Theyre on furlough with no pay before christmas. Which is why President Trumpments 5 billion to build a border wall. It had no chance to pass the senate refused to approve money to keep the government rung past midnight. Senate democrats blame the president. The democrats are blaming congress. While everybody is blaming everybody else, the people that work for nine cabinet departments are either sent home or on the job with no guarantee they will get paid. More about who in the government is working this weekend, including who is working without pay, im talking hundreds of thousands of people here. Ill have that in a moment, including how it may impact your weekend plans. First, lets go to the white house, Sarah Westwood is with us. Phil, ill start with you the senate was in session earlier. They are nowed a journed a j. We have no chance it will end before christmas. How do we know that . Reporter if you look behind the scenes, its at an impasse. The senator shelby, a key person in these talks said earlier when le came back from a meeting we white house a deal at this point was not imminent. Both sides dug in on their bottom line. President trump 5 billion to fund a border wall. Democrats making clear they will not give a dime towards that. Obviously, there is no clear end game in town. If you want to read tea leaves as well. The United States senated a journd. They will not be back until under the current schedule until the thursday after christmas. So almost a week from now at this point. Senators ive talked to knows that were here today. There werent a lot of them, are heading home for the holidays. I am told the house will soon tell their members something similar. Go home for christmas. All of this with the caveat. This is something Mitch Mcconnell told reporters, if a deal certainly happens, they will be willing to come back and pass it. But at this point, given the state of the negotiations and given the fact that everybody is flying home for the holidays, there is no expectation of a deal any time soon, after christmas, looks like right now it will be the earliest, if even then. We want to go to Sarah Westwood, phil, stand by. Sarah, what are you hearing from the white house . Any possible whisper of a compromise . Reporter anna, President Trump is not considering a deal that could get at least Ten Senate Democrats on board and reopen the 25 of government thats closed. Now, white house Officials Say that the president is not budging from his demand for 5 billion in spending for his border wall. They say that money must go to the construction of a wall or some other kind of steel barrier along the border. That money cant be used for general border security, which is one of several ideas that have been floating around capitol hill as a potential compromise. The president not opened to that at the moment. But make no mistake, he has been all over the map when it comes to the shutdown, shifting from last week saying hed be proud to take responsibility for shutdown if it was over the border what towel his adees signaling he might be willing to sign a temporary spending bill that would have kept the government opened until february 8th. Actually, he was going to reject that compromise, a bipartisan compromise and hold firm on his 5 billion number, shutting the government down. Sources say the president has become increasingly sensitive to criticism from his conservative allies he was surrendering on his demand for a border wall by signing that continuing resolution that would have averted this shutdown. The president , obviously, holding firm to that number, but not offering clarity on what else he might consider in terms of coming down for 5 billion. That lack of clarity has caused a lot of headaches on capitol hill for negotiators trying to figure out what exactly he might put his signature on. There is just no point in law makers lining up behind a xheez that wouldnt garner the president s signature. Thats what they say. Although, i wonder if they would test it out. We appreciate both your reporting. Thank you. What exactly are we talking about if we say the government is partially shut down . Its the christmas weekend. A lot of people are taking off, right . What is working . Who is to working . A very large number of people are impacted. Not just federal employees, but everybody in the country who depends on what they do. Heres just a brief skim of the numbers. Until the government reopens more than 400,000 government workers are told they will work without a paycheck. That threws more than 41,000 police officer, correction am officers and roughly 42,000 employees of the u. S. Coast guard no. Paycheck. A furlough is a different story. That applies to about 380,000 people placed on furlough. That means they stay home without being paid essentially a leave of absence while their work is not being done and heres who that applies to most nafta workers, most National Park rangers and park safety officials. Most of the parking and housing and urban development remember, we have a space station in orbit. An american astronaut is on board. Nasa says they will have staff watching the space station. The satellite, a mission on mars and americas other space interests. Now, thats a lot of numbers. What will that look like to you after Christmas Day if the government is not back in business . First, the post office will be opened. Air and rail travel will still function as normal. Social Security Offices will still work. That includes Timely Delivery of benefit checks. What about National Parks . Yes and no, some parks will leave the gates opened but with a skeleton staff on duty in case of emergencies. Any buildings will probably be locked, closed for the duration of the shutdown, Small Business loan offices, federal housing agencies also closed. U. S. Court scheduled to handle civil cases. Nope, not opened. Field offices that help farmers closed as well. Its interesting to note here. That one official u. S. Government function, that will not stop working, even in this government shutdown, the Robert Mueller special counsel investigation of russian collusion and President Trumps election. That team is funded and exempt from the shutdown. Its business as usual for them without interruption. Meanwhile, trump is facing another crisis over his pick for attorney general. You remember matthew whitaker. Trump passed over top officials to personally appoint him as acting ag. Well, democrats immediately cried foul. They accused President Trump of installing whitaker to derail the special counsel investigation. Well, cnn has now learned that at least twice in the last month, President Trump has lashed out at his new appointee. The first time, after trumps former attorney, michael cohen, pleaded guilty. The second, after trump was implicated in some of cohens crimes. We are told President Trump wanted to know why more wasnt being done to control prosecutors from bringing charges in the first place. This revelation comes the very same week we learn that whitaker is ignoring advice from an ethics official at the Justice Department who recommended whitaker recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller Investigation. Instead, whitaker is staying on. I want to bring in a former prosecutor for the department of justice, joseph moreno. Joe, when you hear all this, do you think President Trump views whitaker as his personal fixer . As we know, attorney generals dedication is to the constitution and the laws, not to the president personally. The attorney general, he or she is responsible for executing those laws without prenl dis, which means they do not put their personal views ahead of anything, including protecting the president personally. Now, he has his own lawyers, thats their job. The attorney general works for the people. The tomorrow, though, does, i guess, you know, fall in the chain of command underneath the president. But should President Trump even be discussing a potential case that he is implicated in with the attorney general or anyone in the Justice Department, for that matter . Anna, even giving the participants of that conversation the benefit of the doubt, right . It still looks awful . Right . As we know, in the law, there is two things you want to avoid, there is the existence of an actual conflict 57b the existence of an appearance of a conflict of interest. Right . Even just the appearance of a conflict of interest can be devastating because it puts everything into question. It puts a taint on the investigation. So, if, in fact, the reporting is correct, that the president is sort of lashing out to acting attorney general whitaker, it looks awful. And it takes an already traumatic situation for the country, which is this russia probe and makes it even worse. And, of course the questions we all have is how did whitaker respond to the president as he is having these conversations. We know nadler is demanding whitaker testify before the house judiciary committee. Could we get answers then, or is this something whitaker would be able to claim executive privilege on . What an unnecessary debacle. Right . This is all so avoidable. Whether congress can get something out of acting attorney general whitaker now, this is unfolding. Yet to be seen. It is good House Democrats will take seriously their oversight function. This is the kind of thing they should be looking at. Really, this was an unforced error. This was so avoidable. Look at how former attorney general jeff session took care of it. He probably did not have to recuse himself. But he did. He said, i dont want the appearance of a conflict of interest. He took abuse from the president for that. At least he let those watching the investigation have some peace of mind it was conducted by officials without any personal stake. So what do you make of the fact that whitaker ignored the advice of a doj ethics official to recuse himself from the Mueller Investigation . He says that there wasnt an absolutely must. There was no conflict of interest that was identified. It was the appearance, perhaps, of impartiality. He didnt want to be the person who then set that line for future people who are in his position. What do you make of his stance . Anna, a lot of people are surprised that these ethics advisory opinions that are given are shoulds. Theyre not musts. Right, we hope the officials they are being given to take them seriously and say, look, even if i think i can compartmentalize what i said before or what i know from my official actions, there still remains this appearance. And presumably President Trump expects and hopes he will survive this whole thing. Wouldnt we want to survive it with the American People having some confidence the Mueller Probe was unimpede, uninterfered with and it was let run its course without any kind of undo influence and the presence of attorney general, acting attorney general whitaker throws that into question. Its completely unnecessary and unfortunate. Joseph moreno, thank you for being with us, especially on a holiday weekend. Good to have you. Thank you, good to be here. Early in the week, President Trump appeared tosh ready to sign a budget resolution and avoid a government shutdown. What happened . Rush limbaugh, anne coulter for one thing. A look at their influence on the president ahead in the cnn newsrooa look at their influence newsroonewsroom. Be a wall christmas calm christmas. Calm by this white house indications. He compromised a resolution to keep the government funded. Then bob corker believes trump reportedly turned his ear to these people, conservative anne coulter and rush limburg, warning trump caving in on his wall, essentially saying backing down would ruin his presidency. Theyre about to have a country where no republican will ever be elected president again. Trump will just have been a joke presidency that scammed the American People, engaged the, you know, accused the populous for a while. He will have no legacy whatsoever. Textbook example of what the drive by media calls compromise, trump gets nothing the democrats get everything, including control of the house in a few short weeks. Senator corker telling reporters after trumps flipflopper, quote, we have two talk radio hosts who influenced the president. Thats tyranny, isnt it . Lets chat, maybe President Trump is listening to discuss. Reliable sources Brian Stelter and columnist of usa today, brian, how much influence cuz conservative media have over the president . I certainly think these most popular protrump hosts have an enormous influence. I would say whether there are some principlesed responsible reporters and the entertainment wing, the hannitys of the world that have an enormous amount of influence we can see that when he live tweets certain talk shows on fox that give him support. A new story in the New York Times today says trump spent more time than ever before in front of the television, often retreating to his residence out of concern he is being watched too closely. A new report in the New York Times. This cable news, fox, in particular, shapes the president s world view. I this i to some degree its understandable . Every president wants to keep in touch with their base, leadership means knowing written to break from that, when you lead your base in the right direction, when to lead your base away from a dangerous idea . Instead, what the president does is too often follows the script laid out by his supporters in talk radio and on tv. Curt, i wonder, does rush news little rush little balk and anne Rush Limbaugh and anne coulter have influence . The Senate Passed a deal unanimously, this was going to happen the shutdown was going to be ainvestigatored. Then we saw what happened on that conservative media on fox news with anne coulter, Rush Limbaugh. All of a sudden without warning, from his advisers, trump does a complete 180 and decides he will fight and bring on this shutdown. Thats what they told him to do. Its one of those cases who is really advising who . Trump is being controlled by these personality rather than him driving the message and having them follow him. This is what happened. Its symptomatic of when your base is sonar row and so small that you cant afford to lose any of them. If you lose that small group, you will have nothing left. When we talk about who he is listening to, we have been reporting about how he broke with mattis, because mattis just couldnt get through to him. He wasnt listening to his National Security advisers, the defense secretary, for example. But as you point out, he is listening to the people who helped elect him to the presidency. Brian, there is now a go fund me page, in fact, of collecting money to help build trumps boarder wall border wall. People have already donated 15 million. What do you make of the very same people there chanting with the president , mexico is going to pay for the wall . Who will . Mexico will. Are now putting their own hard earned money, donating it to the wall that mexico was supposed to pay for. I assume these are not mexicans making the donations on go fund me. Clearly, these are americans trying to make a statement, to make a point that they want to see this wall done some way, somehow. But so much of this debate is untethered from the facts. There are already fences and ballards and forms of wall all across the border. I understand trump wants to add more of those. Lets start from a place of fact. There are quite a few of them. With regard to go fund me, its totally legal. It wont reach a become. It does raise a strange question of if it reaches a billion dollars, if it does, does the money get transferred to the government . Who builds is wall . I heard that question. You worked on capitol hill, curt, can the government accept this money . If so, what are the chances it will be spent on the boarder . Zero to none. Heres what happens. Can you donate to the government. It goes to a general fund. You can you not write a check to the department of Homeland Security for a border wall. They couldnt accept that money without an act of congress authorizing it. There is a reason for that. You dont want any rich person to control what government is spending without any accountability from the legislators branch, thats the Reason Congress has the power of the purse string. No, this is unrealistic and viable. This is why i love the internet, in addition to go fund me, others have it to build an escalator over the wall. Ladders. Ladders over the wall. I mean, you got to give them points for yes it aivity. Creativity. They are certain isly being creative. Thank you very much. I appreciate you taking the time this weekend. Thank you. After nearly a month, a break through in the case of a missing mom, sadly, her fiancee is now behind bars. Are you live in the newsroom. Theres no place like home argh im trying. Yippiekiyay. Mom. A sad ending as to a story that has touched the hearts of people across the country. The fiancee of a colorado mother that went missing thanksgiving day, is facing charges in her murder. Kelsey barrett went missing late last month. Her body has not been found. Her fiancee was arrested in connection with her death. In addition to being engaged, they have a oneyearold daughter together. Cayley is joining us with more. I understand he is facing two charges. What can you tell us about them . Reporter yeah, thats right, he has been booked in the keller county jail without bond facing two charges, one of first degree murder, another for solicitation of first degree murder. The