Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Going on here. The president tweeted over the weekend hes willing to shut down the government if he doesnt get the money for the wall and some bigtime immigration reforms. In the process, he may force Republican Leaders, thats his own party, and candidates into a fight they dont want to have, particularly with these midterm looming. But we know it is an issue that has been at the top of the president s agenda since he launched his campaign. Something he made clear again during his weekly address. We must enforce the rules against visa fraud, illegal overstay, Illegal Entry and other Immigration Violations and crimes, and crimes they are, believe me, crimes they are. The president is calling for several things. He wants at least billions more in funding for a border wall. He wants to end the policy of catch and release, which lets Asylum Seekers live in the United States until their cases are heard. And he wants to change the Legal Immigration system, ending the
of the Zero Tolerance Policy Trump Put in place, then signed an Executive OrderEnding Separating children from their parents . And, remember, those kids still around back with their moms and dads. And White Female College educated voters, especially those in swing states, they care about this issue. Youre right, stef. The short answer it, it doesnt help them at all. The frustration with the Hard Line Approach on immigration is felt strongest among House Republicans who hail from diverse districts. Youve got mainstream Establishment Republicans trying to keep their midterm strategy focused on the economy and falling unemployment. But President Trump clearly intends to make divisive issues like Immigration A key focus going into campaign season. Im told he thinks attacks on undocumented immigrants worked for him politically in his 2016 president ial campaign. Youve got some of the president s advisers telling him he needs to live up to what he promised on this issue of immigration. But theres no denying this Shutdown Threat puts the
president on a Collision Course not just with democrats but senior republicans, members of his own party. For one thing, a shutdown over the wall would make the third Government Funding Lapse on republicans watch. And just last week, as we just saw, you got House Speaker paul ryan and Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell here at the white house meeting with the president on this issue. Im told by two republican sources ryan and mcconnell walked away thinking they were on the same page with the president. That the wall funding could and more to the point should be settled after the midterm elections. So Republican Leaders dont want to be blamed for shutting down the government, potentially costing them votes during the year in which the party risks not only control of the house but theyre also defending a narrow majority in the senate. So that said, whether the president is serious or not about this threat, we certainly should expect him to revisit it and this sort of view of whats good for immigrants is somehow bad for the country, stef. While the president may
govern via news cycle, Mitch Mcconnell knows history and he knows when a shutdown happens on your watch, if you are the Political Party in power, it hurts your team. I want to bring my panel in. Phil rutger, he is the White House Bureau chief for the washington post. I want to bring in Mark Thompson of sirius xm. President trumps base, theyre not leaving him no matter what. His hardline stance on immigration, it worked for them. He needs more than his base to help in these midterms. Why push this agenda . Its pretty astonishing. Joe gailer once said in a campaign you get time, money and ideas. We can count the number of days until election. Its 99. What the republicans wanted to do and mcconnell and ryan, is lets focus on the things we have accomplished. They got a tax cut. You got 4. 1 growth. Some say its fake growth. Hold on, no one is saying its fake growth. I would say its kind of fake growth. Listen, you could say that the growth was goosed by extraordinary Emergency Exports soybeans. By soybeans, fiscal policy. Where people are taking issue is don jr. And other Trump Supporters straightup lying saying president obama never delivered more than 4 growth. He absolutely did on individual quarters. Theres no turnaround. Turnaround would suggest it was going down and now its going up but its been going up, up, up. Look, thats par for the course. I didnt think it was worth mentioning at this point. You want to spend every day, 99 days, taking about the successes of why people should continue to keep the republicans in charge in the house and senate. So lets go out and talk about growth. We had this big day yesterday. 4. 1 . Thats a win. Thats a huge win. What does trump do . Lets just blow it up. Lets now talk about immigration. Which the republicans are not in
unison on. And in the end, look, Donald Trumps not going to shut down the government. I just dont believe thats going to happen. So its really just facial utterance on his point again. What is he doing . He appears to make a deal with Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan and then he blows it up. Is this just all Donald Trumps distraction machine. Having us not Pay Attention to Robert Mueller and Michael Cohen. Whats he doing . Well, i think its the sort of Classic Trump negotiating tactics. Which is that hes going to sort of tee something over here in the form of a government shutdown. And as has happened before in this presidency, he doesnt follow through with it at the end. So i think hes trying to lay out a marker. Trying to demand he get the wall funding and other immigration measures he cares about but im sure hell back away from it at some point as the negotiations get more serious closer to the funding deadline and the Political Risk for him is really great here. I was on the plane with him yesterday coming back from bedminster and shouted a few questions at him about that shutdown and he was unwilling to come forward and explain what he meant in that tweet. But i think its something hes going to have to grapple with in the days to come. Now that hes been in office for 18 months, hes going to have to explain his positions. Not just create Brilliant Campaign logos that worked for him in 2016. I want to share how republicans are framing what this fight is going to be in the midterms. Take a look. They want open borders and crimes, okay. We want strong borders and we want no crime. Other than that, were very similar. The position between our two parties could not be starker. We are funding the wall. We are for securing the border. The democrats are for abolishing i. C. E. Its the craziest thing ive ever seen. Paul ryan, that is not the craziest thing you have ever seen. How do democrats respond to that . Well, you know, i think that
that actually helps us. If hes going to threaten to shut down the government and push this wall when many voters know that arguing about crime, the allegation of crime, is just simply not true. That only helps us. I hope he does grow through with it. I hope he does shut down the government of just before the midterms. Now, obviously, the speculation is, he wont really do it. We know hes playing to that base. But this is not someone who does math very well. He didnt do well in his own business. I dont know if he fully realizes. Because we found out just the other day right now, 26 of the American Public actually selfidentified as republicans. He can play to that base all he wants to. The problem, an even smaller number of that is a part of bill shines constituency, fox news, what hes reaching out to as well. I hope he does go through with shutting down the government. Phillip, then, what is the white houses strategy . Do they have a coherrant strategy around the midterms beyond the president saying hes going to campaign six and seven days a week . I referenced it earlier. The president is a superb salesman. Better than president obama was. When you look at all, for example, the economic wins that took place on obamas watch, he was a very humble guy who didnt sell them, didnt articulate them. And President Trump overstates them and lies about them all the time. When he goes out on the Campaign Trail now, people will be able to say you want to do x, y and z but youve been in office for 18 months. I how were you going to execute that strategy . Wont that be a challenge for him . It could be a challenge, stef. The white house strategy is very focused on turning out the trump base. Trump voters, particularly in some of those Competitive Senate races in states that he carried, the red states where democrats are facing strong reelection
challenges. North dakota, montana, West Virginia, to name three of them. But its much more complicated when you look at the house map. So many of these competitive House Districts right now are in suburbs, in areas where theres not a particularly strong trump base of supporters and hes going the republican candidates running there are going to have to appeal to some of these suburban women in particular and other voters who have real qualms with this president s leadership and frankly are not approving of his performance in office and thats something thats tricky and something the white house havent figured out how to use the president. Koch brothers came out against the president s policies. They said theyd actually consider helping democrats. If theres one thing we know that the coke brothers are, like them or not, its effective. How big of a threat is that . Because when theyre turning on the president on Business Issues that he considers to be a win, when you look at the New York Times piece that says
republicans on a local level are not touting the tax cuts because they know theyre not working in their states, how dangerous is this . It is enormously dangerous. Because charles and david koch and Koch Brothers now, because davids retired, but charles has come out and explained, you know, theyre basically libertarian economic thinkers. They dont focus much on the social issues. They have a network of organizations that really educate voters about their policies and free market and charles has this really interesting idea. Because as technology causes disruption of course in economies, ubers a great example of that, it causes did i rup disruption in our politics too. Were in this tumultuous time of we dont know the future of automation. Wages have often been stagnant. People say because theres so much automation coming into yes. Were in that period. And David And Charles Koch have always said we always end up in a better place. We need a leader to articulate that better place from washington. And trump represents sort of a retro view. He talks about coal and coal jobs and manufacturing. Even his own Real Estate Business is hugely disrupted by technology because People Dont Occupy traditional hotels. They can work almost anywhere all the time through little devices like your phone. So trump never represents the future. Koch has always represented the future and say the future is good, we need someone to provide leadership on it, and trump is not doing that. If the president threatening a shutdown is good for dems, what does the democratic strategy need to be . On fox news, theyre harping on the fact if you go democrat, youre going to go socialist. But if you look at what hes doing on tariffs and turning around and giving 12 billion in
aid to farmers, that smells more like socialism. Also you have a number of republicans who smell that as well and dont like it. Its not even an ideal form of socialist, whatever that is. Because thats not going to do much to help those farmers. I think all the republicans have been quoted as saying wed rather have trade, not aid. So it may be a form of socialism. Not a very effective one. I think democrats need to continue to harp on that. Something else that was pointed out earlier. If mcconnell is even saying we need to postpone the wall, then he ought to think about postponing come on now, you think hes going to do that . Heres the thing. I know he doesnt want to. That may end up helping us also. We may lose the battle but win the war. Of course, weve not figured out a way to stop cavanaukavanaugh evangelical voters are going
to vote for trump no matter what if he keeps pushing these judges through. If we can show that a lot of his opinions, if we can get them all to come out, are not in the best interest of americans, that may actually help us at the tols. Thats one card i think we have no choice but to play. We have Nothing To Lose by playing that card and i think it works. Last point. I think you lose credibility. I think kavanaughs pretty mainstream. Theres no opinions weve seen so far that really seems that hes radical. Hes opposed to roe. He supports semiautomatic weapons, if not automatic weapons being represented in the second amendment. He doesnt believe a president should be contradicted. And people are going to have legitimate disagreements about that. I think the judge thing is over. I think thats lost. I think the democrats would be better to focus on their
economic message of the future where trump, as i pointed out earlier, these protectional policies are going to hurt trump. We need real farmers, not fake farmers. The question is, do they actually help voters. Thank you all so much. I appreciate it. Coming up, President Trump escalates his a ta s his attack mull mueller, accusing him of having Conflicts Of Interest. His lawyer trying to explain that except he didnt. While unleashing his own attack. This time, against the president s former fixer Michael Cohen. First, were talking Supreme Court. Just moments ago. This woman, Supreme CourtJustice Ruth Bader ginsburg says she aint going anywhere, not any time soon. The 85yearold justice said she thinks she has at least five more years on the high court. If youve seen her work out, you might agree with that. That comes as the president s Supreme Court nominee brett
kavanaugh gets set to meet with his first democratic senator joe manchin of West Virginia later today. Nto the street when you barely clip a passing car. Minor accident no big deal, right . Wrong. Your Insurance Company is gonna raise your rate after the other car got a scratch so small you coulda fixed it with a pen. Maybe you should take that pen and use it to sign up with a different Insurance Company. For drivers with Accident ForgivenessLiberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty
prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Are you ready to take your then you need xfinity xfi. . A more powerful way to stay connected. It gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most Wifi Coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. Its the ultimate wifi experience. Xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. Fbi one day before his appointment as sc. And comey is his close friend. Also, why is mueller only appointing angry dems, some of whom have worked for crooked hillary, others, including himself, have worked for obama. I have to point out, Robert Mueller worked for democrats and republicans. The president is telling a lie when he says its 12 angry democrats working for Robert Mueller. In the last hour, President Trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani doubled down on those attacks without offering any more details about muellers alleged Conflicts Of Interest. What does he mean . This is quite attention grabbing. Its good its attention grabbing. Yes, but its not good in terms of the facts. Because when youre getting beaten up by all kinds of anonymous tweets. And the press is actually for the first time actually acknowledging youre not doing it and you put out something
like that, you have every right to say, okay, you explain it, mueller, stand up and be a man. Wait a minute, this doesnt make sense. How can