GEOFF BENNETT: Air travelers met with long lines.

And, for travelers looking to drive, instead they're facing rising gas prices as the war with Iran continues.

Lots to discuss with our Politics Monday duo.

That's Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Another Monday, another opportunity for me to get to welcome you to the program.

Good to see you both.

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Good to see you.

GEOFF BENNETT: So we are almost about to hit day 40 of this DHS funding shutdown.

Today, we're seeing something new, ICE agents assisting with the TSA staffer shortfall.

Amy, is this a practical solution to a real problem or does it just raise more concerns than it solves?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Yes, it doesn't seem like it's going to solve the real problem, which is getting people through lines.

What they need are people who can actually do the machines and do the scanning and all of that.

That is not what ICE is there to be able to do.

It makes it seem as if they're trying to find a solution, but it's not going to solve the problem.

The real challenge -- and I think Lisa laid it out very well -- is the fact that there was actually at one point, it seemed we were this close to a solution to this, that Republicans came to the table saying, we will split off this battle over ICE from DHS funding.

And Republicans can agree, Democrats agree, boom, bang, boom, we're done.

In comes the president saying not without the voting act.

And so now what it has done is essentially put the issue of the shutdown promptly in the president's lap.

It is now his shutdown.

He says, it's unless they pass a bill that I would like to see that everybody agrees is not going to be able to pass, this shutdown continues.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tam, why is the president making this SAVE Act a red line now?

TAMARA KEITH: Well, that is -- this goes back a very long time.

He has raised concerns falsely about people who are not in the country legally, people who are not citizens voting in elections going back at least to the 2016 election.

This is a longstanding issue that he cares about a lot.

He has now said that he thinks that this is something, the SAVE Act, SAVE America Act, as he has rebranded it, Is something that Republicans could run on in the midterms.

But the problem is, it's a boxed canyon.

He is taking a stand, making a really big deal, now saying, I will even own the shutdown, more or less, all for a piece of legislation that simply does not have enough Republican support to make it out of the Senate.

And there are reasons for that.

The legislation would require people in order to register to vote to show proof of citizenship.

Well, in rural states, that would mean, one, finding the documents, and, two, actually traveling.

In Alaska, people might have to get on a plane in order to prove that they are a citizen to be able to register to vote.

And he also wants to take away most absentee voting.

Well, Republicans like absentee voting.

And, like, there are certainly ways that it could be tightened up and things like that.

But he is essentially taking a stand on a thing, saying, stay in through Easter, do this for Jesus, when -- literally, he said that.

GEOFF BENNETT: I was going to ask you.

OK.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

He said that.

He is doing this on an issue where he's actually making it really tough for members of his own party who don't support it.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk about the war with Iran.

It's unpopular.

The public does not support it.

That's according to a number of polls.

Americans are now feeling it at the pump, gas prices rising.

How much political pressure, Amy, does this create for Republicans, especially in this election year?

AMY WALTER: Yes.

They are already facing the traditional headwinds of being the in-party and then facing a public that feels very frustrated with inflation, and, now on top of this, an unpopular war and high gas prices.

Not that good.

The issue, though, really at the end of the day, comes down to, it seems to me, on how unpopular this is and how long this becomes a political issue for Republicans is about how long we stay in Iran.

I thought one of the most interesting questions that -- CBS released a poll this weekend.

They asked, what do you think the priority should be for success?

No more nuclear weapons for Iran.

They don't harass their neighbors.

Those were popular.

But the most popular by far with 92 percent is that this ends quickly.

That's what Americans want above all else.

The longer it drags out, the harder it will be for Republicans to put this in the rear-view mirror, because it is true, if, by November, we may not be remembering TSA lines and gas prices, but the longer the war drags on, the more unpopular it is going to become, even with people who may support it right now.

GEOFF BENNETT: And one way we know the president believes this to be a political liability is that he was in Memphis today trying to shift the focus to issues like crime, Tam.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

TAMARA KEITH: And I have spent a lot of time talking to swing voters in the last several weeks, and no one brought up crime.

They talked a lot about the economy, about the cost of living, and then more recently about gas prices.

But certainly President Trump has promised that he's going to go out on the road and he's going to campaign.

And something like crime should be a winning issue for the president.

The problem is, there are just other higher priorities that voters are having right now.

And, yes, so he's trying to reclaim the issue of crime, the issue of immigration by getting rid of his homeland security secretary and bringing in a new one.

He's really trying to get a reset and take back control of these issues that have helped propel him and Republicans in the past.

AMY WALTER: That's right.

GEOFF BENNETT: We should also, before we wrap up this conversation, talk about what happened over the weekend.

We reported the White House installed this statue of Christopher Columbus.

It was a replica.

You see it there.

It's a replica of the one that was torn down in 2020.

And he also approved a commemorative coin that bears his own image, President Trump's image.

I'm not sure we have a picture of that.

But Amy, what's the -- strategy is not the right word.

There might not be a strategy.

But what does this symbolism, what does this iconography, what does it suggest?

AMY WALTER: This is a president who has long loved seeing his name on things, buildings, et cetera.

So that's not particularly new.

But it's also a president who wants -- who believes very strongly in putting his stamp on Washington, not just figuratively, but literally,this will stand the test of time.

It's also -- going back to Tam's point, especially with the Christopher Columbus statue, it's going back to the things that have traditionally worked for the president, especially when it's about keeping his base engaged and excited are things that evoke what that Christopher Columbus statue looks, which is, we're in a battle for the identity of the U.S.

The left is supporting this woke ideology.

We're supporting sort of where real Americans are.

So it is his comfortable place.

And that is also the place, when he's talking about those things, his base does get united, even as they're getting divided, at least in Congress, on this issue of the shutdown.

GEOFF BENNETT: How do you read it, Tam?

Is it symbolism as politics or distraction from bigger challenges, or both?

TAMARA KEITH: It is a strong focus of the president.

Whether it's a distraction for others or not, he's very focused on it.

And this is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

President Trump has a very specific view of what should be part of American history.

He is attempting to airbrush American history, to sort of remove any hints that maybe America wasn't always perfect.

And this statement from Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, just part of it here, I think gets at this: "President Trump has rightly hailed Christopher Columbus as the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization."

This is very in line with the way President Trump views America.

He's also working on this Garden of American Heroes, which are statues that were removed from town squares because of complicated history.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, thank you both.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.