my thanks to kim atkins and matt miller and jeremy bash. that does it for our hour. i'll see you back here monday. so what's stopping them? let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. at midnight tonight the longest government shutdown in u.s. history. here's what i heard when i called the white house before the show. >> we apologize, but due to the lapse in federal funding we are

unable to take your call. once funding has been restored our operations will resume. >> well, with hundreds of thousands of federal employees captured in the stalemate, president trump argued once again it's up to the congress to find a resolution. holding over his threat to declare a national emergency to pay for his wall. >> the easy solution is for me to call a national emergency. i could do that very quickly. i have the absolute right to do it but i'm not going to do it so fast. what we're not looking to do right now is national emergency. what we want to do, we have the absolute right to do it. in many ways the easy way out but this is up to congress and it should be up to congress and they should do it. >> absolute right. well, meanwhile, more than 800,000 federal employees missed a paycheck for the first time today. >> it really hurts. can't pay our bills, doctors, mortgages. >> it's like we're being held hostage. >> you can't pay the bills

then you don't have financial charges and the creditors may not accept it. so especially when it's me and my wife sometimes trying to work and with her situation. >> what's her situation? >> she has cancer. it's in the hands of one person, which is our president. and hope that he can understand or sympathize with the poor. >> well, this means workers who were making it paycheck to paycheck are not now making it. the president said he'd sign a bill passed by the house insuring federal employees receive pay back when the government reopens and offered this message. >> the message is that i appreciate their service to the country. they're incredible people, the federal employees we're talking about. i appreciate the fact they've handled it so incredibly well and many of them agree with what

we're doing. we have no choice. >> while president trump continues to dangle the threat a wall street journal reports in a recent oval office meeting, jared kushner, his son-in-law, argued an emergency should be only if it's a clear path to the white house to build the wall. according to sources, kushner said let's stop doing things just to do them. that sounds wise. graham is out there pushing the president onward. after meeting with the president at the white house, he argued in a series of tweets the democrats don't want a deal. to declare a national emergency now. build a wall now. the army corps of engineers have a budget.

they are pushing ahead. one proposal could include tapping into billions of dollars of disaster relief. he can could dip into the $2.4 billion allocated for projects in california, including flood prevention. $2.5 billion set aside for reconstruction projects in puerto rico, which is still recovering, as everybody knows, from hurricane maria. i'm joined by the panel now. thank you all. i want to start with senator blumenthal. what's he holding -- something is holding the guy up. he's been playing this for days now. i'm going to do it, pull the trigger. we're going to go, fight with the courts. i'm going to do this by emergency action. what's stopping him? >> first and foremost, he's encountering resistance within his own party, most recently

today senator grassley a very powerful and well respected member of the senate leadership has said he would oppose use of this kind of military disaster-related funding. we've been hearing for years, chris, about the real emergency in military readiness that this country faces and we've increased funding for military on a bipartisan basis to meet that real emergency. now the president is talking about taking military funding, as well as disaster related funding and exacerbating a real emergency to deal with this manufactured emergency a product of his own actions at the border and there is a crisis there, it's a humanitarian crisis, not a security crisis. the levels of apprehension are 1/5 of what they were in the year 2000. crime is its lowest rate where the president visited yesterday. but we face a need to continue

military construction, to make our bases safer. we face a need to deal with the forest fires and emergency relief for puerto rico and texas. and florida for their natural disasters. the president is talking about defying the law, breaking constitutional norms and principles and the american people are seeing through it and i think he's feeling the pressure from his own party, from advisers in his own white house who see the facts and the law against him. >> speaking of the mexico border, has your colleague been chewing on the local weed or what? what's going on with this guy? he plays golf with them. all of a sudden, he's going off. he was with them on kavanaugh in a crazy way. why is this guy so totally whatever he's doing with trump? i don't want to get into weirdness. why is he so loyal to trump. he used to be an independent operator.

>> he has been for many years that i've known him a thoughtful and insightful and rational legislator and a friend and i'm mystified by much of what he has to say today. but i think lindsey graham, the lawyer, will see that the constitutional norms and the statute here would plainly be violated and a court should see through the political pandering and posturing and even the delay, which defeats the idea that we have an emergency. if there's an emergency, it would be immediate, sudden, dangerous, serious. there's no factual justification for it and i think lindsey graham will eventually come to see that there's no factual and legal basis for this kind of action and a court would and should see through it. >> well, speaking of the reasonableness of the republican party, let me get christy todd whitney.

you were head of epa. what's the cost to the country? some showing up for work, some not. some getting paid even if they are showing up for work. and by the way there's seven republicans in the house today who voted to not pay them even if they had been showing up to work. don't even pay the pay you owe them. your thoughts, governor? >> it's unconscionable to me and there's a question of those who were furloughed, whether they'll get everything back. the ones working part time, they're guaranteed to get their money back but the one whose are furloughed, it's going to take congressional action and the president to sign a bill and he doesn't seem to care much about them right now. it's a really dangerous situation. if we had an emergency -- if this is a crisis, i agree, it's a humanitarian crisis. but a crisis of all these rapists, murderers coming across the border, building a wall is going to take decades.

it's not going to happen overnight. so what are we doing in between? it's time to gets to the 21st century with border security. we all want it. nobody's said they don't want it. and let's not forget there was a bill passed by both houses, bipartisan bill that would have addressed this issue and based on what the president told them he would accept and then all the sudden he changed his mind. he said he wasn't going to accept it. >> he got the call. >> so, i understand why, it's so hard to do a deal. it's amazing to me. it's amazing to me because it's very hard to do a deal with this man. >> as president trump has weighed declaring a national emergency, some of his republican allies on capitol hill have warned of the consequences. >> i don't think he should do that. i think it's a bad precedent and contravenes the power of the purse that comes from the elect representatives of the people. >> today, the national emergency is border security and entitles him to go out and do something. we all support that. tomorrow it might be climate change. so let's seize fossil fuel plants.

maybe it's an exaggeration, but my point is, we have to be very careful about endorsing broad uses of executive power. >> here's a hideous comment. one of the president's chief defenders in the house told the it "wall street journal," quote i don't want the next national emergency to be some democrat president says we have to build transgender bathrooms in every elementary school in america. talk about a reach. stick it to transgender people. what a reach. senator boxer, it's great to have you back. government hasn't been so smooth since you left, by the way. >> i noticed that. >> what do you make of this? i said it's like the mclachlan group but the government. i mean, what do you make of this? i mean this crazy guy talking about transgender has nothing to do with the border. he's sticking it to those folks. now the president i'm going to

drop the bomb, go to emergency declaration, national emergency and even he's getting nervous. something is going on. >> if i could say, there's so much hate in people's hearts. and when you hear someone say that, like that congressman, just hurting people gra truetously and it comes from the top, from donald trump who has anger and hate all over himself. and here's the thing. you and i go way back to when you worked for tip o'neale. i hate to say that was the '80s. and this is one budget item. okay. a wall. out of 10s of thousands of budget items. and the way to fix it, first of all, spend the money you already have to build a barrier. i'm sure speaker pelosi will tell you in the house when you put forward your new budget, which is coming due soon, let us know why you think the wall is

the best thing to do. the fact of the matter is i voted for the secure fence act way back in '06. that was a time when it made sense to build the barriers. but now we have new technologies. better ways to secure the border. there's no argument over the need to do it. do it in regular order. i'm sure she would say she would have hearings. you can bring your experts, they'll bring their experts and we'll get this thing done. right now there's one emergency. and that is, you have 800,000 hard working americans suffering, thousands of contractors. this thing is a nightmare because he couldn't, the president, fulfill his pledge to have mexico build a wall, period. that's it. >> let me get back to senator blumenthal. you served with these republicans. they're in your room, in the cloak room. maybe not your cloak but you know where they are.

you walk past them in the hallway. are they happy with a government shut down for three weeks now? >> they are disastrously unhappy. they're hearing from the same people all of us see and hear who are experiencing real pain in real lives, not just the federal workers who are going without pay and they were living paycheck to paycheck. now they have no paycheck. but rippling through our economy. i spent this morning with some of the craft brewers in connecticut whose business has been stymied because they can't get permits and approvals they need for labels. this ripple effect throughout our economy is creating havoc. and the president, i think, has to heed members of this own party who are expressing that disquiet about a vanity project

and a pause line that is not way to border security. absolutely right. we are all in favor of using border security by using better technology and more personnel the way the israelis do it on their border. and i think he needs to heed those members of his own party who have been telling me whether it's at lunch or breakfast or in the gym or wherever we gather, how they are feeling growing anxiety about where the country's going. >> when is this going to go for break? are we just going to go for weeks without a government? >> there's three outs. one is the emergency order. the other is a real-life event causes a calamity. >> not a plane crash? >> you were getting to the point where tsa is obviously working without pay, notable long lines in airports. the third one and i guess i'm surprised senator blumenthal

didn't focus on this and mitch mcconnell, he is an important operator in this saga. at any point in time, he could bring a bill to the floor, allow it to go to the president, ask the president to veto it and override the veto. they voted on a cr to keep the government open prior to leaving for the new year. so the votes are potentially there to circumvent the president. but very little pressure has been applied to mitch mcconnell. the preponderance of pressure has been applied to donald trump. >> governor, britain had cromwell and italy had mussolini and spain had -- i mean, is this a period in which the republican party will somehow survive or is this the future of your party, what we're watching right now?

>> well, i think if they don't make major changes and finally get backbone and say look, if there's a crisis, if you want to make us safer -- the federal courts run out of money on the 20th. they're not hearing cases. you've got tsa operators getting sick, quote on quote. i can't blame them. if they're not getting paid and have to work full time, they're not showing up. you have long lines. you don't have the fbi doing all the work they want to do. that's the crisis. i dont know what it will take to get republicans to finally say that's enough. we've gotten so focused on everything is about partisan politics, and not about policy, that we have to get over it. it's what i would love to see in 2020, a bipartisan ticket. democrat/republican, republican/democrat. something that says everybody has to work together. we can't go on like this and the people said that with donald trump's election but they didn't get what they thought they were going to get. >> by the way, looking for

comparisons for our president, i forgot hannibal. thank you so much. former senator, barbara boxer. i remember you sitting on your couch as a young woman saying i'm running for senate. i never forgot that moment, thank you. and sam stein, thank you. coming up prosecutors are looking into whether foreign money. there may be a manafort connection. life imtates art. a tv series on cbs was making a splash as it featured a character named trump who wanted to build a wall. the guy was an outlou and chameleon, of course. a new contender jumped into the race. let me finish that with my predictions for the upcoming battle for 2020. you'll find it fascinating and it may be well. this is "hardball." e well this is "hardball.

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welcome back to "hardball." while prosecutors work to untangle the web of connections between the trump campaign and russia, there remains the question of how much foreign money was funneled into the election of january 2017. two years ago, "the new york times" reports that among the guests and the ceremony and the inaugural ball there were at least a dozen ukrainian and political business figures. some were promoting grand bargains or peace plans that align would russia's interest. including by lifting the sanctions. they want to know how the pro-russian ukrainians got into the ball. however, there's another xhengs -- dimension to this story. we learned this week that during the 2016 election, paul manafort not only shared data with

a russian intelligence operative, but he directed that operative to pass that to two ukrainian oligarchs. revealing that one of those who sent the polling data at trump's inauguration. he was at the inaugural ball. that's according to one person familiar with the guest list and another who saw him there. i'm joined by a former federal prosecutor and washington bureau chief. how does this fit in to your thinking and investigative reporting about the russian connection? >> well, we need a whiteboard and i was talking with paul earlier on how you would present this to a jury. remember the guy at the center of all this, paul manafort. he had a business partner who is a ukrainian who had ties, according to mueller, to russian intelligence. during the campaign manafort used him to be in touch with a russian oligarch, very close to putin and now we've discovered with two ukrainian's who

politically are associate would pro-russia policies. >> they're guys betraying their country in the interest of russia. >> i'm not sure whether they're betraying russia or ukrain but they're trying to get into the trump administration. manafort is trying to use his leverage inside the trump organization to make goods deals with these guys. what is this doing prior to the inauguration? manafort is sending a signal that he and the trump camp, they want a deal. trump wants to deal with putin, wants to deal with russia. if russia's going to attack, that's all good for them. then you come to the inauguration and they're funneling money in through pass throughs and one thing that we reported months ago a cousin of a russian oligarch who never made a big donation before give a quarter of a million dollars

to the trump inauguration. this is a slush fund. it's one of 27 different trump scandals that we could spend the whole show on, chris. >> i am not anti-russian, paul but i have spent my life in this city and i never bumped into more than a handful of russians. 101 contacts with russians during the campaign. >> i think what robert mueller's interested in is the inauguration costs $107 million. that eesz twice as much as obama, the most in history. where did the money go? i watched part of the inauguration on tv. it was lovely, but didn't look like $107 million worth of lovely. he's following the money. the law is they have to report who gives the money. >> who passed through the inaugural ball to the trump people? >> we don't know. under the law, they have to report where they get it from, not where it goes. the other question, to david's point is, why is paul manafort,

the campaign manager reaching out to ukrainian oligarchs with polling data? why would a campaign manager give billionaires information about the campaign? obviously because he knows they want to help donald trump get elected and he thinks they -- they think he can do it. they don't know if he funneled this data to russian intelligence operative. what we do know is they were very involved in states like wisconsin and michigan, where trump was not expected to win but he did. so maybe they came to the inauguration, these ukrainian oligarchs, to collect the debt that trump owed them because they helped him get elected president. >> president trump denied having any knowledge of manafort's activity. >> mr. president, did you know that paul manafort was sharing

polling data from your campaign with the russians? >> nothing about it. >> let me ask you -- when you shared poll data, macro reason we're winning. we could win this, keep helping us. the other one is inside information how to move a state. is that where we understand a debate? >> don't know. >> we know they were playing around the army vote, turned off to hillary. >> and we know the russians and research agency are targeting different aspects of the american electorate. so far i don't see a tremendously sophisticated operation coming out of the russian side that could only happen with inside information. manafort could have been doing this -- >> so they had spotters? >> manafort could have been doing this to make his own connections or to say, as you said earlier, that we're win but i think, basically, he's making connections with these guys to go both ways. we can work with you afterwards and he's giving the russians -- this is a key point people don't get, he's giving the russians

incentive to attack the campaign, the election. he's telling them we want to work with you and that's all the more reason to intervene and mettle and try to affect things to help trump. >> so these are pro-russian ukrainians. they come to the inauguration. mueller's interested in whether they were illegally lobbying. what do we know? we know that they were getting what they wanted from trump. right after the inauguration, he says let's lift the sanctions. he goes to the state department, he goes to republican congress people and they say hell no, that's crazy. that's a 360 degree turn. and so he abandons it. he did what the ukrainians wanted him to do. >> meanwhile, "the washington post" reported this week, there's a chance after mueller completes the investigation, the white house could suppress portions of that report. now rudy giuliani is saying

trump's legal team should be allowed to correct special counsel robert mueller's final report before congress and as a matter of fairness, they should show it to them so they can correct it if they're wrong. they are not god, after all, they could be wrong. this is ludicrous. i never heard a guy say give me all of this. >> so giuliani doesn't have a leg to stand on. >> why is he talking about executive privilege anyway? he's not working for the government. >> i wouldn't be surprised if mueller lets him see the investigation report before so he can make any executive privilege claims he wants. and he's not going to be able to change the report and if he tries, because he know they're

hostile russian investigation, we're protected by two ways. one, speaker pelosi can haul mueller into court and ask him did they make any changes? what were the changes? and under the law -- >> there's one big point and that is we have no idea what this report will be. mueller is not like an independent counsel in days past. he has no obligation under justice department guidelines to produce a report telling everyone everything he found. there's one line that says you have to give a report to the attorney general, explaining his decisions. i want you to envision him doing that in three -- or 5,000 pages. here's everything i looked at and why i prosecuted here and didn't prosecute there. we have no clue. >> why is that important? we want to know what he could have been proven to do wrong. >> because people are looking at mueller as if he's going to give us the bottom line truth about what happened. not his job. his job is what paul used to do.

he's a prosecutor. he tries to find crime and make cases. it's up to congress or an independent commission to give us the full truth. he may try to do this somehow and there may be a fight about what happens if he goes expansive on the report, but there's no guarantee that -- >> well, i'm a big believer that's what prosecutors should do. >> and i've had good cases but this is the most consequential investigation of a politician in our history. and so there's no way mueller can say i'm not going to charge a president. see you later. he's got to have a full report that explains to the american people what we already know that the russians tried to steal the election and exactly thousand trump campaign was involved in that effort. >> he can indict and threat courts decide if it works. anyway, thank you. up next, a conman named trump, yes, convinces a bunch of people to build a wall to keep out an

imaginary threat. it's an uncanny case of history imitating art. you will not believe what you watch coming up. it's all crazy but you're going to love it. don't go anywhere. hang on. this old cowboy show is exactly a predictor of the hell we are in right now. this is "hardball." ♪tryin' to hold back this feeling for so long♪ ♪and if you feel, like i feel baby then come on,♪ ♪oh come on let's get it on applebee's all you can eat is here. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

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he says the world is going to come to an end? >> midnight tonight.

>> where's he from? >> drove in this morning. wagon out front. >> got a name? >> trump. >> as we used to say in the old days, don't adjust your television. that was a click from "trackdown." yes, 1958. cbs news archives has the episode airing may 9th of that year, 1958. in this episode, walter trump rides into a texas town selling himself as the only person who can save the town from total destruction. >> i bring you a message. a message few of you will be able to believe. a message of great importance. a message i alone was able to read in the fires of the universe. but be not afraid, my friends. i also bring you the means with which to save yourselves. >> well, president trump has

used similar language. >> nobody knows the system better than me, which is why i alone can fix it. >> well, trump, the charlton from 1958 sells the idea of a wall to a captive audience of town folk afraid of death and destruction brought on by a meteor shower. >> i am the only one, just me. i can build a wall around your homes that nothing will penetrate. >> what do we do? how do we save ourselves? >> you ask how do you build that wall. you ask and i'm here to tell you. this is your -- >> sound familiar? >> this is common sense. they need a barrier. they need a wall. if you don't have it it will be hard work and gruelling

problems. and by the way, death. and death. a lot of death. >> and here's our president, donald trump. >> how long you going to put up with this. >> be careful son, i can sue you. >> and here's our president, donald trump. >> you sue their ass off. if you can find them, drop a lawsuit on them and make them bay, bigly. >> walter makes it out of dodge city except that one law man, who stands in his way. >> i think you ought to wait. >> you and i disagree. >> you're under arrest, trump. >> what charge? >> ewe write it anyway you like, grand theft, fraud.

>> no comment from robert mueller. up next, the crowded field of potential 2020 candidate lsz. who is inching closer to a run. what issues will they focus on as they try to win over voters? you are watching "hardball." r vs you are watching "hardball." aaaaaahhhhhhhh!

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first question there's been an awful lot of talk about you running for president. how close are you to making that decision? >> i'll make it soon. >> okay. >> not today, obviously. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was kamala harris in california. this morning continued to keep us all somewhat in the dark about running in 2020. but the senator did answer why she would want to be president. >> i believe our country wants and needs leadership that provides a vision of the future of our country in which everyone can see themselves.

in which everyone can see themselves. >> harris is one of a crowded field of democrats muling over the decision and today another candidate of hawaii announced she is getting into the race. here she is. >> i have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week. >> well, two other senators of gillibrand will make a trip to iowa and in the coming weeks, boto o'rourke is receiving late night laughs while getting his teeth cleaned. >> it looks like he didn't understand what his advisor meant when he said all the kids are flossing. what's next? ked cruz checking his beard for tick talk? come on, man. how can you call yourself a candidate when you voted in the gulf of mexico? great question. >> for more, i'm joined by the

"hardball" round table tonight. susan page, agent el rod and as of today, this very day, an msnbc contributor, congratulations. a republican political consultant. you have to do the front page for usa today. how does it look in terms of participation? how many people are running? >> we are going to have more candidates than fingers and toes. >> that is more than 20. >> more than 20. and i think the previous record is 17. but you can count two dozen credible democratic candidates and it's hard to see any of them not running. there's no sense of question about whether kamala harris is running. she's running. >> let me ask you, it seems to me, no matter what we say about equality of opportunity, there's going to be polls. >> yeah. >> a poll some time in april that is going to tell us what this race, this field looks

like. right? >> of course. >> it's only going to be four or five people anywhere close to double digits. >> i think you're going to see democratic voters flirt with different candidates. i think you're going to see tier one candidates stay there, but a couple tier two candidates move into the tier one space. >> like who? >> i think terry mccall i have. >> is there a moderate rail? is there a lane for moderate and a lane for progressive left? >> absolutely there is. there is. that's an important thing that you pointed out, chris. there was an op-ed in the "washington post" where he was catering to the middle of the part a e. some people are going to have to get votes from the moderate wing of the party. not everybody can vie for the left. it's going to be one of those primaries where 60 or 70% could be a big chunk of what primary

voters, who they're supporting. >> michael, you are in this business. there are only a few people that can run national campaigns. they are announcing fairly soon. >> they're grabbing the top talent and donors. it's expensive and very complicated process. and i think democrat cans have to be careful because each of the candidates are going to have to figure out a way to distinguish themselves from the next person. we had two different debates. how do you have a debate stage with 22 different cant candidates? i think this is good to give people an opportunity, i think it can be a complicated process that may ultimately hurt some viable or good candidates in the long run. >> meanwhile president trump remains adamant about declaring a national emergency over a border wall. he has every right to do so. absolute right, he says. here he is. >> the law is very clear.

i mean, we have the absolute right to declare a national emergency. this is security stuff. this is a national emergency. if you look at what's happening. >> well, some republicans are saying it would be a mistake. >> i don't think he should do that. i think it's a bad precedent and it contravenes the power of the purse that comes from the elected representatives of the people. >> we are going down a road that i think erodes those clear lines of authorities between the three separate, but equal branches of government. >> i think it is less powerful than winning this fight. >> i don't want to see that action. >> usual suspect. you want someone to take a shot at trump? >> the field is larger than it used to be of people willing to distance themselves from trump. republicans saying don't do

that. the republicans fear if you let trump do that, what do you do when a democratic president says climate change. >> next thing you know democrats will do something on transgender bathrooms or something? what a reach. >> i mean, i don't know. what do you want me to say? >> he's a clown. >> look. i think going back to what susan just said you're seeing a more expansive group of republicans willing to criticize donald trump. the fact that newt gingrich went on fox news saying i don't think he should declare a national emergency on this. chuck grassley, these guys don't want -- they don't want to own this. they don't want to own this problem. it will become a problem. someone is telling him not to do it. >> jared kushner. >> maybe it is jared kushner. >> look, i think it shows just how disconnected the president is from every day people. he doesn't care about struggling people who live paycheck to paycheck. i was reading reports earlier

today of one example of a federal worker selling her car to pay her mortgage. what about those who can't put gas in their car and pay their rent? what do you tell the person who owns the car? can i'll pay you next month? that doesn't work for people living in the real world and gos to show you how horrific this presidency has become. i think donald trump cemented himself as the worst president in american history. >> that's a quote. thank you. finally, secretary of state, mike pompeo was supposed to lay out the trump administration's decision for the middle east. instead, he repudiated barack obama's foreign policy. let's listen. >> what are did we learn from all of this? we learned when america retreats chaos often follows, when we reject our friends, resentment builds and when we partner with our enemies, they advance.

the good news, the good news is this. the age of self-inflicted american shame is over. >> now pompeo announced the trump administration's own retreat of american forces from syria against ally's wishes while praising saudi arabia whose government has been implicated in the murder and dismemberment of a journalist, jamal. >> president trump has made the decision to bring our troops home from syria. we always do and now is the time. saudi arabia too has worked with us to counterweight expansion and regional influence. >> so what's the trump doctrine? >> don't worry about human rights. you can murder a journalist who works for an american news organization and apparently pay no price with this administration. >> well, the round table is going to stick with us. and up next these three.

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with up to 20 candidates running. the dnc has administered guidelines. they'll be b continuing to administer further guidelines on grass roots and polling to determine who gets in. >> no longer look iing at polls. >> grass roots and polling. >> we've talked about the economy and it's slowing down. particularly the housing market. the president of jenny may, which issues mortgage-backed bonds resigned out of nowhere. it's going to be intriguing to see how that could impact the housing market going forward potentially as we think about the slowing of the economy. >> thank you very much. when we return, let me finish with my prediction for the upcoming democratic battle for 2020. stick around. you're watching "hardball." 2020 stick around you're watching "hardball. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance

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let me finish with a little fun. i think we can use it tonight p, thisth night of a shutdown, the president slamming the door to his room saying he won't come out u until he gets his way. i'm going to do what i love doing. making predictions about politics. i predict that this battle to take on donald trump in 2020 is going to start strong with elizabeth warren winning the iowa caucuses and winning again a week later in the new hampshire primary. she'll be challenged by kamala

harris and into nevada and california on march 3rd. now the big question is whether there's a third candidate who can come in third or fourth in these early contests and still have the money and heft to challenge the two front-runners. is it joe biden? former new york mayor michael bloomberg? with this fight to take on trump be decided fast or over time will the democratic voters take their time? what makes this contest so valuable to american history is that the 2020 election is so winnable for democrats. also i can imagine every candidate, i can every one losing to trump. odds are are democrats win. that's why this baby is going to be one of the great political con zest tests of our lives. all in starts now. tonight on all in.

>> they can name it whatever they can name it. peaches. i don't care what they named it. >> trapped president spins his wheels. >> some things don't change. wheels and walls. >> b tonight, why some republicans are begging for an emergency bailout as the suffering from the trump shutdown continues. then as some in steve king's party rebuke his words -- >> i'm going to do the two-minute drill on the king wall. >> why are they still pursuing his policies? >> we can build this wall. we have to build a wall. >> the republican reckoning the steve king's wall. >> can't shut that off unless we build a fence and wall. sfl a very powerful fence or wall. >> tomorrow the national security emergency might be claimant change. >> why tomorrow's national security emergency is actually today's and is michael cohen's day in congress approaches, what we know about what he can say in public. >> i'll