Uniting the country with a focus on boosting military spending, reducing taxes, replacing the Affordable Care act, and dealing with Global Threats like north korea and terrorism. This is what it looks like inside the capitol. Cspan will give you a front row seat to this president ial address. We welcome our listeners. Hall,g us inside statuary four politico, thank you for. Eing with us, we appreciate it let begin with the theme of uniting the country. He said he wantshe said he wanth democrats and republicans. He wants to heal the hatred in the country. How does he do that . Ease going to have to show more in terms of compromise. He was criticizing nancy pelosi about being incompetent. I think he is going to have to show he is willing to make deals on some issues democrats care about. He has shown little appetite for that. His rhetoric has been incendiary. I think he is if he is going to do it him and he is going to have a reset in his presidency he is going to have to start today by offering and all of branch to democrats. So far there has not been a lot of those. Is today a reset . Right now they have gotten to a poor start. He would say differently. I think he thinks messaging is a problem. They are not getting any movement on the issues he ran on. Obamacare repeal is stalled. Senate republicans cannot get a deal amongst themselves. Tax reform, we will have to wait on that. Boardwalk House Democrats said they would oppose any funding for a wall on the southern u. S. Board. Bills, he iss talking about slashing the epa budget. This is something republicans are not going to support. Their approach so far has been they are running a campaign and not governing. At some point he has to shift to governing. Through what will be the headlines tonight. An increase in defense spending. You alluded to it. Mitch mcconnell says there is no way he is going to support cutting muddying cutting money in foreign aid. How do you square that . I dont think you can to be honest. Rodney freeman told reporters today, he would not support anything like that. He wants to see cut to entitlement programs. Which is something President Trump doesnt want to do. If you talk to members of congress, they have cut a lot from discretionary spending. Isnt 50 billion there to cut in terms of federal spending and the agencies other than the pentagon. I dont think you could pass a budget that looks like that. I dont think you could pass any appropriation bill that looks like that. I think right now, they are going to have to think of a different approach. There may be ways to get additional funding President Trump wants, putting other funding by 50,000 is not going to be related to it. Another topic, immigration. He is open to a bill as long as there is compromised. Not a lot of specifics. The white house indicating that it is going to consider a major immigration bill in the coming months. This was a surprising statement. I think everybody was like lets see what he is talking about. If trump takes a hard line on border security, those issues, maybe that gives him room to toe a deal on some pathway remaining in the country legally for those undocumented immigrants. I think he thinks he has some leverage on his side. That is a difficult thing for him to see working. This is a man who ran on a hard line on immigration. The attorney general, Jeff Sessions took a very hard line on this issue. Stephen millers top domestic policy advisor on this issue. The right wing feels very strong on this. Democrats have little faith in what he says. They would have to see everything in black and white before they would agree to have any discussions. I dont think they want to get caught in a trap by trump. They would be wary on this. The president said he did know how complicated the debate was with a lot of ideas being floated about to repeal, replace the Affordable Care act. We heard from Senate Democratic that theaying president mother republicans have not picked up a single democratic vote to move on the Affordable Care act, and republicans say this is their number one agenda item domestically. I think they are in a bad spot now on the Affordable Care act. The key on repealing it and replacing it, they cant get a deal right now. I dont see a clear path. There is a meeting called by the majority leader, with the top two House Republicans on this issue, they are going to have a discussion. There is a lot of time left. We are talking the beginning of march. You need a lot of time on these issues. They would still need legislation. We are back through the house. If there is a conference, the clock is really taking on these guys. Nows hard to see right where the pathway is. Especially medicaid coverage. Are in an governors different place than the Trump Administration on this issue. Right now i am not seeing how that exactly works. An early excerpt, the president will be saying the time for small fights is over. To focus on the big business of the country. What is your take away . Trump, i was looking at the contract he put out today, a twopage contract for the American Voter promising executive orders and legislative actions. He has carried out a number of these executive orders. That is not happening. Quick action on tax guts, that is not happening. You have to give him credit. At least he is aiming high. He has a very bold agenda. Is, getting 218 votes in the house, 60 in the senate, that is a different thing than campaigning for president , as president obama found out, as president bush found out before him. Trump has himself a pretty top agenda. We can see if he can get it done. Can you give us a sense of what it is like on capitol hill . What is the mood . What are people talking about . Everyone is curious about what trump will be like. Is it a Convention Speech . I can fix it. The inaugural address was something that is a very nontraditional inaugural address. It was a dark vision you dont usually here in an inauguration. He is clearly sputtering in terms of getting off to a good start in the white house. Mantle, caned the he get Forward Momentum . Speaker paul ryan incident majority leader mcconnell, they want to succeed. Republicans want to succeed. There is curiosity. If he wants to do something on unity come a democrats are going to be curious. Hes going to make a reference to the 6 trillion we have spent in the middle east over the last 18 years, saying that is better spent in the u. S. Is that an area of compromise . Absolutely you could find it. How would it be spent . Is it spending versus tax credits . Democrats would support something that is spending versus something that is designed to unleash pride. That would be a harder sell. Do republicans hold back on any of the structure package . Befar that doesnt seem to winning them any support from democrats. They knew trump has to govern. Either tonight he starts governing or he is going to lose control of what happens. That is what people are talking about. They want to see him govern. When asked about the debt and the deficit he said it is more important to grease the skids to get the economy moving, and focus on a 20 trillion dollar debt down the road. How will republicans react to that . They wont like that at all. During the Obama Administration they talked about it. They talked about how the National Debt almost doubled under president obama. He would want to say it is more important to spend money and get the economy, which is doing ok, pretty solid. You want to spend hundreds of trillions more . A hardlinething conservative republican is not going to be able to get behind. Its a tough room for them. You can call it a joe wilson moment. Any sense there will be any protests, anything that could disrupt the president s speech . That was an embarrassing moment for mr. Wilson. That is not something anyone would want to see. There could be protests. There have been protests everywhere. Maybe somebody slips and, there maybe somee d but he slips in. There is tight security. I dont think there is going to be an active protest. Where will you be watching . I will be working. I have to watch from a tv screen. That is how it goes for us reporters. John bresnahan, thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me. My colleague is keeping track of all things. It is not a state of the union. Is a joint session of congress. I thought we would look at what the congressional leadership is tweeting out. This is speaker ryan. Democracy,be to our he is saying it will be a bold, optimistic message. The Republican National committee is taking part in this. They put out this video. It looks like everyone is excited about President Trumps address tonight. Leader ine democratic the senate, chuck schumer. He says he hopes the potus has words for all americans, not just the wealthy. For the working class to whom the promise so much. Much. Whom he promised so here is nancy pelosi, a couple of tweets by leader pelosi. She has a picture of many of the Democratic Women dressed in white. Tonight, women wear white in support of womens rights in spite of a potus who doesnt. She sent out another to hear, it here, with just hours before Donald Trumps first address to congress, we are finally getting under his skin, she says. Mitch mcconnell is also tweeting. He tweets out about one of the issues that will be discussed in congress and tonight. While democrats are praising obamacare we know it is only getting worse. Leader mcconnell put out this video. This is the walk the city the senate will take. We want to show this to you. It takes about seven seconds. This is the walk through the into the house chamber. You. Ank we will check in with you. Our phone lines and have a democratic response by the governor of kentucky. Former governor of kentucky. A live look of u. S. Capitol. We are keeping track of the president and Melania Trump. They will be traveling to the capital on a rainy tuesday. Inside the house chamber, the joint chiefs, members of the u. S. Supreme court, their role on a night like this. The role is just to be there. They dont all go. They listen. Hey generally dont applaud they are just there to be a presence to represent one branch of government. They dont all go. It is up to them individually. Justice breyer has gone every year, almost every year since he has been a justice. Other justices, like Justice Scalia had not been in a couple of decades. Some just dont like to go. We want seee that some liberal justices there . It is possible. Withppointees President Trump it will be interesting to see of Justice Ginsburg attends. She tended not to go when george w. Bush was president. She has been critical of donald trump during the campaign. That is certainly something people are going to watch for. What about the traditions . What are they doing . They tend to go out to dinner together. That is one reason Justice Ginsburg has been known to not off on occasion. She blames the wine Justice Kenneth sebring josh Justice Justice kennedy brings. So they are together that evening having dinner. To they arrived together . They all walk in together. They all walk in, they shake a few hands along the way when they do. Why do they wear their robes . They wear their robes as they do at the inauguration, when they are doing anything in their capacity as justices. Speech,are giving a theyll have an official role, they wont wear their robes. A state of the union or a speech congress, that is when they tend to wear their robes. Greta on the role of the u. S. Supreme court greg on the role of the u. S. Supreme court. Reagan delivered a speech in february 1981, and every president a month into their term of office outlined their common themes. The president will be speaking at 905 9 05 eastern time. The speech full run may be an hour and 15 minutes, depending on the applause. Designated survivor is on network television. There is a designated survivor tonight. A member of the cabinet selected by the chief of staff. Senator hatch knows about it. We spoke with him about what is involved. Was an honor for me. I like to be there for the inauguration. I dont i have missed one exceps year. Things work out well. It is tough to take the first and second person in line and. Emove them from the facility when they are holding the inauguration. So, it was an honor for me. It was necessary. To make sure we have the continuing succession, in ways that would be very beneficial for the country. Where do you go when you are the designated survivor . That is one of the things only i know. You cant tell . Why is that . I guess they dont want anybody to know the methodology that they use. There are really evil people in this world that could cause great have the and pain. Ofhink it is just a matter knowing what you are doing, making sure that nobody can interfere with what you are doing. Are there rules to being the designated survivor that they tell you about . Yes. They have some rules. Away soy, you are taken if anything disastrous happens, you can be brought back in good shape. The rules are, you just dont talk about it. I had my wife go with me. Shes more protective of not talking about it than i am. I think she actually enjoyed being on this journey. Senator orrin hatch providing his insight on what it is like to be a designated survivor. At least one member of the selected to be an undisclosed in an undisclosed location on a night when you have the entire United States government in one location. The south portico of the white house, the president and first lady expected to leave momentarily. We can share a couple of excerpts from the speech that will be given today. Is time for small thinking over. The time for trivial fight is behind us. We need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts. Think of the marvels we can achieve mckiernan is to illnesses we can achieve. Now we must deliver for them. Some early excerpts released by the white house a short while ago. Peter flynn. S Melania Trump will be attending. Sitting with her will be three relatives of americans. The authority said they were. Illed by immigrants they will attend the president s jamil hes, and will be among the six guests sitting with the first lady. He became one of the first local advocates on the tough stance on immigration. Mrs. Trump will also be joined i just good day mess jessica. Amos aisle,other side of the a lot of the democrats are bringing middle eastern guests , this picture was tweeted out of marc veasey meeting with Syrian Refugees attending the speech tonight as his guests. We are going to keep an i on the white house. There is some activity. Steve annan is now leaving. We see senior aides coming go. Scalia, the late wife of antonin scalia, will be in attendance. The confirmation hearing getting underway on march 20. We will have live coverage. Lets give you a sense of what is happening. We expect the president and first lady to depart momentarily. There is steve annan. There is steve bannon. [an audible conversation conversation] they call that the beast. The cadillac is used to travel and firstdent trump lady Melania Trump. The senate is also in session gathering right now as they make their way from one end of the capital to the other. As soon as the president moves out we will take you there as well. [indistinct conversation] the president traveling along the motorcade from the white house, 16 blocks on a rainy thursday evening as members of the u. S. Senate make their way along the u. S. Capitol as well. We will have live coverage of the president s speech. This is his first speech before a joint session of congress, a tradition that dates back to president ronald reagan. One of the things we like to do here is let you watch the events as they unfold. That is what we will do as the house prepares to gavel in. Our phone lines will be open after the president s speech and the democratic response by governor beshear. Comments, thank you for being with us. Now inside statuary hall as members of the senate gather for tonights joint session. [applause]