. >> we're going to leave it there, yamiche alcindor, aaron black, andy card, next time i promise i'll talk to you for more than 30 seconds. i swear. i'm out of time. i'm going to put it into the very capable hands of craig melvin. >>> thank you. craig melvin here msnbc headquarters in new york city. breaking developments in the shutdown showdown. president trump accusing democrats of putting politics over country after the senate passes that continuing resolution to keep the government open until february. the big question in washington, even inside the white house right now, will the president sign the bill? no one seems to know. >>> president trump defending his decision to pull troops out of syria. russian leader vladimir putin applauding the idea, shocked republicans slamming the withdrawal. whose idea was this? >>> and going to trial, the judge dismisses a request by disgraced movie mogul harvey weinste weinstein's attorneys to throw his sexual assault cases out of court, how it all unfolded in that courtroom. >>> we start with that breaking news, a dramatic showdown brewing on c

. >> so white house correspondent yamiche alcindor in washington, jennifer rubin, both are msnbc contributors. i'll start with you yamiche, in full disclosure here, i am not familiar with the thorough machinations of government funding. i don't know the budgetary process as well as you and some of the other reporters there in washington, but is it possible that the president can just fine a few billion dollars for his wall without using congress? >> to my understanding there's no way for him to do that. the main thing to remember here, craig, is that there was already a deal last year to give him $1.3 billion, and the president now this year is saying i don't want that money. i want all $5 billion. up until his interview this morning, the president was sticking to that $5 billion amount. he was saying he wasn't going to budge. he said he welcomed the idea of a shutdown and would be proud to shut down the government over border security, and now you have sarah sanders saying, actually, hold on, maybe we can find a couple billion dollars somewhere else. that's going to be very, very hard, and c