again in order for the shutdown to end. a lot of procedure stuff. adam, if one reads the united states constitution, there are not many references to congress. there is one responsibility that congress has and that is to appropriate funds for the functioning of the united states government. in fact, for all the other stuff congress does, this is really the only constitutionally mandated job and once again we have seen whatever side on the issue you re on, it hasn t worked. congress tonight adjourns not having done its job. that s right. and i think that is why the blame for this will fall on republicans as the party that controls all of the levers of power in government. banking on the fact this will be seen as a shutdown over the issue of what they see as illegal immigration, but the problem is most people just see is a shutdown. they see congress failing to do
certainly anger him. the issue here of course is that the president in someways has been so contradictory and added to this issue. his comments about immigrants really was a cloud that was hanging other congress while these talks were going on. then throughout this whole entire week, sending out contradictory tweets saying he didn t evolve on the wall. he didn t want chip to be included. then tonight while i was reading the white house press statement about the shutdown, i was struck, but how much it sounded like donald trump wrote it himself. he called democrats obstructionist, losers. essentially pitted immigrants against americans. so it s just remarkable moment right now. i want to bring jonathan into this. i want to continue with you a second. after the president made remarks thursday we talked and we have something is common. your parents are from haiti. yes. and i was born in africa. so you and i are both from those countries that the president
convincing the nation this is really important and needed to be done. there s other polling that suggests people are less excited about shutting down the government over the daca issue. it s aggravation of the people who were polled. what you see there for certain is that the american public understands that republicans are in control of the white house and control of the senate and control of the house. whether they place that blame at the feet of the white house or congress, you see republicans aligned all the same. an argument made earlier today from the white house podium. one said you don t have 60 votes
the other 70% of the country. the numbers with the president. they re not good numbers. they have improved over the last few weeks. this trend, his job approval numbers and the averages have ticked back up over 40 for the first time since the spring. in the two weeks in which he used that word about the other countries and that there s allegations about a payoff to an adult movie store. and also seeing improvement in the numbers for republicans in congress. being behind by six is not great. is this the tax bill. i think part of the tax bill s numbers have improved what. is tax bill is not popular. the good thing to happen for republicans is the tax bill gave them ownership over the economy. key economic policy they made. people look out at the economy which the polls show people think the economy is quite kwood right now. the fact republicans have economic policy they have made make people inclined to give them credit for that.
constitutional are appropriations. one thing the congress has to do is appropriations. the one thing the congress continues to fail to do. jonathan, thank you for being with us. we ll be right back with a look at donald trump s approval ratings on the anniversary of presidency.