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Suspect In The Drive-By Killing Of 7-Year-Old Jasmine Barnes Has Been Arrested; President Trump Says He May Soon Declare A National Emergency; President Trump Threatened On Friday To Keep The Government Shut Down For Months Or Even Years; U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton Is In The Region To Reassure Allies After President Trump Announced The Abrupt Plan To Pull Troops Out Of Syria; President Not Want To Hide His High View Of Himself; Pence, Trump Hold Separate Border Wall Funding Meetings; Trump Says Unpaid Workers are Fans of Shutdown; White House Falsely Claims Terrorists are Crossing Southern Border; Farmers' Aid, Loans on Hold Amid Shutdown; Trump Shifts on How Wall Will Be Paid For, What It Will Be Made Of. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired January 06, 2019 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:00] DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): -- explain how?
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Well, they -- you listen, you build consensus.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), CALIFORNIA: I extend to you this gavel.
BASH (voice-over): That's exactly what she did to get enough votes to be Speaker again. She made compromises with Democratic doubters looking for someone new, not her.
PELOSI: None of us is indispensable, but some of us are just better at our jobs than others. And I have a following in the country, apart from anybody who ran -- has run for president.
BASH (on camera): For most women, frankly, you know, myself included, it is hard to say those words, I am uniquely qualified. I deserve this. I earned this. I can do this better than anyone else. But you can say that.
PELOSI: You know why I do it? Dana, I do it because I want women to see that you do not get pushed around. That you don't run away from the fight.
BASH (voice-over): Dana Bash, CNN, Baltimore.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, you're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thanks for being with me.
President Trump doubling down on his threat today, his threat to declare a national emergency, if he doesn't get exactly what he wants from Congress -- money to build a border wall. A national emergency. That means money set aside only for times of
war or massive disaster when human lives are in unavoidable danger. The President is putting a political argument on the same level of extreme urgency as Hurricane Katrina and even 9/11.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I may declare a national emergency depending on what's going to happen over the next few days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: He said the same thing Friday, that he may declare a national emergency. That's the President's idea of leapfrogging the established political process, compromise, give and take. Something that should come easily to a man who says this about himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm going to make the great deals.
I make deals. I negotiate.
Everybody wants me to negotiate. That's what I'm known as, a negotiator.
I'm so anxious to negotiate.
I mean, what I do is I do deals. I deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: So if the President declares a national emergency to get border wall money, that means the great negotiator has failed.
And, of course, there's the shutdown now in its 16th day. About 800,000 American men and women, federal workers, still not getting paychecks because the President is unhappy with the way the negotiating is going.
President Trump today made a puzzling statement, saying he can relate to all those people who are wondering how they'll support their families if this shutdown drags on.
Let's get to CNN White House Correspondent Boris Sanchez. Boris, no day off for the White House and for officials there, congressional aides also meeting. Both the Vice President and the President holding different meetings today. Any progress?
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Ana. At this point, just like many other days, it depends on who you ask.
During several of these meetings between Democrats and Republicans, we've heard one side say that talks were productive while the other side says that talks really didn't get anywhere. This time President Trump tweeted shortly after the meeting here on
the White House grounds ended between the Vice President, Mike Pence, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and the President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, alongside some aides to top lawmakers.
Here's the tweet from President Trump. He writes, quote, V.P. Mike Pence and group had a productive meeting with the Schumer/Pelosi representatives today. Many details of border security were discussed. We're now planning a steel barrier rather than concrete -- more on that in just a second. It is both stronger and less obtrusive. Good solution, and made in the USA.
Despite that, we've heard multiple accounts from people actually inside the room who've said that talks really went nowhere. According to a source, Republicans presented to Democrats a specific outline, that official justification for spending $5.7 billion on the President's long-promised border wall.
According to one source, Democrats felt that that presentation was incomplete. On their end, from a source, we're hearing that Democrats didn't really present a counteroffer. They simply kept arguing that the government should be reopened before any discussion about border security or a border wall could take place.
In the meantime, President Trump has been talking about this option of his, of declaring a national emergency in order to secure funding for his border wall, something he says he's strongly considering. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're looking at a national emergency because we have a national emergency. Just read the papers. We have a crisis at the border, of drugs, of human beings being trafficked all over the world. They're coming through.
And we have an absolute crisis, and of criminals and gang members coming through. It is national security. It's a national emergency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: I asked the President what conditions it would take for him to get there to declare a national emergency and if perhaps he had decided on a deadline. If talks continued to stall past a certain point, then he would invoke that option. He didn't really specify. He'd said we'd have to wait and see.
[19:05:06] On that note about a steel barrier rather than a concrete one, just a few days the President tweeted that he wanted a concrete barrier. Today, he says that Democrats don't want concrete so we'll give them steel instead, suggesting that it would be stronger, less obtrusive, and boosts America companies, Ana.
CABRERA: His decision on declaring a national emergency -- I'm looking at his quote -- he says, we'll be letting you know fairly soon, answering your question, Boris. Thank you very much. I want to bring in CNN contributors now, Salena Zito and Michael
D'Antonio. Salena is a national political reporter for the "Washington Examiner," and Michael is a Trump biographer. You can check out his book, "The Truth About Trump."
Guys, take a listen to President Trump saying he can relate to furloughed workers. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I can relate. And I'm sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustments. They always do.
And they'll make adjustments. People understand exactly what's going on. But many of those people that won't be receiving a paycheck, many of those people agree 100 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: We talked to a furloughed worker. We asked her about Trump's claim that those affected by the shutdown are fans of this fight. Here's what she told us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Are you one of the biggest fans of this shutdown?
ERIN KIDWELL, FURLOUGHED FEDERAL WORKER: No, I'm not a fan of the shutdown.
CABRERA: Do you know anyone who says, I don't care about my paycheck, I care more about the wall?
KIDWELL: No, I haven't heard that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Salena, is Trump listening?
SALENA ZITO, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Well, you know, I don't know any person that has ever been furloughed that's going to be a fan of someone who has put them in that position.
In particular, the people that are furloughed right now currently are, you know -- if you're a Trump supporter, you think it's the Democrats' fault. If you're a supporter of the Democrats, you think it's Trump's fault.
But if you're furloughed, you aren't happy, because that sense of instability, you know, for yourself and/or your family, it's uneasy and -- you know, because you don't know when your paycheck is going to come. So I don't think if anyone that's furloughed is going to be a fan of the shutdown.
CABRERA: Michael, why do you think the President keeps insisting that unpaid workers support the shutdown? Why not acknowledge that people are likely frustrated?
MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, AUTHOR, "THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUMP": Well, I think in his imagination, we're all buying this.
He is very much a marketer. This whole concept of the wall was developed as a campaign issue that was marketed first through right- wing media and then became something that he built his campaign for president around. So now he is telling us that the federal workers all agree with this idea and they're supporting him.
Now, he might be able to find two or three to bring to the White House briefing room and say, well, here they are, these are the people who like this idea. But it's more a matter of trying to persuade us that this is true. And if he says it over and over again, I think he thinks it's going to get through.
CABRERA: Salena, the President also claims most unpaid federal workers are Democrats. Surely, there are Trump voters out there who are being impacted by this shutdown. If you're a supporter of Trump, how does that land with you? Should the President be more empathetic?
ZITO: Well, I think in these situations, it's probably very wise, whether it is Pelosi or if it's Trump, to give off that sense of empathy. To, you know, say, look, I'm sorry you're caught in the crosshairs here.
You know, if you're Trump, you say, look, we want border security. I'm sorry you're caught in the crosshairs. I'm working the best that I can to get this done.
If you're Pelosi, you say, look, I'm sorry you're caught in the crosshairs. You know, we -- what was the word she used the other day, immoral? Whatever sort of the political rhetoric that suits your ideology.
But I think that's, you know, the better way to handle it. And I think most importantly, I think both sides need to show that they're working on this. They need to not just throw volleys at each other but to show that they're meeting and they're working, which I think that they did today.
I believe that they met today, and I believe that Pence and the staffers met the day before. That's a good sort of visual to show. But, you know, at the end of the day, you really don't want to see people not, you know, having their jobs because of politics.
CABRERA: Right. And it was Pence and staffers who were meeting. It wasn't the President --
ZITO: Yes.
CABRERA: -- and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer --
ZITO: OK, all right.
[19:10:01] CABRERA: -- for example. But Michael, President Trump, he has not budged on this demand now for $5.6 billion, but he has shifted on who is going to pay for the wall, how it will be paid for, what it's going to be made of.
According to "The Washington Post," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has complained that the President is an unreliable negotiating partner. What is the President like as a negotiator?
D'ANTONIO: Well, he is unreliable until the very last moment.
So his very first bit of negotiation was done with the city of New York back in the 1970s. And what he did, in that case, was he actually submitted documents that had never been executed, and he used those unsigned agreements to leverage the city of New York and get what he wanted.
So he is very, very good, I think the President said earlier today, at keeping all of his options open. And that's a smart thing to do when you're trying to make a deal.
And I also think he doesn't want to be perceived to be giving in much at all. So this capitulation to steel other -- rather than concrete, I don't think he likes this. Concrete has always been the word that he was using all along.
And actually, he built Trump Tower out of concrete when it was built. It was the largest concrete structure in the world. He likes concrete. So all of these --
(LAUGHTER)
D'ANTONIO: All of these adjustments come hard to him, and he's not going to give until he absolutely has to.
CABRERA: I want you to listen to this exchange with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Fox News with Chris Wallace about the need for a border wall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We know that roughly, nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally. And we know that our most vulnerable point of entry --
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Wait, wait, wait.
SANDERS: -- is at our southern border, Chris.
WALLACE: Wait, wait, wait. Because I know the statistic.
SANDERS: Yes.
WALLACE: I didn't know if you were going to use it but I studied up on this. Do you know where those 4,000 come or where they're captured?
SANDERS: Right.
WALLACE: Airports.
SANDERS: Not always. But certainly --
WALLACE: At airports.
SANDERS: Certainly, a large number --
WALLACE: The State Department says there hasn't been any terrorists --
SANDERS: Certainly, it's --
WALLACE: -- that they found coming across the southern border from Mexico.
SANDERS: It's by air, it's by land, and it's by sea. It's all of the above.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Salena, as Chris Wallace said, there are no government records of terrorists being caught at the southern border. Is the White House manufacturing a crisis?
ZITO: I think that the White House, what they -- what Sarah -- how Sarah could have handled that better is if she would have put her explanation at the end at the front end and said, look, we have problems with terrorists coming through. The majority have come through the air and the sea, as she said, and also the border.
But because she made it sound as though that -- you have the illusion that it was all through the borders. If you showed the clips through --
CABRERA: But I'm not even sure it's true that any are coming through the border, according to the State Department. And this is the Bureau of Counterterrorism portion of the Department, wrote in a July 2017 document, and I'm quoting, no credible information that any member of a terrorist group has traveled through Mexico to gain access to the United States.
ZITO: Well, you know, her job is to talk about what the President wants to communicate. Our job as journalists, as Chris Wallace did, is to, you know, sort of pressure them with facts. And sometimes it doesn't look good.
CABRERA: Guys, I've got to leave it there tonight. Thank you very much. Michael D'Antonio, Salena Zito, good to have you both with us.
They are part of the bedrock of the President's base, but Trump's trade tariffs hurt many farmers this summer. And now, the shutdown is threatening to delay desperately needed government aid. So do those farmers think a government shutdown over the wall is worth it? You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:16:56] CABRERA: President Trump vowed to take the mantle in the government shutdown blame game, but it gets a very different spin from the President's new Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICK MULVANEY, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I'm forced back to the conclusion again and again that the Democrats, for better or for worse, think that they are winning this battle politically. And they're really not interested in opening the government because they think the President is paying a price politically, and that's unfortunate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Whose side is the American public on? Who is to blame in their eyes? CNN Politics senior writer and analyst Harry Enten, is keeping a close eye on the latest polls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: I think Mick Mulvaney is hinting at the right answer there, and that is that the public is blaming President Trump and congressional Republicans.
I've looked at the polls, averaged them since the shutdown began, and overwhelmingly, by about a 20-point margin, they are blaming the congressional GOP and Trump. The majority are blaming them.
CABRERA: And is there support for this border wall?
ENTEN: Yes, no. I think this makes a lot of sense, right? Because a majority of Americans have consistently said they do not want this border wall and they do not want a shutdown in order to build this border wall, so it makes sense, of course, that a majority of them are blaming the congressional Republicans and President Trump for the shutdown.
CABRERA: Who stands the most to lose here? Because I know you also looked at some new data regarding how popular Nancy Pelosi is and how popular President Trump is currently, right?
ENTEN: Right. And what's so interesting is for pretty much the entire Trump presidency, President Trump, despite being unpopular, was more popular than Nancy Pelosi. That, in fact, has now shifted, whereby neither one of them is tremendously popular but Nancy Pelosi is slightly more popular than President Trump is. And that's a big shift.
And I think, obviously, Nancy Pelosi is going to need the backing of Democratic voters nationwide to continue to have a mandate from them. And what we are seeing is that this will probably help.
CABRERA: We're showing the numbers there, Harry, and you say she's more popular than the President. A lot of people are looking at that and saying, wait a minute, that doesn't make sense to me. She's got 38 percent favorability, he's got 40 percent favorability. Isn't 40 higher than 38?
ENTEN: Right. So there's a little math that's going on here. And that is his unfavorable rating in that poll is at 58 percent, hers is only at 48. I'm using something called net favorability, which, over time, has tended to be a better understanding of where the public stands on each figure.
And it should be pointed out, Nancy Pelosi's net favorability rating in that poll is at minus 10. It used to be minus 20, 25. So she's come up tremendously while the President has been stuck right around minus 15, minus 20 in his unfavorability ratings.
CABRERA: All right, Harry Enten. Thanks for all the information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Farmers impacted by President Trump's trade war are now facing a second punch -- loans and aid promised by the administration now delayed because of the government shutdown.
Many of those same farmers voted for Trump in 2016, but now their loyalty to the President is being tested in a major way. Last month, President Trump pledged to boost financial help for these farmers whose earnings got crushed by his China tariffs, promising emergency farm aid in the form of subsidies.
But then government agencies shuttered their doors, leaving farmers in farm aid limbo. Now, they can't even apply for the assistance to help them survive the President's trade war.
[19:19:58] It gets worse. The USDA announcing Friday, it is delaying a crucial crop report due to the shutdown, leaving farmers without vital information.
Let's get right to CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich who's talking with farmers in Polo, Illinois.
Vanessa, what do these struggling farmers have to say about Trump and this shutdown standoff?
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ana. Well, this shutdown really came at a poor time.
We're here on Brian Duncan's farm. He is a soybean, hog, and corn farmer. He had a tough 2018 with the tariffs from China and the retaliatory tariffs that came from Mexico.
In order to help him out, the government decided to provide subsidies for farmers like Brian. He was able to apply for those subsidies for soybeans and hogs, but he just finished his corn crop just last week and the government was shut down at that point.
So the paperwork is sitting on his desk, and he's just waiting for the government to reopen. So the question is, when will that be? Well, I asked him when he thought that might happen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YURKEVICH: We've heard the President say, though, that the shutdown could go on for months --
BRIAN DUNCAN, VICE PRESIDENT, ILLINOIS FARM BUREAU: It could.
YURKEVICH: -- if not years.
DUNCAN: Years, yes.
YURKEVICH: So, I mean, you're still going to be waiting for that money.
DUNCAN: I know, I know.
YURKEVICH: Can you afford to wait that long?
DUNCAN: You know, the tariff relief payment helped in that it bought us some time here as we hoped that these problems are resolved. And it was significant, OK? But it was not so significant that it's -- that it's the difference between us being able to go on another year. It took us through some short-term cash flow crunches.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YURKEVICH: And so as you heard from Brian, he's able to stay afloat right now. But what's weighing on him heavily, Ana, is this trade war. And we know that the U.S. is sending a delegation to China this coming week to try to work out a deal. Brian and many of the farmers we've spoken to here in town are hoping they come back with some really good news.
Because I can tell you, Ana, that Brian along with the others we've spoken to are struggling from the trade war and really don't know how much they can keep their head above water at this point. Ana?
CABRERA: Vanessa Yurkevich, we know you're going to continue to follow this story for us. Thank you. We're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:25:25] CABRERA: Mexico is paying for the wall through a still- unapproved trade deal. Much of the wall is already built. Actually, the President may declare a national emergency to order the security of the border. Parts of the wall are going to be made of concrete. No, it's going to be made of strong steel.
Now, those are all claims the President has made in the last week. They can't all be true. But maybe, eventually, one of them will be?
With us, "TIME" Magazine contributor Jay Newton-Small and White House reporter for Bloomberg News, Toluse Olorunnipa.
I want to start with the President saying he may declare a national emergency. This is the second time he has threatened this in the last few days. Toluse, is this a real possibility?
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, BLOOMBERG NEWS: It's something that is being discussed in the White House. It's difficult to see how the President could get this to pass legal muster.
Obviously, there are people within the White House Counsel's Office who are trying to let the President and his advisers in the White House know that there are a number of legal restrictions that would prevent him from just repurposing money and declaring a national emergency and building a wall without involving Congress, but this is something the President is looking to do.
He's looking for an off-ramp. He's looking for a way to get out of this standoff that is looking like it's going to continue for days on end because Democrats are not budging.
As you talked about all the different messages that the President and the White House have put out, they've been all over the place going back and forth, steel versus concrete, national emergency versus a deal, DACA or no DACA.
They are all over the place looking for a way to come to a solution. The Democrats are being very, very straightforward. They're saying we are going to open the government by passing a series of bills that have already come out of the Republican Senate.
And because they are sticking to their same message, the White House is looking for a number of different messages and trying to see what can work, and this whole idea of a national emergency is the latest iteration of that. And it doesn't appear that it's moving Democrats or the threat is having the impact that the President wants.
So it may be an off-ramp that the President may try to use, but it will immediately end up in a legal jeopardy and a legal challenge. And that could end up leaving the President and the White House legally exposed to various forms of lawsuits.
CABRERA: Now, Jay, we just got word that two Democratic senators, Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, are officially calling for any bills unrelated to the reopening of the government be blocked. They want McConnell to hold a vote on those bills the House passed on Thursday. Could this work?
JAY NEWTON-SMALL, CONTRIBUTOR, TIME: I mean, I think that's one of the real threats, I think, coming down the pike here, is that not just Democrats but also some moderate Republicans. You're looking at Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, these sort of two women who have banded together in the past to block certain things that they didn't think were appropriate in the President's agenda.
At some point, people are going to start to say my state is feeling pain here. I'm hearing a lot from constituents that this is getting kind of out of hand and ridiculous, and we're going to start blocking nominations.
We're going to start blocking other business areas, other bills going through in the Senate just to sort of say, hey, look, you know, we shouldn't be doing a business as usual when there is a government shutdown going on. We should be focusing 100 percent on figuring out a solution to reopening the government, and we should go and reopen the government.
CABRERA: There's some new polling that shows that, for the first time since Trump took office, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a net favorability rating that's higher than the President's. Toluse, does that change the White House strategy at all, do you think?
OLORUNNIPA: I think the White House is seeing Speaker Nancy Pelosi play this pretty straight.
She did put, as the first -- one of the first measures after taking over the gavel of the speakership, an effort to open the government by passing a bill that had already passed the Senate, that had already gotten the support of almost a unanimous group within the Senate, Republicans and Democrats coming together.
And now, she says she's going to put a number of different bills to open things like the Treasury Department so that people can get their IRS tax refunds.
The White House has struggled to play this straight. Nancy Pelosi has been playing this very straight.
And with her numbers going up and with the President's numbers sort of stuck just among his base, not getting much support outside of his base, it's going to be difficult for him to spin this politically as a win for him because Democrats are saying that we're passing Republican bills and we're being bipartisan and the President is sticking to his $5.6 billion number.
And that's making it difficult for him to move past his original statement, which was that he was going to own the shutdown, he was going to be proud to do it.
[19:29:57] And as it becomes more politically untenable for the shutdown to continue for weeks on end, it's going to look much more like the Democrats and Nancy Pelosi are being the grownups in the room and the President and the the Republicans are struggling to find a way out of this shutdown trouble.
[19:30:00] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: And so, Jay, why do you Nancy Pelosi has suddenly seen as more favorable?
JAY NEWTON-SMALL, CONTRIBUTOR, TIME MAGAZINE: I think there's been a ton of attention weekend on Pelosi, her comeback. Everybody in America loves a comeback story, right? You love the sort of underdog who lost a dozen years ago and is now back in power. She is somebody that people are rooting for. And I think that there is this sense also that they have the moral high ground here. That they are going to say, look, you originally agreed to this and then backtracked because of pressure from your base. This isn't a reasonable position to demand $5.6 billion and sort of think of it and hold the rest of the government hostage to this. And it's going to quickly become untenable.
Look, it's going to start to become very unsafe to have huge spots of the government closed for weeks and weeks and weeks on end. Not just in terms of lost research that is being done by various different arms of the government, but also in terms of the TSA. You know, screeners not being paid in terms of the coast guard not getting paid as of the 15th of January. The entire coast guard not being paid.
I mean, these are things that are very worrisome for the safety of our nation. FDA, food inspections aren't being done. Just on the heels of that Romaine lettuce, so the e-Coli outbreak. And so there's all kinds of issues here on any given day something can go wrong and it can be catastrophic and it could be blamed for this government shutdown.
And that's sort of the game of Russian roulette that they are playing every day this government remains closed. And the reason why that there is going to be increasing pressure to really reopen the government across the board from I think constituents, Republican and Democrat.
CABRERA: Toluse, we played that clip earlier of the President insisting that unpaid federal workers support this shutdown. I mean, this isn't the first time he has made this claim. But he has not provided any evidence, necessarily, to back that up. Do you know where he is getting this impression? Because a furloughed worker I talked to this week, it does not support this shutdown.
OLORUNNIPA: Yes, this is just another area where the White House messaging has been hard to follow. First the President said these are mostly Democrats that are being affected and they are the ones not getting their paychecks. Then he said these are actually people who support the wall. There aren't very many people within that cross section, Democrats who support the wall in the political electorate. So it's hard to find where the President is getting this information.
And I think Jay Newton-Small was right when she said, you know, when people start to feel this more, when we see more people calling off of work from the TSA and from agencies that actually impact the lives of Americans and we see airports starting to be impacted, then the idea that this is a popular shutdown that the President is saying that people are happy will really blow up. It will be hard to sustain that, because people will see the impact of the shutdown and will see that workers are not happy to not be getting their paycheck.
Mick Mulvaney was on TV earlier and he said if this shutdown is not resolved by Tuesday, then people will not get their paycheck this coming Friday. And I think if people start to feel this in their pocket books, they are going to be much more vocal about how much they are not happy with the shutdown and the myth that the President has been spreading about, you know, all these workers that are happy about the shutdown and want him to keep going. That will evaporate quickly and it will be much more untenable for this White House and for the administration to continue the argument that the shutdown is something that's popular when the polling shows that it's not.
CABRERA: Toluse Olorunnipa, Jay Newton-Small, thank you both.
Breaking news in the case of the deadly driver -- the deadly drive-by shooting, I should say, in Texas. A suspect is now in custody and facing capital murder charges in the death of a 7-year-old. We have details.
You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:53] CABRERA: Houston police say a routine traffic stop led to the arrest of a suspect in the drive-by killing of 7-year-old Jasmine Barnes. 20-year-old Eric Black Jr. appeared in court today. He faces a capital murder charge. Investigators say black confessed he was driving the vehicle, and he says a man in the passenger seat fired the fatal shot. Jasmine was struck in the head during the shooting and died from her injury. Police say they don't believe her family was the intended target.
Our Kaylee Hartung joins us now from Houston where police just held a news conference a short time ago.
Kaylee, did they say Jasmine's murder was simply a case of mistaken identity?
KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez was very careful with his language when he spoke to us, saying they believe it's very likely this was a case of mistaken identity, that the shooter opened fire on Jasmine's car, believing someone else was inside. Who they believe to be inside, the sheriff couldn't tell us.
But we learned more through Eric Black Jr.'s probable cause hearing this morning in which his arrest affidavit was read, saying that it was a tipster who unanimously first reached out to Sean King, the activist, who then passed it along to the sheriff, who initially said this was a case of mistaken identity.
The sheriff explained that this is an ongoing investigation. At this time, Eric Black Jr. is the only man who has been charged in connection with this killing. And until they can firm up their evidence otherwise, the sheriff is not ready to speak to Eric Black's specific role or what they are looking for from they believe to be another suspect.
Now again, in that probable cause hearing for Eric Black, it was said that there was another man in the passenger seat of that car he was driving who was identified by the initials L.W. We are aware of a man who was arrested overnight with the initials L.W. who is being charged with possession of marijuana and other controlled substances.
And in his probable cause hearing, when the state was making the case for his bond to be greater than $5,000, which it would typically be for someone facing a charge like that, they mentioned that he is a suspect in a homicide and murder investigation. The bond for that man is now set at $100,000, Ana.
CABRERA: All right. Kaylee Hartung in Houston for us. Thank you.
The government shutdown now in its third week. We have all seen the pictures out there of the national parks. But what departments that handle our national security, what about them? Up next, how the safety of Americans could be impacted.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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[19:43:08] CABRERA: President Trump says he may soon declare a national emergency to pay for his border wall to break the stalemate that has had the government shut down now for 16 days and counting. And for the 800,000 federal employees who aren't getting paid right now, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet, that news can't come soon enough.
Suzanne Malveaux reports.
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SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ryan Baugh and his friends spend unplanned time away from work volunteering.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really, I did find a volunteer thing we could do tomorrow morning if you're interested.
MALVAEUX: Thursday, Ryan spent three hours giving blood platelets. Friday, he picked up trash at the national mall. And while he is being productive with his new-found freedom, he says he still feels held hostage by the shutdown.
RYAN BAUGH, DHS EMPLOYEE: Let us work without having anxiety over our next grocery bill for those who are working without pay right now and whose leave was cancelled over the holidays.
MALVAEUX: Andrea Popelka is one of those with a choice between groceries and utilities.
ANDREA POPELKA, FURLOUGHED WORKER: All those things are already pre- budgeted. So when something like this happens and you are not going to get your next check, its like -- OK, what do I do?
MALVAEUX: Over all, 380,000 workers are furloughed. Another 420,000 working without pay. But in a way, they could be the lucky ones. Traditionally, Congress grants back pay to those federal employees. Though not guaranteed for anyone, back pay is even less likely for federal contractors and the companies they work for who might not get any money at all.
DAVID BERTEAU, PRESIDENT/CEO, PROFESSIONAL SERVICES COUNCIL: It puts small businesses out of business, if it continues much longer.
MALVAEUX: David Berteau, who represents federal contractors, says some businesses are still paying employees without getting paid by the government. He says the biggest impact for so many is the uncertainty.
BERTEAU: When is this going to be over? Am I going to be made whole at the end of it? Will anybody care about the work I do that matters so much to me?
[19:45:00] MALVAEUX: It's a question some federal workers were asking even before the shutdown.
Author Michael Lewis' latest book, "The Fifth Risk," looks at how President Trump's election impacted agencies across the government.
MICHAEL LEWIS, AUTHOR: All they get is slandered and abused. And yet we expect them to perform these critical missions.
MALVAEUX: Lewis says the President just doesn't understand what federal employees do.
TRUMP: I will shut down the government.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), MINORITY LEADER: OK. Fair enough. We disagree.
TRUMP: And I am proud to shut down the government for border security, chuck.
MALVAEUX: Last week, President Trump cancelled federal employee pay raises for 2019, and claimed without evidence that quote "most of the people not getting paid are Democrats."
Ryan, who refuses to get into the political mud, worries he may miss his opportunity to buy a house of his own.
BAUGH: When people in leadership positions publicly surmise about how the pain of a million federal workers and their families are -- is going to tip the scale of the debate one way or the other, that represents a lack of moral leadership.
MALVAEUX: And ironically, while the President is fighting with lawmakers over his push to build a border wall, the partial government shutdown is interfering with his administration's immigration agenda. As border patrol agents and border protection officers are forced to continue working without pay. Immigration judges are furloughed, and some immigration asylum cases are now put on hold.
Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, Washington.
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CABRERA: Relief for those federal workers could be a long time coming. President Trump threatened on Friday to keep the government shut down for months or even years, if that's what it takes to get funding for his border wall.
And that brings us to your weekend Presidential brief. The segment we bring you every Sunday night, highlighting some of the most pressing national security information the President will face when he wakes up tomorrow.
And Sam Vinograd is a former adviser to the national security council adviser during the Obama administration and CNN national security analyst.
So Sam, President Trump says the shutdown is all about security. And yet you have a new article on CNN.com today saying this shutdown is actually making the U.S. more insecure.
SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Our insecurity grows every day the shutdown continues. From a staffing perspective, we are hamstrung. We have 380,000 less employees showing up at work tomorrow, and many of them perform key security functions.
The treasury department, where I used to work, has a publicly available document on its Web site, saying it's only able to provide limited analysis on terrorist threats to our financial infrastructure because of this shutdown. That's just asking terrorists to exploit gaps because they know that employees aren't there to pay as much attention.
Plus, the employees that still have to show up at work in spite of the shutdown like TSA, are starting to call in sick in larger numbers. We have reporting to that effect, and that could spread to other accepted employee groups like border patrol or the FBI or even ICE and that could lead to real physical security gaps.
And Ana, as we look forward, it is illogical to assume we are going to be able to recruit the best and brightest talent to the agencies affected by the shutdown if we can't even guarantee a paycheck. Government service is public service, but it's not charity.
CABRERA: That's true. Now we know one person who is working, and that is the national security adviser, John Bolton. He is currently in Israel. Made some surprising comments today about the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, saying the U.S. will not leave until turkey gives assurances it will not target the Kurdish allies there. Should we expect a full withdrawal?
VINOGRAD: Well, Ana, this should not be a multiple choice question. Either the President has sent guidance to the Pentagon to actually deliver withdrawal options and drawdown options, or he hasn't matched his words with actual action, and the Pentagon hasn't started drawing up those plans.
In my experience, working for the national security adviser, any public talking points he uses are typically coordinated with the department of defense and the state department. So I think we should have every reason to believe that ambassador Bolton is really socializing the idea of a withdrawal before it's finalized with our allies in Israel and around the world.
And while he does so, it's probably music to everyone's ears, because no one is really keen to see what the President has said is a full withdrawal. And in the interim, it is very hard to know who speaks on behalf of the U.S. government right now, and who is just adlibbing, including the President.
CABRERA: Now we have heard from other members of the administration, not the President himself, until this weekend, about the American who is being held in Russia, Paul Whelan. The President today for the first time commenting on this but more than a week since Whelan was detained. And he said simply, we are looking in that.
The Kremlin says Whelan is a spy. Timing, of course, is interesting because his arrest comes just after the alleged Russian spy Maria Butina pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges here in the U.S. federal court. Do you think the President could be working on some kind of a prisoner swap?
VINOGRAD: I think the President's comments today were wholly appropriate.
The first thing that we need to do right is guarantee Mr. Whelan's safety. Russia has an abysmal record when it comes to treatment of prisoners and prisoner abuse. And the last thing the President should do right now is raise the stakes on Mr. Whelan and imply in any way he's different than any other detained citizen abroad. And we need to be careful and stop using the word swap here. Because draws a false equivalency between with what, Maria Butina has gone access to a lawyer, due process, and she's admitted to being a spy. And Whelan, they're apples and oranges. We need the process to go forward before talking about a swap.
[19:50:39] CABRERA: Sam Vinograd, always good to have you with us.
VINOGRAD: Thanks.
CABRERA: Thank you.
More now on John Bolton's comment today. He is on a three-day working visit to Israel to ease concerns of allies in the Middle East. His trip is after the White House announced that ISIS has been defeated in Syria. And the U.S. would bit draw the troops from the war-torn nation.
Correspondent Ian Lee has more.
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IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: U.S. national security adviser John Bolton is in the region to reassure allies after President Trump announced the abrupt plan to pull troops out of Syria. There was shock and concern after the announcement about who would fill the vacuum left by the United States. The feeling now is that the pullout will be more deliberate and conditional.
Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu here in Jerusalem, Bolton reaffirmed the United States' commitment to Israel and the Syrian Kurds who fought alongside U.S. troops against ISIS.
JOHN BOLTON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Right on your border we have the problem of the conflict in Syria. We are going to be discussing the President's decision to withdraw, but to do so from northeast Syria in a way that makes sure that ISIS is defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again. And to make sure that the defensive Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured. And to take care of those who have fought with us against ISIS and other terrorist groups.
LEE: The two men also discussed what Netanyahu believes is the main threat to Israel's security, and that's Iran. Bolton said despite getting out of the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposing sanctions that there's little doubt Iran's leadership is still committed to achieving a deliverable nuclear device. He added the U.S. and Israel will make sure that doesn't happen.
Israel and American though are alone here. Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, the other signatories to the Iran nuclear deal have all refused to follow the United States' lead. And despite Israel and the United States' certainty, international monitors inside Iran have said there's no evidence Iran is currently working toward a nuclear weapon.
Ian Lee, CNN, Jerusalem.
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CABRERA: Thanks, Ian.
Get ready for a new CNN original series. Join fashion and cultural experts for a front row seat to American style. It premiers next Sunday night at 9:00 here on CNN.
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[19:56:50] CABRERA: Expert. Miriam Webster defines it as having, involving or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience. And one with the special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject.
Now the President not want to hide his high view of himself has continually bragged about how he is the expert on, well, just about everything you could think of.
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TRUMP: You also know I predicted that Osama bin Laden was coming to the United States, because I knew a lot about it, and I know more about it than most, believe me.
Then I spoke with Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He knows borders, right? And he said, Mr. Trump, I just want you to know that I'm endorsing you because you know more about this stuff than anybody.
I know more about contributions than anybody. I contributed at the top of the line.
I know more about courts than any human being on earth.
I know more about debt than practically anybody. I love debt.
I understand the power of twitter. I understand the power of Facebook, maybe better than almost anybody. You know, based on my results, right?
I know the h1b. I know the h2b. Nobody knows it better than me.
Nobody in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump.
I understand money better than anybody.
I know more about politicians than anybody.
I know more about steel workers than anybody that's ever run for office.
There's nobody that understands the horror of nuclear better than me.
Having a drone fly overhead, and I think nobody knows much more about technology this type of technology, certainly, than I do.
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CABRERA: To be clear, that is just a sample. There were many more examples. And how about when it comes to the people who are the experts, generals who have spent their entire careers, decades serving this country? The President is pretty sure he can do their job better.
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TRUMP: I think I would have been a good general, but who knows?
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CABRERA: Let's not forget the President got five draft deferments during the Vietnam era. Hey, he's the expert.
A video of congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dancing, it went viral this week. Millions of people viewed it. So what does that mean? Does that mean we are going to see her cha-cha on the campaign trail?
CNN's Jake Tapper takes a look in this week's state of the cartoonian.
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JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Newly sworn in congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is head D.C. like a tornado. She is a new kind of politician. She talks to her supporters on Instagram where she chats with her constituents about the problems of cash bail while cutting chili peppers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just got to be good at getting things done. TAPPER: Some folks in an attempt to follow Ocasio-Cortez's millennial
lead in Elizabeth Warren's presidential exploratory committee announcement when she talked economic policy in her kitchen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hold on a sec. I'm going to get me a beer.
TAPPER: She didn't quite do cake stand. It was pretty tame.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I (INAUDIBLE). Club soda of beers.
TAPPER: But we wonders if all the older 2020ers might try to get in on the millennial social media action. Will we see Bernie Sanders trying to "Bird Box" his way through Iowa?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Millionaire and billionaires --.
TAPPER: Maybe Joe Biden will do his entire campaign only --.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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