that's it. i'm done. i will see you tomorrow morning on "today." and more coming up with you. >> just a 14-hour day for oyou. >> you can relate though. >> yes. get some rest, my friend and well deserved. i'm eamon mohoudini in with you. and now a serious slide marking the ending of a year in trading. and a surprise trip to the kcome bat zone from the presidet as he decided to talk about america's role in the world. >> the united states cannot continue to be the policeman of the world. we don't want to do that. we want to protect our country. >> and still shutdown over border security, and we are

awaiting senate floor action amid the government shutdown as the lawmakers are heading back to work trying to find a way out o, but the president is digging in on the demands of a border wa wall. we have to start with the markets, because this roller coaster week on the markets is showing no signs of slowing down. looking at where the markets stand right now, about 330 points down. following a surge wednesday where the dow saw the biggest single-day gain ever, but it is causing the whiplash among in s investors, and here to try to the make sense of it is cnbc's leslie picker, and why are we seeing this fluctuation? >> whiplash is the perfect word to describe the markets this year. it is not that many trading over the holiday week, and the bid asks that you are seeing in the market, you are seeing a lot of selling pressure today as a look at the di mminished gainers tha

are leading the way. all 30 stocks in the dow declining as well. and with the news out of confidence in american households by the conference board which is showing consumer confidence showing the decline in descember in more than three years which is a feeding effect into the market as well where if consumers are not feeling confident about their standing, they won't go out to spend, and h help to boosts companies that are investors are trading and all of that feeds upon itself as the market volatility moves impact consumer confidence as well with. >> leslie, help us to explain and reconcile the two aspects. on one hand, it seems that the economy is doing well enough that the feds were concerned about it, and had to actually raise the interest rates for fourth time in year, but in doing so, it is also causing

some confusion within the markets. people are saying if the interest rates are going up, it is a sense of not enough confidence and that is why we are seeing the dip. are those two statements true or how can you reconcile it? >> it is a good question. because as the fed is raising the interest rates, the cost of capital is higher, so it is more exes pensive to own equities l relative to other investments so the investors will flee the investments in lieu of higher yie yield. the concern is in the recent years so much liquidity put into the market with the fed's bond buying qe easing measures that the investors are ignoring the big headline risks that we are seeing. only now are the investors starting to pay attention to the news of the day, and cause ing the massive swing, because the liquidity has been taken out of the market as the fed is raising rates, and investors are seeking safe havens elsewhere in gold,

currencies and in bonds. so that is partially why you are seeing so much momentum to the upside and the downside and the investors trying to make sense of this world without a lot of the fed interference like we have seen in recent years. >> yes, no shortage of news these days outside of the financial world to create havoc on wall street. thank you so much, leslie picking our colleague from cnbc. and now, let's bring in healther from the washington post, and you tweeted today that things are looking bad, but they don't look like a bloodbath. so give us a sense of what this is that we are seeing here. is this a run of the mill volatility as opposed to a full-blown panic? is this something that we would normally see this time of year? >> this is very unusual for this time of year. normally, we are experiencing a santa claus rally where the people buy into the end of the year, and so to be experiencing a huge downturn in december is

highly unusual. what is really going on here is the market is almost pricing in a recession, but the economic data just isn't there yet. we are seeing the very strong retail and consumers who power the u.s. economy is spending strong. and almost everyone agrees that the economy going the slow, but the question is how much? the investors right now are pricing in a big slowdown. >> normal for the markets to be so, you know, if the word is to anticipate the slowdown or are the markets really reacting to t the slowdown? i mean, which is it? >> yeah, you have asked the key question. the markets go first, and looking out six months at least, and usually 12 months ahead, and that is why they are starting to ask the deeper questions w what kind of cracks are we seeing in the economy and how deep do they get in 2019. we have been seeing such a good

2018, and this is looking like the strongest year for the u.s. economy in a decade if not two decades,t the investors are wondering if the trade war heats up, and also, the white house versus the federal reserve mess which looks to be uglier. >> so a lot of people are watching this, and asking themselves what they should be doing. what advice if any would you give the investors at this point? >> well, for investors the best advice is to take a deep breath and do some yoga and forget about it in the next few days. long-term invest iing is the be path for a majority of americans. >> and so, i can't imagine anyone looking at the 401(k) thinking this is a good time to cash out o.

i want to bring in the panel of cnbc contributor charlie sykes and jonathan capehart. and welcome in. and so, charlie, do you believe that this volatility on wall street is the president stepping in to try to help thing, and people have labeled him that anything that he touches is something that he break, and some people believe it is self- self-inflicted. >> yes. it is self-inflict and they tried it over to the weekends, and steve mnuchin tried to calm the market, and how did that work out. the people who are counseling the president say the last thing to do is to fire the fed chair and you may muse about it, but if you do that, you will run the risk of triggering a bloodbath, and so it is one of the areas where donald trump is better off not saying anything. what has happened and you have pointed this out, this is a market that is ignoring almost

are all of the erratic behavior, and bad news for the last, for more than a year, and now it appears to be very hypersensitive to all of that. so we are at a point if if president tweaks another attack on the fed, it is not only likely to hurt the markets, but to undermine his position, because this economy is his wild ca card. and we focus on the mueller investigation, but if you are donald trump, you don't want to see the market going any lower and you do not want to play with the economy. >> he lives by the market, and he is going to be paying the price by the market as well. jonath jonathan, to that point that charlie is talking about, and why are the markets so sensitive. donald trump has been on the the scene for two year, and the markets have been doing well for two years, and he has praised that with a couple of fluctuations, but the markets have not been reacting to the president's antics over the past couple of years, and so what if anything changed?

>> i would think that the trade wars that the president has had particularly with the tariffs and the rhetoric of the first year of the presidency is meeting up to the reality of the second year of donald trump's presidency. a lot of the sort of the off of the cuff, by the gut, from the president's prospectives on twitter, and the sort of his impetuous actions, you know, i think that a lot of times, a lot of people say that it is baked in with the market, and i think that the market now is realizing that, you know what, a lot of this is going to be actually concerning. charlie brought this up, the fact that the treasury secretary sent out basically an unnecessary letter saying, hey, all of the banks are doing fine, and sent a chill through the market saying if you are telling us that everything is fine when we kind of thought that everything was fine, that must mean something that is wrong.

so as much as i would like the president to follow charlie's excellent advice to be quiet on things of the economy, i don't see it happening, because far too many times, we have seen the president operate from his number one conviction, and that is his gut is what is best. >> i don't think that you are the only person who is making that sentiment, jonathan. charlie and jonathan, thank you, both. stay with me. coming up, president trump back at home at the white house after an unannounced trip to iraq. and how will what he said play on to the world stage. stage.s research hospital. st. jude freely shares our research and discoveries to help save kids with cancer everywhere. would you like a finger sandwich? of course whose fingers?

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so the president is back in washington after the whirlwind trip overseas to meet with troops in iraq and germany. he made the trip after announcing troops withdrawal in afghanistan and accepting his defense secretary's resignation all in a week. he said that se committ-- he is committed to staying in iraq in all things fall into places. >> there is a strong and orderly withdrawal of the u.s. forces from syria. very deliberate and very orderly while maintaining the u.s. presence in iraq to prevent an isis resurgence, and to protect

u.s. interests and also to always watch very closely over any repotential of reformation of isis and also to watch over iran. we will be watching. >> all right. let's crossover to hans nichols at the white house, and he also covers the pentagon, and so we are lucky to have that p perspective as well. hans, talk about this a little bit. does it seem likely that the president wants to the make iraq the centerpiece of the policy in the middle east and as easy as he made it sound, that the troops positioned in iraq and i don't know exactly how many are in that theatre, but the same way that we use out of qatar and other syrian and other operations? >> in the air, there are 5,000 troops in iraq, and they have helicopter assets which we learned after that fatal crash killing seven. but the president wants iraq to be the base of the counter-isis fight at least as it relates to

the middle euphrates valley, and the middle east there, and there is a whole other fight where isis is, and where the president also wants to withdraw troops as well. so when you are listening to the the president defend the strategy and articulate the new one with, it is part of the america first ethos. have a listen. >> america shouldn't be doing the fighting for every nation on earth. not being reimbursed in many ca cases at all. if they want us to do the fighting, they also have to pay a price, and sometimes that is also a omonetary price, and so we are not the suckers of the world. we are no longer the suckers, folks. and people are not looking at us as suckers. >> and so, aymon, the irony is that it is done by the largely kurdish group that the u.s. is there in a supporting role.

so it had been a novel approach to fighting these kinds of wars and relying on the local forces and provide them with a lot of air assets and air firepower, but the u.s. troops were supposed to stay one terrain feature behind the front lines, and so it was locals doing the fighting fighting, but the president withdrawing the 2,000 trips from syria, but, you know this region well. it has implication beyond the middle east. it is implications for nato and implications across the globe, because the president is clearly signalling that he wants to retrench the american forces and be more of an isolationist. >> and more importantly, sending a message to a lot of the allies that you mentioned as well the kurd kurds on the ground doing the the fighting. i want to bring in christopher heal, former ambassador the iraq are, and currently a professor in denver, and glad to have you with us. i heard someone characterize this doctrine if you will from

trump as hawkish isolationism, and is that a accurate description? >> well, i don't know. i would not call it a doctrine, and this exchange of countries paying us to fight their bat tls is nonsensical, and what are they going to do, write a check no the treasury? are these countries doing their own part, and formations to have fighting men and women who are capable of doing more to defend themselves, and the answer is of course they are. there has been the u.s. who is not in the front lines on syria. another thing that is worrisome is that he is talking about how he is now going to be using iraq as some sort of regional base, which is fine, and i mean, that thing has been done before, but i hope he is clued in the iraqis, because he did not bother with meeting the iraqi officials on the visit, but i

hope they know that his plan is that this is a regional base from where with we will and this is rather weird to keep an eye on the iranians, and if you are going to do that, you need different asset thans the fighters or tr troops that we have now. so the overall sense is trying to keep faith with the base, and trying the show that he is not going to get us into the more wars, but fundamentally, he is making it up as he goes along. you can imagine the iran comment came from john bolton who is singular obsessed with iran. so he probably said, okay, i will add that, and this is going to the sound good. again, no thinking or planning going on. and the only planning that the president has to do is how to blame other people. >> and ambassador, you spent time in iraq, and you know very welle that the current government in iraq that we have from the president on to the prime minister is one of the perhaps more, you know, probably one of the friendliest towards

the u.s. in the long time, and competent technocrats, and it is a missed opportunity that the president who is going there did not, and especially if p he is going to make a statement about iraq knowing how close iraq and iran are, and he did not meet with them, and to today, the iraqi parliament is calling for the withdrawal of american troop, and he has angered a lot of the iraq are ki parliamentarians. >> there are so many ways to do this. and the new prime minister, he is a very, very good guy. maybe we don't want to meet with him overtly or something, and that is maybe going to create some internal problems for him, but i have a sense that probably the president couldn't say his name, and the new president is a kurd, and extremely competent person, and speaks english better than you or i and he

someone that we should be dealing with. again, the president is conflict ed ed by the kwld that we want to get out, but we want to somehow stay and be a force. he does not really know what he is doing, and frankly, they just don't seem to have the team that sits down to say, mr. president, this is how we can do x, y, and we can't do z if we do x and y, and stuff like that. you have a sense that he is just overmatch overmatched by the problems, and he dumbs them down to the kinds of things, well, they have to pay more for this, and for him, it comes down to the construction project. >> and let me pick up on that point, because this is what the president talked about needing countries the do more in places like syria. take a listen. >> we are not nation building. rebuilding syria is going to the require a political solution, and it is a solution that should be paid for by its very rich neighboring countries, and not the united states. let them pay for it, and they will. they will.

in fact, saudi arabia yesterday, and you probably read stepped up to the plate and is already making a commitment of substantial funds for development. president erdogan of turkey has also agreed to take out any remnants of isis. we will be working with them. >> all right. so he has said that we have probably read and i have tried to read or tried to find anything about saudi arabia saying this, and no saudi arabia official government official knows anything about this speaking to us, and what are the implications of saudi arabia and turkey to bail us out in places like syria where we have been involved in the fighting? >> well, first of all, i mean, i don't want to sound like a saudi basher here, but they are one of the countries that has so mishandled the situation that this is why we are here. they have really failed to accept the idea of shia power in

iraq. they have been supportive of a sunni minority and many of who went into the isis and the extreme sunniism, and to the leave it up to the saudis is truly a case of the fox guarding the chickens. unfortunately, i mean, i wish that we had a better relationship with turkey, and it is afterall a nato member, but again, they cannot be relied on to have interests that are similar to ours. i think that what the president fundamentally doesn't understand is that we are not there for their interest, but we are there for our interests, and the problem is that he does not know what our ointerests are, and i would like to see his advisers getting busy to explaining it to him, so perhaps he could explain this to the base that we indeed have interests out there, and we'd rather be fighting isis in the middle east than on the streets of new york. >> all right. christopher hill, always a pleasure for your insights, sir.

thank you a lot. >> thank you. and lawmakers are heading back to work as day six of the shutdown comes full steam ahead, and will the fight over the border wall end by 2019? gentle means everything, so we improved everything. we used 50% fewer ingredients added one handed pumps and beat the top safety standards the new johnson's® choose gentle

how long do you think that the shutdown will last, mr.

president? >> whatever it takes. we will have a wall. we will have safety. >> so president trump with reporters after the unannounced v visit with troops in in iraq digging in blaming the democrats for the government shutdown. now in day six. and congress will be back in session after the holiday break, but it is going to be interesting to see how many senators actually show up. garrett haake is on capitol hill, and now, i won't make the seinfeld reference and i saw you and haley talking about it, but it is the live shot about nothing. what should we see here this afternoon? >> we are in a holding pattern and everyone else is waiting for someone else to move first. the house is looking at the senate, and the senate is saying they have to be the next people to act on this, but the senate democrats are looking to the president, and where he stands and what he wants and what he would accept. that sound bite from iraq notwithstanding, the president has been all over the place with

whether we are talking about a wall, steel slats or what he needs to see in money to get to yes, a and the democrats want to know the negotiating point here with the president, and then the process is going to move forward and we are not there yet. but today is interesting in a sense already, because the president's tweet this morning in which he said that the democrats need to the realize what a big deal this and don't the democrats realize that most of the people who are not working right now are democrats has really infuriated a lot of of the democrats, and particularly in the senate. they see it as the ultimate sort of the political gamesmanship as using the political workers as pawn pawns. and some have been firing backment bob menendez the ranking member of the foreign committee said that our genius president is spewing lies. the employees serve the united states and not one party, and guaranteeing that they have financial security is not a partisan issue, and mark warner of virginia said that this is

outrageous, because employees do not go to work wearing jerseys, and he is treating them like a chip at one of his ka see nosca and so this is not generally the sign of a productive negotiation between rival parties. >> it is looking like something that is going to drag into 2019 and the new congress. garrett haake live for us at capitol hill. charlie sykes and jonathan capehart back with me. charlie, you have the president who is digging n and saying tin that he is going to do whatever it takes to get the border wall or call it whatever you want, and putting the pressure on the democrats, and they are not showing any signs of buckling. how does this get resolved? and i know this is sounding like a broken record, but what is that going to take with the congress or at least the senate back to work today.

>> this is how dumb this shutdown is. the president of the united states knows that he is not going to get the wall, or he ought to know, but he is afraid of ann coulter and afraid to make a deal that ann could ser go -- ann coulter is going to criticize. and so maybe he should get this money that is spent and reimbursed by mexico. remember that the federal government is shutdown, because the u.s. taxpayers are not asked to pay for a wall that donald trump promised over and over and over again would be paid for by the mexicans. >> and jonathan, shortly after the president returned to the the white house this morning, he sent out this tweet writing have the democrats finally realized that we desperately need border security and a wall on the southern border, and we have to stop drugs, and human trafficking and gang members and criminals from coming into our

kun tri. do the dems realize that most of the people not getting paid are democrats. i am not sure what that mean s really, but will you react to it. >> well, aymon, it is a shame, because he is treating it like a game. like he is back in the boardroom mugging for the cameras as opposed to leading the country. yes, we have to remember that in the midterm elections, the democrats won back the largest majority in the house of represe representatives since the days of watergate, and this is the thing, they don't take control of the house until january 3rd. what does that mean? the republicans still are in the majority of the house, and still in the majority of the senate, and donald trump is still the republican president of the united states. and might i add that the current house republican majority is the largest that they have had in

decades. so the fact that they can't pass a budget with their votes alone says a lot about republican leadership in the house, but also in the republican leadership coming from the white house. if the president of the united states really wanted to solve this budget shutdown, he could do it today. but he does not want to. >> and so, charlie, what are the thi things, one of the things that he was criticized is talking to the troops overseas, he did not miss the opportunity to attack the democrats in the speech to u.s. troops in iraq, and take a listen to this. >> i dont n't know if you folkse aware of what is happening, but we want to have strong borders in the united states. the democrats don't want to let us have strong borders. only for one reason, and you know why? because i want it. >> so, charlie, so much for politics ends at the water's edge, and was that the place to try to score political points? >> no, absolute ly not.

we have become numbed by this or the danger of becoming numbed by this, and this is particularly shameful shameful, and the president could have shown leadership as commander in chief, and now he turned that into something distinguishableb to the campaign rally. he not only lied to the troops about the pay raise, and not only played the partisan politics, but he insulted his own country and the troops who are serving and making sacrifices by referring to the them as suckers. so this is the norm maybe for donald trump, but in retrospect, and i give him credit for going to iraq, but the actual performance there was shameful. >> charlie and jonathan, thank you. stick around for me, because we have one more block with you two. and coming up, kirstjen neilson is set to go visit the border as two deaths have prompted calls for an investigation. stay with us. stay with us.

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to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. all right. we welcome back, everyone. we are back with a quick check of the markets. you can see it on the screen. the dow is now down 420 approximately, and a day after it surged more than 1,000 points the single-day largest gain ever. we will be tracking that throughout the day. all right. the deaths of two migrant children while in the kcustody f

u.s. border patrol custody. this is coming amid the outrage of a guatamalan boy's death. he was the second to die in the agency's custody this month alone, and that is going to prompt kirsten nellsen to go back to the border this week. and now, this is a issue that is going to face the ohouse democrats going into 2019 and what type of legislation do you see getting done here, and what would the president accept? >> well, that is a very good question. look, because we are now talking about two deaths in united states custody, surely and clearly, something needs to be done if not just done looked into the see why these deaths happened. are the facilities where these children and families are being held, are they up to the code? are they humane?

are the officials there operating by the rules? we don't know, because at least the republicans who are controlling the congress now, they have not seen fit to do oversight in the months that we have been talking about the fact that the united states has been jailing babies on the border. if anything, the incoming democratic congress in addition to the drafting legislation to ensure that the lives are safeguarded when they are in u.s. custody, but also to providing oversight and holding secretary neilsen and her agency to accountt for the errors and the deaths that happened on their watch. >> and charlie, let me ask you, because the two deaths that we are reporting on this month alone, the stark thing is that it had been more than a decade since a child die d in u.s.s custody, along the border, and what is the trump administration need to do to make sure that this investigation is successful in preventing more deaths in the

future? i mean, is this -- i know it is hard to look at without knowing all of the facts, but is this a produ product of pure coincidence that two children died in u.s. custody in a month given that ten years have gone by without deaths, or something else is going on within the cdp? >> well, that is the key question, and jonathan is absolutely right, that this is a crucial question of congressional oversight, and this is one of the ways that things will change, and up until now congress has failed to provide that kind of oversight, and conduct those kinds of investigations, and ask those kinds of questions, and so we don't know. there is a lot of things that we don't know, but what we do know is that the trump administration adopted a conscious policy of cruelty as a deterrent to people coming across the border. the question is were those policies of deterrence to discourage people from coming across? did they veer over into the inhumane that contribute ed d te

death of these children, and this is the fundamental question that i think that the congressional overseers are going to have to probe over and answer. >> and is this something that is like washington is criticized for that it is is going to undermine the investigation, and ways to improve the care for migrants coming into this kun are tri? >> i think that you are already answering your own question, aymon. from the beginning, it is going to be politicized. i am old enough to remember are a time when the united states stood for more seemingly than it does now, and when any life whether it is coming over the border or undocumented or documented that we were supposed to be the shining city on a hill and for those crossed over or detained by the border patrol, that we would do so humanely. and here we are in a situation where we are hoping that the incoming house majority is going to be able to hold this ed

administration to account, and that this administration is going to the actually listen. i am so glad that charlie brought up the fact that the way that the trump administration has handled all of these situations with the people coming over the border undocumented, it is based on the level of cruelty that i think that shocks the conscience of america. we have spent generations proud of the fact that we are a country that people wanted to come to and get here any way necessary, and we need to remember and understand that people making their way to our southern border, they have already made, and they have already made the mental gamble that it is much more advantageouses to them to make their way here and break our immigration laws than to stay in their home countries where they are potentially tetentially or obviously too dangerous to work or live. >> and yes, the least we can

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all right. we are just a few days away from 2019 and while iowa and new hampshire have announced the caucus and primary dates for 2020, it appears that the large pool of democratic candidates is off to a slow start in those key sta states. as more than two dozen democrats are considering a run for the par party's nomination, no single candidate has signaled clear intention to jump in. donors are keeping the checkbooks closed for at least now, and all eyes are on the three bs, biden, beto and bernie. and everyone is looking for signs that they will run. joining me is beth and jonathan and charlie. and so, beth, i am curious to get your thoughts here. why are we in this dilemma that they are not jumping out of the

gates to announce they are running. >> well, it is like there is a calm on the surface, and a lot of paddling underneath like ducks. but despite the calls to iowa and new hampshire and people thinking of are running like kamala harris, and cory booker, and elizabeth warren and trying to line up the staff and the doeer nor do donors in the preliminary, and there is reasons for that. they are reluctant to make themselves vulnerable to trump and the tweets and the criticism as we have talked about, but the other problem is the three bs, and right now in the absence of a clear front-runner the field, and there not one, the three sort of the ones who dominate in the polls are biden, beto o'rourke and bernie sanders, because they are all well known, and because they have national profiles, and fund-raising p profiles that are going much beyond the kamala harris or cory booker. >> and what about those

individuals beto, biden and bernie, and what do they represent within the democratic p party that they say too familiar and overlap? >> well, affection for as a former vice president. we know a lot about his family history and his tragedy. he's just a very well loved establishment. if he got into this race, could become a target again. bernie sanders was the progressive hero in 2016. almost toppled hillary clinton. lots of folks want to see him back in. there may be some appetite for another progressive. beto came out of nowhere, sort of flashing out of this senate race in texas where he almost knocked off ted cruz. the problem, apparently according to democrats, while he's a very appealing guy and has tons of support, a lot of people don't really know where he stands on a lot of issues. is he a progressive?

bernie sanders, folks around him, taken their shots at him, saying he's not an authentic progressive. where all the democratic energy is now. it's an effort to define him. >> you cover politics a lot more. i feel some of these points is criticism of these individual and their candidates. president trump has taken those off the table. agewise, he's up there. inexperiencewise. he didn't have any experience. his viewpoints on some of these issues constantly fluctuating. he's broken the norms i guess of some of these political rules. >> i think that's why we're seeing such a big potential field, probably 30 or more. if he can do it, why not me? >> unlike other years, there doesn't seem to be an overwhelming favorite or front-runner. how does this impact who decides to run? >> as beth points out, donald trump has basically said anybody can run.

the democrats haven't yet decided. are they looking for the solid veteran, the experienced veteran like joe biden? are they looking for a fresh new face? are they looking for the most solid progressive? it's a very interesting poll. the "usa today"/suffolk university poll is interesting. the one consensus was they do like the idea of somebody new. they don't want to see hillary clinton work again. there seems to be a good deal of bette bernie fatigue. watching two 70-year-old guys duking it out in 2020. the one concern they ought to have is not to prematurely create a circular firing squad because that would be the one thing donald trump would most like to see. >> jonathan, how important is it going to be for the democrats to field a candidate that reflects this country? to charlie's point, not an old white guy? not to say "old" in a negative way but certainly in an age

perspective, an older white guy. >> oh, please, look, every democrat who wants to run should run. that's what the primary process is. the person who comes out of that process is the person who reflects the party. what i want democrats -- what i think democrats should do is let them all run. support your candidate as the field winnows down. once there's a nominee, democrats as an absolute imperative must circle the wagons around that nominee and do everything possible for that person to beat president trump in 2020. that should be the number one overriding goal for whoever the democratic nominee is. whether that person is you're the one as i call it or not, democrats have to put aside their traditional circular firing squad as charlie called it and instead circle the wagons and support that nominee. nothing else is more important. >> final question to you, in and

out of iowa. you're talking to the voters. what are you getting a sense from likely democratic voters? are they looking for an issue centric race or personality centric race? >> they're looking for a winner. i've never seen it so wide open. they don't have a particular strong feeling about what type of candidate they want. they just want somebody who can beat trump. the problem is nobody knows what that means. we found that out in 2016 he is much harder to beat than anybody thought. look where we are now. >> the question is, do you beat trump on the issues or try to beat him with his personality? >> we have a while before we can figure the answer to that one. >> the check's in the mail, thank you for co-anchoring. i think we got our money's worth out of you guys. more on the shutdown showdown in just a few minutes. senator ben cardin weighing in on the battle toll reopen the government and the president playing the blame game while overseas in iraq. the dow down 3 ole. 308.

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that wraps it u.p this hour. coming up right now, more news. we've been missing you at the 5:00 a.m. >> i haven't seen you in so long. >> i know, you're sleeping in every day. >> we used to spend 19 hours a day together. it's been nice. good afternoon, everybody. we've got another down day for the markets. also, day six of the government shutdown. i'm going to talk to a u.s.

senator about its effects on constituents. we begin today with the fallout from president trump's trip to iraq. it's his first visit with troops in a war zone and it mirrored other occasions in which he turned a nonpolitical event into something more like a presidential rally. watch this. >> you're fighting for borders in other countries. and they don't want to fight. the democrats, for the border of our country. we're not the suckers of the world. we're no longer suckers, folks. people are no longer looking at us as suckers. >> he also lied about a 10% pay raise for troops. also "newsweek" reporting he broke protocol by tweeting a video of himself with navy s.e.a.l.s thereby revealing their location. he did not meet with iraq's

leader. another break from protocol. joining us, a white house reporter for the associated press. the national security analyst worked in president obama's national security council. and barry mccaffrey is a nbc news military analyst. welcome to you all today. thanks for joining us. you are the woman of the hour, considering the fact you traveled with the president to iraq and back. give me the lay of the land. what you saw there in the room. >> well, we got to the al asad air base. he went in, did a briefing with the military leaders. he went to a dining hall. tried to spread some christmas cheer with the troops who seemed genuinely happy to see him. they were shaking hands, taking a lot of photographs. posing for a lot ofel