♪. 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 bucks.

we'll talk about that. how about new york? new york is in trouble. the u.s. census bureau that new york leads the nation in population decline. people are leaving in droves. what does it mean for the future of the big city? we'll talk about that. as well as elon musk. this is really interesting. when he takes to twitter it is never boring. says years ago he was willing to sell tesla to apple but tim cook wouldn't take a meeting with him. all that and more coming up in the next couple of hours of cavuto "coast to coast." we are always good to be with you. we start this with blake burman covering the stimulus. blake, it is interesting, we've been talking about for days, congress, everybody else hammering something out. teach mnuchin, involved in that hammering in some degree. here comes president trump. where do we stand now? reporter: congress got a deal done. they told us president was

supportive of the deal. all of sudden the video from the president last night, the direct payments are not big enough. he wants three times the amount agreed by his own treasury secretary. right now the president has supporting cast in his corner that includes, nancy pelosi and the democrats. and the democrats are saying that they want to take president trump up on his offer. they are now calling on republicans not to block the process on upping the payments for those, for those direct checks. here is part of what nancy pelosi wrote to the democratic colleagues earlier today. quote, if the president truly wants to join us in 2000-dollar payments call upon leader mccarthy to go with unanimous consent request. this puts republicans in tricky spot. mnuchin and top two republicans on capitol hill, kevin mccarthy agreed to this request. republicans like senator rand paul there shouldn't be any direct payments at all.

listen. >> my kids are working don't need a check. they're not rich but they don't need a check. most working americans don't need a check right now. it is a really foolish, a, left-wing socialist idea to pass out free money to people. reporter: that is one portion of it, the direct payments part of it. the president is decrying what he views as weightful spending. congress put the 900 billion-dollar covid relief bill, combined it with the 1.4 trillion-dollar spending bill. the president don't like some spending in there, so the 900 billion-dollar covid relief dial, fate of all of that right now is up in the air. remember though, connell, for all intents and purposes congress did its job. the democrats, republicans, representative from the white house came together. they hammered out a deal. congress passed the bill. senate passed the bill. now it is going to the president. even though the president wants the bill amended congress doesn't have to do anything if

they don't want. now it is up to the president to either sign the bill into law, either veto, it would get kicked back to congress. he could do nothing at all it becomes law after 10 days. there is this idea maybe if he doesn't get the bill in couple days time he could run out the shot clock until the next congress comes into office on january 4th. bottom line, there is a lot up in the air. congress came up with the deal. the president is unhappy with it. and we got to see where it goes from here. connell? connell: we do. yeah, that is i believe that last scenario is called pocket veto. you have to follow our friend chad pergram on twitter to learn more about that i suppose. bottom line. thank you, blake. the market is up today. the dow up 220 points. to me that says investors for the moment at least are probably betting the president is doing nothing more than blowing off steam. the stimulus is likely to move forward as it is. investors have been wrong before

and could be wrong again. one of the things investors are also watching is the economic data and it turns out americans are spending less. you figure this might happen with all the restrictions put in place around the country. jackie deangelis is live in the newsroom with more on that and headlines. reporter: good afternoon, connell, interesting when you look at numbers. household spending dropping first time in november. incomes dropped 1.1%. that is according to the commerce department. now the coronavirus pandemic is the culprit here but it is surprising this didn't happen sooner. there is no doubt that the shutdowns, also the second wave are weighing the economy down right now this comes as we're all waiting for those stimulus checks. the expectation for that 600-dollar check under certain thresholds for certain households but president trump as you mentioned wants to bump the number up to $2000 the we'll wait to see what happens. it is possible there is a little bit after change here that may help move spending along.

but it is also very interesting with the timing. it is holiday time. even coronavirus and consumers may not be likely to shop in stores. online sales are expected to soar 30% year-over-year. now there is another phenomenon here, another layer. the u.s. personal savings rate in november was 12.9% according to the bureau of economic analysis. it shot up to 33.7% in april at its peak. the highest it was for context in 2019 was 8.6% in february. people who had money coming in, they saved more because they were just doing less. the interesting to see if they splurge during the holidays with some of that money they saved. with respect to the coronavirus connell, california looking to extend the lockdowns because in southern california the icu bed availability close to zero. here in new york city we're dealing with that indoor dining shutdown. this all comes as eyes are on how fast can we get people vaccinated as well as virus

mutation coming out of england. connell: all about kind of buying ourselves the time until we get through the vaccination process. thank you. jackie deangelis in the newsroom. she will be back as the show continues. brandon arnold, national taxpayers union, executive vice president there. as we look at the relief bill, i said a moment ago the investors middle east be betting president calling for larger checks might be blowing off steam. the other thing if he get what is he wants, that is net positive for stocks as well. only scenario might hurt stocks if we don't get relief at all. brandon what is all the take of back and forth? brandon, you were in favor of the bill as it is, am i right? >> we're largely in favorite of the bill. it has a lot of flaws. the president sees a lot of flaws. tacking that on to $1.4 trillion

government spending package there is a lot of waste. there is a lot of problems with the bill. it is important to get money out the door. there is $325 billion of small business relief, absolutely critically important. $103 billion for unemployment assistance for people struggling to find work as the economy continues to struggle and recover. here is the real kicker. probably the most important piece of this entire bill, $29 billion for vaccine procurement and distribution. getting that vaccine out there so our economy can get back to normal, people can get back to normal. we can save people's lives quickly as possible. to hold that all hostage over this issue that should have been addressed weeks ago is a little bit frustrating. i think right now capitol hill is a absolute mess trying to figure out what to do with this. connell: you didn't even mention the direct checks, something you considered to be the among the most important components of that, whether 600 or 2,000. why is that? do you not think that matters as much as getting economy back

where it needs to be? >> yeah i don't think it matters quite as much to be honest with you. it is important because people feel like they need some assistance. they have gone through a lot. he have this struggled. they made sacrifices. i think that money makes sense in that regard but to push it up to 200, i'm sorry, $2,000 is boeing too far as senator paul said earlier. we're talking about serious money that would increase the price tag of this bill by roughly $400 billion. that is not chump change here. the problem some people are doing okay. a lot of people are struggling. some people are doing okay. broad base programs like stimulus checks are you're not sending checks to people strug lending and pretty well off, doing okay. that should be targeted to people unemployed, businesses having trouble making payroll. those are the people that need it most. connell: if you're a senate republican though, i don't know about rand paul, if you're in leadership like mitch mcconnell you're in an interesting spot today as blake talked about a minute ago, now

you have a president in his last month in office who has called for something that puts him line with the people you disagree with the most. not only nancy pelosi and chuck schumer but people on the left side of the democratic party, aoc, others, they were all tweeting out, yeah, we're in, 2,000 bucks sounds in. president trump with all of them and how do you handle it, if you're mitch mcconnell and leaders on the republican side on capitol hill? what do you do next? >> yeah, it's tough. i think president trump threw the squad into the brier patch. they're just giggling over there they have got the bill drafted. they have got the amendment drafted to boost the payment up to $2,000. that is $400 billion. we have $166 billion in the form of checks. an additional $400 billion on that. that is too much. reason like senators rand paul, ron johnson, were out on the floor trying to beat this provision back to keep the price tag of the total bill under a trillion dollars which they were in successful in doing. they touted that as a huge

victory. now they have the president yanking the rug out from underneath them over, quibble not just over the stimulus check but wasteful spending of course will be included in the total package once you combine the covid bill plus the regular government funding bill, $1.4 trillion that the congress needs to pass in order to keep the government funded. because of course we're facing a shutdown. government funding expires on december 28th, just to make mitch mcconnell, nancy pelosi and all of their colleagues on capitol hill's job as little bit more tougher. connell: yeah. i mean it is just, this is, 2020 has been a crazy year. almost seems oddly fit technology it would end with president trump agreeing with aoc on something. brandon, appreciate you coming on with us. a story about new york city, because when the census numbers came out they grabbed a lot of peoples attention. we talked for months about the so-called exodus from new york.

the numbers back it up. more than 126,000 people getting out of the empire state between july 2019 and july 2020. that is the highest number, the worst number in the entire country. kelly jane torrence with us, "new york post" editorial board. boy, that backs up exactly kind of what we've been talking about. this information about whether it is something just related to a pandemic that hit new york so hard early on, everybody will come back or maybe something more permanent. what do you think? >> connell, not quite as bad as the kurt russell classic, "escape from new york," it is getting there. a big part of it was absolutely prepandemic. in the last 10 years 1.4 million people have left new york state. this is at a time when the u.s. population actually went up by%. clearly this was beginning before the pandemic but it has got enworse since then. new york has always been a high-cost state. higher taxes. higher cost of living but it was worth it for a lot of people

because you had the great culture here, great restaurants, broadway. just an amazing way of living here. i'm actually an exception. i just moved here a year ago myself. now you have governor cuomo shutting down indoor dining in the holiday season when it is freezing. there is just less reason to stay in new york now. the things that made the higher cost, higher taxes worth it, they are starting to disappear. it is, i'm not sure we can blame it on the pandemic so much, blame it on reaction to the pandemic from our politicians. connell: it is not just people too. while you were speaking we were flashing up some famous chains, whether it is dunkin' donuts closing down a record 28 stores in new york. duane reade and walgreens closings 70 of 317 outlets. starbucks 54 of its 391 outlets. so a number of these businesses

move out of. that is similar question to individuals who might you know, if you're an individual you move out, that is big move a family move. like you said you moved to new york. others maybe gone to florida. what about businesses? do they start to ramp it up? starbucks is known for opening up shop on just about every corner. do they go back into that mode in new york once the city gets itself back on its feet? or are a lot of these moves permanent do you think? >> that is the thing. it costs money to start a store, create the infrastructure, get it all there. i think the fact that is abouts are doing it does not bode well. of course you also have some of the big players that are really responsible for a lot of the tax revenue in the city and state thinking of moving. you've got goldman sachs, jpmorgan chase, they're thinking about moving some operations to florida. texas and florida were the big gainers this year. of course you have got lower taxes, a better business climate and a totally different reaction to the pandemic.

florida of course, governor desantis famously said restaurants are going to stay open. so it just a much more welcoming environment. you know, you have people leaving. when businesses start to go they i think see the writing on the wall. a lot of people think new york can bounce back. i certainly hope it will. but it might take a while. me, i'm going to dinner tonight in new jersey, connell. i never thought i would say that. i love new york city. i was so excited to move here. i had outdoor dining this week. it is freezing out. i'm looking forward to dining indoors like a civilized person in new jersey tonight. a lot of people are not happy with what new york city has become lately. connell: yeah. like you said for those of us who do love new york that it comes back but there is no guaranties. the world doesn't owe you anything. kelly jane torrence. thanks for coming on. continue on the story we're covering for a long time anyway.

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connell: welcome back, everybody. i said we would have news on the vaccine when we came back here on "cavuto: coast to coast." the trump administration looks like it is moving forward with the plan to buy more doses of the pfizer vaccine. update live from washington with edward lawrence. reporter: this is good old-fashioned economics we have something you need, we can help you get something you need. u.s. announced a deal for 70 more million doses of with pfizer between now and july 31st. 30 million more doses after july for $1.9 billion. that ups the u.s. doses 200 million from pfizer with the option of 400 million doses in 2021. the first doses of the pfizer vaccine in the u.s. were december 14th. health and human services secretary alex azar said this new federal purchase can give americans even more confidence that we will have enough supply

to vaccinate every american who wants one, who wants it by june 2021. dr. anthony fauci telling bill hemmer at least until mid-summer, vaccine or not we still need to take precautions. >> nothing should really change right now with regard to the public health measures we all already have been doing. until we get the level of virus so dramatically low in society, in the community, we still must practice public health measures. reporter: pfizer originally said it could only produce 50 million doses by the end of the year globally, 20 million designated for the u.s. as production ramps up, pfizer says it could make 70 million doses, if, if, if it could get access to more raw materials. this is where the u.s. government comes to play. u.s. agreed to help pfizer gain access to the raw materials it needs in the deal. one more step for success of

"operation warp speed" to make sure the u.s. has all the vaccine it needs for every adult american. back to you. connell: all right. edward, thank you, edward lawrence with the up date from washington. while we wait for vaccine one of the big stories of the week has been the new strain of the vie russ -- virus and new variant and spread to other countries. it has been detected in israel. a nation already barring travelers from coming in from the outside. danny danon, former israeli ambassador to the u.n. it is interesting different approaches different countries take on this, when you have a more contagious, tough to stop no matter what you do, what would you say about it? >> in israel we have experience. we have challenges, we do not take any chances.

why prime minister netanyahu decided to close the borders immediately. anyone coming to israel, we make sure all is safe. now we hear a good report we got on the mutation. we have to understand we started to vaccinate the israeli population. it is only nine million people. it will take three to four months until we get 60, 70% of the people who will be vaccinated. we have to take it seriously. we have only one airport. it is much easier than the u.s. and other countries. we cannot take any chances after what we experienced. connell: talk about that approach a little bit and how it is different from other countries and how even inside of the united states, which is a country you've been familiar with for years, the approaches have been different. people are trying to balance out what impact might be on the local economies versus obviously trying to control the virus. so, for example, you're joining us live i believe from miami, florida. florida is much more open than

the state i'm in, no, which may not be as close as israel is but shut down more than florida. how do governments best balance this? obviously you have an economic consequence to these decisions you make, right? >> we all agree no one want as lockdown. no one enjoys the restrictions. in order to decide we have to look the at numbers. if you have a region like florida, in other places in the u.s. where the numbers are not so bad, no reason to impose lockdowns but when you have a place like we had in israel, different cities that we had no choice but to impose lockdowns. you have to look every day. you have to wake up, look at the charts. according to the numbers, to take decisions and to be flexible with your decisions. we shouldn't be afraid of imposing or lifting restrictions and to do it fast. connell: do it fast, right. that is an interesting point. don't you automatically by the way information is exchanged and even though we get information faster than we ever gotten it in

the past, aren't you automatically behind? by the time for example, i find out about something it already happened, right? this strain spread out of the uk, we're worried about it coming here. doctor fauci said the other day it is probably already here and somebody may have gotten on the flight a couple weeks ago. we didn't know about the new strain. it is tough to stay ahead of it. >> you cannot stay ahead of it but look at the numbers of pandemic and act fast. and yes, we're dealing with a global threat. why we have to cooperate and multilateral cooperation. we cannot only take people of our own nation. we have to work well with other nations and understand we have global threat that would require global solutions. similar to what happened in the u.s. you didn't have the federal system but in order to fight the issues and climate issues, you actually brought the federal system. we have to bring a similar system for the international arena where we cooperate fast between the nations in order to

give fast solutions. connell: as a final point what will israel or israel look at to open back up? we have foreign travel, what will it take to get back, quote, unquote, normal? what would have to see in the numbers? >> i expect we're heading to another lockdown unfortunately. i believe it will be the last one because we are starting to vaccinate. within a few weeks we'll see the numbers. by the way we are grateful for the u.s. and for the leadership of that administration that pushed the vaccine so fast. so i think it will be the last lockdown. numbers of people who are vaccinated will go up. we'll be able to open up everything within three to four months. connell: three to four months. okay. we'll keep following it as we have been. ambassador good to see you. danny danon with us today from miami, florida. >> thank you. connell: we'll switch away from covid in a moment. interesting story developing in the technology world. we'll have it coming up in just a moment. elon musk has a way with words

or with tweets. he says years ago he was willing to sell tesla to apple. we'll tell you what happened when we come back. ♪.

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also send this free guide. humana, a more human way to healthcare. ♪. connell: back with a "fox business alert." i said a moment ago we will be moving on from covid. i promise in a few moments to other stories. in illinois, first, the last minute christmas shopping and a covid test as well. grady trimble in the mall parking lot with that for us today. grady? reporter: connell, i wish we could move on from covid too. we're at woodfield mall where they're offering testing through a partnership with health gauge, a private company that has

basically gotten a permit to be here today. you can see that they're, they're all set up to do their testing here. we've seen lines of cars all day long. scott mcglocklin can talk a little bit about that. you're president of health gauge. it is pretty staggering the amount of people we have seen people come through here. it shows how concerned some people are? >> for sure. the solution, the ppr test for the brain tickler, where you have to qualify, wait a couple days for appointment and wait a couple days for your results, it doesn't work f you're sick, you want to know if you have covid now. reporter: we are in a mall parking lot. of course it could be a one-stop shop if you need to pick up a last minute christmas gift. of the get your test to spend time with family. this is for anyone in the chicago area. you have testing sites all over the place which sadly indicates how quickly this virus is spreading too. >> also indicates that this is the solution that we need.

so, kansas city, des moines, minneapolis, we have boots on the ground in miami as well. all of these sites people are coming out in droves because they want to have rapid response. they want to know now. they don't want to wait forever and ever. reporter: speaking of knowing now, connell, i actually did one of the tests during "varney & company." i have already gotten my results back here. came back happy to report that i am negative which means i can have christmas, i should say with a little bit of peace of mind this year, connell. connell: yeah. that is good. to be serious, that is what a lot of people want, right? christmas, knew year's to see their family. know they're doing it in a safe way. a lot of demand for the tests. grady trimble out in illinois. thank you, sir. go to technology fora moment. elon musk says a few years back when tesla was not flying as high as it is right now he was willing to sell the company to apple. now here we are a few years

later, apple, you know what, tesla? we'll get into your business, make our own cars by 2024. talk with shana glenzer and jeremy owens. good to see you guys. on the sale part of it, elon says, tim cook, you could have had it for a steal here, a 10th of a price what tesla is worth these days but he claims tim cook wouldn't take the meeting. what do you make of that? >> yeah, it this tweet that came amidst apple's encroaching into tesla's territory, potentially encroaching into their territory, tim cook would not take a meeting for him, in what he calls the darkest days of the model 3 coming to market back in 2017 and 2018. i'm sure now looking back at the time, now the valuation of tesla apple may have some, may be

second-guessing that decision but at the time, you know certainly they were not, you know, keen on entering the auto manufacturing business. they just put up their own project as well. connell: now the question, jeremy, whether they're serious about, seems like they are, getting into the car business by the year 2024, they being apple but i wonder what will that end up looking like once it comes to fruition? we use to speculate what apple tv would look like. very few people got that right. something came of it and it is out there right now. what do you think the apple car business will look like? >> i'm still not sure it is going to happen. i remember in 2015 when the "wall street journal" reported that the apple would be producing cars by 2019. now we're here 2020 and reuters reporting they will produce cars by 2024. this is not a sure thing. i won't believe it until we see it. you bring up apple tv. that is exactly right, we spent five, six, seven years, about a

television apple was developing. they never produced the television and put it out. apple works on a lot of things but it is very selective what it actually goes through with and puts out. i would not say the car is definite thing they will go through with at this point. connell: right. the guy, shana, who is running this from apple's point of view, went to tesla a few years, worked for tesla, came back to apple, now heading up this project. i do wonder whether it looks like something we haven't imagined yet. maybe not just a car that apple makes or something else in the car business with the analogy we were talking about with jeremy, similar to apple tv? what do you think is the future for apple on this side of the business? >> certainly honed in on specific innovations around parts of the autonomous vehicle experience. whether a breakthrough in battery and chemistry and compactness or density of the battery. whether some lidar sensors

they're working out came out of the iphone work. they're honing -- certain areas where they're innovating. the question really is as jeremy talked about, whether it comes to fruition as apple actually, bringing a car to market or whether, you know, again with the reports that are coming out, they were hedging themselves. they were saying apple could reduce the scope and partner with a traditional carmaker, automaker as well. so we're not quite sure. we do know there is innovation coming out of this project. it is really getting them excited about the future of this business and this project titan for apple. connell: as interesting as tesla is as a company a stock, last couple years or so, jeremy, this idea of a next level battery in technology, tesla is already there. that makes tesla attractive to so many people, not necessarily the cars they make, but how they make them especially how they produce the batteries. that is an intriguing business for apple. it is in their interest to make batteries that last a long time

whether in your phone or some other product they have out. maybe a partnership with gm has cars in it and apple made the batteries. they went out because they're similar technology used in the other products. what do you think? >> sure. advancing battery technology is really the golden goose of the technology industry right now. everybody who has a cell phone knows they would prefer if their battery lasted longer, didn't degrade over the life of the device. everybody is in a race to develop new batteries. tesla had a battery day earlier this year, they talked about plans to develop nextgen batteries. seems the way apple will go to relief focus on the batteries. that is smart. we haven't seen a big break-through yet, right? tesla has done a good job manufacturing batteries in the reno. they have not had a breakthrough yet. they say they're on the verge. they say it is coming through. they say a lot of things a lot of times. so it is going to be a race and a very important race in the coming years to develop some

better battery technology. connell: wonder what tim cook thinks of all of this? if he is like a lot of people didn't buy tesla's stock. if he did or fine having not done the deal with elon musk? intriguing something to talk about. jeremy, shana, thanks for both of you coming on. as we move on here, in a moment we'll get back to the economy. we talked about the data out a little bit earlier. we did see jobless claims come back. they were at a three month high. elevated at 300,000 last week. interesting angle, a number of americans did not know their jobless benefits are taxable. gerri willis with the story when we come back. 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,

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♪. connell: you look at the jobless claims numbers, we're still at a high figure, 803,000 is very high. pre-pandemic high was 693,000. good news that is coming down what was a three-month high the week before. so we're getting there but what's also interesting about

these numbers is that you, what you might not know about them if you're filing for unemployment. of gerri willis joins us with that part of the story today. gerri? reporter: yeah, connell. there is a nasty surprise awaiting people who have been receiving these unemployment benefits this year, a big fat tax bill. for most recipients this will come as a huge shocker. according to jackson hewitt tax service, 38% of respondents they didn't know their jobless benefits would be taxed. guess what, even more of us, 61% have not withheld, set aside money to pay for this come spring tax season. how many americans could be impacted? consider right now, 10.7 million americans are unemployed. 3.9 million long term. and just last week as you just mentioned, 803,000 of us filed for first time unemployment claims. now this could result in a

serious bind for many americans, especially for those used to getting a refund. listen. >> unemployment benefits are taxable, just like any regular income. so some taxpayers don't recognize that. they leave it off the tax return. the irs knows. reporter: just like your regular paycheck unemployment benefits are taxable and generally recipients are given option 10% of the money withheld before they collect the dough. so here is what to do if you're super surprised by our report today. plan to make an estimated quarterly tax payment by january 15th. that is the date, or, well, you risk racking up interest and penalties on the amount of money you know. now it is not the openly tax surprise awaiting americans this year. here is the good news. here is my christmas present to your viewers, connell. guess what? your stimulus paycheck that is not going to be taxed. connell, back to you. connell: if we ever get it the

way things are going right now, fighting whether it should be 600 bucks or $2000, the next one. people have one from earlier in the year. important info from your reports, even if it's a little annoying for people to find out this stuff. reporter: sorry. connell: we'll talk about the sports, business side of sports. watching the nba season as it opened up last night. brooklyn by the way looked great in this game against golden state. we got to thinking about the fact that the nba did such a great job of keeping things under control when they were in a bubble in orlando, florida, over the summer. now they're out of the bubble. how does that affect the new season? we'll have more as we continue on "coast to coast". just like your fingertips,

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tips with the back of the houseworkers think of dishwashers and cooks. this regulation was put forth by the labor department. the labor department says this is about wage equality t could maybe increase the pay of those back of the houseworkers like the cooks and dishwashers and busboys or busgirls. you have to have at least minimum wage, $7.25 in order for tip pooling to occur. i spoke with the owner of the murray hill diner behind me, he said all employers may not comply. >> i don't think everyone is going to enforce that rule. like you know, other restaurants. so it might affect us in the way that we might lose employees. that they're going to look for different job if that goes into effect. reporter: tips are already stretched thin. one study shows that tips during the pandemic have dropped 83%. so we're not as generous right

now. you have workers advocates argue by sharing the tip pool with all employees you're putting burden of compensation on other employees instead of having the business owners pay their back of the work employees a little bit more. this rule would vary state to state. california is a little bit stricter when it comes to tip ruling. minnesota bans it all together. this is 60 days away. there is a chance the biden administration can overrule it. connell: we'll follow that. that is an interesting angle how people are getting paid these days. kristina partsinevelos in new york. >> now to the world of. nba bursting out of bubble that kept them safe all summer. we're talking to sports agent doug eldrich to talk more. the nba became this model. i was watching the game last night, the brooklyn nets who

gave it to golden state warriors in a big way with kevin durant and kyrie irving in the lineup. they were playing the game in their own arena, barclay center in brooklyn. maybe no fans. the players are going home. the players are traveling. wonder how players work out for this business as they put together a full season, don't have the bubble to fall back on? what do you think? >> a lot to unpack there. first of all there will only be of 30 nba teams only six will have any portion of fans, connell. that ranges 4 to 21% of over all capacity. it will not be the nba as we know it. in terms of what the bubble provided in many ways it was a lifeline for the nba the nba took a 10% haircut dropping revenue down 8.3 billion. most of that was attributable to covid. 400 million to sponsorship and merchandising. $800 million to gate receipts.

200 -- darrell morey hong kong democracy tweet last fall. that pales in comparison, connell, what they could face in the 2021 season, season that just started if they're not allowed to open up and bring in more fans. instead of a 10% drop in revenue they could face 40%. which would be a 4 billion-dollar hit that immeasurable irrespective of size of the institution. connell: wow, that would be huge. as it stands now what is the best guess timingwise, do you know, when they might put fans look into the arenas? to your earlier point the virus can get in the way of all of that that is what the bubble prevented f we have spikes continue. vaccines not out next couple months, it us quite possible that the nba might have to cut off the season as it had to do with the pandemic, put them in the bubble to begin with. you have to balance that. when you do think they get fans

back in there at a higher rate? >> you have to give them credit. nobody wants to put their cards totally face up on the table. obviously adam silver being the chief poker player among them but the earliest thing we've heard 2021-22 season. the next season is they hope to break even. put it into context, as you alluded to, connell, talking about imprecise science. nhl broke up into two bubble cities. they had 133 games, 33,000 tests and zero positives, okay? by contrast the mlb last season what a disasterous start in terms of the miami team and all the explosive positive covid tests et cetera. mlb got it under control only to game 6 of world series, starter, justin wilson having tested positive before the game. so much of this is imprecise. when you look back to march,

when all this broke, you will remember this, we spoke back in march, you and i, for some americans, connell, the scope, scale, severity of covid was born out through supports. march 11th, nba canceled season, remainder of season. 12th, ncaa canceled march madness. one billion doll endeavor. president trump is -- ioc delayed the olympics by one year. for some of us seems appropriate we're -- connell: you're right. absolute live did. walked off the court at the garden, that ncaa game, rudy go barrett story in the. we'll see you, doug is with us. sports agent. cavuto sports -- more cavuto keyes to coast when we come back

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a licensed humana sales agent will walk you through your options, answer any questions you have and, if you're eligible, help you enroll over the phone. call today and we'll also send this free guide. humana, a more human way to healthcare. connell: it's a fox business alert as we're back. i'm connell mcshane filling in for neil. good to be with you on a day we find out maeframericans are spe less and the coronavirus continues to surge around this country and really, around the world. we are also finding out on this christmas week that holiday travel is still happening. more and more americans still traveling to see their families even with all the warnings that are out there.

derek tenney is at the airport today reporting on this phenomenon. he's at o'hare in chicago. reporter: this holiday travel season is expected to be the most sluggish one in years with only one in four americans predicted to travel over the next week and a half according to aaa. while airports are expected to be the busiest they have been since the start of the pandemic, only three million people are expected to travel by plane. the vast majority, 81 million, are expected to travel by land. compared to last year, that would put air travel down by nearly 60%. cars, by 25% and buses, trains and cruises by 87%. a lot of folks are following the advice of public health officials to stay home nor the holidays and avoid spreading the coronavirus to friends and loved ones but for many who are traveling, they say being able to finally spend time with loved ones is worth the risk. >> feels like nothing's really been going on this year other than, you know, just tragedy

after tragedy, people just losi losing, losing if not their livelihoods or their lives, or their just loved ones, i just felt like i needed to be around with who i can be before i lose too many more. reporter: for those who are traveling, the cdc recommends getting tested before you travel and before you go back home, and to limit the number of people you have contact with during your travel, to try and limit the amount of spread that we see over the holidays that could lead to our health care system being overwhelmed over the next month or so. connell? connell: yeah, that's the big issue. garrett, thank you. garrett tenney live from chicago with us. travel expert mark murphy joins the conversation now. year over year, these numbers, whether it's people by train or by plane or by car, they are down, but when we look at last weekend or you compare the numbers to what it was a few months ago, yeah, people more and more are starting to go to the airport again, maybe to that gentleman's point, they are just

sick and tired of being in their homes, they want to see their families. what advice do you give those people, the people who are insisting on still traveling? >> well, insisting on traveling, let's look at our politicians. out of one side muof the mouth they're telling us stay home, don't mix with other people, you know, separation, all this stuff, and then account after account after account, most recently dr. birx is doing exactly what they are telling us not to do. so when you hear that, you say well, i should stay in place, but then you see the actions and they're not following their own advice. in many cases these are epidemiologists saying this or governor newsom or andrew cuomo, you name it. so that's a major issue i think for folks and there's a ton of pent-up demand and there's a lot of frustration with this. i mean, when we go back and look at the start of this crisis, it was a two-week, we are going to stop everything for two weeks, then it became four weeks and it was just to stop overwhelming the hospitals. well, when we woke up on november 17th, we had about

520,000 hospitalizations due to covid in the united states, through november 17th. in 2017-18 flu season we had over 800,000 hospitalizations. so it doesn't make a lot of sense to a lot of people if you actually get into the numbers. i for one have a 99.98% chance if i get it of being totally fine. that's better than the flu. so again, i'd say if you're going to travel and we have my mother-in-law in town, she's 83, she's healthy other than her age and we took precautions and got tested, me, the kids and the wife. that's just smart planning if you can do it. but the second you take the test and get your results, the next time you have an interaction, you are no longer in that safe zone because technically you could be exposed. but let's bring it around to the benefits of travel. i mean, beyond just stress relief, mental wellness, you heard that gentleman from your reporter. people are looking at tragedies. travel brings people together whether it's family members or

if you go to a foreign country. think of geopolitics. you go to egypt, the egyptian families are not very different than american families in terms of raising kids, wanting to have a great experience, et cetera, and i have been to about 80 countries and what i find is the more you travel, the more you engage with different cultures, the more you experience them, the less war and other negative things you have as a result because you better understand that. there's so many benefits to travel besides the fact that 1 in 10 jobs are impacted directly by travel and it's insane. it's completely insane what's going on right now, in my opinion. i'm not an epidemiologist. connell: we were just talking about that the other day, i thi think, i heard where they were getting to that exact point where when this is all over and you know, we can go back and forth on some of the views about what makes the most sense medically but the idea this is temporary, right, have our lives changed where people kind of realize hey, i'm going to do my

job at home and i'm going to travel more, see the local national park and i'm going to drive around my own country, or do we just go back to where we were, where we are going to be traveling all around the world or maybe it's so much pent-up demand we want to travel even more. so kind of the next phase of this is almost more interesting in terms of where people end up. what do you think? >> well, i think absolutely. people are going to do different things. for instance, i just spent seven months on the road traveling over 20 states from fort lauderdale, florida out to washington state and back. not an issue. totally healthy the whole way. i can tell you the protocols in places like, i don't know, golden, colorado, boulder, colorado, are not nearly as good as the protocols if you go to a resort in mexico or jamaica. you are so much safer getting on a plane, going those places because the planes have hepa filters, surgical grade filters. feel free to get on planes. you aren't hearing about outbreaks related to plane travel and believe me, you would if it was an issue. secondly, when you get on the ground, everything gets disinfected, your luggage, they disinfect your feet, your hands,

and you have nobody entering your room without your permission once you check in. and to me, i was in cancun back in august looking at those protocols and checking them out and they are over the top, and i was like wow, i mean, compared to going to whole foods or shop-rite or kroger or whatever it is, so much safer and i think no offense, i think the media, i owned a media company, it happened to focus on travel, the media has just taken this and just keeps running with it and now it was initially, you know, overwhelming hospitals, then that didn't really happen outside of some key areas, then it was, you know, let's, you know, slow the spread, then it became death counts, then it became cases, now we're back to cases and death counts. connell: to be fair, the overwhelming of hospitals did happen in some key areas earlier, especially here. >> select areas. connell: i assume you are alluding to new york. now it's happening in far more than select areas. we are up to 320,000 some odd people dead around the country. there are real issues here and

in california, in particular, it's another -- you do have hospital problems if we are being fair. >> absolutely. but think of it. back in the beginning of this they furloughed hospital workers. my sister-in-law's a nurse. she got put on a phone bank. she wasn't able to do her job. others got furloughed. she was happy she could just answer the phone. so it's unbelievable. hospital workers have been let go during this. hospitals have actually closed during this. you got to ask yourself what the heck is going on in many of these states when that's the case. we set up these mobile hospitals and they don't even get utilized but we spend billions of dollars to do it. so again, this is a state by state situation. i'm in florida. we are open. our numbers are far better than new york, new jersey, you name it. so to me -- connell: you got the weather for it, too, which allows people to be outdoors which helps as well. number of other issues here. thanks, mark murphy, on travel today. i want to get back to spending for a moment. what we found out on the numbers

that came in with the economy, whatever you think about the sthut do you kno shutdowns in place, spending in the month of november went down 0.4%. we also have people making less, personal income figures fell as well. john bussey and erin gibbs join us as well. welcome to both of you. we will get into this. i want to talk about stimulus and the president blowing up that deal a little bit. first on the economy, though. erin, to you on what these numbers tell you. we knew there was going to be pullbacks, more restrictions in place, that would have a behavioral change for people, especially if they weren't able to go out, right? >> certainly. i think it's concerning because we are also seeing, you know, home sales down as well. so a lot of areas that were doing well up until november or october, rather, really pulled

back. obviously this is somewhat expected. people would start spending less, doing less but it's also partially because of increased business restrictions and increased lockdowns. so this is definitely a concern that this is going to be another hit to the u.s. economy and one more wave we are going to have to overcome next year. connell: now we have the politics of all of this, is that we had the stimulus bill done that was supposed to deal with this and be the bridge that gets us from now until when the vaccine is completely rolled out, whenever that is, four to six months down the line and everybody, the economy theoretically takes off from there. but then here comes president trump last night and you know, whatever the intent is, i'm not still sure if anybody knows, and says you know what, we need $2,000, not $600 and now we are wondering whether or not we will even get the $600. what do you think is going on here and what will happen at the end of whatever is going on here? >> it's very unclear, connell. it looks a bit like there's some

internal politics within the republican party. the president is very unhappy with some republicans coming out and welcoming joe biden and congratulating him on becoming president while the president still is trying and failing to convince the public that he won the election. so there's some push and pull there. the republicans had approved the $600 payment along with democrats. this bill was moving through. the president just needed to sign it. now it's kind of up in the air and i think that it's kind of the president flexing his muscle but unclear why and how and how this is going to resolve itself. you know, at the end of the day, the failure of congress to pass this legislation earlier and provide the support for people is reflected in the numbers that you're beginning to see, a turndown in spending, more pressure on the economy. what had lifted the economy in the summer were the stimulus

checks in part. now it's very much tied to the coronavirus and whatever any travel experts wish to say about, you know, people should get out there and travel, that's just not what they should be doing. the advice from every credible health official is we're headed into a worse period, the economy is suffering from it, and it's very important that people stay close to home right now. proximity benefits the virus. what you want to do is reduce density, reduce proximity, stay at home. connell: you're right. maybe i should have been more forceful with that. but that last guest, that's no different than having somebody on talking about the stock market. it's in their interest for the stock market to go up and they are going to tell you all these reasons why it could go up. that's just someone talking their book which we kind of understand and it is what it is. but you're right, every health expert, dr. fauci on down, has said that. that leaves us in the situation where the stimulus becomes even more important and there are,

you know, in terms of outcomes here, you either have it where as it is, as we thought it was, 600 bucks and the bill goes forward, becomes law. the president gets his way, which would be $2,000, not sure how that would happen but it could, they could figure something out. the democrats certainly say they like that. that also would be something that probably the market likes, so the market, the dow is up 260 right now. the third, though, is that it either gets delayed or just doesn't happen right away and that obviously would be a negative. looks like investors are betting on one of the first two things still being in place even after last night. what do you think? >> yeah. i think, well, one, we know it could be just increased to $2,000. that $2,000 to everybody is really what helps consumer spending. obviously that's a big part of the stock market and those public stocks. wall street would like that if that would happen. there's indications that the democrats would be okay. it's really about going over that $1 trillion level. again, if he does veto it, there are right now enough votes that

actually, they could override the veto and then it would get passed, but again, that's another two-week delay. however, wall street, since we are already looking about six months ahead, we are certainly willing to look past that two-week delay and expect that there is going to be a positive outcome. certainly, you know, on a personal level, it hurts those people having that delay, but on more of a stock market investing basis, this is something that wall street really believes is going to happen. connell: give us a final thought on this, john. when the new administration comes in, you will see a push for even more of this, for more spending. i guess a lot of it depends on what happens here in the new year, first couple days of the new year in georgia, but in terms of senate control, but you will see a push for more stimulus which stocks theoretically would like as well, right? >> yeah, stocks would like that. wall street would like that. a lot of republicans would not, because they are concerned about what's happening to the budget deficit and the total u.s. debt.

the consumer meanwhile, very interestingly, has been saving money, not surprisingly it's been hunkering down. some of this is the consumer just saving money, not just not having money to spend but putting it away. so congress is looking at this and looking out toward the vaccine's slow but sure rollout and if all goes according to plan, and you have the beginning of a more consistent, resilient opening in the first half of the year, there's some expectations that the economy could grow by 5% in 2021, which would be a notable rebound and organic rebound, not one just driven by stimulus checks being sent by the government. connell: right. big second half of the year, especially, seems to be the bet right now. we'll see. well, have a great holiday, both of you. good to see you, erin and john, as we continue. in just a moment, we had gotten into last hour the idea of people leaving high tax states, particularly new york. there's a consequence of that, a political consequence of the

exodus from high tax states. we will tell you what that is when we come back. ♪ greetings mortal!

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connell: back with a fox business alert. the states that pay the most in taxes are now losing population. case in point, new york. last year, new york had the steepest population decline in the entire country. now, the consequence of that politically is that the state could end up losing a seat in the house of representatives, and actually fall behind florida in terms of congressional delegations. to talk about it with us now, ines stepman and lily valetta. that's the idea, if you think about it, people and businesses are facing higher taxes and they are in new york, where do they go? many times, florida. now we have many a congressional seat being lost. what do you make of it? >> yeah, i think it's probably representative of what a lot of these high tax states are going to face but it's not just the taxes, right. it was a certain balance between paying high taxes and having certain advantages, right. so if you lived in san francisco or new york, first of all, there were a lot of jobs that could only be done from those cities,

high-paying jobs. second of all, there was, you know, the enjoyment of the city. there were the cultural events, the restaurants. a lot of that stuff, you know, is obviously closed right now or is very difficult to access. so obviously the pandemic, hopefully, thankfully, will be temporary. hopefully we will be able to get back to a type of normal after the vaccine rollout but it remains to be seen whether people who already have left the city and have had that balance change will actually come back, especially as more companies than ever are allowing people to work from home. connell: all right. let's talk about that a little bit, then. that is the big question that inez brings up, is this temporary or is this permanent. i know from living in new york, i love it here and i don't think i would ever live anywhere else but i understand why other people would feel differently about that, whereas maybe that advantage that had been there in the past is not there in the future, or at least it's not as great as it has been or had been. what do you think?

>> i think only covid pushed the limits of what's possible, in this case for working remotely. everyone is proving that we can do it so you can get the right talent anywhere and that's showing us that offices don't have to be in an expensive midtown manhattan building. i have a business and my employees don't even want to go back to the office so why pay the rent? so the disruption of what's possible when it comes to work as well as those other amenities and when you are thinking about the tax, you know, the new taxes or regulatory schemes or anything that is coming ahead because of the pandemic, inexpensive cities that were expensive to begin with, why are we going to stay? there were polls in the middle of the year that shows urbanized people like me, living in new york, 40% were already saying i'm out of here, i'm going to look at other options because it's just costly and all the things that were important to you are being reframed because covid has taught us we can live

and work from anywhere. connell: yeah. you know there are other options. there are other options even if you want urban living that you could live in a city like miami, eg for example, which has been promoting itself as this big tech destination. same with austin, texas. what would you say to big cities, not just new york, chicago, san francisco, los angeles and others, how should they come out of this? should they just assume people will come back or change their ways, cut their taxes, make other changes that would bring people back who are having their doubts right now? what should they do? >> they absolutely need to make some changes. you mentioned taxes and that's surely part of the explanation. i think even more important might be a couple of major changes with regard to the direction of crime in some of these cities, and i think that's part of the big second issue that is -- has a lot of people worried about the long-term viability of cities like new york. i mean, hopefully we don't want to go back to the bernie goetz days in new york of the 1980s where people could not walk down

the street or enjoy all those things about the city without being afraid of being mugged or worse on the street. i think that's a major issue and will determine a large part of what a lot of people, whether people will come back. of course, the second large issue is the schools. even as we move into this post-vaccine or post-corona vaccine enabled era, we still have teachers unions fighting to keep schools closed all the way through the end of next year in some places. so this battle is not going away and that's pushing people out more than anything. i just actually moved to new york, i love this city, i'm really glad to be here, but people that i know who love the city as well who have been here for decades, for the first time are thinking about leaving because the schools have been so non-transparent, because it's been so difficult dealing with school closures, so i think the implementation of school choice is going to be really key for cities going forward. those two things, crime and school choice, i think will determine the path of a lot of people and whether or not they actually come back or remain in these kinds of cities.

connell: and probably school quality as well, because that was the argument years ago from new york's point of view or others, they would say i'm not going to go to florida because the schools are better in new york. that may be changing and if it is, you know, people change the way they do things. thanks to both of you. good to see you both. you know, this is a trend and we will keep following it to see if it's a permanent one or not. after a quick break, with the dow up almost 260 points, we are going to talk again about this stimulus deal. the president comes in last night and says he wants the checks to go up from $600 to $2,000. that's interesting, because now he's more in agreement with nancy pelosi than he is with mitch mcconnell. ♪ 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. some things are good to know. like where to find the cheapest gas in town and which supermarket gives you the most bang for your buck. something else that's good to know? if you have medicare and medicaid you may be able to get more healthcare benefits through a humana medicare advantage plan. call the number on your screen now and speak to a licensed humana sales agent to see if you qualify. learn about plans that could give you more healthcare

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♪ ♪ to listen, is to hear more 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. connell: less than a month away now from a biden administration and one of the things that could mean is more regulation on

business, so what are businesses doing? we have noticed this already. they are adjusting, trying to get out ahead of that. jackie deangelis with us in the newsroom with more. jackie: it was a big pre-election topic, climate change. recall that early in his presidency, president trump rolled back regulations to make it easier and cheaper for corporations to do business, especially for companies in the oil and gas industries. trump also pulled the u.s. out of the historic 2015 paris climate agreement. that came under president obama. president-elect joe biden is looking to make some ambitious climate change moves, reversing those decisions. he's talked about transitioning to wind and solar power over time. he says the jobs lost in other industries will be recreated in clean energy. he also wants to rejoin that paris accord. now, while we've got oil giants like exxon who have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next five years, big tech is also taking on environmental initiatives, including apple's plan to achieve carbon neutrality across

its supply chain by 2030. but while large and powerful companies have the money and the resources to do this, many small businesses just don't, and these are the businesses that are already feeling tremendous pressure from the pandemic lockdowns. we talked to steve malloy, former trump transition team member for the epa. he had this to say. >> -- too many small businesses are going to. the mom and pop can't compete with walmart and not only is walmart bigger and better funded, but it's got lobbyists in d.c. advocating for them. so this is, you know, climate is a lot like covid. big companies are okay under covid. everybody else is kind of screwed. jackie: small businesses are going to face challenges on many fronts from things like vehicle emissions to building regulations, equipment changes. remember, supporting a smaller carbon footprint is a lofty goal and certainly important but it's costly, too, and many of these

businesses are so strapped for cash already. connell: yeah. regulation was such a big story for us early in the trump administration, but to your point, it will be again early in the biden administration, just in the other direction. good stuff, jackie, thank you. jackie deangelis in the new york newsroom. as we try to figure that out, a lot of people are trying to figure out what's next when it comes to stimulus. we know that $900 billion stimulus deal has been agreed to in the house of representatives and in the senate. the problem is, president trump comes in last night and says instead of a direct payment of $600 going out to many americans, he would like to see that increased to $2,000. puts it more in line with democrats than republicans, it would seem. we are joined by congressman john garamendi from the state of california. i don't know if this will have any long-term or short-term effect but it's certainly something people are talking about today. where do you come down on all of this, even before the president spoke, what did you think should happen in terms of the direct checks? >> well, we actually wrote that way back in june, with the first

heroes bill and it did have $1200 per person, not just family, but per person. that of course got nowhere in the senate. mitch mcconnell simply torpedoed it and the president didn't engage at all. later in september, we passed another bill, we called that heroes 2, much smaller but still had $1200 per person in it. then the president went silent and mcconnell simply was out -- didn't involve. we then came up with the compromise of $600. we would love to go to $2,000 per person or $4,000 per couple. i suspect that tomorrow, speaker pelosi will bring to the floor seeking unanimous consent for $2,000 as the president wants. good. let's do it. people need support. we also need to ramp up the ppp program so that small businesses out there will be able to survive through this winter.

unfortunately, it is limited in time. hopefully the president will sign this. we'll see what happens. connell: the thing with the direct payments part of it, though, is that even if you agree now with the president, many democrats are coming out and saying they do because that's what they supported, to your point, to begin with, if it doesn't go through in the senate, and you know, the likes of mitch mcconnell come out and say no, that's too much money, we are too worried about spending that much money, we can't go along with that, then we could be in a spot where we don't get anything right away, right? we have had this discussion now for months. it already took the congress so long to get something done. you would still like to get something done, wouldn't you? >> well, that's why we want the president to sign the bill. the president doesn't sign the bill, then the issue is going to be chaos and confusion, which has been pretty much the mark of the trump administration. so where do we go from here? we'll see. any moment now, the president could veto or could sign, in which case we will know, and if he vetos it, we will have to get

back together in the next hours, put together a compromise that he will sign. we don't know. as i said -- connell: but to be clear, your first option is to sign the bill as it is -- >> absolutely. absolutely. connell: and not go back and work on the 2,000 bucks. go ahead. >> sign the bill and work on the 2,000. connell: okay. are those compatible, though? in other words, can we get those done? i understand there's kind of two bills we are talking about keeping the government open on the one hand and getting the stimulus done on the other but trying to do both at the same time, i'm not sure if you can kind of thread the needle on that. can you? >> well, the first issue, the ball is on the president's side of the court. not only is the covid stimulus or emergency response which is a better way to define it, it also includes the funding of

government. so if he vetos it, government shuts down. now, we are talking very serious chaos at a very critical time, when we are trying to distribute vaccines, where we have operation warp speed, everything else that's going on, simply stops. that's a government shutdown the president would cause if he were to veto it. so i'm saying don't veto the bill. sign it and then let's put all of his enormous pressure on the republicans to come along for $2,000, or a number above $600. he apparently has a very strong influence on republicans. so use that influence but sign the bill. don't create further chaos. by the way, also sign the national defense authorization act so that our military has the instructions and the money both in that authorization as well as in the appropriations bills.

[ speaking simultaneously ] connell: he will veto that most likely, as far as we know. there is a veto-proof majority as long as people stick to their votes on that to override what would be his veto on the defense bill. on stimulus, do you come back early in the biden administration and push for even more? is that your position? >> well, first of all, the stimulus and the appropriations, are connected. so you are going to shut down government as well as to eliminate or stop what i think is better to say this is an emergency authorization, much as we would do with a hurricane or tornado or a fire. we are trying to save the economy, trying to save americans, trying to keep their lives in order, get the vaccines out, deal with covid as well as keep businesses up and operating and unemployment insurance, and, and, and so mr. president, if you want $2,000, sign these bills, put the heat on the republicans as you are doing so very very well in every other situation, and let's do an

additional payment support to the american people. we would be happy to do that in the house of representatives. and i think there's a majority in the senate. it could be on the president's desk as early as christmas day. if we all work together. connell: if, if, if. you did get this part. >> well, if we wait until the new administration, we are talking about 20 days, plus the time that it takes to organize the administration. so probably by february 1st but that is a month and a half of real serious harm and lives in america so we really can't wait. connell: it's already been a long wait. >> yes, it has. connell: it's already been a long wait. congressman, thank you. merry christmas to you and all the best to everybody out there in california. i know times are tough, certainly when it comes to the virus. all right. when we move on here, we will get back to this issue. there's a story coming up, i don't know if anybody's heard

about this, but there was a college student from georgia who was put in jail in the cayman islands. the sentence has now been reduced. the story surrounding this is worth sticking around for. we will have it coming up 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?

connell: we're back with an update on this american college student who was put in prison in the cayman islands for a violation of covid protocols there. there is an update on the story today. jonathan hunt joins us with that. jonathan? reporter: connell, good afternoon to you. we reached out to skyler mack's attorney today and he told us a short time ago that the family's only hope now to get skyler home in time for christmas and beyond that to resume her college studies on time in january, is for the governor of the cayman islands to step in. the attorney, jonathan hughes, told us via e-mail that the governor quote, has the power to

remit sentences at his discretion. the prerogative of mercy. we are examining all those options. we have no intention to bring the matter back to court, however. now, 18-year-old mack, who is a student in atlanta, traveled to the cayman islands on november 27th and like all travelers, was required to take a coronavirus test and then quarantine for 14 days. she was fitted with an electronic monitoring device at the same time. but two days into her quarantine, her test came back negative. she took off the monitoring bracelet and went to watch her boyfriend taking part in a jet ski competition. she did not apparently wear a mask or observe social distancing. thus, the arrest and four-month jail sentence which has now been reduced to two months but it's the first time the government of the cayman islands has sentenced anyone to jail under its strict coronavirus guidelines, and mack's family argue officials

overreacted. >> she's only 18. it doesn't matter where she is in college or anything else. she's 18 years old, and as smart as she is, i think at 18, you still make bad decisions sometimes. reporter: but as we mentioned, skyler mack's attorney says that it now seems that unless the governor steps in, mack will be spending christmas and most of january in a cayman islands jail. connell? connell: wow. even with the sentence being reduced a little bit. boy, we were literally just talking about the risks of travel earlier in the show. nobody was thinking about things like this. what a story. jonathan, thank you. as we move on here, we are going to get to the big political story that everybody is watching. the state of georgia. all eyes are on georgia. the turnout now, they expect it to be so high it will rival what we saw in the general for these senate runoffs. the very latest in just a moment.

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a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. call to receive $1,000 off your kohler walk-in bath. and right now we're offering no payments for 18 months. connell: let's get to the runoff elections in georgia that will decide control of the senate on the 5th of january. ahead of that, in preparation for the runoffs, there are some hearings being closely watched having to do with the voting issues that may or may not have

come up in that state, and live from atlanta with the latest is fox's jonathan serrie today. reporter: more than 1.6 million georgians have already cast ballots and with early voting now in its second week, georgia's top elections officials appeared before a virtual hearing of state legislators. secretary of state brad raffensperger said to better secure future elections, he wants to eliminate no-excuse absentee voting, replace signature match with a more objective verification system, requiring state i.d., and he wants the ability to fire county elections officials who make repeated mistakes. police body cam video has surfaced of an incident back in march in which democrat raphael warnock, then estranged wife accused him of backing over her foot in a car during a verbal argument. take a listen. >> the way he acts was kept under wraps for a long time and

today he crossed the line. that is what's going on here and he's a great actor. he's phenomenal at putting on a really good show. >> i start to move slightly thinking she's here. reporter: clear. >> yeah. i'm thinking she's clear. and i barely moved. and all of a sudden she's screaming that i ran over her foot. i don't believe it. reporter: medical professionals found no evidence of any injury and police filed no charges. warnock spoke with local media about the incident back in march, and while that video that recently surfaced raises no new allegations, republicans are hoping it raises doubts about warnock less than two weeks away from his runoff against senator kelly loeffler. a warnock campaign spokesperson tells fox news this is desperate and shameful. kelly loeffler has spent her entire campaign attacking reverend warnock and has now stooped to a notice lew low of attacking his family. back to you. connell: thank you, jonathan serrie, live from atlanta. let's bring in bob cusack with more on this, editor-in-chief at

the hill. i will go back to the first number jonathan mentioned in his report, more than 1.6 million people already voting. there's such interest in these runoffs. we are already on par with the general in georgia. they have had runoff elections before because of the way they do elections in this state, but i doubt they have ever had one with this much interest and i guess that's what makes it so hard to predict, right? usually it goes to republicans if you don't have as much on the turnout side. >> republicans have the history in georgia, in statewide runoffs. however, this is a state that has changed. joe biden won it. the demographics are changing and as you mentioned, everything comes down to georgia. in all likelihood, connell, people voting are going to be voting straight ticket here, so it's either going to be feast or famine for democrats or republicans. i thought republicans were kind of a slight favorite a few weeks ago. right now, you look at the polls, this is a jump ball. these races could go either way and that's why republicans are

nervous, because they really should win these races but they are not pulling away in any poll. that's for sure. connell: well, they probably should have won in the presidential race, too, if you look at the way we were looking at that race at the time. i was in georgia a couple times before the presidential race and one of the things people were talking about was even though the race is, you know, for governor and even the senate races the last few years have been so close, that the so-called red-leaning states normally go back to what they were, and that, you know, the republican would maybe win, president trump by a point or two. instead, that didn't happen. joe biden actually won. so to your earlier point, maybe georgia really has changed, in other words, that we have crossed some sort of threshold where the democrats cannot only come close but now they have proven they can actually win in the state. >> yeah. and connell, democrats are helped by the fact that republicans are divided. president trump is at odds with the georgia governor. they used to be allies and there's questions, obviously, the president has raised about

voting machines. democrats are united. these democrats need some republicans to cross over and vote for them, but at the same time, you know, republicans, if they lose this, they are going to look back and see a lot of mistakes and when you're divided, you usually lose. and that's why the gop has got to be concerned because they have not been able to unite yet. connell: they do have a lot riding on it, though. i wonder what the mindset will be knowing this is literally a national race with national implications. in other words, the control of the senate comes down to whatever happens in these two races, and to your point, it's probably likely they will go the same way rather than split. so where is that motivation heavier? there might be more motivation for republicans there, because democrats will say well, at least we have the white house and some of the moderate democrats may say that's good enough, we're fine with split government, you know, whereas the republicans say we need to keep control of the senate. they should be motivated. >> yes. the best argument republicans have, and they are using it, they are leaning into it, is don't let nancy pelosi and chuck

schumer run the show and joe biden run the show in washington. i mean, if you look at the 2020 election, joe biden won, but the republicans picked up house seats and the senate remained in republican control, pending these two races. so if that is the message, that was the message on november 3rd, if that's the message in early january, well, then republicans will win. connell: they will. we will find out in january, right, because this is what everybody's looking at. kind of really interesting, right before a presidential inauguration to have a race like this with such national importance of implication, financial, all the rest. good to see you. have a great holiday. bob cusack from the hill, editor-in-chief, live from washington with us. all right. as we continue in just a moment, we will have a little bit more. through it all today we have been talking back and forth about stimulus and everything else. the market has held up just fine, thank you. the dow up 258. ♪

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♪. connell: one economic data point we haven't talked about yet these last couple hours, new home sales came in. they tumbled last month by 11%. put that on top of some other data we had with personal income and spending both slipping in the month of november, contrasting with the jobless claims which were showing some improvement even though they're still at an elevated level. add in the stimulus discussions with the president last night and well, investors are

shrugging it all off. we're still up 250 points on the dow. see you again at 4:00 p.m. eastern time on "after the bell." we'll see how the market closes out at the end of the day. before that we take you to charles payne through the next hour. hey, charles. charles: great seeing you my man. good afternoon, everybody, i'm charles payne and this is "making money." forget coasting into christmas all the major indices are higher after president trump dissed covid relief package calling it a disgrace. he is calling for household payments of $2,000 instead of $600. connell talked about, personal income spending swoon. another 800,000 plus americans filing for initial jobless claims. the stakes are high for the economy and the stock market. political stakes are high as well, with nancy pelosi quickly jumping on board with $2000