Foreign. Welcome to MEET THE press. Now I'm Ally Palley in Washington, where we've got breaking news as Congress scrambles to avoid government shutdown. Just moments ago, two key Republicans who've been cuddling with Speaker Johnson for much of the day left his office and told reporters they've reached an agreement.
We don't yet know the details of that agreement or whether President Elect Trump has the last of the deal, but two sources familiar with negotiations tell us Democrats were not part of it and they are not yet on board. It comes, though, after a bipartisan agreement to fund the government through March, which 24 hours ago seemed headed for passage, was killed amid a backlash among conservatives. And President Elect Trump, who then demanded a total overhaul of that deal and added a new demand of lifting the debt limit, too. That issue was not a major part of the negotiations to fund the government originally and there are a number of Republicans who are actually vocally opposed to raising it.
The sudden turn of events left speaker of the House Mike Johnson scrambling and facing the IR of his conference amid the reality that with a narrow Republican majority in the House and a Democratic controlled Senate, he needs Democratic help to pass. Anything today should make it clear they believe this is Republicans mess to clean up. Thanks to Republicans, we're less than 48 hours away from a Christmas shutdown. As they try to piece things together, they should remember one thing.
The only way to get things done is through bipartisanship. This reckless Republican driven shutdown can be avoided. The House Republicans will simply do what is right for the American people and stick with the bipartisan agreement that they themselves negotiated. My council puts out something that's inevitable.
Democrats in a House Republican conference on the speakership of January 3rd. Would Democrats consider voting for him in that vote if he does something in the T with cr? No. It also comes as the president elect told NBC News this morning that he has no qualms about pushing Republicans into a shutdown, saying, quote, if there's going to be a shutdown, we're going to start it with a Democratic president.
And when asked to be still has confidence in the speaker, he told NBC we'll see. Even if some Republicans warn a speaker fight is the last thing their party needs, I'm not one calling for the speaker to be removed. I think that's idiotic. The fact is, you know, we cannot do anything until we elect a speaker.
And so if people want to certify Donald Trump's election on January 6, you need a speaker to do that. And if we have a fight over a speaker on January 3rd that is going to cause absolute chaos. A lot of moving pieces here. Thankfully, our NBC News team is covering every angle of this story.
Sadhgapur is on Capitol Hill. Garrett Hake is with me on set. He's of course covering the Trump transition. David Ingram who covers the world of Elon Musk and also with us as NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd Sahil, we'll start with you at home base on the Hill.
What do we know about this new agreement is really coming together in real time here. Yeah, that's right, Ali. This is all breaking in just the last few minutes. A couple of Republican members coming out Speaker Johnson's office saying that they have a deal, they have an agreement.
What's unclear right now, or rather what we don't expect is that Democrats have signed off on the agreement before it was struck. The scenes like an internal agreement among Republicans, but one that they appear to expect will have enough votes to pass. There's a belief one Republican congresswoman saying that as early as 6pm the house might vote on this deal. We have not seen text yet.
Our expectation is it will a short term funding bill, that it will include disaster relief. Those are the two low hanging fruit items that everyone seems to agree on. Beyond that, I think we're still working to confirm the details, but it's sufficient to say Pokemon has been a scramble for the last 24 hours since President elect Trump with assistance from billionaire Elon Musk scuttled the original deal that Peter Johnson signed off on. If you get something done by tomorrow at midnight or the government shuts down, time will tell if this is going to be the bill that prevents ally.
Yeah, they are certainly scrambling at this point Saddle and there are members even though we're not exactly sure what the details are of this planet. There are members who have already come out and said right, this is not what I'm going to get on board for. Chip Roy is one of those that I'm talking about. But Chip Roy is also an example of someone that President elect written primary challenges against, including any other Republican who opposes him or this plan.
So how is that going to play with Freedom Caucus members who frankly have seen these kinds of threats before and aren't necessarily deterred. It's a very good reminder, Ali, that Speaker Johnson is almost certainly going to need Democratic votes for this. There are too many Republicans in this tiny majority that do not want to vote on short term government funding bill. They don't believe in continuing the status quo when it comes to the current spending levels and with the margins where they are.
Speaker Johnson turning to need Democratic vote. So that's the big open question. Does the leader Hakeem Jeffrey, the minority leader and supporting the cessation number of Democrats come on board? That answer is still unclear and of course has to pass the Democratic controlled Senate.
Now Chica is the tip of the sphere when it comes to opposing the status quo on budgets and government funding. It's not really clear how many people will be with him. But if there is a detlement section in this bill, which again we don't really answer that there might be given how Donald Trump has been demanding it and that could really complicate things because you and I have been hearing on the Hill today a lot of Democrats are not interested in engaging with that Trump demand at this time given that he's planning to do a major tax cut. I would say he will go to the wealthy in a few months.
Ask you to hang out there at our favorite position of Will Rogers in the halls. Please keep us posted if anyone walks. But I want to turn to Carrot quickly because as we've been talking and wondering, well where's the president elect on this? He's in a good way about it.
He answered that question on True Social just while we've been sitting at this table posting success and outlining the terms of the deal which of course he has given a name to. It's called the American relief Act of 2024. Keeps the government open, funds farmers and he says what he calls a vital piece to this suspending the debt ceiling to January 30, 2027, which supports after the midterms. Trump team has long known they've got a pretty short window to get anything done.
This pushes a debt ceiling fight after that window is presumably closed. So it doesn't get rid of it entirely, which is what he told me this morning that he wanted. But for all intents and purposes it gets rid of its impact on his legislative agenda. It gets rid of the impact on his legislative in the near term.
But I can't help but wonder if Chuck this hasn't just utterly crippled the speaker before he's even begun enacting the Trump age. Well, it is. And part of the problem is that this is two Republican parties, right? Donald Trump has moved this in a different direction.
But there's still a Republican Party that was there pre Trump and many of the members there really do believe governments too big. They really would like to see government spend less then you have others who believe no government should spend money, but just on our constituents, you know, just for our support. So that's the real issue here. I think there's fundamental principle, almost ideological splits all inside this one caucus, inside the Republican Party in the House.
And they can't do this. Wait till they try to do his bigger agenda next year with a smaller House majority, likely a much, you know, two seats are shorter. Right. So everybody's gonna have to either vote together or he's gonna have to find himself 10 to 15 Democrats.
And he might do that like that. I'm not ruling that out. But it all will depend on what direction does he want to move the party. And I think you've got guys like Chip Roy who are like, no, no, no, I'm a small government guy.
I want to shrink the government. I think government does too much. I actually think Elon Musk thinks this too. Donald Trump doesn't have any.
He just wants to keep everybody happy. And he realizes spending money keeps people happy. I think you guys are so right to bring up Elon Musk because he's a really important piece of this picture. I want to bring in David to ask how important piece of this picture you think Elon Musk was.
I've been sort of going back and forth. Is he the chicken or the egg in the scenario? Did he set off this stampede on the Hill and then Trump came in and sort of cemented it? Or was it Elon doing Trump's bidding here?
I mean, you know, Musk world, what's your sense? Great question. So he certainly was not the first person to come out against the CR yesterday, but he came out against it so forcefully and so repeatedly. He posted on his social media platform x more than 100 times on Wednesday alone, hammering members, telling him to vote against.
Asking his followers. He's got, remember, more than 200 million followers on his own social network asking them to call members of Congress to oppose this. I think the stakes, at least for Musk here, are partly. About a month ago, he was appointed to co lead this government efficiency commission.
They're calling it Dogency. Even the name is a joke. And some people, many Democrats, have questioned whether this is really just a pretend agency to keep Musk busy. So Musk has incentive here to show that he really does have some influence within the party.
I think we're seeing Musk so far at least, at what is his apex of power in the Republican Party. He campaigned for Trump. He gave nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to his own super packaging others to fund efforts to support Trump, to boost Trump. Now he is wanting to send a picture.
He is also having fun. He has said before he doesn't enjoy working for other people. He wants to be his own boss. That's why he started SpaceX, why the CE.
And I think he sees this as an opportunity to prove himself right about some of these questions and make sure he kind of said it. Prove himself right, Garrett, or fly too close to the sun. Because, I mean, we know that the way that you upset Trump is by seeing the gap in front of him. And Democrats know that, too, because they've been branding this as, oh, President Musk.
Yeah. It reminds me of the early days of 2017 when there all the magazine covers about Steve Bannon being the man behind the curtain controlling Trump. That did not work out well for Steve Bannon. But Steve Bannon didn't have tens of billions of dollars he could put behind Trump's efforts.
And I think Musk is, whether intentionally or not, managing this a little bit better than Bannon did. He's also much harder to get rid of and a more dangerous enemy if Trump decides to make him one. Yes. But he needs a lesson in basic democracy, which is you don't have that.
You don't have the votes. I mean, you're sitting here with this very narrow majority. They have no choice but to work with Democrats. If you don't want to work with Democrats, go win more elections.
They lost a bunch of elections. They should. But this actually caught my attention. I want the control to pull up the full screen of what Andy Barr told the Associated Press.
He said my phone was ringing off the hook. The people who elected us are listening to Elon Musk. Is that true? It is.
It is true. If you let it. If you choose to believe it's true. It's one of those things like, he has power because they've decided he has power over their constituents.
The fact of the matter, if you look at the actual election results, it isn't true. Right. You have a very much a split decision below the presidential ballot. Right.
You don't have. You have a very, very narrow slice. So in many ways, it's like, look, if there were more votes to shrink government, there'd be a different Congress. But it doesn't exist.
And I just. They're trying to pound a square pagan. But I think there's two parts of the most motivated parts of the Republican days, the people who decide primary elections barless than Elon Musk. And that's who somebody like AD Barr is going to be worried about.
Also, if you're Musk, this is the whole point, right? You've made your whole life as being the guy who said this system sucks, I'm not gonna work it out and break it. But this is a much harder system to break. It's reminder that all these people come in from the outside and think they can think it's all easier then you go on the inside.
I mean, this is going to be the, this is going to be the welcome to the NFL moment. I think it already is for Mosque. It's going to be a welcome to the NFL moment for people like Dr. Oz who got to go in there and realize what he's dealing with at CMS or Bobby Kennedy Jr.
Or a pig headset at the Pentagon is they made all these proclamations and then they're going to run into reality, you know, and it's, you know, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. Mike Tyson. And that's essentially they're getting punched in the face right now. And it's just politically stupid.
Like this was not on their watch. And he said, no, no, no, let me put it on my watch. Let me own this dysfunction. It's politically, he's been having a honeymoon.
This is the best moment Trump's had politically. And he said, nah, it's going too smoothly. Let me mess it up. You know what strikes me about this is the chaos has always been the point.
And I guess my question to you, David, is, is chaos something that would scare Elon Musk off of something like this? Because for some people in Washington, the cha too much. And that's where they start to back off. For a lot of these Republicans, it's been a practice the last two years.
The chaos is the point. Does that ring true for someone like Musk, too? He's never been in a situation where he doesn't have control in this kind of chaos reigns. So if we get into a government shutdown and get in for several days or a week or more and certainly keep start shutting down, I think he's going to be tufted in his confidence.
But I think part of his power, part of what he's relying on for his influence is he has this cultural influence and economic influence. So people think of Elon Musk as the guy who landed a rocket on two arms at his surveys. They think of him as the guy who made electric cars popular for really the first time. And that is going to have a lasting influence certainly within the tech industry.
People are not abandoning him within the tech industry, despite some really extreme views. And I think for the average person, they see that as making him a different kind of figure, something somebody who maybe is not maybe a little more immune to Washington. And it's not clear to me, you know, what the real downside to him would be for government Sextown, if he would really get the blame with regular people playing him. My guess is that's really uncertain.
Yeah, well, it's easy when you're not subjected to voters ultimately deciding how well they think you did or not. Sahil, I want to bookend with you. Start, end as we started, anything new from the halls of Congress? And when we're looking at this deal, what's the number of Republican votes that Johnson is able to lose on this at this point on the first part?
Ali, I got a response from another source in just the last few minutes saying that Democrats were not part of this deal. That's the most emphatic comment. This is from a Democratic leadership aide with knowledge of what's being floated out here. Clearly, this is not something that leadership has signed off on.
And I think the signal here is that they are keeping their options open in terms of whether they end up endorsing it. If they don't end up endorsing it, then I think Speaker Johnson is likely to have some very serious problems, especially with Donald Trump now saying that that limit will be part of this, confirming what we've been hearing some early rumbles of at this time. So if they do that by, oh, six, it's very much of a question as to whether it has enough support to pass. We love the way that votes just end up on the House floor and we have no idea whether or not they are going to pass.
I can't stress our audience enough how that is not the way that this is supposed to work. But Sahil, Garrett, Chuck and David, thank you all for a rollicking start to this show. Coming up, I'll talk the lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about what they know about this deal and the path forward on Capitol Hill. Republican Congressman Dusty Johnson and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin will be here next.
Plus, the suspect in the United Healthcare CEO shooting back in court today and now facing federal charges after being extradited to New York. You're watching MEET THE Press now. Welcome back. We're tracking the latest on Capitol Hill as Congress looks to avoid a government shutdown.
Let's turn out a couple of members in the thick of it. Joining me now is South Dakota Republican Congressman Dusty Johnson. He's the chair of the Republican Main Street Partnership and has been in the Speaker's office a lot today, is my understanding. So, Congressman, let's just start there.
What's in this deal? I think this deal has really come together. I think it's good things. It is a clean cr.
The other CR was so big, it's making a lot of members uncomfortable. So we slim that down. It does have disaster funding so we can take care of Helena Milton. It does have some economic assistance for our farmers who are hurting.
It is a one year extension of the farm bill. And then it makes sure the debt ceiling is not a point of leverage that can be used by Democrats against Donald Trump. I think we're gonna be able to pass that here hopefully in the next few hours. So my understanding is that you guys are trying to do this vote at 6.
Do you think that you have members of your party who typically don't vote for continuing resolutions anyway, but we're key agitators to sort of get you to this point in the first place? Well, there are a lot of agitators in Washington, D.C. and on both sides of the aisle. Listen, this deal isn't perfect, but I think Republicans understand the value of clearing the decks and preparing this town for the Donald Trump presidency.
The CR is just a short term, three month cr and make sure that we fund government until March so that Donald Trump can come in and with a unified Republican control, we can make some of these really important spending cuts that we're gonna get done. And by the way, listen, Democrats, I know people don't know for sure whether or not they're on this yet, but I think Democrats are gonna want to take care of disaster response. They're gonna want to help the farmers. Hopefully they don't want to shut government down.
And remember, we should gun it down tomorrow at midnight if we don't stick the landing on this thing. Oh, yes, I think many of us are very aware of the short timeline that you have here. But my understanding is also the Democrats weren't consulted on this. So is that right?
Do I have that correct? And also, why would they jump to vote for this if Republicans are really the ones that blew this up in the first place? I mean, I was there in the halls. It was the President elect and Elon Musk basically saying, no, we hate this deal, that Speaker Johnson is brokered.
Well, I don't know. I guess I would hope Democrats would vote for it because they don't want to hurt America. The reality is a shutdown would not be good for this country. A default on our debts would not be good on this country, leading to disaster victims hanging would not be good for this country.
And leaving American agricultural producers hanging would not be good for this country. This is not a Republican win or a Democrat win. This is an American win. And if the Democrats want to walk because Donald Trump had a role in pulling this really important package together, I guess that's on them.
But my hope and my expectation is that cooler heads will prevail. Much of this is what the Democrats were involved in negotiating over the weekend. Do you think? I think a lot of people are gonna look at the way that this broke down and how it came together as instructive for how the next few years on the Hill might go.
But do you think that this moment of a deal came at the expense of any power that Johnson had over the conference? Is he hobbled now going into the speaker vote on January 3rd? I know in this town everybody wants to act like every flare up somehow has massive multi month or multi year. We've seen this before.
But if this deal passes tonight, if we take care of all of these critically important American priorities, Speaker Johnson will be in a better position today than he was a week or a month ago. Nothing reads success like success. I wonder for Democrats looking at this, why would they work with Republicans in the future when it feels like there's now a trust deficit or at least a belief that when Speaker Johnson comes to the table with a deal, President Trump might come in and say, actually, no, that's not the deal at all. Well, let's remember, Democrats work with Republicans to negotiate the contours of the disaster relief that's in this bill, to negotiate the contours of the agricultural systems package that's in this deal.
Negotiate one year farm bill extension that's in this deal, to negotiate health care extenders that's in this deal. And so I get it. Not everybody in this town gets to have 100% control over every provision. So the Democrats want to overtip the table and shut the government down.
That's their choice. But I know there are plenty of responsible folks who do want to make sure we deliver these wins. You went to this first meeting of the so called Doge caucus this week and of course, Elon Musk has been a central figure here in blowing up this initial deal that the speaker had. Did this come up at all?
Was there conversation about the debt ceiling? That kind of seemed to come out of nowhere. But President Trump feels strongly that he wants to make sure that he doesn't give Chuck Schumer any unnecessary leverage over him, particularly nearly going. There are so many exciting things we can get done, and the Doge Caucus is gonna be a part of that.
I have been a part of a group of members that met with Elon, met with the fake. I tell you what, these guys are ready to get to work. They're excited. They're not dictatorial or tyrannical.
They're not telling us how it's going to be. They're filled with enthusiasm of what we're gonna be able to do together. And, yes, that is absolutely going to be a key hallmark of the first six months of this administration. Congressman Johnson, thank you for joining us.
I feel like they're gonna need you on the floor, so be on time whenever they do that vote. And thank you for coming on the program. Thank you. I'll turn to the other side of Capitol Hill and the other side of the aisle.
Joining me now is Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin. He's the number two Democrat in the Senate with the task of whipping the votes on this. To the best of your knowledge, where do things stand right now? The congressman laid out a lot of the key planks of this.
It's not entirely shocking. He said it's a clean CR farm bill extension. Disaster relief is in there. The debt ceiling can will be kicked at least until January of 2027.
Is my understanding. Is that a deal that Democrats on your side of the building could support? That debt ceiling deal was the bottom line negotiating tool for the Republicans. The reason why the objection came from Donald Trump and others was because they realized the debt ceiling, if it is respected and imposed, is going to make it difficult for them to extend and expand their tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America.
In the four years of Donald Trump's first term, he added more to the national debt than any other president. He's preparing to do it again. That's why the debt ceiling trigger is so important to him, an important part of it. I don't know the details of the rest of the agreement, but I certainly honed in on that one.
I think that's certainly one of the key points to hone in on, especially because it's the thing that sort of came out of left field, I think for many of us who've been covering this for the last few days. What's your understanding of where your caucus is right now, though? Can you count votes that would go towards this? Our caucus is united behind the agreement last night, bipartisan agreement that clearly would have addressed this whole issue and stopped the concern about shutting down the government.
Now we have a new proposal that's not even 60 minutes old and we haven't had a chance to take a close look at it. But the bottom line is we can't lurch from one government shut down to another. And this notion that the Republicans can just negotiate among themselves and solve this problem is unrealistic. We need a bipartisan solution, Democrats, Republicans, House and Senate.
That really makes sense for both parties. Well, I mean, we'll see where this vote goes if they end up having it, you know, 90 minutes from now, as we're starting to understand from other House members who are saying that's the plan, but let's assume it does pass the House. The Senate then is up against the clock. You make the point that the government shouldn't be lurching from shutdown to shutdown.
I think there's mostly bipartisan agreement on that. But does the House have you in a tough position here where there's just not really much time for you to negotiate further? Let's not assume a thing. Let's take a look at the proposal and its detail.
Let's understand it clearly. Let the House, if they want to try to go along with a solely Republican approach to this, let's see how they do this evening and then we can discuss the next step. I think my larger question here is this seems like an indicative example of how the next few years could go with Republicans controlling all three chambers. How do Democrats plan to combat that and how do they plan to look to Republicans like John Boone on your side of the building, Mike Johnson across the chamber?
Are they honest brokers, like, can you guys trust what they're saying when Trump is coming in over the top and saying, no, no, this is actually what the deal should be? Well, I can tell you that Speaker Johnson, if he continues to speak, that he's going to have a thinner majority than he does now. So that doesn't suggest that the next two years is going to be a picnic on his side. On our side, we have Senate rules and traditions and they protect minority rights as they protect the Republicans with the Democrats in control.
So we'll see what happens as it develops. But I think the bottom line is what our leader Chuck Schumer said today, the only viable solution and one that we can trust is bipartisan. That's where we should start. I have heard some Democrats, including the top Democrat on the House side, saying Elon Musk is the one in charge here, not Donald Trump.
Do you agree? I have no idea who's leading, but I know who's speaking loudest and that's Elon Musk and his view of the world. He's the richest man in the world. I think his perspective may not be the same as most Americans, but if the Republicans want to choose him as their leader, that's their decision.
Are you concerned about the amount of power that he seems to be wielding here? Of course. This man was not elected to anything. In fact, he has lean on the government when his business was facing bankruptcy in 2010 and borrowed over $400 million from the Obama administration to stay in business.
So there was a time when he depended on government and it's largest to keep his company moving forward. Can I ask where you think this goes from here? I think many of us were waiting on the speaker to say, okay, we have a deal. We'll see what happens on the House side.
But when I hear you say the only way forward is a bipartisan way forward, Certainly that's true from a vote counting perspective. But when I look at what's in this deal, I mean, do you still think the government is going to shut down? Is it good enough the Republicans have a deal? Listen, the craziest idea I've heard is shutting down the government a week before Christmas.
Merry Christmas, America. I'm sorry that plane's not gonna be taken off that you plan on seeing your family with. That's the sort of thing that's irresponsible, it's chaotic. American people don't want that.
They want to see both parties working together to solve problems. I think that's the bottom line. So do you think Schumer just proceeds and puts the old CR deal on the floor? I mean, I know the bill has originated in the House, but let's not assume thing until the House actually votes on the proposal.
Why don't we say it carefully? Well, we'll be looking for you about an hour and a half from now in the halls then Senator Dick Durbin to react to whatever the House has decided to do. But thank you for joining us in the meantime. Thanks, Ellie.
We're gonna stick very closely to Capitol Hill here as we learn more about what's in this bill and what's gonna happen next with a government shutdown looming tomorrow night. But up next we're live outside the courthouse in New York where the suspect in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting has been arraigned on federal charges after being extradited to New York. You're watching me. The press now get the best of NBC News with a subscription viewer ads fee for access and exclusive content.
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Welcome back. We're following more breaking news. The man accused of killing a healthcare CEO is now in New York, where he's facing state and federal murder charges. Luigi Mangioni was extradited today from Pennsylvania, where he'd been in custody since his arrest last week.
He just made his initial appearance about how ago in a federal courthouse after a federal complaint against him was unsealed today charging him with four counts, including murder through the use of a firearm, stalking and a separate firearms offense. That's in addition to the 11 counts he's been charged with in New York. NBC News correspondent Aaron McLaughlin joins me from outside the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. Aaron, walk us through what happened today in that federal courthouse.
Ali the hearing lasted a matter of minutes, according to our team inside the courthouse. It was a packed courtroom. Luigi Magione appeared sitting down next to both of his attorneys. Prior to the hearing, he carefully reviewed that charging sheet.
The judge walked in, asked him if he understood all four of the charges. He said that he did, and then the judge ruled that he remain in custody. We understand that he will be held in a federal prison in Brooklyn until his next court hearing. His next federal court hearing is scheduled for mid January, though it's unclear when he's going to be arraigned on those state charges.
We did learn some new details, though, from the federal complaint about some of the additional evidence investigators have gathered against Nanjioni. What is that? Evidence? Evidence?
Yeah, that's right. That was a federal complaint that was unsealed earlier today relating to those four charges. ALI those four federal charges. It was a complaint that was written by a specialist FBI agent.
And in that complaint, the agent details some of the contents of the notebook that was allegedly found on Luigi Mangioni at the time of his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Inside of that notebook, let me just read you some of the quotes, according to the complaint, that there were several handwritten pages that expressed a hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular. There was an entry with the date of August 15, 2024, according to the complaint, said the details are finally coming together and stated that the target is insurance because it checks every box. And there was another entry, according to this complaint, marked October 22, 2024, that said 1.5 months.
This investor conference is a true windfall. Now, federal prosecutors are pointing to that notebook as evidence that Mangioni stalked his victim for months and meticulously planned this crime. Aaron, my friend from the streets of Manhattan, thank you. I'm turning to some other legal news today and a victory for Donald Trump.
An appeals court has disqualified Fulton County DA Fani Willis from prosecuting the Georgia election interference case against the now president elect and his co defendants. The court cited, quote, an appearance of impropriety by Willis, who has acknowledged having a personal relationship with a special prosecutor who'd been working on this case. Case. Willis's office says it will appeal the decision.
The court did not go so far as to dismiss the case against Mr. Trump and it could be assigned to a different county prosecutor in Georgia. But legal experts say it will be difficult to proceed given the complicated legal and political nature of the case. Coming up, the real world impact of the funding bill delays as $100 billion in disaster relief now hangs in limbo.
The mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, joins me as her city is still recovering from the impacts of hurricane. You're WATCHING ME the PRESS now. Welcome back. It's not just a government shutdown that hangs in the balance right now.
Critical disaster relief funding is also up in the air as part of the deal because it was part of the bipartisan short term funding deal, but that got blown up yesterday by Elon Musk and Donald Trump. And as you just heard my interview with Republican Congressman Dusty Johnson, disaster relief is now also part of this new Republican agreement. But it's unclear this new agreement can get through both chambers of Congress, at least not by the deadline. It's been close to three months since Hurricane Helen swept through North Carolina.
Some residents in the western part of the state, which was especially hit hard, are still struggling to recover. On Capitol Hill, Democratic lawmakers voice their frustration over this last minute scramble. We've got folks in Asheville, North Carolina, wiped out. They own bookstores, they own restaurants.
Are they going to fight another day? And this disastrous persistence was right there. And then Elon Musk comes in and takes it away. We're talking about a possible government shutdown here in Washington.
Well, there are parts of this country that have been affected by the storm who are effectively shut down. And until we find them, they have no hope. I'm trying to decide if I have to filibuster and keep a do whatever I have to do to, to keep us from going home. House Appropriations Committee ranking member Congressman Rosa Deloro released a statement detailing the millions in disaster relief investments that communities across the country could lose out on.
In North Carolina, that number is over $9 million in lost aid if this deal doesn't pass. Joining me now is the mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, Esther Manheimer. Mayor Manheimer, welcome back to the show. And first, let's just hear an update on how recovery efforts are going in your town.
Well, what I would say is that we have basic services back. I mean, we're talking about a situation where we had no electricity, no water, no communications, and so basic services are restored. And I would say that the people of western North Carolina have done as much as they can to be able to recover, as you can imagine. But without the funding that we need from the Congress to be able to fully recover, we're basically at a stopping point until we receive that funding.
Certainly we'll talk about the need for that funding. And it's very much up in the air here. But the last time that you were on our show, shortly after Hurricane Helene, you said Asheville was not prepared to handle another weather disaster. So the same question should be posed today.
How would Asheville fare in another weather disaster down the road? You know, I can't describe what a challenge that would be for us. You know, we're still building back roads and bridges. There are areas that are doing well.
They're open for business and back online. But there are pockets and areas that are just struggling to get by day to day. I mean, this storm was so difficult for us to manage. Our schools were shut down for a month.
That's how long it took to even get kids back to school. So it would be beyond devastating for us to suffer a hit like that right now. You also mentioned the impact of not getting that funding from the disaster aid piece of this government funding deal. So what's your reaction to what's been happening here in Washington.
And more importantly, what's the implication for your community if federal disaster relief aid is delayed? Well, first let me say our congressional representatives, Senator Tulsa, you just saw Senator Budd, Chuck Edwards. Our whole delegation has been fighting really hard for us in Congress. We've been up there.
We talked to them. But the folks here in western North Carolina have been communicating with each other nonstop over the last couple of days. And we're, you know, we're, we're in shock. We're in shock that our recovery right here on the, on the week before Christmas could get tied up and be collateral damage and what is very much a partisan argument about something completely unrelated to bringing resources to a community that desperately needs them to get back on the street.
So what's your message to lawmakers here in D.C. then? Should they stay through Christmas to get disaster relief passed? If that's what it takes.
Without question. Without question. I can't describe to you how many people are waiting for this Congress to act to do what they said they would do. You have seen the leaders of Congress who are struggling with trying to come together to an agreement.
Most of those leaders have been here. They have seen what we're dealing with and they know how badly this is needed. I know there's agreement around that. So it is time to set aside partisanship regarding other issues.
This can be dealt with at another time and pass the spending package now. Mayor Manheimer, thank you for joining us. And I wish you the best in the continued recovery that you guys are doing in Asheville. When we return, we're turning back to the Capitol as the countdown to a shutdown continues.
My panel joins me to break down the unfolding political drama. You're watching MEET THE PRESS now. Welcome back. We're continuing to follow the breaking news on Capitol Hill at this hour, where Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries just said that this new deal struck by Republicans amongst themselves is, quote, not serious.
And we know that these two members of the Republican Freedom Caucus are no on the new CR deal, making it a very tight squeeze for Speaker Johnson to get this passed. Joining me now is our panel, Molly Ball, senior political correspondent at the Wall Street Journal, Chuck Roca, a Democratic strategist, and Stephen Hayes, editor and CEO of the Dispatch and an NBC News contributor. Very happy to have you all here, as we're all learning in real time, which is one of my favorite parts about running the capital. But, Molly, first to you, your initial reaction to this deal, which has key contours of the old one, but went Through a lot of craziness to get there.
Yeah, I mean I think that lays out basically the different possibilities we're considering here. One possibility is that this has been a bunch of sounding furries to find nothing and that the whole like Elon blowing it up and Trump turning against it, we essentially end up in more or less the same place but with the debt limit extension tacked on. That's if all goes as planned for the Republicans. I think there is a also equally likely, possibly more likely possibility that this still is going to blow up.
They still don't have the votes. There's already we're hearing, you know, a lot of Republicans don't, still don't like this deal. The Democrats, as you were just saying, don't like this deal. They haven't been included in it.
They probably don't fully know what's in it yet either. This is all moving very fast. But I think, you know, whether or not this deal ends up surviving in the end, it has been a preview of just how chaotic this government is going to be. When Trump gets in next year and you have a Republican trifecta, it's still not going to be smooth sailing because of all these different factions and all these different considerations and the fact that you have also Elon Musk out there just thinking that he also should have the same thing.
I just don't think we can underscore enough here that this was Trump dunking on his own guys deal for sure. How do you move forward in that kind of an environment? Yeah, and I think it's the same as fundamental point about this whole thing. Donald Trump's transition team have been read in on what Mike Johnson has been discussing.
Absolutely. For weeks. I mean wherever they were, y' all imagine this came up. Right.
And I think the longer term horizon political problems for Republicans are apparent. Right. Ms. Molly suggests there's built in structural problems here.
Republicans don't have big dories get a lot done. Donald Trump is, you know, we'll say one thing, one person say something else to somebody else five minutes later. But they're also, I think building the potential problem because of the way they've been talking about the mandate that they have. Donald Trump has been acting as if he won the election with a margin like Saddam Hussein used to win elections and that's just not the case.
But by doing that, he's creating these expectations that he's gonna be able to get stuff done and he can't get stuff done because some of these Republicans, for some of these Republicans you're seeing them cheer on a shutdown. Right? It's not just that they have a smaller spending or what they believe a shutdown can deliver. It's that they want the shutdown for shutdown's sake.
And that's a problem for both. That's the political side of this thing and the political side of this thing. Ron McLiven, you know that. And I just went through this election as a Democratic senior operative, and we got our butt kicked.
And we got our butt kicked because we didn't make a good enough message to American people on what they wanted. They're frustrated. They have every right to be frustrated. And what this is showing them is why they are Frustra.
That's what's making me crazy right now. You're on the Hill every day. We expect this chaos. Small margins.
We expect there to be chaos. And this is what the American people did not sign up for. And this is what they thought. To your point, this was all gonna be fixed.
If you listen to Donald Trump and Elon Musk on Twitter or X, that's what they're saying. But that's in fact not the case. The second point is there's a bunch of old dudes in the Senate who want to go home for Christmas and see their great grandchildren and they're not happy about this at all. And then the real micro part of this, there's a bunch of people that live on the backside of Capitol Hill like me, who do not want a football stadium in their backyard.
So we're really happy that the funding apple for that. Look, I know some people where that's a very, very touchy subject. We're in this building. We will not navigate the new stadium here at this table today.
Welcome to medical politics. But I do think that there's something to be said here as we don't know how this vote is gonna go about an hour from now. The fact that you're losing out of two to four, at least Republicans who don't want to vote for something like this. How do Democrats come back to the table and say, well, it's not the deal that we negotiated, so we're just a no on it because of how it went down.
Don't risk there too. The Republicans already are on the news channels blaming Democrats. That will not happen unfairly so. Right.
Republicans will disappear, but unfairly so we got blamed for all the bad things. Evidently that Joe Biden don't need a lot of good things. Our messaging has stunned for a whole long time. So that's why we're not out here talking about why it is their fault.
So the last point I want to make on that, which is really important in this last election, there are 14 current elections where there are a Democrat in a seat that Trump wants, and that's what they're counting on. They're thinking that pressure will be so hard on these folks who just want to see their districts used to be carried by Biden and now the Trump districts. I do think there's also the point of you're facing that kind of pressure. But then Republicans are also getting pressure from Elon Musk, promises of if you vote against this, you're going to be primary.
Sure, he's got the money to do it. But talk about the lesson that they're learning of the profile that Musk might cut in this kind of administration. Well, I think that's a big question, is that, you know, a lot of the Republicans I speak to on Capitol Hill feel like he just has no idea what he's doing and he sort of blundered in here making threats, and he seems to think that he has a lot more political capital than he actually does. On the other hand, he does have a lot of money.
And if he did want to seriously wade into this process and start knocking people off, the problem is it's still going to take a couple years. They've still got two years of governing that they've got to accomplish in that time span. And if Elon Musk has already alienated and threatened to primary everybody, then how does he get what he wants after that? So, you know, I think there was a lot of sort of happy team spirit and camaraderie among Republicans coming off the election.
They're now looking around going, maybe we're not as much of a team as we thought, and we're not entirely sure whose team Elon is actually on. You have to be careful how often you make those threats about primary. Right. I mean, we've seen this now with the Cabinet nominations, too.
Right. Some of the threats have been private, I think, not in public. Some of them have been public and you're going to be primary. If you don't vote for Pete Haza at a certain point, that loses its sting unless you actually do it.
Maybe they'll do it. Elon Musk sounds like he's in for a diamond for a billion dollars. But it can be you can overdo it, I think. So.
The other person who I think is watching is extremely closely. Everyone is, but it's Mike Johnson at the center of it. But it's Senator John Thune, the newly elected House Majority Senate Majority Leader, who might be looking at the Musk of it all. Listen to what he said today on the Hill.
The social media world is a part of our politics. And I think a couple years it's always going to be the case that the outside world, social media audience is going to win. So figure out where you want to be and do what you can do. So Thune is seeing firsthand the way that Musk can be both friend and also, where does that leave him?
Right. I mean, I think John Thune still has the hardest job in Washington. Right. And you know that he brings some level of skepticism to a lot of the sort of performative politics that become popular now because this is not fundamentally who he's been for all these years.
I think he's trying to do what he can to sort of stay out of Donald Trump's way and ease things where he can. From Mike Johnson, there are going to be limits to what he can do. Definitely limits to what he can do. And I want them from put on screen.
We now actually have the details fleshed out. What's in this? Extending government funding for March 14. The mortgage change is more the same.
We've also got the spending debt limit Until January of 2027, disaster relief for Hurricane Helene. And Nelson. The mayor we spoke to will be, I hope, relief to hear that extension of the farm bill funding repairs for Baltimore's Key Bridge. So there is at least one more ornament there that makes this still a skinny version of the end of your funding bill.
But Ch, the cost of this, and I don't just mean financially, is to the Speaker's currency. And where do you think this leaves him? With a conference that's mad at him. Now he's got new members mad at him.
Right. We just thought we'd lived through all this stuff with was it 15 or 16 speaker girls when we were up there? 14. And I lived every one of them.
That's what I'm saying. I knew you were there in real time. I didn't want to make your eyes start twitching, but I think that's where we're going to be again now, is that it's so small and it's even smaller. To my friend's point about what happened in the last election, the Democrats picked up a seat in the House.
It's smaller than it was. And you're gonna have all these other people who are following Elon Musk, somebody who's not elected, who's got 200 million followers on his social media app, who seems like he's dictating policy in the U.S. house. That's what Karen did.
Do I even want to ask this question, but if not Johnson, then who? Well, that was the problem that they had a year ago, right when there was that three week power vacuum and they cycled through various votes and Johnson ended up coming out of that process. There's a lot of new Republicans in the House who didn't lived through that. But to Chuck's point, it is a smaller majority.
He has even less margin for error. He has to get a majority in that vote to become speaker again. And at this point, on the one hand doesn't look great, on the other hand, there isn't anybody else. So I think there's going to be a lot of phone calls over the next couple.
If this works out and they are able to go home for Christmas, he is going to have a lot of diplomacy to do to try to keep everybody in the tent. And I think the most important voices are going to still be Donald Trump and Elon Musk because if they get solidly behind him and give their blessing, it will be hard for Republicans to step out of line. But it still doesn't take very many Republicans. You don't have to be like nigga Elon Musk.
Trump is calling this a success. At the end of the day, let's assume, and I know that big government doesn't like what I assume, but let's assume that this actually works somehow. Is it a win for Trump? I don't know.
It's win for Trump. He's not even president yet. Right. So I don't know that it's a win for him.
But Donald Trump, he will be the president at some point tomorrow he's going to have to, he's going to have to make this stuff work. And the number of promises that he's made I think will be very difficult for him to such a slim margin with such a slimmer. Yeah, that's the thing that I keep coming back to, you're too crazy uncle. So you never can talk about nothing who are now going to determine what we're going to do and lead a party.
So that's the crazy thing and the way I like to think about it is now in the House, every House member can become the senator but they always dream that they go. So that's something fun to look forward to. Molly Ball Chakra, Steven Hayes, thank you for joining and happy holidays. Thank you for joining us as well.
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