If it's Wednesday, dysfunction and paralysis reach a fever pitch in the house, as lawmakers

grow more divided than ever on keeping the government funded, with the clock ticking

fast.

And as trust and confidence in the state of U.S. politics reaches new lows.

Plus, Attorney General Merrick Garland gets grilled by House Republicans about the Justice

Department's prosecutions of Donald Trump and Hunter Biden, telling members that he

doesn't take orders from the president or Congress, on who or what to criminally investigate.

And trumping the field, the former president and GOP frontrunner hits the trail in Iowa,

making his case to all important caucus goers as he dominates his rivals in New Poland.

Welcome to Meet the Press Now, I'm Garrett Hake, an unmitigated disaster, a clown show,

dysfunctional, a festivist airing of grievances.

That is how House Republicans are describing their own efforts to fund the government, amid

alluming deadline and a fractured Republican conference.

On the halls of Capitol Hill, it's becoming less of a question of if the government will

shut down next week, and more of a question of how long the government will shut down.

For days, for weeks, with 11 days to go until the September 30th funding deadline, the

Republican-led House is paralyzed and arguably further away from a spending agreement

than they were at the beginning of this week.

After five conservative Republicans tanked a procedural vote on a bill to fund the military,

and GOP leadership was forced to scuttle another vote on a short-term spending bill,

one that was negotiated by these members.

Now, despite all of that, this morning's Speaker McCarthy tried to project confidence that

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