take care of the dreamers, the tps population, i would also maybe insist on a mueller protection bill and force the president to make a decision. but this can be easily resolved. republicans are not doing well in this fight, in my view. look, the president owns this shutdown. he pretty much admitted as much. so, really, right now, the answer is getting the government reopened. and i recommended doing just what the democrats proposed before christmas. this is an easy way out. julie, how hard is it for congressional republicans in the white house who says the president will accept a certain deal, only for the president to then say he won t, sometimes just hours later? well, i think that s been a challenge for both sides. and certainly, senator mcconnell lived through that a couple of weeks ago, when senate republicans were assured by vice president mike pence that, you know, the president was going to be behind a deal to have a stopgap spending bill and basically punt this fight unti
communications effort more than anything. they re pretty far apart today. you had the democrats go to the white house today, they couldn t even listen to a briefing by secretary nielsen without interrupting or stating their talking points, the white house that has hair talking points. this is a talking points public fight. congressman dent, how do you see it? if the president doesn t shut down, is it republicans in congress who will end up looking like the foolish ones? well, right now, i think the president ought to take the deal that nancy pelosi is offering. i would actually take that deal. separate out these six bills. they should fund the department of interior, agriculture, the irs, that has nothing to do with border security. take care of that and confine the fight to the homeland security appropriations bill, and then once the government has reopened, i would just have a serious negotiation between the house and the senate and the president on this $5 billion for border sec
breakthrough on immigration, a $5 billion appropriation wisely spent would go a long way to securing our border. it s just not about physical barriers. it s about other things. if we could find a way to make sure that the daca recipients have a work permit, it certainly makes their lives better. the tps population, i think all of us are trying to find a way to help them. so there s a deal to be had. the wall has become a metaphor for border security. and what we re talking about is a physical barrier where it makes sense. in the past, every democrat has voted for these physical barriers. it can t be just about because trump wants it, we no longer agree with it. there s nothing immoral about a physical barrier along the border in places that make sense. so there ll never be a deal, at the end of this year, the beginning of next, that doesn t have money for the physical barriers that we all have in the