The Daily - The Latest Showdown Over a Shutdown

President Trump seemed poised to avoid a government shutdown and to carry his fight for a border wall into 2019, when the House will be controlled by Democrats. Then he shot down the spending deal. So what happened? Also, to cap off a chaotic day of breaking news, Jim Mattis resigned as secretary of defense. Guest: Jonathan Weisman, the deputy Washington editor of The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Duration: 26m
Broadcast on: 21 Dec 2018
Audio Format: other

Also, to cap off a chaotic day of breaking news, Jim Mattis resigned as secretary of defense. Guest: Jonathan Weisman, the deputy Washington editor of The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One Bank Guy is so passionate about banking with Capital One. If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. Yep, even on weekends. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply, see CapitalOne.com/BankGuy, Capital One NA. Member FDIC. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbero. This is a daily. Today, President Trump seemed poised to avoid a government shutdown and carry his fight for a border wall into 2019 with a Democratic controlled house. So what happened?

And Jim Mattis has resigned as Secretary of Defense. It's Friday, December 21st. Jonathan, it is 442 on Thursday afternoon. Are we, again, facing a government shutdown? We are. I came in to work this morning thinking that it was going to be unpalatable, but the House Republicans were going to take up the Senate passed bill that would have kept the government funded past Friday and punted it to February. And everyone would jump in their airplanes and leave Washington. And we would be on our way to winter break. And we're not. By my count, Jonathan, this would be our third government shutdown in a year, in a year. And each one of them seems to center around the President, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi arguing about a wall. In immigration, yes. Jonathan Weisman is Deputy Washington editor of The Times. Remember, the last one was over the Democrats insisting on some kind of protection for the dreamers. And that one actually went poorly for the Democrats. The Democrats pretty much capitulated and lost on that one. So how did we get here all over again? Well, remember, the actual fiscal year ended September 30th. And since then, we've been living on these stopgap spending bills that just keep the money flowing to the government. Now, the last stopgap spending bill was supposed to end a few weeks ago, but then George H.W. Bush died. And we didn't want to have this kind of unseemly spectacle as we were celebrating the former president's life. So they passed yet another short-term spending bill that pushed us to the edge of Christmas. And here we are. So what happens after George H.W. Bush is laid to rest, the celebrations are over, and Washington does finally turn to the budget. Okay. Thank you very much. It's a great honor to have Nancy Pelosi with us and Chuck Schumer with us. Well, that was a moment when President Trump summoned Nancy Pelosi, the expected next speaker, and Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, to the White House. And then we have the easy one, the wall. That'll be the one that will be the easiest of all. What do you think, Chuck? Maybe not. It's called funding the government, Mr. President. So we're going to see, but I will tell you, the wall will get built. Now, he relishes this. He wanted to have a public fight over the wall right then. One way or the other, it's going to get built. I'd like not to see a government closing, a shutdown. We will see what happens over the next short period of time, but the walls are a very important thing to us. The cameras are rolling. This was supposed to be a closed-door negotiation, and he starts negotiating right there in front of the cameras. It doesn't matter, though, because we can't get it passed in the Senate because we need 10 Democrat votes. That's the problem. Yeah. Let us have our conversation, then we can meet with the press again. But the fact is, is that legislating, which is what we do. You begin. The Democrats are looking around the corner. They want Donald Trump to take responsibility in case there is a shutdown coming. So they push him. Twenty times you have called for, "I will shut down the government if I don't get my wall." None of us have said, and much to their surprise and delight, he says, "Yeah."

Transcription truncated.