republicans are expected to torpedo a bipartisan immigration and foreign aid bill. well, democrats aren t entirely on board either with that bill. fail to go pass immigration reform is especially embarrassing for republicans who have been screaming for decades that the border is in crisis, and needs to be fixed through legislation immediately. but now that a once in a multi-decade opportunity to do something about it is in front of them, they re about to decide that chaos at the border is politically better for them than an attempt to fix it. in the gob smack words of conservative republican senator james lankford who cowrote the bill, quote, are we as republicans going to have press conferences and complain the border is bad and intentionally leave it open after the worst month in american history in december. well, senator, it seems the answer is yes. so what exactly is happening in the republican party? who is in charge? and is this these failures, what they want? joining
piece of stripe gum. the situation room with wolf blitzer starts right now. see you tomorrow. happening now, breaking news. closing arguments just wrapped up in donald trump s new york civil fraud trial. the former president taking his campaign to the courtroom, launching into a rambling speech before being cut off by the judge who urged trump s attorneys to control their client. plus, we re now in the final stretch before iowa decides with the first in the nation caucuses just four days away. nikki haley and ron desantis trying to capitalize on last night s heated cnn debate and close the gap with republican front-runner donald trump. a key haley supporter, new hampshire governor chris sununu joins me live this hour. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world, i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room. announcer: this is cnn breaking news. and let s get straight to the breaking news. donald trump s new york civil fraud trial comes to
imminent? i m jonathan capehart, this is the saturday show. after weeks of high stick negotiations, the united states is back from the brink. in just a few hours, president biden is expected to sign the bipartisan budget agreement into law. less than 48 hours after he cleared the senate with a final vote of 63 to 36. just last night, the president abused his first ever oval office address to take it well deserved victory lap, delivering a 12-minute speech flame throwing to champion the bipartisanship that got the deal done, including commanding republican house speaker, kevin mccarthy, for his role in negotiating the bill that averted financial disaster. still, the debt ceiling has global creditors on edge. see nbc reported yesterday, the nations aaa credit rating will remain on negative watch by providence agencies like fish, when they consider the full implications and overall outlook of the united states. 31 trillion dollar debt. but, to silver linings appeared yesterday
ceiling bill. the vote was 63 to 36. it comes some 24 hours after the house passed the same bill. it raises the nation s debt limit while also imposing new caps on spending. and now goes to the presidents desk for his signature, with four days to go before the monday default deadline. let s get straight to nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitale, who has been standing by for hours and hours. all, right ali vitale. it happened. how did this whole thing go down tonight? yeah, it was less with a bang and more with a whimper, stephanie ruhle. weeks and weeks of high stakes negotiations here in washington covering each and every turn of them, as speaker mccarthy and his top allies huddled with top white house officials over the course of several weeks to hammer out this deal. and now the senate finishing it up in the dead of night, sending it now to the presidents desk, and avoiding default, with the days to go until that ex date deadline on monday. that s good news. an
hello, everybody. welcome to inside politics. i m john king in washington. a busy day in the republican race for president. in the next two hours, two new candidates as the field grows to ten. that s ankeney, iowa, where mike pence will announce his candidacy for the republican normination next hour. and in fargo, north dakota, the first lady is about to introduce the government nor. he, too, will enter the republican race for president. that will bring the field to ten. we believe these are likely the final two entries in the crowded republican field. we have reporters to bringout latest. let s start in iowa where mike pence will make it official next hour. what are we going to see? reporter: you re going to see in about an hour this official in-person rally for mike pence. this is the kickoff for his iowa campaign, where his campaign says they have to lean all in. this is where they will make their mark or be allowed to continue. and they plan on try too good that by go