tension that donald trump needs to have exist. but look, the problem with this is that it undermines everything. right? there are people that are just beginning to pay attention to some of these audit processes or just learning about it and they're probably asking themselves, was there something wrong? why did it need to be audited. and so again, it's this slow drip, drip, drip that withers away the foundation of what otherwise should be the strongest, most robust democracy on the planet. >> on a parallel track, michael steele, there's the possibility of a government shutdown looming. the last quarter century featured an increasing number of such standoffs with republicans generally seeking something from the democratic president to reign in spending. in almost every case, though, republicans wound up bearing most of the blame and they rarely got much in the way of concessions to show for it. so, can you explain why they keep playing this game?