increase. let s go now to the white house, cnn s sarah westwood is standing by. sarah, the president skipped his new year s party at mar-a-lago, due to the shutdown. so what has he been doing today toward ending it? well, ryan, we really don t know. we haven t seen the president for several days now. he s had no public events and despite the fact that he s been taunting those democratic congressional leaders who left town for the holidays, back here in washington, there hasn t been a lot of movement in the negotiations over funding for the border wall. now, despite the fact that the president has maintained that democrats only oppose the wall because he s president, they ve held that position consistently throughout these budget talks, but he says he s here at the white house and he s ready to talk. he wrote on twitter this morning, i m in the oval office. democrats come back from vacation now and give us the votes necessary for border security, including the wall. and then he goes o
campaign. the head-spinning volume of material churned out by robert mueller and other federal prosecutors puts trump s campaign, transition, and inaugural committee now all under active investigation. while michael cohen, the president s former attorney and fixer, agreed to cooperate with investigators. the man doesn t tell the truth, and it s sad that i should take responsibility for his dirty deeds. reporter: there s no telling what 2019 will bring, but the justice department delivered a series of blows to trump this year in his personal, business, and political life, all with a blast radius that remains to be seen. now let s talk about what lies ahead. ring in 2019 with us. anderson cooper and andy cohen co-host new year s eve coverage live from times square with brooke baldwin and don lemon. the party starts at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. still to come, an amazing
what exactly constitutes a wall. outgoing chief of staff john kelly said this administration actually abandoned the idea of a physical border wall early in trump s presidency. he told the los angeles times in an interview, to be honest, it s not a wall. the president still says wall. oftentimes, frankly, he ll say barrier or fencing. now he s tended towards steel slats, but we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration. obviously this deal that senator graham described out of his lunch with the president today still in the very early preliminary stages. we haven t heard a lot about what democrats would be willing to consider. mulvaney said democratic congressional leaders haven t been invited back to the white house for further talks. all right. sarah, i also find it notable that the president s only reaction, at least according to the senator, was one word. that word was interesting. that s after two hours of lunch. sarah westwood, thanks very much. all right. let s
progressives within her caucus by striking some kind of deal with the trump administration. now, that s according to acting chief of staff mick mulvaney slash also the budget director. he says that those democratic congressional leaders haven t actually been invited to the white house for further negotiations. mulvaney says the white house is simply waiting on a counteroffer from the democrats at this point. now, mulvaney suggested that the president might be willing to back off of that $5 billion demand for funding for the border wall, but he wouldn t specify by how much. cnn reported, though, that vice president mike pence offered support for a $2.5 billion border security plus wall package, and democrats rejected that. so talks do appear to still be at a standstill heading into the new year with just about five days until democrats retake the house. there appears to be no end in sight, ryan, as border security and wall funding hang in the balance. sarah, thank you. let s go to the
headline, my goal is not to find publicity or make a splash, my goal is to get that done. the favored talks are involving leader members of the house and the senate. durbin is part of that group as well. it s important to note they ll need buy-in from house members to get something to the president s desk. tra trace. trace: trying to keep the government up and running. what is the late toast get a bill passed to fund the government. the government is due on run out every money one week from tonight. congressional leaders haven t reached an agreement on the spending levels for a two-year deal. democratic leaders chuck schumer and nancy pelosi push for de moes particular spending and some republicans push for a boost in defense spending. democrats tried to link immigration to the fiscal matters but speaker ryan says there won t be a government shutdown. they want to see a path for daca, they want to see that it s not just going to get kicked down the road that, it s going to get