Of defense, and over the weekend acting defense secretary said he will start looking for military projects that could be delayed or cancelled to free up the funds. now all eyes are on the president s republican allies, and many spoke out against the emergency declaration before he signed it and now they have to turn around and defend it in order to stop it. good morning. i think that diverting money, guys, just to start here, diverting money could be a public relations problem. if you are talking about military construction on bases, and these are things that i think could be, you know, optics could have an optics problem. if you are talking about extra money, and the president said, i have so much money i don t know what to do with it. so why do you need the money in the first place? yeah, the president is basically saying he has the
President trump delivered delivered very defining moments that contrast the differences between the parties. and when you have the democrats booing because president trump was exposing and continuing to hammer the fact that these caravans are in endangering the country and posing enormous costs to people at the border, let alone in the interior, this is a message i think that is going to resonate all the way through 2020 and going to pose a huge optics problem for the democrat party. they can laugh and snicker and sneer and smirk and sit in their seats and have their little temper tantrums. the vast jorlt of americans majf americans want something done about immigration. sitting there smirking is not the answer. brian: polls overwhelming the president did a great job in polarized country where they always seem to don t give the president any respect. they did in these polls but the media seems to be already dead set against
Someme would say that it gets easier after that problem is resolved on january the third. unlike federal workers whose pay is being withheld during the shutdown, members of congress are exempt from that. it is such a political hot potato that some members are asking that their own pay be voluntarily withheld. that will another congressman has introduced legislation to close the house sauna while the shutdown was underway. mike. a bit of an optics problem. on capitol hill, thanks very much. the president responding via tweet storm to a litany of criticism over the resignations of defense secretary jim mattis and the diplomat running point on the coalition to defeat isis, brett mcgurk. up to speed on the latest from the pentagon. president trump raised his outgoing defense secretary, monday the president turned on him in a tweet. we are substantially subsidizing the militaries of many very rich countries all overes the world while at the same time these countries take total advantage
Question her speakership seems to be in balance against border security, some would say it gets easier after that problem is resolved on january 3rd. alike federal workers whose pay is being withheld during the shutdown members of congress are exempt from that. it is such a political hot potato that some members ask their own pay be voluntarily withheld while another congressman introduced legislation to close the house sauna while the shutdown is underway. a bit of an optics problem. the president responding via tweet storm, the criticism over the resignation of defense secretary jim mattis and the diplomat running point on the coalition, lucas thomas and brings us up to speed on the latest from the pentagon. days after donald trump raised his outgoing defense secretary the president turned on him in a tweet. we are subsidizing the militaries of many rich countries all over the world and at the same time these countries
Security. about 800,000 government workers, though, are affected by this shut down as we hit hour 17. roughly 420,000 considered essential are working with no pay and another 380,000 are on unpaid leave. joining me now, wall street journal white house reporter vivian solama, political report for the washington post, eugene scott and nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. a lot of boxes and expertise. krist kristen welker in new york, what has happened since you and i spoke about an hour ago. it s striking that leader mcconnell has said this is not going to be resolved until thursday, after christmas. we were talking about the optics problem, the optics of having a government shut down over christmas. this could be potentially politically very difficult for president trump, for the republicans. i have been talking to sources