>> sandra: mark your calendars. count down to the iowa caucus is on, just ten days from now. republican voters in the hawkeye state will reveal their picks for the party's presidential nominee. the first stop on the long road to the white house, and here we go. john, hello and welcome everyone, sandra smith in new york. >> john: john roberts in washington. this is "america reports". sandra, it's going to be a big year. right now the candidates making

their final stops in iowa, talking policy and connecting with voters. but the candidates are also targeting each other. donald trump and ron desantis seem to be pivoting attacks toward someone who appears to be climbing in the polls. >> sandra: and that someone is nikki haley. she's been barnstorming through iowa today, and she will take a stop right there and join us live in moments. first, though, we have fox team coverage for you. lucas tomlinson is live in pennsylvania ahead of president biden's first campaign speech of the year and mark meredith will kick us off from the latest on the gop campaign. mark, is it all coming down to iowa? what do we know? >> certainly seems that is the case. good afternoon to you. former president trump is going to be crisscrossing iowa over the next 24 hours, holding multiple rallies trying to shore up his lead and trump is clearly focused on the first content ten days out, launching a new attack ad against president biden. >> under biden your investments

fell, along with other things. trump, he'll make america's economy great again. >> trump is using similar messaging at his rally, comparing gas prices today to pre-pandemic, he is attacking someone who used to work for him, former ambassador nikki haley, haley told voters she appreciates the attention she's getting from her former boss but also taking steps to counter the message coming from the trump campaign. >> i've seen the commercials you see. in both of those i've noticed president trump is giving me a little of attention, kind of nice of him. every one of those commercials is a lie. >> haley also spent the last 24 hours defending herself if she comes up short in iowa, it would be up to new hampshire voters to correct it, it was a joke and not meant to be an insult to

hawkeye state voters, but ron desantis says it's telling. >> by the way, i don't care what nikki haley says, iowans don't need to be corrected on anything how they vote. we have to stop with this nonsense. >> vivek ramaswamy doing all he can to stay competitive, even selling some $33 million worth of stock to help fund his campaign. but it will be up to voters to decide whether that was a smart investment or not. sandra. >> sandra: get a response from nikki haley herself to a lot of that in just a moment. thanks, mark. john. >> john: as all of this transpires, president biden is in the swing state of pennsylvania, he will give his first speech of 2024 next hour. rally against what he calls maga extremism and warn voters a vote for president trump is a threat to democracy. lucas tomlinson is live in blue bell, pennsylvania ahead of that speech. lucas, feels like scranton joe biden goes to pennsylvania a lot. what's the strategy in the

keystone state? >> that's right, john. president biden has traveled to pennsylvania more than any other state since becoming president. he's returning here to this crucial battleground state, right now he is 15 miles away touring valley forge where george washington's 4,000 troops encamped for the winter in 1777. and we heard from karine jean-pierre yesterday saying he wants to talk about january 6th and when they call the threat to democracy. >> january 6th was an unprecedented, certainly attack on our core principles and our democracy and rule of law in our constitution. something the president takes seriously, attack on democracy and let's not forget, these are values we hold very close as a country, as a nation. >> with that in mind, the biden came has released the first campaign ad of 2024. >> something dangerous happening

in america. there's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. >> critics say the president should not be dwelling on the past and instead should be looking to the future. >> i think the american public wants to hear your plans for the future, not what happened three years ago this weekend. for one thing, second, i think george washington and the continental army would be appalled at the attack on democracy on the part of joe biden, a democrat. >> seems like president biden and the biden campaign are taking a page out of their midterm playbook, president biden traveled to philadelphia and independence hall, flanked by the two marine corps centuries, the red lighting. today, more red, white and blue at montgomery county community college. he should be speaking in about an hour, john. >> john: we'll look ahead to that. lucas tomlinson, thank you. >> sandra: 2024 republican presidential candidate nikki haley joins us live from des moines, iowa.

ambassador, welcome to you, good to have you on the program. so the president officially starts campaigning for 2024 with a focus on donald trump? what's your reaction to that? >> i mean, this is exactly why 75% of americans don't want to see a trump-biden rematch. because both of these fellas talk about things that happened in the past and they want to start talking about how they are going to fix our challenges for the future. and so that's why we need a new generational leader. it is go time, we are ten days until the iowa caucuses. we can feel the momentum on the ground, we can feel the excitement. this is -- this is the start of really getting america back on track and leaving the negativity and the baggage of the past and moving forward as a country. >> john: governor, i want to ask you about something you said in a town hall on another network last night. when you were asked by a viewer, or attendee to explain your pledge to pardon former president trump if you become president. listen here.

>> if we are talking about a pardon, you are assuming he's guilty. nobody gets pardoned if you are not guilty. so i honestly do believe like they did with nixon, you have to say what's in the best interest of the country and i think pardoning trump and moving on is in the best interest of our country if we are going to heal and get back together and get out of the chaos. >> john: so you said that you would pardon him if convicted, you said nobody who gets a pardon who is not convicted but president ford preemptively pardoned president nixon, nixon had not been charged with anything. we don't know when the trump cases are going to finish up or go to court. if you become president, would you pledge to preemptively pardon him or only if found guilty? >> i think you only do it if someone is found guilty. so what i'll say, this is about moving the country forward and the last thing we want to see is

an 80-year-old former president sitting in jail. instead, how do we put the past behind us and move forward as a country and i think by pardoning him that would move the country forward instead of dividing it further. you have to look at what's in the best interests of the country. >> john: if i could follow up, i asked that question because preemptively pardoning nixon was the death nail for gerald ford and one of the reasons why he did not win a second term. if that court case was still going on, would you take the political risk and say i don't want to see this court proceeding go any further, i'm going to pardon him now. >> i actually think you need to let it play out. i would think president trump would want to play it out. you are innocent until you are proven guilty and i would think he would want to fight for his innocence first. so i don't see a scenario where you preemptively do anything. i think you have to always let things play out. you know, and see if it's a crime, let him go and defend himself and only then do you sit there and look at pardon if

someone is found guilty. >> sandra: while biden is launching his campaign, ambassador, with a focus on donald trump, he is focusing attack on you in the latest ad over the border. >> haley and biden oppose trump's border wall, terrorists sneaking in through the southern border. yet haley joined biden opposing trump's visitor ban from terrorist nations. >> sandra: do you truly oppose a border wall? >> isn't that sweet of him spending so much time and money against me? i think that first of all, it's a complete lie. first of all, i didn't say i opposed the border wall. i said oppose just doing a border wall. i said that we have to do more than that. that's defunding sanctuary cities, putting 25,000 border patrol and ice agents on the ground, go back to remain in mexico so don't allow anyone on

u.s. soil. instead of catch and release, it's catch and deport. i as governor passed one of the toughest in the country, no truth to that. but you know, i always say that if they have a lie to win they don't deserve to win and the american people can see through that. >> john: you are in iowa right now, governor, you will be in new hampshire after the primary, after the caucuses there in iowa. and new hampshire is the state where you are doing the best and now a new super pac has thrown support and money behind you trying to get democratic leaning unaffiliated voters to go for you. the rules in new hampshire state that an unaffiliated voter can vote in whatever primary they want, they have to for that night sign on as a democrat or republican, and then back to unaffiliated status. so you may have voters who would vote democrat vote four in the

primary and then a democrat in november. i'm wondering, are you willing to accept the support of democratically leading voters in the granite state just to beat president trump? >> well, first of all, i haven't heard of what you are talking about, so i'm not sure what group that would be. but secondly, what i will tell you, i am doing what i have told republican, the republican party to do. we have lost seven out of the eight last votes for president, popular votes for president, nothing for republicans to be proud of. i want to bring in conservative republicans, moderate republicans, independents, i want those to vote for me in the primary to vote for me in the general. thes what we are looking for. we are trying to make a movement to change our country, take our country going forward and we are seeing that. we had 700 people at our last town hall in new hampshire,

hundreds at all of our locations there. the you are going to see the same movement on the ground here in iowa. the momentum is real and real from republicans, it's real from independents and it's coming from some democrats and i welcome that. because in order for us to heal this country we have to go forward and what happened too long and seeing it play out in this election, too. leaders like to tell people who is right, who is wrong, who is good, who is bad. that is not what a leader does. a leader goes and focuses on lifting up everybody. and making sure that they bring out the best in people and taking them forward. that's what i'm gonna do and so i'll let my opponents do what they are going to do. we are going to focus on america and make sure we go in the right direction. >> sandra: you run to potentially be the first female president, ron desantis is trying to tie you to hillary clinton. >> not ronald reagan, not margaret thatcher, she said hillary clinton was her

inspiration for running for office. we don't need another hillary clinton in this country, i can tell you that. >> sandra: response to that, ambassador. >> i mean, god bless him. he's getting so desperate. fact checkers have all told him he's wrong. he actually put in millions of dollars into a campaign saying that. i never said she was an inspiration. what i said is when i had not been in politics and i was looking at running for office, i went to a women leadership forum and one of the speakers was hillary clinton. and she said for all the reasons people tell you not to run, those are all the reasons that you should. and so when i spoke about it, if you took it in context, i said i don't agree with a single thing she believes in, but this is what happened and this is how i got involved in politics. i mean, look, he's lying because he's losing, and he can do that but people see it for what it is. i'm a conservative, tea party when i ran for governor, i was a strong conservative when i cut a billion dollars off the top at

the u.n. when i was ambassador. they can say what they want. at the end of the day my record speaks for itself and it shows that we are surging and that's why they are giving us the attention. >> john: before we go, iowa, donald trump is more than 32 points ahead. in new hampshire, he's 21.5 points ahead, south carolina, 30 points ahead, nevada, this is an old poll, 52 points ahead, michigan, 47.5 ahead. lay out a road map if you could now for how you overcome what would appear to be an insurmountable lead. >> you are so focused in writing an obituary and the american people decide this. you talk to iowans on the ground, granite staters and south carolinians, and if they want to go in the same as the past or move forward. numbers are moving.

january 15th, we will see where we start, go to new hampshire, gain strength, go to south carolina, continue to push forward. and then we are going to finish it. and i truly believe that. and i know that because i don't want my kids to live this way. every other set of parents don't want their kids to live this way. we deserve better. we deserve a government that's not wasting money and focused on getting inflation down. deserve an education system where the kids can read and goes back to the basics. we deserve a border that is secure, no more excuses. we deserve a country with law and order. and we deserve a country that is going to be safe around the world because we are strong and we are proud and that's going to happen and i'm going to make that happen. >> sandra: ten days out from iowa, see how things turn out there. before we know it. ambassador, good to see you, thanks for coming on today. >> thanks, go to nikki haley.com, let's finish this. count down is on. >> john: she is nothing, if not

confident. she's never lost an election, and i was looking back to 1992 and how bill clinton won the nomination. tom harkin blew everybody away in iowa, and then clinton second in new hampshire. the margin in iowa was huge, harkin got 76% of the vote, clinton down here. but nobody in that election had the huge leads that trump does. so, something crazy would have to happen but you never know, it's the electoral process. >> sandra: she can at least have the momentum, and what did she say, isn't that sweet for the former president, donald trump to spend all that money on an ad attacking her. so, that is happening. >> john: all about momentum. see which way it goes. well, new documents have just been released in the jeffrey epstein case. another 412 pages of them just released by the courts. we are combing through them and will bring you any revelations that are contained within. plus, there's this.

>> we are in this moment, what a great thing it is that we as a nation are going to be building these electric vehicles that will be in demand across the world. and we are reshoring all the manufacturing in the united states. >> sandra: ok. the biden administration remains revved up about those e.v.s but do they need to pump the brakes a bit. jeff flock just wrapped up his road trip putting e.v.s to the test. he'll be here to tell us what he learned in his true style, hopefully moving and walking somewhere. john. >> john: he had to stop a lot, apparently, and some big companies are reportedly backing off from the controversial diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. is what they are planning to replace them with actually any better? dave rubin is here to weigh in coming up next. ♪ alka-seltzer plus powermax gels cold & flu relief

with more concentrated power because the only thing dripping should be your style. plop plop fizz fizz winter warriors with alka-seltzer plus. ♪ ♪ mom! mom! every day can be extraordinary with rich, creamy, delicious fage total yogurt. >> i am elmer heinrich. our company sells an incredible nutritional supplement called immuno 150. now it contains 70 minerals and 80 additional nutrients. i suggest you try immuno 150 if you want a chance to be in good health and feel good when you're 89 years old like me, with no arthritis, no heart problems, no diabetes or high blood pressure, dementia or aches or pains of any kind. now immuno 150 contains eight times more minerals than the average food. our foods lack minerals, so we lack minerals . no wonder the world is sick.

now look at the two videos on our website. you will see immuno 150 is a concise and complete, no-nonsense, no-hype product, so place your order online or call 888-497-4535. that's 888-497-4535. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ( ♪ ) ( ♪ )

( ♪ ) -awww. -awww. -awww. -nope. ( ♪ ) constant contact delivers the marketing tools your small business needs to keep up, excel, and grow. constant contact. helping the small stand tall.

>> john: that just in, attorney general letitia james has asked the judge overseeing the trump civil fraud trial to penalize the president about $370 million. that is a significant increase from the 250 million originally requested. the trial began in october, wrapped up last month, but the judge has still not made a final ruling against the former president. the lawsuit has accused trump of inflating his net worth to obtain favorable loan terms from banks and insurers who claim they were never defrauded. >> sandra: a jewish law student at rutgers university in new jersey has taken the college to court claims he was discriminated and retaliated against after speaking out over a pro-hamas video circulated by

other students. c.b. cotton has the story. the student could possibly be expelled from the campus? >> hi, sandra, that's right. he faces possible expulsion or other serious punishment. according to his attorney, his client is being unfairly punished for raising concerns about what they call pro-hamas messaging circulating on campus. >> what has resulted since is nothing more than an attempt by rutgers and other students to silence my right to speak out against antisemitism. >> ackerman says the video was shared to a group chat for the university student bar association that referred to hamas as palestinian resistance fighters. ackerman's attorney says when he shared word of the video with other jewish students, the faculty began a "witch hunt."

he was accused of defamation and disorderly conduct. he says he's been bullied and intimidated on campus ever since. >> i put a hoodie over my head when i go to campus because of that. i have a rutgers police escort that takes me to and from campus. jewish community on campus is absolutely terrified and what i mean by that is i speak to the jewish people on campus and they are afraid just as i'm afraid. >> the school says rutgers takes seriously claims of antisemitism, islamophobia and bias and intolerance. claims are investigated and reviewed and when appropriate actions are taken. another the rutgers law school north university generally make comments on pending litigation or on the specific allegations contained within a complaint. ackerman is seeking damages but his attorney says more importantly they want a culture change. you may remember rutgers is one

of several schools now being investigated by the department of education for allegations of antisemitism and islamophobia. sandra. >> sandra: c.b. cotton in the newsroom on that. thank you. john. >> john: antisemitic protests on college campuses may be having an unintended consequence. >> sandra: alum like bill ackman have spoken out against them, accused claudine gay of being a dei hire. >> john: dave, no better place to begin than what bill ackman said about dei on x, reading in part, dei was not about diversity in its purest form but rather a political advocacy movement on behalf of certain groups deemed oppressed under

dei methodology, and says when one examines dei and the ideological heritage it does not take long to understand the movement is inherently inconsistent with basic american values. to an increasing number of businesses, dave, dei has become very toxic. >> yeah, well, i was thrilled to hear bill ackman say that and many more business leaders are saying it and to all of them say what many of us say on fox and people have been saying for years, bruce willis from die hard, welcome to the party, pal. we have been calling this out for a long time. it does not matter which way racism goes, whether it's racism of white people against black people or black people against white people or asians against jews, racism, judging people by the color of their skin is bad and yet dei, now must die, that's exactly what it has done.

institutionallized not only at places of higher education like harvard, but institutionalized in giant corporations. i have two businesses. i have never hired anyone based on the color of their skin. i hire people based on merit and whether i think they are a decent person and good resume' and whether i think they are going to work hard and until we get back to that merit, that way of looking at the world, then every institution that we have will collapse. i would say we have a very brief moment here in light of what's happened at harvard and now what we are hearing out of people like ackman to turn some of this stuff around, but a lot of institutions are just going to keep falling and going in that direction, no doubt about that. >> sandra: good to have you here. axios article on the dei rebrand that appears to be happening, dave, it mentions that the conference board talking to axios, diana scott, anything that smacks of a quota is out. and they say businesses are pulling back from the dei term,

focus is moving away from those three words towards efforts around well-being and in inclusion. does that tell you this is really a rebrand, that they are really moving away from dei? >> right, that has a lot of lipstick on a pig kind of feeling to it, right. like they are going to figure out a way to do this. by the way, if you remember back when the supreme court reversed the affirmative action decision and said you are not allowed to have quotas going into colleges, many university presidents, i believe including claudine gay at harvard herself, said we will figure out other ways to do it. so look, to get social justice, dei, wokeness out of institutions, and out of people's minds, it's very complex because it's become sort of a holistic world view and if you view the world only as oppressed and oppressors then to look at the world in a new way is going to be tough. i would say a lot of organizations will do a little bit on the margins to fix some

of this stuff but some will keep going with it. they'll call it a new name, have new acronyms, but hopefully other places will say you know what, we are hiring doctors and we want the best doctors, not the best doctors based on the color of their skin or we are hiring pilots and you know what, we would like the most qualified people to fly our planes, not pilots based on their skin color because otherwise we are going to have doctors who don't know how to perform heart surgery and planes that are falling out of the sky and i don't think anyone wants that. >> john: all right. dave, great to see you. hope you have a great weekend. >> thanks, guys. >> sandra: congress may not be performing well in the polls but killing it on wall street. nancy pelosi, wow, what a year she had. eye popping gains in 2023. she's not alone. we will dig into this with our panel.

[city ambience sounds] [car screech] [car door slam] [camera shutter sfx] introducing ned's plaque psoriasis.

[camera shutter sfx] he thinks his flaky, red patches are all people see. otezla is the #1 prescribed pill to treat plaque psoriasis. [ned?] it can help you get clearer skin and reduce itching and flaking. with no routine blood tests required. doctors have been prescribing it for nearly a decade. otezla is also approved to treat psoriatic arthritis. don't use otezla if you're allergic to it. serious allergic reactions can happen. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. some people taking otezla had depression, suicidal thoughts, or weight loss. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. [crowd gasp] ♪ with clearer skin, movie night is a groovy night. [ting] ♪ live in the moment. ask your doctor about otezla.

>> we are doing better now

because of the community and because of all the outpour of people calling us and wishing us well, praying with us, and it's just been overwhelming the support. at first of course like anybody we were angry, then we were sad, sad -- the worst is seeing my parents who built something for over 48 years to almost lose it, you know, because of some, you know, the violence that's going on right now. street takeovers in compton have been getting worse and worse, i'm not the only one frustrated. >> john: that was ruben ramirez, jr. from compton, california, his story viral after a mob of looters ransacked the family's bakery, ramming with a door and stuffing their pockets with everything they could find. since the interview last hour the gofundme page has more than doubled, means a lot of people have been watching this and paying attention to it, sandra,

and has been digging deep and helping him out. now stands at almost $40,000 of a $75,000 -- >> sandra: and i said to ruben, these small businesses are historically the engine of america. we need them to thrive and it is amazing to see viewers that saw that interview and are stepping up. it's more than doubled since he came on last hour. >> john: it baffles me why people in a community, i assume the people did not come in from elsewhere to ransack the place, did not come in from north hollywood or places like that, why do they ruin places in their own community? >> sandra: took everything in sight, cash registers, the meat scales, all the food, lottery tickets, they took everything, destroyed the place and he is right now rebuilding and he is partially opened his doors as of today, we wish him the best. now this. nancy pelosi, her investment portfolio is back in the spotlight and the former house

speaker outperformed the s & p 500 more than double last year, controversial stock options. i know you've got your co-host taylor back this week. >> happy to have her back. >> sandra: stock options are not in and of themselves controversial, explain, elizabeth, why this particular transaction or these transactions are controversial. >> they are controversial because you know, first of all, you don't want to increase the cynicism of the american voter any more, they already feel you have an inside seat on legislation and you are going into d.c. paupers and coming out millionaires with mansion. directional bets, they have been making calls and put options on

stocks, like microsoft, google, disney, tied to the direction how legislation is going to affect the market. >> sandra: obviously concern that lawmakers would be getting information and privy to information not widely available to the public, not necessarily insider trading, but is it fair that with their access that they're benefitting? >> they know how the regulations are going to affect certain companies and if you know that, one of the best ways to get rich is to buy options. because your outlay is very limited and your up side is huge and that's what you are seeing with these guys. i'll tell you, if they were really good at their day jobs, maybe i wouldn't be so mad about them trading during the day and getting rich. but the problem is they can't balance a budget and yet somehow they are creating these returns that outstrip the s & p, that outstrip everybody else. >> sandra: put it up on the screen, some of the members of congress we are talking about where their portfolios are quite

clearly outperforming the s & p 500 stock return, the benchmark for most investors. why is that? >> that's the issue. so you know, the other issue, too, you don't hear about the trades until a month and a half later, maybe they should disclose them more rapidly to the american people and nancy pelosi resisted senator josh hawley's efforts to get what's the stock act, meaning disclosing these stock trades ahead of time. so you know -- >> gravy train for them. don't want to get off this thing. >> sandra: she did defend this trading, 2021, flash back to that moment. >> because this is a free market and people, we are free market economy that should be able to participate in that. >> sandra: it is a free market. >> she loves free markets now, wealth creation. pay your share share but i'm going to trade on all the info i've got and it's a free market. it's ok. >> unbelievable, 160 million,

trades, 11,000 -- >> look at the jump in options. >> again, directional bets, they know what legislation, how it's going to move the market so doing these options trading is a directional bet. >> sandra: it's not a guarantee. >> it's not a guarantee. it does not look good. don't want to be near anything that doesn't look good. >> sandra: great to have you both here. >> john: so much for the final warning. houthi rebels launching another attack in the red sea and with a weapon that they have yet to use before against the u.s. and commercial shipping. we'll ask michael allen what the escalation in the conflict means, coming up next. okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete,

balanced nutrition for strength and energy. yay - woo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health. and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. (♪) somebody would ask her something... ...and she would just walk right past them. she didn't know they were talking to her. i just could not hear. i was hesitant to get the hearing aids because of my short hair. but nobody even sees them. our nearly invisible hearing aids are just one reason... ...we've been the brand leader for over 75 years. when i finally could hear for the first time, i could hear everything. try miracle-ear hearing aids with no commitment... ...during our resolution to hear better event. call 1-800-miracle now.

i found a cheaper price on my meds with singlecare. did you say singlecare? i use singlecare. are we talking singlecare? i saved 40 bucks with singlecare. -that's cool. - yeah. i have all my customers check the singlecare price first. good job. whenever my customers ask me if there's a cheaper price on their meds. i always tell them about singlecare.

you just search your prescription, find the best price and show your coupon, in the app, to the pharmacist. i found a cheaper price with singlecare! i know. download the singlecare app free today. hi, i'm sharon, and i lost 52 pounds on golo. i realized i needed to make a change when i looked in the mirror and did not recognize myself. i saw the golo commercial and i liked how they weren't actors. they just seemed like people that were just happy with themselves and had true results. since being on golo, i truly feel like i'm back to the best me i can be. try golo. it worked for me, and i'm real. (soft music) #.

>> sandra: long time head of the nra has resigned. the nra cited health as the reason for the decision. but the move does just come days before the start of a new york civil trial where attorney general letitia james had been seeking his ousting, as well as financial penalties for alleged corruption at the nation's largest gun rights group. >> john: just hours after they were given a final warning, houthi rebels detonated an unmanned surface vessel within miles of ships in the red sea. iran-backed militia group has attacked commercial boats at least 23 times since november but the first time the rebels have deployed this kind of weapon in this conflict. michael allen, beacon strategies managing director, apparently the houthis have deployed these before, but first time in this current conflict. this would seem to indicate,

although it blew up far from the intended target, escalation by the houthis, particularly thumbing their nose at this coalition. >> michael: i think they are not listening to the united states by the hollow warnings from the united states and president biden, and not that hard of a call for president biden to think and conclude that maybe they are trying to provoke me, but maybe i need to do a little bit more in the name of deterrence to ensure one of these shots are not a miracle shot that knocks out or at least takes a shot at one of our ships and risks the lives of many of our u.s. sailors. >> john: you and i were talking in the break what happened with the u.s.s. stark in 1987, an iraqi jet shut two of them in the hull by accident. these things can happen. you said the hollow warnings

from the biden administration, i guess that would include the coalition as well. let's see if we can hear the echo around this, because clearly it was pretty hollow. this is what the coalition said to the houthis, let our message now be clear, clear, clear, we call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews. houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they threaten the lives of global economy and free flow of commerce in international waterways, and not long after that they sent this out there. >> houthis are not really communicating by way of statement or by way of twitter, per se. they are, as we say, voting with their feet. they are taking shots at us, they are taking actions at us. i think there is a fair degree of provocation that's involved and i know that sort of the theme of the biden administration is of course always to avoid escalation.

but what i think it's led to is sort of a paralysis by analysis situation at the biden national security council. i think we have to be willing to escalate a little bit more in order to sort of tamp down a lot of these forces that feel like they can take shots with impunity with the united states. >> john: like obama's line in the sand, he said this is a red line, don't cross it, and assad said watch. obama did not do anything. >> michael: and not just a black mark for the obama presidency and national security policy, it was a black mark for the united states, a black eye for all of us. looks like the united states will not live up to obligations. >> john: iran does not seem to be afraid of him at all, ok, so what we have done, we took out some rebels in syria, killed a number of them, we took out some

houthis who were driving little boats toward a commercial ship, took out the hezbollah guy in baghdad, did you have not gone after everybody in iran. do you have a sense iran is sitting back saying we know biden is only going to go so far so we will pull the strings on our proxies. >> i think they know religious zeal they want to get another nuclear deal going with the iranian regime at whatever cost. i think ideology, they believe in disarmament and if only the republicans would get out of the way and let us get back to dealing with the iranians they could save the relationship and put the region at peace. it's just not gonna happen. i wish it would. i don't want to be this way, i wish it would. >> john: you know, the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. >> michael: that's right.

>> john: sandra. >> sandra: third batch of documents pertaining to the late sex offender jeffrey epstein has just been released. combing through this. nate foy has been helping us do so. he's live from our new york city newsroom. what are we learning, nate? >> sandra, 29 documents were released in the past hour, over 400 pages, going through it as quickly as we can and once again, names in the clinton family have come up. so of course these names coming out as part of a 2015 defamation lawsuit between one of the accusers claiming she was sex trafficked by epstein and maxwell, names discussed to be searched through maxwell's phone as part of that defamation case include bill clinton, hillary clinton, prince andrew,

law.harvard.edu, and alan dershowitz, the attorney, hillary clinton's name coming through as we have seen former president bill clinton's name pop up each of the past two days. another thing to note, sandra, in one of the documents that was just released there is essentially a message book that came out, it's handwritten, notes for jeffrey epstein about who had called him, one of those notes reads "she had on the phone mr. harvey weinstein" so we'll keep looking into that, as well as the rest or as for the rest of the documents that we have had the chance to go through to this point. they explain through depositions a lot of the recruiting process for a lot of these young girls. some of them recruited by virginia's ex-boyfriend, many girls described epstein's home under the age of 18, some from different countries, so right now with these 29 documents being released that makes 88

documents that have come out to this point. virginia's lawyers tell us we can expect 240, and that process for those documents to be unsealed could stretch into monday. but we'll keep going through this newest batch of documents and let you know what we find. >> sandra: all right, nate foy live in new york city on the breaking news. thank you. >> here is the key, does not tell you what to do with it. has to be a push button somewhere. >> john: supposed to read the manual first. the biden administration continues to push e.v.s as the way of the future. but our own jeff flock found out firsthand it may not be so easy to take 1 on a road trip of 800 miles from chicago to new york. he's here to discuss what went wrong, why he didn't read the manual, and why you may want to stick with your gas-powered

vehicle just ahead. ♪ i've been everywhere, man ♪ ♪ i've been everywhere, man ♪ ♪ across the deserts bare, man ♪ ♪ i breathe the mountain air, man ♪ i'm not good being retired. i'm a pain in the neck. i like to be able to have a purpose. about three or four years ago, i wasn't feeling as if i was as sharp as i used to be. i saw the prevagen commercials. after a short amount of time taking prevagen, i started noticing a difference-- that i'm remembering this, i'm remembering that. i stopped taking prevagen and i found myself slacking back so i jumped right back on it. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription.

i'm jonathan lawson, here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85 and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three p's. what are the three p's? the three p's of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase,

and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54. what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month. i just turned 80. what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too. if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the #1 most popular whole life insurance plan available through the colonial penn program. options start at $9.95 a month. no medical exam, no health questions. your acceptance is guaranteed. and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate-lock, so your rate can never go up for any reason. so call now for free information, and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. and it's yours free just for calling, so call now for free information.

>> sandra: now is the time to buy an electric vehicle peer that is what so many americans are being told with a promise that more and more charging stations are being built across the country to accommodate that surge. but as our own jeff flock found out, driving and ev hundreds of miles on the highway through the heart of america is not exactly a joyride. and it is my pleasure to have you here in the studio. it is great to see you. we go by to way back to chicago. so what happened? on the road trip? >> you know, it wasn't that bad but i will say, and i like ev paulus, but the problem is if you take them along on road tris

there are things you should know and first of all like john pointed out how to turn the thing on which involves a little -- >> sandra: you weren't acting there, were you? >> i got in there and i didn't know what to do. so there you go. there is that appear the whole range thing. that is a big piece. a lot of people are right about range as well as i should be. if you stay on tesla's route, you will be fine. if you go back and have dinner, you may not -- >> sandra: this is the thing, anxiety over your ev. and if you do need to fill up or recharge in this case, you have to be concerned about where you are in the location if you don't know an area. >> that is what happened to us. we went to dinner and came back the next morning and we lost charge overnight. take a look. here is a little clip from our thing. >> celeste night we parked the car, we had 38 miles remaining.

this morning, i didn't do anything overnight. 15 miles remaining. and now it says go to the supercharger. we will have 2% of our charge left when we get to the supercharger. yikes! >> 3%. >> oh, gosh, we could have gone another 15 feet. >> sandra: [laughs] so, you like the evs but you don't like anxiety over the distance. >> i don't plan very well. i like to take a road trip and go wherever i want to go. this is cool. let's go over there. you know, you can't do a do a whole lot of that and still be charged up. >> sandra: jeff flock like spontaneity in his travels. we are learning more about jeff, john. >> john: spontaneity, there you go.

>> sandra: john, are you into the evs and gotten behind the wheel of one? >> john: i have. my older daughter has a tesla model 3 and i loved it. i drove it around. but i got a sense because she was living in napa at the time and she drove us down to san francisco airport. all the way, i was watching that charge because it's not like a gas tank where you just pull in and fill it up. you have to little bit a time commitment and there. i got a sense they are great for running around town commuting trips, not so much. >> sandra: i am sensing you're not a great backseat driver. >> john: me? are you kidding me? there is only one place to sit. >> sandra: you are the best. it is so great to have you here, jeff. good to see you. >> but is always a pleasure to go back to chicago in your roots. >> john: glad you made it back to new york, jeff. >> yeah i'm a next time i will take an airplane. >> sandra: good have you.

>> john: you might want to put the car in the garage because barreling to the east coast placing 20 million americans from north carolina all the way to maine under winter advisories threatening to dump rain and snow in places like new york, boston, philadelphia. it could be the region's first significant snowfall in two years. wouldn't the ski areas love that question what the forecast to warn drivers particularly those that cannot figure out how to start their tesla and to keep an eye out for the road as well. >> sandra: one less parting shot. we do need some snow though, but we don't want too much. john, this has been -- >> john: snow belongs in the mountains. >> sandra: jam-packed two hours and fun ones at that. thank you so much for joining us. never miss us and we will see you next week. i'm sandra smith. >> john: i hope you have a great weekend and i'm john roberts and those who want to take a drive in january, too bad. "the story" starts