this evening and then president biden, yes, president biden though we have been talking about donald trump's involvement all week, it is president biden, the current president, who is expected to sign it into law. long before there is any impact on anything impacting a functioning government, we should have this thing signed. so crisis averted. at least for now, at least until march. so let's take a deep breath for a lot of reasons together. what a week. on that note, i wish you a very, very good night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late with me. i'll see you at the end of monday. it looks like the u.s. government will remain open for

business. tonight, 196 democrats voted with 170 republicans in the house to pass a government funding bill. the senate is expected to pass the bill later this evening. but the fact that this was even in question is a testament to the utter chaos of the republican party. after all, the start of the week, the outcome seemed like a given. the government would stay open. democrats and republicans had hammered out a bipartisan deal. but wednesday, the richest man in the world, elon musk, decided to blow it all up by demanding that republicans kill the bipartisan agreement calling it a horrible bill. and then donald trump and jd vance followed suit. saying that they, too, oppose the agreement that had been negotiated and issued a significant new demand at the 11th hour. they demand that republicans refuse to support any bill that

did not increase the debt limit because trump had now decided that he did not want to have to be responsible for raising it on his watch. so that was trump's red line. that was the reason why he absolutely could not support the original agreement. the reason much of this country was holding its breath and worried the federal government might shut down at the peak of the holiday travel season, three hours from now, well, the house passed a bill to keep the government running. in that bill there is no increase in the debt limit. donald trump and elon musk lost. so did jd vance but he is sort of a minor character here. these men did not get the one thing they demanded out of these high stake negotiations. trump wanted something and members of trump's own party refused to go along with it.

as the new york times put it, this laid bare a disconnect between trump and his party that could up end their efforts to pass transformative tacts and domestic policy with the tiniest of majorities. as trump has a willingness to spend freely, a number of lawmaker ins his party fervently adhere to an anti- spending policy that regards debt as disastrous. it is a seemingly irreconcilable difference, a party full of people railing wildly against the national debt, and this guy. >> i call myself the king of debt. known knows debt better than me. i have made a fortune using debt. >> what we are seeing tonight is that all the havoc they

created was for nothing. they brought on a completely unnecessary crisis for republicans on the hill and democrats had to be the ones to bail them out of it. >> house democrats have successfully funded the government. house democrats have successfully stopped extreme maga republicans from shutting down the government. crashing the economy, and hurting working class americans all across the land. >> if that dynamic sounds familiar, it's because it is. it is literally the story of the 118th congress. this congress. back in september of 2023, the republican controlled congress was teetering on the brink of a government shutdown and it was democrats who swept in to rescue the country. with 209 democrats voting with

the republicans to keep the government in business. republicanswere in control of congress at the time. but they couldn't get enough votes in their own party to avoid a shut-down. then 45 days late terminal a same thing happened again. the republicans brought the government to the brink of a shutdown and democrats one again swooped in to save the day. here was democratic congressman shawn castin at the time. >> i hope you are thankful for that time 45 days ago when you were driving us to the edge of an economic shutdown and once again democrats stepped up, helps you out, and made sure we kept the government open for the american people. i hope you are thankful for that time this week when democrats once again had to be the adults in the room. didn't throw any punches but made sure though the republican majority couldn't pass the new speaker stopgap measure, we did and kept the government open a few more weeks. >> i hope you are thankful. in january of this year, it

happened again. democrats once again had to avoid another government shutdown. i promise you, these really were separate events from the last two years. and it wasn't just government shutdowns. on everything from national security matters to the national defense bill to bipartisan tax policy. speakers johnson and mccarthy both relied again and again and again and again on democratic votes to carry the day even though their own party was in charge. and now democrats have done it one more time. if republicans are hoping democrats will keep bailing them out in the next congress, they may be in for a rude awakening. throughout this congress and

tonight, democrats have been operating with the knowledge that a fellow democrat was sitting in the white house. if republicans drove the country into a government shutdown, it would be the biden administration that had to deal with the fall-out. one month from today, that all changes. republicans will control both houses of congress and the white house. it will be up to them to find a way to government. and if this week is any indication, that is going to be one hell of a spectacle. joining me now is congresswoman becca balant, democrat from vermont. explain to me what just happened here and what you are taking away as the lesson the last 72 hours. >> basically, you have a situation where you have a very, very wealthy and inexperienced man who has no idea how to govern swoops in at the last minute and of course,

i'm talking about elon musk who made some demands of folks in congress and said we will shut down the government until donald trump takes office. he laid down the law. this is what will have to happen. and what happened was that 38 republicans stood up to elon musk and to trump. this is such a loss for this incoming president. he has been weakened by musk. it is clear that musk is the one that is calling the shots. so he says what the game plan should be. trump catches up a few hours later and johnson backtracks from the deal that was struck. and again, this is another piece. you did a wonderful job laying out how we had been here again and again and again. and another thing i want people to understand is we do not know who we are negotiating with.

we make a negotiation and then the deal is signed. we have to come to the floor. this was hours away from when we were on the floor. we can't rely on johnson. he is not a man of his word in the same way mccarthy was not. as hakeem jeffries says, who is it we are negotiating with? it sure looks like we are negotiating with a boy billionaire who is playing at government. why? because he has $15 billion wrapped up in federal programs. $15billion. >> you know, you guys mentioned what i think is a very important lesson for democrats in all of this which is what is the point of negotiations? as you say, this was locked and loaded. this was something that was going to go to the floor to pass and it exploded because an unelected billionaire decided to send a bunch of tweets. with that reality in mind, what

are you thinking about what happens after january 20th when, you know, there isn't going to be a democrat in the white house. the republican majority will be slimmer than it is now. democrats, are you going to be as inclined to help save the day the next time the republicans are in disarray which could be january 21st? >> oh absolutely. we will start in chaos in the same way that congress started. i'm certain of that. johnson will be fighting for his life to retain the speakership. we are anticipating chaos. but we are united and i was saying today to a friend, we will be demanding our pound of flesh for what has happened in the next 72 hours. so when they come to us with their giant unpaid for tax break to billionaires they have to come through us. we are not inclined to help them. we will go toe to toe.

and we are not going to swoop in and save the speaker. he has to make the case to his conference as to why he should lead and we will be standing strong because the american people did not vote for elon musk. that is for certain. >> i marvel at one of the numbers that was revealed tonight. 38 republicans voted against this bill to save their own hides. zero democrats. not a single democrat voted against the bill. 34. more than 30 republicans voted against this thing. not a single democrat broke ranks. can you talk about that unity? it is formidable especially at a moment like this. there's a lot of impetus to give the middle finger to the republican party and say i'm not going to help you. not a single democrat did that.

>> our values demand we do the hard work of governing, we are here to do the work on behalf of our people back home. in my case, of course i was going to do everything i could to get a deal. because we have disaster recovery money needed in there desperately needed by people in vermont, north carolina. this is not a game. this involves real people's lives. and so, they are going to have to come through our values, when it's a values proposition, we fight from the heart. >> congresswoman, thank you so much for your time. i hope you have a happy holiday season and can get out of washington dc. >> i'm on my way to the airport now! >> travel safely. >> thanks so much alex. joining me now is tim miller, cohost of the bull work podcast. i'm excited to get your thoughts on the debacle that just unfolded.

donald trump has not said a thing. he was quite vocal in recent days. hasn't said a thing. how do you read that? >> i think he is probably upset about his debt limit negotiation. donald trump was the king of debt. called himself that in the private sector. he was the king of debt during the first term. running up a huge amount debt. he doesn't share the view some republicans have like chip roy. to rein in the debt and cut spending. that is not donald trump. he wants tax cuts. he wants goodies handed out. so he didn't want the debt limit hanging over his head. that was the deal yesterday, that the democrats didn't go along with. today's deal stripped that.

so he will have limitations. he will have to negotiate his tax cut next year. that was a real win for the democrats. i think that the person that should be the most concerned about his silence is mike johnson. that guy's time is ticking. the people on stage are not thrilled with mike johnson. >> i got to ask. you raise very salient point about the debt limit and how that is going to be a real point of leverage for democrats. but it is also the narrative. trump wants his presidency at least reportedly, he wanted it to start after election day. if that's the case, this is

part of his second term as well. which is utter humiliation. he came out and said we need the debt ceiling to be part of it and it is not. it is at the hands of his own party: i would imagine for a man that has been feeling his oats if he will, and has been thinking he has some kind of mandate, this is an indication that there is a real cleave between the president who sets foot in the white house, who he will ask to walk the plank on the issues they are not ready to fall on their swords for. >> matt gaetz was an l. he had to withdraw. he claims this mandate. and you would think, i actually would have thought, i was wrong about this. he would have such control over his own party that the people would walk in lock step and do whatever he wants. he takes these two losses, now,

you go into next year. with a tiny majority in the house. because trump has chosen three house members to come into his administration so that you have to have special elections. it will be very challenging for him to pass anything and he has a co-president in elon musk who is making things harder for him and people in the house not inclined to go along. to me, every sign is this will be a total cluster. and that's encouraging. especially for those of us who had authoritarian concerns. it is challenging to be an authoritarian and not be able to run anything. so, those two things will be a little tension for him in 2025. >> i do want to talk about mike johnson. he came out of all this giving what qualifies as a mike johnson real talk. let's take a listen to his comments after the bill passed. >> do you still want to be

speaker after this experience? >> being speaker of the house is a challenge in the modern era. but a challenge we accept. it is a great honor to serve in the position. i wouldn't say it is the most fun job in the world all the time but it is an important one. >> i wouldn't say it is the most job in the world all the time. but it's an important one. do you have an over under on if he is speaker of the house come january 3rd? >> i think it is 5050. they don't have a good alternative. i think he would be in trouble if there was an heir apparent. so i don't think so. but in a different clip i heard him say it was the hardest job in the world. which is again, this is not a guy with a lot of confidence. being speaker of the house in drawn's republican party is a

challenge. it is not exactly like mining coal. people out there doing real work. johnson is not. this is just not a guy that feels very secure in his job. it is a sense i'm getting here talking to the maga bulk and that's just the sense you get watching him in those clips. >> what do you think about the relationship between trump and musk? because in many ways, trump had not been paying attention to any of it like all week. hadn't been talking to his advisers about it and musk and vivek ramaswamy after they read the bill came out and started tweeting against it. that's what set this chaos in motion. not only did musk create this problem, he didn't manage to get trump the thing he wanted which was the debt ceiling inclusion. do you think that redowns to his detriment in the eyes of donald trump? >> maybe. we have all seen this movie

before. in the past, something that becomes unusual to trump, trump just moves on. we have seen this a million times. it is harder to do for musk. musk has his own power base with twitter. with the x platform. he put in a quarter billion dollars into the campaign. the tech bro types that are not traditional maga. so musk has his own power center like a moon orbiting around trump. >> what about jd vance, tim? does he get invited? >> who? >> yeah, exactly. does he get off the kids table? does he get to sit at the grown-

ups table this holiday season or no? >> unclear. it will be interesting to watch as the administration unfolds. i think now it is possible jd is doing well behind the scenes. basically competent. but not dc experience. not a strong chief of staff in the vein of emanuel. so clearly he is the third member. >> he was on the hill. having meetings with senators. or house of representatives or both. and we see what came of that so i'm not sure that anybody is getting anything but a lump of coal in their stocking from old saint nick this season. trump works in mysterious ways. tim miller, thank you for riding the wave of magacela for

us. >> merry christmas. still ahead tonight, remember when donald trump wanted hillary clinton locked up for using a private email server? do you remember that? donald trump and his incoming administration sure do not seem to. we will get into his emails coming up. but first, what republicans cut from the house bill tells you a lot about what the party cares for and who it does not. that's coming up after the break. that's coming up after the break. rough, or tired? with miebo, eyes can feel ♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪ miebo is the only prescription dry eye drop that forms a protective layer for the number one cause of dry eye: too much tear evaporation. for relief that's ♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪ remove contact lenses before using miebo. wait at least 30 minutes before putting them back in. eye redness and blurred vision may occur. ♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪ ask your eye doctor about prescription miebo.

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president-elect trump and doge leaders are rallying republicans against the 15 plus page spending deal. >> they are calling it pork

fest. >> a last minute bill stuffed with a lot of pork. >> a lot of waste in here, a lot of pork. don't vote for this. >> one republicans on wednesday decided they were against the spending bill they had just negotiated, they started complaining about all the pork that was larding up their bill. but what exactly were they referring to? what was taken out of the final bill that just passed the house? republicans got rid of a provision that would reimburse people if their food stamps were stolen and got rid of a provision that would have protected consumers from hidden junk fees. they got rid of a provision to criminalize someone making deep fake pornography. for anyone who night not know, this is gabriella miller. >> i was diagnosed when i was

nine. and once you get cancer you kind of got to be all grown up and you don't really have a childhood. and less and less kids are going to have their childhood awareness if people don't raise awareness and raise funds. >> a little over a decade ago, doctors discovered an inoperable tumor the size of a walnut in her brain. she passed away a year later. but before that she rallied the government for the research of pediatric research. after her death, that funding got passed and president-obama

signed it into law. this year, this week, renewing that funding was one of the things republicans thought was too porky. too much of a special interest. so it got cut. >> so what message do you have to our political leaders? or elected leaders? about kids like you? >> stop talking, start doing. >> that is when house republicans demanded to cut in order to fund the government. slashing pediatric cancer research. that was their principled fight this week. now luckily, just a few minutes ago, the senate by a voice vote chose to fund much of the pediatric cancer research that had been stripped by the house republican majority from the bill that passed tonight. so all they not be lost for kids like gabriella. the question is what do democrats get out of passing this bill? and what have they learned

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in this episode, again, acquitted himself beautifully. kept our entire caucus together. we all voted together against their ridiculous plan yesterday. and we have voted to keep the government open today and to get disasters relief from our people. >> that was congressman jamie

raskin after the house passed the bill to avoid a government shutdown. we are waiting on the senate to pass the bill. this latest version of the bill does not include the date ceiling extension that donald trump wanted but it also doesn't include funding for pediatric cancer research or lower prescription drug prices among other things. joining me now is julian castro. a wealth of information and strategy about democrats. it is great the see you here. >> great to be with you. >> so in the segment prior to this, we talked about the things struck from this bill. everything from food stamps to pediatric cancer research. did democrats win just by virtue of humiliating donald trump or should they have asked

for more? >> two things are true. first of all, this is a loss for trump. first he gets yanked by the chain by elon musk who creates chaos. who forces him to get into the mix. a deal had been negotiated. this new deal is renegotiated and he says all i want basically is to raise the debt ceiling and that didn't get in this negotiated second agreement. so it is a loss for donald trump. and really what you are seeing is the political evolution that will take place the next two years through the midterms from the american pit bull politician that everybody fears to a yapping chihuahua who barks and barks and doesn't get what he wants. hopefully they will continue to go against him. it is also true that there is a good amount of frustration from what i'm hearing among democrats. because at the end of the day, i mean, these were brutally important and good provisions they negotiated for and they

were the adults in the room again. they did the responsible thing. they were the only party acting responsibly these days. and at the same time, they got less than what was on the table and what they thought was locked in, just a couple of days ago. they are not talking about two months ago, a year ago, a couple of days ago. so look, they acted in an adult way. it is a loss for trump. there is no question what was left off the table, hopefully the senate is saving some of this. but it is not what it was before. so i wouldn't call that a grand victory for democrats. it is a victory for the american people that the government will continue to operate. they acted like the adults in the room. that is basically what you need from a responsible party. >> one would think that part of the adults, the fact they acted in a unified manner not a

single democrat broke ranks. i would imagine some of it has to be with the fact biden is in the white house. it is not that it would be his fault. but the reality is you would get precisely a lot messier for joe biden in the waning days of his patsy. i would imagine that democrats going through this, right before donald trump is worn into office, makes them think when you're in the white house, we're not going to be under the same mandate. do you think that is the correct line of thinking? >> no question. next term, they have more leverage. republicans own it. they control everything. they control the presidency and the senate and the house. they have the supreme court. it is all around. you cannot lay the blame at anyone else's feet.

but that doesn't just magically happen, people assigning credit and blame where they should. democrats will have to continue to be very disciplined not just in how they vote, but how they message. they will have two important opportunity to do that. the obama care subsidies coming up that millions of people rely onto be able to afford health care in this country. and second, the tax cuts. democrats have a golden opportunity to show the american people what they really stand for. the working people of this country. >> yeah. and you already heard, rebecca, a member of congress said we will extract our pound of flesh. i'm interested in the dynamic you pointed out at the top. the republicans in congress. the conventional wisdom was that donald trump is such a

mocker. he is such a king maker that he will control this party. they will be the ones ton leash. he is a lame duck president. i wonder if he should. >> that's such an important point. look, what politics look out for. they are looking out for their own jobs. his powers will continue to diminish. right now in the private sector, corporate america. in the non-profit sector. among public officials. there is a lot of fear of donald trump. there is a lot of compliance.

obedience. because people are afraid he is so vengeful. he will take retribution so i think, maybe this guy doesn't have as much power and shouldn't be as feared as you fear that he is. >> you're a former cabinet official. could this affect the confirmation of some of his more outlandish in. >> first he loses gaetz, now this. it doesn't help him to push pete hegseth and tulsi gabbard over the finish line. he probably put their nominations into a little more risker by this loss. >> and we know the senate republicans are saying we would like to see what the fbi dug up on pete hegseth before we vote on this guy. they are already opened the door to saying not qualified. i think donald trump assumed this should be the apex of his power right? he hasn't even come into office

and he can't get the one thing done he wants for christmas. >> something tells me it will not be a merry christmas. >> we have heard nothing. former hud secretary, julian castro. great to have you on the show. thanks for your time. coming up, new reporting on trump's transition's use of what? a private email server. no. yeah. no, really. remember the whole reason for the right's lock her up chants against hillary clinton? the reporter who broke that story joins me coming up next. story joins me coming up next. have you always had trouble with your weight? same. discover the power of wegovy®. with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. and some lost over 46 pounds. and i'm keeping the weight off. i'm reducing my risk. wegovy® is the only weight-management medicine

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the only asthma treatment taken once every 8 weeks. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. (♪♪) her actions put ore national security at risk. and it is everybody's deepest hope that justice at last will be beautifully delivered. >> in 2016, donald trump relentlessly attacked hillary clinton for using a private email to handle business while secretary of state. now, the president-elect has a private email issue of his own. according to politico, trump's transition team is conducting business through private emails and federal officials are sounding the alarms. they are worried about sharing documents via email with trump's transition team because

the incoming officials are eschewing government devices and support. the private emails have agency employees insisting on in- person meetings and document exchanges that they otherwise would have conducted electronically. joining me now is keith brown. he is the author of roadblock. joe biden's rocky transition to the presidency. keith, thank you for being here tonight, you have written about the subject of presidential transitions. how much of a challenge is something like this? >> it is a huge challenge. in 2020, it was one of the most important things that the biden harris transition team worried about. they worried about being hacked. the reason for that, years

earlier, the hacks undid the clinton campaign in some ways so they thought about it all the time. that the incoming team is not worrying about it in the same way raises some questions. there was salt typhoon. the attack of the telecom system. the iranian hacks of public officials. how permeable do you think it is for the incoming trump administration to be using private gmail accounts? >> we don't know what the reasonings are but we know the federal government has been

ready to help for a year and prepared the technology that would be helpful for the cyber threats that the incoming administration is facing. that the incoming administration isn't availing themselves of that help raises major issues. why wouldn't you accept the help of an agency that understands this issue, that is prepared for this issue and willing to provide you with that assistance? that is really important right now. >> do you have a theory? it is coming as the pentagon is issuing multiple reports into elon musk and whether he should have the information access he does because of his meetings with foreign leaders. are you connecting the dots to the trump transition team not wanting to use secure government servers? >> i think for a long time it has been clear that president- elect trumps ha a deep, deep

distrust and is a deep paranoia about what might be made available related to the conversations his transition team is having. this is the main reason they opted not to use the federal support. i think they are trying to protect themselves because of how deeply distrustful they are of so much of the operations of the federal government. i think that is really the crux of the issue. i think that is one of the hallmarks of this incoming administration. >> it makes it difficult from the presidential record act. i would assume that his digital hygiene doesn't get better when he is president. taking classifies documents with him down to mar-a-lago.

and mark meadows is chief of staff burning documents in the fireplace. trump's staff having to tape back documents he had torn into pieces. this is not someone with a particular allegiance. do you see this as problematic? >> right now, this is a non- profit organization so they can make the decisions about what emails they use. it doesn't project well into january 20th administration. all of those transparency rules that we have don't apply to the transition period. so we know very little about what's going on and we probably never will. we don't really know all of the people involved in this

transition. the names haven't been made public and any kind of complete way. there are landing teams spread out across the government right now. we don't really know who they are. if they are following the concerns about conflicts of interest and ethics that have always marked this time period. so this does suggest some concerns for the future once the administration is up and running. >> and just on a practical level because government efficiency is such a hobby horse of the incoming trump administration. you know better than i, but i would assume if you cannot look at any of the incoming information, classified or sensitive digitally, if it cannot be emailed to you and because you are not using the government services to keep that information secure, you have to go physically to a location and go to a secure room. that would slow down a transition greatly would it not? >> anything to slow down

cooperation is a concern. related to that, how many people have received the security clearances necessary to be briefed on these issues. relying on the fbi. it makes me wonder if people have enough security clearances today. it is not clear the extent to which it is happening. that makes security issues very difficult. >> professor keith brown, it is good to have your perspective on this. thank you for joining us this friday night. we have one more story for you tonight. and it involves president biden beating donald trump. a lot of winning. that's next. a lot of winning. that's next.

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nobody in the breaking news we have been following with two hour to go

before a partial government shutdown. senators are working on an agreement to pass the bill that funds the government for the next few months and they may not make it before the midnight deadline but the good news is even if the government does shut down, it is likely only to be for a few hours and should have minimal impact. after the senate acts, the bill heads to president biden's desk for his signature. meanwhile, amid the chaos in the hill today, the senate did get one very big thing done. >> the majority has now confirmed more judges under president biden than any mayorty has confirmed in decades. this is historic. we have confirmed more judges than under the trump administration. more judges than any administration in this century. >> the democratic senate confirmed the 235th judge appointed by president biden. that means he has beaten trump's record by one. if this turns out to be biden's

last, he will leave office having secured one supreme court justice, 45 appeal court judges. 187 district court judges. all of these judges will serve lifetime points making them part of president biden's legacy that cannot be overturned when donald trump returns to office. if that doesn't lift some spirits, there's this. an owl. a real live barred owl on top of a christmas tree. it swooped down a chimney earlier this week in arlington, virginia and according the animal welfare league, it has been gently captured and safely released back into the wild. hopefully it will come to my house next. now for a better holiday present, time for the last word with ali velshi. >> we have all been ramping up for whatever happened tonight with the shutdown so i haven't given thought to anything else. that owl is what i needed. >> it's what we all needed. >> i insisted it be in the program. >> thank you my friend. i walked by to say hello to you. you were busy doing a show. but i haven't seen you in real