Meet the Press NOW — December 18

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Conditions of buy offer includes 1% loyalty rate reduction for qualifying customers. Visit HyundaiCanda.com or your local deal for details. If it's Wednesday, stocks struggle as the Federal Reserve slashes interest rates again, looking to boost a cooling labor market as the country braces for sweeping changes to the US Economy in Trump's second term. Plus, President Elect Trump warns former Congresswoman Liz Cheney that she, quote, could be in a lot of trouble.

House Republicans release a new report calling for her to be investigated by the FBI. And House Speaker Mike Johnson faces backlash from inside his conference and from Elon Musk as Congress moves to jam through a massive short term funding bill with the deadline looming. Welcome to MEET the PRESS now. Dave Gutierrez in Washington as the future of the US Economy takes center stage with markets taking a sharp turn into negative territory, ending the trading day just moments ago closing down more than 1,000 points after the Federal Reserve this afternoon announced its third and final interest rate cut for the year.

This it comes as there is enormous economic uncertainty ahead. President Elect Trump vowing to make sweeping changes to the American workforce, the tax code, the government and the country's relationship with our largest trading partners. This afternoon, Fed Chair Jerome Powell pointing to progress on inflation and a cooling labor market as the driver behind today's rate cut, while also noting the underlying economy's strength. He also stated bluntly that the economic outlook is uncertain, while suggesting the Federal Reserve was studying the potential impacts of Trump's tariff agenda, which remains a major wildcard for policymakers.

We just don't know really very much at all about the actual policy, so it's very premature to try to make any kind of conclusion. We don't know what will be tariff from what countries, for how long, in what size. We don't know whether there'll be retaliatory tariffs. We don't know what the transmission of any of that will be into consumer prices or the stage of doing what other forecasters are doing, which is kind of thinking about these questions but not trying to get to definitive answers for some time.

Those tariffs just one piece of the Trump agenda that could dramatically remake the US Economy. During the campaign Trump pledged to impose blanket tariffs on goods imported into the US and during the transition, he's threatened some of the highest tariffs on our three biggest trading partners, Canada, Mexico and China. Trump also pledging to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, who currently make up roughly 5% of the entire U.S. workforce, according to estimates, and even higher percentages of key industries like construction, agriculture and hospitality.

In addition, the President elect is calling for potentially massive cuts that government spending as much as $2 trillion. He's also calling for cuts to taxes and regulations he sees as burdensome to business. How much of this he will actually be able to implement is unclear. But economists warn that Trump's pledges on immigration and tariffs specifically could raise costs for Americans.

Even his voters sent a clear message that they elected him to lower prices. In his interview with NBC, Kristen Welker, the President elect tried to dismiss the idea that Americans would bear the brunt of his tariff policy. I want to delve into one of your signature promises on the campaign trail, which was to end inflation to lower prices. You are now proposing tariffs against the United States.

Three biggest trading partners, economists of all stripes, say that ultimately consumers pay the price of tariffs. Can you guarantee American families won't pay more? I can't guarantee anything. I can't guarantee tomorrow.

And join me now for more on the Fed decision and the potential economic impact of the president of elect's policies is NBC's Brian Chung. And Gary Hick has the latest on the potential political implications of Trump's agenda. Thank you so much for joining us. Brian, I want to start with you.

We just heard from the Fed chairman and markets don't seem to like what they heard. Yeah, no, not all, Gabe. It's been a pretty rough day as the market closed for the Dow and the s and P500. And look, I think the big story here is that the Federal Reserve essentially didn't deliver what markets were hoping for, which is expectations of more aggressive rate cutting into 2025.

So the decision today from the Federal Reserve is that they're cutting interest rates by a quarter of a percent point. As a reminder, that is the third interest rate cut of 2024. And this is after an aggressive rate hike campaign from the Fed in the years after the pandemic. Why?

To quell high inflation, which we had around 9% in a yearly rate as of the summer of 2022. The good news is that inflation has indeed come down. But the Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell still says that the job is not done on getting inflation to their target of 2%. So for that reason, the Fed is now saying, you know what, we're going to continue to likely cut interest rates into 2025, but maybe not at as fast a pace as people had been anticipating.

They're projecting just two interest rate cuts over the course of 2025. Again, we got three this year. Markets 10, 11, straight cut, specifically big tech stocks, which are heavily weighted. That's a big reason why you probably can read into the Dow, the s and P500 as a negative reaction to that announcement today.

You know, Brian, we're still about a month away from inauguration, so how else is the market and businesses. And businesses, how they're preparing for this incoming administration? Well, I think the teetering that we've seen in markets over the past few months basically since the election has been kind of part of that story because on one hand, you had the off to the races reaction in the weeks after the election where you had markets and big business saying, hey, this Trump administration that's going to come into office in January is going to be good for regulation. They're going to cut regulation, they're going to cut taxes.

That's good for the business environment. And yet you saw the markets go off the moon. On the other side of the coin, you do have the story on tariffs. And a lot of big businesses and CEOs have a lot of indigestion about this because the concern is that if the Trump administration wages a war on the United States biggest trade partners that could over the short term hobble American business, raise costs, introduce a lot of uncertainty that these big businesses don't like.

So that might explain the slide that we've seen in broad equities markets over the last few trading sessions. And that story is going to remain untold going into January 20th because again, the president has been very close to the chest in terms of when he would implement the tariffs. I asked if he would do it on day one. He didn't.

He basically said, you're going to find out. So because of all that, the story here is very much uncertain. Even Fed Chair Powell asked the question about what would be the impact of this theory on the economy. And he said, look, we just don't know what that's going to look like on top of the line.

Brian Chong, thank you so much for joining us and bringing it all down. Watching amount of Garrett Haig who covers the Trump transition and Garrett, look, how much, how many chances that these proposals are actually going to be implemented there. Is this a case of having to Take Trump seriously, but not literally. There are a couple different categories here, I think, of things like mass deportations and changing a regulatory environment around energy.

Trump goes far as Congress will take him. This is where he and congressional Republicans are pretty much in lockstep. He ran on these proposals, so did congressional Republicans. They want to get this done.

On cutting spending, I go the other way. I think cutting spending is a very easy thing to talk about, the very difficult thing to actually do. Every dollar that UC is waste somebody in their district sees as a proposal that they need with the majorities as narrow as they are, he's going to have a very difficult time doing that. The ex fact on this is the tariff part of this, because I think the tariffs are kind of his Swiss army knife tool.

I think that's why he didn't give Brian a straight answer on the floor to exchange. Why? He hasn't given any of us a straight answer for a very long time. He likes that he's able to use them as a threat, as a weapon, as kind of the thing that's always in his back pocket and available to him to try to enact other political goals.

Regardless of the specifics of the tariff policy, he always likes to talk about negotiative fact. Strike a deal. So the economy, specifically high prices are such a huge part of his campaign. What if he made it his answer to Kristen?

Basically not guaranteeing the prices are going to come. Now, I would put any amount of money to hear what Joe Biden's reaction was to that, because this is sort of exactly what the Biden administration been talking about for years. Once they pivoted off the idea that inflation was transitory, then became, it's very hard to get prices to go down. As you know, it's one thing to get inflation to stop going up, which the Biden folks feel like did a pretty good job of cooling the rise.

But bringing the prices back down is a whole other story. Trump is starting to grapple with that, I think using this transition period as an opportunity to reset expectations about exactly how quickly, if at all, that can be done. You mentioned this a little bit in your first answer, but he needs Congress to help him with this a lot. With the slim majority in the House, I think that'll affect it.

And do you think, you know, Congress might not be as receptive as they have been in the past? Yeah, I think Trump team has been overly bullish about what they're going to be able to get done through Congress from my, you know, seat covering Congress and covering the transition. Just watch what's happening right now. Trying to keep the government funded until March.

It doesn't take a very large group of people to create enormous problems. And except on the very few issues where Trump and congressional Republicans are in total alignment, he'd be banging his head against the wall to pass very basic stuff on a pretty regular basis with majority is this small care. Hey. Covering the Trump transition care.

Thank you. Turning out another busy day on Capitol Hill where the House could vote as early as tonight on a continuing resolution to keep the government open until March. Congressional leaders finally released a 1500 page bill late yesterday after several delays with the bill enraging some of House Speaker Mike Johnson's conservative allies with one yesterday calling the process a total dumpster fire and another day calling it a expletive sandwich. Trump allied Elon Musk now also potentially complicating matters, encouraging Republicans to vote against the bill and going so far as to claim moments ago but the bill is dead.

It comes as we got some other surprising news from the Hill today. The House Ethics Committee will release its report on former congressman and former Trump Attorney general pick Matt Gaetz. That report on allegations tied to Gates alleged drug use and sexual misconduct could be made public this week. And another major news from the Hill.

President elect Trump is taking a note, is taking notice of a report released by Georgia congressman and chair of a GOP led subcommittee, Barry Loudermilk, recommending the FBI investigate former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney over her involvement in the January 6 committee. The report says, quote, evidence uncovered by the subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson's attorney's knowledge. In the statement, Cheney slammed the report as a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth. I turned to NBC's Ali Vitali, whoever was Capitol Hill.

She joins me now. What's the feeling right now? Is this the gonna pass? I think the overall feeling can best be summed up by yikes.

This is a moment where we are seeing not just the regular actors on the Republican side of the aisle, Johnson's regular detractors who would never vote for continuing resolution anyway, but they're being much more vocal about the kind of bill that Johnson put forward and put Forward at the 11th hour. The balancing act here was always that Johnson was going to have to keep the government open, but also probably do it with Democratic votes given the fact that any 30 Republican members don't typically vote for CR and so they were probably not gonna vote for this one anyway. But now we're seeing that there's much more pushback to this beyond just the regular folks. People on the Senate side are upset both about things that didn't make it into the bill, but also about how large this bill has ultimately gotten.

This idea of it being a Christmas tree with way more ornaments on it than most Sen. Senators and most House members. Wyatt, he's a huge problem. And so Johnson's got a problem in front of him when it comes to funding the government.

Does this thing fall apart? They are really at the 11th hour here. But then also, what does this portend for his battle to keep the Speaker's gavel? This is something that vexed his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, who ultimately was ousted because he worked with Democrats to keep the government open.

That was over a debt ceiling battle. This is gonna be over just a continuing resolution. But nevertheless, people are really mad at the speaker right now, and we're not exactly sure what Speaker's gonna do and also what it means for him remaining speaker, you know, and the speaker could also have a problem on his hands several months from now. So how much concern is there that there will be another funding fight on the Hill during Trump's first hundred days in office?

Exactly. And that's one of the other problems here, too, is that hardline conservatives especially were eager to actually do a funding deadline that goes through March. They felt like that gave them enough time and space to let the President Elect really get into office, make his priorities known, and then craf the appropriations process as he saw fit. But it also means that they were able to fund the government and have the appropriations fight before April, when another series of sequestration or just general cuts across the government kick in because of past deals that were made by McCarthy and other Republicans and Democrats together.

So there's a bunch of juggling acts that are happening here in regards to not just keeping the government open now, but keeping it open in March and then what happened after March? They're doing a lot before the end of the year, finally, because you don't have enough to follow on the Hill. Join me now to the Matt Gates Ethics report. Do we know why the Ethics Committee voted now to release it?

Yeah, again, they're doing the most at the end of the year here, Dave. But this is something that we're learning. The Ethics Committee ultimately has decided that they're going to release. That's notable because we don't typically get insight into the Ethics Committee itself.

They really do take a vow to not leak what happens in the room. So it's notable that we even know this much and that we've been able to follow this process along as closely as we have. But this could mean a few that the ED Committee is ready to set yet another president of releasing a report about a former member who is no longer a member of his body. It also shows that they want to act independently of what other people in leadership have said they prefer.

You'll remember potentially that Speaker Mike Johnson said he would prefer that this report not be publicly released. And then you've got Gates over here in the wings basically saying that he could threaten a return to Congress. If they're watching, if they're trying to release this report because he wants to come back and effectively expose the hypocrisy of this process. That would be really hard.

He's already resigned his seat. But Gates is an agitator who knows this building well. If they come for him, it seems likely that he would try to conquer them, too. And Allie, while we're at it, while we're talking about former members of Congress, House Republicans are calling for this Cheney to be investigated over her January 6th committee work.

So what is behind that? That's exactly right. We knew that when Republicans took the gavel two years ago that one of the key investigation points was going to be January 6th. And trying to basically undo or create other narratives around with the January 6th select committee put forward during their public hearings.

Chanie, of course, was the centerpiece of that, not just as the number two member on that committee, but as the top Republican serving there. Certainly this is something that President Elect Trump has weighed in on, saying that she's done things that, in his words, could get her in trouble. And all of this leads back to the road of what could President Biden do? Does he need to issue preemptive pardons?

This is very much a live ball on your beat, on our beat. And we're watching Republicans in releasing this final report around January 6th and focusing it on Cheney. We're sort of watching the fruits of that labor come out. And it's an open question of what's going to be done now about that.

Alan Tally with her hands full on Capitol Hill. Thank you. And coming up, as we wait to see what happens next on the fight to fund the government, I'll speak to members of Congress from both sides of the aisle next. Plus, the White House distances itself from the Ukrainian operation that assassinated a Russian general in Moscow.

We'll get a report from the scene of where that attack happened. You're watching me depress now. Stay with us. Drive off in a new Hyundai laundry today with $0 down during the Hyundai Advantage Sales event.

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Visit HyundaiCanada.com or your local dealer for details. Welcome back. As we mentioned, Congress has until the end of the week to fund the government and they are scrambling to pass a package that includes cash to keep the lights on plus a bevy of other agenda items. So a couple of House members to talk about what's happening right now.

Joining me now is Georgia Republican Congressman Buddy Carter. He recently wrote an op ed in the Washington Post encouraging bipartisanship titled I Sleep in My Office. The rest of Congress should too. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us here in the press.

Now, we'll get to your op ed shortly, but I want to start with the continuing resolution under consideration to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the week. You said you support the package, but your House Republican colleague Nicole Malitakis posted that the Republicans are in the majority and yet the Democrats seem to get more of their priorities in than we do. What do you say that? Well, you know, the Democrats are in a pretty strong position to be negotiating, to be quite honest with you.

They seem to stick together a little better than we do at times. But, you know, we got a lot of good wins in this legislation. And I hope people understand that, particularly when it comes to health care package, particularly when it comes to PBN reform, the middle that the president has spoken about. There's reforms in there that I've been working on for 10 years and Nicole has herself endorsed and supported.

And you know, you have to look at the package. Look, I served in Georgia state legislature for 10 years and I know about voting on big omnibus bills like this. Yeah, there are parts of it in there that you don't like. There are parts of it in there that stink.

But at the same time, there's a lot of good in there as well. And you just have to judge and decide which way you want to vote. Congressman, one person that doesn't like the CR is Elon Musk. He's been tasked to cut government spending by the president elect your fellow Doge Committee member, Rafa Norman posted that any member who claims to support the DOGE should not support what he calls this CR of inefficiency.

Don't get weak in the knees before we even get started. So why do you think they're wrong? Are you worried that Musk will launch a primary challenge to those who support it as he threatens? Look, I represent the people of the 1st congressional district of Georgia.

I've been in South Georgia all my life, and I've seen a lot of hurricanes, but I've never seen the destruction that went along with Hurricane Helene. It was devastating. This package contains disaster relief. Our people have to have it.

I'm gonna vote for this package because of the disaster relief, because of the healthcare reforms. It's got a lot of good things in it. Yeah, I'd like to have pay for everything, and we need to work on that. Look, I'm on the Budget Committee.

I don't think there's anyone more concerned about our national debt than I am. But at the same time, I've got people at home who are hurting, who have to have help, and they have to have it now. Ag is the number one industry in the state of Georgia. If we don't get these farmers some relief now, they're going to go out of business.

And if they go out of business, we got problems. And if it looks like the CR is in jeopardy, do you want Donald Trump to come out and support them? Absolutely. And we needed to come out in support of it because it's got so many good things in it.

Yeah, there are some things that I wish weren't in it and things that I don't really like, but at the same time, disaster relief, that has to be our focus, and it has to be. It's got to be passed. We got to have it yesterday. And look, I want to zoom out a bit and look at this through the eyes of an average American.

To them, it may seem like Congress hasn't done all this term and is trying to cram in all this stuff into one bill down the wire. Is this how Congress should be functioning? No, it's not how Congress should be functioning. I agree.

I would like to take it one step at a time. I'd like to get back to regular order. We passed 12 appropriation bills. I think all of us are like that.

But the reality is, this is where we're at right now. The reality is, is that these farmers, that these tree growers that they are hurting, that if we don't get them some help now, they're not going to make it. And if they don't make it, Listen, the American farmer feast world. If they don't make it, we got problems.

Congressman, I now want to turn to that piece you wrote in the Washington Post on bipartisanship. It's titled I Sleep in My Office. The rest of Congress should, too. What do you mean by that?

Is Congress really more bipartisan than it may appear from the outside? Absolutely, it is. Look, I do sleep in my office. And you know, with all due respect to staff members, we, we make sure that boundaries are respected.

At the same time, I'm up here to work, not to live. And I stay in my office. I have a members gym. It's.

We pay dues to that membership. It's bipartisan. There are probably nearly 40 or 50 members, Republicans and Democrats, who stay in their office. You know, we have, we have gym equipment, we've got locker showers, everything.

And in there, it doesn't matter what party you're a member of. We're all sweating. We're all working out, we're all getting cleaned up and getting ready for a day's work. And it's the most partisan area of the whole capital.

You know, a good friend of mine, Josh Gothammer, he is from New Jersey, he's a Democrat, but we work together. We've sponsored 112 bills together in the 118th Congress. Congressman, look, it sounds very fabulous, I'll give you that. But a lot of your House Republican colleagues, they face more of a danger in losing their seat in a primary than in a general election.

So what incentive is there for them to engage in bipartisanship when they could be worried about a challenge from the right? You know, instead of worrying whether we're going to get reelected, you ought to be worried about our district. We ought to be worrying about helping the people in our district, the American people. That's what we should be concentrating on.

And look, a House subcommittee chair by your former. By your fellow Georgia Republican Barry Loudermilk said the FBI should investigate former Congresswoman Liz Cheney for her conduct on the January 6th committee. She denies those accusations. And you said the country needs to move on from January 6th.

So how would prosecuting Liz Cheney fit with that? Well, let's keep in mind what Barry Loudermouth's responsibility is. He's running this, this with the January 6th investigation. So he has a responsibility to look at these things.

Barry's a very close friend and a colleague that I've worked with many, many years, and I will respect what he suggests. Congressman, back in 2022, you said that the January 6th writers should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. President Elect Trump now wants to pardon them. What do you make of that?

Well, look, we've got to get past January 6th and what President Trump does, I don't have control over that. I will tell you that. I still to this day think that what happened that day was wrong. But at the same time, we've got to get past January 6th.

And you know, look, I agree with President Trump. I think there were problems. I voted against certifying some of those and I did it for a reason, because of the changes that were made. But at the same time, look, our country's got a lot of concerns right now, a lot of problems.

And we can't dwell on the past. We've got to look into the future. We've got to solve these problems before us. But if President Elect Trump pardons them, you would disagree with that President?

I'm not going to disagree with what the president does. He's got his reasons for doing it. I think looking forward to serving the President Trump, looking forward to the next two, the next four years under his leadership. I support him.

I'll continue to support him. Representative Buddy Carter, thank you so much for joining us here. MEET THE PRESS now, we appreciate your time. Thank you.

And joining me now is Washington Democratic Congresswoman Suzanne Del Benny. Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us. Now this bill to keep the government running will most likely require Democratic votes to make it through the House. Will you vote yes.

Will it pass? Well, I'm going to be voting yes. I think it's important that we make sure that the government's funded. But you know, I also think this should have been done a long time ago.

The fiscal year started October 1st. We should be passing year long funding bills, not waiting till the last second. And so it's been done a long time ago all the way through October 1st. I'm disappointed.

This is another short term funding package. And Congressman, as you know, the world's richest man, Elon Musk, is whipping Republican votes against this package. So do you think that could cause it to fail? Well, I think it's gonna be important for members who are looking at to understand what's on the table.

Government funding, important resources for farmers, resources to help communities that have been impacted by natural disasters. The alternative is shutting down the government. And so Republicans have to think about that again. We should have passed funding bills back before the fiscal year started.

It's unfortunate we're in this position but they're in the majority and they need to make sure that they are putting legislation forward and supporting that legislation. And this bill also contains the cost of living raised for lawmakers, the first one in more than a decade. Are you concerned with the optics here? Well, I think members are going to vote what they think is best for the district.

I know our members are really focused on the needs of their districts. That's what's really important. But again, this is about keeping the government funded and, and basically only funding us until the middle of March. So we'll be walking down this path again in the new Congress.

Yeah, you bring up the middle march now. Like, now Republicans will control the Senate and the White House then, and their margin will likely be smaller in the House. So if they need Democratic votes, then will you be a yes and will some Democrats need some stipulations to vote yes? Well, I think it's going to depend on what we're voting on.

I think that we are here to govern. And so it's really up to Republicans and leadership whether they're going to work across the aisle to come up with legislation that can't be bipartisan. The way we really help our communities is by coming together to get legislation across the finish line. Republicans are going to be the majority, and I guess the question will be, are they there to govern and work across aisle to get things done, or are we going to see some of the chaos and dysfunction that we've seen this Congress?

That's a very nice segue to my next question. In just over a month, the President elect will return to the Oval Office. So what are you expecting your function will be in Congress in the minority? And what areas do you think there could be to work with with the Trump administration?

Well, I think, you know, we always have opportunities to look at policy that will help families across the country, make sure that we're lowering costs, addressing things like affordable housing. These are all issues where we should be able to find a bipartisan caf. Again, Republicans are majority. They're going to decide what bills, committees take up and what comes to the floor.

So there's a bipartisan opportunity if they're willing to work together. And we're going to also stand strong against any attempts to undermine people's rights to freedoms or undermine important policy that help support families across the country. You know, Congresswoman, the devil often is in the details. And so as we turn to specifics here, the president elect told my colleague, Christine Walker, that he's open to legislation on dreamers.

Do you Take him on his word there. Well, I think we'll have to wait and see. I think it's this is an area where we've had discussions before. There's an opportunity to reach aisle to talk about what that might look like.

If people really come into faith and work across aisle, then we might have opportunities. And I would turn the Democratic Party now as a whole poll, you're once again leading the organization charged with electing Democrats to the House in November. You picked up two seats while President Harris lost to Donald Trump. So how do you explain the disconnect there?

Well, remember, House races are all across the country. We are in purple districts across the country, these battleground districts. And I think we did a lot of things right. We had great candidates who are authentic, independent minded candidates who are really standing up and talking to all members of the community about what they would do to help move our country forward.

We have the resources to help them communicate and that's what voters wanted to hear. They wanted folks are going to Washington D.C. to govern. We're going to put their communities first.

I think that's a big reason why we were so successful in races all across the country and ended up picking seats. Picking up seats. Yes. But.

Well, I want to put up with Senator Sherrod Brown, who recently lost his race, told my colleague Henry Gomez. He said I lost in large part because the national reputation of the Democratic Party is that we're sort of a lighter version of a corporation, a corporate party. We're seen as a bicoso elite party. And it's hard to argue that.

Do you agree with that critique? Oh, I think why we won is because we had candidates who were speaking to the needs of their districts. Our districts are very different across the country and we had candidates who were speaking to the unique needs they were hearing about from their districts. These are purple districts.

These are folks who really care about voting for someone who's going to stand up and represent them. And that's why we had strong candidates. They weren't. Republican candidates are waiting for Donald Trump to tell them what to do.

These are folks who knew what to do, who wanted to reach across the aisle, who want to come to Washington, D.C. to get things done. And they built up trust in their communities and that's why they won. Well, Congresswoman, looking ahead to the next term, some Democratic ranking member slots are going to younger members who did not have the most seniority.

So are we seeing the beginnings of a generational change in your caucus? Well, I think we saw folks putting their names forward as potential leaders on committees. We had healthy debate. People made a case over why they thought they would be the best of folks to lead committees and we voted.

So it was a very democratic process. I think the more we can actually bring things together, have those debates, let people put their ideas forward, that actually brings out the strength in our caucus. And I think it was a really healthy process and look forward to working with all of our leaders as we head into the next Congress. Representative Susan Delvani, thank you so much for joining us here now.

We appreciate it. Thank you. And up next, Russia rest the man they say is responsible for the assassination of a senior military leader who was targeted by Ukraine. The latest from Moscow when you return.

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Hey guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit down podcast. On this week's episode, I sit down with one of the biggest bands in the world, Mumford and Sons, as we get the boys together to talk about their new number one album, Prize Fighter and the evolution of that irresistible foot stomping sound. You can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts. Welcome back.

Authorities in Russia say they've arrested a man in connection the Ukraine's assassination of their senior general in charge of the Kremlin's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons unit. According to Russia's fsb, the man described as an Uzbek national was recruited by Ukraine's security service and was promised US$100,000 to carry out the attack. The Pentagon says it was not aware of the Ukrainian operation in Advance. And today, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan appeared to break with Ukraine over its strategy of carrying out these kinds of missions.

The United States does not support or enable operations like this. We do support, enable Ukraine to defend itself and take the fight to Russian forces on the battlefield, but not operations like this. From the United States perspective, assassination operations far from the battlefield in a ca. That's not something that's part of American military doctrine.

MSC News chief international correspondent Keir Simmons reports from the scene of where that assassination took place. Hey, that's pretty extraordinary to be standing here. This is where Lieutenant General Igor Korilov was assassinated just over 24 hours ago. You can see the power of the explosion, the bent metal, the bricks blown away from the wall, some people leaving flowers.

And just today, Russian authorities saying that they now have a suspect in custody. Russian media saying that that is a man called Ahmed Kabanov, 29 years old from Uzbekistan. He was detained outside Moscow, according to reports here in Russia. And Russian media now showing a videotape of him apparently confessing, saying that that has come from Russian authorities.

Of course, he is under arrest, under duress. We only have the testimony of the Russian officials, of the Russian media that he has in fact confessed to what happened here. But standing here, you can see just what a precision operation this was because the general would have walked out of the apartment here and there was a car waiting just in the street, so a very short distance away for this explosion to take place. It was filmed from the back of a car.

The car, we think was very likely parked around about where that red vehicle is there across the street. And according to Russian investigators, the explosives were attached to a scooter that leant against the wall here and remotely detonated. The video of the explosion, according to Russian investigators, was sent back to Ukraine, was being watched in Ukraine as this happened. The Russians are saying that they are determined to catch everybody responsible.

What isn't being said so, so loudly here is how was it possible for an assassination to take place like this, right here in the heart of Moscow, on a general who is widely thought to be the most senior military official killed, assassinated on Russian soil since the war in Ukraine began. We thank you Simons in Moscow for that reporting. And joining now is Mike Menley at the White House. Mike, what should we make of the fact that the Biden administration is distancing itself from the operation?

Okay, obviously we have seen the fact that throughout this more than 1000 day war in Ukraine that Ukraine has at times wanted more support, more equipment, more offensive capabilities than the Biden administration has been willing to give them. And part of that is because they don't want to see further escalation that will provoke Russia. And that's exactly what they see in this situation, a provocation rather than the escalation. The Biden administration has been bracing for the fact that there will be changes in policy when President elect Donald Trump takes office.

So they want to do is put Ukraine in the strongest position possible as they head for negotiations to possibly end this conflict. That's what administration officials say that their concern is right now is that Russia will be put in a position with such a provocative attack here that they will have to do something more major in response. And Mike, on the subject of helping Ukraine, what is the Biden administration's strategy to shore up aid for Ukraine before President Elect Trump takes office? Really, Gabe, what they're limited to is just spending the money that they have.

There are two different pots of money. $5.6 billion in the PDB authority where they can send more equipment, more capability to Ukraine. That has already been approved by Congress. And I think an indication of the tight hands that the administration has in trying to hand Ukraine the best footing it has in these negotiations is the fact that that CR that you were just talking about earlier in the show, no new money for Ukraine.

Speaker Johnson promised that that would be the case. And that's exactly what was delivered in terms of this new cr. And so the Biden administration is limited to working with its partners to see whether they can make up some of the difference in the more than $20 billion that the US had been seeking, that the Biden administration had requested from Congress to be included in that CR. We're also seeing a changing front in that G7 leadership with the Italian prime minister soon to be potentially one of the only remaining members from the group that President Biden has been part of these most of these last four years.

Mike, my White House. Mike, thank you. Instead of come the chances of the House passing a continuing resolution to fund the government seems to be getting slimmer by the moment. You're watching me press now.

And welcome back. Things are changing quickly here. We continue to follow the drama on Capitol Hill which is developing as we speak. The vibes are shifting as Republican Speaker Mike Johnson faces a brewing rebellion fueled in part by Elon Musk.

And now apparently President Elect Trump against that must pass government funding bill moments ago, Vice President elect J.D. vance without a statement from Donald Trump and himself coming out against the continuing resolution to fund the government and avoid a shutdown Friday night. Given Trump's influence with House Republicans, this bill now seems dead on arrival and the government appears closer now to heading for a shutdown. Also moments ago, Democratic leader Joaquin Jeffries issued something of a warning to the speaker not to count on House Democrats.

If the speaker pulls this legislation saying, quote, you break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow much more than this. Breaking news straight ahead. Welcome back. Joining me now as we're following the breaking news of this CR potentially falling apart and the odds of a government shutdown getting higher, is the panel here, NBC News senior national political reporter Sahik Kapoor, former special assistant to President Biden Megan Hayes and former communications director for the RNC and Republican strategist Doug.

Hi. Thank you all so much for joining us. I want to start with you. Things are changing minute by minute here.

What's the latest from the Hill? Yeah, this is a political earthquake on Capitol hill. Gave their 30 hours to go roughly before government shutdown. And President Elect Trump and Vice President Elect Vance are swooping in to try to blow up a government funding deal that was struck by the leaders of both parties.

It was released just last night. It's a big sprawling bill, 1500 pages in all. We keep the government open until March, March 14th. I just basically kicked the deadline into early in the Trump presidency.

That was the period of the case. But Trump and Vance say this bill should not pass. They're taking aim at host of provisions in the bill, including a pay raise for members of Congress, the first which would be the first in 2009. They are also demanding a debt ceiling increase in a short term bill that they say should replace this.

That is extraordinary as in nowhere in the middle makes that's extremely difficult to pass. And it's very unlikely they can do this in the next two days. Yeah. You called this an earthquake.

Earlier in the day we heard from the Hill that this was back in half. The odds of shutdown for a low. Doug, is this the Elon Musk effect? I don't know yet.

But it's certainly part of the Donald Trump effect. And when Sahil was covering Capitol Hill, when I was working in House leadership, we dealt with government shutdowns. We dealt debt limit fights. The majority leader lost his primary.

Those were calm, quiet days compared to what's going on just today. And what really looks to be the rest of this lean session and going into President Trump's new term as he goes in, he may be creating a turbulence for himself as well. We start with the speaker vote. Is that now going to be in question.

And if you're coming in as a new president, even if you've been there before, is that how you want to start 14 days before he's sworn in and risking strategy? Megan Hakeem Jeffrey's out with that tough sounding state and we're Democrats in all this. Look, I think that the Republicans are realizing that they need Democrats to pass some of these things and this is going to be what's a foreshadowing for next year. I do think this is an Elon Trump probably got angry that he was getting more news and so they put out statements.

So I think this is how it's going to go in next time. I think the Democrats are playing it smart. They know they are needed and they know that they need certain things and asking for debt ceiling or something. Some of these demands are not reasonable and I don't think they're going to work without the Democrats.

Does this really happen hour by hour? Walk us through kind of what the vibes were on the Hill earlier in this broadcast. You know, the vibes are very different than they are now. How did this change hour by hour?

And how did we get to Donald Trump weighing in on this? I think it started with the fact that this bill was supposed to come out over the weekend, given them over several days to look at it. The 72 hour rule the House of Republicans like to talk about and that's Peter Dunston who's committed to doing that. Didn't happen.

It got pushed. It got pushed again. It came out late yesterday. And then suddenly Republicans wrote in a 1500 page bill that they were either forced to pass or shut down the government.

And in some cases I think they would have passed it. But it turns out with social media, with conservative media kind of lighting up against this, while House Republicans came out against it, Elon Musk has been tweeting up a storm all day against it, elevating and boosting Republicans who were opposed to it. And now we have this joint statement from Donald Trump and J.D. vance.

It seems to be the clincher. We have not seen a statement or an announcement from Secretary Trump yet. But I'd be very surprised if the book what is going through Mike Johnson side right now though I'm not gonna repeat the language but this is, this will be sort of what you sign up for, except you don't expect this. This is certainly unprecedented.

But everything with Donald Trump comes without precedent. I think that's one of the things moving into a new Congress and a new administration should Give Republican leadership some real pause here. If I'm Jonathan, I'm not happy right now either. He's in a new job.

So as we have the speaker vote, which we've had at least one Republican member so far say that they won't support Johnson at least in the first ballot, this kind of chaos is not good for new presidency. Look, we were at the beginning of the show, we were talking about, oh my goodness, there might be a problem come March with another funny fight there. You know, 100 days into the Trump presidency now, before we are even into the Trump presidency, there's all this chaos on the Hill. How do we navigate this with, you know, the Republicans having such a slim majority?

Would Democrats ever help Republicans in this situation? Or is this a case where they're just going to have to let this play out and let the Republicans fight themselves? I think the election fight among themselves on certain things. I do think comedy Congress, they will help them on certain things like the economy.

I think things are going to help taxes and help people. I think the Democrats will help the Republicans. I think that's a smart strategy for the midterms and then heading into 28. But I don't think they're going to help them now.

I think they're going to let them find out why. Why help them? Like what good, what good comes of this. It just is going to land back on you getting to 18.

You're in the majority in the house, you need 218 votes. When Donald Trump is president, these members who've raised alarms over the past couple days, are they going to be willing to defy him? So there is a reason why Trump is wants to get this off the decimate debt limit increase now as opposed to in March when he's president. But ultimately when he is president, he's going to have to deal with some of these things.

And if you're Thomas Massey, you talk tough about magazine, are you gonna stand up there? Are you gonna out maga, the creator of maga? And look, with so many big issues coming up the next couple of months, you know, we're just talking about immigration, my colleagues and Julie Zircon reporting that I's facing $230 million budget shortfall and administration's gonna need Congress on board in order to, you know, move forward this mass deportation plan. I want to play some sound that we're just getting from some of these House Republicans under reaction to what's going on Hill right now.

Let's listen. Passing 1550 page bills and we've passed $330 billion deficit spending since we were given the majority back on November 5th. That's not the way to, you know, earn the American people's trust. There's 245 people at the House here.

There's a handful of people that make all the decisions. And everybody else is furniture, your furniture. You get these bills, 1500 pages and you just get in line and support what the handful of people are saying. That's the way things have worked up here.

It's just, it's shameful in many ways. Sorry, that sounds like mutiny that Mike Johnson has right now. It's also a rude awakening for Trump about the legislative reality that he faces next year. They're going to do some sort of temporary bill whenever they can get this through, that Democrats and Republicans have to re negotiate.

So they have to go back to the table how to deal with Akeem Jeffrey and Chuck Schumer to get anything through. They also, again, after the debt limit comes due next year, they need to do the confirmations of the Senate in the first several weeks of the Trump presidency. They want to do a big reconciliation bill on a party line basis with this tiny majority, all this stuff at once. And we're seeing, I think, again, a preview of the legislative chaos we typically see when Donald Trump is at the helm.

He doesn't pay close attention to the legislative sometimes. Oh, is that law? Is that all? Something else switching gears as we continue to follow that breaking news now.

GOP led subcommittee is now saying that Liz Cheney should be investigated for her role on January 6. We were talking about that earlier in the broadcast and in a statement, she said that the Chairman Loudermount's interim report intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee's tremendous weight of evidence and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did. Sahil, where do we go from here? And do you think that the Republicans, you know, where do we go from here with this investigation of Luccini?

Does it benefit of what the GOP is trying to do right now? I think that means to be seen. And this looks like Congressman Larder Milk in a way, taking excuse from Trump who has for months saying, you know, been saying this change should be investigated, maybe she should be prosecuted. I think it's a reminder where a lot of Trump allies will come to defend them and say, oh, don't take him too literally, take him seriously.

This is a reminder that a lot of allies in positions of power do take him literally and seriously. Now, where this goes, I think it all remains to be seen. We know Trump's desire to kind of centralize control of the Justice Department and make his own calls in terms of what happens there. He will also have powerful allies on Capitol Hill who have subpoena power to launch their own investigations in any advanced transportation agenda.

You know, Doug, Trump told a Kristen Walker that he does believe some members of January 6th committee should go to jail. Does this fate him basically slaying the crime work for other people to do his bidding that you want to direct them to do it? Oh, absolutely. He doesn't have to tell you to do it.

You just follow orders that weren't explicitly given to you. I always said if we were talking just as recently as 15 minutes ago, Republicans, you got a lot better things on your hand to do than this. Fifteen minutes later with what we've just seen with the Trump fan statement, you have very immediate things that are better to do than this. Keep your eye on the ball.

So Megan, how seriously now do you think President Biden will consider a preemptive pardon for Liz Cheney and should she accept it? You know, I don't know that the administration going to do her thing. They're obviously all options on the table. I think this decision has been made.

But I don't actually think Republicans want going into minters that are extremely challenging with the status majority to have the American people focused on January 6th and the fact that the President elect Trump tried to cause an insurrection and throw the overthrow the government. So I'm not sure that having this and bringing all these people back and all these evidence back up is going to be good for them again, he's tweeting at 3 o' clock in the morning instead of worrying about things like a C. And really quickly because we're running on time, Doug, President elect Trump is saying that his inaugural message will be about unity. How's that looking?

I think we just learned again, not very optimistic on that. All right, I thank you all for joining me. Sahil, Megan, Doug, thank you all. Joining us on the panel on the press now, I'm David Gutierrez.

We are back. Tomorrow up NBC News Now Coverage continues now with Yasmin Vesuvian in for Hallie Jackson right now. He was a young Marine. She didn't care about convention.

They made a life together. Then one night the marine died. And then the death investigation took a wild, unexpected and utterly bizarre turn. I'm Josh Mankiewicz and this is Trace of Suspicion, an all new podcast from day one.

Listen to all episodes of Trace of suspicion. Now, wherever you get your podcasts,