Headquarters in New York City. Senator bob menendez calls it the biggest fight of his political life. He had the knives out for everyone from prosecutors to democrats who say feel a political opportunity. Binge watchers and Channel Surfers rejoice. Hollywood appears to be back in business. After 146 days in the picket lines, the Writers Unions says it struck an exceptional deal with the heads of the studios. Whats in it and what does it mean for your favorite shows. Families of fbi agents increasingly under threat. Prosecutors under 24hour protection. All of it the result of a toxic mix of overheated rhetoric and an angry and polarized public that officials increasingly fear will explode into violence. How do we turn down that temperature . A lot to talk about today. Well start in new jersey where senator bob menendez made it official. Not only wont he step down after fridays detailed and devastating indictment on bribery charges, but he claims some yettobe revealed facts will exonerate him. The senator didnt do much to explain those facts. Instead, surrounding himself with supportive voters and promoting his record in congress. To those who are rushed to judgment, you have done so based on a limited set of facts framed by the prosecution to be as sally shows as possible. Remember, prosecutors get it wrong sometimes. Sadly, i know that. All that against a political backdrop that has seen new jerseys democratic governor, the state Party Chairman and six House Members from new jersey pushing menendez to leave congress altogether. Nbcs ally capitol hill. Danny cevallos is here with me, a Criminal Defense Attorney and msnbc legal analyst. Ali, was what we heard today a Legal Defense or a political one . Reporter i leave my legalese to danny here. To me this read as a court of Public Opinion statement more than just a Court Of Justice opinion from the senator from new jersey. The fact here that he was refuting some key points in the indictment, for instance, trying to explain the cash that was found in some of those jackets as personal funds that he takes out because of his government mistrust from his cuban immigration history. Thats one of the explanations that he offered there. No explanation by contrast for the gold bars that were found and shown in this indictment. The other piece of this, though, that i think rang politically was that clip that you just showed. I covered menendezs last election battle, 2018 in new jersey. Ality that point he was facing similar allegations of corruption. He beat those charges in the end. But voters i talked to at the time really felt like corruption was baked into the cake for menendez but they had no alternative if they wanted to vote democrat. The difference here is that menendez has a challenger in congressman andy kim. Thats going to be something important as we chart what this race looks like Going Forward and how democrats react to him. I do think its important to point out he wasnt explicit in saying he was running for reelection. Certainly thats one of the big outstanding questions here. What he did say was he did say when all is said and done, he will remain the Senior Member from new jersey. This reelection bid would be for next year. You could reasonably say it sounds like menendez is a guy who says im not going anywhere in the short term and im going to stay around in the long term. Well see if he makes that explicit. Robert, do you think menendez helped himself at all today from a purely political standpoint . No, not entirely. I think there are still a ton more questions than there ever are answers. What on earth are you doing googling how much is a gold bar worth . I think theres lots to be answered. My guess is today was much more about focusing on, as we talked about, his political life and surviving the near term future in politics than it was the longer term view of the legal trouble that hes in. I dont think that this new jersey delegation is going to be the last to call for his resignation. I dont think senator fetterman is going to be the only sitting senator that does as well. As you said, the indictment and the details in it are shocking and devastating. I think he is on borrowed time politically. Danny, what was probably the most, i think, direct denial of a charge, and we have pictures of wads of cash in one of his jackets, menendez tried to explain why he had all that month any in cash at home. Here is what he said. For 30 years i have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal Savings Account which i have kept for emergencies and because of the history of my family Facing Confiscation in cuba. This may seem oldfashioned. These were monies drawn from my personal Savings Account based on the income i have lawfully derived over 30 years. As part of a Legal Defense, how does it play . Number one, a client shouldnt give his Legal Defense from a podium. Number two, he said hes been making this withdrawals, part of his defense. He better have the printouts to prove it. Number three, it isnt just about cash. Its about gold bars. If you read the indictment, its a lot more than just being in possession of cash. There you see a couple of the gold bars right there. The indictment alleges and presumably the government believes it has evidence that somebody gave him those gold bars. Ive extended these extortion and bribery cases. Under the Extortion Statute the government needs to prove a quid pro quo, this for that, gold bars for some official act. Its even easier than that. As long as they prove the gold bars or whatever cash was given to the senator, he doesnt even need to follow up with a specific official act as long as theres some promise understood that, hey, as things come up, ill help you out. In other words, really what the government needs to prove is that somebody gave him money and there was an understanding that some official conduct would happen, maybe sometime in the future. Thats how easy it is to prove these cases. They are really tough to defend. On that egypt issue, for example, and whether or not there was a quid pro quo, one of the things he said, and he made it sound like a defense was, well, ive held that Country Accountable, ive held the head of that Country Accountable on issues like human rights. Does that answer the charge . It does not. You cant just counterbalance if there is an act of extortion under the statute, a quid pro quo, you cant balance that by saying, yeah, but a few months before i also did something unfavorable to them. Maybe thats true. Its going to be a real challenge to defend this. If the government has evidence of the giving and evidence of menendez promising to do something he doesnt even actually have to do it. Its true in 2016 the Supreme Court did narrow the definition of official act. At the time, commentators including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal worried this would make it harder to prosecute corrupt officials. That hasnt been the case. I can tell you that firsthand. The government has simply found a workaround. Setting up a meeting or making a phone call may not be enough for an official act. But the government will use that evidence as evidence of intent. This meeting happened and thats proof of what he intended. The government knows this. The Southern District of new york knows this. One of the cases that developed the case law following that decision was menendezs own case not too long ago, his first prosecution. In his initial statement, robert, menendez says, quote, it is not lost on me how quickly people are rushing to judge a latino and push him out of his seat. As has been pointed out by a number of people, a racial charge can be hard to stick when the person is black. Congresswoman oh kasia cortez said this. The details in this indictment are extremely serious. They involve the nature of not just his but all of our seats in congress. As a latina, there are absolutely ways in which there is systemic bias, but i think what is here in this indictment is quite clear. Robert, if we all believe that largely what was going on today was a political move by the senator to try and at least hold on to his seat while he sees what else he can do in the longer term, do you see that as part of maybe, i dont know, a dart board strategy, see what sticks . Absolutely. This is a dart board, throw everything against the wall, the kitchen sink, whatever you want to call i; i think theres no doubt if you look through what he said on friday, what he said today, what he said in the past. Its literally a dozen roadblocks to saying why this isnt true and why i shouldnt be held accountable or why this isnt believable. I think the facts are just so overwhelming and so damning. Again, i know the first trial ended in a mistrial. This is not senator menendezs first dance with Law Enforcement. I do think there are a number of people that have watched this, and theyre just tired of it. I love what the congresswoman said there. It doesnt just debase the office that senator menendez holds. It in some ways debases all of those in Public Service to watch Something Like this happen. It also happens at a time when theres enough going on related to 2024, the comparisons that might be drawn to donald trump and his legal problems. A lot of democrats dont want this. How do democrats handle this . Is there some conversations going on at the white house . Are they talking to Chuck Schumer . Whats going on, as someone who has been in those rooms, robert, behind the scenes, whats good for the party here . Whats good for 2024 . Yeah, theres no doubt theres been a lot of phone calls over the past few days, over the weekend. I dont have any specific knowledge of what the white house is doing, but i have no doubt that it involves these discussions involve a lot of senators. We know there was a meeting in new jersey, some conversations before the governor acted and the congressional delegation came out. My guess is for senator menendez, it doesnt age all that well. The more people sit back and think about this, the more theyll be spurred, quite frankly, to do or say something. There will be a lot of eyes in the next 4 hours on what if anything, cory booker, the Junior Senator from new jersey has to say about this. As you said, chris, this is all through the lens of, if youre a democrat you cant jump to why this is bad when and if republicans do it. You have to also be able to look in the mirror at your own party and say its time for someone to go. Robert gibbs, ali vitali, danny cevallos, thank you very much. Coming up, were days from a government shutdown. Why speaker Kevin Mccarthy says there could be hopes for a deal. Were back in 60 seconds. re bas im kareem abdul jabbar. I was diagnosed with afib. The first inkling that something was wrong was i started to notice that i couldnt do things without losing my breath. I couldnt make it through the airport, and every like 20 or 30 yards i had to sit down and get my breath. Every Physical Exertion seemed to exhaust me. And finally, i went to the hospital where i was diagnosed with afib. When i first noticed symptoms, which kept coming and going, i should have gone to the doctor and told them what was happening. Instead, i tried to let it pass. If you experience irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, or lightheadedness, you should talk to your doctor. Afib increases the risk of stroke about 5 times i want my experience to help others understand the symptoms of atrial fibrillation. When it comes to your health, this is no time to wait. So now the question is, when will hollywood be back up and running. After 146 days the Writers Union has reached a tentative deal with studios to put down their picket signs and pick up their pens once again. The breakthrough came after Marathon Talks over the weekend hammering out the language from Artificial Intelligence to streaming residuals. The Unions Negotiating Committee describes the final deal as separational. But before hollywood can fully get back to work, the studios will need to talk it out with actors who are still on strike. Nbcs chloe melas joins us with the latest. What do we know about this tentative deal . It has to be voted on to go into effect. In there well see higher wages l around. Well see protections over the use of Artificial Intelligence. Thats a Sticking Pointre also seeing sag. Residuals in the streaming era, thats something a lot of these writers and actors, they want to know how many people are actually watching and they want to be paid proportionately to that. We are going to see, according to some sources, some truly groundbreaking concessions from the amptp, the wrieders guild saying this is an exceptional deal. Obviously a lot of writers still cautiously optimistic, taking to social media saying sort of, ill believe it when i see it and im looking forward to seeing it. Ill get to what this means for the actors union. But before that, what can happen on television as a result just of this one deal . Of course, how does it affect the viewers at home . Daytime, late night talk shows, in theory, those can come back. But the Writers Guild of america has to say, you guys have the green light to go ahead and work. They can lift that ban because nothing has been signed. Before they sign, they can say you can go back to work. It hasnt happened just yet. Maybe as this all comes together this week, next week, you can watch late night shows, your favorite talk shows. Bill maher said he was going to come back amid the strike and then he walked it back. When it comes to scripted, though, a lot of these movies, they were shifted in the slate to the spring. Doubtful youll see dune two and gladiator come back. We saw the emmys pushed to january. Unlikely that really big changes will happen. You might still be watching some reruns for right now. Only 30 seconds left, chloe. What about the impact this might have on the actors union . Its a great framework. They are actors and they have different demands that were going to see. The interesting part about all of this is that the actors havent even the union hasnt started negotiating with the streamers yet. If you can believe that, they went on strike in july. Its unprecedented the amount of time theyve been on strike, about 70something days. Amptp has been solely focused on writers. Well see potentially the Big Hollywood heavyweights after the holiday come back to the bargaining table, hammer things out. Hopefully all of this can be wrapped up before the holidays because so many people are out of work. In all seriousness, 17,000 jobs lost. So many people cant pay their bills. This is important like the l. A. Mayor karen bass said, we have to get hollywood, all the tangential industries back up and running. Billions at stake. Chloe, thank you for that. 131 hours are what stands between this country and a government shutdown. With the Clock Ticking down and the fullon Pressure Campaign playing out in public and private to keep millions of federal workers paid, House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy said today Conservative Holdouts in his ranks are, quote, apparently ready to work. We have to keep the government open. People who want to close the government, that only makes it weaker. Why would they want to stop paying the troops, the Border Agents, the coast guard . I dont understand how that makes you stronger. I dont understand the point they want to make. Cofounder of Punchbowl News joining me, anna palmer. Is there a sense that at least some of these Conservative Holdouts in the house are ready to get to work on this . I think time will have to tell whether theyll actually be constructive. Theres still a lot of the faction, those that the matt gaetzes of the world who say theyll probably never support a cr. Certainly the fact that donald trump continues to say they shouldnt be doing these continuing resolutions is not helpful to Kevin Mccarthy. He does have a pathway forward. They had a call over the weekend. Hes trying to cobble together spending agreement and also at the same time trying to move along the lines in terms of separate spending bills. Listen, they have not had a good run in the last two weeks. They have had many, many procedural votes fail or have to pull them. It might be a glimmer of hope. We are still heading directly towards a shutdown at this point. The way you put it in punchbowl this morning, it says the republicans are, quote, about to pick a slew of political fights they simply cant win, as well as causing an expected government shutdown, handing biden a golden opportunity for portraying the gop as incapable or unwilling of governing. On top of all that, donald trump is weighing in. He tells republicans they should shut down the government if they dont get what they want. Put that into the bigger context as well. Absolutely. I think its a really smart point which is, one, democrats see this as an opening for 2024. I think thats why you saw the speaker framing it into he doesnt think its good for anybody to say the coast guard shouldnt be paid, that Border Agents shouldnt be paid. That is the reallife effects that