To mount juliet, tennessee. Christy walked in for a get together and got the surprise of her life. Not a dry eye in that house. Thanks for joining us. Busy day. Im dana perino. Heres shep. Shepard a live look, the Eisenhower Executive Office building next to the west wing where were about to hear live from the president in the wake of an extraordinary morning. The pressure on President Trump accelerating and in moments hes scheduled to speak. Two big issues, first, the president s decision to withdraw troops from syria. Widely criticized by members of his own party, his own advisers and generals and cabinet. Our own reporting that he stopped listening to top leadership, didnt inform our allies or the pentagon. Hes getting praise from putin and condemnation from conservatives. At the same time, in the face of pressure to build that wall, the newly announced president ial decision not to sign the
shortterm budget deal that easily passed the u. S. Senate. His base was rebelling. The Freed
to them. no. what s striking is the way that they ve decided that nothing matters other than simply main taping power taining power. it s almost interesting, what would you zo is now you ve accomplished this, drawn the line on impeachment. freedom caucus has completely become the donald trump caucus, the gop is in the tank for this president. okay. what is it you want? clearly it s not smaller budgets. clearly it s not about constitutionism. i think they would answer you and say give you kind of vaporous answers about religious freedom because we can finally say christmas again, apparently. but it s really striking that i think trump has laid bare that this is not a political division in the country, because the politics don t matter. one of the really striking things is that people it s a moral division.
trump at all costs while the federal debt grew to record levels, they passed the largest budget, loaded budget, in the history of the republic. deficits exploding, tariff taxes being pushed. all the things that the freedom caucus was supposed to support, a smaller government, free trade, the free market all of that thrown out the window in defense in blind defense of donald j. trump. and they re certainly not alone. groups that had a very specific purpose have all morphed into becoming defense fund. you look at somebody like the club for growth was about debt and deficit now weighing in on impeachment to defend president trump. evangelical groups could be added to that list. tom nichols, these are groups you ve been familiar with over the course of your career who probably don t resem habl they look resemble what they looked like when you first were introduced
meadows will not be running for re-election. nbc news has confirmed that the north carolina republican may leave congress before his term is finished to help president trump in a still undecided role. that s according to a source close to the congressman. that person says that the decision has been a long time coming adding that meadows has been thinking about it a lot. meadows, of course, runs the freedom what are they? freedom caucus on the hill had it first began, the freedom caucus was actually intended to do what a lot of us did, a small group of us actually did when we were in washington. and that is limit spending in washington, d.c. unfortunately, it morphed in a very ugly way into a blind defense fund for donald j. trump, not financially, but they gave their reputation. willie, geist, they gave their reputation, they gave everything they had to defending donald
short-term budget deal that easily passed the u.s. senate. his base was rebelling. the freedom caucus on the hill, his supporters on social media and beyond saying promise broken to build that wall. st. a compromise possible? a dance of dollars and semantics that could soothe and give solace to supporters. or will the government shut down just as santa feeds the reindeer. now the president will face the cameras. the topic today, a farm bill, but the focus here and around the world on other matters and we re advised he will address the shut down first. president trump now refusing to sign any spending bill that does not also include funding for a border wall. sending congress back to come up with legislation that does. the house speaker, paul ryan, on his last day on the job explaining that. the president informed us that he won t sign the bill that came up from the senate last evening because of his legitimate concerns for border