Prepping for weeks more of this. This will go on for a while. The American People will have their way. Plus, scared silent. Michael cohen postpones his congressional testimony because of what he calls ongoing threats to his family made by the president of the United States. What team cohen is now saying this morning as House Democrats insist he will still testify. No, i would say hes been threatened by the truth. Hes been threatened by the truth. And chaos in car raucous. Hundreds of thousands protested for the end of the mujaro team. The u. S. Recognizing the Opposition Leader as the true leader of venezuela. Getting its diplomats out. An order the administration refuses. Nicholas maduro has no legitimate claim to power. We will stand with the people of venezuela until they reclaim freedom and democracy for their people. We begin today with that rare reversal by the president. As he backs down from that battle with House Speaker nancy pelosi and furloughed workers brace for a second missed paycheck. What could happen to your family if the shutdown continues . Lose our home. You could lose our home . I pray. And im crying every day. Once theyve gone to sleep. Once i get behind that room door, im crying my eyes out. Im, like, i promised them that we would never be homeless again. That is tough to watch. Our team of reporters and guests are going to have the new details. Lets get you caught up. President trump overnight tweeting hes going to do the state of the Union Address when the shutdown is over, not looking for an alternative venue after all in what amounts to a concession to speaker pelosi. She is enkourcouraging the prest to end the shutdown. Quote, please accept this proposal so we can reopen government, she says, repay our federal workers and then negotiate our differences. But the action today is not in the house. Its over in the senate. Voting starts on two competing bills to reopen the government. The republican bill includes money for the president s border wall. The democratic bill does open in. It does reopen government for a couple weeks. Both are expected to fail. That is not a great sign. Neither is this. The Trump Administration seems to be planning for an even longer shutdown. The senior official at the office of management and budget tells nbc news the administration has asked Agency Leaders to provide a list of programs that could be affected if the shutdown goes on for weeks to come. Nbc news has also obtained a letter written and signed by five bipartisan former secretaries of the department of homeland security. That includes former white house chief of staff john kelly calling on congress and the president to fund the dhs. They warn the longer they work without pay, the greater risk they seek jobs elsewhere. Speaking of risks, Union Leaders for air traffic controllers, pilots, say there are serious safety concerns now about flying because of the shutdown. They write, in our risk averse industry, we cannot calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break. It is unprecedented. All of this as 800,000 furloughed federal workers risk missing their second paycheck tomorrow. People working on government contracts also are not getting paid. They probably wont get any back pay for this. Lets get to our team of reporters. Nbcs Kelly Odonnell live on capitol hill. Nbcs Kristen Welker at the white house. Kristen, that overnight reversal by President Trump. Who has prided himself on not backing down but in this instance he sure is. It was a rare retweet by President Trump that came just before midnight. With the president essentially giving if after nancy pelosi said that he could not deliver his state of the Union Address next tuesday on the house floor if the government is not open. This is what President Trump tweeted just to remind our viewers overnight he said, i will do the address when the shutdown is over. Im not looking for an alternative venue. Because there is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the house chamber. I look forward to giving a great state of the Union Address in the near future. L. A. Part of his statement, saying, i hope you mean you will support the package to end the shutdown that the senate will vote on tomorrow. Of course we know that is not going to happen as you just mapped out. What happens moving forward . Is there some type of compromise bill that can come together . I know kellys going to have a lot more on all of that. Bottom line, in talking to officials here, they continue to be defiant that it is up to democrats to try to fund the president s demand for a border wall. But theres no clear indication that is going to happen. The president doesnt have any events on his schedule today, yesterday he did hold meetings. He met with conservative leaders. Not democrats. So it doesnt appear as though theres an end in sight in the near future. But the pressure is certainly mounting for all of those reasons that you just knocked out. Kelly odonnell is over on the hill. Our friend Kristen Welker teed you up well. Dueling votes on capitol hill. Neither of them are expected to pass. Whats your sense being in the building this morning . Well, it is sort of the dueling banjos of lejs legislati legislation. We have to go through it. Because it is a way to test the waters. What we have seen here is a slice of bipartisanship for the fact that theyre even holding two separate votes. The republican plan which is the president s offer which gives him all the mope he wants for a border wall over five years, 5. 7 billion. And to sweeten that to attract democrats. Some limited protections for young immigrants if the daca class as its known. And temporary protected status retchies who come from places with natural disasters and war allowed to come here legally as refugees but their time willics spire. On the democrat being side, it is a short term measure that does not give the president what he wants. What theyre saying here is look to see who votes against their own party. There are a few red state democrats who might be targets of opportunity for republicans. And there are some 2020 republicans who are targets of opportunity for democrats. For example, Susan Collins of maine. Shes up for reelection. Shes going to vote yes on both measures. It is a test of the exasperation level of senators. This is the first time were seeing senate action. How fed up are they . Democrats tell me if democrats could prevail, we dont think thats likely, the house would act quickly, it would be over. For republicans, this is a way to see where are the dividing lines. There are those who want leadership to say ive got an idea. That seems to be the phase that comes next. Kristen welker at the white house, Kelly Odonnell at the hill, thank you. Let me bring in eli stokels. Rick tyler, republican strategist, former maryland congresswoman Donna Edwards joins us. Here we are. Eli, youve been writing about this a ton. Tell me what your sources are telling you. The last time this happened, i was 1 year old. This hasnt happened in decades. It is a record shutdown. The white house, i think it was more surprising last night that the president accepted the actual reality of the fact that he doesnt hold the cards on this one. Speaker pelosi controls the house chamber. Whatever letter he decided to send, thats not going to force her to open up the doors and say okay, go ahead and give your speech youre the president. The separation of powers has been something the president has has struggled to accept at times. The fact he accepted it last night is the fact of a white house that they just have a lot on their plate. Theyre not exactly sure of their move from day to day. They were basically out of moves. They had no choice but to pull back. The focus for the most part is on figuring out how to end the shutdown. How to find an off ramp. How to save face and perhaps get some measure of Border Security money dollars for the wall without prolonging this further. At the same time, they are considering what happens if this keeps going. They dont really know how this is going to end when you call over there and ask them, im sure you have these conversations too, if these votes fail what happens next . They dont really know. The arguing is Border Security, this border wall is such a priority that it supersedes at least right now those pain points youre hearing from federal workers. It really is pretty extraordinary. These stories dont seem to be quite moving to the president yet. Keep in mind, this coming weekend, one, going into another weekend, going back home, and knowing that people are not going to get their second paycheck. This is weighing on senators. Its weighing on members of the house. One thing that was really clear is Nancy Pelosis book is called know your power. Clearly in this, she knows she understands her power and shes been really using that. I think the president is in the face of that. What i see coming in these two failed measures in the senate, is that it just open up a pathway to begin real negotiations that are going to happen between the house and the senate. Spe somebodys going to go to the president and say your measures failed this is the deal we cut. I see this coming whether that happens in a day or a week. You had the dhs letter too. Five former dhs accounts, interestingly, rick, including one person who was in the white house when this shutdown started, john kelly who was the chief of staff at the time that this shutdown began. Say what you will about how much power he had but he was there. It was in his job title. Does that move the needle . I think it will. Pelosi has to establish the fact that the president and the white house and the executive branch, youre in charge. But in this half, she says im in charge. She needed to win that argument. Thats been established. The president , as eli says, the reality star met reality. The president is holding his hand. In cards. Hes got a pair of 2s, right . Very weak hand. What hes betting against National Security is that nothing goes wrong in the aviation industry. And you can tell this is none of this is serious. For two reasons. One is you dont say that Border Security is a priority and then not pay the people securing the border. Thats one. Two, no republican could tell you whether its 5. 7 billion for Border Security, 800 million of that is supposedly for scanning. So that leaves 4. 9 billion for some kind of a barrier on the border, right . The current barrier, which only cover less than 700 miles, was 7 billion. So clearly it doesnt the 4. 9 doesnt pay for the whole border. Not one republican can tell you where theyre going to build this wall. It is not a serious proposal. But it is a symbol, rick. Its become a symbol for both of these parties now. For the president , its a symbol of his promise he made to his base. For the democrat, its a symbol of opposition to this promise the president made. As i recall if the last when barack obama was president and i was a critic of barack obama as well, is symbolism over substance. Now the Republican Party is going to stand for symbolism which is a wall. By the way, walls make sense in certain places like san diego, like in el paso. But they dont make sense in the middle of the desert. What about cracks in the Republican Party . The president has insisted hes united. Susan collins now has come out and said ill vote for the republican proposal and the democratic proposal because i want to open the government. It makes sense for cory gardner to try to create some press that says look, im not just falling in line with the Trump Administration because donald trump is 15 points under water in colorado and Cory Gardners on the ballot in 2020. But trumps calculations are not about gardner or collins. What may sway trump is the fact that theres evidence his own standing has been diminished by this. Lets put up on screen. The poll that shows trump falling eight points to almost a bottom for his presidency at 34 now this month in the ap poll and an overall Approval Rating thats down eight points again in just the month of the shutdown and 60 of the country blames trump for it. When we heard him yesterday talking at the white house saying, oh, the democrats, you know, the partys fallen apart. That tells you that he actually knows, its registering that the opposite is true and maybe that is the key that finally turns in the lock and gets the president to say, okay, we need an off ramp here because this is hurting me. He wont admit it publicly but hes starting to become aware of that i think. Eli, its always great to have you here on our set. Im going to ask both of you to stick around. Coming up after the break, were going live in a few minutes to davos for the World Economic forum. Our own Stephanie Ruhle will be talking with the president s former top economic adviser gary cohn about the conversation weve been having and much more. Before that, the president s former fixer says threats against his family have led him to push often his congressional testimony. Could House Democrats force him to appear anyway, even if it means taking him out of prison . That rocking chair would look great in our new house. Ahh, new house, eh . Well, you should definitely see how geico could help you save on homeowners insurance. Nice tip. Ill give you two bucks for the chair. Two . thats a victorian antique all right, how much for the recliner, then . Wait wait. How did that get out here . That is definitely not for sale is this a yard sale . If its in the yard then its. For sale. Oh, here we go. Geico. Its easy to switch and save on homeowners and renters insurance. Lookin better than a body has a right to and shakin me up so applebees all you can eat is back. Now with shrimp. 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Of course its not. Comes from the ukraine. He may have ties to something called organized crime. And once the president insinuated cohens wife might be involved in something illegal. We agonize whd d whether to sho that sound bite because hes bringing up somebody who has no evidence. Giuliani provided no evidence. Trump provided no evidence. But the president is not backing down. He says hes been threatened by you and mr. Giuliani in his no, i would say hes been threatened by the truth. Hes only been threatened by the truth. Okay. So what happens now . Michael cohen has 41 days before he starts his threeyear prison sentence. That is not exactly a big window, right . The top democrat on the House OversightCommittee Says hes not giving up on trying to get cohens testimony. I guarantee as sure as day becomes night and night becomes day that we will hear from mr. Cohen, period. I have not decided exactly how we will go about it, but i promise you, we will hear from him. Ken dilanian covers intelligence and National Security for nbc news. Matt himiller is a msnbc justic analyst. Let me play you what lanny davis, now kind of an adviser, has to say just this morning about all of this. Let me be very clear, the house of representatives has an obligation. The president of the United States obstructs justice to prevent a witness from testifying. So is a criminal investigation for Rudy Giuliani for witness tampering, calling out a mans fatherinlaw and wife in order to intim damt tidate the witnest fair game. What constitutes witness tampering . It would be trying to corruptly prevent someone from testifying or providing evidence in an ongoing proceeding which of course it is. So this is that . I think its clear what the president was trying to do. He was out publicly threatening, encouraging people to dig into his familys past. Remember, its not just the explicit t