biden. the congressional plane from andrews air force base couldn t get they struggled for an hour. it was nancy pelosi and two of the speakers, fred upton, a republican from michigan, one of his best friends and also john lewis. he had said one of his proudest moments was helping pass the civil rights bill. they were supposed to speak. they couldn t land in the storm. they came back. presumably they ll be at the thursday service here. john dingell returns today. they will motorcade around the capital here in tribute. thanks to you, birthday girl. thanks, susan panel, ruth marcus. they have an impromptu service was the tweet, on the plane. i can t think of a better person than john lewis to be at that service on a plane. a man raised of course in the southern churches that led the civil rights movement. thank you again so much. that does it for a busy breaking news edition. remember, follow us online on
and joining me now on this day of breaking news on all fronts, msnbc contributor ruth marcus, deputy editorial page editor at the washington post and usa today bureau chief susan page. welcome, both. the president saying he s not wild about it, indicating he might accept it, he doesn t want a shutdown. peter alexander was in the cabinet room, he said he was considering other options. he could take unspent money and move it around according to his acting chief of staff and omb director, susan. a lot to parse from the president s words. he didn t convey the image of a guy who was eager to bring about a shutdown. he seemed like a guy who was making the case why he may accept this deal and do some other things, that s how it sounded to me, although there are no guarantees with president
trump until he puts his signature until he watches fox news. they ve already started blowing back today. i m sorry to interrupt, on your birthday. and happy birthday, susan. thank you very much. the same people who torpedoed the previous pre-christmas agreement causing all that hardship down the road, a shutdown that neither republicans nor democrats wanted. they had a unanimous consent agreement on the senate side, republican-led senate. and then all these people who weren t paid, these contractors who still have not been paid back and may never get paid back, the damage to air safety. we hear from the flight attendants, ruth, that they are going to stage a rally about air safety if this deal is not signed, sealed, and delivered on friday. well, i really interrupted susan, but the reality is that while there may be blowback from conservatives, the president does not seem and i think would be correct not to be pushing for another shutdown.
though he signals acceptance, then when he got the legislation before christmas, we know what happened, we had a shutdown. he can reject it, we think that s unlikely given the republican opposition to that. he can accept it reluctantly but declare an emergency and find the money that way and get into a court fight. or, and this appears to be more likely now, his omb director and acting chief of staff is hinting at finding unallocated money, unspent funds that he could take from military spending for housing on bases, from puerto rico emergency relief, from flood relief for northern california where they ve got mudslides and flooding now after the wildfires. would that third option make it impossible for you to stop him from doing anything? well, mr. mulvaney has come up with something that doesn t seem to make a great deal of sense. the fact is, he should have accepted what he said he would