kirk franklin joins us now. when you have dallas, texas royalty. >> that legend stuff.nd that stuff? i'm very glad to be here with you and very proud of you and, you know, y'all just hometown. >> we have the same spiritual father. >> he is our hero. >> lawrence: you wrote this new album and you told me i wasn't looking for my father but he came to your presence. >> you know, it was a cosmic collision where in the middle of some random people at a funeral, a conversation started happening between individuals, then after two dna tests and my biological mother's denial still of it, the man who i hated for 53 years that i thought was my father because he was not in my life. i was adopted. my biological mother and father were not in my life consistently. and this middle of all of this experience i was working on an album already and i happened to have a young man that i just hired, incredible young videographer for the album. i used that energy to continue the process of the experience i was going through with finding out who i thought was my father is not really my father.

kirk franklin's album "father's day" is out right now. today is the 14th. 11 days to christmas. today on the gigantic advent calendar. >> all my kids have chocolate ones at home. >> a holiday week of squeaky tennis balls from crewy.com. >> bill: this might be great news but hang on. we're dealing with putin on this. evan gershkovitch and paul whalen are americans. a chance they could come home. putin hopes to find a solution to release them from jail. they have been in moscow for some time. what it all means is not clear. gershkovitch is the reporter for the "wall street journal" detained since last may. whalen has been behind bars for five years, december of 2018. so we're watching that story. we'll bring you updates if they become available. meanwhile we are off to the races, america. a federal prosecutor accused of running interference for joe biden will testify this morning all part of the official house impeachment investigation which became official as of 5:29 yesterday eastern time. good morning, everybody. it's thursday. you almost made it. i'm bill hemmer. >> dana: i'm