they need your help and we should help them as much as we can. happy valentine's day. tune in to "the five." you'll get dana's corny joke. i'm dana perino. here's shep. >> shepard: he says he went out for a run and ended up fighting a mountain lion. that man in colorado is about to tell us how he killed a big cat, a mountain lion with his bare hands. it's live, he's scheduled to share his story. we'll have that for you coming up in just a few moments. plus, fire in the overhead bin? a vape pen burst into flames mid flight. our reporting begins now. we're tracking several major stories at this moment. lawmakers racing to avoid another government show-down. now it's unclear whether the

president will sign the bill. and a judge dealing a major blow to president trump's former campaign manager. details on both. the senate confirming president trump's pick for attorney general. william barr set to leave the justice department and oversee the russia investigation. barr pledged under oath he would interfere in robert mueller's work and he would release as much of the final report as possible. andrew mccabe with a blockbuster telling "60 minutes" he made sure the russia investigation would not vanish should he be fired. >> i wanted to make sure hour case is on solid ground and if somebody closed me and tried to walk away, they wouldn't be able to do that without creating a record of why they made that decision. >> you wanted a documentary record that those investigations had begun because you feared that they would be made to go away?

>> that's right. >> neil: mccabe confirms a report that the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein offered to wear a wire in his meetings with president trump. catherine herridge reporting live from washington. >> shep, mccabe went on the record reporting media first broken by "the new york times" that he believed the justice department's second in command was serious about regarding the president and invoking the 25th amendment to remove him from office. the timing matters here. may 2017 is the pivotal month in the russia probe. rod rosenstein was just two weeks into the job when president trump fired fbi director james comey. just eight days later, rosenstein appointed the special counsel. mccabe backs up widespread reporting that after comey was fired, the fbi launched an obstruction of justice case in addition to the alleged russia collusion.

>> i was speaking to the man who had just run for the presidency and won the election for the presidency and might have done so with the aid of the government of russia, our most formidable adversary on the world stage. that was something that troubled me greatly. >> in a statement, the justice department seemed to stop short of denying rosenstein denied removing the president. he said the deputy attorney general never authorized any reporting that mr. mccabe references. based on his personal dealings with the president, there's no basic to invoke the 25th amendment. on twitter, president trump hit back characterizing the former fbi official as disgraced fbi acting director andrew mccabe pretends to be a little angel when he was part of the crooked hillary scandal. a puppet for leaking james comey. for some context here, mccabe

was fired for violating the ethics code. the justice department watch dog referred the case to the u.s. attorney here in washington for possible criminal prosecution, shep. >> shepard: catherine herridge reporting live from washington. a federal judge has ruled that president trump's former campaign chairman intentionally lied to prosecutors and the federal grand jury. that is after he pleaded guilty to multiple counts and agreed to fully cooperate with the government. so manafort broke his plea deal and could spend the rest of his life behind bars. one subject of his lies, his conversations with the russian operative constantine klemnek. he's the fourth aide found to have lied about contacts with russia. whether a pardon is in the works, we don't know. gillian turner reporting live from washington. >> so shep, a u.s. district judge ruled in a hearing late yesterday that robert mueller's team of special prosecutors have proven now that former trump

campaign chairman paul manafort lied to special agents and lied to the special counsel's office. judge jackson said that manafort continued to lie even after he struck a plea deal. he agreed to share information in exchange for a lighter s sentencin sentencing. the court backing up mueller's findings that the office of special counsel made its determination that the defendant made false statements and breached the agreement in good faith. the office of special counsel is no longer bound by their obligations under the plea agreement. this opens up possibility that prosecutors could recommend a heavier sentence. of five issues on the table now, manafort lead about three, including a $125,000 wire transfer and his contact with a russian political consultant in august of 2016. a recent court filing error revealed entire sections that

were supposed to be blacked out. this resulted in the public revelations that manafort shared polling data with russia. tomorrow morning the court will release the transcript from the hearing and after that, manafort will face sentencing march 13. all of this separate an apart from his legal woes in the state of virginia where he's been found guilty on eight counts there and awaiting sentencing. >> shepard: gillian turner live in washington. lawmakers getting a look at the bipartisan bill to pay for some border security and keep the government fully funded past midnight tomorrow. some members saying they need more time to read the more than 1,100 page bills. but hundreds of thousands of paychecks hang in the balance. the big question is, will the president even sign it.

breaking news right now, mitch mcconnell is speaking on this matter live right now saying that the president is indeed prepared to sign it. this just happened. >> the disagreeing votes on the two houses on the amendment of the senate to the joint resolution, having met, having agreed that the house recede from its agreement and agree to the same with an amendment and the senate agreed -- >> shepard: here's what just happened. while we're doing television here for you, producers are watching all kinds of live events happening. one of them was while we were doing this, watching as suddenly mitch mcconnell came up to the microphone, fairly unexpected and gave the information that now republicans do expect that the president will sign the bill. right now our technicians are re-racking the tape, what amounts to a massive dvr where we take in dozens and dozens of feeds and now to be able to

re-rack it for you. let's listen. >> the cloture vote for joint 310 kurd at 3:30 turned. further that if cloture is invoked, the senate will voted on the adoption of the conference report. >> is there objection? without objection. so ordered. >> shepard: the equipment is having a hitch in it's get-along. i now have the precise language that he used. mitch mcconnell just said he spoke with the president and that the president will sign the bill. he said so definitively. so here's what's about to happen. we know from folks on capitol hill that this bipartisan measure has enough support in the house and the senate and that when it -- now we know from mitch mcconnell that when it gets to the president's desk, he will sign it.

so they sort of pushed this through. they fast tracked it through to try to avoid another government shut down so that employees wouldn't be, you know -- wouldn't fail to get their paychecks and the government wouldn't have another problem getting things going. they just got it back up and running again. john roberts is with us. john, we figured this would happen. there was a lot of hemming and hawing. >> i don't know that the president has much choice but to sign this bill. the choice is, another government shut down or maybe you pass a continuing resolution and congress could, if forced to, come out with a continuing resolution. i don't know that further negotiation as suggested by jim jordan and mark meadows may yield anything more than what the president got so far. what we do know is the team of attorneys here at the white house have been going through every line of the 1,159 pages of this bill. no official reaction from the

white house. no early read yet. all we heard in the president where he said reviewing the funding bill with my type at the white house. what we do know is in the bill, $1.375 billion for pedestrian fencing that will be built in the rio grant sector of the texas border between the united states and mexico. $725 million more border security technology. $570 million for noninvasive inspection equipment at ports of entry and $270 million for construction and improvements. there's some debate over what the bill would allow to be built. it says that it needs to be steel bollard wall like the wall that we've seen installed in many places across the border in california. congressional sources insist that the president can build his steal slat wall, the 30 foot high steel picket fence with a

point at the top. the reason why the president wants that design over the bollard wall if someone tried to get over that fence, someone can throw a rope over the bollard wall. if you have a steel picket fence, you can't throw a rope. there's some restrictions over where the wall can be built and not built. some places where it cannot be built include the santa ana wildlife refuge, the national butterfly center and some parts of the lower rio grande wild life refuge. local officials in four border tones will have final say on whether or not the wall can be built in those areas. in warsaw poland, the vice president weighing in on deliberations. listen here. >> i think the president is evaluating what is in the bill. he's also evaluating the

authority that he has. i know he will make a decision before the deadline this friday. >> one of the president's biggest supporters, senator lindsey graham, urging the president to sign the bill. listen to what he said. >> i think the president is in a spot that he should sign it. there's some things in there that are good for border security. let him march toward filling in the gaps by executive action. >> a new development with mitch mcconnell going to the floor a couple minutes ago to say that he talked to the president and the president told him he will sign the bill. that is the first indication that we've gotten that the president may have a response for this. for the most part, it's been negative. he likes the overall figure of $23 billion for border security but a lot in it that he doesn't like. he may hold his nose and put his

signature to it. >> shepard: he's about to declare a national emergency. of this we were not aware. of this we are confident lawsuits will be coming. chad pergram is live on capitol hill. this had been talked about, chad, our senior producer. it was uncertain whether he would do it. it seems certain that there will be legal challenges. >> there will be. he has under the statute the ability, about -- multiple reasons as to why you can declare a national emergency. he does have firm ground there. the thing i would look more carefully at, shep, what we call transfer authority. so if you have individual spending bills and they have only allocated 1.375 billion for the border wall, does he go around congress and try to move money from account a to account b inside the spending bill without getting the blessing of congress. part of the statute says that you have to get a sign-off by appropriations committee. part says that you can go around it. does he say take the department of homeland security bending

bill and dip in to the military spending bill, the defense appropriations bill or what we call the v.a.milcon bill and go across spending bills. that could be where there's a greater legal challenge. that's the bigger problem right now. you know, the other thing that is very important is whether or not this decision to declare a national emergency affects the vote count. what we will have happen at 3:30 on the senate floor is what we call a cloture vote to end debate. these are seven spending bills. one of them is for the department of homeland security. that's the most troublesome because it has the wall issue. they need 60 votes to end debate and then go for, if they get the votes, the senate will vote up or down on passage. here's the other issue. it was significant that mitch mcconnell waited and waited. we thought we might vote earlier. he waited until he had an assurance from the president that he would sign the bill to call the vote this afternoon,

shep. >> shepard: this matter of declaring a national emergency, we'll go to john roberts at the white house in just a minute. john, this is something -- to what degree there's really influence, i don't know as someone sitting here doing the news and not the commentary. all the people out there making noise for him have said oh, okay, do this but you better sign a national emergency. how much has an effect has that had? do we have a way to know? >> he has had backup from mitch mcconnell, backup from senator lindsey graham who said weeks ago the president should give a certain amount of time for negotiations. if he doesn't get what he wants, declare a national emergency. i just got off the phone with a white house official that said mitch mcconnell spoke to the president and that's what was said in the conversation. so i mean, that's a huge piece of news that he will sign it but at the same time, declare a

national emergency. chad was talking about the transfer authority and reprogramming money within. it's like -- think that you have a farm. think of the federal government as a farm. the farm has silos on it. each one is filled with money. you're allowed to move some money around within each of those silos and you can move certain amounts between the silos. if you declare a national emergency, gives you greater leeway to move money around in between them. white house attorneys have looked at this for months, this idea of a nash until emergency. they have identified certain baskets of money that they believe can be used for building a border wall. each time you dip into a basket, you're increasing the level of push-back and your potential risk for a legal challenge. some baskets of money they believe they have that they can use and nobody can challenge them. once they go through those

baskets, the next basket, comes with a little more risk. each basket after that comes with an increasing degree of risk. as you move the money around like the dhs silo or the dod so i lot and the dhs silo or energy, for example, into the dhs silo, you get increasing risk. so it's not clear how much money the president might be able to move around before he ends up in court. i do know that the omb office, office of management and budget, has identified far more than the $5.7 billion than the president originally wanted in the baskets of money he believes he can move around. they have to make a decision to what degree do they risk inviting a legal challenge here. once you get enjoined, then you run the risk of almost everything getting enjoined in the courts. >> shepard: i want our viewers to hear what mitch mcconnell said on the floor. here. >> i've just had an opportunity

to speak with president trump. i would say to all my colleagues, he's prepared to sign the bill. he will also be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time. i've indicated to him that i'm going to prepare -- i'm going to support the national emergency declaration. so far all of my colleagues, if president will sign the bill, we'll be voting shortly. >> there's mitch mcconnell. john roberts, what is the national emergency? >> first of all, the reaction is wow. a lot of people thought the president might use this option. there was a lot of thought that he probably wouldn't use the option. he's said many, many times that he would rather do it legislatively. but it's clear the president thought that he could not do it legislatively. so now he's going to declare the national emergency. the national emergency, as the president sees it, is a humanitarian and economic emergency that exists. tens of thousands of people are

being apprehended every month by customs and border protection, immigration and customs enforcement for crossing over into this country or being in this country illegally. customs and border protection facilities are filled to bursting. there's family units, unaccompanied children coming across the border. the president believes that the best way to deal with that is to build a border barrier, add an additional 200 some old miles of fencing, particularly in texas. here's the rub with that. when you are talking about these migrants, these illegal migrants from honduras, el salvador, guatemala, nicaragua, they are people that want to get their feet on american soil that they can be picked up by the border patrol. the president himself said, i put to him, acknowledged that because you cannot build a fence right on the border in texas,

you can't build it in the floodplain of the rio grande, you have to build it a couple hundred yards in, all of those people have to do is cross the rio grande and in some areas you can float across and some areas you can walk across. if they get their feet on u.s. soil, to give themselves up to the border patrol, they get in the system, by and large, they get released into american society. some of them do return for their appointed court date, some don't. even if they come for their first court date, they very often don't come for the second court date. they disappear to american society. so build as much wall as you want in texas, you're not going to stop the problem of these migrants that want to get caught by the border patrol from coming across. where it could help is people that don't want to get caught, that get into the country, that include people that just want to disappear into american society right away, they don't want to get caught by the border patrol, could include criminal elements,

human traffickers, drug smugglers and others, they would get caught up ostensively by this wall which would give customs and border protection time to get to them before they get what are called vanishing points and disappear in the united states. so from that standpoint, it could be beneficial for customs and border protection. in terms of stopping the flow of migrants from central america, won't do much to stop them. the president has admitted that. >> jonathan swan, a reporter for axios. not a secret discussed by reporters and politcos all over the place, more than a month ago, the discussion was, the democrats are not going to give him the money for the wall. they're not going to do it. eventually he will have to declare a national emergency and

build it himself. then he will get legal push back and he won't do it. he will say to his base. so here we are. >> yes. here we are. i think john roberts did an excellent job laying it out. a few things that are essential to know. one is this has been moving so fast. 36 hours ago, when i talked to senior white house officials, they did not believe based on their most recent conversations that he would declare an emergency. the word they were using is reprogramming. now we're talking about finding other ways through the administrative -- through the executive branch to move money around. what this tells me is that trump is really disappointed with that baseline number that may managed to get out of the deal, $1.37 billion and just to help understand for viewers, the way the white house is thinking of it, think about the money on a spectrum. there's easy money and there's

really hard money to access. the white house, mick mulvaney has told people internally, there's about a billion dollars in easy money. money that is not especially legally problematic or politically problematic. to get to the figure of $23 billion that trump has thrown out there, you're going to get into legally problematic and politically problematic territory. you're going to get there quickly, by the way. as you even get closer to $3 billion, $4 billion, you start taking money from places that will upset members of congress, people inside the pentagon. you'll have lawsuits abounding. so this is going to be really problematic. they know they'll be held up in court. but trump was left with no options here. this was the best deal that congress, republicans on the hill could negotiate. >> shepard: the people that talk to him have a big influence on him. we've been told long before he was president of the united states, the last people he talked to, they get a lot of sway.

in this case, those that support him and carry water for him have been very vocal, unhappy. the president, according to the reporting of maggie haberman and the other reporting, the republicans didn't do a good job. they should have leaned on me more. in the end, it would appear at least, looking forward to reporting on it, it would appear that he found himself in a position that really wasn't going to work for part of his base as evidenced on the airwaves and took this extra step that some people in the end at least weren't expecting. they were expecting it five or six weeks ago. >> he is very alert to certainly sean hannity on fox and laura ingraham who has been an immigration hawk for many, many years. another person who has a lot of influence is lou dobbs on fox business who is also had been serious about this issue for a long time. very aligned with the president.

so those voices do matter. i think they can be overstated as well. i think that the president really does -- this is an issue that he does care about. it's very -- this is one of those issues for him, a signature issue when he sees it as definitional for his presidency. so i think it can sometimes be overstated, the effect that these people have. but there's no doubt they talk to him privately and through the television. he's sensitive to them against voices that represent the base. >> shepard: every time this possibility came up, there was the reminder that what happens when a president harris or president biden or fill in the blank at some point decides that climate change is a national emergency and we're going to get money out of pots to do this. is that door open? >> it has to be. if he does this.

it set as precedent. i remember seeing a tweet by john savaro who used to be president obama's speechwriter. he was being humorous. he said great. declare the national emergency. i look forward to the future when we declare a climate emergency. he might have said a living wage emergency, xyz. healthcare emergency. you can imagine the different areas of progressive policy that could be activated using this as a precedent. frankly, that is what was worrying a lot of the conservative lawyers that i was talking to that are close to the white house counsel. they were very worried about this as a precedent. >> shepard: he interrupted chuck grassley's speech to do this. grassley yelled back, how rude! i know. we're in a position now where you wonder exactly where everything is going to end up.

>> well, one thing we haven't talked about is what is the effect of mitch mcconnell announcing this on -- we haven't had any votes yet. we haven't seen the house vote. >> shepard: we're about to hear from nancy pelosi, too. she's about to speak live. we'll see. >> i'm be curious to hear what the reaction is. this is one of the things that people said the white house has talked about privately. what happens if congress knows before they vote that the president is going to do something that most people on the hill oppose. is that going to crater the vote which was very fragile among republicans? a lot of senators that fiercely oppose national emergencies. a lot of people in the house that don't want the president, democrats and republicans to use these powers. what does that mean for this vote? we haven't even seen the effects of that yet. it's going to play out the next hour or two. >> shepard: steny hoyer just weighed in on that on another

network saying declaring a national emergency when there's none is not good for the president to do and i don't think it's good for a precedent. a lot of republicans share that view, a can of worms has been tipped over. >> it has. it has. again, it's going to have some effect on the vote. is question is how big an effect and is it a meaningful effect. >> shepard: jonathan, you're the best. thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. >> shepard: mike emanuel on capitol hill. mike, what are you hearing? >> shep, you mentioned senator chuck grassley. i should note this morning after the morning prayer and before the pledge of allegiance, senator grassley said on the senate floor, let's pray the president will have the wisdom to sign the bill so the government doesn't shut down. you've talked about the national emergency scenario. i've talked to republicans who do not like that idea because they are worried about the future of a potential democratic president. they face hypocrisy charges that

you were for a national emergency with president trump and now you're not for a national emergency if it's president biden or harris or whomever? there's some concern about that. the bottom line they know the president is frustrated he's not getting the money he wanted. he wanted $5.7. he is getting 1.375. this is only funding a quarter of the government through the end of september. so they're going to slug it out again. the numbers may be different next time. the president doesn't want to wait for that he's calling for a national emergency now. we've heard lindsey graham saying he thought the president might do some kind of memorandum basically saying he was going to move money around in other areas to get some of this done. clearly he wants to go the full step, going with the national emergency. as you heard from your guests before, we'll see what the impacted is on a vote. i've been talking to many members on both sides of the

aisle. they both seems comfortable with the vote total before this. the wild card is if the president was going to say if he was opposed to it. if see, we would see it come tumbling down, evaporate before our eyes. at this point a lot of folks on capitol hill are saying if the president would sign it, there should be plenty of votes and we'll be listening to what speaker nancy pelosi has to say. >> shepard: i've been given word she's less than a minute away now. you wonder if you're the president and looking at this, you're like all right. reality is, a year or so ago, he could have had $25 billion and turned it down. then he asked for $1.5, then 1.7 offer from the democrats and then 1.3. somehow you're supposed to push that together and roll it and spin it and churn it out and twist it and turn it into something that vaguely resembling a win. it didn't matter if you put it

on that machine down there on the jersey shore and pulled it like taffy and twisted it and put a bow on it and dipped it in chocolate. it's not a win. that's not what a win -- if it walks like a loss and quacks like a loss, it's a loss. it was a loss and the president said i don't want a loss. he's like national emergency. so here we go. now here's nancy pelosi. what is the time clock on that? we're still in the two-minute warning. you know what that means in washington. it's a suggestion. mike, how much of an effect might this have on the vote? you have to have 60 in the senate, right? >> absolutely right. a lot of the democrats were saying, look, this keeps the government open. that's what they want to do. it basically keeps the president in check in their view. so some of them were cool with that. so a -- let's go to pelosi. >> she walked up and walked

away. walked into frame and walked out of frame. there she is again. >> good afternoon. thanks for coming later in the day. as you probably are aware, we celebrated the life of chairman john dingell at holy trinity church in georgetown. right now many of our colleagues are in north carolina to, again, celebrate the life of walter jones, our colleague from north carolina. beautiful lovely man. served with him and his father. two different parties. his father a democrat and he a republican. both of them southern gentlemen. patriotic americans. both of the jones, walter jones and john dingell. today is a day of sadness. it marks the year anniversary of the parkland tragedy of gun

violence. one year ago, america's heart was broken by the horrific act of violence in parkland, florida. today we remember the 17 lives that were stolen from us then. i'm very pleased that last night house judiciary committee and the leadership of jerry nadler with the full participation of our members took a strong step to end the epidemic of gun violence. they advanced hr-8, the bipartisan common sense background legislation. our committees are hard at work. very proud of our freshmen. i've said to you before, in this freshmen class, we have 18 chairs of subcommittees. to contrast that to the over -- another historic freshmen class, watergate babies when they came in with the sighs and enthusiasm that they did, they didn't have one subcommittee chair in the first year that they took

office. we're proud that 18 of them have gavels. by all accounts, they come enthusiastic, well-prepared. all of the members, especially our subcommittee chairs. so we're very hard at work on our for-the-people agenda. while we're waiting for the senate to pass the conference record, the bipartisan bicameral conference report, which my understanding is imminent in the senate and we'll vote on it later today. that's real progress, i think, for us to have left it to the appropriators to make the decisions, come up with a bicameral, bipartisan bill that we can overwhelmingly support. but at the same time, we're working on our for-the-people agenda. for-the-people agenda. we said it would lower healthcare costs by lowering the cost of prescription drugs. we've had a committee -- the

ways and means committee and the oversight committee, government reform and oversight committee have had hearings on the price of prescription drugs. our second point for the people agenda was to lower health care costs through their paychecks by building the infrastructure of america. again, last week the transportation infrastructure committee held a hearing with representatives of the private and public sectors, the major of los angeles representing the majors, governor walls representing the governors and others participating there. third point is hr-1 to reduce the role of big, dark special interest money in politics, lower voter suppression and increase the voice of everyday americans in our political system. to restore confidence in our political system. we have already had outside of

washington hearing under the leadership of marsha pledge in brownsville, texas with great participation of our members including our distinguished witnesses participating are. here this week we've had homeland security committee having a hearing on hr-1 as it relates to the integrity of our elections. we have the house administration committee having a hearing on that as well. some -- again, part of our hr 1, 2, 3, the first ten resolutions of the house, the first ten bills, we're very pleased how we're advancing for the people agenda. but also hr-8, the gun violence prevention bill. probably -- i think the -- scheduled to report out too, that bill and mr. clyburn's

initiative on the fix for south carolina, which has bipartisan,bicameral support. a word further on the agreement that was -- that we'll be voting on later today. in additions to the pieces on homeland security -- by the way, the homeland security budget is a big budget. it's not just about mexico. it's about ice cutter s off of alaska. it's not just the southern part. i'm pleased that some long advocated for pieces are now in that budget as well. so when you talk about the size of the budget, it's broader than the u.s.-mexico border. but the bill that we will be passing a long overdue pay raise for federal employees to make them on par with military

employees as they had always been. an additional $1 billion for the census, to combat the administration's assault and to ensure for a fair accurate couldn't. $3 billion to keep communities safe by combatting the opioid epidemic and hiring more police officers. $17 billion to rebuild america's infrastructure, billions in support of small businesses, $9 billion to protect clean air and public lands, $9.1 in security assistance for our allies and $7.4 billion for global health and nutrition assistance. so this is a very important legislation. six appropriations bills that weren't agreed to and the homeland security bills.

today we'll keep government open. that's very important for the american people. but we will also, as we do so, protect our borders and protect our values. >> the president said he will declare a national emergency when he signs this bill. to you plan to file a legal challenge if and when he does that? how quickly -- >> did i say i was filing a legal challenge? i may. it's an option. we'll review our options. it's important to know when the president declares this emergency, first of all, it's not an emergency what is happening at the border. it's a humanitarian challenge to us. the president has tried to sell a bill of goods to the american people. putting that aside, in terms of the president making an end run around congress, here he said out of respect, what the committee will do and then walks away from it. in any event, the president is doing a end run around congress.

the power of the purse. you heard mow say, the power of the purse. the power to declare war and others listed in the constitution and the responsibility to have oversight. so the president is doing an a run around that. we will review our options and be prepared to respond appropriately to it. i know republicans have some unease about it no matter what they say. because if the president can declare an emergency on something that he has created as an emergency, an illusion that he wants to convey, just think of what a president with different values can present to the american people. you want to talk about a national emergency? let's talk about today, the one-year anniversary of another manifestation of the epidemic of gun violence in america. that's a national emergency. why don't you declare that a

national emergency? a democratic president can do that. democratic president can declare emergencies as well. so the precedent that the president is setting here is something that should be met with great unease and dismay by the republicans. of course, we will respond accordingly when we review our options. first, we have to see what the president actually says. >> [question inaudible] >> i'm saying that we're reviewing our options. we have to see what the president will say. i don't believe there's any good faith negotiations to have republicans in congress if they're going to support the president doing an end run and what the will of the people, the congress of the united states has put forth. so we will review our options. i'm not prepared to give any preference to any one of them

right now. yes, sir. >> [question inaudible] on the national emergency, does that change the vote calculus at all? the president says he's going to sign the legislation. people sayly vote for that. but the caveat that could peel votes away. >> let's have the vote. that's very interesting but let's have the vote. >> does that change the support one way or the other? >> i don't know. it's probably had more of an influence in the united states senate. we have the votes in the house. it's is interesting to see how the vote -- the president has said to the republican leadership in the senate, senator shelby, a senior appropriator, the chairman of the appropriations committee there, respected leader in the united states senate, i don't have confidence in what you did

even though the president failed to convince the american people and their representatives in congress of his position. let's just see what the votes are. who knows what the calculus is on the other side. >> does it affect your side of the aisle? >> no. >> you said a national emergency would be -- >> could be declared. if you want to talk about emergencies, that's a national emergency. >> that's what you'd like to see a president declare -- >> i'm saying a president could do that. if you want to go down that path, let's look at what really is a national emergency. i'm not advocating for any president doing an end run around congress. i'm saying the republicans should have some dismay about the door that they are opening, the threshold that they are crossing. >> [question inaudible]

there's been a number of viral moments -- >> that's a word. viral, viral, viral. that viral moments of the freshmen. >> [question inaudible] >> no. this is -- welcome to the democratic party. we're not a rubber stamp for anybody. we're not a monolith. we never have been. who would want to lead a party that would be described that way. the members come, they bring their enthusiasm, their priorities. we welcome that. they're not programmed. they are spontaneous, prepared and i'm proud of them. okay? yes, sir. >> [question inaudible] >> yes. >> other legislation is not popular around the country but

more in the democratic caucus than probably ever. are you committed to bring it to the floor, some further legislation such as the ban on assault-style weapons? >> the committee -- the judiciary committee and the committees of jurisdiction will review any proposals that we have on any subject. what they had prioritized -- in addition to the committee, we have a task force headed up by congressman mike thompson of california. worked in a bipartisan way to protect the american people. what are the measures that save the most lives? how do we get them into law? the proposal that turns into legislation, that passes as law, that makes a difference in the lives of the american people. it's up to the committee and the task force to make their proposals as we go forward.

we do think that keeping guns out of the hands of people that shouldn't have them probably saves the most lives. thank you very much. happy valentine's day. all we need is love and chocolate. >> [question inaudible] >> that would be the hope. depends on how soon senate takes up the bill. we said we wouldn't vote before 6:30 because that's when our members comes back from north carolina. but we hope not to have it be one minute after that. >> shepard: there you go. nancy pelosi on the matters of the day. the senate to vote hat some point soon. then the house to vote. we now know from the white house that the president will sign the bill once it's passed. we just got a statement from sarah sanders, the president's spokesperson, i'm going to read that. president trump will sign the government funding bill and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action, including a national

emergency to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border. the president is once again delivering on his promise to build a wall, protect the border and secure our great country. so what of all this? the legal matter. i just received a communication from judge andrew napolitano. he sends the following. "the constitution could not be clearer. all appropriations in this case to purchase by imminent domain, the land on which to construct the fence and to build the fence must be expressly approved by congress, which it has not done." the judge goes on "this will be enjoined by the first judge to hear a challenge to it." in other words, national emergency will be declared and the courts will say no. the president will be able to say i did everything i can do. blame it on the democrats. turn to brett bear, anchor of "special report" and live with us from washington.

bret, what do you think? >> i think the first part was ordain. that he didn't like what was in the bill. that he was likely going to hold his nose and sign it. the second part about the national emergency, i think it developed today. according to two sources, they read the specifics of the 1,159 page bill and realized not only was it less than the president wanted, significantly less, but it also had handcuffs, legislative handcuffs in the bill itself. there's 354 times in the bill that says none of these funds, no such funds or none of these amounts can be used for xyz. in other words, for your wall or barrier or whatever you're going to spend it on. so it will kind of extraordinary there were legislative efforts to handcuff the ability of the administration that wanted to move pots of money around to make this wall a little bit more

money for the wall or barrier. that was restricted. i think that the white house and the president got to the point where they decided national emergency was the way to go. obviously as you mentioned before, also for his base saying i'm fighting for the wall. the legal challenge will come. >> shepard: and nancy pelosi playing things close to the vest there, brett. suggesting that maybe some of the numbers on the republican side will change. it's not a secret that some republicans think that idea of declaring a national emergency one is not a good one. >> i don't think they will change on the bill. several republicans that say i don't agree with this declaration of a national emergency. it does open the door to other possibilities for other presidents. it's worth noting that 30 national emergencies have been declared since president carter. president obama had several of them. it is an executive order that

you can move forward with as the judge points out, the constitution is clear about the spending of money. the appropriation of money coming from the house in congress. >> shepard: i remember having these discussions long before the government shut down, bret, with folks that are regulars around your town saying well, here's how this has to play out. if he has to do everything he can do. there's no way democrats will give him a dime for a wall. they're not going to do it. in the end, he will go i tried, national emergency. enjoined by the court. they fight it 2020. democrats will say we didn't give him the wall and away we go. >> that's right. i think in the meantime, he can move some money. before the court enjoins anything or prevents him from moving any money around, there will be at least one or two pots that get shifted and maybe that means 50 or 100 miles more of wall. >> even if it's 100 yards, you

can put a web cam up there and stream it and use it for 2020. >> listen, this is clearly one of the pillars he's going to run on in 2020. i said earlier today, i think it's immigration, fighting socialism, probably abortion, late term abortion and the economy. hoping the administration is that the economy is still churning by the time you get to 2020. >> shepard: does he prefer someone on the political left or more centrist like klobuchar? >> political left 100%. they are frothing at the mouth about the prospect of elizabeth warren or cory booker or frankly kamala harris less so. the biggest candidate that they're afraid of is joe biden. you know, klobuchar fits that. i think that mike bloomberg potentially. he would have a tough time in this current democratic primary,

i think. you know, running the gauntlet. >> shepard: is there word on how the democrats plan to respond to this action now? we didn't get anything from nancy pelosi. not surprisingly. >> i think they're going to be very loud. first, they're going to pass this bill. they don't want a government shut down. you know, no matter what anybody says about the upside of the government shut down and moving the needle about the issues, it was pretty heinous across the aisle. both said they wouldn't go over this abyss again after that 35-day shut down. if you're one of the people that didn't get the check, eventually it came around. yes, you got paid. but it was not a pleasant thing. i think both sides were going to the wall to -- not to use a pun, to make sure it didn't happen. >> shepard: yeah. the next week, i guess this waits till monday? this process lasts through tomorrow. nancy pelosi said they won't

vote till at least 6:30 tonight. >> right. gets out tonight. the president, depending on what he wants to do, maybe there will be some ceremony in which he does both. signs and gives the national emergency. he has until tuesday at 9:00 a.m. since there's a holiday monday. >> shepard: so what is your lead story? >> this might be it, shep. i think it might be. listen, this is a crazy town when you get to the final moments of legislative back and forth. this president add as whole different element to it. we're one tweet away from, you know, the whole thing changing again. >> shepard: brett bear, you're the best. see you at 6:00 eastern, 5:00 central. john roberts is out in the yard at the white house. any incoming on this yet? >> not -- nothing yet from the white house other than the statement that we saw from sarah sanders. just to buttress what bret whether or not this is the lead story. it's still early. a couple more hours. something else could come along.

you're right in terms of this is president trump saying to his base, i don't like what i got from congress, so i'm going to take the step of the emergency and do everything i can to try to get this wall done. now, this is something that he could have done back before christmas if he simply vetoed the spending bill and let congress override him. he could have said i did everything i could. they overrode me. the president believes that in the two months since then, he has done, he believes a good job of illuminating to his base what is at stake here in terms of border security. so now he declares this national emergency. we'll be putting a code on that to say i did everything i can. don't forget, the president will get likely somewhere close to 55 miles of new border fencing depending on these reinstructions about where he can and cannot build and local officials having a say in it. but in terms of the emergency declarations as well, bret pointed out there's 30 still in

affect, i ran, iraq, north korea, venezuela, president trump has three emergency declarations current in effect. president obama has ten that are currently in effect. i don't believe any of those were used as a way to get around congress. so this will be a real test to see how far the president can push this idea of what nancy pelosi said an end run around congress on appropriations before he finds himself in court. you have to bet that he's going to wind up in court in california. >> shepard: i'm sure of that. john roberts at the white house. thank you so much. i appreciate it. to brett bear and mike emanuel on the hill. the thing is, this is what the democrats have been screaming, appropriations bet long with the house of representatives. if there were an emergency, he could have declared it when there was an emergency. nothing has changed. you went around congress. we'll see how that plays in

court and how that plays with the two sides of the political aisle as well. chad pergram on the hill. my first question is, when might the senate vote on this? is there a timetable set out yet? >> they're on this procedural vote right now -- >> shepard: i think the martians have invaded his audio source. which is unfortunate. there's -- i don't know. what is the frequency? they're going to work on that there. there's a procedural vote, a motion to move forward and then they'll be able to take the vote itself. the truth is, once it gets through the senate, then they have to go to the house of representatives. they have said they wouldn't vote till 6:30. it's about stacking things. the senate goes first and the house goes. you heard nancy pelosi say i hope it's not a minute passed 6:30. she wants to get the vote done. it is valentine's day plans.

maybe they have plans. they want the vote in. as bret mentioned, the president has until tuesday to sign this thing. so there's room to work here. there's room for both sides to make their points here. you got to figure there is a constant here. that is that if you were with the president on this matter of the wall, you probably are all good with this. if you're on the other side saying no to the wall, then you're probably all bad with this. who minds will be changed anyway? who is left in the middle is, those republicans that are concerned about the future and the same scenario that nancy pelosi laid out there, hers specific on gun control since the one-year anniversary of park land. those say a future president could do the same thing saying we have a national emergency. time to you fill in the blank on what they would do regarding

guns and same with climate change. john roberts, i've heard, physically heard a number of republicans express these concerns. i'd guess even if only privately they'll be explained. >> yeah. people have told this to the president. he's been taking the temperature of every member in congress a long time. there's no reason for him to delay signing the bill. i expect him to sign it not long after it's transmitted over from congress. he's not going to reopen this, renegotiate a better deal. so all that is left to do is sign this, get it out of the way and declare that emergency. we don't know if that will be some sort of in-person announcement, a piece of paper action it usually is. i would expect the president is going to make a big deal out of it. i think the white house is scrambling to respond to this. i talked to a senior white house aide just before i came out at 3:00. they had no idea that mitch mcconnell was about to come out and say what he said. a lot of them were left

scrambling. i would expect some sort of major announcement by the president. he again is talking to his base to say look, i didn't get what i needed from congress so i'm going to do what i need to do. >> shepard: he wondered at this time, what is his action going to be. we go back to where we were six weeks ago as they were game-planning this. many of this have lived the rigors of washington saw the forest for the trees and said this is not going to happen. what he says he wants. this is where he will go. they'll reach a judicial impasse in the courts that he will say i did all i could. they'll say, we stopped it and they all marched towards 2020 with talking points for an election. one year ago was the park land shooting in florida. because of these breaking news developments, we didn't get to

the tribute that we wanted. we'll do that on facebook watch. i'm shepard smith in new york, this is fox news channel. "your world" with neil cavuto is next. >> to the last-minute scramble to avoid another shut down, all eyes on the senate where the final vote on the spending bill is currently underway. it will break the stalemate over border wall funding. the white house says it will get the president's blessing and then to the legal fight in the offing. i'm charles payne in for neil cavuto. barack obama hopes this president does do more. former whitewater prosecutor says if the president legally can do more. first, to mike emanuel on capitol hill on the vote that is happening right now. john roberts at the white house on the national emergency that is likely to be coming next. we begin with mike.