Over this shutdown . The buck stops with everybody. Reporter why Donald Trumps shut down over a wall isnt about a wall at all. Weve got to restore western civilization for the world. All in starts right now. Good evening from new york. It is a new era and that will become very evident just four weeks from today because that is the day Michael Cohen will appear before a democraticled Oversight Committee and testify under oath in public, in front of the American People about what the president of the United States and his former boss asked him to do. Keep in mind we have not had anything like this basically for most of the trump era, since fired fbi director testified before the Senate Intelligence committee in june 2017. Come ea said the president told him he needed his loyalty and the president directed him to let go of Michael Flynns direction. The president fired him over the russia investigation and that the president was untrustworthy and that the president lied quote plain and simple. Since then republicans have kept testimony behind closed doors or in the case of the house gop completely failed to provide any true oversight of the president. Michael cohen will testify under oath about the man identified in Court Documents as individual one. Donald trump, who cohen says told him to make criminal hush money payments to two women, Campaign FinanceLaw Violation felonies a conspiracy to avide Campaign Finance law. And as cohens admitted he acted in coordination with and at the direction of individual one. That would be the president showing up in the court filing. Cohen will testify publicly on camera and answer questions about the nature of individual numberb one, his former boss, the president. This is the beginning of a whole new chapter. Executive director of bloomberg opinion. How did this come about . Well, apparently according to his lawyer who spoke earlier today on nbc Michael Cohen is in fact looking and hoping that when he goes to prison, which is going to happen either way in march that at some point through the Legal Process that perhaps he can come back and get a shorter sentence somehow. So its in his interest to look like hes providing hes being helpful. We dont know if thats going to be successful. But hes got a strong, powerful motivation to be as helpful as he can and its not just going to be this one appearance. This is the opening curtain. There are many other committees that want to talk to Michael Cohen before he does go to jail in march. The president today appearing to be unpreturbed by this news. Back in washington theres big news about Michael Cohen whos agreed to testify before the House Democrats next month. Are you worried . Im not worried about it. What do you think of that . Cool as a cucumber, not. Hes been tweeting at Michael Cohen over the past year anytime hes been worried Michael Cohen might off out the investigators information that creates problems for the president. So the idea hes calm and collected is absurd. And in fact i think as cohens testimony starts to role near i imagine youre going to see the president on twitter. One of the things we know is that Michael Cohen has evidence. Hes already supplied the infamous tape of them discussing it. We know hes wrapped up in a lot of different things. What is house oversight, what is Elijah Cummings interested in as far as we know . The ground rules are he cannot reveal anything related to muellers investigation. Of course the investigation may be at different stage. But for right now that still leave as lot of other areas theyre going to probe. Just that issue alone of the payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen Mcdougal is going to be revealing because it will be on the record in front of the American People. Many law maker are going to have a piece of that issue. And its possible he could also be cleared, this will all be negotiated in advance with mueller, but he could be cleared to talk about some things like the trump tower deal in mosque eo. He could be cleared to talk about some aspects of the trump tower meeting and that will be ea negotiation between mueller and congress. But theres lot they can get into. And ill bet you he knows a lot about whats in david pickers vault. Hes the owner of the National Enquirer said to have a secret vault of secrets. Thats a great point. And hes going to be under oath. One of the things we lose sight of because all of the craziness is the president s altready been implicated in the felony, ord oering a felony that criminally violated a law to get him elected. And giving direction to the people in it. You know, the sentencing came out just before christmas and the issue the prosecutors focus about Michael Cohen and that was one of the things he had done. They indicate that what he said in congress came at the direction of another person whom they didnt identify. Thats a great point. And he was sort of practicing story, spreading around, getting coached. Theres nothing to prevent members of the congress to say who gave you guidance before you came and testified to us and lied . And can you be specific about that guidance . And if that gets back to the president , hes the one who dictated the memo in the summer of 2017 about the cover up of the trump tower meeting. Hes the one we have on tape talking about the payments to Stormy Daniels. And then you have perhaps this third episode where Michael Cohen goes down to congress and lies to them possibly at the direction of the president. The president has lied flatly about all of this from the beginning. This is as recently as august 22nd, 2018, talking about what he knew before hand. Did you know about the payments . Later on i knew. You have to understand what he did and they werent taben oken of Campaign Finance. They came from me and i tweeted about it. Thats just one ofmany lies along the path that will probably be many more. Remember where we started which is the lie on air force 1 which is that he didnt know anything about it. For more on the potentially massive legal implications, a criminal defense attorney and former u. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of michigan. Picking up on something heidi was talking about, the kind of deconfliction of muellers folks and congress. How do you see that working, barbara . Well, i would imagine that counsel to the committee would be talking with a member of muellers team to try to find out areas off limits. I imagine that michael co cohen has shared with Robert Mueller everything he knows of value in an effort to get substantial subsistence reduction in sentencing. If by doing so t would damage Robert Muellers investigation by helping people get their stories straight, that would not be a good thing for our country. So i imagine the counsel will meet with members of muellers team to talk about things that may be off limits. I was thinking about what the thinking for someone rchting Michael Cohen would be going into this because hes already pleaded to five counts of tax evasion, two counts of finance campaign violations. The republicans on the committee are licking their chops a little but about how they can go after him and impeach him. Theres rules that allow as defendant that allows him to cooperate before and after his sentencing. You dont get the same reduction as you do for that presentence cooperation. But that is clearly what Michael Cohen has in mind. And it means subjecting him sthoo sthooflself to the witheric congress. And this is why its so exciting. You just asked about compromising the mueller investigation. We carved that out. Not to anger the mueller team. The entire universe of bad things he has ever done, he does not have any fifth amendment privilege concerns. He was never part of the executive branch, so hes not going to claim these are executive secrets. Hes a private citizen. And then thirdly the rules of evidence dont apply at congress. They can ask about anything in the world they want to ask about and no ones going to stand up. No defense attorney and shout objection, relevance. Theres one more thing too, which is the degree to which hes been entirely truthful. Michael, who sued Michael Cohen and got some of the ball rolling says he will never be john dean. In earality his crimes are a significant reason why trump was elected. He refuses to fully cooperate at the same time as he helps trump in stormys case, fraud. And cone having denied he was in it prague. He has a lot of baggage with him. What a prosecutor would dee is the old regan line of trust but verify. Only use that testimony if you can corroborate with it independent efrz. I dont know if they perceive any action taken on it unless that can be corroborated. I think theyll take with a grain of salt what Michael Cohen has to say. After hes been convicted of varcrimes. He may feel he has no reason to koont to lie if hes lied in the past. Nonetheless i think his credibility is in question. Congressional committee nominees, they do a lot of intensive prep, they have folks play, would that be what you were undertake figure this was your client going before congress . Absolutely. Because the crimes he can still commit are lying to congress. Dont do it again, buddy. Now he can create new bad things every time he raises his hand before whatever committee he testifies in front of because there will like be more than just this one. So he has to by prepared exhaustedly. He met around 70 hours with federal investigators. So he has been questioned for a long time. Hes left a long trail of facts. They have to sit down with him and make sure hes going to get the facts straight in congress. Because people are going to study his words for potential lies and he needs to know what is truth, fact and what he does not know. This is something Michael Cohen and the president i think operated in a very factual grey zone for a long time. Are now sort of in a whole new world. Thank you both. Next what it means to finally have Public Accounting of facts about the president s alleged crimes. And why a public hearing is such a big deal next. Hearing is such a big deal next. Burning of diabetic nerve pain these feet raised a bouncing boy and climbed the ladder in the hardware business. But i couldnt bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. So i talked to my doctor and he prescribed lyrica. 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In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Hey, batter, batter, [ crowd cheers ] like everyone, i lead a busy life. But i know the importance of having time to do what you love. At comcast we know our customers time is valuable. Thats why we have 2hour appointment windows, including nights and weekends. So you can do more of what you love. My name is tito, and im a techhouse manager at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. For nearly two years weve had two kinds of investigations. Theres been of course the mueller investigation. A black box with few leaks if any. Id say probably none. Occasionally we get a blockbuster public legal feel filing from them and oicationally wild speculation, often from lawyers across from mueller and his group. But theres the second kind of investigation by a gop controlled congress with what appeared to be a legitimate but nonpublic probe in the senate and a largely illegitimate sham undertaking in the house. Heres whats been missing so far. Any kind of real sustauned real Public Accounting of the facts of what donald trump is alleged to have done. Until now. Now that democrats control the house and starting to hold public hearing, that can matter tremendously. A lot of the details were known early on but it was not until the public televised watergate hearings that nixons Approval Rating started to plummet until he finally resigned. With me former democratic congresswoman from new york that served on the House Committee that voted to impeach nixon. How significant important is tootoo to have Michael Cohen testify publicly . I think its huge. I want to go back to watergate to help explain that. As you said the American People really didnt understand the facts until they saw the televised hearing that Senate Watergate committee held. John dean came before that committee, other top aids of nixon came before the committee. John dean testified that he told the president there was a cancer on the presidency and that hush money was being paid and pardens were being offered and people could see his testimony, judge his demeanor, judge whether he was lying or telling the truth but the most important thing was they could see what the arguments were, the contentions were. Here dean was saying the president was told about a cover up and he did nothing. The president said oh, hes lying. Well, of course you knew there was this contradiction. Butt but you didnt see the testimony, didnt get the grannialator. The detail and this is going to unfold the way you peal an onion. Youre going to peal the facts away. And Michael Cohen was particularly important because he knows the whole range of misconduct, fraud, deceit, criminalty that donald trump has been involved in for a very long time. Even when you think about the quite dramatic two moments when Michael Cohen has got up uncourt, theres a big difference between that with court room sketches and actually watching the man say it. Right because hes going to be questioned not only by friendly questioners but by hostile questioners. Is this guy really telling the truth . And it may bring out details we havent heard that give mere credibility to what hes been saying. Its going to be Donald Trumps reaction. Those havent come out really solely in court hearings. The testimony about the kind of person he is, what he was telling his fixer to do in private, thats whats going to come out. Theres so much we dont know even when you take the relatively thin slice of the story of what he was doing with the hush money payments and what he knew and whether other paumts were made, it would be useful just to get that part of the story. Correct. Thats one part of the story thats going to come out and come out in much more detail. Is donald trump in the room where there were various other conversations, for example with the publisher of the magazine that took the story and squelched it. But there are also going to be other facts. For example did donald trump know before hand about the trump tower meeting . And did he approve it . What did he know . Not just did he know before hand . How do you know that was the case if hes going to aledge that . Its going to be detailed in a way the American People get a much better understanding of what has gone on here. Heres the pugh polling on nixon as we take a look at what happens. He starts to go down early in 73, after the inauguration. As he dives towards the 24 he ends up with. What is it about the publicness that allows people to fix their attention . Right now people make jokes, people i know make jokes about i cant keep all these names straight. Two more ukrainians. Right. Well, i mean ultimately sitting in front of a members of congress who are asking tough questions is a way with of getting to the American People what the facts are and its not just the facts. Its his sincerity, his credibility. Those are vital things to know and the American People are the judges of that. And that is one of the things thats why the hearings are so important. Because nixon said i didnt say those things and when the special prosecutor wanted to prove whether he was temming the truth, thats why the public understood those tapes are so important. Theres a tantalizinging pauses lkt possibility of other tapes here. What to expect as he starts facing escalating congressional oversight after this. 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Taking tzds with insulins like toujeo® may cause Heart Failure that can lead to death. Toujeo®, ask your doctor. Lets groove tonight. That can lead to death. In them therr hills on your guarantevacation. Find gold but we can guarantee the best price on this rental cabin. Or any accomodation from hotels to yurts. Booking. Com, booking. Yeah discover. O. I like your card, but im absolutely not paying an annual fee. Discover has no annual fees. Really . Yeah. We just dont believe in them. Oh nice. You would not believe how long ive been rehearsing that. No annual fee on any card. Only from discover. Well, the president was at the border today, a trip that he himself called quote just a photo op. Steve mnuchin was briefing people about the plan to lift sanctions on comp ans linked to Russian Oligarch and Speaker Nancy Pelosi was not pleased with his performance. This is one of the worst classified briefings weve received from the trump administration. The secretary barely testified. He answered some questions but he didnt give testimony. They had an intelligence briefing which i wont go into and they had a document which was unclassified, wasting the time of the members of congress. Mnuchins testimony was the first of what promises to be many oversight actions by the newly empowered houses democrats. And with the news cohen testifying, leaving the president ever more desperate to change the subject. Chief spokesman for the Justice Department and contributing oped writer for the new york times. Lets start on the mnuchin testimony which is one of the bigger stories other than the shutdown and Michael Cohen. Youve got the treasury secretary at the center of much of what has been investigated by mueller. I want to get your sns of what you think transpired. I was somewhat surprised to see the speakers comment. I was available and not only did we accommodate with them and waited while they were voting, but woo sat through and gave them close to an hour and a half and answered all their questions. What do you think . I think secretary mnuchin is going to find out hoolver to explain himself in public and thats a much more awkward setting and instead of being able to deflect questions in private, youre going to be doing it in front of the full glare of the american spotlight. And i think thats something all the officials will have to get used to. Theyve been able to blow off requests from congress. They dont respond to letrs for the most part. They face friendly audiences from republicans. They will refuse to answer questions knowing the republican chairman would not follow up with a subpoena. Often times make this phoney executive privilege claim where they refused to discuss questions with the president and then not have the chairman actually try to force them to do so. And all that has changed now. I think what youll see is democratic committees which can bring two things to the table. One evidence they can gather in the form of subpoenas and witness interviews and two eye balls in the form of very dramatic public hearings and youre going to see the first one when Michael Cohen goes to the hill. He characterizes as a stunt a photo op. A lot of these eare volve around the fact that hes desperate for the attention to be on him when he, for the first time, has an attention competition in the city of washington d. C. Yeah, i think hes fond of game of thrones. So let me do a new meme. Subpoenas are coming. And now that we have a blue wave tsunami, year going toing have a lot of hearings, subpoenas. Elijah cummings who, with bipartisan supported filed 51 letters but now that democrats have taken over, theyre going to issue those letters. So donald trump goes back to what he knows best which can is a white nationalist, white racial economic aeni anxiety bad. And manufactured border crisis. I always want to say theres no crisis. Its manufactured. And hes desperately trying, especially with Michael Cohen coming up. The fact that the trade war is not going that well. All of this is going against him and tomorrow hes going to break the record or tie the record 21 days of the government being shutdown. And last record was held under the clintoned a mipstration. 800,000 federal employees are going to mistheir paycheck. You like to eat food and pay your bills. Its going to take immense pain and suffering. And this times article where they interviewed a correction officer and she said im still supporting trump but hes hurting me now and not the right people. So now americans are go toing to get hurt and some are republicans who voted for trump and when they miss that paycheck, thats foeing to be pain and they dont want a wall. I guarantee they want a paycheck over a walt. This is a fight hes in on the shutdown fight that is a fight thats a different fight than fighting with congress over what theyre going to comply with subpoenas and as bad as the shutdown fight is going, it is preferable to lots of protracted fights over your cabinet members being subpoenaed and having to turn over documents. I was in the Obama Administration when the house changed hands and we had to deal with a bunch of aggressive investigations by the republican house. You might remember fast and furious. It not only not only does it drag information out of you and its a distraction but it prevents you from focusing on what your agenda is for the country. They dont have much of an agenda. What is the housing agenda that ben carson is going to be tied up and not focussed on because hes going to be responding to subpoenas from the members of congress . I have no idea. And theres not a big policy agenda he has left other than the wall, really. So the wall is it. Were going to deal with that one way or anothinger it seems in the next month or so. Probably by the emergency declaration. But after thats over, theres not much left on the table for him. Theres not going to be a lot going on, other than these investigations. What did you want to say . I know its not sexy when you hear about subpoenas and hearings, but i do think theyre go crippal donald trump, especially when they investigate the financial trail. I think thats whats ultimately going to crippal him going up to the 2020 election. Thank you both for joining me. The president s fight over the wall has nothing to do with the actual wall. His defense of western civilization. His defensofe western civilization my experience with usaa has been excellent. They really appreciate the military family and it really shows. With all that usaa offers why go with anybody else . 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Last night we reported the raeltings for trael raelting chuck and nancy part of the show got higher ratings than trumps speech itself. But those were the preliminary overnight ratings. He did manage to eke out a National Victory rate the speech has not achieved any political win and its hard to imagine any photo op thats going to top this. Its one of trumps steel slat prototype border walls with a gaping hole in it. The result of a dhs ts that found steel could be cut through with a commonly available saw. It showed all eight were vulnerable to breaching. According to an internal report. But the reason were in the 20th day of a Government Shutdown is not because of anything happening at the southern border. Its certainly about an actual policy to bailed wall. Remember it began as a device to make sure to remind him to kater to the most zen foebic part of the base because theres rr a cluster of people who catapulted him to his win who hate or fear immigrants and they define their political life by stemming and stopping the invasion of people who do not look like them. The wall is a symbol to tell people who feel that way im on your side. And if you think this is over stating things, considerer this. 500 miles away from the border theres a vote happening right now. It is a vote about whether county republicans will remove their partys vice chairman, a republican, for no other reason than he is a muslim. Thats it. Hes the vice chairman for the party. They want to get rid of him because hes a muslim. Thats the only reason. Now, prominent elected officials have come out against this but there are people in the base of the republican party, activists who attend county Party Meetings who want to get rid of a guy because whos muslim and donald trump knows thats his rocket fuel. Those are his people and they are what has propelled political career. The person who best figured this out before donald trump, the guy whose t whos the original wall fetishest, here he is. King brought that same model wall to the house floor way back in 2006. This is a guy who said he told trump quote i market tested your immigration policy for years. Hes quoted as saying quote white nationalist, white supremacist, western civilization. How did that language become offensive . How did it become offensive . King latter realized i think what he had said or that he had said it out loud, released a statement denouncing white spremism is. And thbrings us to the crux of e problem. Donald trump is shirting down the government because heall most certainly correctly thinks his political fortunes are dependent on the steve kings of the world and people animated by bigotry and fear, people who began to fear their life under threat by desperate honduran women in flipflops. What they want isnt policy. What they want is an ethically pure america and thats why this cant be solved in any normal deal making terms. Joining me pramila whos work with immigrants before she came to congress. Do you think a deal can be made . Or do you think this is fundamentally existential and cannot be made . Its fundamentally existential. This has never been about a wall. He could have gotten funding a couple of years ago or a year ago for a wall. It was part of a deal that was proposed. Not all of us agreed with that deal and turned it down because his ultimate goal is, as you said, to make america pure in the sense of not having immigrants, not having folks of color here and shutting down every form of loogal immigration. All to throw a bone to those people. And the only thing i can hope is that the people hes throwing the bone to are actually minority of people. Whats interesting is if you look at where immigration faired in the 2018 elections, we actually found people turning away from this view that it was too racist, too bigoted, too xenophobiac. Most people i think remember theyre just one or two generations removed and they kwur uncomfortable to the level with which this has drawn and i hope this can backfire because he has never been interested in being a president for the whole country. Hes only interested in throwing out red meat. As an immigrant myself, it is so deeply offensive to see the harm that hes causing to people across the country, pop whool are terrified, who dont feel theyre belonged. The people who no longer can get in, even though its league tool seek asylum. All the peep whom have come to this country because of what we represent, the deep harm that is being done the violence thats being committed against muslims through hate crimes, against latinos, folks of color. There is real damage, not only to real people but also to our soul and our psyche. You made athe point about the deal he rejected. It strikes me as key. There was a deal basically to give legal stat thotess to the s in d. A. C. A. In a strange legal limbo because the president took away essentially Legal Authority and the response was that yes, but you also have to reduce Legal Immigration to 1920s levels. Which struck me as the tell. Because when they talk about the border, theyre talking about unauthorized immigration. Is it your understanding and the understanding of your colleagues and everyone in the congress that what they really want is a reduction of all immigration . No question about it. The proposal they would have put forward would have dramatically cut Legal Immigration, ended family migration as we know it. Weve already seen refugee levels go down, he tried to ban asylum seeking at the border. Every single place he is cutting Legal Immigration. This has never been about undocumented immigrants coming across the border. It has always been about limiting Legal Immigration, unless you happen to be a house keeper thats working in maralago on his grounds and maybe thats different. But for the vast majority of the country what he wants to say is were not going to allow people in anymore. Thats been the agenda of steve miller. It is a longtime agenda of these White Supremacists who are fuelling him at the base and that is what is so disturbing. Its not about a wall, not about security. Its actually its not even about undock ynumented immigrat its about the character and the nature of this country and who makes it up and what theyre trying to get to. Thank you somuch for making time. Coming up the hostages of the trump shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will not get their paychecks tomorrow. And well try and figure out where the heck Mitch Mcconnell is hiding next. Onnell is hiding next what stiff joints . What bad back . Advil is. Relief thats fast. Strength that lasts. Youll ask. What pain . With advil liquigels. Yeah, ive had some prettyeer. Prestigious jobs over the years. News producer, executive transport manager, and a beverage distribution supervisor. Now im a director at a Security Software firm. Wow, youve been at it a long time. Thing is, i like working. What if my Retirement Plan is i dont want to retire . Then lets not create a Retirement Plan. Lets create a plan for whats next. I like that. Get a plan thats right for you. Td ameritrade. Billions of problems. Sore gums . Bleeding gums . Painful flossing . Theres a therabreath for you. Therabreath healthy gums oral rinse fights gingivitis and plaque and prevents gum disease for 24 hours. So you can. Breathe easy, theres therabreath at walmart. Personally, i want the wall. But not at our expense. Were not the ones that come up with the decision. They should be that ones paying the consquences, not us. We shouldnt have to not pay our bills because they cant be grown up enough to come up with a decision. Unpaid workers take to the streets to prothes Government Shutdown over the border wall. Tomorrow hundreds of thousands of Government Employees will not get their paychecks and the longer it drags on, the worse the fallout will get. Local news outlets have been covering the shutdowns impact on their communities. Effects are weighing heavily on employees. The federal prison has not seen a paycheck in more than two weeks. The nonprofit, light of hope providing food to families effected by the Government Shutdown. There are hospitals, air traffic controllers. Its going to affect us with mortgages, paying rent, daycare, even food, gas, everything. I am a basket case. I literally dont know how im going to provide for my kids. Kim mask of millington worked for the irs for six years. The weekend before christmas, she says employees were told to go home. There has been 18 Government Shutdowns in his time. I think its wrong. Its just absolutely wrong. But there is Something Different about this one. Im starting to get scared. Ive been a trump supporter. I think hes done a lot of wonderful things, but this is not one of them. Covers like that poses a growing threat to the president as the shutdown drags on. How political gravity may be catching up with him right after this. L gravity may be catching up with him right after this its easy to move forward when youre ready for what comes next. 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Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. Tell your doctor if you have an infection experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms, or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio®. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio®. Entyvio®. Relief and remission within reach. I think its very important for the people of tennessee to know a Government Shutdown is the wrong thing to do. I was opposed to it under president obama and im opposed to it under president trump. Lamar alexander making it clear to constituents, he wants nothing to do with the president s Government Shutdown. Earlier, the senate had the opportunity to vote on reopening the government with democrats asking for unanimous consent for spending bills knows it would pass but it was shut down by Mitch Mcconnell. On where things stand, im joaned by mazie hirono. I want to read you something the Senate Majority had to say. Democratic leaders have to find compromise with trump and deliver their colleagues vote for that accord, i havent been sidelined, there is no particular role for me when you have this setup, is that true . Thats one of the lamest excuses to bring the house pass bills to keep government open and who had no reluctancy to use the powers to force a vote eliminating the Affordable Care act for millions of people or to change the requirement for how many people it would take to put a Supreme Court justice on the court with gorsuch and kavanaugh. He had no problem to prevent garland from being considered and yet, yet, hell say i have no power to bring these bills to the floor. That is so lame and the excuse he gave. We are a separate branch of government. I need to remind Mitch Mcconnell that the congress is a separate branch of government and what we should do and what he should do, because there are two people to stop the shut down right now, one is the president who is a hostage taker having taken 800,000 people hostage, not to mention the thousands and thousands of contractors, he is a hostage taker. We do not negotiate with hostage takers. The other person to end the shutdown is Mitch Mcconnell because he has the power. He wont do it. Everyone should be asking why arent youi going to use the power you had no problems to force 1. 5 trillion tax cut for the richest people in our country and basically screwing the middle class, why dont you do it . Because the president wont sign it. There is thing called over riding the veto. Chris, you have a lot of people that watch your show all over the country. I would say to every one of your viewers who live in districts represented by republican senators, they should call up their senators and say go and tell Mitch Mcconnell to do his job, bring these bills on the floor because we already in the Senate Passed these last year and make sure that everyone gets paid. He wont do it. So its very clear to me who can end this shutdown. I do not immoral, makes no distinction between right or wrong or doesnt care. I wont rely on this guy but Mitch Mcconnell can do something about this. There seems to be, the president has been sort of, you know, running this is the flag pole maybe hell declare a national emergency. Yes. There is reporting they are closer to doing that. Its very unclear if thats legal. This is what they appear to be looking at. I want your reaction. Fox confirmed the white house directed the army corps of engineers to see if they can divert money to cover wildfires in california, hurricanes in texas, florida and puerto rico, what do you think of that idea . How much lower can you go . Its bad enough hes preventing 800,000 people from getting paychecks tomorrow. Most of us live in a world where we actually need our paychecks and that is bad enough but now, he wants to take money from victims of disasters . See, there seems to be no depth to the cruelty of this president , the crewuelty on innocent people so that he can get his vanity wall, the person who can stop it is Mitch Mcconnell. You got Lindsey Graham who is urging the president to go the emergency route because he like Lamar Alexander doesnt want to deal with it. Its a strange situation. What is your plan . Whats the democratic partys plan if the president says im declaring an emergency and were going to order them to build the wall . The only reason that hes going to declare an emergency is that the president figures that since he cant deal with the issue of the wall separately, he has to take people hostage is to declare an emergency and that he thinks is going to get him out of this corner that hes in. The rest of us do not have to buy into that. I think we should continue to focus like a laser beam and there will be legal challenges to him declaring an emergency and grabbing money from victims of disasters. There will be challenges. But the rest of us dont have to wait around for this Court Challenge to wind its way. We can get Mitch Mcconnell to bring these bills to the floor and what i dont get is why more republicans are not finding their votes and consciences to do that. We already voted for these bills. I think you sound confident you had the votes and i think Mitch Mcconnell is confident you would have the votes and thats why youre not getting the votes. Thanks for your time tonight. That is all in for this evening. The rachthe Rachel Maddow show now. Good evening, thanks my friend. You bet. Thanks to you at home for joining us. The federal government is still shut down. The president is still the president. Today for sure, something was different in american governance. This stiff competition mind you is one of the worst we perceive from the trump administration. The secretary barely testified, answered some questions but he didnt give testimony. They had an intelligence briefing, which i wont go into and read a document unclassified wasting the time of process. I went in sympathetic to the