You are live in the cnn newsroom. Im jim acosta. At any minute the United States senate could vote on a stopgap measure to prevent the shutdown that was going to take place just after midnight. This afternoon the house passed an 11th hour shortterm Spending Bill. Now it has to be signed by the senate and then signed by the president. All within the next six hours. Manu raju is on capitol hill for us. I guess its on the senate side right now, and thats where you are, if memory serves me correct. Youre tracking the latest. What do we know at this point . Reporter yeah, ive been talking to them this afternoon and its very clear. The senate will accept and will vote to give final approval in this house bill that would keep the government open past midnight for another 45 days. It would include money to help deal with natural disasters but does not include what many senators on both sides of the aisle wanted. 6. 2 billion in aid to ukraine. The senate was voting on its own plan as the house was dealing with its own drama. But at the moment, the senate is putting its own plan aside and is expected to accept the house bill, pass it, send it to the pressess desk and sign it into law before the midnight deadline. This was supposed to happen within a matter of hours. It could even happen within the hour. Sometime in the senate, things happen very quickly. It requires all 100 senators to sign off and agree to schedule a time for a vote. One senator can object and drag things out. We are not expecting that to happen here because of the fact that we are right up against the deadline and there is the only game in town. The only bill that can avoid a Government Shutdown. So at the moment, after weeks of drama, internal republican tension, divisions within the house gop, and the fight between the house gop and senate gop about how to proceed, Kevin Mccarthy is able to get it over the finish line with democratic support, and that is one reason it will cause some issues for the speaker Going Forward. With members of his hard right. To line up democrats and his own party to get this through the house this afternoon. What happens to House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy . For weeks we were hearing all these threats coming from the hard right members of his caucus. If he cuts a deal with democrats, that will be it for Kevin Mccarthy. Im not seeing a lot of statements flooding my email inbox saying theyre calling a vote on monday and mccarthy is out. Maybe its because its saturday evening and they all want to go out to dinner in washington. What is your sense of it . Is that the scenario we might see emerge next week . Reporter its very possible. Matt gates has said if Kevin Mccarthy puts the stopgap measure on the floor, that would be enough to oust him. He said clearly, if he relies on democrat votes to do this, the moving trucks will be outside the Speakers Office to get him out of there. He wont be speaker for much longer. But matt gaetz has yet to file the motion to vacate. If all the democrats voted to kick him out and just five republicans did so as well. And there is an open question about how democrats may handle and it whether gaetz has the votes himself. I spent the afternoon to track down some of the critics, some of the ones who voted against the stopgap measure to ask them if they would sign with matt gaetz and they became frustrated with his handling of it but they would not go as far as saying they would kick him out. Very disappointing, spending as usual, no control, very disappointed. But well live to fight another day. So if theres a vote to vacate, would you vote for it . Well see. Well see what he does. I wish we had fought. We just didnt fight. This is a done deal. Lets move on and make sure that next week we talk about being fiscally conservative so we can save our future and save our children and our childrens children. Would you vote to vacate the chair . Is this a conversation youre willing to have . I think it is shameful in many, many ways. The idea that we continue funding the government for 45 days is just saying that we, in my opinion, this is just my opinion, that everything that this administration is doing to try to destroy this country, you know, the doj, the fbi, border, all of it, we just said, hey. Lets continue for another 45 days until we can figure it out. Reporter so troy nehls said he wouldnt vote for something he didnt support, kicking out the speakership. If matt gaetz does file a motion to kick out the speaker from the speakership, it would just take two days for it to come up on the house floor. It could happen pretty quickly. The question is will he still do it . Does he have the votes to do it . If he does, the speaker is saying bring it on. Hes ready to fight this out. So we could see something weve never seen in the history of this country. Him getting kicked out and the speakers race happening until someone gets a majority vote. The speaker says hes ready. Very interesting. Not a whole lot of takers there on pushing the speaker out at this point, based on what you just heard and we talked to tim this afternoon, i asked him the same question and he wasnt biting just yet either. Thats an interesting development. Thank you very much. Joining with us more cnn commentator, molly, guys, lets talk about what we just heard from manu raju a few moments ago. After all the weeks of bluster and threats that Kevin Mccarthy will get hauled out and his days as speaker are over if he cuts this deal with democrats. And then manu talked with two or three House Republicans saying, thats it. Kevin mccarthy, youre out. And i talked with tim bircher this afternoon. He didnt go up to that line either. So molly, was this just a lot of bluster . I mean, they dont have the votes, right . Matt gaetz doesnt have the votes for a new speaker. This is the worlds worst job. With this tiny, tiny, tiny fourseat majority, its impossible to govern and you have this completely ungovernable maga caucus which truly does want to burn it all down. What do you think . I think its easy to feel like the adult in the room as Kevin Mccarthy has been posturing when you invite the kids in. Hes the one that invited the children to the table and allowed people like matt gaetz and Marjorie Taylor green to hold him hostage. To become speaker and over the course of the last few weeks, negotiating essentially with terrorists on the far right side of this caucus over what to do. And that includes joe bidens impeachment and shutting down the government. And finally, Kevin Mccarthy said i cant work with the kids anymore so ill work with democrats. Something he promised republicans he wouldnt do. But thats how far he was pushed. I think it is great that he finally did get a deal done. It only lasts for 45 days. But were here because of Kevin Mccarthy, lets be honest. Yeah, Kevin Mccarthy said earlier today, as s. E. Just mentioned, he was the adult in the room. He can say whatever he wants but hes the weakest speaker weve ever had. And i think it is worth wondering, republicans saw the Writing On The Wall. They knew this after the impeachment which was such a fiasco for them, which showcased all these Democratic Congress people, i think they were willing, they saw the Writing On The Wall and they knew they would likely lose the house which i still think they will. Think about people like mike lawler who is in a d plus district. They were desperate not to shut down the government because they knew. Right. And s. E. , the House Minority leader was calling this a victory for the democrats today. Lets listen to that. The American People have won. The extreme maga republicans have lost. It was a victory for the American People and a complete and total surrender by rightwing extremists who throughout the year have tried to hijack the congress. S. E. , what do you think of that . Its kind of hard to argue with what the Minority Leader is saying there. Kevin mccarthy had to work with democrats to get this done. Listen, hes not wrong. I would rather leave pundity to people like us. I think elected officials shouldnt put things in those terms, surrender, a loss for a political party. The American People dont care about that. I dont love framing it that way and i think thats why people hate washington, frankly. We can talk like that and hes right. This was a total surrender by Kevin Mccarthy on behalf of, you know, maga republican whos didnt want him to do that. They gave him no choice. He wanted to solve a problem. He wanted to avoid a Government Shutdown. He knew that would look bad for republicans and they would shoulder the blame so he did what he had to do. And molly, one thing you could say about Hakeem Jeffries comments, there are some misgivings on the democratic side about funding for ukraine being excluded from this stopgap spending measure, this continuing resolution which i guess has to get passed to keep the government running. But mike quigley was saying this afternoon that putin is celebrating the fact this ukraine aid was cut out of the compromise, that the Reagan Doctrine is dead in the republican party. We were talking to jake, death boldin earlier on. Theyre not happy about this. Theyre all but insisting this get done before they vote one more time on this continued resolution. There is some grumbling on the democratic side about this. Yeah. And theres even more grumbling from super maga mitch mcconnell. He is quite furious about there and said he would vote it down. So yes, i think this is, you know, i dont know how they fix this. It seems like there might be, i saw Sheldon Whitehouse thinking about how there may be some other way to thread this needle. Im glad the democrats are taking this as a win because it is a win. They were the ones who kept the government open. So seeing Hakeem Jeffries, even though people dont like politicizing, we, all of us have pushed democrats to be more forceful on their messaging and this is a clear example of democrats saving republicans and keeping the government open so im really glad that Hakeem Jeffries did that. And s. E. , liz cheney came out earlier today with a tweet reminding people that today is the anniversary of neville chamberlains peace in our time speech 85 years ago. She says in this tweet earlier today, appeasement didnt work then and it wont work now. I mean, i dont think if this ukraine aid sails through the congress in the coming weeks. This might be a tough vote in both houses of congress. It will be a tough vote. I think both parties are acutely aware of that. So you see an erurgency from fos in the Republican Senate who want more aid for ukraine and the democrats and the president and an urgency before that support diminishes even further. I think the sense is that theyll have to attach ukraine aid to some other kind of bill, that it wont happen clearly in this one or even other effort to fund the government. Well see if they can do it. But time is ticking on support for ukraine aid. Just like the aid got pulled out of the legislation in a mustpass kind of Spending Bill, perhaps the aid goes back in and another piece of mustpass legislation. Well come back after a quick break. I want to get into who pulled the fire alarm in the House Of Representatives earlier today. Literally, that happened today. Were back with our political commentators. In addition to all the antics we saw on capitol hill earlier today, i guess somebody pulled a fire alarm. Democratic Congressman Jamal Bowman is under investigation for pulling a fire alarm in the House Cannon Office building. He was identified by Security Footage and his office said this was just an accident. I dont know how you accidentally pull a fire alarm. All kidding aside, they are taking this seriously. This is no Joking Matter on capitol hill, as juvenile as it sounds. Yeah, at best its childish. At worst, this is obstruction of congress or obstruction of an official proceeding. Those are real things. And i dont know if he did this intentionally, and well have to wait to see and we certainly shouldnt impugn him before we know more. We know he pulled it but we dont know why. If it was intentional, that is real serious and wreaks of the sort of stunts that republicans try to pull sometimes. Dont be like republicans. Dont be like republicans. I know things are tense and the stakes are lie but dont be like republicans. At the end of the day, the bill passed. So congressman bowman almost presented a win for democrats from during so i suppose he has to do some selfanalysis on that. We have a statement from his office and we should note that congressman bowman, according to his office, he did not realize he would trigger a Building Alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote. He regrets any confusion, of course. If he wants to come on, you know, on the newsroom hear, we can talk to him about why he did this. It could be snatching defeat from victory. Ive interviewed him a couple times. I know him. If youre a pundit, the internet is losing its mind right now. The people who were completely silent about trumps 91 criminal indictments are ready to just lock the congressman up for pulling a fire alarm. Im going to say this here. Look, its not good to pull a fire alarm, especially during a vote. And that is not okay and this should not happen. But if youve been completely silent, there was a congressman who was, who said there was nothing wrong, or a maga congressman who said theres nothing wrong with what happened on january 6th. He posted a Photo Holding handcuffs and said were coming for you, congressmen. Im going to say theyre in no position to try to lock someone up for pulling a fire alarm. S. E. . Youre right. They have no leg to stand on and i make this point all the time. If you werent outraged about all the stuff that trump was alleged to have done, the stuff we know trump has done, you dont havefully business being outraged by anything that democrats do. But we as good actors and intellectually consistent honest people, we can say, that was wrong. And especially if it was intentional. It was bad and he shouldnt be left off the hook because hes a democrat or didnt do something worse. Yeah. Dont pull the fire alarm. Never a good thing. Lets talk a little about what took place last night. Donald trump, he had this speech before the California Republican party. Lets listen to what he had to say. Well stand up to crazy nancy pelosi who ruined san francisco. How is her husband doing, by the way . Anybody know . What theyve done is gone after opponents. If you become president or some other job, if you become president and you dont like somebody, or if somebody is beating you by 10, 15, 20 points, like were doing with crooked joe biden, lets indict [ bleep ]. Molly, as the Special Counsel is going to the judge in the january 6th case, the federal january 6th case, and saying that something has to be done about trump making all these kinds of incendiary comments. For example, the other day suggesting that mark milley, the outgoing chairman of the joint chiefs of staff should be executed. You cant really minimize what trump is saying about paul pelosi as some kind of a joke. This was an attack that was intended to be against nancy pelosi, one of trumps political opponents. So yet again, trump is getting himself involved in riling people one this incendiary rhetoric that can lead to violence. And it has historically led to violence, right . On january 6th, that happened because they had, they said, and you had a lot of these defendants saying, i went there because trump told me to go there. So this is something weve already seen happen. Look. I am always shocked by some of the stuff trump says, even after almost a decade of doing this. The stuff he says. Nancy pelosis husband is in his 80s. He was attacked with a hammer. Like there is no world in which anything to make light of, and especially when youre a person for whom you have actually caused your supporters to do this before. I think it is really scary and i think it fall on us in the Main Stream Media to cover this. But to cover it in a way that is clear that this is wrong and that this is bad. Is trump trying to tempt the judge to muzzle him so hell have more red meat to throw at his base . Or as it is often the case, there is no plan. Hes just doing this. And he will keep doing it to egg people on. Yeah. It felt desperate. I think hes coming from a place of weakness and desperation. And getting people as angry as he can get them. He said to great applause at this rally that he would make sure that shoplifters were shot onsite in a trump administration. Really ugly stuff. This is what has happened. Trump fostered the politics of revenge and punishment and that meant of his opponents, everyone who would get in his way. Even republicans who werent 100 loyal. Thats not what politics is for. It is supposed to solve problems. Politics are supposed to govern. Hes made politics like the Justice System and law enforcement, the politics will go after your enemies. And no surprise, hes conditioned his voters to think that way. And of course, they want more and more and more of it. So when he says things like this about paul pelosi or shoplifters or bill clinton or name it, his voters get rabid and frothy and agitated and angry at all the right people for Donald Trumps purposes. I think if he went out and said in a rally, lets round up all the nuns, i think he would get applause. Theyre just there to get angry on behalf of donald trump. Its normalizing and sanitizing calls for political violence, excusing acts of political violence. Again, a new low for him. All right. Thank you very much. Really appreciate it. As weve been mentioning throughout the program, the senate is on the clock to vote on a bill to avoid a Government Shutdown. Were told that vote could come very soon. Manu raju is tracking all the developments. Stay with us. Well check in with them. Well be right back. As weve been reporting all afternoon, a stopgap funding bill has passed the house. Its now in the hands of the senate and were waiting to see what the senate does. Were told a vote in the senate to avoid a Government Shutdown could happen in the next hour or so. That, of course, has to happen before midnight or the government will shut down. If it goes to the senate, presumably it will go to the white house for the president s signature. One key Sticking Point is that the stopgap measure does not include aid and assistance for ukraine. On friday, the white house said failure to approve funding for ukraine will have serious consequences for that war and it was why one democrat said he voted against the bill. Putin is celebrating. Something happened of historic quality. Number one, the Reagan Doctrine is officially dead in the republican party. They voted against, in their caucus, funding for ukraine. Today we saw the second part of that. We got 45 days to fix it. I dont see how the dynamics change in 45 days. Oh, well, im more worried about americans than ukrainians. Its a false choice. This is all about, if you want to be america first, youd better support ukraine. And cnn military analyst Cedric Leighton joins us, and kayla, i want to say that we have a little news coming through to cnn that well be talking about in the coming minutes. That is democratic senator Michael Bennett has apparent little raised some concerns about the lack of ukraine aid in this legislation. Well wait and see how that plays out in the coming minutes and hours. It is changing minute by minute. There have been lots of expectations if this would get passed and get through the senate. Were not Out Of The Woods just yet. Any reaction from the white house on the exclusion of this ukraine aid . Reporter certainly, its a disappointment. It was something the white house had been pushing for even as recently as just a few days ago. The white house had been saying that it had assurances from bipartisan, bicameral leadership that there was support for ukraine funding. That being that, there is an acknowledgement that it should not be a situation where the government shuts down because of aid that is provided to another country. And there is still an expectation by the white house that Kevin Mccarthy, the speaker of the house who has said that he wants to see a plan for victory. He wants to see a full accounting of funds. But that he would, if he got that information, still be in support of providing additional funds. The white house expects that he will hold true tom word, and that there will be some vehicle Going Forward for ukraine funding. The question is, what that vehicle is and how soon it can be passed and signed into law. Because just yesterday, top pentagon officials told congressional leaders that essentially, theres only 1. 6 billion in funding for ukraine and without that, there would be serious disruptions to ukraines ability to fight on the battlefield. In letter, the undersecretary of defense wrote to congressional leaders an inability to ensure timely fulfillment could undermine essential ukrainian operations the retake additional territory or defend against future potential russian offensives. So sounding a very grave warning if they dont get that money. Certainly, its the white houses expectation that it will come in some future package, jim. All right. And colonel leighton, if you can stand by for just a moment. I want to go to Manu Raju On Capitol Hill who is following all these twists and turns. Colonel, ill get to you. But manu, the reporting you sent along about senator bennett. The democratic senator from colorado. Apparently hes concerned about the exclusion of the ukraine aid that came out of the house. What can you tell us . Yeah. He is the one objecting to getting a final vote. This is according to multiple sources that ive spoken to. Dana bash spoke to a source about this as well. Any one senator can object at this moment and use that objection as leverage. And what ive been told is that senator been set concerned about the lack of funding for ukraine. 6. 2 billion in the senate plan. The house moved forward with a different proposal that did not include aid to ukraine within the gop, and there was a closeddoor meeting that happened moments ago when senate democrats, this issue dominated the discussion. Lots of concern about the lack of ukraine aid. Now, bennett, im told, wants to get some sort of statement put out by Senate Leaders to express their support. How the bipartisan support and commitment for funding to ukraine. That seem to be where things are at the moment. Its not a concern that there could be a Government Shutdown. At least not at this point but there is an expectation that this bill will get approved sometime tonight. But not as fast as perhaps a lot of senators thought as they were leaving the meeting. They thought they could go home and catch their flights back home tonight. Perhaps it could take a little longer as they try to iron out this objection to show the bipartisan support for ukraine here in the senate because of the objection being waged right now by senator Michael Bennet that theyre trying to resolve right now. And before i go to colonel leighton, it sounds like from what youre saying, you were reporting this about an hour and a half ago, that perhaps we might see a vote in the senate pretty quickly because of what Jar Manchester why not was indicating. It looked like it would be okay with the stopgap measure coming out of house. As they all started talking to one another, senator bennet said, i have a problem with this. Its not to the point where he will grind everything to a halt and we have a Government Shutdown. Is that about it . That would be shocking if that actually happened. At this point the expectation is that bennet will, at some point once they deal with his concern, he will drop his objection. We have not heard directly from bennet yet but weve talked with my sources who are aware of whats good on. The expectation is it will be resolved. Theyll get to a final vote but it may take a little longer. Thank you. We appreciate it. Colonel leighton, let me go to you. This issue of ukraine aid, it was a little shocking, i suppose, to see Kevin Mccarthy go out there and join forces with democrats to get this continuing resolution out of House Of Representatives. But the one, i guess, piece of all this that i guess lured some republicans to get on board with it was the exclusion of this ukraine aid. And we heard from a number of lawmakers throughout the afternoon. Democratic lawmakers who were quite upset about this and upset that this was a part of this. They seemed to be pinning there homes on the possibility that there will be a piece of legislation that must pass before the end of the year. Youll get the aid. If you could, if you could give us your wisdom, your analysis as you do every week. What would that mean if the United States were to stop funding aid to ukraine . Assistance to ukraine . One, it would be a disaster. The reason it would be a disaster is that ukraine is really dependent on the kind of aid that were providing it. We are, in terms of sheer dollar numbers, the biggest donor to the ukrainians. In terms of gdp per capita, there are some like the Baltic States donating more than we are. But in terms of raw numbers, we are the biggest single donor to the ukrainians and we have the weaponry. From a military standpoint, what youre looking at is a situation where all the ammunition that gets to ukraine, at least a large portion of it, would be stopped in the pipeline at some point. They would not be getting more tanks than what they already have. They wouldnt get the f16s that they asked for. They wouldnt be getting the systems that theyve gotten and they would need to replace some of the parts that get worn out. So all of that would stop. In essence, what you would be seeing is the counteroffensive. If we think it stalled now, it would really get stalled. And the risk would be that the russians could then come in and mount their own counteroffensive and the ukrainians would have a lot less hardware to stop them with. Thats an extremely dangerous situation and would really reverse all the gains the ukrainians have made so far. And colonel, beyond that, the mechanics of arming the ukrainians as they mount this counteroffensive, what kind of statement would it send to the world if the United States were to all of a sudden pull the rug out from under the ukrainians . And what message would be received in the kremlin by Vladimir Putin . It sounds like from what youre saying, maybe Vladimir Putin might see a bit of a green light here. An opening to ramp things up and see if he can crush the ukrainians while he maybe had a window of opportunity if the United States started to go wobbly. Thats exactly what it is. And jim, when the kremlin looks at this, they are looking for any sign of weakness. The kind of weakness they would be looking for would be a stopping funding, stopping the supply line or operational issues. They are really focused on those kinds of things. As far as the signal to the rest of the world, what you would be dealing with there is a signal of weakness. Lack of results. If you look at the 1970s and the 980s, compare what the United States was perceived in the 1970s. Europe and in the soviet union and then how the United States was perceived in the 1980s. It was a world of difference. And its that, in essence, the peace through strength doctrine that becomes important. And in that, the corollary would be you have to supply the people doing your fighting for you. In this particular case, the ukrainians are definitely doing the fighting for us. Because the russians look at this as just one chapter in a war that they already say theyre fighting with the west, and especially the United States. All right. Kayla, thank you for standing by. Its been a very long day for you. Well get you back as soon as you have developments. I suspect you will over at the white house. We appreciate you both very much. We have the u. S. Senator on the line next. Hell join us next as we wait for a final vote in the government. The clock is tigging down to mid night. There were some developments that we thought would be a vote sooner rather than later. Senator bennet from colorado objecting to Ukraine Aid Being pulled out of the legislation saying not so fast. He wants to talk about this. Well be right back. News on cap. Were waiting for a deal to be passed to avert the Government Shutdown. Senator reid, very much appreciate your time. Perhaps you could help us out here. Are we going to see the senate pass this Spending Bill later on this evening . And what is going on . We understand that senator bennet, your colleague from colorado, has raised an objection. Im sure there are others raising this objection about this exclusion of ukraine aid money from that house bill. What can you tell us . Well, i am confident that we will get a vote this evening to avoid a shutdown. I think it was thoughtful and finally, the only option that the speaker turned to the Democratic Caucus and send over a bipartisan bill. One significant gap is aid to ukraine. We are committed on both sides of the aisle here in the senate to providing uninterrupted aid to ukraine. Their fight is really our fight. I believe our leaders, both schumer and mcconnell, are communicating that so we can move quickly so there is no disruption to ukraine. And just to follow up on that. Has anybody reached out to president zelenskyy to, or the ukrainians, to assure them, okay, you might be watching some stuff on tv today over there in kyiv but dont be alarmed. Were going to get this aid to you. Have any of those conversations been going up . Perhaps thats a conversation for the white house to assure the ukrainians that they wont be left in the lurch. My sense is theres constant communication between our embassy in ukraine and the ukrainian government, constant discussions between Secretary Blinken and his counter parts, and president zelenskyy. Part of this is explaining the technicalities of our budget process, et cetera, and the fact that this vote tonight does not exclude aid to ukraine but in fact, has given us even more resolve to get it clearly established that we will not abandon ukraine. That aid will be uninterrupted. Im not sure how Sausage Making gets translated into ukrainian but i suspect that maybe there will be a glossary of terms or something that we can pass along to them. I guess i was asking Cedric Leighton about this. Perhaps you can weigh in on this as well. What this would mean if it were to come to a situation where it is difficult to pass aid to ukraine and it is not able to pass the congress and get to the ukrainians. What would that mean to that fight over there . That would be extremely detrimental, certainly to the interests of ukraine. We are standing with them. We are providing resources. And were not alone. Nato is with us. Many countries globally are supporting extensively ukraine. They see their fight is a struggle between democracy and autocracy. If putin prevails, he will not stop there. And there is always a danger because of the baltics, the members of nato, poland, theres always a danger that he presumes we would not respond if they attack a nato country. And i dont think thats the case at all. So ultimately, in many respects, this comes down to, do we want to support ukraine as they risk their lives and give their lives, or are we going to sit back and wait until we have to send u. S. Personnel . I dont want to wait. I want to support the ukrainian people so that their sacrifice is triumphant. Senator reed, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it. I understand we have one of your democratic colleagues, senator tim kaine available to us right now. My thanks to senator reed. If he has to go, i understand. Thing are moving quickly on the senate side. If could i pick up on that conversation i was having with your colleague from rhode island. Are you confident at the end of the day, once the United StatesCongress Gets through this Funding Crisis that it is going through tonight, that you will get this aid to the ukrainians in short order . I am confident. The United States has been the, kind of the key hub of the Global Coalition to support ukraine, both in military, economic, and humanitarian aid. We are going to make sure this funding is continuous. The house gop was flirting with shutdown and eventually did what was rational. They turned to democrats to keep government open. But the house gop and some in the senate gop are questioning ukraine aid. We know there are bipartisan votes in both houses sufficient to make this happen. So as we work over the next few weeks to get to the yearend spending deals, well push on the supplemental that President Biden has requested. Remember, the supplemental request was not originally proposed by the administration to be part of this continuing resolution. It is live and on the floor in the senate right now. Well take it up as early as next week to start to move to ukraine aid. We know weve got the votes on the floor in both bodies. Frankly, the only wild card is whether Speaker Mccarthy will allow a vote on the house. There is bipartisan support in both houses for ukraine. And that leads me to maybe a painfully obvious question. Given what weve seen so far, getting this piece of spending legislation out of the House Of Representatives, there continuing resolution. Theres no guarantee that the speaker of the house when it comes to pass will bring up legislation that continues to fund the effort in ukraine. I suppose there arent any guarantees at this point but youre banking on a little hope here that cooler heads will prevail when that fight comes around. At the beginning of the 118th congress, were not defaulting and were not shutting down. It will be tough because of this House Majority thats so narrow and a new speaker that doesnt have an iron grip on his caucus. Some would shut down and be isolationists but i felt confident we would avert a shutdown and we have. I feel confident in the Vote Counting on ukraine. And Kevin Mccarthy has a very tough job over there. He has said after the visit by president zelenskyy last week, he has said that we want to stand behind ukraine. So when you have all four leaders in both houses saying, were going to be strong for ukraine, are there some loud voices . Yes. We are going to figure out a way to make this happen. The Global Coalition that wouldnt have been assembled without joe biden in americas leadership, weve got to keep them with linked arms backing democracies against authoritarians. And i feel confident that well do that. There will be some twists and turns. This is congress but i feel confident well get there. Its a centerpiece with what the president has been talking about. The fight in ukraine, it is a fate for democracy globally. If the ukrainians are left in the lurch, thrown under the bus as part of this congressional debate over spending, thats not going to be good for that fight on behalf of, you know, democratic principles that americans hold dear. Youre absolutely right. The u. S. Isnt throwing anybody under the bus. Look at how much we have spent for military and economic and humanitarian aid to ukraine. It is your right to connect the russian invasion of ukraine to a global battle for democracy. Who is the chief person in the United States rooting against ukraine aid . Donald j. Trump. And donald trump and his mouthpieces and minions are against it. Look, hes going to continue to push the proauthoritarian line and those of houston care About Small D democracy, weve got to tell people, this is no time to tell people. We have to be firm in challenging times. Im convinced that we might get close to a deadline like we did with shutdown. I think were going to stand strong for ukraine as we have ever since February 2022 when the invasion began. All right. Senator tim kaine, i suspect the ukrainians, theyre hoping they can hold you to that. Thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it. Thanks for coming in this evening. Well stay on top of it as it develops. Well be right back