The c. R. Didnt pass, its just like in life, if you quit after the first time, its only a failure if you quit. Were in the middle of the republican civil war that has been ongoing for months, and now it threatens catastrophic Government Shutdown. Got to stop the spending. Its bankrupting this great country of ours. Any more time the speaker spends trying to cobble together farright wish lists that cant even pass the house would be a grievous mistake. Its tame for republicans to top playing these games what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are doing with blank checks, more borrowing, more taxing, for more spending, destroying the future of this country. That stops now. Neil shutdown on. Well, the Government Shutdown is looking pretty inevitable right now, just 14 hours away potentially. Right after midnight tonight, 3. 5 million workers could be off the Government Payroll unless or until congress can pass a spending plan. Heres what we know right now though, House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy is huddling with republicans. Hes said to be fighting to keep his job as he pushes for a clean interim Spending Bill that could keep the government open for maybe a week, maybe two weeks, hard to say. And in two hours the senate will try and do the same, their own version of a fix to the mess when they gavel in. Meanwhile, well talk to key players trying to hash all of this out. A liaison between the house and senate, republican senator Mark Wane Mullen markwayne mullin. And Michigan Democratic congressman dan kildee on, well, if either party will pass thinking at all. And from a shutdown to a shakeup, robert f. Kennedy jr. Planning a run as an independent candidate . If you thinks that is concerning president joe biden, think again. Why some republican candidates may also be worrying. Welcome, everybody. Im neil cavuto. Happy weekend to you. As i said, the clock is ticking. Lets go to Aishah Hasnie on capitol hill with the meeting thats going on and meetings to come and whether they can avoid lights out in washington d. C. Reporter hey, good morning, neil. Thats right. Here we go again. House republicans, the entire conference is actually in the basement below me in the capitol here right now huddling together and trying to figure out what in the heck theyre going to try to put on the House Floor Today and vote on today to try to avert a Government Shutdown. Theres our live look at this meeting happening right now. Fox is told that gop leadership is floating the idea to put up a shortterm Spending Bill 45 days or shorter that includes disaster aid but not ukraine funding and no Border Security. This would come up you should a Suspension Rule under a Suspension Rule which means you would need twothirds of the members. That means you would need democrats. Again, that is only if the majority of this conference behind those closed doors can agree to this and are okay with this inside that meeting. Now, if they are okay with this and they want to move forward, a vote could happen this morning or early afternoon, but some folks are already saying theyre not happy with it. Listen to this. If leadership brings it up, are there consequences . Well see. But im not hopeful. You know, a clean c. R. , thats what we were fighting existence all the time. Nothing in it for the border . So, no. Well see how it goes. Reporter well see how it goes. Well see if leadership is going to leave behind these holdouts and move forward. This comes after 21 House Republicans took down Speaker Mccarthys attempt to pass a onemonth stopgap bill yesterday. That included cuts in spending and Border Security measures. Meantime, the senate is expected the take a procedural vote later today on a 45day clean stopgap bill with ukraine funding. Mccarthys been warning the senate, look, guys, the house is not going to accept that. I think if we had a clean one without ukraine on it, we could probably be able to move that through. I think if the senate puts ukraine on there and focuses ukraine over america, i think that could cause real problems. Reporter so whatever happens next, neil, is being decided right now in the basement of the capitol. Neil . Neil thank you for that, aishah, very much. How is the president of the United States reacting to all of this . Lucas tomlinson at the white house with more. Hey, lucas. Reporter hey, neil. President biden speaking at the retirementer is ceremony yesterday for the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff the, general mark milley, and offered the following warning if the house fails to Fund Government by tomorrow, well have failed all our troops, our Service Members who keep upholding their oath, showing up for work, standing sentinel around the world, keeping our country secure. But they wont get paid. Its a disgrace. Reporter President Biden is here at the white house this weekend no tout being kept uptodate no doubt being kept up the date on the looming Government Shutdown. Yesterday our colleague Edward Lawrence asked this key question in the Briefing Room reporter does the president bear think responsibility for a shutdown. Absolutely not. And, by the way, the deal was to insure that we had a fiscally responsible plan. I think the name of the bill was the cities call responsibility act that saved a trillion dollars over a decade. Reporter taxpayers too will be impacted. National parks close, getting a passport could take a lot longer, reaching the irk are rs by phone irs and americans who rely on social assistance could also be denied. And some Government Workers like tsa agent, many protest over not getting paid, may call out sick in greater numbers potentially creating more chaos at airports nationwide. Now, Officials Say all Government Employees would receive back pay at the end of this potential Government Shutdown. Of course, thats little consolation to americans around the country who are living paycheck to paycheck. We dont have ore mind our viewers, neil, who many are shocked every time theyre handed a receipt. Neil indeed. Lucas, thank you. Representative troy knells kind enough to to join us u House Freedom caucus member. How do you see it right nowing congressman . Well, new york neil, what i see right now is the senates not willing to work with the house of representatives. We have passed 4 appropriations bills. I know theres 12, weve passed 4. We passed defense, we as passed homeland security, we passed agriculture or were work on agriculture. We as passed v. A. , and Chuck Schumer has done nothing with them. Matter of fact, we even passed faa reauthorization before we took our august break, and Chuck Schumer has done nothing with that. So what makes us think anythings going to change . Im a no on a c. R. Because i cant in my right mind allow this administration to destroy this country, or destroy this country for another minute. Neil you know, it looks like the differences are so wide, congressman, that that they wont be settled in these final hours, so we are going to see the government shut down. Routinely, thats happened a lot where a Government Shutdown for three days or more, i think, has happened better than ten times or a dozen times since 1977. But its picked up period of late. And normally when they start this far apart, it goes on even longer. Are you afraid a shutdown, if it comes to that, is going to be on a while . It very well could be. I think it was 35 days back in 2018 or 2019. Neil right. You know, whats interesting is weve got those that are saying i was one of the 21 shutting down the government, i dont want the troops to get paid, i want the Border Patrol agents not to get paid. Folks, lets be clear. We sent those Appropriation Bills over to Chuck Schumer. I highly recommend you get your house in order in the senate, pass those bills, get joe to sign it and 73 of all this Discretionary Spending will be taken care of. 73 of the government will remain open. But, chuck, go to work. Neil let me ask you, congressman, there are reports out there that the seeker is going to maybe work with democrats speaker is going to maybe work with democrats and Bypass Members maybe like yourself, sir, who he deems he cant win over. But if he does that, it would be very unpopular with those who are of your opinion, and you wouldnt want him around as speaker. Is that true . Well, what i do know is, listen, we went through 15 rounds back in january. Kevin mccarthy was going to be the speaker of the house. I never doubted it. Is this going to be enough momentum to change that . My question is, is there anybody else in the republican conference that would get enough support to get the 2018 . 218 . I dont believe so. I just dont believe so. Neil so all it takes as you know, and part of the reason why he survived that vote, is his agreement where it could take just one member to say youve got to vacate the chair, youre outta here. Do you think that is likely . Do you know of any of your colleagues who, if he does push working on a deal that has democratic support, that that alone would prompt even one to say, speaker, youre no longer speaker . Im going to make an assumption right now and say it may, it may. Will you get to three or four to agree when you couldnt get the 218 . The idea that we may ask for a clean c. R. Right now for seven days, fourteen days may trigger that as well, especially if youre going to try to get democrats to support it. So, listen, Kevin Mccarthy has an impossible job. His job is absolutely impossible today with the environment we have in washington d. C. But i have to stand firm. We gotta careen and drain clean and drain this swamp because its a swamp, and its deep. Neil you said clean and drain the swamp, and that reminded me of, you know, donald trump, who has been advise ising republicans to hang tough on this, hut town the government if it comes to that shut down the government if it comes to that. What do you think . I support donald j. Trump. Hes going to come back in 2024, hes going to win. Hes going to come back, and were going to close this place up. He just needs four more years to do it. Neil well watch closely. Congressman, thank you very much for that. In the meantime, where we stand with this we hear a lot about this behind the scenes wheeling and dealing. Theyre leaning toward a clean 2week interim Spending Bill, trying to get something, anything that could pass muster. And it might pass muster in the house. Doesnt mean such a measure would pass muster in the senate where they take away ukraine funding and the like. There would be no Border Security in such a measure, there would be no ukraine money in that measure. So that seems to be a nogo there. But its all about peeling off at least the nos to get them to 9 from the 21 no no the gop was looking at on this earlier interim bill. Again, all of this is moving pieces on a chess board here, and theres no guarantee that once you get that, you get what you want. But i mentioned before the perilous position puts Kevin Mccarthy in because he has said this interim measure is the best he can think of right now to get at leasts past the house. It would be dead on arrival, presumably, in the senate. But again, this is just a measure to survive another two weeks or so. Theres a separate measure out there that would keep the government lights on until around november 17th. That is a whole other ball of works here and no guarantee that it can work. I might also posit here that this has been rattling the financial markets. They lost not only the day, the week, the month, but the quarter as well, and it escalated when we had record that this latest interim approach by the speaker had failed. Once the markets got wind of that in the middle of the trading day, they fell off even some more. Markwayne mullin joins us right now, republican oklahoma senator, a key liaison between the house and the senate on these shutdown talks. Senator, thank you for taking the time. Thanks for having me on, neil. Neil senator, as i mentioned, the markets even were getting anxious about this thinking that a shutdown isnt only on, if one comes, its going to last a while. What a does your gut say . Well, were doing everything we can to avoid the shutdown, neil. I do feel like if we do have a shutdown, it could last for a couple days until we get together. The only way i see that we get out of this thing is, honkly, a clean c. R honestly, a clean c. R. Theres no way schumers bill is going to pass over here in the house, and nor do i blame them for not passing it. A clean c. R. Is probably do our bet. Neil are you angry at some of these more conservative not all Freedom Caucus members, but those who are sticking to their guns on this . They say this is, you know, continuing the kabooky theater, allowing spending after spending . Where are you on that and on this hem . No, i agree with them. I agree e that we need to be cutting spending. I agree that we need to find a path forward to reduce spending without a doubt, and weve got to work do our to get the most Conservative Bill possible, but its in the environment that were many. We dont live in a perfect environment where republicans control both chambers and the white house. Unfortunately, we do have to work with biden and schumer. I hate it but with we do. So the most Conservative Bill that some of these guys want is just not possible to get signed into law, so whats the best path forward for us. If their idea is great, they need to get it passed across the house with the votes, and that bill with also needs to get passed in the senate and get signed by the president. If it cant get done, we need to switch gears and say what can get 218 in the house, 51 in the senate and get to the president s desk and get signed into law to keep the government open . Thats our number one goal. I dont think theres any republican that disagrees on cutting spending. But weve got to be practical in the environment we work in. Neil im just getting the feeling the, senator, that theres a huge divide between republicans in the United States and those, of course, in the house. And theyre embarrassed by whats going on in the house. No, i disagree with that, neil. Neil sure. I i disagree with that. Thats ooh why im working between both chambers with, bringing the message that i can between both sides. I think were all working really good together. I know Senator Thune and Senator Mccarthy is talking Kevin Mccarthy, Speaker Mccarthy is talking all the time to really try to find the best path forward. And i think we really are, were working good together. The only outlier we have in this whole group is probably matt gaetz whos always dinging this motion to vacate over kevins head which isnt policy, its not principle, its just to get attention so he can selfpromote himself. Neil all right. I would certainly put scott perry, your house colleague, in that camp. No. No, absolutely not. Neil he has concerns about this. I talked to scott perry a couple of days ago on where this is going. Take a look. So it sounds like youre disappointed in the speaker. Do you think he should be speaker . Well, i think we should have gotten the bills done. Like i said, it takes more than one personned to do that, but he wanted to be the leader, and he cant just be in charge. You have to lead. Neil all right. He was one of the softer voices on we had it with you, Kevin Mccarthy. Now, of course, youre in the United States senate, but this angst thats building against Speaker Mccarthy who could lose his job for just one angry member, what do you think of that . Well, first of all, its 218 to vacate the chair. Not for kevin to lose his position. Kevins going to be speaker as long as he wants to be speaker. Scott perry neil im sorry, senator, one could get that process going. One could get the process going, but that doesnt mean one can get the vote. One has a great idea, but that doesnt mean you can get 218 to southern you. And scott perry, look, hes the chairman of the Freedom Caucus which bring withs forth a lot of good Conservative Bills. But remember, he also supported the bill theyve been trying to get passed over here, and he had these Outlie Questioners outlier es. Scotts a reasonable individual, and at the end of the day, hes just trying to get the most Conservative Bill he can get done, and the speakers trying to get the best bill he can get signed into law. Were just not rowing in the same direction. Neil assuming you can work past this, and youre