On infrastructure with democrats. Not really thinking they wanted to do infrastructure or anything else other than investigate. And i just saw that nancy pelosi just before our meeting made a statement that we believe the president of the United States is engaged in a coverup. Speaker pelosi right now taking to the microphone to respond to those words that you just heard from the president. Lets listen. We went to the white house for a follow up meeting with the president. Follow up to a meeting we had a few weeks ago where we agreed on a dollar figure, while we agreed on the percentage of 80 20 in terms of responsibility and we discussed some priorities about infrastructure. It was agreed at that time that we would return today to talk about how we would cover the costs of such a proposal. Last night in the time in between, the president was making some sounds that we questioned how serious he could be if he was saying what he was saying. Last night he put forth a letter saying unless we passed the u. S. Mexico canada free trade agreement, theres no reason to go forward with infrastructure. We didnt see those two as related. But the fact is, hopeful, optimistic and seeing the necessity for a big Infrastructure Initiative for our country, we went in the spirit of bipartisanship to find Common Ground with the president on this. He came in to the room, made a statement that he made, was i wont even characterize it. Ill say this. When i said after he left. Thomas jefferson, when he was president of the United States tasked his secretary of the treasury to put forth a infrastructure proposal for the country that would follow the lewis and Clark Expedition of the louisiana purchase. It would be about the erie canal, cumberland road. Things like that to build into america. 100 years later, 100 years later, Teddy Roosevelt did his Infrastructure Initiative. It was called the establishment of the National Park service. The Green Infrastructure of america. We had hoped that we could give this president an opportunity to have a signature Infrastructure Initiative to create jobs, to improve the quality of life, to just do so much for our country on the ongoing not only the jobs it created by building the commerce it would promote. That included roads and bridges and mass transit. Broad band into Rural America and other underserved areas. Clean water, waste water. All of the things that have enormous needs. The American Society of Civil Engineers says is in the trillions. The deficit we have, were talking about a couple billion dollars. For some reason, maybe it was lack of confidence on his part, he really couldnt come match the greatness of the challenge that we have. Wasnt really respectful of the congress and the white house working together. He just took a pass. Just makes me wonder why he did that. In any event, i pray for the president of the United States. I pray for the United States of america. Please deal now to the distinguished democratic leader of the senate, mr. Schumer. Well, thank you, Speaker Pelosi. To watch what happened in the white house would make your jaw drop. We democrats believe in infrastructure. We believe our roads and bridges need repair. We believe that Rural America as well as inner city America Needs broad band. We believe to bring Clean New Energy around the country, we need a power grid modernized and updated. We believe in modernizing our transportation fleet with electric cars. We believe in all of these things. So despite signals in the previous few weeks that he might not be serious, we went forward. We came here very seriously. The president asked where would the democrats spend the money on infrastructure . I was prepared to give him a 35page plan detailing this in all the areas that i mentioned and more that have the broad support of senate and House Democrats. We were interested. We are interested in doing infrastructure. Its clear the president isnt. He is looking for every excuse, whether it was lets do trade first, whether it was hes not going to pay for any funding or whether today that there are investigations going on. Hello, there were investigations going on three weeks ago when he met. He still met with us. Now that he was forced to actually say how he would pay for it, he had to run away. He came up with this preplanned excuse. One final point. Its clear this was not a spontaneous move on the president s part. It was planned. When we got in the room, the curtains were closed. The president there was a place for him at the front so he could stand and attempt to tell us why he wouldnt do infrastructure. And of course, then he went to the rose garden with prepared signs that had been printed up long before our meeting. We want the president to do infrastructure. We want our congress to perform its Constitutional Responsibilities and create jobs, create income, create wealth for the average american. We can do both. Its clear the president doesnt want to do any of that. Just add this one thing. We had a very distinguished delegation to the congress, very powerful house and senate, as you can see, distinguished leader on appropriations committee, patty murray, mr. Carpenter, the Ranking Member on the committee of jurisdiction that oversee whats were talking about here. Richie neal, the chair of the ways and Means Committee and steny hoyer. Wheres dick durbin . Senate whip, whatever the title is in the Senate Number 2. Debby stabenow of michigan, a leader on all of these issues in her committees in the congress. Our assistant speaker, the whip of the house, democratic whip, mr. Clyburn. Chair of the i love saying chair. The chair of the Transportation Infrastructure Committee appropriate to this discussion, mr. Defazzio and the top democrat on the finance committee in the United States senate, ron widen. So we came with commitment, with knowledge, with hopefully shared vision of creating a great Jobs Initiative for our country and the spirit of. Eisenhower when he instituted the highway the interstate highway system. It was important for jobs and mobility. It was a National Security initiative. It was bipartisan. Lyndon johnson and same rayburn and the house and senate, president of the United States, dwight eisenhower. We hoped we could do something comparable. Unfortunately the president isnt ready for that. Thank you all very much. Well, it has been a war of words to say the least so far this morning. It started with Speaker Pelosi coming to a microphone and saying the president is engaged in a coverup. The president then coming out to the rose garden and standing at the microphone and letting loose saying that we could have had the problem at the border solved in 15 minutes. Instead, were back to impeachment. That was followed by the press conference you just saw over on capitol hill. Speaker pelosi and minority leader schumer coming to the microphone to respond and again and say they were ready to do infrastructure. They dont know what happened. All right. Lets go to john roberts who is live on the north lawn. Is your head spinning . You know, melissa, weve seen a lot of strange things in washington the last 2 1 2 years. This is one of the strangest but followed along what happened the last time that nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer were here when they had a situation in the situation room about funding for the border wall. The president said are you going to give mow my money for the wall. Nancy pelosi said no. So he said okay. We have nothing to talk about. He walked out and left. The president had said in the rose garden, after this meeting, which wrapped up after maybe 15 or 20 minutes, that he hoped to do something on infrastructure. A couple weeks ago looked like they were on the right track to do it. This morning nancy pelosi came out of that Democratic Caucus meeting where shes getting a lot of pressure to go down the road to impeachment and says she believes the president engaged in a coverup. Sources familiar with the meeting said the president walked in and said i wanted to do infrastructure. I think we were closing to getting a deal but all you want to do is investigate me, accuse me of a coverup and unless you dont keep going down this road to investigation, weve got nothing else to talk about in terms of the other issues. The president turned around because he came into the cabinet room where this happened from the outside office of the oval office that goes oval office, he walked back out and left them all sitting there, which is much the same as what happened in the situation room meeting earlier this year. The president is obviously fuming about the fact that the democrats were coming over here for what the president thought was going to be a bipartisan meeting on infrastructure, dropped that bomb just before they came over and expected everything to be okay. To me indicates that theyre trying to mess with him or they dont understand him. Anybody knows it wasnt going to be okay after you say in the camera, the president is engaged in a coverup. Harris . Its all about 2020 and everybody is laying down markers. Yeah. You know from our producer, chad pergram on the hill, he says the senior House Democrat source on what happened at the white house between the president and democrat leaders nothing good. So lets figure out where we go from here. Theres some things that are on the docket. Not just infrastructure. Lifting the debt limit, a spending deal. Maybe some hints and Mitch Mcconnell might have even suspected that they could get a spending deal done this week. Where do we go from here . Nowhere good, i think. To quote chad pergram and his source. I think again, were seeing the parameters of the 2020 campaign laid out here. The president began it last week when he played out his plans for meritbased immigration. That is clearly a Campaign Issue that he was laying out there, one that he wanted to get republicans rallied around. Theres no way under the sun that any kind of legislation on that particular issue will get passed before the election. Now the president is laying out this idea that all democrats want to do is investigate. They want to try to relitigate the 2016 election, they want to take him out through investigation or impeachment and he wants to get things done. Two tracks you can follow with i. Investigation or investment. The democrats want to investigate. He wants to invest. The democrats have a powerful argument that they believe the president was engaged in a coverup. The question here, harris and melissa, how far are the democrats willing to push this. Do they just want to keep dangling this idea of impeachment out there to try to keep the president off of his toes or will they jump off that cliff. Because the republicans found in 1999 its a cliff with pointy rocks at the bottom of it and may not be the wisest thing for democrats to do going into an election year. Ask newt gingrich. Still about the pointy rocks. Quickly, when you asked that question about how far theyll go, were getting an indication. Nancy pelosi is under pressure. Now shes talking about listening to those people like Maxine Waters and others this morning on what impeachment could look like. David cicilline laying it out from rhode island. They may go further than anybody ever thought. My question is for the president , what is next for him . I think he keeps on just laying down these markers. He know hes not going to get anything done now with the democrats. That means america loses. Weve joked for the past two years its infrastructure week and never gets done. This ticked him off to no end that nancy pelosi said that this morning. But you know, Chuck Schumer said this was preplanned. I dont know if it was preplanned. It was hastily planned. They printed up ive written a lot of notes. They printed up this and that the cardboard panel that the president had below the podium very quickly, they called this out in an instant. They knew going into the meeting at 11 00 this was doing to happen but i dont think they began the day knowing this would happen. Infrastructure week, its a jinx. Thanks, john. Heres the comment in case you missed it that set off this Nuclear Chain of events earlier. Listen. It was a very positive meeting. Respectful sharing of ideas. I think very impressive presentation by our chairs. We believe that no one is above the law, including president of the United States and we believe the president of the United States is engaged in a coverup. In a coverup. That was the nature of the meeting. Engage, Chris Stirewalt, in a coverup. She said it twice. She knew exactly what she was doing. She pulled the pin out of the grenade and lobbed it in to the middle of everything doing on. Well no . That meeting was never going to be any good. The use of the phrase coverup, remember when the attorney general talked about spying and everybody freaked out . Okay. You say potato, i say potato. Let me step in. Theres warrants theres never a legal coverup. Sure there are. How . All kinds of ways that legally you can conceal your activities did a reporter shout back what was the crime . What is the crime . Hes involved in a coverup. What is the crime . Democrats are being complete cowards when it comes to this impeachment dance around. Theyre acting like engaging in an impeachmentlike behavior without Going Forward with it because they know politically its not a good 2020 move for them. Theyre trying to appease their base. When it comes to the coverup, theyre moving the goal posts in terms of the narrative here and its, well, you know the coverup is worse than the crime even though there was no crime that was committed according to the Mueller Report. Which democrats used to actually take very seriously. When it comes to what this meeting would have been, the last meeting that schumer and pelosi and trump had about infrastructure went really well. You had Chuck Schumer praising the president saying there was Common Ground. A trillion dollars. We all agreed there needs to be something that is done. They could have taken it in a different direction. But nancy pelosi engages in this beforehand. Jessica, what is the crime . The crime that is going on right now is defying the subpoenas. We have Steve Mnuchin talking to wait. Wait. Define the subpoena. What is covered up . What is the crime the obstruction of justice charges. What was the crime . That was the crime, obstructing his team to lie. Mueller about what . About the russians. There arent we have a new we have Michael Cohen received 1,000 phone calls that was in a chase for documents where is the official charge of a crime im answering your questions. I dont know what else to answer. I said it in plain english. I want Chris Stirewalt back in here. I have somebody on twitter asked me have you read the entire Mueller Report . In the part in the public, yes. I had some help from members of the former doj. I have friends that helped me out. Theres 10 or 11 points. Points in there that are all about potential obstruction of justice. What we do know is that Robert Mueller didnt want to come down and william barr or attorney general for the United States did his job and decided. So now were adjudicating or trying to debate what exactly everybody wants obstruction of justice to be defined as. We had one a. G. Say it wasnt. We had the bob Mueller Report saying im not going to conclude on it. Thats where were stuck. Were not stuck on collusion. The report i didnt say that. I said obstruction of justice and defying subpoenas, which is why they would want to go to impeachment. Chris . Impeachment is not about the enforcement of the criminal code. You dont need to have underlying crime. And you dont need an underlying crime. What are you covering up . If you want to talk about it in the legal sense and the criminal law sense, you dont need to convict somebody of an underlying crime in order to charge them with obstruction or otherwise youd never have an obstruction charge. If somebody obstructed justice, you couldnt charge them with obstruction of justice. The question here is whether or not the congress is going to impeach the president for the only second or third time in american history. Whether that is going to happen. That doesnt have anything to do with crimes. Thats not about whether donald trump violated the law. I wasnt asking that question. Im asking what crime is being covered up. Lets go back to what nancy pelosi has been saying about the impeachment process, which shes doing in a way but not officially doing. Shes the one saying we have to follow the facts and not do this all of politics. Yet all of the actions the democrats are now taking, brushing aside the credibility of Robert Mueller, not making sure shes on capitol hill to testify