Trump Calls Wall Negotiations Waste of Time.
BALDWIN: We just heard from President Trump about what to expect if bipartisan talks, these negotiations don't come up with the money for his border wall. This is what the president said.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will be looking at a national emergency, because I don't think anything's going to happen. I think the Democrats don't want border security. I think there's a good chance that we will have to do that. But we will at the same time be building regardless. We're building wall and we're building a lot of wall. But I could do it a lot faster the other way.</s>QUESTION: Are you saying that you will -- that we should be prepared for you to announce at the State of the Union what you are going to do?</s>TRUMP: Well, I'm saying listen closely to the State of the Union. I think you will find it very exciting.</s>BALDWIN: Trump is signaling that he could make a decision at the State of the Union next week, which is before negotiations are even finished, which reiterate what he told "The New York Times" when he called all these negotiations, these bipartisan talks, a -- quote -- "waste of time." Jackie Alemany is an anchor with "The Washington Post"'s "Power Up." And almost, listening to him, it's like, tune into the next episode, right, like, stay tuned to my State of the Union, when I'll make X announcement. And when he talks about this declaration, a good chance, do you think it's basically a foregone conclusion?</s>JACKIE ALEMANY, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, we never know with the president.</s>BALDWIN: True.</s>ALEMANY: But what has matriculated in the past year -- the past day -- sorry -- January really felt like the longest year ever.</s>BALDWIN: I know. I know. It's a blur. It's a blur.</s>ALEMANY: Oh, my goodness. But what really we saw in the last day was this red line being drawn at least privately amongst Republicans. I talked to officials inside the White House and senior officials on the Hill who said that the one thing that their members are not in favor of, even after bearing with the president for the longest shutdown in history, is declaring a national emergency. And that's just because of the unprecedented executive power that it extends to. And I think members and staffers and officials in the White House are really worried that the this sets the stage for Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell-esque debate going forward, in that when there is a mass shooting, for example, the president, a future Democratic president, for example, is able to say, hey, this is national emergency, I'm going to make some sweeping declaration as it relates to guns, or perhaps for Medicare. And so there is a lot of concern here. And I think the president's going to see a lot of backlash, even from his far right flank, if he does declare a national emergency.</s>BALDWIN: All right, so concern noted. Also, what I find noteworthy is the evolution of semantics, because the president, when you look at the word wall, right, so he went from, I want a concrete wall, to fencing, to steel slats, to now he's back with talking about this word wall. And I'm curious, Jackie, why you think he's doubling down on wall? And do you think he's sort of rooting for this bipartisan group to fail?</s>ALEMANY: Yes, I mean, the president obviously has really embraced the fatalism here over the past few days. My favorite term for the wall, by the way, is peaches, which he floated two weeks ago.</s>BALDWIN: Peaches. Amazing.</s>ALEMANY: But I -- it's unclear why -- I do -- I think this is a rhetoric trick that the president is resorting to. This is a message to his base that he's not going to accept anything other than a wall, so that when he does potentially accept a smaller amount of funding, if that does happen from Democrats, to come to a deal, for perhaps something lower than $5.7 billion, he's able to say that it is a wall, even though Democrats are saying, like, that this is actually just border security. A lot of the hurdles here really is a matter of reconciling the rhetoric from both sides, fencing vs. wall vs. steel slats. And the president is right about one thing. These are just political games that are being played.</s>BALDWIN: Yes, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of livelihoods.</s>ALEMANY: Right.</s>BALDWIN: And then think about the contractors who aren't even getting paid back.</s>ALEMANY: Exactly.</s>BALDWIN: There was great news for this White House, though, in those January jobs numbers, way better than expected, 304,000 jobs added. So this has to be a solid shot in the arm in this post-Trump-shutdown era.</s>ALEMANY: Yes. And this was some unexpectedly good news for the president. In the midst of a trade war with China, the longest government shutdown, jobs are up. This was a blockbuster number this morning and it's something that he touted on Twitter, rightly so. However, the jobs numbers do indicate some other problems that still remain, which is that wage growth is still the lowest it's been since the great recession, 2009. The average U.S. worker hasn't seen an increase in their wages. That is a really big problem. And then there are some economists who do think that this number, this 304,000 number, is actually inflated due to the amount of part-time jobs that workers during the government shutdown had to take in order to make ends meet while they weren't getting paid for a month.</s>BALDWIN: Solid reaction in the markets from the positive news today. Jackie Alemany, good to see you. Thank you very much.</s>ALEMANY: Thanks, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: There are new fears of an arms race after the U.S. suspends its nuclear treaty with Russia. Also, another surreal moment, the president claiming his intelligence chiefs were misquoted, even though they weren't.