headquarte headquarters, and our coverage will span over the top of the hour, because the top of the hour brings us the partial government shutdown, both sides of the leadership unable to reach a solution earlier today. so, we'll be back in just a moment with that. and thank you for being here with us. we're live from nbc news headquarters in new york. we'll join the rachel maddow program shortly. we're just past midnight on the east coast, we're at the start of the third government shutdown of this presidency. with nothing to stop it, it's now official, a partial shutdown of the federal government, a memo came out of the federal government warning this. hundreds of thousands of federal government workers are now officially facing furloughs, and

the president is threatening this could be a long shutdown. for the latest reporting, we're joined by halle jackson, and garrett hake. halle, i presume there's been no movement, not a peep out of the white house. and now into this shutdown we slide. >> you're correct in the peep situation. not one from here at the white house other than the president's video that was produced by the white house, put out earlier tonight, in which the president said he hoped this shutdown will not last long. but the expectation is, we're in this thing now for probably the next 48 hours or so. i'll tell you this. we heard from senator lindsey graham, who said he just got off the phone with the president at about 10:00 p.m., 11:15 p.m. or so. he did deliver a message to the

president on the airwaves which we can assume he delivered over the phone. dig in, don't back down. graham talking about how there is some room talking about $1.6 billion and $5 million, some negotiating room. but i'm told the president is insisting he wants more than $1.6 billi 1.$1.6 billion. anything less will be seen as a washout. democrats don't want to give the president that kind of money. it's a stalemate, mulvaney says the conversations are still ongoing. but it's a tbd, and they'll be there tomorrow talking this through. lots of question marks as the president remains here in washington tonight. he will not be heading to mar-a-lago as he usually does

over the holidays. >> and the first lady and barron trump are there already. and now, let's go to garrett hake, a very sparsely populated u.s. capitol. i think the phrase is, they've all been given time away to the capitol, but subject to the call of the chair. >> that's right. nobody is coming back until they know they have a deal that the president will support. and that's the big thing here. both houses of congress have passed something in the last two days. and leadership in both houses have learned the hard way what can and cannot be done. the house passed a bill with $5 million for the wall, relatively comfortably, proving nancy pelosi wrong, proving that republicans did have the votes to pass that in the house. that bill went less than nowhere in the senate.

we learned it doesn't have 50 votes in the senate. earlier today, the president was talking about using the so-called nuclear option to lower the threshold to 50 votes on legislative business. that was never going to happen in the first place. but it took a little bit of wheeling and dealing to get this to 47-47, as the case turned out to be, so that mike pence could break a tie and continue discussions. those will be ongoing, but it's tough to see how they get fruitful. democrats just don't feel a lot of pressure here. pelosi will take control of the gavel of the speaker of the house the first week of january. the math is such that this can't move through the senate without democratic help. but the reality is, republicans are left holding the bag. the president controls the white house, and republicans still control both chambers in the congress. and for the president to be saying that $1.6 billion, which

was on offer a week ago, isn't enough, he wants more than that. that was never what he requested during the entire appropriations process up to this point. either way, it's not going to happen, despite the advice of folks like lindsey graham telling the president to dig in. republicans don't have a plan to long term win this fight. their plan got them this far, but it's totally unclear how they think they can win this, other than just hope the democrats give up and decide to cut a deal. >> always fun when a neighboring correspondent starts talking in a loud voice when you're trying to talk to us. garrett and halle, thank you both for the late-night update. we're joined by peter baker, staying up with us.

i juwant to begin with a tweet t up by heather jacobs, trump has discussed with firiing jerome powell, after this week's rate increase and months of stock market losses. advisers say they don't know if he will go through with it, but he wants to. and presidents never discuss the fed or chairs of the fed, powell replaced janet yellen. this president has been all over the fed, trying to blame fed and rate hikes for part of the market troubles. and i suppose we should take this for what it is. >> things that used to be considered out of bounds or off the reservation are perfectly

acceptable to this president. the idea, as you say, of trying to publicly even threaten the federal reserve was once unthinkable, now it's part of the course. and he's at war with his own people, with powell, who he appointed as chair of the federal reserve. he's at war with jim mattis, who is leaving now, saying that we clearly don't share the same values. he's at war, to some extent, with his own republicans on capitol hill, with the decision to withdraw troops from afghanist afghanistan. and we're seeing two different sides of the republican fissure, with graham telling him don't cave in, and the other republicans who voted to open the government until february and deal with it then. so, it's really quite a remarkable situation for the end of the year.

not a lot of peace, love, and joy. >> and the president tweeted out a video shot in the white house, complete with threatening video of would-be immigrants coming into the united states. also complete with the president's new definition of the fortification he's looking to build on our southern border. >> it's very dangerous out there. drugs are pouring in. human trafficking, so many different problems, including gangs like ms-13. we don't want them in the united states. we don't want them in our country. the only thing that's going to stop that is great border security. with a wall, or a slat fence, or whatever you want to call it. >> peter, i guess it's going to be a slat fence, and we focus the attention of our viewers and what's missing there. what's missing are the presence

of reporters and questions. any give and take. these are videos produced and pushed out that exist as his take on the subject. >> exactly right. social media gives him a chance to get his message out without having to worry about the media calling into question or asking him what his options might be. he didn't choose to engage earlier when he did appear before reporters, signing a bill on criminal justice. and the criminal justice bill is a stark reminder of the cost of this kind of fight. for the first time in his presidency, he had a bipartisan victory today, almost going unnoticed because of the fights he's having. >> a true bipartisan bill signed into law. peter, our thanks for staying up for us, as we pass into the third government shutdown of this presidency. stay with us for the very latest on this shutdown. thank you for being with us. for us, good night from nbc news

headquarters in new york. rachel maddow will begin after a quick break. ick break.while youe to support the heavier you, your roof struggles to support the heavier me. [laughter] whoo. [crash] and your cut-rate insurance might not pay for this. so get allstate, you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. mayhem is everywhere. so get an allstate agent. are you in good hands? so shark invented duo clean. while deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll picks up large particles, gives floors a polished look, and fearlessly devours piles. duo clean technology, corded and cord-free.

and fearlessly devours piles. ♪ ♪ this holiday season, families near you need your help. visit redcross.org now to donate.

this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today.

let us start with a simple thing. let us start with a news development that's almost pure in its simplicity and straightforwardness and crystal clear implications for what should happen and what likely will happen next. i find this comforting, as a news story, this is kind of perfect. like a pecan pie is perfect or a sunrise. today, this news story has been my order in the midst of chaos. ready to becalm yourself with me right now? right now, the white house chief of staff is john kelly. he's the second white house chief of staff in less than two years. he replaced the first one, reince priebus, but now mr. kelly has been fired just as reince priebus was and so now a third white house chief of staff will be coming in soon, john kelly is expected to leave his post in january. when he initially took over his job, he came over from the department of homeland security where trump had appointed him to

be homeland security secretary, when he came over to be chief of staff, he brought with him a young staffer who worked with him very closely at homeland security. his name is zach fuentes and zach fuentes is 36 years old. and when john kelly left homeland security, became the new white house chief of staff, he brought zach fuentes with him and gave zach fuentes a really good job. mr. fuentes became deputy white house chief of staff, which sounds like a big deal. that is a big job in its own right. but because of the way zach fuentes got the deputy chief of staff job, because of his close association with john kelly, now that john kelly has been fired there is a widespread expectation that deputy chief of staff zach fuentes will also have to go, too. this is a placid news story. it's almost normal. even when the scandal part kicks in it's still kind of a normal scandal.

it's at least a very knowable, very simple scandal. according to the "new york times" today, even though there have been these widespread expectations that zach fuentes would leave the administration when kelly does, mr. fuentes has been working on an alternate plan. quote, mr. fuentes told colleagues that after his mentor john kelly left his job as chief of staff at the end of the year, he would, quote, hide out at the eisenhower executive office building adjacent to the white house for six months. why would the deputy white house chief of staff want to hide at the eisenhower executive office building and specifically for six months? the timing is crucial. according to the "times," mr. fuentes wanted to hide out for six months, quote, remaining on the payroll, in a nebulous role. meaning he wouldn't have much work to do but then, quote, in july after his six months of

hiding out he would hit his 15-year benchmark for his service in the coast guard because while mr. fuentes has been serving as deputy white house chief of staff he also has been an active duty coast guard officer and if this plan of his works, if he could successfully hide out and stay on the payroll even if he didn't have a job for six more months after john kelly leaves in january, that would put zach fuentes on track to hit the 15-year mark at the coast guard and that would allow him to, quote, take advantage of an early retirement program at the coast guard. and it might have worked. he might have been able to burrow into the paneling and stay for six months with nobody noticing that his boss was gone and he was no longer doing anything if he could just hit that 15-year benchmark, essentially into the retirement at the coast guard, he could retire at the age of 37, boom, right? excellent.

just one problem with this plan. quote, the program, referred to as temporary early retirement authority, had lapsed for coast guard officers at the end of the 2018 fiscal year, which totally screws up this plan, right? it's one thing if he's going to burrow in, but now he would have to do that for five years. that would be harder. so, put yourself in mr. fuentes' shoes. if this was your scam, if this was your plan, what would you do when confronted with the terrible fly in the ointment, that that early retirement program is gone. here is what mr. fuentes did. quote, administration officials say mr. fuentes discussed the early retirement program with officials at the department of homeland security. in november, department of homeland security officials

began pressing congress to reinstate the retirement program. and again, it almost worked. just this past month the coast guard packaged together a package of small tweaks and changes that they hoped would quietly pass through congress without any controversy. little technical matters, little fixes, put colons in there that should be semicolons, we have to clean that up before it's official law. but when it came to the early retirement program, the justification why the coast guard needed to revive and reinstate that program was, quote, the need for parity with other armed forces. we need to stay equal, we can't let this lapse. the proposed extension came with what appeared to be a sense of urgency. quote, they also told the policy

writers there might be an immediate need for the early retirement authority and that it would be used at most for ten individuals. well, one guy named zach and a few others. i don't know if there's a few others. maybe just him. apparently, this didn't raise any red flags at all with the republican-controlled congress. quote, representative bill schuster of pennsylvania, the retiring chairman of the infrastructure committee accepted the requested changes and this week introduced legislation that would codify them into law. psych! that means he got the retirement program extended. this means zach is going to get to retire at 37. all he has to do is hide under a desk for six months without anybody noticing he's on the payroll, and then he'll get to retire. it was on track. bill schuster. totally going to work until

somebody narced out zach and so now, thanks to the "new york times" reporters meddling, it's fallen apart. house lawmakers were preparing to push the package through the chamber on wednesday but, confronted with questions about the early retirement extension, they decided to pull just that provision to ensure that the rest of the technical changes could become law. perhaps my favorite part of all of this is the bull pucky supposed argument about why this change at the coast guard was no big deal and the coast guard needed to extend this program right away just for a few officers, just as a technical matter. the argument that they would need to do that, that they needed to have parity with the other arms services, with the other services in the military, apparently nobody in congressman schuster's office nor congressman schuster himself, nobody googled that, nobody fact checked that argument. because the coast guard reinstating that sweet early retirement program turns out

would not give them parity with the other services. the u.s. army, in fact, ended that exact same program last year. and got a bunch of headlines for it. so when somebody snuck in and said, mm, coast guard needs to do this to match up with the army is doing, i'm sure that sounded good in theory, but literally just google it. just google it. google army early retirement program and this is what pops up. literally, yeah, the army just got rid of that. but apparently congressman schuster's office didn't google it. wasn't bothered. didn't see anything wrong with this at all. so, bottom line, this story in the "new york times," this scoop from the "times," is that the white house deputy chief of staff may have been involved in a hamfisted county clerk embezzlement style scheme to change u.s. law and the policies of the u.s. coast guard just for a minute, just for him specifically to give himself a sweet early retirement plan.

and he almost did it, except now he has been caught. and this is what counts for beauty right now in american national politics because you can tell this kind of corruption story, you wouldn't even need the length of an afterschool special. this one you can just tell as a paid public service announcement, in your civics textbook, when you get to the chapter on public corruption, subsection self-dealing, this could be a shaded sidebar. it's pocket sized. we even know how this ends. i don't know in this white house if trying to pull off a scam like this amounts to a firing offense. it's possible, in this white house, this is one of the things you do to prove yourself. this is how you get your bones and then you can move up once you pulled up a scam like this. but the democratic party is

about to take over congress, which means republican congressman bill schuster's house committee which implicated itself in this scam by almost letting it happen, that committee is is now the transportation and infrastructure committee, won't be headed up by schuster, it will be headed up by a democratic pit bull named peter di fazio who we contacted today. we have not heard back from him but we will let you know if we do. but if what happened is a pocket-sized platonic ideal of corruption and self-dealing from the white house deputy chief of staff, presumably this will be a matter of investigation under that committee when it gets its new leadership in a couple of weeks. presumably they will investigate it and fix it and if there's a crime here they will make a criminal referral for prosecution. so, this is how i relax now. this is what counts as my happy place. it's like a relaxing, comforting turn in the news these days.

you know how people upload little gifs of hedgehogs eating kernels of corn, this is the equivalent. just zone out and think about this for a while. oh, garden variety potential criminal corruption at the highest levels of the white house staff. ah. that feels like a place of rest right now, which is telling about what else is going on right now in the news. we expected to be getting on the air tonight without a clear story to tell about whether the entire federal government was going to shut down at midnight. we expected to be covering ongoing wrangling and negotiations and last-minute votes. that's not the circumstaces we are in because around dinner time east coast time tonight the senate decided, yeah, we all know this thing will shut down anyway, why stay up late, we're old guys. so there will be a partial government shutdown that initiates as of midnight tonight when funding for the government runs out.

because there is no deal, there is no $5 billion for the president to build a wall or moat or steel slats or a decorative pergola on the long southern land border between our country and mexico. there's no deal. senate has gone home. the house will convene tomorrow at midday. it's possible they will pass something could shorten the shutdown, which means there are important questions to ask to figure out how long the shutdown is likely to last but there are no questions left about whether we are going to have a shutdown. we will in fact have one. we will have more on that coming up shortly. i will say, though, that the whole reason we are going through this ridiculous exercise is so the president won't be embarrassed when he watches the fox news channel and they remind him about his campaign promises in which he said he was going to build a wall. i will just point out if that

will be the basis on which we shut down the federal government, there is an issue his campaign promised, remember, was technically that mexico was going to pay for the wall, right? if this whole fight right now was about whether mexico was going to shut down their government rather than pay for the wall, that would be relevant to his previous campaign promises on this. he never promised i'll build the wall and u.s. taxpayers are going to pay for it and democrats will vote for it. that wasn't the campaign promise. that wasn't even what he said he could do. but the other part of this is, he has a new incoming white house chief of staff. zach is on his way to burrowing into the paneling but john kelly is on his way out. supposedly, the new guy who's going to be running the white house staff is this guy mick mulvaney. the director of the office of management and budget. former south carolina republican congressman. well, it does not signify the kind of commitment and united front and true belief you need

to blindly follow a fairly insane nonrational policy insistence like the one we have right now if you have a white house chief of staff who is on record saying this about the whole idea of a wall. >> donald trump says build a wall, deport all illegal immigrants, rules are rules, you either play and stay or cheat and get deported. what challenges does this plan pose? >> a bunch. i've never been in the boxcar caucus, you know, ship them home in boxcars and let the lord sort them out. the fence is an easy thing to sell politically. it's an easy thing for someone who doesn't follow the issue closely to say, oh, well, that will solve everything, build a fence. but to just say build the darn fence and have that be the end of an immigration discussion is absurd and almost childish for someone running for president to take that simplistic view. it's easy to tell people what they want to here.

it's pablum that politicians tell people to get them to vote for them. >> it seems donald trump is trying to really win the emotional support of people. >> but just to appeal to somebody's emotion to say vote for me because i'm as angry as you are doesn't solve the problem. >> that was a 2015 interview from incoming white house chief of staff mick mulvaney. that was first posted nationally by andrew kaczynski at cnn. but if the president says he's going to get not just a shutdown but a big, long shutdown over this issue of not getting his wall, i think what's supposed to happen is that he will get his new white house chief of staff who is on record saying while donald trump is running for president, mick mulvaney is on the record as saying this idea

of selling building a wall is calling it pablum, absurd and almost childish for somebody running for president to be proposing something that simplistic. he's the guy who's going to run the white house and organize everything during what the president is hoping and rooting for to be a long shutdown specifically over the issue of him not getting his wall. but the shutdown is going to happen. our closest allies around the world spent the day reeling in response to the surprise protest resignation of defense secretary james mattis last night. the united states supreme court today, in a 5-4 ruling, brushed back president trump on one of his policy changes that was designed to make it impossible for anyone to seek asylum in this country. on the normal day, the big headline about that ruling would be that chief justice john roberts joined the more liberal judges on the court to come up with that 5-4 majority but today the headline out of that ruling other than the ruling itself is

that liberal justice ruth bader ginsburg had to cast that vote just before she went into the hospital for surgery today. she is 85 years old. we will have more on that coming up. but on days like this when it feels like the foundations are a little shaky i believe we can take comfort in the little things. like a nutshell-able case study style self-enrichment public corruption scam, old school style, involving the deputy white house chief of staff. that makes sense, right? i know how that ends. in terms of order and the rule of law and things proceeding one foot in front of the other in terms of how our government operates, even if the government does shut down for an extended period starting tonight, law enforcement doesn't shut down. law enforcement is considered critical. and the special counsel's office

will also not shut down in a federal government shutout. there's been a whole bunch of interesting court filings related to the mueller investigation today. we'll have more on that coming up. but the mueller investigation, the special counsel's office, again, will not shut down in the shutdown. let us also take comfort in the science of good reporting, as well. surason. ehhh. so when i say, "drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of $412," you probably won't believe me. hey, actor lady whose scene was cut. hi. but you can believe this esurance employee, nancy abraham. seriously, send her an email and ask her yourself.

no emails... no emails. when insurance is affordable, it's surprisingly painless. what sore muscles? what with advpounding head? .. advil is... relief that's fast. strength that lasts. you'll ask... what pain? with advil.

♪ ♪ connecting people... ...uniting the world. ♪♪

yesterday, we learned that an official told matt whitaker that he should recuse himself from overseeing the mueller investigation, and we also learned that he decided not to take that ethics advice, and instead cleared himself to oversee the investigation. tonight, we have a new headline, which gives us some insight in what president trump may be expecting whitaker to do.

this headline from cnn, trump lashed out at whitaker after cohen revelations. special prosecutors filing charges that made trump look bad, none of the sources suggested that the president directed whitaker to stop the investigation, but lashed out at what he felt was an unfair situation. the president made his displeasure clear to acting attorney general matt whitaker after that happen. then, he voiced his anger after officials manhattan officially implicated the president 234 a hush money scheme to buy the silence of women around the 2016. trump wondering why there wasn't

more being done to control the prosecutors who brought the charges in the first place. this, arising, as we know that the mueller investigation and law enforcement generally will not be shut down during the challenge shutdown. but this the happening against the incredibly dramatic backdrop of a friday before christmas federal government shutdown. senator, thank you very much for being with us. >> good evening, rachel. >> i'm sorry you're still at work. >> well, so are you. >> thanks. but they usually need me here this hour. what's your understanding of what's going on with the shutdown right now? >> it's going to happen. because the president at the 11th hour, listened to fox news and the right wing loudmouths that accused him of being a

liar, after the senate took a vote, at the last minute, he throws a wrench into the works, saying i'm not going to sign this until i get the $5 billion for my wall. but you have the tape, if there's a shutdown, i'll take full responsibility. but he's not at all, which is par for the course with this president. >> and the blame is part of the way we keep score, the way we ascribe blame, both in the moment and in history. but as we head towards it, i think mostly what people are thinking and wondering right now is, is there a way out? for the president to have staked this shutdown, not just on generally getting more of what he wants on immigration or on the wall, but specifically, $5

billion for the wall or bust, that very specific line, when we know he's not going to get it makes it hard for me to imagine when the shutdown will end. >> the ball is in the president's court. he knows he's not getting $5 billion for the wall from the senate, and at this point, even from the house. he has to face certain realities and take responsibility, which we know he has a very hard time doing. this is totally, it should have been totally avoidable. but he is a person who, at the last minute, came in after the senate already voted to keep government running, and for the house to follow suit. he jumps in and says, i need $5 billion. this is crazy. who will be hurt? all the people who will be furloughed, it is a partial f l furlough, but there a lot of

people who will not be getting paid. i have signed on to a bill that would provide for retroactive pay for those losing work, and for all those furloughed through no fault of their own, and this, on the eve of a holiday. appare apparently, president trump could care less about the damage he's doing, but this is all of a piece. he's had a pretty rough couple of days. first of all, he pulls us out of syria, giving a tremendous christmas present to syria and to iran. he's getting whacked for that from the right. and all of this without consulting with secretary mattis. and him creating a government shutdown. i see a president who, under even normal circumstances, he's very unreliable. but he's in meltdown mode.

the only wall that is real is the one that is closing in on him. >> and on that point, and the other things that are going on, i did mention the cnn reporting that the president reportedly has been calling and yelling at the acting attorney general, matt whitaker, pressuring him on why he's not reining in prosecutors related to the president and his inner circle. what is your reaction to that? >> the president will lash out at anybody he thinks is not protecting him adequately. the president is already being looked at for obstruction of justice, and now, is he actually wanting the attorney general to go in there and also obstruct justice by doing certain things and getting involved in prosecutions? i find that apalling, but it's par for the course for this

president. and the nominee, barr, who also, in my view, auditioned for this position by writing this very long missive that questioned certain parts of the mueller investigation. >> senator hirono of hawaii, who is at work tonight, thank you for your time. i know it's been a very long day. we have much more tonight. do stay with us.

♪ ♪ ♪ this holiday season, families near you need your help. visit redcross.org now to donate. sometimes you need an expert. i got it. and sometimes those experts need experts. on it. [ crash ] and sometimes the expert the expert needed needs insurance expertise. it's all good. steve, you're covered for general liability. and, paul, we got your back with workers' comp. wow, it's like a party in here. where are the hors d'oeuvres, right? [ clanking ] tartlets? we cover commercial vehicles, too. i think there's something wrong with your sink. we cover commercial vehicles, too.

shaquem get in here. take your razor, yup. alright, up and down, never side to side, shaquem. you got it? come on, get back. quem, you a second behind your brother, stay focused. can't nobody beat you, can't nobody beat you. hard work baby, it gonna pay off. you got this. with the one hundred and forty-first pick, the seattle seahawks select. alright, you got it, shaquem. alright, let me see. the question that probably 70% of america wants to know the answer to, that would be the 70% who offered you their body parts and organs in case you needed them. how is your health? >> it's fine, thank you. >> and those ribs you busted? >> almost repaired. >> that's good.

>> she went on to ask her, have you gone back to your trainer. and justice ginsburg said she went back immediately after the fall, but initially she could only do legs. but that was back to her full routine. that was five days ago, speaking with nina totenberg after breaking three ribs last month. what we didn't know at that event five days ago, she was about to go in for fairly serious surgery today. this morning in new york city, doctors removed a portion of her left lung, containing two cancerous growths. tonight, we hear she's resting comfortably, and will remain in the hospital for a few days. doctors say the nodules were cancerous, but there's no evidence of cancer anywhere else. she's 85 years old, has already

survived a bout with colon and pancreas cancer. and she has a stint put into her artery. but she's never missed oral arguments in her 25-plus year on the court. the next oral arguments are in january. joining us now is julie cohen, she co-directed the film "rbg." thank you for being here. do you have anything that you can tell us in terms of people close to the justice, anything about her current status? >> i heard from a close family member late this afternoon, she did well, it went well through the surgery and the doctors told her afterward that they have every reason to be optimistic.

optimism is kind of a hallmark of justice ginsburg's life. she'll take everything optimistically. and it's served her well. >> this is not something she knew but coming for a long while. but the fall in which she broke her ribs was in early november. >> that's right. >> and it seems like, correct me if the timing is wrong, but it seems like in assessing her after that injury, that's when they checked the nodules. she went through these few weeks, but now -- i have a colleague who was on the shuttle flight with her from d.c. to new york yesterday and said she was fine, working the whole time. five days ago, no indication that anything was up. she had to know she was going in for this surgery, though. >> that's right. it's been a little while. take note of the timing. she waited until the friday before a long holiday to go in for surgery, presumably with the

thought, i should get this medical stuff out of the way over the holidays so i can be back on january 7th. that's sort of standard for her. through her previous bouts with cancer. >> okay. >> she had a pattern, something that she took from justice o'connor, who had done the same thing with her breast cancer. get chemo on friday, so you have the weekend to rest up, and hopefully you're back for arguments on monday. it's a tough way to approach a huge medical problem like this. >> and talk about being conscious of a country needing you. in your experience, in terms of working on the film and all the interactions that you had with her, all of which have been since she's been in her 80s, what do you see in terms of her stamina? i've never met her. obviously, she's a person who is very small in stature, but she's never missed a day. we know she works out with a trainer all the time. what did you see in terms of her energy level?

>> it's like nothing i've ever seen in my life. the inclination and the enthusiasm to work, to talk, to experience, to keep going, is just huge. we would have days of shooting where we're filming parts of an interview, some footage, going with her to an opera, to film some of that. she wants to, after that, go out to dinner and then go back to her hotel, read up. and her trainer calls her a cyborg. and, you know, i think he's not kidding around when he says that. there are elements of that. >> if she is in fact a cyborg, and he's on to something, that means we should set her up with a multiple lifetime set of spare parts. thoughts and prayers for her. julie cohen, thanks for helping

us get some insight into this. >> great to be here. >> thanks a lot. still ahead, a mystery development in a russian meddling case, i'm slightly obsessed with it. that story is next. hi. this is peggy. (vo) you do more than rescue pets when you share the love. you build families. get a new subaru, like the all new forester, and charities like the aspca can receive two hundred and fifty dollars from subaru. (avo) get zero percent during the subaru share the love event.

♪ ♪ i can do more to lower my a1c. because my body can still make its own insulin. and i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release it, like it's supposed to. trulicity is not insulin. it comes in a once-weekly, truly easy-to-use pen. and it works 24/7. trulicity is an injection to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. don't use it as the first medicine to treat diabetes, or if you have type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take trulicity if you or your family

have medullary thyroid cancer, you're allergic to trulicity, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of a serious allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, or severe stomach pain. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases your low blood sugar risk. common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and decreased appetite. these can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. to help lower my a1c i choose trulicity to activate my within. ask your doctor about once-weekly trulicity.

we reported about a court fight for defense lawyers for maria butina and federal prosecutors in her case. they asked the court to lift a gag order the judge imposed in

her case because butina pled guilty. they said, she's pled guilty and there's no reason to ban everybody in the case from making public statements now since there isn't going to be a jury trial. she's pled guilty. there's not going to be a trial. there's no potential jurors out there that are going to be tainted by any public comments they might hear about this matter. prosecutors argued the opposite. they said actually, judge, keep the gag order in place. we know butina has pled guilty so there's not going to be a trial for her, but then prosecutors intriguingly raised the prospect of the need to protect trials for any potential future defendants. prosecutors referenced pending or imminent litigation connected to the matter. and they italicized the word imminent. it would safeguard the rights of any potential defendants that may later be charged in connection with this matter, especially if any other person is charged as a result of the defendant's cooperation. tell me more about these other potential defendants related to

the maria butina case who may be charged particularly on the basis of her cooperation. tell me more. that was wednesday. that fight between the government and the prosecutors. the government saying the case isn't just about her being indicted. the defense saying please lift the gag order, it's just about her. today, the judge made her decision and lifted the gag order in the maria butina case. which means a couple of things. it means we're probably going to hear more public information from people associated with this case, including presumably the lawyers. but it also raises interesting questions about whether there are potential other defendants related to her case that aren't her or not. watch this case.

>> it is official. tonight at midnight, parts of the federal government shut down, after leaders could not agree, we are in the third government shutdown this year. it affects nine departments, including those who oversee homeland security, law enforcement and transportation and hundreds of thousands of federal employees. if it dragos for days or weeks the tone in washington for most of friday had been tense to say the