indominable. rbg. stay with msnbc all day. here's ali velshi for "velshi & ruhle." >> have a good afternoon. good afternoon to all of you. i'm ali velshi. stephanie ruhle is off. this is "velshi & ruhle." >> any measure that funds the government must include border security. has to. >> something's got to give over the next little fwoitbit to avo partial government shutdown. $5 billion for his border wall. >> we were being asked and i voted for it, a $5 billion plus up for the wall and disaster relief funded to get a bill out of the house. no one really knows what the next step is. >> there are not the votes in the senate for an expensive taxpayer funded border wall.

so, president trump, you will not get your wall. abandon your shutdown strategy. you're not getting the wall today. next week. or on january 3rd when democrats take control of the house. >> let's advance this legislation, mr. president. let's pass it. finish our work for this year. let's secure our country. >> republicans are in charge. and so, the shutdown is on us. if we can't figure this out. >> you are in charge of the house, senate and white house! get a grip and learn how to govern the country! >> james mattis' departure marks the first time ever a defense secretary has resigned in protest. that's according to presidential historians. >> the president's taken a wrecking ball to every pillar of stability and security we have erected over the past 60, 70

years. systematically demolishing this them. >> this country right now is going through a steady diet of chaos and crisis. >> president trump, of course, weakest american president to ever lead the nato alliance. >> he said president obama is the founder of isis. she refounded isis because they got 30,000 men there and they're already striking back with our would be evacuation. the president is really on the griddle with this. >> brian, but, brian, i have to respectfully and vehemently disagree with you. the idea that the president had anything to do with helping isis reemerge is absolutely outrageous. >> leaving is helping. >> all right. lots to get to today but right now the functioning of the united states government hinges upon the u.s. senate which is just beginning a series of votes on a house passed spending bill. that bill gives the president what he wants, $5 billion

billifor his border wall. senators were trying to avoid a shutdown and the president all but conceded that one will happen and pointing the finger at democrats, despite him saying just nine days ago that he would be proud to shut down the government over funding for his border wall. this hour, i'm going to talk to as many members of congress as i can waiting to see if the government stays open. here's what has to happen. the senate has to come to an agreement by midnight or the government will shut down. now, this would be a partial shutdown since congress has already approved funding for about 75% of the government. if this happens, at least 750,000 government employees, three quarters of a million people, will not be expected to receive their paychecks over the holidays. at least 400,000 workers deemed essential will be expected to work without pay until the shutdown ends and at least 350,000 will be furloughed meaning they're forced to take unpaid leave until the shutdown

ends. so, who are the essential employees who will have to work for free until they get paid? u.s. customs and border protection agents dealing with imgrants, migrants seeking asylum. tsa agents and air traffic controller protecting americans and members of congress who are traveling this time of year. fbi agents, u.s. marshals, coast guard employees, dea agents, u.s. forest service, firefighters exhausted from battling fires in california and weather service forecasters. employees who work in the shutdown would be paid retroactively when the government reopens. the key word is likely. joining me is garrett haake on capitol hill and kristen welker at the white house. they're calling for the nuclear option. to pass this bill. just remind our audience what that is and why mcconnell doesn't want to do it.

>> reporter: ali, that is not going to happen. in this case, there's a law that prevents it. if that were not the case, it is politically untenable. they don't want to do it. the so-called nuclear option here would be to change senate rules to allow any piece of legislation to be passed by a simple majority. effectively turning the senate into the house. mccob kne mcconnell is on the record saying he doesn't want to do this and numerous other republican who is say they don't want to do. a bad idea and because this is related to a budget measure it's against the law to do it so that's not happening. ultimately, this bill which is being -- we are seeing a procedural vote now and then getting the full bill on the floor later this afternoon do get 60 votes to clear. it will not do so. and beyond that, there's still no plan. that's where we stand right now. >> all right. kristen, let's talk about the president tweeting that it's

going to be the democrats' fault if the government shuts down. this is unusual because we all watched when schumer and pelosi at the white house and the president said clearly and i want to play it back it's his shutdown. he'd own it. let's listen. >> if we don't get what we want, one way or the other, whether it's through you, through military, through anything you want to call, i will shut down the government. >> okay. fair enough. we disagree. we disagree. >> i'm proud to shut down the government for border security. i will be the one to shut it down. i won't blame you for it. >> so, why's he now blaming democrats? >> reporter: that was a remarkable moment, ali, and made it almost impossible for the president politically speaking to blame democrats be that is what he's trying to do and the top advisers are trying to do, all on the same page and the same talking points in that regard. this is what president trump said moments ago. he is in that bill signing for the criminal justice reform

legislation. this is according to the pool reporter who's in the room with the president. he said, it's totally up to the democrats as to whether or not there is a shutdown. we are going to be working very hard to get something passed in the senate referring to these votes that are happening right now and then he also said it's up to the democrats as to whether or not we have a shutdown tonight. he said he hope that is there won't be one and prepared to ride it out if there is. now, of course, that underscoring something that's press secretary said earlier today which is that the president prepared not to go to begin his christmas vacation if there's a shutdown. he'll ride it out from the white house. politically speaking, ali, he wants that $5 billion for his border wall. democrats were prepared to give him $1.6 billion. he wouldn't budge and then got backed into a corner and a corner that his base started to shout about. they said, look. he is essentially going back on his signature campaign promise, the very reason that he was voted into the white house.

the question now becomes, how's he going to secure that $5 billion? in a few weeks democrats are going to, of course, have control of the house and the president will have even less leverage to try to get something through. so this is going to be politically very difficult for this president. and look. even though he is doing what a lot of folks in his base want him to do which is to stand firm for border wall funding, the bottom line is, a lot of those same people in his base are asking why he didn't address this earlier in his presidency. he's now in year two. we're at christmas. it's hard do get something very big done when you're looking at this type of a deadline, ali. >> garrett, we heard from senator john kennedy, republican senator of louisiana, about what he thought about a shutdown. let's listen. >> well, look. if everybody will take their meds and be cool, we'll get this worked out. we are not going to shut down this government. there's -- if we shut down this

government, all of us have failed. executive branch and eve branch. and i am -- i am sick to death. >> this is kind of a language, garrett, republican senators are using, not interested in taking spoernltd f responsibility for this. house republicans didn't seem to have a problem with this and the idea that the president said this is his shutdown and what he wants. there doesn't seem to be a mood of compromise but house republicans don't want to be responsible. >> reporter: look. kennedy's half right because if there's a shutdown i think there's -- it's hard not to argue it's a failure across the board because, you know, this is a singular, basic function of government, to keep the lights on. and to get to this point at the end of the day everybody shares a little bit of the blame and can't argue the point that the president put the roadblock here. two nights ago the senate passing by a voice vote,

effectively a unanimous decision, to send him a clean funding bill to keep the government open. it's another misstep by the white house told the american public that the president would own a shutdown and then allowed the senate, republican-controlled senate, to vote on a bill unanimously that would keep it open that they then rejected. so really, the onus here on what can the white house accept? other reality here is as the hour grows later, the flexibility to come up with some kind of goldilocks option here, a bipartisan deal, a big picture immigration reform deal is almost impossible. the clock is ticking and that means the potential answers become smaller and smaller. what can the president accept? and what can get through both houses? the closer we get to midnight tonight the list of possible options is smaller. >> kristen, the pool has just left the oval office after an unrelated bill signing event. do we know if there's development there is? >> reporter: the president was

asked specifically about the state of play. will there be a shutdown? he didn't want to answer questions. he said, because of the bill signing, he wanted to put the focus on that. but, ali, again, he did make comments about this at the top of the event n. sho. we'll play the remarks out. but again, just to sort of reiterate what we expect the president to say based on pool reporters in the room, he takes aim at democrats saying it's up to them to keep the government open. of course, all of this happening while the senate is voting and expected to reject that $5 billion spending bill or $5 billion towards border security, i should say. and then, of course, a plan "b" still very much up in the air and also going to be interesting to note, ali, based on those pool reports the president refers to the wall also as steel slats. he says, whatever you want to call it.

it's the same. well, it may be but it's also significant because it's yet another sign that he has needed to soften what he said on the campaign trail which is that he was going to build a wall and mexico was going to pay for it. at this point in time, it's not clear how mexico would wiindire ultimately mexico will pay but the bottom line is initially american taxpayers foot the bill without any guarantee that mexico will reimburse them for that wall so that is the state of play as we wait to hear those remarks for ourselves. president trump speaking as he signed that criminal justice reform bill. ali, worth noting, this was supposed to be a celebratory day here at the white house. this is a big piece of legislation and now obviously very different headlines because this looming government shutdown and also because of the resignation of defense secretary james mattis. >> kristen, we'll watch it closely with you. any updates, we'll get you back on tv. kristen welker at the white

house. garrett's at the capitol. we have a lot of coverage of this. joining me now is the number two democrat in the house of representatives on the democratic side, congressman steny hoyer of maryland, the democratic whip. good to see you. thank you for being with us. can you paint me a picture as to what you see happening next? we are going to see this effort we think in the senate to pass the bill that the house passed yesterday fail. and then what happens? >> well, then i think the senate has to decide whether they amend it or we have to decide in the house whether or not we'll put something on the floor that can pass and go to the senate and pass the senate. my view is we ought to pass the agreement that we all thought had been agreed to by all parties including the president of the united states. pass that again and send it down to him and convince him that, look, you will have this fight about the wall. we understand maybe tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow but let's open the government.

let's be rational. let's follow what we said we were going to do some 72 hours ago. until the president got angry or was bullied into sort of beating his chest and following through on his threat to shut down the government. shutting down the government is an irrational act, an example of failure, not success. and clearly, i don't think he's going to get his way that way. he's simply going to be looked upon by the american people as in effect a tantrum and making the rest of america pay for it. >> but the last few shutdowns we have had because short lived because there was an effort for a compromise. in many cases shortly after the shutdown. >> correct. >> it is not the two sides on this are close. obviously after january 2nd when you guys are in charge in the house it would be different. could there a shutdown that doesn't stop for a week or longer? >> there were ten shutdowns in

the '80s and '90s prior to 1994. they averaged two days. two days for each one of the ten average. it was one for three days, a couple for one day and they were because you were still trying to get to agreement and you sort of slipped over into a shutdown. but they were very short. and then, of course, newt gingrich came to town and elected in '94 and '95 and '96, the end of '95, beginning of '96 we had a 26-day shutdown. two shutdowns. over christmas. and then, for the next 17 years, there were no shutdowns. the republicans learned that that did not go very well with the american public and decided that was not good politics. unfortunately when they came just a few years ago and wanted to see if they could repeal the

affordable care act, thinking maybe obama would sign a bill like that, which was irrational and unreasonable, we shut down the government again for 16 days. but you're right. most shutdowns have been for short times where we tried to get an agreement. i certainly hope we don't shut down and reach agreement by tonight. i don't think that's likely but i would hope that that would happen. i would hope that we would not shut down the government for any long period of time. we ought to come to grips with the fact we have agreement on about 98%. i said 96% last night but we agree on 6 of the 7 bills entirely. we agree on almost all except the wall of the seventh bill. these are -- this is seven bill package. so it's amazing we agree on 96%, 97% of the bills including all that is included in the homeland security bill.

>> let me ask you this then. >> we can't reach -- come to closure. >> you are prepared ads democras to continue the existing funding on border security. >> correct. >> is there anything to get out of this to make you sign on to a bigger border wall bill? in other words, whether it's $5 billion or something close to that, is there something that you can tell me that republicans can -- that democrats can be offered by the president that makes it worth settling this? >> ali, you will not be surprised i don't want to negotiate on camera. if you will. but having said that, what we ought to do is open up the government. we're going to be in charge in just a few days and we're going to have to talk to the president because the president's going to be there. we understand that. and we're going to have to get something done but as you recall we recommended doing a cr for the entire year for the department of homeland security which would not put border security at risk at all.

here he -- they're going to shut down the department of homeland security if we can't get agreement as well as other agencies now, some of those employees at the boarder and other places are critical and won't be laid off and much of homeland security's civilian personnel may well be laid off and won't be helpful. i won't negotiate on tv. >> sure. >> but your viewers need to understand that these are not democratic bills. none of these seven are bills. they're republican bills. we have agreed to all of the bills as they now stand. the president wants to add the wall on. >> yeah. >> we have agreed on -- so we have agreed 100% on the bills that have been passed out of the congress of the united states and passed out of committee. and here we are. >> stuck on one thing. >> shutting down the government of one thing. that is not reasonable in a democratic process. >> congressman hoyer is the

democratic whip, thank you for joining me, sir. we'll keep in close touch over the next 24 hours. i'll be talking to ben cardin of maryland. that vote did not conclude. first of two votes in the senate still under way. we've reached out to several republicans on the hill and are still waiting for one of them to join us. any one. so republicans, if you're watching, come on over to our camera. i'll put you on tv. we want to hear about why you're doing this. president trump -- got breaking news. president trump commented on the looming shutdown. let's listen to what he has to say. >> they want the security of safety. they want safety for our country. drugs are pouring in. and we have done an incredible job considering we have no barrier. but drugs are pouring into our country. human trafficking is at the all-time worst in history because of the internet. and the human trafficking

problem is a problem that has gone on through the ages but it's never been worse because of the internet. all over the world. this is all over the world. so we need border security. and the republicans and the senate as you know are taking it up today. and it's really up to the democrats. totally up to the democrats as to whether or not we have a shutdown. it's possible that we'll have a shutdown. i would say the chances are probably very good because i don't think democrats care so much about maybe this issue but this is a very big issue, an issue of crime. it's an issue of safety. it's an issue of least importantly dollars. spend $285 billion a year on illegal immigration. we have to finally do it. the wall will pay for itself on monthly basis. literally every month it pays for itself. we are talking about small amounts of money. think of it. we approved and we got good

democrats supports. military last year, $700 billion. recently $716 billion for the military. and here we i're talking about billion. a fraction. but unfortunately, they've devoted their lives to making sure it doesn't happen, and that wasn't for what should happen. that was for political reasons. so we are going to be working very hard to get something passed in the senate. there's a very good chance it won't get passed. it is up to the democrats. so it's really the democrats' shutdown. we have done our thing. when nancy pelosi said you'll never get the votes in the house, we got them and we got them by a big marvin. 217-185. so now it's up to the democrats whether or not we have a shutdown tonight. i hope we don't. we're totally prepared for a very long shutdown. and this is our only chance that we'll ever have in our opinion

because of the world and the way it breaks out to get great border security. ronald reagan tried many years ago. got a note from a member of his family. many years ago tried to get a wall. and he fought for a long time. during his entire term. he was never able to get a wall. and i consider him to be a great president. he knew what he was doing. we are going to one way or the other we'll get a wall. we're going do get a barrier. we're going do get anything you want to name it. you can name it anything you want. but we cannot let what's been going on in this country over the last ten years, we can't let it happen. now to a very positive note. >> okay. wow. the president said a lot in there. up to the democrats. just going to remind everybody until january both the house and the senate are under republican control. the president did say several days ago in the oval office it's

his shutdown. he'll be proud to own it, proud to shutt down the u.s. government over the border wall. so the tune has not changed and not sure who got in his ear. media or right wing personality got in his ear. this was his shutdown. proud to own it and won't blame you for it, he told chuck shuker. he keeps talking about the amount of money that the u.s. loses on border security. these are nonsensical numbers. the first numbers he quoted back in august, $113 billion. also unprovable numbers. we don't know how he got to that and suddenly out of thin airsided it's $250 billion. we couldn't figure it out. he called it 250. maybe next week 750 billion and made a comment about how the wall pays for itself every month. i'm happy to do the math. i'm good that the stuff. i can figure it out if somebody gives me statistics and tells me

what he's talking about. for the first time in american history, changing topics to another huge topic, defense secretary resigned in protest. we're looking at the stunning resignation of general james mattis. what it means for president trump and national security and who could take his place. you're watching msnbc. life isn't a straight line. things happen. and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but at fidelity, we help you prepare for the unexpected with retirement planning and advice for what you need today and tomorrow. because when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. a partner who makes sure every step is clear, at booking.com, we can't guarantee you'll good at that water jet thingy... but we can guarantee the best price on this hotel.

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welcome back to special

coverage on "velshi & ruhle." i want to show you what's going on. we are now ten and a half hours from a government shutdown. a few things have to happen to avert it. there's a vote going on on the senate floor right now. this is just a motion to proceed. this only needs 50 votes to pass and it is to start the senate floor proceedings on the bill that the house sent to the senate last night. the continuing resolution. theis the bill to keep the government funded with $5 billion for the border wall. that vote, if the first procedural vote goes on, then that second vote needs 60 votes in the senate. there's nobody who has the math that suggests that's going to happen. so that were not to happen, they could pass a clean bill and send it to the president for signature or they can send something to the president. the president might not sign it. the house may come up with a different bill. there are a lot of things that can happen in the next ten and a half hours and not sure which is

going to happen over the next ten and a half hours. but i want to talk about the other big story that we have been following and that is the shockwaves across washington and the world as defense secretary general james mattis announced his official resignation in protest of the president. what was he protesting exactly? in a letter to the president mattis addressed the concern about the two not exactly aligning on world views. beginning, mdear, mr. president one core belief i have always held is that our strength as a nation is linked to the strength of our unique partnerships. while the u.s. is the nation in the free world we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. he goes on. because you have the right to a

secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours i believe it is right for me to step down from my position. now, all this comes as the president recently announced the plan to withdraw troops from syria and if you need a recap, secretary mattis didn't quite agree with that. >> we all saw what happened when isis came in to syria, rose -- came into syria. we have been fighting them and we have said all along we're there under the u.n. resolution and we're going to defeat isis. you have seen us stay true to that mission. and we are going to make certain that we defeat them and that means you don't turn around that moment and say we're gone and we all know that. >> joining me, this is important. joining me are two of the people i rely -- three of the people i rely on for this kind of analysis. analyst retired four-star general barry mccaffrey.

analyst malcolm nance and former congresswoman of california jane harmon, served six years on the armed services committee and eight years on the intelligence and homeland security committees. she also serves on mattis' defense policy board. jane, recently we have had a conversation about my fears of the coming apart of liberal democracy after the war. and mattis spoke to much more defense policy in the letter. nato coming to the aid of the united states after 9/11. he spoke of the coalition in the gulf war. he was underscoring the fact that i believe america is safest and the world is safest when we work in coalition with allies. >> yes. i strongly believe that, too. you showed a clip of the president who said that ronald reagan is a president he admires. well, i was in normandy a month ago or so where our allies and we scaled 100-foot cliff and took out the german guns and that was one of the biggest

things we could do to make that d-day succeed. it was an allied effort and there's a quote of ragan that says the boys who climbed the cliffs became men and they're the ones that saved freedom and hello. that's right. and so, it's not just democrats or just us, ali, who believe this. i believe most everybody believes this and i think it is at risk. mattis had enough. i think that this is mitch mcconnell's moment not just on the shutdown and i hope he holds firm because this was not his idea. he was promised that the clean cr would be okay. but he's also sent his letter so i understand to white house about confirming the next secretary of defense. and one with the values that mattis held. >> yeah. >> mcconnell is an institutionalist. his autobiography and probably will be in the senate long after president trump is not

president. and i think he's got to save the institution. >> he very rarely as you note separates from the president. he did so not only very specifically about james mattis and in writing. barry, general mccaffrey, this is, again, this is more than a military issue. the secretary of defense's views are views that are easily held by republicans and democrats. and it is about strong alliances and protecting those alliances. donald trump for two years has been burning bridges with allies around the world. >> well, yeah. look. there's two things at stake here. one is there appears to be no national security process. the elements of this giant, powerful u.s. government, treasury, state department, cia, defense and others lack any coordination apparently. and then i think the second issue is we have deliberately

confronted our allies and the president has deferred to dictators like putin, erdogan, duterte in the fiphilippines an others and mattis at some point said, i don't want to be associated with this lack of american values. one other thing deserves to be said by the way. there's a huge disciplined u.s. armed forces, 2.1 million men and women, globally deployed. great service secretaries. the deputy secretary of defense shanahan is very admirable. mature technology guy. the president of the united states and the secretary of defense are the only two people allowed to give orders to the nine combatant commanders. that's who commands the armed forces. not the chairman of the jcs. he's just received instructions and reports. so, the president of the united states can pick up the phone, call a joint combatant commander

and unless it's illegal he'll follow the orders. we are about to lose mattis. >> malcolm, senator lindsey graham wants a hearing on this, not mattis but the withdrawal of syria, answers whether there's a plan -- this is important -- to protect our allies there. there aren't that many americans in syria but the success depending on participation with allies who we might be leaving to fend for themselves in the face of a syrian government that is backed by russia and iran. >> well, that's all well and good that graham wants to have a hearing. but that's not going to be any comfort to our allies in the sdf, you know, the syrian kurds who did all of the door to door fighting to defeat isis. it wasn't our troops that went in and kicked the doors in in the city of raqqah and pushed down. that was the sdf.

they lost the people in combat. we did air support. we did combat control and we trained them to do this. having a hearing will not resolve this issue. let me talk about the general mass tis letter as a moment. as the senior enlisted person on this panel. that letter was the plea for the united states to maintain the strategic balance that's stayed in place since the end of world war ii. donald trump is clearly -- does not believe in the atlantic alliance. the alliance which has kept this world together since 1945. he actually despises the word globalist which i'm not sure he understands that we created globalism defending and winning at places like normandy. donald trump doesn't understand it and general mattis was giving him one last bit of advice which was keep your allies close and stop siding with the adversaries. it was a subtle way to take a

swipe at a senior officer and let him know we're on to him. >> this is a world in which you live now, jane. the importance of understanding what our allies need from us. you know, as you and i have discussed, it is difficult as an american to understand the benefits of nato because you don't know there's a neighbor close to you who's going to invade you but the point is the mutual defense treaty of nato, article 5, invoked once and in 9/11 when everybody said an attack on america is an attack on us and the rest of the world treated it as such. >> we didn't act for that. they did it. they invoked article 5 immediately. by the way, a number of other countries like, imagine this, iran, reached for us at a time of need. we pushed them away. we missed enormous opportunities after 9/11. but we did some things right. going into afghanistan was right. going into iraq based on wrong intelligence was wrong once we figured that out. but we have some ownership

there. remember colin powell. if you break it, you own it. to walk away and undermine the people we've put in place starting with mattis but jim jeffries who's our ambassador? syria, our special envoy in afghanistan, afghan born, former ambassador, hello. these people really know what they're doing and to reinforce that point of process, none of them was consulted. this is the bucket list of what campaign promise have i not kept yet and i guess syria and afghanistan showed up. this is the wrong way to show the world that america is as ronald reagan said the shining city on the hill and that our values and our help, not in every instance, are what built this order after world war ii. which we helped to win and which will keep the world staff. >> jane, good to see you in person. president of the wilson center.

thank you, gentlemen, for your analysis today. coming up, we are still watching the senate floor. lawmakers are taking a slow procedural vote on a bill that avoids a government shutdown. i'll tell you the issue. the senators figured they did their job and some are still not there. i'll speak with the man on the right, senator ben cardin about the shutdown. you are watching msnbc. building a better bank starts with looking at something old, and saying, "really?" so capital one is building something completely new. capital one cafes. inviting places with people here to help you, not sell you. and savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. because that's how it should be.

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both on toasted ciabatta bread. served in a no-mess bag, they're the ultimate on the go subs. so panni-do eat one while you are tackling errands. but panni-don't... huh? [buzzer] ...while you're getting tackled by a guy named aaron. order a pannido with doordash today. i have breaking news on route bader ginsburg. the 85-year-old had surgery today here in new york. two cancerous nodules removed from the lungs. the statement of the supreme court said they were discovered when she was treated for rib fractures in november. the statement said there's no evidence of disease anywhere else and no further treatment is planned. all right. let's continue to following the breaking news on capitol hill. there's a vote on a spending bill to keep the government open. the bill that they're considering and this is not what the vote is right now. right now is a procedural vote to move to that vote and not moving with haste.

the bill that they're voting on to allocate $5 billion for president trump's border wall. the vote is staying open for those lawmakers still traveling back to the capitol because they were told to go home because they voted to keep the government open a couple of days ago! joining me is democratic senator ben cardin of maryland. good to see you. just give us clarity on what's going on right now on the senate floor. this is not the final vote about the continuing resolution. that is procedural vote to then move on to the actual vote an we don't expect that actual vote to pass. is that correct? >> ali, you are absolutely right. that is vote to put the house passed continuing resolution on the floor of the senate. it would then be for an up or down vote on the senate floor and could require as much as 60 votes. there is not the support in the united states senate to pass what the house sent over to us. we in the senate reached out already and agreed on two different courses that we're

willing to support. one clean continuing resolution and what we sent over to the house. the others is our committee worked on a full-year appropriation in a bipartisan manner. what we're not willing to do is just yield to the president on a wall that makes no sense at all that there really is not the support in congress to pass. so let's work together, keep government open. if we have a shutdown, taxpayers lose. the -- our federal workers lose. people who need government services lose. let's work on the issue but certainly don't oppose a continuing resolution that's a clean continuing resolution to keep government open. >> the clean continuing resolution without the $5 billion in the wall. it continues the spending levels that we're in now until february. the argument that it -- that republicans in the house have is that nothing's going to get better for them in february. that will be a democratically controlled house. so how do you see this playing

out? we have ten hours and 14 minutes before the government shuts down. >> a response to the republican friends, yes, the house will be controlled by democrats. the senate by the republicans and the president is in the white house. so we will have to work together to figure this out and whether we do it, try to get it done now, sure. we'd like to have it done last october. we worked it out. democrats and republicans in the senate worked on an appropriation bill for homeland security that dealt with strong border security. we believe in border security. but we want to do it in a way to keep us safe. we don't want to waste money because of the president's campaign statements. >> is there anything that democrats could get that they want from a republican controlled senate or from the executive that would make you and your democratic colleagues support more money than the $1.6 billion in there for border security? >> there are two questions here.

how much should we appropriate for border security? that's certainly a negotiable point. let's negotiate the amount. remind people that we appropriated 1.3 billion in the last budget not yet spent. so the senate recommended another 1.6 billion in border security. what doesn't make sense is a down payment on a $28 billion wall that will not make us safer. and remember, the president said that the mexican government would pay for it and certainly not paying for it. it's counter productive and something that we shouldn't be doing. let's spend the money where it needs to be spent. that's the real issue. >> americans don't like shutdowns. they know in the united states constitution it asks members of congress to appropriate funds to make payments from the treasury for the money the government spent. at some point, the last few shutdowns short in duration because we have been close to a deal. this is one of the things where on did $5 billion we are not close. president trump is warning that

a shutdown could last for a very long time. here's the question i have. ten days ago in the white house with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi, the president said i'll shut it down. it will be my shutdown. let's listen to what he said. >> if we don't get what we want, one way or the other, whether it's through you, through military, through anything you want to call, i will shut down the government. >> okay. fair enough. we disagree. we disagree. >> i'm 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. >> i will be the one to shut it down. i won't blame you for it. how does that play out? >> well, clearly president trump causing the shutdown. i saw one of his tweets today where he tried to blame the democrats. it is clearly the president. he does not have the support in the congress. if speaker ryan would have brought up the clean cr that passed the senate last night that would have passed on the floor of the united states house of representatives.

this is clearly a matter where the president has changed his mind several times. end result, a shutdown hurts this country. we already see the stock market falling. this will hurt our economy. taxpayers will end up paying more money. it will affect federal workers wo won't have paychecks. some will have to work without being paid and makes no sense whatsoever. let's continue the debate. at least keep government open. >> senator cardin, good to talk to you, as always. i just want to say this again. >> thank you. >> we have reached out to several republican senators on the hill. we are waiting for just one to join us. so republicans, whether you work on the hill or republicans or you have the hear of your senator, i have a camera available for them. the one that senator cardin was just at. we would like to know what you're planning about this. senator cans talk to me. i do want to snow about all those republicans except the eight who voted against that bill to appropriate the $5 billion.

come and talk to me. let's talk. we have to solve this thing. we have ten hours. come and tell me what the president is here because if we don't solve this problem the government will shut down for no very no very good reason in ten hours from now. - [narrator] the typical vacuum head has its limitations,

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amid the chaos we're watching in washington, the mueller investigation remains on track beginning with our own reporting that government officials and others say robert mueller is nearing the end of his investigation and is expected to submit a confidential report to the attorney general as early as mid-february. acting attorney general mat chew whittaker has rejected the advice of ethics officials and decided not to recuse himself from overseeing the investigation. third, bill barr is under fire for a memo he sent to the justice department in june. he's critical of mueller's probe into whether president trump obstructed justice calling it quote, fatally misconceived. joining me now, new york times justice department reporter katie bennett. let's start here with the former

and possibly future attorney general bill barr. this whole memo, which nobody asked for, raised questions about whether barr would order mueller to shut down his investigation or hamper it. what do you know? >> he takes issue with the idea you can go after the president for obstruction of justice based on the fact he fired james comey. his argument is as the head of the executive branch, he can fire anybody he wants. that's essentially the argument. there are things the president could do that would constitute obstruction and witness tampering. >> let me play with rod rosenstein played yesterday when asked about that memo. >> the memo that you made reference to reflects mr. barr's personal opinion. lots of people offer opinions

but they don't influence our own decision making. >> all right. i don't know if that's rod rosenstein saying what he has to say because he doesn't know if barr will be his future bass. who do you take from that? >> there's a good chance he will be his future boss. he won't be the future boss for long because most people want to bring in their own number twos. rod rosenstein is not incorrect justice department are extremely opinionated. does the thing that barr take issue with, is that thing going to be so important in mueller's investigation. nobody knows the scope of the investigation. i do think if what he's looking at is whether or not russia interfered in the election and whether or not the trump campaign worked with russia and knew that was going on. that's much larger than just firing of director comey. >> understood. thanks for your reporting on

this. just wrap this up. it's safe to say this week has been unsettling for the president. a week that would seem like an entire year of news. if you need a refresher of what's gone down in the last week, let's start with wall street. the stock market is on pace for its worst december performance since the great depression. after the federal reserve raised its interest rates for the fourth time this year. the dow fell below 23,000 for the first time in 14 months amid all the uncertainty of what's been happening in washington. for example, the president announcing he is pulling troops out of syria which was met with harsh criticism from democrats and republicans and especially those at the pentagon. you know who didn't criticize that and in fact praised it, vladmir putin. the president is considering pulling troops out of afghanistan. then the secretary of defense, james mattis resigned in

protest. he's not the only person who resigned. there's ryan zinke who faced intense pressure to step down because of questionable conduct in offense. one week ago the white house got a new acting chief of staff. there was a ton of news on immigration. federal judge struck down the trump administration's effort to deny asylum for migrants fleeing gang violence and abuse. the president vowing to shut down the government over the border wall. trump's acting attorney general pick came under hot water for not recusing himself from the russia probe as we just discu discussed despite ethics officials saying he should have. a new report claims that robert mueller is wrapping up his inquiry and a final report could be submitted as mid-february. former trump national security

adviser michael flynn came before a judge facing charges and after a bizarre hearing his sentencing got delayed until march. the trump foundation was forced to shut down after the new york attorney general accused them of using profits for his own financial benefits. this all happened within the last seven days. thank you for watching. i think i'll need a little nap after that. i'll be back here at 3:00 p.m. eastern. right now katy tur picks up our coverage. she has a big piece of news. you with were ruth bader ginsberg. >> i was on a flight with her last night. obviously didn't know about the surgery today. what i can tell you if she walked on to the flight. she walked off the flight on her own. she worked the entire time. she ordered a coffee. you would have no idea she was heading to new york for surgery.

all those out there who are saying she should be wrapped in bubble wrap or whatever, she doesn't need it. she's good. she's strong. >> we should all be as fit and healthy as she is. see you in an hour. >> see you soon nap was a mouthful. i don't know how you did all that. sdplp th >> that was one week. it's 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in washington. we have been become used to this administration's tendency to go from crisis to crisis, this might be the most tenuous moment. senate republicans race to the white house to meet with trump in an attempt to break the impasse. it's looking ever more likely that the government will grind to a halt at midnight tonight. >> it's really up to the