next. [♪] david: good evening, i'm david webb sitting in for the vacationing lou dobbs. washington remains motionless as we head into the new year. house speaker nancy pelosi clutching on to the radical left's articles of impeachment against president trump showing no signs of making headway with the senate. but the standoff that started last week is unlikely to see movement until next year. republicans are coalescing even further behind the president. >> everybody knows it will end

in acquittal. we don't tell the house of representatives how to run our business, they shouldn't be telling us how to run our business. >> we need to wrap it up. >> the result of a fair trial, the impeachment claims will be thrown out. david: the longer pelosi waits, the more she exposes her party's indecision about moving forward as nothing more than a spiteful partisan exercise. a new report says senate dems are bracing for the president to seek acquittal. a unified republican party waiting out nancy pelosi, his administration taking decisive action overseas. the fall foliage authorizing in the strikes on five facilities in syria and iraq belong an

iranian militia. this decision killed an american defense contractor. for more, we turn to white house correspondent, kevin corke, who is traveling with the president in west palm beach, florida. >> this was a defensive action designed to protect american forces and american citizens in iraq. and it was aimed at deterring iran. reporter: their message to tehran was loud and clear. five targets were hit by the u.s., targets controlled bid an iran-backed militia. >> this administration made a fund amount salt shift from where president obama and his team were. we put enormous resources to deny resources to hezbollah and the shiia forces that came after

americans. reporter: the strikes hit three locations in the iraq and two others in syria. sunday's retaliation targeting iranian proxies and new concerns of a possible escalation of hostilities that could lead to a proxy war with iran or worse. >> we are warning the united states as we warned before, their illegal presence means they are standing against the iraqi people and the iraqi people have the right to confront them with all times of the resistance. reporter: a resistance that sees them reef lying more heavily on russia and china. its relationship with iran presents a unique challenge for the kremlin and its relationship with the united states. while tehran remains a reliable

strategic partner in the region. its link to terrorism is something moscow promised to fight. vladimir putin thanked president trump in a phone call for preventing a terror attack on russian interests. reporter: may 9 the president is planning on attending the victory celebration. the president said he was open to the idea, but it's an election year so we'll see if he takes him up on that's invitation. david: joining me now, dr. walid phares. dr., great to see you. we have a lot to cover here. a lot of news in the last 24 hours. but how we got here matters.

we had different tangents to this. the taliban and the middle east, iraq, syria and the kurds. here we have the president striking back after the death of an american contractor. all this leading to where we are in the strikes. what message do you think that sends versus the bluster from iran. >> this is a very intense time crossing into 2020 and it will continue through the early part of next year. in iraq it was expected because of the last let's say six months, the iranian militia were conducting operations of pressure against our forces. but the minute they kill an american contractor by shelling or targeting the base, then our decision was simple. we need to defend ourselves. if you do not react to the killing of american citizens or

soldiers, what's going to happen next? they will come together. why the iranian militias are doing cities in probably because of two reasons. to remove our forces from iraq so iran will further control. there was something else i would like to mention. continues mid october there are huge demonstrations against the iranian government control of iraq. it's one of the reasons they want to weaken us so we are not connecting with those demonstrations. so it could be that strategic at the end of the day. david: let's stay on the discussions and protests going on in iran for a moment. and go to their perspective. oftentimes in american media as we would in the west, we look at it from our perspective. what does the ayatollah, the iranian revolutionary guard corps, how do they see this. they say they need to show

strength, but they have a problem in their country with the population. >> iran as the regime, iraq and syria and lebanon and yellen. what was happened over the past two months now since mid october is the fact that out of remember man you have an uprising you have a larger uprising and a deeper uprising in iran. it's a concern because of this uprising across the region. what do they do? they want to change the attention from the demonstrators and all the uprise together confrontation with the united states. the risks they are taking and the facts certainly under the years of the previous administration, there was no reaction. now it may be different for them and they saw a piece of it yesterday. david: we saw a lot of news coming out of the

administration. the secretary of state mike pompeo speaking on this. the recent development of cooperative limit exercise between iran, russia and china, we all know there is a republic of korea, the north korean component. what message does that send? >> in recent months when iran would conduct an aggressive action against us. ment in region said why aren't you taking' action. why are all these militias moving and you are not retaliating unless and until they kill one of our citizens. iran is not alone. if you want to engage the iranians, you have to be conscious they are back bid russia and china. this latest development of joint exercise in the indian ocean closer to iran and oman is a

serious message to the united states and our local allies. it says iran is under our umbrella. so our strategy has to be very cautious about how to engage the iranians. "quick one for you. the president clearly identified the indopacific region as an area. not just china and the south china sea. the president led on that issue of detailing the next potential conflict. >> the indopart of the indopacific is iran. and the pacific, we are talking about china. so this is a shift in our strategy to pay attention to where the other side can cause damage by extension.

david: new developments in the weekend stabbing attack on five orthodox jews. the man accused of carrying out the attack in monsey new york is facing federal hate crime charges. his family says he has long suffered from mental illness and isn't an anti-semite. prosecutors say they found thomas' journals that include anti-semitic leverages to nazis. this trend has been going on in the new york area since december 23. in texas, investigators praising the actions of church parishioners for stopping a gunman's deadly rampage. the second attack left two dead, but after a member of the

church's parishioners stepped in. now to the left's push to remove president trump from office. destroying joe biden's 2020 hopes? we'll take that up and more with hud secretary ben carson. stay with us.

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david: owb wall street stocks closed lower for the week. the s & p falling 19. the nasdaq down 16 points, and volume on the business board 3.1 billion shares.

silver closed at under $18 an ounce. white house trade advisor peter navarro expressing optimism in that phase one of the trade deal with china could be signed in the next few days. >> all we are waiting for on the china deal is to trance late the english version into the chinese version. put that one in the bank. we'll have a signing on that within the next week or so. david: a reminder to listen to lou's reports three types a day coast to coast on the salem radio network. new video taken by one our producers shows the blight of homelessness in san francisco. president trump is taking aim at new york city and california as a whole. but new york's socialist mayor bill deblasio isn't willing to

take the blame. david lee miller has the story. reporter: the new york city mayor a long time critic of president trump is asking president trump for help to combat homelessness. he said previous presidents failed to do enough to help the homelessness. and he sing he singled -- he singled out the trump administration. >> the federal government need to help us with section 8 vouchers. the federal government provided money for people to get apartments in private housing. but the number of section 8 vouchers decrease. and you have seen the hud budget is basically zeroed out. reporter: mr. trump tweeted out, california and new york must do something about their tremendous

homeless problems. if their governor can't handle the situation, they must call and politely ask for help. would be so easy with confidence. deblasio announced a new program committed to reducing homelessness in five years. they have moved 125,000 into housing and advocates believe that number could be significantly higher. david: joining me now, secretary of housing and urban development, dr. ben carson. great to see you, sir. this time during the holidays when so many people are charitable across this country, a lot of attention paid to the homeless crisis. your recent reports show a ..7% rise -- a 2.7% increase across

the country. but that's largely driven by california's increase of 16%. my first question is the human capital. the cost. and these are lives, not just numbers. what does that mean to you? >> well, you know, i have been to california a number of times, and i have seen those people. first of all, i recognize across the country, if you take the other 49 states and average it out, homelessness is going down. there is enough an increase in california, 16.4% to drive the entire equation up by 2.7%. it tells you how significant the problem is. you have so many people on the street who are just miserable. you look at them. they have lost hope. we have to realize. these are fellow american citizens. in many cases they are people

who are incapable of taking care of thems themselves. in other cases they are people who have fallen on hard times. in riter case we have the ability to take care of them. but this is a state and local government responsibility. it's not the responsibility of the federal government. the federal government is quite willing to help in these situations, particularly given the fact that it's reached crisis proportions in california. but it will require the local authorities and the state to cooperate, stop throwing firebombs and wanting to actually get this thing done. david: i know as a doctor you may look at things in a holistic batter. let's talk about resources. the resources being applied, god applied -- -- governor newsom

has aplead resources to the problem. how do we reconcile money and resources. >> in science we like to look at the facts. we like to look at the evidence. that's what i would strongly them this case. look at others. we have 50 laboratories, 50 states that do things in various ways. let's look at the ones that are highly successful. look at texas and how much their homelessness has gone down the last 5-7 years. significant decreases because the policies don't encourage people to sleep on the streets. they encourage people to go to the places where they can get the kind of help that will get them into the street situation. and then i have to look at the way people treat people who are mentally ill. some people say it's compassionate to let them do anything they want to do.

that's not compassionate at all. what's compassionate is helping people who can't take care of themselves manage. if we can get them into the right setting so they get proper medication. many of them become quite functional at that point. david: what's the correlation between the politics of this that is a component here as we look at a number of states. there is also weather and the homeless. you would think typically in the warmer states, this writes they would be. but in the recent hud report on homelessness, the facts lead us in a different direction. >> that's correct. some of the states with the lowest amounts of homelessness are warm states, louisiana,al bamw and ms and virginia. a lot of times the policies are problematic.

people don't mean to do bad things. in a housing first, for instance. it's meant to be a good thing. get people off the street, you don't have any requirements on them and you have done your job. but i think it should be housing first, second and third. housing second, why are they on the street in the first place. housing third, you fix it. that's where the real compassion comes in. just to have housing first has resulted in a detriment to transitional housing beds of 770,778. and the unsheltered homeless rate has gone up 35,000. do the math. we may have the number of beds we need to take care of them. but when you exclude the number of transitional bed, you create a bigger problem. this is not a democrat problem.

they are republicans also. let's say taken in by the housing first strategy and not analyze the complete program and what the outcome is. you have to be able to look at all those facts. look at the data, then make your decisions based on that. not the ideology. that's the key to fixing this problem. david: secretary carson, thank you again for joining me tonight on lou dobbs. and a merry christmas belated to you and happy new year, sir. thank you. >> same to you, david, thank you so much. david: we would like to hear your thoughts on all of this. share your comments and follow lou on twitter @loudobbs. like him on facebook and follow him on instagram @loudobbstonight. up next, joe biden gets heckled at a new hampshire campaign

event. we'll take up his inability to shake accusations of corruption after the break. stay with ♪ limu emu & doug and now for their service to the community, we present limu emu & doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. and now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

david: a federal judge dismissing a lawsuit the judge ruling the house withdrew its request so there was no need for the lawsuit to go on. joe biden coming under fire on the campaign trail. take a listen as hecklers interrupt a rally for the former vp in the state of new hampshire. >> this is a democracy. i hope it does. i hope it does. let her go. let her go. david: the former vice president joe biden proving to be his own worst enemy.

he's unable to explain the corruption in his family that's been exposed by trump. all this as biden reversed course saying he would comply with a subpoena during the president's impeachment trial. joining me now the trump 2020 campaign director, and mark simone. great to see you here. ladies first, we have known each other quite some time. quid pro quo joe in the nation's first primary state. is he in trouble? >> joe biden should give his campaign the new slogan, i'm confused. half the time he doesn't know what state he's in and what policies he supports. and he back peddled on the senate impeachment trial.

he would have absolutely said yes you have to follow anies. let's remember, joe biden has been a terrible candidate for decades. you would think 30 years on trying to run for president, the man would have a better idea of what he stand for. he can't run on his record as senator or let alone the president of the united states. he loves being on the campaign trail. he already announced two rallies in the month of january. president trump loves it, joe biden hates it. we are ready to win again in 2020. david: mark simone, joe biden was having trouble explaining his positions. a couple radio guys. it looks like he's reaching for attention. every couple hours there is a new biden. is that what it is? >> it looks like he's reaching

for the medicine. when you look back after he leaves the race, the dnc, the fake news media, the democrats, the debates, the other candidates got together. we'll cover for him. whenever it's brought up. they say there is no evidence of wrongdoing. this is a huge mistake. he doesn't know what to say. he looks like a deer in the headlights when somebody yells at him. he shoulded have told the moderators, ask me about it in the debates. is he actually thinking the first time he responds to donald trump in a debate about it? that will be a disaster. david: i call him put'em up joe. here is senator kennedy on what the republicans may or should do. >> i think senator mcconnell is entitled to his opinion and

his approach. when it comes to impeachment the rule is there are virtually no substantive rules. there are no standards of proof. there are no rules of evidence. and every senator, unless we pass a new rule by 51 votes in the senate, is entitled to approach it his own way. david: so, aaron, what happens when nancy pelosi transmits the articles of impeachment? >> i understand the american people's frustration. they want vindication. the democrats promised clear evidence of collusion and clear evidence of they have got it all. we have seen nothing. it's understandable people want vindication. some just say go for a trial. >> yeah, i think mitch mcconnell is going to make sure the senate does this appropriately. when the articles of impeachment are transmitted. nancy pelosi is saying this is

such a crisis. we have to impeach him now. and she sits on the articles during the holiday break because it's not that important to her. nancy doesn't know what's going on because she knows impeachment is not supported by the majority of americans. she said it needs to be bipartisan and overwhelming support to impeach the president. the only overwhelming movement is against impeachment. he will have a fair trial in the senate, he will look at what the house has sent over. we could see a number of democrats who vote to acquit the president of the united states. david: what are your rinsers telling you? >> they can't figure out what to charge. obstruction of justice is a crime. obstruction of congress is what a president usually does.

you block spending, you veto a bill. abuse of power it's too vague to mean anything. >> what's not are the facts. thank you both. erin perini and mark simone. peter strzok pulls from lisa page's playbook and is playing the victim.

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david: welcome back. i'm david webb sitting in for the vacationing lou dobbs. some stories we are covering tonight. the fall foliage authorizing precision strikes on five facilities in iraq and syria. they belong to an iran any la shah in response to a rocket strike that killed an international airport can defense contractor. the man accused of attacking five orthodox jews during a hanukkah celebration in new york is facing hate crime charges. prosecutors say they found his journals that contain anti-semitic writings. joe biden announces he will comply if he's subpoenaed for

testimony during impeachment trial of president trump. peter strzok claiming in a court filing that the justice department violated his free speech and privacy rights. strzok challenging the dismissal over his anti-trump texts and his reference to an insurance policy in the event donald trump was elected. joining us, tom fitton. we had this discussion a couple weeks ago. here we are. this sounds like a three-man play or two-man, one woman play. lisa page, peter strork deflecting, intliemg one else, this coming after the i.g.'s report. comey saying at first the attack is stung and rocks the world -- stunning and rocks the world.

in i have been going after this material and helped bring this all out to life. what's the new information. >> they are trying to set a narrative for possible criminal prosecution for their illicit targeting of president trump and his team. when you hear strzok complain about privacy when he's alleged to have conducted a spying campaign on the trump campaign and the civil rights of the president of the united states. james comey spying on president trump illegally and leaking confidential fbi files about him. referred by the i.g. for criminal prosecution. i don't know why the department of justice declined to prosecute him for that. they are trying to put out a

counter narrative that they have been victimized as opposed to being the victimizers of president trump and other incertain americans. >> we have the i.g.'s report. i call that a bureaucratic report. it has parameters, not typically leading the prosecution. now we have the investigation and the criminal probe by durham. you are saying they are looking to protect themselves. but what are the charges they could face, specific charges? >> conspiracy, abuse of office, as it relates to violating the civil rights of americans, other violations of law converting public office for political purposes. targeting trump because they didn't like his politics. violations of law related to lie together courts.

potential perjury, obstruction of justice. i don't know if they will be prosecuted forward any of that. i am sceptical much will be done. but they ought to be nervous about it. strong especially has been protected by the fbi. we are asking for documents under a foia lawsuit and the fbi has been slow rolling the release of documents and didn't want to give them all to ups until at least the year 2021. so strzok has been protected by this gang game. and complaining about trump tweets is so weak. anyone else who did what these folks were alleged to have done in a private corporation or regular american, the justice department would fall on them like a ton of bricks. instead they are still agonizing over whether to prosecute them or not.

what a terrible city this is in terms of allowing this corruption to go by unpunished until now. david: is this an all-too often a case of the bureaucracy. i would bring up serious questions for the attorney general of the fbi director. >> i think the fbi director is awol on handling this fbi corruption that's been exposed. you have two senior leaders of the fbi, comey and mccabe both referred to the doj for criminal prosecution. attorney general barr, my guess is probably wants to pursue prosecutions. but he would probably have to write the indictments himself. he's surrounded by thousands of james comeys. you have to remember the bureaucracy is part of it. and anti-trump. you have to remember that's the bureaucracy durham and bar are

relying on to get the prosecutions completed. david: there is a missing name. hubert. is there anything going on in idaho? >> he was looking into the clintons. they sent six lawyers, justice department, state department lawyers to defend hillary clinton and try to shut down judicial watch's efforts to get more information about the emails from benghazi. the federal court judge cause sceptical. they just found 30 more clinton emails and they couldn't explain to the court how that magic happened. the justice department is still defending hillary clinton. that tells you a lot about what i expect in terms of prosecutions over spygate.

david: thank you, tom fitton. north korea promising to take more offensive measures. but is it more bluster from kim jong-un? we'll ask gordon chang right after the break. mental health and learning disorders are the most common illnesses of childhood and adolescence. 1 out of 5 young people struggle with disorders like depression, dyslexia, adhd, ocd, eating disorders, and anxiety.

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david: north korea's kim jong-un urging members of his workers party to quote take positive and offensive measures to insure the sovereignty and security of the country. the comments come a few hours before the deadline sent by the rogue nation over sanctions against its nuclear program. the trump administration remains hopeful. joining me now gordon chang. senior fellow at the gatestone institute. this north korea saber rattling. we see this during the holidays.

in the past they get the typical response, the six-party talks, it's different under trump. have we advanced under trump? >> in the last year and a half the president has tried to create this atmosphere where kim feels secure enough to give up his weapons and kim has not precip pro kaitd. i think president trump will drop the hammer on him in the new year at some point. i think president trump will lose patience. the north koreans have not been as good as their word. he has not fulfilled his promises to president trump to give up his weapons. david: you have got russia, and china keeping north korea the simmering pot available and running. within the rogue nation kim has

a group of his father's generals and leftovers. are they the ones pushing him away from just staying in power and denuclearization? >> oftentimes we don't know exactly what's going on. but this time there are hints that kim has put himself down in sort of markers saying he's going to get rid of all the sanctions. u.n. sanctions, u.s. rules. right now i think kim put himself into a corner. now he has all these holder guys from his father and grandfather. they will hold his feet to the fire on this. one of the reasons kim has been oh provocative in his language. he has to prove to them he's as good as his word. >> i mention china. china pushing him across the yalu river. there is the black market. but china and their economy,

it's a leverage game here. here is peter navarro earlier today on fox news talking about the china deal. >> all we are waiting for on the china deal is to translate the english version of the 86-page deal into the chinese version. that's a done deal, we'll probably have a signing in the next week or so. we are just waiting for the translation. david: phase one, then he talks about phase two. what's your take? >> we have a fact sheet from a u.s. trade representative. when that 86 panels comes out there will be and lot of people meeting that in the fine detail. china made a lot of promises in the past. but they have not complied. what might be different is there are some tariffs that will remain in place. those are pretty harsh measures. unfortunately i think president

trump took some of those measures off because those are the on enforcement mechanisms that will work. in a week or so when navarro and company release the text of the deal we'll be spending a lot of time trying to figure out whether this is workable or not. david: what we have figured out about china, they continue to spy and infiltrate and they use all methods and a wide range of people. they steal technology. over the years we said it, it's cheaper to steal for china. does the trump administration have leverage to stop that? >> they do. the trump administration has done something its predecessors haven't. they raised the priority of countering china's surveillance activities in the u.s. presidents from both parties

have put china on a lower priority. but trump said it's not that way any more. that's a good thing on the part of the president. david: we'll be right back.

more? he has asked for... what? well he did say please (all boys): thank you, thank you, thank you.

david: secretary of state mike pompeo discussing u.s. military strikes in iraq and syria. the strikes against iran-backed militia. >> it was designed to protect american forces in iraq. president trump has been pretty darn patient. and he made clear that when americans' lives were at risk we would respond. that's what the department of defense did yesterday. david: my show reality check is available on foxnation. and deep dive. i'll be right there hosting.

a reminder to follow on divert @loudobbs. follow him on instagram. look for vacation pictures. i'm david webb. thanks for cheryl: it is 5:00 a.m. here are your top stories at this hour, as we get ready to close out 2019 and roll into new year's eve, get ready to celebrate your money because it's been a blockbuster year and a decade for the markets. we have all the numbers for you. lauren: a dramatic development overnight. carlos ghosn fleeing house arrest in tokyo. where he is now and what his lawyer is saying this morning. cheryl: resolution time. millions of americans set out to achieve new goals for the you new year, it's costing big bucks. we're diving into the big business of new year's resolutions. it is tuesday, december 31st. it is new year's eve and "fbn: