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I have a girlfriend who's studying in America off a visa. Our hope is eventually getting a green card. So what is your view on legal immigration? My view is, look, there are people who want to come to the United States of America, and some of them, I'm sure, can enrich the United States of America by coming here. But we have got to get our overall numbers way, way down. Too many people have come into the United States of America. CAITLIN HUEY-BURNS: Let's bring in our reporter panel for this Thursday-- Daniella Diaz from NOTUS and Politico's Nicholas Wu. And they both cover Congress. It's nice to see you both off the Hill and in our studio today. I want to talk all about the government shutdown in a minute. But Daniella, I'm interested in JD Vance because the president has obviously been on his Asia trip. He's coming back tonight. But JD Vance has really kind of taken on this role. I mean, you see him in there, but also he was on the Hill this week. It's interesting how he has kind of become the kind of lead negotiator, a little bit, from the White House perspective. Has that done anything to work on any minds in Congress? I mean, it really seems that they're still talking about potentially trying to end the shutdown. Those talks have really escalated. They say they're talking, but nothing concrete escalated in the past couple of days. But there's nothing new. I mean, it's been weeks of this. You've been there, Caitlin. Nick's been there. I've been there. And regardless of the fact that the vice president has met with senators, the shutdown has come up, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of urgency to address this, although, to be clear, a lot is about to change this weekend. We've all been seeing the reports of, obviously, SNAP is ending on November 1. So is the ACA subsidies expire. People are going to see their open enrollment numbers, the premiums go up. That could be what changes things next week. But the Senate left town earlier today. And the House has been gone since September 19. CAITLIN HUEY-BURNS: I mean, Nick, this could be potentially the longest shutdown in history if it makes it past next Wednesday. Daniella mentioned those pressure points. How are you seeing the two parties handle those pressure points? It seems like they're thinking that the other side is going to cave. I mean, they both seem to be looking at November 1 as kind of a deadline for the other side. What's your reporting? I mean, that's kind of been the problem with the entire shutdown from the get-go. Both parties think that all these different pressure points, the expiration of SNAP benefits, the expiration of these tax credits, the issues with the FAA and air traffic delays, that will be the thing to bring the other side to the table. But so far, neither side is budging. No one wants to come down from any of their positions. Republicans are insisting the Democrats just need to open up the government, and then they can talk. Democrats are saying Trump needs to be in the room. We need to talk about the ACA and health care, and then we can figure out everything else. Right. I mean, these positions, they've been so entrenched for the past month. And it's been amazing that we have seen all this outside pressure start to build, and nobody is budging. Daniella, I'm wondering if you have seen any sort of signs of any conversations that may rise to the level of being something, or is this really just kind of a blinking game? From the very beginning, Caitlin, Majority Leader John Thune in the Senate has said this is going to be something rank-and-file members solve. And essentially, it's going to take both moderates in the Democratic side and the Republican side to start these conversations. And what we've seen is that there's the very beginning of talks in the last 36 hours. They're calling them shadow negotiations, shadow conversations, between moderates, Democratic senators, and Republicans to potentially address ACA subsidies, which is the reason that Democrats are not supporting that CR that Republicans passed in the House along party lines. And it's unclear whether they'll be able to do anything in the next couple of days. Like I mentioned, they're not here. But I did talk to Senator Lisa Murkowski earlier today, and she said, there's talks of talks. And then when we asked her, well, Senator, is their updates? What can you tell us about where these talks are? She said, let me go check. Even she's still figuring out whether anything has moved the ball on these talks and negotiations. CAITLIN HUEY-BURNS: I mean, you say that this is like the least urgent shutdown that we've had. And I really think that's true. And Nick, I'm wondering-- I keep thinking about Democrats. And you see the numbers. 13 times now, they have not voted to open the government or support this short-term resolution. I'm wondering if you're sensing anything among Democrats of SNAP beneficiaries, a lot of people that we say that we care about are going to really suffer here. Is that having any momentum in terms of pushing any Democrats? So far, that hasn't moved anyone yet. I mean, I asked Democrats at a press conference yesterday whether or not they-- how they weighed the needs of their constituents who they were fighting for health care for and those who could potentially go hungry without SNAP benefits in the coming days. And Democrats told me that they didn't really see any contradiction between those two positions. And so, this brings us back to the kind of loggerheads that we've been at on this all along. Yeah, absolutely. Well, no end in sight. And a lot of people are going to be hit especially hard this weekend on all fronts. I know you guys will be back at it next week when Congress comes back. I should note the House has not been in session for the past six weeks either. We'll see whether they return. Daniella and Nick, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.
