Backed away from their call to reject a temporary funding bill without a law to help the socalled dreamers. Well, the bill passed today will fund the government through february 8th in exchange for a commitment from Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell to take up the immigration debate, including the dreamers. Well, this morning mcconnell gave this assurance on the senate floor. As long as the government remains open, it would be my intention to take up legislation here in the senate that would address daca, border security, and related issues. Well, a few hours later senator Chuck Schumer, the democratic leader said democrats would vote to reopen the government. Here he goes. I expect the majority leader to fulfill his commitment to the senate, to me and to the Bipartisan Group and abide by this agreement. If he does not, of course, and i expect he will, he will have breached the trust of not only the democratic senators, but members of his own party as well. Well, despite the fact that President Trump seemed to be a nonplayer in the negotiations this weekend, the white house took credit for the breakthrough. Here with Sarah Huckabee sanders. Lets watch her. The statement here from the president of the United States that i will read. Quote, i am pleased that democrats in congress have come to their sense and are now willing to fund our great military, border patrol, first responders, and insurance for vulnerable children. The president was putting pressure and Standing Firm on exactly what he was willing to do and what he wasnt. And it very clearly worked. Because were back where we basically started on friday. And the democrats have now allowed this to move forward. Hopefully the house will move this through quickly and it will be at the white house for the president to sign. And then we can start immediately on discussions on Immigration Reform. Well, thats done now. So did democrats cave or did they preserve their ability to fight another day . Senator chris coons of delaware voted to reopen the government. He joins me now. Senator, thank you about this. This is already becoming a predictable right between the left and the center left. I understand the fight. The resisters want to resist. The people that want regular order, want regular order. Who is going to end up doing the best job in that debate in getting the dreamers protected . Well, chris, what we got today, you just replayed it, was a commitment from majority leader mcconnell on the floor of the senate, and then a private commitment as well to his own caucus and to many of white house worked across the aisle over the weekend in a Bipartisan Group that we will get a vote on the floor of the senate on a bipartisan bill that addresses the dreamers, daca, and border security. We have not had a vote on the floor of the senate in five years on an immigration issue. And i think weve made progress. Our challenge now over the next 17 days is to come together and to build a coalition that will support a bipartisan bill that can get more than 60 votes on the floor of the senate, and then put the pressure on the house for them to take it up and pass it. I know there were some in our caucus that were disappointed that we didnt keep the Government Shutdown longer. But i frankly think it was unrealistic to expect that we would get more than we got today. And the group that worked very hard this weekend built some trust and confidence amongst each other and in their willingness to work hard together to get this done. Well, the pot of gold at the end of the rain bow here i would think is a clear up or down u. S. Senate vote on whether the dreamers get protected or not. Do you believe its going to be a pure vote, or will there be something on Border Protection or socalled family immigration or chain immigration or Something Like that or something about diversity lottery . Or will you get a clean vote, up or down . Yes do, you support the dreamers being protected or not . What will you get . Well, chris, i think whats going to happen is there will be a neutral base build, a starting point for the debate. And then a series of replacement bills taken up and voted up or down. Some of them will be far to the right. The bill that cotton and perdue, two senators have proposed. Others will like by votes like a straightup dreamer protection. That, if it got 60 votes would move ahead. But in the current republican dominated senate, i doubt that will get 60 votes. I think there will be a mix of Border Protection infrastructure funding and protection for daca and for dreamers. Thats the art of the deal that over the next 17 day, if we can work our will in the senate, we can move forward. And the president s role here frankly will be largely i hope to stay out of it and toe not jerk the wheel back and forth on this issue as he has over recent weeks. In deference to Chuck Schumers leadership, thats what you guys wanted in the first place. You were willing to give some wall to give protection for the dreamers. Isnt that correct . Thats what leader schumer offered friday. Yes. And he thought he had a constructive and positive conversation with President Trump. And then general kellys chief of staff called him and walked it all back less than two hours later. Thats why i say part of what caused this whole crisis was the difference between tuesday trump and thursday trump. The one who invites a Bipartisan Group into the oval office one week on tuesday and then says great positive things, and then thursday in a famously expletivelaced conversation in exchange with senators durbin and graham threw the whole deal out. I think that we made progress in focusing on the senate and not relying on the president and in having a Bipartisan Group build confidence that we can get to that vote before february 8th. Senator coons, thanks for that claritilitive. Thanks for coming on. Joining me senator kennedy from louisiana. Senator kennedy, do you think thats accurate, that there will be a vote where democrats and republicans will be forced to say aye or nay on the question of the dreamers . Will that vote come to a clarity of decision . Its a little more complicated than that, chris. Here is what we agreed to. Until february 8th, we will work on an immigration deal and a budget. If we reach february 8th and we dont have a budget, and we dont have an immigration bill, there is going to be another cr. The democrats are going have to vote for that cr and keep government open. At that point, senator mcconnell said he will put the immigration issue on the floor of the senate. That means certainly amnesty for daca immigrants. But that also means everything else. Sanctuary city, chain migration, wall, inland security, a commonsensical colorblind immigration system that looks like somebody designed the thing on purpose, like in canada, australia, diversity visa lottery, everything is going to be on the table. If we can reach 60 votes on an immigration bill, that bill will go to the house of representatives. I have no idea what will happen there. But if it passes the house, it will then go to the president. I think what weve taken i dont mean its an insignificant step, but its a baby step. I dont want anybody to be misled there is not going to be a single bill on amnesty for our daca immigrants up or down. Thats not going happen in our natural lifetimes. But this the course of putting together the bill in this senate, wont there be a lone vote at some point where you vote up or down on daca . On dreamers . Daca im sure will be voted on. But its going to be voted on in the context of a lot of other issues. And look, this is something i said two weeks ago. What we ought to do is suspend the rules and just put it all on the table and lets start voting and see if we can get 60 votes for something. I want to thank senator schumer for what he did. Theres an old expression thats Something Like life is easier if you plow around the stump. And i think chuck decided today to plow around the stump. Right. And i want to thank him for that. Were kind of back to where we started, but it was very important for all of us that we get the Government Back open. And on top of it, we just extended the Childrens HealthInsurance Program for six years. I see that. Im very pleased with that as well. Senator kennedy, would you vote on an up or down motion . Would you vote aye on the dreamers . No. Youll vote. No what will you vote for . Whats called chain immigration or family immigration you would vote for that . No, heres what i want to do. What do you want this what do you want . This is what i want to do. I want to use this opportunity to prevent another dacalike situation five or ten years from now. The problem we have in my judgment is that we for the past 15 or 20 years, we have had a bipartisan refusal by both republicans and democrats to deal with this issue. We need to deal with it. Id like to come out of this, just what i said earlier, chris. Id like to come out of this with an immigration system that looks like somebody designed the damn thing on purpose for a change. We are a nation of immigrants. That sounds good to me. Well, we are a nation of immigrants. And im very proud of that. When is the last time you heard anybody trying to sneak into china . Im happy people want to come to america. But were also a nation of laws. And weve got to agree to a set of laws that were going to enforce. And that means putting everything on the table. And im not minimizing the importance of amnesty. But there are you do everybody said well the president will trade the wall for amnesty. Great. Im happy for the president. But and for the people who want amnesty. But thats not going to get the whole senate on board. Okay. Look, we want to go big here. Moderation is for months, man. We want to go big here. Thank you, senator john kennedy of louisiana, thanks for coming on hardball. Thank you. Im joined by kasie hunt on the hill and Eugene Robinson with me. Kasie, you first. You just heard an interesting conflict there, i think, and thats coons is optimistic theyll get a vote on the dreamers, and this guy, john kennedy, of course he is a conservative from louisiana, and he wants to have this is an opportunity, not to vote for the dreamers. He is going to vote against that part of it. But he is going to get the part he wants, which is called by the conservatives chain immigration and get rid of diversified diversity lottery, the things they dont like because it brings in a lot of minorities. Your thoughts. I do think that we are headed for, chris, a debate that is going to be a lot uglier than the kumbahyah moment that we had here in the senate today. And these 20 democrats and republicans got together in a room and essentially came out saying, hey, we trust each other. Well like each other a little bit more than we think. And i got to tell you, i havent had it used to happen when i was first covering capitol hill ten years ago. This is something that you saw regularly. I was standing outside of rooms that included democrats and republicans, waiting to see if they had a deal that has faded over time. And really, they have gotten to lawmakering inside their own party. The Health Care Debate that we just went through, the tax reform debate was all about what were five Republican Leaders in a room going to do. Now this issue of all issues is so incredibly difficult and has bedevilled everyone up here for so long. I am skeptical that they can get to the point where they can keep this kind of bipartisan mood going for precisely what john kennedy just identified there. And that is that the white house is interested in making some very serious changes to our Legal Immigration system in the course of doing this that i think a lot of even some republicans werent Lindsey Graham and jeff flake werent signed to when to fix daca. It was going to be relatively limited. Were past that. And i dont know if it necessarily spells good things for the next three weeks. Well, well see if the republicans can get 50 votes for those harsher measures. Anyway, the message this weekend from trump, from the president and his allies played on fear, of course. This morning trump tweeted the democrats are turning down services and security for citizens in favor of service and security for noncitizens. Not good slo. Thats pretty brutal. And democrats have shut down the government in the interests of their far left base. They dont want to do it, but are powerless. Anyway, this commercial released approved by the president. Lets watch it. I spent my entire adult life looking out for the trump is right. Build the wall. Deport criminals. Stop ilLegal Immigration now. Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants. President trump will fix our border and keep our families safe. Well, meanwhile the Vice President traveling overseas today had this message. A pretty brutal one for a group of soldiers he talked to over there. Lets watch that. Despite bipartisan support for a budget resolution, a minute in order in the senate has decided to play politics with military pay, but you deserve better. Know this. Your president , your Vice President , and the American People are not going to put up with it. Were going to demand that they reopen the government. In fact, were not going to reopen negotiations on ilLegal Immigration until they reopen the government and give you our soldiers and your families the benefits and wages youve earned. Im sorry. We got the wrong tape there. Gene, what do you make of this the fact that theyre brutally using this, saying the soldiers are not getting paid, but the politicians were . Well, a lot of tough talk. This was a base issue for trump. And whenever when he met with schumer, for example, and made a wall for daca, a deal, you heard the outcry on the right. You heard the outcry from his base saying you cant do this. Youre abandoning, he is weakening. I think this is once again a base move, a base strategy to say no, no, no, were Standing Firm on immigration. You know, the question, and i think we know the answer, are they going to redesign the u. S. Immigration system in 17 days between now and no. The answer is theyre not going to. But theyre also going to blame democrats for any crime committed by anybody in this country without papers. Every murder, everyone is on the democrats side, their account. Ive never heard this before. Thats an outrageous and another thing theyre going to tell the soldiers, you guys are getting to dock your pay while the politicians fat and happy back in washington are getting their money. Yeah, i know. Look, democrats are in the situation because theyre in a minority, right . You cant govern from the minority. And so, you know, the bill was engineered with military pay and a bunch of other stuff and. So they can be put in that position. You know, one thing senator kennedy said, though, im a little less pessimistic that he is in terms of whether there could be a majority or 60vote majority even in the senate for daca. I think so. Versus wall. I think there might be. I think people read that poll, 87 of people support it. Yeah that. Put them together. What do you think of these poison pills . Do you think theyll pass these things like chain immigration they call it . Family reunification. They call it chain migration. Thats really complicated. I dont think they get the votes. I dont think there is 50 votes for that. And i dont think you can do that in 17 days. Im more optimistic about the good stuff. Kasie, last question to you. Do you think the good stuff will get through here . Do you think it will get through, the dreamers cause and not too much messiness . How it is looking right now . I do think, chris, that there is enough in theory, momentum around fixing this problem for the dreamers that really, i think just the realities is they cant do it, its going show that the government really is incredibly broken. Yeah. Because the president has said this. He has said i want to do this for these kids. I dont want this to be a problem. Paul ryan has said i want to fix this. Everyone. Thats why the shutdown was so remarkable. Not only do republicans control the house, the senate and the white house, but it was over an issue that in theory everybody says that they support. And so well see if basically those negotiations are riding on whether or not those 20 senators can continue to trust each other and figure this out. And thats going to the questions in my mind, is that going to carry the day . And whats paul ryan going to do. This is going to be a crucible for him potentially. A real leadership test. And im not sure. The house has always been the problem on immigration. It was problem back with boehner and hastert and all. They just cant seem to get it through the right wing seats throughout in the house. Thank you so much, kasie, i think the senate looks better though, kasie hunt and Eugene Robinson. Coming up, negotiating with donald trump is like negotiating with jello. Even Top Republicans have no clue where the president stands on the issues right now. Where has the president been to tend talks on the shutdown . He has been sitting at the white house like mrs. Habersham. He didnt get his cake this year. He was supposed to have a big party on friday. He had to stick around in washington. Thats all we know about him. He sun happy about not getting his birthday cake. Plus saying its a good thing because it made democrats look bad. Who s he right . Who have the winners and losers. And saturday night live asked a serious question about donald trump. Does anything he does even matter . Lets watch. The president of the United States, refers to african hunts as poohpooh holes and says all haitians have aids. Does it event matter anymore . Thats really ba