Bennett is known as being quiet i mean, softspoken. Hes a quietly confident person who does not need to yell to make his point. And to see him out there with no notes, to see him out there with no staff, to see him speaking from the heart like that in a way that absolutely blew up, all the more powerful because of his because of his personality. Because of his quietness. And thats what makes it the hollywood moment. It is the mr. Smith moment. Because he is, as you put it, mildmannered. When you were talking about it. And softspoken. It wasnt a person anybody expected this from. Let me give you one more technical detail about this that was fascinating for me and that is that when a senator rises to speak there is a microphone that is attached to their desk and they pull it right out. It looks leek a pen. It looks like a black pen like this and they pull it right out and they drop it they actually tend to just drop it right in the pocket of the suit coat. Right . Thats what ted cruzs microphone, thats where it is before Michael Bennett starts speaking. Michael bennett jumped up without even grabbing his microphone. And that did two things. Number one, he wasnt wired to the desk. It allowed him to move around as if this was Clarence Darrow in the courtroom. And it really added a level of drama that ive never seen a senator able to convey because of the physical movement. The other thing, thats why youre hearing his voice dip off at certain points. Because hes moving away from that microphone. Because the mike is sitting the mike is in a static position and hes moving around. Yeah. And then the other part of it is this. Most senators if they get up and forget to pick up the microphone, you dont really hear them at first. Which is to say Michael Bennetts really, really loud. And hes not anywhere near the microphone. So im telling you, it was ten times louder. Perfect. I cannot wait to see you do this. It was extraordinary. One other thing. We have faye smith tonight, rachel. She wasnt on this show last night, but people saw her because i showed video of her at Mitch Mcconnells office. Shes a federal krarktd whos been unable to pay her bills. And shes worried about being evicted. And she reached our audience last night like no one ive ever seen. I was getting phone calls and texts from people wanting to hp her, wanting to know whats happened to her. So faye smith is now going to join us as a guest tonight and shes got a lot to tell us about whats happened since she went to Mitch McconnellsOffice Yesterday. Thats amazing. Well done, my friend. Thank you, rachel. Thanks, lawrence. Thank you. Well, nancy pelosi said no to donald trump again today, and so tonight a defeated president finds himself alone in a hell of his own creation, a Government Shutdown which he thought was going to make him look strong but makes him look weaker every day, with his polling numbers getting worse all the time and with republicans defecting from the trump sinking ship every day every time theres a vote. Nancy pelosi beat donald trump once again today, and this time, this time nancy pelosi beat donald trump in the United States senate. The senate took up a spending bill which nancy pelosi had passed through the house of representatives which would reopen the government for a few weeks, and it won a majority vote including six republican votes. Those were Six Republican Senate votes for what nancy pelosi wants and against, six votes against what donald trump wants. Senators mitt romney, lamar alexander, Susan Collins, lisa murkowski, johnny isaacson, cory gardner, all republicans, all cast their votes in favor of their federal government worker constituents, the government workers in their states who are suffering, and they cast those votes against donald trump. The vote was 5244. And when President Trumps vote came to a vote it actually came to a vote first in the United States senate today. All those republicans who voted for the pelosi bill after the trump bill, they voted for the trump bill. But two republicans voted against the trump bill. And so the vote on the trump bill was 5047. Each bill needed 60 votes to pass. And now the the Republican Senate leader and the democratic leader Chuck Schumer are discussing what happens next, and no one knows what happens next. Least of all President Trump. President trump says he will support whatever. Whatever Chuck Schumer and Mitch Mcconnell agree on. But donald trump said that the last time that Chuck Schumer and Mitch Mcconnell agreed on a spending bill which they then passed through the United StatesSenate Unanimously in december. And after they did that and after donald trump promised that he was going to sign it, he changed his mind. After they passed the bill. Donald trump said he was now opposed to it. And so today reporters pressed the president on exactly what he would be willing to accept. Temporary spending without money for the wall . Just to reopen i wouldnt be happy with it. I wouldnt be happy. But we have a lot of alternatives. Wouldnt be happy with it . Wouldnt be happy with it . He didnt say he would veto it. Thats what hes supposed to say if hes going to veto it. With a normal president wouldnt be happy with it means he wouldnt sign it. But this is donald trump, so no one has any idea what he means. Here is one of the alternatives for reopening the government, whatever that means, that the president suggested today and that no one understood. One of the ideas suggested is they open it, they pay sort of a prorated down payment for the wall. Hmm . Well, heres Nancy Pelosis masterful response to whatever that was. That is not a reasonable agreement between the senators. Do you know what hes talking about, what size down payment hes asking for . I dont know if he knows what hes talking about. Do you . What about a prorated down payment . I dont know what that means. You cannot go wrong with the American Public saying you do not know what donald trump means. No one does most of the time. That donald trump has the worst cabinet in history and the Worst White House staff in history is beyond dispute. The most incompetent staff and cabinet in history. What is now sadly beyond dispute is that donald trump has the cruellest white house staff and the cruellest cabinet in history. This is a truly vicious form of cruelty. Its the kind of cruelty that is so oblivious to the way real people live that theres no limit to how much harm they can do to those people because of that obliviousness. I have shown you on this program the president s top economic adviser saying on video that he believed the Government Shutdown was like giving federal workers vacations. He said that with a smile, filled with the cruelty of the oblivious man. It was commerce secretary wilbur rosss turn today. Wilbur ross is a billionaire who is possibly the most corrupt and certainly the most incompetent commerce secretary in history. And he said he cant understand why government workers are going to homeless shelters to get food because they should just take care of themselves by getting loans. Wilbur ross doesnt know that when youre not wilbur ross you cant get bank loans standly. He doesnt know what it is to be denied credit. And the credit union in his own department, the Commerce Department credit union, is charging 9 on personal loans if, if you can qualify for one. If anyone working in the Commerce Department or anyone else in the federal government were to ask wilbur ross how much of a loan should i get for how long, he has no idea. Nancy pelosi said this about wilbur rosss suggestion that 800,000 federal government workers should do what hes always been able to do when his businesses hit a bump in the cash flow, just pick up a phone and get a loan. I mean, is this the let them eat cake kind of attitude or call your father for money . This is character building for you, its all going to end up very well, just as long as you dont get your paychecks. Joining our discussion now, Jason Johnson, politics editor at theroot. Com and msnbc contributor. And adam gentleson, the former deputy chief of staff to senator harry reid. Adam, i want to begin with you with what you saw in the senate today. We saw six republicans cross over to the democrats on a bill that did not include any funding for the wall. As this proceeds, that six could easily double and then it could easily triple. This was an important vote because while the top line was that both bills failed, beneath the surface there was some significant movement, and six republicans defecting to the democratic side, obviously it didnt get you to a point where the bill can pass, but thats the kind of movement that starts to trigger big momentum shifts among senators. And senators look at that vote and they see the democratic side gaining momentum. So Chuck Schumer emerged much stronger from this vote today than he was before it and mcconnells position has been significantly weakened. Mcconnell may want to be getting weaker because he may be wanting to show trump that he cant hold the line much longer. But the bottom line was that today was a good vote for democrats and Chuck Schumer emerged from that bill much stronger than he was before he went into it. Yeah. And jason, thats one of those things that everyone working in the senate knows and i think a lot of the press knows but people out there tend not to, that you can lose a vote in the senate like Mitch Mcconnell, you can come up on the short end of a vote and be glad that you did because youre actually trying to teach a lesson to the unreasonable people on your side, which in Mitch Mcconnells case includes donald trump. And so what you didnt see today was anybody attacking those six republican senators for going across the aisle. Theres no indication that theyre paying any price, even with donald trump. Yeah, lawrence. What were getting to here is were past the Performance Art part of these wall negotiations and now were going to get . Actual work done. Nobody wants to be the 60th vote, but everybodys happy to be 57, 58, or 59th. And thats what were about to head to. These first six senators and you look at them. Youve got, you know, Susan Collins from maine who knows shes going to be challenged. Lisa murkowski, who knows she might be challenged. Isakson from georgia where hes got the super bowl coming in a week and he doesnt want that mess. He doesnt want a potential walkout at Atlanta Hartsfield jackson. You have a lot of different senators, sometimes from red states, sometimes from blue states, who are saying hey, look, we need to get this done. Theyre providing the cover. And really what im sure Mitch Mcconnell has explained to the president right now is like look, i can only hold this line but for so long. I can only put the gandolf stand down and say you shall not pass. At some point im going to be overcome by these senators. If you dont want to get embarrassed, youre going to have to come up with some kind of deal we can both work through. I think that will happen by this weekend, and i suspect probably by the first week of february this might be over. I want to read what Chuck Schumers Office Issued tonight, minority leaders Office Issued this statement. This is about that weird prorated thing, whatever thats supposed to mean. But the president said just to lay down the markers on it, the statement is senator schumer and Senate Democrats have made clear to leader mcconnell and republicans that they will not support funding for the wall, prorated or otherwise. And so adam jentleson, Chuck Schumer is echoing Nancy Pelosis no. It is a unified no. It is a flawlessly repeated no on the wall. And theres nothing else they say about the wall. Donald trump has been moving and changing what hes been saying about the wall every single day, both how much money he wants or whether it is a wall or how much wall there will be, how seethrough the steel spikes will be or whatever it is, but from nancy pelosi, Chuck Schumer, its simply the word no. Thats right. And its impossible to overstate how important it is that theyve been able to maintain that unity both within their own caucuses on each side of the capital and then together and having them issue statements, you know, basically echoing each other. Its just enormously important. And what theyve done is theyve sort of taken any sort of sense of dems in disarray that media love to focus on, any sort of drama on the democratic side out of the picture. There hasnt been any. Theres nothing for the press to cover. Which has allowed all the focus to be squarely on trump, squarely on his changing position, his weak position, and its been buttressed by polls showing the public overwhelmingly blames trump and supports the democratic position. So that the unity has been enormously important and huge credit goes to both Speaker Pelosi and leader schumer for being able to hold that line. And now theres a group of bipartisan senators who are reportedly working on another version of the pelosi bill which is a funding the government for three weeks with no wall. And that includes people like lindsey graham, whos a little bit surprising to see on that list on the republican side. I want to go back to what seemed like the conclusion of a drama yesterday, but the real final moment was today when the president issued his own verbal surrender on this. And that is the whole state of the union where nancy pelosi finally had to put it in writing to the president yesterday, saying absolutely not, youre not coming here, were not going to do the concurrent resolution that luz to come here to do your state of the union. Forget, it its over. That seemed to get through to him. Because listen to what the president said today and how full his surrender to nancy pelosi is on this after pretending to his followers that he was simply going to bully his way right into the building, grab a microphone that night and give the speech anyway. Lets listen to what President Trump had to say about it today. Well, its really no choice. I mean, i would have done it in a different location, but i think that would be very disrespectful to the state of the union, to pick some other place. I could have done it. I could have gone to a big auditorium and gotten 25,000 people in one day, and youve been there many times. But i think that would be very disrespectful to the state of the union. So what she said i thought was actually reasonable. Well have the state of the union when the shutdown is over. Jason. What she said i thought was actually reasonable. The word surrender doesnt appear anywhere there, but thats what i heard. Yeah, yeah. Speaker pelosi is from baltimore and she laid this down and Donald Trump Backed up. He was the fact that he had the sergeant of arms there and she told the sergeant of arms no. The president of the United States is facing something that really in two years he has not faced from congress because he hasnt had a Democratic Congress before. Trump has lost in the courts. Trump has lost in the polls. Trump has lost in elections hes endorsed. Hes never lost a legislative battle before. Hes never lost a symbolic legislative battle. And thats whats happened here. Hes not going to get his wall. Hes not going to give the state of the union when he wants to give the state of the union. And at the end of the day i dont think hes going to get much money even for Homeland Security or any sort of Border Security he wants. Jason johnson, adam jentleson, thank you very much for starting us off tonight. Really appreciate it. And when we come back, faye smith will join us. You saw her on this program last night on video at Mitch Mcconnells office crying as she tried to explain what the Government Shutdown means to her and how she might be evicted from her home. And the breaking point in the United States senate today was a thing of beauty to behold. One of the most extraordinary speeches i have ever seen in the senate. It was a moment of heartfelt eloquence and outrage. But first tonight, air Traffic Controllers and airline pilots, Flight Attendants say they cannot calculate the risk of flying during the Government Shutdown. If youre flying this weekend, on super bowl weekend, you have to listen to this. Even though youre not going to want to listen to this. Thats coming up. And saying, really . So capital one is building something completely new. Capital one cafes. Inviting places with people here to help you, not sell you. And savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. Because thats how it should be. You can open one from right here or anywhere in 5 minutes. Seriously, 5 minutes. This is banking reimagined. Whats in your wallet . It would do