Hi there. Welcome to Meet the Press now. I'm Ryan Nobles on a very busy day in Washington, where we are covering multiple breaking stories and multiple high-stakes meetings happening at the White House.

Top congressional leaders and President Trump are set to be meeting right now with a government

shutdown now less than 36 hours away.

This meeting is a small sign of progress toward avoiding a shutdown after President Trump

canceled a meeting with top Democrats late last week.

But as the meeting was set to begin,

there was no sign from either side that they were ready to strike a deal. This afternoon,

the president put the onus on Democrats to make a deal. Well, Democrats are skeptical that

Republicans are actually interested in serious negotiation. Chuck Schumer came back with a long

laundry list of partisan demands that don't fit into this process,

and he's going to try to shut the government down. The president wants to talk with him about that and say,

please, don't do that. Chuck Schumer is doing this for one reason. He is trying to get cover from the

far left base of his party because they've been hammering him for not fighting Trump. So he's going to try to

show that he's fighting Trump, but he has absolutely no logical basis for doing so here.

So we've been resolute that we need a meeting, that we need a real negotiation, that you don't do

this by one party putting together a completely partisan bill and saying take it or leave it.

So they felt the heat. The president

at first said no. Remember, he first said yes for a meeting? Then he said no for a meeting. It went

on a rant against Democrats. But I think they felt the heat and they now want to sit down.

House Republicans passed a short-term funding extension, but it needs Democratic votes to pass the

Senate, and Democrats are standing firm on their demands, which includes the extension of some

Affordable Care Act subsidies and a reversal of cuts to Medicaid. House Minority Leader Jeffries

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