Discriminatory discipline in the schools. This was put in place by the Obama Administration to stop discriminatory discipline against black students and students of color who are being suspended more and treated harsher for the same needs of discipline as white students. What would be the rationale to go against Government Data that established and proved that students of color were being treated more harshly, that education was being interfered with more recklessly, and that they needed the safety of the federal government to protect their rights and make sure that not that theyre not disciplined but theyre disciplined equally to white students in this country . This is another example of this administration having different policies and different strokes for different folks. And this was the president that asked black america, what do you have to lose . That does it for me. Thank you for watching. Ill see you back here tomorrow at 5 00 p. M. Eastern with a special edition of politicsnation. We call it 2018, the soul of america. We look back at the events that shook, shocked, and shaped the fabric of American Society in 2018. Thats tomorrow at 5 00 p. M. Eastern. And then next sunday its politicsnation eighth annual revvie awards. Its where we celebrate the benefit and the worst of 2018 and give awards to those who deserve it. A real celebration. You dont want to miss it. Now to my friend and colleague richard lui with more on the shutdown. Rev, thats right. Eighth anniversary of the revvie awards. And you have a very good evening, sir. Im richard lui at the msnbc headquarters in new york. The partial Government Shutdown. According to our team, democrats and the white house still a long way off from striking a deal to reopen the federal government. Vice president mike pence did travel to capitol hill today to meet with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. In that discussion, it was just how much money it would take to get the president to budge on the border wall issue which has caused the current impasse. The number that pence volunteered is said to be between the 1. 6 billion initially negotiated in congress some weeks ago and the 5 billion figure that the president has demanded. Plus nancy pelosi writing today in a letter to her democratic colleagues, until President Trump can publicly commit to a bipartisan resolution there will be no agreement before january when the new House Democratic majority will swiftly pass legislation to reopen the government. All this as Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell has adjourned the senate until december 27th though he said he would call the senate back if a deal is made. Msnbc correspondent Mike Viqueira on capitol hill this hour. And when you and i spoke a couple of hours ago is it was pretty similar to right now but we have some weve had some developments since we last spoke here, vic. Well, thats right. And the folks telling us about the in between number, the 1. 6 billion number that was in the house and almost passed the senate and was almost past the house and the 5 or 5. 7 billion that President Trump wants in there for his socalled border wall, the fact that those details are being divulged is something that one side is leaking because they want you to know that there are good faith negotiations going on and having said that its now appearing more and more likely, even though there is that inkling of movement, its appearing more and more likely, richard, that this could stretch into thursday the week after next when democrats take over the house of representatives, january 3rd, the first day of the new congress. And nancy pelosi as you reported saying in that letter to members that they would quickly pass a funding bill to reopen the government if in fact it stretches that long. Mike pence in the daptll today, he was with mick mulvaney, the acting chief of staff, in are Chuck Schumers office about an hour, hour and 15 minutes, walking out, only telling reporters were still talking. Mitch mcconnell on the floor of the senate almost simultaneous to that closing up the senate for this saturday. The senate not going to be in on sunday. A pro forma scheduled for monday. That simply means they come in and sort of bang the gavel. Nothing actually happens. And another pro forma scheduled for thursday december 27th. Its possible that if there were some sort of agreement reached that they could in fact bring the senate back in to do this very quickly. However, its seeming very, very unlikely at this point. Democrats feeling like they are holding the cards in this negotiation because the senate has demonstrated through test votes that they do not have the votes to pass the 5 billion. They already passed a bill with a 1. 6 billion. Not for a border fence. Not for a border wall. Not for a slat wall as President Trump is now calling it but simply Border Security enhancements. The Senate Already passed that bill overwhelmingly and sent it to the house. Of course thats when things fell apart on friday and brought us to the point we are now almost a full day into a sthutdown. Richard . Full day in. 18 hours and six minutes. Right, vic . And as has been said before, it is watching ka brooubuki theate weve had developments on an optics issue that is pressuring the president. Would go to maralago or would he stay . Weve had a bit of involvement in that question. Thats right. The white house announcing, Sarah Sanders saying the president was going to stay in washington, not go to maralago as planned. Of course he was scheduled to leave yesterday. Melania trump the first lady is already there. The white house says shes going to be traveling back. This was an optic issue that was one of the first things in my mind when we realized that this was likely to carry on past christmas. Would the president go down there . Senate republicans were already sort of cringing at the way this has unfolded beginning with that photo op in the oval office, that Contentious Exchange between nancy pelosi, chux schumer and President Trump when President Trump declared i will own, it i will take the mantle for the shutdown, i will take the blame, given that, given the vote totals ive already outlined here. Given the dynamic under which this has played out. Democrats feel like they have the stronger hand here and even though in that statement nancy pelosi says shes looking for a bipartisan resolution dont expect the democrats to budge at all on the question of a wall. Anything thats described as a wall they are not going to go for. The president s base wants a wall. The democrats base do not want a wall. But the democrats feel like theyre in stronger position here in terms of this negotiation. Richard . Somebodys msnbcs Mike Viqueira on the hill. Thank you for watching all the details there. Joining Us Democratic congressman peter welsh of vermont. He is the democratic chief deputy whip. Representative, thank you for being here with us on this evening. You heard what Mike Viqueira was saying. He said do not expect that the democratic side will be budging in general is what he was reporting. Would you agree with that statement . Well, i do. But i think the real issue here is the president hasnt indicated what his position is. When you look back, wed actually had a budget agreement that was massive progress in what has been bitter conflict between republicans and democrats. Everybody had signed off on it. Mitch mcconnell, Chuck Schumer, nancy xwlois and paul ryan. And they had an indication from the president that the budget agreement that was going to take us well into next year was agreeable to him. And then what happened of course is the president saw Rush Limbaugh and he got hammered by some of the conservative commentators and he changed his mind. He had an agreement. And this was such progress where finally we were going to have a bipartisan approach to going forward, keep the lights on in government and then return next year and take up issues that are really important. The president pulled the rug out from underneath it. And now i think what pelosis really saying is mr. President , youve got to let us know what you say is an acceptable position because no one has any confidence that what you say today is what you mean tomorrow. The news just in and you were also listening to what vic was saying, Mike Viqueira, and that is the first lady will be coming back to the white house. It appears were looking at thursday the 27th. As the potential day of progress. Of some agreement happening. Would you agree with that time frame roughly . Well, im skeptical that well get an agreement before we return. The real issue here, we focus on the wall and how much the money is going to go to it. But theres a Border Security issue where both democrats and republicans are in agreement we have to have Border Security and a question of how to do it. The real challenge here is the president talks only about the wall and we need comprehensionive Immigration Reform. Becant have a wall without addressing these dreamers, these folks who were brought here when they were 4 or 5 years old, served in our military but could be deported tomorrow. We shouldnt be talking just about the wall when the president ion unwilling to talk about a pathway to citizen hip for folks who are in this country and have been lawabiding citizens. And really should we wall when the president ion unwilling to even have a discussion about how we increase legal vetted immigration . And by the way, our employers are searching desperately to try to get some workers. This immigration issue should be in the context of all of the issues surrounding what our immigration challenges are. The president boils it down to a wall. And what he does is at the end of lengthy negotiations where hes given a green light to an agreement he changes his mind and the government shuts down. Representative, you heard the reporting between 1. 6 and 5 billion. What number, again, because of your very title this, as youre the chief deputy whip, what do you think is the number that is going to be acceptable for democrats . 1. 6 and 5. Well, you know, frankly its hard to negotiate on tv. But the bottom line here is the real way were going to make progress is to include the other issues that we all know have to be addressed in immigration. The dreamers, the pathway to citizenship is there a number youre watching, sir . Is there a number youre watching in between the two . As im sitting here, no. Im not negotiating with you. What i am saying is the democrats are in agreement that democrats believe we have to have Border Security. In some places we have to have a physical barrier. In other places that means technology. In other places it means additional personnel. It just depends. In fact, the wall everywhere from sea to shining sea most experts think is a really bad idea. The president s constantly talking about the drugs coming in. 90 of the drugs come in by sea, not by land. Also, when you have this wall, theres incredible environmental damage oin land taking. And a lot of our ranchers down in texas, theyd be prohibited from being able to graze their cattle down to the rio grande or getting access to that water. And the president acts as though those arent real practical issues that have to be addressed. So hes kind of politicized this issue. And whatever the number it is that is offered for Border Security he wants a higher number. When he agreed to a number, he then pulls the rug out from underneath what that is. This is the president acting unilaterally, largely influenced not by mcconnell and Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi and paul ryan but what he sees on fox friends in the morning. Peter we wilsh, democratic congressman. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Head spokesman for ted cruzs 2016 campaign and democratic strategist and former Senate Leadership aide joel payne. Ron, what do you make of what you heard from representative we will snsh swelsh . I think the notion were going to go down the road of some and xh presencive Immigration Reform right now is fantasy. We have to get the government xwk open and this is not a good time for us to be shutting down the federal government. This is a very different environment than we were in a week ago. We had the resignation of the secretary of defense. We had an announcement concerning the u. S. Presence in syria which caught many of our allies by surprise. We have to demonstrate that as foe and friend alike watching what is happening in washington, d. C. That we have to demonstrate what the American Government is functioning and its meeting its responsibilities and it is inspiring confidence on the part of our allies. And not providing any type of sign of chaos or weakness to any adversaries out there around the world who would take advantage of a situation. We can talk about comprehensive Immigration Reform later on but i think in terms of a general strategy what we should do in terms of immigration is take those areas where there is agreement, move forward on that one slice at a time but try to move forward in some gigantic comprehensive Immigration Reform while there are clear things we can do now to stop the flow of drugs and Human Trafficking into our state of california where i am right now, right here on the border county of San Diego County. Lets accomplish what we can establish and move on to the difficult issues later. Joel, baby steps is what ron is saying. Lets not go for everything right now given we are 12 days into the new congress. Look, we have to take a step back here. The president is the one that is being held accountable for this. You could argue that last years shutdown that was all about Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats. The president and republicans were able to negotiate a position that was favorable then. Theyre in the opposite position now. Democrats have no reason to cave. You tried to press congressman welsh on a number. Hes not giving you a number because honestly hes not the one thats got to take the first steps. Republicans do. Thats why you see him huddling with the Freedom Caucus today and some republican allies. Big picture here we have to take a step back and look. The president is having a really bad week, right . Hes got a chief of staff coming in whos publicly made comments that question this wall that hes shutting down the government over. He lost mattis. He lost mcguirk. Hes hemorrhaging support in congress. And in two weeks Nancy Pelosis going to have the speakers gavel. What youre seeing is the lack of a strategy really coming to bite the president and the chickens coming home to roost. Does it come down to a number . You challenged that, joel. Ron, to you on this. Is it really not the number but the language . We see how the president is changing or evolving on language at least as we look at his tweeting. I actually think that thats a positive step. I actually visited the border here in San Diego County. The slat wall or slat fence, whatever we want to call it, actually is extremely effective. And if the democrats want to call that a fence and republicans want to call that a wall and we build that and give the Border Patrol the tools they need to protect our border and keep america safe from people who are exploiting weaknesses in that border, then that would seem to me a drex direction to move forward. This is certainly nothing about a number. In terms of dallas here, this is like a rounding error in the overall scheme of the federal government. Were running hundreds of billions of dollars in december as it is right now. This is not going to affect that one way or another. This is a political struggle right now in the aftermath of the recent november elections where democrats took control of the house and republicans gained seats in the senate. This is a political struggle. But the world is watching. We have to resolve this. We should be able to have operational control over our border. That should be a winwin for everyone. And then lets move forward. As a former Senate Leadership aide here, joel, and we were watching, until again they adjourn until the 27th effectively here. What did you see happening there . Are we looking past the 27th or days after that . What i saw was a very frustrated leader mcconnell. Leader mcconnell struck a deal with Vice President pence. He thought he had the president s word they were going to move forward and the president essentially backstabbed him which hes done several times and he made him look bad. I think what you saw from Mitch Mcconnell saying this is not my problem, this is your problem, you fix this with your inner circle. And i think its also interesting to take a step back and think about the president and whats his next move here . Because he had an opportunity, if you remember, to get a big deal on immigration a year ago. He could have traded, you know, making a sacrifice on daca from his political perspective for getting a lot of funding for the wall. The only reason were here is this president s a bad dealmaker and because the president did not understand that that was the best deal he was going to get. Republicans on the hill and around the co