good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. . ♪ i think secretary tillerson, secretary mattis and chief of staff kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos. >> mattis going. kelly going. tillerson gone. >> and the united states government is in crisis this morning with news that the final guardrail protecting the country from the president's worst instincts, defense secretary jim mattis, is on the way out. >> of course, combine that with a looming government shutdown, a tanking stock market and a justice department in turmoil, i think you're starting to get the picture.

♪ good morning, everyone. it's friday, december 21st. nervous? >> merry almost christmas? >> can't get there soon enough. >> i'm ayman mohyeldin. we'll get to the defense of secretary james mattis in a moment. first we're now 701 days into the trump presidency and we want to begin by recapping a week of an administration apparently unraveling from within. as probes expanded into more of the president's political business and foreign ties on friday, his search for a new chief of staff failed resulting in an interim pick. on saturday, the secretary of the interior abruptly resigned hoping to ward off investigations from the newly empowered house democrats. the president lashing out on twitter calling his former attorney a rat and bashing the fbi. on monday, the markets continued their slide into the worst december since the great

depregd depressi depression. there were social media posts by russians continued into his administration. with indictments in a turkey scheme involving michael flynn who on tuesday was accused by a judge of selling out his country and warned to cooperate or face jail time. then on wednesday, middle of the week, trump tweeted his order for a full withdrawal from syria, taking the pentagon by surprise and infuriating members of capitol hill. thursday, trump blew up a deal to fund the government over conservative criticism on a border wall, and the secretary of defense resigned in protest of the president's world view, the first time that has ever happened. >> you put it in perspective like that, it's been an unbelievable week. the pentagon spokesman says secretary mattis visited the white house thursday afternoon. met with president trump. hand delivered a letter of resignation yesterday. as the president doubled down on his syria withdrawal plans and reports emerged of a major

pullout from afghanistan. the letter includes none of the usual thanks and praise for the president's leadership or accomplishments nor even a salutation at the end. one core belief i have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. similarly, i believe we must be a resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours. he goes on, it is clear that china and russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model, gaining veto authority over other nation's economic, diplomatic and security decisions. to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, america and our allies. that is why we must use all the tools of american power to provide for the common defense. my views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors

are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. because you have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, i believe it is right for me to step down from my position. pretty startling letter. >> scathing words there. >> absolutely. mattis gave an end date of february 28th. >> and a senior administration official tells nbc news that the president will pick a new secretary of defense by the end of the year, which is just ten days away. the president announced mattis' departure by tweet at 5:21 p.m. washington time. not labelling it a resignation but writing that mattis was, quote, retiring with distinction and i greatly thank jim for his service. back in october, the president appeared to criticize the general as out of step with his views, even labeling him a democrat, which is a stark contrast from how trump once praised him and cast his

appointment as fulfilling a campaign promise he made to voters in 2016. >> we are going to appoint mad dog mattis as our secretary of defense. he's our best. they say he's the closest thing to general george patton that we have, and it's about time. it's about time. >> all right. so a lot to break down here. president trump and senator lindsey graham got locked in a heated war of words after the south carolina republican criticized trump's plans to withdraw troops from syria. yesterday at a news conference, graham called on trump to reverse his decision. >> in this war, you will not win it by quit, by giving up. this is an akin to surrendering. we can be successful only if we

partner with others. this undercuts that effort. we've got two choices to fight this war. in their backyard, or our backyard. and isis and afghanistan, i know for sure, is looking toward the united states and their target sets. mr. president, you have a chance to change course. you have a lot of bipartisan support to do so. take advantage of it. >> that didn't go down with the president. he hit back on twitter writing in part, so hard to believe that lindsey graham would be against saving soldier lives and billions of dollars. time to focus on country and bring our youth back home where they belong. graham at times one of trump's biggest supporters replied to the president in a series of tweets calling for him to listen to his advisers and consider or reconsider, rather, the withdrawal from syria. >> secretary of state mike pompeo defended president trump's move to withdraw u.s. troops from syria.

in an interview yesterday, with wichita public radio, pompeo said, we have eliminated over 90% of the actual real estate the caliphate held. successful effort there. we'll continue to keep the homeland safe from the threat from isis, but it no longer makes sense for there to be 2,000 soldiers stationed there. we can accomplish this mission in a different way, and the president's made a decision to do that. our allies know the united states will always be the world's leader in fighting against triumph arouerrorism ar world. with just thundershowers go until tonight's midnight deadline. the drama reignited yesterday after president trump signaled he would not sign a short-term spending bill that did not include funding for his long-demanded border wall. after that very measure cleared the senate on wednesday, the president's decision was announced almost simultaneously by outgoing house speaker paul ryan and rush limbaugh. >> the president informed us he will not sign the bill that came

over from the senate last evening because of his legitimate concerns for border security. so we're going to go back to the house and work wither members. >> the president has gotten word to me that he is either getting funding for the border or he's shutting the whole thing down. >> so in the wake of the president's decision, the house passed a measure to keep the government running that includes $5 billion for the wall. mitch mcconnell has told members to be ready for a possible vote on the plan. today around noon. but 60 votes are needed to advance the bill to a final vote. democrats, as you can imagine, they are not expected to lend their critical votes. ones that republicans need to get it over the hurdle. now following his decision to restart the battle over funding the government, the president, along with administration officials, weighed in on his demand for border wall funding once again. >> there is a debate over funding border security and the

wall. also called so that i give them a little bit of an out, steel slats. we don't use the word wall necessarily, but it has to be something special to do the job. steel slats. i've made my position very clear. any measure that funds the government must include border security. has to. >> the president's made clear that he's not interested in continuing to build the one-mile, one stretch at a time. he wants to build the wall by getting the money now, just like the president was very clear about for the last years leading up to this funding fight. let's cut through this. right now as we speak -- right now as we speak there is a surge of illegal immigration heading towards our country that presents a national crisis now. >> reaction to the president's decision to play hard ball on his border wall funding demands and risk a government shutdown were swift from both sides of

the aisle on capitol hill yesterday. take a listen. >> one of the agencies that would get shut down -- so we've already funded eight of the 24 major departments and agencies. one that would get shut down is the department of homeland security. so you're making a difficult situation for our men and women in border patrol that they're dealing with things and then add the uncertainty on top of that, you know, by not having a paycheck during christmas. >> you think the cr could still be signed? >> who knows. does the person sitting beside him at the white house know? so i mean, i don't think -- who would know? who would know? >> i think we need to follow through and fund the wall. >> i love it. >> you can't make this stuff up. >> somehow or another, and i don't know what the answer to the question is, the president

of the united states prefers to shut government down. and will resist any opportunity to keep government open. maybe he thinks if the government shut down he can golf more comfortably. that's not how it works. government must work, even if you're golfing for two weeks. >> despite leader pelosi's suggestions, nbc news's hallie jackson reports that, per the white house, the president will not be traveling to mar-a-lago over the holidays if the government is, in fact, shut down. >> let's talk about all this drama. >> wow. >> from what's overheard between corker and senator ted cruz there to everything going on between pelosi and the president and a possible shutdown. so much to take in here. i'm going to get to you leigh ann caldwell. thanks for joining us so early. appreciate it. it could be a pretty big day ahead for washington, to say the least, and for the country at that matter. the likelihood that the government is going to shut down is -- it's pretty high at this

point considering what the senate is going to have to vote on later today. we're going to have to see a real about-face with some senate democrats if this thing is going to pass and keep the government open. >> yeah, that's right. good morning. but the chances of a government shutdown are quite high at this hour, as you mentioned. you need nine democrats to join the 51 republicans in order for this $5 billion border wall funding to pass the senate. yeah, there's a handful of red state democrats that do sometimes vote with republicans, but they haven't done so on this issue, and, plus you have some of these red state democrats who just lost their re-election bid. they have no desire as of what they are showing so far anyway to join with the president and republicans on this issue. and the thing is, there's no plan b if they do vote on this. house republicans, senate republicans, they have -- and the president have not indicated what a next step would be if this does not pass.

and so, i mean, we still have 18 hours until midnight tonight when the sggovernment does officially shut down. as of now, it is not looking good. >> help us understand something here if possible, within these next 18 hours. what is the gap that we need to get to? the president has been asking for something in the ballpark of $5 billion for what he calls border wall security or border security. democrats were only going -- were willing to go so far up to $1.4 billion for border security. that's a pretty large gap for us who kind of don't know much about how the interpolitics of congress work but how do they plan on closing that gap with 18 hours to go? what are you hearing from lawmakers about these chances? >> yeah, there is no plan. they had been talking, negotiating for the past couple weeks. they couldn't come up with a plan. so the senate decided to do the other day is just punt it down the road until february. they said let's fund the

government, these few last appropriations, the last agencies, let's just fund those for the next few months until february, and then we'll deal with it then. they wanted to get past the state of the union. and so there's a real logjam between the republicans and the democrats and the president. and i will say, $5 billion, it's an arbitrary number. it's a lot of money to spend in one year. they've proven unable to do that in past years to even spend a billion dollars on border security and the wall. so democrats, it seems like they'll not give in. >> no way the republicans want to punt it to february because come january, democrats take over congress. that's also -- i mean, the president won't get any border wall funding at that point. it's going to be a nonstarter. >> leigh ann caldwell, thank you. it's going to be a busy day ahead for you. >> certainly is. so we're just beginning to paint the picture of the nation's current chaos, as you've noticed. we'll have more on the toll all this is having on the financial system.

>> haven't even gotten to that yet. plus, the mueller probe. nbc news gets a time table for when it might be open. those stories and a check on weather when we come right back. - [narrator] the typical vacuum head has its limitations,

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robert mueller may be less than two months from submitting his russia report to the attorney general. government officials and others familiar with the situation tell nbc news the special counsel is expected to hand over the confidential report as early as mid-february. the sources either did not know or would not say whether mueller has answered the fundamental question he was hired to investigate, whether donald trump or anyone around him conspired with the russian intelligence operations to help his campaign. however, we do know that mueller has rebutted in court filings the president's assertion that neither he nor any of his top aides had met or talked with russians during the 2016 race. they did, according to mueller and in the case of his lawyers,

negotiations over a trump tower in moscow, according to court filings, trump knew about it. >> all right. so the stock market has taken another nosedive as skittishness over the federal reserve's decision to raise rates were combined with fears of a looming government shutdown. the dow fell as you can see here, by as many as 650 points at one point in the afternoon. closing down 464 points at the end of the day. not great news, obviously, going into the holiday season. bringing its two-day decline to more than 800 points and five-day losses to more than 1700. the s&p 500 and nasdaq also dipped shedding over 1% each. the sell-off began wednesday immediately after the fed approved its fourth rate hike of the year. a reaction steve mnuchin called completely overblown. however, it was the growing possibility of a government shutdown that crippled investor confidence thursday afternoon as the volatility index jumped to its highest level since february.

people do not look happy on that floor right there in some of those images. >> i can't imagine. >> markets are on track for their worst december since the great depression, erasing any gains made this year. >> since the great depression, wow. a check on your weather with bill karins on this rainy friday morning. bill, a lot of travel delays. >> yeah, nothing like the friday before christmas having a huge rain storm with a lot of implications for the airports and windy conditions aren't going to help either. flash flood watches from maine through vermont all the way through new england through the northeast down i-95 into virginia and even in to the mountains of north carolina. then we have strong winds also going to accompany this storm. high wind warnings for southern portions of rhode island. also down in cape cod and a little corner of down east maine. inland areas, including boston and new york and areas just outside of philadelphia, atlantic city and dover under wind advisories. not only dealing with heavy rain but strong winds.

that's a recipe for major airport delays. raining from north florida, around pensacola. it was pouring in atlanta. it's moved up to the georgia mountains. now steady, heavy rain in the northeast. as far as impacts go, we'll see road and river flooding threats. saturated soil is going to increase the flood threat throughout the day today. maybe another one to three inches out of this. here's the great news. here's the saturday map. saturday looks fantastic. you just have to get past today. >> all right. we'll try to do that. thanks, bill. after syria, the president is poised to make another controversial military decision. this time concerning troops in afghanistan. >> plus, ethics officials advise the acting attorney general to recuse himself from the russia probe but matthew whitaker has decided not to take that recommendation. we'll explain, next. take your razor, yup. alright, up and down, never side to side, shaquem. you got it? come on, get back.

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of the last four years. turning to the nba and a big blow to the houston rockets. chris paul exits last night's game in miami midway through the second quarter with a strained left hamstring. he's expected to undergo an mri this morning. 0-5 this season without paul in the lineup, the rockets lose this one to the heat, 101-99. and finally, former saints defensive back steve gleason is poised to be the first nfl player to receive the congressional gold medal. a vote by the house yesterday followed the senate's unanimous endorsement to bestow its highest civilian honor on gleason. his battle with als has raised notable awareness and money for research. president trump is expected to sign the legislation. he really is a true hero, guys. >> that's incredible. >> very deserving of that. >> unbelievable what he's done and accomplished. >> thanks, louis. a lot of cover this morning. the defense secretary on the way out.

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♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. after two years serving the trump administration, defense secretary jim mattis is stepping down. the last of the senior military officials president trump brought into his administration. mattis resigned in a two-page letter that pointed to disagreements with trump about the use of military power and a rebuke of his treatment of american allies. nbc's kristen welker has the story. >> reporter: he was one of my generals, general james mattis is on his way out. the president tweeting late tonight, general jim mattis will be retiring with distinction at the end of february after having served my administration as secretary of defense for the past two years. the announcement comes a day

after the president announced his plans to withdraw troops from syria, a move mattis disagreed with according to numerous defense officials. they were also at odds after president trump asked the military for plans to withdraw troops from afghanistan. tensions have been simmering for months, and president trump seemed to publicly criticize mattis in a recent interview. >> i think he's sort of a democrat. >> reporter: in a lengthy resignation letter, mattis said he deserved a secretary of defense whose views were better aligned with his. and talked about the rifts he's had with mr. trump about mr. trump's treatment of historically strong allies. mattis was among the first cabinet picks. >> general "mad dog" mattis. >> reporter: and now joins the ranks of departed top officials within the trump administration. the president tweeting, a new secretary of defense will be named shortly. kristen welker, nbc news, the white house. >> president trump's next step is to nominate a successor to

james mattis who can be confirmed by the senate. last night it's majority leader mitch mcconnell issued a statement with a direct message to the president that echoed mattis' call to support our allies. i believe it's essential that the united states maintain and strengthen the post-world war ii alliances that have been carefully built by leaders in both parties. we must also maintain a clear-eyed understanding of our friends and foes and recognize that nations like russia are among the latter. i was sat to learn that secretary mattis who shares those clear principles will soon depart the administration. but i'm particularly distressed that he is resigning due to sharp differences with the president on these and other key aspects of america's global leadership. it is regrettable that the president must now choose a new secretary of defense. but i urge him to select a leader who shares secretary mattis' understanding of these vital principles and his total commitment to america's service members. and the incoming house speaker democrat nancy pelosi offered this grave assessment.

>> you have leaders, great leaders who have left the administration in dismay, and the rest of them have left in disgrace. that's what this administration has been about. we don't want to be fearmongers in terms of our country. this great country can withstand just about anything, but it shouldn't have to. it shouldn't have to. yes, i am shaken by the resignation of general mattis. for what it means to our country, for the message it sends to our troops and for the indication of what his view is of the commander in chief. >> as president trump grapples with the resignation of his defense secretary and the fallout over his syria withdrawal amount he's mulling pulling u.s. troops out of another conflict. he's drawn up plans to withdraw troops from afghanistan. that's according to two defense officials and a person briefed

on the matter who spoke with nbc news. those sources say the plans are due shortly after the new year, but stressed that no decision has been made and that the president wants to see options, including a complete withdrawal. the u.s. has roughly 14,000 troops in afghanistan. and trump has repeatedly expressed his frustrations with the 17-year-old war there. acting attorney general matthew whitaker has rejected the advice of ethics officials at the department of justice to recuse himself from the special counsel investigation. according to a justice department letter to paul ryan and nancy pelosi, ethics officials concluded that if a recommendation were sought, they would advise that the acting attorney general recuse himself because it was their view that a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts would question the acting ag's impartiality. ethics officials say whitaker was not required to recuse himself because he doesn't have a personal or business relationship with the president and despite whitaker's past comments criticizing the russia investigation, the doj says

there is no precedent for a senior doj official to recuse themselves based on statements made to the media prior to joining the department. the letter states that under these circumstances, the decision of whether to recuse rest with whitaker himself. "the wall street journal" says the pick to become attorney general william barr sent an unsolicited memo to the department of justice earlier this year that excoriated special counsel bob mueller's inquiry into potential obstruction of justice by president trump saying it is based on a, quote, fatally misconceived theory that would cause lasting damage to the presidency and the executive branch. still deputy attorney general rod rosenstein says the investigation remains in good hands. >> as we have described previously, we've continued to manage the investigation as we have in the past. and it's being handled appropriately. whether it's bob mueller or rod rosenstein or matt whitaker or bill barr, that investigation is

going to be handled appropriately by the department of justice. >> the house intelligence committee reportedly voted to hand over roger stone's testimony to the special counsel's office. that's according to several reports that say the vote was unanimous. mueller already reportedly has had access to unofficial copy for weeks but obtaining a certified transcript is seen as a key step if they want to use the document to seek indictment. >> as democrats prepare to take over the house in january, there's a rekindled effort to obtain the president's tax returns. congressman richard neil of massachusetts is poised to become the chairman of the house ways and means committee. he's planning on invoking a 1924 federal law to obtain president trump's tax returns through treasury secretary steve mnuchin. the law states, quote, upon written request from the chairman of the committee on ways and means of the house of representatives, the secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request. democrats think the law is air

tight but congressman neil recently acknowledged that both president trump and the treasury department are expected to fight back. sources tell nbc news neil and the democrats plan to make the returns public if and when they do get them. joining us, republican strategist and msnbc political analyst susan del percio. thanks for coming on. i feel like investigation is the word of the month are right now. everything that we're reading about is about some sort of investigation into trump, president trump, surrounding president trump. you have the democrats taking power in the house come january. what investigation do you think is going to be the most important to lawmakers come the new year? >> well, i think the mueller investigation will dictate a lot of what lawmakers do going down the road. i think they want to see what happens -- they may do a two-track thing as far as investigating the russia connection in the house, but at the same time, they don't want to interfere with the mueller investigation because it is supposed to come out now, we're

hearing, by maybe as early as mid-february. or early march. so i think that they will be a little careful there. but the oversight is very concerning. i think to the trump administration. and one of the big investigations that no one is talking about is probably going to be into hud. i think there's been a lot of talk that doesn't make it into the news cycle. but i think that oversight investigation could be very damaging to this administration. >> speaking of the news cycle, let's talk about what happened yesterday with jim mattis announcing his sudden -- >> not the stock market. not that one. >> not the shutdown. >> no, no, not that one. jim mattis announcing his resignation. this white house already fractured. a lot of top key cabinet posts even within the white house, positions that have not been filled. vacancies that need to be filled. how do you see mattis quitting affecting an already fractured white house staff? >> i think it just shakes it to its core.

no one saw this coming. it scares a lot of people. this is the secretary of defense who was seen as a very stable influencer for the administration. >> often referred to as the only adult in the room. >> true. and when we talk about high level administration people leaving, we won't -- we'll have an acting or we have someone leaving, secretary of defense, an acting chief of staff and an acting attorney general, and we also have the former national security adviser just claimed -- >> is there any precedent for this? have we ever seen this before in any administration? >> no. >> have you ever heard of a white house two years into its administration -- >> this much changeover? >> there has never been a white house in this disarray whether it's a year in or seven years in or eight years in. it just -- this has not existed. and the worst thing is no one is stepping up who has the credentials to help lead this

country. and because the president is viewed as toxic. >> our colleague was reporting last night that senior source told him that the wheels were beginning to come off of this thing. >> i don't know if there were wheels. i think that they are blocks and they've just fallen. >> susan -- >> happy friday morning to everybody. >> thanks for being here. still ahead -- the struggles facing stocks go from bad to worse as the u.s. markets get hit on government shutdown fears. we'll get a live report on whether any relief could be on the way for christmas. and bill karins will have the very latest on a major storm creating holiday travel headaches for the northeast. stay with us.

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investors may get a slight reprieve to close out the week. cnbc joins us live from london with more. julianna, is there any chance of a last-minute santa rally here? >> well, potentially. we've seen u.s. futures dancing around this morning with some dipping into positive territory. at the moment, we are looking at another soft open for the u.s. now here in europe, this sell-off did extend to europe, did extend to asia over the last couple of days. here in europe, stocks are trading slightly lower today. a little of that momentum has abated. not quite the extent of the losses we saw yesterday. and it looks like the u.s. is likely to follow a similar tone. but just to recap some of the moves yesterday, major indices all sold off. the s&p closed at its lowest level since august 2017. the nasdaq, the tech-heavy index, dipped into bear market territory which means it was off 20% from its recent highs. and the dow closed about 2% lower as well.

so very heavy losses yesterday. today looks like it is going to be not quite as bad, but again, very, very early. we're still quite far away from the open. so it could -- we could see those losses continue. but definitely a difficult week for u.s. stocks, for global stocks as markets digest that fed meeting on wednesday and try to understand what it means for 2019. louis? >> not hearing a lot of optimism in your voice, julianna, but i guess anything other than yesterday would be better, right? thanks so much. >> thanks, guys. bill karins, nbc meteorologist with a check on weather and its impact on holiday travel. >> today is the day we're going to see the most significant airport delays and on the roads. it's just a rain storm but so much rain we're going to get a lot of ponding on the roads and at the airports deal with delays in takeoffs from the wind and the rain. we were watching the christmas tree blowing around here and the

flags blowing on the plaza. above the white house, see the flag blowing a little bit. it's windy up and down the east coast also. flash flood watches from northern vermont down through the mountains here of the central appalachians and into north carolina. an additional 1 to 3 inches with isolated totals to 4 inches. what an amazingly wet and soggy 2018 we've had. and the fire hose of rain and the thunderstorms comes up just off the outer banks and about into new york city. it will be in new york city until 8:00, 9:00 a.m. and then slowly begin to transition toward boston. the back edge of the storm has a lot of rain with it but not as heavy and torrential. this is 6:00 a.m. this morning. there's that heavy rain axis from philadelphia to new york up through the hudson valley. then we shift that through southern new england as we go throughout the day. by 5:00 p.m., it's not that rainy anymore from new york to philly to d.c. the afternoon ride home and, of course, the big rush to get to your weekend destinations will be much better in this area.

then on the back side of the storm, a little rain and snow in west virginia and rainy conditions pittsburgh, buffalo, syracuse, rochester. and most of this mess is all gone by saturday. if you can wait, saturday travel will be just fine and if i widen out to show you all of the east coast, we're looking relatively clear. just a little breezy. saturday and sunday look just fine. here's your saturday forecast with mild conditions here. not much to talk about. the only real bad weather is in the west. big storm comes in on sunday. a lot of snow means a white christmas for a lot of people in areas of idaho and also oregon and higher elevations there around northern nevada. so all the delays of this morning of a lot of flights will be significantly delayed new york, philadelphia and boston this afternoon. >> then a good weekend ahead. >> about as good as you can ask for. >> unless you're stuck in an airport trying to get on another flight over the weekend, right? >> thanks, bill. >> still ahead, just over one week away from 2019 which means we're even closer to the 2020 presidential election.

i said it. >> details on when the lengthy list of democratic presidential hopefuls will be facing off against each other and the money one donor is throwing behind one of the expected candidates. we'll be right back. ♪ the united states postal service makes more holiday deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. ♪ with one notable exception.

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welcome back. the democratic national committee announced its primary debate schedule for the 2020

presidential election. >> i can't imagine. >> the dnc has sanctioned 12 televised debates. with the first taking place next july. six of the debates will take place next year and the following six scheduled to happen in 20120, all of which we will be on vacation for. iowa, new hampshire and nevada will host a debate in 2020 due to the potentially large size of the democratic field. the dnc would split the debates into separate event owes back to back nights allowing participants to be determined by random selection. the party hopes to avoid the same things that happened in 2016. a california donor is planning to raise $10 million in the upcoming months to boost senator cory booker's presidential run. steve philips planned to

formally file paperwork to create a pro booker super pac called dream united. however, booker has not said weather he would welcome the support of a super pac. philips told the times he has raised $4 million. pacs affiliated with phillips have spent millions supporting democrats in this year's midterm elections. cory booker has said that he will decide whether to seek the democrat party's nomination over the coming holidays. coming up, jim vandehei has a look at this morning's one big thing. and president trump faces yet another high profile exit from his administration. >> capping off what has been a week of the white house seeming to unravel from within. "morning joe," everyone, just moments away. ust moments away - [narrator] the typical vacuum head has its limitations,

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all right. joining us now from washington, d.c. with a look at axios a.m., jim vandehei. good to have you with us on this friday. we have a betting game to guess what is axios' one big thing for this morning. usually it's a softball. we know what it is. but today, it's aliup. >> first, we could probably do ten big things after yesterday. think about yesterday, it was one of the craziest years and one on the craziest days in craziest months that we've seen in modern presidential history. and it was capped off by this thundering resignation by mattis. this resignation is going to echo much more profoundly than any of the resignations before it. it startled republicans on capitol hill. you had mitch mcconnell putting out a statement in support of mattis, nothing in support of trump in that statement. people should be reading that mattis statement. people will be reading it for

years to come. there wasn't a single word of praise for the president, but there was a rebuke of his policies, a rebuke of his world view. now you have this presidency that even before the mattis news yesterday was really, really on shaky ground. he's under fire from republicans on the hill, from conservatives on fox news. he has a very thin staff. he doesn't have his new chief of staff in place. so we really, in what has been an extremely volatile the presidency, this has been the most volatile moment. >> so take us inside the white house. what are your sources tell us about the mood in the white house? >> chaos, right? there's obviously the camp that loves trump and loves the fight, but even i think that camp seems pretty unnerved. there is so much hitting them simultaneously. then they look at that stock market and they see it going down, down, down, so there's not a lot to cling to and say, hey, things are going quite well.

and the in-fighting is getting quite worse. mick mulvaney, the incoming chief of staff, we have two sourc sources telling us the president was on capitol hill yesterday dogging him saying you know this guy says i'm a terrible human being. this guy hasn't even started and he already had problems with john kelly who is the outgoing chief of staff. >> so speaking of departures, let's talk about that jim mattis' resignation, if you will. what does his exit say or signal about president trump's views on the middle east and where his policy may be heading? we know he's announced the syria withdrawal. we know there are plan toes withdrawal troops from afghanistan. it's not a view shared by people in the pentagon. >> yeah, but people shouldn't be shocked. the president has been saying for some time that he doesn't think we should be in afghanistan, doesn't think we should be in syria. he speaks with crude language about what he thinks about those

countries and also feels like there's not a lot that the u.s. military can do to make a difference in these places that have been a mess for a long time. so a lot of people in the military, obviously, disagree with him, but he said this on the campaign trail. it shouldn't be a shock to people, even though it was to mattis who tried to make this last ditch effort to say come oo on, please don't do it this abruptly. so you have this disagreement between him and the pentagon that's getting worse. by the way, it's going to complicate his abilities to find a replacement. most officials that would want to be the secretary would probably side with mattis. >> stick around. to all of our viewers out there, sign up for that newsletter by going to signup.axios.com. >> that does it for us on this

friday morning. >> what a week. >> what a week. "morning joe," moments away. you have leaders, great leaders who have left the administration in dismay and the left of them have left in disgrace. that's what this administration has been about. we don't want to be fear monkers in terms of our country. this great country the can with stand just about anything. but it shouldn't have to. it shouldn't have to. there's -- yes. i am shaken by the resignation of general mattis, for what it means to our country, for the message it sends to our troops. and for the indication of what his view is of the commander in chief. >> the dow plunged again, nearly 500 points, erasing all of this year's sgans. t the u.s. government is set to