right down. merry christmas, everybody. want to turn to phil mattingly. thank you for joining us. i know it's a busy night, maybe not so busy right now. it's official. in less than two hours, the government will shut down. the president just released a video calling for border security. in it he's using the same kind of imagery in the racist ads before the election. this is the part where he talks about the wall. watch this. >> the only thing that's going to stop that is great border security with a wall or a slat fence or whatever you want to call it. but we need a great barrier. >> so i don't know why he's yelling. so there's that video. what's the latest? how did we get here, phil? >> reporter: it's interesting. you mentioned the vibe here is so odd. i remember one shutdown or two ago when we were doing this, and i was texting back and forth to sources as there's this flurry of activity trying to -- the capitol is essentially empty. everybody has accepted this reality and hoping they can