arthel: well, there is some unfinished business on capitol hill before lawmakers leave for the holidays. the lame duck session needs to deal with funding the government past the december 16th deadline, renewing the national defense authorization act and confronting the debt limit. let s bring in david hawking now, what i m going to do is ask you to game out how congress will swing on and other critical legislation. so let s start whether they fund the government and avoid a government shutdown? and also, who stands to suffer muttically during the process? oh, great. well, that second part s a great question. he was until december 16th, that s the next deadline. i think it is possible that the republicans will feel ornery and will want to push towards a shutdown by saying no to whatever deal the democratics
this is the time when members who are leaving, obviously, have no political, nothing political to gain or lose arthel: they have a legacy. i m sorry? arthel: i said they have a legacy, but we move on. i got your point. let s go to the ndaa. will they pass a must-pass bill to set up our military policy for the next year, david? i think, yes, yes, they will. this is one of few this is the only bill that has to happen every year that has always happened without fail. for for now i think it s the 63 straight years. if they do it this year, it ll be the 63rd consecutive time they ve gotten it done. sometimes it takes til the last minute, but sticking up for the national defense, in the end, is something they don t want to play politics with, so it ll get done. arthel: some republicans have threatened to hold the debt ceiling hostage. of course, deep spending cuts. for example, les talks of cutting social security. would be a smart political moye for the gop?
obama white house counsel greg craig. prosecutors are now considering bringing charges against craig related to his lobbying work on behalf of a political group also associated with ukraine. craig, like manafort, is believed to have conducted the work without ever registering with the justice department as a foreign agent, something that s required by federal law. eric? eric: thanks so much. arthel? arthel: for more on the manafort plea deal and what it means to the russia investigation going forward, let s bring in david hawking, congressional expert and former senior editor at roll call. let s ask you first of all, can you add more to this story for us? what can you add in terms of what did manafort proffer? do we know and who might get stung by the information manafort is providing mueller? no, we don t know any of that yet. mueller s investigation has been really remarkably good at holding its cards to the vest until they are ready to put them
else he s back in hot water again. arthel: as you already told us, mr. mueller knows the information so he s waiting to see if mr. manafort is going to provide that information as he knows it. that s right. trump tower meeting is important. manafort was essential to that. efforts to shift the republican platform at the convention, manafort was central to that. the famous dossier we have all heard so much about, manafort had a role in that. the whole notion of this whole notion of draining the swamp, mr. manafort was a central player in some of the swampiest lobbying behavior we have seen in d.c. in some time with foreign influences and washington. so manafort has lots to say about lots of different things, even if he doesn t actually end up pointing the finger at the president himself. arthel: david, what if anything does the manafort plea agreement tell us about the direction of the russia probe? i guess i think it means it s got to be getting towards the end.
arthel: mr. manafort has been promised protection so we will see what happens from here. david hawking, thank you very much. thanks, arthel. eric: two deadly storms roared across the same day with deadly tropical storm florence crawling across the carolinas, as it dumps torrents of rain. while that was happening, a massive typhoon brought devastation to the philippines. it had category 5 winds. a report on that disaster next. allergies with sinus congestion and pressure?