2. 5 billion for the wall, pence had gone to capitol hill to sell this plan to everybody. Trumps asked about it and says this. Would you accept anything less than 2. 5 billion . No, not 2. 5 billion. No. Were asking for 5. 6 billion and you know, somebody said 2. 5 billion. No. Look, this is National Security were talking about. Somebody was Vice President mike pence who went on the president s behalf to say that amount which the president now says, no way. Lets be clear. Every lawmaker, pence pitched that plan to now knows the Vice President cant deliver. Trump wants to own this, and own it he does. Today he called Democratic Leaders nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer to the white house for a closed door conversation. Their take . I said, mr. President , give me one good reason why you should continue your shutdown of the eight cabinet departments while we are debating our differences on Homeland Security. He could not give a good answer. At an impasse. And the 12 days into the shutdown, no sense of urgency coming from the president. How long do you think the governments going to stay partially shut down . Could be a long time and it could be quickly. Could be a long time. Its its too important a subject to walk away from. Too important for him. The president is obsessed, tweeting about the wall 22 times since friday. Just think about that for one second. 22 times since friday. Take this one from today. Mexico paying for the wall through the new umsca trade deal. Thats the replacement to nafta. Much of the wall has already been fully renovated or built. Let me break this down. One, mexico is not paying for the wall, because the trade deal has not been approved by congress, and even if it is, mexico is still not paying for the wall because the money saved from that deal, if there is any saved, is supposed to go to you, the american taxpayer, not towards a wall. If trump uses that money, money, right, because its kind of hard to call it that but if its money to pay for the wall, he is taking it from you. You are paying for it. Not mexico. Okay . And two, back to the tweet. The president actually tweeted again, let me read it. Much of the wall has already been fully renovated or built. Now, this is true. There actually already is a barrier, according to customs and border protection, it runs 702 miles long. The president himself only wants 1,000 miles of wall along a 2,000mile long border so its absurd that were even in this position to begin with. Jessica dean is outfront live at the white house and jessica, you know, when you put all this together, 22 tweets since friday, undermining, back stabbing his own Vice President , does the president actually have a strategy here . Reporter well, erin, were hearing a lot from him, from the tweets, from the different, you know, meetings that they had today, that Cabinet Meeting where we were hearing him talk. It does seem like its kind of in different places. What is for sure is that he has drawn this line on the border wall and the 5. 6 billion that he wants for it and just recently a white house official telling our Kaitlan Collins this shutdown is going to go on for a while. So, what did we see here at the white house this afternoon . We saw congressional leadership coming in for a meeting. They were invited here by President Trump to the white house, but instead of meeting in the Oval Office Like nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer did back in december, they were all in the situation room for what was being billed as a Border Security briefing. The secretary the department of homeland secretary, nielsen, was briefing them. She had a onehour presentation, were told, that was prepared but schumer and pelosi kept asking about the shutdown. They wanted to talk more about reopening the government. We got some more information, some more reporting with someone who is familiar with the situation telling cnn that schumer kept asking President Trump, look, as democrats, tomorrow, the democrats are going to take over the house. Theyre going to vote on a package of bills designed to reopen the government. Were going to take department of Homeland Security out. Were going to continue it. Were going to allow for 30 days so we can continue to negotiate, specifically on that, and then reopen the rest of the government. And the source saying that they that schumer asked President Trump three times why he wasnt going to accept that and on the third time, thats when he said, because i would look foolish, according to this source, if i did that. So, what is for sure is when everybody came out of this about one hour long briefing, they were no more closer on reopening the government than when they went in, erin. Thank you very much, jessica. So i want to go outfront now to democratic congressman david cicilline, part of leadership, obviously incoming here, as you have all the swearings in tomorrow and formally take over. Nancy pelosi says shes going to bring that legislation to the floor tomorrow, which jessica referenced and basically it kicks this whole wall issue and the border off for a month. Do you believe have any reason to believe at this point that President Trump will accept that deal, change his mind and take it . Well, no, but i mean, we should remember, erin, this is a proposal that was already passed by the senate unanimously, 1000, so what were going to do tomorrow is bring to the floor two bills, one which will fund the six other departments, bipartisan agreement has already been achieved with respect to those departments, separate out the point of contention, thats the department of Homeland Security, do a shorter stopgap for that, so fund the rest of the government through the end of the fiscal year, those six departments, then take the department of Homeland Security, give it a shorter time frame to give us an opportunity to negotiate these outstanding issues. But the president isnt serious about wanting to reopen the government. He said he wanted to shut it down. He said that 25 times. I think, frankly, he doesnt really have an interest in reopening the government because hes using it as an opportunity to really distract from a lot of very serious issues facing his white house and this administration. Theres an easy solution here, were going to present it tomorrow like adults, were going to fund the government, send it to the senate. I think theyre going to be hard pressed not to pass it. They already passed it. What was it, 96 okay. But if hes not going to go along with it, is this just a futile waste of time . I dont think its a futile waste of time because i do think that the American People need to see the democrats doing the right thing, swiftly moving to reopen the government. Then theyre going to have to put pressure on the republicans in the senate to do their job. They dont work for the president of the United States. They work for the American People. They should be serving their constituents, not the president. Theyve already passed this proposal before christmas. They want to do it again to reopen the government. Then we can have a real debate about what is the smartest way to secure our borders. Democrats believe we should have secure borders but we should do it in a smart way, invest in technology, drones, cargo inspection, satellites, more personnel. Lets do it in a way that actually ae achieves the objective, not just some 19th century solution for 21st century problems, this big concrete wall that supposedly mexico was going to pay for. And its concrete some days, some days theres a fence, some days its border slats, whatever it is. But let me ask you this because weve reported the Vice President , right, pence went to capitol hill with a 2. 5 billion proposal, saying, okay, we dont need this 5. 6 billion, well go for 2. 5 billion and the president was asked about it today and heres what he said. Let me play it again. Not 2. 5 billion. No. Were asking for 5. 6 billion. And you know, somebody said 2. 5 billion. No. Look, this is National Security were talking about. Okay. So, pence goes to capitol hill with a whole plan and tries to sell it, and the president s like, i dont know who thought of that, i had nothing to do with it. Is he throwing the Vice President under the bus, back stabbing him . Whats going on . Well, i think this is one of the difficulties in trying to negotiate the resolution of a matter with someone who doesnt always tell the truth and someone who doesnt keep his word. If you remember, the president approved the prior deal. Thats why the senate voted for it unanimously, because he had agreed to this idea of funding the six departments and doing a shortterm cr for the department of Homeland Security so we could work out these issues. Then he changed his mind after the senate voted. So, i think, again, theres a lot of trepidation about negotiating with someone whose word you cant trust, who seems to change his position with some frequency. I think if we do reach a deal, were going to have to find some way to have the president commit to it so that he actually keeps his word, but i think its what makes a very difficult negotiation even more difficult. You just dont have a sense where the president really is and whether hes going to actually stick with the position he takes. All right. So youve got people impacted by this, you know, citizens who deal with the government, right . Rely on the government, deal with the government. You have 800,000 federal workers who are directly impacted, 23409 getting paychecks right now and even if they when they get back pay, theyve got bills to pay and debts to service that they cant do while theyre not getting paid. Its coming as the president is surrounded by an incomplete team, as you know, right . Seven of the 21 top jobs, all right, which is incredible, a third of them are now filled by acting or deputies. Acting or deputies. Including chief of staff, the attorney general of the United States of america, the defense secretary of the United States of america, right, single biggest budget item in this country. How long can a government continue functioning like this . I think its a very serious question. I think the president is having considerable difficulty keeping people in his cabinet for a lot of obvious reasons. People are leaving in droves. I think hes found it difficult to keep people. I think hes a particularly difficult person to work for, for all the things weve seen, so i think its challenging. These are difficult and challenging times, but to do it without a proper staff of qualified people makes all this work more difficult and i think the president has sort of, particularly with the departure of secretary mattis, sort of the only adults in the room have left and so i think its a real challenge, and the president s surrounded by folks who are just sort of cheering him on, telling hip hes right, rather than confronting him with more sycophantic in your view. Exactly. You bring up mattis and i want to ask you about him because he obviously is gone. He quit. And the president was actually asked about this today, about mattis, and, well, now hes completely changing what happened. I wanted to play it for you, congressman. Here he is today. I wish him well. I hope he does well, but as you know, president obama fired him, and essentially, so did i. I want results. Okay. Essentially, he did not in any way, not essentially, not nonessentially, okay . Mattis not at all. Quit. But the president , he is trying to change history on that. Why . Why do you think hed say that . Well, i think he recognizes secretary mattis is very well respected. His resignation was accompanied with a very strong letter of rebuke of the president s Foreign Policy and criticism of the president. We all know the president doesnt take well to that but i think this is, again, what i said at the beginning of the show. I do think that the president s changed the conversation to talk about the shutdown. He lost secretary mattis. The Trump Foundation was closed because of persistent illegalities. Hes lost the gentleman who was in charge of the diplomatic efforts and the fight against isi isis. He saw Michael Flynns sentencing hearing blow up considerably. He knows Michael Cohens cooperating, the walls are closing in on the mueller investigation. I mean, it hasnt been a good couple weeks for the president , and what does he do . He changed the subject by saying, i want to shut the government down and all the discussions about that. So i dont actually think the president s serious about wanting to end the shutdown. He could do it by signing bills the house passes and telling the senate to do the same. I just dont think right now hes interested in reopening the government. I think he likes the distraction. He likes the chaos. He, i think, thinks he benefits by pretending that hes fighting to keep america safe when weve appropriated 1. 7 billion over the last 2 years for Border Security, the Department Spent less than 6 of that, so sure we have to do more, but they havent even spent what weve appropriated so this is a makebelieve fight that hes doing because he thinks it helps his political future and ignites his base but its an easy problem to resolve if he were serious about reopening the government and moving forward. As we said in that tweet today, hes already admitted that there already is a wall which goes against everything he said before. God knows, two years. All right, thank you very much. Three years at this point. Congressman, i appreciate your time. Thanks. And next, mitt romney doubling down, slamming President Trump just hours before hes sworn in as a sitting senator. And he has said during the campaign that he could be extraordinary president ial. I dont think hes followed through on that front. Plus, u. S. Ambassador to russia, john huntsman, a pretty incredible move, visiting an american detained on accusations of spying, the top american official in moscow going straight to the jail. Plus Nancy Pelosis daughter with this warning to anyone who dares oppose her mother. Shell cut your mahead off a you wont even know youre bleeding. Thats all you need to know about her. With expedia, i saved when i added a hotel to our flight. 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Tonight, taking on trump, mitt romney stepping up, telling our jake tapper why he wrote a scathing oped slamming the president s character even before romneys actually sworn in as a senator from utah. I think its important, as i begin this new job, to make it very clear where i stand, and i also note that the departure of secretary mattis and the decision to pull out of syria and the abrupt way that it was done was a precipitating event for my finally going on this record. And the president , of course, not letting this go. If he fought really hard against president obama like he does against me, he would have won the election. Does that make sense to you . If he fought the way he fights me, im telling you, he would have won the election. Outfront tonight, patrick heelly, New York Times politics editor, joan walsh, Scott Jennings also with us. Okay. Patrick, romney says he needed to write this op ed to make it clear where he stands before he even starts, right . Hes not even technically sworn in until tomorrow. Timing . Yeah, i mean, its hes speaking for a Republican Party that doesnt really exist anymore, at least if you measure it by influence and power. I mean, this is trumps Republican Party today in washington and mitt romney is coming in, he knows that hes going to be a fairly, you know, isolated figure, one of 53 in the senate. Again, a guy who the base doesnt love, doesnt have any, like, real particular affection for in terms of the trump base, and i think hes trying to lay out some markers. I mean, mitt romneys legacy and certainly sense of himself as a statesman is very important to him. His moral character, very important to him, something that he talked about when he was governor of massachusetts, when he ran. I think in some ways, what hes looking for is he wants to be remembered as someone who didnt sort of just give in to trumpism, to the sort of the darker nature of the character of this presidency and has been willing to call it out. Whether it has any effect, erin, i mean, thats its hard to see, you know, who hes trying to persuade with this. And you know, in a sense, thats maybe not even the point, right . If youre going to choose to raise your voice and then you choose to raise your voice if you think its a moral imperative, but joan, the problem is here, for some, is in a sense the hypocrisy, right . November 2016, trump and romney photog