it is saturday, march 23rd.

breaking overnight, a government shutdown has been averted. the senate voted just hours after the midnight deadline to put a funding bill on president biden's desk. what is in it for you. gop mutiny. house speaker mike johnson's job on the line as he ignored's far right demands in the spending fight. donald trump is already claiming the race is rigged. we have more on that response. you ready for a special three- hour addition of "the weeken ." the government's lights will stay on at least in until the end of september. the senate passed a $1.2 trillion government funding bill sending it to president biden to sign. a reminder here. none of this is normal.

this should have been wrapped up six months ago. the republican-led house has struggled to perform its very basic duties, passing a series of bills they continually needed to be readdressed. if things were not chaotic enough, speaker mike johnson is now at risk of losing his job. marjorie taylor greene filing a motion to oust johnson as speaker moments after the legislation passed in the house. joining us know is our senior congressional reporter for punch bowl news and our msnbc political analyst and special correspondent for vanity fair. good morning to you will. >> good morning. >> andrew, late night on capitol hill. >> early morning. >> we have done the tribal dance around the budget fire and it seems like everyone has decided, we can do this and go home. what did we get last night? what was in the bill? what was the strategy and how did it come together?

>> this was funding for about 70% of the federal government of the discretionary budget. it amounted to $1.2 trillion. things like the defense department, homeland security and labor department. really critical agencies that needed to be funded. this was done because of the approach speaker johnson took where he divided these two funding bills. what it led to in the house of representatives yesterday was essentially a mutiny because you saw conservatives start to move against him because they didn't like the product he put forward and he negotiated with democrats. the bill ended up getting a minority of republicans in the house. and the democratic leader jeffries and the democratic caucus really did have to bail johnson out because without them, they would not have passed the legislation. you see the totals. 101 republican votes and 112 no votes. this could not have happened without democrats and i think that is really the reason why

you so marjorie taylor greene start to move against speaker johnson. i think it is telling that this sort of mutiny, if you will, has already begun before johnson even makes a decision on what to do about ukraine aid. for example, that was supposed to be the most contentious decision coming in his speakership. and the fact that this is already happening before he telegraphed what he is going to do about ukraine, i think is a negative sign for the future of ukraine. >> the least. can be put on the screen what is in the package, as far as overall things. and molly, i want to highlight two things. $1 billion in child care for head start. democrats say this package is more substantial than previous years. boosts for child care and development block grants. it also increases funding for the national institutes of

health. so many things, molly. the other thing that i thought was notable in here that is not on the screen right now is election security. democrats are highlighting $55 million for election security grants in this bill. this is after house republicans sought to eliminate funding in that area in the proposal last year. we see the numbers. huge, big things. also, stuff that folks say is important to them like childcare and election security. it is not often talked about when the wins happen. but it seems like a win for the american people. >> the good news about republicans fighting with each other, the burn it down caucus fighting with whatever is left of the normal republican party, is democrats were able to get a good budget passed. when you heard the speech on the floor yesterday, the ranking member, rosanna diario,

was talking about the childcare lens and a lot of those pose poison pill riders did not get through. but ultimately you have a problem for mike johnson. he is already being questioned by marjorie taylor greene so early in this one-person motion to vacate. and he is really at this point, only surviving because of the goodwill of democrats. whether that continues is anybody's question. >> rosa delauro is the name you are searching for. it is early in the morning. i want to go back to the supplemental aid package. johnson says it is a priority and he is not given a sense of how he plans to put it together. the earliest timeline you are looking at now in a best case scenario is mid-april. we were told weeks ago that the united states has until they were doing and briefing and ukraine was rationing omissions

and they simply did not have the resources they needed in order to win the war. you kick the can down the road for us to april or may be may and republicans might be putting us in a situation that there is no coming back from. >> that is exactly right. the message you are hearing from the white house and from frankly many republicans in congress including mitch mcconnell, the soft top senate republican, is that we are out of time. when it comes ukraine. you hear other conservatives suggesting the idea of creating a loan program for ukraine and trying to get creative with the pay for mechanisms. what those are are budget gimmicks and it is meant to placate the donald trump wing of the party and minimize the blowback that they will get as a result of trying to move forward in the ukraine aid package. you see mitch mcconnell coming out week after week putting pressure on speaker johnson to pass the senate bill which funded ukraine, israel and taiwan of course as well.

the fact that mitch mcconnell, who usually takes a hands-off approach when it comes to the house, says i'm not going to tell the house what to do. the fact that he is coming out so forcefully and putting pressure on speaker johnson to pass the senate bill, i think is a reflection of the frustration you are seeing, not just at the white house and not just with democratic leaders but also with people like mitch mcconnell who want to get this done. >> how do you assess the politics here looking at what we were just saying about the moves by mcconnell putting pressure on the house and him leaving and getting this done? what does the political landscape look like for those running in this election cycle. the administration's posturing around the deal to get out the door. how do you see that setting up for the biden administration and for republicans and trump to make the case to the american people about the nation patients budget which is seven months past due.

>> republicans have put themselves in a bad situation you are seeing more and more. the republican on republican violence in the house does not serve them when they want to make the case that they should continue to keep it. and as they are hemorrhaging members, ken bock and mike gallagher. buck made this opaque, and that there might be more people leaving. when you have a party that cannot get along with each other, that is a good opening for democrats. what is interesting about biden is he has been doing this for a very long time. and he was a senator for a very long time. he does know about the calculus of how to get things done in washington. so this kind of thing is really where he excels. >> it's strange. can we say it is strange, these

members of congress leaving in the middle. it is strange, honey. it is strange. i think it further submits how my johnson does not have a hold on his caucus. somebody correct me if i'm wrong. but if on the speaker of the house, i'm not letting my people get up out of here in a consequential election season when we can barely fund the government and do our jobs. it's literally like amateur day at the o.k. corral, andrew. are we making that up? >> no. it is miserable to be in congress now, in the house of representatives and to be in the house republican conference. molly just mentioned someone like mike gallagher who already announced he is not seeking reelection. he is a young republican. more national security focused. he was touted as the future of the party pick not only is he not running for reelection but announced the other day he is calling it quits early and will leave congress time in april. >> allegedly to take a job with a company that peter thiel

brought. >> those opportunities are not just more lucrative but more attractive for members of congress. he is a guy that shares the select committee on china which is this bipartisan effort that was stood up by then speaker kevin mccarthy and minority leader hakeem jeffries and leaving that powerful position in the middle of this congress right after they passed that big legislation on the forced divestiture of tiktok. he is not even staying to see that through. i think it is just a reflection of the fact that it is miserable for a lot of people to be in congress right now, to the point where they don't even want to serve out the rest of their term. >> the interesting thing about his departure is that he is leaving at such an untimely way that they can't fill his seat under the state law because of being past the deadline to fill it. so the seat will stay open until next january many johnson has one less member in the house. >> the math might end up

making hakeem jeffries -- you know, one thing we have been talking about and we might have to go soon. but it's early. but there were immigration provisions in the bill. the washington post, published this this morning and said that the legislature would increase funding for immigration and customs enforcement to support about 42,000 beds in facilities and fun 22,000 border patrol agents and cut u.s. contributions by 20%, to nongovernmental organizations that provide services for new arrivals to the country. i feel like the last part is not as helpful. all of this talk about immigration and border security, mike johnson not putting a supplemental on the floor. previously it was tied to border security and now we have these provisions of border security in the bill. >> i think that was important. republicans killed the bipartisan border security bill a couple months ago.

and this is something that was negotiated until the last minute. they were considering doing a continuing resolution at the same appropriations levels for the rest of the fiscal year which would have been unfathomable a couple months ago when they were in the heat of negotiating the bipartisan border security effort. both sides really did get things they can tout. it really is causing political problems right now for speaker johnson. >> to say the least. andrew, thank you so much. i was skeptical that he was going to make it into the studio this morning because he was literally at the capital. we are going to let andrew go. but molly, you are going to stick around. you were not at the capital last night. president biden is set to mark the 14th anniversary of the affordable care act with the help of his old boss. and later in the show, michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson will join us to talk about trump's threats to the 2024 election. you are watching "the weekend."

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the affordable care act, obamacare is still a very big deal. >> today, folks, marks the

14th anniversary of the passing of the affordable care act and president biden is using the occasion to not only highlight the incredible impact that the law has had on millions of lives literally but also making sure every american knows what would happen if donald trump got his way and repealed the wildly popular law. >> let's pull this up from the kaiser family foundation. american's views of the aca. how they view obamacare. 59% favorably. 39% unfavorably. if i had told you 14 years ago that those were going to be the numbers today, would you have believed me? >> probably initially no. but over time, yes. particularly given the attitude and the ideas that people had around obamacare 14 years ago. it was very different. we had a different conversation. we were talking about putting this into the system and how that would be weighted and how

it would play out between you, your doctor and the federal government. i readily admit that i won the battle. we won the battle of 2010. >> and 2014. >> that is true. >> but at the end of the day, what has happened is the american people saw the impact and president obama and nancy pelosi especially won the war and that is an important aspect. if you are looking at these numbers and you are sort of assessing the state of obamacare in the present day, you have republicans who still have yet to put a repeal in place plan on the table, talking about pulling this out from the system again. i see it differently. you can't take this out of the system. too many people rely on it. you are not going to drop 25 million people off of

healthcare like that, particularly when you do not have a plan. how do you assess the potency of this discussion that republicans want to have going into the cycle come when again, donald trump has no plan for healthcare. he just wants to repeal it because he thinks it is a good sound bite. >> obamacare is wildly popular because it works. because there are people who didn't have healthcare and now they do. i think that is important. and i would say people are use to it. it's like stripping away social security and medicare. it is an entitlement. people are entitled to it. and you can't take it away now. and republicans have not had great success taking away things from people. i would like to go back to roe v wade. people don't like it when you take away their stuff, be it entitlement or rights. >> talk about that, molly. it is very important i think to remember what life was like prior to the affordable care act. folks might have thought i was

joking in the intro but prior to the affordable care act passing, insurance companies could say the previous condition was that you are a woman and if you have diabetes and these were considered pre- existing conditions and they could decide not to cover you. because of this bill, it has been a law for a long time now and there is a whole generation that doesn't remember life before the affordable care act. those things seem commonplace which is why it is hard to take it away and have people be excited about it. the biden campaign has a new ad specifically about this, highlighting the history made on healthcare because it is a top issue for voters. let's play it for folks. >> and i see the disinfectant and is there a way we can do something like that, by

injection? >> on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your response to this crisis? >> at 10. we have done a great job. >> what would you say to america the american people who say they are scared? >> i would say you are a terrible reporter. >> it is what it is. >> not the healthcare ad but are you better off than four years ago at which definitely hits at healthcare because of covid. >> molly, one aspect of this to get your thoughts on has to do with how, at this point, you have, as someone pointed out, these various pieces that are very important parts of the healthcare system now dealing with pre-existing conditions and the like. what do you think going

forward, the further expansion into the states of this plan? and some of the aspects of obamacare that have not been fundamentally addressed. for example, the sort of situation still playing out in communities of color where there are a lot of disparities still with access and the ability to get the kind of care that they need. >> medicare expansion and medicaid expansion is a big deal. so you have parts of the country where you don't have hospitals. you have rural hospitals closing. you have parts of the country where people just can't -- i mean, there was this report from louisiana released about how these women cannot get maternal-fetal healthcare. i think this is a big deal. a lot of this is governors. red state governors refusing federal dollars to make a point. earlier this week we had the minnesota governor on and he

was talking about how there are ways to feed your people in your state. there are federal dollars for feeding hungry children. there are federal dollars for expanding medicaid. and i do think that there is this resistance. this political resistance on the part of republicans which is really i think hurting people and it is largely ideological. and when you are the party of trump, do you really get to make those kind of ideological calls? >> that is the reality of where we find ourselves, particularly in these states in particular that don't allow for the expansion of medicaid and medicare for folks who need it. >> because the governors and state legislatures have not taken the money. >> and people don't know what they don't know about what they could have. >> thank you as always for getting up and being with us. trump is already setting the

stage. the lineup of the 2024 election. jocelyn benson joins "the we can" in a couple of minutes.

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sometimes the sidekick is the main event. you would say that. every epic footlong deserves the perfect sidekick. we won a landslide that is too big too rig. >> donald trump is claiming without a shred of evidence that the 2024 presidential election will be rigged. even though it is still eight months away. he is also trying to rewrite the history of january six by lifting up the rioters and making the attack a cornerstone of his bid to return to the white house. joining us as the michigan secretary of state, jocelyn benson. welcome madam secretary. >> you and i know that there is this push and pull when you want to talk about elections and the challenges of elections and you do that without suppressing the vote and you

don't demotivate people about what donald trump is saying. there is no way to effectively toe the line said the center for innovation and research focused on election administration. when you want voters to turn out and you are telling them it is rigged, there is no surprise that some of them are. shooting yourself in the foot? >> when you inject fear in the process, there are ramifications for that and we have to notice the adversaries to democracy whether they come through candidates or other entities. the goal is to deter people from participating and cause people to give up on their own voice and their own vote. so the ramifications for that for someone running for president might be that you cause your own home-based to not turn out. >> madam secretary, you and i have had the good fortune of being on a number of calls over the last year talking about the preparation and coordination

among the states to make sure that not only is the stuff you traditionally do for elections tight and in place, but there is accounting for this x factor. this bullying of the process by supporters of donald trump just putting it on the street the way it is. how do you see that right now? how or your colleagues and fellow election officials around the country as says saying there prepared or readiness when you have a party or presidential candidate lying about the ability to hold fair elections? >> first, we are rooted in the fact that our elections are more secure and transparent than ever before. michigan percent elections nationally was ranked second in the nation having come up from being ranked 31st just five years ago. the reality is the elections are safe and secure and we have

to stay rooted in that fact and not allow the noise to deter us. we are constantly trying to overcome the lies and the threats that those lies spawn for the community. we are also trying to make clear to voters come just as we work in 2020, to give then the confidence and clarity and certainty they need to participate, no matter who they vote for in the election. that is our job to make sure people believe in their vote, their voice no matter how they choose to express it or casted. and to choose to do that in the noisy moment we are in is really challenging but rooted in truth and we have been for the last several years. so we are going to keep doing our jobs. >> madam secretary, it seems to me that donald trump is laying the same groundwork he laid in 2016 and the lead up to the election in 2020 so that if things do not go his way and he is not successful on election day and winning the electoral

college, so he can become the next president, he is going to say, i told you, we thought it was too big to rig but they rigged it anyway. this is his playbook. how are you and other secretaries of state's thinking about and working with statewide elected officials in your various states to guard against something like this hooks it is sowing distrust in the election at large but also, setting up a narrative and a playbook he has used before. >> exactly. the only difference between now and 2020 is that a lot of this came out after. he lost the election in 2020 and the lawsuits that were just really pr campaigns to build the narrative you talk about. dozens were filed after the election and dismissed. will be are seeing in michigan and nevada another battleground states as lawsuits being filed now to create this false narrative that somehow our elections are anything other

than safe and secure. the truth is on our side and the law is on our side. the vast majority of the american people are on the side of wanting their voices to be heard in their voice to count. and putting faith in the process. this is a process we are in for the next six months and we need every american citizen, no matter what side of the aisle they sit on, to recognize that the truce needs to rule the day and we have to do all we can to ensure citizens have rightly placed faith in the process and we speak truth to those who try to distract us from that reality. >> you are also contending with the rnc suing michigan. you call this a pr campaign masquerading as a meritless lawsuit. i have to imagine that some of this takes you away from the work you are actually trying to do and it is not just a distraction for the people of michigan but a distraction for your office. >> truly. our work is to make sure the elections are secure and that voters know how to participate in the process and can have

faith in the process. we now have this additional battlefront we need to fight. misinformation and lies trying to confuse citizens about whether to even believe that their voice matters. we will continue to fight that battle. it has expanded our work and one of the reasons we are so exhausted having done this work the last several years. we realize that our job is to meet this moment and deliver fair elections to the people, even if their candidates out there trying to deter or dismantle the process. even if threats come our way as we walk this path. >> let me ask a question. you used a word that you and the secretary have been on calls where you were coordinating. this week, we had the secretary of state on with us. all the mentions in my tweets were like, were you coordinating all caps? as though somehow the secretaries of state coordinating is a bad thing. they are not going to believe it from secretary benson. perhaps they will believe if they hear from you how coordination is something wanted. >> and folks, in light of

coming off of 2020 and knowing what we are going into in 2024, you better be grateful and thankful that our secretaries of states and the election boards and election officials are talking to each other. that is what coordination is. it is, how do you handle this problem we are now seeing in our state? how have you handled the situation hooks or you should be aware of what we are picking up. that is the level of conversation that is important when you are dealing with a group of citizens led by presidential candidate who are trying to already set in motion a narrative that the process is untrustworthy and that the officials who are running it are rigging the system. so be grateful that you have someone like secretary benson and her colleagues actually talking to each other and

talking to professionals in the electoral space. people that are looking at voting systems and looking at voting patterns. people who are trying to figure out where the next bomb is going to come from in terms of something on the internet or some something at a voting booth. it is important coordination. madam secretary, thank you for it. you have been one of the leading voices in the space and i think the american people should be appreciative of the fact that in a state like michigan, we are seeing the crazy play out, right? it's not like you are not concerned. you have a concerned interest to make sure elections go off well and you are an example to others and others are talking with you and you are talking with them. i think it is a good thing. so you all just need to chill with some morning coffee and relax about the work because the secretary got it. >> thank you for the

coordination. the people at the polls on election day, the workers, they are volunteers. the cornerstone of the democracy. and the secretaries of state are an important part of that. >> thank you. yes, and we are proud to do our jobs. the coordination comes from the fact that we are facing a nationally coordinated effort to deter our elections and deter people from participating in our elections. we need a nationally coordinated response. that is what myself and colleagues in georgia, arizona, nevada, wisconsin, pennsylvania and many other states recognize. that is why we are working with the federal government and others to make sure we are locked arms to protect our citizens and voters against the threat and it is a threat. >> michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson, thank you for your work and being with us this morning. >> coming up in the next hour, former rudy giuliani associate joins us to discuss his bombshell testimony at house oversight hearing this week and it was good stuff.

and simone has a great piece in the msnbc daily newsletter about trump's relationship with an loyalty to the january 6th rioters. you have to pick it. like we said, get the phone to get your free newsletter. scan the qr code on your screen with your smart phone camera. you know that thing you always have a hard time finding. it is the camera image. click on it. put it to the screen to sign up. you are watching the weekend. lasting relief xiidra treats the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. don't use if you're allergic to xiidra. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. doctor: why wait? ask your eye doctor about a 90-day prescription for xiidra today. when my doctor gave me breztri for my copd things changed for me.

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trying to steal the election again like he is sowing doubt about it so people will not believe what is happening if it does not go his way. >> here is an important rub to all of that, the fact that in the 2020 cycle, myself and a lot of other folks working in the national election reform space, in april, may of 2020, telling the american people, he is lying to you about the system. then he started the system about the narrative being rigged. very much in the same timeframe we are seeing now. the fact that we have secretaries like secretary benson who have said, we figured out your game plan and are taking corrective action on the front end. that is a good thing for the country. folks don't have to be worried about that. we have safe elections. we have good elections. you have 1000 elections and you

might find one where there is a pickup and it isn't that bad of a hiccup. they run a tight ship and i think it is important to make that emphasis. donald trump out there beating the drum and lying to people who he is lying to people. he is a liar. liars lie. every time he opens his mouth about elections, you know it is a lie. >> what is especially relevant in an election where democrats are concerned is that some voters swing to the couch. they choose not to show up or participate. always looking for signs of hope. always. i will tell you that secretary benson said to me that inasmuch as these threats to election workers are deterring some people from participating in the process, she actually has people signing up to work elections because of those threats because they are motivated to action by it and i think that is a good sign. >> hope is a life. >> hope is a life. all right, jesse jackson.

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catherine, princess of wales, announced in a personal video message, that she has been diagnosed with cancer and is in the early stages of preventive chemotherapy. the announcement was her first public address following months of speculation about her health. she has not made an official public appearance since christmas. kensington palace said in january that she had successful abdominal surgery and would not resume official duties until after easter. >> this of course came as a huge shock. william and i have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family. >> joining us now is the former chief content officer of hearst, joanna coles. >> it is good to see you.

i think we need to lay the groundwork for the american audience here. i was listening to a great podcast last week. not one of those conspiracy theory podcasts. the reported they had on that follows the royal and reports on the royal family noted there are separate press offices for the king and separate press offices for the prince and princess of wales. and they don't have to coordinate and they are each worried about the respective principal. and i think that speaks to the difference we saw when the king was diagnosed with cancer and came out and there was a statement. and we have seen him a number of times. there was not wild speculation about his health. in that statement, the press office for the king noted, we are doing -- and i'm paraphrasing, but that they are doing it for transparency purposes. and wondering what you make of

the handling of the staff, the press staff, for the prince and princess of wales. >> first, let me just say that i think everybody was shocked by this announcement and it is impossible not to feel for kate, the mother of three young children. of course the children are her priority. it is understandable why they delayed giving the information. and how frightening to be told that you have cancer. that said, the frenzy that has been going on on social media and in the process to figure out why it was taking so long for her to get back to public life really reached a climax this week. and of course there was the information that perhaps her medical records are being taken from the london clinic or at least being accessed, which is what prompted the statement. but your question about transparency is absolutely crucial. and if you are opaque with the public and social media, you have millions of detectives trying to figure out what is

going on and was that really her spotted last week? then you have chaos. it was finally smart of them to tell people what was going on. i thought the video itself made kate look isolated. it was like strange to me that william, who is after all the future king, was not at his side. she referenced him and said it was marvelous to have him at her side. but he wasn't at her side in the video. so i think it could have been handled much better. it should have been handled earlier when they clearly knew. i also understand her responsibility to her children, not wanting this to be out during the school week. and so hopefully people will back off a bit. >> to the point about backing off, my sense of all of this is when this video did hit, it caused a great deal of light,

oh my god, i'm so sorry kind of approach by some in the media at least. what has been, in the last 24 hours, if you will, the dealing with this revelation among the public? how are they viewing this? are they less likely to be consuming a lot of the conspiracy noise coming through the rafters. in the press, how are they assessing this desire for information? but in fact, when they get it, it might not necessarily be the story they have been telling. >> there is a norm of sympathy in britain for kate. she is by far the most popular member of the royal family. if you give it some context, she is the first princess of princess diana and then the duchess of york otherwise known as fergie. she is the first woman to come along and look like she is

enjoying the job. she shows up and is enthusiastic. people of her. she is always smiling. she looks fantastic. so this immense sympathy for the fact that she is a mother of three young children, 10, eight and five i think. there is also curiosity about the type of cancer. the palace revealed that king charles has -- they didn't say what kind of cancer king charles has. they have not said what kind of cancer kate has. so of course every doctor is on television trying to make a stab at it. and every medical detective online is trying to make a stab at it. it might be easier if they just came on and told people because that speculation is not going to die down. i think there is a general sense that the press is going to back off now, given the time she needs to recover. enormous excitement seeing her back out when she is ready to

do her public duties. >> for those of us in the news and information space, it feels that part of what this story reveals and the way it has unfolded, is that we are in a new era of news and information where there has always been this question around privacy and transparency. what we are seeing is that when there is a void left, there are a lot of bad actors willing to step into that void with that information. i think that complicates the job of the press. i think it complicates the job of the press office. i think it is new terrain inasmuch as some of these issues are very old. >> i think you are absolutely right. it is a great point. in a sense, the press office is set up to deal with the press but not set up to deal with social media. who knows where the bad actors come from. clearly there are people trying to destabilize britain internally by trying to destabilize the royal family, all sorts of rumors.

to be fair to the tabloids, they have been respectful over the process. everybody has been trying to figure out what is going on. i think the three people that were held for questioning over trying to get access to her medical records were probably being paid by somebody. so that is an interesting dilemma. it is hard to manage social media. the only way to do it is to be as transparent as you can and then back off. the simple, straightforward and truthful statement and to leave it at that. most people in the public eye now know that. >> interesting. the press office not set up to deal with social media. joanna coles, thank you. >> don't go anywhere. we have two more hours coming up and a ton of great guests including the ranking member of the house foreign affairs committee. a former rudy giuliani associate and donald trump's

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good morning. it is saturday, march 23rd. we have alecia menendez in new york. if you are just getting up with us conger congress avoided a partial government shutdown overnight but this could be the start of even bigger problems for speaker mike johnson and his republican majority