Transcripts For CNNW Shutdown 20240703

Im dana bash live in the nations capital. Heres the headline the United States government will not shut down, at least not for another 45 days. Right now, as you see on your screen, that is the United States senate. It is voting as we speak to keep the government open. This is happening just hours before the deadline. Senators are voting on a bill that passed the house earlier today. That bill not only continues the Government Spending levels, it includes disaster relief, but no money for ukraine, no additional money for ukraine, or Border Security. On the senate side, which is where we are right now, there was some lastminute drama. One senator held up a vote over concerns about the lack of Ukraine Funding in this bill, but Leaders Schumer and mcconnell struck a deal. They vowed not to give up on support for ukrainians in the war against russia. But theres also more drama. The fate of House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy is uncertain at this time as hardliners in his party are pushing for his ouster. And also in the house, Democrat Jamal Bowman may be in some trouble after he appeared to pull a fire alarm at the capitol. Were going to get into that in a moment. First, remember tonights deal it only avoid a shutdown in the immediate future. In mid november, its quite possible we could be here talking about the same things all over again. Lets get right to somebody who has not left the capitol for i dont know how long, many, many hours, many days, our own chief congressional correspondent, manu raju. At this point we saw the vote is open. Its been open on the senate floor for quite some time. Are senators at dinner . Are they flying back in . Are they coming back in . Whats going on . Reporter the beauty of the United States senate. These votes take a long time, as you know, dana. The vote by paper ballots, they just theyre checking off name by name. Chuck schumer, the majority leader, keeps these votes open for a very long time allowing senators to do just that have dinner, go to fundraisers, come back and vote. This vote is probably going to be called sometime soon. Maybe the next 20 minutes or so, maybe less, maybe a little bit longer. Well see. Theres no question about this they will have the votes to pass this bill, to keep the government open for 45 days after a chaotic scramble to avoid a Government Shutdown. Something that seemed almost certain was going to happen just this morning when Kevin Mccarthy, the speaker, went behind closed doors, they had talked about an indefinite shutdown, trying to figure out ways to limit the impacts of a shutdown. But they changed their approach. For the first time, mccarthy decided to rely on democratic votes to get this issue over the finish line, to extend current funding for 45 days, would not include any aid to ukraine sorry to interrupt you. Majority leader Chuck Schumer is speaking. Lets listen. There with no Government Shutdown. Democrats have said from the start that the only solution for avoiding a shutdown is bipartisanship, and were glad that Speaker Mccarthy has finally heeded our message. In the end, more democrats supported this bill in the house than republicans, proving bipartisanship was the best answer all along. I want to i want to thank my colleagues here in the senate, especially our appropriators, yourself, Madam President , susan collins, and leader mcconnell. Our bipartisan work in the senate set the tone for the bill were about to pass. Our bipartisanship made this possible and showed the house that they had to act. We will keep the government open for 45 days with a clean cr at current funding levels, and we avoided all of the extreme nasty and harmful cuts maga republicans wanted. No 30 cuts across the board. No 30 cuts to things like health care, to the Social Security administration, to the Nutrition Programs for kids. Full reauthorization of the faa until december 31st. And the Poison Pill Amendments of which there were scores, magainspired riders were all removed from the bill. After trying to take our government hostage, maga republicans won nothing. So one more time it is good Speaker Mccarthy finally, finally heeded our message that bipartisanship was and is and remains the only way. He could have made this decision weeks ago. Now ive said from day one this is a bridge cr, a temporary solution, not the final destination. We will not stop fighting for more economic and Security Assistance for ukraine. Majorities in both parties support ukraine aid, and doing more is vital for americas security and for democracy around the world. But this cr is still very good news for the American People. Today maga extremists have failed, bipartisanship has prevailed, and both parties have come together to avert a shutdown. Once again, thank you to leader mcconnell, appropriations chair patty murray, vice chair susan collins, and members both sides of the aisle who came together. Todays cr would not have been possible without the senates good work. The senate showed that bipartisanship was the only way, and the same will be true again in 45 days. I yield the floor. I do not yet yield the floor. Okay. We were just listening to the Senate Majority leader, Chuck Schumer, doing Executive Session to consider calendar 319. Question is on the motion. All those in favor say aye. Ayes do have it. Motions agreed to. Nomination, department of state, james c. Obrien of nebraska to be manu, lets bring you back in. We just heard Chuck Schumer effectively talking at the end of the vote. We know that it passed, and theyre moving on to other things on the executive calendar. The substance of what he said was quite noteworthy because, yes, hes right, there was a big bipartisan vote, and there is bipartisan support for ukraine. The fact that he sort of twisted a little bit in mccarthy when what we saw earlier today was mccarthy doing something in a bipartisan way, i wonder how thats going to go over on the republican side, particularly in the house. Reporter yeah, look, hes schumers saying there that mccarthy, quote, got nothing. That is the message from the Senate Majority leader after mccarthy decided against moving forward with a proposal with spending cuts that he had tried to advance but was blocked by not just democrats but some of those conservative hardliners who wanted to have even deeper spend cuts. This proposal only extends current funding for the federal government for another 45 days. Now a little bit more this vote. This vote was approved by an overwhelmingly on a bipartisan basis 889 was the total on this vote. There were nine votes against it. They were all republicans, Marsha Blackburn as well as mike braun, ted cruz, senator big haggerty, mike lee, roger marshall, rand paul, eric schmidt, and j. D. Vance were the nine republicans who voted against it. But you can see, an overwhelming majority here supporting it. But one of those big issues that the senator was talking about, too, is the issue of ukraine. That is going to be a huge fight in the fall about how to get that funding approved here because the one thing the speaker made clear, that was not going to get approved here, and he dropped it from this lastditch effort to keep the government open. But its one in which senators from both parties recognize that they will have to deal with. And also What Mccarthy will have to deal with potentially, a threat to his own speakership. You are hearing some threats from the right, matt gaetz in particular, the ringleader of this effort, saying if mccarthy did what he did today, rely on democratic votes to keep the government open, that would be enough to push him out of the speakership. We have not seen gaetz file any motion to try to force that vote just yet. And its uncertain if he has the support to push mccarthy out. But that is one of the issues that well be watching very closely in the next few days, whether there is enough support whether democrats will join with matt gaetz to push him out, or Whether Mccarthy Will will have to rely on democratic support. I asked mccarthy today if Mccarthy Would Need if he would need democrats to help him stay in the speakership. He did not answer that question directly, instead saying bring it on. He sure did. Thank you so much for that, manu. You very, very long day. Long week. I know youre going to be back here for Inside Politics sunday, tomorrow morning. Thank you so much for all your terrific reporting. Reporter thank you. And joining me now is democratic senator chris coons of delaware. Thank you so much for being here. I know youre not happy with the notion of congress not doing its job, constitutional job, which is to fund the government by october 1st. But im guessing youre happy enough that the government didnt shut down. Take me behind the scenes, if you will, the last several hours into what happened in the United States senate with the discussions about passing this bill to keep the government funded for 45 more days without additional aid to ukraine. Well, dana, im relieved that we are not heading home tonight having to explain a shutdown of the u. S. Government to our constituents, to our neighbors, to the men and women of our armed forces and of federal law enforcement. Our own employees in the senate who would have been forced to work without pay. Ive lived through several previous shutdowns, as have you, and they are not as glamorous or exciting as some might imagine. They are, in fact, embarrassing and tedious. They weaken us on The World Stage. They make our allies question whether were reliable. They harm our economy and Show Dysfunction in our political system. It was unexpected that Speaker Mccarthy would make such a quick aboutface today, embrace support from across the aisle, and move a cr that keeps our government open for the next 45 days. In the last few hours there were a lot of urgent conversations among senators, republicans and democrats, leadership, appropriators, and rank and file, to reassure each other that there is sustained and strong support for funding ukraine. There are other things that are also were not taking care of in this bill humanitarian relief funding. Im someone who chairs the relevant subcommittee and is very concerned about the dramatic growth in hunger around the world. Theres other unmet needs. We are going to have to turn to those in the coming 45 days and work out before the end of this calendar year how do we sustain funding for ukraine through the rest of the coming year, how do we sustain our leadership in the world and invest in the state department and in countering humanitarian challenges and how do we finish our appropriations process. Today we didnt shut down the government, but tomorrow we have to keep our commitment to sustain funding of ukraine, something President Biden has spoken strongly about, something that both Leader Schumer and leader mcconnell, chair murray, vice chair collins, senator graham, and i have all spoken to this evening in different settings to reassure our partners and allies that we will sustain our support for ukraine. You know, the ukraine issue is obviously one of the big ones right now. And senator Michael Bennett of colorado made public that he was very upset about moving quickly on this bill to continue funding the government without that additional ukraine money. I guess my first question is, how did you overcome that . What assurances did he and others get that what youre talking about, the bipartisan support to back ukraine financially and otherwise will continue . Well, ill let senator bennett speak for himself. But as i said, there were a lot of conversations between senior senators to reassure each other that there is sustained support. I was literally just talking to a leader in the House Republican caucus about whether they might also move and send us an increased ukraine supplemental. The core issue here was if the government shut down tonight, there wasnt going to be additional funding going to ukraine in the next couple of weeks, and we have instead found a path forward where the government stays open, and there is a path forward for Working Together To Support Ukraine aid and to send a strong message to the 50 other countries supporting ukraine that we will be with them going forward. You mention that you spoke with a senior republican in the house about Ukraine Funding. After the house passed its bill, there was a statement that came out from the House Democratic leaders, and in it said they said that when the house returns, they expect Speaker Mccarthy to advance a bill to the house floor, an up or down vote that supports ukraine. Is that your understanding that that will happen . And as you answer that, just listening to what Speaker Mccarthy was saying today, would democrats be okay with additional money for Border Security along with that, u. S. Border security along with that . Well, i think that depends on how its configured. President biden requested in his supplemental request additional funding for our border. I think there is wide agreement here that we can and should invest more in finding ways to help the countries from which many are coming north to secure their borders and to invest in some of the systems and structures that secure our southern border. One thing was clear today that shutting down our government and forcing the entire Border Patrol and the customs and Border Agents to work without pay wasnt going to help that situation. I do think that we have a significant opportunity here to Work Together to fully fund ukraines needs for the coming year, and to find a path forward following the leadership of chair murray who is speaking on the floor right now to finish our appropriations process in the senate. One last question for you. You talk about the need for support for ukraine by the United States, talk about it when it comes to democracy, small d, so on and so forth. How important is it particularly given where we are right now for the president , for your predecessor in your senate seat, to be more forceful on the question of ukraine, explaining to the American People why it is in americas interest to give this additional money that hes asking for . I think there is an obligation that falls on all of us in elected leadership. President biden has a uniquely forceful and capable voice here given his five decades of experience in foreign policy. Ill remind you he went to kyiv earlier this year. The first u. S. President in modern history to go to a war zone that the United States did not have control over, and to go to the risk of being in kyiv, standing alongside president zelenskyy, and committing to all the support that ukraine needs. Just last week, as you know, president zelenskyy came and addressed the entire senate here in the Old Senate Chamber and hear very forceful statements of support from all the senior senators. What youre raising, dana, is the larger challenge. We have to convey to the average american that 50 other countries are supporting ukraine and have matched and exceeded our support for ukraine. That whether or not ukraine succeeds in its war against the russian invaders and occupiers is critical to the future of nato, of the free west, of demo democracy. And if ukraine falls, other countries will take strong signals from that that they can change borders by force, that they can realign the world. We heard a chilling prediction from one of the most senior Military Leaders when we had a conversation about ukraine last week who said if we do not stand by ukraine, it will within a matter of a year or two be open season on The World Stage for aggression that will draw the United States into future wars. We are far better off robustly and sustainably supporting ukraine in their fight which in so many ways is our fight, as well. Senator chris koonce of delaware. Thank you soap. I thank you so much. I appreciate you joining me. And President Biden is on stand by to sign the stopgap bill that just passed the u. S. Senate, passed all of congress, of course. Lets check in with senior White House Correspondent m. J. Lee. What are you hearing over at the white house . Reporter well, of course President Biden tonight is standing by here at the white house to sign that funding bill into law as soon as it reaches his desk. But we did just receive a Paper Statement from the white house. This is a president weighing in on everything thats happened tonight for the first time. Let me just read you a part of that statement. The president writes, tonight Bipartisan Majorities In The House and senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking americans. This bill ensures that active duty troops will continue to get paid, that travelers will be spared airport delays, millions of women and children will continue to have access to vital nutrition assistance, and so much more. This is good news for the American People. The president also goes on to say, while the speaker and the overwhelming majority of congress have been steadfast in their support for ukraine, there is no new funding in this agreement to continue that support. Dana, of course i think it is just worth talking about how exactly we got to this point tonight from the white houses perspective. Some time ago the white house made the deliberate decision to take a bit of a an offhand approach to the deliberations, basically trying to send the message, look, republicans and democrats came together several months ago, a deal was reached, and really it is only House Republicans that are not holding up their end of the bargain. And the political calculation here was that if the government had shut down at midnight tonight, white house officials believed and democrats, too, that House Republicans would end up shouldering much of that political blame. But i think the last part of that statement from President Biden that is so, so key here i know that you have been talking about, this and i heard you talking about this with senator coons, as well, the president himself saying they very much expect how speaker Kevin Mccarthy to hold up his end of the bargain and bring up a separate measure in the coming days to make sure that there is funding separately for ukraine. I think people after tonight are pretty reticent to make predictions about how exactly that will actually come to fruition. And of course there have been so many warnings about sort of the dire ramifications of what would happen if additional funding is not possible. That is going to be a huge focus for this white house going forward, but no question about it that there is a huge sigh of relief tonight that a Government Shutdown has been averted, dane. No question about it. M. J. , thank you so much for that reporting. Lets discuss all of this with republican strategist shermichael singleton, jamal simmons, former Communications Director for Vice President kamala harris, senior political analyst gloria borger, and cnn political commentator jonah goldberg, also the editorinchief of the dispatch. What a night. Gloria, look, it used to be that this was pretty rare, coming to the brink. Yeah. Now its just it means its september 30th. Right. Now conventional wisdom is theyre going to go over the deadline. Of course, they surprised everyone by actually doing something tonight. I think there are a lot of questions as m. J. And manu were just talking about which is, okay, whats next when it comes to funding for ukraine. Exactly what kind of a commitment did democrats and the white house extract from mccarthy. Was it a firm im going bring it up, and then theres also the question of, okay, if he made a firm commitment, what happens to mccarthy . If his right flank decides to introduce a motion to vacate, would he be speaker . And what would the Democrats Ask from him, what concessions from him would they ask if they were to say, oh, yeah, give the votes to keep him as speaker. Would they ask for powersharing, would ukraine be part of it . Theres still a lot of Unanswered Questions here that are very serious about aid to ukraine which is so important to the white house. And to a lot of members of the house and the senate. Yeah. This may be a weird way to butt it, but ive learned thru bitter experience of wag my dogs every morning at 6 00 a. M. Theres no way you can look cool when you walk into a spider web, cant happen. You cannot look cool and in command as speaker of the house with a fourvote majority in your caucus and a caucus of 30 or 40 or 50 hotheads who dont want to govern. It cant happen. Its a square circle. Does he look cooler today after he he salvaged as best he could. He doesnt look good to the constituencies he cares about the most which are fox news viewers, republican donors, small donors, the trump crowd. And its a tenuous situation for him. And it i think the weeird thing is you cant he cant make it look easy because its impossible with that kind of margin. But hes doing a better job than a lot of people want to claim because its an impossible job. Yeah. What do you think . I think jonahs correct, dane. The house is the only place where republicans have actually won. They didnt win the white house. We didnt win the senate. In terms of the politics of this, Kevin Mccarthy in First Six Months of his speakership raised almost 70 million, gave over 8 million to republican incumbents, over 17 million to nrcc. Want to talk about the politics here for our republican viewers, well, we dont like What Mccarthy is doing, well if you care about a republican agenda, you have to raise money to get republicans elected. You need to have a republican majority to push that agenda forward, and in my opinion Kevin Mccarthy has done that thus far. And tnot to sound pollyanna, but the role of the House Speaker, the House Speaker is not just the leader of a party. The House Speaker is elected, is a constitutional role. Yeah. And you have to lead. You do. And by doing what he did today, he showed, you know what, im going to lead, i know thats maybe not necessarily all that popular with the viewers and the consumers of information and the conservative ecosystem. But there is how its supposed to work. I think donors want to see this, i would argue, because the reality is individuals like Matthew Gaetz and others have become Chaos Members of the house. We have to be able to govern. We have a very, very slim majority. We know the next president ial contest is going to be incredibly close. Republicans i think are primarily concerned with wanting to make sure we maintain that majority. If the American People look at the house right now and look at republicans and see were not governing, why would they want to return power to republicans versus giving it back to democrats . Why was it so hard to govern . Why did this have to happen in the first place . Ridiculous go ahead. One reason this is so hard i think is because Kevin Mccarthy does not seem to have any strategy beyond the end of the day, right . It seems as if hes governing hour by hour, day by day, not with any longterm sense of where he wants to take the house or where he wants to take the party. He is the most unreliable speaker of the house we have seen in recent memory. He cuts a deal with the president and the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, and cant stick by it. He says hes going to not going do a clean cr and ends up doing a clean cr. He cant hold his caucus together. How can you govern with this person and now, if he is successful, if Speaker Mccarthy is successful, he will make the country look as unreliable as he is because when it comes to Ukraine Funding and our standing by our allies, the speaker does not is not willing to say we are definitely going to stand by our commitments. That is something that endangers the entire nation, and i think we have to be careful about keeping him. How important as a recent member of the biden administration, you worked for Vice President harris, if you were still in there would you be going and knocking on the door and saying, hey, the president , the Vice President , they have to explain on ukraine, they have to explain to the American People in a more robust way why this support is critical . It is always good to speak to the American People and explain what youre up to. I think with something as serious as ukraine we need to understand the American People need to stay focused on what the longterm message is here, that if we dont fight russia in if we dont help ukraine fight russia in ukraine, that is going to be something that russia will move across europe. We have to be careful and serious that this is a very dangerous situation for the globe. Weve not seen this as world war ii. So theyve got to be serious about it. You know where the base is on this. Yeah. Well, look, i think theres more support for ukraine, theres more Potential Support for ukraine out there than the popular narratives about the right would suggest. This country likes underdogs. This country has a pretty solid moral core. Its a little bit like the afghanistan pullout. President biden was right when he read the polls that said americans want to get out of afghanistan, but they didnt want to get out the afghanistan the way we got out. If ukraine were defeated by putin, that would be immensely unpopular in this country and would look really bad. Im torn about how forceful biden should be because in an era of this negative polarization the more he makes it central to his presidency the more opposition it invites just because thats the nature of things. Interesting. Theres a way to do that and to talk about Border Security which is what republicans really want to talk about. So i think theres a way if the president wants to do that, its to say, yeah, were going to deal with Border Security, and were going to give ukraine the money we think it needs. And that would be wouldnt that be something but the policy has been bad insofar as im a huge supporter of helping ukraine. But his policy has been say no, say no, say no, say no, then say yes. And its been a lot of dragged out support about different weapons systems. The message is were going to help ukraine, were going to be in it as long as it takes. I think reframing it, giving them more than what they need up front, win quickly would have been the better approach. But hes got to pull allies along, its a complicated thing. I cant dig him too hard because hes on fundamentally the right side. Everybody stand by. Were going to have to take a break. A House Republican who voted against the stopgap bill, the one that is currently on its way to President Bidens desk to keep the government running, hes going to come on and talk about why he voted that way. And also what this what the deal is with Kevin Mccarthy, whether or not he is going to have a very real challenge as soon as next week to his job. Also ahead, a democratic Congressman Pulls appears to pull a fire alarm in a House Office Building before todays vote. He says it was an accident. Some republicans want him censured. More on that later. Welcome back. More on our breaking news. Moments ago the Senate Passed the house bill preventing a Government Shutdown tonight. Joining me now, republican Congressman Ken Buck of colorado. He voted against the bill. And i should say that you have i think voted consistently against every bill large bill to keep the government open. I have voted against every continuing resolution. Okay. Given that, what do you think about whats what Speaker Mccarthy said today he went before reporters after the house passed the bill in a bipartisan way, it passed because democrats crossed party lines to support it. Listen to what he said about that vote you have members in your conference that wont let you vote for Appropriations Bills, doesnt want an omnibus, and wont vote for a stopgap measure. The only answer is to shut down and not pay our troops . I dont want to be parity of that team. I want to be a part of a conservative group that wants to get things done. I think youre part of the group hes talking about. Well, yeah. Ill tell you what, he may not be the part of the team if he keeps talking that way. He was high fiving everybody like this was some great victory. We knew in january that we had to pass 12 Appropriations Bills. He and so many others waited until the last minute to jam people with bad Spending Bills with the excuse that the only option we had was to shut down government or spend too much money. Thats not the option. He promised when he ran for speaker that we would have 12 votes on 12 separate bills, and he did not fulfill that promise. Then he promised the president a very high number on spending, and he promised other republicans in the house lower numbers. So he has made promises that conflict with each other. This had nothing to do with people wanting to shut down government. Nobody wanted to shut down government. But also, we care very deeply about where this country is going to be with 36 trillion of debt. You just said that he better be careful because he may not have his job. How viable is that threat to him . You know, come monday when you all come in, will there be a motion to vacate the chair, throwing him out . I am not going to make that motion. Mattga gaetz may make it. He will have to rely on democrats to survive and keep his speakership. You say may. Do you have any indication that it definitely will go forward . I do not. I have not had any conversation with someone matt gaetz has made gestures in that regard. I have not actually heard that hes going to be filing it. You said you wont be the person to file it, but should someone file it . Do you believe at this point that is necessary, or just to play devils advocate, i completely understand that you are a tried and true conservative, fiscal conservative, and you fundamentally believe that the government is spending too much money. Having said that, there is a school of thought that the House Speaker did what he had to do given where he was, and he reached across the line, the party line, reached across the aisle, got democrats on board, and there was a bipartisan vote which in theory is not the worst thing. I mean, we dont see big partisan votes very much in washington anymore. Oh, i dont think its a bad thing to have bipartisan votes on some issues. I think the democrats are going to join with moderate republicans any time were talking about spending a huge amount of money. I think that Kevin Mccarthys problem really is his the lack of passing 12 bills on time and then getting jammed at the last minute with this. Were going to see at least four Appropriations Bills in the next two weeks. Hopefully those pass. At that point well have eight or nine of the 12 bills passed. And that would be a real relief to a lot of us. This 45 days will come a lot quicker than people anticipate. And well be faced with another crisis. What about ukraine aid . The House Democratic leadership sent a letter to Speaker Mccarthy put out a statement, rather, and in part said they expect Speaker Mccarthy to advance a bill to the house floor for an upordown vote that supports ukraine. I anticipate that he will do that. We have had several votes on ukraine. They have passed with large republican votes as well as overwhelming democrat votes. I think a ukraine vote will pass the house. I dont know how he attaches it to something or whether he has a standalone bill or how he chooses to do that. The other night he pulled 300 million out of a defense bill defense appropriations bill. We had a floor vote on that. I think there were well over 300 votes to pass that. Do you believe that that was a commitment that Speaker Mccarthy gave to the democrats as part of the bipartisan vote to keep the government open today . I anticipate thats correct. I wasnt there in those conversations. But the bill that was coming over from the senate was a clean cr with Emergency Funding and Ukraine Funding. The only difference in our bill was the Ukraine Funding wasnt there. So i i guessed that the cost for getting those votes today was to make sure that Ukraine Funding is on the table. You have said multiple times that you believe that the Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden should be on the back burner while congress focuses on funding the government and on Spending Bills. Is there any have you talked to any republicans in sort of your side of the conference that sees what happened today and sees what is going to have to happen the next 45 days to not go through this again and says, well, maybe we should . Is that even realistic . No. I think that the weaponization of government committee, the impeachment of the president are all distractions that will make sure that the base is excited, make sure the base is donating money, make sure that people dont focus on the dysfunction that we have with a speaker who promises Something Different to a lot of different groups and cant deliver. Ken buck, republican of colorado. Thank you so much for coming in. Appreciate it. Thank you. And a democratic congressman under investigation for pulling a fire alarm on capitol hill before todays important vote, he claims it was an accident. Republicans say theyre not really buying it. Well talk about that after a quick break. Is it possible my network could take my business to the next level . It is with comcast business. Powering all your devices with gigspeed wifi. And you get fast downloads and uploads. Pick it up pick it up oh we got this because its powered by The Next Generation 10g network. More speed for your business . Its not just possible. Its happening. Get started for 59. 99 a month for 12 months. Plus, ask how to get an 800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. Comcast business, powering possibilities. More on tonights breaking news. The Senate Following the house in voting to keep the government open. Narrowly avoiding a Government Shutdown at midnight eastern. Joining me is democratic congressman dan kildee of michigan, voted in favor of the shortterm funding bill in the house. Thank you so much for joining me, congressman, i appreciate it. Thank you. This was something that happened rather last minute, keeping the government open for 45 more days. It brings us to november 15th, just before thanksgiving. How confident are you that we wont be right back where we are now in 45 days . Well, we will be back if Kevin Mccarthy and those around him dont sort of learn the lesson of the past couple of months. Many of us have said all along that we know what the resolution looks like. Its a bipartisan deal. I mean, that was sort of selfevident to everybody apparently except the speaker after breakfast today. On the day of the shutdown. So if were going to repeat this, its only going to be because theres this amnesia that sinks in, and were right back where we were. There are really important lessons from this. There were 90 people on the republican side who voted to shut down government. Theyre not going to be part of the governing coalition. We see what that looks like now. Virtually all the democrats and a good number of republicans, thats how were going to get things done. If kevin learns that, maybe well avoid this. Congressman, the leadership you are a member of, the leadership of the house released a statement today, and in it they said that the expectation is that House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy advances a bill to increase funding for ukraine, an upordown vote on that in the coming weeks. Did the House Speaker give the democratic leadership a commitment that he would do that as parts of the bipartisan vote today to fund the government . I dont know what conversations he may have had with Leader Jeffries. I know there was some frustration that there should have been more interaction. Leader jeffries was expecting that and didnt get quite the interaction that he had hoped for. I dont know if there was subsequent conversations. But when Leader Jeffries and our leadership wants to see Ukraine Funding come forward, when leader mcconnell, Leader Schumer both made a commitment to get this done in the near term, and we know what the governing coalition looks like, i think it would support ukraine. I dont think he has much of a choice. And i dont think the world has much of a choice either. We cant allow ukraine to go without our support. The impact on the entire world but especially on u. S. Interests would be devastating. When you asked the question or talked about the idea that Kevin Mccarthy woke up after breakfast today and realized there has to be a bipartisan vote, you know that he and everybody in washington knew there had to be a bipartisan vote to keep the government running. What was holding him back and the calculation was whether or not he was going to face a motion within his republican conference to vacate the chair, meaning to kick him out. That still could happen or maybe even potentially is more likely to happen early next week because he allowed this bipartisan vote to fund the government at current spending levels. Will you vote if that happens, will you vote to help keep Kevin Mccarthy in the speakers chair and avoid that chaos . Well, im going to dodge that in a way by saying when that moment occurs, were all going to have to make a decision. But i think if Speaker Mccarthy is interested in having a conversation about maintaining his speakership, and if thats going to require democrats to help which it would seem it may, he needs to have a conversation specifically about that with hakeem jeffries. Im not going to negotiate openly here on the air as to what consideration we might have to have. And im not even suggesting that that would itself work. But i do say this im not sure how much involvement democrats are going to want to have in the civil war within the republican conference. And so there would be an interest i think in thinking through how we create a more stable environment in washington. I will say one more thing this is not the fault of those rogue members of the republican conference because theyre quite predictable. This is on Kevin Mccarthy. He decided to give them the authority to call that motion to vacate. He made the decision eyes open in order to get the 15 votes that were required for him to become speaker, to get that done. If he were tougher, he may have been able to become speaker without having to give away the speakership in order to have it. Its a pretty circular situation. Yeah. Before i let you go, congressman, i have to ask you about your democratic colleague jamal bowman. He appeared to pull the fire alarm in the Cannon Building shortly before the house was scheduled to vote on the government funding bill. He says it was an accident. Do you believe thats true . Have you spoken to him, or have you heard any of the details . I have not had a chance to speak with him directly, and i do know that the Capitol Police is investigating it. I think we should allow that investigation to go forward. I will say this, its a pretty serious matter, pulling a fire alarm is not a prank. Pulling a fire alarm in the capitol complex, the very same complex where we have people working for whom a fire alarm going off is a reminder of another really difficult day that we all had here, it puts people in danger. So its a serious matter. It has to be taken seriously. But i dont want to rush to judgment on this. I think we need to hear from representative bowman, and we need to allow the Capitol Police to do their work. If theres a finding that he is responsible, i think he probably is just based on the video evidence, were going to have to hear his explanation and then make some judgments about what if any next steps would be warranted. Congressman dan kildee of michigan. Thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it. Thanks, dana. Good to see you. Speaking of jamal bowman, republicans are not accepting his explanation at all. Listen to this. The exact same law that january 6th defendants are being prosecuted for every single day. His initial explanation that it was an accident doesnt seem to pass muster. This should not go without punishment. He pulled a fire alarm . In the minute, hours before the government being shut down, trying to dictate the government would shut down . Whats going through a persons mind like that . Panel back with me. Just want to say that theres no comparison to january 6th. Of course. And pulling a fire alarm. Lets say that like full stop. But the fact that you heard democrat dan kildee say the police should investigate and its a serious matter. Yeah. First of all, about dan kildee, i really wish he had done that interview from behind the drum set rather than in front of it. That would have been a much better look. Look, it deserves to be investigated. In normal times this would be considered a much bigger deal. The problem now is you have people look, people are comparing it to january 6th, so does that mean that in a couple weeks Kevin Mccarthys going to be okay with it because hes okay with january 6th now, right . I mean, the people who are most active about comparing to january 6th are the ones who are most forgiving of january 6th, a weird kind of its a serious thing. This guy was a former middle school principal. Like they lecture little kids about not pulling fire alarms. Theres flow way he didnt know no way he didnt know what a fire alarm is. Yeah, got to hear his version of events, but its a very strange story. Says the democrat on the panel. Yeah. Listen, i thought that Congressman Kildee was very responsible in the way he talked about this. Lets figure it out, talk to congressman bowman, figure out what the next steps are. You know, Marjorie Taylor greene convinced me with her outrage. This is a woman who introduced pornographic photos of the president s son and put them in the record for everybody to see. That was outrageous. So the republicans who are coming for this really need to kind of pull back a little bit. Lets figure out what happened, if he deserves to be punished lets figure out what that is. The outrage can miss me. The original explanation was something that was not comprehensible. The Chief Of Staff said that he did not realize he would trigger a Building Alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote. Theys it is a Building Alarm, a fire alarm. You realize that if you pull it down, youre going to trigger an alarm. So i do think there needs to be more explanation. And you know, i understand what youre saying about Marjorie Taylor greene. But you know, the timing of this, republicans are raising questions about honestly. I think its something that behooves people to if it was a prank, it was stupid. It was. Still criminal. This tweet that he thought it was going to open the door a bit absurd. Of course republicans are going to jump on this because theyre looking at the politics for optically speaking, and i understand that. I want to step away and say this is why i believe congress has such a low approval rating. Whether its republicans or democrats, i think the American People look at these types of antics, whether its jamal bowman or gaetz or Marjorie Taylor greene, and a host of others, and say can these guys do their job . We send them there to manage the business of the country, not pull pranks, not be about themselves but about the people he said it wasnt a prank. That highway was trying that he was trying to do his job. Trying to go vote. I think people are going to see that photo and not believe. It theyre going to say, come on, be honest, what were you really trying to do . I think thats part of the problem in d. C. , too many antics and not enough about the Serious Business of governance. Can i say some being what dan kildee said that was interesting aside from what he said about the congressman is that on the vote on mccarthy, if matt gaetz raises it and says vacate the chair, it was clear to me that he was saying we got to get something for this, and we dont love mccarthy. Mccarthy is the one who instigated an Impeachment Inquiry, he didnt say that, but democrats are not thrilled. They dont trust mccarthy. So what would they demand in exchange for keeping him in his job . Lets make a deal. And the question is, is there a deal to be made . I mean, jonah, what would happen can you imagine a world in which Kevin Mccarthy said, okay, ill take the democratic votes i thought his point about democrats not wanting to interfere in republican civil war was a good one. I do think that the 90 number who voted against this, there were a lot of free votes because they knew it was going to pass. I think that 90 is more like a 50 number. I agree. That said, there are a good number jamal can correct me if im wrong, but there are a good number of democrats who will get primaried if they vote for a republican speaker. It would create a Democratic Civil war to keep Kevin Mccarthy as speaker let me play devils advocate. What if the argument is the republicans have the majority, they have the votes, have the majority right now. What if we do this, democrats, and say Kevin Mccarthy will be there, and we make a deal to just spend the rest of this session doing bipartisan stuff . I know im not this oh i know. Im not im not this pollyanna, but what if thats an argument they could make against a primary, democrats . Sure. I dont know anybody who would want to make that argument. Sure. Going into a president ial election, too. A few days ago, the bubbling was happening, and i was told tamp it down. Tamp is down. There is not a stomach in the caucus to save Kevin Mccarthy. Nobody wants to keep Kevin Mccarthy. In fact, the battle happening between the republicans, let them have that for as long as possible, and let everybody else i want to ask to my democratic friends, i mean, who would you guys want to see replace the speaker . Someone far worse . And i would also remind and caution my republican friends on the house that there are some republicans who are in districts that joe biden won. Districts that could swing in a different direction. 18 of them. We need to be cognizant of these political flames that were playing around with because individuals dont necessarily like Speaker Mccarthy. Ill say quickly bipartisanship is governance. People want to see more of that. I agree. No matter who it is going back to my fantasy land. No matter who it is, the democrats are going to ask for something. Thats true. Its going to be powersharing. Would it be concessions about how much people on committees . You can go down a long list of things the democrats might want, even if its not mccarthy. Even if its, you know, the names of emmer and tom cole have been suggested theyre going to theyre in the drivers seat right now on this i think. Everybody. Thank you for coming in on a saturday night. Yeah. Thank you for coming i know, gloria, you were clubbing. Yeah. I came back to that. I have no life. Who does here . None of us, lets be clear. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you for watching