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A great deal of pain. i looked at the polls. it's clear. all of the polls indicate that the majority blame the president for what is going on. people don't like shutdowns. don't like shutting down the government as a leverage point for the wall that mexico was going to pay for. they think we should be able to reach a deal. it would be nice if people sat down and thought about this and were able to negotiate. you have a situation where you had republicans and democrats make a deal. mcconnell said here's the deal. it was the president who shutdown the government. you have vice-president pence. j...

For words here because we all know this claim that the president made over and over again throughout his campaign that mexico would pay for the wall and now he's sort of walking that back and saying it wasn't a direct payment that they would be making, it would be made for trade. whatever he's saying. do you think his base is buying this? >> reporter: 100% walking it back. 100%. no. you know when you talk to republican lawmakers up there on capitol hill, even during the campaign we would ask, reporters would ask is mexico really going to pay for this? privately sometimes publicly they would la...

Clear to the president. >> ron, i want to read for you a quote from the president's own book the "art of the deal." the worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. that makes the other guy smell blood and then you're dead. the best thing you can do is deal from strength and leverage. that is the biggest strength you can have. help me understand, where is his leverage point right now? >> i don't think he has much. the one is to declare a national emergency which could be legally dubious and challenged in the courts if he were to do that and say we're on the cusp of a...

To make that argument. the president in his letter to congress also says that walls work, and that's why so many rich and successful people build them around their homes. he also argues that israel uses them with, quote, 99% effectiveness. so this is a critical moment where now nancy pelosi comes in as speaker. the white house had been positioning a lot of criticism towards pelosi prior to her taking the oath as speaker saying she wouldn't be ready to make a deal. so far her public comments leading up to this meeting suggest that she believes a wall is as immoral today as she thought and claim...

Shutdown a short time ago, saying that he's basically there at the white house waiting for this deal. >> as you explained, frances, not in florida which was part of his holiday plan. that on hold with the shutdown. the president saying he is here and urging democrats to come on over. now, we don't know if that's meant to be an actual invitation or just some of the kind of twitter speak we've come to see with president trump who is clearly trying to position this gap in the negotiations, this sort of quiet period which is in some ways inexplicable because in the past, we've seen furious negotia...