the president then said no, but he does appear to agree with kelly saying that parts of the wall should be see-through. and it must be tough to negotiate a funding deal with democrats when you continue to get mixed messages from this president as to what he actually wants. yeah, you know, ryan, i don t know, maybe the president is taking issue with the word abandoned. i talked to a senior white house aide last week who was describing the wall as not a concrete wall anymore and saying, actually, i mean, precisely the same thing, that the idea was to have a barrier. those border patrol officials thought would provide them sort of the most in the way of security. and that having the concrete all the way across, you know, didn t you know, the opaqueness didn t give you the visibility you would want through it. and i think, you know, democrats objections, to some extent, it doesn t matter
has to include both sides. he s in the white house. he s in washington ready to negotiate. this is important for border security and keeping the government open. you keep saying wall, wall, wall because you want wall to be a four-letter word. and there s something else. the soon to be former white house chief of staff telling a reporter that an actual physical wall was never really a practical option for the entire border with mexico. john kelly, in an extensive interview in today s los angeles times, saying, quote, to be honest, it s not a wall. the article goes on to say, asked if there s a security crisis at the southern border or whether trump has drummed up fear of immigrant invasions for fears, he said, quote, we do have an immigration problem. now to the white house. sarah westwood is standing by. the president hasn t made a personal appearance this weekend, but he s been busy on twitter, accusing democrats of not caring about border
mulvaney has said democratic congressional leaders have not yet been invited back to the white house for further talks. senator graham made news on another front as well today, sarah. he said he and the president spoke about the u.s. troop pullout from syria. this was something senator graham had been very critical of. early this morning, senator graham told cnn he wanted to change the president s mind. was he successful? reporter: graham seemed to suggest he might have been, despite the president promising what would be a swift withdrawal of the troops from syria. graham suggested perhaps the president would be willing to hit the pause button on the removal of troops while he assesses the situation, particularly with the islamic state, even though when the president was in iraq earlier this week, he said the generals had come to him to ask for more time in syria, and he had denied that request. graham saying the president might be willing to reconsider. take a listen. i think th
we ll talk about the stalemate on dpcapitol hill and other things. we have a great panel with us. steve, i want to go to you first. you know as well as anyone about the president s deal making skills. this is what he pitched to the american people. is this an opportunity for president trump to cut a deal, and why hasn t he invited chuck schumer and nancy pelosi to the white house to get it done? well, it is. first of all, it takes two to tango. he can t negotiate by himself, which unfortunately is what he s doing right now. while he s working in washington, d.c. and not on vacation, nancy pelosi is at a luxury resort in hawaii. as sarah just told us, the president put a very serious offer on the table, which is he would take half of the money he requested. that s literally meeting in the middle. he wants 5 billion. the democrats initially offer 1.6 billion. he said, 2.5, which isn t even really quite the middle of those two numbers. regardless, 2.5 billion for