holiday shoppers are in the mood to buy more. except in the bay area, apparently. plus tonight, as the fourth republican presidential debate, the final one before the iowa caucus is in

january. is anyone emerging as a true challenger to donald trump on the republican side? and as san mateo county attraction is suddenly a tourist hotspot for chinese visitors, thanks to president biden and chinese president xi jinping's historic meeting there. we'll show you what the leaders left behind and take you on a tour of its holiday event. i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us for getting answers today. tis the season to be jolly for retailers looking at the potential for higher spending by americans this holiday shopping season except the bay area may be bucking the trend. joining us live now is lupine's kelly, lead researcher of retail for deloitte insights, an arm of deloitte consulting, which did the study. thanks for joining us. lupine >> thanks for having me. >> so the national trend suggests shoppers will be spending more. is that right? how much more? >> that's correct. we're seeing consumers say they're coming out, they're planning to spend and really in the bay area, it's kind of bucking the trend.

they're planning to spend about 2150 this year, and that is the second year we've seen a decline in. >> we've got some graphics. let's just throw one up and then we can talk about it. right. all right. so plan spending. 2151, that is for the bay area for you said that is a decrease, yet it is still 30% higher than the national average. >> yes, that's correct. people in the bay area typically spend a little bit more than the national average. it's one of the hotter markets in the us. >> so explain this, because i find this interesting right, that the $200,000 and up income group so those are the folks who make decent money are feeling the impact. what does this mean? are they spending less? >> yeah, it's sort of interesting when we look at why the pullback is happening in the bay area. we really see two reasons. so one, inflation is just top of mind for consumers and people are navigating that. but the second reason is that that 200 k income group is planning to spend about 15% less. so whether that's inflation or just concern about

the stagnant housing market, there's a lot of kind of economic factors that could be getting into their psyche this year. >> okay. so let's talk about some of them. i mean, we've definitely reported on layoffs in the tech sector, right? this is a huge tech area. inflation is another one. but what are some of the other reasons that shoppers say may be keeping them from spending more? >> yeah, i mean, there's a couple things going on. one, we've seen student repayments come back this fall. i think the stagnant housing market is a big one. we talk about and then maybe concerns about bonuses this this december for and just, you know, stock market in general. >> all right. so let's talk about the national trends. i know on your website, you had a couple of graphics that i thought were very informative. so let's go ahead and pull one of those up now. so it shows the general spending trend and it seems like people are spending and holidaying like it's 2019. yeah it's really interesting. >> you know, people have held back the past several years with

the pandemic. and i think there is this need to kind of re calibrate and get out there. we're seeing people really not only buy gifts but plan to spend on non gift items. so they're planning to replenish their home decor and decorate options. they're going to replenish their party apparel. so people really are kind of diving back into the holidays this year. >> is there any sense whether people are still looking for deals? >> yeah, that's probably one of the most interesting things we've seen in terms of behavior. that's occurred because of inflation. so people are saying, hey, i'm going to spend, but it's really going to be during those heavily discounted periods. so we've seen people, you know, in the bay area, 77% said they were planning to shop black friday, cyber monday, and that was up from 55% last year. so i think it just shows how important it is to get a good deal this year. >> all right. and on the retailers end, what is the strategy there? knowing what you know? >> yeah, it's tough for

retailers right now, right? it's sort of the consumer really needs that promotion to get them motivated. so we really expect retailers to kind of lean into their loyalty programs. and that's an opportunity to kind of message to them special exclusive offers or even give them discounts on shipping and that sort of thing. >> all right. well, that's all really useful information. and it's interesting what's happening here in the bay area, but folks are still spending. thank you so much from deloitte insights. lupine skelly, really appreciate your time. >> thanks so much. >> all right. coming up next, we have a whole lot coming up for you andou don't want to go away. we'll be

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is suddenly an international regional destination. it's all thanks to that high profile meeting in november between president biden and chinese president xi jinping. as part of the apec summit, this video was viewed around the world, especially in china. joining us live now is kara newport, ceo of filoli historic home and garden. kara, thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. so locally, many of us know or have visited filoli, but it seems like suddenly you've gone into national thanks to last month's meeting of the presidents, right ? absolutely. yeah. it's been a very exciting time for us and everybody knows our name now, so that's really great. >> yeah. so for those who don't and maybe we can you can tell us about it while we look at some of the pictures from their visit. walk us through some of these locations. pictured on your website. so let's start with any of them. let's put one up, folks. >> all right. okay, great.

>> all right. this is so the entrance of our house. >> yeah. 54,000 sqre ft manse. and that's where they first met. and had theamou handshakehereand i think it really represented a grand america's ho and a place where both parties felt comfortable and. and we could be really a place of welcome. >> and this is the outside the exterior of at butiful mansion, which, by the way, real quickly d i know we covered this during the summit, but how did this estate in this mansion come about? >> so the mansion was built in 1915 by william bowers, born, and it's a 50 400 zero square foot georgian revival style. but it has its own california flair. it's just, you know, the things that everybody loves. that's our our grand ballroom where the meeting took place. and it's just it's just an amazing example of architecture and history all in one place.

>> i've been there before. let me tell you, it is really grand. let's go back to your website and the wonderful pictures you talked about, that ballroom. i did see that meeting of leaders sitting around that long table there. right. this is that room, right. wow. look at that tapestry. >> it is. yeah. it's's great. on the walls are are murals of muckross estate in ireland. and so those were prominently featured both for the meeting. and then also here you have the press conference that took place at the end of the day, which was which was great to have that the ballroom featured in 2 in 2 ways during the day. is this part of the ballrooreith the grand piano or is that a ballroom? these beautiful chandeliers, these veryreh and spired? it's a it's a great place for all kinds of events. and we have it decorated for the holidays right now. >> all right. let's keep taking a look. and of course, they walked on the grounds. this video was, you know, aired all around the world. tell us about your garden and grounds. >> so we have 16 acres of formal gardens. so this is an area of

formal gardens behind the house. so this was located directly kind of out the back door of the house. and then that next few there is our sunken garden with a garden house in the in the background and also a beautiful location behind that. we have a walled garden with with lots of different garden rooms in it. we have a tennis court and a pool and butiful vistas there you see, of the santa cruz mountains in the background. let's go back to the last one, that pool. >> i took a picture in front of it when i had a chance to visit. i think it was december 2020. it is so beautiful. yeah and look at it when the flowers are in bloom. i know a lot of people who are into horticulture and flowers like to visit as well. and really, there are hiking tours, too, right? not tours. hiking trails. >> there are, yes, we have it's i call it the whole california experience. maybe it's up the coast. we have hiking trails. have redwoods. we have six different ecosystems. and we have these beautiful gardens that can almost grow anything

from around the world. and we just opened our vegetable garden a few years ago, which has been a place where we've been able to feature the different vegetables grown and especially chinese vegetable oils this year, martin yan, chef martin yan is on our board. and so we've done some features of chinese vegetables in our garden. and there you have pictures of our beautiful holiday season. i mean, this is this is the time to come and see it lighted at night and beautifully decorated during the day. really. it's stunning either way. and a great time to come out and enjoy fillled. >> lily, look at that. yeah you'll want to bundle up. i did it during the christmas season and the lights were gorgeous and you want to be outside it can be chilly because it's northern california. and of course the mansion is gorgeous with tons of christmas trees and decor. let me ask you, what are people saying about all this on chinese social media? >> you know, we've gotten great reviews. i think that the summit was successful so that that was really great. and i think and i think that we have really

aspired to be a place of welcoming of all cultures and for people from all around the world. and i think that that came through. and i also think, you know, we already had a great following from the chinese community. and then also we have chinese representatives on our board. and i think that that was really important and helpful in making this place feel like a place for everyone. and so the chinese community has been very excited. lots of both local, national and international tourists coming to see where all of the famous things took place and taking taking their pictures with a handshake on the at the front has been really great. and also we have we have the signatures of both. >> we have that on the website. let's go back to that so we can show it to our viewers. right. because the two leaders did leave something behind after their historic meeting. so go to the end there and you can see, i believe this is probably something that the tourists or visitors would be interested in.

right there. >> there it is. yeah >> yeah, it's really great. and actually, we have an interactive guest book where modern guests this is our actually our historic guest book that we had the president sign. and we've said, you know, any president who visits from now on can sign that historic guest book. and we have modern guest books that are every every day visitors can sign and be part of that history of filoli as well. >> all right. so president biden's on the right. he said he looks forward to visiting again. and then chinese president xi jinping on the left just signed his name and then wrote the date. so can people see this? yeah >> yes, it is on display. >> yes. and you can add your name to the regular visitors. >> yeah. >> okay. so have groups reached out to you for tours or anything like that? >> definitely, yes, definitely. >> lots of groups have been coming. individuals and groups we've hosted some actually relatively large groups. and you know, the interesting thing for us is that we were really

excited about a direct flight returning from china and a welcoming chinese tourist. and so now there's even more of a reason for us to have a chinese connection, which is very exciting to us. >> i can tell that was a market of interest for you because the video from a couple of years ago, the holiday one was done actually, there's a version in chinese language. so i imagine that's always been a market, right? is that very important to you? >> that's right. and we started advertising in chinese language when i arrived in 2017. so we've been reaching out to not only the chinese community, but other other language, language specific communities in and native languages. i think that that's really important. and so the chinese community was was really kind of first for us because there's a lot of shared values with what filoli represents, especially with with the gardens and, you know, and the and the beautiful house and some of our some of our historic objects are chinese as well. you

had just shown a model screen that was a chinese gift that was given in in the states and has made its way to filoli. so we have chinese antiquities as well that are part of the filoli story. some beautiful chinese bowls and other things. >> right. >> okay. so we've seen how gorgeous it looks, right now. the holiday season, it's already decked out in lights. what other events year round do you have a filoli? >> we are we are an active place year round. we'll have some winter events, particularly we will have a new jazz series in the ballroom around valentine's day. so that's really when we start and actually one of our new favorites is we partner with the hanfu society to help us kick off kick off spring and traditional chinese dress. so it seems like a running theme here. and so that kicks off spring. summer's is super popular because we're open in the evening for summer nights and we'll have some other activities

and some performances. and we also had a halloween event this year that will be continuing next year. so every season you can find something at 5-08. >> all right, kara newport, ceo of filoli historic home and garden. >> thank you so much for coming on. and sharing this beautiful place with us. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. thank you. >> all right. coming up, the republican presidential debate is tonight and it's the last one before the first votes are cast next month. we've got a preview on that and talk about former house speaker congressman kevin mccarthy's big announcement today. next on getting answers

month, four candidates will be on stage, cut in half since the first debate. they are former un ambassador and former south carolina governor nikki haley, entrepreneur vivek ramaswami. florida governor ron desantis and trump critic and former new jersey governor chris christie. joining us live now to preview

the debate and give us the latest in the 2024 race, hoover institution fellow former republican for california state controller and political commentator lanhee chen. hey, lonnie. >> hi. how are you? >> i'm good, thanks. so given recent dynamics in the republican race, what can we expect tonight? >> well, you know, look, i think voters are going to be voting in the state of iowa before too long here within the next month. and so republican candidates who are not named donald trump really have very few opportunities left to make an impression. so tonight's debate is going to be significant. what i really want to watch for, kristen, is whether these candidates begin to more directly train their fire at donald trump versus one another. i think thus far, we've seen some fireworks between vivek ramos swamy and nikki haley, for example. but really, the question in my mind is how much they turn their attention to donald trump. and then i would say a secondary issue is this battle between nikki haley and ron desantis. those really are the two most likely candidates to finish in second place to be

the primary candidates to take on trump. and we'll see to what degree they go at one another tonight. is there also a risk for them in taking him on in that maybe somebody hoping to get the vp nod should trump become the nominee? yeah, i don't see that happening for desantis or haley. i think if vivek ramaswami wanted to put himself in that position, he's very certainly, you know, very certainly could be a consideration for trump given the posture that ramaswami has taken during this campaign, which is generally to be very friendly toward trump. but i think, you know, certainly chris christie, nikki haley, ron desantis, none of those three is going to be trump's vice presidential pick, at least not that i can see. and so i don't think that's the risk. i think the risk that they may see in going more directly after trump is eroding their own support either in this campaign or potentially for a future campaign. if they are not to be successful this time around. >> can any of those four realistically knock trump off the top perch on the republican

side at this point? >> it doesn't look likely, but, you know, no one's actually voted yet. we don't actually know how this race will take shape. and if donald trump has a less than stellar night in iowa come in the middle of january, if he happens to underperform, let's say we all expect him to win by, say, 20 points. if he wins by 4 or 5, does that then create additional pressure on on him in new hampshire and subsequent states? is there a scenario where potentially he gets pressure and as a result ends up not collapsing? but but beginning to erode this aura of invincibility? i think it's possible. it's not probable, but it is possible. and what it's going to take, frankly, kristen, is a consolidation even further in the field. there's going to have to be one person putting pressure on him from iowa all the way through. i don't see anybody getting out before iowa at this point. so really what this is all about is can the field consolidate quickly after

iowa, let's presume trump doesn't perform as well as we might expect. that's the scenario that we would need to see potential opening for somebody else in this race right ? >> you're right. because if there's underperformance on trump's part and then, you know, the field becomes smaller, then more money will go to the candidate whether it's nikki haley or somebody else. right and then that does put more pressure. okay. so we'll see. but lonnae, you heard today a nevada grand jury indicted six pro trump fake electors. so with more and more indictments related to election fraud and something trump is personally connected with, you've got to think that this is adding up for some republican voters, right? well this is the big x factor. >> you know how much of the legal trouble that donald trump is in gets resolved before people actually vote. and the one thing we know from the polling we've seen is that even amongst republican voters, there is concern about voting for a convicted felon. and there's certainly concern about voting for a convicted felon amongst independents and anybody who is

not affiliated with the republican party who might vote for donald trump. so the big issue is going to be how much of this, if any, gets resolved before people start voting. my sense, at least on the trump legal issues, is that none of those end up getting sorted until we get to the late summer at earliest. and by then, you know, he will have already been selected in many scenarios as the republican nominee. and it does put the republicans in a tough spot. if you have somebody who is a convicted felon and the nominee of the party. so as i see it, you know, a lot of the legal troubles probably suggest that a rocky road is ahead for donald trump. but we ultimately don't really know how that's going to impact things if and until there's a disposition in one of these cases. >> all right. so what's the latest, if that's a possibility in terms of the dynamics in the biden trump possible rematch? right what are the latest polls showing? because we've been hearing about, you know, some polls showing biden may trail in that case in some polls. does that mean there might be more of a real challenge on the

democratic side or not? >> well, there's a few factors, i think, that are important for viewers to consider. >> first of all, the national polling is pretty meaningless when you look at at polls that are taken that basically say, look, here's the biden trump race generically from a national perspective, that doesn't tell us a whole lot because really, us presidential elections tend to come down to a handful of states, probably 6 or 7 to be exact. so we really need to look at what's happening in those states. now, when you drill down what you find is that the president, president biden, is running behind the former president, donald trump, in a number of those states. and so there is cause for concern. if you look at wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, georgia, nevada, arizona, those are usually the six states that we look at. and in those six states, the former president is leading and in some cases leading quite significantly. so there's reason for the biden team to be concerned. i would say the economy continues to be the driving issue that is that is keeping the president's numbers

where they are. i would say furthermore, for what we see around the world on our television screens every day in the middle east, that has taken a toll as well on the president's numbers. so there's a long way to go. kristen, before the election. and so it's tough for us to draw a lot of definitive conclusions now. but as it stands, president biden does find himself in a difficult scenario and he's going to have some work to do if he wants to beat donald trump, if donald trump is indeed the nominee. now, what what throws everything off, of course, is if trump ends up getting convicted, then then the dynamic changes significantly. obviously but let's just assume the facts. as we know them today. >> all right. before i let you go, i want to tackle one big political headline today, and that's former house speaker kevin mccarthy, who was kicked out by a faction of his own party from leadership, announcing today he's leaving congress at the end of the year a year early. what does this mean for the republican party and for the house? >> it's telling because if you look at the house, a lot of prominent republicans, you know, another one, a guy called patrick mchenry, who some of

your viewers may recognize, he was the speaker pro tempore during the interregnum when republicans didn't have a speaker. patrick mchenry recently announced he was leaving kevin mccarthy. obviously today, you know, the house is not what it used to be. and i think for a lot of these people who grew up in a very different environment, a very different era, what they see today in terms of the lack of good policy making, the increase in polarization in congress, i think these are reasons why folks leave. and, you know, it's a different place. and what matters the influence that matters is very different than the influences that matter. just as recently as 4 or 5 years ago. so it doesn't surprise me that kevin mccarthy is leaving and it's going to open up a competitive race on the republican side to see who replaces him for his bakersfield area district. >> that's traditionally a safe republican seat. right. so we'll see what happens. but so many veterans leaving. all right, lonnie chen, thank you so much. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> a reminder, you can get our live newscast. breaking news, weather and more with our abc7

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i'll see you back tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the deadly shooting on campus in las vegas. authorities say multiple victims. the images coming in now. the shooting at the university of nevada-las vegas. several victims have died at unlv. the gunman is also dead. for some, final exams were under way, just before the holiday break. and what we have just learned about the victims toni