Of the government aid bill. Without this bipartisan bill being funded government aid will be delayed and the government will shut down on monday. Leaders on capitol hill are simultaneously grapple with the president s veto of a massive and overwhelmingly bipartisan defense bill to fund the military which congress will soon try to override. And in addition to the chaos on capitol hill, the president is also sparking controversy with his latest round of pardons. Paul manafort, roger stone, Jared Kushners father charles. They headline a group of Close Associates and individuals that have some legal experts wondering whether President Trump will select rudy giuliani, his adult children, or even himself to be part of the next round of pardons. Lets get started with garrett haak haake. House republicans trying to spin what they are seeing as them standing with the president on funding foreign aid. Is this a message that will resonate with americans . The foreign aid portion, its almost impossible to see how it would. Look. Its not just the checks that are caught up in this covid relief bill. Its expanded Unemployment Benefits which will run out the day after christmas. Its the Eviction Moratorium which will run out in january. Its tens of billions of dollars for testing and Vaccine Distribution that would have been useful weeks if not months ago thats all being held up and the funding for the entire government which will run out on the 28th if the president does not sign this bill. Thats why back on capitol hill, my usual stomping grounds today, we heard from both republicans and democrats saying the president needs to sign the bill passed with the input of his administration, with the negotiating done by Steven Mnuchin and perhaps then we can continue to fight over some of these other measures, particularly those plussed up stimulus checks which democrats tried to put forward today and were blocked by the president s own party. Congressman kerbella, some of your colleagues did express a level of concern with what the president is doing as his time in office runs out. Why is the will to publicly push back on him still not there . Well, lindsey, the greatest fear that most republicans still have these days is a primary challenge and getting sideways with donald trump makes it more likely that they could face primary challenges. So thats why they are trying to give him this opportunity to save face to try to resolve this amicably. But what a lot of them dont understand is that the president will not stop and will not take an off ramp unless republicans go along with his efforts to overturn the election result or to undermine the election result to say that it was somehow delegitimate. That is ultimately what he wants. That is why hes acting so desperately. Thats why hes fighting to stay relevant. So republicans, they try to continue feeding him bits and pieces, but its never going to be enough until he gets 100 of what he wants. So some republicans are going down that path, as you mentioned, but others have said, enough is enough and understand that its time to break with donald trump because his requests are unreasonable and his actions are reckless. Garrett, when the president released his video slamming the code relief bill, this question came into my mind because it caught so many allies off guard. Do you think theres some part of Mitch Mcconnell that sees all this chaos from President Trump in these final weeks, and he actually looks forward to a more predictable politician like joe biden, someone hes worked with in the past in these future negotiations . Mitch mcconnell wrote a book a couple of years ago about his political philosophy called the long game. Thats how he thinks about politics. He knows that hes playing a game that will go far beyond what President Trump will do, even if President Trump had won. Mitch mcconnell just got another sixyear term. His relationship with joe biden, which he has described as a friendship, goes back for decades. One of the only Senate Republicans, maybe the only Senate Republican to go to beau bidens funeral. While they will have significant policy differences, perhaps more pitch policy battles, especially if Mitch Mcconnells relegated to minority leader again next year if democrats win the two georgia seats. He knows that biden is someone who he can negotiate with and who is going to stand by the commitments theyve made so many times over the last four years weve covered situations up on capitol hill where mcconnell has held his cards particularly close, knowing that the possibility always exists to be undercut at the last minute by President Trump. And hes once again doing it on his way out the door here in less than a month. Pete, lets bring you in here. Im not going to ask you about the long game, but i want to ask you about the pardons which are within the president s powers. These arent the first controversial pardons a president has made. Bill clinton certainly made some controversial pardons. How do these stack up against past president s. Fewer. President trump has used the Pardon Authority less frequently than many predecessors have. Secondly, hes not used the traditional avenue for pardons which is that people file clemency petitions with the Justice Department, the office of pardon attorney reviews them, sees if they merit the suggestions that justice makes and then pass those recommendations on to the white house. But those are only recommendations, and the president is free to pardon whomever he wishes. In this case, President Trump has tended to pardon people either recommendations made by political supporters or friends of his or other republican members of congress. Quite a few of these recent pardons, for example, the white house notes were supported by conservatives in congress. And then people who were politically loyal to the president and it would seem that a big theme in some of these recent pardons is a continued rejection of the mueller investigation. Anybody who was convicted by mueller gets a pardon with two obvious exceptions. Rick gates who cooperated with mueller. Wouldnt expect him to get a pardon and Michael Cohen who basically turned on the president. Pete, what would be some of the considerations from that review board . Is remorse one of them . Well, sure. The Justice Department office of pardon attorney considers pardons to be an act of grace, of mercy. And so one of the things is, does the person who is receiving the pardon, has that person shown remorse . Have they shown contrition . George papadopoulos yesterday, for example, has never shown remorse and has said the pardon was rejection of the mueller investigation. Generally speaking, the person pardoned has to be at least five years out from finishing service of a sentence or getting convicted. And so there are a number of factors like that, service to the community. Now, you know, in fairness to the president , a lot of these pardons have been people who were given long drug sentences, for example, and have shown service to the community and have shown some efforts at reforming and expressing some remorse. But the more highprofile ones dont fit the Justice Department definition, but again, the president is free to accept or ignore those recommendations. And accepting a pardon is accepting guilt . Well, you know, it didnt used to be the view. The old view of the law was a pardon expunged everything, wiped the record clean. But the Supreme Court has said when you accept a pardon it is an admission of guilt, and it doesnt completely blot out your record. It does certainly allow people to get restoration of civil rights, for example, and vote and own a firearm. Interestingly, a lot of the clemency petitions that have piled up at the Justice Department are people who want a pardon so they can once again own a gun and go hunting. Congressman curbelo, whats the lack of public outrage from republican lawmakers in pertaining to these pardons, except for senator ben sasse of nebraska, tell you . Again, its the same theme that a lot of what motivates members of congress these days, in both parties, but in this case, obviously, republicans, is fear. And thats fear of a primary. Fear of a tweet from the president attacking a member of congress. That is what members are trying to avoid. Common wisdom among republicans is that its best to stay low, stay under the radar. Let this storm pass. Hopefully january 20th will come and go without a whole lot more fanfare, even though i think the next few weeks are probably going to be turbulent. And then, yes, as you indicated, i think not just Mitch Mcconnell but most if not all Congressional Republicans are looking forward to a more predictable, stable environment under president joe biden. As good as its been for republicans in some ways to be able to move some of their agenda priorities over the last four years, the cost has been very high. And that includes a personal cost. The personal cost of having to contend with president s antics every single day. There will be a sigh of relief on both sides of the aisle when joe biden is sworn in. What should we expect, if anything, from the president down at maralago . Well, traditionally speaking, when hes been down here, he is less ensconced with staff and less surrounded by the aides who sometimes keep his other impulses in check. I expect a lot of golf and potentially a lot of twitter activity and always the possibility that other action like more pardons could follow. Obviously something he doesnt need the legislature for. I suppose in the spirit of christmas, ill lay out hope that the president could also change his mind about the covid relief bill and choose to sign it. The office travels with him. He could make that decision at any time. Garrett haake, pete williams, carlos curbelo, thank you. The impact of the prets ve president s veto of the defense bill. What does it mean for the military . Plus, an increase in cases, a more contagious strain possibly also in the u. S. And christmas gatherings under way. Its a deadly combination, especially as hospitals are already overwhelmed. Free. Its gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old bargain detergent. Tide pods plus downy free. Safe for sensitive skin with eczema and psoriasis. Tremfya® can help adults with moderate to Severe Plaque Psoriasis uncover clearer skin that can last. Most patients who saw 90 clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. In another study, the majority of tremfya® patients saw 90 clearer skin at 3 years. 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I put it out there with a godaddy website. Welcome back. As we mentioned earlier, the president vetoed a major bill last night. The annual military spending bill known as the ndaa. Setting up a showdown with congress and possibly the first ever veto override of his presidency. The president says he vetoed the 741 billion bill because it allows for the renaming of military bases for confederate figures. And because lawmakers didnt use the bill to change protections for social media companies. The ndaa has passed every year for the past 59 years. And while it already passed both chambers of congress, with vetoproof majorities, it remains to be seen how many republicans who voted for the bill will vote to override the president s veto. We expect that house vote to happen on monday. Joining me is retired fourstar u. S. Army general Barry Mccaffrey and an msnbc military analyst. And a former member of the National Security council. Thank you, general, for your time today. I want to start with your reaction to this veto by President Trump. Well, look, the National Defense bills have been a bipartisan agreement for 59 years. The president normally has already proposed, overwhelmingly, all the major provisions of the bill. It doesnt get invented in congress. It goes over to congress. Frequently, congress will put into that bill controversial measures, normally not huge ones, with a presumption that the president wont dare veto the whole bill and it will slide on through. That certainly was the case of this renaming of u. S. Army bases after second tier confederate generals. Its just an astonishing, chaotic, irresponsible action by the president. They got to pass the bill, combined with shutting down the government on monday at midnight. The president is setting fire to the policy defense policies of the United States. General, what happens if they dont pass the ndaa . Theres so much up in the air right now. What is hanging in the balance . Politics. Do republican congressmen and senators have the courage to stand behind a bill they already voted for by vetoproof majorities. They already signed up both Political Parties largely by overwhelming majorities for this provision as an example on Confederate Military bases. So i dont see any way out. They have to pass the bill. If they dont, the entire u. S. Defense establishment goes into a partial lockdown, utter insanity when were dealing with russian aggression, north Korean Nuclear weapons, iranian transigence on the Nuclear Development program, a massive russian hack on the entire u. S. Government. Is trump actually capable of leaving the country with its defenses impaired . I think he is completely. Now the question moves to the republicans in congress and what theyll do about it. You know, it just theres no way to understand the mans thinking. This basically was tweeted out to his republican supporters in congress as he left to play golf. Monday and tuesday, i hope, they reverse course and stand behind sensible defense policy for america. Yeah, general, while the president tweeted that news, there are men and women in our armed forces who are away from their families on this Christmas Holiday. What impact does all of this political football have on them, the military families who sacrifice so much . Well, you know, i think largely speaking the deployed fighter squadrons, u. S. Navy ships, army battalions, special Operations Forces dont tend to pay a lot of attention to any of this stuff. For 59 years theyve learned the country, all americans, want a sound military defense. And these defense bills have been argued out in enormous detail over the last year. So they are assuming the thing will go through. I think the big impact on it is that our government is starting to look like a third world bunch of nincumpoops. Theres no way to run a congress the way the president runs National Security. The 2. 1 million men and women active guard and reserve, 740 billion budget and they just have thrown all the cards up in the air. So its incompetence. The congress is failing in their duties and this president is a lawless rogue. General, does it add insult to injury because of what President Trump is dangling in holding this bill hostage and that is his own personal grievances with renaming bases currently names after confederate soldiers and tweaking section 230 . Certainly the confederate soldiers part is really astonishing. I think theres overwhelming support inside the armed forces and among the American People to ban the symbols of the confederacy from any military bases. Army, navy, air force, marine. Everybody is behind that. There has been some controversy, particularly, i think, among white southerners about renaming these bases. Its inevitable. 800,000 americans died so we could end this moral depravity of slavery. Does trump want to stand behind that sort of thing . So he you would think he put himself in an untenable political position, but he has such support among some americans for some reason, his calculus is this is a good political move to make. I think senator Mitch Mcconnell and mccarthy in the house must be appalled that this carefully fought out, compromised, gigantic bill just got thrown over the cliff. Theyve got a problem. They have to pass that bill, and they have to do it this week. General, thank you so much for your frankness. Have a happy holiday. Thank you. Same to you, lindsey. The pain of this pandemic is being felt in ghcommunities all across the country. Ill talk with the mayor of one major city in the south with how hes handling the current situation. [ engines revving ] its amazing to see them in the wild like th shhh. [ engine revs ] for those who were born to ride, theres progressive. [ engine revs ] i and nothing has really worked mifor me. Until now. Nd years. With nurtec odt, i have felt such relief. 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