[King:] Democrats offering a new tact. You might call it a new power play on this, day 26 of the partial government shutdown. Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying the president should cancel or at least delay his upcoming State of the Union address on January 29th. She says the president should do that unless unless the shutdown is resolved this week. Now, it's still an open question, or is it? Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, just moments ago here on CNN, being a little more straightforward, saying the State of the Union is off. The Democrats' argument? They say the event requires too much security from officers who, at the moment, are not being paid because of the shutdown. Speaker Pelosi offers this alternative.
[Rep. Nancy Pelosi , House Speaker:] This is a housekeeping matter in the Congress of the United States so that we can honor the responsibility of the invitation we extended to the president. You can make it from the Oval Office.
[King:] CNN's Lauren Fox live on Capitol Hill. Lauren, what's behind Pelosi's move here?
[Lauren Fox, Cnn Congressional Reporter:] Well, if you read that letter from Nancy Pelosi, the language is pretty cordial, but it is ultimately up to her whether the president gets to come before a joint session of Congress and deliver that State of the Union Address. I want to read just a little bit of that letter from her. She said, sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest we work together to determine another suitable date after government has reopened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union Address in writing to Congress on January 29th. Now, it's important to remember that this is a high-security event. And that is the rationale that Nancy Pelosi uses in her letter. She's trying to say to the president, look, you've got members of cabinet you have members of the cabinet here, you have members of the Supreme Court and you also have the entire Congress and the vice president sitting in one room. That is a high-security event. She says unless that government shutdown end and furloughed workers are getting paid, it's not worth having the public address, that the optics here could look tough for the president of the United States and Congress as they both have failed to come to the agreement on how to end this government shutdown, John.
[King:] Another wrinkle. Day 26. Still no signs of any tangible progress, though, for people who are missing paychecks. Coast Guard today missing its first paycheck. Thank you, Lauren Fox, live on Capitol Hill. With me in studio to share their reporting and their insights, CNN's Dana Bash, Michael Bender with "The Wall Street Journal," Carl Hulse of "The New York Times" and CNN's MJ Lee. So, security, Secret Service, other security officers not getting checks. That's Pelosi's rationale. Is it her reason?
[Carl Hulse, Chief Washington Correspondent, "the New York Times":] I don't I don't think so. I mean you could you could have had this event. I a couple of things that I thought of immediately this morning. I was up there yesterday talking to members saying, this is going to be a strange State of the Union if the government is shut down, and I think Nancy Pelosi, one, is showing she is reminding Trump, she's got power right now. This is up to her. And he can come if she decides that he can come. Two, I don't think the Democrats wanted to sit there and be lectured by the president, who gets to give a pretty uninterrupted address there, interrupted, of course, only by applause and boos. But I don't think that they wanted that during the shutdown. It would have been it would have been really a tricky situation under any circumstance.
[King:] Would have been a tricky situation for the president as well
[Hulse:] Yes.
[Dana Bash, Cnn Chief Political Correspondent:] Yes.
[King:] To stand before the American people at a time, today, today, that's 13 days from now. The speech is scheduled 13 days from now. It would have been a tough challenge for the president if Speaker Pelosi has planted her flag. She's not moving in these negotiations so far. Would have also been tough for the president to stand there, you're right, he has this big, high podium from which to lecture the Democrats, but he also has to talk to the country about, why are we still doing this?
[Bash:] Yes, exactly. I think I'm probably in the minority at this table because coming out of the break I said, I think that she did him a favor. Certainly she has her own very real political reasons. And, of course, you hit the nail on the head on that. But, yes, the president might think going in that he's got the upper hand physically and also because he's the one giving the speech, but he has to say something other than wag his finger and say, give me my wall. He has to say something that makes it more understandable and a little bit comprehensible why he is not cutting the deal that he promised on the campaign trail he could cut because of all his years in business. And it's not happening. It's a complete stalemate.
[King:] And out in America people are saying, what about me, the 800,000 plus who are missing their check. Coast Guard for the first time missing a check today. And then the domino effect in their communities with restaurants and other services and other businesses and federal contractors. They're saying, why are you having a Pelosi-Trump conversation. But we're having a Pelosi-Trump conversation because the only way to fix that for them is for one of these two or both to move.
[Mj Lee, Cnn National Political Correspondent:] Right. And even by day 26, it was not clear that there was going to be anything to push President Trump over the edge to make some kind of concession over something to click in his head that this has been going on for much too long for his political good. But I do think the point about the economy is an important one, and that's going to be the dynamic for us to watch as we get these stories pouring in from across the country about real families who are not getting paychecks and are struggling because of the missing paychecks, whether that ends up making an impression on Trump in a way that nothing else has so far, particularly given that the economy and the economic growth has been the rare, one bright spot that has been consistent for the president. And, remember, something that he is planning on running on for his re- election, if he feels like that is going to be severely damaged, then I do think we can see a scenario where he starts to change his tune.
[King:] The question is, how does he change his tune? Does he say, I'll take no wall money? That was the original plan that, at the last minute, he backed away from. Or does he then try to cut a traditional Washington deal where I'll take half or I'll take a third or whatever. We don't know that. But we do know right now is everybody's waiting on this economic impact, looking at the polling. So far about a half dozen Senate Republicans have started to get squeamish about this. That's not enough. It would take probably twice that to get the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, to move. Until then, the Republicans, even though the polling shows Americans a majority of Americans blame the president, Mitch McConnell, on the floor today, trying to say, look at the speaker.
[Sen. Mitch Mcconnell , Majority Leader:] One dollar. One dollar. That's the amount that the new speaker of the House recently said she'd be willing to invest in physical barriers at our southern border. For federal workers who are now stretching every dollar until Democrats lose interest in dead-end political games, the speaker's one-dollar punchline is not very entertaining.
[King:] This is what we have. This is we're going to have the posturing and the finger-pointing, and it's necessary. Both sides feel the need to make their case politically. But do we know the answer? Is the president prepared to back down and take less than the nearly $6 billion he has demanded? Do we know the answer? Is Speaker Pelosi willing to go to her liberal caucus and say, we have to give him half of that or what's the number to get a deal? We don't know, right?
[Michael Bender, White House Reporter, "the Wall Street Journal":] No, we don't know and I can tell you neither does the White House right now either. They're frustrated with the inside politics questions here on Nancy's Nancy Pelosi announcement this morning. We reported at "The Wall Street Journal" last week the White House was talking about who to use the State of the Union in order to as a cajole against lawmakers if the shutdown still continued. All those plans are going to be wiped out if they cancel the cancel that meeting. And the bigger question that you brought up as well, federal workers are missing paychecks. That's a big deal. And there is and there are cracks inside the White House right now on that point. There's a there's a faction inside the White House that is saying, this is no longer a messaging war, Mr. President. These people losing their paychecks is a real issue that we need to find a way out of. You showed the clip of Mitch McConnell here. There's a lot of people in the White House that are hoping Mitch McConnell bails them out yet again.
[King:] He but he's hesitant to bail them out yet again because he, with the vice president in the room, and other White House officials back and forth on Capitol Hill, passed a piece of legislation that the president then backed away from at the last minute. So I there there will be no deal without Mitch McConnell in the end. The question is, when does he decide to raise his cautious hand?
[Bash:] My impression in talking to people around him is that he saw it as his job to negotiate out of a shutdown when he was minority leader and there was a Democrat in the White House, but in this situation and it is not just that there's a Republican in the White House, but it's this Republican who is, shall we say, an unreliable negotiating partner for him. He got very burned at the end of December, like you talked about. Don't I don't expect to see him jumping to save the day any time soon.
[King:] Right. And so the president
[Bash:] Because he can't without the president.
[King:] Right. And the president has some members of the Problem Solving Caucus down at the White House now. Some of them are Democrats. It's good that people are meeting. I think people should meet. Eventually they're going to have to cut a deal, but there's no reason, right? No reason
[Hulse:] The problem with this is, it's not a typical Washington negotiation.
[King:] Right.
[Hulse:] Usually you split the difference. But you can't split wall or no wall.
[King:] Right.
[Hulse:] So how do you get to that resolution? As far as Senate McConnell talking to Senate Republicans yesterday, the polling is, yes, as you said, the president's getting the blame, not them. So right now they're kind of comfortable where they are. Let the president and Nancy Pelosi fight this out. I don't see Mitch McConnell rushing in here at all.
[King:] Right. And there's also the two Americans polling in the sense that Republicans don't want the president to cave.
[Hulse:] Right.
[King:] They want the wall. Democrats don't want the speaker to budge at all. They don't they want the president to get a big zero. So we have that's one of the splits in the
[Barack Obama, Former U.s. President:] Even in the midst of the enormous challenges we face today, I have great faith and hope about the future because I believe in you, and that's why I wanted to tell you first that I'll be filing papers today to create a presidential exploratory committee.