Meeting with congressional staff. The partial Government Shutdown now on day 16 and a breakthrough is not expected any time today. Theres no end in sight. Meanwhile, President Trump joining a staff retreat at camp david. Before leaving, the president said he may decide in the next few days whether to bypass congress and declare a National Emergency to build the border wall. Setting the scene for us, msnbcs Mike Viqueira at the capital and Geoff Bennett at the white house. Geoff, the president appeared to be signalling a concession of some sort on his end. Tell us more. The definition of what constitutes a border wall is becoming more and more flexible by the day. This might seem like ancient history now, but it was six days ago that President Trump feeted, an all concrete wall was never abandoned as has been reported by the media. You have Mick Mulvaney saying they are willing to take this all concrete wall entirely off the table thinking that democrats might be able to get behind some sort of steel barrier. Although democrats have said all along that they will not vote to fund any kind of brrds barrier because they say its not emblematic of the nations values. You have william hurd whose district constitutes 47 of the southern barrier, he says a border wall is the most expensive, least effective way to secure the barrier, that manpower and technology is far more efficient and effective. The president seems to have in his back pocket this notion of declaring a National Emergency as one way of making an end run around congress to get this wall that he has been calling for. Take a look at what he told reporters earlier today. I may declare a National Emergency, dependent on whats going to happen over the next few days. We have a meeting, Vice President pence, and a group will be going to a certain location that you know where that is and theyll be having another meeting. I dont expect to have anything happen at that meeting. Reporter but even the most dispassionate voices in all of this have said that there is no National Emergency, that the level of illegal crossings at the southern border is at historic lows. Whats happening at the southern border they say is a humanitarian crisis, but the only reason we keep talking about illegal immigration day after day because President Trump has set the terms of the debate. Alex . Right you are as always, my friend. Thank you so much from the white house. To capitol hill now and Mike Viqueira. Mike is there any clue as to whether either side is moving at all behind the scenes . Well, i mean, regardless of what the white house calls it, a concrete barrier or steel slats or a chainlink fence or split rail fence or nancy pelosi would have it a beaded curtain, democrats feel as though they dont need to crede an inch here. Nancy pelosi said the other day shes not going to give one dollar, wont agree to one dollar, for what the president wants to do on the southern border involving a barrier or a wall or whatever it is the he want to call it. Democrats feel as though at this moment in time, alex, they are holding all the cards in this negotiation. They are not inclined to compromise or come to the president s position or give any money to this whatsoever. The game of chicken right now is, democrats keeping the pressure on. Theyre going to be putting spending bills on the floor again this week to send over to the senate, keeping pressure on Senate Republicans to see if they will jump ship, abandon their leadership, abandon the president on this issue and hopefully then the rout would be on. Susan collins, the likely target, the moderate from maine, gave some indication shes willing to look at the democrats position. We could reopen much of government where theres no dispute. Lets get those reopened while the negotiations continue. It is not a sign of weakness to try to figure out a middle ground. Reporter okay. Add cory gardner to that, a republican senator from colorado, he faces a tough reelection battle in a blue state come 2020. Remember the map last time in in 2018 when there were so Many Democrats facing reelection battles that switched on its head in 2020. Democrats in the house and nancy pelosi, all across the capitol, are looking at those republicans, putting the political pressure on and hoping that thats the Pressure Point that ultimately breaks this impasse. Alex . Always looking ahead for us, Mike Viqueira, thank you so much. Joining me now, peter baker, chief White House Correspondent at the New York Times and msnbc political analyst, also jeff mason, jeff to you in just a second, peter, i want to look at this latest article that you wrote here because you talk about how this build a wall mantra was birthed. First used as a campaign tool. Heres part of your piece. How do we get him to continue to talk about immigration . Sam nounberg recalled telling roger stone jr. , another adviser. We will get him to talk about hes going to build a wall. You say this has become, peter, a symbol that the president is boxed in by. Can you explain this . Look, you know, if you are somebody who worries that theres been too much immigration over the years, you have a lot of Different Things that you would like to accomplish, a lot of different policies or laws you would like to change, practices you would like to implement. The wall is only part of that. If for some of these hardliners, not even the most important thing, but there was a visceral thing for President Trump or candidate trump to seize on when he was running for office and his advisors knew that and thats why they put this in his script in effect. It was something that a builder or developer like he was could feel almost viscerally like with his fingers. One of his biographers said he could almost hear the beep, beep, beep of the cement trucks backing up. Its his be all end all with the Government Shutdown at stake, some of the hardliners are concerned about because they worry he will trade away something they dont like to get a priority that isnt really the their number one issue. Youre talking about the executive director for the center for Immigration Studies is worried about the president trading away something, does the base then potentially drop the president if he relents on building the wall . Is that why hes digging in his heels . Thats the real question. The number one most memorable thing he said as a candidate, build the wall. Chant at all these rallies. Ann coulter says, we didnt chant, you know, make employers use everify. We didnt chant about government remittances. We chanted build a wall. It would be a big deal to let go of that. He doesnt want to look like somebody who drops a campaign promise. There are advisors near him who think he has more room to maneuver than he may understand, that the base understand his heart and head are in the right place as far as theyre concerned and there pligmight b more willingness to compromise beyond some of the louder voices that hes been listening to. Very quickly before i get to you, jeff, i was surprised when i heard my colleague susan in our last segment say that she does not believe that most of those in the Campaign Rallies dur the president s run up to the presidency actually thought that he was going to build a big, beautiful, 20, 30 foot concrete wall that he talked about and have mexico pay for it, that they just sort of liked the enthusiasm of where he was going. Do you agree with that . It was my take people were saying were going to have a wall. I think it depends on the people. There are a lot of people who came to the rallies and voted for President Trump and enthusiastic about him who dont necessarily take everything he says in a literal sense but he shares their concern, their fear, their anger about this issue. If he were to tell them look, ive come up with a solution, some wall, some this, some that, they would probably accept his assurance that was the right approach. Thats not the view of everybody in President Trumps circle. Some think that wall is so visceral, so visual, that you cant abandon that for fear of losing the support of those people who really did, in fact, expect him to build one. Jeff, time to bring you in again, White House Correspondent with reuters, you were just at the south lawn and the president was fielding questions from reporters. What are your main takeaways about what he spoke about. You asked what a compromise would look like, right . I did. He didnt really have any spi s specifics on what a compromise would look like. What hes been saying consistently for some time, he still wants that wall and more specifically he wants the 5. 6 billion for that wall. He may be changing the way he refers to it. Sometimes its a wall, sometimes its steel slats, sometimes its a barrier. He has said that he doesnt care what you call it, but he still wants that. That was the message today too. He also said that he thought democrats wanted to come up with a deal. He clearly wants to come up with a deal of some kind too, its just a question of where they found middle ground and if they can. By your reporting, jeff, do you think democrats want to come up with a deal that replaces a concrete wall as the president described, to now compromising to the steel slat, barrier, fence, whatever you want to call it . Is that a big difference in can democrats minds . Well, look, i think we just have to listen to what the democrats have said and the primary spokesperson for the democrats right now anyway is the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, and she said last week that building a wall is not is immoral, and so not something that she or her caucus can sign up to. Im not certain that changing the words for that or changing the material for that is going to alter her view of what it is and what it means for our country. Interestingly along that same line, President Trump this morning when he was speaking to us outside, said look, this is a battle that i have to win and its also a battle for the definition of who we are as a country. The democrats see it that way too. Do you think, peter, is it in democrats best interests to come up with some sort of a compromise . Do they win politically by doing so . Well, i think at this point they want to show their strength. Theyve just taken over the house and they want to show theyre going to stand up to a president who is to most of their base. There is a lot of anger and pent up frustration among many liberals and other people about President Trump and they have pressed their leadership in this Democratic Party not to give in. Theres a real political danger for them in a compromise, even though they would like to open up the government again too. This is where were at. Both sides, the president and the democrats, who feel like they would lose face in effect and, you know, betray their most passionate supporters if they were to compromise, even though, you know, you could easily see some sort of middle ground if both sides could get there. Meantime you have 800,000 federal workers that are like a tether ball right now. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell on the sidelines, he said this is between the democrats and one person, the president. We have the largest news paper in mcconnells home state calling on him to get into the game and end the crisis that doesnt need to be happening. Jeff, does mcconnell need to get involved at this point . What are the expectations of him doing so . Well, i thought wit particularly interesting on friday that senator mcconnell did not appear with his fellow republicans and with the president in the rose garden. That seemed to symbolize his desire to sort of take a hands off approach right now. Clearly the majority leader in the senate said he doesnt want to bring up a bill that President Trump is not going to sign, so hes sort of leaning on the president to show leadership on this and for the white house to show what it wants and will accept before Mitch Mcconnell gets in and says well make this happen in the senate. All right. Peter baker and jeff mason, always good to see the both of you. Thank you so much. Have good sundays. For all of you, im going to speak with sam nunberg about how he came up with the border wall idea and whether he thinks its a good one now. Next, setting an impeachment trap for the president , is that what democrats are up to . Denny heck of the House Intel Committee joins me next. You cant impeach somebody thats doing a great job. Ive probably done more in the first two years than any president , any administration, in the history of our country. E grandkids. Music tech . Every minute counts. And you dont have time for a cracked windshield. Thats why at safelite, well show you exactly when well be there. With a replacement you can trust. All done sir. Grandpa looks great tech thanks for choosing safelite. Grandpa thank you child bye tech bye saving you time. So you can keep saving the world. Kids safelite repair, safelite replace sometimes we forget what is ilike baseball . Like you diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, johan came to st. Jude childrens research hospital. Our discoveries have helped to increase the overall Childhood Cancer survival from 20 to 80 . And we wont stop until every child survives. How big is 80 . This big donate now at stjude. Org or shop wherever you see the st. Jude logo. Amazon prime video so when you say words like. Show me best of prime video into this. Youll see awesome stuff like this. Discover prime originals like the emmywinning the marvelous mrs. Maisel. Tom clancys jack ryan. And the man in the high castle. All in the same place as your live tv. Its all included with your amazon prime membership. Thats how xfinity makes tv. Simple. Easy. Awesome. I may declare a National Emergency, dependent on whats going happen over the next few days. Really threatening talk from the president that he doesnt have the power to execute. Look, if harry truman couldnt nationalize the Steel Industry during war time, this president doesnt have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion dollar wall on the border. There youre hearing the new chairman of the house Intelligence Committee, adam schiff, reacting to the president doubling down on declaring a National Emergency to build the border wall. Joining me now, representative denny heck, a democrat from washington, also a member of the Intelligence Committee. Good to see you again here in studio. Thank you. Do you agree with representative schiff there . Do you believe that the president lax tconstitutional authority . Constitution or legal. Its pure fantasy. About as accurate of his estimate that he had the largest inauguration crowd in history. Thats fantasy. You dont think hes going to try to put the military on the line force to choose to obeying the law and president ial orders . He very well may try to do it, but im completely confident that the courts will check him in that regard because again, he lax both the constitutional and Legal Authority to do it. Yet, senator Lindsey Graham is urging the president , hold fast to this. Heres what hes saying, the president may actually be open to extending the temporary protection status for immigrants feeling civil wars from precollepr preselected countries. Heres what i think the deal would look like. Given the money we need to secure our border and 5 billion could be well spent, and we could put on the table tps reform. Theres 400,000 people that are going to lose their legal status. I would like to deal with that problem. Do you like that idea . What does that stand with regard to daca, the 700,000 that would be covered under that proposal . I think republicans are clearly beginning to look for a way out of their own mess. The corner theyve painted themselves into. Its not just senator graham. Senator gardner from colorado and senator collins from maine have called for us to reopen the federal government short of that. Listen, alex, in a previous life i was a professional negotiator for labor and management. I learned a couple of things, you cant negotiate through the press. The second of which is, oftentimes its always darkest before the dawn and it looks pretty dark now. We absolutely need to get the federal government reopened because so much is at stake. Tax refunds, food stamp recipients, right on down the line. What does it say to you that the republican representative along the 1500 miles border in texas is even saying, lets not do this. We need to reopen the government, believing a wall along his border with mexico is ineffective . Congressman will herd is to whom you refer. Of course. I have the privilege to serve on the Intelligence Committee with him. He is a former covert cia agent. Its not just will. Im not aware of a member of the congress, liberal or conservative, who represents a Border Community who believes that wall is a solution to Border Security. In fact what they almost universally say, its a fifth century, medieval solution in search of a 21st century problem i spoke with peter baker, you may have heard the conversation, and New York Times correspondent, coauthored the article which mentions that even conservative activists who want sharp reductio