him twist in the wind and whether he is going to sign the bill to avoid a government shutdown shutdown. and now, a growing list of top republicans and democrats and mille tear officials and experts are condemning the president's abrupt decision to pull the u.s. troops out of syria, and the only people praising the decision are two of the president's strongmen. >> to say they are defeated is an overstatement, and it is fake news. >> honestly this makes what obama did in iraq, and it is are replicating that, but in many ways it is worse. >> i think that there is a high chance that we will be seeing what we call in the navy a reflash. >> and stone faced. robert mueller is requesting information on trump confideant roger stone, and leaving many to wonder what is the next move. >> the special counsel's prosecutors are making an official request for the certified transcript, and really only one reason to have that kind of record, and that is when you are ready to indict

somebody. >> and breaking news. goodday, i'm andrea mitchell in washington where any minute president trump is going be meeting with house republicans and to be a fly in the wall there. he has thrown a wrench into his own party's agreement to avert a shutdown signaling he won't sign anything that does not include money for the border wall. this agreement passed by the senate is on the brink of breaking down. kasie hunt is all over this on capitol hill, and kristen welker at the white house. how did this happen? the republicans thought they had a deal, and the senate passed it and paulle ryan was reportedly called out of the meeting with the house republicans today, and the caucus is not willing to go ahead if the president won't sign it. >> andrea, frankly, what has happened is the scenario that we walked through yesterday on this program which is that the president is completely unp unpredictable, and he as

apparently decided that he may have some problems with this and he has refused quite frankly to say publicly that he is going to sign a clean, what we refer to a clean short term spending bill to keep the government open until february 8th that the senate passed late last night, and this all unfolded in a incredibly dramatic house conference meet iing this morni. when we got up this morning we thought that it was a celebratory last day as speaker for paul ryan as he is riding off into the sunset, but instead, he got it from both sides of the conference. those from the right said that they wanted the president to fight, and that is what the president has been seeing on tv, and fox and friends and hearing from rush limbaugh and ann coulter, and also the rank and file republicans, and the kind that mccarthy have been taking votes on, and that leadership needed to govern the country, and those people were saying why do i need to take this vote if the president has not said one way or another if he can support

it, and some of the quotes coming out of the meeting were incredible, and some people said that it would be messy fast, and the $5 billion question. one lawmaker said of the whole situation where they are waiting on the trump tweet, that's the what the expletive of serving in congress has come to. so a lot of frustration and uncertainty here, and the leaders are now down to white house to figure if they with work through it. my big question right now is whether the president is going to feel as if he can get out of this by blaming the house leaders. before they left, they were ton the house floor trying to figure out if they could cobble together the votes to pass the $5 billion wall funding, and this is of course, the bill that nancy pelosi looked right at the president in the oval office last week, and she said that you don't have the votes. so maybe the route is to put it into floor and watch it fail. or another route, but we don't simply know what the path

forward is at this stage. >> and kristen welker, what is the president thinking? i know that it is an impossible question to answer, but here he had a deal that the senate had agreed to, and mitch mcconnell did not pass that on the senate floor yesterday without, you know, getting the sign-off, and as we are look at the white house ble below, right where you ar are, and kevin mccarthy there, and we think that it is going to start, but unless he is late, but look at what he is inheriting coming after paul ryan as the republican leader, and this not going well. >> it is not, and you are asking, andrea, what is the is the president thinking at the hour? top officials don't know, and they are scrambling to find out, and right now, it seems that all of us are left with trying to read between the lines of the tweets. kasie mentioned an important point, can the president blame the leadership? it seems that he is gearing up to do that, and this is president trump saying i

begrudgingly signed the omnibus bill, i was promised the wall and the border security by leadership would be done by the end of the year. now it did not happen, and now we foolishly fight for border security for other kcountries, but not or beloved usa. not good. he is referencing the omnibus bill in march, and he was infuriated about it at the time, because it did not include funding for the border wall, and what he said is that i will not sign another bill like this again, and meaning that he would not sign another bill that did not fund his border wall, and this morning, he was poised to do that. and what happened? well, the conservative allies are raging on the air waves and ann coulter and fox news is happening behind the scenes as well. some of the allies, and some of whom i have been if contact with is that the base will depart if he signs off on this short term c.r. and why? because it is the key campaign

promise, and if he can't follow through with it now, they see it as the last best chance. that is why, it seems as though the president is wavering right now, and on a path forward. as you pointed out, andrea, we expect the meeting to get under way in short order. we will be tracking it closely here from the white house today, and fast-moving developments. >> and of course o, kristen and kasie, mark meadows who was on the short list of chief of staff he was weigh iing n and is that not the case of the freedom caucus, and the republican who is complaining about the short term deal? >> he was, but it is interesting that my colleague, and our colleague alex mo was here late last night, and meadows came and talk t talked to the reporters initially and railed against the c.r. and then he went out on to the floor and made a point to come back out to say he did not necessarily mean that it meant that the president would not sign the bill which is a little

bit of cleanup. it is interesting, that there was a sense that they went down to the house floor saying that he was caving, and that this is a bad plan. i am not necessarily sure anyone here in congress actually thought that this would go down. now, the confluence of factors this morning have -- it is re really what has thrown this into greater flux. i mean, we should stress it is not just a set of rogue house republicans who are creating the problem. it is the confluence of factors and the influences in the media that are on the president's mind, and that is going to be including the speeches on the house floor, and likely to be discussed some of the media coverage that he has gotten and also the rank and file republicans who want to have an assurance if they take this vote, it is not going to be, you know, be proceeding a major crisis and a shutdown at christmas, because he decides to veto the bill. all of that is at play here this

morning morning. >> well, kasie, thank you so much, and kristen, as well. thank you for leading us off. you will be with us throughout the hour as things will develop, as they will. and joining me from capitol hill is chris van hollen and, senator, thank you for joining us, a member of the house appropriations committee. and obvious ly, mitch mcconnell does not go to the senate floor with something this imp pornt right before christmas without thinking that the president would sign off on it. >> that is right, andrea. we had a big bipartisan vote here on the senate to keep the government open, and stop-gap until february 8th, and now, paul ryan in the closing days as speaker has to do the right thing for the country, and for the house, and has to let dem kra si do its will and put this up for the vote. and the house should not be the minions for the president or

shawn hannity on fox. they need to take the vote, and if the president is going to veto, because he is proud to shut down the government, that is his decision, but the house has to do their job and they should not be scampering down to the white house get instructions from the president. >> and now, coming across what is west executive which is a closed off area, parking area there crossing over from the executive office building and across the street where he has an office into that meeting. so he is obviously as a former budget chair going to have a lot the say as well, if he can try to mediate this, but right now it is a standoff. a political standoff. so would the senate, and say he persua persuades the house to add the wall back in. is the senate going to take a vote on that? >> no, the senate has acted and we have acted in a bi-papartisa basis, and now the house needs to take a vote, and see where it comes down. i am confident if they have a

vote on the bipartisan senate agreement in the house that the house would pass it. you have democrats who would support that and enough house republicans who would support, that and then, you know, i am sending it to the president, and then the president can make a decision. again, this is not about border security, andrea, and everybody supports border security, and this is not wasting american taxpayer dollars on an unnecessary and ineffective 2,000-mile border wall when there are better ways to secure the borders and remember the president did say that mexico, and not the american taxpayers would foot the bill. >> and moments ago, steve scalise, the republican house whip paused on the way out, and we will see what he had to say. >> we are talking with the president about the best way to get the wall funded and move the bill that actually funds the wall and funds the other

agencies of government that expire on friday. so we want to get the $5 billion the secure the border and let the president to have the tools that he needs to make sure that he keeps this kcountry safe. >> and so clearly that is not going to signal one way or another how it is going to be resolved. and now, one last-minute change of policy and i know your interest in the engagement of the foreign policy and the syria decision, and we will talk about this in a moment with some of the other experts, but the anger that i am hearing from american allies and from the military and from diplomats who are feeling completely blindsided apparently a late meeting tuesday and small meeting and the president said that he is out of patience having talked importantly to turkish leader erdogan, and he made this decision, and apparently the only people happy about it are the turkey and russia if not maybe iran, we

have not heard from them. >> well, that is right, andrea. this is a big mistake. just a few days ago the president's special envoy to the coalition to defeat isis, special envoy mcguirk said that it would be a big mistake and in fact, he said it is reckless to prematurely declare victory over isis and move out. that is exactly what the president did yesterday. as you indicated, he did it after a phone call with president erdogan of turkey whose priority all along has not been defeating isis, but actually going after the syrian kurd kurds, and the syrian kurds have been our main allies in fighting isis in syria, and now the president is going to sort of leave them at the whims of president erdogan who is going to be going after the very people who have been the tip of the spear when it comes to going after isis.

isis has not been defeated. we have made great gain, no doubt about it, but if we retreat and allow the syrian kurds who have been fighting against isis to become victims of a turqish attack, then we are in very deep trouble. remember, isis the off spring of al qaeda and al qaeda attacked us in 2001 and we should not be outsource iing this effort to people that we cannot trust in the region, including the russians and others. >> well, thank you very much, senator chris van hollen and stay tuned, because there is a lot happening, and you have perfectly teed up the next conversati conversation, because it is all about donald trump against the world. his allies are slamming his decision to withdraw the american troops from syria, and stay with us on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. c.

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russian president vladimir putin is to be frank crowing over president trump's decision to withdraw all of the u.s. troops from syria saying that the u.s. has done the right thing. but the president's most loyal republican supporters are furious saying that the decision rewards russia, iran and turkey while abandoning the u.s. strongest allies on the ground, the kurds whose turkey's president erdogan is threatening to wipe out once they leave.

joining us is the council from fe fellow relations who has just returned from syria saturday, and ambassador michael mcfaul, u.s. ambassador the russia, and four-star retired marine general george allen from the brookings institute, and also a member of the coalition to counter isis and nato commander formerly, and ann guerin, former state correspondent for the washington post. all of you have so many credential, and we don't know where to start, but start with the general, because he is the only one of us with four stars. general allen, your reak shctio this precipitous decision that the president has been talking about this, but i think that general mattis and dunford and pompeo thought that he had talked h himt out talk talked him out of it, because many were speaking publicly

saying that it is important to continue the battle against isis, and now he announces that he is getting out and he does it on twitter. >> well, the twitter platform of course creates a lot of chaos. look, we have to be careful to making the assumption that the islamic state has been defeated. it has great capability still, and you will recall at the beginning of the conflict, the entire syrian turkish border was in the hands of the syrian state, state, and we had few option, and once we discovered the options and the elements of northern syria we determined they could fight, and we empowered them to fight, and they liberated a huge portion of se syria and terrain and a large population. we are there now to help prevent that reflash if you will for the islamic state, and also to provide the platform for the humanitarian stabilization of that population, and we have to stay there for that. and if we are pulling out precipitously, we are handing

the war over to a genocidal dictator and over to vladimir putin who is fully in favor of our departing, and creating an unknown with the respect to how the turks will deal with the kurds and undercutting an ally. as we talk about the united states dealing with these kinds of crises, we are talking about empower i empowering the indigenous population to deal with organizations like the islamic state, and that is part of the str strategy, but this entire strategy is undercut by the tweet that we will pull out precipitously, and it is marginalizing a coalition that came together because of u.s. leadership to defeat this organization and after all of that, we did not consult with them, and we did not consult with the partners on the ground and made this decision to depart, and i think that it is really undermining the credibility of the united states in the region, and the credibility of the united states to be a credible and faithful partner, and we are potentially

facing a humanitarian catastrophe when the turks or the syrians ultimately attempt to effect the are retaliation and the retribution that we know will come as a result of the decision. >> and ann guerin, according to the washington post reporting, your colleagues, the joint of chiefs chairman was not invited. it is bolton, and the president and one or two others there. >> and the meeting that the president said, i am doing this even though he knew that he was sitting in a room of people who had said they oppose it, and li listed why. >> would mattis resign over this or does it weaken him? >> it definitely weakens him. and i think that, you know, it is a big open question if this is the thing that pushes him over the edge. he has been pushed to the periphery of influence already, as this whole situation

demonstrates more clearly than anything else, but that is a slide that has been a year or more in the making since the jerusalem embassy move which is one of the very first things that mattis made an issue of the telling the president not the do, and he did it anyway. >> and the arrival of john bollton as the national security adviser. >> and he is on the record of saying that we have larger interests in syria than defeating isis which means to counter iran and russia is, and until there are no more proxies there, and last i checked, they are are still there. >> and you know better than all of us, ambassador, and vladimir putin is praising this decision today. >> yes. on public television. refuting what president trump just tweeted. he said no, they don't like it, and he just said it on national television, they welcome this

decision, and it is a decision they have wanted for a long time. they wanted us to do the majority of the fighting against isis and then leave. that is what president trump is doing. and just two more points, it is critical what general allen just said. this is not just the united states. it is called operation inherent resolve and it is a coalition, and we fought isis together with allies, and we did not defeat them by ourself, and it is a terrible sign for the future, and why would you ever sign up with the united states again when we abandoned our allies the way we did. and number two fosh, for the tw the international team, we are preventing the president from doing bad thing, and here is something really bad and not one single person that i have heard defend this decision, even from the bush administration, and when do you become an enabler and instead of preventing bad things from happening. i think that people like secretary mattis are going to

have to think very hard about that question today. >> i also want to have, gail lamon, play for you this video produced by the white house, and highly produced and the president was not available for questions, and no one could ask how he made this decision, and in this video last night praising the decision, and explaining it. this is what he had to say about the decision to pull out of syria. >> we have beaten them, and we have beaten them badly and taken back the land, and now it is time for our troops to come back home. we won. and that's the way we want it. and that is the way they want it. >> they, general allen, is referring to the fallen men and women, fallen soldiers and the troops for whom he has to write letters at the beginning of this video, and invoking them as praising this the decision, and how does that make you feel?

>> he is not qualified to invoke the sacrifice or the memory of those magnificent troops who gave the last full measure of their lives to the cause of the united states. we should treasure their memories and not politicize their memories, and he is not qualified to make that statement. >> and so, you have been in and out of raqqa, and many of the places that many of us would be afraid the go, and tell us how it was received on the ground, because there because report that the syrian kurds were threatening to release thousands of isis prisoners as a result of this decision of the u.s. to pull out. >> one thing has the ha been overlooked, because everybody is so used to seeing syria as a basket case are the real green shoots and the bright spots amid challenge that the people have made in syria with the protection and the backing of the u.s.-backed forces and those

are in turn protected by the united states. i went to a school in raqqah that i had visited in april and the teeacher said that we are o the front lines of the fight against the extremism, and truly, we are asking for some measure of stability, and she was asking me what i thought that the policy decision would be, and another shopkeeper who i met who had a perfume shop opening up in april where there was only rubble on the street, and in august, he was still there, and last week, he said, you know, we are really seeing more customers and things are coming back to life, and we are fighting for our own future, but we need to know that there is going to be a tomorrow, and not another force is going to be coming in to invade. so to me, it is the moms and dads on the front lines of the fight against extremism, and they are doing the work. the partner force is really, and i went to the opening of the raqqah women's council in august and a city where the women had been bought and sold months earlier, and had the opening of the women's council, a aunld nd

the women were arab and i spent time talking to in raqqah, because they said they are supportive because they want to support the city and we want to be here to protect our city, and there were almost no americans pr present, and if there were americans present, did not see them. so what has been lost is just how much fragile, but very real forward momentum there is on the ground, and perhaps alone in the post 9/11 conflicts that you will see every single time that you go n. i hain. and i have had the privilege of going in five times since 2017. and when you are talking to the u.s. forces they say, we have had three partner forces that we with have worked with, and this is the one that we the trust with our lives. >> and mike mcfaul, our nato alli allies, and they have put out a strong statement that they are nonplus sed about this turnaround. >> it is shocking and the way

that president trump conducts foreign p foreign policy. this is not the first decision that he has made where he is against the entire administration, and are russia policy is one case where the president has one view and the rest of his party has another and he does these whimsical thing things. one decision to leave and another is to try to reduce the impact of this decision. so what about keeping our air force involved? what about providing the hum humanitarian assistance, and providing the military assistance, and the president himself will not be following this policy after this decision, and the rest of the administrations needs to reduce the negative consequences of this decision that he made yesterday. >> mike mcfaul, ambassador, thank you so much, and gayle eamon, thank you for your reporting from the ground, and general john allen as always, and anne guerin, thank you for this conversation.

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robert mueller is reportedly zeroing in on trump confidant and campaign adviser roger stone signalling that he is close to indicting stone, and the house intelligence committee has agreed to turn over a transcript of stone's testimony that he may have misled congress. and this is as the justice department is ruling that matthew whitaker has no conflicts for the public criticism of the mueller probe before he joined d.o.j. and he does not have to recuse himself from overseeing the investigation. this is the first public acknowledgment that whitaker in fact not rod rosenstein is really in charge. rosenstein talked to reporters today. >> as we have described previously, we have continued to manage the investigation as we have in the past, and it is being handled appropriately. whether it is bob mueller or rod rosenstein or matt with whitaker

or bill barr, that is going to be handled appropriately by the department of juses tis. >> and joining me now is nbc justice and security analysis matt miller under attorney general eric holder ther. there is a lot to unpack here, because they were announcing a indictment against some chinese hackers today, and that is why he was in front of the cameras with chris wray, but the bottom line is the mueller probe. and so rod rosenstein is in chargek, but the ethics probe is when matt whitaker was on the private world and various cable networks criticizing the mueller probe, that it was as a private citizen and it does not affect his role as acting attorney general and so in replacing jeff sessions, he does not have to recuse himself, but at the same time the potential successor, the nominated william barr, and the former attorney general under george w. bush is now criticized for a memo he wrote

in june, and, matt, a memo he wrote criticizing the underpinnings of the mueller investigation and it is a lot of weight, and went to rosenstein, and the white house, and it is a flash point over the potential c confirmation. >> the two that ties them together is that the president has known that both of the people that he has tapped to oversee the mueller investigation have stated views mos ti hostile to the investigation matt whitaker and bob barr. so i am not surprised that he going to say that ethics officials have not formally recommended he are recuse himself. the standards you have to have some conflict of a financial interest in the matter or interest in the case that rel relates to the public statement, and that not the cause, so you

are not technically required to -- >> well, take that first there. is no indication that he has interfered with the mueller investigation, and appears that they are following the procedures. >> yes, that is right. >> and he is not interfering, but perhaps more troubling or controversial is this barr memo of a private citizen, but to send this forward leaning memo. >> he sent a 20-page memo of laying out why the president should not be investigated, but if he had just asked someone to back off was not in and of itself enough to constitute obstruction, and that is an aggressive view of executive power, and it is not one out of the mainstream, and especially on the republican side, but he weighed in and gave this memo no the white house council's

office, so in june, they found out that he was hostile to the mueller investigation and at least based on the facts that he knew, and the facts that we all know that the president had any criminal liability and nor should he be indicted for i. and so there shouldn't be a surprise that he said that he was my first choice. >> and so in the page, it is small, and it is a is to deputy assistant attorney rod rosenstein, and so this is very forward leaning. >> yes, forward view of the executive power and the question for the senate now what to do about this. chuck schumer has come out to say that he has been disqualified for attorney j general. it is certainly true that he disqualified from overseeing the mueller view expressing this to

the white house and the department of justice. is it is not complicated here, when you can see the president reach into the justice department and pass everybody in line of successor to make matt whitaker to be acting a.g. who has, pressed views hostile, and then of all of the people, he picks the one person who has written a memo hostile to the mueller investigation, and it is obvious what is going on. >> and that nomination of barr has not gone up w but they have 56 senators coming up in january. matt miller, stay tup and thank you very much. coming up, friendly fire, the republicans in congress taking on the president over that syrian decision. one of them will join me here next on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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♪ republican lawmakers are joining democrats and foreign allies, slamming the president's syrian decision including illinois congressman a veteran of the iran and afghanistan wars and still in the national guard. thank you you, congressman, for joining us. i wanted to reference the president's video last night and in talking to people has really set a lot of veterans off, because he says that he is speaking about the letters that he has to write, and talks about how difficult it is to write

these letters to the parent, and the families of those who we lose in the wars, and he said, that they are looking down on us now, these heroes, and there is nobody more happier and prouder of their families to put them in a position to where they have done such good to so many people, and our young boys and men and women are coming back, and we won and that is the way we want it, and that is the way they want it, pointing to the sky. how did you feel in seeing that video from the president? >> i didn't like it. i am not going to scribe bad motives to him in doing it, but it was really, i think that it was tacky. i wear on my wrist, and i have talked about it a few times, captain andreas o'keefe who was a buddy of mine and i flew with him in 2008 or 2009, and he was flying with the war on terror,

there and writing letters is tough, and that is part of the commander in chief, and it is a difficult part of it, but you have to make the tough decisions whens to fighting isis, and i don't know what video had to go through to be approved, but i wish it had not been. >> it is authoritative ly reported by all of us that he is ignoring the military team of mattis and dunford and other as well as the diplomatic advisers including the kurds who are fighting alongside us, and empow empowers turkey to go alongside the allies and russia and iran. >> and he has every right to do it, and it is president, and i said it when he pulled out of iraq, and i vehementtally disagree. i think it is the president not listening to the advisers, and in syria and fighting isis and

it is not politics. when it comes to policy issues, and issues of war, you have to be not sensitive to the politics at home, but the future of what it means for country. and fighting terrorism is not a choice that the united states make, but it is a choice that is made for us. the question and the choice we make is where do we fight them? do we fight them in syria or in iraq or do we ultimately fight them here at home or on the streets in europe? they have made the decision to fight us, and in the era of transportation, and airplanes and technology and communication, they can choose the ground. right now, we can fight them in that area, and where it is much more conducive for us. and letting up on this fight means they will come here, and that is what i fear. i think it going to be coming back to bite us. >> congressman adams kensinger from illinois, thank you for your service. and coming up, walled off. even without the border wall, the trump administration announces new moves to keep immigrants out of the country

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hearing so you could come before us, and look tough and remorseless just in the time for the holidays, the remorselesssp. i suspect that if you still have your job, chl always seems to be a big question, in three weeks we'll see if you still have the same sympathetic questions when you come back. >> ouch. that was congressman luis gutierrez challenging homeland disconnect kirstjen nielsen who is being grilled on the immigration policy. starting today migrants coming to the u.s. to seek asylum will be required to return to mexico and wait there for the duration of their immigration proceedings. that's a change of policy. let's get the inside scoop from usa today's washington bureau chief, susan page. also with me nbc's intrepid jacob soboroff who's been covering the border from all sides. >> great to be sitting with you, and rea. >> it's great to have you here,

in from the heat or the cold or whatever it is. she's the face of the immigration policy. we don't know whether she's still on thin ice with the preside president. but the policy is being expanding expanded today. the asylum policies are being cut back drastically. >> i think what's most important to say about this new policy, number one, they have tried to put this in for quite some time. they call it remain in mexico. they're rules that allow them to immediately deport people from canada and mexico but not from central america where many of the migrants come from now. what they're saying is they're going take asylum seekers, put them in mexico, remain in mexico for the duration of their asylum proceedings. asylum lawyers are already saying today this is illegal. they're not going to be able to do this, number one. number two, it's extraordinarily dangerous. two hondurans part of the

caravan murdered as they waited to come into the united states because we know about these long lines and this metering process. during the hearing today the secretary denied it makes people go into the desert and go into these dangerous situations, which we know is not the case. >> susan, it's alice in wonderland time. it's the mad hatter's tea party when they're saying something is true when it's not. these witnesses are testifying. of course right now no one is challenging them. >> as a congressman made the point, though, that will change on january 3rd when it will be democrats convening hearings like this. this ties into a story you were covering earlier on this budget showdown coming up over immigration and the wall. this is an issue that matters so much to president trump's base and a lot of republican voters, stopping illegal immigration, reducing immigration into the united states, including asylum seekers, building the wall. it is the original issue for donald trump's presidential campaign and he clearly feels

under enormous pressure to show that he's delivering by eliminating what he calls catch and release, which is the previous process where you apply for asylum and you'd often be released into the community until your hearing could be held. getting rid of that has been a big priority for the president from the start. today the administration announces they're going to do it. >> and the separation of children, the fact that they did not keep track of them. apparently she has just testified they know where all the children are. >> it's delusional. that actually is delusional. the answers i'm hearing from the secretary of homeland security are delusional based on the facts we know. she was pressed again on talking about the separation policy and how come they weren't able to track all of these young people separated from their families and she said we did know. we've known all along. each organization, hhs, the department of homeland security, everybody knew where everybody was. the problem was not each agency tracked, they didn't interact with each other. they didn't reunify 2600 kids taken away from their parents.

most delusional of all today, the secretary sat there in front of this congressional committee and said there was never a policy to separate children from their parents. we know it's wrong. i was with the folks who discovered the documents who said that she knew there was a separation policy and she put it into place. >> susan, how can they keep this up? >> well, it's going to be harder to keep it up when you get the oversight of a democratically controlled house because some of these questions will be pursued in a much more aggressive way and there will be an effort to get documents to show what the administration's policy was, who knew about it and when they knew about it. we're on the hinge point, i think, of the first two years of the trump administration is going to be very different from the second two years of the trump administration because, as we like to say, elections have consequences. >> and just to say very, very briefly, saturday night while the president was hosting the congressional black tie dinner, the christmas dinner, the ball, beto o'rourke and senator tina smith from minnesota and others

were at the border trying to get into tornillo, trying to get in, being blocked. there's going to be congressional oversight down there as well. we have to leave it there. jab jacob, thanks for everything you're doing and susan page for all your reporting. we'll be right back. orting we'll be right back. eligible card members up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it.

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i know it might be hard to believe after watching all the tumult in the show today, but there are people in washington

trying to spread holiday cheer. cue obamaclaus. ♪ we wish you a merry christmas ♪ ♪ and a happy new year >> former president obama wearing a santa hat carrying a bag of goodies making a surprise visit to the children's national medical center in washington on wednesday. the president visited several patients, visited their families who are going to be spending their christmas holidays in the hospital. he also took time to thank the most important other people there, the nurses and the doctors for their great service. >> to have nurses and staff and doctors and people who are caring for them and looking after them and listening to them and just there for them and holding their hand, that's the most important thing there is. what a great reminder of what the holiday spirit is all about.

>> so to remind everyone about the holiday spirit, that does it for today. thanks for being with us. follow the show online, on facebook, on twitte twitter @mitchellreports. some of you may want to watch murphy brown on cbs tonight, a little cameo. here's ali velshi. >> just wrap it up by 10:00 p.m. because i'm on for lawrence o'donnell. have a great afternoon. i'm ali velshi, stephanie ruhle is off. let's get smarter. >> a dramatic showdown brewing on capitol hill over whether the government will be forced to shut down tomorrow. the president in a series of tweets this morning indicating he will not sign a bill funding the government unless he gets funding for his border wall. >> things are in disarray up here. i don't think there's a more direct way to put it. >> it doesn't seem as though a lot of folks are clear on what the president is thinking. >> we need to make sure that the president stays firm. a lot of people are very nervous this morning about whether the president will cave