so look there are no gop opponents in the united states congress. there are very few among republican voters. this is trump's party. mitt romney 100% correct on that. folks like romney just really don't exist in the gop electorate or in congress anymore. >> so he makes this statement that i think a lot of people thought, yeah, yeah, sort of stating the obvious. obvious. what about 2028? is there any sign that that's going to change? yeah. >> look, if you're a gop opponent of donald trump, maybe you hope the future is somehow brighter for you. not right now. look, it's still very, very early, but look, the top chances to be the 2020, 2028 gop nominee, based upon the polls and the betting markets jd vance trump jr. ramaswamy. look, it's still very early, but this looks like trump's party for now. and it looks like it will be for the foreseeable future. >> and romney said he believed it would be jd vance, which would be the obvious, would be the obvious. >> and he is number one right on here. >> he's number one. all right. those betting markets, you se

and if that's the gop, what's the democratic message?hat's their crisis. >> olivia, how do you think the democrats are going to position themselves in the minority in the house and the senate? it's not been as vocal in opposition as they were to a lot of trump's nominees. and the one we heard from back in 2016 to 2017. but they also need to speak with a voice and have a contrast. so how do you what are you hearing about that debate and how that may play out? >> well, i think after the election, they were trying to do this postmortem review of what went wrong and how do they sort of recalibrate. and they found, i think, that they felt like they were focusing too much on donald trump. that's going to be really hard to do when you're in the minority to not focus on trump. they want to paint them as chaotic. they want to paint it as, like we said earlier, elon musk just, you know, diving in. so i think that we're going to see their message develop over the next couple of months, especially heading into the next election cycle for the house.

who holds the power in trump's gop? inside politics the best reporting from inside the corridors of power starts now. good morning and welcome to inside politics sunday. i'm manu raju with 36 days until he takes the oath of office. donald trump spent part of the weekend with the top republican leaders in congress and making a public show of support for one of his most embattled cabinet picks, pete hegseth. >> yesterday, trump took in the annual army-navy football game with hegseth, along with speaker mike johnson and the incoming senate majority leader, john thune. the goal for trump is simple try to ride out this honeymoon period as long as possible. and judging by his social media, it's clear he knows a swell of good luck he's enjoying. but even with single party rules soon coming to washington, it will undoubtedly be rocky. the only question is when. and trump, for his part, continued this weekend to select his most loyal allies to serve in roles in his administration. yesterday, selecting a controversial former cong

frankly, a razor thin gop majority.epublican thomas min thomas maxey of kentucky has already said that he will not be voting for johnson come january 3rd citing a "week legislative branch." randy harris also said in interviews this week that they should consider if the current leadership is what they need. they being republicans. and former house freedom chair scott perry says he is keeping his options open. now, none of this is actually that surprising. it comes days after donald trump and elon musk torpedo johnson's initial government spending bill spurring on a showdown between the speaker and republican lawmakers who echoed the president-elect and the tech billionaire sentiments. now, part of the chaos around this funding bill centered around trump loyalist he demand of extending the debt ceiling. congress ultimately passed the bill without fulfilling trumps wish. that is where treasury secretary janet yellen comes in. yellen told lawmakers that if they do not raise or suspend the debt limit as soon as january 14th,

headlines and rhetoric constantly tell you about dems on the left, gop on the right.w the news i bet you are very familiar it is just how politics is discussed. does that lens capture everything? does it capture what is happening right now? well, we are going to turn to a wider view on what is happening including that lens and expands it. i will start simple. you will completely recognize this. the traditional left/right spectrum. clean, straightforward, not filling in the chart yet. left progressive, right conservative. and put it across through that lens. but, some issues don't just fit left and right. especially lately. when you hear brood concern about about health care or opposition to discredit elite institutions. some of the issues may follow a more up/down track. now this is a different way to think about it. you can consider up as norms and order, you know, rules, institutions those things we hear about, basically. that is the top and you can think of the down part as the opposition to those things up on top. the anger out of the elites. the call that disorde

if you planned on having two years, where should the gop start? coalesced? >> they could start by focusing early next year end things were success is possible worsening demanded by the american people. some of that can be done to the executive for example rolling back a lot of the rules and regulations and unnecessary red tape that's burdening american business. particularly small business there is going to require action in congress. so if you look at the political landscape that they may have the best chance of pulling together something and getting it done relatively quickly meaning within a matter of months is probably something to do with the border. even democrats are now realizing this is a political problem for them and a huge challenge for the country and we better get her act together. trey: people tend to remember what happened last. for biden that was his party forcing him out for a candidate who wound up getting trounced and then pardoning his son and the others like the cash for goods judge. what do you think history will say about j

with the house gop. >> you've spoken about elon musk a couple of times, and he has. he has gone out again and said that the congress should have passed the the plan b bill that both democrats and 38 republicans said no to. and now we're hearing from donald trump, who is putting full blame if there is a shutdown on democrats. what do you make of that well, donald trump has already been out there saying that he wants to shut down government if he doesn't get what he wants. >> donald trump is not even taken the oath of office. and he is already causing chaos for the american people. it took him just a few weeks to turn his back on the promises. and what we are saying is, let's get to work. honor the deal you made, because it honors hardworking americans. let's invest in them. let's protect their social security and medicare. let's make sure we continue to cut the price of prescription drugs that we reduce the cost of living like the cost of child care and groceries and housing. these are the issues the american people want us to focus on. but elon musk and donald trump

he could afford to only lose three senate gop votes. let's be clear he is not get anything from democrats. according to the wall street journal trump is considering replacing hegseth with ron desantis. when it comes to others like kash patel punch bowl news is reporting even moderate republicans are showing a willingness to support these nominations. what patel can do to the bureau. listen to what he said earlier. >> we now have another uniquely unqualified and dangerous individual being nominated to head the bureau at a time when donald trump is being explicit about how he wants to use the bureau. we know exactly what a weaponized fbi looks like. it looks like what j edgar hoover created. it abused rights of americans, punished political enemies it persecuted political opponents >> we have a lot to talk about. co-founder of risk reversal and host of the on the tape podcast. michael joins us, director of the new york state democratic party and now a msnbc analyst and professor and look who is in town. jacob. he is here for a special rea

gop has winning issues cuts the border and taxes and drill baby drill. massive reconciliation bill will create. one big beautiful bill. he's right. that's my riff. thinking of anything, that's the simple as possible and one bill starting immediately. going for them one simple question we have to ask before getting started and government to be bigger or mauler and what speaker johnson was proposed was $30 billion and farm subsidies and making government bigger and borrowing more money and adding 100 billion in disaster money and borrowed and not paid for and continuing to spend money this, is called continuing resolution, but continuing to spend money at a rate that we're $2 trillion short and deficit is $2 trillion and that's the we're not going to give a blank check to anyone, democrat or republican, and we're not going to address the debt ceiling and no one is responsible and they voted against that and that was a real good pushback by conservatives and i'm one of those who says you can't not vote and have a day of shame and day of responsibility and t

he'll be on capitol hill meeting with gop senators. there's actually new reporting in the new york times today that says that one of his top aides, who has a key role in hiring staff for trump's health and human services department, worked to get the polio vaccine banned as recently as two years ago. and obviously, we know that rfk jr.. has had lots of vaccine skepticism, has falsely said that vaccines are linked to autism. but there's also other concerns as well. some of the agricultural industry are concerned about his views on farming. you represent an ag state when you look at this, does any of that bother you rfk is a obviously a unique and diverse choice. >> a longtime, lifelong democrat. but one of the major figures in the kennedy family. obviously, he he he has a lot of a lot of views that that donald trump appreciates and supports. but at the end of the day, donald trump is the president and the white house and rfk is going to work for him. and whether it's putting american agriculture first or putting our kids first, this cou

gop sources say that the gop is considering dropping a suspension of the debt ceiling in this latest proposal. this would obviously be against trump's wishes. could that work? >> i mean, it could work, but i would hope that that would come up to a vote again, whether either through a suspension or through a rule. and then if it's a rule, then it would take a simple majority. and hopefully most republicans, if not all republicans, can get behind that. yesterday we tried there were 38 republicans that did not vote for a continuing to fund the government, helping helping the the folks that have been ravaged by hurricanes and our farmers and basically all democrats voted against that too. and so, you know, we need to keep this government running. my personal opinion, we need to get to the finish line. this is like sausage making. i guess it isn't pretty, but we need to get there because i certainly don't don't want to see the government shut down. >> one of those 38 republicans that you mentioned was republican chip roy. and i want to play what he said on the house floor to take this bil

in three gop resignations are coming in the first weeks of the new year.hat would put the republican majority at 217 and 215 until special elections fill those seats, meaning even just one gop defection could scuttle their carefully drawn out plans in the first 100 days. my panel is back. this is pretty remarkable any one republican could be a joe manchin. >> yeah, we were just saying that during the break. yeah, it's a lot of power and just think about how the inability to get stuff done, even when they had a slightly larger majority this congress. because when you have with particularly some of these conservatives, when they have more power, as you know that one member who can affect change, they're not going to relinquish it for the good of the team. they didn't do it last time. even if trump is president, it's going to be fascinating. >> it really is. and look, just there are lots of republicans in swing districts. some in districts that joe biden carried back in 2020. they won their reelection. just look on your screen. there are 11 who remain in the

i they're a little more populism, i think arguably in the new gop. and we'll see if they pick taxes or border. how's that? >> i hope that comes to pass. i look forward to it. congressman. happy new year to you. >> yes, sir. merry christmas. happy new year to you also. thank you hugh. coming up, joe biden has been in politics for over half a century, beginning in 1970. people remember how things end and cleo will not be kind. fox news contributor karl rove is next. >> if you're living with dry amd, you may be at risk for developing geographic atrophy or ga. ga can be unpredictable and progress rapidly, leading to irreversible vision loss. now there's something you can do to slow it down and get it going slower. ask your doctor about eye survey. i. survey gets ga going slower. eye survey is an eye injection. don't take it if you have an infection or active swelling in or around your eye. eye survey can cause eye infection, retinal detachment or increased risk of wet amd. eye survey may temporarily increase eye pressure. do not drive or use machinery un

plus, republicans will soon control both chambers of congress but the gop to do list is a lot easier said than done. up next by brand new reporting on how the gop rifts could put trump's agenda in jeopardy how will it be with the one with the zero seat margin? >> easy money. >> it's going to be very easy five good things. >> listen wherever you get your podcasts, go friends gather kiki chris jason friends. >> let's go. let's go. >> friends, hold on to your dice nice frosting pratt. >> thank you. how are we doing kiki? >> tastes like money to me i can't go back to jail. >> wait did you rob my bank diddy. are we winning oh, money power. friendship. let's go. >> an alternative to pills. >> voltaren is a clinically proven arthritis pain relief gel which penetrates deep to target the source of pain with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine directly at the source voltaren. the joy of movement. >> why do nfl players choose a sleep number? >> smart bed. i like to sleep cool and i like to sleep even cooler. >> and i really like it when we both get what we want. >> introducing the new sleep

donald trump won the election, it was a clean sweep for the gop, but it wasn't a landslide. what we heard over and over, people were furious about the economy, inflation. the economy is steadily doing better, and better, and better, so people aren't going to be so upset, but these picks don't reflect the sort of disinterested tone of the country. >> yeah, and on the inflation, right, that was the number one issue. when you think of a lot of the policies when we talk about this, when we talk about tariffs, when we talk about tax cuts, that is going to be massively inflationary. so, they are going to be bogged down in a whole bunch of political stuff, trying to get some of these sort of stick in the i sort of things to kind of on the libs. and we went through this in '17, '18, and '19. when it gets to the midterms -- and we will start focusing on the midterms in probably about a euro so -- if inflation to come down and some of the measures that we look at when it comes to inflation are not going much lower, here. so, he will have a very contentious relationship with the federa

the gop no longer sees itself as needing to be responsible about funding priorities here.hat different in nature from a few years ago. >> senator john fetterman was asked about cabinet picks. here is what he had to say. >> i have been warning people, you have to chill out. the constant freak out is not helpful. so, you know, pack a lunch. pace yourself. he hasn't even taken office yet. >> i think he has the potential to be successful in a good president? >> i hope. i'm not rooting against him. if you are rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation. >> shaniqua , what you make of that? >> i think senator fettered and watched a different 2024 election than the rest of us. i totally agree that democrats your work with donald trump where it makes sense, where agendas are aligned. by and large, we saw donald trump promise to basically prosecute his enemies, part in january 6 writers that he continues to talk about those things now. i think anyone trying to normalize a second presidency should be honest with themselves and who they are essentially holding h

conservatives to guide his second term that calls for steep cuts to programs such as food stamps, and gop leaders in congress and trump advisers are considering significant changes to medicaid , food stamps, and other federal aid. the new federal laws expected to provide significant release for patients taking extensive medications like those for cancer patients. nbc news medical reporter berkeley lovelace junior reports, quote, mary and jim scott of oregon are among the medicare enrollees expected to see savings next year. in 2023, the couples out-of- pocket prescription drug expenses skyrocketed to $8000, up from their previous annual average of $240. it was a difficult year, during which jim, 83, face multiple health issues, including congestive heart failure and acute kidney injury and bladder cancer. mary, 73, said the change offers a sense of release after more than a year of struggling with the soaring costs of cancer care, make it easier for the couple to stay afloat and focus on what matters most. jim's health, their grandchildren, their dog, in their garden. we are not planning

but how did this narrative of the gop turn on the fbi so quickly? >> ayman, it is completely false. it is complete nonsense. i worked closely with members of the fbi for 20 years and people so deeply partisan cannot understand the concept of nonpartisan. the fbi is nonpartisan. even j. edgar hoover through all of his abuses tried to keep it non-partisan. he had his views about things. he equates in his book the deep state and democrats. we are talking william barr is someone he accuses of being part of the deep state. here's a secret. there is no deep state. you have career professionals making sure process is done fairly without fear or favor of either side. so my concern is that donald trump has spun this narrative and there are those who believe it or others who are willing to go along with the con because they are too afraid to pay the political cost of taking on donald trump. >> harry fox is reporting on the conservative group called the american accountability foundation sending a letter, trump's attorney general for now nominee pam bondi calling on her to fire a number of dep

a last-ditch vote on a gop measure backed by president-elect donald trump failed thursday evening. >> the bill is not passed. >> reporter: the revised bill was a slimmed down version of the larger bipartisan spending package that republican leaders abandoned on wednesday, bowing to pressure from trump and his ally elon musk. the latest bill still extended government funding through mid-march, kept billions in disaster aid as well as assistance for farmers, but it also added trump's demand to raise the debt ceiling for two years before he takes office. gop leaders blame the democrats for the impasse, though dozens of house republicans also voted against the trump-backed bill. >> not going to vote for another debt ceiling increase without actual specifics on what the cuts will be. >> reporter: congressional democrats in the white house have called on republicans to take up the original deal. >> to keep to their word, vote for what they agreed to, and we keep the government open. >> reporter: the shutdown would come at a high cost to federal workers just before the holidays. the pentagon

american progress action fund, talks about the democratic party's future and strategies to counter gopontrol of the white house and congress. then former california republican congressman christopher cox will talk about his book woodrow wilson, the light withdrawn and other current events. c-span's "washington journal", join in the conversation live at 7:00 eastern monday morning on c-span, c-span now or online at c-span.org. >> more now from the c-span archives of former president jimmy carter who has died at age 100. in 2019 historian jon meacham moderated a conversation with the

department of government efficiency before meeting with its nominated leaders elon musk and former gop presidential candidate vivek ramaswamy. >> let's go. >> can you take a question, mr. musk? >> welcome everybody. what? we are all excited.

seems like the real leader of the gop isn't donald trump. the leader of the gop is elon musk. he's now calling the shots. >> it's a cute statement. he probably gets a couple of retweets. but we've seen this movie long enough to know that there's only one executive producer to the show, and it's donald trump. elon is an actor. and what do executive producers do? they fire actors and they hire actors. >> that's the way the process is going, because elon musk came out against this compromise bill first, and then trump followed with his statement, sure, of course. >> and it's safe to assume that elon most likely coordinated with president trump. do the balloon first. i'll follow up like they're in coordination right now. but it's also important to realize there's only one executive producer to the donald trump show, and that's donald trump. >> i think that's true. and the secondary part of that is that a lot of it plays into the whole doge theory that he has. if he's saying that there is way too much pork in here, he can also have that conversation about things that need to get cu

and we just learned from gop whip steve scalise that plan c, they had been looking at looks doubtful as well. the question tonight is, once again, what now? cnn's manu raju joins us at the capitol. so i wonder what you're hearing from lawmakers, particularly since steve scalise is now moving away from an option that was at least out there to try to get this passed on a simple majority. >> yeah. look, in fact, the speaker of the house just addressed reporters moments ago, and i asked him, what is the next plan? and he really didn't have any specifics. he said they were going to regroup. they were going to try to figure out what the next steps were. and he attacked democrats, even though there were republicans also who voted against this plan on the house floor. despite the push from donald trump. now, one big reason why there were republicans who voted and defied donald trump was his demand. trump's demand to suspend the national debt limit for two years. remember, this is something that congress has to typically deal with every so often, but it was expected to be dealt with next year

his rival for the soul of the gop was reagan's successor, george herbert walker.sh. >> congratulations. >> bush was the quintessential establishment republican determined that america should continue to lead the world after the fall of the berlin wall. he helped reunify germany, germany is united. >> germany is free. tonight. the battle has been joined and he led an international coalition to kick saddam hussein out of kuwait. >> the skies over baghdad have been illuminated. >> that victory was swift and convincing. >> kuwait is liberated. >> bush declared a new world order led by the usa. >> a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause. >> the economy today, the economy, the economy. >> but across the nation, many americans did not feel they were winning. >> unemployment is the highest in nearly a decade. >> the country was in a recession. let me tell you about mr. bush's new world order. with the cold war one, people wanted to focus on problems at home, new candidates coming through from his perch on cable television, pat buchanan

you have a table that shows what happens when the gop controls all three branches of government.un through some of that for us? >> yeah. so you can see the data the up on screen. and this is just purely based on what has happened in the past when we had gop control in all three components there. you know, decent stock market performance. not the best of any, you know, combination. little bit of an uptick in inflation. okay gd the p growth. gdp growth. but, of course, every year is different. and when you're talking about an every four-year kind of thing, you're not talking about a huge sample size. is so it was just a basis for, okay, what's happened. it was not meant to to go in there as a, okay, you can bank on this in terms of all these metrics, particularly in the year 2025. jack: the sample is pretty small and also there's economic cycles that have nothing to do with point but let's talk policy briefly. we'll start with the good news. you say that tax cuts and deregulation could be a tailwind. >> yeah. except that they're probably more end of year, and for the most part, tho

reporter: president-elect trump's selection for secretary of defense, pete hegseth, facing wavering gop support. defiant saying trump told him today -- >> pete, i got your back. it's a fight. they are coming after you. get after it. >> reporter: the former fox news host and decorated combat veteran speaking to megyn kelly, pushing back on damaging stories about his background. >> what has been said about me, it was so ridiculous and all anonymous. we didn't want to give it oxygen. you see the art of the smear. >> reporter: nbc news reported ten current and former fox news employees say he drank in ways that concerned them. >> first of all, i never had a drinking problem. what do guys do when they come back from war? have beers. >> reporter: he added if confirmed, he would stop drinking entirely. >> this is the biggest deployment of my life. there won't be a drop of alcohol on my lips while i'm doing it. >> reporter: addressing why he paid a settlement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017, an allegation he denied. >> i did it to protect my wife, my family and my job. >> r

that's the trouble with the house gop.oo many members are looking out for themselves rather than the larger political good. the narrow majority gives them more leverage than they deserve. you know, guy, what about the argument against that that speaker johnson did not deliver the type of spending bill, for example, that the conference really wanted? >> the vast majority of the conference voted for it, right? there are hold-outs but the overwhelming majority of house republicans voted for the spending bill. a few different bites at the apple. no one was happy totally with the perfect final bill. it was not a pleasant experience as these things often are not but, i mean, as our colleague chad pergram always fixates on the math is the math. politics is a team sport. when you have more of a cushion in your majority some of the colorful characters out there can say i'll go in front of the cameras and demand this and go on local radio station and say that. fine, but when there is a lot of incentive and a lot of leverage for even

yesterday they spent the morning with the members of the senate caucus before heading for the meeting with gopders in the house doge caucus wrapped up their day addressing a joint meeting with republicans of both chambers and they received an enthusiastic response from gop lawmakers who pledge to work closely with the department of government efficiency to help cut costs. watch this. >> i look at it as an audit we got a do this regularly. cutting appears to like going to heaven everybody wants to do it but nobody's ready to make the trip. >> were laying the groundwork for the new year end the new caucus. you will see a lot of change here in washington and the way things are run we need to make government more efficient and that's what this whole objective is. >> speaker mike johnson described the meetings as a brainstorming session and senate majority leader john thune after private meeting with elon musk that the discussion was broad and more about the goals of specific details of spending cuts only with republican mom until lawmakers that may reach across the aisle to democrats in the near f

is there even room for anti- trump resistance within the gop when you look at why would any republicanhen you see what has happened to the jeff flakes and the liz cheneys of the world. why would you as a republican who wants a future in this country say i will try to take trump on? >> i don't think there is. i don't think there is room to go after trump directly. i don't think there is room to directly criticize him. as we saw with the house vote, there is room to disagree with him on specific issues and go after people around him saying they are giving him bad advice. room to critique the way he is doing things and saying okay, we should go try and turn him this way. there are ways to try to influence trump. but i don't think that there is any room for what it would take to really show that any sort of real independence from trump. that is what there is not room for in the party at the moment. >> hayes, julie, stick around. we have a quick break, then, why south carolina has the dishonor of being our worst of the week. rst of the week. emerge as you, with clearer skin. with tremfya®,

after trump had asked the gop to support it. still, republicans touting this new proposal despite the chaos. >> we have a clean cr if we have the farm aid, and we have the disaster relief. then that shows our unity, our ability to effectively legislate. >> reporter: meanwhile, nbc's gabe gutierrez, pressing the white house. >> shouldn't americans hear from the president of the united states just hours from a shutdown? >> what americans need to know is that you have republicans in congress in the house who got in the way, who stopped a bipartisan agreement. >> reporter: all of it also highlighting the growing role of billionaire elon musk who will lead trump's effort to slash wasteful government spending. musk slammed the original sprawling 1,500-page spending bill, which was full of items unrelated to the funding of government including allowing for a pay raise for members of congress. though musk did repost a false claim the bill included $3 billion for a new nfl stadium in washington. in a phone call thursday trump told nbc ne

caller: i feel he knows the game better now than he did when he was first elected and i think the gops more willing to roll over and do his will than before. i do not see any republican with a backbone that can stand up to him and his agenda is taking us back to a place where we should not be as a country. we should be going forward. host: let's hear from paul in the u.k., who is not sure. caller: fingers crossed what we will have another peaceful road if mr. donald trump does give real peace over the next few years. if not, we will have peace beyond all that time. the world is at peace and also. guest: -- host: let's hear from paul in new york, whose optimistic about the trump administration. caller: it is going to be better than what we got -- what was supposed to be in the white house now because no one knows where joe biden is or kamala harris. as far as i'm concerned, trump's president. he has already taken control and i want to thank him for noticing that 40% pay raise that congress wanted to give themselves. no way to a 40% increase. host: i do not believe it was a 40% pay rais

. >> roughly a dozen republicans from the gop steering committee also met with hegseth yesterday and emerged from the closed door meeting ready to back his nomination. we should note it's coming after reporting of an alleged sexual assault back in 2017 and a blockbuster new yorker report this year that details alcohol abuse and more. >>> a number of moderate democrats are criticizing the move arguing it sets a bad pretssent. senator michael bennett of colorado broke with party ranks and claimed biden's decision, quote, put personal interests ahead of duty. senator peter welch of vermont wrote this. "biden's pardon of his son hunter is of the action of a loving father understandable, but as the actions of our nation's chief executive, unwise." senator gary peters of michigan called the decision wrong arguing that a president's family and allies shouldn't get special treatment. outgoing senator john tester was also asked for his reaction, and with a wide smile on his face told reporters, i'm about to get the expletive out of here, ask somebody else. meanwhile, a handful of republicans

maga conservative, but also someone who can work with every single member of our very diverse house gop so we can get president trump's priorities over the line, that is what is ahead of us, this could be the most consequential presidency and congress of the modern era, because we have to fix everything and it has to start on day one, so we can't waste time. >> mr. speaker, in 2017, i went to the white house and on day one, i noticed we had a 35 seat majority for republicans in the house of representative, and even with plus 35, you had a handful, it was difficult to replace and repeal obamacare, and there was some resistance in the ranks, so it sounds like you have a handle on unifying a diverse coalition. what do you think are the major priorities for the agenda to pass the house and go to the republican senate majority the first couple weeks. >> we have to do a number of things simultaneously, the budget reconciliation process, is going to be key for the first 100 days, because in order to fix all the things we have to fix, we have to squeeze a lot of policy changes through that proc

the new gop bill is slimmed down, just 116 pages. it funds the government through march 14th, including providing funding for disaster relief and for farmers. and in a direct ask from trump includes a provision to extend the debt limit, the ability of the federal government to pay off its debts, through 2027. and the new republican plan cuts many items in the bipartisan bill that had sparked conservative backlash including a plan to raise the salaries of members of congress. and funding fire new francis scott key bridge in baltimore. trump was quick to back the deal. writing "all republicans and even democrats should do what is best for our country and vote yes for this bill tonight." hoe democrats slamming the new bill, saying it doesn't fund important programs. >> extreme maga republicans are driving us to a government shutdown. >> reporter: while senate democrats blasting musk's influence. >> he is unraveling what was a hard-won and hard-negotiated agreement that would keep the lights on for government. >> reporter: again, lester,

the second gop-led proposal, i'm going to say it again, gop-led proposal included disaster relief, aid for farmers, and a two-year extension to the debt ceiling. it also had the support of president-elect donald trump. but 38 republicans voted against it, and it only won over two democrats. many other democratic lawmakers are angry about elon musk's influence in the process. i want to share what we heard from vermont senator peter welsh about that. >> you give $277 million to a campaign, you get a seat at the table and maybe the head of the table. and this all started with his tweeting and then trump piled on and unraveled an agreement that had the support of the president, the speaker and the senate leadership. >> let's just take a moment and realize this spectacle of a $400 billion man using the platform he purchased to bully an entire branch of the federal government and he bullied them into public chaos. people on the same team. that is where we are. and trump isn't even in office yet. with that let's get smarter with the help of our lead-off panel tonight. nbc news capitol hill co

and number two, elon musk is going to be quite a pest i think for the gop leadership over the next few years. >> i think we have allie back. do ayou want to weigh in on one thing you learned quickly from this whole incident, whole episode? >> reporter: yeah, alex, i think the one thing that we've learned is just to expect there to be republicans that aren't willing to do everything that trump is demanding, and that could possibly be a growing number over the next four years, alex. >> we shall see. ladies, thank you all so much. >>> meantime, at least one key question unanswered today in that german market tragedy, and it's a big one, plus the drama sparked by elon musk. i'll asked congresswoman sara jacobs about that next. back in 90 seconds. sara jacobs about that next back in 90 seconds and then i wake up. and you have this dream every night? yeah, every night! hmm... i see. (limu squawks) only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ when a tough cough finds you on the go, a syrup would be... silly! woo! hey! try new robitussin soft chews. packed with the power

and then gop leadership caved to donald trump and the health insurance lobby.nd you know, jim, we're heading into christmas. i got three little kids. i got a long christmas list for them. cigna express scripts and cvs caremark and donald trump are not on my christmas list. i am not going to support a deal that hands presents over to the next administration. clears the political decks for donald trump and allows health insurance companies to jack up prescription drugs. again, that's not on my list. so we're going to stand firm for democratic values. >> and i guess a lot has been happening on social media from donald trump and elon musk, his very important political ally right now. we were showing this earlier on in the program of the president elect was essentially saying on truth social. go ahead and shut the government down. now we can show that to our viewers again if we have it handy. what's your response to that well, it's irresponsible for the president elect to talk about shutting down the government. >> shutting down the government means that air traffic