they talk to families in case and he was there alone. as they try to locate loved ones who may not have had any news about their loved ones or friends that were at this market. this marketmuch like this. eight years ago almost to the day. this was one day after it eight years ago. december 19th, 2016. everybody, thank you very much for joining us during this hour. they're going to continue the breaking news coverage next on "deadline white house." don't go anywhere. hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. i apologize at the outset for my cold. begin today with breaking news. a suspected attack at a christmas market in the city of magdeburg in central germany. up to 80 people have been injured. it happened when a vehicle plowed into a crowd.

hospitals in the area bracing for possible mass casualty event. what we know at this hour is this, according to local news agencies, is that the suspected driver of the car has been arrested. the deputy mayor of the city says at least one person has been killed. here at home, police in new york city have increased security injury at holiday markets in and around the city as a precaution and in response to the events in germany. let's bring into our coverage carlo anger in germany for us in now. carlo, what are you learning? >> good evening. nicole, we just learned that the city has now confirmed some additional details on how many victims there have been in this incident. they have confirmed that one person has died, 15 people have been seriously injured. 37 moderately and 60 people have been slightly injured. so over 60 people injured.

i believe one person dead in this incident at the christmas market tonight. and police have also said that they continued the investigation on what has been going on and we are seeing the tures there of a big emergency response. obviously this is something that, you know, has also stirred up memories of a similar incident eight years and one day ago when a truck plowed into a christmas market in berlin and at that time 13 people were killed that night. >> carlo, with markets, christmas markets being targeted in the past in berlin, what sorts of precautions were in place tonight? >> so what you have seen since some of these terrorist attacks

on christmas markets years ago is an increased security presence at these christmas markets. even in the small towns you'll now see these barricades that have been put up at the entrance of christmas markets that should stop vehicles or that -- like the one that apparently drove into the crowd in magdeburg tonight. even now from these images you can still see these concrete blocks that have also been put there but maybe not -- and that will likely also be part of the investigation, why this car was actually able to drive into the market and also so far into it reaching so many people in the main crowd there. >> carlo, sometimes these things happen in a climate or in an environment where people are on edge or sometimes in hindsight sothey describe an uptick in

chatter or threats. i don't know enough to know if that's the circumstance here, but could you take us inside the climate and the threat environment in germany right now? >> i would actually say that i think the sense of the public in recent weeks when they've gone to christmas markets like this, like here in the city of munich where i am tonight, actually there hasn't been as much uneasiness as we've seen maybe years ago in the time frame around 2015 to 2019 when there were a lot of isis-inspired attacks at the time. so security service the here in germany have often said this they're kind of -- you know, there continues to be kind of an underlying occurrence of threats, a lot of chatter, but nothing really concrete so this would also be part of the

e investigation by police and other security services in the coming hours, days if they might have picked up any chatter about this specific christmas market, but i will say that overall while there is a lot of uneasiness over the economic situation or over politics, it's actually been more relaxed at christmas markets like this one compared to how it was several years ago. >> carlo, we have a live image or images from a few moments ago of the efforts to assist people who were injured. i do want to just one time play the footage that has emerged of the actual attack. i want to warn all of my viewers at home, it is graphic but we are going to show you what we're seeing and able to report.

an unbelievably horrific and ifheinous hallmark of these kin of attacks. obviously people gathering ahead of obthe holiday, just five day ahead of the holiday there.ol carlo, what sorts of things are we halearning, if anything, abo any of the victims? >> i don't have any details on the victims yet, but the crowds that are at these christmas markets in germany, it really kind of goes across the board in terms of age, in terms of, you know, where they're coming from. oftentimes, you know, you'll see three generation families who will meet up at these christmas markets, especially in the bigger towns like here in munich

or in the famous christmas markets like the one in newer renberg. nurenberg and -- so you can assume that the group of victims in grthis incident was also, yo know, came from different age groups, different backgrounds. it's probably not a specific target but a certain group. >> and the person driving the car was not injured in a manner that prevented him from being arrested. do we have any information about whether or not he's talking to authorities? >> we don't know that yet.

there is a press conference or some press statements going on pright now by the german state prime minister -- or by the state's prime minister of that german state. we're hearing in the wire services that the perpetrator was from saudi arabia and that he was arrested, but obviously as that investigation is ongoing at the moment and so far we don't know what the motive was. in the past, you know, it's also been -- there are quotes from, you know, a terrorist attack all the way to psychiatric issues and then sometimes you also have other health issues. we'll see what comes out tonight

and in the next couple of days as the investigation is ongoing. >> carlo, i want to make sure i understood you. the sloid has been arrested is a doctor? >> ayes, that's correct. so the alleged perpetrator, the alleged driver of this vehicle leis apparently a doctor by tra. >> carlo, we're grateful that you were on the scene immediately, i've been watching your atcoverage over the last couple of hours. thank you for extending it and fospending some time with us. carlo angerer, thank you very much.ou we'll continue to follow this story. story as we learn more and sift through the kinds of reporting that carlo has already. we're going to turn to the other 'rbig story of the day. politics and news out of washington, d.c. for the first major manufactured political crisis of the second trump era is well underway, even before donald trump has been sworn in. it is a crisis that has led to

pentagon officials issuing warnings like this. >> without an appropriation or a continuing resolution, our troops will miss their end of month paycheck during the holiday season. military reservists drilling after december 20 will not receive pay for those drills and federal civilians required to work during a shutdown will not be paid. civilian employees whose work is paid for from lapsed appropriations will be furloughed during the duration of the lapse which appears to coincide with the christmas and new year's holidays. >> elon musk wearing the grinch costume well.he no pay for the 2.1 million troops over the holidays. how exactly did we get here? as we reported this hour yesterday, the government was barrelling towards a possible shutdown. after elon musk led a rebellion against a bipartisan funding deal and then trump quickly followed in elon's footsteps.

only a bill that met musk's terms to go down dramatically and quickly. here's where things stand this afternoon. the situation remains very fluid but the house is set to vote on a package that includes disaster relief, assistance for farmers and it would require a 2/3 majority vote meaning republicans would need democratic support to pass thiss bill.pa it's where we start today. ali vitali is with us. former democratic senator claire mccaskill is here with the at the table democratic analyst basil smykal and the reverend al sharpton is here. ali vitali, the grinch gave me a cold. i'll let you take over and bring us up to date on the latest.

>> the grinch is giving us chaos as we try to wind down. i don't know which of us has it worse. as of now, we're sort of in this limbo reperiod. as of two hours ago i was standing downstairs in one of the hallways of doom as we like to call it because it's where many of these huddles with republicans often happen when they are reaching an inflection point or an impasse and they need to get together and figure out what way they need to go w next. as folks were emerging, they were seemingly confident that just into the a government shutdown would be averted but they had a plan. they were going to leave the debt ceiling or abolishing the debt by the way side, basically chucking back the only thing that trump and musk asked for exclusively in this package. that's by the way side. instead, they're going to pull everything else apart and do a skinny version and do it in

three pieces. the first is basic government funding until mid march. the second is the disaster relief package we've often talked about and the third is an extension of the farm bills that you don't run into bigger problems in your grocery store aisles because subsidies and other market prices don't remain fixed based on what the farm bill says.on all of those things make sense, it's now just a question of the vehicle that they use to actually pass it and if they have the votes. the vehicle is going to have big implications on the second question, how many votes they need. right now it's looking like they're going to do it through a process called suspension and that means you need a 2/3 majority on the house floor. if you need a 2/3 majority you need democrats. democrats have been mostly kept in the dark since the original bipartisan plan fell apart. house democratic leader hakeem jefferies said the lines of communications have been reopened. my understanding is democrats hadn't exactly been keyed in yet as to what this plan actually

was, let alone been able to talk it over with their members. i think that's why we're now sort of in this quiet waiting period. we did hear from top republicans who said there was going to be a vote today, maybe this afternoon, but here we are squarely in the afternoon playing the waiting game and waiting thto see how this ultimately plays out. >> ali vitali, why did elon musk kill the bill? >> and that is the excellent question here because you would think that trump and thusly musk had been apprised of what johnson was negotiating over the course of these last several weeks. johnson has been at him -- with him at mar-a-lago but also at every sporting event from wrestling to college football.ve it's not like these two guys haven't been in touch, and suh the fact that musk came in first and started sewing the seeds of discord and say he was going to primary members for those who voted on this and then trump comes in and dunks on the top guy in the unhouse saying i'm n

going to go for this unless you put the debt ceiling into it. the debt ceiling is in and of itself a whole different negotiation. the idea you could have negotiated this in 24 hours is completely unfounded. it's partly why we see it on the cutting room floor.tt it's too thorny of an issue. the why i think is really essential to this. it's the one that we have not yet been able to tease out other than musk is trying to talk about this as a seeming extension of his doge project, which is to cut wasteful spending from the government and to really take a look at fiscal responsibility, but not keeping the government's lights on doesn't seem like a moment of fiscal responsibility. so you end up at this impasse of what is actually going on here? >> well, elon musk owns this. i think whatever people think of him, he killed the bill. t here's what he killed. cancer for kids with collateral damage. some of the hardest cuts to swallow involve medical

research. in particular, the revised funding bill delivered a devastating blow to the fight against pediatric cancer. anyone traveling has been all over the internet looking to see how it affects travel. tsa agents are bracing for paycheck freezes. what is elon musk's interest in cutting pediatric cancer research and tsa three days ahead of christmas? >> i think this is more generally the way end of year spending bills get done. this is actually not just musk complaining about this, though he is certainly the one who is unelected and very active on social media with the money, frankly, and the following to actually have an impact on i legislating. put that concern aside that an unelected citizen of this country can just do that, but you then look at some of the people here who have been sounding pethe alarm on this forever. it's the process of the way people fund the government at

the end of the year. we heard people likening this to christmas trees. it's an apt description despite the fact it's overkill.t' every ornament you hang on a tree, the bill you referenced there about pediatric cancer, is one of the things that got added into this bill as something that lawmakers wanted to see get done by the end of the year but it was one of many, many pieces of large ger package. the people who complain about the way that we do fund being at the end of the year have complaints that it's not a more eliberative process, people aren't looking at each dollar that's being added and it sort of seems like an automatic press go and consider funding the government without considering it. certainly there are debt concerns that this country should take seriously, but when you e actually start looking at what's in the bill, it starts to make sense why it's very difficult to start just saying we'll slash all of these funding, it doesn't matter, because these are actually good programs that maybe do deserve to get funded.

certainly in the case of pediatric cancer that you point out. >> i'm not a hill reporter, but didn't trump want to come in raising the debt ceiling? it wasn't about cuts, was it? >> he did come in wanting to raise the debt ceiling. that's where this started to fall apart. t conservatives on the one hand were excited because musk and trump seemed to back them up with the idea government funding shouldn't be this massive ballooning thing that we pass in quick fashion at the end of the year. why you started to see nearly 40 republicans vote no on this. a, they never vote on government funding bills like this anyway but, b, when you start to introduce the debt limit and abolishing the debt ceiling, this is potentially spending. we're seeing them put numbers on this that are going to come into play next year. you're talking about potentially raising the debt ceiling to the tune of $2 trillion or $1.5 trillion and then republicans now saying, okay, we promise to offset that in pay fors when we do the reconciliation process

next year, that's a really, really tall order. their complaint is you can't do the debt ceiling without having a conversation about paying for it and that's the conversation they didn't have time to have now. it's a big part of why conservatives weren't backing this bill despite the fact that it had trump's blessing. >> it sounds like hypocrisy and incompetence all wrapped in. >> it is. >> all right. w ali, stick around. come back when you have anything to share with us. i want to get to our panel on the other side of a break. we're also going to have a chance to speak to top lawmaker to help us understand where things stand and why.in someone who's been at this midnight shutdown many times before. plus a closer look at one man's outsized influence on capitol hill. who some republicans are even suggesting could be the next speaker of the house. talking about elon musk, of course. later, we'll go back to the horrific scene of the tragedy unfolding at this hour in east

germany where a car drove into dozens of people at a christmas market there. we'll have all of those developments coming up in this hour. much more news to come. n

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ahhhh! what is — wow! sinex. breathe. ahhhhhh! i'm literally hearing about this in real time. i can't give you an answer until i see what's in the legislation. of course, this may not pass the house because all it takes is one tweet from a billionaire 15 minutes from now and house republicans will go running for the hills. elon musk, vivek ramaswamy,

they're in charge of our government right now it seems so we have to wait to see what the billionaires think. >> joining our coverage is congressman jim clyburn, democrat of south carolina. congressman, sorry for my voice but i'm so happy to get to talk to you. tell me what's happening up there on capitol hill once again, center of the universe. >> well, thanks very much for having me. as you can see, i ran home today to eulogize a very close personal friend. i'm headed back to the airport. i understand from my staff that a process has been put in place. what i'm hearing is this is a bill.

it's keeping the government open. it's done in this. it feels like a distraction. we're seeing how were you adjusting. and it is not just elon musk. a lot of these nominees

established people who seem to have problems with things like social security, veterans benefits, cancer research. this is a great country and it's great because we've always been able to repair the faults we have found in the country. i believe that polio was eradicated because of research, a lot of it private but some of it public. the cancer moonshot is public funds to try to find a cure for cancer, and for us to cut the funding for cancer, especially for children, that to me is

unconscionable. and the guy who seems to be leading the charge on this is supposed to be the wealthiest man in the country whose business was tanking during the obama administration and barack obama's administration gave him the 3 to $400 billion loan that he needed in order to keep his business going. so it's okay for the government to come to his aid but not to take care of people on social security who are living out their golden years after working all their lives to make this country as great that it is. i think this is a problem that the american people better pay close attention to because elon musk is demonstrating some of the most selfish attitude that i've ever seen in government.

>> he seems to latch on to trump's indifference or ignorance about the human consequences of screwing up the federal government. we all lived through it during covid but it seems that trump is not coming back to the white house with any deeper understanding or compassion for how his erratic style of governing affects people. what opportunity does that afford democrats? >> well, the democratic party that i am a member of, we are going to stay focused on the needs of the people in this country. we are going to fight for veterans' benefits. we are going to fight for children's health care. we are going to fight to preserve the integrity of social security. we are going to fight for medicare, medicaid and those things that are there to take

care of the american people, and i think we're going to do it in such a way that the american people will be able to see from that fight what the contrasts are and hopefully they will demonstrate in the next round of elections two years from now some approval for this kind of approach and maybe that will bring them to their senses. you may recall, you did this before going all the way back to newt gingrich and it was us hanging together on behalf of the american people to get newt gingrich out of office. >> congressman, are you confident as you head back to washington that there will be a bill to support that keeps the government from shutting down? >> i'm autiously optimistic.

i just feel that there are enough people on both sides of the aisle this time of year with all of us in the giving spirit, we are not going to be grinches. we are not going to be taking the christmas spirit away from the american people. that is the worst thing that we could do just ten days or so before christmas. i think it will get done because i believe there's a majority on both sides of the house to put up the votes that are necessary to do this, hopefully on the suspension calendar and not having to worry about going to the rules committee to bring out a rule. >> well, you certainly speak to the better angels so i'm hopeful that those better angels will prevail. congressman jim clyburn, thank you for taking the time. >> thank you very much for having me. >> basil, unbelievable moment

but also incredible reveal, that everything will be done. it's totally different the distractions. >> well, just a couple of weeks or months ago we spent a lot of time talking about the trump amnesia among the electorate. he's not even president yet and already we're seeing chaos that is ambitions and the ambitions the folks around him have. so it is striking because people have used the word oligarchy in describing this relationship. you really have to think, yeah, that's kind be of where we're headed. even if it's not elon musk, it's going to be somebody else taking his place at some point down the road. but one of my mentors early on in my career, i'll call his name, used to say always pay attention to bricks and mortar

politics, what people could see, touch and access. you here in the holidays, and people are traveling to go see their families. you have potentially tsa agents not even doing their jobs. this is something that even though trump wanted to fall flatly on the biden administration, folks will remember this is his doing. i had concerns we weren't hearing enough from biden but maybe that was a good strategy, to let trump and elon be sort of driving this chaotic moment. >> i think also we should not go quickly past the moment. we are literally seeing a billionaire guide public policy in this country, and if that's not moving towards an autocracy, i don't know what is. elon musk went public against threatening primaries of elected officials before trump even

spoke. all you have to do to understand the importance of that, suppose george sorrows or michael bloomberg is talking about it. michael bloomberg was around chicago doing barack obama. they would be saying they shouldn't be allowed to take office. he's meeting with foreign heads of state with trump, he's at every phone call, he's even at the army-navy game. what are we looking at here? now we're going to let a brazen government funded propped up by obama and then when he needed it multi-billionaire decide public policy? we're literally sitting here that the government may shut down because this billionaire decided that and trump just comes in like a puppet from a puppeteer? what happened to the ego mania of trump?

and musk doesn't even have the decency of trying to act like i'm just helping donald. he's out in front in front of everything peeking over his shoulders in pictures. i mean, something is very, very distasteful about this. >> the humility. i want to bring claire in on this. i have to sneak in a very short break first. i'll be right back. right back gea wax figure of myself. cool right? look at this craftmanship. i mean they even got my nostrils right. it's just nice to know that years after i'm gone this guy will be standing the test of ti... he's melting! oh jeez... nooo... oh gaa... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ i was out on a delivery, when i came across a snake... a rattler. fedex presents tall tales of true deliveries there we were, driver versus reptile. our battle was legendary. (♪♪)

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them -- president musk told them, don't do it. >> donald trump and president musk. >> welcome to the elon muss, presidency one where donald trump has been relegated to be the vice president. >> if elon musk is cost playing co-president i don't know why trump doesn't hand him the oval office. >> they are allowing somebody who is a shadow president to come out and tell them what to do. >> what's amazing is no one is looking for j.d. vance. now whether or not lawmakers can pass a spending bill before midnight, one thing has been made perfectly clear. elon musk is poised to have a substantial impact on what this process looks like and potentially the next four years. we'll bring in claire mccaskill. claire, have you ever seen anything quite like this before? president-elect advocating

public power and public authority to someone like elon musk? >> yeah, who does he think he is? and let me -- first of all, let me just say this about you, nicole wallace. i want your audience to understand that most people would not be in your chair today. you clearly can't talk and i want to give a shout out to you for sticking in there and trying to be there for your audience today. i know that they all -- >> stupid, stupid. >> okay. so here's the thing with elon musk. how did he get here? well, he got here because donald trump was enamored with the idea that the wealthiest man walking the planet, certainly in the united states, is elon musk. the richest. i mean, he's got hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars and donald trump has maybe if you count his stock in truth, which is -- maybe he's got 4, 5,

6 billion. so that's how he got in the room. then he stroked a $250 million check to get trump elected and took over a large part of his campaign operation. now -- and they said stock price is how elon musk is so rich. it's the stock price of tesla that makes him so rich. tesla, as congressman clyburn pointed out, was saved by u.s. tax dollars. he was on the verge of going under and got like half a billion loan to get through the hump and to help his business thrive. now let's dig a little deeper what's going on here. what is donald trump wanting to prevent with the tariffs? he's wanting to prevent off shoring jobs to china? who is in china big time? elon musk. elon musk is everywhere in china. the in fact, somebody needs to look into some of the provisions of the bill that were defeated

by elon musk coming out against it were, in fact, trying to stop the off loading of technology to china. hello. and then you've got him over promising to write checks in the u.k. to the right wing party over there. then you've got him endorsing what many call the neonazi party in germany right now. who is this guy? who does he think he is? why is everyone so afraid of him? who put him in the position? the american people didn't vote for this guy. he names his children after mathematical formulas. he's not somebody who understands common sense and the needs of the american people. so i just -- i am beside myself that he has this kind of power, and it is making donald trump look tiny. i mean teeny weenie tiny. >> claire, you just masterfully

connected all of the dots. what can democrats do? >> here's where the train wreck is going to come. today in the republican caucus they put up a slide and they said in the first reconciliation, let me transfer that language for your viewers, the first reconciliation, that means the first time they're going to take a bill through congress next year without having to get 60 votes throughout the senate. in other words, they can pass it with just republican votes. they've promised in the republican caucus today they were going to raise the credit debt limit 1.5 trillion and then they were going to cut mandatory spending by 2.5 trillion. now mandatory, if you understand the united states budget, that is things like social security and medicare and medicaid, the things that people in this country need desperately, many people need desperately. so that's what -- that's what

elon musk wants to do with doge. he wants to cut mandatory spending, and guess who has promised not to cut mandatory spending? donald j. trump. so we're going to see pretty quickly next year this collision of a guy who is -- likes the idea that the richest guy is on his team with the guy who is the richest guy and thinks he's in charge and, frankly, the democrats have an opportunity here to make sure they're the ones fighting for the people. >> well, the politics of what elon musk wants are disastrous for donald trump. do you think there is a piece that is more interested in what elon musk wants and needs than donald trump's political success or do you think it's a sabotage of his political strength? i mean, why do you think trump who is so obsessed with his virulity and looking like he is in charge is publicly following

musk's lead? >> i think it's very interesting to me, and i think it will blow up. a lot of the jungle -- musk, like i said, got to this close place to trump because he can stroke a check for 250 million and not notice it. and clearly has multiples of what trump has in terms of wealth, but, you know, there's a couple things that could happen here. one, trump could say, go away. musk can, you know, go back to his compound in austin, texas, with who knows how many children with how many women and most of whom he's not married and, you know, maybe try to rescue the astronauts that are stuck in space right now and space link -- x is supposed to be helping them but he's busy running the government. the other thing that could happen is you could see his stock price go down. i don't know if that will happen. i'm not predicting that it will happen, but i'm wondering what his board of directors is

thinking right now. you know, like i say, his wealth is his stock price of tesla, and he clearly is busy with other things besides his space business and his car business and his ai business and his robotic business. so at some point in time something is going to have to give because i don't think this is sustainable. >> this is amazing. claire, please stick around. no one's going anywhere. we'll all be back. we'll also get another update from capitol hill. vote is scheduled for the next hour. don't go anywhere. we'll all be right back.

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let's go! we're back. rev, it feels like there's important information for democrats to glean from this. trump is for some reason publicly comfortable deferring to elon musk. that's different from last time. and there's no effort to pretend to care about the consequences of their actions this time. >> and i think the democrats ought to be really raising that, saying that we lost a narrow election to donald trump. we didn't know we had lost it to elon musk. i don't even -- we don't even hear about j.d. vance. i mean, where is the vice president-elect? where is the chief of staff? all you see is trump and musk. and have we become a country -- imagine how this looks around the world where the wealthiest guy calls all the shots. so then what are we preaching

about when we talk about oligarchs or autocracy when elon musk, who couldn't run from president because he wasn't born here, he's from south africa, is visibly calling the shots. this is no conspiracy theory that somebody is looking up. every time you see trump, if it's christmas dinner, i'm sure he'll be sitting there. and i think that this is a dangerous precedent for democrats to allow america to be perceived that the wealthiest can tell the elected representatives of this country, including the president, what to do, and they have to be in on and co-sign. what musk is doing now saying i've got to co-sign whatever the congress does. that's dangerous. >> among claire's wonderful points, she said this makes trump look really tiny. that might be the one thing that gets him to cut those ties, or at least to try to blur them.

if he feels emasculated by the guy. if he feels as though there's something that, you know, he's losing his stature. we know that fame is his currency. if he feels that that's being taken away, you may see some distance. until then i think everyone is e precedent to the world. two other points. democrats trying to draw that line between trump's wealth and his wealth is not going to help you, the average voter, but what we could see very clearly is elon musk wealth actually damaging average americans. >> yes. >> and that is the thing that might actually stick with the voter. finally, elon musk loves saying that dei means didn't earn it, but as claire said and certainly as jim clay bern has said, he is not where he is without barack obama. so if the message to democrats is nothing else, it's that, you know, black voters and black leaders do a lot to hold up this

country, right, number one. number two, maybe we should stop that and start focusing internally because look at -- look at what's produced when no one else is checking and being held accountable. >> he's the ultimate dei guy. >> he is. >> he's the guy that got more government support to bail him out. >> that's right. >> certainly we don't know that he was qualified. so for him to enjoy something and now he wants to destroy it for people who are legally excluded for getting signed up for opportunities is something that we ought to really be talking about. >> claire, there's some real signs of spunk and life coming out of your former colleagues in the senate. i think there's a real sort of palpable feeling being on the side of the american people, all of them, regardless of who they voted for in november is going to be a wide open lane. what are you hearing in your conversations with senators? >> well, i'm hearing that there is some optimism that some of

the most crazy appointments won't get through. you're seeing signs -- it's very unusual for republican senators to be requesting the fbi report of a nominee for a secretary of defense. these are typically something that is not circulated beyond the committee and usually it's, you know, held close. the members can go and see it, but typically it's not distributed. so hegseth i think is still a question mark. i think tulsi gabbard is certainly a question mark. i think bobby kennedy is certainly a question mark. and carb kash patel is certainl question mark. there is some optimism that will be four senators that will say -- maybe not the same four on all of them, maybe more than four on some of them, but there is optimism that will be enough that some will say, they are not qualified and in some instances

these people have things that make them a danger in these jobs, that they are not the people to take the very important sensitive jobs at the head of the military, our intelligence and our law enforcement. i mean, think about that. i mean, that's kind of the whole ball of wax in terms of protecting americans. le and i think the democrats also understand that these billionaires are going to be running everything. i mean, he will have the richest cabinet ever in the history of mankind. there is a real disconnect there between the people who voted for donald trump and the people who will be surrounding donald trump, and i think the democrats get that part and i think they're anxious to point it out to the american people. i think the policies are going to be part of the republican agenda are also going to remind folks that this isn't a party that really is looking after you, the people that are trying to make everything come out even at the end of the month. >> claire, i heard some of the same thing today in talking to folks, that the house

republicans' defiance of the musk crafted bill might be different on the other side. they're still standing. trump doesn't really care about any of this. if we reject hegseth, he'll have tom cotton or the guy from florida. i think he -- you know, at the end of the day trump isn't really emotionally attached to any of these people. do you think there's anything that they're watching in this fight over avoiding a government shutdown that may instructor fortify their ability to stand up to trump on some of these nominations you're talking about? >> yeah. the 38 republicans that voted no yesterday after their jobs being threatened by the richest man in america and their jobs being threatened by the incoming president of the united states that frankly even though he didn't get 50% of the vote, you could argue was the most successful republican presidential candidate we've had

in a while. those 38 people stood up to them because they were saying we want to stand on our principles about raising the debt ceiling. now i disagree with those 38 people on almost everything, but they did stand on their principles in spite of that pressure, and frankly senators get six-year terms and many of the people that are going to be called to vote on these folks aren't going to be up for six years. surely you can find your principles if you have six years to recover getting political blowback from elon musk and zblump claire mccaskill, basil smykal, al sharpton, thank you very much. still ahead, we'll go back to germany on the very latest about the car that plowed into the busy christmas market. and as we've been reporting, a vote is scheduled to hold off a possible government shutdown. ari melber will step in to help

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good afternoon, i'm ari melber in right now for nicole wallace, who is giving her voice a little break. we are tracking several stories in the busy hour ahead, including in the next 30 minutes an update on this capitol hill clash. a house vote on what would be a spending resolution to deal with the ultimate threat of this government shutdown. we begin, though, in germany, where tonight a vehicle drove into a christmas market. officials there have confirmed at least two are dead, one

adult, one small child. 68 people estimated injured already. that's a number that could change. officials say the suspected driver of this car is a doctor from saudi arabia who's lived in germany since 2006. they believe at this hour, authorities do, that he acted alone, and we can report he is in custody. germany's chancellor stating, my thoughts are with the victims and their families. we stand by their side and by the side of the people where this occurred in germany. she goes on to say my thanks two to the dedicated rescue workers in this hour, she goes on to say. nbc news has obtained some of the -- think about the holiday context and people and families who gather or shop at these type of times, we will warn here before we put any of it on the screen that it is graphic. but this is what happened. the footage, the news we have shows the coverage basically of the car driving through this

market and hitting dozens of people in its direct path you see there. now, i can tell you police operations continue, dark echoes, though of an attack on a christmas market in berlin in 2016. that deadly attack took the lives of 13 people. we turn to nbc news producer carlo, who is in germany, and also an msnbc national security analyst. carlo, go ahead and tell us your reporting. >> reporter: hi, ari, so just about in the last hour we heard from the state -- the premier of the state where this incident took place tonight. he is kind of similar to a state governor in the u.s., and he did confirm that the suspect is now

in custody. he's currently being questioned, and police are now investigating the motive of what was behind this incident. in the past, incidents have either been connected to terrorism, but in some cases the perpetrators also had mental health issues. and all of that is now being investigated. he also said that they think this was the act by a single person, so -- who's the custody, so there is no danger to the public anymore tonight in that town. but obviously, people are now on edge and i think that markets in germany in the coming days. as this is something that a lot of germans, a lot of visitors will go to. they'll meet their friends, they'll do some last-minute christmas shopping there. so this will definitely have an impact and also bring back the

memories of similar incidents in the years from 2015 to 2019 when there were terror attacks or other mass casualty events in european cities. >> carlo, stay with me. frank, welcome, how do authorities, law enforcement, look at an attack like this that is apparently targeted within the holiday season. >> right. so these christmas markets in germany a long held tradition. they are considered soft tarts. and as has been said before, the last time something like this happened was 2016. it was credited to isis who took credit for it. it was a tunisian individual who failed at asylum attempts. moving forward from that they put barricades at most of these

christmas market, and they've helped tremendously. as late as yesterday the german media was asking people about safety, and almost uniformly they said they felt safer. so something didn't work here, obviously, with barricades and security. what's happening now is intelligence services in germany and really throughout europe and perhaps the world will go backwards in time and scrub their holdings, their intercepts, their sources. did we hear anything about this? they'll be listening to see if anybody's taking credit for it. they'll be diving deeply into this individual's social media, his writings, interviewing his associates, colleagues, family. was he self-radicalized? does he have mental issues? all of that being done as we try to determine whether there's any ongoing threat, whether this was connected to a terror organization or truly a one off with someone who thinks this

makes perfect sense for him but probably won't make sense to anyone else. >> and frank, what's the current climate and context of security threats in germany and western europe? >> yeah, look, we're still -- the west is still under a jihad threat generally speaking. the gaza/israeli/iranian situation, u throw in lebanon and hezbollah, really resulted in a number of threats that really concerned us. they seem to have quieted, so that threat might have dispate ed might have dissipated. one incident where a police officer was stabbed caused the government to say no more knives at christmas markets. we're banning knives at christmas markets. ironically, of course, this was not a knife attack but rather an automobile. >> carlo, what else can you tell us about the overall dynamic

there, particularly from your reporting in the region not only today but overall? >> reporter: i mean, it's certainly an ongoing, tense mood in central europe. i think that it's not just related to any terror threat but i think overall also the security picture given the war in ukraine and also now as we go into the transition to the trump administration what that might mean for europe and for the support of the u.s. to europe. i mean, even in incidents tonight, u.s. security officials have already talked to their german counterpart, their french counterparts, because obviously they want to make sure that if this was terror related that not others are now inspired by an

incident like the one tonight. but overall, i think people had actually been more relaxed at large events, at christmas markets compared to the years where there was a heightened threat. you know, kind of pre-pandemic when there were a lot of isis-related attacks. and i think people had gotten more relaxed. they had kind of gotten used to the concrete barriers or other barriers that have been installed at these markets to stop vehicle attacks, but tonight is a reminder that even if there are heightened security systems in place, they obviously weren't able to stop this vehicle and this driver. >> carlo, thank you, and stay safe. frank, we're going to be turning to you actually for some domestic legal news coming up. right now, though, the other big

story if you're watching the news today has been the ongoing expectations for a vote in congress. this would deal with the spending clash, potentially avert the government shutdown. republican infighting, though, has brought the country closer to the brink of that. that vote's coming up. nbc's capitol hill correspondent has been covering this closely. >> reporter: we're seeing movement here, ari. around 2:00 republican leaders huddled for a few hours. they seemed to come out with a new sense of confidence that the government shutdown was going to be averted, but they didn't say how and they didn't exactly detail when. now we have answers to both of those questions because in just the last few minutes they've released the text of this long-awaited bill. it is much shorter than its original form that it started in at the beginning of the week, but it is also now going to be voted on at some point in the next hour. we know that democrats right now are just getting their first look at this bill because after

donald trump and elon musk basically worked together to tank the original bipartisan version of this deal, republicans at that point seemed keen to just keep them in the dark. and so while we have known the details of this package for a few hours now, democrats have, frankly, either been coming to me, other members of our team, now they are going to get to read the bill text itself. that's going to be a key family discussion for them as they figure out how they're going to proceed here. the bill itself is exactly what we reported all day. no surprises in the intervening hours. it basically pulls apart a skinny version of keeping the government open. it funds the government in part until march #149. it includes disaster relief funding for states hard hit by recent hurricanes. it also includes an extension of the farm bill. important to note that what it doesn't include is musk and trump's key priority of raising or abolishing the debt ceiling that. is not in it. it's going to be interesting to

see the way that trump and musk respond. i can say just from a cursory glance at social media, elon musk does not seem thrilled. we'll see what the ramifications of that are, but right now we're in a posture of knowing what they're voting on and not knowing what the vote is going to be. there's one important thing that we're looking at, and it's the method that they're using to do this, ari. they're doing it through a process called suspension. and that means they need a higher number of votes in order to pass this. the rule is it needs a two-third majority on the house floor, and that means the republicans are absolutely going to need democrats. so we're going to be watching that democratic meeting that started, oh, about ten minutes ago extremely closely to see if any of these member, all of whom except two or three, rather, were nos yesterday, if any of them have come around, given way this package has shifted. >> ali, as you know, sometimes we turn to the wisdom of lyrics or poetry to make sense of the

world. >> sure. >> today i want to turn to an old cliche. you can win the war, but it's sometimes harder to win the peace. >> reporter: yeah. >> i wonder in all seriousness whether -- donald trump won the election. he staged a political comeback, and i think everyone witnessed that. >> reporter: yeah. >> and yet it seems that even before they've begun governing next month -- and they can continue to revise -- it might be harder to govern, especially if elon musk is in this pseudo rule, nonemployee, outside advisor, who named his advisory groups after one of his business products, doge. he's done what he's done all week, i think our viewers are familiar, are they having a harder time with the peace part, the governing part perhaps than the campaign part? >> reporter: i think that's probably the biggest lesson here, ari. i don't think there's going to be peace. you can't have it when you have

margins that look like the ones that house republicans have right now. it means that this divergent group of people who all call themselves republicans but have different iterations of what that means, they all have to get on the same page. and in many cases on all these issues, they're not. or they're not on the same page as purely as some conservatives want or as moderately as more moderate members want. and so there is going to be this constant haggling. we saw a little bit of this in the last two years that republicans have had a tight majority. i lost them a speaker. it caused them weeks of chaos. it almost feels fitting, frankly, that we ended this year, or seem to be ending this year, the very way that we started it, which is with potential rounds of different votes, not knowing how they're going to happen on the floor, not knowing if they're going to succeed, unclear if the speaker is going to remain the speaker a few short weeks from now when they come back and start the next congress, this has really

been, i think, an instructive moment for members on both sides of the aisle. republicans are getting the sense of what it's going to look like, not just to have trump looking over their shoulder making sure that he endorses all the key pieces of their negotiating but then also having elon musk freelance on the side. knowing that he could choose to throw a big chunk of change towards any primary challenge that he might see fit and then also knowing that they do seem to have a prerequisite of needing to work with him on the doge campaign to cut government funding despite the fact, you're right, he's not elected, he's not a member of the cabinet, and doge is actually not an agency of the federal government. it's just sort of this newly created arm that donald trump has made and then deputized two of his closest allies to run. i think johnson learned some key lessons here but also senate majority leader john thune, who's looking over at the way that johnson's careful deal making was scuttled over the

course of, you know, a few dozen elon musk tweets and then a statement from the president-elect. he's looking at that quite closely too because he's got his own members who are ultraconservatives who align more closely with maga than they do with republicanism. and this is going to be a dynamic for republicans that they have to track, and now democrats are getting a better taste of this too. we've seen them do some trolling, saying it's president musk. certainly that's all part of the game of politics from a public perspective, but behind the scene, there's clearly going to be starting from a trust deficit that was already there but between johnson and jefferies had actually been pretty good because johnson had been seen as sort of a rational actor who could be trusted in these kinds of negotiations. now it's clear that he's maybe not the one who's solely running the show here, and he's really at the whims of two bigger men, both the president and his closest ally at this point, elon

musk. so there's a lot of learning that's happening here in this building. i know we're talking about it as if we're past a government shutdown, but again, we know it's going to the floor. we are not exactly sure, at least not yet, that they necessarily have the votes to pass it. >> yeah, really appreciate it, detailed breakdown, ali. stay with me. i want to bring back reverend al sharpton, who's been part of our msnbc coverage. rev, part of the discussion is the difference between power, which no one can deny elon musk has some of it, and leadership. >> yeah, i think that we really are seeing something unprecedented. when you can see someone who's on the public stage merely because of his wealth that has not been elected by anybody, will not have to go in front of a senate committee, nothing that's going to run a government

arm that is really not official. but that he can veto the entire congress that had come to terms and was moving forward to deal with keeping the government open. he tweeted and stopped the process before even president-elect trump came in. and to give him that kind of unprecedented power where he's sitting in meetings with heads of state, who come to mar-a-lago to see trump, that he's on the phone with zelenskyy, we are really creating the image and fact, probably the reality, that we're moving toward a real oligarchy. what is the reason a guy like elon musk is in meetings with heads of state and can decide that he can disrupt even the speaker of his own party having made a deal on the debt ceiling. this is something we should not ignore, ari. >> yeah, no, it's really striking. and what a way for them to end

the year. ali vitale said this was the skinny package they're looking at because it doesn't have some of the goodies trump and musk said they wanted. it also may end up being the messy package and may be remembered that way. ali stays close by, rev comes back later in this hour. we're going to watch the house vote. we'll bring you that vote. we also have new january 6th warnings coming from judges, including reagan-appointed judges, about donald trump's pardon vow. stay with us. dges, about donalds pardon vow stay with us yay - woo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health. and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. (♪♪) patients who have sensitive teeth but also want whiter teeth, they have to make a choice- one versus the other. new sensodyne clinical white, it provides 2 shades whiter teeth as well as providing 24/7 sensitivity protection. patients are going to love to see sensodyne on the shelf. (sneeze)

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you promised to pardon those who attacked the capitol on

january 6th. are you still vowing to follow through with that promise? >> we're looking at it right now. most likely, yeah. >> everyone? >> we're going to look at individual cases, yeah. but i'm going to be acting very quickly. >> within your first 100 days, first day? >> first day. >> first day? issue these pardons. >> these people have been -- how long is it, three, four years? >> okay. >> you know, by the way, they've been in there for years, and they're a filthy disgusting place that shouldn't even be allowed to be open. >> president-elect trump there on nbc news interview vowing to go forward with what he said he would do, pardon people who savagely attacked capitol police, who threatened violence and assassination against republicans and democrats alike at the capitol, and of course, had the larger goal of trying to overthrow the outcome of an election and disrupt democracy with violence inside the capitol. now we're seeing what judges think about it. several have used different

platforms, including sometimes their appearances in court dealing with these ongoing cases, to make it clear that this kind of blanket pardon, which you just heard trump discuss, is an attack in undermining the rule of mrau. politico has a report on basically pulling together different judge, some appointed by democrats and republicans. judge howell said, for example, during one setting that she was sentencing a man who went on to the senate floor and she, in that proceeding, again, pursuant to her duties, said the rewriting of history of january 6th is incredibly disturbing. an appointee from the george w. bush administration said if losing candidates don't accept defeat, which is the bedrock of any rule of democracy, then, quote, we're actually heading for a breakup of this country. over 1,500 people have been criminally charged in connection with that attack. stewart rhodes, the oath keepers' founder, is supposed to do 18 years in prison. he was convicted of one of the

most serious offenses on the books of federal law, seditious conspiracy. that's basically waging a traitorous sedition against the united states, in this case against the capitol, violently. a judge said during the sentence of rhodes sort of other individuals that worked with him the notion that rhodes could be absolved ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country. this is not an op-ed, and it's campaign rhetoric, these are lifetime, tenured, federal judges from both party appointees stating what, in the prime of their career, they seem to think is important for the public to know, even if president-elect trump may do whatever he decides to do. we're joined by ryan riley, fbi veteran frank, and a former prosecutor, deputy chief in the sdny, christy greenburg. ryan, i emphasize that these are

what judges are saying. we all are afforded our free speech rights, but it does have more value than what sometimes might come up in campaign rhetoric or political exchanges. what do you see as the concern and the purpose of these in-court comments? >> yeah, and what's i think remarkable and really important about them, ari, is they're coming from people who are informed, right? these are judges who have sat through these cases, know the facts, know the law, have sat over juries who have been presented with evidence. i had one former federal prosecutor who worked specifically on these january 6th cases tell me the thing he was really proud of is that when juries heard the evidence evidence and heard the facts in the case, they made what he considered to be the right decision. the evidence is overwhelming. there's a huge divide between the nonsense on the internet and the memes about the cases and the actual facts and reality of these cases. i think it's something that has

gotten judges frustrated with that. there's just this massive divide between what people who know the facts are saying and what people who don't know what they're talking about are saying. >> christy? >> well, i think it's -- in any criminal case, it's important for the judge to really make that a teachable moment, to talk about the seriousness of the crime, to talk about the need for deterrents, to talk about the need for respecting the law. that's what happens in any criminal case. it's a solemn moment. and to see these judges taking that so seriously now knowing that they at least have some audience to hear what they have to say as opposed to the lessons that are being rewritten by trump and his team. you know, you have facts and you have evidence in a court of law and then, unfortunately, they're being met with lies and misinformation from his team. and so these judges are really

trying the best they can to take control of the narrative as they see it based on the facts presented to them, but unfortunately, that teachable moment is kind of hol elow when you don't have the accountability that's going to go with it. when you know, how can you teach a lesson about deterrents when these defendants know they can go ahead and commit this crime or other crimes again because they can just get a pardon. so you know, the respect for the rule of law really feels hollow when donald trump fought the law and he won and now he says he is their retribution. so it's a really tough moment, i think, for those of us who believe in the rule of law and fight for that in court as lawyers, as people who, you know, are officers of the court, it's tough to see, but i'm glad the judges are speaking up. >> right, and they don't always speak out this way. s it's a bitter of a higher bar

for them. frank, i want to read from reporting that three january 6th defendants, who currently can't go to washington without official supervision permission, have now, quote, asked judges for permission to attend trump's inauguration. two of the cases doj pushed back fiercely saying permitting defendants to return to the, quote, scene of the crime would be an affront the police officers victimized that day. jungs have yet to rule on those two cases. and so frank, presidents and governors have this pardon power. it's one of the many things that might look different under misuse and people can debate whether it should be so broad, but this is the reality we live in. my question for you is more security than legal, is there a danger in these activities if you both pardon the attacks on police, bring these attackers back with what kristy just are

referred to, they certainly can't get away with crimes in various states because the state police power legally is different, but it seems not hypothetical of people convicted of savaging and attacking police who work under the federal power that sending them back in with that type of license to attack is dangerous for those current officers. you could imagine some saying for their own protection they don't want to be anywhere near someone who thinks they have a license to attack cops. >> yeah, i'll go a step further, it's not just dangerous for police officers in the d.c. area but it's dangerous for our communities. it's interesting that donald trump rails against migrants entering the country who may have a record of violent crime, yet he seems poised to release people from our prisons who have been convicted of violent crimes. in fact -- and i know ryan will help me with this if i'm wrong -- but close to the majority or the majority of the people we're talking about that are still

incarcerated have either pled guilty themselves or they've been convicted at trial. these are not people, quote,unquote, rotting away in prison. these are people who are doing their time. and then there are others who may not have committed violence but are actually charged in or convicted with conspiracy to pull off january 6th. and as you noted, the head of oath keepers, the head of proud boys, is he going to release people, trump going to release people who have been convicted of seditious conspiracy? and then what happens when they reenter our society? they've been even more radicalized in this jail environment, unfortunately, and the police better get ready, because it won't be long before some of these people just be who they are. and that is violent offenders. >> kristy? >> look, i agree with frank. i think the numbers, and again, ryan can correct me if i'm wrong, it's more than 600 people who have been sentenced to

prison, and trump has now said a vast majority of them should not be in jail. that's really disturbing. that means they went through the process, they were convicted, and a judge sentenced them to jail and donald trump is saying he's going to pardon them. i mean, more than 140 police officers were injured here. i mean, they can try to whitewash this all they want, but this was not a peaceful transfer of power. we all saw it on video. so this idea that they can return to the -- people can return to the scene of the crime and not only have police officers there to now be in a weird position of protecting the people who attacked them years ago, i mean, it is -- it's so outrageous. i mean, these people are not heroes. they're not hostages. they're people who broke the law. they're criminals. and that's the way that they should be treated. and they're not going to be treated that way by trump, but i do hope they'll be treated that way by history. >> kristy, frank, and ryan,

thanks to each of you. we are also tonight still following that vote on capitol hill. we've got you caught up on that and the house ethics committee. that matt gaetz report could still yet come out, and gaetz has something to say about it. we'll be right back. g to say ab. we'll be right back. (vo) sail through the heart of historic cities and unforgettable scenery with viking. unpack once and get closer to iconic landmarks, local life and cultural treasures. because when you experience europe

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we have breaking news. friday night heading into a holiday weekend, but congress is still working because it has failed to get its work done

after several failed bids. they have begun the vote to set up vote on the package that, if it passed, would avert this weekend's government shutdown. ali vitale has been reporting on this for msnbc throughout the entirety, what's happening now? >> reporter: this is where the rubber will meet the road to see if they've done enough to cobble together republican votes but also get democrats on board. i think it's important for us to underscore that multiple times key republicans have said to me that they should not be wheeling and dealing with democrats -- if i look at the board, there are eight republican no votes so far. they're going to need democrats on, this both because even just to do it in a simple way, they don't have enough republicans if eight of them have voted no already, but also the method

that they're doing this through. you and i were talking about this a little while ago. they're doing this through a process called suspension. the suspension process means that you have to get a two-thirds majority of the chamber, and so you definitely need democrats on board. and looking down only because our capitol hill team is literally everywhere in this building, and some of them are standing outside the house democratic caucus meeting where our producer kyle stewart said that they are applauding, i think, clearly to leader jefferies and the other members of the house democratic leadership team who they feel held them together, held the line, and allowed them to come out in a better position than they thought they were going to be in eyesterday. for democrats, i can say the little bit that i was listening to of steve scalise, who was talking just a few feet away from me, is they feel good at this point. it's not over until it's over. these votes are not officially closed until someone bangs that

gavel and says the vote is closed, so we'll be watching the vote totals closely. i think there's reason to be confident both about the house getting this done, shockingly and with a little bit of the magic that comes with everyone wanting to get home for the holidays. our understanding on the senate side it is not likely to face procedural road blocks. it's not 100% clear, but based on the early conversations our team has had with key republicans, it does seem like they are also comfortable with the place that speaker johnson has put them in here. so we're going to watch this clock continue to tick down and we'll see if the process gets started in a positive way, though the speaker is actually walking behind us now. speaker johnson, is this going to pass? what he was just saying as he walked by, ari, was i talked to president trump. and that, is of course, the key piece of this, because trump has been both a detractor of his and

agitator in moving this process to different ways. and he's going to need to support where they land on this. it's important if the speaker said he's spoken to him, because i don't think they would take it to the floor if he had had serious concerns about where they landed. >> yeah. ali, we appreciate the play-by-play. you're familiar with the room where it happened. >> reporter: always. >> i think we just witnessed a hallway -- the hallway where it's happening. you were nimble to show us. that is the speaker of the house on the move. you caught some of what he's been saying, which speaks to, again, how trump and musk are playing alongside this process. trump is the president-elect, not a current office holder, but of course coming in next month. let me ask you this, if this motion to suspend the rules goes forward, if this were to pass and then you get the package, remind everyone, under this current package what did elon musk achieve here in this one? >> reporter: less things attached to this as a mechanism at the end of the year. the big complaint was -- and i

know the christmas tree metaphor is frankly overused, but it's actually a good visual for viewers at home if you think about the way that there is the tree and then all the things that you put on top of it. the complaint from musk and trump was that there were way too many ornaments being put on to this tree. all they wanted was a tree that would get them through to the middle of march of next year. so what they have here is a peard down version, it's just a few ornaments and definitely way less pages. but at the same time, the key thing that musk and trump were agitating for, trump specifically, was doing something on the debt ceiling, abolishing it or raising it. that is now not in this package. my understanding, according to my sources and my conversations here, is that there's basically a handshake agreement between trump and house republicans that this is going to be dealt with as part of the reconciliation process next year. >> right. >> reporter: that's going to be a tricky process on its face, now you're adding this massive

potentially $1.5 trillion raising of the debt ceiling. they're assuring it's going to be paid for, but man, that is going to be tough. >> just to slow you down amidst all the ornaments -- and we appreciate the holiday spirit. >> reporter: of course. >> you're saying the big thing that musk wanted pursuant to his claims that he wants to drastically cut other funding, is the debt ceiling part is not in this. >> reporter: exactly. and to me, that's the big thing that they asked for that they didn't get. and so i'm interested to see the way that trump spins this, talking about this. again, he's clearly been apprised of the process, but is he happy? do we start hearing leaks out of mar-a-lago about his feelings about the speaker, all of this could come back around, ari, in a big way on january 3rd. most members here right now say johnson's going to be fine, he'll continue on as speaker, but life comes at you fast in these hallways. >> h mm, all right, ali vital next the hall where it happened.

we want to bring in tim miller a frequent analyst in this late afternoon hour, former rnc spokesperson, host of the bulwark podcast, . and rev al is back with us. tim, you know how it works during these vote, right? you've been down this road before. >> yeah, look, i think you guys discussed, ali discussed the republican side of this. the democrat side of this has also been interesting. i think the democrats in the past have been bailing out republican speakers on votes such as this over budget issues since i was a pup, ari. this goes back to boehner, mccarthy, you know, there was always a wing of the republican party that was never going to vote for budgets. these speakers needed to work with democrats in order to get it done. it was this time that, you know, when elon musk blew up the deal that i think democrats said, all right, well, this is your problem now and left it to the republicans. and i think it's interesting

that you see today right before christmas once again it's going to be the democrats that have to bail the republicans out. so i think it's an interesting strategic question for hakeem jefferies who's had to do that today. i also think it puts mike johnson in a little bit of political peril. it gives the agitators inside the caucus a cudgel to beat him with, to say, look, you needed to get democrats to do this. if you want to be speaker of the house, we should be able to do this with republicans only. i'm in phoenix at this right wing maga event called america fest, and you know a lot of the folks here were not happy with johnson doing this deal with democrats at all and think that they won the election, they should just, you know, burn the whole house down do what the most extreme side of the maga party wants to do. i think there are some ramifications politically for johnson. i think it's also interesting to see how jefferies handled it. >> al? >> i think that clearly this is

a defeat for musk and trump trying to either eradicate or lift the debt ceiling, something trump wanted to do while biden was still president. the fact that's not being proposed is very telling. they'll try to ignore it i, but i think that was one of their major goals. and i think the fact that now you're going to see a battle around mike johnson in terms of the speakership. and you've got, again, the republicans not being united in the house. so there's no way if this goes the way it seems to be going, if the vote is to go forward and then you get into the cr, it seems to be the only guy that walks away a winner here would be hakeem jefferies. he was able to hold the line

against them trying to get through what they wanted to get through without any defections and in many ways have sustained what the democrats are concerned about. even if some ornaments are off, they're still the ones really holding the base of the tree, a christmas tree, if we're going to use that metaphor. >> well, you are a reverend, al. ali began it, but it's fitting that you carried it forward. >> yep, and i will try to always do that. but i think that it's going to be a very interesting night, but i think, you know, everyone can go home for christmas if they do pass it. but i think mike johnson is going to be very concerned when he comes back right after new year's. and all we have to do is remember what happened with kevin mccarthy. he's going to have to probably make a deal with democrats, if democrats are willing to do it to even save his speakership. >> yeah. as anyone can see, i want to

remind folks what we're looking at. the voting is underway. in theory, there's under four minutes left, but you can see in the lower right column, 266 votes not in yet. and it is standard, especially on nights like this, where they'll hold it open longer, so we're still probably several minutes away from getting these results in any formal capacity. we have something interesting here as we're dealing with developing news. ali vitale has congressman robert garcia there and is going to conduct that interview and we'll listen along. >> reporter: ari, i've recruited a friend when typically y'all should be voting on the floor. talk to me about what's happening. i was looking at this voto tal and saying only 40-odd democratic yes votes, what's going on. but you have an explanation. >> we're walk out of the caucus right now. folks are going to go vote. at the end of the day, what matters is a lot of democrats, myself included, feel that we beat elon musk and donald trump. they wanted to shut the

government down. elon musk has been exposed for trying to basically control congress, and we stood up to that. i think that's a huge win for the american people. and most importantly the deal breaker for me and so many others was getting rid of the debt ceiling. >> reporter: what was the conversation y'all had in caucus? because it felt like republicans throughout this process were basically saying we're not talking to democrats, we're going to do this on our own, everyone though i think we all can count votes and knew they couldn't do that. >> what we have is an incredible leader in hakeem jefferies. he's a great negotiator. he's tough. we had a bipartisan deal, as you know, yesterday. one that was negotiated by both our leader and speaker johnson. they turned their backs on that deal without even giving democrats any sort of a win. any sort of conversation before they did that. that was a huge mistake on their part, but hakeem going in today i think it's very clear that our

position was that the debt ceiling issue was not going to be on the table. there's $100 billion in disaster relief here. almost $10 billion, by the way, from my home state, california. that's really important to me, to a lot of folks, but what's most important here is we and not allow the government to shut down. there's working class people that are dependent on knowing that they're going to have a paycheck, that are dependent on knowing they're going to be able to buy their kid's present on their credit card and pay it back in a week or two. these things are important. >> reporter: i've covered government shutdowns before too. we often talk in a sense of people don't have enough money to cover an unforeseen expense. that's real. has such a true impact. and before the holidays, the timing is everything. i do think that this is an instructive moment, though, for potentially how the next two years are going to go. what's the big lesson to you from this? >> look, the big lesson is that clearly the republican party is

largely going to be dominated by elon musk, the richest man in the world is going to be able to put out a message and essentially change the direction of a bipartisan deal or agreement that was put in place. and that is dangerous. the fact that we have working class people, poor people that are counting on a paycheck, and the richest man alive is going to essentially step in and say just shut the government down, that emboldens democrats to make sure we're standing up and making sure that people are very clear that we've got to stop him and we've got to be the loyal opposition party. we've got to fight like hell to make sure that, bog class people know we're by their side. >> reporter: usually i wouldn't ask democrats to weigh in on republican internal politics, but this is a congress where we've seen democrats in the past help save republican speakers from their own members at various points. so i do ask you, given the dynamics of this week, do you feel like that's still something that your colleagues would do if it came to that, if on january 3rd he was struggling with the votes. >> i'm not going to give mike johnson a vote, i can tell you

that for sure. >> reporter: but when you talk to your colleagues. >> i don't see that happening. i think at the end of the day, he's going to have to win his election with his members. we opposed him when he became speaker the first time. we want hakeem jefferies to be the speaker, and we're going to fight every day to make sure we win the majority and make him the speaker. >> reporter: he's positioned himself as one of the chief voices countering trump and republicans -- let the members tell him how they think it should go and we'll decide accordingly, talk about how that process worked now. >> i'm a freshman member, and i have been so impressed with leader jefferies. he listens to members. he brings folks in. we have discussions at the caucus meeting. that's what happened in this process. he brought us together. we were against the actions of the republicans yesterday. we're going to fight like hell to not include that debt ceiling

conversation in this bill that would have essentially been a huge giveaway to billionaires by raising taxes on the middle class families and giving it away. we feel like we have a great leader behind us, and i give him a lot of credit. >> reporter: congressman garcia, thank you for joining us. ari, i'll send it back to you as we watch the vote continue to come in. >> thank you, very interesting to get that commentary and readout on what's going on. you see on your screen 243 yes, 25 no. 162 not voted yet. they're holding this open. going to fit in a break, but we may have big news on the other side when we come back. other side when we come back to soothe her with ease. puffs plus lotion is gentle on sensitive skin and locks in moisture to provide soothing relief. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. america's #1 lotion tissue. y'all see this, patrick mahomes is saying goodbye! patrick! patrick! people was tripping. where are you going!? he was actually saying goodbye to his old phone. i'm switching to the amazing new iphone 16 pro at t-mobile!

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visit indeed.com/hire we are tracking this vote to try to avoid a government shutdown and deal with the spending bill on capitol hill. you can see many of the votes pouring in now. over 300 yeses. ali vitale, continue with the great reporting you've been doing. >> reporter: thanks, ari. we have at this point crossed the two-third threshold, that majority number that we were talking about for them to actually get the bill passed. the vote is not closed, though, and so technically we don't call the vote until it's been closed, until it's been gavelled out. that's because we could see votes change. but look at where we are at this point. there's some interesting stuff in the numbers. you now have still some no votes. 75 people have not yet voted. that could be in part because

democrats were getting out of their caucus meeting, it took them a little while to get to the floor. we were holding up robert garcia who then very promptly ran inside. we're waiting for votes to trickle in. look at the nay column, 31 republicans voting against this. it tells the larger story here of why this was always going to have to be a bipartisan bill that democrats and republicans both talked about and moved forward on together. this is always what happens at funding points in the year. you've got 30 some odd republicans who are conservative member who is don't agree with this method of keeping the government open. which is why republicans always have to look to the left and see if democrats will come along with them on this. now we see that democrats are coming along to the tune of almost 160 democrats so far. and if you're seeing people come around me, it's because we expect the speaker of the house to come by here when this vote

actually finishes, and he usually does that, whether it passes or fails, but clearly he's going to have a much more confident and triumphant tone. it's going to be interesting to hear the way he talks about this from the perspective of his conversations with trump, his conversations with musk. musk seemed not too pleased on social media until just the last few minutes where he said that given the circumstances this is a pretty good bill given the fact that johnson had to, at some point, cede to some democratic requests. the debt limit was the key piece for democrats where they didn't want to a, lose their leverage point, or b, get snookered because they did this in 24 hours trying to spontaneously appease trump. that's not democrats' goal, despite the fact that republicans are very much at his whims. that was going to be the key sticking point here. we're watching, again, the no vote to total.

we'll see if this ends up being true, but it could be that more democrats end up voting to keep the government open here than republicans, which goes back to that story we were telling about what it's like to everyone be a republican but all have very different divergent views on how to keep the government open. >> yeah, and you mentioned elon musk posting just recently. basically he said the speaker did well given the circumstances. i guess he's learning on the job, but he went in a matter of days from burn it all down to sounding a little like a politician and saying under the circumstances we didn't get what we want, but now we're okay with it. >> reporter: you know, i think it's always fascinating when business leaders from the private sector learn that congress and the government and politics are a very different beast. it's not a matter of coming in and saying i'm the guy in charge, everyone has to do what i say. this is a body with people who all have to go home to their own

constituents. they actually are beholden to the voters who elected them to get here. and so they are not just going to listen when musk comes in and says you should do this, it's different slightly when trump comes in, but obviously trump subpoena not all powerful within the house republican conference either. you look at the fact even two more republicans have voted no on this. actually, three more, 34. yesterday it was 38. i do know of a few house conservatives that have changed their tune and are going to vote yes for this, but it's most likely that you're going to end up with maybe like 34, 36 no republican votes, which is really not that different from where they were at yesterday. >> nbc's ali vitale, i want to thank you and everyone who joined us in this 5:00 p.m. hour as we filled in for our nicole and had a lot of great guests. you're looking on the screen here is what we've been reporting. if you look at the 357 in the

lower left, now 358 votes, they have cleared the threshold, which means they appear in the congress now to have done what they failed to do in the last several vote, building a path towards the spending bill. this vote is the motion to suspend the rules, two-thirds needed, but bottom line, we are looking at a process, while it has not concluded, the house appears to have the votes. they're moving forward after those elon musk/trump pieces of sort of infighting and delays without actually getting to the debt ceiling piece that elon musk had demanded. ng piece thatn musk had demanded. it's 6:00 p.m. in washington. you are watching "the beat with

ari