an agriculture bill which includes money for food stamps, and one to fund housing and transportation programs. tomorrow they'll 2008 funding to reopening national parks. yesterday they agreed to a spending bill for the treasury department, including the i.r.s. the house back at noon eastern to begin their legislative work. we'll have live coverage here on c-span. in the meantime, we'll take you to the white house a short while ago president trump heading for texas, his visit today to the u.s.-mexico border. he spoke with reporters before he departed the white house. president trump: we're going to texas. we're going to the border. just hope some spoke to some of my friends in arizona.

we have address the house for one minute support. the republicans are extremely united. they all want to see something happen, but you they are extremely united. and i don't think i have ever seen unity like this in the republican party. the media, which i call the opposition party, a lot of the media, in coordination with the democrats, they are not talking about the democrats -- for instance, this morning a number of people came out and said you do need very strong border security. that includes a wall or whatever it is. a number of democrats said that. but people don't like to report on it. e have tremendous unity in the republican party. it's really a beautiful thing to see. i don't think there will be any break away because they know we need border security. we have to have it. the only way you you can have border security, there is only one way you can have all the technology in the world, i'm a professional in technology, but

if you don't have a steel barrier or wall of some kind, strong, powerful, you are going to have human trafficking, are you going to have drugs pouring across the border, are you going to have ms-13 and the gangs coming in. and we have done apprehensions. we're doing a great job. but we need help. if we have the wall we could .ave far fewer people doing and even better job f we had the wall, we could have a tremendous savings. i really believe the steel barrier or wall will pay for itself every three or four months and maybe even better than that in terms of overall. so that's it. just a couple can of things cause i know, during the campaign i would say mexico's going to pay for it. obviously i never said this and

i never meant they'll write out a check. i said they are going to pay for t they are. they are paying for it with the incredible deal we made for the united states, mexico, and canada, usmca deal, it's a trade deal. it has to be approved by congress. it probably will be other than maybe they even hold that up because they want to have -- they want to do as much harm as they can, only because there will be 2020 presidential elections. mexico is paying for the wall indirectly. and when i said mexico will pay for the wall in front of thousands and thousands of people, obviously they are not going to write a check. but they are paying for the wall indirectly. many, many times over. by the really great trade deal we just made. congress has to a approve the eal. i intended to go and speak in

front of the world financial community in da vose. --davos. that's still on, but if the shutdown continues, if the shutdown continues, i won't go. i had planned to go. it's been very successful when i went. we have a great story to tell. we have the best job numbers we have ever had in many ways. certainly with african-americans, with hispanic, with asian americans. overall we have the best job numbers in at least 50 years. we have a lot of great things happening. the economy is incredible. we're negotiating and having tremendous success with china. and i find china, frankly, in many waste to be far more nancy. e than chuck and i think that china is much easier to deal with than the pposition party.

[inaudible] president trump: i have the absolute right to o declare a national emergency. the lawyers have so advised me. i'm not prepared to do that yet. but if i have to, i will. i have no doubt about it. i will. i would be absolutely right to declare. when you say wasn't passed by congress, it was. other presidents have used it. some fairly often. i have the absolute right to declare a national emergency. i haven't done it yet. i may do it. if this doesn't work out, probably will do it. his is a national emergency. i like to do the deal through congress. and makes sense to do it

through congress. an easy route for me would have been call a a national emergency and do it. will i tell you, this is a tremendous -- i will tell you, this is a tremendous -- look at president obama's statement from the past. numerous statements where he calls it a crisis. this is a crisis. you have human trafficking. you have drugs. you have criminals coming in. you have gangs, ms-13. we're taking them out by the thousands and bringing them back. this is a crisis. had he don't come in at a checkpoint, which they do also, but you they go in between the checkpoints where you don't have barriers. if we don't make a deal, i would say 100%, i don't want to say 100% because that would be something else comes up. but if we don't make a deal, i would say it would be a -- that

i would not declare a national emergency and just fund it through the various mechanisms. by the way, there is more than one mechanism. there are various mechanisms. and the lawyers told me 100%. it would be nice if we could make a deal. dealing with these people is ridiculous. i don't know if they know how to make a deal. we need -- ill tar heel you what, a lot of democrats, i was looking at numbers, a lot of numbers agree we need national security. the only way you have it, the only way you have it, is you have to have a strong border. the only way you have a strong border is you need a wall or you need some kind of a -- go ahead. you need a steel barrier. if you don't have a steel barrier or a concrete wall, forget it. >> picture this morning showing steel barrier wall.

president trump: that's a wall that was designed by previous administrations. there is nothing that can't be penetrated. but it's a very difficult thing to do. there are other walls. we have many walls under consideration. even concrete. there's acid that can go through concrete. what you do is you fix it. it's very much limited. it's very, very hard. the wall we're doing is very, very hard to penetrate. >> mr. president you walked out on the democrats. are you going to bring back -- how can you -- president trump: the news incorrectly reported because i said, well, if we go back and everything's peachy doory and you you say we'll talk over days, at the end of 30 days are you going to give us great border security, which includes a wall or a steel barrier? she said no. i didn't pound on the table.

i didn't raise my voice. that was a lie. what you should do is give them pinocchios. if you ask mike pence and kevin mccarthy, anybody in the room, they will say because i know if i do that you are going to report it. you guys report it anyway because you fake news. let me tell you something. i very calmly said, if you are not going to give us strong borders, bye-bye. and i left. i didn't rant. i didn't rave like you reported. don't the newspapers, i have 10 -- it plays to his narrative. it's a lie. i very calmly walked out of the room. i didn't smash the table. i should have but didn't smash the table. that's the story. ll of that narrative is a lie. how can you get a deal if

you're not talking to them? you walked out? president trump: i think there's far more pressure on them. because the people of our country want security. we want to be a secure country. we don't want drugs flowing in. most of our drugs coming through the southern border. they are coming through the port aals, they come in between the portals where you have no barrier. [inaudible] president trump: human pain? the parents, people who have children killed by an illegal immigrant that should have never been in the country. you know where there is more human pain? the husband who lost their wife or the wife that lost a husband to an illegal immigrant that came in five or six times that shouldn't be here. that's the human pain. the people that will be paid but maybe a little bit later, those people, many of them, are on my side. they want to see border security.

may be the y, nbc most dishonest reporters of all ime. i have no idea. go ahead, next question. inaudible] petroleum: i can't hear you. -- president trump: i can't hear you you. we have plenty of funds if this is a national messagecy. here are a lot of funds. if we declare a national emergency, we have a tremendous amount of funds. tremendous. if we want to do that, if we want to go that route.

again, there is no reason why we can't come to a deal. we have another side that doesn't care about border security. the democrats which i have been saying all along, they don't give a damn about crime. they don't care about crime. they don't care about gang members coming in and stabbing people and cutting people up. they don't care about crime. if they are not going to care about crime, then i agree. they shouldn't want anything at the border. but i care about crime. and i care about drugs. we're spending a fortune trying to stop drugs. and they pour in through the border. i see it more now than ever before the democrats don't care about the border and they don't are about crime. [inaudible] president trump: it began a long time. ask president obama. obama used to call it a crisis at the border, too. 2014. he said it in

look, you can all play cute. i say 80% of you are possibly in cord can can nice -- coordination with the opposition party. the whole thing is ridiculous. all you have to do is look at the border. rent a helicopter if you don't want to know the truth. by the way, here's the story. ere is another major caravan forming right now in honduras. and so far we're trying to break it up. but so far it's bigger than anything we have seen. and a drone isn't going to stop it. and a censor isn't going to stop it. you know what's going to stop it in its tracks? nice powerful wall. [inaudible] president trump: the buck stops with everybody. they could solve this problem in literally 15 minutes.

we could be back, we could have border security, they could stop this problem. it's 15 minutes if they wanted to. i really believe now that they don't want to. i really believe that. i really believe they don't care about crime. i really believe this. the democrats don't care about crime. they have been taken over by a group of young people who, frankly, in some cases i have been watching, i actually think they are crazy. but they have been taken over by a group that's so far left i really don't think they care about crime. you know, sadly, they are viewing this as the beginning of the 2020 presidential race. that's ok with me. but they have been taken over by a group of people that don't care about gangs. they don't care about hewnman trafficking and drugs. they don't care about anything. i'll tell you what, they have one crazy.

president trump: we have to get win or national security. one or the other. either we're going to win or make a compromise. i'm ok to making a compromise. compromise is in my vocabulary very strongly. so we're either going to have a win, make a compromise because i think a compromise is a win for everybody. or i will declare a national emergency. this is a thing that the lawyers tell me is 100%. ust read the language. we'll have to see. no solution whatsoever, we'll have to see. >> mr. president did you know

that paul manafort andon from your campaign -- president trump: i didn't know anything about it. othing about it. i wish him luck. i wish him luck. it will be a beauty. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> meanwhile on capitol hill on this 20th day of the government shutdown, house speaker nancy pelosi briefed reporters on the house response and their fforts to open the government. ms. pelosi: good morning. this week the house democrats re continuing our -- to pass senate republican