bullied into doing whatever president trump wants. on this issue of a border wall, still, we have been talking about how this is a moving target. chuck schumer said negotiating with the president is like negotiating with jell-o because even the definition of a wall changes all the time. it started as a thousand miles of 32 foot cement wall. then it became 700 miles. then 500 miles. then it was steel slats. here is where the president was yesterday. border security and the wall thing and the shutdown is not where nancy pelosi wanted to start her tenure as speaker. let s make a deal. the president will need some small kind of something, whether it s a beaded curtain, as nancy pelosi put it or slats. or a divider. it could be anything. the reality is if you think back
could you support any new fencing? we will have to see what the particulars are as it relates to justification for enhanced additional fencing along a 2,000 mile border. but in terms of a political promise that donald trump made during the campaign and is trying to now extract from the american taxpayers, that s completely unreasonable. and the hope is really we can begin to focus on issues of importance for the american people connected to the agenda, which is what we want to begin to work on moving forward. what about if the government is able to reopen even until february with some kind of continuing resolution? would you be open to some kind of broader negotiation, which might include more money for either enhanced fencing or the president may say some barrier or wall or legal status for dreamers or the undocumented workers of the country? we need to resolve the issue
broken immigration system and figure out how we can fix it. hopefully today will be the start of that mature conversation. but the first order of business has to be ending this wreckless shutdown that is holding 800,000 hard working federal employees hostage. you sound edncouraged this meeting is happening. is that correct? it is a step in the right direction. tomorrow democrats will take control of the house of representatives. nancy pelosi will be speaker, and our first order of business is going to be to take a step to end this wreckless shutdown and begin the business of the american people. i have a good sense of what democrats don t want in these negotiations. you do not want $5 billion for a concrete border wall. what do you want? well, in the bill that we re going to put on the floor tomorrow, we re going to allocate $1.3 billion in additional funding to allow for
enhanced technology, cell phone towers, satellites, drones, enhanced fencing, increased communication capability, the things that the experts have said are necessary to improve border security. we also want to make sure that we can conduct ourselves in a humane fashion on the border. never again should we see two young innocent children killed on the border in u.s. custody. you just said enhanced fencing. you said this before on abc. you said we re certainly prepared to provide additional funding for enhanced fencing, the things that experts say they want. at the end of the day, what is the difference between enhanced fencing and a concrete wall? if you are willing to have smart, big fences with all kinds of technology, isn t there room to negotiate between that and concrete? well, there are areas along the border where there are currently fences that are put up
themselves. donald trump, apparently is unwilling to go against rush limbaugh and ann coulter. he s not going to take that move. i can t imagine democrats are going to come up with $1 for the wall. i have been talking to allies saying the way he handled this is disastrous. he s used his time at the white house, yes, he didn t go to mar-a-lago, but he spent time tweeting. why didn t he hold public events or out making the points you are making and add to the fact the definition of what he wants is changing. he wants a concrete border wall, then lindsey graham emerges from a lunch saying the wall is a metaphor. kellyanne conway saying it s a met tor. kelly saying he backing away