Good morning. It's Saturday, October 25th, and I'm Charles Coleman Jr. filling in for my friend Ali Velshi. We have got a lot to talk about. But first, let's start where things aren't actually happening in the halls of Congress.

The government has now been shut down for 24 days and 10 hours, making this the second

longest government shutdown in American history. Yesterday, tens of thousands of federal

workers missed their first full paycheck since the shutdown began. Many of working without pay and will be owed back

pay, but the Senate is searching for a way to pay them now, though they can't agree on how to do it.

Ted Cruz is pushing a bill to keep air traffic controllers paid, and Democrats introduced a motion

that would pay all federal employees through the shutdown and forbid Donald Trump

from enacting the mass layoffs that he has signaled he plans to do. That measure was rejected.

Republicans also introduced a plan to make sure, quote, essential workers would remain paid,

but on that bill, Democrats argued it would give the president the ability to determine who was deemed essential, so they voted it down.

Now, the president is also making sure some federal workers receive pay. Listen up.

Got a lot of people paid, actually.

We got the people that we want paid paid, okay? And we want the FBI paid. We want the military page. We got the people that we want paid, paid, okay? And we want the FBI paid. We want the military

paid. We've got the people that we want paid. We've got the people we want paid. But according

to the Washington Post, not all the roles, even in the FBI, for example, are being treated equally.

Quote, employees in roles seen as flashier or gun slinging like FBI agents or ICE deportation

officers are seeing no hit to their bank accounts even as the shutdown drags into a fourth

week.

But within the same agencies, their colleagues are coming to the office every day without pay

until the standoff ends.

That includes the behind-the-scenes staff

will range agents travel, maintain their vehicles, and process their paychecks. Now imagine

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