Transcript for Trump says he’s open to temporary deal to end shutdown
here on a Thursday night. We begin tonight with you new developments. The president signaling he might be willing to reopen the government for three weeks as they continue to debate his border wall. They are trying to broker some sort of a deal. The white house had initially said late today the president would reopen the government for a time if there was a significant down payment on the wall. But a short time later, the president signals that down payment was just one idea. So is there moment snont Jonathan Karl leading us off. Reporter: Compromise growing? Tonight, he didn’t real out spoortding it for the border wall. Would you support a temporary spending bill without money for the wall? Just to reopen? I wouldn’t be happy with it. I wouldn’t be happy. We have a lot of alternatives. Even if it has no wall money? Does it have to have wall money? Look, look. I have other alternatives if I have to. I’ll use those alternatives if I have to. We want to go through the system. We have to have a wall in this country. Reporter: This comes less than 24 hours after the president backed down from his showdown with house speaker Nancy Pelosi over his state of the union address. Now the president told us the speaker’s demand that the speech be delayed until after the shutdown is, quote, reasonable. What she said, I thought, was actually reasonable. We’ll have the state of the union when the shutdown is over. When do you think that’s going to be? That, I can’t tell you. That, I can’t tell you, but we have a lot of alternatives, but we need border security. Reporter: The president’s comments on day 34 of the shutdown come amid new accusations the white house is turning a blind eye to the 800,000 federal employees about to miss another paycheck. People like these coast guard workers, lining up at a food pantry in Connecticut. How about Mac and cheese for the kids? Reporter: Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross is under fire for these comments earlier today. There are reports there are some federal workers who are going to homeless shelters to get food. I know they are, and I don’t understand why. The 30 days of pay that some people will be out, there’s no real reason why they shouldn’t be able to get a loan. Reporter: Democrats calling Ross, who is a billionaire, a modern day Marie Antoinette. They have Wilbur Ross saying he doesn’t understand why. When he was asked about people going to food lines and pantries, he said he doesn’t understand why they have to do that. Is this a let them eat cake kind of attitude, or call your father for money. Er. Of course all of this zwoping as we come on the air tonight. Jon Karl at the white house. Both parties trying to hash out some ort of a deal tonight. And speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding some of the cards here. And down payment for the border wall to reopen? Reporter: Speaker Pelosi continues to insist that money for the border wall should not be mart of any agreement to reopen the government. The same time, you have the president saying the wall must be build one way or another. He said there are alternatives and one of the alternatives still under consideration, trying to bypass congress declaring a national emergency? Thank you.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
