, only frank thorp, nbc news reporter could possibly tell us what is likely to happen. mr. thorp joins us now live from capitol hill. thank you for your time tonight. i'm not over stating your powers, am i? >> no, that's a lot to live up to. >> what's up? what's going on there as best you can tell. what should we be watching for over the course of the next hour? >> we're looking at whether or not more senate democrats will come out in support of this house c.r. there will be this vote at 10:00 and they need 60 votes to move forward to a final vote on this bill, and right now they don't have those votes. they are looking at a failed vote in this instance. you have four senate democrats who have come out and said they would vote for this measure, but that means they need at least nine more, and so they are in a situation here where they actually have been shuttling around. they have been having meetings, democrats are meeting now. the legislative affairs director has been shoveling between offices here. republicans are trying to meet. they are trying to figure out somethin

frank thorp, thank you very much for joining us tonight. appreciate it. that's the last word.an williams starts now. >> tonight your united states government on the brink of a shut down. the latest to avoid that from happening. donald trump marks his first anniversary as president. house intel. delays testimony from hope hicks in the wake of the bannon stonewalling and the russia investigation plows

for those of us who know you frank thorpe, we'll be unsurprised to learn that you sent seven becauseou're an overachiever. and i want to start with your number six. you asked, does the gop tax reform bill become the republican obamacare over the course of the next year? what do you mean by that? >> senator mcconnell was asked this after the senate passed the bill. and this is a question republicans and democrats are looking at going into 2018. whether this bill will be able to be hung on republicans the same way that it -- that the affordable care act was hung on democrats. >> this bill, when it was passed, this bill was more unpopular than obamacare was. and democrats went on to lose several elections. >> correct. but republicans look at this in a different way. senator mcconnell, he thinks of this as an argument they can win. they can go out and sell this. they're going to go out and make a concerted effort to sell this thing. you guys have more money in your paychecks. this is different than the idea the government is now in charge of your health care. now you have money. this is

frank thorp, thank you very much for joining us tonight. appreciate it. that's the last word. "the 11th hour" with brian williams starts now. >> tonight your united states government on the brink of a shut down. the latest to avoid that from happening. donald trump marks his first anniversary as president. house intel. delays testimony from hope hicks in the wake of the bannon stonewalling and the russia investigation plows on. new testimony emerged on possible money laundering. how strong of a campaign surrogate is donald trump? a trial balloon was seen floating near pittsburgh earlier today. "the 11th hour" gets under way on a thursday night. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. tonight at just after 11:00 p.m. eastern time, the government will shut down in less than 25 hours unless there is action to stop it on capitol hill. the house did its part, passing a measure to keep the government's lights on for another couple of weeks. the senate stands in adjournment. later in the broadcast, we will look at the chances of them going along with

now, based on reporting from my colleagues, frank thorpe and kasie hunt, we're learning a little more about how that meeting actually went down. according to their reporting, trump and lawmakers were discussing immigrants from haiti and then they shifted to african nations. it was after that discussion of african nations that he made those vulgar comments, largely seen by many in the room as a broader commentary on immigrants from both haiti and african nations. but again, that distinction, we believe, is what is allowing the president to push back on this characterization that he made derogatory comments about haitians. either way, andrea, this is a political problem for the white house. this is not the first time they have dealt with racially tinged comments by this president. of course, one of the recent examples of that was in the wake of the charlottesville riots when white nationalists took to the streets, and of course it turned deadly in one instance. president trump in the wake of that said that, effectively drew a comparison between the white nationalists and the counter-pro

. >>> for more, we're joined by frank thorp. the senate opens for business at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow.then? >> we'll figure out who blinks first, to be honest. we're in a situation senate democrats hope to bring republicans to the table, hoping to bring president trump to the table to negotiate something on daca but this is something senator mcconnell said repeatedly doesn't need to be addressed until march. senat senator mcelderconnell doesn't believe that. we expected a vote tonight, that this short-term continuing resolution that includes this funding for the chip program for the children health insurance program, but doesn't include anything for the d.r.e.a.m.e.r.s. and daca recipients. mcconnell pushed it until tomorrow. he wants to put as much pressure on the democrats that plan on voting against the bill, he wants to put as much pressure as possible on the democrats in an effort to make them flip and in effort to make them look responsible for what could and looks like could be a potentially inevitable shout don if they don't get anything done tomorrow. >> is there any indicatio

this is according to my colleagues frank thorpe and kasie hunt. according to their reporting, president trump had talked about haitian immigrants and then moved on to the topic of immigrants from aftrican nation, and it was after the comment of african nations that he made those vulgar comments. why is this significant? a lot of people in that room said they felt he was speaking broadly about all of the countries that had been discussed, but this is, it appears, the reason why president trump is tweeting that he never made the comments about haiti. and let me just remind you what he tweeted earlier today. he said, never said anything derogatory about haitians other than haiti is obviously a very poor and troubled country. we have been trying to get clarity from white house officials throughout the morning. have yet to get that clarity except they continue to say they stand by the president's tweets. >> last word? >> when we had our last segment, a thought came to my head. when you watch president trump at a signing ceremony like this creating a na