Government later in life. But tonight, just hours after the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, made the announcement, the president wrote on Twitter Congress now has six months to legalize daca, something the Obama Administration was unable to do. If they cant, i will revisit this issue the white house has not provide any other information clarifying what the president means by revisit the issue. More on that in a moment. Shortly after the daca announcement was made, the New York Times posted an interesting bit of writing. It reads as late as one hour before the decision was to be announced, Administration Officials privately expressed concern that mr. Trump might not fully grasp the details of the steps he was about to take. When he discovered their full impact, would change his mind, according to a person familiar with their thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity. While the new message from the president tonight is that he may revisit the issue, the white house is sending out talking points that include this line for surrogates we should tell you a Senior Administration official says that is standard language for anyone without legal status, not just daca recipients. The immigration debate has laid bare the tension between the president , his base, and the rest of his political party, the gop. The Washington Post reports tonight, trumps hardline base, which demands purity and expects results, recoils at daca, as illegal amnesty and will look to him to veto any such legislation. But allies said trump is eager to prove that he has the great heart he has long touted, and he is under pressure from his partys establishment, the Business Community and many of his own advisers to find a way to let dreamers stay. On the same day the white house revealed its decision, the president met with Mitch Mcconnell, speaker of the house paul ryan, to talk about tax reform, lest we forget. At that gathering, our own Kristen Welker tossed the president a question about the daca decision. Mr. President [ inaudible ] i have a great heart for the folks were talking about. A great love for them. And people think in terms of children, but theyre really young adults. I have a love for these people, and hopefully now congress will be able to help them and do it properly. I can tell you, in speaking to members of congress, they want to be able to do something and do it right. And really we have no choice. We have to be able to do something, and i think its going to work out very well. Longterm, its going to be the right solution. He has a love for these people. And the haste hour, hundreds of these people upset about the president s decision wrapped up a rally in los angeles. At around 200,000 dreamers, california has more of them than any other state. Two u. S. Senators are already stepping forward to try to pass a bipartisan bill to protect daca recipients. As they announced their plan, each had a strong message to deliver. Democrat dick durbin on the left there of illinois, gave his message to the 800,000 or so people affected by the decision. Republican Lindsey Graham seemed to speak to President Trump. My challenge to the president is that youve talked very glowingly about these kids. Help us. Help us in the house. Help us in the senate. I think youre a good man. Get involved personally. Work the phones. Try to find a consensus here. We made a promise to you that if you gave this information to our government about you and your family, it wouldnt be used against you. I dont want that to ever happen. And we are just Getting Started. Lets bring in our panel to start us off tonight. Usa today immigration reporter allen gomez is behind us. Correspondent anita kumar is with us. And with us in the studio, Associated PressWhite House ReporterJonathan Lamere. Jonathan, what does revisit mean and why doesnt what we just witnessed from the president completely bear out the New York Times reporting earlier today . Today started with the attorney general actually delivering the policy. Then we have hours later the president saying he has heart for these kids. Now we have this tweet tonight. It flies into the typical trump thing where he thoughs so much at you, people can read into it what they want. People who have different agendas, looking for Different Things can find that in there. It reflects that this is a president who legitimately has been torn on this issue in recent weeks. As much as during the campaign, consistently he said were going to terminate this program, do it on day one. When he was exposed to some of the stories of daca, when he was exposed to the political reality surrounding it, that many in his own party dont want him to get rid of it, he saw this as sort of a untenable situation and was looking for a way out. In some ways, pushing this to congress is his way of doing that. And also i would hike to point out, that tweet tonight, may will reflective of something we were given a heads up to watch for. This is a president who this afternoon and this evening has likely been watching the Media Coverage of his decision. And if he found that it was very negative, he might send a tweet to soften it. So allen, jonathan talks correctly the president looking for a middle ground. Is there a middle ground for the dreamers . Does his tweet change anything for them that was set in motion earlier today . I dont think it does at all. When you put yourself in their shoes, we can sit here and talk about the president s management style, the message theyre delivering, the way that his message is being delivered to congress and what they should do about it. But put yourself in the shoes of these 800,000 or so undocumented immigrants who are sitting there, theyre getting this message, theyre hearing the president say he loves them. But at the same time, the department of Homeland Security was clear this morning in a Conference Call with reporters saying that 100 they are they will become eligible for deportation once their daca status expires. They made very clear that they can use immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be able to use the information that these people provided to the federal government to qualify for daca, theyll be able to use that to track them down if they need to in extreme cases. And weve seen of the last seven months, the department of Homeland Security that has increased the percentage of undocumented immigrants that are arrested that do not have a criminal record. Theyre looking at that background, that leadup to this. So one tweet, one throwaway line in the tweet has not changed the fact that they are all terrified right now and thinking their time is up pretty soon. Allen, enter congress, and no reason to think this wont go smoothly. Anita, i want you to react to the following. This was kind of the moment of the day during our coverage earlier. This happened in the 4 00 p. M. Eastern time hour. Nicolle wallace hosting. A noted conservative thinker and writer for the New York Post talked about what a kind of perverse bank shot the president has laid out here where congress is concerned. Well talk on the other side. The weirdest of what trump is proposing here is that ryan and mcconnell essentially put forward a piece of legislation that democrats will vote for, that republicans will not. He is actually putting his own partys majority at risk in the house and in the senate by putting this in their pocket by creating a civil war in the primary season for republicans. So anita, has this changed the calculus where congress is concerned . Lets be clear about what President Trump wants. He does want the congress to do something about dreamers. But Sarah Sanders today at the White House Briefing was very clear, theyre looking for a bigger deal than just doing something about the dreamers. They want a theyre not calling it a comprehensive immigration bill, but thats what we call it, a big picture bill that deals with all sorts of stuff. She was basically making it clear, they will do something about the dreamers if President Trump can have money for the border wall. So theyre willing to make a deal here. And hours hater, you see this tweet. So hes putting it back on himself. What incentive does congress have to act on this situation if the president is saying i might go back and do it again in six months . Anita, judging by what you hear from congress, what is the chance the president is going to get fund forg that border wall . Its not looking good. Democrats want a big deal, too. But they dont want to negotiate on protections for dreamers. So if they stop it right there, its not going to go very well. The problem with congress right now, the length of all the things they have to do is very long. They have to make sure the government stays open. They have to fund for hurricane harvey. They have a million other things to do. Its going to be very, very hard for them to accomplish this. They havent accomplished this in previous years when they tried. Look how easy repeal and replace was. Jonathan, you wrote today, the short history of the presidency of donald trump, his history on this issue. On inauguration day, before he took the oath of office, attended a traditional prayer service. His chief of staff at the time, reince priebus, had to excuse himself, retreat to a staff van where he fielded several calls from worried gop lawmakers asking about daca. They knew that the president , on the campaign trail, night after night, said he would terminate it on day one and they were worried he might act upon it in his inaugural address or soon thereafter. That perhaps it could be one of the first bills he would sign. Some of them were very concerned he would do that. They felt like this was a mistake for the party. The president had already begun to field some second thoughts. He laid bare in an interview a few days later, that he had great heart, that he was offer daca, the dreamers a good deal. Things would be a great solution for them. It also laid bare a real divide in the white house, where steve bannon, steven miller, the architects of his immigration policies and the travel ban, really wanted to push forward with eliminating the program. Others, more moderate voices in the white house, jared kushner, gary cohen, suggested keeping it in place. But some of those moderates have seen their voice, their influence really weakened in light of charlottesville. Gary cohen criticized the president s response to that racial clash a few weeks ago. Hes seen some of his juice disappear in the white house. And its a triumph for the attorney general. Jeff sessions, of course, said from the beginning that he did not believe the Justice Department could defend this or would defend this order. He believed it would fail in the courts. Its something hes been against throughout his career, and this is his, in some ways, reward for putting up with the rather remarkable public rebuke that he took from the president a few weeks ago. He stayed the course, he kept his head down, and he was the leading voice on this issue. So allen, what do you think the resistance, the opposition looks like, and how big is it from here on out . I think what weve seen on the streets today is only going to be the beginning. Because this is another one of these situation where is the president has laid in congress lap an incredibly controversial, difficult thing to pass. And without really giving them much guidance. So now for these next six months, hes given them this deadline and a clear timeline on when this needs to happen. So activists around this country, 800,000 young undocumented immigrants, now have a clear timetable on how to protest, how to rally. Weve seen hunger strikes start already. Ky tell you that ive been hearing from advocates about their plans over the next six months to really put pressure and now all of a sudden what the president has done is shifted the focus away from himself and put it squarely on paul ryan, squarely on Mitch Mcconnell, and made them the recipients of whats going to be a very loud, very vocal and very consistent message from them, which is one appeals to the majority of this country. Again, weve been talking a lot about how this is something aimed at his base and something that is that has very much pleased his base. Ky tell you some of those groups have been talking today about this being the labor day present and a wonderful surprise from western workers and all that. But its going to overwhelm these congressional offices with folks just pushing very hard and just telling the stories of these dreamers over and over again. Anita, last word here. This is not a value judgment, but all of these activists, congress has not been if a vacuum. We can see them. We can hear them. We have just watched what has become of the official trump agenda or not. Yes. I mean, hes putting them in a very difficult position. But the problem is, that tweet tonight puts it all back on himself. If he wanted to get rid of this problem, he did the absolute wrong thing. Not only has he wavered all day, basically the Administration Officials and himself, theyve had conflicting information put out there. But now hes put it back on himself. They have no incentive to get this done. Hes going to take care of it in six months in some way. So this is going to haunt him and his presidency for the next six months. Our great thanks to my initial panel tonight. Coming up, the list of goals before congress. As weve been saying, really couldnt be longer. The president s relationship with certain key members of congress couldnt be worse. That and more. Were just Getting Started when the 11th hour continues. Hey youve gotta see this. Cmon. No. Alright, see you down there. Mmm, fine. Okay, what do we got . Okay, watch this. Do the thing we talked about. What do we say . Its going to be great. Watch. Remember what we were just saying . Go irish see that . Yes im gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. The president is calling on the men and women in congress to fulfill their duty to the American People. We have confidence that congress is going to step up and do their job. With all due respect, i dont think the American People elected congress to do things that were easy. Its not the president s job to create law. Its not its congress job to create legislation. I think thats something we learned in 8th grade civics. Something needs to be done. Its congress job to do that. We would like to have confidence that congress will actually do their job. We want to have laws that address these problems. But its congress job to legislate, not the president s. I think he is giving congress the ability to do their job. The goal here is that Congress Actually fixes the problem. Congress has six months, which is a pretty long time to get something done. After about the 12th example, you get the distinct feeling that shes trying to deflect the attention to congress and their role in this. Welcome back to our broad cast. That was White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders today, making it clear the administration expects, as you may have heard there, congress to figure out a solution to daca. The president preemted the official notice tweeting, congress, get ready to do your job. A week from tonight, billions more for hurricane irma. A new budget, a new debt limit, tax reform, infrastructure, maybe even another shot at repeal and replace. All this in a month where the house is only scheduled to be in decision for 12 days. Joining us tonight, kimberly atkins, chief washington reporter for the boston herald. And harold ford, jr. , former democratic congressman from the great state of tennessee. Kim, we usually say that donald trump does best against an opponent. This is one of those moments in life where he needs 535 friends under that dome on capitol hill. This is absolutely true. But weve seen him treat even the leaders, the gop leaders in congress, as enemies on more than one occasion, particularly when it comes to legislation that he wants them to pass. Theres also a pattern here where the white house will set out priorities, including daca, saying congress, fix daca without giving any indication of what he wants congress to do, what kind of bill that he would actually sign, if they do pass something, addressing Immigration Reform in part or something broader, even republican senator marco rubio asked, out and out asked the white house, what do you want us to do and there wasnt a real response to that. I think we can expect to see this frenemy relationship with members of congress, particularly those in his own party, continue. Lets ask a former frenemy of 534 others on the kill. Congressman herald ford, jr. I love speaking about them as though they are a monolith. They enjoy an Approval Rating lower than the president. What is going to be the dynamic . They get that their fortunes are tied to this guy. I think they all understand it. Kimberlys point, you look at august for a moment. The president was critical of must bes, including john mccain, Mitch Mcconnell and others and continue to be. I found daca interesting. Not one republican came out in favor, at least publicly, and supported what the president did today. Three, i think Congress Might be able to get something done on this front. You heard Lindsey Graham calling on guida