Good morning, everyone. Its friday, december 21st. Nervous . Merry almost christmas . Cant get there soon enough. Im Ayman Mohyeldin. Well get to the defense of secretary james mattis in a moment. First were now 701 days into the Trump Presidency and we want to begin by recapping a week of an administration apparently unraveling from within. As probes expanded into more of the president s political business and foreign ties on friday, his search for a new chief of staff failed resulting in an interim pick. On saturday, the secretary of the interior abruptly resigned hoping to ward off investigations from the newly empowered house democrats. The president lashing out on twitter calling his former attorney a rat and bashing the fbi. On monday, the markets continued their slide into the worst december since the great depregd depressi depression. There were social media posts by russians continued into his administration. With indictments in a turkey scheme involving Michael Flynn who on tuesday was accused by a judge of selling out his country and warned to cooperate or face jail time. Then on wednesday, middle of the week, trump tweeted his order for a full withdrawal from syria, taking the pentagon by surprise and infuriating members of capitol hill. Thursday, trump blew up a deal to fund the government over conservative criticism on a border wall, and the secretary of defense resigned in protest of the president s world view, the first time that has ever happened. You put it in perspective like that, its been an unbelievable week. The pentagon Spokesman Says secretary mattis visited the white house thursday afternoon. Met with President Trump. Hand delivered a letter of resignation yesterday. As the president doubled down on his syria withdrawal plans and reports emerged of a major pullout from afghanistan. The letter includes none of the usual thanks and praise for the president s leadership or accomplishments nor even a salutation at the end. One core belief i have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. Similarly, i believe we must be a resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose Strategic Interests are increasingly in tension with ours. He goes on, it is clear that china and russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model, gaining Veto Authority over other nations economic, diplomatic and security decisions. To promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, america and our allies. That is why we must use all the tools of American Power to provide for the common defense. My views on treating allies with respect and also being cleareyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. Because you have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, i believe it is right for me to step down from my position. Pretty startling letter. Scathing words there. Absolutely. Mattis gave an end date of february 28th. And a Senior Administration official tells nbc news that the president will pick a new secretary of defense by the end of the year, which is just ten days away. The president announced mattis departure by tweet at 5 21 p. M. Washington time. Not labelling it a resignation but writing that mattis was, quote, retiring with distinction and i greatly thank jim for his service. Back in october, the president appeared to criticize the general as out of step with his views, even labeling him a democrat, which is a stark contrast from how trump once praised him and cast his appointment as fulfilling a Campaign Promise he made to voters in 2016. We are going to appoint mad dog mattis as our secretary of defense. Hes our best. They say hes the closest thing to general George Patton that we have, and its about time. Its about time. All right. So a lot to break down here. President trump and senator Lindsey Graham got locked in a heated war of words after the South Carolina republican criticized trumps plans to withdraw troops from syria. Yesterday at a news conference, graham called on trump to reverse his decision. In this war, you will not win it by quit, by giving up. This is an akin to surrendering. We can be successful only if we partner with others. This undercuts that effort. Weve got two choices to fight this war. In their backyard, or our backyard. And isis and afghanistan, i know for sure, is looking toward the United States and their target sets. Mr. President , you have a chance to change course. You have a lot of bipartisan support to do so. Take advantage of it. That didnt go down with the president. He hit back on twitter writing in part, so hard to believe that Lindsey Graham would be against saving soldier lives and billions of dollars. Time to focus on country and bring our youth back home where they belong. Graham at times one of trumps biggest supporters replied to the president in a series of tweets calling for him to listen to his advisers and consider or reconsider, rather, the withdrawal from syria. Secretary of state mike pompeo defended President Trumps move to withdraw u. S. Troops from syria. In an interview yesterday, with wichita public radio, pompeo said, we have eliminated over 90 of the actual real estate the caliphate held. Successful effort there. Well continue to keep the homeland safe from the threat from isis, but it no longer makes sense for there to be 2,000 soldiers stationed there. We can accomplish this mission in a different way, and the president s made a decision to do that. Our allies know the United States will always be the worlds leader in fighting against triumph arouerrorism ar world. With just thundershowers go until tonights midnight deadline. The drama reignited yesterday after President Trump signaled he would not sign a shortterm spending bill that did not include funding for his longdemanded border wall. After that very measure cleared the senate on wednesday, the president s decision was announced almost simultaneously by outgoing House Speaker paul ryan and rush limbaugh. The president informed us he will not sign the bill that came over from the senate last evening because of his legitimate concerns for Border Security. So were going to go back to the house and work wither members. The president has gotten word to me that he is either getting funding for the border or hes shutting the whole thing down. So in the wake of the president s decision, the house passed a measure to keep the government running that includes 5 billion for the wall. Mitch mcconnell has told members to be ready for a possible vote on the plan. Today around noon. But 60 votes are needed to advance the bill to a final vote. Democrats, as you can imagine, they are not expected to lend their critical votes. Ones that republicans need to get it over the hurdle. Now following his decision to restart the battle over funding the government, the president , along with administration officials, weighed in on his demand for border wall funding once again. There is a debate over funding Border Security and the wall. Also called so that i give them a little bit of an out, steel slats. We dont use the word wall necessarily, but it has to be Something Special to do the job. Steel slats. Ive made my position very clear. Any measure that funds the government must include Border Security. Has to. The president s made clear that hes not interested in continuing to build the onemile, one stretch at a time. He wants to build the wall by getting the money now, just like the president was very clear about for the last years leading up to this funding fight. Lets cut through this. Right now as we speak right now as we speak there is a surge of illegal immigration heading towards our country that presents a National Crisis now. Reaction to the president s decision to play hard ball on his border wall funding demands and risk a Government Shutdown were swift from both sides of the aisle on capitol hill yesterday. Take a listen. One of the agencies that would get shut down so weve already funded eight of the 24 major departments and agencies. One that would get shut down is the department of homeland security. So youre making a difficult situation for our men and women in Border Patrol that theyre dealing with things and then add the uncertainty on top of that, you know, by not having a paycheck during christmas. You think the cr could still be signed . Who knows. Does the person sitting beside him at the white house know . So i mean, i dont think who would know . Who would know . I think we need to follow through and fund the wall. I love it. You cant make this stuff up. Somehow or another, and i dont know what the answer to the question is, the president of the United States prefers to shut government down. And will resist any opportunity to keep government open. Maybe he thinks if the government shut down he can golf more comfortably. Thats not how it works. Government must work, even if youre golfing for two weeks. Despite leader pelosis suggestions, nbc newss Hallie Jackson reports that, per the white house, the president will not be traveling to maralago over the holidays if the government is, in fact, shut down. Lets talk about all this drama. Wow. From whats overheard between corker and senator ted cruz there to everything going on between pelosi and the president and a possible shutdown. So much to take in here. Im going to get to you leigh ann caldwell. Thanks for joining us so early. Appreciate it. It could be a pretty big day ahead for washington, to say the least, and for the country at that matter. The likelihood that the government is going to shut down is its pretty high at this point considering what the senate is going to have to vote on later today. Were going to have to see a real aboutface with some Senate Democrats if this thing is going to pass and keep the government open. Yeah, thats right. Good morning. But the chances of a Government Shutdown are quite high at this hour, as you mentioned. You need nine democrats to join the 51 republicans in order for this 5 billion border wall funding to pass the senate. Yeah, theres a handful of red state democrats that do sometimes vote with republicans, but they havent done so on this issue, and, plus you have some of these red state democrats who just lost their reelection bid. They have no desire as of what they are showing so far anyway to join with the president and republicans on this issue. And the thing is, theres no plan b if they do vote on this. House republicans, senate republicans, they have and the president have not indicated what a next step would be if this does not pass. And so, i mean, we still have 18 hours until midnight tonight when the sggovernment does officially shut down. As of now, it is not looking good. Help us understand something here if possible, within these next 18 hours. What is the gap that we need to get to . The president has been asking for something in the ballpark of 5 billion for what he calls border wall security or Border Security. Democrats were only going were willing to go so far up to 1. 4 billion for Border Security. Thats a pretty large gap for us who kind of dont know much about how the interpolitics of Congress Work but how do they plan on closing that gap with 18 hours to go . What are you hearing from lawmakers about these chances . Yeah, there is no plan. They had been talking, negotiating for the past couple weeks. They couldnt come up with a plan. So the senate decided to do the other day is just punt it down the road until february. They said lets fund the government, these few last appropriations, the last agencies, lets just fund those for the next few months until february, and then well deal with it then. They wanted to get past the state of the union. And so theres a real logjam between the republicans and the democrats and the president. And i will say, 5 billion, its an arbitrary number. Its a lot of money to spend in one year. Theyve proven unable to do that in past years to even spend a billion dollars on Border Security and the wall. So democrats, it seems like theyll not give in. No way the republicans want to punt it to february because come january, democrats take over congress. Thats also i mean, the president wont get any border wall funding at that point. Its going to be a nonstarter. Leigh ann caldwell, thank you. Its going to be a busy day ahead for you. Certainly is. So were just beginning to paint the picture of the nations current chaos, as youve noticed. Well have more on the toll all this is having on the financial system. Havent even gotten to that yet. Plus, the mueller probe. Nbc news gets a time table for when it might be open. Those stories and a check on weather when we come right back. [narrator] the typical vacuum head has its limitations, so shark invented duo clean. While deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll picks up large particles, gives floors a polished look, and fearlessly devours piles. Duo clean technology, corded and cordfree. Tremfya® is for adults with moderate to severe and fearlessly devours piles. Plaque psoriasis. With tremfya®, you can get clearer. And stay clearer. In fact, most patients who saw 90 clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. Tremfya® works better than humira® at providing clearer skin, and more patients were symptom free with tremfya®. Tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. Before starting tremfya® tell your doctor if you plan to or have recently received a vaccine. Ask your doctor about tremfya®. Tremfya®. Because you deserve to stay clearer. Janssen wants to help you explore cost support options. Robert mueller may be less than two months from submitting his russia report to the attorney general. Government officials and others familiar with the situation tell nbc news the special counsel is expected to hand over the confidential report as early as midfebruary. The sources either did not know or would not say whether mueller has answered the fundamental question he was hired to investigate, whether donald trump or Anyone Around him conspired with the russian intelligence operations to help his campaign. However, we do know that mueller has rebutted in Court Filings the president s assertion that neither he nor any of his top aides had met or talked with russians during the 2016 race. They did, according to mueller and in the case of his lawyers, negotiations over a trump tower in moscow, according to Court Filings, trump knew about it. All right. So the stock market has taken another nosedive as skittishness over the federal reserves decision to raise rates were combined with fears of a looming Government Shutdown. The dow fell as you can see here, by as many as 650 points at one point in the afternoon. Closing down 464 points at the end of the day. Not great news, obviously, going into the holiday season. Bringing its twoday decline to more than 800 points and fiveday losses to more than 1700. The s p 500 and nasdaq also dipped shedding over 1 each. The selloff began wednesday immediately after the fed approved its fourth rate hike of the year. A reaction Steve Mnuchin called completely overblown. However, it was the growing possibility of a Government Shutdown that crippled Investor Confidence thursday afternoon as the volatility index jumped to its highest level since february. People do not look happy on that floor right there in some of those images. I cant imagine. Markets are on track for their worst december since the great depression, erasing any gains made this year. Since the great depression, wow. A check on your weather with bill karins on this rainy friday morning. Bill, a lot of travel delays. Yeah, nothing like the friday before christmas having a huge rain storm with a lot of implications for the airports and windy conditions arent going to help either. Flash flood watches from maine through vermont all the way through new england through the northeast down i95 into virginia and even in to the mountains of north carolina. Then we have strong winds also going to accompany this storm. High Wind Warnings for southern portions of rhode island. Also down in cape cod and a Little Corner of down east maine. Inland areas, including boston and new york and areas just outside of philadelphia, Atlantic City and dover under wind advisories. Not only dealing with heavy rain but strong winds. Thats a recipe for major airport delays. Raining from north florida, around pensacola. It was pouring in atlanta. Its moved up to the georgia mountains. Now steady, heavy rain in the northeast. As far as impacts go, well see road and river flooding threats. Saturated soil is going to increase the flood threat throughout the day today. Maybe another one to three inches out of this. Heres the great news. Heres the saturday map. Saturday looks fantastic. You just have to get past today. All right. Well try to do that. Thanks, bill. After syria, the president is poised to mak