security. about 800,000 government workers, though, are affected by this shut down as we hit hour 17. roughly 420,000 considered essential are working with no pay and another 380,000 are on unpaid leave. joining me now, "wall street journal" white house reporter vivian solama, political report for the "washington post," eugene scott and nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. a lot of boxes and expertise. krist kristen welker in new york, what has happened since you and i spoke about an hour ago. >> it's striking that leader mcconnell has said this is not going to be resolved until thursday, after christmas. we were talking about the optics problem, the optics of having a government shut down over christmas. this could be potentially politically very difficult for president trump, for the republicans. i have been talking to sources