"The longest government shutdown in U.S. history, day 26. The White House team of economists says it is twice as bad for the economy as predicted. What are you hearing about whether or not this white house and this president feels the sting and it may cause movement?" John Berman said.
"I think there is a divide between the president and this White House. A lot of people in the White House have been privately urging him to move on, get this done with, bend in some way. Do something that can be characterized as a win or come up with a third way where maybe the Senate opens and we have had various proposals on this," Maggie Haberman said.
The Senate finds a way to re-open the government so Nancy Pelosi doesn't claim a victory. But the president is very dug in still. He's getting very agitated. He's not happy with the headlines or the reviews of his speech which polls have shown didn't move any public perception about the wall or this fight. The headlines are getting worse and worse. That said, I still think we are in for a while longer."
"Does the economic damage report assessment get his attention the way other things have not?" Alysin Camerota said.
"It definitely gets his attention. It's not as if he wasn't aware of it. He tends to see things as if they are more real when they are on TV or in print than when he is told by advisers. We'll see how it plays out. That's what he's staked his re-election on, is the idea that there will be a good economy. I think that will catch his eye more than most things."
"Over the last two days, I understand, you have heard from sources as to whom they think is running the White House as the de facto chief of staff. Who is that?" Berman asked.
"Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law," Haberman replied. (SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!!)
"What you will hear from people around Jared Kushner is, he has his own discrete pieces of work. That's during the campaign-- whoever was in charge especially in the later stages of the general election campaign, Jared Kushner was behind the scenes managing most of it, taking credit when things went well and distancing himself when they didn't. That's true now more than ever. Mick Mulvaney is not seen as a strong chief of staff because he's not providing a buffer between the staff and the president. Jared Kushner has been rising internally. We have seen him part of the negotiations on the hill though he doesn't really have a ton of relationships beyond his work on criminal justice reform.
"He is feeling ascendant."
Isn't that nice. This crooked son of a crook is serving the crook-in-chief.
