good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. congress is trying to crawl its way out of chaos, but a feeling of inevitability has taken hold on capitol hill as the clock barrels toward a government shutdown. both chambers are trying to reach short-term spending agreements, but will they find the votes? millions of federal employees and contractors are bracing for impact if a showdown does happen, but how significant a toll could it take on our armed services, both at home and abroad. and tributes for a trailblazer, lawmakers' emotional remembrances of california senator dianne feinstein who passed away at the age of 90. >> very sad. may she rest in peace. voting the last day. >> we will take a look back at the life and legacy of the democrat who served longer than any other woman in senate history, and with big shoes left to fill, what happens now to feinstein's seat? a complicated calculation over who could be her successor. but we begin with the 2024 campaign, already scrambled by one candidate who's facing 91 indictments and an incumbent president threatened with impeachment, well, it now has another challenge, an almost certain government shutdown. nbc news reports joe biden's campaign strategy will take a hit by grinding his travels to a halt, and donald trump will have to own his risky move with supporting a shutdown, siding with that far right group of republicans who biden again targeted just yesterday. >> there's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. the maga movement. not every republican, not even a majority of republicans adhere to the maga extremist ideology. i know it because i've been able to work with republicans my whole career, but there's no question that today's republican party is driven and intimidated by maga republican extremists. their extreme agenda if carried out will fundamentally alter the institutions of democracy as we know it. >> joining us now is ali vitali, brendan buck, an. ♪♪ msnbc political analyst. and sarah feinburg, good to have all of you here. ali, as early as this hour, i understand the house is expected to vote on a short-term spending bill. where do things stand right now? >> reporter: look, we'll see what happens. there you see the senate floor, of course. we're there in the interim waiting period on what they're trying to work on for a stopgap funding measure. on the house side, a bit of a surprise perhaps watching the rule pass for this stopgap funding measure, but according to conversations that i've had in the hall, people like congressman matt gaetz and other hard-liners who have been consistent thorns in the side of leadership said that they don't want to tank the rule. their goal is to vote against the cr itself. this upcoming vote would allow them to do exactly that, and that's why one of the things that i just asked speaker mccarthy was what happens when that occurs. his response was, of course, to ignore the substance and instead pivot in a way that sort of allows us to see what his strategy might be here, what he said to me is that voting against a continuing resolution is a vote with, in mccarthy's word, biden and the democrats. what could happen here is that even though mccarthy could face an embarrassing loss on the floor, it might be a move for him to show that he's just trying to exhaust all of the options within his conference before pivoting to potentially another more bipartisan strategy. that bipartisan strategy, as we've detailed and will continue to talk about, though, chris, has its own risks, which is that if mccarthy looks to the left and shuns the people who have been difficult with him within his conference, those same people could turn around and try to oust him from his job. all of that is pulled together in this shutdown drama, which increasingly seems like over the weekend that's exactly what's going to happen, the government's going to shut down. >> would it surprise you at all, brendan, if in addition to the government shutting down, there was a move to get rid of kevin mccarthy? what do you see unfolding over the next 48, 72 hours? >> yeah, as usual, ali is asking the important question. what happens after they vote on this continuing resolution, this stopgap measure? i think it's clear at this point it's not going to pass, and at that point kevin mccarthy has almost no cards to play. meaning government shutdowns are never a good idea. you can never really maneuver your way out of -- into winning one, but he actually -- i don't know what his maneuvers can be at this point. often in these situations, especially near a deadline, it almost becomes like a game of hot potato. you send something over to senate. they send something back to you, and you try to be the last one holding the bag there. if the house can't pass its first measure, i don't know what mccarthy can do. i don't know what sort of tools and tactics you use in a government shutdown to try to win. you basically sit there and message. i don't know that that's going to do him much good. it will be very interesting if he's willing to pivot to a bipartisan outcome. i think there was really good hope for that earlier in the week, a purely clean short-term spending bill. when the senate added that ukraine language, i think it made it very difficult for mccarthy to swallow that. if he did bring up a bill like that that had ukraine money on it, absolutely. somebody would probably be coming for him. there would be a motion to vacate. i think he's aware of that. i think he may survive that. it would be a historic moment on the floor for him. >> you can just hear the american voters right now saying what a mess, but do you see any scenario where the democrats could step in here? they could essentially save the day. one of the criticisms that we've heard, what seems to be a very conscious strategy by the white house, which is for president biden to stay out of it. >> look, no administration wants a government shutdown. it is a total time suck. it's a total disaster for americans, for all kinds of programs, for projects that have momentum. no president wants that. at the same time, president biden i think is saying i can't negotiate with these really right wing folks in the republican party. that's mccarthy's job. it's a difficult job. it's probably the hardest job other than being the president right now. but you know, that's on mccarthy, and i think the reality is like other government shutdowns we've seen in recent years, the republicans are going to force us to shut down. the country's going to have economic impacts, job impacts, it's going to be bad for everyone. and eventually they're going to find the votes in a bipartisan way to bring us back. but it could be five days from now, ten days from now, three weeks from now. it could -- you know, it could last quite a while. >> i had someone, a member of congress, brendan, on the show yesterday who said weeks. i mean the american people look at this and say why are we here? why -- it's not like it's a surprise what the schedule is, what the calendar says. and then you have donald trump stepping in and saying, you know, go for it. go for the shutdown. how does anybody -- how does anybody walk away from this, brendan, anything but damaged? >> nobody does. maybe the only person who can benefit here is joe biden if he can find some way to capitalize on it. obviously donald trump rooting for a shutdown i think is not wise long-term politics, but i think it's also important to appreciate that the last government shutdown we had in 2018, it was one of if not the longest shutdown in government history was only a partial shutdown. i think the politics may be quite different this time around. last time in 2018 we had already funded the military. we funded veterans, we funded congress itself. at least half the government was already funded, so a lot of the pain points that you typically see in a shutdown didn't exist last time, the one that donald trump was there for. so this could be much more painful for republicans this time around when you're furloughing the military, when the people at veterans affairs department can't go to work, things like that can get much more painful much more quickly. i think people need to appreciate that, but it could go for a long time. this ultimately doesn't feel like it's about the substance. it's about interconference politics and kevin mccarthy's dysfunctional relationship with the far right. >> if he's right and as someone who has lived it, brendan is usually right about things like this, if those pain points come fast and they're piling up, does that change the equation or maybe not? >> look, i think the reality is previous government shutdowns have often been based around an issue, right? we disagree about obamacare, we're going to shut down the government until we get our way. in this one it's pure republican politics on the republican side. and i don't think matt gaetz can even argue that this is policy for him. you know, he voted for crs under president trump, and so this is -- he's not -- he's sticking to his politics, he's not sticking to policy. and look, i was chief of staff at a federal agency in 2013. we were shut down for weeks. it takes months to recover. you don't just hit the ground running three weeks later when the government starts up again. >> can we talk just about what that means, if you're working for the government and you've already gotten a notification, by the way, that says get ready for this, what does that do to just the functionality, even before it happens and then as you say, afterwards, and these are human beings, people. they're hardworking americans. >> they're hardworking american, they're patriots. look, a lot of them are used to it is the sad fact. they're getting that notification, they're planning am i going to be at home, how long am i going to be off? i've saved some money for a rainy day. they know they will probably get paid back later when the government reopens, but the follow-on effects are massive, and it's important to talk about. you shut the government down now for five days, for two weeks, for three weeks. let's be really clear. airline travel is going to be a disaster this summer. >> do not tell me this. >> i hate to be the bearer of bad news. we're not going to bounce back on airwriting. once momentum e is there, it's there. if you send everybody home for a month, when they come bake their priorities have changed. the paperwork is restarted. you've missed deadlines. i remember being chief of staff and six months after the government shutdown saying if i have one more person say it was the government shutdown six months ago that led me to miss this deadline, i'm going to go crazy. and finally said but it's true. it is absolutely true. it just costs thousands of man-hours, and you're right. these are human beings. these are folks that are going to have to plan to not get a paycheck for a while, not just folks in washington like, let's keep in mind, donald trump was just in michigan. there's more than 30,000 federal workers in michigan. whatever he got in michigan, he's about to lose, right? >> so as we approach, ali vitali, shutdown sunday, what will you be watching for between now and then? >> reporter: any sign of a plan to make that not the case, chris, and i know that that sounds trivial or like i'm locking this, but i think that there just has really been so many disparate threads here that we've been following of republican leadership and republican members trying to throw something at the wall that could potentially stick, but the reality is i know that we talked about for people like matt gaetz that this is politics or this is policy, i would actually argue that it's both and also something else, which is personal. he is not someone who is a fan of speaker mccarthy. he's never voted for speaker mccarthy to be speaker, even in those 15 rounds until he was -- he was against him, and then he just wasn't for him. he was able to vote present in that instance. gaetz has never been someone that would come to the aid of the speaker. we know that the personal thread of this is really palpable. for gaetz there is a different permission structure. it's possible that when we goes home and takes this home to his voteers and his base, and they say they like that he was holding the line on government funding and on conservative principles, which is what he's marking this at as. there's also the personal reality on the hill that there is no love lost between matt gaetz and kevin mccarthy, and that is one of the key things here. it's like someone not liking their work colleagues, only in this instance, they're shutting down the government over it, and it's really hard to negotiate with someone who's basically saying i will never vote for the thing that will allow us to avoid the government shutdown, which in this case with about two days to go, 34 hours according to our screen, the only way to avoid it really is to pass a stopgap funding measure and buy themselves a little more time, whether it's 30 days, 45 days, whatever, this is something that needs more time to be finished. they have to actually work through all of these other appropriations bills, and they just don't have the time to do that. so either they decide that they're going to buy themselves more time and they're only convincing a handful of people to do that, but most of those people that need to be convinced have already said they will never vote for a stopgap measure, and i don't know how you negotiate against nothing. >> yeah, and a lot of common sense americans are probably asking the question. okay, if you don't like each other, just avoid each other in the cloak room. that's never the way it goes on capitol hill. ali vitali, thank you, brendan and sara you're sticking around. and a little later on, we are going to dive into the impact of the impending shutdown on the military both at home and abroad with admiral james stavridis. and fears over how it could impact air travel, all of that and much more on "chris jansing reports." but up next, remembering california senator dianne feinstein, the tributes pouring in and the legacy of the longest serving woman in the history of the senate. we're back in 60 seconds, you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. , you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. this is spring semester at over 13,000 us school districts, which have become top targets for ransomware attacks. but there's never been a reported ransomware attack on a chromebook. which is why thousands of schools like the fairfield-suisun unified school district switched to google tools for education. so they can focus on teaching and 22,000 students can focus on learning, knowing that their data is secure. 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(vo) trade in any iphone in any condition for a new iphone 15 pro on us. only on verizon. the flags at the u.s. capitol have been lowered today as the nation mourns the loss of california's trail blazing senior senator, dianne feinstein. the upper chamber's longest serving female member. her death at the age of 90 leaves a legacy of more than 60 years of public service including as an early voice for gun control. this morning nancy pelosi paid tribute to her long-time friend and home state colleague calling her, quote, a pillar of public service and writing, her indomitable indefatigable leadership made a magnificent difference for our national security and personal safety, the health of our people and our planet and the strength of our democracy. with feinstein's senate desk draped in black this was senate majority leader chuck schumer. >> the sign of a leader is someone who dedicates the whole of their spirit for a cause greater than themselves. the sign of a hero is someone who fights for others, who endures for others no matter the cost, no matter the odds, and the sign of a friend is someone who stands by your side to fight the good fight on the good days and on the bad. dianne feinstein was all of this and more, a friend, a hero for so many, a leader who changed the nation -- sorry, a leader who changed the nature of the senate and who changed the fabric of the nation, america, for the better. >> let's bring in nbc's julie tsirkin who is on capitol hill and my msnbc colleague andrea mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent and chief washington correspondent for nbc news. we have seen just like that, julie, a long line of emotional tributes from senator feinstein's colleagues. what more can you tell us about the mood on the hill right now? >> reporter: well, chris, it's been emotional. it's been somber. colleagues of hers sharing stories all day long on the senate floor and tributes being paid to her on the house floor as well. but there's also been some laughter, some levity as colleagues remember her as somebody who's been, for example, a big fan of a business attire dress code. we heard from multiple senators saying and joking on the floor that she would have approved the resolution that was passed this week to keep the dress code business attire and formal. we heard from senators who shared that they're wearing a scarf in honor of her, better shoes in honor of her. all of these little touches and impacts that she's had on lawmakers here. by the way, those who haven't even served with her for decades, new senators like senator warnock who was very emotional and tearful about what her loss signifies not only for the senate but also democracy for the state of our politics as a whole. take a listen to what senator padilla had to say, the junior senator from california as well as senator kirsten gillibrand, watch this. >> profound sadness that we bid farewell to my dear friend, colleague, and outright champion for the state of california, senator dianne feinstein. >> she will be missed by me, by all our colleagues. i brought the last gift dianne gave to me, beautiful pencil drawing, again, just part of her kindness, and i'm wearing dianne feinstein's famous red lipstick. >> senator gillibrand, you see that water color painting by hergs senator susan collins, also a woman who has served her time in the senate sharing that dianne feinstein had given them gifts, water color paintings. senators taking to the floor, even minority leader mcconnell sharing with the chamber, that she had given him a rendering of the capitol, speaking to the personal dinners and relationship that not only he had had with her, but his wife elaine had had with not only dianne feinstein but her husband richard before he passed. just a really emotional and somber feeling here in the senate, in the house. speaker pelosi there, you heard from her at the very beginning also sharing tha of course feinstein had passed overnight, but she had voted here in the senate yesterday morning, and that is the legacy that her colleagues will remember her by. >> and andrea, it's no surprise seeing the emotion that has been coming out over the last several hours, and you've known senator feinstein for decades. give us a sense of this truly ground breaking woman you knew. >> she was a fierce legislator, competitor, but believed in bipartisanship. the tribute from mitch mcconnell today was absolutely heartfelt. they were friends. the two couples would go out and share dinners. there was the long tradition in the senate of working across the aisle, you know that, chris, and it doesn't seem to be, you know, surviving the tensions of the last couple of years, but it was a very different senate, and she came in in what we called the year of the woman, which came after the anita hill, clarence thomas very tough confirmation hearing, and she was immediately put on the judiciary committee by joe biden and the chair saying he needed her because it was that all male, all white committee that sat on that very difficult confirmation process and interrogated anita hill and they were getting a lot of blowback and pushback. she's the longest serving woman senator. she came to the senate after terrible mass shootings in california, and she first was propelled into leadership in san francisco as a member of the board of supervisors, of course, by the two assassination on the steps of their city hall there of the mayor, george moscone and the head of the board of supervisors, harvey milk. and she was the one who, as she described it later, you know, leaned over harvey milk's body and tried to -- with her finger, you know, plug the hole, the bullet wound to stop the bleeding and try to resuscitate him. so this was a graphic, searing experience for her, and that's what led her to push the assault weapon ban through in her freshman term, she got it passed within one year of taking office, which was extraordinary against all the lobbying. so you can only imagine how much she was respected up there by both sides of the aisle, and then her leadership of the intelligence committee in the senate, the first woman to do that and to fight with the cia after 9/11 and stop the cia's interrogation techniques, you know, colloquially termed as the torture report, lengthy report, excoriating the past practices at a bu grade and other prisons around the world and not only in iraq. so she took tough positions and also maintained friendships. she was a great leader of the women. these women senators in both parties, susan collins remembering her engagement and wedding with dianne feinstein leading the way and the celebrations and hosting. she did so many things outside of the senate that made her a really beloved colleague, including being a peacemaker between the two feuding camps after the 2008 democratic presidential campaign of president-elect barack obama and defeated hillary clinton, enabling hillary clinton to gracefully accept the offer to become secretary of state in the obama cabinet. >> you know, i want to ask you a little bit more about her leadership as a woman because among her 60 years of firsts, she was the first woman who was elected president of san francisco's bodf supervisors. she was san francisco's first female mayor. as we've said, the first woman to serve as a senator in california, and then with barbara box the first female senate duo to represent any state in the nation. i think anybody who was around her or around the capital would understand it wasn't just fellow women senators. it was women that she supported, women she wanted to see have opportunities. talk about her as a role model as on so many levels a glass ceiling breaker. >> all of those leadership roles are exactly right, that's precisely why she broke through and she was a glass ceiling breaker. she was on "meet the press" in the '84 campaign, when she was considered, she was short listed for walter monodale's running mate. geraldine ferraro got the job instead. she gracefully said i just think it's so exciting that women are being considered to be the running mate to be a vice president. so there was no bitterness or recrimination at all that she was passed over, and she worked very hard to try to elect, you know, walter mondale in that campaign. she was always trying to bring people together, but for women she really broke through. there was a picture that you threw up of her with mitch mcconnell, both wearing sere sucker suits, and that was just a fun day. there used to be a tradition in the senate of sere sucker thursday, and it was a day to celebrate spring, i guess, i mean, those not terribly attractive suits, so she got one to join the club, and they always wore it on the same thursday. talk about senate dress codes, that was a very different dress code. >> i think at one point she actually bought sere sucker suits for the other women in the senate, so she also had a bit of a sense of a humor about that. >> she was very self-deprecating but also very proud of her accomplishments and i wanted to be with her on this program in 2012 where she was being criticized by the men over the so-called torture report she'd worked so closely with john mccain on, and she was being described as too emotional by the then cia director, and she fought back, you know, strongly about that, about the way women were diminished and demeaned by men who thought they were being too emotional to talk about, you know, torture, that torture should not be something the united states government engaged in, and she won the day on that. >> on that and on things like gun control, she did it where men had failed before her. andrea mitchell, julie tsirkin, thank you both so much. our breaking news coverage of the death of senator dianne feinstein will continue with a look at the difficult task now of trying to fill such legendary shoes. but first, the looming deadline that has paralyzed washington, a government shutdown now just hours away with members of the military and their families among those set to suffer the consequences. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. you like that bone? i got a great price on it. did you see my tail when that chewy box showed up? oh, i saw it. my tail goes bonkers for treats at great prices. sorry about the vase. shop and get a $30 egift card through october 1st. at chewy. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54, what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month. i just turned 80, what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too. if 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( ♪♪ ) constant contact. helping the small stand tall. we have more breaking news now, new york governor kathy hochul declaring a state of emergency as extreme rainfall and flooding hits parts of this state. take a look at this, flooding in the streets of brooklyn, torrential downpours have also left subway stations teaming with water and commuters forced to try is and maneuver underground. cars and buses on the streets are driving through knee deep water. we're going to have a lot more on this including a live report in our next hour. meantime, more than 2 million military service members and their families are facing financial uncertainty and maybe worse. service members will continue to report for duty, but without pay and hundreds of thousands of civilians who carry out the day-to-day operations of the pentagon will likely be furloughed. nbc's courtney kube has been speaking with some of those military families. also with us retired admiral james stavridis, former supreme allied commander of nato. appreciate both you've being here. courtney, what did you hear from those families? >> reporter: we spoke with a number of families and advocates and they all expressed concern about how this could impact individuals. now, one person is austin kerig. austin's husband has been serving in the army on active duty for more than 20 years. he's now a master sergeant, and they have a daughter who's special needs. her concern is that if this happens, if, in fact, her husband is not getting a military paycheck, they may have a hard time paying for the prescriptions that their daughter needs. here's what she had to tell us about it. >> so for me, it's really disheartening. my husband has been active duty long enough that he has deployed and he has gone to war. i don't think that it's fair for them to expect those things of him, but then not feel the need to pay our families. we don't. we don't have anything in savings. we've really survived paycheck to paycheck. i think that it will come down to what can we sell. nobody should have to put together programs that offer money to military families when we could just be paid if congress would pass a bill. >> one of the military advocates we spoke with said that some of these younger and especially enlisted service members keep about $3,000 in savings, and that's it. and that if, in fact, there's a government shutdown and they're not getting paid, this could impact things like feeding their families, paying their rent, and it's at a time where there still are people who are deploying. they're going overseas and that just adds an additional level of stress to some of these men and women in uniform. now, there are some accepted activities and things that we are hearing about from the pentagon. they've put out a list. but it's sort of larger categories still at this point. we're still waiting for some specificity. we do know that military schools will continue to operate. military hospitals will continue to operate, especially for emergency care. elective care will likely be impacted, but the question that i keep asking that i still don't have a solid answer to is things like prescriptions like we just heard. now, if you have military prescriptions, yes, that will continue to be covered, but what about the people, the pharmacists and the people supporting the pharmacists? will they still be showing up to work every day? at this point we still don't have a lot of fidelity on questions like that, chris. >> i don't think admiral, i have to go very far out on a limb to guess that this infuriates you. the impact on these families who have dedicated their lives to this country and also, frankly, on morale. >> absolutely, and oh, by the way, i'm the proud father of a navy nurse, and she is married to a navy physician, and they are living on trying to understand what's going to happen with their paycheck, trying to understand their responsibilities in terms of going in. you just heard from courtney, it's massive uncertainty, and it is deeply damaging to morale. it is a betrayal of the trust of the government of the united states with our armed forces, and it comes also with an operational cost that we should not minimize. yes, our soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines, they'll go forward, they'll continue to do their job, even though they're not being paid, but the back office that supports them is so often civilians who are being furloughed. so those operations will begin to grind to a halt, and i'll close with this, chris. this comes on top of senator tuberville's outrageous hold placed on senior military. it's a double whammy of morale and, frankly, it's going to hurt us in retention and recruitment at a very critical time. >> coming out of a party admiral, that for not just years but decades considered themselves to be the strong supporter of the u.s. military. what is your message to them today? >> wake up and support the troops, and whatever your policy disagreements are on both sides of the aisle, but i think from all i can see, this one is on the right side of the aisle where there seems to be massive confusion. wake up, find compromise, and keep the government in business. not only for national security but our economy. our airlines depend on this, our transportation grid, our electric utilities. we would say in the navy, if you were driving a ship like this, you would be standing in the danger, and that's exactly what is happening today. >> admiral james stavridis, well said as always, courtney kube, thank you for your reporting as well. in russia, growing signs that fighters from that infamous wagner group of mercenaries could soon be heading to the front lines again, one month after the death of their leader in a mysterious plane crash. the kremlin says former top wagner commander andre tree she have is now overseeing volunteer fighters in ukraine. in a video from russian state media, you can see him with russia's deputy defense minister, an indication they my be in charge of whatever remains of wagner. it's a stark reversal from just three months ago when those same fighters led a short-lived march on moscow that directly challenged vladimir putin. up next, as news of the death of senator dianne feinstein spreads, so did the difficult question who will fill her senate seat. the tricky politics at the center of that is next. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. y on msnc u and your family first. i promise to serve, not sell. i promise our relationship will be one of partnership and trust. i am a fiduciary, not just some of the time, but all of the time. charles schwab is proud to support the independent financial advisors who are passionately dedicated to helping people achieve their financial goals. visit findyourindependentadvisor.com okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. yay - woo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health. and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. (♪♪) only unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans come with the ucard -grams one simple member card thatn. opens doors where it matters for you. what if we need to see a doctor away from home? ucard gets you in with medicare advantage's largest national provider network. how 'bout using it at the pharmacy? yes - your ucard is all you need. huh - that's easy! can it help keep my smile looking good? yep! use your ucard at the dentist. say cheese! get access to what matters with the ucard only from unitedhealthcare. the loss of senator dianne feinstein leaves some massive shoes to fill for her california senate seat. governor gavin newsom is under intense pressure to appoint a senator who will serve until next december's election. house democrats b barbara lee, adam schiff and katie porter announced their candidacies. he told nbc's "meet the press" earlier this month he does not plan to appoint any of the candidates who are already running. joining me now, nbc's david noriega, also back with me, brendan buck and sarah feinburg. david, what are you hearing from people there in california? >> yeah, chris, the thing to remember about dianne feinstein with respect to california is she's been on the ballot here consistently since 1992. those are six national elections that people in california have had a chance to vote for her in. people know who she is. she's an institution, right? she's one of the few political figures where i think you can stop regular people on the street and they'll not only know who she is, they'll have feelings and opinions about her. almost everything we've heard so far is respect, admiration, and a sort of solemn sense of loss for her passing. here's a bit of what we heard. >> this is really a solemn moment for the country, for california itself. she was an icon for many years, for decades. >> she's had an incredibly long and fulfilling political career and that she had a lot of contributions to the state of california and as a woman that she has done some incredible things. >> reporter: again, these are regular people. these aren't people who work in politics or have any concrete reason to know about dianne feinstein or have opinions about her. i think she's going to leave a really, really big gap. it's going to be hard for people to fill that. we talked to a number of women consistently, they said they had spent a long time, many years admiring feinstein for what she has done, chris. >> thank you so much for that. so let's talk about who can fill those shoes, sarah, quantify the pressure on gavin newsom right now. >> significant. first, i want to say, you know, i served in the senate when senator feinstein was there. she was such a force. she was so admired. she was such a graceful presence, and so everyone will miss her greatly and hats off to her for like so many years of service. governor newsom's under incredible pressure obviously. he clearly doesn't want to go anywhere near this primary, he doesn't want to put his finger on the scale of the primary in any way. he thinks that's going to be even more pressure and more trouble than he's looking for right now, and so i think the reality is he's going to appoint a place holder, and you know, it's totally unclear who that's going to be. i think it's going to be someone where there's a clear signal sent you are in this seat for a short amount of time, represent california, make us proud, but then it's going to be time for someone else to come in. >> he did make a promise, though, and brendan the congressional black caucus wants to hold him to that. barbara lee has been behind the other two candidates in the polls. what do you see happening here? >> let's remember why he made that promise, because when kamala harris left the senate he appointed a latino man, and that upset an important voting demographic for democrats. let's also remember this is not just any governor. this is the person who has flirted very openly with wanting to be president someday. there's a lot of eyes on him. i think he's going to have to navigate this very carefully in tending to the identity politics that have become so important in the democratic party. there's a lot of very important voting blocks, and a lot of people who will be upset depending on who doesn't get picked. i think he'll likely probably still end up picking a black woman, but you've already seen barbara lee getup set, it is not her using the word token that he would only place a place holder black woman this that position. so it's one of those thing where is he's probably never going to be able to make everybody happy, but it's a little extra delicate for someone like him who has a lot of ambitions in the future. >> you could also make the argument it's hard to make almost anybody happy in a situation like this. thanks to all of you. and coming up, the civil fraud trial against donald trump is set to begin on monday now, he's facing losing control of some of his flagship new york real estate. we'll talk about that after the break on "chris jansing reports," only on msnbc. 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( ♪♪ ) about two years ago, i realized that jade was overweight. i wish i would have introduced the fresh food a lot sooner. after farmer's dog, she's a much healthier weight. she's a lot more active. and she's able to join us on our adventures. get started at betterforthem.com former president donald trump is going to trial monday in a new york fraud case that could cost him some of the most famous properties in his entire real estate portfolio, buildings that have been the basis of so much of his wealth and his myth. new york attorney general leticia jamess' case mentioned many properties, many that became widely known after trump entered politics, from trump tower, skyscrapers an fifth avenue, wall street, and two golf clubs just outside the city. joining me now, ucla professor of constitutional law, harry litman. good to have you. this is a trial trump desperately tried to delay. are things going to get moving monday? >> he's got one move. the appeal denied yesterday was against a different judge, justice they call them in new york who was going to preside at trial. he could try an emergency appeal of the actually summary judgment ruling that said fraud is off the table, it's been proven against him that the justice entered last week. if he doesn't do that, and even if he does, i don't expect to it take the appellate division very long. so he's really going in right now, and as you say -- we're talking about labyrinth, corporate law, real estate twists and turns, but this is really, really a sledgehammer to the things and properties he's been proudest of and supposedly constitute his brand for many, many years. this is a killer blow. >> so let's talk about this strategy on the prosecution's side. you've got trump who's on the witness list, right, his sons don junior and eric, they were very much involved in the properties. do you think prosecutors call him first? who do you put on the stand? and what would you expect from donald trump? the fifth? >> well, except where he can't do it. normally you can't call somebody because you expect them to take the fifth buck it's too late for trump. he had two depositions here. in the second one he had a trumpian surly performance. all that stuff is fair game. he can't now say i take the fifth as to that. so in fact her witness list is pretty heavy with trump typed on that side. she's going to an extra sort of measure, i think, of bitterness for trump that she's going to prove the case, and she seems to have a very receptive fact finder. the judge is going to act as the jury, going to find the facts, through witnesses through the trump side of things and then a few others like the mazers, the insurance guy who said, we don't want anymore part of trump. so yeah, i expect him to be called, and where he does take the fifth, he can still take where he did before, but it's a civil trial, the judge can draw an adverse inference there fairly under the law and say what he would have testified to would have been bad for him. he is really, really looking at a buzzsaw for all his properties. everything bus his liberty is as stake here and it's looking really rough going in given the summary ruling from the same judge just a few days ago. >> we talked about when we can get a result from the first case, and as you said, this is not a question of whether or not he's going to be incarcerated. how long would you expect a trial like to to take? what happens in this case? >> well, first of all it's important a civil rights case, because it's not beyond a reasonable doubt standard. and it's simplified by the rule last week saying we're not caring about the most important part of it. did he commit fraud? yes, he did. there's six discrete causes of action. it's loosy goosy because it depends on the defense, but i would say a few weeks, and i think everyone's anticipating a horrific verdict for him, and everyone's anticipating, will the appeals process take long or short? we have been holding our breath for a few years, right, about his actual accountability. as you say, this isn't criminal, but it's real, and it's starting, if he doesn't do this emergency appeal, on monday, and it's all going to be happening fairly quickly. >> harry litman always great to see you. have a good weekend. >> thanks, you too. come up, from one trailblazer to another, speaker nancy pelosi remembering senator dianne feinstein. plus, an update on the flood emergency that's creating a real nightmare in new york. up to eight inches of rain falling. g. 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