E.J. Dionne & Norman Ornstein on Dysfunction in Washington

NORMAN ORNSTEIN, SCHOLAR, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: You know it’s interesting, Richard Nixon, of course, was impeached. Bill Clinton went through impeachment in the House. Ronald Reagan went through an Iran-contra investigation. And while all of those things were going on, those presidents managed to do business with Congress. They managed to get the nation’s work done. This is the first time we’ve seen a president, as E.J. put it, very adeptly, go on strike.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Well, let me just play this —

E.J. DIONNE, WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST: You know —

AMANPOUR: Go ahead, E.J., and then I want to play the sound that backs up what Norm just said. But you go ahead because you coined that phrase.

DIONNE: Right. He doesn’t think much of the Trade Union Movement but he is the first president to go on strike. And I think this reflects two very different problems. Problem one is Trump is really beginning to feel the pressure of this investigation. Two court decisions this week went against him in terms of disclosing information about his financial empire. The one thing he seems desperately afraid of is the possibility that the Congress and everyone else will learn more about where his money came from, what his interests are, whether there are conflicts of interest and, of course, how this might bear on the Russia story. But the other part of what happened is that Trump knew perfectly well even though he promised a big infrastructure program that sounded like what Democrats have promised for many years, his own party is not willing to support it. He could not come up with the financing for it. So, this episode that we just saw is dysfunction on two levels. One, specifically having to do with Trump and his troubles but the other having to do with his own party, which hasn’t been able to pass a bill to fix roads and bridges and transit for a decade, for more than a decade at this point.

AMANPOUR: So, we’re going to unpick all that stuff. But first, let me sort of set this table. Can the president actually refuse to work with Congress? I mean, what actually does it mean, what does it entail? I guess what I’m trying to say is, can he go on strike and sort of expect that Congress will not consider — not continue the oversights or will Congress keep trying to do and keep, you know, enacting that part that its sort capacity there?

ORNSTEIN: What we are going to see is the House, which passed 100 bills sitting in the Senate, where the Republican leader Mitch McConnell refuses to do anything on them, will continue to pass legislation. Trump is going to have to do something at least to keep the government running or we’ll have another shutdown that the last time proved to be quite destructive for Republicans and could happen again.