right now on "andrea mitchell reports," let's make a deal. democratic senate leader chuck schumer announcing an agreement to fund the government after republicans had stalled negotiations last night over a renegade amendment to make article 42 permanent. new transcripts just releases before the final report of the january 6 committee. transcripts released last night show key witnesses not cooperating and pleading the fifth to basic questions. volodymyr zelenskyy in poland thanking americans last night for their support in his impassioned address to congress. the vice president and the

speaker hoisting a ukrainian flag to present to congress. >> against all odds and doom and gloom scenarios, ukraine didn't fall. ukraine is alive and kicking. [ cheers and applause ] a powerful winter storm bringing heavy snow, flash freezing, powerful wind gusts to central and eastern u.s. the latest forecast for how it might impact your holiday plans. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. it's a stormy day out there and in politics with breaking news on two fronts from capitol hill. first, a last-minute deal reached in the senate just in the last hour or so to fund the federal government and avoid a

shutdown, they think. new transcripts from the january 6th committee's final report have been released. the report could come at any minute. stay tuned. joining us now, ali vitali, former u.s. attorney and law professor barbara mcquade. ali, to you. speaker pelosi saying in the last hour, the house is hoping the senate will finish up so the house can pass the final version of the government funding bill, the omnibus bill tonight before they get home, if they can get home because of the flights, at least to the west. is that correct? >> reporter: yeah. that's exactly right. we finished with house speaker nancy ppelosi. it's a busy time for her closing out her tenure, talking about how the house will have to pick up once the senate finishes its work on this package. the house expected potentially

to stay tonight late or pick this up in the morning. both are options the speaker left on the table. look, the senate has several hours more of work ahead of them. they came together on a deal on this larger funding package this morning, last night it looked like things might fall apart. now, they are on track over the next few hours to work through a few amendments that were voted on and then, of course, to pass this larger package, a busy time to the end of the year. you are right, this storm was always a factor here. one senator pretty much stating the obvious to our team this morning saying, well, we have waited so long, flights might be hard to come by. we probably should have done this earlier. which seems to be the sentiment here. >> ali, let's set the stage on the transcripts. you have had a chance briefly to look through them. i have been looking through them as well. let's talk about the highlights you are seeing. >> reporter: i think a lot of us are multitasking. we get this during speaker

pelosi's news conference. i have been able to read through pieces of it. two days of cassidy hutchinson's depositions, after she changed attorneys. that is really important. we had been wondering if the transcripts and the report would answer the question that the committee seemed to have publically posed about whether or not anybody in trump's inner orbit was representing a certain witness, who we know is cassidy hutchinson, with the goal of having her mislead the committee, and we see at various points in her testimony after switching counsel, it se seems of the white house lawyers when he wasrepresenting her doing a lot to say she was a lower level staffer. there was something where she says to the committee, i want to make clear to you, he never told me to lie. he specifically told me, this is hutchinson telling the committee, i don't want you to

perjure yourself but i don't recall can be said. tony ornato, one of the key people center many what happened in the presidential vehicle, he today the committee often he couldn't recall. hutchinson getting thaadvice. we know she was the one to put that story in the public view during the special hearing. >> barbara, i'm not a lawyer but i know that saying i don't recall when you do recall, that's perjury. >> absolutely. the reason i don't recall can be problematic for prosecutors is, it can be difficult to know what someone did and did not recall. if they say they did not recall, then in some instances, you just sort of have to live with that answer, if you can't otherwise prove it. that does not give you license to say i don't recall when you do recall. that's what was going on here. he says he is talking out of

both sides of his mouth when he says, i'm not asking you to perjure yourself. witnesses are compelled to answer questions truthfully. lying about what you do and do not recall is perjury. >> let me read from the transcript. she says he told her, quote, if you don't want 100% recall something, even if you don't recall a date or somebody who may or may not have been in the room, that's an entirely fine answer. we want you to use that response as much as you deem necessary. cassidy, according to the transcript asks, if i recall something but not every little detail, can i still say i don't recall? he responds, yes. let me read something else that's been flagged to me. i got the transcript in front of me. at another point, barbara and

ali, it says -- he says, mark, meaning mark meadows, wants you to know that he knows you are loyal and he knows you will do the right thing tomorrow and that you are going to protect him and the boss, trump. you know, he knows we're all on the same team and we're all a family. do well. let me know how it goes. that's her lawyer provided by the white house telling her, mark, the chief of staff, her immediate boss, and the boss, the president of the united states, wants you to know, we're all on the same team and we're a family. barbara, that's right out of the godfather, telling the witness before a senate committee, you know what to do. >> yes, absolutely. i think it's very potentially a basis for a witness tampering violation. you have to show the person had a corrupt intent. that is, they intended to coach the person to lie.

sometimes they can get around that by saying, vaguely, we knew the team just wanted to tell the truth. that's what we were all about. a jury would have to believe that that's what was going on here, that she was being coached to lie. even intimidated to lie because that's what her bosses wanted her to do. i think that a jury could reasonable find that based on these facts. perhaps there are others that could corroborate that. perhaps there are other witnesses who got that coaching who would be willing to testify to that fact. >> we know, ali, that cassidy was meadows' top aide. she knew everything, was reporting on his phone calls, right down the hall from the oval office. also, cassidy hutchinson indicating that the chief of staff, mark meadows, knew the president had lost the election back on december 19th, that she says she went to the national archives with meadows to begin the process of setting up a presidential library. this is after the electoral

count had been done in december, well before january 6. tell us what happened there. ali? >> reporter: that's important. it again speaks to the mindset of the former president, which the committee has gone through painstaking detail trying to establish who was telling him what, specifically that members of his campaign, white house, unofficial inner circle outside of the white house, all of tem were telling him, you lost the election. he was still going forward trying to find ways to overturn it, eventually resulting in what happened here on january 6. that's just another piece of the puzzle there. just to double back, when you see people like ben williamson, another top and longtime aide to mark meadows, telling cassidy hutchinson, he knows you are loyal, he knows that your deposition is today, that is something that the committee had sort of forecasted over the course of several public hearings, that this kind of witness tampering potentially

and other pressures were being applied to -- at that point they were saying witnesses, we suspected and we know it was cassidy hutchinson. all of that does speak to the way that things work within trump world. i think the other thing that's important here to remember, too, andrea -- we talked about this over the summer -- the fact that the committee said we should read the transcripts closely. people who were higher in stature and title, they recalled less things than their lower level deputies. those lower level people were privy to a lot of information. this was always true during the trump campaign in 2015 and 2016. certainly true in the white house. it wasn't your typical hierarchy chart. the fact that they have cooperation from all of the lower level people is really important. it also sort of offsets the idea that cassidy hutchinson was just a secretary, because she was privy to just so much. that's really the way that trump world has always worked. >> it's fascinating, ali vitali

and barbara, that, in fact, he was talking -- mark meadow was going to a meeting about the post presidential library, which is something you do after the president conceded or lost or term limited. it's after the presidency. mark meadows knew they had lost. i wanted to get to donel. why wasn't the national guard deployed earlier in the day? why were the warnings not given? there had been suspicions the pentagon was complicit because the secretary of the army had to deploy the national guard, if the president did not, because the district of columbia is not a state and doesn't have the same powers, the mayor doesn't have the power a governor has. this seems to indicate something quite different in terms of taking the pentagon or the acting defense secretary off the hook. >> i will make it clear, that is

the key question. there's a big difference between planning a heist and get agway -- getting away with it. the committee has done an excellent job showing the planning. what we don't know is how they were able to get away with it. we weren't surprised of the activities unfolding. we were shocked they were able to penetrate the capitol. i will read from the report. my memory is not as good as it used to be. intelligence and law enforcement agencies did detect the planning for potential violence on january 6 and the information was shared readily throughout the executive branch. that includes the u.s. secret service. the larger question is -- reading through the summary -- chief of the capitol police was mentioned twice. the sergeant of arms, they weren't mentioned at all. there's an omission that hopefully the full report will

get to. there's a big gap in the information about why the national guard wasn't called out and who is responsible for doing so. >> can you interpret why we saw -- we saw the video of pelosi, schumer pleading with the white house, pleading -- calling the governor in richmond, in annapolis. they were ready. what we later also learned from senate hearings that were held last spring, klobuchar and blunt, is that the head of the national guard, who is now i think the police chief of the capitol police, he was just told to standby. he had them ready to get on a bus. >> yes. you are right. actually, i was on the call that the chief made requesting active

national guard to respond. what people need to understand is the national guard historically is not a police force and not a rapid response force. when they are inserted, they need rules of engagement. by the time that those calls were made as the capitol is being sieged, it was too late. the preparation to have national guard on standby should have happened before. those men and women can be trained and equipped in a control posture to repel those attackers. dropping them in in an active seizure of the capitol is going to be difficult at best. once again, the question begs, why were they not prepositioned. there's a lot of finger pointing going on between the chief and the respective sergeant of arms and hopefully the full report will get to why that incumbent -- why that wasn't happening. >> it seems nancy pelosi, is not

in the chain of command -- she was in the chain of command as the speaker but in terms of law enforcement, it was outside her purview. stand by as we proceed today. so much is breaking around us. the intelligence was there. the warnings were there. it didn't get transmitted beyond the executive branch. why wasn't law enforcement troops -- why weren't others pre-positioned with terms of engagement? going on, let's talk about a hero's welcome. ukraine's president making his impassioned plea for continued american support. his country's battle against russian aggression. we will have that next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." we will be back after these short messages. toms of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis or active psoriatic arthritis after a tnf blocker like humira

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ukraine's president zelenskyy met with poland's president on zelenskyy's way home after delivering the historic speech before congress last night. zelenskyy wearing his trademark green sweater, his fatigues, receiving a standing ovation when he entered the chamber. speaking in english, he urged congress to approve an additional $45 billion in aid for his country in language similar to winston churchill. >> ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender. [ applause ] >> thank you for both financial packages you have provided us with and the ones you may be willing to decide on. your money is not charity. it's an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible

way. >> zelenskyy then gave the speaker and the vice president a battle flag, a flag signed by soldiers on the front lines given to him to give to congress. pelosi then presented him with one of the flags that is daily flown over the capitol in honor of his visit. joining us now, a ukrainian journalist who was press secretary for president zelensky. i think you had rolling blackouts. lights on, lights out. you are in kyiv. she's the author of "the fight of our lives, my time with ukraine's zelenskyy." with us is retired four star general barry mccaffrey. president zelenskyy's goals during his speech seem to be rally americans behind him, to

rally the somewhat divided congress. there's a group of republicans, not leadership, who are against the $45 billion that was then on the table, still is with this omnibus bill, but wanting more. wanting tanks and jets that he has been asking for for some time and saying, we don't want your troops. we don't need your trips. we can drive them ourselves. speak to me about that. also, getting that personal relationship, that face time with the president of the united states, so critical so they have a better understanding of each other. >> thank you, andrea. in fact, there were a lot of very important critical messages that made this visit so historic. that was an opportunity to come to washington and from the heart of the united states to say thank you. president zelenskyy repeated it so many times, to thank american people, every american and the government for the support

through this brutal and very difficult ten months of russian invasion in ukraine. second, he showed that he reminded that this is not just some battle there for territory or for money or just politics. this is actually the fight that every american will understand, because this is the fight for our values. this is the fight for freedom, for equality, for human rights. this is the fight that is worth fighting for. then he, of course -- look at him. it's not only about what he says. it's also about that he tries to talk with all his image. when he arrived in the military color and arrived from the hottest battlefield right now, he was showing that probably he is not following the ordinary protocol, but at the same time, he doesn't have time for this. it's about essence. it's about connecting the dots. it's about connecting the

presidents and connecting the people on different sides of the ocean and showing also the fourth message very important is that he was for the first time talking about the peace. he sees peace is possible in 2023. it's never possible to put russian at the table of negotiations if there is any doubt that ukraine can be weak. russia only understands strength. everything the united states invested to ukraine, it's all about getting to peace. it's all about fighting autocracy. this is very important. i know from working with president zelenskyy, it's a very important thing for him to invite president biden to ukraine. last american president who was coming to ukraine was george bush in 2008, before the financial crisis. this is like an important

message to see the most powerful people in the world, the president of the united states coming to ukraine actually. president zelenskyy wants to make a platform of peace in the next year. of course, he was inviting president biden. he wanted to see him here earlier. i'm sure his desire is still huge. let's see how it will work out. definitely, an important historical visit to see as president biden put it the eyes of each other and to see the angles, to share the opinions, the ideas and to understand what is on the table and what is the cost of this peace and how to move forward with it. >> it certainly was an extraordinary speech. we were all gripped by his appearance here, speaking in english. general mccaffrey, what we are learning today from the white house is confirmation now that north korea is supplying weapons to the wagner group, the mercenaries, very brutal

mercenaries who fought in syria and have now been used and deployed to ukraine, because the russian troops -- the regulars were so willfully inadequate and poorly trained. >> yeah. certainly, when you look at the balance of power in europe, the nato nations with their enoous economies, defense industries combined with the united states, and here russia has been turned away by china, i might add, an important ally, and is grubbing for weapons from the iranians and north koreans, it tells you putin is in trouble. the north koreans are not exactly doing smart munitions. they're going to get a lot of small arms ammunition, artillery ammunition that may keep them afloat. back to the central challenge right now, andrea, it seems to me is, you can't win a war on the defensive.

you can prevent disaster. so right now, ukraine is in a situation where they put the russian army in check, not checkmate. they're being destroyed from the air over time and by artillery fired by the russians. we have got to provide a tool for the ukrainians to break out of it. one battery of patriot missiles is not it. they simply must have long distance surface to surface missiles, and the m-1 tank to try and give them the ability to unravel the russian army. putin is going to try for a spring offensive. he is getting belarus to join the war. i don't think they will buy into this. ukraine still has immense casualties and is in great danger. we need to change the game on the ground. >> we're not, because we are

told authoritatively that as a result of the meetings, they're not getting tanks. they're not getting jets. precisely, they are being given one battery of patriots, which is barely enough to play defense but not to play offense. importantly, general, very authoritatively written piece in the "new york times" today is that there's new intelligence assessment that this is stalemate. ukraine cannot do what zelenskyy said he is not only hoping but is confident is that they can win. what is your assessment? >> well, it may well be. some of the fighting in the east, it's trench warfare, artillery bombardment. huge casualties on both sides. the russian army has completely failed at an operational and tactical level.

you are seeing pirate forces, the wagner group, not subject to international law or scrutiny, sometimes being in command of russian army forces. 40,000 convicts given guns and unleashed on the ukrainians. there's a dangerous stalemate. that stalemate works on russia, too. they are under tremendous economic constraints. he is facing internal rebellion, hundreds of thousands of young men have fled russia. stalemate is not a good outcome for putin either. >> wish you all the best possible holiday. thank you. frozen. we're going to be cold for christmas, you can count on it. the latest on the snow, the travel woes sweeping across the country. that's next.

this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. rker. he used to do side jobs installing windows, charging something like a hundred bucks a window when other guys were charging four to five-hundred bucks. he just didn't wanna do that. he was proud of the price he was charging. ♪♪ my dad instilled in me, always put the people before the money. be proud of offering a good product at a fair price. i think he'd be extremely proud of me, yeah. ♪♪ ♪ what will you do? ♪ what will you change? ♪ will you make something better? ♪ will you create something entirely new? ♪ our dell technologies advisors provide you with the tools and expertise you need to do incredible things. because we believe there's an innovator in all of us.

ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. americans across the country bracing for the massive winter storm this holiday weekend, which is going to bring blizzard conditions and cold temperatures to much of the country. the storm hitting the midwest with damaging winds and snow, creating whiteout conditions in rapid city, south dakota. president biden was briefed earlier issuing this warning.

>> it's not like a snow day when you were a kid. this is serious stuff. >> today is supposed to be one of the busiest air travel days with more than 7 million people flying. not so much right now. joining us is nbc's shaq brewster from west of chicago on the road and tom costello who has all the flight information, plus bill karins. shaq, you are driving, i hope safely around the chicago area. how do the roads look? >> reporter: things are looking good right now. it's still early. we just got through some flurries. you are seeing snowfall, especially outside in the suburb areas. i would like you to look at our camera in front of our vehicle. it's starting to get the first coat of snow on the highways. we got some emergency alerts on our phone in the past couple of minutes. officials telling folks to -- now is the time to get off the road, take it slow when you are

on the road. talking about some government buildings and county buildings closing early. one thing that we are seeing as well, the snowfall totals in the area have been decreasing, or the prediction for snowfall in the chicago area have gone down. the concern is the temperatures are going down even more dramatically. this snow that you are seeing right now, as the temperatures continue to plummet, that will start to turn into ice. that is a concern that on the road you will have icy conditions, treacherous conditions in the words of the national weather service. one example that officials are looking at is what you are seeing in minnesota. they are saying that they saw in the overnight hours some 47 crashes, 118 vehicle spinouts and one jackknifed semi. that is the concern that as those temperatures continue to fall, now that the snow is actually falling in this area, that the road conditions will become more dangerous. bottom line you hear from

officials, it's time to move from preparation to hunkering down and making your way off the roads. >> keep following that plow. tom, what are we seeing at the airports across the country? a lot of cancellations? >> absolutely. if shaq could pick up a burger and fries, that would be nice. we are looking at a total, nationwide, we have about 4,500 delays, at airports nationwide, and 1,725 cancellations. that will continue to grow as the weather moves in. let me give you a sense of which airports are getting hit the hardest. no surprise, chicago, ord, in denver, kansas city. des moines, st. louis. you see the theme here.

it's the midwest. the storm, of course, starting in the west, in the rockies and rolling across the west and the midwest. we can also tell you that we were checking with the faa. they have opened up airspace, military airspace along mostly the east coast that's very valuable as they are trying to speed traffic up the east coast. it's almost like an i-95 corridor over the ocean. that's normally reserved for the military. it's opened up for commercial flights, which is standard as they deal with mega holiday traffic. the challenge today is, they told people, rebook to avoid flying today or tomorrow. a lot of people did that. so now there aren't more flights available. flights are sold out and booked. now you just hope the flight you are on is going to take off despite the fact that we have these increasing numbers of delays and cancellations.

>> those of us staying home end up having the best option of all. thank you so much. to bill karins, some people are calling this a once in a generation storm. what parts of the country are hit worst? how fast is it moving? >> it's moving fast. it's not because of the snow. clarify that. this is not a big storm because of the snow. it's because of the dramatic temperature changes. a lot of people will see temperatures falling faster than they have seen before. it happened yesterday in wyoming, the temperature dropped 47 degrees in one hour. in denver, the temperature dropped i think it was 40 degrees in an hour or two. right now, it's 61 degrees colder in denver than this time yesterday. that's a huge swing. that is what is happening. the cold front is heading toward san antonio. st. louis the cold air is blowing in. look at the windchills. des moines is negative 37. chicago is at 25 because the cold air is beginning to move in. dallas is about to go subzero.

your eyes may have caught up here, negative 57 in montana. we have windchill warnings and watching. north florida is under a windchill advisory. that's for saturday morning. we have an area of snow, pennsylvania picked up two to four inches. we have this blowing light fluffy snow in missouri and towards chicago. it's only going to be a couple inches. it's the blowing and whipping that will make it feel like whiteout conditions when you are trying to drive. blizzard warnings for eight states. if i had to pinpoint areas, watch out from cleveland to buffalo and also off of lake michigan, from michigan city up to benton harbor. they could get one to two feet of snow along with 70 mile per hour winds. buffalo will be in for an extreme event. they got five feet of snow a couple weeks ago. this will be worse, especially if we get the 63 mile per hour

winds. imagine what fluffy snow looks like in 63 mile per hour winds. it will be flying all over the place. those high winds will knock out power for thousands. that will last through the christmas holiday. that's one of the things that's the scariest out of this is you have the extremely cold temperatures and you have no power. you may have to go to a warming shelter or a friend's or relative's. those are the stories along with a potential for a flash freeze on the northeast tomorrow. we're not done yet. >> bill karins, i want to say thank you. thank you? happy holidays to you. the mad dash here. senate leaders trying to get back. i will talk to pennsylvania republican senator pat toomey and the lessons he has learned. i'm not sure he can leave the floor. stand by on that.

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it's a busy day on capitol hill. lawmakers racing against the clock and the storm. trying to finish the budget deal to get the full january 6 report released before they head home for the holiday, if they can head home, if there are flights left. here with us now, ryan nobles, and ken dilanian. ken, we have been trying to dig through the january 6 transcripts as we are sitting here. so far, we have cassidy hutchinson speaking about her conversation with the director of national intelligence about trump's election loss and the transcripts read, he said, well, you know, i'm a little worried about what's going on here. i've had a few conversations with the president where he acknowledged he lost. he hasn't acknowledged he wants

to concede. he acknowledges he lost the election. then he will immediately back-pedal or call the next day and say he didn't lose the election and i should call mark. mark has more information, being mark meadows. this is similar to other conversations that we are seeing in the transcripts. >> this is hugely important evidence for the department of justice. in order to charge donald trump with some of the statutes regarding defrauding congress or trying to obstruct congress, they have to show he knew he lost and he was acting in the opposite direction anyway. that's what this evidence seems to suggest. it's not just cassidy hutchinson's conversation with the dni but several conversations she recounts with mark meadows, where he acknowledges that he knew they lost the election and gradually he talks to her and says trump knew as well on december 17th. she quotes meadows saying about trump, he knows it's over, he

knows he lost, but we're going to keep going. that's crucial evidence for the doj. i should add that cassidy hutchinson's testimony is fascinating as she recounts the first lawyer that was representing her who came from trump world, who is now on leave from his law firm because according to cassidy hutchinson, he essentially advised her to shade her testimony and tell her to tell the committee that she didn't recall things when, in fact, she did recall them. the reverberations for some of the testimony goes beyond donald trump and is causing problems for a lot of people involved in this. >> as we reported earlier in the show at the top of the show, ken, another trump aide, trump loyalist said, i have talked to mark and we know you are family and we know you will do the right thing. it sounded like out of a gangster movie. barbara, let me bring you in

here on this new transcript that ken dilanian is reporting on, because as he says, it's hugely important. you are the constitutional lawyer. you are the former prosecutor. you are the law professor. but this is not the president who persuaded himself that he won the election and therefore could not be indicted. he knew and he also knew from what we were discussing earlier from working on the presidential library, that mark meadows was working on that, the post-presidential library. >> any evidence that shows trump knew the idea of a stolen election was a lie is really important to proving his criminal intent. for obstruction of justice, you have to prove the person acted corruptly. if they thought that they were advancing something that was perfectly legitimate, then that would not be a violation of that statute. conspiracy to defraud the united states requires a fraud, a lie. it's essential -- the false slates of electors, false

documents, that requires knowing that the slate is based on a lie. all of that is important. any evidence you have that tends to prove that donald trump knew there was no fraud in the election is very important. there's a lot of it. william barr telling him, they have investigated everything and there's nothing there. the head of the cybersecurity telling him, the most secure election in the history of the country. the list goes on and on. we are seeing additional evidence. it's so important because it's very difficult to prove someone's intent. jurors are instructed you can never know what is in another person's mind because we can't read minds. what you can do is look to other information. under the totality of the circumstances you may draw reasonable inferences. any piece of evidence you get that shows that donald trump knew that he had lost that election is very important evidence. >> i just want to point out that

john radcliffe is a total trump loyalist. for him to give this testimony indicates he was not going to perjure himself. he was installed at the director of national intelligence over all kinds of objections from the intelligence community because trump wanted him and thought he was such a loyalist. ryan nobles, first of all, any time line for the release of more transcripts of the report itself? >> reporter: it could come at any second. it was supposed to come yesterday. it was pushed off because of issues having to do with the processing of the document but also likely because of the visit from the ukrainian president zelenskyy. so we are told to be prepared for it sometime early this afternoon. we could see that report at any moment. in terms of the transcripts, this is something that the committee is just going to release periodically over time between now and the end of the

year. we literally could get transcripts every day. they're not going to release them in one big batch. instead, parse them out little by little. it does appear that the committee's releasing them kind of thematically. yesterday, everybody pleading the fifth. today was cassidy hutchinson. we will see how it goes on. >> let's get an update on what's happening on the floor. we expected to have senator toomey. chuck schumer closed the doors and rocketing through the amendments that were supposed to be done in a reasonable fashion last night but were stalled and stopped. they just left because of republican objections that meant everything was collapsing. what's happened now? >> reporter: they are speeding through 18 different amendments so they can get to the final passage of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package. after they wrap it up, it will go to the house. there's optimism this could be

passed as soon as tonight. basically, there was a squabble over title 42. senator mike lee was hoping to get a vote on that, around 50 votes on it. instead, they came up with some level of compromise. that's basically what they are heading through right now. they are speeding through the amendments. they hope to get it done soon. >> i want to point out, this was not led by mitch mcconnell. this was a group which had nothing to do with the republican leadership in the senate. they were all on board with what chuck schumer and the democrats were trying to do is to get this bill passed and get the $45 billion to ukraine as well as the election count -- the reform on the election count act and other stuff. ryan nobles, ken dilanian, barbara mcquade, best to you for a happy holiday. as the full transcripts from the january 6 testimony come out bit by bit, they top off what is becoming a very bad week for president trump, who has been

holed up at mar-a-lago since announcing his presidential bid last month. joining us now "washington post" phil rucker, david jolly and ki atkins. you have written books on donald trump and his ego. has trump lost altitude since announcing his campaign with all of the problems that he's experienced on the legal and personal front in just the last month. >> i think so. we can't ever predict what's going to happen in the game of politics with donald trump. he certainly has a strong well of support out in the country and with republican voters. what we have seen in the months since he announced his presidential campaign, he's not really done anything to expand his political appeal and has

been on the defensive with the series of investigations, not only the justice department's appointment of a special counsel to investigate the classified documents mishandling at mar-a-lago and the fake elector scheme, but we're seeing the house committee's work this week. in recommending the criminal indictments for the former president. and now this new material coming out in the transcripts. we have also seen the house vote to make public the years of tax returns he was saying year after year, the ir sx is auditing my taxes and i can't release them to the public. it turns out that's not quite true. the irs didn't conduct those audits the first two years of his presidency, but now the public is going to be able to see those tax returns for themselves, as soon as the necessary redactions are made. >> phil, what stands out to you from cassidy hutchinson's

transcripts? you know these players better than anyone. >> i think what we have discussed already, the knowledge that she has of of the former president president's state of mind on and about january 6th, of his intent of what others in the white house were telling him, that's all important and helps fill out the kind of portrait that i think when you move this over into the criminal space that federal investigators are going to try to piece together as they decide whether to charge him. >> and david, let's talk about the omnibus bill that almost collapsed. it's now back on track, we think. the last-minute hiccup wasn't completely unexpected given the political climate. does this foretell what's dwoing to come in the new congress? >> well, certainly, i would point out it's already three months overdue. the fiscal year started october 1. they are kind of cleaning up a mess they created, but that's how congress now budgets on an annual basis.

it's important to keep the government open and to get this done before republicans take control of the house. you have the two chambers controlled by different parties. what was not done though, is raising the debt ceiling. the statutory limit on borrowing money, that's something congress will have to res the with in the spring. they don't intend to play nicely when it comes to raising the debt limit despite the fact the trump administration had an awful record on increasing the national debt. >> we're waiting on those six years of trump tax documents, but what we already know from the top headlines is that he was not audited. we don't know why. we don't know why his personally chosen, less qualified commissioner from california allowed the irs and under the treasury secretary allowed rs not to do its mandatory yearly audit of the president.

>> yes, and we have legislation that's being proposed now that would require that be done codifying it, not making it just an irs rule. it's also an interesting thing. republicans have been saying for years that the attempt by the house ways and means committee to get donald trump's tax returns was merely a political stunt. the chairman maintained that it was part of their investigative duty. we now see that investigation has led to uncovering this huge lapse within the irs that needs to be addressed. so in addition to whatever these tax returns will show about what donald trump did and didn't pay and what his business practices were, this certainly is a win for that committee in its oversight role. >> although that legislative fix that chairman neil wants to put through can't happen before january 3rd, and then the republicans will take over.

whether they would pick that up or not is rather doubtful. let's talk about the president. he's going to be speaking around 4:00. i would presume he want wants to wait for the omnibus to be done. he's going to be giving what he's calling a christmas message from the oval office. what do you think we're going to be hearing? >> i think it's going to be part victory lap, part saying to the nation, look, it's been a crazy week, but look at all the things we have done both domestically and internationally with volodymyr zelenskyy coming here this week and moving forward trying to make sure that the nation and the world is a safer, more peaceful place. but i think it's meant to wrap up a little bit to remind people what has happened in the last year and to take some credit for that before the big fights with the incoming republican house begin. >> happy holidays to everyone.

thanks for being with us. the january 6th report, the late etc. on what we expect to see, when we expect to see it. the details we're waiting to learn, that's next this is "andrea mitchell reports." our preholiday edition, only on hst nbc. ♪ what will you do? ♪ what will you change? ♪ will you make something better? ♪

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good day, everyone. i'm andrea chel in for chris jansing. as we speak trying to push that $1.7 trillion funding bill over the finish line 12 hours after it looked like the whole thing might fall apart. that could have meant billions in aid for ukraine and critical legislation like count reform would go by the wayside. the senate is not the final word. the bill still has to pass the house before going to president biden's desk for suggest. all before government funding runs out tomorrow night. plus the january 6th report is setting to released at any moment. two hours ago we received one of most widely anticipated parts of the investigation. the full transcript of testimony from mark meadows' top aid cassidy hutchinson. we'll go live to capitol hill with more on that in a minute. and we'll also get the latest on the dangerous weather impacting more than a thi