Government Shuts Down As Trump Marks First Year In Office; House Dems Speak Amid Government Shutdown
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Live pictures right now of marches taking place across the country being billed as the women's marches on this one year anniversary of the Trump presidency. Also today on this one-year marker, a U.S. government shutdown. Hello everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in the nation's capital. After working until almost 2:00 a.m. to try to avoid the scene of a U.S. government shutdown, senators are reconvening now next hour to negotiate how to end the government shutdown. Last hour House Republicans and Democrats met separately behind closed doors, meanwhile Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is asking the President to meet with him along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi today. No word yet from the White House on whether that will happen. The President meantime is blaming Democrats this morning, tweeting this, "This is the one year anniversary of my presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown. CNN senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju joins us now live from Capitol Hill. So Manu -- what are you hearing about these meetings?</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is -- the dividing lines are stark this morning -- Fredricka. I can tell you the Republicans in this conference meeting largely united behind their insistence that immigration should not be tied to any bill to open the government. They are saying coming out of this meeting that the government should be reopened first before we deal with any side negotiations on the issue of immigration before that March deadline where all of those Dreamers -- people under the DACA program -- may lose their legal status. They do not want to tie those two issues together. But I'm told by a senior Senate Democratic source that they will -- Democrats are insisting that that needs to be part of any funding solution -- some resolution on the DACA issue. Something similar to the so-called Dream Act that Democrats have been pushing for a very long time. They are insisting there needs to be a quote, "pathway to passage on that proposal before they agreed to reopen the government." Now Republicans today are trying to make sure that the blame is placed squarely on Democrats. But even some Republicans acknowledge that this is going to be very risky politically if this shutdown goes beyond a couple of days. Here is a sampling of what the members said going into the meeting.</s>RAJU: Sir -- do you think the President is showing enough flexibility here in his negotiations with the Democrats?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know where the President stands on this right now. I just don't know.</s>RAJU: Would it be helpful for him to lay out where he stands?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course. That is always been an issue -- whether it is our health care and now on this issue. He needs to be clear about what his position is. But in the meantime, the government has to be reopened. And there is a lot of blame to go around on all sides. We're in the majority. We control the three branches so we're going to get blamed whether we deserve it or not.</s>RAJU: What was the mood like in there?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mood in there is not good. I mean we didn't shut down the government. We voted to keep the government open.</s>RAJU: So the question is what happens next. Expect Republicans in the Senate to push for a three-week continuing resolution to keep the government open. That also includes extension of funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program. Expect that to happen later today. But Democrats believe that three weeks is too long. They want it much shorter to force the hands of Republicans to agree to move forward on immigration, to agree to a pathway to passage of that immigration bill. Democrats on the Senate side are going to try to push for a shorter time frame. Maybe a maybe few days, four or five or six days to keep the government open. Republicans so far are resistant to that. Earlier today President Trump did speak to Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader about what they plan to do next. But no discussions so far between McConnell and Schumer, and that is really where the agreement ultimately is going to have to come from. Perhaps those conversations may happen later today when the Senate comes back to session -- Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Manu Raju -- keep us posted. Thank you so much for that. All right. The White House blaming the Democrats for the political standoff on Capitol Hill; President Trump sending out several tweets this morning lashing out at Democrats including this tweet saying, "This is the one year anniversary of my presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown. CNN White House Correspondent Abby Philip is live for us at the White House. So Abby, the President is tweeting today. Is he also considering a meeting with the Senate and House leadership?</s>ABBY PHILIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well he is definitely on social media. But there are no signs at this White House that there are any plans yet to broker more talks, either here at the White House or on the hill over this issue. The President -- his latest tweet really pins this on Democrats, which has been the message all along. "Democrats are holding our military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration," he said. "Can't let that happen." Now even while he is saying that publicly, a source close to the White House tells CNN's Jim Acosta that the President does believe that Democrats are responsible for the shutdown. But that the President himself might actually end up getting the blame at the end of the day. Now that's a little bit different from what we've been hearing all along and it reflects some concern within this White House that no matter what happens, the President is going to be held responsible. Now these talks have really broken down over the last couple of days with the White House saying that they do not want to talk as Manu pointed out about this immigration issue. And a senior administration official told me this morning that they believe that the battle lines at this moment are very much entrenched and that Democrats are not going to back this three-week CR that's going to be considered here in the Senate leaving the government potentially shutdown all the way through Monday. That could be a potentially -- if we get to Monday, it could be potentially disastrous for some of these federal employees who will be unable to work or furloughed. At the same time, we have heard from some White House officials, many of whom are not working here today, one of my colleagues sent a note to a White House official this morning and here is the message that they got back. "Unfortunately I'm out of the office today because congressional Democrats are holding the government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities hostage to an unrelated immigration debate." So the message -- the messaging here is consistent both from the President all the way down to lower press aides who have an away message because they are technically not allowed to work today because of the government shutdown -- Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: Oh my. All right. Abby Philip -- thank you so much. As we continue to look at live pictures from across the country of the women's march taking place; also marking this one-year anniversary of the Trump presidency. All right. Let's now get the Republican perspective now on this government shutdown. Joining me right now is Senator Cory Gardner, a Republican from Colorado. Senator -- thanks so much for being with me.</s>SENATOR CORY GARDNER (R), COLORADO: Thanks for having me.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. So you voted to -- for this bill to keep the government operating. Is it your feeling that it should in no way be tied to immigration and that is the big hang-up?</s>GARDNER: What I don't understand is why a shutdown and how a government shutdown actually furthers the bipartisan negotiations that we're having over this Dreamer population. Now, I'm one of the Republicans who is working for a bipartisan solution to try to achieve the four-part plan or goal that the President set out when it comes to addressing DACA. But to shut the government down simply makes no sense. It's not going to help bring people together on this issue. It's going to partisanize the issue. It's going to partisanize it further. It's going to pull people further apart. So I really question the wisdom of Senator Schumer for shutting down the government over this issue when we are actually making good progress on trying to resolve this issue.</s>WHITFIELD: Then, do you have any hope or, you know, are you lacking any confidence that there might be some sort of three-week, you know, resolution -- continuing resolution.</s>GARDNER: I do have hope because allowing the government to be shut down creates a lot of collateral damage. It is not just making a political point that Senator Schumer apparently wants to make by shutting the government down. It hurts people around the country. It hurts our men and women in uniform. It hurts the civilians that support our war on terror and the effort that they put in to supporting our men and women in uniform around the globe. The CDC may have to shut down portions of its flu program as states report to the CDC where the next vaccine batch needs to go. They are going to have more difficulty getting that done. Look, this is holding the government hostage to a political issue that Chuck Schumer has decided is ripe. We have more time to negotiate. Our conversations have been very productive. I don't understand why we would -- why Senator Schumer would decide to shut the government down now when we actually have a chance of accomplishing something for the American people.</s>WHITFIELD: So the President himself says, you know -- has called himself, you know, a great negotiator and he met with Schumer yesterday -- still unclear what did or did not happen from that meeting. Schumer is proposing that House and Senate leadership meet with the President today. Do you believe it's a big mistake if the President does not take them up on that offer and, you know, exercise his skill or willfulness on being the great negotiator, the closer?</s>GARDNER: Yes, I'm somebody who believes in bipartisan conversations and I'm somebody who believes it is important to have conversations with each other about what is going on. But I don't think the kind of negotiation tactics that took place yesterday are going to allow this to be resolved. What we heard was Senate Schumer say that he doesn't want a continuing resolution because he believes that is a bad way to govern and they brought in politics that they're holding this government hostage to. His solution was an even shorter term continuing resolution, making even worse policy. Only in Washington, D.C. can somebody take what they think is a bad idea and try to replace it with a good idea and think that they've actually done something good. It makes no sense.</s>WHITFIELD: So if that is yesterday, do you feel like today is a clean slate, that there is so much more on the line especially since we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people who might not be getting a paycheck for a period of, you know, days and who knows, perhaps even weeks. Do you believe that negotiating today being ground zero, start all over, that potentially there could be some real ground made?</s>GARDNER: Well, last night Senator McConnell offered a three-week continuing resolution to see if that would satisfy Senator Schumer's decision to shut the government down. We'll see if that negotiate happens. And you make a very good point. Look in Colorado alone, in Colorado Springs there are five military bases. Six thousand civilian employees of those military bases face furlough; that is -- those are people who are supporting our space mission. They are supporting our intel missions. They're supporting our war on terror. There are troops deployed in Colorado Springs around the globe and yet Senator Schumer is willing to risk the missions that they are carrying out. It is unacceptable. The American people -- look, this isn't something where they're going to wake up one day and say, gee whiz, only part of Washington is to blame. An eighth grade student council could run government better than the way Washington is right now. And it's all because people think they can get their way by throwing a temper tantrum.</s>WHITFIELD: And you keep mentioning Schumer as if it is one man, one person here. And it was your colleague Charlie Dent, you know, of Pennsylvania who said he wishes the President were more engaged. And that he is challenging the President to be more engaged. So it wasn't that long ago when, you know, businessman Donald Trump said, you know, the buck stops at the White House. When the government shuts down, it is the President who really is at the wheel. Is it different this time?</s>GARDNER: Well, the President doesn't have a vote in the Senate or the House. It is up to the Senate and the House to pass legislation. It is our job to keep the government funded. And Senator Schumer decided that he was not going to allow that job to be done.</s>WHITFIELD: But haven't some of your colleagues complained that they don't know exactly what the President wants. And so if they had a clear vision or view of what the President wants, what he would sign, they would be able to construct something.</s>GARDNER: Well, Senator Schumer spent several hours with the President yesterday and many of us were over at the White House the week before talking about what the President had hoped to put together that he could support, that we all could support on an immigration address -- immigration solution to DACA. Those are the things that we continue to work on. And what is frustrating I think the President was very clear in the four things he wanted to address. Republicans and Democrats have decided to work together, we are working together on a solution. Senator Schumer knows that and yet he made a decision to shut the government down last night. And the collateral damage of a government shutdown -- it is not just trying to make a point on one political issue of immigration or other issues. What he's doing, he's willing to hurt people, men and women who have nothing to do with immigration, nothing to do with the Democratic Party and nothing to do with the Republican Party other than showing up each and every day trying to work hard for the people of this country and to do their public service job and do it very well. And Senator Schumer is telling them that he would rather hold them hostage to a political objective.</s>WHITFIELD: We'll leave it right there. Senator Cory Gardner --</s>GARDNER: Thank you.</s>WHITFIELD: -- thank you so much. Good luck today.</s>GARDNER: Thanks.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. We're watching tens of thousands of people at the women's marches taking place across the country from street to street from Philadelphia to the nation's capital and to Los Angeles. Stay with us.