all of it from michael schmidt who also reveals, quote, the lobbying of mr. sessions is one of the several previously unreported episodes that the special counsel robert s. mueller has learned about as he investigates whether mr. trump obstructed the fbi's russia inquiry. schmidt's reporting also casting this nugget from his sit-down interview with mr. trump at mar-a-lago last week in a new light where donald trump said, i don't want to get into loyalty but i will tell you tharkts i will say this. holder protected president obama. totally protected him. when you look at the things that they did and holder protected the president. and i have great respect for that. i'll be honest. i have great respect for that. donald trump undaunted by a news cycle dominated by questions about his judgment added this to the conversation in an early morning tweet. quote, well, now that collusion with russia is proving to be a total hoax and the only collusion is with hillary clinton and the fib/russia, the fake news media, mainstream, and this phony new book are hitting out at

michael schmidt reported mr mr.was reported to just not only hand over documents but personally testify before a grand jury condition veined by the special counsel. this is the first time he was known to use a grand jury subpoena to compel testimony. joining us now is a man who broke the story, michael schmidt. thanks for joining us. congratulations on the big scoop. >> thanks for having me. >> before now, i'm observing this, it has seemed to me that we've only had a fairly random cast of characters confirmed as having been asked to testify before the grand jury by robert mueller. do we know, do you have further clarity why he has been taken in rather than have a voluntary interview like so many other white house officials? >> no, we don't. that's the curious thing. in the last few months, a bunch on white house a officials met with mueller. they did so in the informal setting of his office, where they met with his prosecutors and investigators. bannon was never among the people that were reported to have met with m

i'll read it the way michael sh mig -- schmidt wrote it. trump gave firm instructions, stop the attorney general jeff session from recruiting himself in the justice department's investigation whether they helped the russia campaign to disrupt the 2016 election. white house counsel don mcgahn carried out the orders and lobbied in charge of it. i don't know how it works with context whether or not like the attorney general should be recused. for the president to effectively lobby against his attorney it is improper for the president to effectively lobby against his attorney general's recusal this way? >> well, the president can express a desire that the attorney general stay in a case, but you shouldn't be surprised by what i'm about to say, rachel. the department of justice is full of lawyers. there is a bunch of rules written down about when you must recuse yourself and should recuse yourself. so the must category is really easy. let's say you would have a financial stake in the outcome of the case. you must recuse yourself. or it involves

the times michael schmidt reporting, quote, the west wing confrontation marks the first time mr. trump is known to have tried to fire special counsel mr. mueller. mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior white house officials in his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice. the washington post adding, quote, trump's ire at mueller rose to such a level that then white house strategist steve bannon and then chief of staff reince priebus grew incredibly concerned that he was going to fire mueller and sought to enlist others to intervene with the president, according to a trump advisor who requested anonymity to describe private conversations. both of the men were deeply worried about the possibility and discussed how to keep him from making such a move, this person said. the president woke up to the news in switzerland and responded with what has become a reflex for him. >> mr. president, why did you want to fire robert mueller? >> fake news, folks, fake news. typical new york times fake story. >> but

michael schmidt, i know you're in incredible demand for this piece. thank you for spending tyime wih us. >> thanks for having me. >> if there is a lawyer in the white house that deliberately led the president to maneuver him out of doing something he legally could do because that lawyer thought it would imperial the presidency for the president to take that action, how does that stand? and if you're a lawyer, are you allowed to do that? are you allowed to mislead your client if he's the president of the quiunited states and you wo in the white house counsel's office? hold that thought. it's time for sleep number's 'lowest prices of the season' on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. does your bed do that? right now our queen c4 mattress is only $1199, save $400. ends soon. visit sleepnumber.com for a store near you. you or joints. something for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health sup

steve schmidt? >> no, not really.going to be very contentious, and i don't think trump will resist his base. >> all right. my thanks to steve, bill, eli, and elise. >> how are you doing? well done. if it's thursday, the president will definitely maybe talk to the special counsel. >> tonight, it's a trap. fears of a perjury trap with bob mueller take the president literally or seriously? >> i will say if this talk is real, and the interview is coming up that bob mueller is probably farther along in the investigation than some might have imagined. >> plus, what's the deal on immigration talks? >> i think the more you do an immigration all at once, the harder it is to pass. >> and dividing lines. how more states are

it was reported by michael schmidt and dan haberman. michael is standing by. it says, quote, president trump ordered the firing last june of robert mueller but ultimately backed down when the white house counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive. the west wing confrontation notes the first time president trump has tried to fire the special counsel. mr. mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior white house officials and his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice. after receiving the president's order to fire mr. mueller, the white house counsel, donald mcghan refused to ask the justice department to dismiss the special counsel, saying he would quit instead. mr. mcghan disagreed with the case. he also told white house officials that firing mr. mueller would have a catastrophic effect on mr. trump's presidency and would incite more questions about whether the white house was trying to obstruct the russia investigation. mr. mcghan also told white house officia

let's talk about michael schmidt.ahn approaches the attorney general of the united states and tries to convince him not to recuse himself from a pending investigation of elements of the presidency. so you're a former u.s. attorney. did you work for the president of the united states or did you work for the letter of the law, the constitution of the united states? and what is your understanding of the role of the white house counsel? is he the president's personal lawyer or bound to represent the office of the presidency? a once revered and respected institution? >> president obama made it clear to his u.s. attorneys that although he had appointed us, that we didn't serve him. that u.s. attorneys served the american people, and that his expectation was that we would do exactly that. the white house counsel currently don mcgahn has a very similar obligation. he's not the president's lawyer. he serves the presidency and the american people, but he does not serve a specific sitting president. so the idea that he would lik

but, steve schmidt, i want to show you something. you and i spent a lot of time with lindsey graham in 2008. and i want to play something that he said about the president on immigration, about what's in his heart, and ask you if you know what's in the president's heart. let's listen. >> talked with the president, his heart is right on this issue. i think he's got a good understanding of what will sell. and every time we have proposal, it is all yanked back by staff members. as long as stephen miller is in charge negotiating immigration, we're going nowhere. >> do you agree with lindsey graham that donald trump has something different in his heart on immigration than stephen miller? >> i think we've made a big mistake in recent years, nicole, trying to analyze what's in people's hearts. frankly, i don't care what's in donald trump's heart. i care about the outcome. i care what comes out of his mouth. and for somebody who began his campaign talking about the rapists and the murderers coming across the border, saying someone was disqual

steve schmidt and the gang are all here. let me ask you about a headline that just crossed our desk. breitbart owners debate ousting bannon amid trump feud. many supportive of the move, according to a person familiar with the exchanges. among the considerations are breitbart's relationships with other entities. staffers at breitbart which bannon described as his killing machine described a chaotic day at the company. i have been asking this for two days but if bannon and trump are getting divorced, who gets what? who gets breitbart? i guess we might know. >> well, yeah, it is a decision that has to be made by the board and i haven't been able to confirm to the level of satisfaction that i would report it. i've heard that there are those conversations are happening but again, i haven't been able to confirm one way or the other whether he's being booted out of breitbart or not. it's very hard when reporting on this stuff because people will swear black and blue one side or the other, and let's just say i'm highly skeptical of

michael schmidt of the times reporting, quote, president trump gave firm instructions in march to the white house's top lawyer. stop the attorney general from recusing himself and the justice department's investigation into whether mr. trump's associates had helped a russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election. the times citing two sources, saying mcgahn tried and he failed. the report goes on "mr. mcgahn was unsuccessful and the president erupted in anger in front of numerous white house officials, saying he needed his attorney general to protect him." mr. trump said he expected his top law enforcement official to safeguard him in the way he believed john f. kennedy has attorney general has done for his brother john f. kennedy. and eric holder had done for barack obama. you might remember last week president trump sat down for an inter view with michael schmidt while vacationing in mar-a-lago. he made similar comments about holder and obama. "i will say this, holder protected president obama, totally protected him. when you look at all of the tremendous real problems they had, not

steve schmidt has been through tons of them. all of us are campaign veterans. the central problem of his presidency is that at a moment of crisis, they're not worried about him. they're worried about themselves. >> that's exactly right. the president is someone who demands absolute loyalty, but doesn't necessarily always return it in kind. and you see his aides and advisers behaving that way on a range of issues from the russia probe to an unflattering book. they're all worried, what is my visibility. what do i have to do with this? one thing that's quite savvy about their tragedy is that by dismissing this entire book as pure fiction, it sort of ale alleviates some of the problems for them if they're quoted as saying or doing something unflattering to the president they can go to him and say, we all agree this book is simply not true. >> steve schmidt, our friend matt miller tweeted something that seemed to me to get at the heart of why this book matters. he tweeted the rivalry and dysfunction inside team trump has always been mueller's biggest asset. if they

no schmidt just confined to a wheelchair three years ago a botched hepatitis vaccination paralyzed both her legs i know because twenty four years old and she's determined to learn to walk again with the help of an exoskeleton but so far only a few paraplegics in germany have made their dream of walking again come true. i know schmidt tender partner luke us cops have become experts on exoskeletons a new look at us are intrigued by these mechanisms that can help some people walk again the couple spends hours doing research online. even though that's fine you can't tell if you're wearing black. it's like something out of a star wars movie. but he has never to use crutches. or look at this. yeah that's why don't you just nikki wearing that re walk on the direct biopic the exile together. the nukes favorite model is made by we walk tomorrow she'll try it out for the first time she has high hopes for what this exoskeleton can do not only for self but also for her relationship with look at us they met two years ago. and he was as close as to move us forward to now i'd love to be able to see hi

" white house reporter eli stokels, eugene robinson for "the washington post," palmieri and steve schmidt, republican strategist and msnbc contributor back by popular demand. eli, let me start with you. take me inside this white house effort to, obviously, almost too obviously, try to showcase and produce a president being presidential doing stuff that they think is normal for a president. all the while using his executive time to tweet about the russia witch hunt. >> right. no subtlety to that effort we saw yesterday with putting him out there and saying, look at me. i'm in command of the room and i can lead and sort of -- there is no fourth wall with this president. he started the cabinet meeting today by talking to the press who went into the room and saying welcome back to the studio. he knows this is all performance art. he's not going to fool bob mueller with a lot of these things. you see the agitation in the president's behavior and tweets. we'll see what happens. the word salad. the word collusion, repeating it over and over. there's no way to calm this president down when he's w

schmidt, since it's your conclusion that we start with, fill in the blanks on this story. why were they both talked to when they were talked to? why were they staggered? why one in 2017, one in 2018, and what are the questions in content? >> there are two buckets mueller is looking at, one is the collusion bucket, the other is the obstruction one. for an interview with sessions, he falls into both of them. he was part of the campaign. he can speak about the contacts with the russians, he can also speak about the firing of comey, what the president's true intentions are, why did he do that? now, he's speaking to sessions because sessions is closer to the top of the totem pole in the trump administration. he's closer to the president. he's checking off the final people he's speaking with before he gets to the president. he spoke with comey last year several months ago about comey's interactions with the president, sort of the basis for what caused mueller's investigation. did trump try and obstruct the russia investigation? did he try and influence comey with bad intentions

joining us is michael schmidt. washington correspondent at the "new york times" and the co-author of this very interesting new report. mr. schmidt, i wish you lots more sleep in your next life. >> thanks for having me. >> let me ask if i've correctly conveyed what is in your piece and if i've left out anything you think is important. >> yeah, i think that don mcgahn is a central figure in this, that the american public may not appreciate. don mcgahn was involved in the comey firing, don mcgahn was involved in lobbying attorney general sessions not to recuse himself from the russia investigation. he was asked by the president in june to fire mueller. he's a central player in all these and it's an irremarkable part of the story that gives us insight how the president tried to use lawyers in ways he was apparently sort of afraid to do himself. >> because mr. mcgahn's role in so many of these key moments, as you just described is being more and more exposed to the public. we're getting more and more information includi

this time, it's the new york types, michael schmidt. headline, trump ordered mueller fired. now, note the past tense there. this is not the president ordering the firing of special counsel robert mueller tonight. this is a report tonight from the times that says the president tried to fire him this past summer. went so far as ordering it, but it didn't happen. essentially, the glitch appears to have been that the president was not interested in doing the firing himself. he told the white house counsel to do it for him. the white house counsel said no and that stopped it. that's the rest of the headline. trump ordered mueller fired but backed off when white house counsel treated hrea threatened. the sourcing here is four people, four people told of the matter so here is how they start. according to four people told of the matter last june president trump ordered the firing of mueller. the president ultimately backed down, though, after the white house counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive. this west wing confrontation marks the first time mr. trump

i just wanted to put that out there. >> michael schmidt is a skillful reporter. let's put that out there as well. peter, you're at the white house. what's the mood been like lately? what's the mood like today? >> well, you know, it's every day. when they thought they were getting off to a nice slow start to the new year, it's opened with a bang instead. they thought they'd have more time to prepare for this book as we're about to talk about in the next segment. they thought they would have a little more leeway and breathing space given the big victory on the tax cuts just before the holiday. instead, boom, right out of the gun, they're facing questions about the president's mental health, the russia investigation. so, the tension has gone right back up as if there had been no holiday. >> the mental health question came up early this week. in fact, the first working day of this week when donald trump himself ended up tweeting about his big button, his big nuclear button that was bigger than kim jong-un's. we're going to get to that in a little while. guys, thank y

some people say they do. >> steve schmidt, thank you. thank you for your poetry. >> can i -- >> yes, you can ask a question. >> steve, in our old job, you and i would have been watching the democratic response to understand the competition. if we were in the white house or still in republican politics. i counted in joe kennedy's response 15 we's, seven you's and in the old bush campaign ken mehlman would have seen a politician who speaks in the language of we, you, and no i's as a real formidable voice. what did you make of the democratic response? >> it's the most effective response we've seen from any member of the party for quite a long time. he is a rising star in the democratic party. he is going to have a big future. i think about the congressman there in massachusetts, the combat marine corps veteran seth moulton. and congressman kennedy, congressman moulton, a couple of others i think represent a real changing of the guard inside the democratic party. and we'll be seeing a lot more of these younger members who are in their late 3

michael schmidt quoting "the west wing confrontation marks the first time that mr. trump is known to have tried to fired special counsel robert mueller. "the washington post" adding, quote, trump's ire at mueller rose to such a level that then white house strategist steven bannon and reince priebus grew incredibly concerned he was going to fire mueller and sought to enlist others to intervene with the president, according to a presidential adviser who requested anonymity. both were worried about the possibility and discussed how to keep him from making such a move. the president woke up to the news in switzerland and responded with what has become a reflection for him. >> why did you want to fire robert mueller? >> fake news, fake news. typical "new york times" fake story. >> but no denials from his attorney ty cobb, or anyone else at the white house, ty cobb saying we decline to comment out of respect for the office of special counsel and its process. joining us today, "new york times" reporter michael schmidt who along with maggie haberman who broke that story las

host of studio 360 an steve schmidt back with us.urt, you have been studying the man named trump longer than rest of us. >> when he threatened to sue me. >> you were a pioneer in getting journalists threatened to be sued by trump. is this the trump that you know as you read it in michael wolff's book? >> well, i didn't know just -- he didn't seem as incomprehensibly out of control and stupid as he seems from michael's book. i mean, for starters, michael is depibl depicting this white house that's just a madhouse of chaos and incompetence. that team letting michael wolff in there is a symptom of that very thing. all you have to do is read what this man has written over the last couple of decades the know he's probably not going to be a friendly journalist. >> yeah. and, steve schmidt, michael wolff again writing just in today's hollywood reporter, so much to cover with what he's revealing and that's why monday night joining with us the book to get into more detail in the book and on what michael wrote today in hollywood reporter he sa

>> no, i have not. >> michael schmidt. i'm struck looking at the date on that, june 13, that's at the heart of when all of this was happening. can you describe a little of the confrontation or whether or not there was a confrontation between don mcgann and the president on this? >> well mcgann was very unnerved by this. he knew the catastrophic impact that this would have on the administration. they had already, the comey fire hg turned out to be a complete disaster. it had come out afterwards that comey had asked trump to end the flynn investigation. and here they were, a few weeks later trying to figure out how to stop the president from doing something that they believed would hurt him. but this is something that mcgann has confronted many times as the president's top lawyer. trying to balance the, the desires of his client against either things that are ethical or illegal. and the balancing act that mcgann would do. in this case mcgann was willing to give up his job to try to stop that. a lot of times when white house

you just confirmed this reporting by michael schmidt. what more do you know? >> that's right. so a source close to comey telling us in fact, he did sit down with mueller's team late last year, and of course, ever since james comey testified to congress in dramatic fashion about the memos he wrote detailing what he thought were troubling interactions and conversations with the president of the united states, you knew he was going to be a key witness in the mueller investigation, particularly along the lines of obstruction of justice, because after all, the firing of comey is at the heart of that line of inquiry, as are donald trump's alleged requests to comey to -- for his loyalty and to go easy on mike flynn. recall that comey says there was a private interaction where trump asked him if he could see his way to dropping the flynn investigation. we now know that flynn was under investigation for lying to the fbi. so that is a crucial issue here in the mueller investigation. james comey is an important witness and we now know he's talked to the mueller team. >> so we have james

does that interview and that transcript from michael schmidt's interview with donald trump, is there like a collide scope that constantly changes the dynamics in this russia investigation and what we know coming further and further out of the water like an iceberg emerging, is there anything from this piece tonight that recasts any of what donald trump said to your colleague, michael schmidt, about collusion, about russia and about the investigation? >> well, it's interesting how intense he was, right, in that interview. as you said, he repeated again and again, there was no collusion, there was no collusion. to repeat it as if he was trying to convince, well, not just the outside world but even maybe himself. and then you see today the sort of series of provocative tweets on all different subjects today including hillary clinton aide saying she should go to jail. and it makes you wonder what's going on with the investigation that has him spun up. is he agitated because of something he knows might be coming down the pike on this investigation whether it be involving these glen simpso

and steve schmidt, republican strategist and msnbc contributor. michael, let me read a little bit from your piece. you write "some legal experts say the subpoena could be a sign that the investigation was intensifying, while others said it may simply have been a negotiating tactic to persuade mr. bannon to cooperate with the investigation. the experts also said it could be a signal to mr. bannon who's tried to publicly patch up his falling out with the president that despite mr. trump's legal threats, mr. bannon must be completely forthcoming with investigators. prosecutors generally prefer to interview witnesses before a grand jury when they believe they have information that the witnesses do not know or when they think they might catch the witnesses in a lie." tell us about the piece and the new reporting. >> well, we don't have a lot of insight into mueller's motivations here, but what mueller did was treated bannon differently than he's treated everyone else. in the last few months of last year, mueller had a bunch of white house officials com

michael schmidt. who broke the story. and hallie, let's begin with you. new reporting on how it went down, what's next for bannon. on what authority exactly was the white house telling steve bannon not to testify yesterday? >> so this was a discussion that the white house, i'm told had been having with the house intelligence committee about what exactly bannon might or might not be able to say and apparently instructed bannon to avoid certain questions related to his time at the white house. that's one of the subpoenas, the congressional subpoena. there's also the grand jury subpoena from the special counsel arguably and potentially more impactful here. we have new reporting on how exactly all of this went down. a source familiar with the proceedings says fbi agents actually showed up to bannon's house last tuesday intending to talk to him serve him with the subpoena. unaware that he had just retained counsel. william burke, who represents two other people related to all of this, white house counsel d

jeremy bash, joy vance, thank you both and michael schmidt and ari, stay with us.poll shows 39% of the people blamed democrats and far more pin the blame on congressional republicans and the president. we'll run through those numbers straight ahead, you are watching "morning joe," we'll be right back. now you can join angie's list for free. which means everyone has access to our real reviews that we actually verify. and we can also verify that what goes down, [ splash, toilet flush ] doesn't always come back up. find a great plumber at angie's list. join today for free. >>> i sat down with president trump on friday and offered him quite a bit. i said if we do dreamers, we'll give you the deal. he basically agreed. and then he backed out that deal and he shut ts the government down. >> senate minority chuck schumer says president trump is ta says he's taking the wall off the table. deputy white house press secretary hogan refuted his claim saying the offer never existed. president trump hit back at chuck schumer at a tweet last night. "crying chuck schumer fully und

begin your schmidt alias d.j. organized her first dance party for senior citizens today a few years later she's known throughout the land as all this d.j. she ludes all the cliches. every monday is party night in hula kula a club in warsaw with e.j. bekah it's all fun. i love dancing and people have to do something so i don't think . it's a way for people to come together. and love to dance and don't love each other as a matter of fact but looking for sherri love and respect each other very much more like immediately you can snuggle up if you're alone. forget you know each other ten years ago at a dance party like this steadily for four months i paid her nowhere tension stands on our own so you don't interrupt me sweetheart after four months we met again and since then. it's up he was assassinated by my red shoes. when d.j. is behind the turntables in hula cooler the dancers really let loose. to say. what i'm spinning records i'm twenty years old maybe even younger. i like to play music and i love to watch people

it's just appalling. >> steve schmidt, on the topic of dysfunction. a former national security official from the last republican administration, the one in which you and i worked, suggested that people often compare disastrous campaigns or white houses to the titanic, and they suggest efforts to pa legislation as moving the chairs around. he says this is the first political operation where you could suggest it's like the titanic but instead of moving the chairs around they're eating each other. it's basically cannibalism aboard the titanic as its sinking. can you speak the fact these are people who do not trust each other, and are so brazen and disrespectful not just to the president they serve but to the office of the presidency? >> well, the year has been every day a debasement of the office of the president of the united states by this president, by his staff with the consistency of the lying, the misinformation, the lying spewed out to the american people. but what we see in this book, did tom barak say this or that, we'll find out in the next few

joining us now steve schmidt my colleague from the bush white house and mccain presidential campaign. eugene robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist. eugene, let me just throw this out there. so i have read just about every presidential memoir frto everything written during the bush years and a lot what was written during the clinton years, memoirs and tell-alls. i have never read anything in which a former senior staffer suggests that the president is a dunce, that the president's son committed treason and that the president's daughter is dumb as a brick have. you? >> no, i haven't. and i don't know that we'll ever read anything like that again, except about this administration. i mean, first of all, it's not every administration or really any administration in which the president who has no experience in government immediately appoints both his daughter who has no experience in government and his son-in-law who has no experience in government to high positions inside the west wing. and lo and behold they have no idea what they're doing. lo and behold they don't know anything abou

what happened one december night four years ago is still a blur to beth schmidt. >> a police officerame to the door. >> reporter: she was worried that her son was arrested. >> it basically, he was immediay gone. >> reporter: shawn schmidt died of an fentanyl overdose at 23 years old. it's a cheap drug. >> i could spend six hours and walk away with heroin. >> reporter: six bucks? >> six bucks. >> reporter: overdoses have soared in our region. >> the fentanyl we see in fairfax county, montgomery county, d.c., it's coming from overseas? >> that's correct. >> reporter: the deputy u.s. attorney general rod rosenstein says that the cases have spiked. >> an increase demand here? >> reporter: yes. i think what you need to recognize is that this is a drug with a supply that creates the demand. in order for people to get hooked on fentanyl, they have to have fentanyl. >> reporter: the drugs are entering our area right here at therp luggage and international passengers. customs and border protection officers and k-9s screen bags in a large industrial space beneath the terminal. they also sift t

[cheers and applause] >> in 2011, we awarded our wendy schmidt oil clean up xchallenge. the winners, elastec american marine with a million dollar check.k. and this, of f course,s the prize that they won for more than doubling the industry best standard for oil clean up that had existed to that point. >> prizes have actually been around for over 300 years. back in 1714 was the longitude prize. it was a $20,000 prize put on by the british government to help us figure out where we were from a longitudal basis when we were crossing the oceans. and everybody assumed when they put this prize out there that it would either be a ship's captain or it would be an astronomer that won this prize. and it was actually a clclock maker. and he was this outside innovator that nobody ever would have expected to win a prize like this. napoleon used prizes. we have canned food because napoleon's army needed to be fed and so they figured out a way to preserve food, right. lindbergh flew a across the atlantic for a prize. there was a $25,0 prize for the first person that could fly non-stop f

steve schmidt is here to talk about it and a political analyst. i see you're chuckling.s it best that our president be kept as far away from this deal as possible? >> no, they talk about him like they're hanging hannibal electric ter out. this is the president of the united states, commander in chief. extraordinary disregard with which this white house staff talks about their president. >> and steve, you are alone in public and media life by my reckoning in your use of the word "rigor." it's a terrific word. it speaks to a work ethic and a way of living, and rigor, that great word, has been so completely absent from our elected officials in washington who have again chosen to walk us up to a government shutdown deadline, as we've been saying, two weeks from this coming thursday. >> certainly it's the case, brian, that this does not go unnoticed all through the world. the chinese english language state news agency has been mocking the american system of government all day long all through the shutdown. what country in the world would look at the united states senate, at t