[Brianna Keilar, Cnn Anchor:] Breaking news coming out of the Supreme Court on the health of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She is resting now in the hospital after undergoing surgery today to remove two cancerous nodules from her left lung. We're going to get to that in just a moment. Also right now, the Senate is taking its first key vote on a series of bills that would fund the government until February. Senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill for us. Tell us what's happening here.
[Manu Raju, Cnn Senior Congressional Correspondent:] Yes, right now they're in a vote to determine whether or not to proceed to that House passed measure that would keep the government afloat but also add $5 billion to for the president's request to build that wall along the southern border, as well as border security. Now, this bill ultimately has no chance of passing the Senate. So this is just a first procedural vote. They're going to need a simple majority of senators to agree to take that bill up. And already we've seen one Republican senator vote against it. Jeff Flake of Arizona voted against it. I just had a chance to talk to him. He says this is not the way that he wants to proceed on this. So Republicans really can't afford to lose many more votes because all the Democrats are voting against this. And even if they were, Brianna, to get enough votes to take up the measure, they will not have enough to get it out of the Senate, where they're going to need 60 votes to do that. And there's only 51 Republican senators. The president you already have Jeff Flake voting no. So you do the math. They don't have the votes. So then what's next? And that's the big question going forward. Bob Corker of Tennessee just told me moments ago they're going to have a meeting over at lunch right now with the Republican leaders to discuss how they can get out of this. He himself has not decided how he's going to vote, Corker, but McConnell Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had a meeting with the president earlier today with other senators. They said they had a good conversation. They're going to continue to discuss how to proceed. But at this point, Brianna, the question is, will the president accept any deal that does not include funding for his border wall because getting that money out of the Senate is just simply not going to happen. The votes are not there. So where do we end up? Which raises a lot of expectation they're headed into a partial government shutdown by the end of the night. Brianna.
[Keilar:] All right, the clock is ticking. Manu Raju, thank you. Meanwhile, the president of the United States writing his own chaotic script, surprising his advisers with a tweet announcing a military withdrawal from Syria. That was the last straw for Defense Secretary James Mattis, who resigned after being unable to change the president's mind. I want to bring in CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta there on the North Lawn of the White House for us. So this is not a quiet time before Christmas as it sometimes is. What are you hearing on both the reaction to the Mattis resignation and the shutdown?
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Chief White House Correspondent:] Well, Brianna, I think at this hour what is probably more critical is this looming shutdown
[Keilar:] Yes, this shutdown scheduled at a critical moment with Jim Mattis retiring, really sending shock waves through all of Washington and around the world on that. Jim Acosta, thank you so much.
[Acosta:] All right.
[Keilar:] We have a lot to discuss. I want to bring in Senator Tim Kaine, the Democrat. He's a Democrat on both the Armed Services Committee. He's also on the Foreign Relations Committee. I want to talk to you about the resignation of Jim Mattis. I think this is such a critical story.
[Sen. Tim Kaine , Virginia:] You bet.
[Keilar:] I want to touch first on the shutdown because we are keeping an eye on the Senate floor here as these votes are proceeding. So let's just talk about that very quickly.
[Kaine:] OK.
[Keilar:] This would happen at midnight without a deal on the border wall or on border security. You hear Democrats stressing more border security. The president is blaming Democrats when it comes to not being able to get an agreement. Would you be OK with a $5 billion price tag if it's about border security but not the border wall, or is the price tag the issue too?
[Kaine:] Brianna, actually it's neither that's the issue because Democrats have voted again and again for border security money. We did a comprehensive immigration bill in 2013 with $44 billion in it. The Republicans killed it in February with $5 billion of border
[Keilar:] If he doesn't, as he seems disinclined to do, is the $5 billion OK if it's more broadly for border security?
[Kaine:] You're going to have to well, what, it letting him bully us by threatening to lay off federal employees? You can never accept that as a negotiating tactic. I think when you take an oath of office to be president or senator, threatening to shut down the government is a violation of the oath of office. And there's only one person that's been talking about a shutdown with a gleam in his eye, in tweets and in press conferences as recently as 10 days ago saying, I'm glad to take it on my shoulder, Donald J. Trump is about to be the Grinch that stole Christmas for all these people. He's the only person who wants a shutdown and he seems intent on doing it.
[Keilar:] Let's talk about the resignation of the defense secretary, Jim Mattis, who says he's not aligned with President Trump. You tweeted that this should alarm every American. Why?
[Kaine:] Absolutely, Brianna, because if you read Secretary Mattis' letter, it's very powerful. I come from the state that is the most connected to the American military. I'm on the Armed Services Committee. I have a son who's a United States Marine. Secretary Mattis basically said this, I've been doing this for four decades. The two pillars of American national security have to be build strong allies and stand up to authoritarian adversaries. Those are our pillars. And, Mr. President, you do not share either of these values. And for that reason I have to step away from the job. When somebody with Secretary Mattis' background, who's one of the finest public servants that I have ever worked with, say about the commander in chief that he does not believe in supporting allies and he is willing to kowtow to authoritarians, that should make every American very, very nervous.
[Keilar:] The president has not well, he hasn't said, but reportedly, and we've reported this at CNN, he wants to not only pull troops out of Syria, but cut the troops, the American troops in Afghanistan in half.
[Kaine:] In half.
[Keilar:] So you're talking about bringing home 7,000 of the 14,000 who are there.
[Kaine:] Yes.
[Keilar:] Lindsey Graham, your Republican colleague in the Senate, said that this could create essentially another 911 attack. Do you worry about that?
[Kaine:] I do. There are a number of problems with the proposal. At a minimum, Brianna, this is what's puzzling, we've had two hearings about Afghanistan in the last two weeks here in the Senate where we've had Pentagon officials before us, once open and one in a closed hearing, and I specifically asked, are you going to be making any recommendation to change troop strength up or down? And they said, no. Similarly with Syria, they've been up briefing us about what they're doing. So the president's actions are clearly sort of both counter the advice of the Pentagon leadership, but in some ways he's not even asking for their advice. And the combination of these announcements, we'll pull out of Syria, what about the Kurds? They fought side by side with us in Syria to defeat ISIS on the battlefield. If we pull back from them, we leave the Kurds open to being slaughtered by the Turks. The fact that this announcement was made apparently right after a phone conversation between President Trump and Erdogan of Turkey, who has said that their plan is to go try to wipe out Kurds is extremely suspicious. If somebody who has allied with the United States and fought side by side with U.S. troops on the battlefield then finds the U.S. abandons them and they get wiped out, no one will ever want to stand with the U.S. military again because they won't be able to trust us.
[Keilar:] All right, Senator Tim Kaine, thank you so much for joining us on this very busy Friday.
[Kaine:] Absolutely.
[Keilar:] Up next, we have more on our breaking news out of the Supreme Court. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had two cancerous nodules removed from her lung this morning. We'll give you details on that. Plus, questions mount over the Russia investigation, as President Trump's acting attorney general rejects advice from an ethics official and chooses instead to not recuse himself.