cnn's lauren fox is on the hill. lauren, this is hitting hard today. are you getting any reaction and response from anyone yet? >> reporter: yeah, this is just breaking, obviously, so we are still waiting on some key reaction from senate leaders and house leadership, but obviously senator dianne feinstein had a legacy on capitol hill and she was known not just for what she did in terms of her legislative career and it's important to point out that she was a fierce advocate for gun control, the architect of that 1994 assault weapons ban, but she also was someone who tried at times to reach across the aisle when necessary, she was someone who had respect from republican and democratic colleagues that she worked close with. you know, the other thing to keep in mind about senator feinstein is her legacy in multiple committees on capitol hill. she was not just a pivotal part of the judiciary committee, where, you know, nominations and fights over supreme court nominations are front and center, she was also the first chairman, the first female chairman, of t

lauren fox, thank you to you, and elliot williams. john? >>> so it does appear that there is an end to the hollywood writer strike. the writers have struck a deal with the studios and the strike has lasted 146 days so far, and they have announced a tentative agreement with the studio heads. more than 11,000 writer might get the green light to return to work very, very soon. it has to be ratified by the union members. and we have camila bernal in los angeles with the latest. >> john, it is something that every writer i have talked about is excited about to see a tentative deal. one of the writer said i am ready to go back to making magic and telling stories, but the union says that you have to wait, you cannot go back to work. they are working through the fine print and dotting every i. so they are working through legal part of the contract and after that is done, we expect a vote happening as early as tomorrow, and that is a leadership vote. after the leadership vote, then some of the details will be made public to us, and the writers and t

lauren fox, we'll check back with you. we're going to let her continue to chase people, because she does that very well. let's bring in senior white house correspondent, at the house. is the white house open and are they receptive about hearing about this potential concession that the senate, by the urging of minority leader mcconnell, to support the stopgap measure if, indeed, the votes are there in the house, mccarthy says he'll be on board with this? how would the white house feel about this? >> reporter: certainly that would come as a surprise, because up until this point the biden administration had placed its hopes and its blessing, essentially, in a bipartisan bill that had been brokered between the two leaders of each party in the senate, with the hope that speaker mccarthy would be forced to put that bill on the floor. the administration has been taking a hands-off approach and had its top officials and representatives on behalf of the president, a senior adviser to the president and the budget director, essential

first let's go to cnn congressional correspondent lauren fox on the hill. lauren, what is the latest right now? what options does mccarthy have? >> reporter: yeah, house republicans are night now meeting behind closed doors as a conference. this is their fourth conference in a weeks time. that gives you a sense of the amediacy and crisis the senators and republicans in the house are trying to figure out at the moment. and one thing i'll walk through is at the moment it is not clear what house republicans could do to avoid a shutdown. mcconnell has made it clear he thinks the option is to work across the aisle with democrats to accept whatever the senate sends over, but last night house speaker kevin mccarthy made it clear that the senate bill was dead on arrival because of ukraine funding that was included in that legislation. we also know that behind closed doors this morning leadership gave their members a clear picture that there was not enough republican support for a short term cr for two weeks, 30 day, 45 days, that there remains a number of hard liner

lauren fox is joining us from capitol hill. priscilla alva rez is tracking potential responses from the white house. lauren, democrats say they need more time before making any decisions on this plan? >> reporter: yeah. what you're seeing play out on the floor is a delay tactic by house democrats. they are trying to buy themselves more time to have a conversation within their caucus about whether or not to support this short-term spending bill. this is an opportunity to try to give their members a little bit of wiggle room to figure out if they can back this proposal that would fund the government for 45 days through november 17th and would include billions in disaster aid, but no money for ukraine aid. that is the key flashpoint between the house and the senate. the senate's proposal includes $6.2 billion for ukraine aid. this house proposal doesn't. democrats are irate. they feel they are being squeezed by the house speaker. they say they are trying to read through the details to understand what is actually in there before vot

lauren fox is with us now. lauren, what is the plan that he's talking about that deserves a vote today in order to keep government open? >> reporter: this is such a significant moment for house speaker kevin mccarthy. the question all week, all month long has been would he potentially risk his speakership and put some kind of short-term spending bill on the floor that he would need democratic support for? because so many of his hard liners have been warning that if he put something like the bill that he's describing today on the floor, that they would bring a vote to oust him. he said during that press conference, quote, go ahead and try. if i have to risk my job standing up for the american public, i will do that. now, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about whether or not this is going to pass today. and one of the key reasons is because it does not include ukraine aid. what he is talking about is a 45-day short-term spending bill to keep the government open, to keep working through their longer ap

let's go to the hill now where we have cnn's lauren fox. about zelenskyy's meetings, and if he was able to change any minds. >> reporter: yeah. i mean, this was such an important meeting for president zelenskyy, in part, because he was going to be sitting down in the same room with the house speaker, the man who will make the decision as to whether or not more ukraine aid will come to the floor. but after that meeting i pressed kevin mccarthy repeatedly on whether or not he would commit to putting $24 billion in ukraine assistance on the floor before the end of the calendar year. and, time after time, he would not say, would not commit to making that vote happen on the floor of the house. he also was absent as zelenskyy walked into the meeting, he was joined with hakeem jeffries. you saw mccarthy was in the meeting, he met with zelenskyy. but he did not want an official photographer in the room. our colleague did get pictures from kevin mccarthy with zelenskyy. but, obviously, this is a very sensitive issue for the speaker because he is raci

lauren fox is there, and what are we expect hooger? >> well, we are expecting that kevin mccarthy is coming out the give a brief statement, but as you noted, this is coming as some on the right flank are raising questions about the leadership. we expect in the noon hour, mate gates, a conservative who has sparred with the house speaker in the past is going to be giving his own floor speech about the direction of the house and how it should go, and we should remind the viewers that any one house speaker can bring a motion to oust the house speaker, and that is looming over the house speaker since he got that gavel in january after that hard-fought battle for the speaker's position. now one thing to keep in mind that house republicans are going to have to find a way to fund the government. these two issues while they are separate are very much intwined. one of the key things to remember here is that the house republicans are still divided about how the fund the government. mean while, the senate is moving on a bipartisan basis to fund th

cnn's lauren fox is joining us now. re in the bowels there, waiting for some information. what is happening with this bill, and how close are we to seeing this either not get pushed through or get pushed through? we don't have much time left. >> yeah. one of the points that you heard from house speaker kevin mccarthy yesterday was that his members needed time to read over this proposal. well, this morning is another opportunity for leadership and those who wrote the legislation to walk members through the details of this proposal, but we are told there are now more than a dozen republicans either leaning opposed or planning to vote against this proposal in its current form which leads you to a lot of questions about whether or not republicans are going to have to revise this proposal or whether or not they may have to go in a different direction. you're starting to see some cracks within the republican conference as some republicans from swing states say they may just work with their democratic colleagues. they could use

evan perez, and lauren fox and elliot williams are standing by to follow along with us once we hear from the press conference, but evan, what are you learning about this? what are you seeing in the indictment? >> well, this is some pretty stunning allegations by the prosecutors. we will hear more from the u.s. attorney damon williams in a few minutes, but as you laid out, this is, these charges began according to the prosecutors in 2018, and i should note that this is the year that bob menendez emerged from the last time he was indicted. the jury ended up with a mistrial in that case, and the charges were dismissed, and the justice department chose not to retry bob menendez in this one, and according to prosecutors he began to have interactions back in 2018, and him and his wife, and these three new jersey businessmen according to prosecutors, menendez received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and cash and gold bars and pictures shown in indictment, and he had home mortgage payments and a luxury vehicle, and this is all stuff that was found when the fbi did a 2022 search of men

we have lauren fox in washington, d.c. fred pleitgen on the ground in ukraine and, fred, start with you. widespread missile strikes seemingly very intentional given what zelenskyy is doing today. what's your sense what's happening on the ground? >> reporter: first of all you're right. intentional and very much fitting into the season we have here in ukraine. some things going on, on the battlefield as well. ukrainians saying the massive strikes started in early morning hours of today targeting civilian infrastructure and ukraine's energy infrastructure as well. something that is absolutely significant, because ukrainians say they haven't seen strikes on this scale here in this country on the energy infrastructure in the past six months. it comes as the weather getting colder in ukraine and we're moving towards heating season. ukrainians say the russians could be setting up for massive attacks on ukraine's energy infrastructure right as the heart of winter approaches here in this country. obviously devastating for the civil

lauren fox on capitol hill with the latest. what's actually happening?reporter: yeah, plan a failed, plan b failed, i think we are on plan c or d at this point. house republicans now are going to try and pass 11 individual spending bills in just a matter of days, but as you noted, they are back home for the weekend. they are expected to be meetings happening and house speaker kevin mccarthy's office today and perhaps even into tomorrow but right now the house rules committee is expected in a couple of hours to begin the process of trying to put on the floor individual spending bills, but the problem with that gamble is that anything that they pass would be dead on arrival in the senate. it's not clear that they would have the republican support that they would need because one of the bills that they're working on is that department of defense spending bill that would fund the department for one year, but they failed to pass a procedural step yesterday on the floor, it was the second time in just a matter of weeks that that legislation has failed. so that

thank you, lauren fox, for your reporting. john? >> back to the shutdown which is looming, and we are talking about two days away at this point. with us now, business and economy reporter matt eigen, thy cannot speak, but what would the economy say about this shutdown? >> well, john, we have a lot of dark clouds hovering over the economy, and the unprecedent ed auto strike, and the gas price, and the student loan payments coming back, and so maybe it is not the best time to shut down the federal government. >> and if the economy could speak, not now. >> and maybe not ever, but a shutdown is not going to wreck the economy, but it is not going to help. i spoke with a policy strategist who said it is a perfect storm already, and now a potential government shutdown, and confidence is shaken by the fed's war on inflation, and now the chaos in washington is going to make it worse. and for as long as the government is shutdown, you are talking about 4 million federal workers who are not doing to be paid, and let me tell you that a lot of t

lauren fox is there for us. you have been very dogged.ou've caught speaker mccarthy three times now in the last hour and a half. what is happening now that we know the offer is being made to democrats to move through this proposed spending bill? >> reporter: democrats are still trying to decide what to do. they were a little bit caught off guard this morning when house speaker kevin mccarthy announced he was going to put this clean bill on the floor that would fund the government through november 17th. it includes disaster aid. but democrats want to look over the 70-plus page bill, make sure there's something in here that would be a republican policy that they don't support. there have been some democrats raising concerns about it. the top democrat on the house appropriations committee is there. democrats are having conversations with the white house and their democratic colleagues in the senate. there's a question do they want to give up a fight for ukraine aid. there is $6.2 billion in the senate short-term spending bill for ukraine. ad

cnn's lauren fox is live on capitol hill. e do we know about the status of this senate bill, lauren? >> reporter: yeah, brianna, the expectations is we could see a tax deal before this afternoon. they're still trying to find a deal that works for both democrats and republicans. they're hoping to try and make sure democratic and republican members will support it even before it comes to the floor, hoping they can move this as quickly as possible because time is of the essence right now. what they're looking at right now, this is still fluid is about a 45-day short-term spending bill, basically a bridge to get them to the next opportunity to have a broader negotiation on one year spending bill. so, that is what they're looking at, at the moment. but it's important to keep in context that there are some things that a lot of senators would like included in this short-term vehicle, that may not get to the final bill. and a couple of those include ukraine funding, as well as disaster aid. now, again, things are still being negotiate

lauren fox is on capitol hill. lauren, where do negotiations stand at this point?s point with eight days to go the options are limited. house speaker kevin mccarthy spent the day huddling with allies on capitol hill, the house rules committee is meeting as we speak. the effort right now is focussed on trying to pass a series of individual appropriations bills. that's problematic because these bills need to be passed en masse in just a short period of time. they need to pass 11 of these bills in aeight days and get thm signed by the president. that's not going to happen at this point. that's why house speaker kevin mccarthy has been trying to implore with his conference they need more time. they need a short-term solution. many hard liners say they would not support any short-term solution arguing they want these one-off spending bill votes one at a time. >> what can you tell us about the senate stepping in to try to avoid a shutdown? >> reporter: chuck schumer is watching across the capitol and seeing the disarray. last night he took steps to try to set up a vote a

. >> lauren fox has more on what senator menendez is calling his biggest fight yet. >> reporter: defiantator menendez vowing not to resign as he faces down federal corruption charges. >> i firmly believe when all the facts are presented, not only will i be exonerated but i still will be new jersey senior senator. >> reporter: menendez facing a barrage of pressure to step aside. fellow democratic senator john fetterman tweeting "he's entitled to the presumption of innocence but he cannot continue to wield influence over national policy." >> the situation is quite unfortunate, but i do believe it is in the best interests for senator menendez to resign in this moment. >> reporter: there are calls menendez says are premature as he offers new explanations rebutting the allegations. >> any new jersey voters watching right now who may have concerned that again you are facing scrutiny over corruption, what is your response to them? >> the response to that is simply that, number one, this inquiry will end up i believe in absolutely nothing. >> reporter: in an indictment last week, federal prosecu

. >> cnn's lauren fox is on capitol hill this morning. all right. uren, i know that everyone is off today, it is i don't mean kip if kip pure. >> reporter: right now there isn't a clear plan to avoid a shutdown, instead you have republicans trying to make sure that the right flank of their party may get comfortable with some kind of spending deal. the way they're trying to do it is have votes on individual spending bills, one-year spending bills to fund the department of defense, homeland security, state and agriculture, but those bills would not allowed a government shutdown. however, therapies of legislation that hardliners have asked the speak tore put on the floor. the reason they're going ahead with this strategy is they are hoping as they build trust with those hardliners that they can convince them to rally around a short-term bill to fund the government for a couple of weeks. but again, that would be a republican-only bill in the house of representatives. another option that likely would be dead on arrival in the senate and, therefore, would

so let's head to capitol hill and cnn's lauren fox who is watching all of this drama. , a key vote here canceled. what happens now? >> reporter: yeah, right now there are republicans in the whip's office as they are trying to sort through how to salvage their plan to overt a government shutdown. we should remind people that this is just a republican plan to stop a government shutdown and it would only fund the government for about a month. and yet they are having all of these issues with their right flank as members say that there are not enough cuts. they want to see broader spending contours before they sign on to any deal. they are trying to work through this right now with members from all different corners of the republican conference. but there is a long way to go. and as you noted at the top, house leaders had to pull a planned procedural vote for this bill teeing it up for thursday. now it is very unclear what the schedule and timing would be. meanwhile you have some republicans who are beginning to signal to their conference that they may try to cut a deal with

we have cnn's lauren fox following this for us. uren, we have a tentative agreement, but realistically, does this deal have legs? >> reporter: yeah, brianna, that is quickly as this deal came together between two factions of the republican conference, it fell apart last night. that is after there was an hour-long, conference-wide phone call, where multiple house republicans pushed back against the contours of this deal, arguing it didn't go far enough, some of them wanting more votes on individual spending bills. but the bottom line here is that kevin mccarthy and gop leaders have a problem. they had hoped to vote on this proposal by the end of the week. usually they would hope to vote on this by thursday. but what happens now is anyone's guess. that is because they are probably going to have to go back to the drawing board to win back some votes because right now they have more than a dozen conservatives saying that they will either vote against this plan or they are leaning this is only a short-term spending fix that republicans w

cnn's lauren fox joins us now. lauren, i guess the question at this point with five days left is, what's worse, a shutdown or working with democrats if you're the speaker of the house. >> there's only one man really who can answer that question right now, and that is the speaker of the house, kevin mccarthy. and that is exactly the decision that he likely will have to make at the end of this week. right now, house republicans have this gambit where they are going to try to pass one individual appropriation bill at a time. these are year-long bills. they have four of them teed up, potentially, to start voting as soon as tuesday on procedural measures. but one thing to keep in mind is none of those bills to fund the department of defense, homeland security, agriculture, the department of state would actually avoid a government shutdown. that is because they are dead on arrival in the senate, and because it makes up a fraction of the bills that they would need to pass to fund the entire government. that is why house le

cnn's lauren fox is here with more. lauren, what do we know at this point? >> reporter: we are still getting more information, phil, but what we know right now is that senator dianne feinstein, the longest serving woman in the u.s. senate, she has passed away. obviously we are still getting details and gathering information about her passing, how it occurred. we've known for a long time that senator feinstein has struggled with several health issues, but she has continued to serve in her capacity both as a senator and on the senate judiciary committee where her vote has been essential to moving forward with the biden administration's judicial nominees over the last several years and last several months in particular. senator dianne feinstein has a long legislative history and record including the fact that she was the architect of the 1994 assault weapons ban, fighting gun violence has been a key issue for senator feinstein over the course of her career. she was also the first woman to serve as the chairman of the senate intelligence committee and she fought

. >> let's take you live to capitol hill with lauren fox. auren, in a moment like this, you would normally ask if joe biden can survive this politically, but you have to ask the same of speaker mccarthy. >> reporter: yeah. i mean, there's a huge political question right now surrounding house speaker kevin mccarthy's speakership. and specifically, he has a series of challenges. one of which is funding the government at the end of the month. you saw there mitch mcconnell alluding to the fact that the senate was focused on that. meanwhile, in the house of representatives, the big news today, of course, is this announcement from mccarthy that he's normally launching an impeachment inquiry into joe biden. now, he talked to reporters just a few minutes ago, and he made clear that he acknowledges that there is still more information that has to be found. and he said that that's the difference between an impeachment iny and moving forward formally that. is the tight rope that the house speaker is trying to walk right now. but mere moments after he ma

erica. >> lauren fox, appreciate it. thank you. >>> let's discuss now. so as we look at what has been laid out in this indictment, what we heard today, there is a lot of evidence in there. the cash and the luxury car and allegations not limited to the senate or's actions but he addressed only the cash today. if you were his attorney, how are you feeling about the comments today in terms of what was and what was not addressed? >> well, frankly, if i was representing him, i would prefer him say nothing at all. one of the challenges of representing someone in his circumstances is that he's going to feel the need to be out there defending himself but every word he says ultimately boxes him in, locks him into a defense. ultimately he can't take the stand and say something different or else he's going to be impeached with the statements he just made. realistically, this is a challenging set of facts for the senator to explain away. i mean, you also mentioned you didn't talk about the gold bars. he didn't talk about the google searches that he made about what t

our lauren fox is there. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, poppy. right now house republicans are trying to push forward with a plan to pass a short-term spending bill. this is a last-ditch effort by house speaker kevin mccarthy. as noted votes are not there. we know at least eight hard-line republicans said there's no circumstance, no way in which they would vote for a short-term stopgap measure to keep the government funded while they negotiate a fuller spending parkage for one fiscal year. right now that means that kevin mccarthy will go to the floor around 11:30 this morning, try to get a procedural vote passed on this bill, and likely it will fail. in the past procedural votes were no big deal. house republicans or majority would vote for them even if members had concerns about the underlying bill, but as house speaker kevin mccarthy's future is uncertain, hard-liners used those procedural votes as a way to show mccarthy that they are serious, and frustrated, with his leadership. meanwhile, question, looming whether mccarthy will be able to kee

lauren hill -- lauren fox i should say up on capitol hill. great singer also, lauren, you are.e us the latest. >> reporter: yeah, house speaker kevin mccarthy is huddling with his members right now in their conference meeting and the message so far has been that they need to work as a team. house speaker mccarthy made clear that he does plan to bring up a short-term spending bill on friday, whether the votes are there or not, but he is facing members of his right flank who say they will never get to yes on a short-term spending bill, which is raising the prospect of a government shutdown. here is senator tom cole, a veteran appropriator. >> obviously we've got our challenges here as well and the two chambers are a long way apart. so, you know, again, i'm not at all confident we won't end up in a shutdown. >> reporter: meanwhile, the senate is going to continue working on its own short-term spending bill that includes about $6 billion for ukraine aid, $6 billion for disaster aid and would continue to fund the government at current levels through november 17th, but that bill also

and lauren fox is joining us from capitol hill to share the reporting with us. formal impeachment, because not everybody in the party is down with this? >> yes, sara, the attention in the republican conference is going to be in the days and weeks ahead, because despite the fact that a large number of republicans in the conference do support moving forward with impeachment inquiry arguing that it would em bold epp them to get more documents and requests into the quests of president joe biden and son hunter biden, some republican members in swing districts don't believe it is the appropriate step, and that the committee has not gathered enough information and that the oversight could continue to do work without launching formal impeachment inquiry, and yes, it is preliminary step, but once you open up that inquiry, it is very hard not to eventually move forward with impeaching president joe biden, and so kevin mccarthy has been trying to argue to the members on the fence, that it is a preliminary step, and baby step, and yet, it is still going to be a very difficu

. >> cnn's lauren fox joins us now. hat point, you have been through several shut downs, i think speaker mccarthy's assessment of things, analysis is pretty accurate based on historic precedent. there's a lot of talk about a potential deal this weekend for house republicans. what happened? >> yeah, that deal was very short lived, phil, it was a deal that negotiated by members of the house freedom caucus and the main street caucus. it was a deal that didn't have broad republican support, and you started to see that on the republican conference call, as member after member started to raise concerns, and then you saw on twitter, while the call was going on a number of members came out opposed to it straight up. that shows you the challenge that kevin mccarthy has. they were hoping to put that spending bill, that short-term spending bill, we should clarify, phil, on the floor as soon as thursday. but it is going to be an extremely heavy lift to get the votes needed. right now, you have more than a dozen conservatives that sa

lauren fox, complicated, watching it tick by. you very much. >>> now i want to bring in deputy whip for the congressional progressive caucus and the chair for the heartland caucus, representative debbie dingell. thank you so much for being here with us. i want to start with this, the republicans clearly battling each other and it's become a nasty battle. let me let you listen to what one republican said about the negotiations over this bill yest yesterday. >> this is not conservative republicanism. this is stupidity. these people can't define a win, they don't know how to take yes for an answer. it's a clown show. >> so the republicans failed to pass even a procedural vote for the spending bill yesterday. there's 11 days left to the deadline. at this point do you see any path to passing this bill or is a shutdown imminent? >> so hope needs to spring eternal but it does look like total chaos on the other side and when the republican leader in the senate comes and does a press conference and tells the house republican members what

lauren fox, keeping you busy. thank you. >>> also this morning, the "wall street journal" editorial describing it a circular firing squad losing funding battle zelenskyy wants to win and speaker's gavel, perhaps. how tennessee republican congressman described it. >> we're dysfunctional. it's just that simple. >> that simple. so dysfunctional. we've got nobody at the head, you know, i'll say this, this train's left the station. >> joining us now republican congressman from new york, nice to su, chave you. good morning. >> good morning. >> i want to read you this. striking in the "wall street journal." hakeem jeffries probably can't believe his luck house minority leader gets to watch the republican majority implode without having to do a thing. are they right? >> i have to disagree. i mean, listen, is there issues we're facing here? absolutely. as any family faces discrepancies and perhaps the circular firing squad is a little dramatic, but i do believe over the last 48 hours, i think as young children when we're p

lauren fox, thank you for that report from the hill. our panel is back with us.bring in natasha bertrand. she's all over all these issues. i want to dive in about the divide between the house and senate and to show the difference in the walk between chuck schumer, mitch mcconnell, volodymyr zelenskyy, very public showing here. kevin mccarthy was not next to zelenskyy walking in thp they could make a decision to have a photo-op. it was hakeem jeffries instead walking with zelenskyy here. not kevin mccarthy. our colleague got those pictures inside the room of mccarthy and zelenskyy next to each other. a much different. how concerned is the pentagon roogt now that this aid may not get awe proved by congress? >> the pentagon still has quite a bit of money in its reserves through the presidential drawdown authority. essentially all of the weaponry it has in its stockpiles that it can give to ukraine. so that money rehasn't run out yet. they are very concerned about the possibility of a government shutdown. if there's a shutdown, according to the pentagon, there could

cnn's lauren fox joins us now.on't want to focus on the procedural hurdles or the messaging bills they're trying to move this week. >> you don't? >> i do. but i'm cognizant fox and i could do this for three hours. tell me the end game here. the senate is starting to move on something. the house is continuing to negotiate, four days left. where do things actually stand? >> yeah, phil. let's start with the senate. that is the piece of legislation that if it can get passed out of that chamber could potentially stave off a shutdown on saturday at midnight. the senate negotiators between minority leader mitch mcconnell's staff and minority chuck schumer's staff they continue to work into the night last night, trying to find a path forward that would fund the government for just a matter of weeks at this point. it would not be a one-year spending bill but just a short-term stopgap to get them over that deadline. the expectation is that bill may not be able to include the full supplemental funding for ukraine aid. that is

lauren fox is joining us from capitol hill this morning, and you caught up with speaker kevin mccarthy this morning and what did he tell you? >> yeah, right now, the options are really limited for the speaker of the house when it comes to averting government shutdown, but he is still pushing the conference to unite behind some sort sof short term spending bill to some spending package. this is what he told me about the members holding out against that idea. >> well, you have to keep the government open, and i mean, if people want to close the government, it is going to make it weaker, and why would they want to stop paying the troops or the border agents or the coast guard. i don't know what point you try to make? we have a border wide open today, and it is getting worse each month under joe biden, and we have border agents who you saw this morning being blooded. why would you want to stop paying those individuals? i would not want to understand somebody who would want to do that? >> and right now the republican leaders want to pass a individual one-year long spending bills on the floo

let's go to lauren fox first on capitol hill where president zelenskyy just arrived. lauren?> reporter: and this is an important meeting in part because he is going to be making his case for why ukraine needs more support from the united states at a critical time when house speaker kevin mccarthy has made clear that he is not necessarily committed to moving any short term spending bill with ukraine aid. in fact, the plan that was revealed last night in republican conference doesn't include any of that supplemental request from the white house, $24 billion in additional humanitarian and military support. it isn't going to be the same picture we saw last year when zelenskyy came to capitol hill, was hosted by house speaker nancy pelosi at the time, and a joint meeting of congress was held. you saw, at that time, so many members standing in support with ukraine, now the political landscape has shifted. with mccarthy in charge facing his own rebellion on his right flank, there are questions whether zelenskyy is going to get the aid he's asking for. here's what he's facing among h

lauren fox is joining us. felt like this was moving in this direction. i think that the big question is do republicans you are talking to feel like they actually have the evidence to move forward here or was this purely kevin mccarthy trying to survive another day? >> well, certainly this moved much more quickly than anyone had thought it would. we expected that by the end of the week house speaker kevin mccarthy would make it clear to his conference that he supported he opening this inquiry but doing so just hours before the house came back into session was certainly a very big development. the other thing that was so interesting is that you had a number of republicans getting back into washington, some of whom had not supported the idea of moving forward with this impeachment inquiry having to sort of get their arms around the new idea that this is the direction that the house is moving. like you noted, house speaker kevin mccarthy made it clear to his members that he thought that he would bring a vote to the floor of the house if he moved forward with

cnn's lauren fox joins us now. lauren, this is a mess.ut i think it's messier than the mess we thought, if that's plausible. how does this end? >> yeah, phil. this is really starting to erupt with house conservatives going after one another on twitter. you saw bitter infighting yesterday. this is because three members of the house freedom caucus negotiated this deal with the main street caucus. and, it is not being well received. like you noted, there are now more than a dozen conservatives who say they're going to vote no against this proposal or are leaning against voting for this proposal. meanwhile, leadership still trying to bring this to the floor as soon as thursday. and all republicans are starting to believe a shutdown is not only looming but likely. here is what they said. >> this is not conservative republicanism. this is stupidity. they don't know how to take yes for an answer. it's a clown show. if you want to have a stronger hand, run better candidates and win more elections. you keep running lunatics, you're going to be in

cnn's lauren fox is following the latest on capitol hill. i in particular, over the course of the last decade. do you feel like this time is different? are they going to find a way out of this? >> yeah, in conversations that i had, phil, over the last several days it's become clear that there is no plan right now to avert a government shutdown. in fact, the plan is to get lawmakers in a room when the house returns and try to see if there's a path forward among house republicans. all eyes will be on kevin mccarthy, the house speaker, who has his work cut out for him. typically when you don't have an agreement on the broader, year-long spendi ing bill, you pass a stopgap measure to make sure you get over that october 1st deadline. but even that is going to be a huge challenge for mccarthy. over the recess, he had members on his right flank signaling that they were not going to support a short-term spending bill. someone like chip roy arguing that he thought that that was something that he couldn't back unless there were a series of other writer

congressional correspondent lauren fox is on capitol hill with the latest.e have heard friit from mccarthy and we know it happened, but what about those trying to oust him like matt gaetz? >> yeah, it did not take matt gaetz long to respond saying in a statement, "how about you move the fing spending bills." that is in the crux of the house speaker kevin mccarthy and the handful of conservatives who want to see steeper cuts, and also, wanted to tank a procedural vote on the house floor on a single appropriations bill which has made this week in the houskers coming back was to try to pass individual spending bills, and they were not able to do so, and that you had a handful of conservatives who wanted a lower spending bill and the steps. so house speaker kevin mccarthy defiant when he left that conference saying that he is not afraid and he is not threat epped by the members, and instead, he is willing to fight if that is what it take. allies of the house speaker had this to say about mccarthy's message this morning. >> he told the entire conference, and he s

. >> lauren fox is joining us now. think that the thing striking to me is in a normal moment of the last decade of these fiscal wars, the off-ramp now exists, right? there is a bipartisan deal. it is backed by mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer. it is backed by the republican and democrat on the appropriations committee. and yet it is not the answer here? >> reporter: well, it may be the answer but it may not be the answer that is taken by house speaker kevin mccarthy. and we should note that the senate still has to get it out of their chamber. and that could be a heavy lift potentially because you have senators like rand paul threatening to slow walk this process and reiterating that last night because there is $6.2 billion in additional funding for ukraine. there is also $6 billion of disaster aid but that is something that some conservatives may really throw a fit about on the senate floor. and if they start to have this, you know, drag out, you potentially could have a situation where the senate can't pass their bil

cnn's lauren fox is on capitol hill this morning. eporter: welcome back from recess to the house of representatives today, they will return to washington. they have a vote this evening at 6:30 p.m. and there's going to be a lot of meetings preceding that where lawmakers are expected to huddle and have some initial conversations about how to fund the government, but looming over all of this is that question of whether or not the house will move forward with trying to open an impeachment inquiry into president joe biden. like you noted, house speaker kevin mccarthy for weeks has been inching closer and closer to endorsing the idea of opening an impeachment inquiry, telling people privately behind closed doors it was likely it could happen as soon as september, but we should note that he wants to put this on the floor of the house of representatives and, john, that means he will need the support of his republican conference. right now he's not there yet. more effort would have to be done in order to whip the votes, to get the votes to op

let's get details from cnn's lauren fox. she's up on capitol hill. what's the latest, lauren?inal confirmation of the joint chiefs of staff cq brown. but this all came as a surprise today when chuck schumer, the majority leader went down to the senate floor to try to stop a move from tommy tuberville that was expected later in the afternoon. schumer set up votes on some of the top brass in the military after saying for months that he did not want to do these nominations one by one. the argument from schumer was that he had no other choice because tuberville later today was supposed to go to the floor and use a rarely deployed tactic to try to bring these nominations to force them on the floor. and what happened was schumer basically said he did not want to put his democratic colleagues in the position of potentially having to vote against tuberville's procedural move. because, doing so could make democrats look like they were the ones holding up these nominations. so, schumer arguing this was a final step that he had to take despite the fact he argues it is dangerous for the s

lauren fox is joining us from washington.ell, sara, about as quickly as this deal came together between a couple of the members of the house freedom caucus and main street caucus, it fell apart. republican lawmakers met on a conference call last night around 8:00 p.m. where the details of the deal were unveiled, and it is including major funding cuts across the government with exceptions of the department of defense, homeland security, and veterans affairs, but the negotiated deal was not enough for some hardliners who now have more than a dozen conservatives who say they are leaning against voting for this proposal or are already a hard know on this spending proposal, and we should just remind everyone that this is a one-month spending bill. this is not even a larger one-year spending bill which negotiators in the house and sent are going to be coming to terms with, but it is a one month deal with the republican coalition, and even that, they cannot get their arms around right now. now, the leadership is vowing to bring this

lauren fox, keep us posted.nk you. >>> we do have new reporting this morning on the concerns major republican donors have about former president trump becoming the nominee again. >> and we'll take you live to the picket line in a great american city, my hometown, toledo, ohio, with how the auto strike is impacting families. >> every dollar, every cent is accounted for, whether it goes for food, electric, gas, rent, it's ketchup and and hot dogs instead of ketchup and hot dogs and applesauce. it's justice one less thing on the plate. and get to your goals faster. sofi. get your money right. you got this. let's go. gobble gobble. i've seen bigger legs on a turkey! rude. who are you? i'm an investor in a fund that helps advan innovative sports tech like this smart tness mirror. i'm also m leg day...1989! anyone can become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq, a fund that gives you access to nasdaq-100 innovations. i go through a lot of pants. before investing carefully read and consider fund investment objective

cnn's lauren fox has been working behind the scenes covering all this drama over the course of the lastdegree years. lauren, there have been meetings between house republicans trying to figure out a path forward. what are they considering and is that going to work? >> reporter: yeah, phil. it's a moving target for all of the reasons that you just outlined. you know, multiple sources that i talked to yesterday were clear that there are some conversations happening between different factions of the republican party in the house of representatives to try to find any consensus on any spending bill to try to move the process forward. now, what they were eyeing and it is a moving target once again, yesterday was a short-term cr that included some spending cuts as well as increased border security. the idea was that the main street caucus, which is full of a number of republicans who come from different parts of the republican party, was trying to negotiate with the house freedom caucus. obviously some of the most hard lined members of the republican party, and they were trying to find some co

. >> lauren fox is joining us now. all right, they worked through the weekend.arrett graves and patrick mcenhenry, speaker's top two allies are working on this, what is the path forward? >> what you are going to see and what the path forward are two separate items. the path forward for mccarthy is to decide whether or not he will work with democrats. we'll see if he gets there by the end of the week. but what you will see from house republicans, they will move forward with their plan to vote on individual spending bills. these are bills that did not have support in the senate. these are also bills that we don't know if they have the votes to pass. over the weekend, republican leadership tried to encourage their members to rally around a short term spending bill that included border security as a way to have a negotiating position with the senate. the argument from leadership is that if we enter into a shutdown, our hand is not going to get any stronger. but that message does not seem to be resonating with some of the hardliners that mccarthy has been dealing wit

. >> lauren fox, thank you so much. >> happening right now, indicted democratic senator bob menendez is phasing members of his own party. the majority are calling for him to resign over the new charges that he took bribes and risked national security. among the 21 who have not urged him to resign is senator chuck schumer. what are you hearing about this, manu? >> there's a lot of anticipation for this meeting. i've tried to ask bob menendez a question as he walked into the lunch. he refused to answer any question. he spoke a couple days ago saying he would not resign. so the question is, to the extent to which he detailed the allegations, what evidence does he give to the senators to ease their concerns. right now, 30 of his colleagues want him to step aside. others, including the new chairman of the foreign relations committee. and there's some, like senator f fetterman, saying it's a distraction for his party. >> he's got to go. you know, the arrogance, where he's now saying i'm not going anywhere, my dude, you are going somewhere. it's either an election or conviction, or you have

let's get to lauren fox who's tracking it for us. lauren, what now?> reporter: house republicans are huddled behind closed doors right now behind me in a conference meeting where we expect to get more details on what their plan for the rest of the week will look like. we know right now, tonight they start voting on a series of individual one year spending bills. all of which would not prevent a government shutdown. instead it is intended to try to get some of those hard liners to build trust with leadership to show them we're voting on these individual appropriations bills like you wanted will you help us rally around a republican short-term bill to prevent a government shutdown. i asked if the plan is still to vote tomorrow as house speaker kevin mccarthy has been saying on a short-term plan. but rights now mccarthy doesn't have the votes he needs to pass the short-term measure. the hope is after tonight perhaps that will build momentum for leadership but that's not the case. in the united states senate they have a bipartisan agreement they'll start

let's get to capitol hill with lauren fox. lauren, a range of viewpoints today on the issue of ukraine. did president zelenskyy change any minds? >> reporter: yeah, a range, boris, and a deep division between republican leaders in the house and in the u.s. senate. so far it's not clear that zelenskyy changed any minds, especially when it comes to house speaker kevin mccarthy. he's been circumspect about putting more ukraine funding on the floor of the house of the representatives. after his meeting with zelenskyy, i pressed him on whether or not he would commit to putting $24 billion in a supplemental request from the white house on the floor of the house before the end of the year. repeatedly he dodged the question saying there were issues and priorities when it came to the u.s.' spending that needed to be dealt with first. a huge question of whether kevin mccarthy will put that money on the floor of the house. this is coming as he is trying to find a way forward with his republican conference to avert a government shutdown. h

cnn's lauren fox is tracking this back with us. en, what are you hearing about what is happening behind the scenes now in that -- well, now in both the house and senate? >> reporter: yeah, well, the focus right now, kate, is really in the united states senate. that is where negotiators from minority leader mitch mcconnell's office and majority leader chuck schumer's office are working frantically. they worked late into the night to try to find a path forward on a short-term spending bill that could get out of the senate quickly, get sent to the house, and then the big question, of course, becomes will house speaker kevin mccarthy put it on the floor. now, that is assuming that the senate can pass something. what they're looking at right now is a 45-day bill that would keep the government open for just a couple of weeks and then give them additional time to have further negotiations on the full year's spending package. of course, there's a question. would that be enough time? these negotiations are very fluid and the timeline, of cou

let's fwling our lauren fox with more. is there a plan b, c, d, e, f, g, this morning or just plan a and it looks like it's going to fail? >> reporter: i don't know what letter of the alphabet we are on at this point. what you can expect today in house of representatives. rules committee recon convenience around 8:00 a.m. this morning trying to finish up the rule that would have a short-term spending bill head to the house floor. the problem with this short-term spending bill as phil laid out beautifully is the reality the votes are not there at this moment. then around 11:15, 11:30 this morning the house will move a procedural vote to put that bill on the floor. here's where things get dicey for house speaker kevin mccarthy. it's a procedural vote, majority puts up the votes, they pass and larger question on the underlying bill. in this case and as has been the case over the last several weeks as hard-liners have dug in, those procedural votes are getting harder and harder for kevin mccarthy. so expect that if the votes d