[laughter] they seem to have reindeer antlers. Chris even if its not snowing. Melissa and have the red and green tie. Youre bringing the whole thing, and we appreciated. Love it. Lets get to it. Some are public and senators visiting the white house today ahead of the highstakes battle, President Trump urging Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell to use the socalled a Nuclear Option to pass the spending bill, which includes more than 5 billion in funding for the border wall. The white house stepping up pressure on lawmakers to deliver on the president s Signature Campaign promise. Here is White House Press secretary, Sarah Sanders. Speak of House Republicans delivered a huge victory last night for Border Security. We are very hopeful that the senate will come through and help protect the market people. We need a wall and we need Border Security in order to have that. We have to protect people this country. The president is going to stand firm and make sure that happens one way or another. Melissa democrats are vowing support any bill which funds the wall. Listen. I think this is a fight moreover message of the president trying to fulfill a Campaign Promise rather than substance. In meetings with Homeland Security and customs and Border Patrol leaders, i have been convinced that building a big concrete board about is not a wise investment, but we should invest more in Border Security. Melissa chief Congressional Correspondent mike emanuel is live on capitol hill with more. Mike . Good afternoon. 12 hours after that deadline, they blame is already underway. President trump tweeted earlier, the democrats now own the shut down. Senate democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, you only shoot on. Your words. They bypassed a solution to avoid a shut down, then you threw another temper tantrum to avoid the compromise. Trump shutdown. Speak of the bottom is simple it will shut down the government, but it will not him his will. On the floor of this house, everyone knows it will not pass the senate. Speaker ryan, leader mccarthy, have cynically put it on the floor of the house knowing it cant pass the senate. Everyone knows it cant pass the senate. One reason he so confident is that 60 votes are needed to pass it in the senate. Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell has resisted calls for the president to change senate rules to a 51 vote threshold. Mcconnells spokesman knows there is not enough support for this so called a Nuclear Option example, tennessee senator Lamar Alexander saying today, we have rules to follow. I want to put a stop to this practice of the senate breaking its rules to change its rules. I will not vote to turn the senate into a rule breaking institution. I hope my colleagues will not. The leading House Republicans says now the ball is in the senates court. Lets see if they can start negotiating in good faith. I think a lot of those folks in the senate didnt want to negotiate because they didnt think the house would pass this bill. But now we have done that, they will have to confront this issue that the rest of the country has already been recognizing washington, d. C. Washington, d. C. , needs to confront. Im told the big part of the message of President Trump in the oval office today is that, when republicans are successful such as with tax form and Justice Kavanaugh theyre focuses on battling the democrats and not bickering over Arcane Senate rules. Melissa . Melissa thats a lot there. We are going to break it all down. Mike emanuel, thank you so much. Chris, let me bring it on out to the couch. For the early part of the week, folks were saying wow it, it looks like hes just rolling over. Hes just caving. Who is surprised that he didnt cave in the end and that he stood up and said why dont you guys get out there and actually work for a living . Go back down to the floor and try and get something done. Chris on tuesday night it looked like he was going to roll over. By wednesday it was up in the air again. Tuesday, the white house is already making excuses for it. By thursday morning, groups of conservatives were much more optimistic that he was going to say no. I think its good for him, politically, to have said no. This could have been a read my lips moment. Like when george h. W. Bush said read my lips, no new taxes. And changed his mind to reach a compromise. The white house saying no doesnt mean he will get 5 billion in wall funding tomorrow, but it will mean they have to negotiate. He probably will end up getting more, unless they want to shut down the government for three days over the christmas break. Melissa jessica, nancy pelosi said again and again that he didnt have the votes in the house. We always talk about how she is the best vote counter out there in the business. What happened . Was her counting take her off . What the heck happened . How did she screw up that one . Jessica she wasnt in charge of the republican caucus, which is really what shifted. Melissa but she said he didnt have the votes and he did have the votes. Jessica she definitely did that, i saw it, many saw it. We will see what happens. Continue to think that chuck and nancy with the ultimate victors out of that because he will say i will happily on the shut down, but she was definitely off about the votes. Its good to see that senators have a decent memory of at least a few years to know that if you do switch to the Nuclear Option it can come back to hurt you. In just a few years, we dont know what will happen in 2020. I think the president will probably get something out of this. I think we want to avert a shut down, but Chuck Schumer had come to him with a 1. 6 billion deal for Border Security. Not his wall, not his concrete. Melissa it has to be alliteration [laughter] jessica my apologies to the wordsmith President Trump. To give him something. He scoffed at the 1. 6 billion. I dont know if you will get that much out of it. Melissa Chuck Schumer looking like scrooge there at the end of his nose, saying you will not get your wall for christmas. And we have marco rubio tweeting out, the democrats signed off on a billion dollars in the stimulus that went to things like solyndra. Looking back at this, im thinking why is this such an irritating grandstanding display . And there were 20 government shut down since the mid70s. What happened in the mid70s . Nixon tried to seize control of the budget. Congress said, no, no, no, its under our purview. And since then weve had a shut that every of the year. This is really serious political grandstanding. When we talk about a third of the budget. I think the American People are done with it. Its an irritating thing to deal with. Chris and the government always shut down for christmas. Melissa they arent going to keep working. Morgan, there is this talk back and forth and jessica brought it up, about the Nuclear Option to me, there is what seems to be a false premise where they are saying dont invoke the Nuclear Option, because then when the democrats get in they will invoke it. What is the guarantee, if they dont invoke it . So that the democrats promise that they are going to invoke it when they are in charge . I dont buy that for a second. Morgan let me tell you what i do buy it. I think that and jessica could probably attest to this every time the president gets record amounts of judges, Supreme Court justices through, i think they are all sort of shooting daggers mentally at harry reid for changing them. One of the signature accomplishment of this administration will be that they have remade the courts through their appointments, specifically because it has taken root taken root. Melissa you dont think the democrats will follow that lead, or that democrats will follow what harry reid did . You dont think they will invoke the Nuclear Option when they see how well it works with the judges, as you said . Morgan here is the better deal than quibbling over the Nuclear Option, among my opinion we have the dealmaker in chief. Why dont we have the guy getting kim jong un had all the people to the table . Let me finish. Whether you agree with it or not. We have the ultimate dealmaker. Why doesnt he i mean, he can come forward and say im willing to put a number of things on the table. Maybe its daca, maybe its something else. Melissa it is a golden opportunity. Morgan it doesnt have to be immigration related. He can shine with a big shiny e that doesnt have to do with immigration. There are a number of options for him to make a deal on. Let him do his magic. Melissa emack, what about that . It as a golden opportunity. He desperately wants his money, this Campaign Promise. They are saying no, when in fact they could get something really great and really painful for themselves. I, for one, would not be able to resist that opportunity. Elizabeth and have a legislative victory going at the 2020, instead of the tshirt air cannon of subpoenas they are handing out. [laughter] thats a question. When im watching the democrats take to the cameras, i am waiting for somebody to say to them, hey, what about the border crisis . What about the crime pouring over the border . What about the Illegal Immigrants porting of the border . Why not get control of the border when you, yourself, voted for hundreds of miles of fence in 2006 . I see the democrats not responding to that. Not addressing the issues with what are Border Patrol guys are saying is a serious problem. Jessica ryan gave a speech on the floor yesterday melissa i want to tell you, we are looking at the screen right here and we see Mitch Mcconnell leaving the white house. Hes in the car, they are pulling away. They were just inside. Chris, how do you think that conversation went . Chris Mitch Mcconnell is, actually, more in line with President Trump. He would be okay with funding the wall. He feels like he can get it through. The senate, to the Nuclear Option, the senate has been degrading as an institution for years and years and years in the u. S. It needs to be a place where the states were represented, tempers were able to cool down. We got rid of that in an amendment, and now we are harry reid broke the rules, and im cynical about it. I dont think the democratic majority coming and eventually wont break those rules. To your point. They should hold that, because the senate should be a majority majorityrun mobrun institution. Were getting closer to that every year. The morgan can i make one plea about what liz said . Its crucial here. To become of the sergeant is not about the ball. The wall as a metaphor for how these two parties feel about Border Security in general. We have seen the clinton party, even the obama party the Democrat Party change dramatically their position on navigation. I should be abolishing major candidates running for president in 2020. They see radical things as relates to law enforcement, to ice if you look at the top 20 people running for the Democrat Party, tell me one person who says that ice shouldnt need to be abolished. Its a radical agenda. Jessica brown wouldnt say that, Amy Klobuchar wouldnt say that, Eric Garcetti wouldnt say that elizabeth but they arent the loudest voices. Jessica but they could be the nominees. Kirsten gillibrand talked about, Kamala Harris played with it. But thats not what the party since were. Thats what french people on the left stands for. Morgan Kirsten Gillibrand is the new york senator. Shes not french. Jessica a fringe position across the country. We elect moderate democrats melissa let jessica respond. Jessica what happened in the midterms was a wave of electing moderate democrats across this country. We saw them shot out of a lot of elections that were winnable even in primaries earlier when it came to election day. Well talk later about Claire Claire mccaskill and heidi heitkamp, that we need to Pay Attention to the moderates. This country is full of moderates. Just because some progressives are screaming at you loudly doesnt mean we are a party that wants to abolish ice. Thats how we stand for. There are other ways to secure our border than putting up a wall, that can be used, frankly, as a racist dog whistle on the campaign trail. Thats what they object to. Melissa morgan, real quick. Morgan i have an excessive shoe collection. If they dont take a radical position, i will eat this farragamo. [laughter] melissa the presses inside one of the signing ceremonies inside the white house. I will be willing to bet good money that the president will not be willing to resist making some, about whats going on right now with this thing over the border wall and funding. As soon as you get that video, that take playback, we are going to play to the second we have it. Meanwhile, growing divisions among democrats the head of the new congress. Democratic senator at claire mccaskill, who lost her reelection bid, is taking aim at the partys moved to left. The rise of democrat socialist alexandria coke rc cortes. Have a lot more in it coming up. Were just talking about it. Plus, new reaction to defense secretary james mattis resignation, as Officials Say the white house is shifting its strategy in afghanistan. A live report from Jennifer Griffin with all the details, had. If secretary mattis doesnt feel hes the right person for the job, if you get the right thing and an honorable thing but he did and stepping aside. Insurance so i only pay for what i need. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Oh oh ozempic® vo people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of onceweekly ozempic®. In a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven melissa breaking news on the senate floor where Chuck Schumer is addressing the chamber. Lets listen in. Are all in flux. The institutions of our government lack study and experienced leadership. With all of these departures, its about to get even more unsteady. The president is making decisions without counsel, without preparation, and even without communication between relevant departments and relevant agencies. All of this turmoil is causing chaos in the markets. Chaos abroad. Its making the United States less prosperous and less secure. And, to top it all off, President Trump has thrown a temper tantrum. He now has us careening toward a trump shut down over christmas. In a short time, the president will take part in a pointless exercise to demonstrate to our house colleagues and the president what everyone here already knows. There are not the votes in the senate for an expensive taxpayerfunded border wall. So, President Trump, you will not get your wall. Abandon your shutdown strategy. You are not getting the wall today, next week, or on january 3rd when democrats take control of the house. Just two days ago, the senate came together to support a proposal by leader mcconnell, unanimously, every democrat, every republican, to extend government funding through february without partisan demands. What it would accomplish would be that the government would not shut down, the fights that we are having would be postponed to a later day, and millions of americans would not be hurt this christmas week. Let me repeat that the senate, every democrat, every republican, has already unanimously supported a clean extension of government funding. It democrats supported the measure because we do not want to see the government shut down. We have no demands other than that. We have every indication the president would sign the legislation, as did our friends. The republicans on the other side of the aisle in the senate. But, yesterday, President Trump, hounded by the radical voices of the hard right, through another threw another tantrum. And here we are commodes again. Months of what he said he wanted a trump shut down. The president will try to do his best to blame democrats, but it is flatly absurd. Resident trump called for a shut down no less than 25 times. Meeting in the of office, he said if we dont get what i want, i, President Trump, will shut down the government. I will and proud to shut it do said President Trump. Im not going to blame you, meaning democrats. I will take the mantle of shutting it down. Those are his words, nothing he says or does today it can undo that. No democrat has called for shutting the government down. We are all working to avoid it. The president seems to relish it. He seems to feel he will throw a bone to his base. The problem being, his base is less than one quarter of americ america. Mr. President , President Trump, you c