unfortunately, if you're around people that are susceptible. jackie: and i think even with trying to take those precautions, it's a scary time. i want to give our thanks to our panel, joe concha and scott martin, great to see you. that does it for us on "mornings with maria." we are going to see veryny and company come -- "varney & company" coming up >> good morning. i am david asman inverse tour to varney. the big story, houston cuts are back to work after president trump requested $2000 a stimulus check. will they get it done? we have a live report and many balked when president trump said his team would have a vaccine before the end of the year. but, we are here and we have it, more than one. he was right. more than a million americans have received the covid vaccine. it was operation at warp speed

that made it happen, but first look at futures on this shortened trading day. we are up modestly, but they are in the green with the dow jones and s&p and nasdaq with a great way to end out though we. we have a jampacked three hours ahead, just a few of a bunch of wonderful guests in the lineup. barstool sports founder who has raised over two and half million dollars for struggling small businesses and he is not done. he will join us live in the next hour to talk about this. its december 24, merry christmas eve. "varney & co." beginning right now. ♪

♪ david: there he is. we wanted to wait until we heard frank sinatra, that is the man a singing jingle bells. we will pepper the show throughout with lovely songs of the past. this is a live look at fox square on christmas eve with a nice set up. we had a bit of a pre-christmas snowstorm earlier in the week and most of this melted off, but we still have snow on the way. checking the markets, they are all up right now in the green modestly so, all below 20%, but again it's nice to have all green markets. let's bring in d.r. barton to talk about this, dr, are you expect in a rally? >> i am. when we were on the show together just the day

after the dow jones topped 30000, we talked about the seasonal strength for all of december and the santa claus rally is particularly interesting. it is technically the last five trading days of the current year plus the first two trading days of the near, 2021. over the last 50 years there have only been a downtime during those seven trading days of 13 times, that's impressive 74% win rate, strong seasonality with lots of good tail wind, the vaccine stories, stimulus coming, i think it will be a strong time for us. david: i don't want to rain on the parade particularly in light of a lot of green on the screen, but we have a lot of questions of what will happen in the georgia election less than two weeks from now, what kind of tax increases may result from democratic win in that election

so there are headwinds, are there not? >> there are and that's a huge uncertainty. you hit the nail on the head, that january 5, runoff for those two seeds and if the red team cannot pull off one of them, i think we will see a significant market reaction if they cannot bring one of those seats to keep the red majority in the senate. you are correct and i think we will see a volatility heading into that, but we probably get some christmas spirit for the next week or so before looking deeply into that. david: it is christmas time and a lot of kids will be looking for play stations under the christmas tree and that is a win for sony. why do you like sony right now? >> because the kids are going to be able to find a place to station. santa won't be able to deliver enough this year as they are flat sold out, david. the new playstation five , they are selling

on the gray market for two times retail prices right now just to show the scarcity. gaming is so important to sony. it's become their cash cow, it makes up under 30% of the revenue, but just right at 50% of their profitability, so gaming is huge. this new consul with the xbox coming out and playstation together in gaming will continue to build into 2021. videogame industry was up 20% this year, some say that's probably people stuck at home. that's likely to happen, but it will continue in a strong growth next year and i like to ride sony into that. david: what a pleasure to see you on this christmas eve. thank you. d.r. barton, great to see you. look at this op-ed from the "wall street journal" and i'm quoting : who made the vaccine possible?

not the who, referring to the world health organization. come in and infectious disease at doctor, dr. matt mccarthy. great to see you per dozen operation warp speed deserve the credit. a lot people want to take credit for it, world health organization which, of course, made terrible errors at the beginning of the pandemic, not even calling it a pandemic and people like bill gates, but operation warp speed was so significant in the way adults with and is now dealing with the rollout of the vaccine and the whole production of the vaccine; right? >> the only reason we have these vaccines is because of our operation warp speed, the greatest scientific achievement in my lifetime and i don't think anything will pop it. if you had told me in may, when the president announced operation warp speed that we would have a million americans vaccinated with a highly effective and safe vaccine i would have said you were crazy and if you had told me we

would have two of the vaccines with more to come i would have shaken my head and said i don't know where you're getting the information, but operation warp speed from beginning to end, total success and it wasn't just about throwing money at pharmaceutical companies. it was a logistics nightmare from the beginning that we figured out. it's incredible there are now vaccines given to americans that will fundamentally change the way this pandemic affects us. david: what i like most about the rollout and of the success of the rollout, first of all the creation of the vaccine is at the center, but the distribution is key and both of those things, the vaccine and the distribution rely on the free market. of the development relied on the free market to create competition between the companies. we got rid of the-- a lot of the regulations holding back the companies and just that the generals are relied primarily on the private sector with fedex operations, ups etc., so it's a real free market based program.

when international bureaucracy gets involved there's always logjams that we don't seem to have this time. >> this is capitalism at its best and it could not come at a better time. as we are hearing about this new mutant strain of coronavirus that emerged in the uk, it has everyone on edge in the wake to get through this is with a safe and effective vaccine. we are going to hear more and more about these mutant strains. that's not something people should freak out about every time they hear it. we just started looking for these things. scientists are on top of this and we are doing our part in operation warp speed is ultimately the thing that will get us back to normal. david: i hate to say this, but i have a feeling that it's not the last pandemic we see in our lifetime, i mean, god knows exactly that we don't know how china spread this thing and we have to get to the bottom of that at some point, but if we have another pandemic, god help us, but we do have now a model

in warp speed that we can apply to future pandemics, do we not? >> exactly right. the two vaccines we are using now use mr and eight technology, something that has never been used before and it will fundamentally alter the way we develop inoculations. operation warp speed was not just a proof of principle, but it will be the shining example for every other pandemic. i have studied these things for a long time and i'm delighted with the way it has played out. david: quickly, mr and a, deals with the genetic material in our body pics some people are afraid of the approach to the vaccine, but a couple are coming out johnson and johnson, astrazeneca that do a kind of the old-fashioned way so consumers will have a choice, will they not? >> yes. the mrn vaccines are safe. they do not change or genetic code. they don't introduce the

full virus and you will have a menu of options if you don't want to use the mrn. we have johnson & johnson and many options for people moving forward in 2021. david: 2020 was so bad but we are blessed to have operation warp speed in the way we develop the vaccines. doctor, thank you and merry christmas. thank you very much for your work as well as. >> merry christmas. david: moderna says they're vaccine will protect against the latest coronavirus strain. lauren, that's very good news. lauren: it certainly is. merry christmas. moderna x next to run tests in the coming weeks to confirm its vaccine is effective against not only that uk variant, but quite honestly any strain. they have done tests in the past before we knew of this uk strain in the shot offer protection against those variants so now they want to test it to be sure it's

effective against this uk one as well. david: lauren, merry christmas to you and your family. god bless you all. thank you. we will be back to lauren in a moment. checking futures as we trade up with a modest gain in the various indexes we looks at-- look at, but green is good. well, forget people leaving now big-name chains are fleeing new york city with mayor bill de blasio threatening a full christmas lockdown. won't that be the final nail in the coffin? we are on it. today democrats will try to pass presidents-- president trump's call for a $2000 stimulus check, bigger than the $600 they wanted originally. will they get rid of some of the congressional pork to pay for the $2000 to the common man? we have that story coming next. ♪

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david: let's check the futures and they remain up. looks like we will start the trading day with that up market, nice way to get into the christmas season. democrats are actually still working. and they are on the house for pushing to increase stimulus checks from $600 to $2000. 2000-dollar direct payments asked for just moments ago in the president is for this even though a lot of republicans are likely to stop it unless some congressional pork is

cut from the build. come in bradley blakeman first of all, the irony of republicans against what republican president trump once in addition to democrats. >> if republicans were smart, and they are, you take out the pork and you cannot rob peter to pay paul. you cannot increase this bill. you can't cook-- loaded up for non- covid relief for countries that are not being helped by covid. if it's not related to covid, it should not be in the bill. 5000 page bill that does not put america first is exactly what the president has been talking about in the summer when they were talking about continuing covid relief so we need to put americans first. david: and to put a fine point on it, brad, the most outrageous part of the package is pakistan, which just announced they will be releasing the terrorist who murdered the "wall street

journal" reporter, danny pearl, back around the 9/11 terrorist attacks. that man-- even though the man who murdered danny pearl will be released we are giving them $25 million. that's more than wrong, that's absolutely outrageous. that should be stripped from the bill, should it not? >> it is sick that we would put foreigners interests especially countries who-- david: who are about to reward terrorists who killed an american citizen. >> beyond the pale, no excuse for it. there's a lot in this bill that could easily be stripped away. look, pelosi said all along she would not give donald trump is built before the election. they created a crisis and made it worse and only they can stop it. president trump is correct, americans need relief and it cannot be at the expense of

foreign aid. we have to strip it. david: can to the president say call up-- look, saying i'm right with you and i will bring the republicans on board in listing the amount of stimulus from 600 to 2000 if you take this outrageous payment to pakistan and some other outrageous pork out of it? >> republicans, that's exactly the strategy they should use is we are not going to increase this bill, we will strip the bill and we will make sure americans are first and they get the kind of relief they need now. david: by the way, the house just adjourned until monday. expected 10-- anonymous consent was not achieved , so they are putting that off. the president, of course, is one who works over holidays. unlike any president i have ever seen in my lifetime, so do you think you will spend the next few days on the

phone trying to get something worked out to strip the outrage from the bill and up the ansi into the amount americans will get in their checks? >> there's no doubt about it. the president and senate republicans will continue to work and they will put pressure on the democrats, but democrats think they will run the clock on this president until the end of the year and put a gun to his head. donald trump has nothing to lose in fighting for the american people. that's what we put him in there to do and that's exactly what he's doing. david: the big question, brad, is he willing to go the distance and feet of the spending if in fact the poor, the outrageous pork stays in there because a veto around christmas time of a spending bill looks bad. >> it does look bad, but you have to stand on principle. david: when we are going into a key election in georgia, which

this could become fodder for the democrats running for that election, the two democrats could say look, the republicans want to keep your plates empty at the dinner table. >> look, it's a two-way street. republicans can tell the people in georgia that they would have had relief but for the democrats. they could have had in the summertime but pelosi denied that they could have had it at any time and they are punishing the american people politicizing their plight and it's an outrage and i think any american whether you live in georgia, texas wherever will understand what democrats have done in playing the american people. david: let us pray, brad, here's a christmas prayer and i know you would follow me on this, let us pray that they strip out the outrageous pork in this bill and up the ante for the average american who need as much money as they can to get through the new lockdowns. that would be a christmas wish if a

fulfilled would help everyone, don't you agree? >> amen. david: bradley blakeman, great to see you. have a wonderful christmas. thank you. and now this, amazon is firing back at senator bernie sanders after he said employees are quote risking their lives to fill holiday orders. ash, what is amazon sane and merry christmas to you, ashley. ashley: merry christmas. amazon says it has made over 150 policy adjustments including enhanced cleaning and social distancing measures, distribution of ppe and temperature checks across the global operation. the company says all of the workers make at least $15 an hour, double the federal minimum wage and are provided with paid sick leave and conference of benefits, but all full-time employees actually equivalent to amazon says to the benefits most senior executives get. amazon says it's also

hired an additional 275,000 new workers since the pandemic began, but bernie sanders also going after amazon founder jeff bezos who he says has become $83 billion richer during the pandemic. sanders says the ugly corporate greed must end david: there are a lot of new yorkers that wish some of that ugly littlest greed was in new york instead of being kicked out by aoc and other lunatics in congress. ashley, thank you. well, the opening bell is next. fasten your seatbelt, folks. we will be right back. ♪

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guy sandy. you can see the smb-- s&p going up to 4100 by the end of 2021? why the optimism? >> i really do, about 10 or 11% upside. its dependent on a couple things. number one we need the gop needs to win when it -- one senate seat in georgia to create gridlock. the martin-- market lows of certainty with taxes low and we think there's no alternative. if you are looking at putting money away, in the 10 year treasury at 94 basis points you come by equity in a stock like pfizer get a 4% dividend yield and you will probably go for that and that will prop up the equity markets. that assumes the fed keeps the fed fund target rate at 0% and continues to buy $120 billion of treasury and agency security every month.

if the fed supports the market we will continue to stay long. david: sandy, worst case scenario from an investor's a standpoint, democrats take both senate seats in georgia, are you recommending nacelle across the board as a result of? >> i think things will change and we will have to look at different sectors and it will create a lot of uneasiness so i would never recommend they come out so across the board, but i think it could be a pullback in the market. are-- we would have to take a fresh look to see if we continue to buy on those-- david: one example i mean taxes would probably go up across the board. one example they want to value stocks not based on when you sell them, that any increase in value even before you sell it you would have to pay taxes. that's one plan we have heard. >> yeah and that is just one thing as you mentioned and so all he does is create uncertainty and again,

what the market wants is certainty and something where we can sharpen our pencils and make calculations. david: well, the ringing of the bell is about to ring. and there it goes. sandy, have a wonderful holiday season. thank you. we have modest gains in the futures. looks like they are sticking with us as we begin to see stocks trading on the dow jones we can see more red-- there we go with more green. stocks are trading up. it's a mild santa rally with the dow jones up about 50 points. s&p, more broader index, it is up again just a fraction. the nasdaq is up by about the same percentage point, up about 21 points to 12792 still, a huge rally all year. shami alibaba-- alibaba,

alibaba way down as they face eight anti- monopoly by the chinese communist country. ashley: that sounds pretty ominous. chinese regulators have reportedly opened an investigation into alibaba practice of forcing merchants to choose one of two platforms rather than working with both. alibaba says with business operations remaining normal, but the company that latest big tech firm to be targeted by authorities. beijing appears to be asserting more control through regulation and hong kong. shares fell close to 11% here in the us. chinese authorities also announcing they would meet with alibaba affiliate aunt to reportedly helped supervise the financial tech company market operations as well as consumer rights and interests.

last month regulators suspended the company's ipo days before the planned listing in hong kong and shanghai, all of that news disturbing when you think about the control of beijing wants david: ash, let's deal with travel for a second because even though the cdc says they want people not to travel a lot of people are going out; right? ashley: yes, they are at least 81 million by road, but only a quarter of the people nationwide will travel christmas and new year's this year. public-health concerns with government guidance against travel and declining consumer sentiment leads many to stay at home. americans that do decide to travel over the next couple of weeks will do so as we say by car. aaa say road trips will account for 96% of holiday travel. some surveys suggest that more americans are willing to fly christmas then they were at thanksgiving we saw an

airport earlier than it actually looked busy behind grady. may be more people are throwing caution to the wind and jumping on a plane. david: they are just desperate to see family. thank you. people are looking for an end to the lockdowns. they are looking for and ended to the pandemic is the vaccine begins to circulate a bit more and we get into a herd immunity. disney cruise line announced new itineraries, but what your they looking at, lauren? lauren: 2022, david. you can book now if you want for failing to the bahamas are the caribbean starting april and may, 2022, for the disney dream and fantasy ship. seems like such a long way off. it's an industry that has not had a new sailing since march in the us and considering we had the inoculations underway, 2022-- it's a safe bet, but seems a

long way off. david: my wife and i took a vacation in miami the first week of march. i'm glad we got that in before the lockdowns. we saw cruise lines from our hotel window and little did we know it would be the last for about a year and another one, lauren, buyer i is down this morning. why? >> this is a big deal. it is the cyber security firm that rose for four sessions in a row. in that stretch of essentially two weeks fire eye was up 80%. the rise was surprising because they failed to prevent the massive hack on the us, agencies including the treasury and commerce department. so, they had an incredible run and finally giving some of it back this morning. david: less than 3% drop, so it's marginal considering the run-up. thank you. well, jack dorsey's

company, swear, reportedly looks to buy jay-z's company called title. ashley, what is titled? ashley: a music streaming service. mr. dorsey looking to add to his portfolio with title. bloomberg says square has discussed a potential deal with jay-z. the rapper and music mogul bought titles for $56 million. title has struggled to keep pace with other streaming services. is a competitive market including spotify. it hasn't released its a subscriber number claimant 3 million customers in 2016, but it's apparently in the initial stages reports a talks may not result in a transaction. david: we will keep an eye on that. checking the big board, let's check the 10 year if we can. dow jones is up about 55 points, modest gain,

modest santa rally. the tenure is trading down a little bit, it's under 1%, barely .942% on a 10 year, but again with the fed holding steady with the very low rates not expected to go much above 1% anytime soon. let's check gold. a lot of people are moving into gold. it's trading at about 1875. actually, it's down about $2 right now, modest loss in gold. bitcoin, it's another hedge for the markets. for questions about what will happen in georgia, questions about what will happen with tax increases, if in fact, the georgia race goes democrat. bitcoin is down about 20 or $25, but still about $23000. oriel trading down a

little bit, not much movement in oil. it's down about three quarters of a percentage point. $3.2 million and counting is how much barstool david has raised to help small businesses struggling from the pandemic. he's also calling on some of his rich friends to pitch in. i will be asking how that's going when he joins me in the 11:00 o'clock hour, but first all eyes are on george's key senate runoff and the question is what will happen to your money in the economy if democrats gain control. steve forbes has ideas about all of that, the tax man, the man who keeps his eye on taxes very closely for you and me joins the next with his take on all of this. stay with us. ♪

david: check the markets, and in fact the meanie santa rally is gaining traction. it's up more than a third of a percentage point, s&p and dow jones industrial still about the same, very modest gain, but again all in the green on this day before christmas. president trump vetoed the defense bill saying he did it because it didn't repeal section 230 of the telecom and social media companies a huge break he says they don't deserve. steve a forbes is with us now. great to see you. clearly, social media companies violated-- if not the letter of section 230, at least of the spirit of it which means he should remain open platforms and not engage in censorship or editorial control and that gives them an amazing protection against lawsuits that other publishers don't have, but since they

clearly edited and censored material in the election process, don't they deserve to have 230 stripped away from them? >> you have to be careful on that because it could hurt small sites could these big companies have large legal departments and if you just do away with section 230 as a whole without a laser approach , they will be able to fend off the massive lawsuits that will come from back democrat trial bar, but smaller sites like those that's a great alternative to twitter have to be careful that has to be a separate bill to make sure you don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. david: what about the overall-- >> don't give advantage to the big companies because they are prepared for it. david: i hope you can just target companies that violated 230 because they did so wouldn't such a blatant way. they are violating a

rule they signed on to. when we talk about a bigger issue which is the spending bill and the question of whether it's filled with so many pork projects, some of which we talked about like the horrible gift to the pakistani government just as they are about to release the motor of the "wall street journal" danny pearl. awful things in the spending bill, but with the president making a mistake by vetoing the entire bill? >> at this stage, yes. you have to get the covid relief thing through and he's right about the $600 being inadequate, but that should have been on the table two weeks ago as part of the bargaining to get this thing done because nothing ends up getting done, then it hurts the two georgia senate races. it's a matter of timing on a lot of this should have been dealt with a couple weeks ago during negotiations is. david: let's talk about georgia.

if the democrats win, both of the senate seats , what happens to taxes in this country and therefore what happens to our economy? >> it's going to tank the economy, tank the stock market, head for the storm cellars right away. 44% capital gains tax will crush the market, higher income taxes, higher business taxes and undo the progress we have made before covid and they will go after other things. before he left office barack obama was talking about iras above a certain level, who needs it so they will look at taxing things like iras above a certain amount. wealth tax and the like and regulations will run amok and the other thing they will feel freer to do controlling both sides of congress is regulating agencies like the irs. they will try to do that same nonsense again, so it would be a disaster.

these races are critical. david: they certainly are for the country and the whole world. one thing schumer said and was right about. most important, the winner of the 2024-- 2020 forbes retell award goes to twitter paper? >> toilet paper, yes to the one item people could not get enough of. sadly it won't wipe away the terrible year, but it turned out to be the royal flush and retelling. david: oh, steve. you know, he could keep going on. i've dealt with him over the years and his ponds. any particular brand or just the whole industry? >> the whole industry whether it's two ply, one ply, no matter whose face was on it, people could not get enough of it. paper towels are another thing, a close runner-up who would have thought to seemingly common things. data symbolizes the year

david: with all the high-tech developments we have in our country and these items get the retell award. steve, thank you. have a wonderful christmas, a wonderful new year. please do to see you again. >> merry christmas. david: former presidential candidate andrew gang could be in the running for new york city's next mayor. lauren, details? ashley: he's one tough act to follow. david, are you upset mayor deblasio cannot run for a third term? david: not one little bit. lauren: andrew yang officially filed the paperwork yesterday to run for mayor of new york city. he's already leading in the polls to win the democratic primary over scott stringer, eric adams and dozens of others. he became very popular during the presidential race. he had the call for universal basic income, $1000 to back every american adult and he

would pay for that by taxing companies have benefited from automation. it was interesting because he himself is a bunch of manure and attorney. people like this in the new york city primary is june 22, 2021. david: i did not know he was a resident here in new york city so we will see what happens with that. tammy bruce's on and she says doctor anthony fauci is taking aim at the american spirit by trying to control us during a pandemic. she's fired up about it and she joins us at the top of the 10:00 o'clock hour to make her case. meanwhile, nearly 85 million people will be traveling this holiday season with a live report from chicago's o'hare international airport is next. ♪

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i don't believe that, but yes apparently the final details have been agreed upon. prime minister boris johnston saying there will be no role going forward of the european court of justice, another sticking point. that is it, the uk will officially be done at the end of this year. parliament will have to come back after christmas break with reports they will come back december 30, to ratify the deal and we may have heard the word brexit for the very last time. david: i am skeptical as you are. you know better than i do that it has taken so long. it took longer to break than it did to make this thing decades ago. ashley, thank you. let's look at the screen because these are the flights that are on route all over north america right now with holiday travel hitting a

peak since the pandemic started even as experts urge people to stay at home. grady trimble is that chicago international o'hare airport. is a busy there? reporter: not really, if you had asked me about 90 minutes ago it was very busy and that's the pattern we have seen is a lot of a flight schedule first thing in the morning and then another way the afternoon and right before those times is when it's crowded, but aaa said most people will follow experts advice and stay home about three quarters want to travel this holiday season. as you mentioned, more people than ever will be getting on a plane since the pandemic started. here are the numbers from aaa, top mode of transportation is car with 81 million people driving if they travel. just under 3 million will get on a plane and that's a lot fewer than normally fly during the christmas season and if you're getting on a plane, wendy may notice is that planes are much

fuller than they ordinarily would be because a lot of routes have been cut. there are fewer flights and more people on each flight because of that. that is kind of the situation we have here, david. fewer people than normal, but as far as the pandemic goes, and a lot of people are traveling given the advice to stay home. david: is hard to keep people at home on christmas week particularly when christmas falls on a friday. thank you. grady will come back throughout the day. look at shares of general motors as the markets are generally green, having a bad day with more than 2% down. they issued a recall that may have something to do with the down numbers. how many vehicles are affected, lori and? lauren: 624,000 is the pickup-- of these. the issue is that if the vehicle has a bench seat the middle center seat has a issue with the seybold attaching properly affecting the new tahoe and newer

models of the silverado and gmc, so stock is down. david: i am looking at ford and it's also down about one and a quarter percentage point. that may have something dashboard of course have a lot of trucks and maybe investors are concerned about whether they will have similar problems. we have a jampacked show this christmas eve and still ahead we have tammy bruce, dan henniker, burgess owens with the second hour of "varney & co." moments away. ♪ ...and unique needs. your lips are like no others and need a lip routine that's just right for you. chapstick® has you covered. chapstick®. put your lips first®. . .

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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. ♪. david: andy williams. remember those christmas specialals? he had some of the best. really did. 10 a.m. eastern time. happy christmas eve, everybody. a big show still ahead. coming up this hour we start with tammy bruce. we have larry elder with us, jonathan morris to talk about the spiritual side of things. next hour, just as good, burgess meredith, burgess owens, congressman-elect, dan

henninger, dave portnoy. they're all with us. we're tracking santa this morning. we have a very special addition to the show. we'll do it at end of three hours. we'll track where santa is. your kids want to know. a lot of them are at home. markets are trading up today. dow jones industrials are up about 50 points right now. all the indices are up. nasdaq up by percentagewise more than all the rest. we're giving you the latest read on mortgage rates. very important subject as we see housing, such an important part of the economy right now. ashley? ashley: put this one under the christmas tree, david, another record low, 2.66% down from 2.67% last week. david: my goodness. ashley: lowest rate in the

survey's near 50 year history. there is lack of houses on market, fueling refinancing that continues to go on. 2.66% on a fixed 30-year mortgage. that is some cheap money right there. david: i do remember when they were above 15% in the early '80s. bow how things have changed. heading into the holiday weekend the stimulus is unresolved, attempt to increase stimulus checks to $2,000 is being blocked. edward lawrence. reporter: separate bill making 2,000-dollars a week. it was objected to. will bring it up on monday to have a record vote n countermove house minority leader put forth a unanimous consent bill would revisit the foreign aid offered in the on my news bill.

in letter to house speaker nancy pelosi. america cart think writes this. speaker pelosi using coronavirus leverage on government funding. includes billions of foreign aid at a time where urgent needs are at home. republicans question money in there. 10 million for gender programs in pakistan. 100 million to sued san. 135 million to burma, 106 million forebelize, honduras, nicaragua, panama. that also failed that bill. the house adjourned to monday. set for christmas break coming up. january 3rd, new congress will be seated. linking covid relief to the omnibus bill shut down if it does not pass regardless the questions of bat pork in the bill. they had six hours to look at language in the 5600 bill. congressman jeff van drew said this is not the way it should

work. >> there are things in the bill absolutely don't need to be done. we need to make sure we do in the future we do better. reporter: all eyes on the white house. the president said he would vote tote the defense authorization act if section 230 was not repealed. he did that. he threatens to veto any bill that doesn't include 2,000-dollar payments. house democrats pressing the president to sign the bill. david? david: by the way he is with democrats on this one. steny hoyer and other democrats are for raising it to 2,000 bucks as well. tammy bruce to talk about this, much, much other things as well. tammy, when i first of all see pakistan about to release the man who butchered danny pearl who i used to work with at "the wall street journal," they're going to release this terrorist who is guilty of killing at least one very

notable american and we're giving them 25 million? i get outraged, don't you? >> well absolutely. robert o'neill "the man who killed usama bin laden" he know as lot of restaurant and bar owners who never hid and protected ben laden. we're looking at a very strange dynamic. this is stimulus bill, let's make no mistake about that. it's a stimulus bill for egypt, for pakistan, for best of your memory marks for all of these other foreign countries. remarkable thing, to link it to covid relief, hold us hostage while throwing us -- we might as well be oliver twist here with a bowl asking for more, please, for ourselves. and the irony here, david, of course, this is why trump was elected, they do this all the time. what was the last thing you remember, classic that was passed on christmas eve that was too big to read we had to pass to know what was in it? obamacare. this is what they do to us.

when there is no time. it is an emergency, they're leaving town. it is out ridge discuss. the president's statement. i will end with this, not just about the us needing more money for ourselves. it was about this foreign aid. i don't know what this is when it comes to aid but it is also about that. it is not just about throwing more money at us while we then fund effectively many of the enemies of this country around the world. david: it is extraordinary. of course the optics of the president vetoing a bill on christmastime, on spending so many desperately need would be horrible but there -- >> that is another part of the political game. david: i want to move on to a piece you wrote, a great piece about dr. fauci. we actually have a graphic. there it is. we have him dressed up as the grinch because you say he is stealing the american spirit. how? >> well, yes, that is the complaint you see.

he stated at an event at the national cathedral that it was the american spirit that is keeping people from doing as they're told but now it is time, we're at fault you see for the spread of the pandemic. and i found this remarkable and really grotesque. we know now, we have been following orders. we know this with people who had their parents die alone. who have not buried dead loved ones, who have not left their homes for 10 months. mental illness, a break in sobriety for many people. we've been following their orders but we see people like dr. birx, gavin newsom, lori lightfoot, so many others, nancy pelosi, dianne feinstein not following those rules. dr. fauci himself without a mask on with other people. yet he blames the american spirit for this issue. david: unbelievable. >> when it is in fact their strategy has failed. we need to protect the

vulnerable. vaccines are here. open this country up. but this is unacceptable. they don't want, they want you to not have a good christmas. i say don't be afraid. manage risk, do what's best for your family. americans have always cared about other people. it is the american spirit that has kept this nation and this world free for hundreds of years. david: from the beginning. this country was born with a declaration of independence, not a declaration of slavery to the people in power. tammy, i could talk to you for hours about this. thank you for being here. have a wonderful holiday. thank you very much. >> merry christmas. david: merry christmas to you. >> thank you. david: quick check of the markets they're still in the green we're happy to say. the nasdaq doing best among the three that we follow. s&p, dow jones and nasdaq. nasdaq is up about .4%. next case, gold versus cryptocurrencies. let's bring in jonathan hoenig. jonathan, i relied on your

counsel about gold for many years now. given all the uncertainty with biden what he will do the georgia race, a lot of people are looking for ways to hedge the market through gold or cryptocurrencies. which of those two would you recommend? >> ultimately might be both but mostly i would caution for all of our viewers before wishing them all a very merry christmas not to make whether it is gold, bitcoin, stocks, anything else, not to make this all or none decision. you say gold or bitcoin. it might be both for many investors but might be none. all investors make the mistake making all or nothing decision. tech stokes, real estate in 2008 or even crypto, david. crisp toe rival, ripple, that has fallen 50% just in the last couple weeks after the sec filed a lawsuit. even gold which is a strong asset now, it fell 40% back in 2013. both these assets are strong.

the big picture of the value of the dollar is falling. putting alternative forms of currency higher. i would caution against all our viewers an investors making this all or none decision. whether it is nasdaq or beanie-babies that always ends up -- david: the reason as a hedge i tend to favor gold to the cryptos, they have gone up so far so fast. as you mentioned some of them have been coming down. rather than reaching for a falling knife, when gold comes down it doesn't come down dramatically as the cryptos do, right? you know but i will be left even if it does come down a sizable portion of your principle. >> david, gold is historic store of value. it has been literally for thousands of years. you know this whole -- i'm not a crypto hater but the fact is one of the requirements for money it us a store of value and what is a competing currency for

cryptocurrencies coming up, challenging bitcoin for example. it is not widely accepted but as you were alluding to gold has intrinsic value. aesthetic value, prized for jewelry, and prized for industrial purposes, connectors, et cetera. gold always has a value but doesn't mean it can't climb precipitously, don't be all or none. crypto i am not schur around 100 years but gold will always be. david: what will take me 100 years, to read ayn rand's collection as christmas gift. i appreciate you doing so. but again, that is a tomb that will take me a while to read. but i am getting into it. jonathan, i appreciate it. >> merry christmas, david. david: the white house releasing a set of rules for stable coins. those are cryptocurrencies that have less pricing volatility compared to bitcoin. let's bring ashley into the

conversation here. continue with crypto currencies, ashe? ashley: stable coin lack of volatility would be basically achieved by being pegged to other assets such as fiat currencies. which means they would be better positioned, well-positioned to be used for consumer retail. those rules will cover all u.s. stable coins including facebook's libra project which is set to launch next year. we haven't talked much about it but it is set to launch in the new year. the regulations are being overseen by a number of agencies including the treasury department, the fed and the sec which suggests that oversight will indeed be broad-based. so far no mention of requiring bank charters, which has been proposed by lawmakers or some lawmakers in congress but this is certainly the first step towards formal regulation, david. david: thanks, ash. barstool sports founder dave

portnoy raising millions of dollars for small business. roll it. >> i've been ranting and raving lately about the plight of small business. challenged me, put your money where your mouth is? i spent the last couple days doing exactly that. david: the man who met that challenge, dave portnoy is coming up in the next hour. you don't want to miss it. plus in california one doctor was fired for denouncing state lockdowns. we'll give you that story. despite the warnings people are going home for the holidays. we're all over it as the second hour of "varney" is just getting started this christmas eve. stay with us. ♪

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♪. david: let's get a check on the markets. they are in the green right now nasdaq is doing the best of the three. let's check the hotels if we can, hotels, people are beginning for the first time in a long time to make reservations at some of their favorite spots, vacation spots and so forth. they're all down just by a fraction. on the other hand we're seeing significant losses in the airline stocks if we could switch to them. american airlines down 3/4 of a percent. united down over 1 1/2%. it there are big losses in airlines today. despite warnings from the cdc, and state and local officials airports are busier than ever since the pandemic began. go back to grady trimble at o'hare airport in chicago. grady, the the industry we saw reflected in the stocks is still really struggling, right? reporter: yeah. david, 2020 will go down as the

worse year at least financially for the airlines ever. if you look at tsa numbers about a million passengers a day have gone through the checkpoints for the last six days. that is up for pandemic levels. that is not anywhere near pre-pandemic levels not near the holiday season. because of the drop in travel here, the airlines layed off tens of thousands of employees. look at the numbers, between united and american, when their cares act funding expired on october 1st, they had to lay off a combined 32,000 employees. they were hoping that paychecks would go back out to the employees, that they were able to bring back on thanks to the relief bill because airlines are getting $15 billion in funding in that bill. so far that hasn't been signed by the president. in fact the airlines sent out essentially celebratory letters they would hire back on tens of thousands of employees. because that bill hasn't been signed that hasn't happened and those employees have not been

able to get christmas eve paychecks they were expecting to. certainly a somber year for many in the airline industry. travel numbers, david, way down compared to where they should being this time of year. david: absolutely. grady, thank you very much. a doctor in california was fired from his job as a trauma medical director after he questioned the effectiveness of lockdowns in the state. here is salem radio show host larry elder. larry con we constantly hear pro liberals follow the science, even when the science says the lockdowns are not productive they go with the lockdowns. what is going on here. >> california, surprisingly california is at will state. they can can you for whatever reason. he doesn't have much legal recourse. questioning effectiveness of lockdowns. whether there is relationship between outdoor dining and spike in covid-19. whether or not we ought to ban

in-school training what does it have to do with his ability to practice medicine? have you suddenly become a bad doctor? you're quite right, david, a lot of medical professionals questioned whether or not we ought to have continued lockdowns. dr. fauci said school closures ought not to be the first option. the world health organization envoy recently said lob downs should not be the first option. all the doctor is doing is parroting these health care officials. apparently -- david: we have the figures by the way, they're very clear. 70% of the new infections, actually more than 70% happen from in-home infections, a member of the family getting infection. 1.4% can be traced to restaurants. yet close down all the restaurants. >> yeah. even the health secretary in california said there is no science whatsoever linking closing outdoor dining to a spike in covid-19. but he said that the reason that

he wants the ban is to make sure you stay home. so this is what these guys are doing. they want to make sure you stay home. this might be a matter of timing david. this letter went out in may. the doctor said he got canned shortly thereafter. it was after that, dr. fauci and w.h.o. envoy both questioned effectiveness of shutdowns and encouraged in-school learning. he might have had bad timing sending out his letter. david: larry, another hypocrisy you notice among liberals the claim they represent the little guy. all they're representing, in a lot of lockdowns, particularly your state of california are the big companies. california is expecting a 26 billion-dollar tax windfall coming from all of the social media companies in silicon valley. meanwhile they're killing the small businesses, whether the restaurants or retailers. they're the ones that are suffering. >> right. david: the big companies are doing just fine. >> and then there is of course the issue of hypocrisy as you

pointed out. gavin newsom going to this french restaurant. the mayor of san francisco going to this french restaurant. you have nancy pelosi going to her hairdresser. you have all these people who are breaking their own regulations. not only is it hypocritical it shows you they're not afraid but they're telling us to be afraid. how is it sheila kuehl orange county supervisorring sign as ban on outdoor dining, within hours of the banshee engages in, wait for it, outdoor dining f she is not afraid, why should we be afraid? david: people people are saying when will there be political consequences for actions. i think we saw it in november elections, we were supposed to have blah wave, democrats lost more than a dozen seats. there is political pushback. maybe there will be more. larry, have a merry christmas. restaurants around the country are closed. lauren, in a lot of states malls

are full of last-minute shoppers, right? lauren: yeah, those shoppers are braving the crowds, david and virus well, to get christmas gifts under the tree. they have a few hours left. what is making matters worse this year is capacity restrictions in a lot of shopping centers. what that does, it causes a long line of people outside. so you can stay safe but of course if you're a procrastinator you're waiting even longer now. if you add into this mix the overwhelmed shipping services struggling to get some online orders, even if placed early enough. some will not make it in time. so americans this year are frustrated, they are sad. david, i just texted my husband. i said do not go to the store. you might relate to this. he always goes on christmas eve. right while i'm preparing dinner to get me a christmas gift. if you didn't get one already i don't want one. i rather you help me at home. david: i did identify with your husband on that one, i'm afraid

to say. lauren, thank you very much. shake shack is giving holiday bonuses to hourly employees this year. ash, it couldn't come at a better time but how much are they getting. ashley: christmas shopping at a shell gas station. we've all been there. yes, many employees at shake shack will earn 250 and $400 in holiday bonuses. shake shack boning news spending is $6 million for front line workers. the chain began premium pay to hourly workers in april. that added 10% to the pay packets. that program ended in august. since then demand for virus hazard pay as it is called resumed for grocers around people serving the public. shake shack stock up 46%. not to shabby. david: you can benefit by having higher bonuses. that is good news. arcly, thank you very much.

coming up, it is christmas eve, not only are we tracking santa via norad but we're also tracking the weather. plus one couple in north carolina is fighting back after their homeowners association demanded they take down the six foot cross or be fined every day that it remained up. jonathan morris is here on that story and the role of faith in our economy. ♪. ♪

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♪. david: social gatherings look a lot different this christmas as holiday parties turn to you guessed it, zoom. for all the details woe turn to rich edson. you knew this would happen, rich. reporter: david, this is the time of year where restaurants and businesses make a significant share of their income. this year those large profitable holiday parties are largely off. a recent survey said more than half of companies are skipping hosting a holiday party this year. that is the highest rate since consulting firm challenger gray,

christmas held this survey in 2004. 40% of businesses canceled parties because of covid. 5% said they dropped parties to cut costs. like the rest of 2020, covid is battering the party business. >> we tried to come up with other ideas. things about doing some virtual things and catering out to offices or homes, to be very candid there is no replacing the lost business. >> the event industry is going through a very difficult time right now and we are not only rebuilding after a pandemic but we are going to be rebuilding after an economic collapse. reporter: the national restaurant association says it surveyed full service restaurants. nearly two of three restaurants say they expect more furloughs and layoffs over the next three months. david? david: awful. rich, thank you very much. merry christmas to you, rich. reporter: you too. david: places of worship in los angeles county can resume services inside of their

buildings after the county reversed restrictions on such events. the supreme court has been pushing back on all these restrictions. let's bring in now fox news contributor jonathan morris. what a pleasure to see you, jonathan. merry christmas to you. >> merry christmas to you and to your wonderful wife, beautiful wife as well. david: that is very kind. thank you very much. i'm a grandfather. i am a grandfather since we saw. there is a lot of reason to be happy. there is reason to celebrate the supreme court and their pushback on these lockdowns on places of worship which i think were so needed. one thing, there is a reason why the first right that is guaranteed by the first amendment is freedom of religion. we have learned during this pandemic i think that we cannot live without faith, have we not? >> yeah. absolutely agree. i love the reasoning that the supreme court has given in most of these cases which is, listen, you can't, you can't make

religion something different than for example, a grocery store, a liquor store. you can't say, listen, more dangerous to be in a church which many of them are super high feelings and very easy to socially distance, you can't make that different and have special regulations for the church and you're allowing people to cram into these little grocery stores, for example, here in new york city and say you know what? that is safe but churches are not. the supreme court has been awesome on this. david: there has been, i think there has been no tragedy other than actual deaths themselves, thousands, hundreds of thousands who died in this country as a result of covid than the idea of people being in hospitals and unable to get the faith counseling that they need, the last rites from priests, et cetera. is there any way we can deal with that one? that is tough one to deal with, no? >> some nursing homes and

hospitals allowed chaplains to come in. i congratulate that. i don't think anybody, any politician in their right mind is going to fight that they allowed without asking. better to ask for forgiveness than permission sometimes. in this case i think we know that our love of the ones in nursing homes are the ones who suffered the most, suffered the most. david: absolutely. >> some of it based on terrible decisions by politicians like governor cuomo who base say said, this is all about science. i will go against science because i'm panicking there will not be enough hospital rooms. i will send the elderly who are already sick with covid back into a community that is the most susceptible to serious illness. disgusting. david: it is disgusting. i want to get a final thing in, a final subject in here because there are more than just questions and debate faith and role in society.

there have been actual attacks on faith. the most recent, it is still going on in north carolina, homeowners association asking a couple to remove the cross that you're seeing here. they placed it in their own front yard for christmas but they said, you get rid of that thing or you risk getting fined $100 a day. they had it up in easter. there is hostility of against faith that goes beyond any questions about the first amendment. >> first of all, join your homeowners association board and fight dumb regulations. i live here in new york city in an apartment. i can't put crazy huge things on my front door, right? because there are regulations. but there are so many politically correct norms, even on a very local basis we can change by saying this is not offensive to anyone. david: right. >> i'm so happy when i see a menorah which jewish people are celebrating their traditions in a very public way.

i love that. david: jonathan? >> yes? david: we have to leave it at that. i wish we could talk more but i do want to wish you a merry christmas, a happy new year. thank you for being here, jonathan. great to see you again. dreaming after white christmas, meteorologist adam klotz with the very latest. adam, who will be seeing snow this holiday? >> hey there, david. there will be snow across the country. anytime we talk about a big cold front, boy do i have one for you, there will be snow on the ground. this is the area we're paying attention to. on east coast, relatively warm. you hit the cold front. temperatures drop very quickly. looking at negative two degrees in minneapolis. very cold in chicago. right along the frond boundary we're paying attention to. problem everything in front of this will be warm. we're only seeing rain. back side of this system there are areas we're talk about winter watches ard warnings,

appalachians, ohio river val live. here is the future radar. you see it stay so warm particularly across the east coast this is a rainmaker. rain across the east coast. most of it anyway, mid-atlantic northeast and tonight, early tomorrow morning. there will be a couple spots you get the white christmas you are asking about. particularly back into the midwest. those are areas we still see some snow on the ground. still into the upper plains, back into the west. not widespread snow, david. still spots out there people can get outside to enjoy it. david: 61 degrees at 9:00 tonight on christmas eve. 61 degrees in new york city. no white christmas. >> no snow from that. david: adam, thank you very much. it is a theme we're following. officials touting rules for thee, not for me. coming up dan henninger wrote a piece bit in

"the wall street journal" he is sounding off on the hypocrisy in the holiday season. congressman burgess owens is part of the freedom squad. i want to know how he will deal with the progressives and whether or not a split in the democratic party means an opportunity for the republicans. we're all over that coming up. ♪.

david: just as millions of us work from home our cable bills could be going up. bret larson of "fox news headlines 24/7" is here. bret, what is this all about? >> david, yeah the cable companies are always trying to find ways to make more money off of their customers. it seems they have, in the form of something called a data cap t could result in a surprise bill in the coming months. take a look.

netflix streaming, a zoom meeting, remote learning, everything you're doing at home it is mostly being done online. it is all using up unknown amount of data you could end up paying extra for. >> it is all about money. at home whether you set up a wi-fi network or not it is all-you-can-eat. you don't think twice how much internet you're using or consuming because it is unlimited. that is about to change. reporter: comcast tells fox their 1.2 terabyte cap does not impact 95 percent of theirs customers. they offer other options for more money. how whom is 1.2 terabyte. how long it takes you to use up all that space depends what you're doing, like on the internet. to stream the popular netflix show the crown in 4-k use estimated 7 gigabytes an hour. over a fourth after terabyte.

add that to a zoom call, estimated 1 1/2 gigabytes an hour. eight hours a day, two kids every week for school, 192 gigabytes eaten up for the month. >> put that question, will i go over the cap. parents are working from home. kids are learning from home. that consumes more data. reporter: at&t, charter and verizon told us they do not impose data caps on most of their high-speed internet services. yeah. so if you think about it, david, it would be like if the phone company reached out you know what? we'll start charging for your phone service by the syllables that you're using on your phone calls, not the minutes or the connection time. these effects, this goes into effect next month. david: you knew they would be looking to make money off of these lockdowns somehow. bret, thank you very much. the pandemic may have hurt production of movies and sporting events but the videogame industry is thriving.

lauren, how much are game companies expected to bring in this year? lauren: idc says a record, $180 billion worldwide. that is more than the movie and sport industry put together. it is also a 20% bump from 2019. so you know what happened. the stay at home orders turned many regular americans into gamers and it has been a boon for nintendo but sony and microsoft, talking about that earlier in the show, they have the new consoles that they released in november. you can't find them. you can go to ebay you will be paying an arm and a leg. they're sold out virtually everywhere. david: thank god i never got hooked. i was close but never got hooked. lauren, financial services company, square, is reportedly looking to acquire title, a music streaming service owned by rap per jz ash. jack dorsey founder of square. what does the potential deal look like, ash?

ashley: bloomberg reported that square has discussed a potential deal with jay-z. we don't know what potential price, the type of deal would be struck. the rapper and music mogul bought title more than five years ago for $56 million. but title has struggled according to reports to keep pace with other streaming service including spotify and apple music. it's a very competitive field. it has not released the subscriber numbers since claiming 3 million customers back in 2016, some four years ago. so we don't really know what kind of numbers we're talking again about. it is very preliminary. these talks may not result in a transaction at all. you see square down 1% today in trading. david: by the way it looks like, i was looking at his numbers, his, how much wealth this man, jack dorsey has, looks like he

made $4 billion during the pandemic alone. so it's extraordinary. ash, thank you very much. >> >> next case the georgia senate runoffs are less than two weeks away. so will donald trump's potential veto of a covid relief and spending bill hurt republicans loeffler and perdue in georgia? let's take a live shot of honolulu, hawaii. they're just waking up. a very early christmas eve in hawaii. merry christmas to y'all in hawaii. more "varney" after this. ♪. 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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david: all the political action inside the beltway being watched closely in georgia as the senate candidates are less than two weeks away from that critical election day. fox news's jonathan serrie is in atlanta with the very latest. hi, jonathan. reporter: david, a lot going on here in georgia. georgia republican senators have yet to say whether they will vote to override president trump's veto of the defense spending bill, the annual funding is crucial to georgia military families but senators david perdue and kelly loeffler

allied themselves closely with president trump who remains hugely popular among republican voters in the state. the opponents are taking advantage of the dilemma. a georgia democratic party spokesperson says senator loeffler must choose will she buck president trump or block critical funding for georgia's servicemembers and military facilities? the president's demand lawmakers increase individual coronavirus stimulus checks to $2000 created a rare moment of agreement with democrats jon ossoff and rafael warnock who criticized the original 600-dollar checks passed by congress. they said it was too little too late. when asked she would consider revised bill with increased payments, here is what senator loeffler said. >> i will certainly look at supporting it if it repurposes wasteful spending toward that, yes. reporter: fair fight, the voting rights group funded by georgia

democrat stacey abrams is suing to block the conservative texas watchdog group "true the vote" from challenging the eligibility of more than 364,000 georgia voters. the federal lawsuit accuses the watchdog of voter suppression and intimidation but "true the vote" insists it is merely challenging the residency of these voters based on publicly available postal records and other document the. david? david: interesting stuff. jonathan, thank you very much. come? janelle king. good to see you. thanks for being here. we've already seen, janelle, president trump veto one bill a military spending bill because of section 230 and other issues. he is also taking aim at the covid relief bill and spending bill that are together that have a lot of bad stuff in them. we mentioned it before. aid to pakistan that is not helping us at all in our war against terror. if the president vetoes that spending bill, will that hurt the republican candidates in a couple of weeks?

>> so i don't think it will. the reason why i say that because republicans understand what is at stake and i believe even our moderates understand what is at stake. republicans already supported the military system. unlike loeffler's candidate, opponent, who has said you can't serve god and serve your country. we have stood with our military people and we will. unfortunately this is not about the military. this is about big tech. this is about making sure that the removal of section 230 is a part of this. there needs to be some type of amendment because the law allows any platform to utilize their services to share disinformation, censor people and just create chaos is not only a threat to our military system and to our military men and women, it's a threat to our constitutional rights and to our democracy as a whole. i think that is really, really important. there needs to be some type of balance when it comes to this bill. i think many people understand that. david: janelle, you mentioned rafael warnock and his views on

the military which are none too pleasing to folks who have family in the military. he took a hit recently with an old video, i think it was from march, of a domestic dispute. this came from a police video cam a bodycam. with his ex-wife. did that hurt his campaign at all? >> if it did it would be shocking. it should hurt his campaign. most importantly it should touch hearts of many woman out here who were told to believe women. we're told to protect women and put women first. black lives matter movement, the women proclaimed black magic and black women are on top of the food chain when it comes to any of these type of topics. "me too" movement, where are they? this is a really, really important issue and when you talk about domestic violence, you do talk about a split personality, right? one thing she says that the person we see is not who he really is. i think we should believe her. david: actually that statement really stood out i think for a

lot of people. janelle king, best of luck to you. thank you for being here. appreciate it. happy holidays. >> thank you. thank you for having me. david: thank you very much. still ahead dan henninger, burgess owens, dave portnoy. quite a lineup we have coming up for you. a special holiday message from the varney team and stuart that you won't want to miss. of course we have a check in on santa to find out exactly where he is on this christmas eve. stay with us. much more "varney" straight ahead. ♪. 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. ...

>> it's a stimulus bill let's make no mistake about that. it's a stimulus bill for egypt, for pakistan, for berma, for all of these other foreign countries, and we might as well be with a goal for ourselves. >> what the market wants is certainty and something where we can sharpen our pencils and make calculations. >> the santa claus valley technically the last five days of the current year, good vaccine stories, stimulus coming , i think that this is going to be really strong period for us. >> we've got to get that covid relief thing through because if nothing ends up getting done that's going to hurt those two georgia senate races.

>> the only reason that we have these vaccines is because of operation warp speed and we're going to be hearing more and more about these mutant strains. that's not something people should freak out about every time they hear operation warp speed is ultimately the thing that is going to get us back to normal life. >> ♪ ♪ david: it is 11 a.m. on the east coast on this christmas eve, we're so happy to have you here i'm david asman in for stuart varney today we got a big show coming up we already had a good two hours, we've got look at this lineup for the next hour, congressman elect burgess owens, wall street dan henninger , dave portnoy but first let's check the markets now, they are all up, again, the nasdac is doing the best of them all, but just by a tick now

they're all up about .15%, and now this. the pressure is on for congress to deliver a revised covid relief bill, president trump wants at least $2,000 checks for all americans, and look who we have here, a real tremendous duo, sean duffy, former congressman and rachel campos-duffy, proud parents of nine beautiful children, you know they're looking forward to christmas, but let's start in with a political question to both of you starting with you, sean. question of whether the president is so upset at all of the pork and lousy spending that's in this covid spending bill, whether he should veto that bill. is it that bad? >> he's absolutely right to be upset, david. you and i both know that president trump ran on putting america and americans first, and this is a bill that gives a lot of money to a lot of foreign countries. we have $100 million going for

cars for hiv/aids workers in foreign countries, we have gender programs or gender fluidity programs around the world, so i think the president is right to say listen let's cut back on the pork and let's drive up the dollars that go to americans in need. not the americans who could get a check on the golf course but the single mom waitress whose lost her job in new york city, who needs a $2,000 check. david: but rachel, the question is, i agree with sean 100% that there's stuff that really doesn't deserve to be there. it's an insult to american taxpayers, the fact that it's there at all; however, in less than two weeks there's a very important election in georgia and if the president is seen as putting colin the stocking rather than passing the spending bill, that could hurt the republican chances in that election, right? rachel: or it could help. i mean, frankly, i was encouraged. i thought this is why we elected

donald trump in the first place, to do common sense things, to say listen, i'm going to be veto this , i want $2,000, get rid of all of this crap. this is exactly why americans like a businessman at the head of their government, because this bill is the kind of stuff that washington does all the time, and we want something different and by the way it's not just an insult to the taxpayers. as sean mentioned we have a huge debt. this is on our children's credit card. why am i paying for gender programs in pakistan? why am i doing social engineering programs all over the world? why am i helping other people with stupid programs when we have americans that are hurting here and let's target this as sean mentioned to people who actually need it. there's absolutely no reason why rich retirees or anybody else whose managed and done well during this pandemic should get this money. it should go to people who actually need it and that's what americans want. david: it certainly should not, sean, go to the pakistanis who

are just about to release the murderer of danny pearl, the late wall street journal journalist who was beheaded by the man that the pakistanis are about to release from prison. >> and they held osama bin laden no doubt they knew where he was and didn't help us capture them so pakistan is no friend of ours. money is going to suda nfl as well and americans want us to focus on this country going through a lot of pain over the last eight months let's make sure we're okay first especially when we're borrowing the money and then if you want to help others fine but look at america first. david: but rachel, the president is going to make a personal plea to georgia voters the day before the election. how is he going to assure those voters that their votes will count while he's had so many complaints about the vote counting in the november election? rachel: listen, i think it's a tough call. i think it's going to be hard for him. there's a lot of people all over the country, you know,

potentially 70 million people, who have seen shenanigans going on in this election who are very concerned that somehow, we're normalizing this kind of election fraud that a lot of people are saying oh, it's no big deal. it is a big deal. this election troubled me, has troubled many and people in georgia, the citizens there, need to be demanding more of the people in charge, who are accountable for this election. >> you can't win by 1% or 2% of the vote. you all have to turn out and win by 4% to make sure they can't steal it on us is the message you have to give. david: but sean, is the president in a position to give the message while he's been spending so much time beating up on the governor and the secretary of state, both of them are republicans in georgia. >> well, that's not the smartest strategy, because we all believe in coalitions and government and you want the supporters of the governor and the attorney general to support the senate candidates and when you divide them by going after your own team members, it creates a real problem so i think that's a

strategic mistake on behalf of the president. i think he has to unify everybody and go let's go win this for america, when these two senate seats and make sure democrats don't have complete control of government and do all of the radical things they've talked about over the course of their campaign. david: are we going to see a makeup session the day before the election between the governor and the president? >> i think that's all in the president's hands and the governor is all too happy to makeup with the president. the president has to decide if he has christmas spirit. david: let's talk more about the christmas spirit this is christmas eve after all. what do you guys, with nine children, rachel, one of whom is very young, there they all are. what are your plans for the christmas? rachel: we won't be sleeping much, you know tax [laughter] but you know, we have christmas breakfast waiting for us upstairs, right now, when we're done with this interview, and we're going to have a day full of food and fun and we're going to mass and then tonight, we'll go to sleep and the kids will

wake up and hopefully if they were good, santa will show up. >> there's no late mass for us, david. we do a 2:30 mass, and then go have lollipop chops which are delicious. david: but rachel, the latins stay up all night on christmas eve and celebrate christmas morning. rachel: yeah, he goes to bed early. i barely sleep. i'm a night owl, you got me, you know me, david. david: well i married a latina as well, i've got the same situation. i'm going to be fading out at about 8:00 tonight. she's going to be going strong at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. rachel: [laughter] your wife and i are peas-in-a-pod. david: what a pleasure to have both of you together. it's really fun have a blessed wonderful christmas. we wish you the very best and i know that 2021 is going to be a much better year. who knew? i thought 2020 was going to be

great but i just have a feeling about the year coming up. it's going to be good. rachel: merry christmas and tell your wife i said felise navidad. david: sean god bless you thank you very much and best to your family. now let's bring in heather zumar aga. heather? first of all, merry christmas to you, heather. >> merry christmas. david: you say commerce should pass the covid relief bill as-is , right? >> right, well i think that a lot of americans wouldn't understand why not. they need the relief right now. you look at the timing of it. the day after tomorrow, the moratorium on evictions is lifted, about 20 million americans haven't paid their rent or are late on their mortgage payments, that's one in five households and also, the unemployment benefits for 12 million americans wear off, so the assistance couldn't be anymore urgent than it is now and as you know, this has been months in the making and regardless of the waste that's

in it or adding more money for direct payments, we don't have this money to begin with as you know it's all deficit spending. just get it passed its short-term relief and get the vaccine going and get people back to work. david: it goes so against what the president has said though. i mean, this is one thing we know about president trump. he is a man who follows through on what he says he's going to do in the last covid bill he said look i had to swallow hard to accept this , a lot of the crap that was in the bill, a lot of the pork that didn't do anybody any good, it had nothing to do with covid. i'm doing this time but i'm not going to do it again. he said that. you don't think he'll follow through? >> well with all due respect i think he understands that there is a sense of urgency and he has pointed out the wasteful spending, the gender studies and foreign aid as well as two new museums in d.c., but i also think that americans need this now more than ever, some of his constituents, of 74 million or so that voted for him and with the georgia election runoff coming, people need that now, if

you want to go back to the table you negotiate more later on, but a 5,000-plus page bill, the people of congress were given six hours to read it. david: i know. >> so i don't think anybody read the entire thing unless you're a speed reader, probably take you six months so i can't imagine. there's got to be a lot more waste in it. david: let us assume that it passes. let us assume that the president swallows hard again and signs the thing. will we have a santa claus rally in january in response? >> yeah, look, the santa claus rally is all about the last week of the year, and the first two days of next year and it hasn't really come to fruition on the past decade only a handful of times, but obviously, the markets are flat this week, up a little bit today on the shortened holiday day, but they're looking forward to stimulus. the stock market thinks that relief aid will be passed for americans. david: by the way the dow looking at the bottom right of your screen you can see the dow is up a little more than it was

before up 62 points, heather have a wonderful holiday season, thank you so much for being here , appreciate it. >> happy holidays, david. david: lauren you're looking at movers let's start with texas roadhouse. lauren: so they are, let's see up a little bit today but the news is very favorable. btig, they gave them a $92 price target so $12 from here because the pandemic has closed so many of the smaller independent restaurants that they say this gives texas road house the chain the ability to move in in a big way to some of the smaller markets, if you will. also want to show you the pandemic winners that continue to be up on christmas eve, chewy is up 1%, love people adopting pets, gives them something to do, need your pet food delivered, shopify, platform for so many merchants the stock tripled in value this year up another 2% today. docusign, and a really big gain

for cloud fare if we push the board over you can see this stock is up 5% and they helped with websites and actually, security is where it's at these days since everybody is doing everything digitally. david: absolutely and since the chinese haven't stopped trying to get into everything that we have. lauren thank you very much. bar stool sports if you know about dave portnoy you must have seen his rants against these lockdowns and everything else. well not only does he rant, but he puts his money where his mouth is. he stands up for small business. wait until you hear what he's been doing as the government is trying to shut small businesses down, he's trying to get as much money to them as possible. roll tape. >> i've been ranting and raving lately about the play to the small businesses, why don't you put your money where your mouth is? well i spent the last couple days doing exactly that. david: bar stool sports founder dave portnoy joining me live

coming right up but first the socialist squad is growing in washington d.c. but so is the conservative resistance, incoming congressman burgess owens, we love this man, he's coming next. >> ♪ ♪ (announcer) do you want to reduce stress?

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house democrats are struggling to handle their progressives. they know that the progressives cost them a lot of seats in the election, with their socialist rhetoric, their blm rhetoric about de funding the police. do you think you could actually pull some of those moderate democrats to your side on key issues? >> well first of all, david, thanks again for inviting me to come on. david: sure. >> i'll say this. our party is going to be pretty easy. we are just going to keep our word and the heavy lifting was done by the american people. we flipped 14 seats. they flipped 14 seats, 15 with new york soon, and that speaks volumes and what it says is that the american people have drifted toward the light, saying what they stand for and by the way we did not lose that one so for those who want to stay in power, they're going to have to come back to the middle and come back to dealing with those things that really mean most to american people, and that's our culture, so they

cannot continue to give this dark voice of socialism and think they are going to get away with it so the american people, thank you for putting together this remarkable team that's going to be fighting for the culture that we believe in, and just get ready. it's going to be a good couple years of contrast. david: and yet the squad, the leftist squad hasn't woke one bit. they talk about a woke generation. they're not woke at all to what's been happening in fact they've got a new member, jamal bowman, a representative from new york, he's joining you as a freshman as a rookie in congress. he says that capitalism is the equivalent of slavery. he said capitalism keeps the majority of americans unemployed or under employed and struggling just to survive. he is essentially saying that capitalism is far worse in generating poverty than socialism, which is, he has, he

is essentially spouting rhetoric it's nothing but that. >> and that's why they're going to lose in grand fashion in two years and that's why as long as the key right now is those in georgia, just hold the fort. hold that wall for us because the next two years will not only get a very strong turnout for the house but also get the senate back but most importantly, american people across-the-board, democrats, independents, we're waking up david. this is the biggest thing i can say. the democrats have the tiger by the tail as they used to say and they aren't going to like what they see because the american people are saying we don't like the loss of freedom. we don't like the fact our schools have been shutdown, our businesses are shutdown, we can't go to church doesn't matter what side of the aisle we're on so let them continue that rhetoric. it did not work for them this last go-around and it's going to be detrimental to them if they continue that and i can promise you because it's such a small margin they are going to begin to talk common sense and deal with the people in the center, the way most americans want to have. we're going to start winning the

battle in terms of what our culture looks like. david: burgess i just have one more question for you and it's specific getting into the details about georgia. the more than 2 million people have already voted in the elections there in terms of mail-in votes and early balloting. now the secretary of state is pushing to end the no-excuse absentee voting that is you can't just willy-nilly choose to absentee vote. you have to have a real excuse for it. a lot of people are saying it's too late for that. this is something that they should have been doing weeks ago if not months ago, what do you think? >> well it is. it should have been done earlier but here is the deal. i've been watching this in philadelphia for 23 years and it's no secret those guys cheat there. what they could not do, what they did in small cities and states, they cannot do nationally so we're having a conversation that moving forward , david, we're going to demand, and i don't care what side of the aisle we're on, we want things to be done fair. we don't like being cheated and so the legacy of president trump

no matter how this ends up is that we'll start looking at elections the way it should be. fair, with every legal vote counting, and all americans are standing for that so it's the conversation we need to have it's just fortunate it took this year and this mass process by the left to finally get us to where we can get it done with and do it right. david: burgess owens, a great man, i'm sure you're going to make a great congressman. thank you so much for being here , very merry christmas to you and your family, burgess. >> merry christmas, get ready for a great 2021. david: thank you very much, let's hope. all right, now, let's get to some breaking news from the uk, ash what's the latest on the brexit deal? ashley: well hopefully, david, this is it. a done deal. the uk agreeing a brexit trade deal with the eu just seven days before it's set to official ly leave the european trading block, british prime minister boris johnson calls the deal fantastic news for uk families and businesses, saying it takes back control of britain 's money, borders, laws,

trade, and yes, fishing rights. johnson says there is no further role for the european court of justice, and that the uk sovereignty has been returned. now, parliament still needs to okay the deal, which will go into effect on january 1. we've seen the british pound today jump to near 31 months higher above 136 at one point against the u.s. dollar just back a bit at 135, but maybe, just maybe, we can talk about something else other than brexit david? david: maybe, ash thanks very much. we have more news out of the uk. the uk is dealing with this new strain of the virus and we've just learned about another mutation that's now happening in south africa that may be related to this but lauren there is good news from moderna about all of this , right? lauren: yeah, and david, that south african variant was also found in the uk, also thought to be more contagious, but as you say, there is good news, and that's that moderna says the

vaccine that they have out, it's equally effective against several variants and they are going to continue testing to ensure its effectiveness against that uk strain, in particular, as well as several others, because we know with viruses, they're constantly changing through mutation, and we can, you know, the uk strain was now found in germany and the south african chain found in the uk. they're probably here too so we just need to keep testing and make sure that the vaccine is good. david: dr. siegel had it right. he said that the overwhelming chance these vaccines are just as effective for the new strains as they were for the others. lauren thank you very much. 84 million people will travel this holiday, despite all of the warnings to stay home. we've got a live report from chicago o'hare coming up, and we keep hearing politicians apologize for breaking their own lockdown rules, roll tape. >> i don't apologize to you, because i need to preach and

practice. >> i'm sorry i took that trip. it was a lapse in judgment and i want you to know that i apologize. david: well, wall street journal guy dan henninger has had it with these apologies. he says covid has killed the apology. dan joins me next. >> ♪ ♪

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100% obsessed with "the mandalorian." i watch a lot of sports. it has all my favorite shows. and right now, the gaming the whole family will love is also on us. it's like a gift on top of another gift. gifts keep coming at you. everywhere. this is 5g from america's most reliable network. david: the covid relief and spending bill is going to give pakistan $25 million. now this is happening on the same day that pakistan announces they could be releasing anytime the terrorist who murdered this man, he's a wall street, he was a wall street journal reporter, his name is daniel pearl, and he was brutally murdered after 9/11. come in dan henninger, another wall street journal guy. dan, certainly makes it harder to swallow this spending bill doesn't it? >> it does. it's quite appalling, and especially pakistan, you know, we know there's a lot of

corruption over there. it's not surprising that the guy who was convicted of killing danny pearl is being let out, now it's almost amazing he served 18 years. does highlight, david, maybe the questionability of withdraw ing so many troops from afghanistan. this was al qaeda 20 years ago. those people are still up and running, and we hate to see withdrawal of those troops incentivize al qaeda to get back in business. david: but this is probably the most infuriating part of the spending bill, but there are a lot of things in the spending bill that are infuriating and the president has been very vocal about it as i think he should be. the question is what will he do? he said the last time he was going to swallow some pork in order to get the last covid-19 bill through. he said he wasn't going to do it again. if he vetoes the spending bill at christmastime, right before an election in georgia, what happens? >> well, it probably does damage the republicans. i mean, up to this point, most

of the blame for the holdup on the covid bill has been on nancy pelosi. we all probably saw the other day on another cable network being pressed on why she held it up for so long and she basically became in coherent. her own caucus has been mad at her for holding it up. i think if trump goes through with this , the blame will sort of go over to the republicans exactly at the moment when, as you say in georgia, we do not want that to happen. the democrats get control of the senate, this spending bill will look like a day in the park they see no ceiling on the amount of federal spending. they're willing to go ahead with if they control the senate, david. david: and they see no end in their taxing of businesses and individuals which will probably kill the economy. all right another aspect of the swamp. part of it is this spending bill , but there's also these constant apologies by

politicians who violate their own dictates and are caught, of course they don't apologize until they are caught, but you wrote a whole column about it called "covid has killed the apology." what do you mean by that? >> well, you know, the apology serves a purpose in the lives of the nation and in our own lives. it sort of rights a wrong and resets a balance. that's why you issue apologies but these covid violations via politicians were coming so fast and furious, the governor of california, the french laundry followed the by the mayor of san francisco, the mayor of denver, the mayor of austin, who recorded his stay-at-home video from his vacation in mexico. they all then instantly issue these kind of paint-by-number apologies which debase the idea of an apology. they simply sort of go through the motions and it really is meaningless and i think people

become utterly cynical about this sort of thing and indeed the politicians themselves become cynical, david. now some of them don't even bother to apologize. nancy pelosi when she was caught getting her hair done said she was setup, muriel bowser went up to joe biden's victory party and just called it essential travel. it makes people hate the political class. david: of course the one apology we never heard is from governor cuomo about what happened with the nursing homes, the thousands of people who died as a result of his policies, directly as a result of his policies i don't think we'll ever hear an apology from that man on anything but that's another subject for another day. dan henninger have a wonderful holiday, a great christmas and happy new year. >> same to you, david. david: absolutely. well, now this. the tsa screening the most passengers in a single day since the start of the pandemic.

let's go to grady trimble at chicago o'hare, grady how busy is it now it looks like it calm ed down a little bit. reporter: yeah, david pretty quiet now there are more airline employees than travelers at the moment but what we see is a lot of people in the morning and then a lot of people in the afternoon so i expect an up-tick and you'll see a more full terminal as the day goes on as we get into the afternoon hours. you mentioned more than 1.1 million people going through tsa checkpoints across the country yesterday. the most since march 16. i want to show you the numbers over the last six days since last friday which is really when the holiday travel season for christmas kicked off. 6.3 million passengers went through tsa checkpoints. sounds like a big number given that public health officials are encouraging people to stay home, but it's way down compared to last year, down about 55%. triple a expects 3 million people to fly this holiday season and that is also way down the total number of people

traveling, 84.5 million, david, also down. a lot of them though traveling by car and again the vast majority of people though staying home. david: grady trimble thank you very much. so, you may know him for his animated pizza reviews. now bar stool founder dave portnoy is visiting pizza shops and restaurants for a brand new reason and it's going to make your day. you don't want to miss dave portnoy, he joins me live, coming up. >> ♪ when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore ♪ t-mobile is upgrading its network

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>> no. >> yes. >> [laughter] oh, my god is this really

seriously happening right now? >> well that's, that's exactly like what we're looking for. >> we want to help out. >> that's unbelievable. i'm really speechless right now. >> this is going to help so much. you don't know. thank you from the bottom of my heart. david: this is something that's really going to save lives. this the life's work being save by barstool sports founder and president dave portnoy, he's surprising small business owners now with a lot of much-needed help, and dave joins us now. can't thank you enough. i know a lot of people personal ly in new york i've lived here 40 years who put their whole life into their business and they just lost it within a couple months. you have raised more than $3 million and counting and you've only been doing this for about a week and a half are you surprised at how much response there's been? >> no, nothing surprises me.

i think it's an issue people care deeply about especially the barstool crowd as we call them generally show up. we're a fun-loving bunch, sometimes get a bad rap or whatever but when people need help we always step up and there's a lot and i've been shaking down all my rich friends on twitter trying to shame them into donating and things like that but it's catching momentum and the stories, the videos you just showed, how can you ignore that? it's putting a face to everything that's going on in this country with small business , so i think it's just there has to be a voice and there's other people clearly doing it but these videos and our platform have just shed a light on it so no i'm not surprised i'm encouraged and i'm happy about it but i hope that it's just the beginning. we really want to raise tens of millions of dollars because there's not enough to go around. david: now it's not just about money, is it, dave, because once the businesses who do survive,

and tragically some just won't, but the ones who do are going to need incentives and need government to get not just with money, but to get rid of some of the tax policies that restrict them, to get rid of some of the regulations that hold them back. are you going to, to work on that as well, i know it's tough working with these politicians particularly when they're giving money to pakistan instead of our own businesses. >> yeah, listen, i don't think i'd be very good at that. we're very good or i'm very good at knowing what we can do, and getting money to businesses right now that need it as far as getting into policy, i wouldn't know the first thing about that. if i can do anything to help these guys survive and flourish i'm all for , i don't think i'm that guy in the political realm. i'm just grassroots. i'm doing the fastest thing we can do which is get money, get it quickly into the hands of businesses and help them get through this pandemic. david: but one of the things you do know about is the in

effectiveness and the job killing nature of lockdowns. you've been very eloquent about it. i mean, i'm guilty of sending your righteous rants as i call them around to my friends, because you seem to peg these guys. not only are they against science, but they're killing american business, and they're killing the spirit. i mean this is the land of the free and the home of the brave. these lockdowns are just the opposite of that. >> well i know this. i don't get into the science, i don't get into any of that but i know this. if you're not allowed to have customers, and the government is also not giving you money to bail you out, a small business, you're dead in the water. you want to call that science, you want to call that math i don't know what you want to call it but if you're not allowed to open your doors and you still have to pay your taxes, you still have to pay your employees but you can't make money, you're dead. that's what we're trying to help with and that's 1 plus 1 equals

2. david: and talk about the people who are helping. who are they? you talk about some of your rich friends. i mean, are these hedge fund guys or are they -- >> no, no. we haven't had much, we'll take a guy like dana white who owned ufc. he was more than happy. now, we have like hey dana do you want to get involved? he couldn't get involved fast enough cut 100k check without blinking, and bitcoin billionaires unsolicited 200 grand. ryan whitney works with me, kevin haze, hockey players, companies we work with, sliced pizza, they donated 50k without asking, and they donated 100k without asking so if i know you and you have money you're going to get a tweet from me shaming you into donating and a lot of people are donating. i should add marcus lemonas who challenged me donated 500 grand and i put in 500 myself so there's people everywhere. david: all right well it's great work and it comes at a

perfect time at christmas and frankly, it's is better to give than to receive. i know, we're in the receiving business. you can't survive if you don't receive, but you must feel good with the work you're doing and particularly with the responses you're getting from people who really need it and we thank you. dave portnoy, you're doing good work. god bless you. thanks for being here. >> thank you. david: well it's still christmas eve here in new york city but santa claus has been hard at work for hours already, delivering gifts to kids all over the world. we are tracking his flight path through norad, next. >> and you're also going to hear a special holiday message from the varney team including stu himself. you don't want to miss it. >> ♪ because santa claus is coming to town ♪ just like your fingertips,

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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.

and if we win, we get to tell you and doug. how liberty mutual customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need. isn't that what you just did? service! ♪ stand back, i'm gonna show ya ♪ ♪ how doug and limu roll, ya ♪ ♪ you know you got to live it ♪ ♪ if you wanna wi... [ music stops ] time out! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ >> happy holidays to you and your family. >> merry christmas, everybody. >> everyone just wanted to wish you a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season. merry christmas. >> hey, everyone, just wanted to wish you all happy holidays, and a very happy new year. >> hey, everybody i'm ben, one

of the producers here at varney and co, just wanted to wish you a happy hanukkah, merry christmas, and happy and healthy new year. >> merry christmas. >> from your varney producers. >> merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> happy holidays. >> from everyone here, we wish you a very merry christmas and a very happy and healthy new year. >> wow, 2020, um, [laughter] its been a challenging year and i am grateful for this support and the kindness, wishing everyone peace, health and happiness, and strength, i should add that, this holiday season. merry christmas, happy hanukkah, happy holidays to you all. >> standing in front of my very pink christmas tree and i just wanted to wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year. >> danielle from varney & company with my fabulous christmas tree wishing you all a merry christmas and a happy new year. >>stuart: i used to be a choir

boy, ♪ ♪ . when a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel. it was better 50 years ago. david: stuart it has never been better than that. i had no idea that was coming, folks, from stuart that's an extraordinary extraordinary voice. you got chops, stuart i got to tell you that was a especially christmas message from the entire varney team, and now this. you're taking a live look, if we can see there he is, at norad santa tracker this is the special norad santa tracker. it keeps tabs on the big guy, as he delivered gifts all around the world, come in norad deputy commander, vice admiral michael dumont. admiral great to have you here

and as you know this is a business network and we usually have adults but a lot of kids are at home because of the pandemic and of course because it's christmas eve. they want to know, admiral, and their parents want to know too, whetherrer is santa right now? >> hi, david. thanks. appreciate joining you today. santa was just in nepal. he had been covering asia pacific region earlier today, and right now, he's in india dropping off gifts to children in india. david: now, i should mention, i mentioned that we have kids watching the show, admiral but we have one that has actually sent in a question, by video let me play the tape and then get your reaction. roll tape. >> hi, my name is ann elise and i was wondering while you're tracking santa, can you see rudolph's nose? david: fair question, admiral what's the answer?

>> yes, we do. in fact, we use the same technologies on this special day that we use throughout the year to protect north america, so we use radar systems to detect santa's takeoff from the north pole and we pick-up rudolph's nose. that alerts our satellites and that's where we start with satellite tracking all the way around the world. david: that's extraordinary. now how soon before he comes over our air space? >> so this evening, shortly after sunset, santa will approach the northern part of canada, work his way through canada and then into the united states. historically, what happens, is that children are in bed 8:30- 9:00 at night. santa starts making his deliveries, so it's critically- important that children are in bed around 8:30 or 9:00 tonight. david: well, i have to be honest with you, admiral. there were times when i was a kid, i was in bed, but i was only pretending to be asleep and

i swear, i could hear the bells, so even if you are in bed, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're asleep. i mean you could be in bed and you should do what your parents tell you to by going to bed, but even in bed, you can still hear santa's bells, right? quickly. >> [bells ringing] >> that's right, and santa knows whose awake and whose asleep. david: well that's true that's true. if you stay awake, you may not get those presents, because santa always knows. admiral thank you so much for the work you do, not only protecting our nation but keeping track on santa, both are very important jobs and we thank you for doing it. appreciate it, admiral. >> thank you, david. merry christmas, happy new year to yourself, your staff, and all your viewers. david: god bless you, thank you , admiral same to you and your family. and a quick check of the big board. we have lost some of the gains that we had earlier, but it is in the green, just barely so. we'll have another check on the markets right after this. stay with us.

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♪. david: i wanted to wish ashley and lauren a special merry christmas to both of you. thank you so much for all of your work that you do year-round. god bless you all. by the way in our house christmas came early.

that is five weeks earlier. that is little elliot. we're so blessed to have him our grandson in our house. he is a wonderful bundle of joy. connell mcshane. merry christmas. connell: great to see you grand pa david. that is great. "coast to coast" the next couple hours. watching markets, we close early on christmas eve. we'll have that. the dow is moving between gains and losses. in terms of what is driving things now we'll talk about a few different things. one, stimulus, the limbo it is in on capitol hill. it is a stalemate the president is looking for $2000 rather than 600-dollar checks. ran into a little bit of a hurdle in washington when it came to that proposal. it is christmass eve. people are