JUDY WOODRUFF: Yesterday
marked the halfway point in
President Trump's first term, as
the government shutdown
stretches into a second
month, a perfect time
for Politics Monday.
I'm joined by Amy Walter of
The Cook Political Report
and Tamara Keith of NPR.
Hello to both of you.
It is Politics Monday.
So let's talk about
this shutdown standoff.
Amy, over the weekend,
as we said, the president
made an offer, did
some tweaking, and said
what -- made what he said was
a significant move on his part.
Democrats, before it
was even announced, said
they were against it.
Is there any pressure now on
Democrats to cut some kind of
deal, or can they just wait
the president out?
AMY WALTER, The Cook Political
Report: Well, that's what
we're going to wait to see is
where the pressure goes.
Up until this point, it's been
pretty clear in all the data
and all the polling that the
blame is being put squarely on
President Trump's shoulders.
And, as we have noted
many times, he did say,
"I own the shutdown."
So that's a difficult thing
to get out from under.
It's also true that Democrats
in polling that we have seen
feel more committed, Democratic
voters feel much more committed
to Democrats sticking by their
commitment to not include
the wall in any compromise than
Republicans are committed to
not having a compromise without
a wall.
In other words, the wall
is a much bigger issue
right now, believe it
or not, for Democratic
voters than it is for
the Republican voters.
Supposedly, this is
Trump's base, and
they're going to want it.
But the opposition to
it is much stronger.
So what we will have to see
as we go through this process
is whether the decision by the
president to say, hey, I have
come to the table, you guys
said you wanted to have a
deal, that I wasn't
compromising with you.
I have put something
on the table.
It's your turn now to sit
down and hear that compromise
out, rather than just pointing
fingers and saying it's
all your fault and we're
not going to listen to you.
But, as I said, they're -- we
still have a long way to go to
that piece and whether there
is more compromise or whether
it's simply both sides
pushing issues onto the table,
but never committing to
working on them together.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But, Tam,
we are a month into this.
AMY WALTER: Right.
TAMARA KEITH, National
Public Radio: Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: People are going
without paychecks who work
for the federal government.
Can Democrats truly wait it out?
TAMARA KEITH: Well, and
Democrats, traditionally,
at least, have been the
party that wants the
government reopened, not just
in this government shutdown, but
in every government shutdown.
They're -- they're typically
the ones that cry uncle first,
because they want the government
to be open and function.
They're pretty pro-government.
This shutdown has moved in slow
motion, probably not for the
people who are working without
pay.
For them, it has
been excruciating.
But the negotiations, such as
they are, are in slow motion.
There is no shuttle diplomacy.
There -- this speech
that the president gave
was him making an offer.
There was no private offer
-- there was no pre-offer
made to Democratic leaders.
That was the offer.
And the remarkable thing is, he
could have made that offer two
weeks earlier in his prime-time
address.
AMY WALTER: Absolutely, yes.
TAMARA KEITH: And he
didn't do it then.
He didn't offer anything then.
And it dragged on
for two more weeks.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But the White
House is saying, we have moved,
and the Democrats haven't,
so...
AMY WALTER: Right.
And the Democrats are going
to say, we have moved too.
We're agreeing to this.
We're agreeing to these.
These are our points that we
are willing to negotiate on.
That's when you -- to Tam's
point, that's when you get
the teams together behind the
scenes and do the work.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But
it's just they won't
negotiate for the wall.
TAMARA KEITH: Yes, though
Democrats, also, their position
has been -- and this has not
changed -- that they are
happy to negotiate, but
once the government is open.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Open,
right, exactly.
TAMARA KEITH: And
that -- there's been
no movement on that.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The
BuzzFeed article that came
out last Friday, early
Friday, Amy, the press
was all over the story basically
saying that the special
counsel has solid information
that the president told his
former private attorney Michael
Cohen to lie to Congress.
At the end of the day, Friday
night, the special counsel's
office issues what seems like a
pretty significant denial,
says, this is not accurate.
AMY WALTER: Right.
Right.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What do we
learn from this episode?
AMY WALTER: Well what's really
interesting to me was watching
members of Congress react
to this.
In particular, I spoke to
Representative Joaquin Castro.
He sits on the
Intelligence Committee.
And he did preface it
with, if this is true,
but tweeted, if this story
is true, the president
should resign or
should be impeached.
His point overall -- I'm
starting to pick this
up from other Democrats
too -- is a frustration
about how slowly
Mueller's moving.
Remember, it's really been
Republicans up until this point
that have said, we need Mueller
to move fast.
We need Mueller to release
this if he has anything.
Now it's Democrats who really
want to see this, or they
say, we're going to -- it's
going to come out, a
lot of stuff's going to
come out through other
reporting and through
our congressional hearings, but
it'd be better if Mueller could
put this all to rest as quickly
as possible.
TAMARA KEITH: Well, the reason
I -- we can't be sure, because
the special counsel doesn't
talk to us or anyone else.
The reason I think that
Peter Carr, the spokesman
who never speaks, felt
compelled to put out
the statement is because there
were so many members of Congress
who, for -- because this
story in particular pointed
to something that very clearly
would be a crime, you had so
many members of Congress saying,
we're going to have to do
something about it, if true.
AMY WALTER: Right.
TAMARA KEITH: But that left a
big cloud hanging out there.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All right,
last thing I want to
ask both of you about.
Today, we had yet another
Democrat saying, I'm interested
in running -- I am running
for president.
This time, it's the freshman
senator from the state of
California, Kamala Harris.
She joins at least six
other Democrats who have
already raised their
hands, Joaquin Castro.
I won't name all of them, Tulsi
Gabbard and Kirsten Gillibrand,
of course, Elizabeth Warren,
and others.
Amy, what do we make of the
fact that these are the ones
who are out there first?
AMY WALTER: Right, that, of
that group, there's something
that really stands out, right?
There are two white men in
that group that you put up
there, and the rest are people
of color, women, or both.
The other fascinating
thing that we're seeing
as these candidates
roll out, many of them
are younger candidates.
They have been in politics maybe
for the last 15 or 20 years,
but even they are starting
what we're talking about
now within the Beltway as
a sort of apology tour,
and having to explain
to primary voters about
positions and votes they
took earlier in their career.
In some cases -- Kirsten
Gillibrand, for example -
- she's only been involved
in national politics
since 2006, but she has now
had to come out and explain
her positions on immigration,
on guns, when she was a member
from Upstate New York, a much
more conservative district.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.
AMY WALTER: Joe Biden, who's
not on that list, he hasn't
announced, but he came out today
in a speech, apologized for
his vote on the crime bill.
Katherine Harris is going to be
asked a lot about her decisions.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Kamala.
(CROSSTALK)
AMY WALTER: Kamala
Harris, I'm sorry -- a
lot about her decisions
when she was a prosecutor
and attorney general, going too
far on the prosecution part.
And so the Democratic Party has
moved substantially to the left
on a whole bunch of issues that
even when Barack Obama
was first running were
considered mainstream.
JUDY WOODRUFF:
Sorry, 30 seconds.
TAMARA KEITH: Well, so
you talk about Joe Biden.
He is this big figure who's
hanging out there who hasn't
said what he's doing it yet.
But in our "PBS
NewsHour"/Marist poll --
NPR/"PBS NewsHour"/Marist poll
-- that took my 30 seconds.
(LAUGHTER)
TAMARA KEITH: He had the
highest favorable, highest known
quantity, lowest unfavorable
of all the names
that are out there.
If he were to actually run,
that might run into a dose of
reality or memory of some of
the things that he was involved
in so many years ago, because
he's been in public life
for a long time.
AMY WALTER: For a long time.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But at least
feeling comfortable he doesn't
have to get in right now, but he
may need to get in soon.
AMY WALTER: Right.
Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Tamara
Keith, Amy Walter,
Politics Monday, thank you.
AMY WALTER: You're welcome.
TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.