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 democrats. totally up to the democrats as

to whether or not we have a shutdown. it's possible we'll have a shutdown. the chances are probably very good. i don't think democrats care so much about maybe this issue. >> 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. >> the need for greater security on our southern border is not some partisan invention. it's a fact. the need is only growing. >> with the shutdown looming, stocks slid. yesterday the dow dropped nearly 500 points to a 14-month low. right now it's down around 180 points. add to that the high profile exit of trump's secretary of defense, gjim mattis. he didn't just step down.

he resigned in protest. the president's plan to slash troops in afghanistan and syria is what ultimately sent the retired marine packing. don't forget it was just tuesday that this sentencing of trump's former nsa, michael flynn, was abruptly delayed by a judge who brought up the word treason. that is the current state of donald trump's washington. that isn't even all of it. according to the washington post the president is in tail spin acting totally ir rationally and flipping out over the criticisms in the media. remember republicans still as of this moment, control congress. come january 3rd democrats will take control of the house. the big question we're asking today is when it comes to chaos, is this just the beginning? joining me nbc news white house correspondent jeff ben amphetaminbennett, kac

kacie hunt. what is the latest on capitol hill? what's the indication of where senators will all fall? are all the republicans in line to say yes to this adjusted cr? >> reporter: not right now. the vote is still open on the senate floor because, as we know, on wednesday night everyone thought this was on a glade path. many senators left washington. many who are from western states, we are waiting for them to travel back. some won't be here until dinner time. the motion to proceed to this house bill, it only immediates a simple majority. the question will be are there enough republicans to prevent it from going forward on this step. there may be. bob corker is thinking about it. he hasn't voted yet. senator flake voted no already. we're watching a couple others. even if they do manage to start debate on this process, there's

not the 60 votes they would need in the next phase to get this through. it's going to fail at some point. it's just a matter of when it fails. at that point there doesn't seem to be any alternative plan. everybody says they feel like they are heading toward oo shutdown. mitch mcconnell has been the person to watch here. he came back from the white house saying build a wall. he came back towing the president's line saying this is important. he hasn't given any indication about what the plan may be after that. if there's nobody talking, there's no real way around this. that said, we do expect that the house is likely will be in session tomorrow. we're waiting on final word for that and house republican leaders are currently holding a meeting as well. that could potentially hold out some hope that there will be some negotiations here going forward. i got to tell you, right now it's really hard to see a way

out of this. >> jeff, republicans were at the white house. mitch mcconnell left there saying build the wall. what more did we learn from what the president told him. was he giving them an ultimatum. does he understand the numbers? >> reporter: it looks like we are headed toward a shutdown. even as the president negotiates and talks to republicans there's no public signs he's negotiating with senate democrats. what i find so interesting about this entire week, the entire way this week has played out is the conventional wisdom of a shutdown usually holds that a president will at some point back down. they want to give the impression that the government, his administration is capable and competent. they can meet the core function of keeping the government open as a way of meeting the safety and security needs of the american people. president trump picked a fight

that will lead to a shutdown because it was more important to him politically to be seen putting up a fight over this core promise of a border wall than about keeping the government open. that's why we find ourselves less than 10 hours away for the government going dark saturday morning. >> this is all political. it's political according to the president's own admission. last week he was sitting down with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi saying he's ready to own the wall. he'll own the shut dodown. he won't blame democrats. now today he is trying to blame democrats. is this all because rush limbaugh gave him good enouuff radio show and he doesn't want to be criticized by somebody that supports him?

>> that's right. he wants to show his political base, his conservative base that he is fighting. he's taking a stand and willing to shutdown the government. the problem is he doesn't have a plan beyond sort of this show today in terms of how to re-open the government or what sort of compromise he would agree to. he was leaning towards signing this short term spending bill that would effectively sort of kick the discussion over the wall into january of next year. then the president started getting cold feet. he was lobbied by a number of lawmakers including mark meadows. that's why he has reversed course here. >> is the only option here for the president to back down? say the shutdown lasts until

january 3 rrd when democrats ta over. what happens then? >> the president doesn't have an out besides caving. everybody kind of recognizes that. every one is going along with the show because that's what the president and some of his allies are demanding. there was an offer on the table less than a month ago for 1.6 billion which is more than 1.3 billion, which is the offer now. there's no incentive for democrats to come to the table. why would democrats throw them a life raft at this point. there's no incentive to do that. what's going on in the senate is a total show too. it's either going to die right here or it's going to die on the next round of votes. we're digging in for a long shutdown. the next two days are a weekend then you have christmas eve and christmas. the impacts respects going to be felt until the middle of next week. people will come back into

session and have to figure it out wednesday, thursday, friday. there's no talks going on. there's not going to be any bipartisan talks. democrats have no incentive to throw this president a life raft. >> what kind of deal is he trying to make? 1.3 billion this week. 1.6 billion last week. it was 20 billion last year. what kind of deal is he trying to make? sounds like he would have had a much better deal a year ago. >> reporter: that was a good deal. he's now demanding $5 billion for the border wall. he stopped calling it a wall and is now calling it steel slats. >> by calling it steel slat, is that an acknowledgement that the american public is not behind

this wall? the republican party might be behind the wall to varying degrees of enthusiasm but the american public as a whole is not behind this wall or style slats. >> reporter: the wall, as you know, has been this symbolic sport of promise of his campaign that he would erect this wall to keep immigrants out and to keep the americans secure. in reality, he's talking about steel slats which doesn't look like a wall. he's using it as a branding tool in the last few days. steel slats. he talked about it a lot and is meeting with house speaker paul ryan. i think because he thinks it provides a bit of cover for lawmakers who might be supportive of border security of some kind but maybe not necessarily the wall which is such a polarizing term in the political debate today. >> that does seem like an acknowledgement that frankly he's not going to win politically with the entire american public. if he's not going to win across the board then he's not going to

get the votes. i guess now the option is style sl -- steel slats that will be paid indirectly by the american government but first by the american taxpayer. i don't know or by a go fund me set up by a number of independent americans. still a long way to go on that. whether or not there's a shutdown, federal workers will get their biweekly paychecks. according to cnbc, an estimated 380,000 federal workers would be placed on temporary leave without pay. the biggest impact would be felt in the department of commerce and nasa. 44,000 workers at the forest and national park services would be sidelin sidelined.

52,000 from the irs and 71,000 at housing and urban development and 30% of the transportation employees will be furloughed as well. the cost to taxpayers could reach $2 billion as it did during the 2013 shutdown. joining me from capitol hill, colorado democratic senator michael bennett. who pays the political price for this? >> reporter: well i think the american people pay the price for this which is why we should never shut the government down. there's no government in america that ever shuts itself down over politics and we shouldn't allow this to happen. we should never shut the government down. i think it's clear if it does shut down, president trump, who has said over and over and over again that he wants to shut down, that he would welcome a shutdown. we should have a shutdown, is going to own this terrible shutdown. >> what's on the table from democrats for the president in order to avert this?

>> the republicans control the senate and the house. the republicans and democrats in the senate and house made an agreement with president trump to pass a clean cr. that's another topic. for the ten years i've been here, 40% of the days have been continuing resolutions. not real budgets. that's ridiculous in and of itself. 100 senators voted for this and then the president changed his mind. the president should honor the deal that he made and we should leave the government open. >> he does control the senate and the house. republicans do control those bodies but in order to pass a cr in the senate, as you well know, he needs 60 votes which would mean some democrats need to come on board. what are democrats willing to give in order to avert this?

>> i think, myself, we should just do the deal that we all agreed to. you're talking about the steel slats or whatever it is he's calling it now, the history on this issue is that every single democrat in the senate voted for the immigration bill in 2013 which spent not $25 billion on border security, $46 billion on border security. 350 miles of fencing. we doubled the number of immigration guards at the border. unlike what donald trump is trying to do now even though he said mexico would pay for the wall, the taxpayers didn't pay for it in our bill. it was paid for by immigration fees. maybe the people with the go fund me site could help him sort of try to keep his promise.

the reality is the american people want a secure border. they don't want his invented political issues. i'll say this also, i think he doesn't want the wall. i think he wants the issue of the wall. i say that because having been part of the gang of 8 in 2013 that wrote the immigration bill that i was just talking about, i was part of the gang of six that tried to rescue the dreamers by giving the president an authorization on his terrible idea for a wall and that provoked him to refer to african countries the way he referred to african countries the way he referred to. i think the white house isn't probably competent to do a deal on this and i think he doesn't want a deal. he wants the issue. s >> you're saying there's been multiple deals on the table and each time the president has moved the goal post? >> he moves the goal post. he says come down and talk about it. i'm interested and excited. then he meets with steve miller

or somebody else who tells him he's getting rooked and he can't make a deal. he's not a serious person when it comes to this stuff. it's a terrible situation for our country. >> i want do sneak in two more questions. will there be a situation in the near future where democrats will be willing to make a compromise on the wall that does include immigration we form, including potentially safety for dreamers? safety net for dreamers. >> i would like to do something for dreamers.

i think that woultds would be a wonderful thing. >> how much money would you give him? >> i don't know. again, he said he wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize the dreamers. he did the exact opposite when he came into office. >> what do you make of secretary mattis resigning? >> it's horrible for a couple reasons. one is that there are a lot of people in this body, republicans and democrats, who took some so l lace of the fact he was in the administration. everybody knows what a fine and honorable patriot he is and the adult supervision was required and his judgment was required. that's a huge loss for america. i would say that his letter says it all when he writes about the

enduring values and alliances that we need to protect as a nation. those are being tested right now. they are being eroded and in some cases wrecked by this president of the united states. every american whether they are in congress or whether they are sitting at home watching you needs to do our part to make sure we protect those values and those alliances until this administration is, thankfully, a thing of the past. >> are you republicans colleagues okay with this presidency? they voted in line with this. >> i think they are deeply worried if they cross him, they will be incinerated by him. that's not the same thing as saying what he is doing is right. >> senator, thank you very much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. i have a cold which makes me sound even worse than usual.

>> you sound perfectly fine. merry christmas. coming up, we have date. the most closely watched investigation in network could be coming to an end. first, the last adult in the room is gone. room is gone i'm snow. and just like you, the further into winter we go, the heavier i get. and while your pants struggle to support the heavier you, your roof struggles to support the heavier me. [laughter] whoo. [crash] and your cut-rate insurance might not pay for this. so get allstate, you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. mayhem is everywhere. so get an allstate agent. are you in good hands?

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that's how one former intelligence official described the resignation of jim mattis to nbc news except they didn't use f'ed. they broadened it out. the official is not alone. it's been some version of that sentiment. mattis announced his clear why he did. he does not agree with the president's decisions or his style. quote, my views on treating allies with respect and also being clear eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. because you have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subject, i believe it is right for me to step down from my position. joining me nbc news national security and military reporter

courtney kuby. evelyn, you know secretary mattis. you know him well. what is he thinking? >> well, i think he decided he reached the end of the road. you could already see he was struggling bit with the troops to the border issue a couple of months ago when the president made him order troops, a very wasteful mission. made him order troops to the border and he defended it and stayed on the middle ground saying they wouldn't go there armed. he also towed the line for the president on the khashoggi murder that the saudi arabian government committed. when it came to the issues of armed forces and national interests he was not willing to bend over. the fact the president would

overrule hill on syria and it appears on afghanistan and coming on the heels of a couple other decisions without consulting with allies and behind the scenes we know about things that secretary mattis helped prevent that the president might have done had there not been the guardrails in place and the people to convince him to not take unilateral actions. >> expand on that. >> one item has to do with nato. last summer in july president trump went to nato ministerial and met with heads of states. there was report that the president was threatening to withdraw from nato and it has to do with funding. he wants the other drcountries contribute more. he gave a press release and he

dismissed the idea he would have withdrawn. according to people i know who have served directly for secretary mattis, this was actually a real threat. he was talked out of it by people around him. americans. secretary mattis, pompeo, bolton and by various foreigners. that was a kind of crazy he got in his head, a kind of and he w counselled to not make such a statement. the senate took note. if you recall, and i'm almost done. there's a piece of legislation pending on both sides of the hill, house and senate, that says the president cannot unilaterally withdraw from nato. >> you can go on as long as you want as long as you have interesting and insightful details like that.

here's what we have for the number of times secretary mattis has disagreed with the president. there's the syrian withdrawal, afghanistan, russia and putin. military exercises with south korea. remember the president didn't want to do those any longer. this space force. the transgender ban that the president tweeted out of nowhere. troops on the border. a military parade and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, what happened with that. that's a lot of things. we were talking about how much influence mattis had with this president because there was all this turmoil. he called jim mattis which is democrat which i guess is the ultimate criticism. the ultimate criticism. what's the reaction at this pentagon today? >> right. remember there's been other decisions that go back even further when secretary mattis

wads sti was still relatively new. moving the embassy to je rrusal. they were issues his input was not listened to. we had two big ones this week that seemed to be the straws that broke the camels back in this case and that was the decision by president trump to pull all u.s. troops out of syria in a very short time. a very short time line a and now the white house asking for plans to withdraw u.s. troops from afghanistan. every one i'm talking to, the defense officials i'm speaking with are saying this is going to happen. it's a matter of with afghanistan, it's a matter of when, how many troops and how the mission transforms. these were two -- the military parade, the idea of creating a space core or space force those were things that secretary

mattis may have been against but he wupasn't willing to go to th mat for them. the u.s. withdrawing especially have quickly and with little explanation or warning would be a real black eye against these allies. this is something that secretary mattis takes very seriously and seems it was the last straw. >> have you heard of any anybody advocating for a withdrawal from syria or afghanistan? >> when i was in afghanistan in october, i was surprised how many people i spoke with who were not against the idea of a more tailored counter terror mission. a smaller u.s. force that

focuses ongoing after al qaeda and isis and the taliban as opposed to this larger footprint with the training mission. i wouldn't say there's widespread agreement. i think people and the same thing with syria, the military wants to keep a footprint there. the fact is isis is down to small area. this was not a forever mission of going after isis. it was more about stabilization. again, it's the way this has been rolled out. i think that's what people take issue with here. >> got it. evelyn, even secretary mcconnell -- senator mcconnell gave a statement that was critical of the president. we don't hear him say anything of the president. i was sorry to learn that secretary mattis will soon depart the administration but i'm particularly distressed he is resigning due to sharp differences with the president. it's regrettable that the president must choose a new secretary of defense.

i urge him to select a leader who shared secretary mattis understanding of these vital principles and his total commitment to america's service members. the president used to talk about how much he loved the generals. my generals. so far the generals that have come into his administration, general kelly, who is the chief of staff who is out going. general mcmaster who is no longer the national security adviser and now general mattis who will no longer be the defense secretary. seems like he hasn't gotten along with them. >> no. they have a traditional, conventional view of u.s. national interests and foreign policy which is that you are a greater danger if you disengage. you're a greater danger if you try go it alone and try to make trade wars and you don't confront your competitors like china with your allies and you don't confront the russians, syrians with your allies. he's going to have a problem if he picks another general again.

what senator mcconnell is doing is laying down a marker. the senate will not accept anyone who doesn't share the viewpoint of the out going secretary of defense. >> ladies, thank you very much. mid-february, that is how soon special counsel robert mueller could issue the official report on his probe into russian collusion and obstruction of justice. according to nbc news courses but what comes of mueller's findings all depends on who he hands them to. acting attorney general matt whittaker has made it clear he will not be recusing himself. joining me nbc news intelligence and national security reporter ken delanian and glen kirshner. tell us why february seems to be the date to watch. >> it took my by surprise.

pete williams and i set out to take stock and in the course of reporting that we learned that government officials had been told to prepare for a mid-february drop of the mueller report. it could slip to march. if he decides to issue a subpoena, that koultd delay things because there could be a big court fight. it suggests mueller is at the end stages of his investigation. we don't know what he has found on the major questions he set out to explore including whether or not donald trump or anybody around him colluded with the campaign. if it drops in mid-february, it will be acting attorney general mat chthew whittaker who decide what happens with that report. he's a man who has heavily criticized the mueller investigation and declined to recuse himself on those grounds.

>> does that concern you in. >> it does concern me, first of all. if ken and pete williams are reporting it, i'm taking it to the bank. just because we're beginning to hear a report may issue the february, perhaps march, that does not mean indictments will not also drop. both of those things could happen simultaneously. mueller has been investigating in classic fashion which is from the bottom up. he's indicted and resolved in many instances the cases against the gates and the flynns and the papadopouloss and the manaforts and the vanderswan. we still have those folks up top. that may include the president and his family, don junior, jared kushner. we still have the stones and

corsis. just because we hear a report will issue, that's not mutually exclusive from further indictments may drop. the whittaker thing, certainly does present a wild card. >> let's get into the whittaker thing. here are all the times we can find that matthew whittaker was critical of the russia investigation. it's a number of times between june 2017 and august 2017. we reported the ethics committee said he should not recuse himself or whittaker was saying the ethics committee said he shouldn't recuse himself. there's now reporting that whittaker was advised to recuse himself. there was a recommendation from the ethics committee. he tapped a veteran u.s. attorney to become a fore team

of advicevisers on his new job. they recommendsed to whittaker the next day not to recuse. glen, help me understand this. he appointed his own set of add vie -- advisers who told him what he wanted to hear is that he could stay in charge. >> that's problematic. it seems like mr. whittaker may have problems depending on the decisions he makes regarding the mueller probe. there is an office within the department of justice called o proa. they tackle difficult and thorny conflict issues day in and day out. it doesn't seem like there's been a formal opinion. apparently whittaker put

together hand grouped pick of four people. not sure who they are. they offered the opinion he's not conflicted out of supervising the mueller probe. another ethics official offered the opinion there's the appearance of conflict. this will call into question any decision he makes that cuts back on mueller's authority or that sort of forecloses the possibility of mueller doing something he believes he needs to do. this is getting worse and more murky rather than better and clearer. >> there were congressional inquiries about this ethics review. the ethics officials concludesed if a recommendation were sought they would advise the acting

attorney general should recuse himself from supervision of the special counsel investigation because it was in their view that a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts likely would question the impartiality of the acting attorney general. again, we just showed you on your screen, all the times that politico can find where matthew whittaker criticized the mueller investigation. he did so even comparing mueller's team to a lynch mob at one point. >> just for some context on that. that did not trigger a legal recusal requirement the way if a litigant had a financial connection to mr. whittaker. it was advice from the ethics people. he said i'm not going to follow that oadvice. up next, it's beginning to

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mitch, do it for me. his defense secretary was quite sick of it. i can't stand it no more, i'm going to quit. wau wall street was scrambling the fed raised our rate, the markets are volatile, they sealed our fates. what trump will tweet next, we can only guess because all of washington is one giant mess. a christmas only trump could deliver. up believable. joining me the director of defending democracy together bill crystal. i like how you liked our christmas poem. >> that was pretty good. >> impressive. >> we can just end this segment right now. >> so well delivered. >> bill, i want to start with you. what the heck is going on. is there a winner in this fight? >> we'll see in terms of the

shutdown. i think the big story is the resignation of defense secretary and the way he resigned and he told people as recently as two, three days ago that he was going to stay. he was very unhappy about the syria decision. was going to try to fight that till the end. for me, his leaving suggests he thinks he can't really effect policy in fundamental ways going forward. that syria is just the tip of iceberg. the degree to which people reassured themselves, a lot of republicans. a lot of people who don't like trump much but wanted to get along with him or tolerate him, what mattis is there, the establishment is constraining him. that's a big deal. >> how do you view the current

state of things in washington right now? there's a looming shutdown. it will probably happen at midnight. the president is under investigation. an investigation reaching into all aspects of his life and everything he's touched for the past three, four decades. the secretary of defense is leaving and people are freaking out. this is with a republican controlled congress. what happens come january 3rd. >> i think we'll see is an actual check and balance on this administration. we'll see accountability which is something donald trump has never seen, ever, in his life. i don't think bill was talking about defense secretary mattis stepping down and how that is an awful blow to this country and i don't think we would have gotten there if republicans in the house and the senate had done their job. had been a check on this

administration. that's basically where we are. if you think about the shutdown that's looming, that's probably going to happen, lit be tit wil the third shutdown since this president has taken office. three in two years and for what? because the president couldn't take criticism from ann coulter and rush limbaugh. now we'll have hundreds of thousands of federal government workers who will not get a check this christmas. they will get a lump of coal because of this president. as soon as this president realizes this is not a political game. we're talking about real lives, the masterful negotiated has backed himself in corner and he's not going to win this fight. i think that's what we'll see come january 3rd. >> bill, she brings up a point. rush limbaugh. we have two radio show hosts who

influence the president. they have an out sized amount of control and influence here. >> right. the president chose to listen to them. it's ludicrous. the president's base would not have deserted him if he kept quiet and signed the cr the senate passed by a vote 36 hours ago. this is entirely trump. we can say i think he did react to ann coulter and those people. they can say what they want but i blame trump. i'm against this -- it's nice that bob corker to say that, the tyranny of the talk show. it's the irresponsibility of the president of the united states. >> merry christmas, guys.

>> merry christmas. >> i hope it's a good one. see you next year. hopefully something else in 2019. >> calm before the storm. > >> exactly. we'll see what happens. up next, robert mueller probably has them. democrats want them and the public might see donald trump's tax returns. stay with us. see donald trump' tax returns. stay with us

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according to new reporting, multiple experts agree it is tern that robert mueller has donald trump's tax returns because following the among is prosecution 101. now the democrats want to see them and they may try to use a federal law from 1924 to force the pressure ri to hand them over. joining me is david k johnson, he is also the author of making donald trump. i don't want to have this tax conversation with anyone but you. what is likely to be in them, what could we potentially see? >> depending on how many years back they have kept donald trump's tax records we may see in recent years he reported an income of less than $500,000. i don't know who makes less than

that with a boeing 757. the tax returns themselves katie are the beginning point of the investigation. it's the books and records bind them that will tell you money money laundering, investments, dealings with the saudis, russians, and others. >> money laundering has not been an area of information that we have talked much about. we have not seen that investigators have found anything like that that. why do you bring it up? >> well it is not part of mueller's fundamental charge, we're just looking into russian interference, but for the house democrats, looking into trump's

fundraisers, they put money into his buildings and paid premium prices, that will be in a lot of interest. the trump taj mahal casino was involved in money laundering. >> is there anything less having to do with the mueller information and leverage in foreign countries? why is he so against releasing these numbers. >> let's keep in mind that donald trump had two trials for income tax fraud and in one of those trials his own tax lawyer and accountant testified that

the tax return in the case was fraudulent. and he took $600,000 from a business that produced zero income but he could not produce a single receipt. he also confessed to sales tax fraud. he is the only time there was cheating by the house in an atlanta city casino was on trump's castle. it was a bomb shell report. we spent segment after segment talking about it. it was one of those things that never caught fire. i was talking to voters in indiana that had not even heard of it. if it is that why is trump confident that it will just be

ignor ignored. >> there is a lot different as opposed to many times they start digging through the returns and they will put ou item after item and hold hearings that will focus people's attention. some people won't care. some people will cheer him for that, most of us who are honest taxpayer wills be appalled by what comes out. >> especially april 15th comes and they realize how much they have to pay the irs. >> merry christmas to you, my mom says hi. christmas to you, mom says hi.

supreme court justice ruth badder ginsburg under went surgery today.

there is no sign of the disease following the surgery. she is expected to remain in the hospital for a few more days for additional treatment. i happened to be on a flight with her last evening, and i can tell you she got on and off of the plane on her own and she spent the entire flight working, i was nodding off and she was working, she seemed to be in good spirits, we wish her a very speedy recovery. ali sprks velshi. >> everyone come back and join me at 10:00. >> they should, i enjoy that show a great deal. >> i do as well, and the team behind the scenes are all amazing and may life for us very easy, and you and i are filling

in a lot -- >> next week i'm only on two days, but the following week, get ready, it will be mstur. >> you are not getting your wall. you will not get that wall. let's than nine hours from now. more economic turmoil and it is all coming at the hands of the law marks have headed back to their party quarters. >> all of this turmoil is causing chaos in the markets, chaos abroad, and it is making