to mount juliet, tennessee. christy walked in for a get together and got the surprise of her life. not a dry eye in that house. thanks for joining us. busy day. i'm dana perino. here's shep. >> shepard: a live look, the eisenhower executive office building next to the west wing where we're about to hear live from the president in the wake of an extraordinary morning. the pressure on president trump accelerating and in moments he's scheduled to speak. two big issues, first, the president's decision to withdraw troops from syria. widely criticized by members of his own party, his own advisers and generals and cabinet. our own reporting that he stopped listening to top leadership, didn't inform our allies or the pentagon. he's getting praise from putin and condemnation from conservatives. at the same time, in the face of pressure to build that wall, the newly announced presidential decision not to sign the

short-term budget deal that easily passed the u.s. senate. his base was rebelling. the freedom caucus on the hill, his supporters on social media and beyond saying promise broken to build that wall. st. a compromise possible? a dance of dollars and semantics that could soothe and give solace to supporters. or will the government shut down just as santa feeds the reindeer. now the president will face the cameras. the topic today, a farm bill, but the focus here and around the world on other matters and we're advised he will address the shut down first. president trump now refusing to sign any spending bill that does not also include funding for a border wall. sending congress back to come up with legislation that does. the house speaker, paul ryan, on his last day on the job explaining that. >> the president informed us that he won't sign the bill that came up from the senate last evening because of his legitimate concerns for border

security. so what we're going to do, we're going to the house, work with our members. we want to keep the government open but we want an agreement that protects the border. >> shepard: notice the language there. speaker ryan talking to reporters after house republicans met with president trump to keep the government up and running, keep the president's campaign promise to build the wall alive except paul ryan didn't say anything about build the wall. he said border security. border protection. is the build that wall amen chorus being rewritten after the months after it first emanated from mike flynn, build that wall? is a wall in another form like steel slats or something else acceptable? we'll know soon. congress has a little more than a day to pass legislation to keep 800,000 federal workers on the job before lawmakers leave for their christmas break and conservative republicans are

calling on the president not to back down. last week the president said he would be proud to shut down the government to build the wall. this week the white house backed off from that and now the language seems to have changed. president trump is demanding wall funding to stop the show down. the senate passed its version of the wall last night. that's the legislation that speaker ryan was referring to. it does not refer to border wall funding and house republicans say they want to know what the president will support before they pass a bill, which brings us to today's meeting at the white house. mike emanuel on the hill. first the chief white house correspondent john roberts on the north lawn. do we know what the president will support? >> no. i just got off the phone with a senior administrative official. rush limbaugh on his show said

that he was told if the president doesn't get $5 billion in wall funding, he's going to veto the bill. i asked, do you have a minimal figure a floor which you will not accept below? they said they don't have a specific figure in mind. let's see what can be passed out of the house. what happens if what comes out of the house has no money? the response from the other end of the line was, maybe there will be a shut down. this time yesterday, shep, it looked like the president was going to have to accept whatever came out of the senate and the continuing resolution to fund the government and didn't include any money for the wall but under pressure from conservativ conservatives, the president dug in his heels and began with the following tweet. it said -- >> the president then called in

12 members of the gop leadership for a noon meeting in which he delivered a clear message that the senate bill to keep the government funded through november 8 was unacceptable. here's what the incoming house minority leader, kevin mccarthy said, after that meeting. >> the president said what the senate sent over is just kicking the ball down the road. we want to solve this problem, we want to make sure we keep the government open and have that done and get something happening. >> after mccarthy and ryan came out, sarah huckabee sanders released the following statement. >> now, a wall can take on many different forms. there you can see the executive

office building where the president will be signing the farm bill soon. but as to what happens from here, we do not know. again, a wall can take on many different forms. the president has started to talk about steel slats, the word "wall" connotes a big concrete structure that the democrats say they would never agree to. so we'll see if moderating the language a little bit moderates sentiments on capitol hill. i doubt it. >> shepard: i said earlier, wondering, are they trying to come up with some semantics dance where he can get money for border security, which democrats have to a man and a woman said they want border security but not have to build the wall, that it doesn't like he has support for even within his own party? >> it would appear he's moving in that direction. i hear it on twitter that steel slat equates to fence, does not

equate to wall. if the president tries to say that a steel slat fence is a wall, he will get push back from his base. >> shepard: thanks, john. waiting for the president to speak. we'll go live the moment he does. team fox coverage continues to mike emanuel reporting live on capitol hill. the question had been that where the president said i have the votes in the house, i have them, we can take the vote today and the votes would be there, but our reporting had been that he doesn't have the votes in the house because the freedom caucus wouldn't vote for it unless somebody could pay for it, has something changed? >> the republicans want to give it a shot. that's something that they promised the voters and the base back home so they want to fight for that. some are hoping by adding billions in disaster relief money that might win over colleagues worried about their areas hard hit by hurricanes and

wild fires. >> we're going to move today to add language to the bill that the senate sent over on government funding to add $5 billion for the wall as well as the disaster relief funding a greed upon at both the house and the senate for the hurricanes and the wild fires. so we'll move that later on today. this is about securing america's border. >> a complication for house republican leadership is there are members that are retiring or lost in the 2018 election and out of their offices. the offices are being refurbished for new members to take them in january in a couple weeks. so that do not have the full roster of republican members. shep? >> shepard: on the democratic side, i keep hearing the word "wall" again and again. you heard it from the press secretary and heard it there. are democrats budging in some way on a wall? i ask because of this. if he decides to shut down the government while waiting for wall funding and if the wall funding doesn't come, how would you reopen the government?

>> well, some have suggested that you wait until nancy pelosi is the speaker of the house and then she gets credit for reopening the government. that's the take of some democrats. so it's not entirely clear what would be next steps. democrats are resisting that and saying there was an offer made to basically offer money for the tunnel project in new york city, try to win over some of those northeastern democrats. the senate democratic leader that happened to be a new yorker says republicans are playing a dangerous game. >> it seems unfortunately that trump temper tantrum is spreading like a contagious plague in the house. trump's allies can pound their fists but it won't get a wall. >> we'll see if they have the votes and a plan b or plan c in

the hours ahead. shep? >> shepard: mike emanuel reporting from capitol hill. john bussey is here from the "wall street journal." i'm required under ethics to tell you, the journal's parent company and fox news share common ownership. what is happening? >> the president has a game of chicken going on. >> yeah. he had to blink last night. the senate wednesday night passes a spending bill without the wall in it. presumably with the president's okay. the senate's controlled by his party. he wakes up and gets excoriated by the right for having allowed that to happen, for not standing his ground on the wall, which is what he wanted to do to begin with. blinks again and says i'm not going to sign it after all. so now what happens? he's in a difficult situation with 2020, the political campaigns, not just him but his heart in mind. these are promises that have been made.

if he does delay it to february, is he just essentially saying that we're not going to get a wall because guess what happens in january? it's a democratic controlled house, negotiations will be entirely different when that happens. >> shepard: he can't get it under a republican controlled house or he would have done it. >> you'd think so. what is happening now is that you have a lot of republicans not there. they're not voting. why? because maybe they are retiring or didn't get re-elected and it's the end of the year, they're cleaning out their office, on their way home to do christmas shopping. so he already has a depleated republican vote base. you need 60 votes in the senate to pass the spending bill. there's a good story on wsj.com right now. you need 60 votes. you have 51 that are republicans and the democrats are not aligning with you because they don't feel anything is in it for them. so what will happen? is he going to have to blink again and keep the government from shutting down because he

doesn't not want to be the parent and the owner of that. >> shepard: what he did was, he told them to go back, go back to the floor, go back to your caucus, figure out something that can pass and that i can sign. >> yeah. >> shepard: so if they can't get something together that will pass, is -- just -- i'm trying to figure out what an end game might be. is there a strategy here? >> yeah, the republicans are trying -- they thought they had an end game, which is we're not going to get the votes for the wall funding. >> shepard: sorry, ryan. oh, okay. go ahead. >> so they thought they had a tactic on this, right? that the president was okay with them passing the bill in the senate without the wall funding in it. the republicans must be looking at this in the house now. paul ryan must be saying, i'm not sure what to do. we're not getting guidance on the white house on what would be

sufficient beyond just the $5 billion that the president has said. so if they can't get that into a bill that can pass with enough votes from their party and some democrats, which does not look like it would happen in the house, everybody's hands are up in the air wondering what happens next. >> shepard: the word is he's fighting mad. >> he's been fighting mad for some time about this issue. it's a major political promise that he has made and a number -- >> shepard: it was a political promise. >> it was. a promise nonetheless and he wants to deliver on that and show that he delivered on that come -- >> shepard: so he thought he was going to get a wall built? >> yes, he did. he thought that he could do it with his party in power. it's not just him. it's a number of republicans that ran on the same issue in the mid-term election. the question is, is he going to just alienate further the independents that voted with the democrats in the mid-terms over this issue if it comes to a government shut down? the other thing is, he just

passed a prison sentencing reform bill, a bipartisan bill that was really the president's initiative. >> shepard: a huge win. >> run by his son-in-law. a big win that democrats and republicans have been lauding the white house for. you're missing an opportunity to make a lot of hay out of that with this debate going on and the possibility of a shut down looming. >> shepard: so now with the president to speak at 3:00 eastern time, was to begun 13 minutes ago, of course everything is behind, but you wonder when he comes out -- our guidance from the white house is this. they send out notes about here's what's going to happen. he was going to give a farm bill talk. he will do that. the first thing that they tell us he's going to talk about is this shut down, build the wall funding, the fight on capitol hill. that is the first thing he talks about. tomorrow he's scheduled to go to mar-a-largo for 16 days. and not quite sure how you would

negotiate from mar-a-largo. maybe he leaves it to the people that are all going home to their districts. we'll take a quick break. if this happens during the break, we will leave the break and bring you back out live. stay with us. rise from ruin. in southern california, a small family business becomes a beacon of hope. in seattle, people with disabilities create success and shatter barriers. day in, day out, people prove that when we work as one, we have the power to create better futures for us all.

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during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens. don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache. check your blood sugar. low blood sugar can be serious and may be life-threatening. injection site reactions may occur. tell your prescriber about all medicines you take and all your medical conditions. taking tzds with insulins like tresiba® may cause serious side effects like heart failure. your insulin dose shouldn't be changed without asking your prescriber. get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing, fast heartbeat, extreme drowsiness, swelling of your face, tongue or throat, dizziness or confusion. i found my tresiba® reason. find yours. ask your diabetes care specialist about tresiba®. >> shepard: well, funny thing happened right before we went to commercial. i told you the president was supposed to be out at 3:00. it was 3:15. we needed to take a break. if he came out, we would go to him. he sent us a message when i said

that. he sent out a tweet and said i'll be out in 15 minutes. so i'm passing that along. he ought to be out around 3:30. when he comes out, we'll listen -- there's a couple -- it would appear at least unless there's new information, here's the options. you get the democrats to agree to funding for the wall or you shut down the government. there is a thing in washington called compromise. he sent his leaders, the leaders of the republicans back out to come up with a way to get the funding and have a continuing resolution or a budget or something so that he doesn't have to shut down the government right before santa ho-hos about. and they said they were going to go back and do that. they had 1 1/2 hours, something like that, hour and 20 to get a

new thing together. and maybe they've come up with that. they'll come out and the president will have a new announcement about how we're going to do this moving forward. as of yesterday, the president said -- here's the tweet, by the way. with a clip of him at the emmys as a former. as you know, this is a farm bill signing. he sent out farm bill signing in 15 minutes. emmys, tbt. so an emmys throw back thursday, i believe that would be. today is thursday, right? so that would stand to reason the president there in the hee-haw regalia while discussing the coming farm bill. but we have already been told that the president -- could we put the tweet back up again? could we do that? the tweet.

this is the latest -- today the president is dealing with reb rebellion for his generals for pulling the troops out of syria and in addition facing a government show down and shut down and here's the presidential tweet. we'll be back. hey there people eligible for medicare.

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and live coverage and waiting for the president to walk out. they just staged the people for the signing of the farm bill. we're expecting the president will discuss that at some point. prior to that, our guidance from the wide house is as follows: the president will first discuss the matters at hand, specifically the potential shut down of the federal government in the wake of a dispute over whether there will be $5 billion in funding for a wall on the southern border. we'll go there immediately. president trump facing criticism from some lawmakers in his own party and america's main ally in syria after he decided to withdraw hundreds of u.s. troops from that country. the kurds, our partners in this that fight with us in afghanistan and here in syria, the kurds say the move will create a political and military void in the region and leave its people between the claws of enemy forces. the republican senator lindsey graham says president trump's claim that the u.s. has defeated

the islamic state is not true. his own generals say it's false. those running the war say, it is not true. he also says an american withdrawal would be a big win for the islamic state, a win for iran, a win for syria, a win for the dictator bashar al-assad and especially a win for vladimir putin. >> there's a statement by the president today that the idea that russia, assad and iran are not really happy about us leaving, i disagree with that. they're ecstatic. the only reason they're not dancing in the aisles in tehran, they don't believe in dancing. this is a big gift to them and a definite stating decision for our allies. >> shepard: two republicans at least that say they support the president's decision. >> if the president says that we've done that, i believe him. the president has access to more intel than the rest of us get.

i trust his judgment on this. >> i think he made the right choice. >> shepard: as senator graham mentioned, vladimir putin is praising president trump. >> as for the islamic state group defeat, i agree with the president of the united states. i have already spoken about the fact that we have achieved significant changes in the fight against terrorism on this territory and have hit isis in syria. >> shepard: the civil war in syria has gone on for seven years. assad has killed thousands of his own people, sometimes using gasses with the support of his allies, iran and russia. it's also a proxy war between the united states and russia. so the united states has been helping not only in the battle against assad, but also in that war against the kremlin. our national security correspondent jennifer griffin with sobering reporting from the pentagon. jennifer?

>> shep, a senior u.s. defense official said the president made the decision to pull out of syria after spoking with president erdogan last friday, december 14. secretary state mike pompeo was there at the time and was the first to be told we're leaving. the turkish president told president trump, turkish forces were planning to enter syria soon to go after the pkk and warned troops to get out of this way. this hastened the president's decision. something he had been mulling for. the fear is the u.s. won't be able to protect the syrian allies, the syrian democratic forces who have fought alongside u.s. forces and retake raqqa. the kurdish forces are likely to be slaughtered. as one defense official said, nobody will ever work or fight with us in the middle east again

as a result of the withdrawal of those that risked everything to fight with the u.s. against isis. not a single u.s. military commander or leader agrees with the president's decision to pull all 2,000 troops out of syria, leaving a vacuum that iran and isis will full. the decision is reviewed as a christmas government to vladimir putin that welcomed the news in moscow today. the russian embassy tweeted the following praise for the president's decision. the u.s. decision to pull its troops from syria creates good prospects for a political solution in that arab country. shep? >> shepard: jennifer griffin reporting from the pentagon. let's turn to michael o'hanlon. your take on this. >> i largely agree with the thrust of what folks have been saying.

lindsey graham has said this is like president obama's decision to pull out of iraq. we saw what happened there. we thought al-quaida and iraq was defeated by the surge. turned out, they were down but not out and once there was the security vacuum there, they could reform and become isis and the problems ensued. to president obama's credit, he learned from his mistake. he sent a modest amount of forces back. president trump has built on that, completed probably a 75% defeat of isis in those two countries, but it's not 100%. let's make no mistake. when you think of the broader issues, it's wrong. it's on its heels, not defeated and istanbul lurking of many cities in the east and the broader region. it could come back and this increases the risk dramatically. for what benefit? we're pulling out 2,000 u.s. forces that were operating in a

safe and relative way. we finally had a syria policy that had some logic and some promise and we pulled the plug on that. >> shepard: aside from the fact that this came after a phone call with the turkish president, erdogan, can you think of another reason to to this? >> well, it's true that u.s. forces while on the ground will always be at some risk. we hadn't figured out what path there was to a successful termination of the syrian civil war. at some point, president assad might have tried to move east, perhaps with russian help. last winter, a couple of hundred mercenaries moved towards a u.s. military base and with we had to attack them and a couple hundred russians died. not russians in uniform but russian citizens. that was scary. even though we won that firefight, there was no guarantee that russia would take it. so you can always worry about escalation dynamics, worry about a scenario like blackhawk down from somalia or beirut in 1983.

being on the ground causes danger and we had not figured out how to turn that presence into a resolution of the war. i like the way it gave us some leverage and defeating isis, limiting iran's influence and protecting the kurds. >> shepard: headline in "the new york times," kurdish fighters talking about releasing superior is fighters and expecting a turkish attack. the syrian democratic forces are considering monitoring. how quickly could isis reconstitute using cell phones and instant messages to create a situation like paris was blowing up not that long ago? >> it took about 1 1/2 to two years for the remnants of al-quaida in iraq and other elements to turn in to isis and

start taking territory in syria. so we had pulled out of iraq at the end of 2011. by 2013, halfway through that year or so, that's when we started to see isis forming, taking some territory and then of course it was the spring of 2014, 2 1/2 years later, when it started to take major cities in both syria and iraq. so i'd say the 1 to 3-year time horizon is the best prediction i could give here as well. >> shepard: michael o'hanlon, thank you. remember, the turks and the russians are congratulating the president, his generals, those that would make up a war cabinet and republicans in his own party are the ones telling him this is a horrible mistake. and yet it's happened. now we wait for the president to speak on what may become a government shut down or maybe come up with funding for the wall. they just put -- aides have put his remarks on the podium, so we

suspect he will come out shortly. you know from the orchestra playing that we have to take a commercial break, but should the president walk out during the break, we'll alert to you immediately and you won't miss a word. our coverage continues in just a moment. you need your wing nut. ( ♪ ) no one can totally satisfy a craving, quite like your wing nut. little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats moderate to severe plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla,75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection

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>> shepard: breaking news. here's the president. moments ago, an aide came out and changed the paperwork and put a new script for the president. this is the moment that we're told the president will speak first on the matters at hand and then to the farm bill. here's the president. >> thank you. thank you very much. please. that was from the emmys. i sang "green acres" and received a nice award that night. that was really great. somebody had that and put it on. not much of it but put it on. congratulations by me. great to be here. a lot of big things happening. i want to thank our great vice president, mike pence, for joining us. terrific job. loves our farmers like i do. [applause] and zippy duval. hi, zippy.

what a good name. good job, too. [applause] john hiesdorfer. john bodie. jimmy music. probably should be a singer. kevin chester, chuck connor. chuck. any relation to chuck connor, the great actor? huh? he was pretty good. randy mooney and jim heymural. a great group of people. a great group. [applause] some of our great political geniuses we have with us today. you think this was an easy one? you know? they think it was easy? it was not easy. we have to take care of our farmers and ranchers and we will take care of them. not only is it a bill, it's a great bill for them. we're honored by it. instrumental people, leader

mitch mcconnell who may have the easiest job in the united states, especially around the border. [applause] good man. john bozeman. john, thank you. [applause] we got it there, john. john holvan. thank you, john. spent a lot of time together. senator cindy hyde smith. she had a very easy race. right? she won by a lot. she won by a lot. great job, cindy. debbie stabenow. she's tough and she's smart. really great job. ralph abraham. ralph, thank you. rick allen. jody arrington. andy barr. where is andy barr?

oh, did i do a good job for you? did i do a good job? you're one of the only congressional congressman that i could have -- i'll tell you -- >> shepard: well, the white house told us the first thing he will do is go straight in to the matters at hand and then go to the farm bill. that clearly wasn't true. so the moment the president gets to the matters at hand, we'll go back to the president immediately. first, we've gotten new breaking news from our senior producer on capitol hill, chad pergram about the plans for keeping the government open. chad pergram is live. there's a rules meeting. is that right? >> that's right. the rules committee is the get way to the house floor. so at 3:45, what we're going to do, they're going to the rules committee and try to make an order, this amendment, $5 billion for the border wall. if you're going to bring a piece of legislation to the floor, you have to have a rule and agree on how you're going to play baseball or basketball that day. it's a first step.

it's critical. you have to approve the rule. then what happens, the house would have debate on the bill and then have an up or down vote on that amendment. do you tack $5 billion on the bill or does it fall? sometimes these amendments are sweeteners. they make people want to vote for the bill. sometimes these amendments are poison pills. but if this is attached to that bill, the house and senate are out of alignment. the senate passed one bill that doesn't have border wall funding and the house does. let's say the amendment goes down or attached to the bill and it tanks the entire piece of legislation, well, a, the government will shut down and politically that's bad news for the republicans. they've said for days that they think they have the votes to pass this piece of legislation with that border wall funding. that would not be the case. here's another important piece of information, shep. 83%, 83% of house members have been voting. there's 433 members of the house

right now. they have been down in the 363, 370 range. got as low as 350 some last night. we've been told here by our colleague, peter doocy, that the house republican whip team that is trying to get members here to hop on planes and get back to washington d.c. it always comes down to the math. it's the math, it's the math. so if they think they can do this and get those folks here, that's key. one other piece of information is the senate is still here. mitch mcconnell did not send people home last night after they passed this bill. they did so by voice vote. there was not a roll call. to be honest, we thought this was a little too easy. there were democratic senators in the back singing christmas carols. they were singing rudolph the red nosed reindeer and didn't take a formal vote. what we saw in march when president trump threatened to shut town the government, they

passed this omnibus bill through the house and the senate and they got up the next morning and he threatened to veto it. what we're seeing right now is what we saw in march from the president of the united states. >> shepard: do we expect the president -- he sent a paul ryan and kevin mccarthy and others out to come up with something that could pass so that he could sign it. do we have any knowledge of whether they have been able to come up with anything here in the last couple hours? >> that's this idea to tack the $5 billion on there. sometimes what you do is you put a bill like that on the floor, tack on the amendment and you say look, we couldn't get it through. >> we have the reign of chaos, crime, cartels and believe it or not, coyotes. i will not surrender this nation to the whims of criminals that

hurt women and children and spread human misery and suffering. human trafficking and massive drug inflow must also be stopped. it's at a tremendous level. what we're doing and the incredible job being done by border security, ice, border patrol, local police and the military. the military has been incredible. we're stopping them. you wouldn't believe how tough it is but we're stopping them in record numbers. at this moment, a debate over funding border security and the wall. also called, so that i give them a little out, steel slats. we don't use the word wall necessarily. but it has to be something special to do the job. steel slats. i've made my position very clear. any measure that funds the government has to include border security. has to. not for political purposes but

for our country, for the safety of our community. this is not merely my campaign promise. this is the promise every lawmaker made, it is the solemn promise to protect and defend the united states of america and it is our sacred obligation. we have no choice. for decades washington abandoned this commitment and allowed millions and millions of people to enter our country illegally and over the objections of the american people. no one voiced or voted for a policy, no one endorsed this policy and no one ratified this policy. it was a total assault on our democracy itself. illegal immigration costs our nation $275 billion a year. you hear many different numbers. you can say billions and billions, but the number that i

hear most accurate is $275 billion a year at least. millions of jobs and thousands of innocent lives. more than 90% of heroin comes across our southern border. heroin deaths have tripled since 2002. every week this illegal heroin kills at least 300 americans and cost our nation over 230 billion to 289 billion or nearly $5 billion a week. i spoke with president xi of china. he's agreed to make fentanyl, another big problem and probably i think it's just gone to number 1, kills 80,000 people a year in our country, he's going to make that a major crime in china. if you get caught, you pay a major penalty. it's called the death penalty. it wasn't listed as a crime

until i spoke to him. so i appreciate president xi for doing that. that will have a tremendous impact. [applause] every day ten known or suspected terrorists try to gain country,. 2,000 illegal aliens try to cross our borders. they try. we get most of them. it's hard without a wall. every year 50,000 illegal children are smuggled by coyotes and criminals into our country. the last two years alone, ice officers arrested criminal aliens charged with or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes and 4,000 murders. rough stuff. yet the democrats continue to oppose border security no matter how many innocent people get hurt or die.

ridiculously and dangerously, certain people want open borders which allow massive crime. our nation has spent trillions and sacrificed thousands of brave young lives defending the borders of foreign nations. i'm asking congress to defend the border of our nation for tiny fraction of the cost. essential to border security is a powerful physical barrier. walls work. they work better than anything. in israel, 99.9% successful. i spoke to benjamin netanyahu, prime minister two days ago. we talked about it. he said it's 99.9. he came up. i didn't ask. he said 99.9% successful. we have proposed a steel slat barrier to had the flow of these

illegals and smugglers and terrorists. every day that we put many innocent lives in harm's way. it should be bipartisan. illegal immigration also strains public services that americans depend on and illegal immigration drives down wages for the neediest of americans. nobody should support illegal immigration. in life, there's certain principles are worth fighting for, principles that are more important than politics, party or personal convenience. the safety and security an sovereignty of the united states is the most important principle of all. if we don't stand strong for our national borders, then we cease to be a nation. we betray our commitment to the loyal citizens of our great

country. i look forward to signing a bill that fulfills our duty to the american people. it's all about, and i say this in any way they want to hear it, it's all about america first. we have to put our country first, we have to put our people first. we have to put safety first. thank you all very much. we'll be working on that, mitch and paul and kevin and everybody. we'll see what we can do. hopefully it will come together. now to the farm bill. we're proudly joined today -- >> shepard: there you go. it sounds like the president has now said -- gone back to where we were a week ago. this is where we were a week ago. he said i want $5 billion for a wall. he said we want $5 billion for a wall or i'm going to shut down the government.

he now famously said you can put it on me, chuck schumer. if there's a government shut down, it's on me because it's important enough. and then it appeared that he thought better of it. he was going to sign a continuing resolution that would have gotten us to february when the democrats would be in control of the house. and then this morning, made a change on that and said no, we have to have funding for the wall. just a minute ago he talked about aesthetically pleasing steel slats as a possible -- we have pictures i told -- as a possible also. i remember this was the day of -- this was wall display day. this was live during our hour. they put up prototypes of the wall, this is what the president wants. the democrats have said we're not giving you money for that because we have always said the wall is the wrong way. some facts on this matter. the largest percentage of undocumented immigrants are from people that overstay their

visas. security experts say the wall is not the solution. john bussey is here from the "wall street journal." thoughts? >> double down. we expected this. this morning, he decided his supporters, angry this had happened, had to be listened to. coming back now and saying everybody go back to the drawing board. look, you know -- >> shepard: the language was harsh there. >> yeah, but it was familiar language. the same, you know, a bit over the top, needs to be fact-checked language. but you know, the democrats are looking at this and saying, this is a train wreck that is happening in front of us and we're happy to stand back and let it happen. it's republicans within his own party that disagree with whether or not there should be a stop

gap funding bill through to february or not. some of them passed one last night in the senate. others in the house are saying no, we now have the need to attach a spending bill to it. the democrats are sitting back and saying he said i'm going to take responsibility for a shut down if it happens. they're willing to let that happen. as every day goes by, fewer republicans there to vote because they have gone back to their districts, they're retiring or maybe they got voted out of us a. the democrats are pointing out, this is not how you negotiate over an issue. there's many issues that republicans and democrats disagree on in the congress. but you don't hostage the federal government and closure of the federal government for your particular issue. it's meant to be negotiated, compromise is meant to be reached. >> shepard: he said hopefully it will all come together. he also said we have to have a wall or it's a no-go. the democrats have said there will be no wall funding.

he has to have the democrats to get it done. what has happened on the markets since this? look at the markets. we were down 300. a very volatile day. anybody that tells you this is -- john this is about chaos in washington and markets don't like the idea of a government shut down. >> we take about the vix. that has to do with technical factors in the market and has to do with uncertainty at large. the fed maybe is a bit part of this. we have pretty okay news from the fed yesterday saying we're looking at two rate increases in the next year. not three like we had before. so they seem to be modulating. this is business reacting and investors reacting to an environment if which they're used to running their business according to plan. they're looking at how the politicians in washington are running the business of the country and seeing chaos. >> shepard: there's so much

coming together today. jennifer griffin with her stellar recording from the pentagon as always says he no longer listens to his generals and no longer listenings to his military advisers. every single one of them says pulling out of syria is the wrong thing to do. they call it a gift to president putin after a phone call from president erdogan. the fear is that the kurds, our only real fighting force in afghanistan, that they will collapse and we won't have fighting partners anymore. at the same time, his own party is in deep rebellion over his decisions here. you back down from the wall, that's it. we heard it from all the people who make noise on such matters, on twitter and otherwise. people up on capitol hill. roger stone's testimony just sent over from the committee on the house over to robert mueller's office and that investigation continues to intensify. he's dealing with a lot. it seems that some friends are

dropping off. >> yeah. the president has a lot to deal with as he sits down to christmas dinner at mar-a-largo. what is happening in syria is very serious. you wonder why -- the president has said, it's not our job to police the middle east. we went in there for a reason. we have it under control. now it's time to leave. the argue is it's not under control. isis back on its heels but not defeated. why would the u.s. give to russia, who is not an ally, a foe of the united states, they were fighting with the other side on this, it's not isis but with assad. we had to bomb assad's air base that was responsible for the planes that dropped those chemical weapons on his own civilians. we had to bomb those air bases. so you wonder why is he kind of handing this one to putin? we should remember also, this is a big geographic victory for putin. he wants to have an expanded

maritime installation in syria and air bases in syria so they can extend his influence in the i'll many east. that is what will happen as assad comes back into power and what will happen also to the united states, those allies that do fight with us overseas like the kurds, will remember this. the u.s. pulling away, letting turkey come in and attack the kurds. >> shepard: new reporting from "the washington post," the acting attorney general, matthew g. whitaker should recuse himself of overseeing robert mueller's report. examining president trump. advisers to whitaker recommend the opposite and he has no plans to step aside. we can't confirm that. new reporting from "the washington post." is there a compromise possible? or is it likely that the government is about to shut down? chad pergram on capitol hill. what about it? >> here's what happens sometimes. you put something on the floor and you demonstrate it can't pass or they move it over to the senate and they demonstrate that they can't accommodate it and

you go back to the president and say we've demonstrated we can't tackle, this it's up to you, mr. president. just in the past couple minutes, shep, the house rules committee has started to meet to prep that amendment to tack on to this government funding bill. our colleague, caroline mckey said it's $5.7 billion. that's the actual dollar total here. here's the other problem the president has. i was on a press gaggle with richard shell born. he was asked if president trump would sign the bill. he said i'm sure mitch mcconnell wouldn't forge ahead if he didn't have some assurances that it would be signed. when you look back the 24-36 hours, mcconnell did that and look who might have egg on their face, this is a real problem for republican leaders on capitol hill, shep. >> shepard: he just talked about steel slats is. there a dance of words that

everybody might be okay with and they can take back to their constituents over santa time and everybody be cool or not? >> it is about optics. maybe republicans, you know that campaigned on this issue, they can say i got something or i campaigned for that. but they're going to need democratic help in this, certainly in the senate to get the 60 votes. that's the real problem there. democrats seem locked in. they're not budging on this issue at all. they know that that is good politics. let the president go to mar-a-largo, deal with the government shut down at christmas time. federal pay has to be processed on the 24th. that set of paychecks goes out on the 28th. good optics for the democrats and terrible for the president. >> shepard: hard to argue with that. so the president is scheduled to leave for mar-a-largo i believe tomorrow for a 16-day christmas vacation. and then the government would shut down same day. no saturday, i guess. 21st. and then they would have to come

up with something, have to build that wall or get that funding or come up with another way to reopen the government. the dow is displeased. the best in business now. >> walls work. whether we like it or not, they work better than anything. >> neil: president trump digging in and stocks selling off, way off as the battle over the border wall funding heats up and the government shut down could be on. the dow plunging more than 600 points before finishing down 472 points. what a day. rocking and rolling and selling. welcome. i'm neil cavuto. fox on the top of a shut down on the brink and stocks in the tank. we're going to be speaking with wyoming republican congresswoman liz cheney who was in that meeting with the president today. we'll also speak with byron ween on where he see stocks