the question is, will their actions change? that's our show for tonight. you can catch me sunday at 10:00 p.m. eastern. i will be convening a special meeting of the banned book club tomorrow to discuss one of the most banned books of all time. it is one that is frightening -- frighteningly relevant, george orwell's 1984. my guest, a political scientist, and the author of the band look, boy erased, a memoir about growing up gay in a fundamentalist family. it is time for a special edition of the last word, hosted by lawrence. and that starts now. ♪ good evening, and welcome to a special friday edition of the last word, focusing on defendant trump. donald trump has not come up with a magical solution to

prevent letitia james from beginning the process of attaching his assets on monday in order to guarantee the payment of a $464 million civil fraud judgment against donald trump. the merger announced today between donald trump's social media company with a much higher valued company called the digital world acquisition corporation can do nothing to change donald trump's financial capacities on monday. when donald trump hits the deadline for satisfying the judgment against himself. if donald trump had $464 million, he could just post it with the court as a guarantee that he could cover the judgment if he loses his appeal of the case. but, donald trump does not have that much money despite claiming to have had much more than that for many, many years now. donald trump has not been able to get anyone to lend him that money so that he could post a

bond with the court for the judgment. that would then, protect his assets. the court gave trump 30 days to figure this out. and he has not been able to. so now, as financial reality closes in on him, donald trump goes to bed lying and wakes up lying. last night at 1:54 a.m., he posted one of his familiar lies on social media, saying the judgment against him was unconstitutional and unfair, and it was designed by the judge to, quote, not allow me to use any of the large amount of cash i have built up over the years through hard work, insight, and distinct diligence on my political campaign for president. so, the lie there is donald

trump does not have hundreds of millions of dollars, just doesn't have it, and the lie that he was going to spend that money on his political campaign. that is a complete and total lie. donald trump has never spent one penny of his own money on any of his political campaigns. in his first campaign for president, after promising he would finance his entire campaign himself and would never ask anyone to donate to his campaign, donald trump loaned a total of $10.8 million to his campaign to get it started. and then, he quickly began begging for money every day of his life online to his supporters. and when his supporters send in enough money, donald trump paid himself back the $10 million that he loaned to his campaign. so, no. donald trump was not hoarding large amounts of cash, hundreds of billions of dollars so he could spend the money on his political campaign as he said,

just before 2:00 a.m. last night. and then, when he woke up this morning, if he slept at all, at 7:14 a.m., donald trump repeated the lie, saying i have almost $500 million in cash, a substantial amount of which i intended to use in my campaign for president. no, he did not. he has never intended to use one penny of his own money in his campaign. and saying that he now has almost $500 million in cash would mean that his lawyers were lying when they told the judge at the beginning of the week that it was, quote, an impossibility. it was their word, impossibility, for trump to come up with $500 million in cash. trump's lawyers call that, quote, a practical impossibility. trump's lawyers explained to the court just how federally donald trump failed in coming up with the money. the lawyer said, quote, these diligent efforts have included approaching about 30 surety

companies through 4 separate brokers, effectively requiring cash reserves approaching $1 billion. it is unprecedented for a private company. so, in a manhattan courtroom on monday, the foundational lie of donald trump's image building as a politician will be exposed. >> i don't need anybody's money. it is nice. i don't need anybody's money. i'm using my own money. i'm not using the lobbyist, i'm not using donors. i don't care. i am really rich. >> that was an enormous part of donald trump's initial appeal when he began as a candidate. he amounted other appeals including direct appeals to racists who expanded his support. many trump voters in iowa believed then and said then in interviews that the trump wealth that they believed he had was a virtue.

they believed he would be incorruptible because he had too much money already to be corrupted. donald trump was lying about that. and his voters were wrong to believe it. but they have forgiven or overlooked every trump lie that has been exposed. at the end of the day on monday, most of them might still be willing to believe that donald trump is as rich as he always pretended to be. donald trump knows better. donald trump has proved how rich he isn't to anyone who can think. the world famous billionaires have no problem coming up with $500 million. jeff bezos has that in his pocket. bill gates has given away more money than donald trump has ever had in his life. bill gates has given away billions of dollars. and the real billionaire new york politician, former mayor of new york, mike bloomberg,

who has also given away billions of dollars, never brags about his wealth. he could easily cover a sudden bill of $500 million at any time from his current holdings of $106.2 billion. mike bloomberg started with nothing. he grew up in suburban boston. he moved to new york city. he had to work to make every single penny he has ever earned. he had to do it on his own. donald trump hates billionaires like mike bloomberg who came to the big city where donald trump was born rich and left donald trump far behind in the building of important businesses and the accumulation of wealth that staggers donald trump's poisoned imagination. donald trump has never dared to even pretend that he is as rich

as mike bloomberg. never mind younger men like bill gates or jeff phase those who have hit the stratospheric level of wealth that donald trump see this with jealousy about every day of his life. the drama donald trump is living through now, a drama he is living through tonight, the drama we are all watching, was foretold when the presidential election was called for joe biden and donald trump officially entered the history books as a loser. on that day, peter marks, the drama critic of the washington post wrote, i imagine it as a chilling final turn of the plot. his world is coming to an end. he will never have another good day. loser label will haunt him. the law will pursue him. mental illness will hobble him.

his properties will bankrupt him. leading off our discussion tonight is jim o'brien, editor for bloomberg opinion and author of trump nation. he is host of the bloomberg podcast, crash course, and an msnbc analyst. also, the former chief of the criminal division in the eastern district of new york. he is the co-author of the new york times best-selling book, the trump indictments. andrew, as we close in on monday, what will you be looking for on monday? >> the trial date. you know? i think, looking at the papers, leaving aside one caveat which is, one of donald trump's lawyers is really a superb, ethical lawyer, so you never want to counter out -- i would be interested in what the

defense lawyer has to say. but having read the papers on both sides, this really looks like a sort of minor kerfuffle. i think the judge will be focused on, is there anything there that is going to take more than the 30 days that he is granted, and whether the judge will stick with essentially this trial starting ironically, given your opening, what you talked about, april 15th. i sort of expect the people get a trial date, if not that date, shortly thereafter. >> tim o'brien, in the civil case now which enters this new zone of the $454 million collection., we get the feeling from the outside, donald trump sued you for talking about how rich he wasn't. you won, of course. you get the feeling that he

doesn't actually feel -- he can't anticipate danger properly. that's why he went bankrupt in atlantic city. anticipating risk saves businesses from disaster. it saves all areas of life from disaster. he seems surprised that it has come to this. >> yeah. business is risk management. rankin is risk management. managing money is. him and i were walking around mar-a-lago once talking about when he almost went personally bankrupt in the early 1990s. he said, you know, my father always said, you never

personally guarantee any loans. i made a mistake. i personally guaranteed too much money in the early 1990s. i didn't think it would catch up with me. it did. i learned my lesson. i would never personally guarantee a loan after that. i later found out he was lying to me in that very moment. i didn't know it, but it turned out he personally guaranteed some of the loans on the new building he was developing in chicago. that only came out a few years later. so, he goes through these searing moments where he almost loses everything he has, and he says, i learned these lessons. i should've listened to my father. lo and behold, he is doing the same thing. here we are in 2024. he is about to get exposed. it is going to be a slow grind. i don't think there's going to be a lot of drama on monday. but the process of opening the kimono and discovering indeed donald trump has no financial clothing, at least not the financial clothing he claims he's had begins. and it is a demonstration he doesn't learn his lessons. he does not anticipate problems properly. he doesn't do it because he is a juvenile delinquent. he lacks the maturity, wisdom, and strategic insight of an adult. >> andrew, barbara jones role

in this that has been expanded by the judge includes the following. it says, she should monitor in advance any efforts to secure surety bonds. that would mean if anything is going on this weekend, you have to go through her first or in the last few days. it says, she also has the authority to examine any representations made by the trump organization in connection with securing such bonds. so, that seems to indicate that whatever goes on here cannot be done secretly, even some magical multibillionaire angel who wants to come in and drop that money in donald trump's pocket, it seems barbara jones would have to know about that. >> that's absolutely right. so people understand, barbara

jones is a former federal prosecutor who, for years, served as an article three judge in new york. and has been engaged in oversight of the trump organization, and the civil fraud case. this has expanded her role too, as exactly as you said, making sure there are no financials shenanigans going on. because the judge has found there is a history of fraud and financial shenanigans. he is trying to make sure it does not repeat itself. she will be overseeing whether, for instance, there is a reported sale of an asset, you know, which was not really at market value. making sure there is no fraud going on at the last minute somehow, to manufacture the sum of money that donald trump needs. i would also just point out the stupidity of donald trump saying today that he actually has the money.

he has pending before the court an application to the court -- please lower the bond amount because i cannot pay it. and at the same time, he said, i can pay it. just put yourself in the shoes of the judges who have that application before them. do you think they would grant that based on the defendant now saying, i can actually pay it now? one way or the other, somebody is lying about that. so -- >> i have never seen a stupider litigant in court on a consistent basis. let me take you back to the prosecution in manhattan. that will obviously be the first criminal prosecution of donald trump. it is pretty clear it is going to happen if not in april,

certainly by may. with the latest pleadings we have seen in this case, the concern, recently developed evidence, they are saying look, it's not there. it is largely duplicative. it doesn't require much time to modify the defense in a way that includes the new evidence. so, we are going to know. do you expect that we will have a trial date set sooner? mike the trial date discussion be continued for a bit? >> it is possible, you know? this is a serious judge. he clearly was not happy about this predicament. i would be surprised if we don't hear something on monday, if not tuesday, about the trial date. i have papers submitted by the das office. they are so thorough. they laid out -- they gave so many affidavits as to what

precisely happened. i think it narrows the issues for the judge on monday. i would be surprised, you know, that he doesn't hear from the defense, rule on it, then say, this is the trial date and give everyone advance warning. that's what i would anticipate. >> and, tim, to donald trump -- apparently, his mind works like a junkie's. he only deals with what's in front of him at that moment, right? when we get past the whole issue of, what is happening with the collection of the half $1 billion, for any other person, the looming criminal trial that is right behind it, right behind it, would be top of mind now. it seems like his brain won't even start to worry about that a couple of days before going to trial. >> in which he might have to testify. he is a lawyer's worst nightmare on the stand. he bloviate's. he lies. he doesn't stay on script.

undoubtedly, he is not listening to any advice he is given right now. it's the legal equivalent of what he does in his business life, not anticipating freight trains that are rolling towards him in an existential way. he does not know what to do. >> tim o'brien will stick with us. andrew wiseman, thank you for starting off our discussion tonight. on a podcast note, as trump's first criminal trial in manhattan begins, you can now listen to the key excerpts of that indictment read by tony, emmy award winner, glenn close. >> on the hush money payments, the defendant, donald j trump, repeatedly and fraudulently falsified new york business records to conceal criminal conduct that hit damaging information from the voting public during the 2016

presidential election. one component of the scheme was that, at the defendant's request, a lawyer who then worked for the trump organization as special counsel to defendant, lawyer a, covertly paid $130,000 to an adult film actress shortly before the election to prevent her from publicizing a sexual encounter with the defendant. >> the special two-part trump indictments addition of the prosecuting donald trump podcast covering all four of the indictments read by stars is available now wherever you get your podcasts. coming up, what is going to happen on monday? where is attorney general letitia james going to send the sheriff? -- literally send the sheriff to begin collecting from donald trump? that is next.

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new york attorney general letitia james first move against trump's assets might be at the most liquid assets beginning, of course, with cash. the new york times reports she could send so-called restraining notices to mr. trump's banks and brokerage firms, effectively freezing his accounts. she can do the same to anyone who owes mr. trump money, essentially collecting rent from tenants in his building. here is what adam said last night on his program about what

we can expect to see next week. >> well, we should see on monday after the expiration of the deadline, if a few devices used to enforce the judgment. one is bank executions. the attorney general can enlist the sheriff or the marshall to go execute on banks, on assets held in financial institutions like banks or others -- >> what does execute mean? >> so, execute, nobody is dying. assets get seized by the sheriff and turned over to the attorney general's office to the state of new york. >> right away? >> right away. >> no judicial process involved? >> the statute says forthwith. >> after going after trump's bank accounts, the attorney general would likely move on to seizing either trumps personal property, planes, cars, jewelry, artwork or real

estate, such as trump tower, 40 wall street, or the trump golf resort. joining us now, a veteran new york business litigator who secured many appeals bonds, and tim o'brien is still with us. mark, the sheriff is coming. literally, the sheriff is coming. >> he doesn't wear a hat. >> he has a badge here. >> we picture in our minds eye that come monday, they will have little people running around the city from the sheriff's office putting padlocks on real estate. that's not going to happen. we will have a lot of paper shuffling. as last night's guests said, there will be processes there. it will be longer with that one. so, these devices that were referenced can be used

simultaneously. let's go after the low hanging fruit. that's the bank accounts, right? here's what happened. you deliver a piece of paper to the sheriff. it's called an execution. the paper is brought to the bank. that is a levy. that secures in priority the attorney general's position on those accounts. the restraining order you have served sometimes only preserves it for the creditor that comes first. you have to perfect. you have to have the levy. if the money is not turned over, which it normally is not until there is what is called a turnover proceeding brought, it is an order from the court to turn over the proceedings to the attorney general. it happens, but it happens not in the now, second period she will be returning it to real estate. that is tricky. she can only order the sale of the interest mr. trump has. take 40 wall street, for example. we have seen that talked about a lot in the media. he doesn't own the building. it is a ground lease. he leases the ground the building is on. he owns -- he leases it. the

tenant is the owner of the building. so, she can come in and foreclose on it, so to speak. the sheriff will have a levy on it. it will be put up at auction. who is going to buy it? how much will they pay for it? she could get a charging order where she can keep the fees that are coming in from the tenant, the building owner. what he does not own it. in other situations, the real estate is owned by various corporations. he has an interest in corporations that have interest in corporations. you can't have real estate so that way. all that can happen is the attorney general -- >> they don't want a transaction that complicated.

>> they don't want an minority or interest stocking a company that might have liabilities. within a business transaction, you might want to buy an asset. you will not buy stock because you don't know what liabilities lie with the assets. >> tim o'brien, i am shocked donald trump does not own what he says he owns. i thought he owned 40 wall street. he's got this new deal he is happy about this merger with his website. his website is worth nothing. on the day of the merger, there's no way that is going to affect his financial picture on monday. >> he is locked up from selling the shares anyway. the value of the shares are going to be variable over time. anyone attaching that, it will not be attractive to them because they cannot predict what the value of it will be over time once it is publicly traded. and trump's own -- you know, they have all been full of speculative collapses. the operating numbers of this particular company are not great. there is writing on the gas of

trump's name being related to it. trump's name being attached to something does not mean value or ownership. there's a number of buildings in new york, trump international , ge owns that. a german family owns the land under 40 wall street. trump tower, most of it is owned by condo owners. he controls some of the commercial space in the basement and his own condo, but he does not own his own building. >> i have to ask you, we have talked about his inability to anticipate risk, danger, anticipate where it's going to hit. you represent clients in situations like this where the judge has gone against them. at one point in the proceedings do you tell your client, if this judgment goes against you, here's what the proceedings are going to be, here's what you are going to face?

i would suspect you tell them that early in the process, like somewhere in the first week or so, so they can think about a settlement. there's a lot of things to think about when you understand the risk. >> 100%. that's probably the first conversation when you get your retainer. absolutely. if i could add -- >> what would you have said in a case like this? there's business fraud, the attorney general has what they have, if the judge finds against you, what would you have told your client early on in a case like this? >> i would tell them what would happen. i would go through these steps. i would try to give an honest view of the case as i understand it. sometimes, a client will ask, if i lose, will they get my assets? can i do anything about it? i will say, that's not what i'm representing you for. if he wants to do things involving planning to get assets out of the jurisdiction, i don't get involved with that. i am sure mr. trump had

extensive counseling about his assets at this point. by the way, on monday, the merger is not going to do him any good. the court won't take it. the court only wants cash. a bonding company will not take it to issue a bond. it is speculative. if they took it and two years from now they had to pay out, what would it be worth? finally, it will be attached by letitia james. the money will go to her. so, it is nothing. >> we've got to leave it there. mark sutter and tim o'brien, thank you for the important decision. i am learning so much that i didn't know. coming up, the worst of the civil trial penalties that donald trump faces could still be ahead of him as he faces multiple lawsuits over the january sixth attack on the capitol building that he incited. those cases could cost donald trump several hundred million dollars in judgments against him. eric swalwell is one of the people suing donald trump for what happened on january 6th.

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other lawsuits on donald trump's legal horizon, washington, d.c., could cost him several hundred million dollars. last year, a washington, d.c. jury returned a judgment of $148 million against rudolph giuliani for defamation. imagine how big a dollar judgment a washington, d.c.

jury might return against donald trump for the physical injuries suffered by police officers on january sixth who are now suing donald trump. a washington, d.c. jury said rudolph giuliani must pay. georgia poll workers won -- lost one for you -- $148 million. jurors will decide five different lawsuits against donald trump for causing the attack on the capitol building on january sixth. a congressman filed one of those lawsuits. he will join us in a moment. numbers of congress filed another lawsuit. police officers have filed three lawsuits against donald trump for injuries they suffered on january sixth. the trial juries in those cases will be hearing testimony like this. >> what we were subjected to

that day was like something from a medieval bottle. we fell hand to hand, inch by inch to prevent invasion by violent mob intent on our democratic process. my fellow officers and i were committed to not letting any rioters reach the capital building. it was a prolonged and desperate struggle. the riders were shouting, trump sent us. pick the right side. we won trump. i, too, was being crushed by the riders. i could remember losing oxygen and thinking to myself, this is how i am going to die. >> eric swalwell of california, he served as a impeachment manager in the second impeachment trial of donald trump. thank you for joining us tonight. the cases involving the january

sixth attack on the capitol, all of those civil suits for which you have won it, these might be the cases that do finally bankrupt donald trump. >> there are so many victims in these cases. as you mentioned, we have not set up a dollar amount. we are seeking accountability. ultimately, it's up to a jury as to what the dollar amount is if donald trump is found guilty for inciting the mob. the plaintiff class is so large. as you said, when you compare it to the giuliani verdict, the exposure is certainly great. what i hope people at home take comfort in is that for years, there is a frustration that donald trump escaped responsibility and accountability, even as slow as these cases are moving.

even if they are moving too slow, accountability is coming for donald trump. perhaps, that's how we can redeem the rule of law in the country. >> we will see some accountability on monday. that's why the judicial system has two different components. civil and criminal. sometimes, criminal moves faster than civil. sometimes, civil moves faster than criminal. here, we have seen the case brought by the attorney general. it was years in the making. this year, it seemed to move quite quickly compared to what people were seeing on the criminal side. >> lawrence, you know, frankly, are criminal and civil justice system was not built for a legal terrorist like donald trump. he is a professional litigant. there might not be another person in america who has had their name attached to more lawsuits than donald trump. through 40 years of experience in the legal system, he learned how to grind it down, delay,

delay, delay and obstruct. he has been somewhat successful. frankly, we have to look beyond trump. what we do when someone like trump comes along in the future? adam schiff has the best proposal here. he has a bill called protecting our democracy act which creates a fast track when you have cases involving an executive or former executive so someone is not able to grind it out like this and perhaps win an election and make reliability go completely away. >> the first thing donald trump is already in the process of bankrupting is his own campaign. the biden harris campaign is raising more than the trump campaign. the biden harris campaign spending it all on campaigning, the others are spending it all on donald trump's lawyers. >> lawrence, again, these folks, so many of them through

small contributions put their faith in a man who promised he will make their lives better. all he has done is made his own life better. when donald trump looks at the word america, it has seven letters in it. he only sees one, the letter i. this election in november for donald trump is entirely about escaping accountability. it's to the degree that joe biden can show that for him, the election is about seeing everybody and governing for everybody. i think you can win on that. that will be more pronounced as more and more cases, you know, come for donald trump as we get closer to november. >> thank you for joining us tonight. >> my pleasure. coming up, if the republican party pays donald trump's legal fees, for donald trump have to pay taxes on that money as taxable income? we will discuss that with tim o'brien and daniel shapiro, professional are of taxation at nyu law school. that is next.

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would be if he tried to testify in his own defense at his first criminal trial which andrew wiseman had just told us would be beginning in april or possibly at the latest, in may. at that moment, at 10:17 p.m., donald trump posted on his social media network, abuse of power.!. that's how donald trump's friday night is going. the biden harris presidential campaign has a massive financial advantage over the trump campaign for 2 different reasons. one, the biden harris campaign is setting records for fundraising, and the trump campaign in the republican party are spending massive amounts of money to pay for donald trump's lawyers, who he presumably cannot afford to pay himself. ignored by the media in that transaction of pain for donald

trump's lawyers are the legalities involved in using campaign money to pay for criminal defense lawyers and the possible income tax implications to donald trump who is, in effect, receiving those millions of dollars first as income to him which he then disperses to his lawyers when they give him their bills. joining us now is daniel shapiro, professor at nyu law school. tim o'brien is with us. professor, there are two different governing entities that have an interest in this. one of them is a weak entity, the federal elections commission which has basically abdicated enforcement because it is stuck in a standoff between the democratic members of it and the republican members. they don't really enforce anything anymore. what is the federal election commission on a little bit and they have an e

irrespective rule so it has to be litigation occurring irrespective of whether the person was running for office. there is no doubt that they are paying for the trump legal case about the insurrection and the 14th amendment that was legit. something else like for example the jean harris trial, it is just totally different. >> the e. jean carroll trial. >> sorry. yeah. that was probably likely from what i know about election law to be illegal. maybe the tax law, we are not sure that will be enforced either here. that might be more salient way to look at it. >> on the tax question, they don't know what the fec says or anyone else says about what income is and what it isn't.

they have their own definitions of income. how does the irs see this? >> well i think the actual irs is probably lying low on this. but if you ask how should the irs see it from the point of view of enforcement, it is really not one question. it is a bunch of questions and the reason is that there are a bunch of different expenditures. there is really no chance his taxable income on having the republican national committee pay for his, defending his right to be on the ballot with regard to the merits. when he has a personal lawsuit because he sexually assault and defamed someone, that's a little different. so the tax question, when they gave him money, if they gave him money to pay for something detuck able it doesn't matter because the income is offset by the deduction. if they gave him money for his groceries they would be income

and no deduction so we would have to look at the criminal and civil trials to see where they are and it seems to me to be pretty clear, when you are defending yourself against defamation and based on sexual assault, the tax standard is called the origin of the claim. rule. so there is a corporate executive who had a divorce and his wife wanted to take half of the stock in the divorce. and, he said he needed to, he would then lose control of the company. and he needed to have, to deduct fighting her in the divorce, the supreme court said we don't care if that is true or not. the legal fees came from your defending the divorce and that's a personal matter so it applies to the civil suit where he just faced $88 million of liability. now on the other hand, the thing that you have been

talking about, that is his pain for that is probably deductible in respect to his business. if tony soprano is indicted under the federal racketeering laws, tony soprano can probably induct legal fees. having someone else pay them, and not including it because you can deduct what was done for it makes it a wash. now, some of the other cases in different settings for example, you were talking about the washington civil trials that are yet to come. and we know all about the other criminal trials. in those, i think he has a pretty good case. but it is not ironclad. there are counter arguments against this thing he has to include it which would take five or ten minutes more to explain. but, on the new york civil defamation, i just don't see

any chances. >> tim o'brien, taxable income is not the first thing donald trump thinks about when people give him money. >> no, and you know, he is bleeding small donor contributions. and that's been the life blood of his campaign fund raising. and it may be that all of these shenanigans are starting to register with all the little people who have been giving donald trump money and the idea that he is actually carrying their values and their needs into the world instead of just lining his own wallet and paying off his lawyers and i have to wonder where is the fec? >> they gave up enforcement years ago. it is this political jam they are in. they are supposed to have an equal number of democrats and republicans appointed. in the past, they all have the same attitude toward running clean campaigns. the republicans have blocked every single enforcement they have tried to do there. >> but couldn't someone bring a complaint to them if the fec

would be compelled? >> people do file complaints and the republicans block the procedure within the fec. which they control. either side can control that procedure. we could go on and on. >> and donald trump has been lucky to be there during that era. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. pfizer's pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine. so am i. because i'm at risk for pneumococcal pneumonia. come on. i already got a pneumonia vaccine, but i'm asking about the added protection of prevnar 20®. if you're 19 or older with certain chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes, copd, or heart disease, or are 65 or older, you are at increased risk for pneumococcal pneumonia. prevnar 20® is approved in adults to help prevent infections from 20 strains of the bacteria that cause pneumococcal pneumonia. in just one dose. don't get prevnar 20® if you've had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. adults with weakened immune systems

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tonight's last words are taxable income. the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. good evening once again. i'm stephanie ruhle. we are now 228 days from the election. and less than an hour away from a midnight deadline to pass a bill to fund the government and avert a partial shutdown. again. earlier