you do not hold people hostage or engage in ransom taking to get 100% of your way. steve: outrageous rhetoric from the white house and democrats over the government shutdown. so is the washington stalemate really a hostage situation? elisabeth: we decided that we re going to ask a former member of the elite nypd hostage negotiation team that question. this is deemed by the democrats here and our commander in chief a hostage situation. correct? that s the amazing thing. you have the commander in chief who is claiming he s being held hostage. it s amazing. hostage is like we have a barricade situation, when you have someone who doesn t want to come out of the white house and talk. steve: the message out of the white house is clear: i m not going to negotiate. so as a hostage negotiator, that makes your job a little tougher. incredibly tougher. one of the things you always want to do is establish commonnallity, establish conversation. he doesn t want to talk.