is going to be a split screen washington here for the next two years with both sides weeding out meetings, trying to explain their view of what happened inside. chris? >> and they're rarely reading the same way. what do democrats expect from this briefing and what are the chances this moves the ball forward at all? >> reporter: chris, this granular detail about this meeting in the situation room as opposed to elsewhere in the white house is kind of important. democrats i was talking to yesterday were very nervous that this meeting at the white house would be another political stunt. the last thing they wanted to do was trek over to the white house and get lectured by the president or by the secretary of homeland security or by any other government official about the need for a wall, sitting there on camera to make some kind of political point for the president. they wanted to see this as a substantive negotiation. while it may not rise to that level, at least it's going to be, it appears, off camera and not the kind of thing that will be used just as a political talking point. i think the reality here is, until democrats pass their package of bills to try to avert