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Government Shut Downs; Pro-Women, Anti-Trump Marches Happening Across U.S. Aired 12n-1p ET
Aired January 20, 2018 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:00:07]
ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ana Cabrera live in Washington. Thank you for being with us on this special coverage day, a government shutdown, a standoff in the Senate and thousands marching in the streets. Welcome to CNN special live coverage, the one-year anniversary of the Trump presidency.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I, Donald Trump, do solemnly swear --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Let me ask you, should I keep the Twitter going or not? Keep it going?
A Muslim ban totally prepared to work it out nicely.
Today, I'm keeping another promise to the American people by nominating Judge Neil Gorsuch.
Why did you fire Director Comey?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because he wasn't doing a good job.
I turned on the tv, open the newspapers and I see stories of chaos, chaos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reince Priebus, gone. Steve Bannon, gone. Sean Spicer, gone. General MICHAEL FLYNN, gone.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.
You have some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.
Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners say get that son of a bitch off the field?
There's been no collusion. There's been no crime. In theory, everybody tells me, I'm not under investigation.
"Rocket Man" is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. We are very well prepared for the coming year. We finished very strong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: High noon on the hill. The Senate is back in session after a late-night vote to avert the shutdown failed and yet another display of the dysfunction in Washington. Republicans blaming Democrats. Democrats blaming Republicans.
And at the center of it all, the art of the deal president who, at this time one year ago, was taking the oath of office. And now according to a new poll is the least popular president at the one-year mark in modern political history.
Had everything gone to plan, he would be at Mar-a-Lago right now preparing for a high dollar inaugural anniversary party. Instead, President Trump is at the White House. His schedule blank for now, but he is making time for tweeting.
"This is the one-year anniversary of my presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice president. Democrats shut down." I want to take you live right now to the Hill with Speaker Paul Ryan.
REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN (R-WI), HOUSE SPEAKER: -- we do so many crazy things in Washington, but this is utter madness.
(PAUL RYAN'S SPEECH)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gentleman from Wisconsin yields back. Gentleman from Kentucky is recognized. Pursuant to Clause 7, Rule 20, I move a call of the House.
[12:07:22]
CABRERA: OK, so we just listened in there to Speaker Paul Ryan making his case about what needs to happen regarding the shutdown. Clearly putting the blame clearly on the Democrat's shoulders, putting the ball in their court in that regard.
Let's go to CNN's Manu Raju on the Hill where the Senate has also just gabled back in. Abby Phillip is at the White House where the government shutdown has also put a damper on the president's inaugural anniversary.
Manu, to you first, this push now is to keep this shutdown from dragging on. What are we going to see on the Senate floor?
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, we're going to see an effort by the Republicans to keep the government open for three more weeks, until February 8th. But that is a time frame that Democrats say is too long. They will not accept a February 8th time frame. They want about a week or so in order to force the Republican's hands, to cut a deal on immigration. What a Senate Democratic source told me this morning is they need to see a pathway to passage on immigration in order to get something through, in order to agree to reopen the government.
That's something that Republicans are saying that's not going to -- they're not going to agree to. They're saying no immigration talks until the government is reopened. That is their dividing line.
Now Ana, before the Republican conference meeting this morning, I had a chance to catch up with a number of members who recognize that this is going to be very politically risky, not just for Democrats, but for themselves as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: Do you think the president is showing enough flexibility here in his negotiations with the Democrats?
REPRESENTATIVE CHARLIE DENT (R), PENNSYLVANIA: I don't know where the president stands. I just don't know.
RAJU: Would it be helpful for him to lay out where he stands?
DENT: Of course. That's always been an issue. Whether it was on health care and now on this issue. He needs to be clear about what his position is. Meantime, government has to be reopen. There's blame on all sides. We're a majority. We control all three branches. We're going to get blamed whether we deserve it or not.
RAJU: What was the mood like?
REPRESENTATIVE DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: The mood in there is not good. We didn't shut down the government. We voted to keep the government open.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sends back a CR with the date change to February 8th, can the House pass that?
REPRESENTATIVE KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), MAJORITY LEADER: I believe we would pass that, if they went to February 8th. Why wouldn't they do that last night?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: Democrats are not going to agree to that February 8th time frame until they get that commitment out of immigration. Not only that, House Democrats just moments ago, Ana, made very clear that they want more than just a commitment on immigration.
They also want to make sure that domestic spending is increased at the same level as defense spending before they agree to anything here. So, what you're seeing on Capitol Hill this morning is each side essentially getting back into the corner. No signs of any real outreach between Schumer and Mitch McConnell, between Schumer and the White House. Though Schumer's camp believes Democratic sources believe that the White House essentially abandoned an effort that could have been close to bridging that gap on immigration yesterday.
[12:10:06] Right now, Republicans are not showing any willingness to talk about immigration until the government is reopened -- Ana.
CABRERA: Everybody is digging in their heels deeper it seems. Manu, thank you. Let me turn to Abby Phillip now at the White House. Abby, the president has canceled his big trip to Mar-a-Lago where he was schedule to host that big expensive fundraiser. What more can you tell us?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ana. This is not exactly how President Trump thought he would be spending his one-year anniversary of his inauguration. He had planned to go down to Florida yesterday afternoon to celebrate at a big RNC gala.
But sources tell us that that gala is going to continue without the president and instead his son, Eric Trump, and his wife, Laura Trump, are both going to be headlining it instead. Ronna Romney McDaniel, the head of the RNC, is hosting this gala.
The tickets have been highly priced, $100,000 to be in that room where people thought they would be sitting with the president. Instead, he is here in Washington, tweeting this morning, quite a bit about this government shutdown that has thrown a wrench in his plans.
He has been blaming Democrats saying, "Democrats are far more concerned with illegal immigrants than they are with our military or safety at our dangerous southern border."
CABRERA: Abby, let me stop you for a second. Mitch McConnell is speaking right now. We want to listen in.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: -- the Children's State Health Insurance Program for the vulnerable families that rely on it.
(MITCH MCCONNELL'S SPEECH)
[12:17:14]
MCCONNELL: -- let's resume the bipartisan discussion on funding our troops, DACA, on government spending, and on all the other priorities that all of us can work together to resolve.
CABRERA: Let's bring in our panel. To discuss what we just heard from the majority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, CNN political commentator and former Ted Cruz communications director, Alice Stewart is with us. CNN political commentator and former counselor to President Clinton, Paul Begala is with us.
And also with us is Steve Cortez, who ran the Hispanic Council for Donald Trump during his campaign, and Jackie Kucinich, CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast."
OK, so Paul, we've now heard from both the Republican leaders there on the Hill. What is your response to their argument that this really is at the fault of Democrats who failed to agree to any kind of compromise?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Stop speechifying and start negotiating. We are not there yet, right. You watched the speaker. Is any Democrat going to say gosh, I need to cut a deal? They're just in the bloviating phase now.
At some point, they need to sit down and cut a deal. The problem really isn't Paul Ryan. It's really not Mitch McConnell. It's the president. Presidents have to lead in these situations and here's what's odd about this. We've been through these before.
I have never seen one like this where the president said if you can come together on a bipartisan deal, I'll sign it and I'll take the heat. We saw that on live tv and we were all so impressed. Then they did what he said. They put together a bipartisan compromise. The president told them on the phone he liked it.
And within two hours, his own staff overruled him. This is the Kelly shutdown. General Kelly, the chief of staff, apparently overruled the president. That's what's going on here, the president is not leading because he can't. Either he lacks the experience or the strength to put the deal together that's so easy and so obvious.
CABRERA: What about the argument that there is still time for DACA and, you know, he put it, I wrote it down, he gets his -- Schumer shutting it down because he's not getting his way on illegal immigration.
I know that obviously DACA has bipartisan support, independence, Republican, Democrats, vast majority, want to see those DREAMers protected, but March 5th was the deadline for the repeal. A judge has since put that on hold.
Is it worth digging in the heels and keeping the government shutdown unless they get their way and drawing that line in the sand?
BEGALA: The Democrats finally have a little bit of leverage because the Republicans do need some of their votes to pass this budget. So, they've said in exchange for that, we want protection for these DREAMers, which is a really easy ask as you point out.
Jeff Garin, a Democratic pollster, did a survey of the 12 swing-state in the Senate races, 10 of which President Trump carried. This is not exactly blue America. Sixty eight percent of Trump voters said yes, we want to protect those DREAMers.
[12:20:07] So, what the Democrats are asking the Republicans to give them is actually popular with their own voters anyway. So, it's not like it's a hard lift. The Democrats have a little bit of leverage. They're using it to try to help these DREAMers. It's an easy deal. They should make this deal. ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But at the same time, yes, it's an easy deal, but it's one that we don't have to deal with right now. The deal on the table that we had a midnight deadline of last night was funding the government.
We also had a -- virtually universal agreement to fund the government, which would help the military, help fund children's health insurance, but the Democrats would rather protect DREAMers, children of illegal immigrants, than they would help illegal residents here in America.
That's hurting military, it's hurting our children. That's the problem. Our own CNN poll showed that more Americans would rather let's put funding the government first and avoiding a shutdown and let's deal with DACA later. Our own polling showed that. This is the will of the American people. Let's do first things first and then we'll deal with DACA.
JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It should be noted that children's health insurance program, that was a September problem. That has been kicked down the road. I'm old enough to remember, Republicans complaining about Democrats governing by crisis.
So, the idea that, oh, the DACA thing isn't going to be a crisis until two months from now is again setting up another issue where they'll be going to the brink. In addition, the argument that these people aren't being deported or they aren't having problems right now isn't right.
People are having problems. They are being deported. They are losing their status right now. It's happening to thousands of people. So, the idea that they can just put it off and put it off, it just isn't accurate.
STEVE CORTES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Nobody's saying we can put it off indefinitely, Jackie. Here's the point, an appropriations bill is about spending, not about immigration. What the Democrats are doing here is grandstanding.
They're saying we prioritize protection for illegal immigrants above paying our military men and women. To me, that's unconscionable that they're making that stance. Paul, to your point, by the way, what you said is factually incorrect.
The president said come back with a deal. They came back with a very different deal that did not have the ends to chain migration and the end to the visa lottery that he demanded and those are key components.
It is part of what he asked for. Here's the point. The immigration solution is separate and can be attacked in the next few weeks. Let's fund the government and pay our service men and women today.
CABRERA: On the plus side, though, Steve, let me push back on that, because given immigration can be handled in a separate bill and everybody seems to agree that DREAMers should be protected, why not do a stand-alone bill on that, why not do a stand-alone bill on CHIP right now and then there's no way for Democrats to have leverage, right?
CORTES: First of all, not everyone agrees that DACA recipients should be protected indefinitely. I happen to --
CABRERA: The vast majority of Americans like 87, 89 percent in some recent polls.
CORTES: But also in polling, it shouldn't be prioritized as mentioned, as Alice mentioned, per CNN's own polling. Listen, I agree, and I disagree with a lot of my allies on Team Trump what don't want DACA protections extended. I do want them extended.
But I also believe, if we're going to go there, and we should, we have to fix our badly broken immigration model in America. It is broken. It doesn't protect our national security or our economic security. The majority of immigrant head of households in America today are on welfare.
That's because we're not doing it right. I say this with no satisfaction. I'm an Hispanic. I'm an immigrant son. We're not doing it right. It's mainly because of chain migration. We need merit-based immigration. We need to end the visa lottery and protect the DREAMers. We can do all of that. First, let's pay our military men and women.
STEWART: Those are some key components that the Republicans have been consistent on with what they want with DACA. Both sides need to compromise. In order to get a DACA deal, Republicans are simply asking for very things he mentioned, ending chain migration, ending the visa lottery, also funding the border.
CABRERA: Help me understand this though in terms of the Republican perspective on this. Nobody is saying that that shouldn't be still part of the conversation, that negotiation shouldn't continue on those issues when it comes to overall immigration reform, but why couldn't you do these couple of pieces of legislation by themselves and then go into the broader debate on immigration?
Do you believe that if -- if Republicans and Democrats were to vote on just the DREAMers issues alone, first, that the rest of it, then there would be no leverage for Republicans to do some of those other things?
CORTES: I think that's part of it. Listen, also, this president was clearly elected. He was not ambiguous on this point. He was elected on getting control of our immigration system, on securing the border. He's done an amazing job, by the way.
Here we are, a year in, a year anniversary of his inauguration, illegal crossings have plunged because of clear-eyed rhetoric and because of better enforcement. He has already proven successful. He wants to conclude that process of securing our southern border.
[12:25:01] It was a foundational promise to the American people he made. He was elected largely on that promise. So, the idea that we can trust the Democrats to be reasonable on chain migration and on other necessities if we grant amnesty to DACA, that just doesn't hold water.
KUCINICH: There seems to be confusion as to what the president wants. If you ask McConnell last week, he would have said I don't know. Think he basically did say that. They're not sure what the president will sign at this point. So, there needs to be clarity there because you have John Kelly saying he's evolved on the wall. It's a little bit different than the president tweeting. There is some -- a little bit of opaqueness I guess I'd say.
CORTES: I don't think it's opaqueness, it's debate. We have different voices within Team Trump clearly.
KUCINICH: Between the chief of staff and the president right now.
CORTES: Fine, but the president has made it clear that he wants the border secured and we've done great work already there.
CABRERA: Does anyone say I don't want the border secured? I'm just curious.
CORTES: They oppose walling. By the way, walling works. That's not my opinion, that's the opinion of ICE. That's the evidence all over the world, whether it be Israel --
CABRERA: That's not just your opinion. That's very debatable. I talked to the former DHS secretary, who said show me a ten-foot wall, I'll show you a 12-foot ladder. There are a lot of arguments for why a wall isn't effective. Guys, hold your thoughts. I know there are many more thoughts on this. We got to take a quick break. Stay with us. A lot more to talk about.
Up next, the hundreds of thousands of people marking President Trump's first year by protesting in cities across the country. We'll take you live to the streets across America next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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CABRERA: Let's take you to the Senate floor and Chuck Schumer.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), MINORITY LEADER: -- let alone the necessary 60. Several Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting the House continuing resolution which hurts our military, does nothing for urgent domestic priorities like opioid, veterans and pensions. Nothing on disaster relief and of course nothing on the immigration issues we have a real urgency to solve.
It just kicked the can down the road one more shameful time. I believe it was the fourth time that we've done that. My Republican friends speak often of the damage done to our military by lurching from continuing resolution to continuing resolution. We Democrats agree. That's why we offered Secretary Mattis his full budget request. Something I offered yesterday in the White House to President Trump as well.
My Republican friends know that we have to stop these CRs and it's time to actually do a budget and fully fund our military. We can't forget about urgent domestic priorities in the budget. But military has to be given the certainty it needs.
This is one of the main reasons the bipartisan coalition last night rejected the House C.R. because of the damage that Secretary Mattis has said it has done to the military. Another reason we rejected it was because it was constructed without an ounce of Democratic input, and I suspect very little input from many Republicans in the Senate.
In our democracy, you have to compromise if you wish to govern. That's how our founding fathers designed our government to operate. And yet time and time again, the Republican leader believes he can drop legislation on the floor, say take it or leave it and then gear up the machines of partisan war if we decide to leave it.
The leader crafts a partisan approach without consulting us and then tries to blame us for not going along. That kind of behavior would not pass in any part of civil society. It would be called bullying. We are happy and eager to compromise but we will not be bullied.
The most important point is this. The Republicans control the White House, the Senate, the House, that's why America and the world are calling this shutdown the Trump shutdown. It's the president and congressional Republicans' responsibility to govern. It's their responsibility to keep the doors open and the lights on around here.
But the Republican leadership can't get a tumultuous president on board with anything. And they don't offer us any compromises on their own. The breakdown of compromise is poisoning this Congress. And it all springs from President Trump.
He's turned blowing up partisan -- bipartisan, sorry. He's turned blowing up bipartisan agreements into an art form. The president can't take yes for an answer. Twice in this long debate, President Trump walked away from partisan deals to solve all of the issues before us.
A week ago last Tuesday, President Trump appealed to Congress on national television to come up with a deal and he said he'd sign it. He'd sign whatever Congress sent him. He said he'd take the heat for it. But when a bipartisan group of senators led by Senator Graham and Senator Durbin brought him that compromise, he blew it up in a volcanic meeting at the White House.
The same script played out with myself and the president yesterday. The president called me in the morning, and asked that I come to the White House and of course I accepted. We had an extensive ans serious negotiation about every single outstanding issue. We came close to a tentative agreement on the budget after I offered the Pentagon's full budget request.
On the thorniest issue of immigration, the president said many times he would take a deal that included DACA in exchange for the wall. I put that deal on the table in the Oval Office in a sincere effort at compromise. I put the wall on the table in exchange for strong DACA protections in the Graham-Durbin compromise. It was a generous offer. And I believe President Trump was inclined to accept it and was willing to do a very short term CR he's suggested Tuesday night in order to get the deal finalized.
[12:35:06] Hours later, I got a phone call telling me this is not good enough. First from the president saying, I hear it's three weeks. I said no one told me about that, that's not what we discussed. And then a few hours later, well, we want what you've offered and four or five more things which they knew were unpalatable to Democrats but appeased the hard-right anti-immigration wing of the Republican Party.
The bottom line is simple. President Trump just can't take yes for an answer. He's rejected not one but two viable bipartisan deals, including one in which I put his most prominent campaign pledge on the table. What's even more frustrating than President Trump's intransigence is the way he seems amenable to these compromises before completely switching positions and backing off. Negotiating with president trump is like negotiating with Jell-o.
That's why this compromise will be called a Trump shutdown. The president's behavior inimical to compromise which is required to getting things done in government. It's impossible to negotiate with a constantly moving target. Leader McConnell has found that out. Speaker Ryan has found that out. And I have found that out.
Now, Republican leaders refuse to move ahead without President Trump. And President Trump is so mercurial it's been impossible to get him to agree to anything. Again, to sum it up, the president can't make a deal and congressional Republicans won't.
As a result, a paralysis has descended on Capitol Hill. As Donald Trump said in 2011, if there's a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States. He is the one that has to get people together. That's President Trump's quote, then, 2011.
Getting people together, that's just about the opposite of what he's done in these negotiations. So on the one year anniversary of President Trump's inauguration today, his government has closed its door to the American people and he hardly seems to care. Early on, he said our country could, quote, use a good shutdown.
Today he tweeted, "This is the one year anniversary of my presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present." He called the shutdown an anniversary present. A present. It shows just how out of touch and how callous he can be.
A government shutdown is no present for the country, for his party, and for him. And it's entirely the president's doing. The only way out of this is for the president to take yes for an answer. To accept a bipartisan compromise we bring him.
So we, on our side will keep trying. Last night I suggested the four leaders and President Trump meet immediately to sort all this out. I still hope we can do that. Otherwise, this Trump shutdown could go on longer than anyone wants it to. I yield the floor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator from Tennessee.
SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R), TENNESSEE: Mr. President, I -- the Democratic leader and the Democratic assistant leader know my great respect for them. In fact, I spent a good deal of time with the (INAUDIBLE) reopening the government after Republicans shut it down. And I'd like to say three things about where we are --
CABRERA: All right, we're going to pull out of this live coverage. We were just listening in to the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer responding to what we had earlier from the Majority Leader Mitch McConnell regarding this shutdown, and where we are right now. And right now, what I can tell you is it's paralysis, to use a word Chuck Schumer just gave. Both sides not talking to each other, blaming each other for the situation at hand.
If you're just joining us, we just heard from Chuck Schumer. He says that he personally, in his conversation with the president yesterday prior to the shutdown, he offered Mattis full funding that he had requested for the military. Laid that on the table as part of the negotiations. He says he also put the president's wall on the table and he says the president's not willing to negotiate.
Let's take you live to the streets. Look at these huge protests that are now popping up all over the country. They are filling the streets of America. Women's marches. We have live images from coast to coast. People gathering in protest and in a call to action.
[12:40:05] This, as President Trump marks one year in office. The demonstrators have plenty of company. Similar events are happening. As you can see where those red dots are coast to coast. A march set to take place in each of those red locations.
We have live team coverage. Miguel Marquez is in Los Angeles. Alex Marquardt is in New York. And Ryan Young is in Chicago.
Let's start with you, Miguel at the protests in L.A. What are you seeing and hearing?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Massive crowds out here, and these crowds are very, very much aware of that government shutdown, part of the reason they're out here. Let me show you what's sort of going on right here.
Thousands and thousands of people are already clogging the streets of Los Angeles. They've had about 300,000 people pre-registered. That's far and above where they were last year. At last year they hit about 750,000 people. They are expecting possibly more than a million people at this march this year based on just the number of registrations they have so far.
I'm going to talk to a couple of folks who may be the most outrageously costumed out here, city of angels, the youthful idiots. Mike (ph) and Laura (ph), why it's so important to be out here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's important to just keep fighting. We were out here last year right after the inauguration because of electing a president that just doesn't believe in civil rights and we've been fighting for a year and we'll continue to fight until the president --
MARQUEZ: Mike, you said you're part of the resistance, 40 different events this year, why? Why so important to keep it up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Feet on the ground, boots on the ground. We have to keep showing up. And all of these people have showed up today to say that we stand together against Trump, against his people, who are really not in favor of the American people.
Look at the -- look around you. Look at the diversity here. Look at the excitement here that is -- we're all about pro-USA. Donald Trump is the one that has a problem with the citizens in the U.S.
MARQUEZ: This is very much the sensibility here as the sentiment in Los Angeles that this is their country. The one thing that is much more obvious than last year, that this is very much a political movement. In a reference to President Trump's own words when -- probably some many years ago, the one sign that I saw today that seems to sum it all up is (INAUDIBLE) in the midterms. People focus on politics here and looking forward to checking the president in November.
Ana?
CABRERA: All right, Miguel Marquez in L.A. Let's shift to now to New York. Going to coast to coast. Alex Marquardt is joining us from a crowd now gathered in New York.
Alex, what's the plan and what are you hearing from people there regarding of what's they're hoping to accomplish?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, the shutdown in Washington is very much at the forefront of people's minds today, lots of talk about immigration, DACA, Dreamers and the shutdown. A lot of anti-Trump fervor and signs here. It is a huge crowd out here on streets of New York. They're expecting upwards of 85,000 people who are registered.
I'm at 62nd Street on Central Park West, right next to Central Park. This crowd stretches all the way down I'm told by the NYPD to 86th Street. And not just here on Central Park West, but if you look behind me, it's overflowing over there into the park itself. You can see thousands of people carrying signs. They're wearing those famous pink hats.
And this is not just a women's march. Of course, a lot of the signs that we're seeing, a lot of what we're hearing is about equal rights for women. That of course is the original goal of this march. But it is also encompassing so many other causes. Immigration, which I just mentioned a second ago, gay rights, rights for people from all different countries, different race, different religions.
And I wanted to introduce you to Elda (ph) who had one of the best signs that I've seen today. Woke, blank, grandma. Elda, why did you want to come out here today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I'm marching for truth, equality, justice and kindness. I'm a refugee.
MARQUARDT: From where?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From Cuba. And I was fortunate enough this country accepted me. I was able to raise a family. Here's my daughter Stephanie (ph).
MARQUARDT: Nice to meet you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we've had a wonderful life here but because we were accepted. It was not difficult -- it was very difficult to become a citizen. It is not an easy thing to do. But to be accepted and welcome when you have nowhere else to go and no other recourse in this world is a very big thing.
And this country has done that for hundreds and hundreds of years. And for now to say you're not welcome here is against everything this country stands for.
MARQUARDT: And if you're a grandma, presumably you got people at home who you're trying to set an example for?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have two young grandsons but I would like, if also I'm lucky enough to have granddaughters, that they have the same rights as my grandsons in the future.
MARQUARDT: Thank you so much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're welcome.
MARQUARDT: Now, we should note that obviously there are predominantly women out here but there are lots of men and boys as well. And Ana, what we're expecting to happen, you can hear some speeches taking place in the background there. This is the rally that is preceding the march. This rally's going to end in just a couple minutes and then this march, all of these thousands and thousands of people are going to pour down Central Park West and then head down Sixth Avenue, about 20 blocks.
[12:45:09] Expressing their support not just for these very important causes they hold dear but also against the man who they hold responsible, Donald Trump, now on the first anniversary of his inauguration.
Ana?
CABRERA: All right, Alex Marquardt in New York.
Meantime, in the heart of the country, we have Ryan Young joining us in the Midwest, in Chicago. Ryan, we're seeing some of those images overhead. And it just looks like another packed, packed crowd there. How many people, do you know?
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they just announced the crowd they believe this crowd size as big as last year's. I've got to show it to you, over 200,000 people to show up. They believe they matched that number once again. They believe this is a total success and we've heard so much about people getting out (INAUDIBLE) so far.
And of course when you see the crowds this year, this time of year, we actually in general just to see how people are coming out to show support for this movement once again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think people are ecstatic that this is a marathon. It's not a sprint. People are taking their time to get out to the polls. They're registering to vote and they're ready to make change. This isn't a new phenomenon. It's just very, very visible now.
YOUNG: And we've seen a lot of people crying and tearing up about the power so far of the march. People have been coming nonstop the last few hours. What is it like to be on part of the organizers to see it sort of catching on once again like wildfire actually?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's incredible. When I was on the train here, there is a woman who is visiting from Bosnia that wanted to make it a point to be here for this march today. It's a global phenomenon. People are fighting back and they're not going to put up with anyone making decisions about their bodies, their lives or what they and their families do.
YOUNG: I got to ask this question. I see a lot of men here. How can men help to be a part of this because obviously there's been conversation about that as well here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Men are showing up and it's great. But everybody needs to be an ally for everyone. Everyone's rights are under attack. Women, men, immigrants, LGBT, everybody. And everyone needs to show up for each other.
If you see someone who doesn't look like you, go talk to them. Understand their fight. It's about all of us.
YOUNG: And you hear that sentiment all over the place, Ana. We've seen young people showing up with signs. They're making sure that they get everyone prepared for the march. We're going to be marching towards the federal court house at some point. So they say, they believe more people will show up in the next hour or so. They're trying to get the crowd as large as possible before they take their march.
CABRERA: All right, Ryan Young. I like what she said about listening to one another and seeking different viewpoints. Thank you, Ryan Young.
Up next, 12 hours into a government shutdown. Who is to blame?
Democrats say it's Republicans. Republicans well, they say it's the Democrats. Let's talk to one of each. They are joining us right now.
We have Representative Charlie Dent and Representative Dan Kildee. Charlie Dent is a Republican from Pennsylvania. Dan Kildee, a Democrat from Michigan. They're both joining us on Capitol Hill. Guys, it's nice to see you standing next to each other. Obviously there's a lot of frustration across the country that we're hearing at some of these marches right now abut how Congress is not working together to get things done. A recent poll shows Americans have just 18 percent approval of Congress, with 76 percent who disapprove.
What do you say to these voters who are just pulling their hair over the idea that the left and the right can't come together. Representative Kildee, we'll start with you.
REP. DAN KILDEE (D), MICHIGAN: Well, I think they're right to be frustrated. And I think that the struggle is -- and I know Charlie and I often feel the same way on this subject.
It's not just the left and the right that has to come together. There's a sense -- there's a functional majority in Congress that is not comprised of Democrats or Republicans alone. It's comprised of a handful of each on any given issue.
And I think that we had put together a spending bill that was a long term spending bill for the remainder of the year that was crafted certainly by the Republican leadership but rather than negotiating with the more extreme voices,. Negotiated with the Democrats that they can work with, we'd be able to get things done. And I think the American people are expecting us to do that. And the frustration is now obviously coming to a boil.
CABRERA: Congressman Dent, do you agree with that sentiment that Republicans need to be the ones to reach out across the aisle in order to agree on a compromise about what will fund the government longer than just a couple weeks or a month at a time?
REP. CHARLIE DENT (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Well, I certainly agree that what we need right now is a long term bipartisan, bicameral budget agreement. We absolutely need that. In order to get off of this treadmill of continuing resolutions.
This is a terrible thing that's happening right now. Candidly, in order to get that bipartisan budget agreement, there were also have to be an agreement on DACA and border security. And so that's really the issue now.
And by the way, there is a bipartisan majority on DACA. So the question for us is once there's that bipartisan majority in the Senate on DACA, it would have to come to the House.
[12:50:03] And then at that point, the House leadership will have to allow the bill to be voted on, even if it means that less than a majority of the majority of House Republicans would vote for it.
I was against the government shutdown in 2013. I opposed what Ted Cruz had done. I was very vocal. By the same token, we shouldn't shut the government down over DACA. We need to reopen immediately and then move quickly into this negotiation on both the budget agreement and DACA border security. CABRERA: We're seeing from the president according to some of the reporting from our White House reporters, the president is saying he's not willing to negotiate at all with the Democrats, Congressman Kildee, until the government is back open. And at the same time, we're hearing from some of the Democratic leaders that they're not willing to do any kind of negotiations to pass some kind of government funding bill unless the immigration issue is addressed and helping these Dreamers. Where does it go from here?
KILDEE: Well, I think the president painting himself into a corner like that is really dangerous. It's not -- speaking for myself, and I know for many of my Democratic colleagues, we just want to have a seat at the table. If we can get a commitment as Congressman Dent said, if we can get a commitment that we'll have a vote on the floor of the House and the floor of the Senate to deal with Dreamers, that's a big step forward for us.
And we could come together and essentially compromise. We don't like this budget deal. We never should have this congressional -- these continuing resolutions. We had to have a budget that's a long term budget.
But there's a lot that's not in that legislation that ought to be. We're willing to accept the fact that we're not going to get everything we want. But what we can't do is continually be promised by the White House and the leadership that there will be an effort to deal with the Dreamers. And then every time we come to one of these deadlines, that promise is just forgotten.
I think Congressman Dent has it exactly right. There has to be a commitment to deal with the Dreamers. But it's not just about Dreamers, it's about the fact that community health centers are not funded.
Yes CHIP is funded but the place that most of those kids in my community go to get their health care will be shuttered under this budget. So we've got to be able to deal with more than one thing at a time here.
CABRERA: On the CHIP issue, Congressman Dent, that does seem to be something that has been kicked down the road for many months. It's not at the 11th hour where this suddenly is an issue. This is an issue that came up as far back as September.
Why not just put that out and take that out of the budget negotiations altogether and just put a clean C.R. on the floor and put a clean bill on the floor regarding CHIP by itself?
DENT: Ana, I can deal with it either way. Look, I'm happy to put CHIP in the continuing resolution to fund the government for six years. I'm fine with that. I'm fine with what the House passed.
That said, in order to reopen the government, that we have to separate them, that's fine with me too. The point right now is the Senate must pass a bill to fund the government. I don't know what they're going to do. I'm told that they are going to simply change the date from February 16th back to February 8th, in other words, to keep it funded until the 8th rather than the 16th without any other changes.
Fine, send that to us. If they have to make other changes, do that too. But I helped establish CHIP in the state of Pennsylvania in 1993. We're, I think the first state to do so. And I'm very committed to it. I'd like to get this done as quickly as possible. The C.R. to me is an appropriate vehicle but I might not make that call at the end of the day.
CABRERA: So Congressman Dent, what would be your message to your Republican colleagues in the Senate right now?
DENT: They need to reach an agreement with the Senate Democrats. My message to them would be this. First, get the government reopened. But at the same time, make a good faith effort and commitment that we also address the long term budget issue that we have to do for the year, the bipartisan bicameral budget agreement.
At the same time, say they're going to sincerely allow for a vote on a bipartisan DACA, border security bill that deals with family reunification and also there's another issue too they want to deal with. But they'll deal with all these issues, four issues. Let them deal with them, and I think we'll be fine.
And that's -- but we need that commitment. They're not going to be able to negotiate the DACA agreement though in the context of the C.R.
CABRERA: So you're talking about the commitment to bring up that issue, got it. Congressman --
DENT: The fourth issue --
CABRERA: Go for it.
DENT: Yes, the fourth issue had to do with the diversity (INAUDIBLE). That's it. OK.
CABRERA: Got it. Congressmen Charlie Dent and Dan Kildee, good to see both of you. Thank you very much for taking time to talk with us.
I want to bring back our panel now including Patti Solis Doyle, the former manager of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
Welcome to the panel, Patti. I'll start with you since you're our new voice. What I heard from both those men right there was a lot of agreement, surprisingly. I saw a lot of people shaking their heads yes, well, both of them when the other person was talking.
[12:55:03] PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, FORMER MANAGER FOR HILLARY CLINTON: Well, that's the really big problem here. You know, first of all, Americans agree that DACA --
(OFF-MIC)
CABRERA: You know what, Patti, I'm just being told we can't hear you, that your mic wasn't put on. So let me pass the buck to Alice (INAUDIBLE) and ask the same question. Just kind of reacting to the fact that for a lot of issues where both sides agree.
ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure. And I think we can build on that. And I think it's important for actually the Senate can take a note from those over in the House who seem to be getting a little bit more done than we are in the Senate. And that's the key point.
Look, there is nothing in the proposal that was on the table last night that Democrats didn't want. So there was no reason for them not to go ahead and support it. The bottom line is, last night was a deadline for funding the government. Appropriations should be about appropriations, not immigration. We should have tackled funding the government, avoiding the government shutdown which is what as our poll shows 56 percent of Americans wanted us to avoid a shutdown and deal with DACA later. We should have funded the government.
And then we've got over a month and a half to deal with DACA. And that's not until March. And I think that's the key. And I think what those two congressmen showed is, there is common ground in Washington. Let's find that and let's build off of that. (INAUDIBLE) we agree on, get those passed, get those off the table and then deal with the next issues.
CABRERA: So, where is the problem regarding that?
DOYLE: There's a lot people agree on. It shouldn't be that difficult. And we have a president who declares himself --
(OFF-MIC)
CABRERA: We still don't have your mic, Patti, I'm so sorry. We will work on that. But Paul, you had something you wanted to say.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: -- because the president is unable to put this still together. And what's lacking -- I agree with everything Alice just said. There's a lot in this bill that -- everything in the bill that Democrats support.
And general rule is you shouldn't vote against a bill for what's not in it. (INAUDIBLE) so why are they doing it? Because trust has been destroyed. It's been destroyed.
The -- 63 percent of Americans thinks the president is a liar, a 100 percent of the Democrats in the Congress do. And here's why.
Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican, made a deal with the Republicans in the tax bill to get a separate vote on a bipartisan bill to shore up the funding for ObamaCare. She got an ironclad commitment to do it. The commitment was violated. So there's just no trust.
When Senator Schumer just said, try and negotiate with jell-o. He went down there and saw the president. He thought he was making progress and then the president's boss, General Kelly, called him and overruled him.
We have a great report by the way in cnn.com which Dana Bash, Kevin Liptak, Dan Merica, and Jeff Zeleny have wonderful tick tock that takes you into the room and tells you what was happening there and how General Kelly overruled the president. So that's why they can't do it, Alice. Your position's completely sensible.
The problem is there's just no trust that they will actually help the Dreamers --
CABRERA: Jackie, I'll leave you the last word there.
JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: But we should mention that Democrats are also in a bind here. Because if they look like they are caving on DACA politically, that could be a huge problem for them going into 2018. You've got a lot of Democrats who are thinking about running for president. They're grandstanding on this.
So there are politics on both sides that are very -- for the base that are very hot for both sides of the -- each party.
CABRERA: OK, Senator Chuck Schumer speaking right now. Let's go back to Capitol Hill.
SCHUMER: -- last night after a lot of effort on the Democratic side to negotiation a final deal for the American people, Republicans in Congress plunged head first into the Trump shutdown. How'd we get here? Why is it that Republicans and President Trump are unwilling to do the jobs they were elected to do, and reach an agreement to fund the military? Critical programs for the middle class. Address DACA. Fund children's health. And take care of disaster aid.
Over the last several months, Democrats have bent over backward to negotiate with the White House. Unfortunately, the president and Republican leaders in Congress are like Abbott and Costello. The congressional leaders tell me to negotiate with President Trump. President Trump tells me to figure it out with Republican leaders.
Let me talk a little bit about what transpired in the negotiations. First, a little history. Last year, when President Trump ended the DACA program, we immediately began working on a solution that both sides could agree to. Leader Pelosi and I went to dinner with the president. We came away with an agreement. To pursue a deal pursuing the DACA Act with border security. The president agreed.
But that night and the next morning, the hard right came after him. Breitbart called him amnesty Trump, Laura Ingraham even insisted he'd be impeached. By the weekend, he had backed off. Then Congress went to work.
