i m also learning tonight the president is in the residence of the white house, you can see that behind me here, he is watching this vote. they are watching this very carefully. they do believe they have the votes in the house of representatives. the president was on the phone earlier today with some of his freedom caucus supporters. they are going to be with him, we are told. the senate is a bigger unknown. we do not know if that vote will happen tonight. final vote or tomorrow. the white house all hands on deck here, erin, watching this carefully tonight so see if this vote happens. reality is the president has talked about a shutdown would be good for politics, they know it would be bad for his politics. so they are going to try to avoid that. we ll see if that happens. this is pretty high stakes game of chicken. thank you. phil standing by. this panel is here with me. a lot to talk about. first, april, they are making the calls. they are getting ready. that s a responsible thing
inviting chuck schumer, nancy pelosi, paul ryan and mitch mcconnell into the room, they all sit down, and we can resolve all these issues in two or three days. but until the president decides he wants to be president, and not just some tweeter on the outside criticizing the process, then it s just going to go on and on with no resolution. the thing about this is it just keeps happening again and again. right back in 2013 pointing out when the president was blaming barack obama and saying they need add shut down. the shoe was on the other side. democrat in the white house, president obama democrats controlled the house. and threat of a shutdown over obama by republicans and it happened. senator chuck schumer said something really important to hear now. this is what he said then. basically, it s sort of like this, someone goes into your house, takes your wife and children hostage, and then says let s negotiate over the price of your house. you know, we can do the same thing on immigr
from capitol hill in the mid of votes. open. third vote is crucial one on government shutdown. as you can see we are in process. telling cnn now white house is already calling agencies to make sure plans are in place in case of a shutdown. jeff sezeleny out front in the white house. what are you learning? reporter: we are learning of course the main normal course of business are really taking place what would lead to a government shutdown. we do know the president and white house in the last several days, including today, have been calling agencies to put them through their paces, if you will. sadly washington has been through this drill so many times, erin, it s never come to pass at least since 2013. there is a sense this is more real. so we do know the agencies and white house is asking for little disruption as possible to the public. obviously very sensitive to any type of blow back here in terms of national parks and other things.
i don t think supporting daca is hard left position. i think the country overwhelmingly supports daca. there are lots of other things we can do with immigrtion reform but it would be really easy to get a clean daca bill at least through the senate, i m not sure about the house. you know, joan, just to clarify, i wasn t saying the support of daca was having the hard left go into the corner. what i was saying was the blame game for the government shutdown is what i was expressing right there. people diane donald trump gives you the two dramatic and incorrect takes, and diane feinstein. the problem the feinstein comment is going to have for her is she is for the government shutdown. right. when you get division ns the party they are used against you and no one likes the shutdown and the pressure builds.
dealing with some issues that were dealt with 50 years in words and comments and phrases and sayings is a problem. and when you have the nation s oldest civil rights organization not make thg a political issue but issue of the heart and reality, definition is when racial prejudice empower me, that s the definition, and if you look at both and some of the issues that have happened, you would say it begs the question are you a racist. and i don t think lindsey graham is in the position to say he s a racist or not. and of course the president came on this show and said it wasn t just what he said was racist, or racist sentiment, it was racist, period. thanks very much to all of you. next, just moments away from the crucial vote in the house. if the house votes to avert a shutdown, it comes down to the senate. and as we said no clear path forward in the senate. so are we looking at a shutdown government in about 24 hours? top democrat is next. and highly anticipated testimony from top tr