Assert themselves. Well, and here we are. Guys, i dont even know where to begin. That is all we have for mtp daily tonight. In the midst of the Breaking News, the house is voting right now on the key vote that will apparently tell us more about whether there is a shut down coming and we have this National Security imploegsion. And our Breaking News continues with ari melber. I dont know if i dont know if Breaking News is enough to describe everything that is happening right now, but the Trump White House might be unraveling. I heard you say nightmare and unraveling. We have the language here, bry let you go, of general mattis say you have the right to have a Secretary Of Defense that whose views are better aligned with yours. Where do we go from here . And if you believe jeremy bash who said the president that secretary matt is was never going to resign and the president would have to fire him. So it is some form of resignation or protest or firing, but either way, major and one of the people that was held out as part of the civil and Military Service that were the guard rails. We have a lot in our show as you did, chuck, thank you so much. Thank you, sir. You heard it right there. We are in the middle of what is, and i mean this literally, one of the wildest days of a very wild presidency. Jim mattis announcing formally hes stepping down in february. As i was just discussing with chuck todd, my colleague. This is about disagreements with the commanderinchief, it is also early reporting suggests another ousting. Trump also on the verge of personally unilaterally being the force that shuts down your United States government, heading into the holidays, for no apparent reason. Again that is the clearest way we can put it. He wants a wall but refused to negotiate to get what Chuck Schumer offered. This hour were expected to hear live from nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. They will be on the beat. And how is this affecting your stock market. The stock market continuing to plunge among the shutdown threat. 500 points down. And also today, republican lawmakers, theyve had it. They are blasting their president , donald trump, for many things, including siding with vladimir putin, instead of the own advice he got from his own Pentagon Advisers on syria. And then the story that weve been following because it matters in many ways, this Justice Department in turmoil over again, yes, the russiarelated Mueller Probe. Donald trump acting Attorney General now rejected the kind of Ethics Recommendation that Jeff Sessions followed in order to recuse himself, saying, no he will oversee the Mueller Probe and later Breaking News on the man who would be permanent acting Attorney General. Well get to that. But first, let me bring in a panel on this wild night. Sam seeder and a long time washington watcher. Eleanor clift, from the daily beast, lanny davis, who advised the white house in crisis, Special Counsel to president clinton and dealt with the mueller jobe and colonel jack jacobs, military analyst. Colonel, ill get to you in a moment on the military. But lanny, i begin with you, because we used to talk about white house in crisis. You were in a hot one. I bet nights like tonight make that look like kindergarten. Your thoughts and is the president handling this right . Well, i dont want to insult eleanor, but she was there when i was there and this would be unknown. We wouldnt even call this a crisis. This is a meltdown. You lose your Secretary Of Defense, your chief of staff, you shut down the government and i just have to say one word about when i decided to work for Michael Cohen when he said, he never imagined, this is a direct quote, that donald trump would ever become president. As soon as he became president , he started to fear for his children and his country. This is what i believe mr. Cohen is referring to. As a reckless mentally unstable president of the United States who cozies up to putin and seems to be betraying the national interests. Colonel jacobs, walk us through what it means when you lose two generals and chief of staff and now in Defense Secretary as i was reading and i have it here a letter that sounds like an ousting. You have a right to a Secretary Of Defense whose views are better aligned and it is right for me to step down and a twopage kind of rebuke. Your analysis, sir . Ive known general mattis on and off for a long time and the fact he would stay in his post until relieved. Hes been relieved. He wont quit on of his own volition. This is an arrangement that was dictated by the president of the United States. Let me stop you there and then let you continue, colonel. Youre saying that your understanding giving your experience and professional relationship with mr. Mattis that he was fired . Well, yeah, he would stay in his post until relieved, until he was told he had to go. If you would have spoken to him recently, you would have gotten exactly the same message. I think the same thing is true of General Kelly as a matter of fact. These people would serve the country and not an individual and would leave only if they were told they have to leave and general mattis put the best face on it. I think youre losing a person with extremely forwardthinking vision, somebody who is focused on the defense of the republic and it is difficult to envision somebody as good as he replacing him, ari. Eleanor. Well it is a sad day in america when a liberal like me says theyre regretting the fact that Mad Dog Mattis is leaving the administration. It was a nickname that he detested but he served this president as best he could and i think the country is in much less safe hands with his departure. After the president Changed Syria Policy and announced that u. S. Forces were victorious and isis is done and hes bringing everybody home, announced it by tweet, didnt tell the pentagon, didnt call key senators on capitol hill, just did that on his own over the objections of everyone in Foreign Policy and it seems general mattis almost had to go. So i dont know whether he was relieved or whether he did the dutiful thing, if you cant follow an order youve gotten from the commanderinchief, maybe it is time to go. To maybe his being relieved of his position is a combination of his really wanting out as the honorable thing to do. And youre linking the big news stories here, which is all of the chaos, all of the problems, the disagreement and then of course syria which is adjacent to russia policy as well. The panel stays with me. Ill add a voice for reporting to our panel. Chief White House Correspondent Hallie Jackson. And hallie, i want to hear what you are getting from the white house and what set you up here with some context which is lindsey graham, who is known recently to be quite supportive of many things the president does, i want to play for you this and then get your reporting which is the kind of blowback donald trump was already getting on this policy from republicans. Take a listen. I do know this that in this war you will not win it by giving up. This is akin to surrendering. We can be successful only if we partner with others, this undercuts that effort. We have two choices to fight this war and in their backyard or our backyard. And isis and afghanistan and i know for sure is looking toward the United States in their target sets. Mr. President , you have a chance to change course, you have a lot of bipartisan support to do so, take advantage of it. Hallie . Reporter well, listen, we know we already are hearing from senator graham not just on those issues, but on that but on the resignation, the ousting of secretary Jim Mattis Given that senator graham said now it is with Great Sadness hes been informed of this resignation, this retirement. However you want to phrase it. Let me tick through those new reporting pieces of information that we have for you. So senior white house officials said secretary mattis came to the white house this afternoon. Im told that it was scheduled for right around 3 30. I dont know that is right because that is when the Farm Bill Signing was but my guess is that is why the president was so delayed to that Farm Bill Signing. So the secretary came here and he told the president that he would be leaving the administration on February 28th and i believe that at that Point Secretary Mattis also handed donald trump that Resignation Letter. And then they had a what was phrased to me as a difference of opinion. Not just over the course of some months, as we all know about, but in the course of this meeting, those differences of opinion came up. This official would not say specifically if syria or afghanistan or pick your issue was one of the topics, but obviously the two, it sounds like, did have a discussion where they dont see eye to eye. I have to tell you, secretary mattis Resignation Letter is extraordinary. It is a Shotgun Blast aimed directly into the oval office who, if the president did read that in front of jim mattis, you could imagine he was not thrilled to be doing that. Given that mattis called him out for turning away allies and embracing traditional adversaries like russia and china. Very specifically saying that you need a Secretary Of Defense whose views are better aligned with you are as yours as you see. And let me read that to you and analysis on anything from your reporting about the shutdown and this is Breaking News so we dont have all of it up on the screen but folks could follow as i say what the secretary told donald trump to his face in this letter after what weve been told is an ousting. I believe we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach whose countries are in tension with ours and said it is clear china and russia want to shape a world consist went their authoritarian model. Veto authority over other nations, Security Decisions to promote their own interests. Hallie . Reporter let me say one thing. So i said the word ousting. Shouldnt have said. I dont want that rocketing around the internet and live television, this is jim mattis saying im good and ive had enough and im not attributing that to you. And we spoke earlier, Colonel Jacobs said he would serve until hes done serving and his view and i understand you are not confirming that from the white house right now. But walk us through the rest of that and then take us to how this affects the shutdown, the market plunging, what chuck todd and i were discussing looks like and not to be hyperbolic but truly the wheels coming off. Reporter as one senior official told my colleague using that exact phrase. The context is this was brewing for months. The relationship had soured. Sources that ive talked to in the white house have acknowledged that. The relationship just was not what it was in the words of one person here inside of the white house, things change. Yeah, they ve they did. And they are expected to name a replacement by the end of the year and ill give a caveat, a grain of salt and weve heard from the president time and time again that he would name a person within an x period of time and that has not happened but that is the expectation that we are getting from the white house tonight on that front. As for how this relates to the shutdown, i think chuck used the phrase it is like lighting a match and throwing it on some gasoline here. This a day at a 24 hours or 48 hours in a week in which weve seen developments on syria, weve seen developments as it relates to the potential for a Government Shutdown. President trump think about his mindset here. Yesterday there were signals coming that maybe he would break this promise to his base on this border wall, pick up the fight again in the spring and sign the shortterm fix if the senate and the house passed it to keep the government open and then what happened . He started losing. He started losing the voices, conservative voices who speak for many in his base in conservative media blasting the president and he heard directly from mark meadows begging the president , essentially dont do this. Dont sign this thing. Fight on. Your base wants you to fight. And that is the mindset this president kind of embattled here on the Border Wall Front came into this with the news about syria and withdrawing troops. Embattled but losing a war here. Hallie, stay with us as much as you can. You mention the hill and the votes and i want to mention sam cedar but i have Breaking News on Garrett Haake on capitol hill where this is playing out. As i told viewers at the top of the show, well hear from Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi shortly. Youve got all of the fallout from that dramatic meeting they had over the shutdown and donald trump as hallie just mentioned apparently saying, great, here comes the Trump Shutdown. What are you hearing there . I think that is exactly right. Were looking at nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer once again drawing a line in the sand here. We fully expect them to say they will not accept this cr that will come back from the house loaded up with wall money, after that meeting last week all of the political pressure was taken off of them. Donald trump said out loud in front of the entire country, he would own this shutdown and it is not clear that republicans have any kind of big picture strategy to get out of a shutdown if they get into one tactically we know the next moves. Theyll try to pass the cr with wall money and not clear they could do that and send it over to the senate where it will fail as Chuck Schumer will tell the country in a few minutes and then what . Then what . So let me ask you on that, garrett, for folks watching this who have heard donald trump go back and forth with chuck and nancy and have this drama, tonight is different because hes lost john kelly and now general mattis and the market is plunging, the doj is in turmoil and the incoming attorney gem back channeling ways to fight mueller, there is a lot going on. When you look at what you are seeing in your area of reporting expertise, is this a Shutdown Showdown or a shut shutdown fauxdown. This is a whimper and republican senators are leaving town. They dont want this fight. There is no vigor for the idea of fighting for the wall on the senate side of things and now look at all of the things they have to do when when they get back. They have a new interior and now need a new Secretary Of Defense. And general mattis, without the exception of Mitch Mcconnell married to a cabinet secretary, every senators favorite secretary and losing him up here will shake the confidence that donald trump needs to do his agenda Going Forward and that includes the wall. The idea this will be a fight over the holidays, hes going to be fighting that alone on the senate side. He has allies in the house but the idea this will get muscled through over christmas break with folks heading for the break, i dont see it. Stay with me. I want to go to sam cedar on the liberal democratic strategy here. Because youve covered this a long time. You have a Point Of View on this. And there was a time when democrats didnt seem to have the strength for these fights. Do you think were witnessing the nancy pelosi strategy, make him own it and dont back down . Yeah, i think so. And i think well see the democrats take this opportunity to slow down the confirmation of judges, i think we already got some reporting on that today. And this is a this is an opportunity for democrats. On some level it is also sort of a terrifying time. We talk about president s being somewhat isolated and insolated, Donald Trumps world is getting increasingly smaller and tighter. But this is an opportunity for democrats to stay cohesive. And slow down Mitch Mcconnells agenda. Because to the extent there is an agenda on the republican side, it is more Mitch Mcconnell than anyone elses and frankly Mitch Mcconnell needs to step up and start dealing with the fact that his republican president has gone off the rails. Basically when we look at all of this and lanny, i know i may lose you, what do you see as the way this white house deals with what you call this meltdown . And what does it say when you see this many people leave in this way and all of this of course to state the obvious, which sometimes is my job, is before the democrats even take charge in the house where their eight Point National Margin is one of the greatest rebukes of a sitting president in the modern era. It is the classic rule of stop digging and what donald trump is incapable of and his white house and people around him at the white house, is hes incapable of dealing with the truth. He not only lies but i think that sociopathically that he doesnt even care that hes lying. And it is the kind of white house that you cannot deal with the crisis when the man you are representing is lying all of the time. Lanny davis, i know you have other work tonight so thank you for being part of our coverage. Were not going anywhere. Were continuing right now. So colonel, when you look at this, build on what you heard there from Garrett Haake and Hallie Jackson because were talking about a general who, lets be clear, Above And Beyond his service and his role in running the pentagon, which is big, he was also, we just heard, widely credited on the hill and i hate the cliche, the socalled adults in a white house not known, i guess, for an adult decisionmaking process. Well, just because it is a cliche doesnt mean it is true. It is not true. If you would have asked either mattis or kelly sometime ago and when they first took office why they would do it, they would have told you, both of them, would have said somebody has to do it. And i think that tells you a great deal about how they viewed the importance, a. , of service, b. , of service in this environment, and c. , how dangerous the world has become outside of the United States. There are threats around the world where either incapable of dealing with or we refuse to deal with. And i think were going to regret not having dealt with any of them. Jim mattis was the kind of guy who would approach every problem with the accruity of a surgeon and start at the end and work backwards and what are we trying to accomplish and do we have the resources and how will be get it done. And with jim mattis done im afraid we wont have that focus in an increasingly fragmented and difficult world. And i think hes going to be missed not just by the people in uniform, but by the nation altogether. Eleanor clift, when you look at this and people are watching what is again im going to commit another cliche, which is supposed to be a time when the news slows down toward the holidays, are we witnessing a worsening of trumpism and the leadership and the selfishness given what we saw. We have reporting and we touched on this last night that the main thing driving donald trump back towards wanting the Shutdown Fight is the market crash as Jim Mattis Leaves is criticism from fox and friends. Yes, so hes paying attention to Rush Limbaugh andain colter and Laura Ingraham and the fact they could be running National Policy and that he sits in his bedroom tweeting, its really its unworthy of this country. And i think jim mattis is a man of high moral character and great intelligence and with respect for tradition and his the contrast with trump you never know what the event is that will set things really spiraling out of control. But i do think his departure combined with irrational Government Shutdown, the tumbling of the stock market could finally begin to unmoor some of the republicans. Im waiting for the goldwater moment with the Water Grate Reference when the senior Republican Leaders went to Richard Nixon and said it was over. Were not there yet. But, boy, this sure feels like the wheels are coming off the wheel is coming off has been repeated because it feels like it. It feels like part of what is happening. Right. You are in washington. What i have to ask you is should it have to get that bad for that to happen . The mechanisms that we have without republicans in the senate and without it being bipartisan impeachment is not really much of a remedy. There is the 25th Amendment. You could imagine secretary mattis, hell be there until february, you could imagine him going to other cabinet secretaries, maybe going to Vice President pence and if the numbers are there, if the bottom is really falling out, going to the president , that is the other remedy. There is other than that, it is the election. And this president needs to be defeated fair and square if the other remedies dont work. Copy. I want to add to our discussion a fairly heavy hitter in reporting and media circles which is ben smith executive editor in chief of buzzfeed. Loyal viewers of the beat know you are not here that often but the last time you were here was a night like this. We are somehow fortunate on big nights to have you here. I want to discuss russia and the dossier with you later in the hour. But right now, as all of this news breaks, and you have a shutdown looming and youve covered this throughout your life, i want to play Rush Limbaugh of all people who said, and hes not always telling the truth, he said he was personally assured by donald trump that hes calling the shots here and that is why we might get a shutdown. Take a look. If it is the case that the president has gotten word to me that he is either getting money for the border, for border security, or hes shutting the whole thing down. Thats one i heard. No, the president wants you to know that its money or nothing. And if it is nothing, he shuts it down. So there you have it. Were a few minutes from a hastily called Press Conference From Pelosi and schumer on this. Is that why we could head towards a shutdown. I think there is the obvious narrative that hes hes the conservative republicans on fox and people like limbaugh want him to stand up for the wall and hes doing that and that is part of it but also as always hes putting on a show. Hes changing the topic. And youve been there is a lot of things that are perhaps worse for donald trump than a fight over a wall that youve been talking about. What are those things . The stock market, Mattis Departure and i think so i think im not sure i think that in some ways it makes more sense to view him deciding how to get attention rather than operating on profound political principle. And then the Attention Matrix here tells you what. I think of the shutdown and all of the fairly catastrophic stories, the shutdown is the one he likes best. What does that say about losing mattis . I dont know. But i think it is so easy to jump and say the wheels are coming off. Mattis will be around until february. The wheels coming off is not a constitutional term and so i dont i think i dont see why we dont just sort of head into a shutdown if that is what the president wants. Speak to that, sam. Ben raises the point that the wheels coming off is not a constitutional term unlike blowing the roof off, which is what the 25th Amendment does according to the fend to the founders lef founders lexicon. There was a sense that mattis was in the generals, as it were. Which i find an uncomfortable concept. Where the bull warts between donald trump and total chaos and we dont know if that is the case. We dont know what this means in terms of is this mean that john bolton is now going to get his desires in terms of what happens with the National Defense . We just cant know that. I mean one thing that struck me about limbaugh let me go on but does it mean, to follow on your concept, that there will be more Foreign Policy made by tweet. So you have a policy that comes out of the president s head, be it for a bad motivation or not and your answer and then ill bring in a congressman before we go to nancy and chuck as it were. The bottom line, one thing we can say is that his world is getting more insular and to the extent that hes getting any advice, it is coming from people like sean hannity. Literally. And so i think were going to see more politicization of things and not a policydriven agenda because those people giving the advice are further and further from the inner circle. Let me bring in Congressman Dellucci and i had a Guest Pointing out maybe this is another trump attention device, but it also affects millions of federal workers if that is what it is. What are you thinking about tonight and are we going to have a shutdown . Well, ari, weve done everything we can to prevent a Government Shutdown. The republicans control the house and the senate and the white house so theyll decide whether there is a shutdown. The president said he intends to shut the government down over the border wall. We all believe that we have to support very robust border security. Weve already voted for that. Were prepared to vote for more. We want it to be in a smart way, using technology and drones and using satellites and more personnel and an effective way to secure the border. Everyone acknowledges the 70 billion and 1,000 mile wall is a waste of money and not effective in securing the border but the president has made this his issue and it seems hes intent on shutting the government down regardless of what other alternatives might be available. So theyre going to bring to the floor a bill that will propose spending 5 billion on this 70 billion wall. Well see whether they pass it in the house and what the senate does with it. But my fear is that were headed for a shutdown because the president seems committed to shutting down the government. Another way to say that is you think were headed toward the shutdown because he said that and he owns and your colleagues and leader soon to be Speaker Pelosi wont give an inch at this juncture. It is not even a question of not giving an inch. We said do a continuing resolution and fund the government and weve passed seven of the appropriations bill on the Homeland Security and just do a continuing resolution to continue to discuss the best way to secure the border so weve given the president two alternatives that dont require a Government Shutdown and offered our support to do it even if he doesnt have republican votes but hes rejected both of those. Hes hes committed to shutting the government down and he wants to look like hes fighting for something important but hes just shutting the government down at a time when folks are worried about getting paid near the holidays. The very department hes worried about Homeland Security, he will end up shutting that down. So in the name of securing our borders hes closing down the Agency Responsible for securing our borders. It makes no sense. And congressman, were moments away from the Press Conference that might shed more light on the slate of play and as viewer as poach on the half hour mark, the shutdown is looming as of tomorrow and a lot of other things are going on at the Justice Department, which ben smith was pointing out could be part of the classic distraction. And so rather than be distracted, let me ask you about that, congressman, when you look at two big stories coming out of doj, number one, a controversy over whether the acting Attorney General is cleared to oversee mueller or not and number two a new memo that has been revealed that shows that donald trump picked a nominee to be a. G. Privately advising him on how to defeat mueller which is different than being Muellers Boss in a nonpartisan and impartial way and what are your view of both developments. I think they are both alarming. Were now learning that mr. Whitaker was advised by officials that he ought to probably recuse himself in light of the potential conflicts. They elected not to follow that advice. So i think we need to know why. And we need to see exactly what advice they gave him. Then we learn about a memo that mr. Barr prepared while Offering Advice to the president where he argues the president is essentially Above The Law and Obstruction Of Justice shouldnt apply to him which is legally incorrect. And you have to wonder, this is at a time he was sort of applying or auditioning for a position in the administration and it is interesting that President Trump selected people to lead the Justice Department who believe strongly in president ial authority and think it is inappropriate to Investigator Review the conduct of the president so very alarming so you say auditioning, is that the emerging democratic view on this tonight, that this is evidence that the Attorney General nominee mr. Barr was trading an attack on mueller in exchange for this job . Is that how far youre going . Well i think we need to know the circumstances. We should remember, this is an unsolicited 20page memo that he just did the research on and wrote and sent it to them unsolicited which is curious, at the same time hes apparently seeking a position in the Trump Administration. I have to tell you, it is fascinating let me ask you. I have it right here. It is very long. It is very detailed. It reads like more than one lawyer worked on it. As you say unsolicited june 8th, made out to rosenstein and angle at the Justice Department and according to the reporting weve seen circulating to the trump administration, if he sent one every six months on a range of issues, hes just a nerdy former Attorney General with spare time and nothing wrong with that. But what do you think this was . Well it seems like it is the only memo he sent. And again, its designed to make the case that the president is Above The Law and it is inappropriate to question him about Obstruction Of Justice which of course is not the law. We know that there were Obstruction Of Justice claims made against president clinton and nixon. So the idea that the president or anyone else is Above The Law is not accurate. But you have to wonder what motivated mr. Barr to prepare this memo and send it in, in an effort to endear himself to the president and demonstrate he would try to defend him from the Mueller Investigation and be hired and maybe it worked but i think there are a lot of questions about the circumstances for the preparation of that memo, what it really means and whether or not it disqualifies mr. Barr, at least from supervising this investigation. Maybe he doesnt disqualify him from being the Attorney General, but for sure it disqualifies him from supervising an investigation that he has now argued to the department of justice ought not exist at all. Congressman, before i let you go, is it all right if i get a little metaphysical with you . Sure. Does tonight really feel different or is this that thing where were in this wild ride, the stuff is important, but sometimes it gets out of ahead of us or are we entering a different view in your feeling in washington in the building you are speaking to us from . I think were entering a different period. I think there is a real sense of chaos in the white house. A real loss of control and the loss of somebody like secretary mattis, a president who seems committed to shutting the government down and an ongoing effort to jam some people in the department of justice who are predisposed to protect him. We need an Attorney General that represents the people of this country that is committed to upholding the rule of law, that will show independence in that effort and these are all events which i think are very disturbing and it feels very different. Congressman sissiny, thank you very much for your time on as you put it a different kind of night. Eleanor, what do you think of what we just heard and the diagnosis of increasing chaos . I thought the congressman put it perfectly. And you just take off any one of these individual chaotic events and you could imagine any one of them would be commanding headlines and creating alarm. You put them altogether and people are aghast and you dont know what this president is going to do. And so the quality of his judgment and his apparent instability is worrying. And again its going to take republicans to stand up and basically confront their president and until that happens, i think democrats are going to be very weary to get too far out in front of any of this because they see it as a trap. So im waiting for republicans and i thought jim comey the other day spoke very eloquently on those lines in the capitol saying when are people going to speak out and stop pretending that, okay, well trump is just he likes chaos and he likes to throw things around and break things up and that is good for the country. Theyve got to stop and really look at what hes doing and analyze their own response. Were also getting word here in the middle of the hour, Breaking News as we bring it to you, from nbc news, ben smith, legal experts are telling nbc news that mueller could be wrapping up his final report by as soon as february. But as i always note here with caveats, always important to show what i dont know, i dont know anything about muellers timeline and very few people do. Ken delanian may join us momentarily and im obligating to tell you we are still watching the box in the corner of the screen and bring you the Press Shutdown when it happens. So with that on the table, i want to turn the actual reason i invited you on the beat tonight. Amidst Everything Else well continue to monitor and i may break in. Well february is a hundred years from now. A hundred years war. Vladimir putin went out on The World Stage Today and did what authoritarians do and he controls events in russia and spent four hours talking. And yet this is also a day where weve reflected on the dossier now with a lot more of developing in the Mueller Probe when i mentioned nbc has new reporting on and what do you see as putin addressed the world and tells your side of the story and your publication broke the steal on the dossier in the heady period when donald trump was in transition to becoming president. Well first of all, we we won a big court ruling yesterday that vindicated our publishing the dossier and what the government is looking at and looking back the most extra o ord extraordinary things is there were things that have been verified but this is the summer of 2016 and he was saying very clearly as mentioned, i have to intervene to say here is the democratic Press Conference. Lets listen in. To put together an appropriations bill to meet the needs of the American People and now to keep government open. Somehow or other, and i dont know what the answer to the question is, the president of the United States prefers to shut government down. And will resist any opportunity to keep government open. Again, we are completely ready, as we have been for a while, with bipartisan, Bicamera Legislation to pass the six appropriations bill and have a continuing resolution for the seventh bill if we cannot come to terms on that. Weve offered that to the president. Weve also offered him seven continuing resolution with seven bills in it. Yesterday the United States Senate Passed legislation overwhelmingly and ill yield to the extinguished leader in the senate to talk about that. The president is doing everything that he can to shut the government down. Have to ask the question why does he not believe in governments . Does he not care about the American People . Doesnt he know that the economy is uncertain, hasnt he followed the stock market that he likes to brag about sometimes. There is something wrong with this picture. Especially in the holiday season. And so if they make the bill bad enough, theyre able to get maybe enough votes on the house side. But for a shameful bill that is unworthy of this House Of Representatives and certainly of the American People. That i yield to the distinguished leader from the senate majority. Thank you, Leader Pelosi. Todays events have made one thing clear, President Trump is plunging the country into chaos. The stock market is down another 500 points. General mattis is stepping down. And we know he has real disagreements with the president on syria and on the wall and now President Trump is throwing a Temper Tantrum and creating the Trump Shutdown of the government. Last night the Senate Passed by voice unanimously a bill proposed by leader mcconnell, all speaker ryan has to do is put it on the floor of the house, it will get a majority of votes, and the president can sign it and avoid a shutdown. But unfortunately President Trump was attacked this morning and last night by the hard right and fearful he backed off his commitment to sign this bill. Republican leaders told us yesterday that he was ready to sign the bipartisan bill that passed the senate unanimously, every democrat and every republican, to avoid a Government Shutdown. The bill contained neither democratic demands or republican demands. It said to the American People, we have a way to keep the government open. And Leader Pelosi, leader mcconnell, and myself have done everything we can to avoid a shutdown. But President Trump wants one. Hes asked for one 25 times and he said in front of us hed be proud to shut down the government. It is nothing to be proud of. The bottom line is simple, the trump Temper Tantrum will shut down the government but it will not get him his wall. The bill on the floor of the house, everyone knows will not pass the senate. Speaker ryan, Leader Mccarthy have cynically put it on the floor of the house, knowing it cant pass the senate. Everyone knows it cant the pass the senate. It is a cynical attempt a cynical attempt to just hurt innocent people and to do just what President Trump wants, even though they probably know it is bad for the country. So bottom line is very simple. There is still hope. Leader pelosi and i have put two proposals on the table. We have not taken them off. That would avoid a Government Shutdown and get a majority of votes in the house and senate. Leader mcconnell had put on the floor last night a proposal that would avoid shutting down the government. It is a shame that this president who is plunging the nation into chaos is throwing another Temper Tantrum and going to hurt lots of innocent people. The trump Temper Tantrum may produce a Government Shutdown, it will not get him his wall. What happens next in the senate if this bill does pass the house tonight . Well, Leader Mcconnell Has said he would schedule a vote. It clearly will not come close to getting the 60 votes that it needs. And then Leader Pelosi and i and probably senator mcconnell would hope that the house would then consider passing the bipartisan unanimously passed bill that the senate would pass. But whether theyll do that or not, your guess is as good as mine. Donald trump wants a shutdown and they seem to be so afraid that theyre going to go along. Well see. A couple of minutes ago you told some of us you were shaken by the news about jim mattis resignation. Why are you shaken by this news . Well im shaken by the news because of the patriot that general secretary mattis is. I think that everybody in the country should read his letter of resignation. It is a letter of great patriotism, respect for the president , but also a statement of his values, where he talks about the strength of our nation is intrinsically linked to the unique and comprehensive system of alliances that we have. That he talks about we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach though the countries whose strategic interest are increasingly with intent to tensions with ours. The list is it is a beautiful letter about again our values as a nation in terms of our National Security written by A Patriotic American who was a comfort to many of us as a voice of stability in the trump administration. So just look at this week. The president taking troops out of syria without really full consultation with his with the National Security leaders of his own administration. The president taking actions that encourage his Secretary Of Defense to issue a letter of resignation. His reversing position about signing a bill. Maybe he thinks the Government Shutdown he could golf more comfortably. That is not how it works. Government must work even if you are golfing for two weeks. So there is something very wrong with this picture and this resignation is one we just were briefed a week ago by secretary mattis and secretary pompeo and that was last thursday so it was one week ago. Our troops look to secretary mattis as a leader and now he is going to be leaving them. This is very serious for our country. I yield. Yeah, secretary mattis was one of the few symbols, the few items of strength and stability in this administration. Everything that indicates stability, everything that indicates strength, everything that indicates knowledge is leaving this administration. General kelly, general mattis, so many others. Mcmaster. Mcmaster. Exactly. There is chaos now in this administration. This week was one of the most chaotic weeks weve ever seen in American Government and amazingly they want to close the week, President Trump does, by shutting down the government. Shutting down the government. Now, we all know that secretary mattis had real disagreements with the president on syria and on wall. Some speculated that the president was going to demand that he Start Building a wall, which he knows he cant do by law, and maybe that is one of the reasons he stepped down. Leader, do you think there is any reasonable prospect that if there is a shutdown you could override President Trumps veto of a cr in the next week or so. You have to ask our republican friends. It is strange how our republican friends, the worse he gets the more they rally around him. And this just to refer back to what leader schumers had said about the voice of stability in this in this administration and the people who have left, you have leaders, great leaders who have left the administration in dismay and the rest of them have left in disgrace. Thats what this administration has been about. We dont want to be fear mongers in terms of our country. This great country can with stand just about anything but it Shouldnt Have to. It Shouldnt Have to. There is yes, i am shaken by the resignation of general mattis. For what it means to our country, for the message it sends to our troops and for the indication of what his view is of the commander in chief. Are americans left without Mattis Running The Pentagon . Look, our military soldiers 2. 15 million of them are civilian employees and defense looked up to general mattis. Im sure they feel it is a great loss. Im sure most americans feel it is a great loss. And everything like this that happens, the resignation of a strong leader gives the American People less and less faith in President Trump and the way he governs. It is all the more reason for us to pray for our country. Our country has been blessed in so many ways by leaders throughout the centuries, the decades. And some of them, one of them, general mattis. This is a very sad day for our country. Read his letter. Have you read his letter . Read his letter. And examine the activities that have led up to it and what it means. Because of his leadership, we are safe. Yes. And we have to pray that were safe and we have to continue to make sure that the American People assure we are safe. That is the oath of office we take, to protect and defend and we will. We Shouldnt Have to do so because of the Temper Tantrums of the commanderinchief. Last question. Now the senate is going to have a number of key Cabinet Posts that theyre going to be forced to confirm here and in a very short period of time. Is your caucus able to work with the administration with this new round of appointments and get unlike previous president s, democratic and republican, there is no consultation. They dont call us and say what do you think of this person, what do you think of that person. And most of the nominations have been so below par in their ethical standards, in their ability to govern, in their ideology and i hope there would be a change and given the past group of nominees, i dont. So theyre going to get very, very thorough examinations, theyre going to get serious, serious questions, and in the past almost all of them have not passed muster. Thank you. Thank you, all. Weve been listening to Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi going right at donald trump. Senator schumer saying if there is a Trump Shutdown tomorrow because of a trump tantrum, pelosi, the incoming House Speaker saying just now she is shaken by secretary mattis Resignation Letter and urging americans to read it. Eleanor clift, what is the significance of what we just heard . These are two professionals. I looked up recently Chuck Schumer was first elected to the house in 1980 and then the senate in 1998. Nancy pelosi was first elected to the house in 1987. That is a combined 70 years of political and legislative experience. And they are bull wart tonight and going into the future and the language they used that miss pelosi Begging Americans to read the letter, read the letter from mattis. Which outlined his standards and reference for patriotism and senator schumer saying this is the most chaotic week in the american presidency or one of the most chaotic weeks in the american presidency. It is a reckoning and the president set it off with the firing or the departure of jim mattis. So highly regarded by everybody, that without him i think it is scary as to what might he has put out word today this is also news today, hes going to oversee the Mueller Probe himself. His Justice Department saying theres no reason for him to recuse like Jeff Sessions but then swiftly today a scandal reports that its only happening because whit takers advisor rejected the formal counsel. We were just discussing how the senate will deal with this. Tonight washington has been pouring over a secret memo that this man wrote to the Trump Administration outlining arguments against muellers obstruction inquiry. What that means is we now know something we didnt know yesterday. The man trump picked to be Muellers Boss was also privately serving as Something Like muellers opposing counsel. He was arguing that his approach w was, quote, fatally miss conceived. Bar was writing based on Public Information which means the kind of stuff you or i might know. This was today also so important on this big news. Today muellers longtime boss cited that fact to pour some cold water on barrs past advice. Lots of people offer opinions to the department of justice but they dont influence our decision making. Which mr. Bar didnt have. And also a lot of the reactions initially this afternoon to the barr memo note how it does disagree with mueller as i just told you. They suggest it could be bad news for mueller if bar is his new boss confirmed by the senate but let me tell you this, some people may be putting too much stock in some parts of the memo. The barr memo may not mean what they think it means. I do not think him is what you think him is. Let me explain why. Barrs criticism of muellers Obstruction Theory is limited because he says theres only two actions that trump took that could be obstruction, firing comey and asking him to drop the Flynn Investigation but what barr may not have known when he wrote this is all the other reports that would detail more evidence of obstruction and so barr has now put into writing an argument that mueller can use against trump. He actually highlights, i want to show you this, actions by a president that would amount to obstruction crimes writing, quote, obviously the president can commit obstruction and then describing the act. Barr says could be crimes. In other words, crimes by trump. So lets go through it because this, what im about to show you, may send chills down Rudy Giulianis back tonight. Barr writes that a president can commit criminal obstruction by encouraging, what, perjury . Its called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal. Donald trump called Michael Cohen a rat. Thats the president of the United States calling his former lawyer there a rat for cooperating, which might fail that barr standard. Then barr also writes in this newly public memo a president commits criminal corruption potentially by pushing a witness to change testimony. Tweet storm unleashed this morning. I will never testify against trump. This statement was recently made by roger stone. Nice to know that some people still have guts. Maybe barr didnt know hed be describing something that ends up in the strike zone of criminal obstruction. You have trump there basically encouraging a potential witness not to testify. Barr writes in this newly released memo a president can commit obstruction by impairing the availability of evidence. President trump ordered the firing of special Counsel Robert Mueller back in june. Lets get into it. Nick ackerman, former Watergate Special prosecutor and laura murray who has clerked for Supreme Court justice sonya soto may our. Barr is outlining things that look like things donald trump has now done. Barr has done something that i would tell any first year law student not to do which is make assumptions based on facts that you dont have. Hes laid out this 19 page memo but hes operating in the dark. He doesnt know a lot of things that are happening and he doesnt know whats yet to come. As you say, the president has done a lot of things that may seem like acts that would fall into some of the things outlined by barr in that memo. So hes auditioning for a job that he may not want. Theres no question. First of all, he doesnt take into account the whole myriad of facts that we have after this date of this memo, which is june 8th, all kinds of things happened after that date. But if you look at this memo, this looks like something that was written by a second or third year law student who never he is the former Attorney General of the United States. He outranked you, sir. He certainly did, but ill tell you something, if i got this from an associate in my firm i would be horrified. You would. I would. He has the Wrong Obstruction Statute he identifies. He identifies the Witness Tampering Statute not the standard obstruction 1503 statute which he claims only applies to proceedings. So bottom line, throw some of the numbers out. Are you saying that you think he was stretching because he was auditioning for the job . He certainly was stretching because he was auditioning for the job. This is a job letter, but whats even worse is it shows that somebody who was a former Attorney General doesnt understand Obstruction Of Justice and in and of itself, forget the conflict, forget what he you know, what he said to the president , i wouldnt hire this guy to be a law clerk based on this memo. Doesnt understand or in this instance, as lawyers sometimes do, doesnt want to understand . Maybe he wants to understand different things. So the middle part of the letter is a love letter to the Unitary Executive Theory which posits that all of the power of the executive branch is vested in the president and cannot be checked by congress. If you are auditioning for the role of Attorney General, thats exactly what you want to say to appeal to this particular president. Ken delanian, you have news on the future of the Mueller Probe. Thats right. Robert mueller is wrapping up his investigation and may submit a report to the Justice Department as early as mid february. When matthew whit taker will presumably still be the acting Attorney General because it will be difficult to get barr confirmed by that point. This is some deep reporting i have with pete williams. I was surprised by this reporting. I had thought that there were many months left to go in this probe, but weve talked to a number of People Associated with it. Obviously many people who have clients in the case, but more than that, Government Officials and people who are in a position to know, ari, and all the signs are pointing to mueller wrapping things up and submitting a report. Now what we havent im not going to press you on the identity of your sources, but i was speaking to a former prosecutor with a similar job last night, ken starr, who certainly leaked more than mueller. What can you tell us about why people should understand this to be an important time line that is rooted in what theyre going to do when they famously dont leak or talk that much . Right. They dont leak, but people do need to be ready for this to happen because its not just the mueller team anymore once they file the report. The regulations say that Robert Muellers required to file a confidential report to the Attorney General of the United States and then its up to him to decide what to do with it, whether to make it public, whether to submit it to congress. Theres going to be a lot of issues around that, around classified information, grand jury secrecy material. So if its going to be made public, theres going to have to be a decision to do with that. That combines and collides with the other big story. That would be whitakers call if your reporting time line is correct . Thats right. You have an acting Attorney General who has disregarded the informal advice he got from a Justice Department ethics officer that all Things Considered he probably should recuse himself. He said there was no collusion on television. Now he would he has told associates that he was acting as a Television Commentator back then without information. Sure. That was a ruole hes had. Hes in a different role now. Hes promised to follow the rules of the Justice Department but hes setting a standard that the appearance of impartiality is not enough for recusal. Barr will have the same issue. With the 30 seconds i have take your reporting to melissa, if its up to whitaker does that mean this report is less likely to get to congress . The real issue we have is the broad appearance of impropriety. I think its likely this doesnt go to congress. That is a failure of the public trust. My thanks to you and nick and ken did he lelaney. Secretary of defense out,