Rare occurrence. Volatile stock market. When markets are already jittery about the economic circumstances, the last thing they need to see is shakiness from washington. To whatever it was that Steve Mnuchin was doing in his phone calls to banks. Its very normal for the treasury secretary to constitutional people up and say, hey, hows christmas looking . When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york, im chris hayes. Every day the president sounds more and more like a mob boss. Thats not right. The president has been working in the white house where he has been stewing over what has been happening to him. Theres a lot of bad news up and down the roster for the president as this year ends. He is right now on an air base in germany where he has touched down refueling after his very first stop in a war zone, visiting troops in iraq. He was there during a secret mission that was revealed today, greeting the troops in iraq. He stayed for three hours, and did not visit the Prime Minister of iraq before leaving. That trip came at the tail end of what had been a tough four days for the president who was clearly in a cranky mood tweeting at one point, i am all alone, poor me, in the white house. And waiting for the democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed border security. There are certainly plenty of issues to keep poor trump in a bad mood. The Government Shutdown is now in its fifth day, there is no border wall, and mexico wont be paying for it. His secretary of defense jim mattis resigned. Brett mcgirk quit after the president s abrupt decision to pull out of syria. Stock markets have whipsawed back and forth as investors try to figure out what exactly is going on with the president insulting the head of the Federal Reserve and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin calling banks to reassure everyone everythings fine, no problems at all. That instead spooked investors. And, of course, theres the ongoing Mueller Investigation with its growing list of indictments and flipped trump cronies. The president is a little cranky, and its unlikely to get better in the new year. Democrats take power in the house of representatives in just eight days, and nancy pelosi, the almost certain exspeaker of the house is making it pretty clear shes not going to give the president his wall. Telling usa today first of all the fact that he says were going to build a wall with cement and mexicos going to pay for it, hes already backed off the cement now hes down to, i think, a beaded curtain or something, im not sure where he is. Heres a democratic policy and communications committee. Whats the game plan here, congressman . As incoming speak epelosi said when democrats take back the house on january 3rd we will move swiftly to reopen the government. I think there was a deal already, 100 senators, 100 to zero voted for a continuing resolution. That wouldnt pass the house. The president changed his mind, i think, in part because of all the things you just described in an effort to distract from a very bad couple of weeks, the president shut the government down. Democrats will make sure it reopens on january 3rd. Just to be clear, thats on the first day passed basically the piece of legislation thats already passed by the senate, by unanimous voice vote and dare mcconnell to not bring it up . Correct. Theyve already voted for it. So i think theyre going to be in a tough position. Its a new congress. Thats right. Theyve already voted for it. Theyre in a tough position to suddenly not vote for it. The government will have been closed for several weeks by that point, two weeks. And the reality is there are more than 400,000 employees working and not getting paid. We need to reopen the government. Were going to have lots of disagreement about policies but we need to open the government, and were going to vote to open it and the senate will do the same, i expect and its up to the president. We should note, of course, that some of those people who are not working are subcontractors, people who do security, janitorial services, who probably wont be paid. Theyre out of luck. Well, i mean, i think we have to make sure that we do everything to insist that everyone gets paid. I mean, its outrageous that anybody would be expected to work and not get paid, especially during the holidays. Theres an interesting story about elijah cummings, the incoming chair of the Oversight Committee, sending 51 letters to the white house requesting compliance with document requests. These are as far as i can understand these are a variety of areas, things on the trump organization, foreign governments, hurricane maria, family separation, border stuff and theyre all already outstanding document requests that had existed, this is reiterating that with the power of an incoming majority. What will happen on that front . Well, i think its important to remember democrats ran on an agenda articulating that were fighting for the people of this country, not for the special interests, not for the powerful lobbyists. And we committed to driving down health care costs, particularly the cost of prescription drugs, raising family incomes by rebuilding the infrastructure of our country and taking on the pervasive cooperation in washington. At the same time people expect us to do oversight. In the Judiciary Committee we have over 500 pages that really summarize our efforts in the last two years to do oversight that were blocked by the republicans. I know its the same in the Oversight Committee. We are going to do our job, were going to hold this Administration Accountable. Elijah cummings wants to make sure a bunch of documents are preserved so we can do the oversight the constitution requires us to do. Youre going to be taking over a branch of congress, youre going to be sending into the majority with a Government Shutdown and a media fight. I wonder how you, your colleagues are sort of thinking about gaming out the strategy of this house majority, which is walking into day one into essentially a kind of staring contest with the president. Well, i think the way were walking into it, and leader pelosi has said this, we will promptly open the government. We understand the first responsibility we have is to open the government, to force the president to sign legislation or let it go forward without his signature that opens the government again. So that we can continue to move forward on the agenda that we really articulated during this campaign, the issues that matter to the American People and at the same time do our oversight responsibilities, which our republican colleagues have neglected almost entirely in the last two years. You know, this is part of our work, the American People gave us the house because they want us to move forward on the issues that matter in their lives and they want to be certain were doing our job and holding this Administration Accountable and we intend to do that. Congressman, thanks for being here. I want to bring in barbara boxer, democratic senator from the state of california, and ben rhodes. The president is making his first stop ever to u. S. Troops in a combat zone for christmas, right now in a refueling stop in germany, this coming after that remarkable letter from mattis and then the president over that Holiday Weekend abruptly firing the man, essentially, and terminating him early. What do you think the consequences of that action are . Well, you know, i think what its done, chris, is its given every other country around the world complete whiplash. What we had is for a period of weeks a Foreign Policy articulated by the National Security adviser and secretary of state about us staying in syria, and staying indefinitely and expanding the commission to counter iran. And the president pulls the rug out from under his own policy. If youre an ally, you have no idea which way the United States is going. If you are people who fought with us on the ground in syria, t like the kurdish fighters who have done most of the ground work against isis youve been hung out to dry and you are threatened by turkish troops coming into your territory. Even if you support, as i do, some phase drawdown of u. S. Forces in syria the way this president went about doing it, breeds chaos. Nobody knows who to call to find out the position of the United States. We have an outgoing defense secretary and we have an outgoing envoy who ran the counterisis coalition that trump said he never even met. It creates an environment of chaos around american Foreign Policy. Senator boxer, youve been through a number of legislative battles and staredowns over things like budgets and the like. Yes. I wonder how much you think how the incentives to cooperate or not cooperate operate in this kind of government. In terms of the shutdown, ill tell you what i think has to happen. We have to see some of the president s constituencies call him and tell him what it really is like when the government shuts down and their small business, whether its a restaurant or a local store or a hotel near Yosemite Park suddenly stops generating business. I remember one Government Shutdown, the pain was so great, not only on these workers, many of whom earn 30,000, 40,000, they live paycheck to paycheck. And they have decided they want to work for america. Thats what they do. In all kinds of capacities, whether its the justice department, whether its tsa. And they keep us safe. And theyre not getting paid. And thats one part of the problem. But again, the private sector that donald trump prides himself on, they have to call him up right now if theyre listening to me and tell him dont do this. Dont do what you did with tariffs. Theyre hurting business as well. And get this done. But Nancy Pelosis going to come in with the democrats, shes going to vote to open up the government, the senate is going to get that bill. If they dont take it up, if mitch doesnt take it up, Mitch Mcconnell, theres going to be hell to pay in the country. And they cant afford to sit on it. I mean, that is a i think an astute observation of the dynamics. But mcconnell, then, we watched him do this with merit garland and he was happy to have the hell to pay on his shoulders. Mcconnell has no constituency he answers to other than the republican donor class and the president essentially. Does pressure work anymore on the operators in this sort of game . I think it does. I think with the democrats coming in after this amazing blue wave tsunami, whatever you call it, you know, doing the right thing, doing the grown up thing, all eyes are going to be on the senate. Yeah. And Mitch Mcconnells running again and there are already lots of funds that are called ditch mitch. He is an astute politician and hes got to get this done. Weve got to open up the government and do Everything Else that we have to do. What do you think of that, ben . Well, i have to say that Mitch Mcconnell is not someone whos ever seemed to be particularly disturbed by hypocrisy. The man literally could go out one day and say he will never do something and the next day he will do the opposite if thats what he believes, again, his political constituencies demand. As you said, that really is a slice of donors and President Trump. I hope senator boxer is right. We miss senator boxer in the senate. My concern is, again, theres a kind of anihilism to what trump is doing. He feels cornered, chris. Hes not going to pass legislation with a democratic house. And my concern is that hes burning down the house with him as we go, ratcheting up trade wars, ratcheting up the dysfunction in our Foreign Policy, playing politics with the Government Shutdown and paychecks of hundreds of thousands of americans. Thats what should worry us. The one thing that could possibly get through to him is the looming economic downturn, the tanking stock market, the negative economic indicators, all these actions have a real consequence and theyre going to make his difficult reelection that much harder. Senator boxer, you can see hes spooked by that, reporting suggests that hes saying it in public, berating the fed chair and maybe threatening to fire him, which is not something that happens that often. Do you think fundamentally theres danger as we go into this next year with the president in the kind of mind state hes in and with the objective conditions in the world and the economy changing to rapidly . Sure theres danger, and ill tell you, if youre kurdish, youre already in a lot of trouble. They did the fighting for us. If youre an american that has a 401 k , this man, you dont know what hes going to tweet, what hes going to do. Janet yellen was a great fed chair and always kept Interest Rates low for a reason, she was concerned about jobs and the economy. He takes her off there because he says she doesnt look the part. Shes too short. I get very upset, under 50 here. Shes short. He puts this guy in, i dont know him, and then he rips the guy to shreds, unheard of. It is unethical. It has never been done. And ill tell you, wall street, where i worked a thousand years ago, wall street, the thing they hate the most is this kind of chaos, this up and down and down and up. And, you know, hey, a thousand points up, thats great, is it going to go down a thousand points tomorrow . This is not good for the country. So i think the last point id make about donald trump is he does look at his approval ratings. They are not good. And when nancy pelosi gets in there and the democrats act like grown ups, and ill tell you, mitch is going to be in a tough spot. Let them pass it, let them send the reopening of the government. It could be short term, to the president and let them override his veto. If hes still listening to president rush limbaugh. Oh, i mean, radio talk show rush limbaugh. 2019 starting with a president ial override of the government starting. Thank you for your time. Nick akerman, former assistant special watergate prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst. I wanted to talk to you because i deleted twitter off my phone for the holidays. But to the extent i was reading back in today the president s sort of alone stewing in this kind of empty white house. When you read the inside accounts as nixons presidency is going down the tubes and the sort of alienation, increasing isolation, he also was drinking a lot, which this president doesnt do, theres a resonance. Very much the same. Nixon really kept to himself. He wound up sitting in front of the fire and kind of ruminating. To the point where his secretary of defense was so concerned that there was an alert to go out to not take any of nixons orders if he were to ask them to basically release any of the icbms, the missiles against russia. This actually happened. Right, this really happened. People were really concerned. He has got the entire wall falling in on him at this point. Hes got three cooperating witnesses, three people who are very close to him, michael flynn, his former security adviser, gates who was the deputy to manafort and was running the campaign after manafort left, and then youve also got Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer. I mean, i dont think we ever had any witnesses in watergate that were that close to nixon. I mean, john dean who was the lawyer in the white house didnt really have the closeness to nixon that any of these three people have. Part of what i imagine is sort of torturous for him and others around him is the secrecy of the proceedings in terms of Robert Muellers movements but also this sort of every day is there going to be something and every day it just keeps going longer and longer. What do you think about the time frame weve watched unfold . The time frame, its been about 19 months since Robert Muellers been in office. I mean, its absolutely remarkable. Hes had 36 indictments, or guilty pleas, which is quite remarkable. Hes basically put together two pieces of the Russian Investigation on the russian side with respect to the breakin at the Democratic National committee and the use of social media. I mean, right now the only question is, you know, what americans, if any, were involved in those conspiracies. Weve got this thing with this ms. Butina now cooperating and youve got this issue out there of whether or not the russians had put money in through the nra to fund the trump campaign. I mean, thats got to be worrying them. And then on top of it all youve got the democrats coming into congress. And before Robert Mueller does anything he is going to want all of those statements released from the house intelligence committee. Right. Because we know that don jr. Was in there. We know that Jared Kushner was in there. And i think theyre going to be looking at those pretty closely before they start bringing indictments. They want to know what all of these people said, and none of this is good news for the white house. And theyve already nailed Michael Cohen on a guilty plea of lying to congress. See if theres more in the offing. Nick akerman, thank you very much. Up next, as the president makes his first trip to visit the troops we discover how he dodged the vietnam war himself, the mystery of trumps bone spurs is solved. Thats next. Hate crime. I was a hell of a good artist and now i can barely write my name. So, i created a world where i can heal. At your service mademoiselle. Are all of the dolls people you know . Yeah, everyone has a place here in marwen. Theres caralala. You cant keep on running away. Julie. You gotta love the pain. Pain is our rocket fuel. Roberta. Back off . And nicol. I just moved in across the street. The only way youre going to get better, is if you face those jerks