continue to process passports and visas if possible. who gets furloughed? pretty much all other fellow employees. last time that was about 850,000 workers. staff at the centers for disease control will likely have to stay home, and tax refunds may be delayed because irs staff will be furloughed. that's it for me. msnbc's coverage continues now. furloughed. that's it for me. msnbc continues for now. >> the moment seems to have passed without a sense of moment in the chamber as it will affect some element, employees of the federal government, starting right now, but it is not as an immediate matter affecting these lawmakers who are still in the middle of it and jonathan le mere and i are sitting in new york craneing our necks to see who is speaking now, who is in on all these conversations, union a than. >> yes, ki read to you, the press secretary put out a statement about what the events we are seeing here in the senate and it reads, senate democrats

own the schumer shutdown. tonight they put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children and our country's ability to serve all americans. we will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands. this is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators. when democrats start paying our armed forces and first responders, we will reopen negotiations on immigration reform. during this politically manufactured schumer shutdown, the president and his administration will fight for and protect the american people, so certainly that is a hard line, oppositional stance, they are as they have been telegraphing for days, trying to blame democrats, in particular, charles schumer for this shutdown, this is a statement by the press secretary. ly note the obstructionist losers, sounds like a quote directly from the president, himself. we have not heard from him in a couple of hours since his last

tweet where he thought he noted the negotiations weren't going well. i am sure it is a matter of time, whether it be later this evening or early tomorrow morning, where he will weigh in with probably similar tough language for democrats. >> again, we are making a sweeping assumption, we are after midnight. you see john cornyn realized the same thing looking at his watch, chuck grassley on the far left has been on his iphone, here comes lindsey graham emerging from his group of democratic friends, wanting to approach, it looked like, mitch mcconnell standing at his leg tuctern, pon of ohio will go back and report to his republican friends, including but not limited to portman of ohio. the democrats now, who do you see there jonathan? >> is that schumer leading in the middle? >> it doesn't, schumer is still

seated and i can't tell until they give us a better shot from senate tv who is making that point. but the conversation has gone back and forth. you still see senator jeff flake in the blue suit, his back to us the republican remains in the democratic treehouse there. garrett hate is our man outside in the hallway. what activity, if any, have you seen out there? >> reporter: brian, i was just inside the chamber watching this thing developing with graham at the center of what appears to be this back and forth negotiation with chuck schumer and a group of democrats. there was a group of republicans involved in previous efforts in immigration reform circling around that conversation. rob portman, jeff flake who you mentioned, john cornyn was auditing the conversation, if you will, coming over at times to listen in. frame's opponents over this last week tom cotton and david perdue

across the aisle, having their own miniature huddle with other republican members as they try to work out what could be the goldilocks deal here. graham has been talking for at least the last couple days at length earlier about the idea that this 30 day cr was too long, it was too much of a kicking the can down the road thing, the other concept that has been floated repeatedly is a plink, a short yr, a three, four, five-day effort to keep the government opened. that was too short. so what's the conversation has been about to the best that we can tell is the length of time to allow to try to keep the government opened. it appeared earlier on from the smoke signals we get used to reading around here, like they might be closer to announcing something. when mitch mcconnell came back to his desk, set the lecturn up, when we seen there will be an actual speaking on the senate floor, which has been stalled since this vote staultd. now have you this continuous

huddle around chuck schumer, who will be the person to give this signal to the democrats as to anything lindsey graham or his republican colleague versus brought to them is something they can trust. remember, schumer is the only law maker here in the room with the president today, it was just the two men and their readyive chiefs of staff and so much of the hangup here for democrats is on the issue of trust of this president. can they agree to a deal and see it all the way through to its conclusion or will they be under mined in a second with a tweet? a lot of this is based on the smoke signals of what we are seeing in the chamber. on my phone right now, i have text messages from aids to democratic and lawmakers trying to figure out what is being hashed out by their bosses as we speak. but we have crossed that threshold into the midnight hour. the government is for all intents and purposes shut down right now and looks like it won't be starting up before most people wake up in the morning,

but the outlines of this conversation and i'm watching floridaic now back over talking to some of the more hard-liner folks in his own caucus suggest that there is something in the works here. they're not leaving this vote opened by accident. we're going to see some kind of action here pretty soon. >> that's what we've noticed. it was van holland, the rookie senator from maryland last speaking forcefully to chuck schumer. but there, the republican gathering is so interesting, because flake and corker, go of the other republican scouts who went over to the enemy camp are now joining graham, you got portman there, but cotton of arkansas who has called more of this tune than a lot of people would probably like in these past couple days and he's become part of the problem in getting to finish, getting to a solution. now it's corker and flake talking. garrett. >> and graham and cotton were going back and forth at each

other today through the media. when i interviewed lindsey graham this morning. he said tom cotton was turning into the steve king of the senate, a reference to probably the single most hard line member of congress on immigration. he said his immigration views, cotton's immigration views were a non-starter. tom cotton does not talk to television cameras. today he sought out the cameras to respond to lindsey graham t. difference between steve king and lindsey graham, he said steve king with win in iowa. he said more on what trump ran on and cotton intends to hold the president to those promises. the fact that those two men are standing within swinging arm distance of each other is probably a good sign. it's at least an interesting one. the body language doesn't look great, if lande say graham and tom cotton are talking about the contours of anything that has to do with immigration, again,

something is in the works. >> sheldon whitehouse is moseying over to the republican side of the u.s. senate, garrett, thank you. this moment cries out for a learned smart man and luckily we have one standing be i to talk to us, a pulitzer prize winner and historian john meacham. if you were writing a book oh, i don't know, "profiles in courage "tonight, would there be anything after the forward? >> well, you know, the kennedy used to say, there is a reason it was one volume in terms of the prevalence of courage. i was just watching the with you and it occurred to me this is what government would look like without a president. this is what a parliamentary system might look like, that might be too harsh on parliamentary systems. here we are a year in, almost to the hour, and there is this curious absence of presidential

leadership in terms of bringing a couple of very fundamental issues in the life of the country to a head, to a decision. and i think this is a video feed in a way of a kind of volume of leadership. my one learned reference for you at this hour is i was thinking all day about walford badge et the founder in the era called the english constitution, he defined two functions of government, of popular government, that there is a dignified element, which is the monarchy in britain. but the presidency and its magesty here when we have that and the efficient. which in england, of course, is the parliament and the government, itself. one of our strengths has always been that we've combined the two. i think headed into year two, if you look at dignified and efficient as two categories of

leadership, i think we're o for 2. and i think that's one of the reasons you will see public confidence numbers, if possible, going down in terms of their faith and the institutions of government. >> well, john, you also live in america and out in america, isn't this what people hate about washington? >> bingo, that's exactly right. and it doesn't matter who has 51 and who has 49 seats? that's exactly right. the other irony here is this is the reason an unconventional candidate like donald trump became president. it was the sense that washington couldn't get its act together. there was one shutdown with president obama. there was the fabled shutdown in '95, the clinton-gingrich standoff, several during the reagan years, but when you combine this, these fiscal cliffs, you know, this kind of

it's almost lonny tunes, bugs bunny, road runner meets c-spaen to some extent. it happens again and again. and people want, as you say, they want the thing to workful we adjudicate thad in 1995. it's been hard to believe it's been 22 years sense that happened. but that was a real question, the newly empowered house majority, the first time republicans were in the house in 40 years took the issue to the country. the country is on one side of its mouth said we don't want as much government and so speaker gingrich and the revolutionarys of that era said okay if you don't want it, let's see if you can live without it, the bet bill clinton made and it really saved his presidency in many ways was that, in fact, people did want government. they want efficiency. i think that images like this, which won't loom as large for

sane and well adjusted people as they do for us. but they will, it will be one more instance in a large pageant of inefficiency and ineffectiveness. >> as i've always said, pictures like this make it look about the game, like it's about the game, like it's about the process. we got mitch mcconnell standing that that lectern for several minutes now while these conversations are taking place around him. and all of these subgroups of conversations. and let's face it, we have groups of legislators, who but for a few physical features kind of all look the same and they kind of all came up the same way in this country and here they are deciding, i hate to keep referencing it, that a cdc flu researcher just put down their instruments 12 minutes ago at the strike of midnight, because they're on furlough. >> absolutely. and it's, there's a disconnect

in the popular mind and i suspect almost everybody on that floor, almost everyone in that picture would make a compelling case that oh it's more complicated than you think. that's fair enough. most things are, but they're hired to go to washington and make the institution work. some of them are hired to reform it. some are hired to perpetuate it. >> that depends on the state, that depends on the house, on the district. but people made a conscious decision over the last several centuries that the federal establishment has a role to play in the life of the country. we can argue all day and we will for the life of the republic ability the extent of that establishment, whether that establishment should play as large a role as it does in our lives. but by and large, we have ascented to this notion that it's a vital part of the republic and to run up to these

cliffs, to have, you know, deadline wisdom, you know, you would have told your kids, i would tell my kids, if you wait until midnight to start your paper, it's probably not going to be a very good paper. that's what we're watching right now. it's a lot of term papers being written very, very fast. >>ion meacham, joining us from america. give everybody my best, john, we're stuck watching capitol hill. but i appreciate your contributions. what passes for break news as john was talking, chuck schumer has stood up, jonathan le mere, he's walked over to his republican counterpart, lindsey graham was just seen mouthing what's going on? so i ask the same question of you. >> i hope we find out in a few minutes, yes, schumer, senate majority leader mcconnell and schumer had been stationed a few feet away for a long period of time, 25 minutes, half hour or so. now schumer has moved over.

he is standing near mitch mcconnell. the other camera angle. he has a better shot. they were speaking. mcconnell is at his lectern, there is a bipartisan group of senators listening into what is being discussed and soon to be announced. schumer as you can see turned back and moved away from his republican counterpart moving to his own lectern. this is your government at work. now, manila folders are being opened, senators are doing their best to a full-on scurry to scurry back to their positions. >> it may be more of a scurry than a mosey is there that's white house of rhode island, warren from massachusetts, koonce, van holland, i guess ben carden is going back to his seat, flake for another orbit. it looks like mcconnell is talking. let's open the mics, can we hear

if they're sending us audio? . >> mcconnell yu voted no the vote was opened until the majority leader voted. so mitch mcconnell just cast his no vote and we're going to keep the audio opened. >> are there any senators in the chamber wishing the vet or change their vote? if not on this vote the ayes are 50 the nays are 49. and the motion is not agreed and three-fifth of the senators duly chosen andb sworn have not voted in the affirmative t. motion is not agreed to. >> i have a motion to reconsider the vote. >> motion is entered. >> i just want to call to the attention of my colleagues a statement of the, a part of the statement of the white house press secretary tonight

presumably on behalf of the administration, it simply says, we will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands. i appropriately that represents the white house view of where we are and mr. president, what we have just witnessed on the floor was a cynical decision by senate democrats to shove aside millions of americans for the sake of irresponsible political gains. the government shutdown was 100% avoidable. completely avoidable. now it is imminent. all because senate democrats chose to philly bustary non-controversial funding bill that contains nothing. not a thing they do not support. nothing they do not support.

perhaps across the aisle, some of our democratic colleagues are feeling proud of themselves, but what has their filibuster accomplished? what has it accomplished? the answer is simple. their very own government shutdown. a shutdown affects on the american people will come as no surprise. all week as we've said on the floor and begged our keepings to come to their senses, senate republicans have described exactly, exactly what this will mean for america's men and women in youthful, shutting down the government means delayed pay. for the many thousands of civilian employees who support their missions, it means furloughs. and for the families of fallen heroes, it may well mean a freeze on survivor death benefits. for veterans who rely on our

promise of care, shutting down the government means threatening their access to treatment, for so many americans struggling with opioid addiction, they're saying, it's true. thanks to the democratic leader's decision to filibuster an extension of the state health insurance program, low income families will slip closer to losing health coverage for their kids and in many states, this is an emergency. i'm having trouble understanding which one of these outcomes from my democratic colleagues could possibly be proud of? which one of them? i think our friend on the other side took sol battered bad advice. really bad advice. i'd hate to try to explain this, myself. ignore the governors, including seven democrats who wrote congress begging us, begging us

to extend c.h.i.p. for 9 million people. they ignored the millions of americans that rely on the american government for important services. they held all of it hostage, all of it hostage over the completely unrelated issue of illegal immigration. republicans in the senate have done all we can to continue the normal operations of the federal government. and secure certainty for these s-c.h.i.p. kids. we could pass it tonight if we go to the president for signature. these kids would be okay. well, we're going to continue to do all we can. we'll vote again, so the american people knows who stands for them and when our friends

across the aisle remember who it is they actually represent, we'll be ready to come together in a bipartisan discussion that will be necessary to clean up all of this mess. we all have been having private conversations here on the floor. almost everybody on both sides don't understand how we ended up here. because most of us are real. there is only one reason we ended up here. the shoehorning of illegal immigration into this debate. now, having said that, there is a lot of sympathy in this body for doing something ability the daca kids. it's not like nobody is interested in that. we have been talking about it for three months. but the one reason we are where

we are is because we couldn't close out any of these other component parts because our friends on the other side said, you got to deal with this issue. this issue is the key to getting defense spending. this issue is the key to getting help for s-c.h.i.p. kids and on anded on a and on and on. i think most people believe shutting down the government over this issue, which doesn't even ripen until march, is irresponsible. and i've just listed all of the people adversely impacted by this action. so we're going to keep on voting and the government may be heading into shutdown, but the senate is not shutting down and we're open to talk 57b to r and

resolve this. i don't think it makes the constitution look responsible. the american people should expect better from us than this. . >> democratic leader. >> mr. president, very sadly, we are on the precipice of a government shutdown. the majority leader only just allowed us to vote on a continuing resolution that he knew lacked the votes long before this hour. its not just democrats who oppose this cr. several republicans did as well. all of today, mr. president, we have endeavored to reach an agreement with president trump and the republicans that would have not only spared a

government shutdown but cemented an agreement on spending cans, including those for our military. the health care issues, disaster relief and immigration issues. president trump reached out to me today, this morning to invite me to the white house, to talk all of these issues over and i accepted. we had a lengthy and substantive discussion. during the meeting, an exchange for strong daca protections, i reluctantly put the border wall on the table for discussion. even that was not enough to entice the president to finish the deal. many democrats don't want to go that far on the border. many republicans don't either. but we were willing to compromise with the president to get an agreement. in the room, it sound like the

president was opened to accept it. this afternoon, in my heart, i thought we might have a deal tonight. that was how far we've come. that's how positive our discussion felt. we had a good meeting, but what has transpired since that meeting in the oval office is indicative of the entire tumult can you with us and chaotic process republicans have engaged in, in negotiations thus far. even though president trump seemed to like an outline of a deal in the room, he did not press his party in congress to accept it. speaker ryan and leader mcconnell, without the commitment of the president would not agree to accept anything either. what happened to the president trump who asked us to come up with a deal and promised that he'd take heat for it?

what happened to that president? he backed off at the first sign of pressure. we have the outline of a deal on caps. we have the outline of a deal on health care. we have the outline of a deal on immigration the toughest issue. it was real. it was an honest to goodness break through. we could have passed a short-term extension funding so that we could cross the ts, dot the is and be done with it all. but the dynamic of the past few weeks during which the congressional republicans look to the president for guidance and the president provided none prevailed again today, unfortunately. the same chaos, the same disarray, the same division and discord on the republican side that's been in the background of these negotiations for months,

unfortunately, appears endemic. it is standing in the way of bipartisan solutions to all of the issues now before us. every american knows the republican party controls the white house, the senate, the house. it's their job to keep the government opened. it's their job to work with us on a way to move things forward, but they didn't reach out to us once on this cr. no discussion, no debate, nothing at all. it was produced without an ounce of democratic input and dropped on our laps and, meanwhile, they can't even get on the same page as a party. they control every branch of the legislative process, it's their responsibility to govern and here they have failed. self republicans voted against

the cr as well as democrats for the same reason we voted against it. one of the most serious consequences of having continuing resolution after continuing resolution is the damage it does to our military. as the pentagon spokesman said last night, another cr would be wasteful and destructive to our militar military. the navy secretary said because of crs, the navy has put $4 billion in the trash can, poured lighter fluid on it and burned it. that's the navy secretary because of what you have done. this is no what i to conduct the nation's business. republicans know it, democrats know i. the american people know that this party is not capable of governing. so where do we go from here?

i believe many of my republican colleagues sincerely want to get a deal i know their hearts are in the right place. they accept brinksmanship where bipartisanship used to be. in the past, there was always discussions in these issues. everyone knew in the senate you needed both parties to work together. none of that happened here today now all this problem is because republican leadership can't get to yes because president trump refuses to. mr. president, president trump, if you are listening, i am urging you, please take yes for an answer. the way things went today, the way you turned from a bipartisan deal, it's almost as if you were

rooting for a shutdown and now we'll have one and the blame should crash entirely on president trump's shoulders. this will be called the trump shutdown. this will be called the trump shutdown because there is no one, to one, who deserves the blame for the position more than president trump. he walked away from two bipartisan deals in which i put the border wall on the table. what will it take for president trump to say yes and learn how to execute the rudd imts of government? tomorrow marks a year to the day president trump took the oath of

office on the capitol stems. unfortunately, a trump shutdown would be a perfect encapsulation of the chaos he's unleash ed on our government. instead of brigg us altogether, he's pulled us apart. instead of governing from the middle, he's outsourced his presidency to the extremes, instead of living up to the great deal maker he marketed himself to be, he's been the stingle driving force in scuttleing bipartisan deals in congress and now with this late hour his behavior is on the verge of grinding our government to a halt, a trump shutdown. democrats will continue to strive for a bipart zaen agreement on all of the outstanding issues. i know there are men and women of good will on the other side of the aisle who are just as upset as i am with the direction

we are headed in. i plead with them to see reason and prevail on their leaders and most of all the president to give us the space no work together. to let us do the job the american people sent us here to do. when president trump decides he is finally ready to lead hess party to a deal, democrats will be ready, willing and eager to clinch it. there is a path forward. we can reach it quickly. tomorrow, the president and the four leaders should immediately sit down and finish this deal so the entire government can get back to work on pond. yield the floor. >>. >> let's just see what's going to happen here. there's rebuttal. >> the democrats who voted not

to shut the government down the new senator from alabama during his campaign said it was important to fund the s-c.h.i.p. program before it ran out of money. he listened to the seven democratic governors who said this is an emergency, we need help. so there were five courageous democrats on the other side who stood up to this ridiculous argument. it made sense somehow to shut down the government over an illegal immigration issue that the vast majority of this poid would like to do something ability anyway. so i want to condemn the democrats who have the courage as to stand up to this ridiculous strategy. they put their whole party in an

incredible predicament, because the white house just indicated the president is not going to talk about the issue at all while the government shut down he made it quite clear, when democrats pay our first responders, we'll reopen immigration reform. so this particular strategy has eliminated the possibility of getting a signature on the thing that shut the government down over. can anybody explain to me this strategy? i'm perplexed. i wasn't first in my class, but i wasn't last eat either. how does this get them what they're looking for? >> well, we'll continue to talk, when all the games stop, the

issue issues are still there. every single one of them are still there. the american people expect us to act like adults to get together and solve the problems. now i'll be offering an amendment to change the date to february the 8th. we will unfortunately not be able to get that vote tonight, but i'll be subsequently asking for consent. at some point we will be voting february 8th. that's a date the senator from south carolina i have been talking about, the democratic leader and i have been talking about, which begins to move a little bit closer to where our friends on the other side said they wanted to be but a

reasonable period of time it takes them to account the state of the union, party conferences and just the amount of time it takes to actually write a bill once you have an agreement? you mean you can't reach an agreement and snap your fingers and everything falls into place and you are ready to go. so a reasonable period to first agree and then write and get ready to pass this negotiate settlement we have been working on for months, february the 8th is a very reasonable time. and so i'm going to give, i hear will is spent imt on both sides of the yachlt i hope at some point, we'll vote on that option. i cannot get that vote tonight. i will ask consent to get that vote tonight. i move, mr. president, to table

a motion to defer. >> as for the yays and nays? >> is there a sufficient second? >> there is. >> the clerk will ka ul the role. >> mr. alexander. >> aye. >> misbaldwin. -- >> all right, so, we're sitting here with jonathan le mere as the pages go to their stations and we will see some senators head to the cloak rooms. what just happened was mitch mcconnell said let's keep everything running to february the 8th. just ten days from now. he also suggested that it will allow the appropriate time to, you know, for people to meet and work out, you know, going forward on the deal. certainly, though, there is not much in the way of bipartisanship on the way there right now. both senator mcconnell and schumer suggested the american people deserve better.

i don't think they'd find many people around this country who would disagree with them. it certainly seems that immigration is the signature issue that is driving what we are seeing here tonight. senator schumer relayed the idea that he was, as we know, called to the white house today, sat down with president trump. he suggested he even put the border wall on the table in goes, an idea that many democrats oppose. he seemed to indicate that he thought president trump was willing to accept the deal to come up with a daca solution in exchange for that wall, in exchange for keeping the funding, to keep the government going and then that fell apart. if that is, indeed, the scenario that occurred today, then this would be the second time in about a week the president seemed amenable to a deal with immigration. which in many ways was his signature issue a year ago. only to get cold feet to back away from that deal each time. and we know the first time was

because john kelly, steven miller, others, suggested to him this will not go well with your base, that you can't sell this to them. you need to be tougher and this president time and time again has made decisions based on pleasing his base rather than trying to bring a large swath of diverse americans together over a single issue. >> let's talk to another journalist who is one of our regulars on our broadcast every night, kimberly atkins, msnbc contributor, what do you make of your government at work right about now? >> yeah, i think it's really extraordinary the fact that we bought the to the point of a shutdown was not that surprising, but for the white house to first immediately come out and declare it would not negotiate at all during the duration of the shutdown, which really under kwuts efforts by democrats to sort of force the negotiation over the weekend, if

the government shut down and then to find out there was another deal in the making, according to senator schumer, that again fell apart in the period of time after which senator schumer left the office and sometime later when the white house indicated that there would be no deal, even with the wall being offering. it's really extraordinary. i mean, it seemed pretty clear, even from the beginning of all this that this is the ball is in donald trump's court. he is the one who is the negotiator. he is the one who says that's his claim to fame. he is the one who was in the position to bring the republicans together and the democrats together to sort of craft some sort of deal and each time he's been presented with that opportunity, it seems that he either walked away from it or done something to torpedo it.

now he's saying the ball is in his court, he's not playing it at all. it's an extraordinary scene of events unfold here. >> why would the american people be within their rights to say, let's close all the doors, we'll bring in food, cots and bring medical attention to those who need it. you ain't leaving here until you on our behalf make a deal for us, we sent you there, after all. >> i think there is some sentiment to that extent. i think as long as the government stays shut down, it only fuels the idea this is a do-nothing congress that is a part of the swamp that we have seen so many americans and lawmakers rail against. this is playing right into that stereotype here that people need to be able to be paid to go to work. we feed federal workers do go out and be able to go to work and get paid for it. we don't want to see gold star

families stop receiving benefits. and all of nooes things would befall that. i don't think, this is bad for everybody in congress. but i think with the republicans at the helm and this anti-swamp sentiment really going against most of all mitch mcconnell, paul ryan and i think now the president that the republicans are the ones that are going to suffer a little more every minute that the government remains closed. >> kimberly atkins, one of our friends around here, a veteran journalist. thank you so much for being with us. let's bring on another one of our friends and veteran is journalist, national political reporter, jonathan allen, what about the imagery of tonight? this was supposed to be a glittering evening in mar-a-lago. the president's departure time posted last night for today from the white house lawn was 4:10:00 p.m. that assumed this would all be done and dusted and he would have kind of a celebratory

flight down to florida to celebrate the i was in of his inauguration. that was not to be. >> what's striking to me, brian, is we got a president who has been so good at telling us that he was going to do things we've never seen before. he's fulfilled that promise in the past year the senate was like, here, hold my beer. i'm going to show you what unprecedented looks like. i have never seen anything like what we witnessed on the senate floor tonight. i was in the chamber almost two hours ago, when the first vote opened and, you know, all of this milling about the set of senators hubbled around lindsey graham as though he was moses bringing the tablets down from god to give law. i've never seen anything quite like that, brian. to kimberly's point, you got these conflicting interests, but house republicans seem to have a lot to lose here with a government shutdown t. president seems to have a lot to lose here with the government shutdown.

the senate is a bit of a more mixed bag. have you democratic incumbents up in states that trump won and the politics in the senate are a little tougher to read, but it's not good for anybody in washington, d.c. right now and then quibbling over whether it's two weeks or three weeks to extend government funding just looks petty. >> what they're looking on now is so far beyond my comprehension. i would love to describe it to our viewers, maybe that's a part of the problem, something about dismantling something to add more amendments. to your point, jonathan, mike lee, lindsey graham, corker, ted cruz, and marco rubio interesting cocktail party gathering just off the floor and that's one of several going on. none of it ever amounts to anything, but they're interesting conversations to watch. >> right, it must be nice to be a senator there at 12:45 in the

morning with nothing better to do than joke around with your friends, but the government has shut down now. it does not look like there will be a reprieve for that at least until the morning senator mcconnell said. there are serious issues to discuss. right now you got a president who basically walked away as senator schumer said from some potential immigration deals and is now saying he won't talk about immigration until the government is reopened. be i the way, that's a similar position that president obama took during the 2013 government shutdown, that the republicans were going to have to capitulate before they negotiated on anything else. that's not terribly unusual as an opening position from the white house. it does not look like there is any real deal anywhere near. the closest thing you might come up with is a short-term extension. by the way, procedurally speaking, what they have done is senator mcconnell built an amendment on that previous bill

in order to change the date to february 8th as he said he was going to do for a vote in the morning. they basically have to break apart that tree, reconstruct it way deep in the procedural weeds. >> you perceived it better than i could. one last point, which requires from you the kind of what have we learned a year later answer? and that is this. a year ago, sean spicer was spitting angry at the press core about it having been the largest audience for an inauguration ever, period. a year ago, we had a lot of the motivated women and a whole lot of men with hats a certain color and posters saying what they did, filling the streets of cities and towns in our country. we will have some more of that tomorrow. we had inaugural festivities

under way in washington what a long, strange trip it's been. >> you took off every night in the show. it seems like it has been a thousand more than they actually had with each of these turns but president trump competed on a dysfunctional washington. >> sadly, that should be your last word. while it's not joilly or happy, it is truthful. speaking of jolly, a former republican congressman from florida david jolly remains with us. congressman, now that it is kind of done and dusted for tonight, we realize grinding halt will be our way of doing business here for the foreseeable future. your opinion of what you have just witnessed? >> yeah, i think what we are seeing is the shutdown might be fizzling. mcconnell is orchestrating a three-week delay. ryan and mccharity are keeping

house members in town. they will have a vote as early as noon tomorrow. so we get a three-week delay the reality of mcconnell and schumer is they are no closer to a deal right now. they absolutely are not. that was a lot of ininvestigative and senatorial language. two important things, one is i believe and john meacham should have been the person to point this out. he might correct me on this, donald trump might be the president trump of the united states who most quickly got to preside over a government shutdown in one year. the second thing that we also have to look at is, senator kennedy, your colleague, chuck todd, likes to quote senator kennedy, he said earlier today our country was founded by geniuss and ruled by idiots. i think that's what we're watching tonight. >> sometimes wisdom comes out of the state of l.a. whole lot of food and music comes out of louisiana. we will end on that note from

you, congressman, david jolly who so often joins us during normal times on our broadcast, erica western weren'ter has suredly chosen the night shift for the pawing post. she's off the floor. erica, what have you seen that fills in the picture of what we have been covering on the floor tonight? >> reporter: well, as you heard senators schumer and mckwonally speak there after the vote, this is all about messaging, trying to get the upper hand with the trump administration and senator mcconnell trying to brand this the schumer shutdown and senator schumer and the democrats calling it the trump shutdown so how long it ends up lasting and maybe it will be just a couple of days. maybe it will be longer, but it will depend largely on who is winning that public relations battle. >> and in that public relations battle, look at imagery.

as i keen saying the proposed imagery of the night was the president and first lady walking into a donors only hundred fwrand for couple party at mar-a-lago. after a triumphant flight down on the anniversary of his inauguration. this is the reality. this is the stone cold late at night grinding to a halt reality of our government. this is the image that day 365 of the trump administration is going to be left with. >> yeah, it's pretty amazing. and speaking of imagery, something that the administration is trying to focus on is to kind of play down images of the shutdown that they think that the obama administration exacerbated during the 2013 shutdown to kind of make it seem worse than it was, having very invisible barriers outside of national monuments and parks that sort of

thing t. trump administration wants to try to keep parks opened, keep people coming to monuments. it's not clear how successful they'll be at that sort of thing, because they don't seem to be particularly organized or well prepared for what is now taking place, but that is a goal of theirs. >> and in your experience as a journalist and if reporting on this story and researching this story, what to you are the major most invisible aspects? what would we see happening tonight? would we see anything shutting down, grinding to a halt other than not being able to visit the smithsonian air and space museum if you are in washington with a school group tomorrow? what are we going to see first off. >> reporter: well, that is always the kind of paradoxical or misleading element of a government shutdown which is if reality, not a lot of things shut down. ernl services and that can be at

large stay opened. there is not anything that you can point to that happened at midnight when the fost shut down. agency funding ran out but nothing hammond. we are going into a weekend so, therefore, especially, there won't be a lot of everyday that the government is shut down. employees will be furloughed and there will be tens of thousands per agency in all likelihood. in past shutdowns and this will be a question mark, they've gotten back pay once the government reopens. >> that will be up to the trump administration to decide whether to do that and given their attitude toward the federal bureaucracy, they may choose not to. we'll have to wait and see on that. >> erica weren'ter, we want people to look at herbieline, thank you for staying up with us and reporting for us president the chemical buildingful something else that has hammond tonight, highly unusual, here we

are one hour 52 minutes into the coverage of what is normally the 11th hour, look what we have yet to do. take commercial break. we take one and continue our conversation with jonathan le mere. just on the other side as we are covering what is now 53 minutes into the first deposit shutdown of 2018 and the trump era.

republican leadership can't get to yes because president trump refuses to. mr. president, president trump, if you are listening, i am urging you, please take yes for an answer. the way things went today the way you turned from a bipartisan deal, it's almost as if you were rooting for a shutdown. now we'll have one and the blame should crash entirely on president trump's shoulders. this will be called the trump shutdown because there is no one, no one who deserves the blame for the position we find ourselves in more than president trump. >> so the position we find ourselves in at this hour is this, if you are a civilian, a contractor to the military, a

everyone if are you in harl's way tonight, you are furloughed. you will not get paid. a lot of the folks in that room are sorry about that. as we have been saying, if you are a flu researcher at the cdc, we'd love to have you stay on the job, it's flu season. we can't pay you. if you are waiting for disaster relief in puerto rico, where 40% of the folks are waiting for power. that's a part of the funding we are waiting for as well, if you are a daca kid, waiting for relief, waiting to be rid of the worry that you are going to be thrown out of this country the quote for you tonight for the minority leader, it's not like nobody's interested. jonathan le mere, where the customers and bosses of these politicians are concerned, not a whole lot of satisfaction to send home to the folks. >> i can't imagine many americans are watching that have much faith in their government, the white house has just but out the president's schedule tomorrow. we all know he was supposed to be in mar-a-lago for a gala to

note his first year in office, instead, he will be in washington with no public event scheduled. now could there be private negotiations? senator schumer called tore them with the four heads, then the president, himself. we will see, certainly this is a shutdown reprieve could come soon, it also, these are parties dug in, particularly on immigration. there is a chance this could go on a while. >> once they've crossed this rubicon. >> there is less motivation to walk it back. they could stay there. as we have been noting, it's january 20th. the remarkable timing. this comes on the first year of this presidency t. first year the trump administration what a way to start season two of the trump west wing. there our clock reversed. it now shows, excuse me, how far in we are to the government shutdown. as i said the first of 2018. certainly the first of the trump

presidency. donald trump will walk into the house chamber just next door to the senate, in a few days time to give the state of the union, that will be an interesting evening as well, our live coverage continues the next shift. we are now entering ohour two o a federal shutdown. this is msnbc continuing breaking news coverage. we've been watching the senate floor where republican leader mitch mcconnell and democratic leader chuck schumer have just spoken after a vote on a bill to continue the government funding failed. held open for nearly two hours as senators appeared to continue negotiations. we saw mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer leave the senate chambers and come back. then, this moment got the attention of reporters when chuck schumer and republican senator lindsey graham who both voted no tonight, possibly fist