Trump Says Mexico Will Pay for Wall but Asks Congress for $5 Billion; House & Senate Intel Committees Want to Speak Again to Indicted Trump Associates
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, one thing we have seen in the wake of that rather explosive meeting in the Oval Office is Democrats have used the president' words against him repeatedly, primarily from that meeting, his decision to take the blame for any shutdown onto himself. They're using that tweet against him as well. Take a listen to what Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer had to say on the floor.</s>SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: If the president really believed what he tweeted this morning, that his new NAFTA would pay for the wall, he wouldn't be threatening to shut down the government unless American taxpayers fund his wall. You can't have it both ways. The president's position on the wall is totally contradictory, ill-informed and, frankly, irresponsible.</s>MATTINGLY: Kate, if you couldn't tell there, Democrats aren't exactly budging at this moment. That's both what you're seeing in their messaging strategy and also behind the scenes. There's no desire to move. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House, is saying just that right now in her press conference that's ongoing. The question becomes, where does that leave Republicans on Capitol Hill? The interesting element of that, Kate, I just spoke with Senator John Cornyn, the second top Republican in the Senate. I asked him what's his sense of the president's broader strategy to find a way out of this. He said I don't know right now. That's where things stand. Everybody on the Republican and Democratic side is waiting for the president to weigh in on what the next step should be. Republicans don't want to undercut him, but they acknowledge two things. First and foremost, the meeting and the president's willingness to take the blame on himself for a potential shutdown was problematic for them. Second off, he has to map out a way forward. That may involve a shutdown, which Republicans don't want, almost universally in the House and the Senate, or it may involve something else. The big question right now is what is that something else? Behind closed doors, Senate and House staffers are waiting to see before they try to craft any type of solution. And we're, what, eight days from a government shutdown -- Kate?</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Why craft it when it likely can be, will be, if you look at past history, definitely will be undercut in one tweet. We'll see. Great to see you, phil. Thanks so much. Joining me to discuss, CNN political commentators, Joe Lockhart, who was press secretary for President Bill Clinton, Doug Heye, former communications director for the Republican National Committee and, very importantly, communications director for Eric Cantor. So he spent many a moment on Capitol Hill working on things like this. Doug, how is Chuck Schumer wrong on this one --</s>BOLDUAN: -- on Mexico is paying for it or he needs five billion bucks?</s>DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: On the face of it, he's not. But ultimately, this comes down to what we saw yesterday in very short-term political gains for the main participants. When I heard Nancy Pelosi use the word "Trump shutdown" in the meeting, it was clear this was not about the shutdown or what may happen with the wall. It was about Nancy Pelosi locking down the renegade Democrats that she needs to get to 218 majority on the House speaker vote on January 3rd. Same side of the coin with Donald Trump. Him going after Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in that meeting was more fodder to his base, the echo chamber on talk radio, and on some cable news for pro-Trump news, reaffirmed everything Trump said. So you can extrapolate two types of winners here, but ultimately, I think there's going to be a big loser and it's going to be the American voter.</s>BOLDUAN: Maybe this is one of those situations if we're looking at the raw politic, which is first they have to say these things and then 24, 48 hours before, staffers will start churning out a deal and say we have to, but maybe not. And this is what my question is. We have seen that the president is once again trying to flip the script on conventional wisdom. The conventional wisdom on this one, Joe, is that shutdowns are not a good thing.</s>JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.</s>BOLDUAN: And the president very clearly declared that he would be fine with shutting it down if he doesn't get what he wants. He's flipped the script before. Do you think he can flip the script on this?</s>LOCKHART: I agree with a lot of what Doug said. There's a framework for a deal. They can get to a deal. The big thing here is -- and Nancy Pelosi had her agenda, the president had his, Schumer had his. The big thing now is whether Trump decides that shutdown politics work for him. They normally don't. They never really have. For either side.</s>BOLDUAN: Yes.</s>LOCKHART: But if you talk about focusing attention on a shutdown versus focusing the attention on the fact that I'm now criminally liable and the Russians colluded and there's a Russian spy in court today, my former lawyer was sentenced yesterday, for Trump, that may be better politics.</s>BOLDUAN: That's a wild, wild, wild theory of look over there. To shut the government down so you don't focus on Russia?</s>LOCKHART: It is wild, it is irresponsible, and it's totally possible.</s>BOLDUAN: Doug?</s>HEYE: Yes, you know, one thing that Donald Trump and his team are very good at, they play "Star Wars" with us all the time and basically say these are not the droids you're looking for. We go down a rabbit hole that distracts us from what is typically the news of the day. That's a skill that Donald Trump has. We fall for it every time. I'm guilty of it as well. I would tell you that shutdowns aren't necessarily politically the disaster that a lot of folks like myself think they should be. In 2013, when we went through the shutdown, we called it internally in the House a "touch the stove" moment. The Republican members who wanted to shut down the government needed to touch the stove, find out it will burn them so we don't touch them again. It didn't burn them. Republicans haven't learned from that, that they can touch the stove again and again and not get burned. That's a real problem moving forward. Then the factor of Republicans who lost in pro-Hillary seats who may not want to cut a deal in the president's favor.</s>BOLDUAN: Yes.</s>HEYE: And may not be there to vote anyway.</s>BOLDUAN: Children, do not touch the stove. I will leave you with that. Great to see you guys. Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Doug.</s>HEYE: Thank you.</s>BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, Michael Cohen's attorney said his client will tell all he knows about Trump as soon as the special counsel completes its investigation. Will it include publicly testifying on Capitol Hill? Congressman Jim Himes, on the House Intelligence Committee, he is joining us next, live.