I want to play something the president said about democratic support for Immigration Reform today. Just want to play this now. They dont want to give it because democrats love open borders, let the whole world come in. Let the whole world, ms13, gang members from all over the place, come on in. We have open borders. And they view that possibly intelligently except it is destroying our country. They view that as potential voters. I just want to give you a chance to respond to that. Do you view ms13 coming in as potential voters . Its so disheartening to hear the president cast these aspersio aspersions. In 2013, we had a bipartisan bill, a lot of security at the border. People working together, not just working for the border but to address the issue of people overstaying visas. And the president , because he cant take responsibility for his policies and cant argue the logic of it, because he argued deterrence, and hurting kids for deterrence is wrong. And even his secretary of Homeland Security said that that doesnt fly and yet that was the heart of this decision. He decides to cast insults against people. So i guess the word that comes to my mind is, it is pathetic. That the president is incapable of as an adult taking responsibility and having an honest conversation about the things that work in the past that he eliminated and the impact of this policy on children and on children and parents. And i know he wants to cast this as closed borders, open borders. That is 1,000 fallacious. This is about people showing up and being treated well. Recognizing that 4 out of 5 arent granted asylum. Senator, i appreciate your time. Coming up next, a pair of republicans with different takes on the president s plan join us. Talking about the president and the problem he came to congress trying to fix today. Also, the women behind the audio tape of Migrant Women that has become the touchstone of the president s controversial policy. Ns recommended fleet graphics. Yeah now business is rolling in. Get started at fastsigns. Com. Yeah now business is rolling in. Which is why i use armor tall ultra shine wash wipes. Y. They effectively remove dirt, dust and grime with no water. That car is in tip top shape we are both in tip top shape armor all, its easy to look good. You want things done right. Thats why we test all of our paints and stains for months. Or even years. We dedicate 175,000 square feet to getting it wrong. Because you deserve paint thats done right. Thats proudly particular. Benjamin moore. The standard for paint professionals. Only at local paint and hardware stores. President trump says he hates what is happening on the border. He will not say hes responsible for it happening. He spent the evening on capitol hill meeting with republicans. Dana bash reported it didnt go especially well in the minds of some of those he spoke with. One member telling her the president spoke about how popular he is. And here to talk about it is jason miller and rick wilson. Author of the upcoming book, everything trump touches dies. Jason, 11 republican senators are calling to halt this. The president didnt meet with those republicans tonight. Instead, he met with a friendlier crowd. How do you explain that . Well, i was just talking to a member on the republican side on the house who had a little more optimistic impression from the president s visit this afternoon and felt that the president did help move things along. I think the voteis going to be tough in the house. But the Bigger Picture here is what the president is going for a bigger comprehensive reform. Usually the washington way of things, they want to put a patch on things, or come up with a shortterm fix. But really clear what President Trump is going for, he wants to bill the wall and come up with a set of principles and come up with a solution for daca, and a solution for these loopholes. He doesnt want to go for one of these shortterm answers, he wants to go for the big fix. And this is going back to what President Trump ran on in 2016, this is the difference between him and a lot of politicians in washington. It might work, it might not work. And this is what he ran on and this is what he is trying to deliver. Is this what the president trying to do, rick . Everything jason just said is a lie. This is not the truth. Donald trump wants to have a theater of cruelty to display his toughness to his base, and display his racial animus to his base. And he doesnt want to take the one line, one word fix that can be passed. It is the policy of the united stes to no longer engage in separating families. Regardless of status, and they will be held with intact families. It could be a one line, one paragraph fix. The senate and the house can pass it or the president who thinks he has this vast executive power and exercise it for every damn thing in the world. He could have an executive order, you will not separate these families. Or he can send down command guidance and say lets find a way inside the law to not separate these families. There are plenty of options. He rejected package that was brought to him and then Steven Miller blew it up. This is a guy who doesnt want he wants a spectacle. Show these children in agony and fear and he loves it. And his people are delighted by this. If the president is so concerned about this separation, he could at least pause it while Congress Works on a more comprehensive solution. If the president really is so eager on a comprehensive solution, no . Well, and Congress Might take that action. The president could do it right now. Couldnt he . That goes to a matter of legal interpretation. The folks in the administration clearly believe it takes a congressional fix on that point. Didnt the president start this policy . Wasnt it the department of justice that made this an interpretation of existing law . Not anything in the law itself that says the families have to be separated. You just said the exact point, their interpretation of the policy, this is how they have to go and process families. So, it would take a congratulations congressional fix to do it. He could not, he could do what prior administrations have done temporarily, if he is so intent on a comprehensive fix, he could suspend the zero tolerance policy. He could go back to the policy he had months ago. That is getting a little bit silly where we are not going to enforce certain law