welcome back to "up." i'm kristen welker in for david gura. the u.s. is in the partial day of the shutdown. two members resigned over an impulsive foreign policy decision on syria. and the president finding himself halfway through his term with an increasingly sense of isolation. for trump, a war every day waged increasingly alone, that's the headline from "the new york times." when president trump grows frustrated with advisers during meetings he sits back in his chair, crosses his arm and scowls. often he erupts quote freaking idiots he calls his aides except he uses a more pungent word than freaking. now the war he's waging against

his own government has reached a crescen crescendo. the government will remain partially closed at least until thursday. meanwhile, the president's decision to pull out of syria has prompted two resignations. the defense secretary and now the top u.s. envoy in the fight against isis calling it quits. "the washington post" dubbing it a rogue presidency in the latest headline. quote, trump will enter the third year as president unbound at war with his perceived enemies, determined to follow through on the hard-line promises of his insurgent campaign. the question this morning -- how much longer can the president sustain this isolation without doing damage to the foreign policy? joining me is the editor of above the law. a comedian and a host of the gist podcast and kimberly atkins washington bureau chief for "the boston globe" and danny is a

vallos. but first, to geoff bennett who is working morning, noon and night to track the fast moving developments. to first play a clip, geoff, of the incoming chief of staff, mick mulvaney, addressing the border wall. we don't have this yet, so geoff, give us a sense what is the state of play there? you're there with the president. he was supposed to be at mar-a-lago today. now that's canceled. >> yeah, that was. look there are no outward signs of horse trading between the white house and the democrats at this point. what makes this so significant, none of the conventional wisdom holds. the normal political strategy of a shutdown holds that a president relents when faced with a shutdown because the president typically care about the government looking competent and capable and carrying out what is a basic function of the job, keeping the government running as a means of providing for the safety and security of the american people. but donald trump is a decidedly different case. this is the third shutdown on

his watch and in part because he picks fights that aren't always tactical. but that are always aimed at shoring up his political standing with his base. and border security we know is the key issue from which donald trump derives this connection to his core supporters. that approach is what prompted some members of his own party, chief among them, mitch mcconnell, to walk away feeling burned by the president at times. mcconnell thought trump undercut the negotiations this past week and mcconnell wasn't at that strategy lunch the president held yesterday at the white house yesterday. that's why we find ourselves in the unusual situation. you have you know no public signs of negotiations between trump and democrats that will get the government running again. >> geoff, let's just remind our viewers of how we got here and it speaks to the points that you were just making. we all assumed that there was a deal coming together. that was the sense on capitol hill. that was the sense at the white house. that it was going to be a

short-term deal, it would keep the government open through february and then the president started hearing from his base. conservative commentators on fox news. ann coulter speaking out and the like. how did we get here? >> and remember the build the wall was the -- was the call-in response of the 2016 donald trump campaigns. it was mitch mcconnell who told reporters in the halls of the senate there would be a cr and that we would avert a shutdown. that was a few days ago and then you had the conservative figures who got under the president's skin and made him think he was caving. to accept anything other than a medieval style of concrete wall stretching to the heavens was a capitulation and he backed off and democrats said all along they wanted to no part of that. it's not just about the wall. the wall democrats believe is the physical representation of donald trump's anti-immigrant, xenophobic approach. that is why this has always been

the third rail of our current politics. >> and no indication that democrats have any motivation to compromise because they're going to have control of the house in just a few days. geoff bennett, great reporting, keep it up. thanks so much. we're getting our first readout of what mick mulvaney is telling abc news this morning that he and vice president mike pence met with democratic and republican leaders on capitol hill to talk shutdown negotiations. saying quote, we gave them an offer late yesterday, abandoned and we're waiting to here -- yesterday afternoon, i should say and we're waiting to hear back. to break this all down, the panel is here. kimberly, i want to start with you. a lot of people are just sort of stunned that lawmakers seem to throw up their hands and went home for the holidays. how is this impasse going to break? >> well, it's up to the president really. as you said the democrats have zero incentive to move on this at all.

they made it clear they're not interested in this border wall connecting that to this funding bill. and the president is the one who at the late hour when it seemed there was an agreement it seemed like everyone was ready to go away for the holidays was the one who have the stopper here. recall the same thing happened with daca when we had the broader immigration bill that came together, it seemed there was a deal. border wall funding, daca put back in place and at the last minute the president reminded by an adviser that his base saw this deal as amnesty and he could not back it or his base would revolt. he walked away at the last minute and something similar here and we have a shutdown. >> she mentioned the base originally it wasn't supposed to be taxpayers paying for the ball and it was supposed to mexico. that fell through. now there's an offer of $1.6 trillion. trump could have declared victory. okay, i'm building a wall. it may be about 50 to 60 yards

but there's your wall. >> part of a wall. >> i win. then everyone support me and we'll move on to something else. >> now he has reneged on that campaign promise any way you look at it. >> democrats have no incentive to compromise because trump is not trying to compromise. trump is a 3-year-old rolling around on in the shopping mall floor saying i want a wall, i want a wall. any parent worth their salt knows what you do in that situation is that you let him cry it out. if trump wanted to behave like an adult all right, there is probably a compromise to be made. mine would be okay, rescind your racist muslim ban, rescind your racist tps protection ban, get back to protecting all the legal ways that people can emigrate into this country, then we can talk about your racist monument wall. >> so to that point, we're looking at a tweet from trump from 2013 where he wrote, leadership, whatever happens you're responsible. if it doesn't happen, you're

responsible. >> it's a tweet for everything. >> there's a tweet for everything. >> right. 2013 was the year there was a shutdown under obama. one thing that geoff said usually presidents want to end the shutdown because they want to show that government is competent. i don't think that's -- almost everything that geoff said was really insightful but i disagree with that on partisan grounds. clinton and obama dealt with one, democratic presidents want to be competent and i think reagan did and george h.w. bush did. i don't think the republican party not being the party of responsible government working for you cares about that. i know that trump endorses chaos. he needs chaos. it's all he has going for him. so he can throw some sand in people's eyes and maybe to his base he might -- >> so you bring me to next point which is the big picture right now and how the president is governing right now as we head into 2019. this is from maggie haberman and peter baker, the president who wants declared i alone can fix

the system increasingly stands alone and in the spiraling scandals, abrupt troop withdraufls and the resignation of the alienated defense secretary has left the impression of a presidency at risk of spinning out of control. kimberly, we have spoken about a lot of weeks of chaos and yet this week seems to stand alone. >> it does. there's been a slow leadup to this. from the beginning, we have seen this president who is -- does not like being told what to do. he gets very angry when members of his administration disagree with him. and then tends to replace those people with folks who tend to be more yes men, but even the yes men he doesn't like being perceived as doing what the yes men are telling him to do. he says i'm not a baby so increasingly we have seen him rely on himself. he is his own communications director. he's his own chief of staff, he's his own everything and this is a culmination of this, the

shutdown, the exit of secretary mattis. all of this is trump standing alone. he's created this problem. he may not like it when he's there and complain in private but this is what he's created. >> in fact, there were questions about whether he'd pick a chief of staff. it seems like mulvaney is that person. go ahead. >> i mean, it's spun out of control a long time ago. as al gore once said we're living in a time of consequences at this point. okay, there's no more -- the problem that we have is not so much that trump is acting differently. he's been like this. the problem that we have is that all of the people who should be responsible, all of the people who should stop him are in the republican party and they refuse to act that's when you you were saying earlier people are shocked that republicans threw up their hands and decided to go home. that's how they have been for two years, thrown up their hands. >> not everyone had -- and the defense secretary jim mattis was one of the people who could stand up to the president and now he's leaving. >> what's significant about

that, i came across a 2014 speech where he talked about what would take him as a general to resign, i don't want to resign because a lance corporal always has to say i, sir. i have to stand up for those guys. was it just the syria policy that made him resign or was it his idea, his belief that he's never going to get the president to say yes to him and the question is does this mean we will have worse governance or does this mean we'll have a more incompetent administration who can't get anything done? there are two ways to look at it. >> it's interesting because we have an answer to that in mattis' resignation letter. it's not just syria but the alienation of our allies abroad. it's interesting that trump and his team could probably turn that into a win for them by saying, oh, look, here's somebody who wants to increase our presence abroad. i'm looking to constrict it, to bring troops home and be more naturalistic, more isolationist

and that may appeal to his base. imagine that trump could possibly declare victory out of the jaws of mattis handing him what seems to be a pretty clear defeat. >> kimberly, let me give you the final word in this segment and speak to the chaos factor here. this is a candidate trump, right, who's campaigned frankly -- whose campaign was chaotic from beginning to end. yet, he won the white house. is it possible that there could be an effective strategy in here somewhere or has he run up against a wall, pardon the pun. >> i think both things can be true. i think his strategy comes down to what's best for him and what he thinks. i don't think it's much broader than that. he is running up against walls, real and metaphorically. because that is not the way -- when you bring that kind of strategy into a government, running a federal government it does not work. that's why we have seen that chaos from the moment that he walked into the white house january 20, 2017. >> all right. well, we are talking about james

mattis. coming up another resignation for team trump. this time one of the top officials in charge of fighting isis quits after disagreeing with the president. we'll take a closer look at that when we come right back after a quick break. 'cause that's no ordinary family. that's your family. which is why you didn't grab just any cheese. you picked up new kraft expertly paired cheddar and swiss for eggs. beat that! kraft. family greatly.

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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. this week two top administration leaders resigned over the president's decision to withdraw troops from syria. james mattis resigned in protest

on thursday speeding up his departure after originally planning to leave next spring. then brett mcgurk the envoy in charge of isis resigned on friday. it came after defending the u.s. troops on the ground in the region. >> so we know once the physical space is defeated we can't pick up and leave. there's clandestine cells, nobody is saying they're going to disappear. nobody is that naive. so we want to stay on the ground and make sure that stability can be maintained. >> we're talking about tiers? >> not going to put a time line on it at all. >> just to clear, it was mcgurk who remember set to leave later on, not mattis. joining us now, general mccaffrey a four star general and msnbc news analyst. i really appreciate you being here. >> great to be with you. >> your reaction to these two

departures? i mean, first you have the defense secretary and then mcgurk. what is the broader significance here of both of these departures? >> well, you know, listening to the discussion over the last couple of days, i'm reminded that this is not an inside the beltway issue. this is not a conversation, it's actually thousands of u.s. military troops on the ground in syria iraq, afghanistan, who are hearing foreign and national policy unroll on twitter. it's illogical. it's chaotic. and we're not coordinated with our allies so i think the bottom line to me is jim mattis didn't quit because -- you can make a rational argument for pulling the forces out of iraq, primarily with air power. but the problem was there's no coordination in our government, treasury, the defense, state

department, cia. no one is in charge out there and as we see kelly leaving now as chief of staff increasingly you have an erratic, impulsive president tweeting out decisions based on one-on-one conversations with foreign leaders like putin and erdogan and others. it is really astonishing and dangerous situation. >> so general mccaffrey, what could the way in which the president has handled this, everything that you just mapped out, the fact that it was so abrupt and not coordinated, could that have an impact on the troops who are currently serving in conflict zones like afghanistan? >> oh, of course. for god's sakes, you know, by the way, i was a captain serving with the three-man u.s. team in a vietnamese infantry battalion. i wouldn't want my allies to find out i was leaving over national media. so we have got special operators

out there with a -- with the kurds who are fighting our war for us out of their area. taking hundreds of casualties and then suddenly they're finding out their u.s. guys are leaving them in the lurch to the mercy of the turks or assad's murderous government and afghanistan which is an utter mess and we'd better sort out with congress what the strategy going forward is. but afghanistan, you don't want to tell the dispersed u.s. and nato forces are leaving. it's amateur hour and putting our people in great danger on the ground. >> general mccaffrey, kimberly atkins who here is on my panel here has a question for you. >> general, given what the point that you made about the lack of coordination in the government, the president -- the commander in chief commanding by tweet and the contents of general mattis'

resignation letter, who takes that job next? who can be convinced to step in and play the role at the head of the pentagon? >> well, kimberly, that's an important question. u.s. military 2.1 million men and women, active guard and reserve, deployed globally during conflict situations not just in syria and afghanistan. they're facing the chinese naval forces in the south china sea. you know, they're all listening who's at the helm? we have nine combatant commanders. i was one of them in the latin american region. the president of the united states and the secretary of defense, two civilians are the only ones authorized to give orders to the u.s. armed forces. so as jim mattis leaves and by the way his leverage is gone now, given that letter, you've got the president of the united

states and jared kushner and ivanka, i'm not trying to be insulting about this is this who is in in charge? i think a patriot will step forward -- by the way, some good news. the deputy secretary of defense pat shanahan we'll hear a lot more about his name experienced boeing technology executive. good service secretaries. the chairman dunford is an experienced combat commander, so we've still got a viable force. but there's chaos at the heart of the american government. >> on that point, mike, you had a question as well. >> yeah, general, you're a four star, we're a four star, so was mattis. among your fraternity out to the admirals is there a willingness to step up and do their duty if the president wants to draw from that pool of officers and former

officers? >> i wouldn't want to speak on the four star armed forces, active or retired but what's clear to me is that the uniform military won't quit. they're -- unless they're given illegal orders which is possible but they'll just -- they won't carry those out. i think the uniform military is solid. their culture is whoever the american people elect and trump is it, they'll follow his legal orders so we have no fear of that whatsoever. the question is who will come out as -- as a general statement the active military doesn't want generals running the defense department. we want a former governor, the president of a large university. someone hopefully who was a rotc air force lieutenant earlier. leon panetta, admirable. bill perry, one of the finest

people we ever had in the office. a draftee army soldier. we want civilians as a general statement running the department of defense. who in their right mind with a sense of dignity and accomplishment in life wants to step forward and join this administration? it's going to be very rough. >> general mccaffrey, thank you so much, it's such a consequential week not only for the country but for the implications for national security and foreign policy. we really appreciate your joining us to help us understand all of it. >> good to be with you, kristen. i want to bring the panel back in. we talk about the ripple effects, you heard the general lay out a number of them. but we keep going back to this word of u.s. allies. what is it going to mean for the allies? what is your biggest concern when you think about these departures? >> well, we look like idiots is the problem. right? and that's a big reason why

these people are resigning. right? as i think the general expertly laid out, you can make an argument for troop withdrawal. you can make an argument for the policy. what you can't make an argument for is embarrassing mattis in the way that he was embarrassed -- mcgurk stood up and saying in front of all of our people, look, we're not going to withdraw troops and two weeks later they're gone. mcgurk was embarrassed. that's why he's resigning early. that's one of the things that keeps happening with this administration. so i think trump should look at history about. if you look at caligula who was a roman emperor back in the day, he was crazy, he was having war against the sea, making all of these like ridiculous policy maneuvers. but when he started to insult people and when he started to insult the military personally, changing the watch words, making them like get seashells as

treasure, when he started insulting people he got himself into real trouble. that's what trump is is doing with the military he's insulting them. >> we went back to harding last segment and now caligula. >> you can't find an example of a defense secretary resigning in protest so this is a remarkable week indeed. and coming up, as if a failing economy and a government shutdown weren't enough of a year end gift it's looking like nancy pelosi and robert mueller may give president trump a rocky start to 2019. we'll look at that when we come back. that when we come back maria ramirez? hi. maria ramirez!

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i think the democrats hate trump so much they want him to lose even though it would be good for the country to work with him on border security. and if he doesn't break them now, it's going to be a terrible 2019. so mr. president, dig in. >> president trump ending 2018 with his government paralyzed by a shutdown and the calendar isn't looking much better for him when 2019 kicks off. we're 11 days away from the democrats taking over the house.

there you see nancy pelosi at the white house and then in february special counsel robert mueller is expected to release the report on his investigation handing it over to acting attorney general matt whitaker. all of this coming with new details that a mystery company working for an unknown foreign government wants to take a dispute with the special counsel all the way to the supreme court. the panel is back with me and kimberly, i have to start with you. what do you think president trump is most concerned about in the new year? it is nancy pelosi and the oversight from democrats or mueller or some combination in between? >> is all of the above an option? i think this white house is woefully unprepared for what's coming. i mean, the legal office is understaffed. the president is increasingly -- he has increasingly isolated himself and forget about the subpoenas. a lot of talk about the subpoenas coming out of congress and which ones. just the document requests, just the request to appear and testify before congress those

are going to be coming fast and furiously to everyone -- to so many people in the administration. former administration officials like ryan zinke, it's going to be an onslaught and this president when he feels attacked he strikes back and that's what we'll see. >> the president is chiefly concerned about the mueller probe. and really nothing else. in the beginning at least i believe he believed that hey, i have nothing to do with russia. i'm not concerned, have at it. but increasingly as mueller gets to michael cohen as he gets to other people in his circle, and as we can see from his tweets the president believes that if offered a deal, people will say anything and everything to avoid going to prison. so more and more, as trump sees the investigation spreads to his personal life and the way he conducted his personal business, he's increasingly becoming much more concerned because he knows that politically he can win or he can lose. when you lose in the criminal justice system you go to federal prison and that has him deeply concerned. although of course it's an open

question whether or not you can even prosecute a president. >> did it set the broader scene here, what can we tell if anything about where mueller is? i mean, we know there's chance that he could submit his report by february. are you expecting that to happen, are you expecting there to be any type of a showdown between the president's legal team and mueller's team over a sit down interview? >> my default position with the mueller probe is that no matter how close we may think it is to being completed, history tells us that it probably will going of longer. this is the largest white collar investigation ever by the department of justice, having handled much smaller criminal investigations by the department of justice i can tell you they can last many, many months, even years. so those of us that expect that it will be over in february, that may be true. but given all of the redacted and sealed information coming out lately, that tells us that

there is still ongoing investigation that could be compromised and that's the need for the secrecy. >> there is no the mueller probe. right? >> no, there is no the mueller probe. it's spread out to the southern district of new york and other prosecuting agencies. so mueller has immunized his team, even if they went away tomorrow, there's still ongoing investigations and prosecutions. >> and we don't -- >> it's like ten weeks since someone has been indicted. we know we're not done with that part of the story. >> that's striking about it is when you see how many people in the president's inner circle have been swept up in this. one way or the other. michael cohen of course stands out because he's pleaded guilty. he's cooperating. he continues to cooperate. but when you think about congress and what we might expect to see there, and there we have it by the numbers. the mueller probe 33 people charged. seven guilty pleas, one conviction by trial. it goes on and on. congress has a powerful hand to

play here and there's a lot of debate in the democratic party about how far to go. and a lot of people say impeachment is not the right direction, it will backfire. what do you think? >> if the man committed high crimes and misdemeanors as i think he did, impeachment is not off the table. we have to start to think about this in the fact that we have a criminal running the country. all right? look, every president in modern history has released their tax returns except for donald trump. and 2019 is when that's about to change. okay. that's the first thing that i think we can expect from the democrats in congress. it is not clear to me -- >> the administration is probably going to push back. >> sure. and so we'll have a supreme court fight about that. that's what -- when kimberly was saying this i think she's exactly right. i don't think trump is prepared for what comes next. he doesn't get what happens next. next comes the taxes and then fighting about his tax, and next -- he wants steel slats that's what his kids are looking at. if he's not careful, right?

so there are all these things that are happening that are coming down the pike of this administration that they're -- they don't seem at any level ready to deal with. >> against the back drop of him maybe running full-time defense against all of his misdeeds, a reckoning for him and his business and the campaign and the charitable foundation. he's supposed to run the country. i don't see that happening much. >> and run for re-election. >> well, we'll talk about that when we come back. good discussion on 2019. we'll look all the way ahead to 2020 when a deluge of democrats seem to be lining up to take on the president in 2020. and even though senator booker hasn't thrown his hat into the ring yet, a new report hints we might be seeing more tofu on the trail. we'll explain when we come right back. we'll explain when we come right back (chime)

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the democrats are expecting a larger than average field to seek the nomination and take on president trump in 2020. from the first read team, meet the potential baskin-robbins dem field for 2020. thanks to our graphic teams. what flavor will democrat voters choose 400 days from now? a progressive, an obama 2.0, a woman, a billionaire, a governor? a mayor perhaps? someone from the midwest, a hope and change candidate. well, the dnc is planning to hold 12 primary debating

starting in june of 2019. for each debate it will be randomly divided into two. this is being done to avoid having an undercard debate. mike, let me start with you. when you look at all of these flavors of candidates, i mean, first of all it speaks to the fact that every democrat is going to run. but when i talked to my democratic sources they say this is a good thing. this emboldens the party to have this many people running. >> what are they supposed to say? i think there's a winnowing -- when you described the forum for debate, it's lot more complicated than the infield fly rule and people with good ideas will get crowded out. i'm interested to pick one, amy

klobuchar, will she be heard? how will we hear amy klobuchar and the front-runners are running on name recognition. it will be interesting to see, but maybe it will be a bit harrowing for them. >> is name recognition a liability? joe biden at the top for now. obviously we're a long ways away. beto o'rourke number three, kimberly atkins. >> look, if you ask a lot of folks even democrats to name, you know, three things that o'rourke has done in the congress, they couldn't. i mean, it's so early. it's -- in a way we have to be having this discussion now. it will be june, here before we know it. on the other hand, remember when the republicans had an enormous field in last election around this time it was scott walker's to take. right? remember that? we don't know who's the

front-runner. i think that name recognition could backfire if you have been out there and you're making mistakes like for example, senator warren. >> she makes a good point because when you think back of the huge group of potential republican candidates, everybody was picking their favorites. and then one fateful day someone decides to ride down a golden escalator, throw his hat into the ring because someone teased him too much at the white house correspondent's dinner and ergo, therefore, now we have donald trump. >> but it's not that dynamic where -- go ahead. >> go ahead. >> with the republicans, no one took collection action. everyone thought it was a joke and that's not what's going on with the democrats. just a different dynamic. a crowded field, name recognition plays a role but i don't think it's the same thing going on. >> i look at that wall and i see a whole lot of vanilla. what i want to find out -- what has to happen here -- >> there are some candidates of color. >> potential. >> potential candidates. >> but what the democrats need to figure out this is the fundamental question of the primary season. do we want a candidate who is

going to try to bring us back to normal? trump was crazy, we're going to be normal now, or do we want a candidate that says all of you people who helped trump are going down now. do we want a candidate who & going to have a reckoning after this administration or trying to put the pieces back together? i think that's the fundamental fight of the primary season. >> one thing that i think we have learned from the past two, three elections is that voters want someone who speaks to them. voters want to feel you're authentic. i thought it was notable that president trump referenced beto o'rourke from the white house. take a listen to what he said earlier this week. >> also congratulations on your race. you won easily. now he's running for president. i thought you were supposed to win before you ran for president. >> he was talking to ted cruz there and that's a reference -- >> the least experienced

candidate in the history of america who won nothing is saying oh -- it's just this is the kind of infuriating stuff that again the primary season needs to sort out. either you'll have a candidate who reacts to donald trump, like okay, well, or have a candidate saying fight me in the thunder dome. which we don't know which one will rise to top yet. >> we're doing a lot of the reading of the tea leaves right now. cory booker certainly seems to have his eye on a potential run. this was a headline from buzzfeed. booker is building a 2020 candidate that's just like him, vegan. hyperactive and unapologetically unconventional. i love this, especially the vegan and hyperactive part. is he trying to sort of -- you know, he's someone who's a senator. as we have been talking about does things by the book. but is he trying to say, hey, this is who i am? >> yeah, i mean, he's trying to brand himself i guess in a way. i mean, it will be interesting to see if he can appeal to

voters in michigan and pennsylvania with the vegan thing. i don't know how well that's going to go over. but he's trying to identify himself before he is identified. i mean, that's sort of the game when it comes to politics and stand out. but looking at all the candidates i don't think we should overlook this vanilla thing. i mean, at a time where we have a president who's advancing policies you said the wall is the embodiment of his racist policies. if we have a sea of white males coming out to combat him i'm not sure how well that will go. >> that's -- >> it's primarily. >> but if we're -- >> the people at the top of every poll, bernie sanders -- >> maybe we shouldn't -- >> joe biden. >> we need a qualified person to run. i want the best person, no matter the race. >> bottom line when i talk to my democratic sources they say there's going to be this winnowing process. they think that has boded well in the past. that's how obama won. they say we'll have to see.

it's going to be very interesting. very exciting. that's for sure. coming up it's been a wild week for wall street and washington as the government shuts down over a battle for the wall, but trump supporters won't back down. as thousands of donated over $15 million to help build that wall. we'll be right back. this is not a bed. it's proven quality sleep. the new sleep number 360 smart bed, from $999, intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts... so you can get a running start on the holidays. and now get 48-month financing on all sleep

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like whiplash, a chaotic week in washington from the president's decision to pull troops out of the syria to two surprise resignations and finally a government shutdown. take a look. >> reporter: the attempts by the russians to meddle in the u.s. election by using basically as many forms of social media as they could. the president saying we have defeated isis in syria. that was his only reason for being there during the trump presidency. there is some rumbling that mattis was opposed to that. there is no surprise this is coming now. are they any closer to finding a way out of this imminent partial government shutdown. there is chaos back in washington, d.c. right now with the federal government now partially shut down. >> it sure was a busy week. well, it was a wild week for the economy, with the dow jones dropping more than 1,600 points. to finish it all off, the president tweeted this just a few moments ago.

the only way to stop drugs, gangs, human traffics, criminal elements and much else coming into our country is with a wall or barrier. drones and all of the rest with lots of fun, but it is only a good, old-fashioned wall that works. >> it tells us that maybe mueller won't give us the holiday off. but if you will excuse me, nobody has tried a pastry. >> take one. >> my wife is very concerned about my eating this holiday season and she sent me along with a carrot. have you tried one of these? they're not anything like carrot cake. to heck with it. i'm going to get a doughnut, and we can move right along. >> don't tell her. hopefully she's not watching. hopefully, she's still sleeping. >> after the show, i'll dig in. look, that whole list of things that happened this week, it didn't even include the fact

that a former white house official was told by a judge that he's probably going to prison. you know, that's the kind of week this was. and 2019 only promises more of all of that. >> the surprises kept oncoming. first of all, i was not told that perharopprops would be all. here is the stick. donald trump wants $5 billion for a wall that will provide border security. only he's not actually asking for a wall. $5 billion actually won't get it done. if there were a wall, it wouldn't provide border security. and the whole government is being shut down based on this false promise. remember what we heard lindsey graham say, if he doesn't get it done now, it will destroy conservatism and it will be a failing strategy. he just gave away the game plan. he's telling you that trump is going to lose on that, and the word increasingly, like has been attached to irritated and like it's been attached to isolated, will, i think, become attached

to the word losing. trump is increasingly losing. >> i think i speak for so many americans during this holiday season where all i ask is for donald trump to please stay off my phone. just stay off my damn phone for like three days and let me enjoy the holidays with my children. >> perhaps it's a new years resolution at the white house, but i highly doubt it. thanks so all of you for bringing your energy and your fashion so early in the morning. this fantastic panel, thanks to all of you. coming up next hour on "a.m. joy" the latest on the shutdown show down and your final moment of maxine for 2018. she joins joy. that's next. thanks for joining us. for join. (chime)

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that's it for me today. thanks so much for watching. "a.m. joy" with joy reed starts right now. we really think we're in a good place in terms of getting the wall built and also getting mexico to participate in our border security. >> but none of that is mexico paying for the wall. >> you and i both know it can't work exactly like that. i can't spend any money at the office that department of government security can't spend money for mexico. we have to get it from the

treasury. >> the government was in shut down with not a budget to see. donald trump was insisting on building a wall. but he forgot to get mexico to pay for it all. good morning and welcome to "a.m. joy." yes, friends. we are at the government capital. the government shutdown will last at least through christmas. they will continue to track santa larry as he skims across the planet bringing you good kids your christmas. but who is the grinch forcing hundreds of thousands of federal employees to either work without way this holiday or be sent home, including thousands of tsa and border patrol agents? donald trump, of course, and the republicans who control the entire federal government. american