earlier in the program i interviewed someone claiming to be the ceo of smithfield foods, we've since learned that was an um poster making false claims about the company. he is someone who has absolutely no relation to smithfield foods, we want to apologize to smithfield foods and to our audience for making this mistake. we will, of course, be more vigilant. that does it for us. ashley webster is >> i'm ashley webster in for stuart varney and here's the big story. president trump calling on congress to increase the stimulus checks to americans from $600 to 2000. he's also calling out all the pork in the 900 billion-dollar bill. he's gone through it and there are some doozies spirit we will bring that to you later this hour.

lots of stocking stuffers or stuffers, meanwhile joe biden claims the probe in his sons of business dealing is not-- russian misinformation and wait till you hear what he called fox's peter dc. first, let's look at the futures with a slew of data out this morning. weekly jobless creams-- claims arising less than expected. all the major indexes moving higher, again the nasdaq finishing at a record closing high yesterday and up slightly in the premarket. with a big show lined up. pete hegseth will be here, brett there, what a lineup plus you know her from the hugely popular netflix series "tiger king" and the latest stint on "dancing with the stars", carole baskin will be here. it is december 23, christmas eve eve. "varney & co." begins right now.

♪ ♪ ashley: well, it is quite on the street of manhattan as a look at six avenue, but the music makes it feel so festive, does it not? as we say the christmas eve eve, we are almost there, folks. first, foxbusiness alert, president from threatening to veto the newly passed to millersville and also demanding congress provide more money to those hit hard by the pandemic. role of that tape. cnet congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special

interest while sending the bare minimum to the american people who need it. i'm asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2000 or $4000 per couple. i'm also asking congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items in this legislation. ashley: all right, coming here, susan li. most democrats actually agree with the president , but tell me about some of the pork in this enormous bill. susan: not entirely kosher in this stimulus bill. first of all a lot of the money is going overseas which isn't necessarily domestic stimulus with $85 million, 134,000,002 burma, 1.3 billion to egypt and that will likely buy arms from russia and $25 million to pakistan and half a million dollars to latin

america and funny for the smithsonian, kennedy center and national gallery of art's all the three by the way have been closed to the public. fight teen asian carp, counting amberjack fish and poultry production technology and also in 1800-dollar check to family members of illegal immigrants, $1800, more than the $600 checks to americans aoc, alexandria ocasio-cortez says that she and the squad actually agree with the president on this that there should be bigger checks being given out to americans. can you believe that? ashley: no, i can't, but it is 2020 after all. thank you. we had some breaking economic news out this morning. lauren, come on in. would you have for us? lauren: three pieces of information. the good news is jobless

claims as they surprisingly felt to 803,000 last week and retreated from the three-month high, obviously still above 800,000, but it's good news amid the broader science we has been of a slowing economy and the rise in infections that the restrictions that go with it. the viruses often felt directly in the job market and the question is has a cause consumers to hold onto their wallets. if you look at the latest measure of personal spending, yes, it has, it felt for percent in november. finally, ashley, a report on big-ticket last-- long-lasting items, rose .9% in november marking the seventh straight monthly increase thanks to order for transportation equipment, again next pictures. ashley: great job, lauren, getting through that. let's bring in john

clayfield, lauren says mixed bag on some of the economic indicators. great to see you. where does that leave investors as we head towards the end of this year and into the first quarter of next year? i read a note from jeffrey and some analysts say they are concerned about the euphoric or euphoria on the markets right now saying that resembles the end of last year and we know what happened after that. do you have any concerns >> it's great to see you as always, ashley. merry christmas. unconcerned about the euphoria, but the savings rate for americans right now is the highest in decades. it was 33% in the spring and it's about 6%, still double what it was last year and that means americans have been holding back this cash and because a vaccine is coming out your pent-up demand, but i think it's akin to something you say had at the end of in the world war ii when people have been

suppressed for so long not able to do things and i think the euphoria while it might be early is is not going be near what it will be when we see the vaccine is starting to get administered. i think we are in for a traffic six months at the beginning of the year. ashley: i like the sound of that and talking of euphoria, you are hard on apple getting into the apple industry. you like this? >> love it. i'm sorry,-- the software being developed, look when you look at the phone, it used it to be a straight commodity, tied to your wall with a court and no one would have believed in the 70s and 80s that the phone would become about software. i think we have the same transition between the car going from just a driving machine to a software machine and i think it makes sense for apple, for google to get into the car business,

but i think it makes no sense for them to develop and manufacture their own cars. i think they will buy a car facturfact iermrm rd. .. ey: what awhatutbom gnd forndgo, g iivt g a ptus a p tho e cte octra o?rall >> gmgm ms msavitavit inkk stoc ian td inkhitnk tlwilloue innhe next nt ears valymaeclyma oau ohevv ti mulehae will w pandndnd t and fac at fachey f ee gti gng i go i i attt chrech drechre dre hl: hleyhlhlthankouk. you you y my ten tssee accencc veves me as wa everyve .ou tha, t yhaou.ou .tw day d away a f chrichmas a that's notot stoppi joeiden from fro delivedelingvede fravenklyrahila grim messa mge listen. >> one thing i promise you about my leadership during this crisis, i'm going to tell it to you straight. i'm going to tell you the truth and here's the simple truth, our

darkest days in the battle against covid are ahead of us, not behind us. ashley: well, that's pretty grim. fox and friend weekend cohost pete hegseth is here pick great to see you looking very festive. i love the time. we have a vaccine now right, shouldn't we-- or at least mr. biden be providing optimism? >> you would think so. he has me in the christmas spirit, ashley i'm dreaming of a dark winter ♪ ♪ just like the year we just had. i mean, come on. this is the last thing you want from someone who is supposed to lead you. are we looking at a ventilator's shortage, and hospital bed shortage, a vaccine we don't have? we have handled a lot of those things because of

the leadership in optimism of president from when everyone told him it was impossible. he urged dust to show confidence and optimism and open up. he's telling everyone that he was to be honest and straight up with you and when you see a your darkest days are ahead you almost predicted has to get worse when it doesn't have to. we should be looking forward to an amazing 21 opening up the way it should have in 2020, the way the president wanted to. he would be prospective president mask mandate locked out which would make us go to dark places. ashley: he's like greece in chief instead of a leader in chief. during the same press conference joe biden told fox news peter doocy that stories about his son hunter is just russian disinformation or call the tape. >> do you still think it's a story from the fall about your son

hunter a smear campaign like you said connect yes, yes, yes. you are a one horse pony. thank you. thank you. promise you my justice department will be totally honest on making judgments. thank you. ashley: a one horse pony is it worse than a one trick pony? anyway, pizza, his son is under federal investigation, so my question to you, pete. >> i don't know if the one horse pony is related to the line dogface pony soldier, he clearly loves analogies that don't make sense, but this is a serious. look at the fact checking and suppression that comes against the president if he says something and in this case joe biden is saying it is still a russian disinformation when finally the media has

acknowledge what we knew before the election and what was suppressed before the election is that there is hard evidence of hunter biden's foreign dealings and tax evasion. we should be able to talk about that, but he will get away with it that he can just dismiss a question from a fox news never be held accountable. if twitter was anywhere near a fair place which we know it isn't, it would be fact checked. it won't be because it's a left-wing echo chamber so god bless peter doocy for the work our one horse pony soldier is doing over there. [laughter] ashley: pete hegseth, you are always great and we even got a song out of you today. merry christmas. >> merry christmas. ashley: thank you. remember the beginning of the pandemic when many of us were introduced to this woman

>> hey, all you cool cats and kittens, it's carol at cat rescue. ashley: "tiger king" carol a baskin will be on the show joining me in the next hour to explain what she's been up to since the hip netflix show. should be interesting and by the way moments ago dr. marc siegel received the pfizer vaccine. of there he holding a microphone. he can multitask. how is he feeling? i will ask him. first a check of futures , looks like we will have a modest gain opening bell in about 16 minutes. we will have more "varney & co." after this. ♪ hey! yeah!? i switched to geico and got more! more savings on car insurance!? they helped with homeowners, too!

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ashley: if he shortened week for trading, but so far in the premarket ahead of the bell mare modestly higher with the dow jones up 98.7 nasdaq up. next case, let's look at this. and you will look at video of fox news medical contributor dr. marc siegel receiving the pfizer vaccine earlier this morning on "fox & friends" and reporting, he does it all. dock, how are you feeling? >> i feel great, actually. my arm is fine, no sore or more headaches. i feel absolutely great and the vaccine was not called because they warm it up before they give it to you even though they store it in sub arctic temperatures. the nurse has been

giving out thousands of the shots and she was very reassuring. ashley: so, how long now before you have to get the second shot? >> they already programmed that in the system. i already have an appointment i will get it in a little over three weeks, 21, 22 days and i probably am more likely to have some side effects like fever or headache after the second shot, but right now i tend to take vaccines pretty well, but i think the message to everyone is at the shot as soon as it's offered to you. ashley, i did not jump out line. we are doing something called cohort one and i met the end of cohort one as i see patients every day. so, it was appropriate for me too get the shots congresswoman is right, people in congress, it's a disgrace they are jumping the line.

healthcare professionals like me are the ones supposed to be getting it now. ashley: totally understand. ion of presley says she will fight to give prisoners priority of the vaccine. watch this for a second and i will get your reaction. >> i'm going to continue to fight for our most vulnerable, communities disproportionately impacted by the virus, healthcare workers, for our essential workers, for incarcerated men and women to be prioritized in the distribution of vaccine. ashley: all right, dr. marc siegel, do you agree or not? >> let me tell you, it's a little nuance. i want throwing workers to get it first. i want cops and firemen to get it, postal and transit workers, everyone over 75 to get it, but prisoners or should be high-priority not because they are vulnerable, but because they are bottled in and there has been 400,000 cases, 400,000 among

prisoners and there is only 2 million prisoners in the hole u.s. open 20%. it spreads to the guards, out into the community, the early release associated with it and we have to control it in the areas where the most covid in -- is and that includes prisons a. ashley: dr. marc siegel, great to see you. glad you are doing well and thank you for joining us. >> i am not dizzy and i'm not going to mix you up with stuart, no way. [laughter] ashley: it's a compliment, but we may. anyway, chipotle says it will not require their employees to get the coronavirus vaccine. lauren, what is the company saying? lauren: they will encourage workers to get the shot and they will pay for it for them, but they won't require it. food service workers are in phase 1c of the

distribution plan, so behind the elderly and essential workers like doctor siegel, but many companies are worried that they may want to say that we want you to get the shot, but they are worried about legal implications of mandating so it's still early on and we will see if anything changes, but for right now i don't see any companies mandating it. ashley: that will be an ongoing story. thank you. as we had to the break we will look at where the markets stand. we think we will have a positive open, a little muted, however. we will talk about the streaming world with jeff sica right after the break. ♪

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ashley: we are expecting a positive start to the day in about three and a half minutes from now when the markets open with the dow, nasdaq and s&p showing to be slightly higher in the premarket. christmas day blockbusters are being streamed this year "

wonder woman 1984" going directly online. jeff sica is with us now. jeff, this cannot be good news for movie theaters. >> this is terrible news, i mean, if you're like last year the-- we would have people lining especially for wonder woman. people would be lining up. people would be dressed up in costumes and it would be a big event. now, these movie theaters will be like ghost towns and even the people who want to see wonder woman, like i do, and a lot of them will just a stay home and a stream it warner bros. is releasing it simultaneously through streaming so we will be a very strange christmas and from what i have said all along if the death of the old hollywood. now these movie companies can stream these movies, they can make potentially more money, get subscribers and the theaters will

really have to fight for their lives. ashley: let's talk about the market overall, jeff. you think we are due for a pullback and go as far to say it's getting a little dangerous to chase stocks right now; right? >> i'm in the market, but i'm not getting much asleep lately. i spend a lot of time thinking of when will this end because here we have all of this economic news, some is very very negative and there is so much uncertainty yet the market keeps surging, so you have a lot of people who are just buying the old favorites, chasing the old favorites. you had tesla added into the s&p 500. i talked to a lot of people who now want to buy it may be it's time to sell it, so i'm getting a little nervous here. i'm telling people that if you want to participate in this market, you have to be

willing to take profit in a very short. not of time because this market cannot go up like this forever based on really nothing but the potential that the fed is going to keep printing money, inflating stocks and that's not for long term. ashley: am i reading this right? you say put your money in gold. how do you do that? had you play that? >> well, listen if he went to bury gold in the backyard i would say have at it. not the worst thing to do in the world, but you'll have to guard it. the reality is when you look at gold, gold is a protest against a government, gets printing of currency. if you look at everything that's going on, not only in the us, but around the world, we are seeing governments are doing a very very

bad job in managing just about anything. so, people lose faith in currency and go to gold. what gold has shown is that it trades office said of the stock market quite often. as the market-- ashley: very good. jeff, i hope you get some more sleep. thank you. opening bell has a wrong and we are off and running. look at the greed to disney, their express up at the top. microsoft and walmart, but dow jones up 131 points. nicely above 30000 at 30150. s&p expecting a small gain, yes, perhaps a little better of a third of a percent with s&p at 3700. nasdaq had a record close yesterday, i begin

this morning modestly up 18 points. 12826, up a 10th of a percent. the trump administration reaching a deal with pfizer to buy more vaccines. the question is how much, lauren? lauren: 100 million doses, ashley and the price tag is under $2 billion and they will deliver the doses over the summer, so by august, pfizer and biotech had-- will have delivered 200 billion doses of the vaccine getting the government the right to buy an additional 400 million should they want to. pick the us also signing a deal with merck to develop and distribute a therapeutic that would treat severely ill, 19 patients with the cost $365 million for 100,000 doses. you have by intact way down, pfizer, moderna down so they are all over the place this morning c1c3 that is the proverbial mixed bag. ashley: thank you.

could apple's first car come even earlier than we thought? how soon, susan? susan: next year. that's according to the taiwan economic daily news and they say apple sort of ramped up orders for the car suppliers in taiwan ahead of the cars debut and as early as next september, so the increase in orders could be characterized as an explosive amount, that's a high amount. next september, of course, would be earlier than the 2024 introduction supported-- reported in a time that it's not just the market of the car that it will make but the self driving electric taxi in the future. i found that interesting. ashley: speaking of apple, find this fascinating. elon musk reportedly said he wants asked tim cook to buy tesla. susan: mind blowing for a lot of apple heads. in you imagine? apple buying tesla at a

10th of the price? i think around a $60 billion. apparently this took place a few years ago during a time when elon musk was sleeping on the factory floor to get model three production problems fixed, but according to mask tim cook did not even take the meeting. i got in contact with apple and they said no comment. when asked about the new apple electric car in the innovative battery technology which by the way is the key to bring down the price of an electric vehicle, but if apple and tesla had combined it would be a near 3 trillion-dollar market company which is incredible because you are combining the largest company on the planet and the fifth largest in america and it's too salivating for many people out there. ashley: it is, but it worked out pretty well for mr. musk. we should move on to walmart, down. they are getting sued by the justice department. exactly why, susan?

susan: for part of the feeling that opioid crisis with the justice department is accusing walmart of not thoroughly screening prescriptions and despite repeated warnings coming from their own pharmacists, so walmart instead understaffed and pressured walmart-- pharmacist to fill orders. in response to the lawsuit walmart says federal authorities are trying to shift the blame and using walmart as a scapegoat, it hurt the stock with yesterday down over 1% when the news broke. ashley: susan, thank you. let's look at the arts and craft website and chopper five, both down, but lauren, are they big pandemic winners, throwing out this morning before this year, the numbers are eye-popping as they have quadrupled this. the gains are not expected to end when the pandemic does, that's

what many analysts say. these sites support small business owners often providing a lifeline to sell their stop when stores are closed. they do have high valuation, but investors are hungry for anything and all things tech right now. the charges 20 cents an item plus 5% transaction fee. shop at five has several plans. early on especially remember betsy started selling homemade masks and that was a huge chunk of their revenue so they are pandemic winners and they are expected to continue to be. ashley: fascinating. how about zoom? it's trying to help people connect during the holidays circle lauren, what are they doing? lauren: well, they are taking the 40 minute limit off of the video calls between 10:00 a.m.

and 6:00 p.m. today and the day after chris between today and till the day after christmas to encourage friends and family to connect to the holidays. i am calling it their version of a christmas gift. you cannot talk together online for more than 40 minutes but the gift for investors-- if you show the year chart, a 500%. i will never forget last year or i should say they started the year with 10 million daily participants and now 300 million and growing. i will not be doing any zoom calls tomorrow. what about you, ashley? ashley: we had a zoom call last night with our good friends steve and leslie and we went for like an hour and 45 minutes and i wondered how we went past the limit, must have been the business version of a zoom. lauren: are those your connecticut friends that went to you your-- their garage?

ashley: no, it's another set of connecticut friends who are equally generous. that was steve and a susan and i will always remember the garage studio so thank you for reminding me of that. let's move on. let's check the 10 year yield. the yield 0.941%, up about to basis a point on the 10 year treasury yield. looking at gold, jeff sica says to buy it and is a great headed out with the government is doing. gold is up $9.60, $1879. bitcoin up another mere $290. bitcoin $23735. let's look at loyola. always a question about demand. oil crude up 4747, of another 1%.

the cover of the "new york post" premature says it all. stimulus has millions in pork, but peanuts for you. what does former reagan economist think about that? he will sound off in the 11:00 a.m. hour and also it was the net with this megahit us during quarantine. >> carroll is the mother teresa of cats. >> carol has an army of people working for free. >> she's a hypocrite and literally does anything i do. ashley: the mother teresa of cats. carole baskin, one of the shows of stars will be on our shows. what is she up to these days? i will ask her when she joins me next hour. "varney & co." just getting started. ♪ to all the businesses that helped us

make it through 2020... thank you for going the extra mile... and for the extra pump of caramel. thank you for the good food... and the good karma. thank you for all the deliveries... especially this one. you've reminded us that no matter what, we can always find a way to bounce forward. so thank you, to our customers and to businesses everywhere, from all of us at comcast business.

ashley: welcome back. we are about 12 minutes into this session on this christmas eve eve session. just turned slightly negative. s&p up close to half a percent and the dow jones showing upward momentum. 30209. the new york stock exchange making some employees go promote again and i guess the question is why, lauren. lauren: covid cases are surging again in new york city so starting monday, stock exchange, dmm's will go back to working remotely temporarily. we don't know how long. the trading floor, the iconic for at the corner of the wall and abroad will remain open. it was closed in march, and it's been operating

at about 25% capacity since it reopened in may. it will stay open, but the dmm and some other floor traders will have to go home for rarely to work from home. ashley: not a good sign. thank you. i went to look at cbd md let's bring in the chairman, martian sumichrast. you are the first ever new york stock exchange listed cbd company and you're down today nearly 80%, but your earnings have been doing pretty darn well. what do you attribute that to? >> well, thank you for having me on. we had a tremendous year last year we purported fiscal year and september 30, numbers, sales were up. our online sales were up 106% year-over-year. we have continued to grow in an ever-growing cbd industry our branded

cbd md and pet brand pot cbd are gaining traction so we are very happy with where we are. we think next year will be a huge year for us as the cbd industry grows. ashley: what's the main benefit, marty, of cbd? i know it's different for everyone, but overall what's the big attraction? >> as you know, everyone is looking to the health and wellness base. health and wellness space is globally a three and half trillion dollar market. a cbd sits inside that health and wellness space and obviously this year everyone is looking to better their health with the global pandemic. cbd has a lot of great properties that help. unfortunately, you cannot make claims in the cbd space, but it does help. we have a lot of top athletes that we work with, one behind me,

bubba watson who is one of our bravest brand ambassadors and uses cbd for anxiety and he has written and talked about that, so a tremendous amount of support that our customers have for our products and really find a cbd is a tremendous health and wellness tool for them. ashley: i'm in florida right now, marty. here a lot more land is being given over to help growing and it's starting in some cases to rival some of the fruits grown here. a big reason is they can extract cbd from the hemp. where do you get cbd from was semi- businesses getting in, where is the supply? >> we buy from processors around the country. we currently sourced from four large processors, geographically located around the country. we don't grow the hemp.

we rely on top quality farmers and processors that we buy finished goods, but you are correct hemp is becoming a major industry with passage of the farm bill two years ago almost today that really unlocked the hemp industry, cbd industry 33 we will have to leave it there. ashley: thank you for joining us and continued good luck in your venture. we appreciate it. >> thank you so much. ashley: let's bring in a susan li. you have some of the movers this morning with the markets a bit tepid. susan: let's look at the electric truck maker down some double digits after another partnership fell apart without. republic services ending their deal to make electric garbage trucks and combine that with gm ending their relationship with them. we are looking at a quarter of the shares traded right now to sell into this market.

we have a cloud organizing company, have a billion dollars going in the opposite direction. was rally in the premarket, but it's using most of that to buy back their stock in these shares on the market and you take out supply the price goes up here also signing a two-year deal with it and hs in the uk, the health department in britain and that's a two-year deal worth over $30 million or something. it rallied 10% yesterday. call, will apparently be at the center of what's unfolding with the five-year super cycle. ashley: thank you very much. as we have been saying president trump demanding congress provide more money to struggling americans hurt by the pandemic. roll the tape. >> it's called the covid relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do

with covid. i am asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2000. ashley: that's a big jump. on your screen is some of those ridiculous million-dollar giveaways tucked away in that massive piece of legislation. special report anchor or brett is here and i will get his take on what he thinks congress will do about it. we will be back. ♪ sofi made it so easy to pay off my student loan debt. (chime) they were able to give me a personal loan so i could pay off all of my credit cards. (chime) i got my mortgage through sofi and the whole process was so easy.

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ashley: let's look at the airline's. and they are moving higher today. let's bring in jeff hoffman who likes to talk about travel. good morning. we just found out this week some airlines will require covid testing on flights from london to new york because of the variant strain affecting the uk, but when do you think we can finally get back to normal? is it all dependent on the vaccine and when we can all take it? >> well, actually, it's dependent on consumers

feeling safe. that airlines actually can't wait for the vaccine. winter bookings are down through the first quarter, cancellations are up and even if we had a stimulus package now to help the airlines pay employees, but it doesn't put consumers in seats. the only thing that does that is to make consumers feel safe which is why international travel is such an important piece of their profit and that's why we see that agreement with the delta, british airways, virgin saying you have to be tested to fly to new york and delta is now offering flights to rome in amsterdam, but you have to be tested to go there with the idea being to make everyone on the plain feel safe that everyone has tested negative so you will feel safe with international travel again. that's what they have to do in anticipation of a vaccine. they cannot wait for the rollout. ashley: i literally have 20 seconds. we did see a million people each day last

weekend travel by plane. is that encouraging at all? >> it is encouraging. people want to travel and there's a lot of pent-up demand and they will travel when they feel safe. it's encouraging. ashley: but, at a million a day it still is not a winner for the airlines as they are burning through a lot of cash. >> correct, it's not enough to keep them alive. it's still a big problem. they need business and international travel. businesses where the money is in a lot about travel with holiday travel and leisure. ashley: have you recently traveled, jeff? are you still taking planes? >> i do. it's amazing to me that the airplane is scrubbed in between every flight very seriously, every inch of the plane with hepa filters and some people feel uncomfortable, but find going to the grocery store. i still fly. planes are clean. ashley: there you go with the words of encouragement from jeff

hoffman picked jeff, you for taking the time. we appreciate it. still ahead, yes, carole baskin, rachel campos-duffy, bret baier , who says we don't have variety on "varney & co."? the second hour of "varney & co." just moments away. ♪ than what's being said... and offer the answers that make someone feel truly heard. i understand, let's get started call a dell technologies advisor today. . .

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now it's your turn to lose weight, look great, and be healthy. get off the floor and get on the aerotrainer. go to aerotrainer.com, that's a-e-r-o-trainer.com. ♪. ashley: actually we love that song. john and yoko happy christmas. we look down at empty six of this avenue. we've been saying that for nine months. it is christmas eve eve. that is what it looks like in new york city. 10 a.m. eastern, just gone. a big show still heyed. national retail federation ceo will be here. trump press secretary hogan gidley, art laffer and bret

baier. good stuff. we'll be joined by "the tiger king" star carol baskin. >> if you had an enemy in his life it was carol baskin. >> this is carol at big cat rescue. >> carol is the mother teresa of cats. ashley: apparently people just couldn't help to watch. i was one of those. the show pulled in 64 million people back in april. everyone was talking about it. is there a season two coming up? i will ask carol baskin later this hour. let's get a check on markets. dow up close to 200 points. it has gone through that level, up 213. the nasdaq, just slightly lower and the s&p up half a percent. by the way, an important number. we just got the latest read on new home sales. what does it say, susan? susan: we're looking 841,000 for the month of november. economists were looking for a number of 995,000.

yes a drop. that is in line with the existing home sales read we got yesterday with the first drop in five months. here is interesting part of it, the interesting part of the role estate market, prices gone up, went up 2% in the month to 335,000 for new home sales. so it is still strong. and maybe coming off of a little bit. we're still looking at low mortgage rates. ashley: yeah, low mortgage rates. affordability. with lack of inventory prices go up. thank you, susan. we got final read for december consumer sentiment. how are we feeling, lauren? lauren: bah humbug, ashley. two disappointing readings what susan said, what i'm about to report. look at the market up over 200 points if you're looking at the dow. from the university of michigan this month in december, consumer sentiment fell to 80.7. it was weaker than we thought. look, there is a lot of vaccine

optimism out there. maybe the holiday spirit. that seems what investors are focused on today, even though our sentiment overall dropping for the month of december. ashley: bah humbug indeed. thank you very much. let's bring in john lonski, moody's analytics chief market economist. a big important guest of this show over the years. john, what do these numbers tell you about the state of the economy? >> well these numbers, the numbers we got earlier today tell me we're slowing down. that after what should be a pretty good fourth quarter, this is because of an overhang from a spectacular third quarter, we will see a relatively flat start to 2021. we may see real gdp growth closer to 2% than 3%. that being said, once the vaccine is sufficiently adopted

in the united states, the u.s. economy begins to take off and we should then begin to see real gdp post annualized quarterly growth rates up 4%. ashley: when you look in your crystal ball, john, you don't have any say how quickly the vaccine is distributed, when do you hope that will be, that we'll start to see the economy reignite? >> i would like to see it show signs of revitalization say, in late march, and definitely by april. ashley: by april. that's good. let's hope you're right. obviously people would like it sooner than that. of course that is not -- we have a new administration, and i just wanted to say what could that do to the economy, an administration that wasn't like the current one that likes to cut taxes and regulations, does that have any impact on your forecast? >> one consideration, what i

can't help but think, granted resurgent covid-19 eroded consumer confidence in november and december. the truth of the matter is, the average american is not jumping for joy at the outcome of the recent election and i think issue -- [inaudible]. that is the outcome of georgia's senatorial contests. it could be that outcome could be such that businesses decide to hold off on hiring, hold off on capital spending until the tax and policy framework becomes clearer. ashley: i hope that wasn't a fire alarm, john. or maybe a fax. do you have a fax machine? i haven't heard a fax machine for a long time. anyway -- what was that? >> somebody tried to censor me. i don't know. ashley: [laughter] hey, i don't have a button. we would never do that to you,

mr. lonski. so, okay, so you think that the outcome of the georgia senate run off races is really going to be a determining factor in what businesses do when it comes to hiring? >> very important. businesses don't want to have to worry all over again as to what their operating framework in terms of taxes, in terms of regulations will look like. ashley: right. we'll have to leave it they're, john. we've never censor you, i hope you know that. i have no idea what that high pitch -- john lonski, i thought it was an old fax machine. i was waiting for the -- afterwards. thank you anyway. thank you very much, john. joe biden -- same to you. joe biden sounding less than hopeful about the impact of covid vaccine. bah humbug again, lauren. what did he say? lauren: ashley he said the

vaccine don't stop deaths of thousands of americans. the message is warning as many gather for the holidays, right? it is a sober reality things might get worse before they get better. remember the dark winter? >> one thing i promise you about my leadership during this crisis i'm going to tell it to you straight. i am going to tell you the truth and here's the simple truth. our darkest days in the battle against covid are ahead of us, not behind us. lauren: so the message not being communicated here is amazing progress in developing and distributing these vaccines. the goal from the u.s. government is to give 20 million americans their first shot in the next two weeks. so by the end of the year, 20 million should have one of two shots to inoculate them against covid-19. ashley: all right. well it's a start at least.

lauren, thank you very much. despite some of his misgivings joe biden actually got his vaccination on monday. let's bring in james freeman. god good morning to many you. you are critical of mr. biden's case against covid. make your case? >> as you said essentially he got vaccinateed on monday. this is a rebuttal of much of what he said during the campaign. he said president didn't have a plan to combat the virus and wouldn't have vaccine approval. the fact that he got vaccine on monday, joe biden realizes those statements were not true. it is fair assumption, he would not get the vaccine urge others to take it if he did not believe it was safe and effects tiff. if he does believe that, despite

what he said own the campaign it makes you wonder why he keeps talking as if following his inauguration he will have to deal with this big crisis? as lauren just mentioned, millions of doses being distributed every week now, it is not just going to break the cycle of infection but by the time of the inauguration much your vulnerable population will be inoculated. so he is fortunate, he likely will not have to deal with this crisis. ashley: you know what though, james, he did give a compliment to the trump administration earlier this week, you know what? i got to say they have done a good job with "operation warp speed." so to your point he actually kind of contradicted himself. >> we should understand "operation warp speed" in the context of the washington bureaucracy is nothing short of a miracle. here we are at christmastime.

these vaccine approvals typically take years to gain fda approval. the fact that this happened in months, that we've got the two advantages scenes approved and likely the johnson & johnson and astrazeneca ones coming up very quickly in the queue right behind them. so it is a great blessing and kudos to president trump for getting it done despite all the naysayers including joe biden and a lot of people in the media. ashley: question. very quickly, james, just switching to the comment from mr. biden to fox news' peter doocy, you're just a one horse pony, going on and on about russian interference and my son's laptop, blah, blah, exactly what they did to donald trump when he took office. even before he took office, russia, russia, russia. so hypocritical. >> the money flows to hunter biden from all of these foreign sources are a matter of public record. it will be interesting to see

whether mr. biden will be able to just laugh and make nonsensical statements and whether the press is going to accept that. i would have hoped reporters, other than just the indefatiguable mr. doocy would raise this issue. ashley: don't hold your breath. james freeman, thank you very much for joining us, thank you. merry christmas to you. let's get a quick check of the markets. dow performing nicely up close to 200 points there about, s&p up half a percent and nasdaq essentially flat at 12,806. oprah selling most of her stake to own, to discovery. susan: selling out of her own channel. oprah selling pretty much what is left of her own holdings to

discovery of $36 million in stocks. discovery owns virtually 100% of the own network. that is up 70% from three years ago. after ending 25 years of the oprah show run, oprah herself started this female focused channel in 2011 along with discovery but it hasn't been easy. it had a rough start. financial losses as well. oprah's deal had really interesting clause because it required discovery to buy her out of her part of the stake if she wanted to. so the takeaway here is oprah is not successful everything she does which is a surprise to some people. that smaller cable channels are not as valuable in content when the world is shifting to streaming. ashley: interesting. wonder if it will still be called the oprah winfrey network. own. we'll have to wait and see. susan, thank you very much listen to what joe biden told fox news when asked about hunter biden. >> yes, yes, yes. god love you, man.

you're a one-horse pony, i tell you. thank you. thank you. ashley: one horse pony. you know, listen, we keep saying this, i believe the phrase is one-trick pony. regardless we have more on that exchange, coming up. president trump calling for 2000-dollar stimulus checks in the bill. bret baier will be here to talk about that and he is coming up as well. first, we'll be talking to a woman who moved from lockdown virginia to open for business florida. she's next as the second hour of "varney" rolls on. ♪. when you switch to xfinity mobile,

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♪. ashley: welcome back, everybody. let's take a look at these markets. the dow is up over 200 points. down a little bit, still up 150 points. we have down information if you like, consumer sentiment was less than expected. new home sales same story. but the market is not directly affected. the s&p up a third. the nasdaq essentially flat. take a look at gold if we can. sometimes considered a safe haven in uncertain times. still up $7, more than $7. 1877. of course we have to check bitcoin. on the move upwards, up another 255 bucks. bitcoin at 23,700. and now this. joe biden is warning it will take his administration at least six months to undo president trump's border and immigration policies. fox news's william la jeunesse is in los angeles. william, we had tom homan on recently. he was telling us about the surge already at our border.

reporter: agents will tell you biden's promises are one reason for the surge, 70,000 apprehensions, because in the campaign biden said he would reverse almost every trump immigration policy. now he is not. call it a flip-flop or bait and switch as another democrat already did, business to secure the latino vote, biden promised in the first one one days to end the wall, halt the remain in mexico program, lift limits on refugees and detention and metering at the border and allow asylum seekers entry. now biden says, he can't, admitting if he did and as trump and experts warned him, millions would make a run for the border. >> the last thing we need is to say we're going to stop immediately the, you know, the access to asylum the way it is being run now and end up with two million people on our border. it is a matter of setting up the

guardrails so we can move in the direction. reporter: bottom line biden will enforce policies he criticized as inhumane. continue to deny entry and asylum claims in his worder, leaving them in his words, squalor in mexico for six months. he will continue trump policies continue to control immigration. >> one of the things we've been able to do is certainly gain an awful lot of control in some of these areas. we don't want to lose that. reporter: so far the aclu, rights groups which sued trump on these issues are giving biden a pass. some would call that, ashley a double standard. back to you. ashley: yes they would, william, thank you very much. now this, south dakota governor kristi noem is making a pitch to business owners, well just next door in minnesota. what are they saying? lauren: she tweets, come to south dakota. we respect your rights. we won't shut you down. it is an open invitation to minnesota bar owners that have

been sued by minnesota for defying restrictions on indoor dining. you can also eat at a bar. that is restricted in the state of minnesota. so governor noem says south dakota believe business rights supersede covid restrictions. he is inviting eastern neighbors to cross the line to move their business to south dakota. ashley: why not? the weather isn't any better but hey, you can open for business. that is good news. lauren, thank you very much. take a look at this op-ed if we can in the federalist. it is titled "i moved from lockdown virginia to open florida and faces came back to life." what a great title. let's bring in the author of that article, elle reynolds. good morning to you. what are the key differences you've seen since you've been down in florida? >> good morning. thanks for having me. ashley: yeah. >> both are different in the actual restrictions, difference in attitude.

not only are businesses and communities in florida allowed to open, unlike many in virginia but there is also just a sense of willingness to go about your life here in florida. people aren't living in fear. they're living their lives and they're enjoying it. they're taking precautions but they're not letting it stop them from living. ashley: now compare that to where you came from. what was your life like before you moved down to florida? were you essentially trapped indoors unless you needed to go out for supplies? >> well i am a senior at college. so i spend most of my time on campus but it was really everywhere you went, everyone was wearing maskings. places were closed. there was no indoor seating in lot of places. big gatherings were canceled. a couple friend had to cancel their wedding receptions because they're not allowed. people are going to church,

farmer's markets, they're not letting covid stop them from living their lives. ashley: you made the big move. do you have friends or family or anyone else you know made the move to florida? >> well i was in the orlando airport the other day and it was more crowded than i have ever seen it. that would suggest yes. there is lot of people here. a lot of people who are enjoying what we have here. you wouldn't want to spend the winter by the beaches specially if you're working remote. ashley: yeah, amen to that. how long are you going to stay down in that? >> i'm here until i go back to school in january. so i'm soaking it up and enjoying it while i can. ashley: all right. very good, you certainly not alone, elle. many people made the move permanent. decided to work from home. why not do it in florida. plus it is cheaper, the taxes you name it, it all kind of makes sense. elle thank you very much for joining thus morning. >> thank you. have a good one. ashley: yeah. you too.

staying on florida, there is one county putting a christmas curfew into effect. hmmm, we have given it a way. there is banner there. we'll tell you where it is anyway. first if you are in need of a last minute christmas present, a covid test, why not get both. there is someone offering both those things. that is next. ♪

♪ ♪

ashley: welcome back, everybody. let's take a live look at times square.

how, well, look at that, completely empty. a few people standing in front of that 2021 sign. no ball drop this year. it will be a virtual ball drop. normally this time of year in new york city the streets are so packed, the sidewalks you can barely move. takes forever to walk a block because of all the crowds. well, that right there is perhaps 2020 in a nutshell. no one around. look at the markets if we can. we did a sudden zoom. the dow up 161 points. still above 30,000. healthily so up half a percent. nasdaq is essentially been plat for most of the morning. down less than a 10th of a percent. we have had all sorts of economic news today. we found out jobless claims came in, well, the pace of jobless claims has decelerated just above 800,000. that perhaps is better news but still above 800,000 is very

high. consumer sentiment is down, new home sales are down. somewhat negative economic news, not really hurting the dow at all. let's look at the price of oil if we can. the price has been right around $47 and thereabouts. it is still there, $47.65. for another. 63-cent gain. people are driving, not flying. price of gas going up slightly to 2 to in$24 a gallon. that is the average price around the united states -- $2.24. the cheapest gas head to mississippi, $1.91. wow. where you go for most expensive, california topping the list for the most expensive gas, $3.20 per gallon thanks to all of those taxes. all right it is the time of the week stu will be very sad he missed this. weekly oil inventories breaking right now. susan what have we got.

susan: i know you live for it. we have looking a weekly drawdown from what i see. 562,000 barrels. we were looking for a drawdown of over 3 million from what i see. this is less than anticipated. but still we're using more oil than actually building. so that should help prop up oil prices. ashley: yeah. demand is up. all right, susan. thank you very much. >>? this next story is definitely an interesting one. a mall in a suburb of chicago is being called, well, a one-stop shop. bring in grady trimble. grady, you can finish your shopping oh, yes, you can get a covid test as well, right? reporter: nothing more more 2020 than that for the holidays. ashley, there is the mall right there. we're kind of in an exterior parking lot area where a separate company called health gauge, got permit to set up this drive-through testing site. i want to introduce scott

mcglocklin. i will put my mask up as we talk. the requested isn't that mall customers will be the ones primarily using this. anybody can come through here. you could do the last minute christmas shopping, get tested while you're at it too? >> very well-known location. everyone knows how to get there. you can come with an appointment. you can make a appointment when you get here. expect about a five to 15 minute experience. an hour or two, email, text, voice drop with your results. reporter: these are rapid tests. you said an hour or two later. we're close to o'hare. people travel for the holidays. people want to have peace of mind if they see loved one for christmas they want to know if they have covid this is a easy way to find out quickly. >> it is. if they're experiencing some sort of symptoms, they meet to requirement for work or for flying or for peace of mind to be around a loved one with underlying risk factors.

reporter: thanks, scott. they have been kind enough ashley to offer me one of the tests. normally cost 99 bucks. no health insurance required. scott's son jack, is here. since it is family affair he will dot honor swabbing my nose. you don't need to stay on me the whole time. because it's a rapid test we should have the results by the time neil cavuto starts noon eastern. ashley: all right. >> [inaudible]. reporter: this is not a nasal test. he is not going way up into the brain tickler. best practice for this test is a wet swab. jack accomplished a nice wet sample. we'll analyze for the proteins. when that comes out of the analyzer, we'll scan a barcode we'll fill out for you, grady. it will trigger that work flow, trigger email, text, voice drop within an hour. reporter: i hope that wasn't too unpleasant for you to watch.

i hope i get my walt results soon and they remain negative. ashley: you remained calm and fixed with the swab up your nose. that is sign after true professional. we'll get the results top. hour or noon anyway. grady, thank you very much. let's bring in matt shea national retail federation president and ceo. matt, great to see you. how is holiday shopping this year? what are you hearing? >> ashley, great to see you. thanks for having us on to talk about this you're right, it is difficult kind of a year, that previous segment you showed, we're not seeing crowds we usually see. that has been true all year long. consumers continue to power the economy. things slowed down a little bit in the month of november but our forecast was for sales to grow over the holiday season 3 1/2 to 5% basically through this 11 months, through

november 30th, we're up 8.8% for the year. so you know, we've had a strong year when you adjust for some of those, you talked about gasoline prices being low of course and some other things that impact but corner retail has been strong, consumers have been healthy because of fiscal stimulus and other measures. we put people back to work this year. we still think we'll have a healthy holiday season. ashley: you know the potential stimulus bill, how much does that help retailers, matt? >> well, ashley i think it will help in two-ways really. number one, the conundrum, some ways the tragedy of this year is two realities you see some individuals, some businesses, some families, some communities doing very, very well, and others are doing very poorly and facing enormous challenges n a real practical sense this money flow back through the economy, the massive stimulus, second largest in history, second only to the one we passed earlier this year, the cares act,

combined total of which dwarfs even the new deal, put that into perspective, massive stimulus for the economy. that is practical. the psychology of this, gives people hope, gives them confidence, gives them sense help coming, help is on the way. that makes a big difference too. ashley: hopefully sooner rather than later. matt, thank you so much for joining us this morning. we do appreciate it. thank you very much. >> thanks, ashley. ashley: love the tree in the background. the lights werechanging color. lauren, come in, what is a new rule that could force servers to share coveted tips. what is that about? >> if you're a server or a bartender you make the minimum wage, you will be required to share your tips with the non-tipped staff in the restaurant. for example, the dishwasher. so the labor department took years, finally finalized this rule. it does go into effect in 60 days. why is that important? the biden administration could

change it or delay implementation. there is two sides looking at this, on one hand, back of the houseworkers, janitors, make more money. that is good, right? even though the server would make less. the other way it is a standard. it gives business owners clarity what the rules are and how to enforce them but then you can say that you know, the restaurants will be less likely to hike wages because they say, well you're getting more in tips anyway. ashley: right, right. all right. interesting case. thank you very much, lauren. carol baskin, one of the stars of course of the hit netflix show "tiger king." she made quite a splash on "dancing with the stars." roll that tape. ♪. ♪ it's the eye of the tiger with the thrill of the fight ♪ ashley: of course she was dancing to "eye of the tiger."

what else would it have been. "tiger king" opened up a lot of doors for carol. we'll talk all things tiger and possible season two with carol herself next. ♪ t-mobile is upgrading its network at a record pace. we were the first to bring 5g nationwide. and now that sprint is a part of t-mobile we're turning up the speed. upgrading over a thousand towers a month with ultra capacity 5g. to bring speeds as fast as wifi to cities and towns across america. and we're adding more every week. coverage and speed. who says you can't have it all?

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>> if he ever had an enemy in his life was carol baskin. >> you cool cats and kittens, carol baskin at big cat rescue. >> carol is the mother teresa of cats. >> need a private confession with these cats. ashley: that was of course carol baskin on the hugely popular net flicks show "tiger king". she joins you now. carol, great to see you. let me begin here, how is the big cat rescue operation doing right now? >> hey all cool cat and kittens, thank you for having me. actually the sanctuary is doing just great. the cats are getting as much or maybe more attention than they

have ever gotten because now that there are no tours we have a whole lot more time for doing things like singing to the cats and reading to the cats and making enrichment to make their lives better in captivity because that is the worst part is being stuck in a cage. ashley: right. well, listen, netflix reported 64 million people have watched "tiger king." i guess two parts. are you surprised at how amazingly popular it was? everybody was talking about it earlier this year. and then secondly are there more season on the way? >> you know i think it was a perfect storm that caused the popularity. we had all been locked in our rooms by mother nature on march the 15th. and then on march the 20th "tiger king" came out. people were thinking about nature. well tigers and that kind of rung a bell. it was like a dumpster fire. you just couldn't look away from it after you started that was like a freak show like nobody is

ever seen. i can see why so many people were into it or talking about it. as far as a new series they have not spoken to me talking about a new series. they reached out after what they talked to me but after what they did to me the first time i told them to lose my number. ashley: i know you don't want to talk about joe exotic. he was convicted of trying to hire a hitman to kill you. have you had contact from him. have you tried to contact him at all? >> joe and i never had a conversation with each other prior to all of this. the whole idea of painted a big feud for us was fabricated for the purpose of this show. you know i did go after him because he is one of the people that i tell is abusing exploiting big cats. i go after all the bad guys. so he was just one out of a dozen or so that are on my, the top of my list for places that need stop abusing animals. ashley: right.

you know what is interesting, too, other than the amazing personalities contained in that series, carol, was the fact i think a lot of people were shocked that these operations, these people were allowed to maintain these beautiful animals and have the public come in and, you know, you thought it would have be better regulated. have the rules changed with regard to people being able to keep these big cats? >> that was the silver lining from "tiger king" because when we would go to talk to people about the horrible ways these cubs were treated and how they were ending up in backyards and basements, people didn't believe us. and now it is like they finally understand this really is a thing in america. it's a horrible thing and we need to stop it. so we've been working on a federal bill that would stop cub handling which causes all the breeding and discarding of cats. we've been working on that since the '90s. we had a predecessor to it that passed in 2003 but anytime you pass a bill there is always

give-and-take t had really serious loopholes. we've been working since 2003 to close the loopholes. as you guys might know on december the 3rd. the house actually passed our bill. it ends cub handling and phases out private possession of big cats. it hassed with a 2/3 vote in the house. the only thing we needed to do get it passed in the senate was hotline in the bill. there was no republican willing to take the on that, so it died this year. ashley: right. >> start again next year. ashley: carol baskin, yeah, keep going. carol, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. best of luck in your future endeavors, we appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: thank you. all right. coming up, despite warnings to stay home for the holidays nearly one people, nearly one million people got on a plane yesterday. people are traveling. coming up we're going to head to chicago's o'hare airport for a live report.

plus fox news auto guy gary gastelu, he has been driving a ton of cars this year. there he is. you know him. we're come together end of 2020. what is the best car he has driven this year? he is going to tell us next. ♪. just like your fingertips, your lips have a unique print.

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go to aerotrainer.com to get yours now. ashley: all right. take a look at apple if we can. it is down a third of a percent. apple right around 131 bucks a new report says we could see an apple car out well ahead of 2024. let's bring back susan li. when exactly could we see that apple car on the road. susan: 2021 maybe next year. that is pretty soon according to the taiwan daily news. apple has started ramping orders with the car supplier in taiwan way ahead of debut. that could be next september with a apple car. they're characterizing it as explosive amount. we might see earlier introduction than say 2024 that was reported in reuters. the taiwan outlet says not just a mass market car apple is

developing, but self-driving electric taxi. we know the stock rallied on the back of hopes and expectations we'll see an i-car with four wheels on the road soon. ashley: yes, that was stu's i-car which was not very creative. i can say that because he is not here. anyway, another one for you, susan, apparently elon musk did ask tim cook to buy tesla. what a story. susan: salivating for a lot of wall street investors. imagine if apple buys tesla at a 10th of a price, $60 billion, compared to 600-dollar valuation today. during the time elon musk was sleeping on the floor of the fremont factory to get the model 3 production problems fixed. according to he will elon musk tim cook didn't take the meeting when i asked apple for comment there was no comment. talking about the electric car and innovative battery tech

which is key to bring down the price of an electric vehicle. obviously elon musk is not going to take competition coming from apple especially twitter users saying their battery tech might be better than tesla's in the future. by the way, if you think about it, i was doing math in my head, everybody is salivating, apple combining with tesla, that would be a 3 trillion-dollar company if that actually happened. ashley: that is insane, is it not? elon musk, on line two, just ignore it. interesting. susan, thank you very much. speaking of cars, our own gary gastelu has gotten to test drive a whole slew of new cars. there is gary. what was your favorite car to drive this year? reveal. >> look it was a rough year for the auto industry. great year for cars. there was the tesla model y, mustang mach e. ford f-150 they were all great. exactly as good as i think most people expected.

the one went beyond expectation was the 2020 chevrolet corvette stingry. i don't like it just because it's a sports car. here is why it's a big deal. this is the first time they made a mid engine corvette. for over 60 years the engine was in in the front. no one on the team made a mid engine. a lot of traditional owners said we don't want that. that is not american sports car. best american sports car ever, in my estimation. it was designed to compete against exotic cars. it is refined, comfortable. you can drive it every day. i did for a few days. they made it practical. it has a trunk that most med engine cars big enough to fit two golf clubs. because that is important for typical corvette buyer. best part, $60,000 to start. options with $100,000. this is the car only

underpriced. planned to make 40,000. coronavirus afternoon affected production. only made 20,000. some are on dealer stickers at over $150,000. as far as i hate dealer markups, this is underpriced. ashley: you don't hear that expression talking about motor vehicles. gary, fascinating stuff. you have the best job in television by the way. bring back in lauren, new york city mayor bill de blasio making a interesting comment at his daily briefing. what is the mayor saying, lauren? lauren: he is saying the new york city sheriff's office will pay a visit to your house, knock on your door, make sure you're there, enforce that quarantine if you just traveled back to new york city from the united kingdom. the wore is, that a new variant of covid-19 more transmissible in england coming here to the u.s. if it is already here, will

it come here in more drastic numbers. you might get a knock on your door about you're not at home quarantining. they want to make sure that you are. ashley? ashley: interesting. all right. lauren, thank you very much. still ahead on the show, rachel campos duffy, hogan gidley, art laffer, bret baier. what a lineup. also mixed mix martial arts icon greg jackson, considering a independent run for a seat in new mexico being vacated by deb holland. we'll talk about his experience and will it serve him well in politics in the next hour. ♪ we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right,

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>> our darkest days in the battle against covid are ahead of us, not behind us. >> i'm dreaming of a dark winter. just like the years that we just had. >> this is the last thing you want from somebody that's supposed to lead you up. >> operation warp speed, in the context of the washington bureaucracy is nothing short of a miracle. kudos to president trump forgetting it done despite all

of the naysayers. >> i think that the euphoria while it might be a little bit early is not going to be near what it's going to be when you see that vaccine starting to get there. i think we're in for a terrific first six months of the year. >> i would like to see it show signs of revitalization say in late march and definitely by april. >> if you want to participate in this market, you have to be willing to take profit in a very short period of time. >> ♪ run, run, rudolph, santa got to make it to town, santa make you hurry he can take the freeway down ♪ ashley: it's run, run rudolph and by the way pete hegseth not going to quit the day job but it was lovely to hear him sing on this show it is 11 a.m. on the east coast i'm ashley webster in for stuart varney on this wednesday, december 23. christmas eve-eve, and as we look at the markets, the nasdac

has been essentially flat all morning and that's where it is right now but the dow still up 171, we're up over 200 points earlier, and the s&p up nearly half a percent. now, this. president-elect joe biden firing back at fox news' peter doocy over a question about his son. take a listen. >> mr. president-elect do you still think that it's the story about your son hunter, like you said? >> yes, yes, yes. god love you, man, you're a one horse pony. ashley: one horse pony, come in rachel campos-duffy, great to see you. first of all, rachel what does that mean? rachel: well first, merry christmas to you, ashley. ashley: merry christmas to you. rachel: listen, it doesn't mean anything, and it shows, again, that we're going to see over the next four years a slow

mental decline of the president-elect biden, so that's that. peter doocy is the only reporter asking these questions, besides the new york post, and it's a shame, and that's what we're going to expect also over the next four years, that there is zero curiosity about a massive story. this is not a story about russian disinformation. this is a china story, and china knows exactly what joe biden, hunter biden, and jim biden and i'm going to also say jill biden , since she also had it along with the chinese emissary for an ener gy conglomerate so the entire biden family, the chinese know what they did and they will be holding this over joe biden's head as we go through the next few years, dealing with china policy, china is our biggest geo political enemy and adversary this is serious stuff, and that the media is not interested, is

truly a dereliction of their duty to our democracy. ashley: you're absolutely right it's complete opposite of what we've seen four years of the trump adminitration but rachel let me ask you this. do you think joe biden will ever directly address the scandals involving his son? rachel: well if peter doocy is in the room, yes, and what needs to happen is the american people need to start demanding answers. this is not, this is not even about money anymore. this isn't a corruption story. this is a national security story, and having somebody who could be our president in january that the chinese have something to holdover their heads is serious and part of the reason the press doesn't want to tell the story the way it should be told is because it makes them look bad. they know they were part of censoring the story prior to the election. they made a deal with big tech. they made a deal with the biden administration, and they did it for political reasons and now the more that comes out about this the worse they look so of

course they don't want to cover the story. ashley: very good points. next question for you, rachel. i want to talk about broward county in florida. they just announced a new curfew for both christmas and new years eve. it's supposed to help stop the virus from spreading, but a curfew on christmas, is that going too far, do you think? rachel: well they can't stop christmas. they'll try, these little grinch es but here is the deal. none of this is following the science. the virus doesn't stop spreading at 10:00 and start back up at 4:00 a.m. i don't know what they're thinking here. besides, a lot of the stuff that our health officials have been recommending has been, you know, actually contrary to what be good for our health, so we know that the virus spreads less rapidly outside. you're in florida, let people get outside instead of being indoors, and also they're closing gyms. they're telling people they can't be at parks and get exercise. so, a lot of the virus, we're

all going to get it at some point. there's a vaccine now. other people i've had it, got over it. i'm convinced that my good health helped, you know, get through it as well as my age i'm not in the age bracket that makes me high risk but a lot of the things that they're recommending for our children and for all of us are actually contrary to what common sense would tell you and what we already know about this virus. ashley: we'll have to leave it right there, rachel campos-duffy , thank you again, rachel for joining us, and again , merry christmas to you and your family. rachel: thank you merry christmas. ashley: and your husband, sean. now show me the markets as we bring in mark kepper, good friend of the show the markets all now positive all very modestly so at least we're on the upside. mark, let's look ahead if we can give me your market predictions for 2021? >> yeah, so, ashley, you know, i've heard a lot of people talking about the epicenter

stocks, airlines, cruise lines, hotels kind of leading the way due to pent-up demand. i wouldn't be hopping in just yet. if you looked out to the last two recessions, tech and financials lagged coming out of them, so i would want to be over on healthcare. here is my take on healthcare. 2020 is all about covid so the covid stocks have done well, moderna with the vaccine, quidel with the test, gilead with the treatment and investors who have fallen out of love with the countries that'd researcher epidemics that are going to be here long after covid, cancer, diabetes, ortho pete ices for the aging population, so you look at companies like exact sciences, tandem diabetes, stryk er on the orthopaedic side those are the kind of companies that are going to do very well next year so i think that is the real reopening trade that not enough people are talking about right now. ashley: tell us about your stocking stuffer stock, and i've

been practicing that all morning stocking stuffer stock. >> it's a tongue twister. ashley: what's your pick? >> so the stocking stuffer it's a true stocking stuffer. this thing isn't even big enough to wrap and put under the tree. $400 million company, right? small company but exciting. the name of the company is dermt ek dmtk, so they're doing the exact same thing that exact sciences did for colon cancer for melanoma so they are rolling out a patient-friendly, less-invasive, more accurate way to test for melanoma. you put a sticker on a spot of skin and it'll diagnose melanoma and it misses less than 1% of cases, traditional biopsies miss 17%. this is a game changer. this is a revolutionary product just like exact sciences had. in 2014 exact sciences crossed a $1 billion market cap. today, it's 22 billion, so that's 22xs so i think this

thing dermcaltech dmtk, a ton of upside with this company. ashley: we'll look for it under the tree though very quickly, mark we had jeff seeker on the show earlier today and he said he's a little worried that the investor attitude right now is a little euphoric. that you need to hedge a little bit, because the market could be getting ahead of itself. would you agree? >> it's so funny you ring that up i was thinking about this yesterday, right? so nobody even talks pe ratios anymore. everybody talks tam, total addressable market. it doesn't matter if a company makes money or loses money, investors are piling in, so yes, i do agree it's a little euphoric but we're still in a tina situation where there's no alternative, nobody is bragging to their friends about the bonds they're buying right now, you know? so everyone wants to talk stocks , with all this new stimulus money that's going to go right into robinhood accounts and pump the market even higher. ashley: right. glad we got tina in there as

well, marxism mark tepper -- >> happy holidays. ashley: mark, thanks let's bring in susan. you're watching some of the big names today, what are they? >> i want to show you right now , the electric truck maker losing another big partnership that's why it's down almost 10% in this session and this time they lost a deal with republic services and the two were going to combine to make electric garbage trucks together, but it looks like that deal is now off and nikola has suffered the partnership with gm, and they are only worth a third of what they were worth back in august and also zoom one of the biggest percentage losses despite the fact that it's a record christmas over zoom. you know, they removed that 40- minute limit last week and we know that a lot of people are going to be zooming over the holidays and other stay-at-home winners, sopranoify getting sold off as well, the news of pfizer vaccine more being bought up by the u.s. government and that means a quicker reopening and finally want to show you palenti er, and it was up

today and it is still up today after the 10% rally that we saw during the tuesday session, and this is after palentier signed the two year deal worth over $30 million, so you see that 2% rally. ashley: very good. healthcare, all right, susan thank you. now let's take a look at walmart if we can the doj, department of justice suing the company, why is that, lauren? lauren: yeah, ashley, it is a civil lawsuit, and the reason the doj is suing walmart is they say walmart helped to fuel the opioid crisis starting as early as 2013. okay, how? they say walmart ignored some warning signs from pharmacists, raising their hands when they thought they were filling what could be a questionable pain pill prescription, and the reason was managers were supposedly pressuring the pharmacist to keep customers in the stores, to buy other stuff, you know? well, walmart responding. they say this. the doj lawsuit invents a legal theory that unlawfully forces

pharmacists to come between patients and their doctors. so you're looking at the stock now it's down 1% it was hit yesterday as well, but the hope for investors is that this is not a criminal lawsuit. so yes, walmart does fill prescriptions, but guess what, ashley? they also administer the covid-19 vaccine and they just dosed health care workers in new mexico with the first of the two moderna shots. so, that is good news for walmart and the healthcare workers in rural new mexico. ashley: very good news, indeed. lauren thank you very much. guess what we still got a huge show, still to come, art laffer, my good friend from nashville is here i want to know what's really at stake in the georgia elections and how it could affect your wallet, and nearly 1 million people boarded planes yesterday, despite warnings to stay home for the holidays, so will we see an even bigger rush today? we've got a live report from chicago's o'hare airport, coming

up, and president-elect joe biden is blaming the trump adminitration for a massive russia hack. hogan gidley responds, next. >> ♪ ♪ turn on my tv and boom, it's got all my favorite shows right there. i wish my trading platform worked like that. well have you tried thinkorswim? this is totally customizable, so you focus only on what you want. okay, it's got screeners and watchlists. and you can even see how your predictions might affect the value of the stocks you're interested in. now this is what i'm talking about. yeah, it'll free up more time for your... uh, true crime shows? british baking competitions. hm. didn't peg you for a crumpet guy. focus on what matters to you with thinkorswim. ♪

>> this attack constitutes a grave risk to our national security. the attackers succeeded in catching the federal government off guard and unprepared. the trump adminitration failed to prioritize cybersecurity. ashley: well, that was president-elect joe biden blaming the trump adminitration

for russia's massive cyberattack on government agencies. let's bring in trump 2020 national press secretary hogan gidley. hogan great to see you. let's begin there. what's your response to what mr. biden is saying? >> well, a couple things. first of all, this attack was serious. it was substantial. it was sophisticated. the president of the united states is sober-minded. he is clear-eyed about what occurred. he's been briefed on the matter and is now working with nsa o'brien to make sure that all of the relevant agencies in our federal government are stood up, including the fbi, the cia, dhs, andnfc and others because we have to find out the information , what was done, how it was done. mr.s a mitigation effort going on too to make sure it doesn't continue and lastly we have to make sure this cannot and does not ever happen again. this president is the one who has been focused on these matter s. let's not forget all of these other foreign actors are always trying to interfere in our

elections, they are always trying to hack our information. it was under the biden/obama administration where millions of people had their social security numbers hacked and leaked by china, for example, so understand. any response by this federal government too, it was this president who held foreign powers feet to the fire, when russia meddled and looked like they were going to do more things in our 2016 election and then again in 2020 it was donald trump who expelled russian diplomats and shutdown russian diplomatic facilities and who gave lethal aid to ukraine when obama and biden gave them blankets and pillows who opened up energy exploration to hurt russia's economy. that's what this president did being tough on foreign powers. joe biden doesn't have any credibility on what he's done against foreign powers. in fact he's the one whose potentially compromised with what we now know regarding hunter biden, and the money laundering scheme that he's being investigated for , with foreign powers as well, so, this

president understands the retaliation will be key also , and i think you should know this , it's very important for you and your viewers to hear , i was in the federal government for a long time. a lot of the things that you will see , as far as retaliatory action by this administration, you'll know about, like the things i mentioned with diplomatic facilities, et cetera a lot of things you will not see , and that's by design, and it's on purpose. make no mistake about it this president and this administration will always stand up and protect the american people. ashley: all right, very good. i've got the next one for you, hogan. take a look i want you to look at the cnn analysis. optimistic reads, trump threaten s 30-day reign of destruction on the way out of the office. what the hecks that about and what's your response? >> cnn isn't a news network. it's a punch line and when it's not very funny by the way. every single story they write, every single package they produce for tv is just a vehicle

, a means for them to try and bash this president with editorialized opinion language. the first graph alone i was reading use words like vengeful, conspiracy theory, it's cabal, these are words either on the record or on background by the author itself, and when cnn is exposed with video evidence and audio that their whole desire is to take down this president, they don't apologize. they don't act embarrassed. they actually double down on it, and continue this type of behavior, and so instead of reporting what we know that the biden family is under investigation, for example, with text messages and e-mails that joe biden knew about it, they're going to talk about speculation on what this president may or may not do, all the while this president is trying to point out the fact that this election was rigged, that democrats were caught stone cold , and the american people aren't going to stand for it and it's up to donald trump to make

sure that our elections are free , that they are fair, and that the american people can have confidence and faith in the fact that if you cast the vote, legally and lawfully, it is counted, and if you cast a vote illegally and unlawfully it is not. ashley: all right, i guess that's a good place to leave it right there, hogan gidley, thank you so much for taking time this morning to chat with us. hogan, thanks. >> appreciate it. ashley: now, let's take a look at this. more than 992000 people traveled through tsa checkpoints yesterday. that's despite warnings of course to stay home for the holidays. let's go to fox news' garrett tenney he's at chicago's o'hare airport, garrett, how many people expected to fly this week >> ashley, airports are expected to be the busiest they have been since the start of the pandemic and it certainly looked that way earlier this morning at o'hare. right now you can see it looks a little bit more like the new normal we have seen during the pandemic with more employees

than passengers. according to triple a, nearly 3 million americans are expected to fly over the next week and a half. to put that in perspective, while it's certainly more than a handful, it is less less than half the number that took to the skies a year ago. instead most folks traveling for christmas are hitting the road taking advantage of some of the lowest gas prices we've seen in years. 81 million are expected to travel by car according to triple a, down around 25% from last year, so a lot of folks are following the advice of public health officials to stay home for the holidays and avoid potentially spreading the coronavirus to friends and loved ones but with this spike in travel there is a lot of concern that could lead to a spike in cases and hospitalizations that could potentially overwhelm our health care system. for a lot of folks though, after nearly 10 months of staying indoors and not seeing their families, it's essentially reached a breaking point and they say that they are not willing to miss this time with their families and they are going to do everything they can to stay safe while doing it. ashley?

ashley: yeah, what a strange year 2020 has been. garrett thank you so much appreciate that. now, show me amazon apparently some workers want to form a union. susan? how soon could that happen? >> i think as early as next year so workers of one alabama amazon warehouse will vote on whether or not to unionize and the first union vote taking place at an amazon facility in close to seven years so if this goes through and there's a yes vote it be the first in amazon's history and there are around 5,700 workers who will vote at this facility including the seasonal workers, and amazon says look we already pay you above the average minimum wage at the bessimer, alabama warehouse and the average pay is $15.30 comes with health and retirement benefits as well, so amazon, you know, they face worker strikes and complaints during covid and the complaints that they were protecting their employees or giving them enough time to clean-up properly, but we know that business is booming , at amazon this year during covid. they have hired over 400,000 around the world with more than

1 million employees in 2020. ashley: wow. more than 1 million employees around the world. amazing all right, susan thank you very much. can't go home for the holidays this year? well this may be the next best thing. bizarrely, one company is selling jaws of air to provide people with the scent of home. well you could have fun jokes with that we'll explain coming up, plus, the stimulus bill will provide some relief for now, but how long before we need another package to bail us out? former reagan economist art laffer weighs in, next. it's been a tough year.

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$75,000, $1,200 if you're a couple that makes up to $150,000 the president wants that more than three types the amount, meaning $2,000 and $4,000 for couples. so what are democrats saying right now? great. they're saying mr. president, let's work together let's get this done, and they are asking on republicans in congress, not to block the process. for example, this was a letter that the house speaker nancy pelosi just sent out to her democratic colleagues a little while ago writing in part, if the president truly wants to join us in $2,000 payments, he should call upon leader mccarthy to agree to our unanimous consent request. now, ashley, this puts the president's own party in a bit of a tricky spot, because remember, the deal was negotiated by the top two democrats and the top two republicans up on capitol hill, along with the president's representative. the treasury secretary, steven mnuchin, now, the president also is saying what he views as wasteful spending and wants that out of there, but remember, that is a part of the

$1.4 trillion government spending deal, not a part of the $900 billion covid relief deal. those two things were put together in this 5,500-plus-page bill. ashley? ashley: i'm sure you are still w ading through it, blake, thank you very much. let's bring in art laffer. art great to see you from the great city of nashville. >> good to see you, ashley. ashley: look the stimulus deal, art, could provide some relief for now, but how long do you think it will last? >> well, i don't think it will last and i don't think it will provide much relief. what you've got to look at in this bill is it's all sorts of special interests in the bill that's there, and do remember that when you do this , are you going to do it for this month and then next month? when do you stop? i mean, what you've got to remember, ashley, in all of this is government spending is taxation, and you know, you've got to remember government doesn't create resources.

it redistributes and every dollar you put into this " stimulus bill" you're taking from future economic growth and you're going to cause the economy to be a lot worse in the future and we've done way too much of this already, and i would personally recommend to the president, i'd support him 100% if he vetoed this bill. ashley: but would you not agree, art, that there are businesses and many sectors of our economy that are in desperate need of some help. i mean, if they go out of business, they're not going to contribute anything. >> well there are a lot of people, you know, the pandemic caused enormous damage to the overall u.s. economy, but there are lots of taxpayers and future people also who have no blame whatsoever in this situation, and you know, they're going to suffer by bailing out the others you know, whenever you re distribute income, ashley you reduce total income and there's a level at which you do this but we had a huge cares act bill which obviously they don't think is enough.

you're going to get another huge bill coming up with joe biden, and this is just the one interim what i would suggest to the president here is that he vetoes this bill and lets biden have his own bill when he takes office. that's when it should be done and let the democrats and president and the administration, the future one, have all the responsibility and all the authority that goes with that responsibility to provide what they think is best for america. that, i would support 100%, but i don't think the president in the last few days should sign this , what i think, is a horrible bill with all sorts of corruptions and pay off and stuff in it. i don't think the president should do that. let joe biden do that. let them bear the consequences of their own actions going forward. ashley: and going forward, let me look towards the future, art. what do you thinks really at stake in the georgia elections and how could the outcome shape the economy? >> well let me just say that i have over my lifetime worked as

closely with democrats as i have with republicans, whether it be jerry brown, john f. kennedy, whoever it is, i've worked with democrats and republicans and let me just say that kelly loeffler and david perdue are the two best senators , in my opinion, in the u.s. senate. they are really extremely good. if they were democrats, i would go out and campaign for them right now. i think what's not important as at least what's not as important is the republican democrat balance as it is to have these two just wonderful senators put back in office and make sure they stay there for all americans, not just republicans, not just democrats, but for everyone. they're the two best senators around. ashley: very quickly, art. if democrats pick-up those seats how does that change the equation? >> well it does change the equation. it tilts it a little bit more towards the democrats, but you know, a 50/50 senate is not a runaway lead by the democrats and you know, i think a 50/50

senate is sufficient to put guidelines on the democrats, but obviously, i prefer it 52-48 republican, but i would take 50/ 50, but i really want these two senators in there. ashley: very quickly, art. i'm just wanting to know how is nashville doing these days, tourism down on broad way, the honky tonks, how are those establishments surviving? >> they are not surviving very well especially when you give it that cooper has put in a huge property tax increase on david son county which as you know nashville, we have county government and has done that which is just the wrong time to put on increased taxes on this , and you know, we have a huge surge in covid cases here. i think we're the hottest spot in the nation on covid cases, increases, and you know i think the governor is doing a great job in the state here and it's just a very difficult time, ashley, and you know, we miss you terribly here in nashville, but it's a difficult time but we'll make it through and we'll do really well. ashley: i'm sure, that's

absolutely got to be the outcome , we'll get there eventually, art, thank you so much for joining us today, and merry christmas. >> merry christmas ashley. have a great year, thank you. ashley: will do, thank you, art. and now this. france is reopening its border with the uk, finally, after closing it for a new strain of the virus that's been affecting the uk, but lauren what's the catch? lauren: the catch is you need proof that you had a recent covid-19 test and it was negative. this is a very big deal, because travelers and truck drivers, they've been bound from entering france, because of that new covid-19 variance in england, so now france is saying some risks will be allowed in and french nationals to be allowed back in in time for christmas with their family, right, as well as food and supplies, they were stuck. look at these pictures just trucks lined up, waiting to get in, sleeping in their trucks in some cases for two nights, and now the food stores can get

their deliveries. ashley: all right, yes, remarkable pictures those trucks lined up back to back for miles. all right, lauren another one for you. one company wants to help people who can't go home for the holidays. what are they selling? >> i need your help with this one, ashley. they're selling bottled air and the company is called "my baggage" that's selling it. okay it's air from england, scotland, and northern ireland, so you can buy it and feel like your home when you're not. i've been to england. i don't know or remember what the air smells like. fish and chips, i don't know what is bottled air in this part of the world smell like? ashley: mill due [laughter] because it rains all the time, with a hint, a very faint hint of, yeah, with a faint hint of s tale beer i think. i think we've nailed it lauren thank you very much. with a little fish and chips. lauren: no thanks.

ashley: coming up so many people are fleeing liberal new york that the state could soon lose a congressional seat. we're going to break down the numbers coming up, and president trump slamming the $900 billion stimulus deal as a disgrace, as he calls on congress to cut bigger checks for struggling americans. will he get his way? bret baier joins me live, next. >> ♪ ♪ hi, this is margaret your dell technologies advisor

there's an art to listening. it's the ability to hear more than what's being said. to understand the meaning in every pause. and to be able to offer the answers that make someone feel truly heard. i understand, let's get started. that's what you get when you talk to a dell technologies advisor. ♪

president trump: it's called the covid relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with covid. i'm asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously-low $600 to $2,000.

ashley: well, as we've been showing you all morning that was president trump demanding changes to the new covid relief bill. right now, americans will only get $600 checks, but as you can see , passing on the screen, things like gender studies programs in pakistan will get millions of dollars. seems like a good time to bring in our good friend bret baier. bret, how did all this pork and i think that i know this answer but how did all of this pork make the cut? >> ashley, good morning. a couple things. one is there are two pieces of legislations here, legislation here. one is the covid stimulus relief package and the other one is the funding of the government that has been taking months. this is put together because of speed at the end of this process , so a couple of different elements. there have been a lot of moving parts to get to this negotiation what the president said last night did throw his treasury secretary under the bus, because steven mnuchin has been involved in the negotiations on this from

the beginning, so when he says that it's not enough for $600 that's the compromise that has been made in all these negotiations that's one point. the other point is that the foreign aid that's in this package for the spending bill, ashley, actually was submitted by the trump adminitration. the u.s. department of state for their federal 2021 budget, so, you know, there's a lot of elements to this. the bottom line is the presidents not happy. the process stinks. congress has done this many times. people say why does it happen this way, but the prospect of changing it now is going to be tough. ashley: right. well, can he veto it? because based on the majorities of the votes in the house and the senate i'm not so sure he can do that, can he? >> he can, but he risks possibly not getting it through and he obviously would do that if he wanted to kill it. he's also got the prospect of the next congress, ashley,

starting january 3 so as time goes on here, any legislation that this congress did evaporates 12-noon, january 3 so the clock is ticking here. ashley: [laughter] it always is. next one, bret. you have a new special on fox nation just in time for the holidays. let's play a quick clip and then we'll have your summary of what we're going to see. >> back in 1897 as december approached, all young virginia o 'hanlon needed to know was that santa was real and thanks to the editorial penned by francis p. church now she knew he was. ashley: well that looks terrific tell us more, bret. >> yes, there's a santa claus this goes back to this letter written in 1897 to the son in new york city and the response by the writer editorial writer francis church really became

history, and its been printed millions of times, and this is the story, the real story, in an hour special that you can get on fox nation as of this week. ashley: terrific. it already makes me feel better just watching that little clip. yes, there is a santa claus. thank you very much, bret baier. we'll be watching you, of course tonight at 6:00 p.m. on special report only on the fox news channel. there's bret smiling away thank you so much merry christmas to you. now let's take a look at an empty new york city. there it is, again we've been saying this normally, this time of year, sixth avenue heading up the road there towards central park, it be packed. you can't move. well, this is 2020. come in, lauren. how many people have left the city this year? lauren: i know. usually, i curse "the rock"efell er center christmas tree because i want to get away

from the people and now that is not the case in addition more than 126,000 residents left new york, between last july and this july and that's according to a preliminary census numbers from the census bureau and new yorkers have actually left, ashley, every single year since 2016. what that does is cement the trend that locals are leaving the big apple, and here is the repercussion. new york might actually lose the census seat because of that, so that would make florida have more seats if florida gains too, more seats than new york, so if you look at the house of representatives, california number one, texas number two, it would then be florida and new york. ashley: outrageous. all right, fascinating stuff, lauren thank you very much. now, this story. we talked about this earlier. the labor department could soon force servers at restaurants to share their tips. christina partsinevelos joins us , and exactly how is this going to work? reporter: well, sharing is

caring maybe? in about two months, all tipped workers those who get tips will potentially have to share their tips with back-of-the-house workers. think like dishwashers or cooks this is a rule that was three years in the works by the labor department and the way it works is it's tip pools, they're called tip pools. you share them with everyone except for the manager as well as the owner, for those that have to share those tips you'd be making at least minimum wage of 7.25 which is the federal minimum wage. the labor department though says that it's about wage equality, that it could increase pay for back-of-the-house workers. these tips like i mentioned though they're not shared with the owners of managers and so the national restaurant association we reached out to them and they also support this new rule which would come into play in about two months saying that it would provide renewed sensible regulations on tip pooling and tip credit standards, but workers, advocates say that it puts the burden of compensation on

all employees and that would maybe force or allow business owners not to pay the back-of-the-house workers like the dishwashers as much money, and we know and i'll just wrap with this. we know that it's state to state so there's still two months it could be overruled back to you. ashley: yeah, you know what? tip your waiter and waitresses, please. they need the money. that's a debate that goes on, christina thanks. after years of training, fighter s and mma, one could could soon be fighting for you in washington. greg jackson joins me, next. >> ♪ ♪ you for going the extra mile... and for the extra pump of caramel. thank you for the good food... and the good karma. thank you for all the deliveries... especially this one. you've reminded us that no matter what, we can always find a way to bounce forward.

so thank you, to our customers and to businesses everywhere, from all of us at comcast business. (betsy)) quarter mile of tinsel. of lights. (harold) and real snow all the way from switzerland. (betsy) hmmhm... gonna be tough to top. well played. (vo) add some thrill to your wish list.

at the season of audi sales event. get exceptional offers now. the we have to find just nosomething else.it. good luck! what does that mean? we are doomed. [laughter] that's it. i figured it out! we're going to give togetherness. that sounds dumb. we're going to take all those family moments and package them. hmm. [laughing] that works.

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this is not only a weight loss journey, this is a complete transformation, mentally and physically. (announcer) want to lose 60 pounds? how about 100 pounds? you can. (woman) it's easy, and it will change your life. (announcer) go to golo.com. that's g-o-l-o.com. ashley: the gloves are coming off for this legendary mma coach, greg jackson says he's now considering a congressional run in new mexico and he joins me live. greg, great to see you. why make the jump into politics? >> well, i'm just looking for a way to kind of give back, to give back to new mexico, to give back to my country, so it seems like the next step for me is to move into the political arena and see what i can do. ashley: well we know the political arena can be a rough and tumble place. do you think your skills in

marshall arts will serve you well? >> well, i think the dealing with strategy, i'm kind of known in the marshall arts world as a strategist so i think if you give me the parameters that i'll need to work within, i'll be able to kind of use the same ideas, teamwork and all these things that you bring as a marshall arts coach to the political arena, and i'm sure there's many people that would say that it's probably going to be a lot rougher in the fights in the political world than in the marshall arts world. ashley: [laughter] i think you're right. next one for you, greg. you run an mma academy in albuquerque. have you had to shutdown at all because of covid? what's it been like trying to operate your business? >> well, its been a challenge. we've really hammered on the quarantine, hammered on keeping it clean, you know, we've been able to stay operational but its been a real challenge. we've really really done a great job, i feel, working through it. dana white and scott kocher both

kept our organizations going at theufc so there's work for us and we're just being really smart about it working through it one day at a time. ashley: well greg, we wish you the very best and you know, your brave decision to jump into the world of politics. what's your main platform, very quickly what's your biggest issue and what's forced you to run? >> well because i'm a business owner in several of the under served places i should say in new mexico, i'm really looking to reinvest some of the underserved communities. i'm looking at police reform, keeping good money going to help their training. i'm really looking at homeless ness and addiction problems that we have, the opioid addictions killing us , and then, you know, really helping out single families with child care, with job placement, with those kind of things as well, because really, i want to get back to making the underserved places of albuquerque a lot more

productive. ashley: greg we wish you the very best of luck and thanks for joining us today. much appreciated. thank you, sir, thank you very much. ashley: thank you. we'll have more varney after this. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ it's a new dawn... if you've been taking copd sitting down, it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. . . .

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♪. ashley: ah, take a look at this, the sarasota police department in florida choreographing their alarm lights to christmas music. nothing says christmas like police car lights lit up. isn't that right, connell? connell: your whistling was a little bit off. merry christmas. i'm connell mcshane filling in for neil. on capitol hill when you thought the stimulus was done, wait a minute, president trump comes in, calls on congress to change the relief bill. he wants 2,000-dollar checks sent out instead of 600