White House Urgent Scrambles to Avert Shutdown; Trying to Sway Senators Votes; President Trump: "Dems want a shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the tax cuts
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: We are three hours from a government shutdown and one hour from an initial Senate vote on legislation to stop it. All day and night we've seen the arm twisting, the finger pointing, all the other political fancy dancing that most people have so little patience for. We've seen the Senate's leading Democrat go to the White House and the President stayed home instead of leaving for Mar-a-Lago. There's a lot to get to in the hour ahead, a lot we're learning, but a lot still in flux. I want to start off with our Phil Mattingly who is at the Capitol Hill where Senate Democrats are meeting right now. So this meeting has begun?</s>PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Anderson. Look, this is a very crucial moment. Obviously, we know where Senate Democrats have been on this issue in large part over the course of the last 24 hours. They've made very clear they have significant problems with how the Republicans have drafted this short- term bill. They have significant problems and significant deficits of trust in terms of how Republicans will deal with the DACA resolution if there is one even on the table at all. Does that mean they will eventually vote no against a short-term funding bill? Up to this point, it has looked like, yes, throughout this day, Anderson, even when Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer went over to the White House, it looked very much like Senate Democrats, would stay unified and a shutdown was almost certainly going to happen. Here is what's shifted over the course of the last 30 to 45 minutes. There have been a handful of Democrats, some of whom have already said they are welling to vote yes with Republicans on this bill would have been openly asking their members to reconsider, maybe consider other options, maybe potentially a shorter term C.R. would be an option here. That is something that I'm told would be coming up in the closed door meeting that's going on right now. The big question is, Anderson, given the litany of problems the Democrats have laid out here, given the significants concerns particularly on the DACA issue that exists right now, is that any kind of resolution that Democrats are looking for is that a compromise? Is that a deal? All I can say right now is given the numbers issue right now, given the fact that the Senate vote will be in an hour, it's very clear that if something doesn't shift during this closed door meeting, the vote will fail, and the next steps are still very unclear. Again, a large portion of the Democratic caucus has made very clear they are fed up with the process. They do not trust where Republicans are right now. The big question is are they willing to essentially join with a handful of Republicans and lead to, at this point, what looks like it will be a government shutdown? Or are they willing to step back from it? Right now, it's still an open question, Anderson.</s>COOPER: But Phil, if this vote fails at 10:00 o'clock, if the Republicans don't have the vote on this, is there time in the next two hours before midnight when officially the shutdown would begin for them to try to push through a, you know, a smaller C.R.?</s>MATTINGLY: The beauty of the U.S. Senate is when you want to do something quickly, you can. All you need is unanimous consent to actually move forward. Things can move fast in the Senate. I know it seems like it's not remotely possible. Thinks can move quickly if something is there. I think the big question right now is, is there anything there? Is all by shortening, say, the funding bill from four weeks to three weeks, does that do anything to address the very real concerns the Democrats have had up to this point? And that's just a hypothetical at this point right now. If they need or want to move fast, if there is a potential deal on the table, they can move quickly. But right now, if that vote fails, they would, as you point out, Anderson, need to move very quickly. Again, when you talk to Democrats that are involved in this process right now, a lot of them are pointing to the fact that there's not a lot of time. There's very little time, and things are almost certainly going to end up in a shutdown at midnight. But talks are still ongoing. Options are still being put on the table. Right now it's just a matter of where Democrats end up after that closed door meeting, Anderson.</s>COOPER: All right, Phil Mattingly. Phil, thanks. I want to check in now with CNN's Jim Acosta who is at the White House. Jim, the President's teem working behind the scenes in negotiations today. Do they feel they've made any progress?</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: At this point, not really, Anderson. I will say one of his top deputies, Mark Short, the head of Legislative Affairs over at the White House he's been up on Capitol Hill talking to senators. He just came out and spoke to reporters a few moments ago and said he still feels like there's a chance they could get a vote on this C.R. tonight. But as you heard from Phil Mattingly, it is becoming exceedingly unlikely that they're going to have the votes to get that House C.R. passed. And so then it becomes let's make a deal. Can they find some other alternative that is going to reach 60 votes? And it's just unclear at this point where whether they do that. We should caution our viewers even though there's a clock at the bottom of the screen ticking down to midnight, you know, balloons are not going to fall from the sky, what have you, at midnight if this deal is not reached. They could go into the wee hours of the night and try to fashion together some sort of compromise or come back tomorrow. In the view of this administration is that, nothing dramatic is going to happen. However, I should point out, Anderson, in the last several minutes, the White House has posted its own shutdown plan. This is interesting, Anderson, 1,056 members of the President's executive office staff would be furloughed in the event of a shutdown. That would leave only 659 employees here at the White House who would continue to work. And they, under federal law, are only allowed to come to work on Monday for four hours, and that is to basically plan for a shutdown, to sort of wrap things up and get out of dodge for a little while until this thing is resolved. And so they are making contingency plans over here, Anderson, for a government shutdown even though they're trying their -- they say they're trying their best at this point to avoid one. It just doesn't sound like there's a plan in sight.</s>COOPER: In the meeting with Chuck Schumer today with the President at the White House, which was at the President's request, do we know much about what was talked about in the meeting or what went on?</s>ACOSTA: Well, there appear to be indications that the President essentially said to Chuck Schumer, listen, we have a C.R. that passed the House. Can you get the number --</s>COOPER: Hey, Jim, I got interrupt you right now. Senator Lindsey Graham is speaking right now. I just want to play that.</s>LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SENATOR OF SOUTH CAROLINA: It's a bad day for the military according to General Mattis. I think the real world needs to deal with the 800,000 DACA recipients and the overwhelming need to rebuild our military and increase funding that's going to get us there within a month.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is first time that you're feeling optimistic? The first time today? First --</s>GRAHAM: No, this is the first time I've felt like, OK, enough is enough from everybody. The President is going to get -- Graham/Durbin is not going to be made law. It was a good proposal. I think it can be made better. We're going to get hopefully more things for the President, and there will be more relief coming on the other side. The idea of letting this continue to fester is unacceptable to most Americans, and I think now to the Congress as a whole. March 5th is the drop-dead date for 800,000 people who voluntarily came out of the shadows and passed a criminal background check. I don't think anybody wants to ruin their lives. And if you don't understand how desperate the military needs help, then you're not listening to any of our commanders. So young men and women are on jungle mountain tops throughout the entire world right now fighting a vicious enemy, and we're letting them down. I think that's about to change.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're potentially short-term to P.R.</s>COOPER: Senator Lindsey Graham speaking right now. I want to go back to Jim Acosta at the White House tonight. Jim, you heard what Senator Graham was talking about, and we were just talking before about Chuck Schumer meeting earlier with the President earlier today.</s>ACOSTA: That's right, and Lindsey Graham speaking there is a perfect segue, Anderson, because apparently he was telling reporters and talking about this rather openly, that there may be some conversations around having a C.R. that is tied to the state of the union address, that they don't a four-week C.R. They don't do a four or five day C.R. They do something in the middle. That apparently is one of these alternatives that people are talking about at this point. I think the question becomes, Anderson, when they get to 10:00 tonight and they fail to reach 60 votes, is there an appetite, is there a desire left for these senators to go back to the drawing board and say, OK, is there something that we can get to? And as Phil Mattingly was saying earlier, and this may have been mar part of the conversation over at White House earlier today with Chuck Schumer, at that point do they say, OK, we didn't get what was passed out of the House. Let's try something else. And Mark Short was indicating this earlier tonight when he was talking to reporters just in the last hour or so. He was saying -- well, you know, the question was asked of him, well, do you think you'll go for something else if you can't get this House C.R. passed? And he said, well, I don't want to negotiate -- we don't want to negotiate against ourselves at this point. That's an indication that they would still very much like to see a vote on that first House C.R. before they move on to something else, and that may be the next step, Anderson.</s>COOPER: Jim Acosta, no doubt we'll be checking you throughout this hour. Plenty to talk about as the vote approaches or doesn't as the case may be. Joining us right now is Maggie Haberman, Rich Lowry, Bakari Sellers, Mike Shields, and CNN Presidential Historian Doug Brinkley. Maggie, I understand you've been reporting about what's been playing out at the White House and how impromptu the meeting between the Schumer and the President was?</s>MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The President made this phone call to Chuck Schumer as I understand it without giving any of his staff, or almost any of his staff a heads up that he was going to do it. People found out about it early mid-morning when what has become clear the executive time window that the President spends before he gets to the Oval Office is taking place. And my understanding is not much happened out of the meeting. Schumer responded to the invitation. There were only four people in the room. You know, they kibitzed. They talked. It was described to me as "cordial" but not a whole a lot of substance came out of it. And I don't think that's a huge surprise. I think that the President is aware that he is going to take blame if there is a shutdown no matter how short it is. And it's hard to predict. I mean, in 2013 that shutdown happened under a Democratic President Republican Congress.</s>COOPER: And President Trump was critical of the presidential --</s>HABERMAN: And President Trump was --</s>COOPER: Then citizen Trump.</s>HABERMAN: Right. I mean, it's a little hard to sell yourself as the person who comes and is a great deal maker and have just sort of one after the other of these situations. I'm not sure how much voters are paying attention right now. I also don't know how long a shutdown will last if it happens. But the expectation from most people I talked with the White House is that there will be one.</s>COOPER: Rich, what are you expecting tonight?</s>RICH LOWRY, EDITOR, NATIONAL REVIEW: Well, for most of the day, I though, you had Schumer talking about a five-day C.R. You had the House passed a four-week C.R. So there should be something there in the middle. Two weeks, three weeks, whatever it is. But that at least is not going to happen tonight, it seems pretty obvious. And there's been some erosion of red state Democrats who are saying they're going to vote for this C.R., but it's not a jail break. And you need a real jail break. Unless something comes through in this meeting that Phil was talking about, it seems like we'll at least going to have a technical shutdown this week.</s>COOPER: You don't think there will be a rush between the 10:00 hour and midnight to try to do something a three to five day thing?</s>LOWRY: Anything is possible.</s>COOPER: Right.</s>LOWRY: But, I doubt it. And I don't think Republicans want to go all the way to five days.</s>COOPER: You know, Bakari, I mean, some of the Republicans are saying, well, look, they want a five-day extension because they don't want to lose -- the Democrats don't want to lose what they perceive as momentum. They don't want to let -- I think what Dana said, the air out of the balloon.</s>BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't think if has much to do with momentum as it has to do with real people. I mean, Democrats have an amazing opportunity right now to get some certainty when it comes to DREAMers in 24 country, 800,000 Americans who have a level of uncertainty before them because we do know that there's an expiration date, I believe it's March 6th when this issue has to be dealt with. And we also don't have any faith in the Republican Party. Why would you believe Donald Trump? Why would you believe anyone who told you if we put together a committee to deal with DREAMers. You bring forth something in a bipartisan passion. I will agree with. That is what you had with Durbin/Graham and then he pooh-poohed it away. He did with the window. So why would you have any faith in that process? The fact is, I really don't believe, although there are real lives in the balance. I do not believe that this has much effect when it comes to November elections. I mean, it's January. I mean Michael Wolff's book, that seemed like a year ago.</s>COOPER: Yes.</s>SELLERS: That was just last week, OK? OK, so --</s>LOWRY: Presidency in dog years has been like --</s>COOPER: When I realized it's only been a year I was like --</s>SELLERS: I thought it was up for reelection but --</s>COOPER: I had brown hair at the start of this.</s>SELLERS: So I don't think it's going to have much effect in November. That's why I hope Democrats show some border to. We have a propensity to wet the bed all the time, and I hope that Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Party, Democratic caucus have some fortitude and stand up for DREAMers now because they may not have another opportunity to.</s>COOPER: Right.</s>MIKE SHIELDS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I mean, that's what I said before. This entire fight is within the Democratic Party. I mean, the Republican House passed this. You need 60 votes in the Senate. That's the math. If we're going to go to 50 votes in the Senate, that's fine with me. We'll pass the balance budget amendment. We'll get a bunch of things passed, but that's not the rules. So you have to have Democrats. And what's happening is the left wing of the Democrat Party is holding them hostage the same way that our right wing has in the past and we better shutdown in saying we want a fight on this. I mean, I don't know -- I haven't seen a Democrat describe -- maybe Bakari can tell me, what's in the C.R. they don't like. They voted for everything that's in this bill they've actually voted for before, and there are -- yes, there are 900,000 lives with the DREAMers. There's 8 million children on the children health insurance program, and that deadline is tonight. So they voted for this many times, and I haven't heard anyone say, well, we don't like the C.R. because of what's in it. They don't like what's not in it because that's a political fight within their own caucus.</s>SELLERS: That's not a political fight with in our caucus. And just to clarify the math here. The fact is they don't even have 50 votes for this bill in their own caucus. I think they have between 46 and 48. So to think that if the number would down to 50 they would going to passed something is not true. That's first. Second, it is about what's not in the bill. It is about DREAMers. And I'd love --</s>SHIELDS: There's nothing in the bill --</s>SELLERS: I love the fact that Republicans today want to take credit for chip. Republicans let chip expire. They can actually vote right now, minus the C.R., on chip today. They could have voted yesterday or the day before, or they could have -- and for anyone, any Republican to shift the blame when there has never been in modern history one party that's had the White House and both Houses of Congress and there's been a government shutdown, with all due respect --</s>COOPER: If only we had a Presidential historian here. Oh, we do, look.</s>COOPER: This would be the first time you have a President and the Congress all in one party and there be a shutdown.</s>DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Yes, it would be the first time. And you know, we had a shutdown in 1995 and '96 and 2013 in the last 25 years. But most Americans don't really remember them. And they remember there was a shutdown. They get the years mixed up. We had on CNN a clip of Jimmy Carter's shutdown. How many Americans really are focused on Jimmy Carter's shutdown?</s>LOWRY: Another Jimmy Carter failure, that shutdown.</s>BRINKLEY: No, but I think what's going on here is kind of what everybody is saying. I think there's a difference between a short- term shutdown and a long-term. Short term, if something's figure the out before the stock market kicks in on Monday, the Democrats will look good. They're standing up for the DREAMers, and they were able to uphold the President's feet to the fire. But if it drags on for weeks, it will be Donald Trump's melt down. It will be that he couldn't run the government. The deal maker couldn't make a deal and what's sticking in everybody's craw is Haiti, Africa, you know, the language, the S-hole moment, which is big in American history, on the racism that surrounded all of that. It gives the Democrats, I think, right now a chance to say, I'm with the DREAMers. The Republicans are for deporting 800,000 people.</s>COOPER: We got to take a quick break. We'll come back to this. Coming up next, another late development, one leading Republican revel just said about the possibility of a deal. Also, Donald Trump on government shutdowns and who's to blame, then in the past, what he said in the past and what he's saying now. And later, how the reporting came to be on a story featuring candidate Trump, a porn star, parent shell companies in Delaware and allegedly a payoff following the money and the heat ahead on 360.