collects gifts. sadly jesse passed away earlier this year at the age of 8. he wanted the toy box to continue and it has. there's more than 35 collection boxes across hospitals around the united states and they are still collecting toys today. i'll tweet out a link of how you can donate and get involved because jesse's story has created good news and a positive impact for so many kids around the country. that wraps up this hour. thank you for having me. i will not see you monday or tuesday. merry christmas to everybody out there. happy holidays. i hand you off to hallie jackson. i will not say you but merry christmas. thank you. i appreciate it. we'll see you back here next week when who knows when the government will be open or not. this morning in washington the bells you hear ringing are not for christmas. those are alarm bells with the government careening toward a shut down. republican senators are heading to the white house in 30 minutes

from now with no deal. not much of plan in place and not much time to figure it out. except for solutions suggested by the president that would up end centuries of precedent. spoiler, not going to happen as donald trump plays the blame game and senators get ready for a vote that will probably fail in less than two hours. the defense secretary resigns in protest calling out the commander in chief for putting u.s. national security at risk. allies wondering who is the adult in the room. who might replace jim mattis. here is the deal. there's always chaos in donald trump's washington. always. that's just the new normal. what we're seeing now is new. the people who stood silently by are starting to speak up. we'll find out how loud they

will roar. the president is meeting at noon to try to avoid a partial shutdown. pinning the blame on democrats. perhaps under the impression no one would remember to roll this video today. >> i am proud to shut down the government for border security. i will be the one to shut it down. i'm not going to blame you for it. >> the reaction. >> any effort on his part to blame the democrats will be such [ bleep ]. >> the republicans are in charge and so the shutdown is on us if we can't figure this out. >> the fact the president is urging mitch mcconnell to tear up the last thing that forces up to compromise in the senate is not a good sign. >> we have you covered on both ends of pennsylvania avenue. i want to start with garrett on capitol hill. the president is pushing mitch mcconnell to do the nuclear

option. blow stuff up. that's not going to happen because mitch mcconnell doesn't want it to happen. we have word in about 28 minutes from now we'll see a bunch of those men and women at the white house. >> reporter: it's not going to happen because mitch mcconnell doesn't want it to happen and the majority of the u.s. senate doesn't want it to happen. this gets floated every time the president can't get something through the senate he wants right away. every time senators from both parties come out and say it's a bad idea. >> the president doesn't always say it this directly. it does go at mitch mcconnell this hard on twitter. this laser focussed. >> reporter: we saw during the he health care fight. it's not a totally new level of frustration. mitch mcconnell doesn't want to do this and his colleagues don't want to do it. you have orrin hatch who is as good as of an ally of the president saying this is a bad idea. republicans are taking a long

enough view to say some day democrat will be in control of washington, d.c. and do they want medicare for all to pass with 51 votes. folks who have been here a long time know it swings both ways. i expect you'll hear from republican senators that they do not have the votes to pass the $5 billion wall package and that push back on the idea they will not change the rules to do so. what comes after that is still anybody's guess. there's never been a big picture strategy by republicans as to how to keep the government open. we heard a bit last night from republican house leader after their passed their bill saying we have done something here now. the idea that's an opening offer, if you will. start of a negotiation. maybe somehow we get back to that $1.6 billion dollar numbnu been floating around. right now there's no strategy. >> okay.

that's an abrupt end to that discussion. >> reporter: don't blame me. >> a lot could change in the next couple of hours. let me bring in kristen welker who will be on the white house north lawn. kristen, this meeting will happen. what do we think will go down? the last time we saw a meeting with republican lawmakers, paul ryan came out and said the president will not sign this thing. another surprise in store? >> reporter: potentially. we'll be very interested to see if those republican senators speak to us and give us a sense of what was said in that meeting. i think they will tell the president, bottom line is we don't have the votes and we don't have way out of this. what are the next steps. in terms of the mood here, behind the scenes at the white house, today starting off a lot like yesterday. top officials in meetings, not entirely sure of what the next steps are and what the president is thinking. we're all turning to his twitter feed for that.

the strategy on the part of the president is to try to turn up the heats on democrats. this tweet stands out. shutdown today if democrats do not vote for border security. it is so difficult politically for him to make that argument because of that tape that you played of him owning the shutdown. this is what his press secretary had to say moments ago. >> the senate and senate democrats have a constitutional duty to protect the people of this country. we hope they will step up and fulfill it today. i think it's a sad day in america when the mexican government is doing more to protect our borders and stop the illegal flow of drug, human trafficking and terrorists across our border than senate democrats are willing to do. >> reporter: that was sarah huckabee sanders echoing the president's strategy. a lot of people want to know what does this mean if the government does shutdown. it means some 700,000 federal flows would be furloughed or working without pay over the holidays. that will put political pressure

on the president as well. right now, he seems to be feeling the heat from his base which is you and i have been reporting over the past 48 hours they have been out front publ publicly and in his ear saying if he doesn't get border wall funding he will have caved on this key campaign promise. not to mention the fact he promised mexico will pay for the wall. at this point doesn't seem like that will happen. >> he is threatening a shut down if congress doesn't agree that taxpayers should be footing the bill. no tweets this morning on defense secretary jim mattis out the door in about two months. huge news. >> reporter: still reverbera reverberating. he is seen as really the adult in the room. one of the president's first cabinet picks. one of the remaining initial cabinet picks. one of the people who a lot of folks thought could stand up to the president. what was the breaking point.

we have been speaking to sources and it seems as the decision to pull troops out of syria, which mattis disagreed with. that was something that mattis just couldn't abide by. he tried to convince the president otherwise. wasn't able to do it. then he issued that stunning resignation letter in which he said the president deserves to have a defense secretary who shares his views and is aligned with his views on these key policy points. it was a stunning rebuke because he broke with him not only on those issues but his broader outlook. how he has treated traditional u.s. allies. if you talk to republicans they are concerned not only because mattis is leaving but because of the way the syria and afghanistan decision is being handled. there's growing concern this is a real crisis for foreign policy and national security. >> thanks to the both of you.

don't go too far from the cameras. i'm sure we'll get updates over the next 42 minutes. courtney, let me ask you this morning as people in the pentagon have been waking up to this. what's the reaction been? how is the morale at this point? >> reporter: secretary mattis has more than four decades in the marine corps. you can travel around afghanistan, iraq, syria, places where there are u.s. marines stations and they have photos of jim mattis up there as if he's a god with funny sayings. he's literally looked at as this figure that is larger than life. much of that has maintained with the military throughout his tenure as secretary of defense. i don't think that there is a lot of surprise that over these last couple of decisions --

there's been three major decisions that the white house has made in the last several weeks. if first one being earlier in the month when president trump chose general mark milley to be the chairman of joint chiefs against secretary mattis wishes. the next one was the surprise announcement that the u.s. will pull all u.s. troops out of syria against secretary mattis recommendation. finally just yesterday this news that the white house is asked for plans to draw down troops out of afghanistan. secretary mattis, based off what he saw in his resignation letter, these were security concerns that were too far. we heard in the last few minutes from the director of national intelligence, he put out a statement about mattis where he called him a national treasure and he will be sorely missed and his time has been invaluable. >> that's dramatic. thank you very much for that

reporting. we're joined by another bush 43 alum. here we many, eugene scott and washington correspondent for new york magazine. thanks to you all. let me start with lonnie. the president has tweeted again about the shutdown. what he is saying is the democrats now own the shutdown. can you explain to me how democrats own the shutdown when republicans control both chambers and the president said less than two weeks ago he would proudly own a shutdown. video that exists and that we just played. >> reporter: video can be a rough thing in it reflects the reality of what president trump said last week. i think that the president has

obviously decided at this point that it's time to deflect on this particular situation. the challenge is he said he would own the shutdown and it's quite here not for the president's change of heart on the stopgap measure yesterday, we wouldn't have a shutdown. this is a huge challenge. on the flip side there are some senate democrats who did say at some point they would support a wall. that's the hook he's using here to say actually, it's their responsibility and not mine. going to be a very tough stretch. >> a liolivia, the president wa mitch mcconnell to quote unquote go nuclear. that's not going to happen. how do you see this meeting set to happen in 15 minutes playing out. we take a live look at the driveway camera. if we see the senate republicans, it will be coming in on the driveway there. >> i can't imagine it will go well. they don't have a plan. they haven't had a plan this entire time. the president is just not going to get what he wants.

somebody will have to cave at some point. i don't know if it will be the president. i think he enjoys having this drama play out the way it is and distract from everything happening many the administration. >> pulling back, this has been and we say it a lot, extraordinary day in the trump administration. boy, it really has been an extraordinary two days given where we are and the departure of jim mattis and mitch mcconnell coming out with the sharpest statement that he's given publicly against donald trump ri laelated to mattis quitting. how do you think that plays out? does that come out? >> i imagine it will. the two main issues right now on the table that republican lawmakers have gone to meet with the president about that they don't see eye to eye with him on. these meetings don't happen all the time. it would be odd for them not to address their real concerns. we saw people like lindsey graham go on essentisocial medig

to communicate how bad of an idea it is. >> mcmcconnell said i'm distr s distressed he is resigning due to sharp differences with the president. the question is do other republicans follow suit? >> reporter: i think this is a very widespread notion amongst republicans. part of the challenge is the policy challenge. you have severe disagreements regarding the president's decision to withdraw from syria. you also have the reality that jim mattis really represented a point of view that many con g s congressional republicans agreed with. who represents that point of view? who represents the point of view for a more traditional posture of the united states being involved and engaged around the world. i think that's part of the reason why you see senator mcconnell expressing that dismay and other republicans expressing it too. >> there's been a series of sharp policy agreements between

secretary mattis and president trump over the last couple of years. we pulled up a list of most of them. you had the withdrawal from russia and nuclear arms treaty. then the space force announcement. did it just become too much for jim mattis and who replaces him in. >> i think it did become too much for secretary defense mattis. i also think that secretary mattis is probably discouraged today to see the media reaction to his resignation. >> explain that. >> he would be the first to tell you that the graveyard is filled with indispensable men. he comes from an organization that always prepares to have the leader taken off the battlefield. he's been taken off the battled

field. i think he is probably dismayed with what we're seeing inside the media. now, regarding policy difference -- >> wait a second. what about coming from people in the foreign policy, national security world who have serious concerns as well as republican lawmakers. do you think he would be shoving those away too? >> what i say to all of those people is i know you have policy differences but if we're pulling out from syria, are you prepared to send your sons and daughters in there to take mare place. >> as it relates to military men and women on the groupnd, how d you see this affecting them? do you think this is breaking through? >> jim mattis was a popular commander and secretary of defense. i think they will be dismayed to see he is leaving. i'm glad to see he was able to resign rather than be terminated by the president. at the same time i think the

troops recognize that everybody retires at some point from the job. i think what they are more concerned about is who will be the next secretary of defense. >> we're talking about that in a bit. i really appreciate your perspective and analysis. resignation of jim mattis with the extraordinary rebuke to the president about his foreign policy. we're talking about who might be next. why social securiit's worrying allies and what, if anything, republicans in congress might do. that conversation is coming up. do that conversation is coming up

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vice president mike pence has just arrived at the white house. we'll see him walking in the door for that meeting between president trump and republican senators that is set to begin in nine minutes. the next person we're looking for senator mitch mcconnell. senator shelby. they just departed heading down pennsylvania avenue as we speak. it's all coming to a head in a couple of minutes at the white house. alarm bells are going off in some foreign capitols over james mattis resignation. one calling it a morning of alarm.

the last voice of reason leaves the administration. in france a former diplomatic adviser said this is big bad. even china is acknowledging that while mattis was tough, chinese military tefelt assured dealing with this type of military man adding our concern is next. there's one kcountry that doesnt seem concerned, russia. one lawmaker says this is an interesting signal. a positive one. general clark, thank you for being with us. as a former commander of nato here, do you agree with our allies around the world about the concern now that secretary mattis will be gone? >> yes. i'm very concerned. secretary mattis did his best to maintain america's alliances despite continuing harping and criticism from the president.

we know from what the president says that he doesn't believe in these alliances. he's immediamade that clear bef. mattis held the line as long as he could. he feels he can't be there in good conscious and serve this president. yes, our allies are right to be concerned about what happens next and so is the american public. >> he derided histrionics and said secretary mattis would be dismayed to be hearing this reaction. do you think that's right? >> i think secretary mattis, for him, it's not personal. i think it's more about the policies. i think this reaction should be focused on what this means for american policy going forward. we know that secretary mattis tried to reenforce our allies against the wishes of the president. that's gone now. we have to assume the president

will put someone in there who will further weaken america's alliances abroad and the decision in syria. everybody who is familiar with this, including me, it's a very bad decision. it hands playing field to russia. it's why the russians like it. >> that's why vladmir putin applauded the move earlier in the week. it was an interesting moment. we'll play it for you when a fox news anchor, this morning, had a pretty feisty exchange with the president secretary. talk about policy over what the syria decision will mean moving forward. watch. >> he also doing exactly what he criticized president obama for doing. he said president obama is the founder of isis. he just refounded isis. >> i have to respectfully disagree with you. the idea that the president has had anything to do with helping isis reemerge is outrageous.

>> he's helping. >> he made sure we have the strongest military on the face of the planet. >> given the push back from so many corners, given what secretary mattis said on his way out the door, is there any universe in which you see the president changing his mind here? >> i don't see the president changing his mind. the real question for the american people and especially the republican lead united states senate is whose drum beat is the president marching to. why is he making actions that help america's adversaries. why is he taking actions that hurt america's allies? there's no logic to this policy. >> you mention the question will be who takes over for jim mattis. who steps over into that role. there's a list of names floating around. politico had names. tom cotton, lindsey graham.

what should the president be looking for? >> he's looking for someone with broad experience, sound judgment. someone who can wrestle with the variables. speak up when necessary and tell them how he sees it right and wrong. he needs someone who will be loyal to him as well. i think what he's going to be looking for more is the loyalty rather than the competition. loyalty rather than courage. president trump shows no indication of appreciating the difference perspectives that people can bring to a problem or understanding these different perspectives are critical in getting the right outcome. i suspect he will lean toward a political loyalist as a first requirement. >> general wesley clark, thank you very much for coming back. appreciate your perspective. in about three minutes from now that meeting is set to begin inside the white house. senate republicans coming to

visit president trump to see if they can avoid a shutdown. in about 90 minutes he got the vote on a bill loaded with a poison bill. will they be able to figure out a solution? we have one democratic lawmakers joining us live after the break. s joining us live after the break. go team. [ snow crunching ] [ load crunching ] [ whispers ] this is the loudest snow ever.

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mitch mcconnell, there he is. the republican majority leader in the senate has just aarrived. i swear it's him. you'll see his face in a minute. just arrived at the white house. senator shelby is arriving. mike pence in the room or getting ready to be in the room as the president and senate leaders sit down to try to figure out some kind of a solution because we're just now 13 hours away from a government shutdown. let me phrase it how it was phrased this morning. the shutdown status right now, kind of a hot mess. the facts just back that up. the meetings will happen. these leaders may or may not come out and talk to the media afterwards. >> reporter: it would appear from where we sit that fundamentals of this impasse have not changed since the last

white house meeting with a different group of republican lawmakers. paul ryan came out and told reporters there was no deal. president trump would not sign anything that didn't include the $5 billion in border wall money he says he wants. you have this meeting going down now with president trump and a group of senators. richard shelby chairs the senate appropriations committee. that's partly why he's here. you have the senate expected to take up this amended government spending bill that the house passed last night. that bill includes the $5 billion that donald trump says he wants. the bill is considered dead on arrival in the senate. absent any sort of movement, any agreement to put a senate to pass this deal then the government goes dark 12:01 saturday night. what has to happen at this meeting or today is that donald trump has to find some sort of acceptable off ramp. some sort of acceptable explanation so he can claim victory. something that will be

acceptable to his base. right now he's blaming democrats. remember, he already claimed ownership. he said he would be happy to shutdown the government over border security. you have the president at an impasse with congress over the signature campaign promise that he said mexico would pay for. >> jeff, thank you much. garrett, can we talk about some of the options here. what are those off ramps? what realistically could happen in the next six hours here to get everybody off the ledge? >> reporter: there's a couple of o options. the two options the democrats presented last week which is the long term cr for all seven of those agencies that have to be funded. we think that's probably out. it doesn't have the border wall money. there's funding of six agencies next year and doing the cr for the homeland of security, where the wall money would go. that's probably still out because it doesn't have the wall

money. speaker ryan, any chance you want to talk about this? didn't expect him to but we can always try. >> thank you for trying. >> reporter: i do what i can. there was the original negotiated deal that would include $1.6 billion for border security but not for the wall. that to me of options that have been floated thus far seems like the most possible. it's not for a wall but for border security. the president has been tweeting out of nowhere about steel slats. if we can fudge what we all agree is wall or not a wall or is a fence or not, we're just going to bend the english language and fencing -- >> why stop now? >> reporter: exactly. might be the kind of things that people could get their arms around. the bottom line is we are as far as apart as we were a week and a half ago.

now there's just not time for a lot of creative legislative ma mo noo -- maneuvering. the clock is ticking. >> we have been looping that video of mitch mcconnell's head across the driveway. we know he's in the building there. stand by. i want you to be part of this conversation. garrett laid out some options. option one and option two. president trump will have caved on his wall. there's a fourth option the president is talking about. the nuclear option. that means blowing everything up. centuries of precedent in order to make a majority pass rather than 60 votes. what does it mean for mitch

mcconnell? it means he just needs republicans. if and when democrats take over, you're screwing yourself there. orrin hatch said we don't want to do this. >> he has defended not getting rid of the filibustefilibuster. it's not surprising. most more establishment republicans in congress agree with that. it's only the president who doesn't have the foresight to say what would go wrong for me in 2019 if we were to get rid of this. >> you say establishment republicans but steve was tweeting about it. by tweeting let's do the nuclear option. >> some republicans want to win as well. they took this message they were going to have this to their voters and had that support for them as well. they will also be looked at as

not honoring their promise to their voters if they don't. >> garrett, did i hear you say you wanted to jump back in? >> reporter: i got lamar alexander who has announced he will retire saying we have rules to follow. i want to put a stop to this practice of the senate breaking its rules to change its rules. i hope my colleagues will not vote. this is another institutionalist. somebody who has been up here for a long time and respects the way the rules were written. you talk about steve danes. he's newer up here. he has aligned himself very, very closely with president trump along the way here. there's a little bit of a break here but in terms of the math, i still think the institutionalists in the republican party plus the democrats make this nuclear option talk a non-starter. there's not votes for it.

>> if you see anybody else in the hallway, come back and let us know. this morning we have new details on when robert mueller may finish up the russia investigation. what sources are telling us about timing and spoiler, looks like it could be soon. we're also learning how an obscure law from the era of calvin coolidge might help democrats get their hands on donald trump's tax returns. we'll explain. on donald trump's tax returns we'll explain. causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. so shark invented duo clean. while deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll

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let's talk about the last 24 hours. one trump ally characterizes it as a full meltdown. we may not understand the true definition of full just yet. nbc news is reporting robert mueller is tieing up loose ends and is expected to turn in his report as early as mid-february. pete williams worked on that report. ken, fill in the outline of this new piece of information that we have. >> we appear to be reaching the end game. i can hear viewers saying haven't donald trump lawyers been assuring us for the last year this thing will end. >> literally donald trump's former attorney was like it will end by last january. >> i can assure our viewers and readers we would not be basing a story on the assurance of donald trump's defense lawyer. every lawyer with a witness or defendant in this case also happens to believe this thing is

wrapping up. we have reporting that government officials have been told to get ready for a mueller report. that's why we're learning about this. the information has to go outside of mueller's circle. mueller didn't leak. there's a lot of caveats here. one thing we're reporting is that the issue of how mueller is approaching whether he wants to question donald trump. whether he wants grand jury subpoena still appears to be up in the air. if he gets aggressive on that and subpoena the president, that could they things for many months. there could be a legal battle. we are sure the president would fight such a subpoena. there's the loose end of roger stone and jerome corsi. they said they expect to be charged. we haven't seen it yet. the big questions, we have not been able to answer, which is does robert mueller have the evidence he set out to find. the fundamental, at the heart of this investigation is did donald trump or anyone around him conspire with the russian

election interference effort. he hasn't shown any proof of that in public. he shows the president and people around him did not tell the truth about contacts with russians during the campaign. we have the investigation in the southern district in new york implicating the president of campaign finance crimes. if he files a report in february, it doesn't mean the investigations into donald trump and the people around him are over. you have the southern district, which it's not clear where they are going and you have the new york attorney general promising wide ranging investigations of donald trump and his family. >> hang tight. we have other reporting. let me bring in kim waley. ken also writes in his piece a few major outstanding matters could complicate mueller's end game. one is his desire to interview the president.

>> i think it's difficult to predict when it will end. we have various parts of this. we have the obstruction part. we have the russian collusion part and we have the financial transactions. my guess is it's very deep. i would suspect a lot of this has reached pieces of it. we have a lot of constitutional questions looming around what would happen. the bigger macro question is what happens. there's a benefit to having it come out in february because we're seeing this white house in a meltdown and what kind of accountability will there be and a report could push congress to impeachment which is the only way to address this. >> there's also if the report comes public at all.

we learned whittaker is rejecting advice from doj ethics officials to recuse himself. he sought out this informal advice. ethics said it was a close call but they would recuse. should whittaker have taken that advice? >> i think it should have. it's quite interesting it wasn't in writing. he wasn't on the campaign like jeff sessions. he doesn't have any people in the white house or appearance of conflict of interest. i think it's clear given the president stepped over rod rosenstein to put him here, the reason he's in this position is because he doesn't support the mueller probe. i think there's a slam dunk. there's no pres decedent for an attorney general withdrawing. >> ken had some context on this.

he hasn't been fully briefed but it's still deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who is like the primary person overseeing the mueller investigation. >> correct. i think that's important. whittaker appears to be trying to finesse something here. he knows he couldn't recuse or he would risk the wrath of his boss. while he's saying he's retaining ultimate authority, he is delegating the day-to-day oversight or management to rosen si stien who has been fully briefed. >> regardless, democrats are not happy. chuck schumer says it's an attack on the rule of law. senator warren, this is alarming. >> it's interesting because as much as democrats did not like seeing sessions being in a position he was in, this looks

like a step away from where they were before and things are getting worse. whether or not trump will put someone in place who actually will do things and handle the way democrats hope he will, it's not clear yet. >> ken, give me the cliff's notes version of how democrats are hoping to get their hands on the president's tax returns. >> we believe that mueller has the tax returns. every legal expert says he likely does but he would not make them public. the democrats have a law that requires the treasury secretary to turn over the tax return offense any individual. richard neil, has said he will request the returns and vote to make them public. the wrinkle is no one expects the treasury secretary to hand the returns over without a fight. you can imagine donald trump suing. there may be months of litigation before we see the tax returns. first president in modern history not to have made his returns public. >> thank you very much. thank you as well. that last ditch meeting to avoid

a shutdown looks to be going down at the white house. president trump is hosting his republican senators in hopes of figuring out how to keep the government open. democrats are concerned it will make thing thinks worse. in 12 minutes, that's what was scheduled. president trump is supposed to sign a bill into law. bipartisan legislation. that sweeping overall of the criminal justice system is at the white house on the president's desk ready for his signature. this is something that would be the most significant change to federal crimes statutes in a generation. a big win for jared kushner. we're watching that. - [narrator] the typical vacuum head has its limitations,

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or abnormal bleeding. before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. learn all you can to help protect yourself from a stroke. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. president popped out ten tweet this is morning at least as a government shutdown looms over capitol hill, and there is one theme to all of it. if his demand for $5 billion in border wall funding doesn't make it through the senate, blame the democrats. his last tweet reading shutdown today if democrats do not vote for border security. we remind you again the president ten days ago said he

would be proud to shutdown. joining me now congressman james clyburn. what do you make of the president's assessment that stopping a shutdown is in the hands of your party? >> thank you so much for having me, hallie. i don't think the american people's memories are that short, and thank you all so much for reminding people of what the president said just a few weeks ago, a few days ago. i'll own it. i'll shut it down if i don't get my border wall. it's a big difference in a wall and border security. democrats are very much for border security. we will fund adequately any amount of money that's necessary to have border security, but we want to secure the border the same way we secure our homes and our businesses, using the technology that is very effective. if you build a ten-foot wall, somebody's going to have an

11-foot ladder to go over it, and that's not securing the border, and we ought to stop that foolishness and go forward with securing our border. >> the president's word over the last few days has been this phrase of steel slats, that that would actually be helpful. let me ask you very, very broadly. is will any planet on which democrats support any amount of money, say $1.6 billion, maybe not 5, for specifically a wall or slats for the president? is that a universe that you could live in over the next 11 hours? >> i don't think so, though i'm very thankful that the president is so supportive of the steel industry. i have one of those plants in my congressional district, but the fact of the matter is that is not going to get us to where we need to be if you're talking about securing the border. we want to secure the border. we want people to be safe. we want people to be safe in traveling. now, the president is talking

about securing the border while putting all christmas travelers at risk. tsa and all of that, the people -- >> well, tsa i think still is on the job. the question is paychecks. >> go ahead. >> but they won't be getting paid. i don't know about you, but if i'm going to depend upon safety, i want that person who is giving it to me to be happy with their bank accounts and their christmas shopping. i don't want them all upset while trying to help me get home to do my christmas shopping. that to me is not the way to go. >> but congressman, is there any way that you see the ability to avoid a shutdown at midnight tonight? because unfortunately if nothing changes, aren't we going in that direction? >> yes, that's the direction we're going in, but we can avoid that. all the president has to do is to do what he said he was going

to do a week ago, sign the bill that we sent to him, the bipartisan bill, and let's talk about border security on into the next congress. we all want to secure the border, and that's not what this is about, and i think we can find common ground to do that. we don't want to throw away money on some cement wall that he talked about forever, and we want to help him keep his promise. he promised that he would build the wall and that mexico would pay for it, and we're trying to help him keep that promise that he made to the american people on paying for the wall. >> not to -- just for a context check here, that promise is broken because mexico is not going to pay for the wall, and now there is the threatening of a government shutdown if congress doesn't agree taxpayers should pay for it. let me just ask you this, senate republicans are at the white house. senator chuck schumer in the last couple of minutes was asked

by my colleagues about his hopes for this meeting. here is what he said. >> are you hopeful about this white house meeting, sir? >> the republicans meeting with the president things have gotten worse. >> republicans are calling on him to negotiate. >> we have three offers on the table, one came from mcconnell, two came from pelosi. take one. >> should there be a negotiation, congressman? is there room to negotiate? same question to you. >> yes, plenty of room to negotiate. >> okay. but that's not what this is. >> what is it? >> this is a standoff, and that's what the president wants, a standoff. he's not interested in honorable and honest negotiations. >> i appreciate your time, and i appreciate your coming back on the show. time to get a quick check on what our sources are saying. let's start with you. >> going back to the subject of mattis. >> thank you for calling me, liv by the way. i like say babe a lot.

>> my family calls me that. >> back to the subject of mattis, i heard that ivanka trump left the white house and went home early yesterday, earlier than she normally does, but she was not there at the time that that news broke, and maybe it doesn't mean anything, but it fits with this idea that jared kushner and ivanka trump really wanted adults in the room, they wanted help supervising the president which sounds like a ridiculous thing to think about with the president of the united states, but we know that's true in this white house. they were in agreement on subjects sometimes where they disagreed with the president, like banning transgender members from serving. so maybe it doesn't mean anything, but i think it's pretty interesting. >> eugene, what are you working on? what are your sources telling you? >> i was talking to some republicans on the ground who are anxious about trump's 2020 re-election goals or hopes based on how poorly he's doing with the economy right now. he's been relying on saying i've been able to deliver the economy

to the american people in a way that the stock market yesterday is showing has not been as much. >> eugene scott, great to see you both. that you thi thank you. enjoy your holidays. >> we are out of time for today's big picture. we're going to post it. check that out on my twitter page. i would see you next time from mar-a-lago or west bapalm beach but tbd where i'll see you next. >> good morning, i am kasie hunt in for craig melvin. we are live from capitol hill where it is high drama. the friday before the christmas holiday, a day when normally d.c. is a ghost town. instead right now at the white house, the president and republican senators are meeting behind closed doors on the agenda, the looming government shutdown, just 13 hours away. and the president's $5 billion demand for his border wall. the house passed a plan