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>> neil: if we do have a shut down and what many of your colleagues in the house not coming back till wednesday, how long you think it lasts? >> you know, i hope not long and i hope it doesn't happen at all. i don't think it needs to. and i know this from the white house. look, the president has been insistent, our border is not score. he's right. he's given ground in order to reach a solution. i hope that continues. >> neil: that i was ways and means committee kevin brady that he's hoping to avoid a government shut down. in case you're dismissing that, there are some things percolating that b...

Millennial millenn top congressional democrats are now calling for acting attorney general matthew whitaker's recusal from robert mueller's investigation. in the new letter today, the justice department ethics office lawmakers are saying whitaker has demonstrated clear bias against the special counsel probe. if whitaker does not step down, senator minority leader chuck schumer said democrats will add a measure that bipartisan support in the next spending bell to protect the investigation. let's bring in paul butler. he is also an msnbc legal analyst. where are we on this today? >> the presid...

Chuck schumer went to the white house to meet with the president. they were afraid they were going to get rolled here. remember what happened in september when schumer and pelosi went down on the interim spending bell. they kept the government open in december with almost no drama. the speaker of the house and mitch mcconnell basically didn't have anything to say about it at the end of the day. but we don't have that deal right now. again, all of these government shutdowns are very organic. we don't know what is going to happen. when you have the trifecta of government shutdowns in 1995, 96, i...

Necessarily with the same degree of gravitas with the tax cut things but so on the anniversary of his inauguration, you're not looking at a shut down. >> there may be. we're going back to washington and the house on january 8th. i think we'll have the temperature take. i think that the house majority is fine. we'll be able to handle it. i think the question is, who runs the senate and if schumer will call the shots -- >> and you need democratic votes in the senate. people understand that it's not sort of like a squeaker with the tax cut vote. just republicans. you need democrats there, right? ...