on the back of vaccine. it's a focus to bet on new york city and san francisco coming back. [closing bell rings. decline in real estate values. [inaudible] liz: we have to wrap there, scott. thank you so much. scott crow. it's a record for the russell and the dow transports. take it away, connell. connell: falling from record highs. rising virus cases and stimulus uncertainty dragging on stocks today. the dow and s&p are in the red as we close it up a day after they both hit new highs. off the lows but still down 166 on the dow. nasdaq turned green early in the afternoon after being down in the morning. not able to hold the gains down lower by 25 points. if you want to see green on the board. take a look at tesla, the stock jumping on the announcement that it will indeed be added to the s&p 500. that will be on december december 21st. amazing run for tesla.

another 8% today. facebook, twitter ceos appearing on capitol hill. mark zuckerberg and jack dorsey were on the hot seat over censorship concerns. we'll have the highlights from their testimony in just a few moments. i'm connell mcshane. welcome, everybody, to "after the bell." it us great to have you with us. time now for the news happening at this hour. ♪. fox business team coverage. we have blake burman today in washington, susan li and jackie deangelis both in new york an gerri willis coming up. she is watching the retail numbers. blake, let's start with you, any update from washington on the stimulus talks with virus numbers continuing to spike? >> potentially, connell, when you look especially down the road, december 11th. why? lawmakers need to come together to pass a spending bill so there is not a government shutdown. that is significant in its own right. why is that also important?

because there is now starting to be some talk in washington about whether or not lawmakers could also add some covid relief measures into that spending bill, sort of get a two for one, maybe not everything they want in a covid relief measure but maybe pick certain pieces of it and add it into the spending bill. congressman hakeem jeffries, a top democrat in the house today was asked about that possibility, he said quote, still remains to be seen if there will be crossover negotiations. we'll see on that front. one thing remains clear at this time, connell. both sides are incredibly far apart when it comes not only to the top line numbers but also the details and the policies from within. listen here, chosely, to some of the biggest players in washington today about how they were describing the other sides wants. listen. >> democrats still want crone cron relief for the entire country held hostage over a massive slush fund for their own use. >> we can't give $500 billion to

a slush fund that secretary mnuchin would be free to disseminate at his own discretion based on no evidence, no data, and no science. that can be handed out as a friends and family plan for donald trump and his boys on the way out the door. reporter: probably caught it there. both sides saying what the other wants amounts to a quote, unquote slush fund. it goes to show you they are miles apart from each other still at this point. connell? connell: what you've been telling tell us for weeks. there is news last half hour or so, probably will now, president had a nominee for the federal reserve board, judy shelton, she didn't get the votes. what happened they're in the senate? reporter: she did not get the votes just moments ago but there is a bit of, it us kind of unusual what is going on right

now because a couple republican senators are in quarantine soft that means the numbers are off. mitch mcconnell actually switched his vote to no, sort of a procedural thing to potentially bring shelton back up again her nomination. bottom line it failed right now. her status as the president's nominee on to the federal reserve board of governors is in limbo at this moment. the white house is standing by judy shelton. here is what white house official judd deer tweeted out. president trump's nominee to the federal reserve is fully qualified. the white house fully supports here and we remain judy shelton will be reconfirmed upon reconsideration. they are banking on the belief this will get taken up again. we'll have to see, connell, how this all shakes out here in the upcoming days and weeks. back to you. connell: we knew it would be close. there is controversy around her economic views, support for the gold standard, what have you. we'll follow it because it could come up again. thank you, blake burman in washington.

to fox's garrett tenney. lansing, michigan, as the midwest continues to be one of the hardest hit areas in the coronavirus surge we've been seeing. what is the latest where you are, garrett? reporter: connell, on monday at least 10 states reported a record number of new cases of the coronavirus. that only adds to the several dozen states that have been reporting record numbers over the last week. those surges in new cases have really been prompting state and local leaders to enact new restickses to try to control the spread of this virus as well as to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed. merck ban michigan is limiting gatherings to two households. ohio adding a 10:00 p.m. curfew. chicago is stay at home advisory with a 10 person limit on indoor gatherings. that is also the case starting today in new jersey. straight leaders there as well across the country are urging folks to skip the traditional thanks giving celebrations. >> we're urging everybody to

keep their thanksgiving plans as small as possible because we know that indoor gatherings in homes are particularly dangerous places for covid-19 to spread. reporter: more than 73,000 americans were hospitalized with covid-19 on monday according to the covid tracking project. a week ago the u.s. had not reported more than 60,000 hospitalizations since the pandemic began but it has been above that mark every day for the past week that is a concern as health care systems are starting to get overwhelmed nationwide. front line workers are begging the public for help and to do their part. >> we have used our emotions, our physical abilities, our vacation time, for the last eight months. we're needing everyone to put aside their political and financial motives and follow the directions of our, of our health experts. reporter: a host of new

restrictions are going to go into effect here in michigan tomorrow including a ban on indoor dining which the state restaurant association could force 40% of the state's restaurants to shut down. another indication of the tough balance that we are going to be facing here over the next couple months. connell? connell: tough balance indeed. garrett tenney with a look at the virus from a u.s. perspective in michigan. global cases topping 55 million around the world. more and more countries are adding new restrictions to their own economies. jackie deangelis joins us with more. jackie. reporter: good afternoon, connell. we're preparing for the second wave we're looking at europe because it was touched by the virus before us to see how their second wave conspired. lockdowns help and people across european nations started to travel so did the virus particularly in the summer as people resumed normal activities

shopping, going to parks, dining, taking summer vacation. now the economy needed the boost but the travel and interactions helped spread the virus further even to parts of europe that hadn't been hit hard for the first time. croatia and spain, they were popular destinations where people got inspected. they would take the virus home. what happened next in the fall? more lockdowns and government officials in france, germany, spain, italy and the uk reinstating lockdowns and testing as well. the problem now, more virus and also an economy that is struggling again. what is interesting while citizens were more sympathetic to lockdowns the first time they became more resistant the second time as the virus and lockdowns fatigue have taken their toll. here in the united states that is the debate again. cases spreading as lockdowns were eased. it time for another round? president-elect biden covid task force says four to six weeks of

lockdowns could certainly help but a spending bill would need to go along to keep the economy afloat. the vaccine news, connell, it will be a while before the relief comes so we need to make these decisions. connell: exactly. what blake was reporting a few minutes ago. they're nowhere close on stimulus. so important because the stories go hand in hand as you point out, jackie, thank you. a mixed day for the american consumer today. retail sales rose again. the pace though is slowing. concerning for some with covid spiking as you've been hearing over the last few minutes. now that said we did have some very impressive profit reports in the retail world. let's bring in wills wills with more. reporter: connell, that's right it was a big day for retail earnings. we had the world's biggest retail, walmart, and number one home improvement store, home depot, both dow components reporting earnings. walmart blowing away expectations earnings ever $1.34 versus expectations

$1.18 a share. revenue higher than expected, 134.7 billion versus wall street expected 132 billion and change. now the big headlines for walmart, a 79 increase in e-commerce sales. walmart, the new offering competing with amazon prime. same-store sales climbed 6.4%. taking a look at home depot, here similarly had a strong quarter with $3.18 per share, those earnings well above the 3.06 estimated on revenues of 33.5 billion against wall street expectations of 32.04 billion. the company said, this is a quote, continuation of outized demand for home improvement projects in this covid spurred their results. no surprise there, saying same-store sales jumped 20.14%. the company says it will spend an extra billion dollars annually on employee wages. they're sharing the prize there.

discount department store operator kohl's surprised investors losing only a penny a share this quarter. however it didn't hit wall street targets at 3.68 billion on revenue. kohl's shares only one of the three on management promises to focus on athleisure and personal care. two popular categories. looking at a broader retail picture, we got october retail sales. they were disappointing. retail sales missed estimates up .3 of a percent compared to half a percent estimate, ex autos the numbers looked even worse, .2 of a percent. even so it was the sixth monthly sales gain of retail sales. meanwhile the previous months sales figures were revised lower to 1.6% gain from a previously reported gain. that was a big change. that was a blowout month. connell? connell: all right. gerri, thank you. gerri willis with the retail wrap up for us today. rapid tests before taking

flight. united airlines, it is latest move to help control the pandemic, also try to ease passenger fears. today we're getting inside look at the airlines new program. plus restaurants indeed are fighting for survival. we'll talk to one restaurant owner in texas about the rising cases of the virus across that state and the impact another shutdown could have on business. silicon valley is under pressure. tech titans feeling the heat from lawmakers on capitol hill about their efforts to crack down on misinformation. we'll break down the most heated moments from that testimony. up next. >> you do realize that by taking down that story you probably gave it more prominence and more visibility than it ever would have gotten had you left it alone? >> we realize that and we recognize it as a mistake. ♪ to support a strong immune system,

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♪. >> there are rules about what a newspaper can do and what i want to try to find out is if you're not a newspaper at twitter or facebook then why do you have editorial control over the

"new york post"? seems like you're the ultimate editor. connell: big tech whiplashed today on capitol hill. the ceos of the social media giants facebook and twitter got a grilling from lawmakers on variety of topics. censorship was one. mass tracking was another. we'll get to all of this with susan li who covers many tech companies foreus at fox business. kyle daly joins us, the tech editor at "axios." susan, lead us off on the idea that senator graham is getting at, one of the key essentials things what exactly do you companies do, what business are you in, right? >> if you're jack dorsey mark zuckerberg sitting there it was replay what you saw and heard three weeks ago postelection. same thing. talking about regulation, misinformation and censorship. from the gop side they're complain about political bias against conservative voices. you heard on the democratic side they don't think the handcuffs go far enough. it was really a no-win situation

for both of these ceos, when it comes to actual regulation and changes section 230 of the communications decency act i think the stock price and the fact that you haven't seen that much movement with all these threats of a breakup and repeal of that section that people don't think that there is going to be a lot of consensus in order to pull back sop of the shields these social media companies enjoy. connell: yeah, you're right. we've been at this for a while to your point. kyle, before you weigh in on this, let me go to one more exchange from today. senator ted cruz from texas, pretty good lawyer in a former life. went at jack dorsey this idea again. this would be what the regulation would be based on long term if the companies are considered platforms or just publishers. here is senator cruz. >> is twitter behaving as a publisher when it its deciding what stories reporters are allowed to write and publish and what stories they're not? >> no. and that account was not suspended. it followed the hacked materials policy. we realize that there was an error in that policy.

connell: talking about some reporters who had their accounts suspended or didn't, kyle. but again, that is the, the question here, just whether they are just platforms or are they are publishers introduction to that sound bite but where do you think this is all headed? >> yeah, exactly. i think susan nailed it right. there is sort of broad bipartisan acknowledgement that these companies exist in this strange limited space between being a wide open platform where people can just say or do whatever they want and being something resembling a publisher that exercises some sort of editorial control. so you know, the issue is that the two parties are at exact cross-purposes as to, you know, what their responsibilities actually should be. just as susan said democrats say they should be doing more about

misinformation and hate speech. republicans say that you know they should exercise less of this editorial control. that they shouldn't see themselves as the arbiters of speech, of what people and third party publishers are allowed to say. so it is really kind of hard to realistically see a path forward for any sort of large-scale amendment or changes or certainly repeal of section 230 on a bipartisan basis. connell: right. one little new wrinkle introduced today, guys, by senator josh hawley is this idea whether they have a tool, especially facebook, this exchange you're about to hear is from mark zuckerberg. keeping close eye on all of this. here it is, senator hawley. >> this is tool facebook uses to track it users not just on facebook but across the entire internet. >> i'm not familiar with the name of that tool. i'm sure we have tools that help

us with our platform and community integrity work but i am not familiar with that name. >> do you have a tool that does exactly what i have described, you can see here over my shoulder? are you saying that doesn't exist? >> senator, i am saying i'm not familiar with it. connell: all right. kyle, you want to take this one first? you know anything about this tool? susan can wrap us up. >> no. we were streaming the hearing and we at "axios" sort of scratching our head was mark zuckerberg was when senator hawley brought this up. so we checked with facebook. we checked with the senator's office and what he seemed to be referring to a tool that is called internally sentra. it is something that they use for managing their handling of, complex issues they said. you know, it is sort of, they have to do a lot of work both

automated and not to track what they call inauthentic behavior. so that is, you know, the use of fake accounts or bots or just sort of organized attempts to falsely boost misinformation or just other problematic content. we know they have a lot of these tools. i think this kind of illustrated there is some real opacity there. seeming if mark zuckerberg is telling the truth he didn't know about this particular tool. he himself has said, look we would be willing talk with you in washington about legislation to require more transparency on our part. connell: right. >> i think there is pretty clearly a bipartisan appetite for that. connell: there is. but i would think there is also big time, susan appetite for conservatives going after the companies. >> not just conservatives. we know biden -- connell: no, but es essentially conservative side over some of these issues, right?

>> i think in a bipartisan way we'll be having more of these hearings in the future this is not the end, even if a democrat goes into the white house, this is only the beginning and it will continue. connell: fair point. i think amy klobuchar brought up some of that that might get us into antitrust. i don't know if we'll ever get there in the future. stepping over that sillably delay, sorry. the fed trade trade commission two dozen websites are selling clorox, lysol products without delivering them to customers. the scammers are using internet search engines for this, social media, pop-up ads. they lure in consumers to their sites. keep an eye out for this. regulators said you should be worried about any site that offers out of stock items. if you buy something, pay for it with the credit card so you have

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♪. connell: we have inside look for you today at coronavirus clinic located inside of an airport terminal. united airlines is launching the covid-19 testing program for passengers who will get free rapid tests before they fly. lauren simonetti live with the story, newark airport in new jersey. lauren? reporter: it makes sense, connell, right? what are the two reasons people are not flying? they don't want to get sick and they don't want to quarantine. which is why for one month united airlines will test all passengers on certain flights leaving newark international airport and headed to london's heathrow. the test will be at the airport at terminal c a few hours before departure. in fact the first flight landed this morning in london with 36 passengers. yes that's it. all tested negative for

coronavirus yet those 36 passengers, because of restrictions in place will have to quarantine in the uk for two weeks and that is one of the reasons, connell, why if you look at international travel, it is done 74% from last year. really eye-popping numbers. mass vac nations are still months away. that is why you have united but also american airlines and british airways working on this enhanced testing to boost business in the meantime. for american and british airways it is a series of three tests for certain routes that are transatlantic which seems like a headache for a lot of people but i think what these airlines are trying to do is convince authorities that the need to open up the lewk consider tiff transatlantic route. connell? connell: yeah. trying to make it work. we'll see if it helps

confidence. lauren, live from newark airport today. you look at the storm, hurricane iota, it is tearing across central america. a cat-4 storm. it is devastating some areas just hit 13 days earlier from hurricane eta, prompting officials to warn of a increased risk of another natural disaster. look at those winds. delayed presidential transition raising some concerns about national security. next up a live report, wilmington, delaware where things stand today. waffle house, teaming up with georgia based brewery. they will produce a bacon-infused beer. how about that? they call it bacon and kegs. get it? it will be the restaurant's first official beer. it will only be available at a brewery in georgia. starting on december 18th. good news, a larger distribution could follow. but i'm relentless too.

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president-elect joe biden received a national security briefing but not from current guest officials because the gsa stalling. instead of the routine classified briefing the president-elect would normally get, biden cobbled together his own team of national security experts. >> i'm not being critical of this, just stating the obvious. you know i've been unable to get the briefings that ordinarily would have come by now and, and so, i just want to get your input on what you see ahead. reporter: biden got that briefing today virtually, similar to the same way he has been getting briefings routinely over the past few months from his covid experts. connell? connell: that is the other thing, right? national security is an obvious concern. comes up in all transitions but this transition is unique dealing with the pandemic you know, and the timing of the

vaccine rollout or whatever may come up here in the next few months. so what are they saying about that in terms of preparation? reporter: yeah, connell, i was on a briefing with biden's covid advisory board today and they're warning and are very concerned that there are going to be issues with potentially rolling out and distributing the vaccine because they're being kept in the dark about the trump administration's distribution plan but they're also worried there could be a issue with getting critical ppp out while cases are rising because they're also not being looped in on what the current levels of the national stockpile of things like n95 masks are currently. >> we need to work with the current administration immediately to coordinate on planning. we need to shore up supply chains. we need to make sure we do not again face shortages. [inaudible]. we cannot work with career officials in the federal government concerning the depth of the problem and

recommendations how to address it. reporter: connell, a constant item on their to-do list is picking their cabinet and the vice president-elect, kamala harris was asked a short while ago own the hill how involved she has been in picking the cabinet appointees. she says she is been very involved. connell? connell: we'll watch it. the great hillary vaughn, wilmington, delaware. thank you. james freeman joins us now, fox news contributor, assistant editor at the editorial page of "the wall street journal" we won't be confusing him with anyone in the clinton family. james, good to have you always. >> good to be here. i'm a hillary fan, hillary vaughn. connell: hillary vaughn, right. the issue of the transition, november 17th, right? january 20th is inauguration but we've heard it from dr. fauci and others in the last few days that you know, unless we start this relatively soon they are concerned, particularly on the virus but also maybe on

national security. your view on that and how important a transition is? >> certainly you need a transition but to say that, as you mentioned november 17th, this is some big national security threat, this is another way of pressuring president trump to concede and perhaps he should. people have argued about it. he will have his legal challenges, certifications will happen over the next few weeks. i would imagine this would be resolved but if saying it's a national security problem, not to begin the transition before states have certified a winner, then, have you had these people been arguing we should move election day into october? that certification dates should be moved earlier? i think this is a argument in mid to late december, i don't think it is really an argument now. connell: okay. and that is where we were in the year 2000, right? we had the hotly-contested

election at the time. that was 537 votes in one state. it went into the middle of the december. i will say that the 9/11 commission did point out in its report that that transition in their view at least, the delay made us more vulnerable, not blaming the delay for the handling of the attack or anything like that but it didn't open up vulnerabilities, made it tough for the incoming bush administration. thoughts on that. it is mid-december, we need to get moving, is that fair? >> i assume the trump response would be to that senior officials in the, including in the national security apparatus in the obama-biden administration spent a good part of the transition trying to make a fact-free case that the incoming president was a traitor. so in terms of cooperation, i think or lack of cooperation, i think mr. trump has to go a long way to match the offenses of the

obama-biden administration on its way out the door. then, you can talk about general flynn and the effort to, to manufacture a criminal case against him going into not just the transition -- really the end of the transition going into january. so i think these are all interesting ways to try and make the case that the president should concede but if, again, if people think transitions must begin before states have certified a winner, i think they have probably should be arguing that election day and certification should be happening earlier. i don't see anyone making that argument. connell: right. a quick final point you have no concerns if it comes to that the president does concede and that we do move in by the middle of next month to a transition? you have no concerns about that at this point? >> unless he can come up with

evidence that to this point his team has not presented in court as far as i know but i think over these next few weeks as we hit certification deadlines this is going to be resolved. either mr. biden is going to be after firmed as the winner, if the president is able to bring evidence, if he actually can show a judge evidence sufficient to overcome the numbers that biden has in the count, then you wouldn't want the biden transition to begin. if the president can actually present evidence that he won, then you would want a trump transition to begin. but either way, i don't think it is a national security issue. if it happens in late november instead of mid-november. connell: all right. james, as always, thank you. james freeman from "the wall street journal" with us today. as we move on here, thank you to its customers from zoom which we all have been using so much. zoom is removing its 40 minute video call limit for thanksgiving this year.

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connell: "fox business alert." just in to us, speaker of the house, senate minority leader chuck schumer sent a letter to senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. they asked him to begin negotiations on covid relief this week. the letter has been sent. we will see. burl best of your memory blake burman says it is not going anywhere fast but we have the information. they're calling it the magnificent mile tax hike proposal. local officials in chicago something for a property tax increase on the property district along michigan avenue in an effort to increase the area's private security, maybe lure back wary shoppers. a closer look from grady trimble who is live in chicago. reporter: connell, these businesses on the magnificent mile were looted twice this year. some of them as you can see still boarded up. now some officials here in the

win did i city one way to help the businesses is by raising their taxes. so here is how it would work. it would create a special emergency taxing district on the magnificent mile. there would be an additional tax of less than .05% for retailers on the stretch of michigan avenue. that would generate between 700 and $800,000 in revenue this year. as you said that money would be spent on private security, lighting on the street here and beautification as some proponents of this say, to help businesses but there are others who say higher taxes especially right now are not the answer. they know that is abouts are already struggling with the collapse of tourism brought on by the pandemic, the looting and protesting on this stretch of michigan avenue that we saw earlier this year and the overall decline of retail in general. so one of the property managers of the water tower place, one of the iconic buildings with retail on michigan avenue had this to say at a recent meeting.

that the fsa, or the special taxing district will only increase the financial strain under these trying circumstances. the ssa risks forces private cash-strapped businesses to leave michigan avenue while simultaneously deterring new retailers from entering the market. we know people who live in this area as well as businesses, they have thought about leaving after the looting that we saw. they say we don't have to live here or be here anymore during the pandemic. so that is something that the alderman who are going to vote on this taken under advisement. a lot of them, connell, oppose this new tax. connell: yeah that makes sense. that is interesting. boy, especially after everything that has gone on there as you point out. thank you, grady trimble live in chicago. take tag aim at another market. amazon is launching a pharmacy business, they're call it amazon pharmacy. it allows u.s. mers to fulfill

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♪ ♪ connell: all right, let's get you an update on hurricane iota, hitting nicaragua as a cat four. william la jeunesse joins us now with more. william? >> reporter:, well, it made landfall overnight as a category four, 155 miles an hour. thousands of buildings blown down or washed away. devastating the country, forcing thousands into temporary shelter. mountains slowed the storm considerably, but el salvador and honduras are seeing high winds and a lot of run, 6-30 inches at least in nicaragua. this was a record-breaking hurricane season with eye owe

that the 30th name named storm this year. just 15 miles away, two weeks earlier, was hit by hurricane eta. >> you also have with it strong winds and very heavy rainfall, life-threatening flash flooding, river flooding and landslides, not least because the soil is already saturated. >> reporter: humanitarian groups are bringing food, clothing and medical supplies, but a-teams are having a difficult time because of flooded roads and bridges washed out. remarkably, no fatalities in nicaragua as of early today, and only one in colombia, but without very much power and telephone service, we really won't know the extent of the damage probably until tomorrow. they are monitoring rivers for flooding and mudslides as we speak before this thing heads out the other side into the pacific. back to you. connell: william, thank you. boy, one storm after another this year. william la jeunesse for us. let's talk about texas for a

moment that state hit a grim milestone, surpassing 20,000 coronavirus deaths, second in the nation only to new york at this point. officials weighing possible shutdowns, and live from houston we're joined by mike shine, the owner of frank's americana revival. and i'm sure you're thinking about it from your business' perspective, right, mike? what do you think is coming next there? >> connell, we don't know really. gossip can be a little difficult to hear, it's a challenge every day, as you know, around the country, here in texas particularly. this year has not been a fun year, but we hear there may be potential lockdowns coming today, we're operating within the governor's mandate of 75% occupancy with 6-foot social distancing spacing within our dining rooms and our teenages and our access areas -- tables and access areas. but we think there could be more coming within the county and the city the here soon. we believe and we've been told it's really the governor's decision as to what kinds of

protocols will be in place if they try to do that. connell: governor greg abbott, republican, of texas, taking a different approach than some other states that have been more aggressive in shutting down. he's been trying his best, i think it's fair to say, to keep businesses opening. we're showing video from el paso, they tried to shut things down, but it's kind of a back and forth between you guys in the business community and the politicians. are you communicating with local officials as well? >> yeah, we are. i'm very active in the restaurant association, both the state and the hoping level, and we're trying to work with those individual elected officials both at the city, the county and, of course, with governor abbott's office. we're just trying to stay positive and work the best way we can. we've established significant sanitation prose kohls within our restaurants -- protocols within our restaurants, test our employees multiple times, face guards, if you will, gloves, sanitation. my restaurant's so clean, i think we could probably pass a

hospital test at this particular moment. so we're trying to do what we can to react. we've just got a situation here unlike any other business in the country. you know, we've lost 50% of our revenue this year already. and we don't know if that's going to change at this moment, and to be honest with you, it really doesn't matter what our elected officials do or say that we can do, it's really about lack of customer confidence just to go out and experience dining in restaurants whether inside or outside on a patio. that's really our challenge. when the governor of texas went from a 50% protocol up to a 75%, we saw very little increase. people really aren't confident yet to come out fully9. connell: yeah, there's no answer to that then, mike, right? obviously, to get to the vaccine which we know we've had some really good news on this week, but it's going to take a while. the only thing i can think of is maybe they get their act together in washington and help you on stimulus, bridge the gap.

what are you thoughts on how you get from now until, let's just say, april of next year, whenever the advantage seen is widely available? >> none of us want the government in our business here in america, everybody knows that. but at this particular moment, we're at the whim of congress in terms of what they can or cannot do. i don't have time really, honestly, to look and worry about what they do or don't do, we're just trying to survive. what that means is we've taken on additional debt. we've one checks, capitalized our business more in the hopes that this thing is going to change sometime soon. but the vast majority of restaurants here in texas and america are working within lease constraints in terms of the properties are generally owned by someone else, there are lease determinations that identify what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. these lease ends at some point, some of us have short-term leases, and so there's a really complicated dynamic about what do we do, and it comes from a

entrepreneur and businessman's perspective is how far are we willing to go, how many checks are we willing to write or how many loans are we willing to acquire to get by to a certain point especially when you don't know what that certain point is. connell: do you have an answer to that? how much further can you go, do you think? >> well, i can go a little bit further. my oldest son and my if youngest son are my partners, but at the same time at some point in time it becomes a business decision. the best thing i could have done personally for myself and my family was back in march when we got the original dining room shutdown, we should have just closed the restaurant and saved the grief and the financial burden. but we didn't do that. we've got 53 employees, we felt uncomfortable about laying all those people off, so we didn't do that. we just decided to take it one day at a time. although i never believed it was going to be a two or three week shutdown, i knew it was going to be long or. i don't know that any of us foresaw close to next year before this lets up.

your question earlier was -- connell: yeah, you're right. >> it's really about our elected officials, honestly, commenting that it's okay -- connell: i know. i'm going to have to stop on you, mike i hate to do this, we're literally out of time. thanks for joining us. see you tomorrow, guys. ♪ ♪ lou: good evening, everybody. two social media titans under fire today for censoring political speech and interference in our election. republican if senators condemning mark zuckerberg and facebook and also jack dorsey and twitter for their censorship of conservative voices. the radical dems, such as senator richard blumenthal, openly asking the so-called masters of the universe to intensify their efforts to censor conservative voices. >> will you commit