Assert themselves. Well, and here we are. Guys, i dont even know where to begin. That is all we have for mtp daily tonight. In the midst of the Breaking News, the house is voting right now on the key vote that will apparently tell us more about whether there is a shut down coming and we have this National Security imploegsion. And our Breaking News continues with ari melber. I dont know if i dont know if Breaking News is enough to describe everything that is happening right now, but the Trump White House might be unraveling. I heard you say nightmare and unraveling. We have the language here, bry let you go, of general mattis say you have the right to have a Secretary Of Defense that whose views are better aligned with yours. Where do we go from here . And if you believe jeremy bash who said the president that secretary matt is was never going to resign and the president would have to fire him. So it is some form of resignation or protest or firing, but either way, major and one of the people that was held out as part of the civil and Military Service that were the guard rails. We have a lot in our show as you did, chuck, thank you so much. Thank you, sir. You heard it right there. We are in the middle of what is, and i mean this literally, one of the wildest days of a very wild presidency. Jim mattis announcing formally hes stepping down in february. As i was just discussing with chuck todd, my colleague. This is about disagreements with the commanderinchief, it is also early reporting suggests another ousting. Trump also on the verge of personally unilaterally being the force that shuts down your United States government, heading into the holidays, for no apparent reason. Again that is the clearest way we can put it. He wants a wall but refused to negotiate to get what Chuck Schumer offered. This hour were expected to hear live from nancy pelosi and chuck
schumer. They will be on the beat. And how is this affecting your stock market. The stock market continuing to plunge among the shutdown threat. 500 points down. And also today, republican lawmakers, theyve had it. They are blasting their president , donald trump, for many things, including siding with vladimir putin, instead of the own advice he got from his own Pentagon Advisers on syria. And then the story that weve been following because it matters in many ways, this Justice Department in turmoil over again, yes, the russiarelated Mueller Probe. Donald trump acting Attorney General now rejected the kind of Ethics Recommendation that Jeff Sessions followed in order to recuse himself, saying, no he will oversee the Mueller Probe and later Breaking News on the man who would be permanent acting Attorney General. Well get to that. But first, let me bring in a panel on this wild night. Sam seeder and a long time washington watcher. Eleanor clift, from the daily
beast, lanny davis, who advised the white house in crisis, Special Counsel to president clinton and dealt with the mueller jobe and colonel jack jacobs, military analyst. Colonel, ill get to you in a moment on the military. But lanny, i begin with you, because we used to talk about white house in crisis. You were in a hot one. I bet nights like tonight make that look like kindergarten. Your thoughts and is the president handling this right . Well, i dont want to insult eleanor, but she was there when i was there and this would be unknown. We wouldnt even call this a crisis. This is a meltdown. You lose your Secretary Of Defense, your chief of staff, you shut down the government and i just have to say one word about when i decided to work for Michael Cohen when he said, he never imagined, this is a direct quote, that donald trump would ever become president. As soon as he became president , he started to fear for his children and his country. This is what i believe mr. Cohen is referring to. As a reckless mentally unstable president of the United States who cozies up to putin and seems to be betraying the national interests. Colonel jacobs, walk us through what it means when you lose two generals and chief of staff and now in Defense Secretary as i was reading and i have it here a letter that sounds like an ousting. You have a right to a Secretary Of Defense whose views are better aligned and it is right for me to step down and a twopage kind of rebuke. Your analysis, sir . Ive known general mattis on and off for a long time and the fact he would stay in his post until relieved. Hes been relieved. He wont quit on of his own volition. This is an arrangement that was dictated by the president of the United States. Let me stop you there and then let you continue, colonel. Youre saying that your understanding giving your
experience and professional relationship with mr. Mattis that he was fired . Well, yeah, he would stay in his post until relieved, until he was told he had to go. If you would have spoken to him recently, you would have gotten exactly the same message. I think the same thing is true of General Kelly as a matter of fact. These people would serve the country and not an individual and would leave only if they were told they have to leave and general mattis put the best face on it. I think youre losing a person with extremely forwardthinking vision, somebody who is focused on the defense of the republic and it is difficult to envision somebody as good as he replacing him, ari. Eleanor. Well it is a sad day in america when a liberal like me says theyre regretting the fact that Mad Dog Mattis is leaving the administration. It was a nickname that he detested but he served this
president as best he could and i think the country is in much less safe hands with his departure. After the president Changed Syria Policy and announced that u. S. Forces were victorious and isis is done and hes bringing everybody home, announced it by tweet, didnt tell the pentagon, didnt call key senators on capitol hill, just did that on his own over the objections of everyone in Foreign Policy and it seems general mattis almost had to go. So i dont know whether he was relieved or whether he did the dutiful thing, if you cant follow an order youve gotten from the commanderinchief, maybe it is time to go. To maybe his being relieved of his position is a combination of his really wanting out as the honorable thing to do. And youre linking the big news stories here, which is all of the chaos, all of the problems, the disagreement and then of course syria which is
adjacent to russia policy as well. The panel stays with me. Ill add a voice for reporting to our panel. Chief White House CorrespondentHallie Jackson. And hallie, i want to hear what you are getting from the white house and what set you up here with some context which is lindsey graham, who is known recently to be quite supportive of many things the president does, i want to play for you this and then get your reporting which is the kind of blowback donald trump was already getting on this policy from republicans. Take a listen. I do know this that in this war you will not win it by giving up. This is akin to surrendering. We can be successful only if we partner with others, this undercuts that effort. We have two choices to fight this war and in their backyard or our backyard. And isis and afghanistan and i
know for sure is looking toward the United States in 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. Hallie . Reporter well, listen, we know we already are hearing from senator graham not just on those issues, but on that but on the resignation, the ousting of secretary Jim Mattis Given that senator graham said now it is with Great Sadness hes been informed of this resignation, this retirement. However you want to phrase it. Let me tick through those new reporting pieces of information that we have for you. So senior white house officials said secretary mattis came to the white house this afternoon. Im told that it was scheduled for right around 3 30. I dont know that is right because that is when the Farm Bill Signing was but my guess is that is why the president was so delayed to that Farm Bill Signing. So the secretary came here and he told the president that he would be leaving the
administration on February 28th and i believe that at that Point Secretary Mattis also handed donald trump that Resignation Letter. And then they had a what was phrased to me as a difference of opinion. Not just over the course of some months, as we all know about, but in the course of this meeting, those differences of opinion came up. This official would not say specifically if syria or afghanistan or pick your issue was one of the topics, but obviously the two, it sounds like, did have a discussion where they dont see eye to eye. I have to tell you, secretary mattis Resignation Letter is extraordinary. It is a Shotgun Blast aimed directly into the oval office who, if the president did read that in front of jim mattis, you could imagine he was not thrilled to be doing that. Given that mattis called him out for turning away allies and embracing traditional adversaries like russia and china. Very specifically saying that you need a Secretary Of Defense whose views are better aligned with you are as yours as you
see. And let me read that to you and analysis on anything from your reporting about the shutdown and this is Breaking News so we dont have all of it up on the screen but folks could follow as i say what the secretary told donald trump to his face in this letter after what weve been told is an ousting. I believe we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach whose countries are in tension with ours and said it is clear china and russia want to shape a world consist went their authoritarian model. Veto authority over other nations, Security Decisions to promote their own interests. Hallie . Reporter let me say one thing. So i said the word ousting. Shouldnt have said. I dont want that rocketing around the internet and live television, this is jim mattis saying im good and ive had enough and im not attributing that to you. And we spoke earlier, Colonel Jacobs said he would serve until hes done serving and his view
and i understand you are not confirming that from the white house right now. But walk us through the rest of that and then take us to how this affects the shutdown, the market plunging, what chuck todd and i were discussing looks like and not to be hyperbolic but truly the wheels coming off. Reporter as one senior official told my colleague using that exact phrase. The context is this was brewing for months. The relationship had soured. Sources that ive talked to in the white house have acknowledged that. The relationship just was not what it was in the words of one person here inside of the white house, things change. Yeah, they ve they did. And they are expected to name a replacement by the end of the year and ill give a caveat, a grain of salt and weve heard from the president time and time again that he would name a person within an x period of time and that has not happened but that is the expectation that we are getting from the white house tonight on that front. As for how this relates to the shutdown, i think chuck used the
phrase it is like lighting a match and throwing it on some gasoline here. This a day at a 24 hours or 48 hours in a week in which weve seen developments on syria, weve seen developments as it relates to the potential for a Government Shutdown. President trump think about his mindset here. Yesterday there were signals coming that maybe he would break this promise to his base on this border wall, pick up the fight again in the spring and sign the shortterm fix if the senate and the house passed it to keep the government open and then what happened . He started losing. He started losing the voices, conservative voices who speak for many in his base in conservative media blasting the president and he heard directly from mark meadows begging the president , essentially dont do this. Dont sign this thing. Fight on. Your base wants you to fight. And that is the mindset this president kind of embattled here on the Border Wall Front came into this with the news about syria and withdrawing troops. Embattled but losing a war here. Hallie, stay with us as much as you can. You mention the hill and the votes and i want to mention sam cedar but i have Breaking News on Garrett Haake on capitol hill where this is playing out. As i told viewers at the top of the show, well hear from Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi shortly. Youve got all of the fallout from that dramatic meeting they had over the shutdown and donald trump as hallie just mentioned apparently saying, great, here comes the Trump Shutdown. What are you hearing there . I think that is exactly right. Were looking at nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer once again drawing a line in the sand here. We fully expect them to say they will not accept this cr that will come back from the house loaded up with wall money, after that meeting last week all of the political pressure was taken off of them. Donald trump said out loud in front of the entire country, he would own this shutdown and it is not clear that republicans have any kind of big picture strategy to get out of a
shutdown if they get into one tactically we know the next moves. Theyll try to pass the cr with wall money and not clear they could do that and send it over to the senate where it will fail as Chuck Schumer will tell the country in a few minutes and then what . Then what . So let me ask you on that, garrett, for folks watching this who have heard donald trump go back and forth with chuck and nancy and have this drama, tonight is different because hes lost john kelly and now general mattis and the market is plunging, the doj is in turmoil and the incoming attorney gem back channeling ways to fight mueller, there is a lot going on. When you look at what you are seeing in your area of reporting expertise, is this a Shutdown Showdown or a shut shutdown fauxdown. This is a whimper and republican senators are leaving town. They dont want this fight. There is no vigor for the idea of fighting for the wall on the senate side of things and now look at all of the things they
have to do when when they get back. They have a new interior and now need a new Secretary Of Defense. And general mattis, without the exception of Mitch Mcconnell married to a cabinet secretary, every senators favorite secretary and losing him up here will shake the confidence that donald trump needs to do his agenda Going Forward and that includes the wall. The idea this will be a fight over the holidays, hes going to be fighting that alone on the senate side. He has allies in the house but the idea this will get muscled through over christmas break with folks heading for the break, i dont see it. Stay with me. I want to go to sam cedar on the liberal democratic strategy here. Because youve covered this a long time. You have a Point Of View on this. And there was a time when democrats didnt seem to have the strength for these fights. Do you think were witnessing the nancy pelosi strategy, make him own it and dont back down . Yeah, i think so. And i think well see the democrats take this opportunity to slow down the confirmation of judges, i think we already got some reporting on that today. And this is a this is an opportunity for democrats. On some level it is also sort of a terrifying time. We talk about president s being somewhat isolated and insolated, Donald Trumps world is getting increasingly smaller and tighter. But this is an opportunity for democrats to stay cohesive. And slow down Mitch Mcconnells agenda. Because to the extent there is an agenda on the republican side, it is more Mitch Mcconnell than anyone elses and frankly Mitch Mcconnell needs to step up and start dealing with the fact that his republican president has gone off the rails. Basically when we look at all of this and lanny, i know i may lose you, what do you see as the way this white house deals with what you call this meltdown . And what does it say when you see this many people leave in
this way and all of this of course to state the obvious, which sometimes is my job, is before the democrats even take charge in the house where their eight Point National