♪ nicole: that is another one of blessing's songs, and his album, my tripe, and and his christmas ep are out now if you want to listen to more. will: you were just telling us about your nonprofit. >> i grew up, i was born in nigeria with, i would have group up blind in nigeria had i not come to the united states. so i started the offor mercy mundt fund. you'll hear about a it soon. griff griff thanks for being here. you are so talent.. -- talented. merry christmas to you. will: and merry christmas to you as well. we'll be back here tomorrow morning on christmas eve. go get that last minute shopping done. griff: go shop. will: you'll see griff out there. see you tomorrow. >> merry christmas. ♪ ♪ neil: the debate is still raging over that supreme court now

refusing to fast track the immunity claim surrounding one donald j. trump, rejecting for now a timeline of special counsel jack smith if was pushing. so where is all of this going? we'll ask former attorney general bill barr because he's here. but first, to the holiday hustle. >> everybody's a little anxious, people are worried about after last year's travel experience, this year's travel experience. >> might as well get some. gifts for my wife. >> be patient. that's it. that a's all you can be. you can't be mad at anybody. >> i was -- [inaudible] >> i'll be glad when i make it through it. [laughter] i just want to get to my, i just want to get home. neil: well, hopefully they will get home. fox on top of travelers on the run and last minute hoppers on the hunt. ho, ho, no, and away we go. ♪

neil: welcome, everybody. glad to have you. merry christmas. and we're on top of the hunt for gifts and the hunt to be just get out of town. at lot easier said than done. a lot of procrastinators out there never listen to my advice, so now you're stuck. it was simply four words, processed meats and cheeses, thrown out again. up to you whether you want to take any of this wisdom, but ahead of that, to c.b. cotton at la a guard ya international airport on how the travel part is going. >> reporter: hi, neil. good morning being. well, things are really moving here at laguardia's terminal a. right now security beat times for tsa prehe can is less than 5 minutes and for the regular line, it's no more than -- it's a little bit more than 202 minutes, but that's not too bad -- 20 minutes. other airports we haven't seen a single security wait time longer than 30 minutes. so, again, that's good news. things are moving. we wouldn't be surprised if these wait times got a little bit longer though because tsa is predicting that end of year

holiday travel is going to be close to pre-pandemic levels. so something we're going to be watching closely throughout today. now, as for cancellations and delays, right now there are a little more than 1200 flights delayed or canceled across the country. so not too bad for now. aaa is projecting a little byrne 115 million people -- more than 115 million people to travel away from home during the travel period beginning today through january 1st. of that number, an estimated 7.5 million will catch a flight. close to 104 million will get behind the wheel, and 4 million will take a bus, train or cruise. so of that number, the majority of people, as you can see, neil, still choose to drive to their final holiday destination. but travel experts are telling us compared to last year there are the more people who are also choosing to catch the flight --, and we know that airfare is slightly lower this year. some travelers tell us regardless of the cost, they're always going the choose to head

to the airport because of convenience. listen. >> it's more convenient for me. much faster. driving is, like, 3 hours compare -- 13 hours compared to 22 hours, so i'd rather -- 2 hours so i'd rather fly anytime. >> reporter: so if you do have a flight to catch, neil, or tsa explains this pretty well. if you can spill it, spread if it, separate, pour it or pump it, you've got to pack it in your checked bag. and this is a good thing to will be because when you've got to go through these security leaps, you want to keep things smooth so you can get to your loved ones this holiday season. back over to you. neil: you know, c.b. with, you were one of our prized catches this year, so merry christmas to you. hope you have a very peaceful one at that that. thank you again. if. >> reporter: thanks, neil. neil: all right. c.b. at a laguardia where it looks busy, but i think there's -- [inaudible] i don't know with. think there is.

go to rick reichmuth, he's in great shape, i don't think he necessarily seeks out bakery products and all that -- [laughter] but he does advise people when it comes to the weather and what they might be looking into or try to store away from. what's the latest on that front? rick: i yee with you, c.b.'s such a great get for fox. neil: absolutely. rick: i tell you what, weather wise we have one big tomorrow that's going to cause problems, but when you look at these temperatures, this storm is for the most part happening with rain. and that means impacts are going to be lower. 45 degrees in chicago today, going up to 50. we do have this storm the across parts of the central plain, kind of the precursor to the main event, this storm that's out here across the four corp. canners. two days ago it brought flooding across southern california, towards arizona. now it's pulling off farther toward or -- towards the north. that's going to be our big story for the day today that's going to cause problems maybe later

today in den the very. starting out okay -- denver. salt lake city, problems, albuquerque, problems. we'll see the snow the across the rockies. and in front of the main energy of the storm will cause a few delayses maybe for minneapolis down through houston. that becomes a little more expansive tomorrow. we've got some snow that's going to fall from places like nebraska, south dakota, northern minnesota. by the time we get towards monday, potentially a little bit of a ice storm breaking out across portions of minnesota, so watch out for that christmas day if you're driving to get to mom's or grandma's. could be some problems. delays toward chicago, atlanta, orlando as a well just with rape. and because this is such -- with rain. because this is such a slow mover, we're going to have this storm probably until wednesday before it's completely gone. this is the santa claus forecast, snow across nebraska, south dakota, rain out in front of it. the east coast looking pretty

good. 44 in new york city for a christmas eve temperature, not looking that bad with. go towards christmas day, you get the idea, it's really not moving much at all. so we'll still see the rain, it's rain in chicago, rain in minneapolis, not snow at all. we've got rain down across much of florida and southeast as well, and that snow still hanging on. the only spot, neil, that's going to be seeing know is from the rockies across parts of the northern plains, and as of right now we're at a order low snow ever for -- record low snow ever for christmas. not a white christmas going on around this country at all. but the bright side, you're probably going to be able to get home. neil: well, there is that this. rick, thank you, my friend, merry christmas. rick reichmuth, inimitable weather caster on all that. in the meantime, we're showing you these crowds at the nation's airports, they're pretty proannouncedded at the border. pronounced at the border. it's hard to tell the difference, especially at eagle pass where day by day we're recording records, and not just there, everywhere.

brandon judd is watching it closely. you know, brandon, you and i have been talking about this for some time, but then these numbers popped out of nowhere to these record levels whether you're looking at 24-hour periods, 11-week periods, 1-month periods, what promptedded this spike? >> so we predicted this was going to happen. this is what we knew post-title 42 was going to look like, it just took a little bit of time for it to ramp up. the main thing everybody's looking at is these cartels watch what's going to happen in our politics, they watch the elections, what the polls say. and what they're doing right now is they're encouraging people to cross right now saying if you don't come right now, there's a possibility that next year you're not going to be able to come because the new president could be in office and, frankly, it could if be president trump. and president trump, everybody nose, is going to implement policies that will shut down the border. so these cartels are advertising their services, telling everybody you need to come right now. and that's why we're seeing the floods coming.

but what really frustrates everybody is when you hear the white house constantly deflect saying, well, this is a hemisphere migration problem, we're seeing it. we're not seeing people going into canada. we're not seeing them claim asylum in canada. it's all united states. and so that clearly shows that that's not true. everything shows that it's all about our policies and our policies alone. if. neil: you know, brandon, i'm just wondering when we look at eagle pass, some of these other sites that ec epo 9/11,ly got more crowded day by day, what happens to those focus after they're processed? if in other words, when they fill out their forms, likely given a court date, what happens? >> and that's what most united states citizens don't understand. they don't understand the process. right now these court dates are as far out as seven years. and in a couple more months, they're going to be pushes out to eight and nine years. what that means is these individuals are going to be released into the united states, they're going to be given work permits, they're going to be able to stay the here for all of those years.

and if once that final court date comes up, that's when they abscond because the burden of proof is on them. they have to show that they have a reason to be in the united states, that they have an asylum claim, they have to show that they're going to be persecuted if they go back to their home countries which could mean torture and even murder. the burden of proof is very high, and very, very few people can satisfy that burden of proof. and that's why they ultimately end up disappealer. but then you also have to look at when you're here for so long, if you get married to a united states citizen, if you have a child here in the united states, these people are never going to be removed from the country. they're here to stay, and that's one of the main problems that we're seeing with illegal immigration right now. everybody understands that they can game the system because it's so is easy to do. neil: very scary when you think about it. brarp done, have a merry christmas, my friend. i know you don't get much time off, but nevertheless. in the meantime, the craziness that the surprised a

lot of people when the supreme court said, no, no, not so fast with taking a case that an appeals court how old take up. that's a very big with disappointment for a certain federal prosecutor. we'll explain it with the former attorney general after this. muck it's beginning to look a lot like christmas everywhere you go. ♪ take a looked in the five and ten, listening once again --es ♪ -..- glistening once again. ♪g. where you can discover these last-minute offers. buy now, pay later with lowe's pay. the all-in-one and done symptom relief of mucinex is delivered fast with doordash, so you don't have to leave the couch. oof! that was fast. mucinex. available on doordash. it's comeback season. - [narrator] power outages are unpredictable, inconvenient,

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neil: all right, the supreme court just taking a pass on an issue that really should have stayed with the appeals court. of course, there's a push to push this to get an immediate decision where the president of the united states, of course, donald trump at that time was arguing a lot of the controversies of january 6th occurred when he was president, so he's immune from all of these charges that he was trying to rig or fix anything. if let's get the latest from al a sand try ya of where this stand right now -- stands right

now. >> reporter: hi, neil. the supreme court decided not to fast track this claim that the former president is immune from prosecution over these claims to try to overthrow the 2020 election. the supreme court wants the issue handled in the normal course meaning it's going to head to the federal appeals court and that scheduled start day for the trial that was supposed to be early march is likely going to be delayed. here's fox news contributor jonathan turley yesterday. >> the special counsel was asking to effectively leapfrog over the d.c. circuit in order to get a judgment as quickly as possible. jack smith has made it very clear that he wants this case tried before the election. >> reporter: yeah. so that seems less likely now and this likely delay is a win in itself for the former president's legal team. so also likely headed to the supreme court, that ground breaking ruling out of colorado that has booted the former president from the ballot in the state, a 4-3 decision from colorado's highest court ruled that trump is ineligible to run

for president under the constitution's insurrection clause. democratic congresswoman debbie was or orerman schultz weighed in on whether that section of the 14th amendment applies to presidents past or present. >> section three begins no person shall. i mean, it doesn't have an exception for other office as, and it applies specifically if you were an officer of the united states and you swore to uphold an oath to the, toport the constitution of the united states. it's very clear that this section of the constitutional amendment is applicable to donald trump. >> reporter: yeah, so not necessarily clear to everybody. but the heat has been very real over this decision. you even have some democrats who fear it's going to only motivate republicans and fuel election distrust. trump the himself not surprisingly has been fund raising off of it. vivek ramaswamy pledged he would remove himself colorado ballot, and the other by-product of all of this is colorado's decision has propelled democratic officials in other states to

exemployer very similar measure. maine's secretary of state decided to threw the decision about whether to deny trump access to the ballot there, her decision is due out early next week, neil. neil: all right. alexandria, thank you for that. alexandria alexandria hoff in washington. we'll be talking to bill barr about this, he and the former president have had their difference, but when it comes to this, he agrees with him on some of these legal issues. i dress not all. he's -- i stress the not all. he's next. ♪

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neil: all right, the supreme court, as you heard, is not going to be rushing this push on the part of special counsel jack smith in this case whether the former president can go ahead and claim immunity, some of the decisions that were made while he was president, thereby

nullifying all of the charges against him. that's not going to happen. an appeals court takes it up. it's going to they all of this. we've got with us the former e attorney general of the united states, bill barr. attorney general is, very good to have you. >> good to see you, neil. merry christmas. neil: to you as a well, my friend. first off a, your thoughts op what the supreme court did. >> yeah. you know, i'm not sure it's that big a deal. sometimes the litigants try to leapfrog over the intermediate court and get right to the supreme court if the argument is that time is of the essence. we did that in the trump administration in some cases. and, apparently, it was done here by the special counsel because he obviously wants the trial to go ahead on schedule. so he tried this and it failed. the court wants to go in regular order. i believe that the circuit court, the intermediate court, will reach a ruling promptly. and i'm not sure the supreme

court will take it after that. but in any event, i still think the trial may go forward during the spring, but it may not go forward as originally scheduled at a the beginning of march. neil: what if this court, appeals court, rules that the former president does have immunity from all of this? he was president at the time. this came within the context of his being president at the time, and the supreme court not only wouldn't take it up, i would imagine that would be potentially case closed. what do you think? >> right. i mean, i think if the intermediate court says he has immunity, then as a practical matter whether or not the supreme court takes it up, i think the case isn't going to -- may be over completely, but certainly it wouldn't be tried before the election. i don't think it's, you know, my view is that they're probably going to rule that this is one of those cases where there have to be the a lot more facts

developed to determine how immunity applies. neil: you know, the core of the former e president's legal team's argument is to challenge a lot of this and push it back. and some have argued that he's running out the clock, but that it's working for him. to you agree with that in. >> yeah. i mean, his strategy is to run out the clock clock. and there's a lot of tools to do that. and he may be successful. this -- the issue here, i think everyone agrees that there's something called absolute immunity for your official functions if you're performing an official function, the president has absolute immunity, and i think that has to be protected. i support that. the real question here is what was the function he was performing when he was doing these things after the election. and the government's position is going to be that he was a candidate, he was acting as a candidate not really as president, and the president's

argument is going to be, i think, that whenever he uses an official function if he directs the department to do something even if the purpose is as a candidate, but if he uses that tool, then he's immune. and that's where, that's where the case is going to hinge. neil: you know, there are a lot of people who look back and forth at the election whether it was rigged or or stolen, whatever, there are a lot of people who dispute that and say there have been a lot of investigations if lawsuits and recalls -- and lawsuits, recalls, even recalls of recalls that have concluded that donald trump did, in fact, lose the last presidential election. but it comes down as well i guess in legal matters, or attorney general, whether he truly believes that and believed it then, believes it now and does that make a difference in how he challenges all of these allegations even now and going forward. >> well, i'm not going to, you know, i'm not going to talk

right now about what a i think his tate of mind was. i mean, that's going to be a matter that if the case goes forward, it's going to be litigated there. actually, you know, i think technically i'm not sure it really matters what he actually believed. the example i use is that you may believe a bank is unfairly or illegally holding your money, that they legally should give it to you, but there are a lot of steps you can take to get it back, but you can't go and rob the bank. so the real question to me is when the actions he took were illegal acts, not whether he thought he was taking them in good cause. neil: you had argued separately, attorney general, this colorado move to remove donald trump's name from the ballot, next year's presidential ballot, that that was a step too far, legally wrong, at least a dozen -- i think up to 16 states now -- are

looking at doing the exact same thing. so hence, the rush for the high court, the supreme court itself, to take this up and fast. do you agree with that? >> oh, yes. i hope the court -- and the court has to smack this down very quickly. i think the legal argument here for it is ridiculous, and i think even more importantly, it is highly destructive. and it's exactly the kind of tactics by the left that created donald trump in the first place. their sort of anything goes tactics that created a trump in the first place. and if that continue to breathe life into him. so russiagate9 and the bogus cases in new york, the cases in atlanta and so forth strengthen him. and this is an -- this has helped trump, and i think legally it'sly tib louse. ridiculous. there's no question that the 14th amendment says that if you took an oath to support the constitution and then engaging in an ins rex -- insurrection, that you can't hold office again. the question is who decides and

how is that decided. and everyone, i think what's clear here is even if you think the states can decide it one by one ad hoc processes -- and i don't believe that and i think that's wrong -- but even if you believe that, there clearly has to be due process, and there was clearly no due process here. neil: you know, i don't know the course of these cases. i do know, to your point, you know, attorney general, that some of these legal wins do appear to be -- winds do appear to be at the trump legal team's back. but having said that, i wonder how this all shakes out if he is, indeed, the republican nominee and is reelected president of the united states. is it from that point he is the president-elect, or when he formally takes over as president that all this goes away? >> i it's going to be very messy, but i think at the end of the day that if he wins the

presidency, you know, he will be able to deal with these cases and will be, you know, they will not be a barrier to him continuing to serve as president. neil: what type of a presidency do you think it would be? some have said it would be, you know, a retribution presidency. >> yeah. i mean, one of -- you know, one of the reasons i'm against trump as the nominee is because i don't think he's going to move the country forward. you know, there's a lot of attention paid to the polls that show him two or three points ahead of biden, but very little attention is being paid to the polls that are showing some of the other candidates like haley beating bide biden by 17 points. and i feel that a republican candidate who's able to win a decisive victory would be much better positioned than trump to move the country forward. i'm also worried that, you know, he will, you know, his style of

governance, his continuing to panderer to anger and frustration versus a constructive approach to solving our problems is going to be chaotic and not accomplish very much. he'll be a lame duck president. i also, however, although a lot of people like to get me talking about my concerns over a president trump presidency, i'm also horrified by the prospect of a biden presidency. i think the most dangerous players on the field have been for the last two decades the democratic left, radical left. they've created trump, and they continue to breathe life into him, and they have this no holds barred tactics, and biden has essentially facilitated them and end abled them. and that's -- enabled them. and if that's why we are where we are, and and i think biden not only because he clearly is not up to the job, but also because his policies are

divisive, you know, i think that will be very bad for the country. neil: but if that's your choice, joe biden or donald trump, where does bill barr go? >> well, as i said, i'll jump off that bridge when i get to it. neil: i can't imagine -- >> i think that's, i think that's -- neil: -- supporting donald trump given all the bad blood and everything else. >> well, i could not support biden. i don't see any possibility of supporting biden. neil: let me step back from this and get your thoughts about a trump presidency, because he is leading in the polls, he is leading against joe biden. you're quite correct to say others like nikki haley lead the president by a country mile, but if that happens, many have said he are will have a dell of a time -- devil of a time filling a cabinet given his treatment of you and others who, others have

come to learn were not happy with the way they were tweeted out of a job or worse and and that doesn't bode well for the president selecting a loyal cabinet. what do you think of that? >> i think he will be able to populate a cabinet and government positions because, you know, ambition will lead people to take those jobs. the question is what kind of people they will be. and i think trump needs people around him who will push back and help keep him on the straight and narrow, frankly. and i am a concerned that if he doesn't -- during his first term the main way that could be done is by pointing out to him how this would hurt his prospects for a second term. once he wins a second term, i don't know, you know, what considerations, you know, can be

used to push back against bad ideas. neil: bill, i'm just curious what you would say to someone when wanted your advice because donald trump had told them i want you to be my next attorney general. took you out of retirement, a former attorney general yourself for president bush, you took the job with marijuana -- maybe with mixed feelings looking back at the experience, what would you tell that person seeking out your advice? >> i would say in this day and age even apart from trump, in this day and age you have to expect, you know, a lot of incoming artillery and attacks and ultimately leaving the office and then with trump that probably, you know, that even makes it far more challenging. he has to be ready to say no and to resign. and, you know, trump has made it

plain that he's going to respond to what he considers the left wing's no holds barred approach by fighting fire or with fire. and whatever tactics they use, we're going to use. they've used the government against america i'm going to use it against them. that's one of the reasons i'm opposed to him. and i think for people going into that administration, i think they have to be ready to oppose the abuse of government power. neil: bill barr, always good talking to you and your frankness. thank you for your service to this country under two different can presidents. have a merry christmas. thank you again. >> same to you, neil. thank you. neil: we'll have more after this.

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>> these attacks are dangerous, they're reckless, and they must stop. so we're going to work together to insure and are rea assure global shipping and mariners that they can safely transit the red sea region. neil: maersk, of course, and bp oil are rerouteing, going over the entire african continent. i understand that adds about a million dollars for every tanker that has to do that in related costs, and they're not changing their plans for the time being, task force or no. does that trouble you in. >> well, you're making my point exactly and the fact that, again, these attacks by by the

thinks, they think they're attacking one country. in fact, they're adaking -- attacking the entire international community. neil: all right. the pentagon spokesman saying it's not oozy for a lot of these ships and container companies and energy companies that are now deflecting their tankers and ships, we're told dozens of them, to take the circuitous route to avoid the red sea, but it is what it is. there's talk of a task force as the general pointed out9 to sort of ease that tension, but not coming back to that area. lieutenant colonel keith e kellogg joined us, served his country notably and honorably. general, what's interesting here is the premise of the task force is to make sure those who navigate those i seas feel safe. now, more than a dozen have already said we don't. talk of the task force is not, it's not made the sense that

it's any safer. what do you think of that? >> first of all, neil, thanks for having me and, secondly, merry christmas to you, sir. what you're looking at is really an illusion of progress. i know what the press secretary for the pentagon has said, and i know what lloyd austin has said, and he put together an operation called prosperity guardian to protect those assets going into the red sea, across to the suez canal. what's happening and there's a saying out there that people vote with their feet. well, those shipping companies are voting with their fleets and basically putting them around the cape of good hope in africa because they don't believe that the united states or any allied force together today will protect them. neil, we've had a task force in place since 2022, it's based in baa with rape. specifically set up -- bahrain. specifically set up to protect red sea assets and shipping. it's illegal to interrupt that. the houthis don't care. they're shooting at it, and they're guarded and protected by

the republican guards, the quds force of iran. they've actually got a spy ship out there that actually monitors that going forward. and here's about people voting with their fleets. you look at the italians, they say we're not going to join the task force if. the spanish are not going to join the task force. the french are not going to join the task force. so there's an endemic issue here within the administration that there's a lack of confidence that they're really going to get anything done. so everybody's saying we're just not going to go through the red sea. what does that mean? you mentioned it earlier, it's about 12% of commerce, it's going to add about 21 days to it, a lot of money, billions of dollars added to it. by the way, shipping lines are allowed to do it, they can raise their costs unilaterally is simply because there's a threat to shipping. so i don't have a lot of confidence in the administration. i know they're talking about it. they've had a chance to fix it and they haven't, and they put together a task force, and the houthis know that. the houthis have been very, very clear are, they're going to keep

attacking shipping. here's the second part which is important, you can protect the ships all you want in the red sea, the attack forces from the houthis are coming from the land. you're going to have to make the decision, do you want to go against the targets on the land where those missiles are coming from. so it's a hard decision to make. i just think that the administration, honestly the risk avoidance, they don't want escalation, and i think the shipping lines see that and they're basically saying, thanks, we're going to go our own way. neil: you know, general with, you mentioned they're coming from the land, these houthi rebel attacks, the missiles and drones, they're coming from yemen for the most part. so attack yemen. why not just do that? i can am he see we don't want to attack hot spots in iran because that's world war iii, i don't even know some other generals with whom i've chatted whether they agree with that, but we do know in this case these houthi attacks largely are coming from yemen. so why not open that up as an

area to respond if? because it seems that the houthi rebels are very confident we won't do that. >> yeah, they're positive we're not going to do it. look, we're defensively protecting those fleets that are trying to go through the red sea. you need to take to financive type of action to eliminate -- offensive types of action to eliminate the threat. and until you take out those targets in yemen, nothing's going to happen. so, yeah, you've got to do that. i don't think, neil, it is escalatory to do that. people say, well, we've been expecting this for the last two years and you haven't done it. they need to do it. i don't think anything's going to come out of it. i don't think there's a lot of risk to it. i think there's really not much escalation. and the combat power and the capacity we have in that region is enormous. when you look at the care ier battle group, the ford battle group that's there and the missile cruisers that we have, you know, when you look at just tomahawk land attack missiles and the basic fleet right now, it's over 6900 to.

you can -- 600. you can use 66000 missiles if you wanted to $6600 -- 6600. more importantly, the world's going to say it's another example that the united states is not taking any action. and that's the reason i said earlier, so the shipping companies of the world are saying we just don't trust you, thanks very much, we're going to go our open way. and that's a real hit on our credibility and the alliance's credibility as well. neil: and they still threaten away. so to your point, general, that does not change. general, i always a learn a lot. thank you very much for taking the time. hope you do have a merry christmas and a safe one for you and your family. thank you again, sir. >> thanks, neil. neil: all right. we have a lot more coming up including this big travel day, this big shopping day. and when it comes to shopping, a lot of people are behind the 8-ball. we're told roughly about 70, 80 million americans have not even started their christmas shopping? if after all my processed meats and cheeses tips? in that's neither here nor

there, but i do know that we've got madison scar pee know taking a look at the crowds that are in a shopping mall, and they are building, i imagine, madison. >> reporter: exactly, neil. if you're doing last minute holiday shopping this year, you're not alone. the national retail federation is expecting over 100 -- 140 million shoppers on super saturday. i'll have more on this coming up. ♪ it's the most wonderful time of the year. ♪ with the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you be of good chair -- ♪ it's the most wonderful time of do the year ♪ try dawn platinum. it removes 99% of grease and food residue. finish finish dawn platinum cleans to the squeak.

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traveling and that's gotten to be a nightmare for some, not all, or their shopping, imagine if you hadn't done either. that's a whole other thing. but for the shoppers out there, there are sales, but it's pressure city, to put it mildly. we're seeing that firsthand, or madison is, madison scar pinot in atlanta. how do things like there, madison? >> reporter: yeah, neil. malls are expecting to be busier than black friday. so if you haven't gotten those last items op your gift list, it's definitely bettered to do that sooner rather than later today. we're already starting to see some lines forming outside of some of these a stores in this mall in atlanta. it's been open for less than an hour, and all of this just two days before christmas. >> this is the first time since i believe 2017 since we've had a super or saturday that is right before christmas. i would say this time around be careful because you don't have that much time between super saturday and christmas. so fete out there, shop -- get

out there, shop as early as you can. >> reporter: the national retail federation expects that over 140 million people are doing some last minute shopping today. the nrf says shoppers will spend around $875 on average this year, about 620 on gifts and a little over $250 on things like decoration, candy and food. overall, that's about $42 more than consumers planned to spend last year. and and one thing that shoppers don't have to worry about this time around, neil, is lower inventory which means more deals. >> that's something that we haven't seen over the past few years because goods have been short, and we haven't seen as many discounts. so it's a great time to be a consumer. >> this year we are starting to see people waiting a little bit longer, people are are trying to stretch those dollars and want to make sure that they're taking advantage of the promotion ifal deals that are available to

them. >> reporter: now, nerdwallet says 3 out of every 4 shoppers will be using a credit card to buy gifts, and a third are making installment payments. so come 2024, a lot of shoppers will be focusing on paying off debt. neil? neil: all right. that's the task, right? spend now, think about paying this all back a little bit later. great job, as always, madison scar pinot, following all of that. a lot of you are still overwhelmed by all of this, but we have some handy tips and a lot of people saying, neil, please, tell us it's not processed meats and cheeses. it is, but there are some is other ideas because some people aren't will be into that. after this. 25 days of deals... where you can discover these last-minute offers. buy now, pay later with lowe's pay. there's something going around the gordon home. good thing gertrude found delsym.

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neil: all right, santa claus is coming to town, but maybe a lot of you have not really done what you had to do to get ready for him coming to town the. the hitha herzog is here to rescue, squared research, an uncanny read of what's hot, what's not. joins us outside our new york headquarters. if hitha, what do things look like? >> you know, neil, i was perusing the aisles of cvs and duane reade, i have to say even at target meat and cheeses are discounted. that goes for about $45, and now it's going for 14. as i was looking through the comments, they were saying the mix was a little bit -- the portions were a little bit small. the point is now there are a lot of discounts because people are going out and shopping to the tune of almost a trillion dollars. that is what the nrf is expecting people to buy and purchase over this holiday season. so there are some deals to be

getting, to have had at these stores such as rvs if you're really last minute, amazon prime can still deliver to you and, of course, a lot of small businesses are using digital means to sell their merchandise. almost 90% especially in the south of of the united states. so if you're looking to get something delivered even via the delivery services, excuse me, that is the also a way to kind of get those gifts to you very quickly. neil: you know, a lot of people, you know, who look at a this, you were worried if you're very late are, like you said, on those processed meats and cheeses, wow, like a fraction of what they were when i was recommending them a month ago, but i digress. so that's the balance for a lot of people people. the sales are everywhere, right? >> the sales are everywhere. and each some stores have been selling -- have been sending, excuse me, e-mails out prior to

christmas saying they are having after-christmas sales. so, neil, we've been talking about how these promotions have been starting as soon as october. so now we're seeing the after a christmas promotions happening. and and it's the 23rd. so if you still want to take advantage of those discount cans, you can. the issue is you're going to have to pay a premium to get that delivered to your house in the next 48 hours. neil: so let me is ask you a little bit about how that breaks down, hitha, with men or women. i get the impression men are the ones who are disproportionately late and last minute, but i could be wrong. what is your research discovering? >> you would be surprise, neil. it's actually hoeing that some women are last -- showing that some women are last minute shopping especially in the most recent years, i think because most people, you know, i don't want to make it so general, gender-specific, but i think these promotions because they've

been occurring for so long, we are tending to expect even more promotions, and that's exactly what's happening. so it makes complete sense that people are waiting until the last minute. if you want to save some money, we've seen inflation really eat into incomes over the last year. so if you think that you're going to have better promotions later on if you wait, you know, i'm part of the camp that you can give me a gift on the 27th, i would be pole fine with it if it meant you saving some money. neil: look at you, aren't you just a wonderful person. [laughter] all these decades covering this stuff, i appreciate it. hitha herzog, merry christmas. >> her ifly christmas. neil: a lot of your are saying quit recommending processed meats and cheeses. we know for a fact you've that had heart surgery. what does your surgeon say about this? he's not watching. the very latest on crowds and what's going on pretty much everywhere.

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