Van Jones asks Sen. Ted Cruz if it was wrong to go against Republican leaders and continue his push against Obamacare. JONES TO CRUZ: You came to this town, within a year you're the most prominent Republican in this town and we now have polling data that shows the Republican party is less popular than it's ever been in the history of

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I suspect a bait and switch on the part of the Obama administration. Obama was quite clear on Tuesday when he said he had been demanding up until now, you give me a one year extension on the debt or I'm not going to talk. Boehner said all I want to do is talk. So the president offered him and off ramp in which he said, 'Well, I

LAURA INGRAHAM: 'Some in GOP Ready to Back Down' is Karen Tumulty's piece on the front page of the Washington Post today. Most Republicans think the Cruz strategy was a failure. CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Well, can Cruz show us how it was a success? What was his end game? Look, everybody was excited, it was a great a filibuster, a wonderful speech. Wh

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says Democrats will only negotiate with Republican lawmakers once the government is open again. He called the shutdown's effects on Americans "tear-jerking."

"In public exchange, there needs to be humility, honesty, and stability. That's all. That's what he lacks. There's no accountability. Nobody edits that blog at the New York Times, and it's high time somebody calls him out. People are afraid of him. I’m not," Harvard economist Niall Ferguson said about Paul Krugman on "Morning Joe" today. The crit

JAKE TAPPER: You write in the book kind of predicting what we're going through right now. You write that aides who were involved in previous conversations, quote, "are frightened because there are too few conversations between the White House and the Republicans and there is insufficient framework or history to suggest how they might succeed in the

Rep. James Lankford (R-OK) says defunding Obamacare is no longer on the table, GOP now pushing for delay of penalties. JAKE TAPPER: Well, it all started, of course, because House Republicans linked the complete defunding of Obamacare to government spending. Whatever happened to that? In an op-ed in "USA Today" yesterday, you wrot

When asked about if Republicans still want to defund or delay Obama’s signature health care law to end the shutdown, Boehner answered: “If ands or buts were candy and nuts, then every day would be Christmas.”

CRAWFORD: In the past week, the president’s signature achievement has become the butt of late night jokes. […] No one knows how many people have managed to enroll. The administration refuses to release those numbers. But the website’s launch has been nothing short of disastrous. Media outlets have struggled to find anyone who’s actually

Responding to news that Fidelity no longer holds any U.S. government debt that comes due around the time the nation could hit its borrowing limit next Thursday, Pimco founder Bill Gross says his firm is doing the opposite, "probably buying what Fidelity is selling."

Former congressman and failed New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner went on Hannity Wednesday night in an attempt to discuss his future plans and the ongoing debt ceiling battle in Washington, but within a few minutes, the conversation became totally derailed. Near the end of the clip, after such classic lines as, "I get to do

BRET BAIER: We begin with National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin at the Pentagon and a public relations nightmare over military death benefits. Good evening, Jennifer. JENNIFER GRIFFIN: Good evening, Bret. After two days of political sniping and public outcry, the Congress, White House and Pentagon scrambled to come up with a solution

Jonah Goldberg, Kirsten Powers, and Charles Krauthammer discuss the outrageous interruption of death benefits for the families of fallen soldiers.

SEN. HARRY REID: The senior senator from Texas has been always very courteous to me. Yesterday was no exception, in withholding his unanimous consent request when we discussed this issue. It was about 2:00 in the afternoon, as he indicated. And I indicated I thought if we waited until 3:30, we would have this matter resolved. That’s what I had be

Q: My takeaway is that the president is open to signing the short-term raising of the debt limit even if he does not get from Congress an accompanying clean CR. Is that correct? JAY CARNEY: Well, I’ll just try again. The president believes — the answer is yes, but he’s not paying a ransom for Congress to do its job, because the only people

TRACY SEARS, WTVR-TV RICHMOND: There is so much at stake with this shutdown, particularly in Virginia where we have so many federal workers. How do you see — or what do you see as the biggest impact to Virginia, to the Commonwealth right now. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, as you mentioned, there are a lot of people who work for the federal government

On Wednesday, Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray confronted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, urging him to support a House-passed measure that would allow the city to use its tax funds during the shutdown. "I'm on your side. Don't screw it up, okay? Don't screw it up," Reid said.

Bill Burton, former Obama administration deputy press secretary, talks with Rachel Maddow about how Democrats are trying to capitalize on the public displeasure with the Republican shutdown of the federal government and threats to the economy, and whether there is any serious chance of Democrats retaking the House in 2014 as a result.

Many Republicans are playing down or denying what the fallout would be from a debt default. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, host of “Morning Joe,” and MSNBC analyst David Axelrod join Hardball to discuss.

O'REILLY: The entire Obamacare government shutdown thing is a catastrophe. There is no question Obamacare is not ready to be rolled out. All the evidence says that. If the President would simply admit it and delay the individual mandate for a year the impasse would be solved. But Mr. Obama is too stubborn to do that and Americans are starting to c