Hello listeners this is Politico's nerd cast I'm Scott Land your host.

This week on the nerd cast we're going to talk about why the president seemed so

psyched earlier this week on national TV about the prospect of a government

shutdown something presidents typically expend a lot of energy

and political capital trying to avoid.

We're also going to talk about how he's potentially

entering into this moment dealing with an ascendant Nancy Pelosi who just this

week took additional steps to secure another couple years as Speaker of the

House. Plus help wanted at the White House.

We're going to dive into the search for a chief of staff,

and we're going to talk about why that matters

for Trump's re-election campaign,

his response to the Mueller investigation, and a whole host of other things

that you would expect a chief of staff to be able to help him out with.

But as we're going to talk about, is maybe not the way things work in Trump's White House.

Remember stick around for the end of the show for a contribution from one of the

nerd cast biggest fans and as always remember that we're taping this a little

bit before noon eastern on Thursday that's Decemberth, so it's all up to date as of

then.

Okay, let's get started.

I want to welcome our guests.

We have a member of our

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