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America Prepares to Bid Farewell to 41st President; Cohen Says He Briefed Trump on Moscow Tower as Late as June 2016; U.S. & China Halt Trade War with Temporary Truce. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 3, 2018 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I feel very fortunate to be president of this fascinating country.

[05:59:21] JEB BUSH, FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: My dad is just the kindest person, woan extraordinary role model.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good news, bad news, he was always available to you. His humility demonstrated itself in so many different ways.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty-eight combat missions in World War II. He was suburb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No regrets?

GEORGE H.W. BUSH: No regrets about anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty-three said, "I love you, Dad, and I'll see you in heaven."

And 41 said, "I love you, too."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY, with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Monday, December 3, 6 a.m. here in Washington. John and I are here for our coverage this week, and it does promise to be a very special week here.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, it's an important moment for this country when a president passes. The entire country comes together, and I think it's important that we are here for that.

CAMEROTA: So this is where the nation will bid farewell to our 41st president, George Herbert Walker Bush. He will make his final journey to Washington today. He will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol rotunda for the public to pay their respects until Wednesday morning. Traveling with his casket from Texas to Washington will be his faithful service dog, Sully. Here's this touching photo taken of the Yellow Lab lying next to the flag-draped casket.

The former president's casket will be flown here this morning on a U.S. military plane that will be called Special Mission 41. And the state funeral for the president will take place on Wednesday at the Washington National Cathedral.

That plane, of course, is normally Air Force One, when it carries the president of the United States, President Trump. It just brought him back from Buenos Aires. Now, it will bring President Bush here to Washington.

President Trump will attend the funeral, along with his predecessors. President Trump did not attend the service for Barbara Bush nor John McCain, but Bush 41 made it clear he wanted the current president to be on hand this week.

So this will be an important and rare moment of unity.

Some business will be delayed here this week. The possibility of government shutdown over border wall funding will likely be put off a couple weeks. But the Russia investigation seems to be intensifying. Fired FBI director James Comey will testify before Congress. Michael Cohen's lawyers are asking a judge for leniency and revealing new information in the filing of the process. The president's friend and adviser, Roger Stone, insists he had no contact with the head of WikiLeaks on the Clinton campaign's stolen e-mails.

So a lot going on. We want to begin with our coverage, though, with CNN's Ed Lavandera, live in Houston where Bush 41, the former president's, journey is about to begin -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Well, this is a city that has really spent the last few years preparing for this very moment. President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, obviously, stalwarts of this community, seen very often here in the city of Houston, which is really kind of unique, considering his northeastern upbringing, and he was embraced here so well in the state of Texas over the decades.

So this is the beginning of an emotional week. Here in the next couple of hours, John, the body of President George H.W. Bush will be flown from Houston aboard what was Air Force One for this Special Mission 41, as they're calling it. It is the plane, as you mentioned, that flew President Trump back from Argentina. When the president is onboard, it's Air Force One. This is Special Mission 1 [SIC].

It will be arriving in Joint Base Andrews around 3:30 Eastern Time, and then taken to the Capitol, where the president will lie in state until the state funeral services on Wednesday.

And then President George H.W. Bush will be brought back to Texas for a family, and another memorial service at the same church where Barbara Bush was memorialized earlier this year. And then a train ride from Houston to the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. That's where the president will be buried, next to his wife, Barbara, and their 3-year-old daughter Robin, who died of leukemia back in the 1950s.

So this is, as I mentioned, John and Alisyn, the beginning of a very emotional week here for the people of Houston who have watched this Bush family here for decades.

BERMAN: Right. The adoptive home of the Bush family since, really, the 1950s and '60s, but there are so many places in this country that I think claim former President Bush and identify with him in the service of the country. Our thanks to you.

Joining us now, CNN political analyst David Gregory; former chief of staff for first lady Laura Bush, Anita McBride; former White House correspondent for ABC News, Ann Compton; and CNN legal analyst Shan Wu.

I know all of us have our memories of the late president. But Ann, I'm going to start with you, because I used to work for you. And I wanted to --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Just reflect on this moment.

ANN COMPTON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR ABC NEWS: There are moments in history that are pretty short. Four years is all George Bush got, and at that moment in history, the world was changing, totally different than when we grew up. The Soviet Union collapsed, the Berlin Wall fell, there were a tinderbox in the Middle East. George Bush had been head of the CIA. U.N. ambassador, vice president for -- for eight years, and his conduct of foreign policy was a time when it revolutionized our world.

CAMEROTA: Anita, you know, I think that he came to personify losing with grace. You know, though he was only there for four years, he never seemed bitter. He seemed to be sort of introspective after that about what might have gone wrong.

And there's this beautiful poignant op-ed from President Clinton, talking about the letter that he received when he entered the Oval Office. And here is what he goes on to say: "Given what politics looks like in America and around the world today, it's easy to sigh and say George H.W. Bush belonged to an era that is now gone and never coming back -- where our opponents are not our enemies, where we are open to different ideas and changing our minds, where facts matter and where our devotion to our children's future leads to honest compromise and shared progress. I know what he would say. Nonsense, it's your duty to get that America back."

ANITA MCBRIDE, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF FOR LAURA BUSH: Right.

CAMEROTA: Your thoughts?

MCBRIDE: And also, you know, in the letter that he left to President Clinton that morning, it said, "You're our president now," and that's how he felt about being the leader of the country. Such respect for the position, the institution of the presidency, everyone that works to support our government. And he just, you know, he -- it hurt. You know, that election of '92 hurt a lot, and Barbara Bush talks about that, too. And she felt that the better man lost the race but, you know what? They moved on and they moved on with grace, as you said, led a full life their entire lives. And I -- and then developed, of course, he developed this incredibly close relationship with the biggest rival of his political career.

BERMAN: You actually -- I was reading in 2005 you were traveling with him to the funeral of Pope John Paul II. If you wanted to know, what's going on -- what's going on with this friendship with the guy who beat you?

MCBRIDE: This friendship was blossoming, and all of us who had lived through this difficult election and saw George H.W. Bush sort of diminished a bit by the rhetoric of the campaign, you know, we found it hard to accept it, and I asked him and he said, "You know, I'm an old guy. He likes to talk. I like to listen." And he said, you know, "I think I'm the father he never had," and that speaks volumes about George H.W. Bush.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. That's really poignant.

MCBRIDE: Yes.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: George W. Bush, 43, President Bush, took credit for that union --

MCBRIDE: Yes, he does.

GREGORY: He's like, you know, these two guys, this odd couple. You know, he said, "It wouldn't happen without me."

But, you know, I am also thinking this morning about the idea of disruption. Right? You mentioned it, Ann. So here President Bush, the 41st, comes into power at a time of great disruption on the world stage and is known for managing it so adeptly, with caution, as well.

Yet, politically, he was subjected to very much the kind of disruption we're living through now. He saw it in the rise of Ross Perot, as the Reagan revolution kind of crumbled, and Perot came in; and that had a lot to do with his loss in '92.

And the other side of the disruption was the youthful disruptive Democratic governor from Arkansas in Bill Clinton, which marked a closing of that era, an older era of politics, of a more genteel era of which George H.W. Bush was a part.

BERMAN: Don't forget Pat Buchanan either.

GREGORY: Of course.

BERMAN: Pat Buchanan primaried the president.

GREGORY: That's right.

BERMAN: In a way very reminiscent of Donald Trump. GREGORY: Yes.

BERMAN: So in a way, George H.W. Bush was there for the beginning --

GREGORY: Of that populist right movement.

BERMAN: -- of the populist right and the transition of the Republican Party all the way around.

COMPTON: And Ross Perot got 19 million votes. Bill Clinton did not get 51 percent of the vote. And George Bush never made a big case out of the fact that he thought Ross Perot was the one who lost it for him.

CAMEROTA: Wow. I am struck again, in hearing his words now as we revisit it all, by his humility. I think that that's one of his defining characteristics. And I had this great opportunity in, I think, it was August of 1999, to go to Kennebunkport and to, you know, help him reflect on his time in office, and he was actually -- there we are, with my crew and me in Kennebunkport. It was a beautiful sunny day.

BERMAN: You're not the one in the blue shirt at the end?

CAMEROTA: No. I am the one next to him -- BERMAN: OK.

CAMEROTA: -- smiling broadly. And he talked about how he continues to learn every day and how he learns from his predecessors. In this one sound bite I want to play for you, he talked about what he learned from President Ford. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE H.W. BUSH: I learn something from everybody. Even at my age, I -- you know, I learn every day. And I learned from watching him handle large foreign policy problems. So I think it's fair to say that all through my life I've -- I've learned from President Ford. I learned from him when I was president, not -- don't overreact. Make a decision, stay with it. Sometimes take the tough course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Yes. It's nice to hear his words again. Ann, and now that we are in this era where there's such tension between the press and the White House, you were there for President H. -- President George H.W. Bush. What was that relationship like?

COMPTON: Two things to remember. He was the pre-Internet revolution. We didn't have e-mail. We didn't have any way a president could directly talk to the American people except through the media.

And as much as George Bush chafed under some of the coverage, which was not always -- very often unflattering, he still appreciated the fact that this was part of how government worked. And on the day -- days that Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait, and I blurted out a question to him, and he kind of barked at me. And the next day he sent me a letter of apology, saying, "I wasn't too pleased with my answers to you."

BERMAN: Are you OK? Are you OK?

CAMEROTA: No, I need water.

MCBRIDE: And it bothered him.

COMPTON: And he signed it with a happy face wearing a frown.

GREGORY: You know, and George W. Bush, who had a harder edge when he was working for his dad in the White House, he was more of an enforcer. When he was president, he had a different affect toward the press, as John and I know. But -- but liked the press, had a good relationship. And he, too, would always stop to write a kind note. You know?

MCBRIDE: Yes, shorter.

GREGORY: When my son was born.

MCBRIDE: Shorter note.

GREGORY: Or when I was involved in some flap, you know, arguing with somebody in the White House, so it was a trait that he passed down.

BERMAN: It's not as if he loved the media coverage. There was a bumper sticker in '92: "Annoy the press. Re-elect Bush."

GREGORY: Yes.

BERMAN: That existed, but it existed nothing like it exists today, which brings us, Shan, if you want to weigh in here, to the obvious contrast. And there is an obvious contrast to the politics of George H.W. Bush and the politics of today. You know, it speaks values that 41, Bush 41 demanded that President Trump or asked for President Trump to attend his funeral.

SHAN WU, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: The contrasts are so stark. I mean, I think on the domestic front, one of the really amazing pieces of legislation that he passed was the Americans with Disabilities Act. I have family members who have benefited from that. I think the whole country has benefited from that.

And on the world stage, a great example right now with what's going on with Saudi Arabia, you know, my parents came from China. We were very, very upset and concerned over the Tiananmen Square situation. And the president walked that fine line. I mean, he was very hard, understood the security issues, listened to his intelligence briefing. And at the same time, behind the scenes, worked very masterfully, subtly, to make sure that they preserved that state-to-state relationship.

Such a contrast to what we have at the moment, which is just entirely the politics of personality going on. CAMEROTA: But you know, Anita, I think that, just as John was saying,

it is notable that he did not go to John McCain's funeral, that President Trump did not go to John McCain's and wasn't welcome.

MCBRIDE: Uh-huh.

CAMEROTA: And that President Bush felt -- and I guess it was his nature --

MCBRIDE: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- to have compromise and to reach across the aisle --

BERMAN: This is the picture right now at the funeral of Barbara Bush.

MCBRIDE: That was Barbara, yes.

BERMAN: And you can see all the living former presidents -- I guess Jimmy Carter is not there.

MCBRIDE: No.

BERMAN: But you can see President Clinton, you know, Bush 43, President Obama there in the picture with George H.W. Bush.

MCBRIDE: Well, to Alisyn's question, I would respond, you know, it can go right back to that letter that George H.W. Bush wrote to Bill Clinton: "You're our president now." And that's how George H.W. Bush feels about Donald Trump or felt about Donald Trump, as well. He didn't vote for him. We know that. Barbara Bush wrote in her own son's name in the 2016 election.

But you know, politics aside, it's the respect for the institution of the presidency. And that guided him his entire life.

And all of us who worked for him learned that, too. I look at this and how lucky -- myself, my husband and thousands of friends have all been writing about how lucky, privileged we were to learn these lessons of leadership at his command.

GREGORY: I was at the Kennedy Center Honors last night, running into a number of people who --

MCBRIDE: Yes, I saw you there.

GREGORY: -- were -- who were good friends of the Bushes. And to a person, they -- what they lamented was the passing of that era. Would that kind of politics ever return?

The Bush family, the son and the father, wore the presidency extremely well. Now, that's a separate observation from whether you agreed with them. Certainly, W., 43, presided over a very difficult time in American politics and in America, with the -- with the country at war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But he very -- he often -- he always wore the office well. And they both believed that the presidency is bigger than themselves, which is not something that -- that this president always adheres to. But I think that invitation to the funeral is a sign that this is a rare club that they're all part of.

BERMAN: And it's wonderful in this country that we have former presidents who can be at moments like this. You don't see former kings going to the funerals of current kings, or dictators. I mean, this is an important moment for the country, and I think it's -- that Bush 41 knew that. And knew that President Trump should be there.

MCBRIDE: Mrs. Obama is interrupting her foreign book tour to come to the funeral. I think that is a big statement.

BERMAN: We're going to move on to a different subject. Before we do, Ann Compton, I just want you to tell us the president's Internet domain name, his e-mail address, is what, or was what?

COMPTON: I actually got an e-mail from a president, former president, and his domain is FLFW.com. Former leader of the free world dot com.

GREGORY: That's good.

[06:15:02] COMPTON: The guy never had anything on the White House but was proud of that former leader of the free world.

BERMAN: That's wonderful. I just wanted everyone to know that, because that shows you, I think, the humor that he had.

GREGORY: Can I just say -- I mean, you know, Ann covered him. Also, Maureen Dowd has written a great piece in "The New York Times" about their very odd and -- and enduring relationship. I mean, somebody who -- who often had a problem with "The New York Times," especially her criticism of his son, but they stayed connected.

BERMAN: All right, Shan, the Mueller investigation does continue. We don't know if maybe he'll take a two- or three-day pause to honor the late president. He might. It wouldn't be out of character for Robert Mueller to do something like that. But last we did know, Michael Cohen was pleading guilty to lying to Congress. And Friday night, we got a court filing from his attorneys, asking for leniency in sentencing.

And let me just read part of that out loud. And if we can put it up on the screen, I can -- I have to cheat off Alisyn's notes here.

CAMEROTA: Please. As usual --

BERMAN: Yes, as usual. "He could have fought the government and continue to hold to the party line, positioning himself perhaps for a pardon or clemency, but instead -- for himself, his family and his country -- he took responsibility for his own wrongdoing and contributed, and is prepared to continue to contribute, to an investigation that he views as thoroughly legitimate and vital."

And also within that filing, Shan, they provided more details, Michael Cohen did, about how he says President Trump was informed of his negotiation with the Russians all the way until June of 2016.

WU: Right. I mean, the entire Cohen situation has always been very, very dangerous and threatening for the president, because it's his lawyer, someone who listens to unguarded thoughts and musings.

What we're seeing is they're really doing two things. They're emphasizing the overall importance of Cohen's role and how much pressure he took from the president of the United States publicly bashing him constantly and saying he deserves some credit for really standing up and doing the right thing there.

And they also make some technical arguments with regard to the sentencing guidelines, asking for some minor reductions the way it's been calculated.

But I think overall, the big takeaway I've had from this new revelation with Cohen is just how much danger it poses to not only the president but, potentially, even his legal team. Because they have gone so public with this joint defense agreement with Manafort, Manafort now, the prosecutors, Mueller's team is saying, was lying to them, withholding things.

If the president's intel was from Manafort, there's a problem there. Rudy Giuliani is on TV saying, "We have that joint defense agreement. We know Manafort is being pressured."

But obviously, Cohen very much the opposite information coming out from that, and that could be very serious jeopardy for the president and could even convert his lawyers into witnesses, potentially.

GREGORY: Briefly, one point that I think is interesting is that I've talked to lawyers. If you looked at the plea agreement with Cohen, they go beyond, really, what was necessary just to explain the plea agreement to talk about those contacts with the Kremlin. And -- and lawyers I've talked to have raised the question, well, why would they need to do that? That wasn't necessary for the plea.

It may have something to do with the president's own answers in those written questions, perhaps denying any of those Kremlin contacts. So I think one specific area here is the financial relationship between the Trump enterprise and Russian officials, Russian oligarchs. This is an area that has always hovered over this investigation as something really intriguing.

BERMAN: All right, guys. Stick around, if you will. We have a lot more to discuss, including David Gregory's fantastic night at the Kennedy Center Honors last night. Your contribution --

GREGORY: Do you want to know what I was wearing?

BERMAN: Your contribution to the arts over the decades has been unparalleled.

GREGORY: I was being honored, actually.

BERMAN: Appreciate it. Appreciate that. BERMAN: President Trump and China work out a compromise, but the

trade war is far from over. But are there already signs of trouble for this temporary truce?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:24] CAMEROTA: Global markets are up after news of a truce in the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China. President Trump and the Chinese president reaching a temporary deal at the G-20 to hold off on a new round of tariffs for 90 days while both countries try to settle their differences.

Joining us now are David Gregory; and CNN White House correspondent Abby Phillip; and former director of legislative affairs at the White House and CNN political commentator, Marc Short. Great to have all of you.

Before we go to Marc, who I know will say this is a resounding victory, we go to our analyst, David Gregory. And does it seem as those President Trump's gambit on a trade war has worked? He did get China to the table and to acquiesce to some of the U.S. demands.

GREGORY: I think that's true. I think it's true, as we sit here, without question, and I think there's going to be bipartisan applause as far as that goes, whether it's from, you know, Sherrod Brown, as a Democrat, and Republicans, too.

I think there's a little bit of relief right now, as we prepare for a good day in the financial markets. The markets have been reeling over the effects of a trade war.

So I think it is important. I think a more sober look will say, well, did we create a fight that was not unnecessary but created a deal of -- a degree of drama that is still unresolved? There's fundamental issues that I think Marc can speak to that remain unresolved.

But I think -- I don't think there's anybody who can look at this who doesn't see this is a short-term success, at the very least, that they are talking, that they have achieved this and they have tamped down where they were.

BERMAN: Well, nothing is done here. I mean, the critics of this say, "All you've done is add another 90 days," which is exactly what the Chinese do in negotiations, which is delay, delay, delay. And you've given 90 days to fix problems that have existed for decades now. So how are they going to fix it in the next 90 days, what they couldn't fix in decades? That's the criticism there.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I think some people would say that this was an unnecessary fight. At least this way of fighting this particular battle would not necessarily have been the way to go about it.

The 90 days is to deal with one of the critical issues, which is about intellectual property theft, which is a global problem. It's not just the United States that has this problem with China; it's a lot of the developed world, as well. And instead of using our allies to kind of align themselves and work to get China to address those issues, the president decided to use tariffs, which is a pretty archaic tool, to get China to the table.

And maybe they have gotten them to the table. But we should be very careful, because over time, over the last year, they've been trying to get China to the table. There have been the motions of conversations happening between the two parties, but they have not been making a lot of progress. The administration has been very clear on that.

[06:25:07] China would send back demands in Mandarin for the United States to translate them, laboriously over time. I mean, this process has not been easy. Time is not necessarily the only thing that will help this problem, and I think that this is -- this is a temporary hold to let the markets settle down.

But there needs to be a kind of rethinking of how to approach the Chinese on this issue. I think the administration recognizes that.

CAMEROTA: OK. So unnecessary drama or unalloyed success from where you sit?

MARC SHORT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I do think it's a significant achievement. I do think you see the market react to that. But I appreciate the temper here, because I think that, as John says, this is something that's actually been going on for a couple of decades. And there's a lot of problems unresolved. And the administration is beginning to say, "Look, we need to address intellectual property. We need to address China forcing partial ownership of investments in China."

CAMEROTA: But were tariffs the way to do it? The trade war threat?

SHORT: I think it got us to the table.

BERMAN: And they're still there. By the way, the tariffs are still there. Nothing has changed.

CAMEROTA: Well, they did not go up.

BERMAN: They didn't go up, but --

SHORT: That's why the markets are obviously celebrating. But there's a long way to go here. And I think one thing that's a change is the national security environment was less comfortable with the president's tariffs on E.U. and our allies.

If some of those trade issues begin to get solved, there's far more unity from the national security environment to say we need to put pressure on China. They're becoming a global menace in the Pacific. So there is a broader consensus behind the president's more aggressive actions.

BERMAN: There's another element to this, Abby -- and you can weigh in here -- is that the president couldn't handle or would not have been possible for him to juggle one more element of chaos here, given everything that's going on in the Mueller investigation, given the defeat, the Democrats in the House in the midterm elections. He needed at least a 90-day respite from that.

PHILLIP: That's entirely possible. I think that there's something to be said for going into this G-20 -- I was in Argentina a few days ago. There were so many issues on the table.

He came in with Mueller hanging over his head. There was the potential for a meeting with Putin. There was the issue with Saudi Arabia, and then there was also China.

There is -- there is, to some extent, the president is always juggling a lot of things. But to some extent, you have to prioritize. And in some ways, this issue with China would become a political problem for President Trump if the markets took a turn, if the economy suddenly started to look like they were looking toward an economic slowdown. Because these tariffs are significant. They do have an effect.

And I think it was probably, in the view of a lot of people in the administration and outside of the administration, wise to turn the temperature down, give him some more time to deal with some other thing. And especially going into a reelection, the president needs the economy to be on his side and not to be turning just at the time that he's trying to convince voters to give him four more years.

GREGORY: I think that's a critical point. But look, this is a core political principle for President Trump to take on China, and he's got a big constituency to do that.

BERMAN: Bipartisan constituency.

GREGORY: Bipartisan. And not even -- even if everyone doesn't agree on how to do it, how to go about it, but he does have to balance, as we come to the end of 2018, how much that brinksmanship affects an already, you know, globally downturn in the economy. He's going to be keenly aware of balancing that.

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's talk about what's happening tomorrow. So President Trump is going to be meeting again with Nancy Pelosi and Schumer, the Democratic leaders.

Last time it seemed to go well until it didn't. So last time they met, and they thought they had some sort of deal on DACA and then it fell apart. So what are you expecting now?

SHORT: Well, I think a more appropriate analogy is September 2017. There was the meeting with the four leaders -- McConnell, Ryan, Pelosi and Schumer -- to discuss government funding. And I think that we were all prepared to have a Republican position and a Democrat position, that we were going to stand solid, and the president in the course of the meeting decided he wanted to partner with Pelosi and Schumer to extend government funding for three more months.

BERMAN: How surprised were you?

SHORT: Very surprised. Very surprised. BERMAN: How happy were you?

SHORT: Well, at the time not, but obviously, the president's decision was right, John, because we're able to avert a shutdown that time. We were able to get a much larger omnibus spending deal that helped him to rebuild the military as he promised. And so he made the right decision.

BERMAN: You're not as optimistic this time?

SHORT: I'm not. Because right now -- what's different with this shutdown is typically, it's a full government shutdown. You've already funded all the men and women in uniform. You've funded HHS and basically, entitlement checks.

So the pressure point to bring this to a close I don't see.

It's a very different shutdown. It's a partial shutdown that's basically funding homeland security, and Democrats want to dig in on their opposition to the border wall. The president wants to get his $5 billion for the border wall. And I don't see a resolution where there's a pressure point that brings us to resolution.

GREGORY: What could he give, I guess is the question? What do you give if you get? He had a chance to get that border money -- that border wall money before, and then there were things that got it caught up. But what would he be willing to give to get that?

SHORT: Well, I think from the president's perspective, David, he believes that we need the border security. He knows that this is the end of the Republican-controlled Congress. So what he's going to give, I think, is less.

CAMEROTA: That's not a negotiation.

BERMAN: Merry Christmas. Merry freaking Christmas, everybody.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, guys, very much.