He continued today online with falsehoods about the border wall and on camera with this. A Cabinet Meeting notable for how few actual confirmed cabinet members were in the room. To his left, the acting defense secretary. To his right, the acting interior secretary. Thats in addition to the acting attorney general, the acting chief of staff, and acting epa administrator. Thats a lot of acting, considering they arent on a stage or in a movie, they are in real life. Oh, and speaking of movies, did you notice what was on the president s desk . Its a movietype poster of the president with the words sanctions are coming november 4th, apparently riffing on the first game of thrones episode and the idea that winter is coming. But whats weird is given its prominent placement is that the president didnt say anything about it during all his riffing. He didnt mention anything about the poster. Sad. The president did have a lot to say on other topics, a good deal of it factually questionable, some of it flatout false, and all of it a pretty good preview of what enjoy the ride could actually mean in the coming year. So were going to start our keeping em honest segment right now by going through point by point what the president said today, starting with his broadside against his former secretary of defense. He might have been inspired by something he mentioned at the top, a stanley attacking general mccrystal. He said, general, in quotes, got fired by a dog like obama. Last assignment, a total bust, known for big, dumb mouth, hillary lover. That was yesterday. And today the president attacked his former defense secretary, retired fourstar general, james mattis. But whats he done for me . How has he done in afghanistan . Not too good. Not too good. Im not happy with what hes done in afghanistan. And i shouldnt be happy. But he was very happy, he was very thankful, when i got him 700 billion and then the following year, 716 billion. So i wish him well. I hope he does well. But as you know, president obama fired him and essentially, so did i. Keeping em honest, if essentially fired means did not fire, what the president said would be true. It doesnt mean that, however. General mattis resigned in protest of the president s policies and even released a letter detailing their differences. Now, there was a long, proud tradition of that in the military and in u. S. Government service, but you dont see it much anymore, because people these days want to stay as close to power, as long as they possibly can. But mattis resigned. And his Resignation Letter is polite, but very clear about the president s actions. Now, because of that letter, the president got angry and moved up mattis departure date, essentially shoving mouth in door. That is what you get for Loyal Service to this president. So, enjoy the ride. Another thing that happened today was also unusual, not something you hear every day, an american president doing really what no american president has done until now, endorsing this soviet invasion of afghanistan and asking for a new russian presence there. Russia used to be the soviet union. Afghanistan made it russia. Because they went bankrupt fighting in afghanistan, russia. So, you take a look at other countries. Pakistan is there. They should be fighting. But russia should be fighting. The reason russia was in afghanistan was because terrorists were going into russia. They were right to be there. But why isnt russia there, why isnt india there, why isnt pakistan there . Why are we there . And were 6,000 miles away. Okay, so theres a lot to unpack. Keeping em honest, we were there and are there because of 9 11, because the taliban gave safe haven to al qaida. You can argue about whether the United States should still be there and the coalition should still be there, what impact thats been, what weve had what impact its had. But its pretty clear why we went there. As for the claim the soviet unions adventure in afghanistan was because of terrorism, thats not true. It was an effort to grow the soviet empire. And its unclear why an american president would welcome any n russian intervention anywhere, as he did so today. Hows the ride so far . Is it enjoyable. The president also wrote off the people of syria today, because he seemed to say that the country has nothing to offer in the way of loot. So syria was lost long ago. It was lost long ago. And besides that, i dont want were talking about sand and death. Thats what were talking about. Were not talking about, you know, vast wealth. Were talking about sand and death. No vast wealth. In the past, as you know, the president has talked about taking the oil, as he says, from iraq, as in plundering iraqs oil. He also has a habit of equating longtime allies to shopkeepers paying for protection. He did it again today, while at the same time claiming that european leaders really, really like him. I think my relationship i will tell you, with the leaders of europe is very good. A lot of them dont even understand how they got away with it for so many years. Ill say to angela and ill say to many of the other leaders, im friends with all of them, ill say, how did this ever happen . And they sort of go like, i cant believe it either. They cant believe it you know why, because there are president s and other people within administrations in the past that allowed them to get away. Like, some of them would say, no, they never asked us to pay. Now, keeping em honest, alliances such as nato are not payforprotection schemes. This is not hiring a certain cement contractor with ties to the mob so you dont get any Union Problems on your construction site. You can google that one. With our allies, to be sure, there are legitimate disagreements over how much member nations spend on their own defense. On their own defense. Nato is not like a golf club. There are no dues. There are no green fees. The president , we should add, also said things today that are not untrue and not necessarily outlandish. He raised questions that other president s might not, certainly, but even when he just did that, there was often something else, an iffy claim, an exaggeration or boast thrown in. Take a look. We have an area that i brought up with our generals four or five weeks ago, where taliban is here, isis is here, and theyre fighting each other. I said, why dont you let them fight . Why are we getting in the middle of it . I said, let em fight theyre both our enemies. Let em fight. Sir, we want to do it they go in and they end up fighting both of them. Its the craziest thing ive ever seen. I think i would have been a good general, but who knows . Who knows . This is not a new claim. The president has often said he knows more than the generals or our generals as i said, or my generals. Whats new is how many of his generals he has actually driven away or insulted. Whats new is how the consequences of the things he says and does are beginning to be felt, whether its the shortage of people to run crucial cabinet departments, or the sagging stock market or hard times from farmers and manufacturers caught in a trade war that the president has said again and again are easy to win. And even now, he shows no sign of recognizing that what he said today can come back and bite him tomorrow. Enjoy the ride. So, theres that and theres the shutdown. We have breaking news on that, as well. Today, the president invited lawmakers to the situation room, presumably to work out a deal to reopen the government. Maybe it was just a photo op. The president hope to fund the wall he once said mexico would pay for. Tonight, cnn has more reporting on how the president may see a possible deal with democrats who control the house starting tomorrow. Cnns Kaitlan Collins joins us now with that. So what did and what didnt happen in this meeting in the situation room today . Well, anderson, where to start . This meeting already had an air of drama to it, because it was held in the swaituation room, which white house officials was so they could communicate what a big crisis they believe is happening on the border. But they didnt need to hold it there to have some drama. Because there was already plenty in the room. As soon as this meeting got started, when the Homeland Security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen was supposed to be giving this briefing on whats happening on the border, but nancy pelosi interrupted her and said that the democrats wanted to lay out their plan to reopen the government. Thats when Chuck Schumer started with his plan, telling the president , proposing essentially that the president sign after they could pass these six Bipartisan Senate bills. And then over the next 30 days or so, they could negotiate the dhr dhs funding then. Thats an idea he pressed the president on several times, three times, in fact, according to what an aide in the room or an aide familiar with the meeting told us latter on. And the president eventually responded, quote, i would look foolish if i did that. Now, i talked to a white house official who was in that meeting, as well, and talked about what was going on, and they essentially said that when Chuck Schumer proposed that, they said, well, okay. If we do agree to that, the president does sign this bill and we move forward over the next 30 days to negotiate what were going to do to keep dhs funded for the long haul, will you come up off your hard line of only funding 1. 3 billion for Border Security . Now, the democrats did not signal that they would, so the white house essentially said, what would be the point in us agreeing for the president to sign these six Bipartisan Senate bills if youre not going to come out any higher on that funding . So essentially, what were left at is an impasse. There was a deadlock and they did not come to any agreement during that meeting. Okay, so do we know how long is the white house prepared to let the shutdown go on for . Reporter well, things have changed. When the government initially shut down partially, white house aides felt confident they could clear things up in a couple of days, but they did fear the longer it went on, the worse it would look for them. And now here we are, in its third week of this shutdown. 12 days now. And white house officials do not feel that there is an end in sight, especially after that meeting today, which they didnt expect a lot of progress and for them to waltz out of there with some grand plan to reopen the government. But they say that things could be worse now between the white house and democrats than they were when we started this 12 days ago. All right. Kaitlan collins, appreciate it. Earlier tonight, i spoke with a lawmaker who was not in the situation room this afternoon, but might influence the outcome. Bernie sanders, heres the full interview. Senator sanders, the president says hes not budging. The democrats say theyre not budging. So where do things go from here . Well, i think the American People are going to have to stand up and tell donald trump that when he told us several weeks ago that he wanted to shut down the government, that he was wrong. And that right now, we have 800,000 federal employees not getting paid. When trump tells us hes concerned about national security, you got people in our airports, on tsa, you got people in the federal bureau of investigations. The fbi, who are not being paid. This is an outrage. And i think that while trump told the American People he wanted this shutdown, i think he has got to understand that is not in the best interests of this country. And what we have got to do is pass what unanimously passed the u. S. Senate, every republican supported it. And that is an extension of the government, at least until february, to give us a time to work out a longer understanding. You know, Mitch Mcconnell reiterated today that he wont put the continuing resolution, that the House Democrats plan to pass tomorrow up for a vote, because the president said he wont sign it. Is it at possible that there could be enough republican support in the senate to override a president ial veto . Well, i dont know the answer to that one, but i do think, and this is a very profound point, that the republicans in the senate and i know all of them, you got a lot of decent people there, they have got to understand that the senate is an independent part of the United States government. They dont work for President Trump. They work for the American People and their constituents. And we need senators, republican senators, to stand up to this president and tell him that he cannot always get his way. He cannot simply shut down the United States government and cause a lot of suffering to a lot of people. I was i went through tsa today in burlington, vermont. And i know this is true all over this country. Youve got a lot of workers who dont make a lot of money. That i have got to pay their mortgages, theyve got to pay their chooild care. They are asking why this government is shut down and why they are not being paid. And i ask and i beg my republican colleagues, stand up to trump, do the right thing for this country. But as you know, this is now the Republican Party is the party of donald trump now. Its his party. And there are a lot of there are some republican senators who are going to, you know, who are living in fear of facing a primary challenge if they go against the president. You know, anderson, i do know a lot of what you just said is true, but thats not what american democracy is supposed to be about. You know, when youve got a president , every american remembers that. He sat down with schumer and he sat down with pelosi a few weeks ago and he said, you can blame me. Im proud to shut down the United States government. And that there are not honest republicans in the senate saying, mr. President , thats not the way we should do business. So youre raising the right question, but in a democratic society, in our form of government, the Republican Party should not be trump is the leader, but he is not the dictator of that party. And we should have members standing up and representing their constituents, and not just the whimsical approach that this president consistently takes. The president told senator schumer today that according to our reporting, that he would look foolish if he backed down. Is he right about this . This is something that he vigorously campaigned on and promises were made. This is what drives the American People crazy. 800,000 workers today, including the fbi, including the tsa, including very decent people who are trying to support their families. They go to work every day. Imagine the feeling that they have. They go to work and theyre not being paid. Theyre being humiliated. And you have a president who is much more interested in his own ego, in what people will think than in terms of these 800,000 workers. And the millions of people in this country who access those services. So i think its time for the president to grow up and to listen to the needs of the American People, and not just his own ego. Your soontobe Republican Senate in the colleague, mitt romney, im sure youre aware, he wrote a pretty tough critique of the president in the washington post, which was published last night. And about that today, the president said that he hopes romney is going to be a team player. Do you believe he will be . Do you believe hes going to stand up to the president , as you have encouraged other republicans to do, to be kind of a republican foil to some of his policies . Well, look, you know, the nature of american politics is, when you have a democratic president , democrats generally follow that precedent. But, you know, i was im a great you know, somebody who has a lot of respect and appreciation for barack obama. But when i thought he was wrong, i opposed him. Others did, as well. And what we need, whether its romney or any other republican, youve got a lot of smart people, to say, mr. President , we are part of your team. I dont want to tell the Republican Party how to operate. Theyd do well enough without me. But to say to the president , look, were all part of the team. But youre not the dictator. You cannot simply tell us what to do and we are supposed to collapse in support. And by the way, this president changes his mind every single day. He lies a whole lot of times. So i think it is terribly important as we enter the new year for republicans in the house and the senate to say, sorry, mr. President , we cannot be with you in every instance. Lastly, i want to ask you about an article published in the New York Times. In it are allegations describing episodes of Sexual Harassment and demeaning treatment as well as pay disparity in your 2016 campaign. Were you aware of those allegations in the campaign if you do run in 2020, how can you ensure Something Like that doesnt happen again . Good good question. And the answer is, anderson, im very proud of the campaign we ran in 2016. We started at 4 in the polls, we wound up winning 22 states, 13 million votes. I think we changed the nature of political discourse in this country, raising issues that are now kind of mainstream, which were then considered extreme and fringe. But when our campaign grew from, i think we started with three or four paid employees, and over a period of a few months, as the campaign exploded, we went up to i think 1,200 employees. And im not going to sit here and tell you that we did everything right in terms of human resources, in terms of addressing the needs that im hearing from now that women felt disrespected, that there was Sexual Harassment which was not dealt with as effectively as possible. What i will tell you is that when i ran for reelection in 2018 in vermont, we put forward the strongest set of principles in terms of mandatory training, in terms of women, if they felt harassed, having an independent firm that they can go to. And i think thats kind of the Gold Standard for what we should be doing. So i c