Southern border entirely if the obstructionist democrats do not give us the money to finish the wall and change the ridiculous immigration laws that our country is saddled with. He went on to threaten to, quote, go back to prenafta before so many offo our compani and jobs were sent foolishly to mexico. Whether you think House Democrats are obstructionist or not, whatever your view on trade, this is an apple solution for an orange problem. The president is hoping to influence democrats by at best threatening mexico and at worst, by holding a gun to the u. S. Economys head, threatening to go back before nafta and before the trade agreement that replaced it. The one that just af few weeks ago he was proud to have signed. The usmca is the largest, most significant modern and balanced trade agreement in history. All of our countries will benefit greatly. In short, this is a model agreement that changes the trade landscape forever. This is an agreement that first and foremost benefits working people, something of great importance to all three of us here today. The president barely a month ago signing a trade deal to replace the other trade deal he blew up. Now threatening to blow up that deal and threatening more besides. Does it make sense . Thats one question. Should it be taken seriously as a policy matter . Thats another. The white house did tell us early on to consider president ial tweets official statements, which means even when theyre not fully cogent or cooked. Is that the case this time . Are these real threats or is this just a case of a guy home alone venting to the walls . For more on all of this, lets go to abby philip at the white house. What more do we know about how the president spent his day dealing or i guess not dealing with the shutdown . Reporter until a few minutes ago, the president had been rarely seen but plenty heard on twitter. Sending the tweets you mentioned but staying out of sight here at the white house. Sarah sanders said he came to the office today. He made some calls. Its not clear to whom. Then a few minutes ago, the president went to the naval observatory, the vladimir putic residence. The trio most responsible for the president s side of negotiations in this Government Shutdown are having dinner. We still dont know where things stand. It seems like they dont stand much of anyplace at all. There has been a lot of blaming going on today from the white house, but not much in terms of specifics about where the compromise is going to be. Sarah sanders was asked about how this would all end. She spent most of her time blaming nancy pelosi. Listen. I think thats a question you have to ask flan nancy pelosi. Shes unwilling to do anything until she gets her speakership. Shes more willing to protect that than she is to protect our borders and protect american lives. We hope we will see that change. Reporter the key question is, will President Trump accept less than 5 billion for his border wall . Sarah sanders declined to answer that question. I think we are left where we have been all week, which is no answers on the specifics and no end to the shutdown. Its interesting you said the president is dining with Jared Kushner. Kushner, until today, was down in florida vacationing at maralago where today we learned the president will not go, at least for now. He is staying in washington for new years. Reporter kushner was summoned back to washington to perhaps help deal with this Government Shutdown. He was down in florida with the rest of the trump family where they go nearly every year to celebrate new years eve. President trump and the white house announced today, pretty defendanti i definitively, hes not going before january 1. That seems to signal the shutdown will last at least that long. The president will not go to the new Years Eve Party he typically hosts at his maralago resort where we know guests have paid 1,000 per head to party President Trump. He is not going to be there this year. He will be here. What happens after that is anyones guess. It seems that the white house has been teeing up to Nancy Pelosis speakership election, which is likely to happen on january 3. That may be the moment at which we have some progress on this front. Until then, President Trump will be here. The rest of his family in florida. Melania went to go back down there yesterday. He is home alone again in the white house. He has jared to talk to. Abby philip, thanks for being with us. With the president blaming the shutdown on what he calls obstructionist democrats, we thought it might be useful to speak to a democrat. Joining us now is the congressman from arizona. Thanks for being with us. I know you said you are against any funding for the wall. You have urged fellow democrats not to negotiate. Does that mean you would vote against anything 1 more than the 1. 3 billion that is on the table for Border Security . Look, the party is not an obstructionist party. We are the party that actually passed through consensus, House Democrats and house and Senate Republicans a bill that got 100 of the vote in the senate, 99 in the house. The only obstruction is happening with this president. Another thing to note is that we actually gave this president close to 2 billion last year in terms of border money for Border Security and he has not used 96 of it. The idea that were going to throw more money at a Campaign Promise that he said mexico would pay for i think is just not a proper use of government funds. Will we continue to negotiate . Of course. We are here to keep government open. The biggest Sticking Point you have is a president that cares more of what fox news pundits say than what the government actually needs. Thats actually how a functional government that he is not leading. Sarah sanders did say the president is willing to negotiate. Were not entirely sure what that means or how much. When democrats take over, when nancy pelosi becomes speaker, which we assume will happen january 3, are you suggesting there might be some room to budge at least a little off that 1. 3 billion . Look, were here to talk. Obviously, i cant speak for pelosi. I know democrats have always been the adults in the room. Unfortunately, President Trump has been hard to negotiate with. If he listened to us and negotiated with us two years ago, he would have had 25 billion for a wall and we would have had the dream act. Instead, he ended up listening to the worst elements of his cabinet. I want to ask you, his threat to close the southern border, his threat to withdraw foreign aid to those Central American countries, do you take that seriously when he writes stuff like that . No. I think thats a bigger danger of the fact that no one takes this president serious. He is the boy that cries wolf a little too much. Also, i think its disturbing the president of the United States is holding the American Economy hostage. There are problems with nafta. We have to renegotiate a lot of aspects of it. If you do such an abrupt action as closing down the border, you will affect a good onethird to onefourth of the economy of this country. For people that do rely on paychecks. If he really wants to make America First and great and everything else, dont threaten the economy in the process of trying to fulfill your Campaign Promise, which you said, again, that mexico was going to pay for. Now he says mexico will pay for it indirectly. Lastly, i want to ask you about a letter sent by two Republican Committee chairs today. They are both retiring. They sent the letter to the department of justice. Among other things they said, there has been no effort to discredit the work of the special counsel. No effort to discredit the work of the special counsel. What do you make of that given the president , the republican president , goes after the special Counsel Robert Mueller in the investigation every week, if not practically every day . Its not just the president. There have been plenty of republicans and leadership positions that have undermined the investigation, by their public statements as well as basically running some shoddy investigations. If you look at the House Intelligence Committee and their investigation, it was basically an effort to cover up whatever this presidency did. They didnt call the proper witnesses. They didnt subpoena the proper documents. They didnt put people under oath. This whole thing is for them to try to, i would say, recast their part in allowing this presidency and the Republican Administration led by paul ryan to undermine this investigation the whole way. On their way out the door, as part of this sixpage letter, one of the main points is they think there should be an Additional Special counsel brought on to investigate james comeys investigation of Hillary Clinton. Whats your reaction . This is just pure obsession by these republicans. Hillary clinton is no longer a president ial candidate. The president is donald trump. He has clearly done some levels of violation that should be investigated. They need to get over it. Hillary clinton is not your president. Shes not the person that should be investigated. The collusion, the crimes that have occurred have occurred under this administration. Its time to look into and see what happened instead of trying to dodge it and distract by throwing Hillary Clinton out there. The investigation is in collusion. Theres been no conclusion on collusion just yet. I appreciate your point. Thank you so much for joining us. Have a very lap pi nhappy new y thank you. Happy new year. Joining us kiersten powers and mike shields and michael sheer. Kiersten, i want to start with you. This is a question i asked the congressman. What do you make of the president s threats to close the southern border and cut off aid to the Central American countries . Are these things that he can do . Are these threats that we should take seriously . Is this just as we suggested at the top, just venting at the wall . Well, look, he is the president. When he says something, i think we should take it seriously. I think theres been plenty of things that people have shrugged off that he ends up following through on. I think he is making some pretty dangerous threats, in particular in terms of shutting down the border, which would have the potential of throwing us into a recession. It would have a very serious impact on businesses. It could drive people out of business. These are very serious issues. We have a shutdown in the middle of the holiday season. People arent getting paychecks. These are real ramifications for his decision to go forward and insist on the democrats funding this wall, which lets remember, i bring this up every time im on, his Campaign Promise was not just to build a wall, it was that mexico was going to pay for it. This temper tantrum is because he hasnt been able to get his Campaign Promise done the way he said he would. The 5 billion is an appropriation from the u. S. Government, not from mexico to be clear what he is asking for right now. Mike, the number two house democrat, who will be the majority leader, he told cbs news that the president s threats are a tantrum and the president needs to come to grips with the fact he is not a dictator. Your reaction to that . Look, the president is a negotiator. H he is most comfortable when he is in negotiations. Thats how he sees himself. Thats the place he always wants to be. Shutdowns are messaging wars about a negotiation. You need to negotiate with congress. The government shuts down. Its about winning a public communication fight. I used to work for newt gingrich. The government shut down for a month. Congress passed a funding bill. The president didnt think it paid for enough for his priorities. He said he wouldnt sign it. We have the same thing happening. The congress is going to pass something. The president wants more funding. He is messaging. Tomorrow, he will Say Something else. He will threaten something else. Its part of the negotiation. Its only a negotiating tactic if people take your threat seriously. I bring up that because the nafta thing, which is really just apples and oranges, the idea of funding for the border ball, so when he says Something Like that, i dont see how it brings him closer to making a deal. I also wonder, if he may land nancy pelosi an early win when she takes over the speakership on january 3. Some people may not realize, the Trump Administration actually just sent 10 billion of aid down to Central America and southern mexico. When he is saying we cut off aid, im going to stop the aid i promised, he is talking about shutting the border, tomorrow he will Say Something else, he is trying to win a public war. The end game is he wants his base to understand that the democrats he wanted do this and the democrats wouldnt let him do it. Its their fault. Michael, i want to ask you, where do you think nancy pelosi is on this today . Do you think she has any incentive to budge before thursday when she takes over and even after thursday when she takes over . No. Not at all. I think certainly between now and january 3, theres absolutely no incentive for the democrats to budge at all. Theres no daylight between the democrats in the senate and house, regardless of the fact that the president and the white house want to make it seem that way. Mike is right. This is a Public Relations effort. Both sides are trying to spin the ultimate outcome of who gets blamed for this. I think one of the things thats characterized this white house, mike talked about President Trump is a negotiator. One of the problems that lawmakers on both sides have had with this president and this white house is not knowing who speaks for the white house and what the message is on the other side. You have an example of that the last couple of days where yesterday you had Sarah Sanders putting out a statement that admittedly was tough and saying, were not going to budge on Border Security. The whole statement didnt even mention the wall. It literally never mentioned the word wall. You could imagine that you could read that as saying, maybe theres some wiggle room there. Maybe the president is moving off the demand for the wall. Then moments later, he tweets about the wall. You dont know. Nancy pelosi and the republicans dont know where the president is, where the white house is. Thats making everything more difficult. We will pick this up in a minute. We will take a quick break. We want an update from capitol hill. Later, as part of a special report on the mueller investigation, a closer look at how some of the people closest to the president are now facing intense scrutiny over their roles in the president s transition. When i first came to ocean bay, what i saw was despair. I knew something had to be done. Hurricane sandy really woke people up, to showing that we need to invest in this community. I knew having the right partner we could turn this place around. It was only one bank that could finance a project this difficult and this large, and that was citi. Preserving Affordable Housing preserves communities. 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I will tell you what, i am proud to shut down the government for Border Security. The people of this country dont want criminals and people