mcconnell s formal public surrender today to chuck schumer in the senate. and the most ignorant man in the oval office when the deal was made today had this to say. we had a great meeting with chuck schumer, nancy pelosi, and the whole republican leadership group, and i ll tell you what. we walked out of there, mitch and paul and everybody, kevin, and we walked out, and everybody was happy. not too happy because you can never be too happy. but they were happy enough. joining us now, adam jetleson, the former deputy chief of staff to senator harry reid. also new york columnist david leen hart. your boss, harry reid, when he was the democratic leader in the senate, i don t think he ever had as easy a meeting in the oval office as that. no, he never did. these negotiations usually go on for weeks if not months, and, you know, this meeting today was
supposed to be the opening salvo of what was going to be a long series of meetings where each side would pressure each other. but, you know, i must have missed the part in the art of the deal where trump said to take your opponent s first offer becauses that what happened today, and i ve never seen anything like it. here s how breitbart greeted the deal today. here s their headline. meet the swamp. trump sides with democrats after leadership confab. jacks up debt, punts agenda, snubs gop. david, jacks up the debt, that of course refers to raising the debt ceiling, which is something congress has to do based on what the spending congress has already authorized. but punts agenda. this really could just knock the whole republican congressional agenda completely out of whack. yeah, they have a lot they need to get done over this period, and the idea that they re now going to reinject this whole debt ceiling debate into the end of the year creates
so, david, here s ivanka trump making her entrarnce into the room to break up the meeting, a meeting the republicans didn t want to end because they were trying no doubt to kind of put the toothpaste back in the tube and somehow come out of there with some kind of deal they could live with after what the president said. but there was that crazy sitcom ending to the meeting that only ivanka trump could provide. i mean as you pointed out, there are just multiple ways in which trump seems to be struggling at the basics of the job of president. and today gives us a really big example. i do think it s important to point out that this isn t just about trump s weakness. now, a lot of it is about trump s weakness, but it isn t just about that. it s also about the dysfunction of the republican caucus in congress. as you pointed out, they wouldn t need democrats for this if they were willing to vote for the debt ceiling increase. the debt ceiling increase isn t really a meaningful piece of leg
probably the biggest leverage point the republican leaders had for corralling fellow republicans to vote for the debt ceiling. so that s off the table as leverage for republicans to corral their own votes. so he really cut them off at the knees. he basically set them up for a massive showdown they go into now with a lot less leverage than they had at the beginning of the meeting today. this is one i never could have predicted. adam and david, thank you both for joining us tonight. really appreciate it. thank you, lawrence. coming up, breaking news tonight. facebook gives special prosecutor robert mueller information on russian ad buys during the 2016 presidential campaign as donald trump jr. prepares to be questioned by the senate judiciary committee tomorrow. allergies with nasal congestion?