security. i think we know better. it s an issue of his own political insecurity when the right wingers start screaming at him, he just backs off in front of us. mike is on capitol hill for day number two. vick, what is being said behind all these closed doors, if anything? and what are the members of congress saying? what s happening in the white house? what are you hearing. in it s crickets and abandoned ghost town here in the capitol today and likely to be tomorrow on christmas eve. the members of congress are scattered to the wind. the senate is in tomorrow with a pro forma session. that means somebody comes in, bangs the gavel, and that s it, and the same for thursday. unless there s some kind of breakthrough, the one thing mick mulvaney said on television this morning and many of the talk shows he appeared on is this could last july january 3rd, the mandate for the start of a new
mike mccarra we were reporting and discussing thursday, it s the 27th now, was that a surprise on the hill that the majority leader said okay, we re going home. we re going to go enjoy the holidays and if something happens we ll get back here. right. somewhat of a surprise, and you re right, there s the option that they could come back on the 24th and the 27th. both mitch mcconnell told us as he walked off the senate floor which is now closed tfor the ret of the day and all day sunday. they shut down the count down clock can keep on ticking at least until monday and the senate is going to be in what they call a pro forma session, they come in, bang the gavel rgs there s no gavel, there s no legislative business. they would have the option of a breakthrough. it does not look like that s going to happen right now. mike pence, mick mulvaney were in the capital meeting with
over what the president wants. i ve got to tell you, that is some party not to show up at if you consider the price of the tickets. $100,000 to $250,000 for a couple. with the house coming back in at 9:00 a.m. and not until noon, the house was able to pass something. they passed legislation on thursday. by a decent margin. so what will they be doing? doesn t it all have to wait for the senate to get their act together? yeah. i wouldn t be on the edge of my seat this morning at 9:00 to watch the house come in. they are literally just here in a pro forma session. in other words, they re going through the motions, staying in session until they can find out and figure out what the senate is going to do, if anything. mike, thanks so much. let s bring in daniel lipman, reporter from politico and jessie burns, associate editor at the hill. gentlemen, good morning to you. i m going to start with you, jesse. is this shutdown mostly about
have the votes. i think we have that tape here. can we play that? the conference committee has come together, and we ve delivered for the american people. we remind everyone this is our tax bill. it belongs to the american people. this conference committee reflects these priorities. the committee report is valid. it will be filed in pro forma session at 5:30 this evening. at the same time it will be made public to the american people to look at the new tax code we re proposing before the house and senate votes on it next week. kevin brady, the house ways and means chairman, saying that there will be votes next week. msnbc s garrett haake joins me now from capitol hill. the holdout was marco rubio. we heard him say he wants $11 million for the tax credit for the american people. they brought it up to $14 million. is rubio now a likely yes?
paul, what does this mean for the trump white house? it s an important development, of course, because flynn was the national security adviser to the president for a brief period of time but certainly had close contact with the president and was initially mentioned as the russian link. he s been under investigation by the fbi really going back into last summer and his failure to register. so i m not surprised that trail would eventually lead to a subpoena or request for white house documents. lynn, president has called this investigation over and over and over again a witch hunt. he e said it s an excuse by democrats for losing the election, but there s a real effort, a bipartisan effort now under way to protect mueller and this investigation. do you get a sense that lawmakers are worried about what the president might do? we know they are because the senate did not officially go into recess when they left for the month of august. they are still in official pro forma session, and