Shutdown Standoff
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It's Thursday, December 19th, right now on CNN This Morning. We just won the elections. We have a mandate and he's giving away the farm. Shutdown standoff. A GOP-backed spending bill scrapped after Donald Trump and Elon Musk criticized the deal. Plus. Like if the things that the House ethics report were true, I would be under indictment and probably in a prison cell.

An abrupt turn, the House Ethics Committee deciding to release its report on Matt Gaetz after all. And... I'm so mad at these politicians who wrote this law thinking that TikTok was just some silly dancing app. TikTok under threat, the Supreme Court will now hear arguments on whether the app should be banned next month. And later, Amazon on strike, workers planning to walk off the job this morning right in the middle of the most critical holiday shopping days.

All right, 6 a.m. on the East Coast, a live look at Capitol Hill, the scene of all the action this week. For better or for worse, good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. Governing by tweet. Donald Trump has yet to be sworn in, and already a day of tweeting, posting, derailed the funding bill that would have kept the government's lights on through Christmas. What does that remind you of?

I haven't read his tweet so I'm not going to comment on something I haven't read. To find out you've been fired by tweet is not exactly reassuring in terms of the conduct of government. I don't know. I can't really comment because I don't know anything about it. Well, I didn't see the tweet. I thought I saw the tweets this morning. I missed that one. I just saw the tweet and I know nothing of the episode.

Except in this incoming Trump administration, they are not just Donald Trump's tweets. They are also Elon Musk's. The incoming head of Doge already pulling strings behind the scenes, despite the highest-ranking elected Republican in Washington scrambling to try to convince him not to blow it all up. Here was House Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday morning before everything collapsed around him.

I was communicating with Elon last night. Elon and Vivek and I are on a text chain together. And I was explaining to them the background of this. Remember guys, we still have just a razor thin margin of Republicans. So any bill has to have Democrat votes. They understand the situation. They said it's not directed to you, Mr. Speaker, but we don't like the spending. I said, guess what, fellas? I don't either.

So that interview yesterday morning, and he's saying that the night before he's texting Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to try to convince them that this is what everybody should do. But needless to say, the texts did not cut it. Over the ensuing hours, and in fact, it started before Johnson even went on Fox, Elon Musk posted dozens of times, dozens, a sample, quote, kill the bill. One of the worst bills ever written. Stop the steal of your tax dollars.

And Republicans in Congress, well, they answered Elon's call. Slowly at first, and then seemingly all at once, Republicans in Congress began coming out against the funding bill. And as the afternoon wore on, Musk began reposting them, saying, "Thank you!" and "Great!" Of course, everyone, especially it seems, the House Speaker, was waiting for President-elect Trump to weigh in.

He finally did, at 5:13 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, posting on his own social media website, quote, "Republicans must get smart and tough. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then call their bluff," end quote. Trump saying he would support funding the government if Congress also raises the debt ceiling for two years. We'll discuss why that's all but impossible for Johnson in just a moment.

But the question that the events of yesterday raises is this: Who is really calling the shots? Donald Trump or Elon Musk? And who will be calling the shots in January after the president is sworn in? Democrats and Trump critics quick to argue it's actually the world's richest man. The decision was made after posts

from one individual and a lot of my colleagues changed their positions based on that. And all of a sudden Donald Trump scrambled to try to kill it because his puppet master said so. President Musk this morning made it clear with all his vast government experience, which is basically he became rich on the federal government, that he doesn't want Republicans to pass this and seemingly Vice President Trump kind of backed him up then at that point. And what

All right, joining us now to discuss Kayla Tausche, CNN senior White House correspondent. Annie Linsky is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, former Biden White House communications director. And Brad Todd, CNN political commentator, Republican strategist. Welcome to all of you. Good morning. Brad, here we are again. It feels so familiar. I was in the hallways when many of those early bites that we played out in public. But this, I mean...

It felt to me like there was some tension yesterday with Elon Musk going at this and at this and at this and everyone waiting to see what Trump was gonna do. And he ultimately went with Musk, but I mean, who's in charge? - Well, I think first off, this bill was in trouble from the start. All continuing resolutions, that's what they call these CRs at the end of the year to try to keep the government open for a few more months.

they're always hard to pass with Republican votes. Very few Republican votes want to vote for any government spending, much less a temporary government spending measure. - Yeah, and does Elon get that? That he's gonna need Democrats to actually do this? - I don't know if he does or not. I mean, he's new to this game of trying to cobble together 218 cats and move them in the same direction, which is hard. - Governing is hard. - Governing is hard.

I think that the bill is already in trouble. Mike Johnson had made a lot of deals with Democrats to get a lot of Democrat votes. That's always an art. How far do you have to go to get enough Democrats and what's too far? Because then you can't get any Republicans. I think consensus was emerging on Capitol Hill from Republicans I talked to that this bill perhaps was a little bit too far already. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump pushed it over the edge, but it was already in trouble.

Now, from Trump's perspective, I think he's doubling down at a very interesting spot here. He's trying to get the debt ceiling with the CR. That's a big, big gamble because it's a very- You think you need Democratic votes for government funding, CRs? Correct. You really need Democratic votes to raise the debt ceiling. Correct. Now, if he wins, it's a huge win for him. He takes a problem away from June that would be one of his first tough votes for House Republicans later. But I don't know. Now he owns the problem.

I'm curious as to what the conversations, if any, were between the Johnson team and the Trump team prior to Trump's public announcement. I mean, everybody was sort of waiting publicly to see where Trump would go, especially after Musk started tweeting. But presumably, you would think, the Johnson team was touching base with, was talking to the Trump team before he put the big package forward. So I would just be interested, or maybe not. And if he wasn't, I mean, that's bananas. Right.

So it's just, I'm curious that, you know, I would love to see some of those texts between the team and Johnson prior to this big bill coming out. Because presumably Johnson thought he was going to get some level of support or at least not. He was out there publicly arguing for it.

Yeah, exactly. And they spent four hours together sitting next to each other at the Army-Navy game just last weekend. So you kind of wonder if this topic came up as they were sort of chit-chatting during the game. Yeah, Kayla, I mean, what's your reporting around this? Well, my reporting is that Trump's own economic advisors were surprised by the position that he decided to take on the debt ceiling because everyone's understanding was that they had until June to figure out at least what their position was. I mean, back in Trump's first term—

On some days, he woke up and decided that he wanted to abolish the debt ceiling altogether. And there really wasn't a unified stance on how they were going to approach it, except for the fact that by getting spending done until March, you at least bought yourself a little bit of time to get the key nominees confirmed, to get the party to coalesce around what their critical ideas were, maybe even to get a reconciliation bill passed with key energy and immigration measures. Have a few wins in your pocket and then figure out, OK, we have this very, very

THORNY DEBT CEILING THAT'S AWAITING US, HOW ARE WE GOING TO APPROACH IT, WHICH VOTES ARE WE GOING TO NEED TO GET, AND TO REALLY HAVE THAT STRATEGY COALESCE. NOW IT SEEMS THAT THERE'S A VIEW THAT TRUMP WANTS ALL THE BAD THINGS TO HAPPEN ON HIS PREDECESSOR'S WATCH, THAT HE WANTS A SHUTDOWN TO POTENTIALLY HAPPEN ON HIS PREDECESSOR'S WATCH, BECAUSE IT HASN'T YET SO FAR IN BIDEN'S TERM.

debt to be added to the federal ledger on Biden's watch. Because one of the criticisms that Democrats have had so far is that the debt has ballooned under Republicans, not necessarily Democrats. And so there is also an element where he wants to flip the script on this a little bit. So I take all that, right? This massive agenda and this to-do list.

The events of yesterday suggest that doing any single piece of that to-do list, let alone the entire thing, is going to be all but impossible in this environment. Well, this also has, the bill's bigger than this. It also has the farm bill in it. It also has reforms on pharmaceutical benefit managers, which is actually...

help generate money to offset some of the farm bill costs and the disaster relief costs for Western North Carolina. So there are a lot of things in here. Now, we haven't also talked about Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries because they drove the hard bargain that was making this bill toxic with Republicans. Maybe they got too greedy in their negotiations.

Well, but at the end of the day, Republicans are going to own whatever the fallout is here. I mean, Trump and Trump has already thrown his arms around it. So, you know, I mean, I think this is also a good reminder that, you know, Trump Trump loves the performance element. He loves the campaign element, the messaging element. He doesn't so much love the governing element. And when you are the president and you actually have to get into these hard conversations.

trade-offs and these hard choices, and you have to fund the government so that people are getting their Social Security checks and veterans are getting their benefits. Sometimes that requires a level of nuance that Trump hates. Casey, it's worth noting how this movie ended before because Trump is no stranger to government shutdowns. He has a very strong stomach for them. Back in 2018, when he really wanted nearly $6 billion in funding to build the wall on the southern border,

He shut down the government for 35 days and ultimately ended up backing off of that demand because the economic effects of having government workers miss two paychecks, you have FAA controllers not reporting for work. I mean, that became so onerous that he simply couldn't stand the political fallout of that. Whether he's actually willing to go up to the line or cross it this time remains to be seen, but certainly he's done it before.

Just your daily reminder that Trump is not the president. It is Joe Biden. Where is the president? Well, we're going to talk a lot about Annie's terrific reporting in the journal that sort of shed some light on that question here later on in the hour. All right, coming up here on CNN this morning, deportation promises the incoming Trump administration working on how to carry out its mass deportation plan. If you're here illegally, you're not off the table.

Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, who represents the border state of New Mexico, will be here to discuss. Plus, on strike, Amazon workers walking off the job just moments ago. And the House Ethics Committee could release its report on Matt Gaetz basically at any moment. If the Ethics Committee feels that the evidence about Matt Gaetz's behavior is so damning and so concerning that they want to release it, I think that it should be released.

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I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast, Terms of Service, CNN business economics writer Elizabeth Buchwald, she's going to walk us through what we might want to consider buying now before prices go up under a Trump White House. Once he gets in the Oval Office, he can put tariffs into place. E-bikes are actually made in China. Really anything that just isn't produced in the U.S. Follow CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts.

Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress. He is no longer a member. There's a very important protocol and tradition and rule that we maintain that the House Ethics Committee's jurisdiction does not extend to non-members of Congress. I think that would be a Pandora's box. That was House Speaker Mike Johnson urging the Ethics Committee to keep a report into Matt Gaetz under wraps a month ago.

But now the committee seems ready to open that Pandora's box. Sources tell CNN the panel authorized the report's release in a secret vote earlier this month. It is now expected to be made public any day now before Congress leaves Washington for the holidays.

The report caps a years-long probe by the Ethics Committee into allegations that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct, used illicit drugs, and, quote, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor. Gaetz posted on X denying any wrongdoing, writing, I was charged with nothing, not even a campaign finance violation. My 30s were an era of working very hard and playing too hard.

It's embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now. Gates also reiterated his innocence in an interview last month after his bid to be the next Attorney General fell apart. If the things that the House Ethics Report were true, I would be under indictment and probably in a prison cell. But of course they're false.

Okay, let's circle back to that note about videos and things that were shown on the House floor and what some of his colleagues learned about his life because Gates told them about it. Here was now Senator, former House member, Mark Wayne Mullen. As far as Matt Gates himself...

You got to think about this guy. This is a guy that the media didn't give a time of day to after he was accused of sleeping with an underage girl. There's a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the house floor that all of us had walked away of the girls that he had slept with. He'd brag about how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night.

I mean, there you have it. Very clear, Brad Todd, it seems to me. In a town full of reptiles, Matt Gaetz is the least popular snake. You know, it's-- the lesson in all of this is Matt Gaetz made no friends. He helped nobody with their objectives in the U.S. House, and so, therefore, no one's ready to stand up for him right now.

He also had bragged about his exploits, according to Mark Wayne Mould and others. So it's no surprise, I think, that these members of the Ethics Committee, they don't want to be on the hook for this. They want the world to know what they know because they don't want to be accused of covering up for him. Something else happened, though. Ballots dropped in the 1st District of Florida yesterday. Absentee ballots did in the special election replaced Matt Gaetz. He's about to be a footnote in history. This may be the last story we write about him.

I would imagine they're also the same people are trying to kind of put a political nail in his coffin too right there's been discussion of does he run for governor someday I would imagine that these members the ethics committee looked at the report and said you know what we need to make sure that we

do everything that we can to ensure that there's no great political revival here. Because we should underscore that it does, the Ethics Committee is basically the only committee in Congress that is split directly down the middle, right? So even if it doesn't matter, Republicans, Democrats control the entire situation, there were Republicans here that had to say, we want this out. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think, and I think that also goes to a larger point that there were Republicans who stood up to their own party and stood, and

You know, to Brad's point, this is not a particularly popular member of the party. But it is still a difficult thing to do. And I do think that Republicans get credit for doing it. You also have to think about the timing here, too. I mean, it's going to be released before members leave Washington, assuming they leave Washington in the next couple of days. And so it also begs the question where you have the president elect who's a master at changing the narrative of whether part of the shutdown

approach is to perhaps divert attention away from whatever the contents of this report are given how damaging they're expected to be just judging by matt gates's own response i mean the detail that he goes into in responding to what he expects will be in this report just gives you a little bit of an idea what's expected to be in there yeah is it just me or like for most of us is this stuff i mean the partying too hard let's set aside uh the more

you know, problematic allegations like your 30s. Yeah, I know. Maybe they're 20s. I was much younger, 35. Like, okay. All right. Still ahead here on CNN This Morning, a close call in California, a new up-close look at a destructive tornado. It's one of the five things you have to see this morning. Plus, TikTok on the docket. The Supreme Court will hear the case for and against banning TikTok as soon as next month.

All right, 23 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. Dash cam video captures the moment a tornado swept through Scotts Valley, California over the weekend, overturning a truck. The owner was inside a store when it happened. The truck, of course, was totaled. We call this story Man on Fire, or how about Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire? Police in New York trying to find a man who fled an alleged porta-potty arson.

with his pants on fire. Oh boy. Okay, and this. - It's 'cause that I don't want Isaiah to die. - A Heimlich hero, third grader Thomas Conley, honored by Mesa, Arizona fire officials for saving a classmate who was choking on a grape. Thomas applied the Heimlich maneuver and saved his friend's life. A twerking thief has had a change of heart. Porch pirates caught on camera taking a package while busting a move from a New Jersey home.

After the homeowner shared the video, the dancing suspect came back and returned one of the items. 2025 has arrived in Times Square. The seven-foot-tall numbers will soon light up the sky for the New Year's Eve ball drop. But until next Wednesday, they will sit in the streets of Times Square for photo ops.

I really can't believe it's already 2025. Where has the time gone? All right, still ahead here on CNN This Morning, Trump going after Liz Cheney and lawmakers are mixed on a GOP report calling for her investigation. Plus, a brand new report out this morning detailing how the White House operates with a, quote, diminished leader, Joe Biden, getting ready to leave Washington after five decades of public service. I said my name is Joe Biden. He said, I know you're not Senator Biden.

And I said, no, I said my name is Biden, Senator Biden. He said, who in the hell is he? Have we left the country better shape than we found it? Today, I can say without, with every fiber of my being, with all my heart, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. Yes. That's the lasting legacy that Joe Biden and his supporters are hoping for.

The reality is the president leaves office next month with historically low approval ratings. And new reporting from the Wall Street Journal just out this morning, shedding light on the challenges that Biden and his handlers have faced during his presidency, a presidency that was often characterized by missteps and more than a few uncomfortable moments.

Now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin. Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage.

The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with. Look, if we finally beat Medicare.

Our next guest, Annie Linsky, is the co-author of a new report out this morning in The Wall Street Journal. She and her colleagues write this, quote, to adapt the White House around the needs of a diminished leader. They told visitors to keep meetings focused. Interactions with senior Democratic lawmakers and some cabinet members, including powerful secretaries such as Defense's Lloyd Austin and Treasury's Janet Yellen, were infrequent or grew less frequent. Some legislative leaders had a hard time getting the president's ear at key moments.

including ahead of the U.S.'s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. Former administration officials said it often didn't seem like Biden had his finger on the pulse. Our panel is still here. And Annie, you, of course, the lead author on this story with your colleagues, you talked to over 50 people for this story. Tell us a little bit more about what you learned.

Yeah, we were going trying to get a sense for every White House is set up differently to take into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of the leader in charge. And in this case, there's a leader who is aging very visibly right in front of our eyes. And so what we found is that the shell around Biden was overwhelming.

kind of always hard, but became harder and thicker, and the walls became taller. And the system that was set up, even his critics would say, enabled him to make decisions that needed to be made and to govern effectively. But that wall also blocked from view and from the American people the decline that he was experiencing.

You write a little bit about the kind of information that was getting through to the president, especially as he was making his decision about whether he was going to run for re-election. What did you learn about that, and how do you think it impacted that decision, which ultimately could be why Donald Trump is coming back to the White House? Yeah, I mean, as he was going through his presidency, there were people who told us that he wouldn't always get negative press clippings. So if he had made a gaffe at an event,

The clippings that sort of focused on the gaff would be not included, and you'd have to go to kind of great lengths to find a clipping that didn't include the gaff.

So he was not always seeing that, or especially over the summer, he wasn't talking to his pollsters. This is sort of a key thing that most presidents do and that Joe Biden did him... Most presidents are obsessed with it. Obsessed with it. And, you know, he's getting this information filtered through his senior staff. So there was a wall around him. And, you know, in many ways for his presidency, it worked, but it did prevent him from getting...

a variety of points of view that weren't coming through just the key staffers who he trusted and who would spend a lot of time with him. Yeah. Kate Benningfield, I realize this is a tricky position for you because you were inside the White House during some period of this time. What Annie's story outlines is that some of these measures around protecting the president started a lot earlier than maybe some expected, including the pullout from Afghanistan was 2021. I mean, what light can you shed on what was going on inside the White House at this time?

I think a couple things. First of all, complaints about not getting enough access to the president are as old as the republic. I mean, members of Congress are constantly complaining about not getting access to the president. I mean, that is a time-honored complaint that people have when they feel like they have expertise, they have political perspective that should be shared. So I think we should maintain that perspective because there's always somebody... Well, they write about, for example, the House Armed Services chairman during the Afghanistan pullout.

pull out. But my experience, so the second thing I was going to say, I was there during the Afghanistan withdrawal. I spent hours and hours in the Situation Room with Joe Biden and the national security team during the withdrawal. Uh,

My experience was that he was hearing from all quarters. Now, it is true that there are, again, there were members of Congress who I'm sure didn't feel like they got enough access because ultimately what the president's doing in moments of crisis and every day, but in moments of crisis, is taking information, filtering it in, trying to make a...

principled and effective decision based on the input of the core people around him. Hearing from every single person in Washington who has a perspective can actually be muddying and damaging and confusing. So I don't doubt, I certainly don't dispute

that there were people who felt like they didn't have the opportunity to weigh in when they wanted to. That in and of itself is not an indicator to me of a diminished Joe Biden. I watched the president grilling his national security team, grilling the generals who were on the ground every single day during that withdrawal. And it's

There was never a moment where he was not getting the hard information and making the hard decision. I think the difference here, though, is our reporting showed that these are some of the people who might have been grilling him and saying, is this right? This is why you should look at this. This is why you should look at this piece of information or this piece of information. And that's the exchange that...

was lacking according to our reporting. And I will say it went beyond members of Congress. The lack of the, you know, in-person and regular interactions with Janet Yellen was also something that was eye-opening to us as we were reporting it out. And even, you know, a sort of drop-off in interactions with Lloyd Austin, as you're talking about a period of time where there's... Gaza is happening, Ukraine is happening. So it's just this idea of...

as the president was becoming older, a wall that is just getting bigger. Yeah. I mean, Kate, would you dispute the idea that the White House had to make arrangements to deal with the fact that Biden was aging? I mean, I think for a lot of Americans who watch

what has happened, right? I mean, they had all of these Democrats, people saying to them, "It's fine, it's fine, it's fine," and then he steps onto that debate stage and it's clearly not fine, and people felt lied to. I think there are two-- I think there are two issues. One is the communications issue, which he clearly was diminished. And, I mean, the world saw the debate. He was clearly struggling to communicate, I think, the public demands of running a successful presidential campaign and communicating effectively.

were clearly challenging and ultimately led him to drop out and determine that he couldn't do it. That doesn't mean that he is not capable of making the decisions, of filtering the information, of debating his team internally. Those are two different things. Now obviously, in order to successfully run for president and be reelected, you have to be able to do both. So I'm not arguing that there wasn't a deficit there. There obviously was.

But again, I obviously can't speak to-- I left the White House in March of 2023. I can't speak to what the day-to-day internal interactions were like after I left. But I can tell you from the time that I was there that he was engaged. He was asking tough questions. He was engaging in back and forth. He was meeting with Secretary Yellen, meeting with Secretary Austin, getting the PDB.

So I didn't witness, that's not what I witnessed. Casey, we're in a situation now where we're relying on private recountings of how this went because we haven't seen President Biden as much publicly as we saw other presidents. I mean, at

the G20. It was his first major summit of his entire presidency where he did not have a press conference. Reporters were told that there would be opportunities to engage with him organically. There simply were not. Let me pause you for one second because I actually wanted to play something and ask you about it. There was a moment on Pod Save America, which is a coalition of former Obama advisors, not necessarily the Biden team's best friends. But here's what they had to say, basically accusing the current president of quiet quitting.

- I get the recognition that maybe people aren't willing to hear from him is understandable that he might think that, right? The party thing I hope is not true. Because I don't know, what do you guys think he could be doing? - Quiet quitting? - Yeah, I think that's what we're getting. - Oh yeah, that seems like what he is doing. - Oh instead, yes, got it. - I mean, pretty tough, but to the point that you were making,

President Biden does seem to be stepping off the stage, even though he is still president. Yeah, I mean, it does have the distinct feeling of going out like a lamb instead of like a lion. And I think some of the scant interactions with the press are indicative of that. Clearly, we would like there to be more interactions similar to their... Always. They're always more...

- I agree, I agree. - Complaints from members of Congress that always like more interaction. That being said, it does feel distinctive that there has been so little interaction and so little that we've heard from him publicly. But also to the point of members of Congress, Kate, I mean, in talking to people who were

in contact with members of Congress in the wake of that disastrous bait where they were trying to shore up support from the party, a lot of members of Congress said, we haven't seen him in a year, in some cases 18 months. We can't come to his defense because we simply haven't had an audience with them. And so in that moment, it was really detrimental to him and for the remainder of his term and his reelection bid to not have had those interactions in that moment. Now, I mean, there are real

real concerns based on the dynamic politically. Would the White House love to have another state dinner? Yes. Do any world leaders want to come and be there with him? No. Would he have loved to have funding for the cancer moonshot extended as part of this package? Yes. Is that where Congress is? No. So there's a real political dynamic to all of this too that's impacting it, but it's because of the outcome of the election too.

- Well, it's a deeply reported story by Annie and a great story, but I'll also note that conservatives and a lot of people in the conservative press were saying some of these things in real time. It was blown off. I think maybe perhaps the White House press corps was not inquisitive enough as to Joe Biden's status in real time. - Well, certainly we all learned a lot on the debate stage in Atlanta, and obviously,

Here we are now. Up next on CNN This Morning, the president-elect sinks a Republican-backed spending bill. And now, just two days before a government shutdown deadline, lawmakers have returned to square one. Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury will be here to discuss. Plus, Amazon workers hit the picket line while in the thick of holiday shopping. And just a month out from a TikTok ban, could the Supreme Court save the app?

I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points. And there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with it. All right, welcome back. Returning now to a story that you may have heard us tell a couple of times before. There are just a few days to go before another possible government shutdown. We're on shutdown watch on the Hill again. Lawmakers once again scrambling to head off a government shutdown. Tell me if you've heard this before.

Yet another funding fight on Capitol Hill. The bipartisan plan that would have averted a government shutdown in the short term was tanked by President-elect Donald Trump and his ally, Elon Musk. The House Speaker, Mike Johnson, left to come up with an entirely new plan or rely on Democrats to get a deal across the finish line. The Democrats' message seems to be, at this point, take it or leave it.

There is no fixing this without the Democrats. We have seen this over and over and I'm just going to sit back and sip my tea and wait on them to figure it out. Joining us now, Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico. Congresswoman, thanks very much for being here. Great to be here.

At this point, and I know you're heading into meetings this morning to learn more about this, what are Democrats thinking about whether or not to support? There are two questions it seems at hand, and let's just start with the idea of a clean...

what's known as a clean continuing resolution that would fund the government at current levels for a short period of time to avert a shutdown. Do you think Democrats could get on board with that? - Well, first of all, I think it's important to understand that we had a bipartisan deal. And in fact, up until the afternoon yesterday when Republicans started responding to Elon Musk's tweets and then Donald Trump weighed in,

the deal was set and the table was set. So, you know, I think our leadership has been very clear. They've reneged on the deal that they've already spent days negotiating. And we want to see, you know, them pass a bill that the American people have asked them to. Now, I think it's really important in this moment to recognize that Elon Musk is a billionaire. He is not an elected official.

And this is the chaos that we knew was going to come with the Trump administration, that they were going to try to rule by tweet. And we saw them sink this funding bill yesterday. And now at the 11th hour, they're asking for debt ceiling negotiations. We're less than 48 hours away from a government shutdown.

72 hours, and you cannot run the world's greatest democracy by tweet. And so we need some serious grownups at the table, and Mike Johnson needs to come back and meet with our leadership and have serious negotiations again. - Is there any world where Democrats could support lifting the debt ceiling to avoid a government shutdown? - The debt ceiling

was originally scheduled to be renegotiated next summer. This has nothing to do with the current funding fight. What we know is that Donald Trump plans to do a tax reconciliation bill in the coming weeks and months, and they're looking for room in the budget so that he can give big tax giveaways to his billionaire friends, and we know that that's really kind of the backstory here. So, um,

You know, there's not time to do debt ceiling negotiations, literally as we are hours away from a funding shutdown for our government. This is absolutely absurd. This is not where we're at. They're not even on the map right now. So we've got to get back to getting the government funded, and we've got to make sure that the American people get their paychecks, that, you know, there's access to food assistance, that...

All the things that we know are vital government services continue through the holidays, and to hold the American people hostage right before the holidays is unconscionable. - We have learned some things about Donald Trump and his stomach for government shutdowns, which is that it is certainly stronger than even, say, Mitch McConnell, who thinks Republicans always get blamed

if there were to be a government shutdown, it would still be on President Biden's watch. Do you think Democrats would deserve any of the blame for a shutdown if one happens? Well, I mean, first of all, this is not on Biden's watch. This is on Mike Johnson's watch.

The fact that he cannot hold his own raucous caucus together in the final days right before the Christmas holidays, as Donald Trump and Elon Musk are tweeting, I think shows the inherent weakness of the GOP right now and the fact that they barely even have a coalition. You know, they're out here trying to claim that they have a mandate, and they can't even keep their own members at the table for half a day to get a vote done.

So this is on them. This is on their own lack of ability to govern and their inability to actually do things that serve the American people. This is the least productive Congress since before the Great Depression, and that's wholly on Mike Johnson. But I'm going to say this: Democrats are the grownups in the room. We're going to keep showing up. We're going to keep fighting for the American people, and we're going to make sure that we get something substantive done, and we're going to hold the line.

Would you like to see your leaders be willing to back a clean extension of government funding, or would you prefer that they refuse to do that in light of the bipartisan negotiations? Our leadership has literally been in the trenches for days and weeks holding them to account. And so we're going to continue to hold the line to make sure that the Republicans, who are responsible for the House filibuster,

floors, procedures over the coming days, do the right thing for the American people. They keep the government operational, that they pass emergency funding for all of the millions of Americans who've been impacted by fires and floods and tornadoes, and that we keep the government open over the holidays. And so that means hanging tough and making sure that we don't completely collapse under a tweet storm by Elon Musk.

- All right, Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, very grateful to have you on the show. I really appreciate it. I hope you'll come back soon. - Absolutely. - All right. 52 minutes past the hour, here's your morning roundup. The 26-year-old man accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare CEO due in a Pennsylvania court today where he could be extradited to New York.

Luigi Mangione faces 11 charges, including murder as an act of terrorism. He's also reportedly expected to face federal charges. His attorney said that possible decision would, quote, "pile on top of an already overcharged case," and they will fight the charges.

15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who killed a teacher and a student at her school in Wisconsin, was in contact with a man in California who planned to attack a government building. That is according to officials and court documents. A judge issuing a restraining order against the 20-year-old man under California's red flag law that requires him to turn in his guns and ammunition to police within 48 hours. The order claims he was messaging Rupnow discussing plans of a mass shooting.

The CDC confirms the first severe case of bird flu in the United States. Officials say an elderly patient in Louisiana was exposed to sick and dead birds in backyard flocks. The patient is experiencing severe respiratory illness and is hospitalized in critical condition.

This morning, Amazon workers authorizing a strike at several warehouses across the country less than a week out from Christmas. The Teamsters union is calling it the largest strike against the retailer in history. The union claims that Amazon missed a deadline to negotiate contracts. The Teamsters president said in a statement, quote, "If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon's insatiable greed."

Amazon says its operations will not be impacted, with Teamsters making up just 1% of the company's workforce. All right, let's turn now to this, the Supreme Court, where justices yesterday agreed to weigh in on the controversial law that says TikTok must be banned unless the company is sold.

I learn a ton here. I also make part of my living here on TikTok. I'm really worried like the rest of you all are. TikTok is getting banned and I'm not gonna have a job next month. That's facts. So how do I become a farmer? Can't have anything fun, can we? We can't have anything fun. Okay, TikTokers are once again fearful that their beloved app, you can see how much they love it in those clips,

For many, it is their source of income. They're worried it'll disappear. And the court is set to hear arguments just days before the ban is supposed to take effect on January 19th. TikTok lawyers hoping to extend that deadline in hopes the next administration might come to their rescue. Even though Trump himself once looked to ban TikTok over security concerns about its Chinese parent company, his attitude toward the app this past week seems to have softened.

We'll either close up TikTok in this country for security reasons or it'll be sold. We'll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points. And there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with it.

Didn't win youth by 34 points, but our panel has returned to discuss this further. First of all, I should admit that I am not, I'm sort of on a little bit on TikTok, but I don't share the same, Kate,

attachment to the app as some of those people that we saw. Clearly there is a lot of concern out there, but the president-elect has gone back and forth on this. Now the Supreme Court is gonna weigh in. Why do you think Trump is moving? What is it about the politics of this?

Well, it's interesting because this is actually an issue where there's bipartisan support for the ban. There's bipartisan recognition that the data that is provided to a Chinese-owned entity as a result of Americans using TikTok is potentially problematic. So, I mean, look, the most cynical take is, you know, Trump met with...

investors, donors over the course of this campaign who have a financial interest in TikTok continuing to operate. That's the most cynical take. But I think there's also, I think what he said about, you know, he believes he won the youth vote in part because of TikTok is also the huge motivator here. He's like, wait a minute, this was good for me. I don't want to ban it. Everything through the lens of Donald Trump always. I don't think that's it. I think it's, I think that

that it's because he views them as a competitor to Facebook, who he views as hostile to him, historically. And so he thinks anything that weakens TikTok strengthens Facebook in his eyes.

But I think you're right. This is one of the few bipartisan issues in Washington. It unites people on the far left and on the far right. And I think TikTok is in trouble. I mean, they don't have to close down. They just have to sell it to a U.S. owned company. Easier said than done. The national security concerns were that the Chinese owners were tweaking the algorithm to serve unhealthy or in some cases damaging content to the U.S. users who were using it. Now you have Trump, who's very close to Elon Musk, who owns his own company.

company with questions about how its algorithm is functioning. And so there is a little bit of a debate there. But you also have people very close to Trump who are involved here. Kellyanne Conway is lobbying for the company. His former Treasury secretary is trying to mount a bid for the company. And perhaps one of the outcomes here that would allow him to have his cake and eat it, too, is to get beyond that January 19th date and instead of banning it, allow someone to buy it.

- Yeah, well, and Annie, I remember too, when this was, the debate was going on, congressional offices were flooded with calls from people on TikTok and like, it did not help TikTok's case. - Right, right, I mean, I think-- - Because it was demonstrating this is how this app can actually influence the politics here.

I feel like every member who goes in for a closed-door national security briefing about this app comes out pretty horrified. So there's that, and there's also just the, by TikTok turning its power against Congress, they realize, oh my gosh, this is what a foreign government can do. And so that's not a lesson they're going to forget. Yeah. All right. I will leave you with this. He has been a bodybuilder, a governor, and of course, the Terminator.

I'll be back.

But now he's back as Santa Claus. Arnold Schwarzenegger channeling the man with the red suit and the white beard in a new film called The Man with the Bag. It is being shot in New York right now. The storyline has Santa turning to his naughty list to find a former thief in order to get his stolen magic bag of toys. And this is not the first time that Arnold has donned the red suit. In 2000, the Austrian actor played Santa for kids at a food and toy drive in Los Angeles. That's nice.

And of course, he is not new to Christmas movies. He starred in Jingle All the Way as a child of the 90s. I remember this well. Schwarzenegger now joins a long list of celebrities to play Father Christmas. Something should happen to me. Put on my suit, the reindeer will know what to do. Yeah, right. That was Tim Allen playing Santa Claus in The Santa Clause with an E. Billy Bob Thornton took a different approach. You may remember Bad Santa.

Next. Oh, good. What do you want? What do you want? What are you doing? Oh, God. Who's your favorite celebrity Santa Claus? That's disgusting. Tim Allen. I like Tim Allen. I'm going to have a hard time going as Billy Bob Thornton in Illy Roll. I know that's unpopular. All right, guys. Thank you very much for joining us today. Thanks to all of you for joining us as well. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

Welcome to Times Square. Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen are back together to ring in the New Year. Best night of my life! And anything could happen. Oh my gosh! So good! That's perfect TV! New Year's Eve Live starts at 8 on CNN. This holiday season, find the perfect gift at CNN Underscored. From the latest fashion to expert-approved tech to the best beauty finds. Discover it all at Underscored.com.