with us to talk more about this, nbc news capitol hill correspondent julia tsirkin and ali vitali andte house correspondent peter alexander. ali, where do things stand at this hour? >> right now we're watching and waiting for them to move on to the rule vote that we have been anticipating here. this is going to be voting on the continuing resolution. there has been much debate to get them to this point. and there is also the very real reality that this rule could fail. it would deliver yet another blow to speaker mccarthy and leadership, who really have been trying to herd the cats within their conference to try to keep them on board. we watched them notch a few wins last night, however tangible they might have been in passing those spending packages. it was meant to be a show of good faith to the right wingers who want to see this go through a process called regular order. going through each spending bill of the 12 appropriations bills, and trying to meet spending cuts that conservatives want. whether or not this gamut works, we're going to find out in the next few minutes here. i ha

joining me now with the latest, nbc news capitol hill reporter ali vitali. msnbc news white house correspondent monica alba. also with me, congressional reporter for the washington post, marianna sotomayor. ali, talk to me about what is happening and senator bennett's concerns. >> we thought the house with the hard part of this. we know they have done their piece of this puzzle. we thought the senate was on track to do this in short order, but as is so often the case, one senator can come up the process. and that's what we're seeing right now. typically the way that this works is the senate can go as quickly as all 100, or in this case 99, all of them decide to go. and tights going to be the case if they can get michael bennet back on board. the latest we had heard prior to bennett put in this hold out is that maybe we were gonna say 15, 20 minutes of debate. and then a vote. that's very short compared to health's senate typically does things. it was a sign they are really all in line and i bipartisan fashion to move forward with the stopgap spending -- fundi

and nbc news capitol hill correspondent, ali vitali. are we any closer today than yesterday?reporter: at the commercial break, you said don't go anywhere. i'm not going to be able to go anywhere for a while. we saw mccarthy be able to move on to four specific spending bills that are supposed to be a down payment of goodwill to hard liners within his conference who want to see bigger spending cuts and who may not want to vote for a continuing resolution. for mccarthy's part, his plan at this point is to do that down payment of goodwill and move on to a continuing resolution that would effectively allow him to punt the ball for 30 or 45 days. and buy himself time to get it together on the appropriation spending packages. that's a big order. there are several people who will never vote for a cr. that puts mccarthy in the tough position of having to potentially have his job being vacated looming over all of this, or he may have to look across the aisle or building to what the senate is trying to do, pass their own version of a continuing resolution. that has thorns in it as well.

to try to take the speaker's gavel from him even before he got democrats to help pass the bill ali vitali has more. >> reporter: tonight house speaker kevin mccarthy defiant >> if somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it there has to be an adult in the room. >> two-thirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended. >> reporter: having defense with the business of keeping the government open, mccarthy now bracing for the possibility of his own members coming for his job all because he worked with democrats to avoid a shutdown >> when are you guys going to get over that it's all right that you put america first, that it's all right if republicans and democrats join together to do what is right? >> reporter: that's exactly what some hard line republicans warned him about >> if democrats bail out mccarthy as they may do, then i will lead the resistance to this uniparty. >> reporter: just one member of the house can introduce a motion to vacate, triggering a vote that could oust the speaker, the results of mccarthy's own negotiations to get the job in the first place. the cal

okay, ali vitali from capitol hill tonight. >>> in just 60 seconds, new reporting out of maui. the significant change in the number of missing and what's being done now with those sirens to prevent future disasters. stay with us >>> we are back now with an update out of maui the stunning change in the number of missing as officials are taking new steps to prevent a similar tragedy in the future. sam brock has more from lahaina ♪ >> reporter: on shores across the hawaiian islands, a day of prayer ♪ a sacred ritual symbolizing the spirit of healing >> this is a special place. >> reporter: the community is mourning 115 confirmed deaths from last month's wildfires. the list of the unaccounted for once topping a thousand names. now, with most of them found, that number may fall to below 50 >> pending that update, we think the number has dropped down into the double digits, so thank god. >> reporter: still, questions remain >> given how much these figures have fluctuated, do you think that that gives some people skepticism or doubt? >> i've got to say yes on that. >> there was a thou

ali vitali from capitol hill. >>> in 60 seconds new reporting out of maui. the significant change in the number of missing and what's being done now with those sirens to prevent future disasters. stay with us. but i've got lead in my foot and spirit in my fingers. woo! ha ha what a hit! and if you have cut rate car insurance the cost to cover that, might tank your season. so, get allstate and be better protected from mayhem... like me. (laughing) woo! okay everyone, our mission is complete balanced nutrition. together we provide nutrients to support immune, muscle, bone, and heart health. yaaay! woo hoo! ensure with 25 vitamins and minerals and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. ♪ the citi custom cash® card a different kind of card that automatically adjusts to your spending earn 5% cash back on your top eligible spend category up to $500 spent each billing cycle learn more at citi.com/customcash >>> we are back now with an update out of maui. the stunning change in the number of missing as officials are taking new steps to prevent a similar tragedy i

. >> joining us now is ali vitali, brendan buck, an. ♪♪ msnbc political analyst. h feinburg, good to have all of you here. ali, as early as this hour, i understand the house is expected to vote on a short-term spending bill. where do things stand right now? >> reporter: look, we'll see what happens. there you see the senate floor, of course. we're there in the interim waiting period on what they're trying to work on for a stopgap funding measure. on the house side, a bit of a surprise perhaps watching the rule pass for this stopgap funding measure, but according to conversations that i've had in the hall, people like congressman matt gaetz and other hard-liners who have been consistent thorns in the side of leadership said that they don't want to tank the rule. their goal is to vote against the cr itself. this upcoming vote would allow them to do exactly that, and that's why one of the things that i just asked speaker mccarthy was what happens when that occurs. his response was, of course, to ignore the substance and instead pivot in a way that sort of allows us to

capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, best of luck. >> thank you. >>> thank you for getting up "wayday morning. "morning joe" starts now. >>> you have a better chance of being struck by lightning than hitting a w

let's go to capitol hill and nbc's ali vitaliment let's start with this looming shutdown.knows the stakes here. have republicans made any progress towards a deal? >> reporter: they've been working all weekend, ana. i'm struck when the speaker says they've got the cr going. i'm not entirely sure what that means. there are still several members within his republican conference who say they will never vote for a cr which would effectively buy the speaker and more republicans more time to figure out the spending levels that they could find more palatable down the road. that's one of the key negotiating points here as the speaker tries to buy himself a little bit of time. you've got on the other side of the building, senators trying to work on their oern piece of legislation. that's something senator schumer is putting forward. then there's the larger question here of the and when this shutdown is averted, what it means for mccarthy and the state of his job as speaker and whether or not democrats would bail him out. that's something i asked one democratic front liner this morni

nbc's ali vitali on capitol hill, and jake sherman is back with us. ican lawmaker over recess if i had any reason to be nervous for themselves to come back into town because of the funding battle, they told me simply, yes. and that it wasn't going to be pretty. i think that's the move here as lawmakers continue to come back into town because conservative house members have made clear they're not backing down on their threats to shut down the government, especially as they want to see more spending cuts and as they continue to have that threat in the back pocket of the motion to vacate of speaker kevin mccarthy. some of them told me they feel they were sold out because of that bipartisan deal that house speaker kevin mccarthy did several weeks ago before recess. and leading to conversations like this, here's congressman chip roy, on the state of play right now, between him and his leadership. >> we're all working hard to try to move everything forward here in september. we have a job to do, and that is, to hold this administration accountable. when kevi

ali vitali visited a veterans care facility in california to take a look at this issue. >> reporter:hutdowns can cause new problems when they happen, but they can also exacerbate existing ones. watch. >> we starting advocating for this v.a. clinic. >> reporter: more than two decades to get a new clinic in his hometown of stockton, california. >> started joking about hopefully we'll open up before we're pushing up daisies. >> reporter: not just about getting a new facility. >> we need this clinic to open with doctors. >> reporter: this rural community about an hour from san francisco, falls prey to a national trend, veterans struggling to access healthcare because there are not enough providers to see them. >> if you're in stockton you have to wait, 80, 90, even 100 days. one veteran said he wasn't able to get a refill on his diabetes medication. he ended up losing his leg. >> reporter: here the number of working primary care physicians have been cut in half. as of 2022, more than 2,000 facilities faced shortages. the results backlog, wait times and rarely returned inquiries are why d

joining me now ali vitali, ken dilanian, mike memoli, and former fbi general counsel andrew weissmannn, give us the latest on the substance today, including highlights from the witnesses. >> reporter: house democrats are acknowledging that hunter biden essentially sold what they call the illusion of access to his father and based on his family name was paid millions of dollars, including from foreign sources, which can be troubling to a lot of people. what even the republican star witnesses here have asserted is that they do not see any evidence that implicates joe biden. in fact, that would merit articles of impeachment. listen to a professor, a frequent guest on fox news and a star witness here at this hearing. >> this is a question of an impeachment inquiry. it is not a vote on articles of impeachment. in fact, i do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment. that's something an inquiry has to establish. i also do believe that the house has passed the threshold for an impeachment inquiry into the conduct of president biden. >> reporter: what they ar

continue having questions answered if possible with congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz and ali vitali>> kevin mccarthy and house republicans, the extreme maga wing, and that's what this is about, they are succumbing to donald trump, and they are allowing donald trump to hold our economy hostage, and they are giving in to their extreme maga wing and they will potentially likely crash our economy, all while engaging in -- they are afraid. they know they have nothing there, that there has been no evidence. they are using this word inquiry. he just said they are going to move forward on impeachment. he's in the pocket of donald trump. >> what is the difference between an inquiry and impeachment? >> there is no difference. they have to vote whether or not to move forward to impeachment. that's what the vote is. when we voted on impeachment of donald trump, who we impeached twice because there was real credible evidence that came up publicly and was evident and obvious, not this hazy gray area that they are hanging their hat on. they have acknowledged there's no evidence against joe biden.

. >> ali vitali is on capitol hill. rmer florida republican congressman carlos curbelo, an msnbc political analyst. great to have you both. ali, is any of the pressure being felt on the hill? where do things stand now? >> reporter: there always has been pressure on this situation, chris. but the pressure doesn't apply in terms of moving those hard-liners that have really been a thorn in the side of republican leadership this entire time. at least in talking to speaker mccarthy today, he's continued to not just sound notes of optimism, but also he's been vague about whether or not he actually thinks he has the votes to move forward, first on the four specific spending bills that they'll try to move forward on today, and then those four bills are supposed to be sort of a down payment of sorts on goodwill with those hard-liners and his conference that would allow him to move on to a continuing resolution, which is effectively a measure that would buy them more time. 30 or 45 days to get the rest of those spending bills in o

joining us now is nbc's ali vitali on capitol hill, and anna palmer, punch bowl news co-founder. see you. ali, let's start with the shutdown. four days left. what are these bills mccarthy is trying to push through exactly? >> reporter: effectively they're trying to show good faith to his right most flank. as you mentioned. this is something the speaker attempted to negotiate with his holdouts over the weekend, pushing forward on four key spending bills that are part of the total 12 that appropriators have to move on, but right now they don't have the time. effectively what would happen here if this worked out is they would hold votes on these rules today, on the four spending packages. that would be enough for conservatives to see that their spending goals are being heard and met, at least in these pieces of legislation and the future ones that will still be drafted and they could move on something look a cr that would buy them a little bit more time. when we say cr, we mean a continuing resolution that could fund the government for 30 or 45 days. that is something that mccarthy i

we have it all covered with nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, nbc news correspondent tomtello and nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube. ali, let's start with you. where do negotiations stand right now? >> reporter: >> they're at a standstill, morgan. that's because we watched the rule pass, which would have allowed them to move on to the stopgap spending bill, that would have averted a government shutdown and bought legislator plors time to figure out spending levels and their budgeting plan. but then when the actual vote on that continuing resolution, the stopgap measure happened, that's when things fell apart once again. more than 20 republicans voting against the wishes of their leadership, and a plan that their colleagues put together, to fund the government for a set period of time. they in many ways were the never see r caucus, never going to vote for a continuing resolution caucus. and that's what i asked speaker mccarthy about. the idea for this group of people, the goal was to stop this cr plan, because they were never going to get behind it. watch. >> i

with us now to talk more about this, nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, nbc news white house correspondent mike memoli and paul butler, former federal prosecutor who is now a professor at the georgetown university law school. he is an msnbc legal analyst. ali, bring us up to speed of what's been happening so far. >> reporter: look, this is the first hour, jose, of a very lengthy day on capitol hill, the first impeachment inquiry hearing we're seeing republicans launch who have got all three committee chairman in the room from oversight, ways and means and judiciary. all of these committees have been doing their own investigations into various aspects of the claims that they're trying to present today. but this is the first under the official banner of the inquiry that was blessed by speaker mccarthy just a few weeks ago. i think what is going to be important for us to remember and we have been pointing this out as we have gone along, unlike the january 6th committee hearings, which, of course, were the last ones that our audience probably tuned into, in high supply, this is n

nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali is in washington for us. good to see you. be one of the most difficult things we undertake. we must treat ai with the same level of seriousness as national security, as job creation, as our civil liberties. >> so ali, what exactly is wednesday's meeting supposed to accomplish? >> congress isn't known for getting ahead of the game. >> reporter: they feel like they missed the body on legislating around things like tiktok and instagram, all the social media platforms that we've now heard them talking about over the last few years. this is schumer's attempt to try to put lawmakers ahead of the curve on ai, especially as we've seen more coverage lately of things like chatgpt and the ways in which it could be integrated for good and for bad into everyday life. and so that's why we're going to have all 100 senators huddled behind closed doors with many of these big tech titans as they come to the hill on wednesday. it is a private session. that means that we're not going to see what these folks have to say. there are some senators t

. >> ali vitali is on capitol hill. now that the procedural vote has been pulled, what's next?. we know that over the course of the last few hours, key members that have problems with this so-called plan have been huddled inside of the whip's office here, trying to hash out different tweaks that could be made to this bill that would allow them to get a vote on it. as of right now, there's even threats of working through the weekend, and over to the side, as lawmakers come in and out of the house chamber for votes now, there are various gaggles happening with key lawmakers who were in that room. and the real sense that i have gotten from talking to them is that this is really the venting phase still. the days are ticking down on the calendar as we get closer to a shutdown, but they're not even in agreement over what the top line appropriations numbers are, let alone what those numbers should be for each of the subsequence 12 appropriations bills. that means they're really early in this process, and we're really late on the calendar. none of it inspires confidence. you saw house

nbc's ali vitali and mike memoli join us in washington.o with us, brendan buck who worked for former house speakers john boehner and paul ryan, along with msnbc legal analyst, lisa rubin and former federal prosecutor harry litman. thank you all for joining us for this discussion. ali, we're going to be careful with how we cover this hearing with a focus on providing view ers with facts and contexts. can you just set the scene for what we're expecting? >> i think all of that is really important, ana. that's certainly the mind-set we've brought to all of our coverage of this. while this is the first impeachment inquiry hearing that we're seeing it's hardly the first time these committee chairmen have gone down the investigatory rabbit hole on these topics. this is the fruit of multiple investigations from the oversight committee and the judiciary committee, and in terms of what we'll see in that room, it's going to be a lengthy hearing process here, multiple hours we expect in large part because there are so many members who are now involved

>> ali vitali on capitol hill, thank you so very much.ow to continue our conversation is california congressman ro khanna who sits on the oversight committee. it is always a pleasure to see you. i thank you for being with us. what are the repercussions writ large of a government shutdown in three days? >> jose, it would be disastrous for the first point, our military would not get paid. we would be expecting our troops to keep us safe without paying them. 4 million federal workers, people are work at airports, at parks and will not get paid. there will be there as for people who need any government services and they would make probably delays at airports even worse. and it would aggravate actually the issues of immigration, because none of those workers would be being paid. so, it is a total self-inflicted wound. >> and so, congressman, what do you make of the speaker's desire to tie funding to efforts to secure the southern border? >> well, that is just political posturing. the president has a plan to secure the border and have a humane

ali vitali, you got a memo warnembers about what's going to happen next. >>eporter: that's exactly right. that's par for the course. agencies have to provide that guidance to their employees, in large part because agencies are going to have to make a decision about which parts of their work force are furloughed and which parts of their work force are not exempted from this or deemed essentially in some ways. that's going to be one of the decisions that comes once we hit that point saturday night at midnight, as jake said where the shutdown would be triggered. in this memo, though, in this case, at the ssa, the person writing it makes note of the fact that this inconsistency can be stressful for employees, and frankly for all the reasons we laid out, it's hard to feel optimistic about that. i have not spoken to any member on the republican or democratic side who doesn't think we're going to have a shut down come this weekend. instead, the concern is rather, once they get into a shutdown, how they can maneuver their way out of one. that's still something we'

joining us now, nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube, nbc news chief foreign correspondent, richard engel and hager shamali, former spokesperson for the u.s. mission to the united nations, also a former treasury spokesperson so, ali, zelenskyy's visit comes at a time when lawmakers appear to be at a breaking point with the amount of funding going to ukraine. what does this mean for any potential additional packages? >> look, there is a stalemate over spending writ large, not just as it applies to future ukraine aid, but how the government spends and funds itself going forward we're barreling toward a shutdown now with the house currently trying to negotiate a way out of it. the senate will have its say after they're able to do that. but we're waiting for now is that all senators briefing to wrap up with ukrainian president zelenskyy. we saw some of those folks who you mentioned in the letters, things they want more accountability toward the strategy and how this money is being spent, those senators largely not coming to this all se

nbc's ali vitali is on the hill for us. so a lot of these democrats, and some of them haven't called yet for menendez's resignation have said they were waiting to hear from him. what do we know about what's gone on inside that room? >> reporter: look, you know it had to be a tough room there, chris, because while it's not every democratic senator calling for menendez's resignation, it is the large part of that. more than half of the caucus has called for him to step down in the aftermath of this indictment. menendez, though, is continuing to double down on his stance that he's not going anywhere, that he will beat these charges, and that when it's all said done, he will remain the senior senator from new jersey. that seems to be a message that's similar to what we would have expected him to deliver in that room, though in catching up with him in the immediate moments after he exited, he seems to say the message he's brought to colleagues is going to stay for his colleagues alone. this is what our reporting captured. >> i ha

back with me now, peter alexander, ali vitali, kitty richards.hung joining me as well on set. that sounded more like a stump speech, i gotta say, than just about touting the august numbers, which is expected, considering we are heading into an election year. he talked more about donald trump than we have heard him talk in previous times in which he addressed jobs numbers, but gave more of a 30,000 foot above view of the economy versus specifically addressing the numbers that just came out earlier today. >> yeah. i think you are right. that was my impression as well. this was as much if not more candidate biden than president biden there. he was a little behind schedule, it seemed as if, he was engaged in his remarks. it was not any remarks that at the end of his first set of words, even the end of his first sentence he made the point the former president left office with fewer jobs than when he came to office. the president recognizes the first jobs report since the republican campaign has heated up after the first debate took place where joe bid

our friend ali vitali, nbc news capitol hill correspondent. thanks for being here. as ali, had mentioned as the speaker focuses on impeachment, there are growing call from his own party in the house to strip him of his speakership because of budget negotiations, as the government does approach a looming september 30th shutdown deadline. yesterday gop congressman matt gaetz of florida accused mccarthy of being in violation of an agreement he made with a group of republican detractors that he needed to do to secure the speakership in the first place. >> mr. speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role. the path forward for the house of representatives is to either bring you into immediate total compliance or remove you. >> gaetz called on the speaker to hold votes on individual spending bills instead of a continuing resolution, which is know as a cr. that's a short-term extension that gop leadership has been considering to avoid a shutdown. the florida congressman said he'll move to oust the speaker if a vote is held on th

let's bring in nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali.he latest you're hearing on the negotiations so far? >> yeah, no better news than what i brought to you yesterday, mika. the idea that lawmakers,worked weekend on the house side, don't seem closer to a true consensus. we heard it from speaker mccarthy, who sounded notes of optimism. what will be fascinating this week, yes, watching the ways mccarthy tries to herd the cats within his conference burks also seeing the ways they interact with the senate plan that schumer and other key leaders are still trying to cobble together. i was told staff on the senate side are still working through the night to try to come to what this agreement could look like. again, we're talking continuing revolution, something to keep the lights on for an extra 30, 45 days, to buy these folks some time to actually do these appropriations bills. they are not fast processes here. that's why they're in the time-buying business. but if mccarthy were to take this lifeline that the senate could expand to him, yes, i

joining us now is ali vitali. punch bowl news cofounder, john bresnahan. sn't feel great, i'm going to be honest, they came back with a real vengeance after the august recess. no sooner were they back than the drama began. my conversations with lawmakers over the recess, am i right for you to be nervous to come back in september, and many of those on the right wing of this conference said yes because they were willing to put the screws to mccarthy no matter what it took to get the spending concessions that they want. it seems like that's what's going on here. at least until it's not. we've seen mccarthy work himself out of a jam before. it's going to be interesting to see how he does it this time. he loves and bres knows this, when we underestimate his abilities, behind closed doors with his conference, you're right, katy, he basically dared them to fire him from the speaker job because of course there are several, including matt gaetz who continue to dangle the possibility in front of the speaker if he doesn't give what they want on spending and a few othe

nbc's ali vitali is in washington, d.c. we knew this would come to a head. >> reporter: you are right, laura. the special counsel is asking to narrowly limit former president trump's to talk about the case. if granted, this would include statements he made about the identity of possible witnesses as well as disparaging comments about them or jurors and attorneys. the ask is borne of actions he has taken including the public statements attacking the citizens of district columbia and court and witnesses. the special counsel's request adding that the remarks can be inflammatory and intimidating. mr. trump reacting in d.c. and on social media attacking the special counsel and process saying they leak, lie and sue and they won't allow me to speak? also calling prosecutors incompetent. trump's team has ten days to respond. the judge could rule any time at the end of september to impose the narrow gag order. big impimplications. >> ali vitali bright in early in washington, d.c. for us. thank you. >> are you the lawyer here. is thi

and joining us now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali. er this latest incident with the senator? it was a 33 full second moment that america watched on camera, it's really reignited questions about the senator's health. >> reporter: you're right, peter, it's not the first time we've seen this. just a month ago in the halls of the capitol with all of his leadership colleagues surrounding him, senator mcconnell froze first, and that was the first time we saw that happen publicly, now seeing it again, of course, during a solo news conference back home in kentucky. all of this lending to questions about transparency. now, you're right that the capitol physician said that this is something that he expects from someone who's recovering from a concussion. that concussion, of course, stemming from a fall that mcconnell took back in march. he fractured some ribs, he had a concussion. he was away from the capitol for several weeks while he was recovering. now, most of his colleagues in the senate and within leadership said in the immediate hours aft

joining me now ryan nobles and ali vitali and sabrina siddiqui. the speaker's behind you, ali.listen in to what he is saying? >> reporter: i will let you listen in. this has been an ongoing gaggle with the speaker. i'm going to maneuver further into. he has been giving us updates. i will let you listen to a bit of that. >> schumer is the leader. if he listened to his governor, they would want it. all it takes is the president to acknowledge, the border is a problem. let's do that. let's solve this border problem and work and finish the rest of our business. >> are you ruling out a clean cr without any -- >> you know what's so concerning here? what do you tell the families that tomorrow morning will wake up and their child is dead because fentanyl came across? what are you going to tell to that border agent that you saw the other day, his network doesn't believe it, but he is all in blood. the cartels, billions of dollars they are making, or the young girls that get raped. >> what do you tell the workers who are concerned they will get furloughed next week because there's no agr

joining us now from the capitol, nbc news correspondent ali vitali. just out of the capitol. l us what is going to happen and why this wasn't the preferred way of having a couple of these folks confirmed. >> reporter: you're right. this wasn't the way that democrats or even some republicans wanted to see these promotions get confirmed and this is just a small number, three of the hundreds that have stacked up here now because of this months long hold on the part of senator tuberville of alabama, all out of protest for the dod policy to support funding and travel logistics for those veterans seeking abortion care. now, we know that policy hasn't changed, but tuberville over the last 24 hours sort of attempted some procedural slight of hand, trying to get more than a dozen of his republican colleagues on board with forcing a vote with just the person that would head up the marine corps. instead when senate majority leader chuck schumer got wind of this, schumer procedurally one upped him and said, okay, we'll do not just the one for the marine corps, but all three of these top p

. >> robert gibbs, ali vitali, danny cevallos, thank you very much. >>> coming up, we're days from a government shutdown. why speaker kevin mccarthy says there could be hopes for a deal. we're back in 60 seconds. 're bas i'm kareem abdul jabbar. i was diagnosed with afib. the first inkling that something was wrong was i started to notice that i couldn't do things without losing my breath. i couldn't make it through the airport, and every like 20 or 30 yards i had to sit down and get my breath. every physical exertion seemed to exhaust me. and finally, i went to the hospital where i was diagnosed with afib. when i first noticed symptoms, which kept coming and going, i should have gone to the doctor and told them what was happening. instead, i tried to let it pass. if you experience irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, or light-headedness, you should talk to your doctor. afib increases the risk of stroke about 5 times i want my experience to help others understand the symptoms of atrial fibrillation. when it comes to your health, this is no time

. >> all right, thank, you and the seas ali vitali on capitol hill. we'll go back to you if needed.ng me now, senator bob casey. democrat of pennsylvania. senator, thank you for joining us. the ball is in the court of you and your senate colleagues at the behest, the house passed a 45-day continuing resolution to fund our government. what can you tell us about the negotiations that are taking place right as we speak? >> reverend al, great to be with you. there was a lot of today's work will be the government will be funded. i think that's very important for the american people. all the people depend upon, with regard to the federal government. fifth woman's, infants, and children's program, and programs like that that healthy vulnerable will be funded. we'll be able to do food safety inspections and so much else to protect public health. and our military and national security will be funded. so that's the good news. because, when the senate takes up this bill, we don't know, when and the next several hours, at the latest, the government will be funded. so that's good news. >> just a

let's get to it with nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali.roved at all from that bleak picture we were able to depict when we came on the air? >> reporter: nope, we're still seemingly in the on, bill here. -- abyss here. republicans are huddled once again in a conference-wide meeting about what the path forward might look like. we know that the house has reached this impasse, though, multiple times over the course of the last tucks. we all -- few weeks. we all know they were going to be barreling toward this date. there were multiple different paths that they could have taken, but honestly, it feels like most of those paths would have landed them right in the position that they're in right now which is that they were able to put up -- put a continuing resolution on the floor this afternoon, but more than 20 members of the republican conference chose to band together and tank that. and so now they are once again behind closed doors trying to figure out what comes next. there's something interesting also happening, though, on the other side of

let's bring in capitol hill correspondent ali vitali and also former adviser for the romney presidential campaign kevin madden, and former communications director and senior adviser to speaker pelosi ashley. ali, let start with you. what can you tell us about mccarthy's plan? >> it is like we never left because here i am standing in the hall waiting for the speaker to come out of his office and give us some kind of update on the latest box that he is in because of the wide range of disagreements within his conference. you know mccarthy has been under pressure for some kind of move on impeachment. it seems now according to our sources that he recognized that an impeachment inquiry is his way to try to placate the right most flank while also not doing the most damage to moderates. but this is a gamble in and of itself for mccarthy because it is not clear that he has the votes to move forward on this, but also not clear that it will placate the people that it needs to placate and all of this of course playing out before the government could shut down just a few weeks from now on september 3

. >> i want to bring in nbc's ali vitali on capitol hill, jonathan lemire, plittco's white house bureau chief and host of "way too early" tim miller writer at large for "the bulwark." tim and jonathan are msnbc analysts. ali, what exactly does mccarthy's announcement mean? >> yeah. i think that's a really good ea question, and, of course, we know that house republicans, as the majoritys, party here, alrey have subpoena power and we've a watched theman exercise that ov the courseem of the last eight months. using each of these committees that have since been empowered bync the speaker in the so-call impeachment inquiry they've been speak and doing inquiries into president biden through the lens of his sop hunter and myriad other points of their investigation they've embarked on over the time they've had the power of subpoena. what this could do is allow them to dig deeper into bank records, but really, it's meant to plicate mccarthy's right flank and it's not clear it's doing that. he's faced pressure from people like marjorie taylor greene and matt gaetz to push poords on the impeachmen

ali vitali, thank you so much. it's great seeing you from capitol hill. thank you for keeping us updated on everything that's going on there. >>> that wraps up the hour for me. see you tomorrow night on ""nbc nightly news." thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. >>> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the death of a trailblazing woman in the senate, in california and in the nation. former house speaker nancy pelosi joining me in moments as tributes are pouring in for senator dianne feinstein who died overnight in her home in washington, remembered by friends and allies for bringing people together in a class by herself. >> earlier this morning, we lost a giant in the senate. senator dianne feinstein was one of the most amazing people who ever graced the senate, who graced the country. >> an historic figure, trailblazer for women and a great friend. >> the first woman mayor of san francisco coming into office under sad circumstances, but leading us with great dignity, with great effectiveness and gr

here's what one democrat told my colleague ali vitali on "way too early" this morning. >> would you yourself vote to save mccarthy's speakership if it came to a motion to vacate? >> yeah, i mean, i think those are great conversations to have, and i think, you know, catherine clark, our whip, has made it clear that there's certainly a discussion to be had. there will be concessions if we do that, and i think that's a good conversation. we ought to have those conversations, but they have not started at all. >> what those concessions could look like. joining us now is nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake, and nbc news digital senior policy reporter, shannon pettypiece at the capitol area food bank in washington, d.c. to remind us that there are real people with real lives at stake in a government shutdown. here's what speaker mccarthy told reporters this morning. >> you have to keep the government open. >> reporter: do you believe you can pass a cr and send it to the senate before -- >> i'm a believer in everything, i never give up. >> you have to keep the government open. i

nbc's ali vitali is on the hill for us. any signs that this can get done before the month's deadline? >> reporter: those who are optimistic are looking for those signs, chris, but right now, we don't have any of them in front of us. the way that house republicans left town was without a plan on how to move forward and a lot of consternation about where this process stands right now. there's frustration on the part of leadership, who literally, we heard from kevin mccarthy behind closed doors saying that if this idea of ousting him from his job is something that his members want to move on, they should just do that sooner rather than later. he would like to move on with the business of governing. we also know there is deep frustration and anger on the part of the more conservative members of this conference, the house freedom caucus, and that's not to say that they're the only ones who have concerns about spending. they might be the only ones willing to shut the government down over it. here's what other key republicans. mem

. >> i want to bring in nbc's ali vitali outside the hearing room, nbc's ken dilanian is in d.c., barbarauade is a former u.s. attorney and university of michigan law professor and msnbc legal analyst and matthew dowd is a former chief strategist for the bush cheney re-election campaign as well as senior msnbc political analyst. so ken, bring us up to speed. what stuck out to you here? >> chris, i think that turley sound really captured the tenor of all three of the republican witnesses. they came to the hearing to say, look, there's a lot of troubling behavior here, a lot of smoke. hunter biden was paid millions of dollars including by foreign business entities. there's an email where he says i had to give half my salary to pop, that's never been explained, but there's no evidence beyond that smoke that leads to president biden, and even those witnesses had to acknowledge that there isn't, what they say is this should be investigated. and the democratic witness, a constitutional law professor said, wait a second, that's an abuse of the impeachment process. the impeachment process is not

and its biggest assault in more than a month let's bring in nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul, and former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, william taylor, it's a pleasure to have all of you as part of this conversation. we have these live images from capitol hill where you are, ali, we can see president zelenskyy walking down the hall. how did things go, and what are we expecting to hear in the senate >> reporter: that's going to be one of the key questions we ask. of course the difference of dynamics between the house and the senate is stark on an issue like ukraine for zelenskyy we've heard from speaker mccarthy and other members of his republican k conference that this new plea for aid comes amid a larger conversation here on capitol hill of stalemate over spending, specifically many hard line conservatives who want to see steeper spending cuts that they're trying to leverage the fact that they have the majority to get them done: it's why we've seen over the course of the last few days a true stalemate and paralysis of the house as mccarth

. >> joining us now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali.his sound bite but he said that money, it's not cash going into the pockets of the iranians, that it's going to be carefully watched. do we have that sound bite? let's play it. >> there's a fundamental misunderstanding the regime will never get to touch the money. they can make a request for certain humanitarian products, medical supplies, food, agriculture, and we will supervise a process which vendors will procure that material and deliver it into iran, so the people that will really benefit are the iranian people who, of course, we have no beef with. >> they're not getting cash. >> they're not getting cash. is that distinction being made by republicans on the hill is it. >> not really. the criticism has been swift and sounds like this from across the republican conference. watch. >> they're not the most trustworthy people in the world, and so to give them money, too, to enhance what they're doing, their nuclear arsenal is not very satisfying. >> this is a new low, but we're all abou

joining us is nbc's ali vitali, barbara comstock, a former republican congresswoman from virginia. keep hearing and reading about this is chaos. what's the latest where you are? >> reporter: this has to be a moment where congresswoman come stock feels good about the fact she's not here right now. i heard a veteran republican lawmakers behind me saying there's always a way forward and trailing off. right now it's completely unclear what that way forward might be. of course mccarthy is making threats that lawmakers could be here through the weekend, anything to keep that pressure on, as we know that the clock ticks down. i think the important thing to remember here is that as long as it takes the house to do their work, this thing then has to go to the senate to avoid an actual shutdown by the 30th, and the senate is everything except for speedy in its movings on things like this that require a lot of different procedures to be met before they can move forward with passing this house bill, and we also expect there to be several significant changes once the senate gets their hands on i

. >> nbc news correspondent ali vitali. thank you so much.east me that there's only been one democratic senator calling for his resignation, especially considering his past problems with past indictments. >> yeah. exactly right. i mean, i covered his last election cycle in new jersey, and there was concern on the ground from democratic voters that i spoke to, but, largely, this idea of alleged corruption, for them at least at this point, was baked into the cake. i do think that maybe pressure could ratchet up once lawmakers are back in town. the fact you've got senator fetterman sort of hanging out there alone as the only person within the senate to call for his league's resignation is, of course, notable. i think it is important, though, to sort of be clear here. menendez is saying he is not going anywhere from the senate, but he is doing what he did the last time charges of corruption like this came forward, which is stepping down as the head of the powerful foreign relations committee. he is at least not on that committee while all of this

. >> let's get a little bit more right now from nbc's ali vitali right now. >> special counsel jack smith asking a d.c. judge to narrowly limit former president trump's ability to talk about the 2020 election interference. if granted this would include statements mr. trump makes about the identity and credibility of potential witnesses. as well as disparaging comments about them or jurors or attorneys. it's one of the actions trump has already taken, prosecutors say. including repeatedly and widely disseminated statements affecting citizens of the district of columbia, the, court prosecutors, and prospective witnesses. the special counsel's request adding that the former presidents remarks can be both quote, inflammatory, and intimidating. mr. trump reacting overnight here in d.c., at a campaign event. and on social media. attacking the special counsel, and the process. saying in part, they lead, lie, and sue, and they won't allow me to speak? also calling prosecutors incompetent. trump's team now has ten days to respond. judge tanya chutkan carroll anytime at the end of september, whethe

joining us now nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali.t quote is from texas republican congressman tony gonzalez. is that also your sense of where things stand from your reporting? >> reporter: certainly right now it's coming and it's starting to look that way, but whether or not they can avert a shutdown crisis is really the question we're waiting to see if lawmakers can answer, katy, and certainly the majority of the republican conference does not want to shut down the government. there are a handful of hard liners who are absolutely fine with using that as a tactic to get lower government spending, and to enact their agenda. the fact that the border is such a key focus of this right now tentative deal between the main street caucus and house freedom caucus is a sign that they're trying to give conservative hard liners more of what they want, the border of course, one of the key focuses a lot of domestic spending is cut by 8% from the fiscal year prior. that is getting them closer to what they want to see. but it's also not clear if tha

details, but i think we have very strong, very strong dialogue with the senators my colleague, ali vitalido you say to vladimir putin, what's your message to vladimir putin? and president zelenskyy said, i'm not speaking with him. that is probably as good of a summary of the tone and tenor of what senators got today. but it sound like at least as far as this meeting went he felt like it was productive igor >> it was productive and first let me comment on the not speaking with putin part >> please. >> to be honest, i mean, it may sound a bit childish that i'm not speaking with him or anything like that, but it's nothing like that. you know, there's no point in engaging president putin in dialogue for two reasons one, i think mr. prigozhin recently deceased mr. prigozhin would explain that better than i can. and the second reason is like any deal with the devil is short-lived. and if there's no lasting deal, there's no peace to be had, no trust to be gained, and after all the atrocities there's no point in engaging a war criminal in dialogue. so that's my take on that. >> let me ask you one