>> last but not least, this week i have an incredible episode of the fox true crime podcast which is my utmost honor to host here. you all remember the movie "the silence of the lambs," dagen and i went to see it in the theater, the 30th anniversary downtown. incredible iconic movie and behind jodie foster's character, is the fbi who blazed records at the fbi with her positions and not only advise on the movie and behind the scenes, she was an incredible fbi agent and go into depth of one of her most incredible stories, her solved case that brought closure and justice to a family. thank you for joining us today. you can watch the podcast anywhere you watch podcasts or listen to, and here is "america reports".

>> john: we are awaiting the first white house briefing of 2024 as president biden begins the new year blaming congress for the chaos happening at our southern border. and while the white house takes to the podium, house republicans are in texas in what is expected to be the largest congressional delegation to visit the border. welcome back, hope you had a great holiday. >> sandra: good to be back with you. house speaker mike johnson and more than 50 republicans will be in eagle pass, where they have been sidelined by failed policies. instead of the president pivoting on those policies, his team is setting up a potential

showdown in the courts. >> john: biden administration asking the supreme court to allow border agents to get rid of nearly 30 miles of razor wire that the state of texas used to prevent migrant crossings. it comes after more than 300,000 migrants crossed illegally in december. marking the highest single month ever recorded. bill melugin has been covering it since the beginning of the biden administration, live on the ground in eagle pass, texas. what can we expect, bill, from today's congressional visit? >> bill: expect the house republicans to go after president biden and secretary mayorkas over their handling of the southern border and now escalating impeachment effort into secretary mayorkas. fox news confirming this morning that their first official impeachment inquiry hearing into mayorkas will be set for january 10th. that is one week from today. as migrants continue spilling across the southern border. take a look at the video our

team shot in lukeville, arizona last night before the sun went down. as we have seen in previous weeks, there was a breach in the border wall and masses of people came through and large numbers of men from africa coming across, including congo, senegal, brazil, ecuador, here in eagle pass, five republican congressmen are branching off from the big delegation, apart from speaker johnson's event doing their own thing and they are telling me they are willing to shut down the federal government if the border is not shut down. take a listen. >> no more money for this bureaucracy of his government until you brought this border under control. shut the border down or shut the government down. >> we are all committed to that. there is a national security issue that is taking place here on the southern border and that's what it's going to take

to hold this administration accountable. >> bill: house speaker mike johnson posted on x yesterday, pointing out that eagle pass has dried up ahead of the visit, says here is eagle pass weeks ago versus yesterday. biden administration decided to divert the flood of illegal immigrants to another location in order to keep them out of the camera shots during house gop visit to eagle pass. don't be fooled, they are still being released into the country. our southern border is a disaster. and the graphic, the numbers are jaw dropping. cbp sources telling fox news in the month of december there were over 302000 migrant encounters, and see how it compares to previous years, trump's last year in office december 7, 4000. we have now quadrupled that this

last december. and earlier this morning, dhs secretary mayorkas was on another network giving a television interview where he was asking why is december the highest number recorded, mayorkas partially blamed climate change. we have interviewed hundreds upon hundreds of migrants over the past several years, literally not one time has a migrant ever blamed climate change for why they are coming here. they always say they want work, claim asylum or link up with their family. never have we heard climate change. back to you. >> john: maybe he was talking about the employment climate. bill, we'll keep watching it, we have the press conference coming up as well. as always, thank you, bill. the president returned home last night and he said we've got to do something about the border, but then he blamed congress. when you take a look at the numbers that bill highlighted from president trump's last year in office, we are four times ahead of where we were back

then. congress has not changed anything, congress was not doing anything back in december of 2020, so how could it be congress's fault? how is it not the administration? >> sandra: they are clearly trying to flip the script on republicans. but when you look at how much has changed since that time, 2020, with the border crisis and how the entire country is now feeling the effects of this crisis, with so many of these migrants arriving in cities coast to coast, if they want to try to flip the script we'll see how it plays with voters, john, when you look at the latest pew research poll at the end of last year, showed 32% of u.s. adults say they are confident or somewhat confident in the president's ability to make wise decisions about immigration policy. republicans, you better believe it, they are going to make this a central focus of the coming year. what is happening at the border and how this is impacting americans all over the country, john. >> john: we are so far beyond a crisis in terms of the stage of

this and yet the white house and the administration just seems to be throwing up its hands and letting this happen. >> sandra: we'll get a response from tony gonzalez, the rep from texas will join us live coming up, the southern border will be a big focus for us here on "america reports" the next couple hours. meanwhile, today's white house press briefing also coming up as more than a dozen states now challenge whether president biden's top 2024 rival, former president donald trump, is eligible to hold office. trump's legal team filing a challenge in maine as we expect his colorado appeal to the supreme court to come soon. jonathan turley will join us in just a moment. first, rich edson is live in washington for us. will there be another trump appeal? what are we hearing? >> rich: his attorneys are expected to file with the supreme court as early as this afternoon. appeal the colorado supreme court decision striking him from their primary ballot. trump's legal team has

petitioned a maine court to challenge the secretary of state's rule to remove him from the ballot there. the secretary of state argues the former president engaged in an insurrection and trump denies that, and says the secretary of state should have recused herself from making a decision on this issue. the former president's legal issues are hanging over this campaign. republican rivals stay trump should stay on the ballot. >> i trust the people of colorado. i trust the people of maine. i trust the people of wisconsin. let them make the decision. let them decide the path forward for our country. but this goes back to the fact that rightly or wrongly chaos follows trump. it always does. it just follows him. >> rich: ron desantis also opposes scrubbing trump from the ballot, however contends if a state kept someone else off the

ballot, he would spike the ball and go with the decision. >> deporting and building the wall, he did it in 16, he didn't get it done. he owes answers to the questions, he has not been willing to do that. >> rich: tom emmer has endorsed trump. the top five republicans in the leadership has enforced him, so has senator tom cotton. >> sandra: thank you, rich. good to see you. john. >> john: keep this going. bring in jonathan turley, constitutional law attorney and fox news contributor. so, the maine secretary of state says she has a constitutional duty and the authority to remove president trump from the ballot. listen to what she told abc news live yesterday night. >> united states constitution sets the qualification for presidential candidates. i cannot place an 18-year-old on

the ballot or noncitizen or if barack obama or bush and get significant signatures, i would be prohibited under maine law from placing them on the ballot. >> john: she insists, professor turley, she is similarly prohibited from putting donald trump on the ballot because of the prohibitions included in amendment number 14. because of him committing insurrection that he cannot qualify for being president. what do you say? >> jonathan: she's wrong. there's a big difference between saying that you have to be a particular age, which is confirmable, certified based on a birth certificate and the wild interpretation that she has given, section 3 of the 14th amendment. this is an interpretation that has been widely rejected. right now colorado and maine are the outliers, but keep in mind the courts in maine have not reviewed this, it's just her

decision and she said soon after january 6th that it was an insurrection, essentially led by donald trump. and so they knew that they had her at hello. that's one of the reasons they pushed hard in maine. but now we will get judicial review in maine while the supreme court will get the colorado case. and we'll have to see how the court wants to handle this. you know, this is not just a court of discretion. it is also a court at times of avoidance. they tend not to make major decisions unless they have to. colorado had a clever way of doing its opinion. they made the default if the matter was still pending with the court of after the 4th, trump's name would be on the ballot. if the court runs out the clock they don't have to do anything in colorado and a review i think they would like to avoid. >> john: senator ted cruz

weighed in saying he thinks the supreme court will take it up and predicted what the decision will be. >> my prediction is the u.s. supreme court will take the colorado case, they will reverse it and sean, i think there's a real chance the supreme court will reverse it unanimously. >> john: what do you think, professor, a 9-nothing? >> jonathan: i hope it is. a while back i wrote a column saying precisely that, i hope they take the colorado case, i hope that they resolve this case, not just with finality but being unanimous. this is an interpretation that is destructive to our system of government. it's historically and legally wrong. but it's also important for this moment for the court to speak as one voice. this is the moment the court was designed for. this was the moment that all of those protections we give the court prepared it as an institution, to say no, that this goes too far and it violates the things that define

us. >> john: also ask you about the latest charges, the new charges against senator bob menendez of new jersey, for helping qatar, he received gold bars, $25,000 watch, his attorney says the new charges stink of desperation. what do you say? >> jonathan: i would view it the same way as a criminal defense attorney. sounds like saturation. when the jury looks at the counts with valuable gifts coming from various foreign sources they are going to see a trend and they are not going to be very sympathetic for an office holder and saying well, i just have really generous associates. so part of the problem for the defense here is the pattern. now i think that what the senator hopes for once again is

a hung jury. i can't imagine that he thinks he can get an acquittal on this. but he has shown in the past that with a hung jury you could do a lot, including stay in the senate. >> john: all right, well, there's so much to follow this year, i don't know where to start. jonathan turley, always good to have you with us. thank you so much. >> jonathan: thanks, john. >> sandra: breaking news right now, media outlets in the middle east reporting more than 200 people were killed in that bombing at a ceremony in iran honoring top general soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his death. trey yingst is reporting live on the ground in tel aviv for us at this hour. trey, what are you hearing there? >> trey: sandra, good afternoon. we are following this developing story out of southeast iran where a pair of explosions rocked the city killing at least 200 people, according to regional media. these blasts taking place at a ceremony to mark the four-year

anniversary of the death of soleimani, the explosions near a cemetery where he is buried. iranian officials calling it a terrorist attack but stopping short of blaming anyone or any specific country. the developments out of iran come as israel is bracing for the possibility of a separate retaliation after a drone strike in beirut killed a chairman. damage to both a building and a car. lebanese media reporting six other hamas members were killed as well, including two commanders. today the leader of hamas made his first statement since the killing took place, calling his deputy a martyr, adding he joins those killed in gaza and during the october 7th massacre, overnight there was new rocket fire but no large scale response. still, israel remains on high alert. >> the idf is at a very high

level of readiness in all arenas, in defense and offense. we are in a high state of readiness for any scenario. >> the developments along israel's northern border come as operations continue in gaza. israeli forces say they took out a militant that tried to plant an explosive device on a tank, and destroyed a new cell in gaza city using a drone. much of the concern on day 89 of the conflict comes as the leader of hezbollah spoke issuing new threats against the jewish state. sandra. >> sandra: trey yingst, live on the ground in tel aviv on the breaking news for us. thank you. john. >> john: we are awaiting the first white house briefing of the new year as the border crisis shatters records. so, why would the administration push to remove one of the tools that is helping to keep people out? we will take you to the white house live. plus this. >> the student loan issue was not something addressed by the white house in the end in a

comprehensive way, according to many young voters. he wanted to keep his promise on dealing with the student loan debt, that is really crushing families across the country. >> sandra: the u.s. deficit hitting 34 trillion, and the president still planning on bailing out student loan borrowers. is that the right move right now? charles payne will join us live on set. as if watching my team lose wasn't punishment enough. what are you looking at huh... it's a one speed. hahaha. hahaha. and if you have cut rate car insurance, odds are you'll be paying for that yourself. so, get allstate and be better protected from mayhem... like me. hey, i'm walking here! my little family is me, aria, and jade. just the three of us girls.

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>> john: update for you now, fox news has learned court documents containing the names of nearly 200 people associated with the late jeffrey epstein are expected to be unsealed as early as today. that comes after the court ordered deadline for associates to appeal expired january 1st at

midnight. unsealing is expected to include names of former associates, friends, employees, accusers, and potential accomplices. however, the unsealing of three specific names will be held until at least january 22nd pending appeals. we will learn who some of these other folks are. sandra. >> sandra: a grim milestone for america's national debt. now topping $34 trillion and counting. that is happening for the first time ever. you see it there. but that is not stopping the president from forging ahead with letting student loan borrowers off the hook on taxpayer dime. charles payne, host of making money on fox business. charles, make sense of that for us. >> charles: i didn't make sense of it. one of the most elitest things i've seen ever. this friday we will get the jobs report. go inside the jobs report, the group with the lowest unemployment rate, college

grads. the group with the most money, college grads. the group with the largest labor participation, college grads. and it's a blessing for the most part to be a college grad, why people fought to go to college, so controversial. >> sandra: but yet they will ask a majority of americans to foot the bill. >> charles: we know a lot is bait and switch and politically it worked in the midterms. supreme court has said it's unconstitutional. what i hate about this is the messaging that it's so unfair to young people, so unfair to black people, it's the same bag of messaging they used to push all, all, everything in the agenda, it's a gift to the elites. by the way, almost everything president biden is a gift to the elites. i keep telling people don't fall for it. covid relief $2 trillion, it will end up in the pockets of the elites, known as donors. nothing organic about any of this stuff and that's why it

back fires. >> sandra: that will be up to some gop candidates right to highlight what it means for the average american. some of the gop candidates, sot 2, on the campaign trail, calling out the president and the student loan plan. >> joe biden is doing an awful thing by saying he's going to forgive student loan debt. that's pandering to younger people. >> you should not have a truck driver paying off the student loan for someone that got a degree in gender studies. >> if a student is gonna get a student loan, we should at least have someone sit down with them, let them know how much this is, what interest rate it's going to have, when they have to pay it back. >> sandra: and the press is not even buying it this is making the younger voters happy with the president. this is karine jean-pierre on another network talking about the student loans and actually getting challenged on it. listen. >> the reason issue with young voters and i want to make -- because they have heard from you that essentially this is

something the president has tried to do and do you think that over time they start to feel like trying isn't enough. >> no, but what i was going to say, what i was going to finish in saying is the president, even though his plan was stopped, he was able to take action and we were able to -- we were able to get rid of about $130 billion of debt. >> sandra: is this an administration that based on this discussion right here should be concerned about youth voters in this election? >> charles: absolutely, absolutely, and again, it's so ironic. many of the issues happening on the left are their own making, sort of stoked the anger out there, stoke animosity, you say it's ok to dislike another person because they have different political persuasions. all of a sudden it's coming back at them and just another one of these issues and again, it worked for the midterm elections, but people feel duped. you did the old bait and switch. now i know the game. you promised you would do one

thing, you have smart people in the biden administration, they knew it was not constitutional, they knew this. by the way, they are talking about programs in place. you have the income driven forgiveness in place already, another thing called public service forgiveness, these plans have been in place for a long time, federal plans they are referring to but the notion of somehow taking a magic wand and again, having a truck driver who did not go to college trying to bust his ass, build his family up, pay for your student loan, you have so much arrogance to even demand that. get out of starbucks, get off the only fans account, all the crap you are wasting your money on and buckle down like your parents did. >> sandra: so many feeling like that. >> charles: and stop the feeling of victimhood and can't doism, that's crushing us. >> sandra: just got him going, charles payne. see you this afternoon on fbn. thank you so much.

>> john: like charles says, just do it, swoosh. the flu is making a major comeback after a back seat to covid and what parts of the country are getting hit the hardest. >> sandra: we will dig in. claudine gay stepping down as the president of harvard after dozens of plagiarism accusations and controversial congressional testimony over the rise of antisemitism on college campuses. we get reaction from a jewish harvard student. we'll join us live next. >> there were legitimate business reasons to fire dr. gay. and the plagiarism, her lack of response to protect jewish community and her disastrous performance at the congressional hearing. out of control. get a newday 100 va cash out loan at lower mortgage rates to pay off those high rate car loans.

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policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. israel is under attack. the war against israel began with the murder of hundreds of precious children. countless israelis are enduring the devastating anguish of lost loved ones. the jewish people have become refugees in their own homeland.

i simply can't stress enough the urgency of this situation. it's more dire than ever before. your gift of $45 will make sure that the people of israel have mobile bomb shelters, emergency supplies, and the hot nutritious meals that they so desperately need. this would be an incredibly important time for all of the friends of the international fellowship of christians and jews to stand with our friends in israel because we believe it's what god would have us do. please don't hesitate. call, scan, or visit our website now to make your life-saving donation. don't let everyday aches and pains keep you from living your best life. i don't think i really understood what people meant when they talked about pain, until i started feeling it myself. start feeling better every day with relief factor, a daily supplement designed to support your body's fight

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to unfounded plagiarism charges were thrown at her. >> i don't think it's fair to say all of her critics were racist but certainly a few of them were. >> it looks as though she was targeted. do you think this is a race issue just as much an issue about antisemitism? >> john: left wing media rushing to defend claudine gay after she steps down as harvard's president, follows a series of scandals with plagiarism and backlash over capitol hill testimony, she declined to say whether calling for a jewish genocide is against school policy. she will likely earn a salary of nearly $900,000, stay on as a professor. how are students reacting to this? jacob miller, a jewish student in his junior year at harvard university. welcome back to the program. your reaction to the resignation, seems to be more about the plagiarism charges

rather than calling for the genocide of jews was appropriate language. >> first of all, thank you for having me. if we are honest, i think it was both. the combination of the two factors, the 1-2 punch, first the scandal with the antisemitism and the hearing, followed immediately thereafter by the plagiarism allegations. and you know, i don't take any joy in this outcome because i don't really care who sits as president of harvard. what i care about is the antisemitism on harvard's campus is addressed, and you know, president gay failed to address it. i just hope the next president does a better job. >> john: we'll see if that is the case. hedge fund billionaire bill ackman who was really taking on this case of whether or not she should stay on as the president, he was pressuring for her resignation, or her dismissal, wrote about this and says that all of this, and this is the antisemitism, the acceptance of plagiarism is dei run amuck at harvard university and other

institutions of higher learning. lengthy post on x, he said in part, dei was a political advocacy movement on behalf of certain groups that are deemed oppressed. under dei, one's degree of oppression is determined based on where one resides and so-called intersectional pyramid of oppression, where whites, jews, and asians are deemed oppressors and sub set of color, lgbtq people and women are deemed to be oppressed. do you agree with him, and if so, that would not seem to bode well for jewish students on harvard campus. >> yeah, i think buzz words like dei are imprecise, so you know, i don't know exactly what is encompassed in dei and the ideology, but i think it's true there is a double standard when it comes to antisemitic hate speech at harvard. jews are looked on as the

opp oppressors and casting jews in the case of israel, settler colonialist and viewing us as white, and unintellectual and hateful enterprise and pervasive in harvard and it's shameful and it needs to end. >> john: this was an article that caught my eye, it was in the associated press, came across my desk earlier today. it blamed gay's resignation not on wrongdoing on her part but this, harvard president's resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges, plagiarism. the down fall of the president, plagiarism as a possible new weapon in conservative attacks on higher education. i looked at that and thought to myself how is unearthing plagiarism a new conservative weapon? isn't that something that colleges are just supposed to do as part of their checks and

balances? >> yeah, i saw that and a sarcastic comment how conservatives have found a way going back 25 years and making people commit plagiarism, he was right about that. it's not like the people who have uncovered the allegations forced anyone to plagiarize, they just discovered sloppy citation and it's the job of the search committee that decides upon the harvard president to vet the president's academic work, and so i don't think this is a weapon that's being used, i think it's a legitimate concern and we can debate whether the allegations that were raised against gay were serious or not serious, i think that's a debate people can have. but it's not like it's some weapon that's being wielded. it's concern brought forth by many news outlets. >> john: and a fella on another news network i saw said claudine gay did not steal somebody else's ideas, just copied them without attribution, seemed to

me to be the same thing. maybe i'm reading it wrong. jacob, great to talk to you. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >> sandra: a million dollars for retirement, well, it's a goal for many americans. but in this economy, how far would that get you? we'll take that up with our econ panel coming up. >> john: major explosions near the grave of a dead iranian general, killed by a u.s. drone strike four years ago. raising concerns that iranian proxies may launch more attacks on u.s. bases in the middle east. retired four star general jack keane is up next if the president will finally take a tougher stance against the iranian regime. >> we have lost deterrence under the biden administration and as a consequence, our adversaries think america is weak and they are testing us over and over again and we are not responding adequately. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me.

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>> sandra: the number of deaths climbing in iran after two explosions, and concern iran proxies could retaliate for soleimani's death by targeting u.s. forces in the middle east. who have already come under attack 118 times since last october. let's bring in now retired u.s. army general jack keane, fox news senior strategic analyst. good to have you on the program today. first, what is your reaction to this, 200 plus killed in these explosions at the iran general's tomb. what is your reaction to that. >> well, certainly all the aspects of a terrorist attack and like all the awful and horrific terrorist attacks, the focus is largely on people and

innocent people. we may not agree with the people that were standing there supporting soleimani given the despicable figure he is but they are not involved directly in conflict themselves. they are entitled to public opinion, don't deserve to be killed this way. we are speculating who is involved here. i doubt seriously that the israelis are involved. i mean, they, in working with resistance groups, and by the way, sandra, it's not well known by the american people how much the resistance groups in iran have been assisting the israelis with assassination of 4 to 5 scientists and nuclear leaders, military leaders as well and very dramatic operation raid on a warehouse in 2018 led by the israelis but much of the troops on the ground pulling out two tons of archived information on the nuclear stuff was done by the resistance group. but it's uncharacteristic of

what we are seeing here. they have blown up infrastructure in the past but the idf and the resistance groups inside of iran have not blown up people. who have done that are the sunni terrorists who may likely have a hand in this, being they so fundamentally disagree with the shia-led government in iran. we are just speculating here and i think eventually we will know who did it. >> sandra: important points and some updateous of the state department, the state department just said the united states, we have been running the banner at the bottom of the screen there, united states was not involved in any way and no reason to believe israel was involved in explosions in iran. this also in from the state department and your response to this. u.s. remained incredibly

concerned about the risk of the gaza conflict spreading to other fronts. to what degree are you concerned that that will eventually happen, general? >> well, you know, it's stunning to me that statement, it already has happened. isn't it a fact that the iranian-backed militias in iraq and syria have attacked our bases scores of times since the october 7th attack, isn't it a fact that the houthi rebels sponsored by the iranians have shut down virtually 50% of the traffic flowing through the suez canal because they are conducting attacks on the shipping lanes despite the escort ships by the united states. iranians have expanded the conflict. certainly hezbollah is attacking northern israel, it's been measured. their center of gravity is tens of thousands of rockets to reach

any city in israel, hef held back from that and listening to the speech earlier today, the head of hezbollah in lebanon, i think he had been measured and not escalate to the scale that he shown has the capability to do, would be a significant challenge for the israelis. but the iranians have already escalated and i don't know why we keep wringing our hands and the fear that they will escalate if we take decisive action against them. this administration is so unwilling to confront who the major oppressor and aggressor is in the region, iran, and the fact that they are pulling all the strings here. >> sandra: let's be clear, this has been the biden administration and the president himself warnings after warnings to iran since october 7th. watch this, listen. >> made it clear, made it clear to the iranians be careful.

>> if iran or proxies attack u.s. personnel anywhere, make no mistake, we will defend our people. >> we don't seek a conflict with iran right now, we are not looking to escalate anything. >> we call on iran to take steps to deescalate. >> sandra: after the limited warnings now you have former secretary of state mike pompeo saying this is why america's enemies feel emboldened under this president. play it out, your reaction. >> what we saw happen on october 7th, in afghanistan, 13 americans killed, chinese spy balloon, these things are all connected by dictator, authoritarian regimes, president biden has an accelerated rate of decay of deterrence that we have built up in the four years we are serving has done the american people a disservice and

it's dangerous. >> sandra: a final thought on that, general. >> certainly we did not deter russia in ukraine, president xi has stepped up his game the last 2 to 3 years dramatically, military intimidation and economic aggression and we have not deterred that and he's threatening war over taiwan, certainly. and what we are seeing here in the middle east, i mean, the administration has got to look at this coldly and reset this strategy. we have play -- placated and appeased iran, the iranians are on the march. they see this administration as weak and they see a lack of political will in the united states to confront them and our adversaries. therefore, they feel there's a vulnerability in the united states and this is opportunity, and they are seizing the opportunity and we are wringing our hands. >> sandra: all happening with the presidential election here in the united states.

general keane, great to have you on the program. thank you so much, sir. >> glad to have you guys back. >> john: why are millions in covid cash used to help with chicago's migrant crisis? we are live outside a city-funded shelter in chicago. plus this. >> should members of congress have their spouses be banned in trading individual stocks while serving in congress? >> no, we are a free market economy should be able to participate in that. >> sandra: leaves many wondering, should lawmakers be allowed to invest in stocks. critics say that gives them an unfair advantage. but, could a new app help level the playing field? we are digging in next. every day, veteran homeowners are calling newday to pay off credit card debt that's been piling up. many were shocked to learn they've been paying 22% on their credit card balances. and if payments were late, as much as 30%. that's over three times the interest rate on a newday 100 va home loan.

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>> john: folks across the street continue to cash in on wall street with some critics claiming they are able to sway the stock market through bills that they pass or committees that they sit on. legislation to ban congress from trading stocks cannot seem to get off the ground. our congressional correspondent, aishah hasnie live on capitol hill with more on all of this. aishah. >> aishah: you know, the saying goes, if you can't beat them, just join them, right. that's what the creators of this new app called auto pilot say, and they let you copy whatever

lawmakers are doing with their investments, whether it's nancy pelosi or anyone else that you are interested in. even a dedicated tool in this app to track pelosi's investments, according to the app says there are about 31% up on average. it's not just her, though, john. there is a huge list of the top performers in congress, plenty of republicans on this list as well. and the app creators wanted to make this app not to make money, but really to raise awareness to this issue so congress can do something about it and ban stock trading. there is bipartisan support for such a ban, but neither speakers pelosi or mccarthy or johnson have brought up a bill for a vote and pressure is now growing on both sides of the aisle. >> i was disappointed in candor. i mean, i think we should at least have an up or down vote on this issue. and let people go on record. >> talked to the speaker's team

a little bit, i'll sit down with mike and figure out where we are going to go, we need to address it. >> there is of course the other side of this argument, people who say a ban is a bad idea because it will make good folks out there not want to run for congress, not want to serve. john. >> john: all right. well, we'll see if it catches fire or not. aishah hasnie on capitol hill, thank you. sandra. >> sandra: we are five and a half minutes from the top of a new hour and any moment now we will get the first white house press briefing of the new year. as a gop congressional delegation is right now getting a firsthand look at the crisis at our southern border. texas republican congressman tony gonzalez is with them. he will join us on what he believes needs to happen and what he makes of the recent blame game. >> john: and will the supreme court end up deciding the fate of a ban on natural gas appliances?

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>> sandra: looks like a ban on natural gas appliances in berkeley, california can only be saved by the supreme court now. william is in los angeles on this for us. william, is there any chance that the high court will take up the case? >> well, given the beat-down this court gave them, berkeley, it's unlikely environmentallists want a ruling or precedent to jeopardize similar bans around the country, where they prohibit natural gas pipelines as a back door attempt to stop consumers from buying gas stoves, furnaces and water heaters. the court found it's illegal that berkeley tried to preempt federal rules on energy efficiency. the city argued it only tried to regulate the fuel itself to reduce pollution, asthma and global warming. >> when we think about pollution and the climate,