elon musk.eign-born billionaire that uses ex-twitter to leverage his agenda threaten any republican that voted for the bill with primary challenges, funded by him. meaning, in his view he does not just own trump he owns every single elected republican in washington. sweet deal for a government contractor who is ineligible to be president himself and no one elected. this bill, this bill that elon hated so much would of extend it through march and give $100 billion for disaster relieve. and assistance for farmers and extension of the farm bill and pay ridge for the most unproductive congress in decades. musk's 150 tweets. triggering mass he's -- hysteria. >> does musk have too much influence? >> i don't think so there is what the american people voted for. >> elon who came a couple weeks ago and treated like rock stars welcome to the party, we are glad to have them. >> what happened was plane ways dog did its job [ laughter ] >> trump frankly was mia or sunning himself on the patio at mar-a-lago h

elon musk.o one of your earlier guests to talk about how he had taken out the pediatric cancer research. and was able to get that back and hot lined over in the senate. to have donald trump say he wants the debt limit raised beyond his presidential term is really very telling in terms of what they want to do. they want to pass this irresponsible tax scam as leader jeffreys called it. something that if you make under $100,000 a year, i guarantee you, it is not going to help your feeling of financial insecurity. you know. 52% of americans said they voted for donald trump because they felt insecure. i can guarantee you putting $4.6 trillion onto the credit card with their passing this tax scam and eliminateing the debt ceiling so that maybe donald trump could lower these corporate tax rates down from 21% for god's sake down to 15% and add another $8 trillion to it for wealthiest people is not going to help you at all. you are sitting out there. and you need a crown. cost you $1,800. it will go on y

elon musk can't control them.at takes place with what crazy fandango we'll have starting on january 3rd when the new congress convenes and when, as you have said, they're going to be down to 217 votes to 215 democrats, they're not going to be able to legislate in any effective way and they have a whole lot of people who don't care and a lot of people now who think that shutting down the government is going to be great because people will see that hey, there's no government, our lives are wonderful. that's not how it works. >> e.j. dionne, the president-elect doesn't normally get to demonstrate weakness until at least after inauguration day. >> 100%. and a president-elect doesn't usually farm out his authority to a billionaire who happens to own a big social media company. i mean, this is what you get when you farm out the hard work of democratic government to a billionaire who has no political experience but is absolutely convinced that he understands everything. i think the other lesson here is that republicans i

does musk have too much influence? >> no, i don't think so.ican people voted for it when it voted for donald trump. they voted for competency. >> competency. competency. competency? shutting down the federal government six days before christmas? joining me out as chief political adviser to senator bernie sanders. thanks for being here. wow. here we are. first, just let's talk about elon musk's role in all of this. i know you have been sort of like boosting the notion of elon musk as speaker of the house. >> yes. [ laughter ] >> can you just talk to me about -- first of all, i assume you're joking, but maybe not. can you talk a little bit more about the concept of elon musk running the house of representatives, either officially or unofficially? >> you and i, we have gone through years and years of this where the republican caucus, when they come into power, they cannot govern, they cannot keep a faction together. it happened with john weiner, paul ryan, kevin mccarty, it was inevitable. that mike johnson was heading in this direction. take tha

what was elon musk's design? we don't fully know, but i have a theory. >> i'd love to hear it. >> that theory is the debt ceiling. so mike johnson comes forward the one missing link in there was the debt ceiling was not included, and the debt ceiling has been used, as you know, i a lengths, for the better part of a decade, since barack obama was president in 2011, republicans have used that as a hostage taking to compel democrats not to do things for working-class people. but when they come into power it becomes a problem for them because they need to raise the debt ceiling so that they can do -- elon musk and donald trump have a lot of plans to spend trillions of dollars not only on tax cuts but to do a bunch of stuff on immigration including building a wall and hiring a bunch of deportation agents. they can't do that if the democrats are going to apply the same logic back at them that says, hey, where is your cuts? how are you going to generate revenue into this government to pay for the things you are doing. t

but if you had a chill elon musk, a restrained elon musk, we'd all probably like being around him a bit more sometimes, but i don't think he'd be the one shooting the rockets to mars or getting us into the electric vehicle future. -you agreed to become elon's biographer at a high moment for him, before he went on to purchase twitter and become a more controversial figure. -yeah. -he had vast success with spacex. he had also achieved vast success in the production of teslas. -yeah. -as you reflect on the other disruptors in human history that you have chronicled, how does elon musk stack up? -i think if we look at the current modern era, there are three people who are really changing the way the 21st century will be. first was steve jobs, who brought us to the era of friendly computers. jennifer doudna was able to invent a tool, crispr, which means we can change our genetic makeup, design our children. huge. and elon musk is the one bringing us into the era of electric vehicles, renewed space travel, a new form of internet and low-earth orbit, and artificial intelligence that's not just

on a text chain with elon musk. now you have major republicans who are actually calling for musk to replace johnson as speaker. what does that tell you about the gop sentiment toward speaker johnson? >> republicans are in disarray. speaker johnson got the job because nobody else wanted it. that's a problem they face if they get rid of johnson. who could follow him? with elon musk there's an asymmetry between money and policy. you're also seeing raw ignorance prevail. they thought that because november happened all of a sudden the numbers in the house and senate changed. the math is the same as it was the day before the election until january 20th. the interesting thing here will come down to there is a bill that will pass. mike johnson leaked it out this morning. it includes keeping the government open through march, a farm bill extension for one year and disaster relief for the hurricanes. not all the things democrats wanted, but democratic support. the votes you lose there are republicans. the republicans don't lo

musk is not going to bend. and a stronger record of accomplishment than donald trump. trump knows it. this is fascinating to watch this and it will be played out by the 435 representatives or how many show up for the vote tonight. and i don't think that trump can win this one. it is shocking that he has not even taken office yet. right, a completely unforced error. even having the bad headline which is we know trump cares about and the chaos and i mentioned some of this could have real would impacts as well, you know, the democrats are facing a very transparent process. the view, your opinion of musk, what i will say in terms of following the evidence is, this is a guy who constantly publicizing everything because that appears to be important to him. that includes publicizing things that later undercut his claims, contradict what he said was going to happen. so i want to show briefly jeffries said i don't need to say much yet because it is a bad look to have a, chaos, and b, nonpresident-elect calling the shots

president musk, president musk, president musk, president musk, president musk, president musk i mean, there is a clear, clear line here. >> you got it. >> you got to add the word elect. you know, he's not the president. musk is not really president musk. yet in a few weeks, he will be. it's the truth. donald trump is not in charge here. he is following the lead of his biggest donor, the the world's richest man. and it happens to be, sadly, someone who does not understand how government works. you can you can see in real time president elect elon musk learning how government works, how congress works. certainly. in fact, he says things about bills that are not true and then has to correct himself. it's extraordinary. but this is the kind of dysfunction and chaos that has not just defined the past two years under the republican majority in congress, but it's only going to get worse because now elon musk is running the show. >> do you think this is just what is more chaos to come in 2025? even though the house and the senate will be republican led? >> absolutely. i mean, basically, you

elon musk.diatric cancer research and because of the activism of nancy goodman, was able to get that back and sort of hot lined in the senate. and to have donald trump say that he wants the debt limit raised beyond his presidential term is really very telling in terms of what they want to do. they want to pass this irresponsible tax scam, as leader jeffries called it, something that you make under $100,000 a year, i guarantee you, it is not going to help your feeling of financial insecurity. 52% of americans said that they voted for donald, they voted for donald trump because they felt insecure. i can guarantee you that putting $4.6 trillion more onto the credit card with passing this tax scam and eliminating the debt ceiling so that maybe donald trump could lower these corporate tax rates down from 21%, for god sake, down to 15 and adding another $8 trillion for the wealthiest people is not going to help you at all. you are sitting out there, you need a crown, it will cost you $1800, it will ha

is it donald trump or is it elon musk? is donald trump just elon musk's puppet? elon musk has been down at mar-a-lago the entire time, obviously put $300 million into donald trump's campaign, stands to benefit tremendously from donald trump's tax cuts and from all of the various government contracts that musk has as well. i think we need to have a real evaluation, and i think it is incumbent upon house republicans, senate republicans who will be in the majority to stand up for the american people, not to just do the bidding of donald trump. and right now, the american people are going to suffer because of donald trump's incompetence and elon musk's inexperience and dangerousness. >> congressman dave goldman, thank you very much for joining us in this breaking news environment on capitol hill tonight. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> and the chairman of the senate budget committee, rhode island democratic senator sheldon whitehouse, will join us next with the senate perspective on this ongoing budget crisis now on capitol hill. that's next. crisi now on capi

because president musk told them , president musk said do not do it. do not do it. shut the government down. >> trump got completely rolled by musk on this so he needed to make up a excuse why he opposed it as well and he landed on the debt ceiling for some reason. so trump got a little victory because he got the debt ceiling in there, it extends the deadline, no money for kids with cancer and then he took to truth social to boast he did it, trump swooped in right? the bill which immediately died signaled success in washington, that thing he is talking about is dead. 38 republican votes against it. as we saw there was no success because a lot of republicans do not want to raise the debt ceiling like chip roy, usually a local ally, roy voted against the bill on those grounds and trump said he should face a primary challenger. i am getting lost. before tonight's debate before the vote immigrants yielded time to check right let him yell at his own party. >> we will increase the debt by 5 trillion. that is what will happen. right here by republicans. increasing the debt

elon musk. >> president musk. >> president musk. >> elon musk who now everybody's calling presidentk. >> if elon musk is kind of cosplaying co-president, why trump doesn't hand him the oval office. >> that drum beat got the happy couple's attention. musk felt the need to go back on x and say it was, quote, the media who was trying to drive a wedge between him and trump. also declaring it wouldn't work. a trump spokesperson even felt the need to clarify that the actual president-elect is, in fact, the leader of the republican party. i promise you that's not exactly a statement you want to have to make. so president musk tanked the original bill. everyone got super defensive. then as if to prove that he could make demands himself, trump got in the mix and said that any new bill must do away with the federal debt ceiling. now as a side note, he basically doesn't want the blame of raising the debt limit while he's president, and he wants to be able to spend and cut taxes for rich folks like a drunken sailor when he gets into office. that's what this is about, that piece. in fact, he fel

certainly at this point musk needs trump more than trump needs musk after he won the election with his help. and that is definitely a dynamic we are watching. i will point out that musk and trump had different issues this bill, adding to the complications. musk didn't want the debt limit to be blown through. he's about slashing spending. it's an interesting dynamic to watch even when comparing the two statements from them. >> i'm just kind of like -- julie's last comment struck me. musk and trump had different issues with the bill. except one person is the president-elect of the united states of america, and the other one just, you know, happens to be a billionaire that owns a couple of companies. i'm just kind of like, wait, there are a lot of ceos of companies that have issues with what was in the bill, right? not all of them, though, had the ear of the president-elect. and the platform to be able to marshal and corral republican members of the house of representatives. should we be concerned here? are you concerned? what is the reporting tell us? >> yes. i mean, i think it's concern

you have elon musk, jd vance.y don't understand what it is like to not get a paycheck during the holidays. they don't understand what it is like to fly commercial airlines. and deal with tsa agents who are not being paid and the chaos that ensues when you have the infrastructure derailed by a non-functioning government and these are the people who ultimately hold the levers of power in terms of deciding whether the government shuts down or not in less than 36 hours. >> they have also begun to smoke their own kind of whatever they smoke. they believe wrongly. >> ketamine? no, you can't smoke that. go ahead. >> they believe wrongly and have come to believe that when you cut government spending, there are no real world impacts because government is loaded. it does all kinds of stuff. so to all the things you listed, those are correct. however, they live in this wielder word that says you can do these things without tangible real world impacts. they are wrong about that and we have to suffer through the moments where

and it's musk. he's the one who started tweeting at 430 this morning about what a bad deal this was and how terrible it was. and donald trump trails along much, much later and says, yeah, terrible deal. and then donald trump is the one who says, you know, maybe we should get rid of the debt ceiling altogether. but is that what the republicans propose? no. what the republicans say is. mm. let's just do a little period of time of getting rid of it long enough to be able to grease the skids, to be able to pass a big, big tax giveaway to billionaires. >> so you don't think democrats should step in to help republicans here? but but on the debt ceiling deal, on the debt ceiling, which is, you know, the max that the government can borrow, it's something that, you know, we almost saw how catastrophic that could be not long ago when the way to avert defaulting on the nation's debt, you said that you agreed with trump when he said that congress should terminate the debt limit, not have to govern by hostage ta

elon musk wrote there. i will go to war on this issue the likes of which are cannot possibly comprehend. i believe steve bannon had lots of time in his jail cell to comprehend what war on behalf of trump looks like, but that is sort of the red flag that elon musk waved in front of maga figures who disagree on this. and again on the policies is when the democratic and republican presidents in the same position on for many years. it does put trump at cross pressure with his pace. your thoughts on the crude and brutal nature of this very public feud. why is that an element? >> you know, steve bannon might be officially more thuggish and went to jail, but this is completely that too you showed us completely thuggish rhetoric and behavior, threatening in that way. you know, at the core of this is nihilism about maga and putting musk -- when you're so transactional and so opportunistic that you don't believe in anything, as you were saying before and trump is in this category, you have no values. everything becom

musk has trump in a vice. it is clear that musk is calling the shots. there is no way trump was not aware of what the negotiations were for weeks and weeks and weeks. and the fact that he would just drop in the debt ceiling limit at the 11th hour after they had, mike johnson and the republicans reached a by part sin bipartisan deal, right now we have president elon musk and donald trump maybe he is vice president, i guess vice president don't do much that makes sense. he might be the chief of staff, i don't know what you call him. he is not calling the shots. >> you just pointed out. you want to linger for two seconds. spent time on the almost $200 million for pediatric cancer. research. i think it is a good thing for the federal government to spend money on. it is bipartisan. i am pro-that. two other things, investments, americans investing in china and kind of magga america reflected in some ways. the other is to the administrators taking over a huge chunk of drug purchasing in this country and who are jacking prices up. there were reforms to bring th

musk is not the legislature.ng on that agreement and that agreement's a fair agreement. >> some senate republicans weighed in publicly generally displeased with the idea of a government shutdown but they insist that trump's in control, not musk. >> i think president trump's driving this, and i'm not diminishing mr. musk's role. i mean, this is america. everybody's entitled to have their opinion, and i listen, i follow his tweets and it's just one more factor that i add to my equation of trying to make the right decision, but i think -- i think president trump's driving this train. >> i think it's somewhat constructive, quite honestly, but it's also a little bit disruptive. that's what people elected. they wanted a constructive disrupter and elon fits that bill pretty nicely. >> just a reminder, despite those comments there from republican senator kevin cramer, elon musk was not on the ballot and was not elected to any position in government. joining us now, special correspondent at van vanity fa molly john fast.

so having elon musk so having elon musk way in, creating the chaos, if that begins to wear on people,its at the axis of trump, musk, donald junior, the senate and the house. how he operates, going to the speaker's office, he as the powerbroker will be one of the key angles in terms of how members feel about the outside influence going forward. >> that is a good point, are you hearing concern from congress, specifically republicans about elon musk and his power and influence and the potential of a billionaire to shape policy to his own financial benefit? >> absolutely. even in the days after president-elect trump won the election, republicans, especially those who live to the first trifecta in washington member how trump himself would pressure them to fall in line, so they were expecting that. the fact that we have someone else who has a very big platform, who can just go and as we saw, ramp up a lot of the frustration that the far right flank of the house republican conference date, musk did that and amplified it which seems to have gotten to trump which led to the moment of breaking

musk is an idiot.ill this habit of thinking everybody knows how to make money with e-cards and whatever else, who however knows something about civics. he doesn't know anything about running the house of representatives. he doesn't know anything about getting a majority vote. howard baker said you have to get to the third grade to be able to know how to win in the senate. that's called 51 votes. you have to understand it. this clown, and he is a clown, knows nothing about government. he knows all about making money. one time, i actually agree with bernie sanders this time around. he's one of the millionaires and billionaires that ought to stay out of our face. make money, okay. but stop running the united states government. that's what musk is doing this weekend. the only theory i do have, and i love it, is that trump is planning to destroy elon musk. he puts him out there in the beginning. early in the -- late in the biden administration. he has him destroy himself pause he can't work with the congres

elon musk. elon musk is everywhere in china. look into some of the provisions of the bill that were defeated by elon musk coming out against it were, in fact, trying to stop the off loading of technology to china. hello. and then you've got him over promising to write checks in the u.k. to the right wing party over there. then you've got him endorsing what many call the neonazi party in germany right now. who is this guy? who does he think he is? why is everyone so afraid of him? who put him in the position? the american people didn't vote for this guy. he names his children after mathematical formulas. he's not somebody who understands common sense and the needs of the american people. so i just -- i am beside myself that he has this kind of power, and it is making donald trump look tiny. i mean teeny weenie tiny. >> claire, you just masterfully connected all of the dots. what can democrats do? >> here's where the train wreck is going to come. today in the republican caucus they put up a slide and they said in the first reconci

musk will be around for a long time.licans who didn't obey his orders. it's almost certain that in 2028, he will be funding a republican nominee of his choosing again in that primary contest. his power is going to continue on for many more years. that's why you are seeing marjorie taylor greene and others doing this. he doesn't understand politics. it's reminded me of being foiled by this guy wandering around the building. this master criminal and here is this guy with basically no equipment or anything at all who is turning the whole plan awry. that's going to happen repeatedly over the course of the four years. we should remember that trump came into his first term thinking it was going to be easy. guess what? the pandemic hit. his ratings collapsed. he lost his re-election. that can happen again. >> interesting points, including about timeless themes of arrogance, power run amuck and people well outside of their area of expertise. i think it bears repeating. voters wanted solutions. they wanted plans address economic

and then musk gets involved. now that we're in this new world, he's tweeted, if dems reject this and the government shuts down, they deserve to lose big time in the midterms. obviously that's political gamesmanship. there's also money that he can put to bear behind that. are you concerned that democrats could now get blamed for a shutdown if republicans keep putting out a bill and it keeps failing? does the blame go to you? >> what i'm concerned about is that a billionaire who is not even elected is acting like a like a shadow president and doing the work that republicans have to do here. they are in the majority. and so, no, i'm not concerned that we're going to get blamed. this is clearly on the republicans. we had a negotiated deal. we could have all gone home tonight. but you know, what is really the tragedy here is all the civilian employees that are not going to get paid tomorrow night, all the, you know, the faa employees who are not going to be able to work. so families are going to have their flights del

we will start with musk.t before christmas and have a resolution going only until march. what is your sense of reaction by the ongoing spectacle driven by republicans, what is on the brink again in march? >> first and foremost, that is a lot of questions. i think we will definitely be back on the brink again in march. i think the general american public is quite frankly upset over the back-and-forth of this. we have come to the edge of a government shutdown multiple times at this point. i think they are used to the countdown clocks run on cable news networks when it comes to government shutdowns. but the thing that brought most people to the polls this past election cycle was the economy. and if you are talking about republicans who stood on the republic -- economy and said they could protect it better and stand for the working class and you see them push against the necessities for that class of individuals, whether they are talking about not insuring federal workers get their chance, we are talking about po

we joke about this president musk, does musk have trump under his thumb?is the richest guy in the world, he has the ability to push any message he wants on x, who is the daddy here? >> reporter: it is an interesting question here. the view around trump, it was musk that was critical element that won them the election he shows the effective ground game that critical in terms of getting out the votes. he has his megaphone. he is not just an oligarch he is a tech oligarch that can use all of the platforms and even more effectively than trump. that is astonishing. trump is outtweeted almost every day now. and, you know, that gives an extraordinary power. and as everyone says big question is can this bromance last or not. >> do you think it will? no, i think trump likes it more than e lon does and elon does the but after the inauguration. it will go back to what he is doing and trump will take charge again. >> i don't know that i believe that. look at this week. elon is weighing in on european politics voicing his support for far right candidates over there. >>

> president elon musk. >> president musk. >> president musk point >> elon musk who everybody is now calling president musk. >> is elon musk is kind of cosplaying copresident here, i don't know why trump doesn't just hand him the oval office. >> now that drumbeat certainly got the happy couple's attention. musk felt the need to go back on x and say it was the media who was trying to drive a wedge between him and trump. also declaring it wouldn't work. it trump spokesperson even felt the need to clarify that the actual president-elect is in fact the leader of the republican party. i promise you, that is not exactly a statement you want to have to make. so, president musk tanked the original bill, everyone got super offensive, and in an attempt to prove he could make demands as well, trump himself got in the mix, and said any new bill must do away with the federal debt ceiling. now, as a side note, he basically doesn't let the blame of raising the debt limit while he is president, and he wants to be able to spend and cut taxes for rich folks like a drunken sailor when he gets into office, that

elon musk spent a ton of money on electing trump. elon musk has the biggest platform in political communications. elon musk has the money to threaten other republicans with primary challenges. all those are incredibly important factors. but you know, for trump he's not running again and he might tire on this if it does result in bad publicity. >> i want to talk about those important factors because david, people have been saying to me for the last few weeks elon musk doesn't have that much power, doge, it's not even an agency, it's sitting off here in left field. but doesn't he have all the power? he's got this massive, massive megaphone in twitter and he has made it clear he will primary and/or humiliate anyone who stands in the way of his priorities. to me that's massive power. >> yeah, i think we have to distinguish between an advisory committee without any statutory power or really any political base and between that and the fact that elon musk doesn't just have influence with donald trump as we've seen over the last 24 to 48 hou

why would elon musk need to be speaker of the house?ight now with no responsibilities he does not like. if he doesn't like what is happening here tomorrow he can get on his rocketship and leave. but speaker of the house, you have work to do. >> you would also be fairly powerful, third in line for the presidency. he wouldn't be very good at it. >> right now i think he is closer in line to the presidency than mike johnson is. not in name but in influence. >> this is a guy who believes that his car charging style focuses on process, it can do anything. this is really fundamentally cultural clashing. someone who believes if you are aggressive enough as an entrepreneur, you move off, break things and do whatever it takes to build a company, he thinks he can transfer that to the political world. >> but it does not work like that. >> there is a fantastically dynamite private sector driven by entrepreneurs like elon musk and has been the envy of the world. you have this really contrasting story right now and somehow we just kind of carry on wit

musk thas real money. whatever threats trump issues, whether to primary someone or whether that's lawsuits against ththe media, those will be financed by mr. musk. the debts are in the past and also going forward toward the future. musk is the stronger figure here. at the same time, there s is a sign of conflict between the two men and a sign that congress may realize they want the u.s. to continue to exist as a republic, which is kind of the basic line talking about here. tim snider makes an interestingk point. this is not a -- does not look like a sustainable dynamic. elon musk tweets first and says the government maybe should shut godown, and then donald trump later follows and says, hey, maybe the government should shut down. >> you know, there are a couple of points to make here, ali. trump bought into elon musk because elon musk put $177 million into helping him get elected. then thought he might kind of sideline ghhim along with vivek ramaswamy -- excuse me -- with this non-governmental department o

everybody today who has met with musk and musk himself say they have been talking in general terms and the public's money should be spent wisely. what johnson just said is the doge effort will be bipartisan. it's bicameral. it should be those things. he pointed to a few democrats that expressed interest in joining the house committee as well as the senate caucus, which is an independent effort. he said he was asked for work from home policy for federal employees. that is something reported the doge caucus would target, of course, in conjunction with congress. he said it's, quote, absurd that he said, according to a report, just 1% of federal employees show up to the office every day. of course, it's been a long time since there was work from home flexibility. this is one of the areas they're looking at. also, there were questions about cuts to defense spending, to the military. susan collins, for example, earlier told me she wants to make sure our military has the adequate iness level, but there are potentially levels they could cut. john thune, the senate incoming republican leader wh

musk. it has a government that's dysfunctional.ried on with that contrast now you have people like musk essentially having to take a take over of government by the private sector entrepreneurs who have seemed to have driven so much of the success in the last years. >> why don't you think they're afraid of any backlash. in 2016 they knew they had to deal with trump. butch he didn't want to go to the white house. -- because he didn't want to go to the white house. donald trump won fair and square but it wasn't a landslide. why don't they have that fear right now. >> most people thought it was temporary. it's like a burst of extreme, insanity if he didn't like it. or extreme victory for a period of time if you did. people thought it would die down and would go away. i think now, people realize that actually the second time that donald trump has gone back into the white house would be a sign that the entire guise of the country is shifting. this is becoming normalized. the whole way we're viewing. >> ceo 's can be transactional too. >>

it goes like this, musk ruled everyone, nobody got what they wanted except musk. trump one of the debt ceiling gotten rid of, that is gone. democrats worked out bipartisan deals along with a bunch of things, pediatric cancer funding, reform of the pharmacy benefit administration, which has become a huge cost center controlling how much drug prices are. reforms of investment in china, limiting foreign investment in china, something musk may or may not have direct interest in. musk was able to kill that. you get a clean cr, avoid the ea shutdown but in the end, he kind of got what he wanted. spede heat -- >> he got something he wanted, we have to have a conversation about what oligarchy looks like in america, what it looks like h when multibillionaire's are able to use the incredibly massive platforms they have to spread this information, pull the strings of our elected officials, largely what we saw is that he is able to influence governmento before he has spen any dollars on their elections. we have trump on the one hand saying, he will primarily republicans, elon

and new reaction to musk today from congressman james clyburn. >> i think elon musk and a few others look upon this as some kind of a game that they want to play. we are playing with people's lives here. and we as elected officials ought not be giving up our responsibilities to someone who's never been elected to anything. >> we have reporters now in place covering all of these new developing story lines, and we're going to begin on capitol hill with nbc's julie sirkin. julie, welcome to you. got to say i felt it was the truth when johnson told you it's not the most fun job in the world, but anyway -- that's because of days of political wrangling after much congress ultimately avoided a government shutdown, but are lawmakers satisfied with the outcome? >> reporter: yeah, alex, i do think if speaker mike johnson is re-elected january 3rd given how unpredictable and chaotic the last 48 hours have been. what leaves the bill is both sides unsatisfied and satisfied, a shutdown would have had devastating impacts especially so close to the holiday. what wasn't in this final package was anyt

president musk. >> elon musk who everybody is calling president musk. >> if elon musk is displaying presidentn't know why trump doesn't hand him the oval office. >> it got to the point where trump spokeswoman had to put out a statement saying, no, really, trump is in charge. she said as soon as trump released his official stance on the continuing resolution to fund the government, republicans on capitol hill echoed his point of view. trump is the leader the republican party. i never understand will stop in statements from people. there two problems there. trump call for an end to the debt ceiling in the bill and republicans did not agree. if you have to say you are in charge, you may not be wielding as much power as you think. it's not just democrats on the unelected musk and his attempts to dictate policy. >> we have a president, vice president, and a speaker and it feels as if elon musk is our prime minister. >> i mean, there's that. if there's one thing we know about donald trump is that he loves sharing the limelight, right? he loves it. so everyone has been waiting for this to get under

and i don't think musk did either.nson did, and he thought he could believe this thing through. or he thought i've got to take the loss, and then we are back to the drawing board. the let me tell you, sitting across to the other side, to the chamber on the other side, you are sitting there and going i just want to go home for christmas. can't you guys just get it together? just pass the one we agreed on, and let's go home and learn to fight another day. >> of course, we want to remind our audience, this conflict of interest for elon musk are huge, but they will be entirely legal, because it is not an official role. he did not have to get vetted, he did not have to follow any rules. stuart, what you think the fate of mike johnson will be? the one person tonight who is sitting at home, smoking a cigar, drinking brown liquor, laughing his ass off his kevin mccarthy. >> yeah, i've been thinking about that. mike johnson is one of these accidental figures that political consequences sometimes toss up for us to deal with. i m

vice _ elon musk? president trump?imes on sociai— vice president vance, sometimes on social media but hasn't been spotted — on social media but hasn't been spotted much recently? he said they would try, i think that is doing — they would try, i think that is doing a — they would try, i think that is doing a lot of work in the sentence. it is reasonable people _ sentence. it is reasonable people for an incoming administration to try to build administration to try to build a relationship with the people coming — a relationship with the people coming in. i don't know how successful_ coming in. i don't know how successful it is going to be, i think— successful it is going to be, i think it — successful it is going to be, i think it will be an open question, a lot of helping there _ question, a lot of helping there are what many people would — there are what many people would see as a best case scenario— would see as a best case scenario of a trump presidency, deregulation but not too much other— deregulation but not too mu

musk pushed really hard and the republicans took that out. $4 billion, you probably have contacts and interests all over the place but musk has a lot of money flowing into china. i don't want this to be partisan, but i don't think we should be voting for to prop up billionaire so we can send potentially, you know, military and technological secrets out to our adversaries. yet, the republican caucus caved to trump and musk on that issue . even though they did not caved to trump on the debt ceiling question. we won the battle and there are many more head. >> i get use to, you know, the whole musk influence on the house of representatives. i want to play for you the response of the speaker, when asked whether or not he wanted to be speaker again. >> reporter: you still want to be speaker in this experience? >> looked. being speaker the house is a challenge and it is a modern era, but is a challenge we accept. it is a great honor to serve in the position. i would not say it is the most fun job in the world all the time but it is an important one.

host: republican in alabama talking about elon musk. axios noting that musk has had tweets disallowed -- tweet storm they say 150 plus posts on the defeat of the federal spending bill while sharing some demonstrably false information. including the size of a proposed congressional pay raise. now dropped from the bill. musk also repost add false claim that the bill included a $3 billion for a new nfl stadium in d.c. but the provision also now stricken from the bill merely transferred the site of the old r.f.k. stadium from the federal government to the district of columbia. musk said the original bill fund adebayo weapons lab. it -- a bioweapons lab. it didn't. musk post add claim the bill contained $60 billion for ukraine which it didn't appear to. this is from axios' reporting. when musk tells x followers, you are the media, it's true. they are part of his media. but that's different than declaring they are all reporters trying to validate information before sharing it. john, hampton, virginia, a democratic caller. john, you get to tel

>> musk is doing what musk has to do to do one thing, which is make musk more money. deeper than what mark just said. it's important for everybody listening to know that there's 435 congress people. about 400 of them are in various states democrat or republican district. what you're describing is democracy and why nothing gets done in washington because the folks actually listened back in the day to rush limbaugh or today on twitter are not middle- of-the-road, common sense, independent or democrat, it's republicans and it scares the bgb's out of a bunch of republicans who can never be beat in a general election but could losing a primary every two years. that's the reason they have so much power. with rush limbaugh back in the day and currently with musk. >> that's sort of the thing because just last week republican congressman andy barr said his phone was ringing off the hook with constituents who were basically parroting everything elon musk said in his tweets. his complaint was suddenly their complaint. what does that tell you? if you are any of these lawmakers, w

elon musk is again the richest person in the world. he's been extraordinarily successful building companies that are unlike any other. and i'm appreciative of the fact that president trump has that type of talent available to advise him. >> senator, thank you so much for being here this morning. i hope you and your family have a merry christmas. >> nice to be with you. same, same to you. happy holidays to everybody. >> thank you, thank you. and coming up, one of the 38 republicans to vote against donald trump's wishes this week will join me on what comes next. and then congress was melting down this week. so we are going to ask a question about the sitting president. joe biden talked to one of his closest allies, senator chris ahead. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn i'm kind of needs to be more squiggly perfect. >> so now, do you have a driver's license? oh, what did you get us with a click of a pen? >> you can get a new volkswagen at the sign, then drive event. lisa, 2024 towels for z

is it irresponsible _ musk in charge of it. is it irresponsible for - musk in charge of it.f it. is it irresponsible for them to j musk in charge of it. is it irresponsible for them to play around with people �*s lives like this, so many people depend on government services, government workers depend on the paycheques. i government workers depend on the paycheques-_ the paycheques. i think a lot of americans _ the paycheques. i think a lot of americans right _ the paycheques. i think a lot of americans right now - the paycheques. i think a lot of americans right now who | of americans right now who voted for the majority of americans who voted for president elect trump view it as trump spinning up for them, we've seen this movie before with government shutdowns, we've seen it before with in the ayes of many americans congress simply kicking the can if you will on government spending and here we are again. that's the way many americans view this, we are in a position right now where the nation's debt is only going up and up every second, you're saying right now another talk o

he did not dare, but elon musk foolishly did. elon musk picked florida senator rick scott publicly endorsed him, and rick scott came in last among the group of three candidates for majority leader. everyone knew he was going to come in last. only two of those candidates were serious candidates, and only one of them had a real chance, senator john thune of south dakota won on the first ballot. even though elon musk publicly opposed john thune and announced publicly, and he thought this was really condemning, that john thune was the favorite choice of democrats. and that is actually true. they want chuck schumer to stay as majority leader, but off republican has to be majority leader, they would prefer john thune to the alternatives. elon musk foolishly believed that identifying that simple fact, that democrats would prefer john thune, would kill john thune's candidacy for majority leader with republican senator, but everyone in the senate already knew that the democrats preferred john thune. and so elon musk's public humiliation t

tonight it's the maga versus musk war that is escalating tonight, as elon musk says, that parts of that movement are contemptible fools. while his far right critics claim he is censoring them on his own platform. whose side is donald trump on? and we'll speak with the house republican on that critical election for mike johnson that is now just days away. by this time next week, we could know if he remains as the house speaker. and with the clock ticking for tiktok, i have new reporting that trump just spoke with the company's ceo. the president elect tonight is calling on the supreme court to pause the nationwide ban, set to go into effect the day before he takes office. i'm kaitlan collins, and this is the source. and tonight, that internal battle that's underway in trump world that we laid out for you here last night is only escalating even further today in his clash with the far right over immigration. elon musk is now going after the hard liners at the very heart of the maga base, labeling them just a few hours ago as, quote, contemptible fools who must be removed from the republica