♪ please christmas don't be

late. ashley: chipmunks who took a hit of helium, apparently. the chipmunks song, alvin and the chipmunks, you love them, you know them. a chilly morning in new york city. it is the eve before christmas eve on monday, december 23rd. thanks for joining us. it is 11:00 a.m. on the east coast. let's check the markets, why don't we. the dow still down now 300 points, down about three quarters of a percent. the s&p down a quarter of a percent. the nasdaq trying to find its way back to the positive, up about a tenth of a percent. take a look at the big tech names, see how they're doing. they were all higher earlier. now it's a bit of a mixed bag. nvidia, amazon and alphabet moving higher. apple down a quarter of a percent, microsoft down a little over half a percent. the 10 year treasury yield has been on the rise. it does hurt equity, it's up 4.2

basis points at 4.56% on the 10 year treasury so that is not helping equities. all right now this. in his first rally style speech since winning, president-elect donald trump announced his administration will be fully operational by january the 20th. >> we just have a few days to way. we're going to be fully operational i would say by about 2:00 on the 20th. we had the greatest economy in the history of our country, maybe in the history of any country, frankly, and we had -- we did things that nobody could have done and we're going to do them even better now. ashley: i don't know, it feels like he's already fully operational. steve forbes joins me this morning. steve, what would you want to see as donald trump's first order of business? where should he begin? >> he's going to begin not on one thing but looks like right now about 20 things starting with energy and other things. and that rally was very

interesting. one of the things he did in there, which i think is going to be brilliant, is he talked about running an advertising campaign against the uses of fentanyl and he put it in a very graphic way. he said we want rotten skin, rotten teeth, rotten looks and a rotten life, take fentanyl. so i think hitting the demand for these deadly drugs as well as trying to stop the supply is a good thing. hasn't been done since the reagan administration where you had nancy reagan saying just don't do it, just say no. ashley: that's very true. we all remember that. i want to move on to this though, steve and take a look at this headline from the washington post. it reads the fed begins to weigh how trump policies could fuel inflation. is this just fear mongering or do you see some red flags on the horizon with regard to inflation and trump's policies? >> i think it's fear mongering out of ignorance.

after 3,000 years of governments coping with inflation, the federal reserve still doesn't get it. inflation, monetary inflation is reducing the value of your currency, it's not about prosperity causing inflation so this whole idea they have that if you want to reduce inflation you have to depress the economy is preposterous and that's the danger. that's why i think the trump administration's going to have a big fight with the fed in the next year or so, not over independence, the stuff that the media's going to love, but the fact that the federal reserve models are basically wrong. they never mention a stable value for the dollar. so we have to fear the fed's going to try to gum up the economy if you start to see the economy really take off and less dependent on government spending which is the goal of donald trump, less spending, more real prosperity. ashley: which brings me to the next question, steve. the debt ceiling. there are those including donald trump who would like to see it suspended or done away with saying it doesn't serve any purpose. what say you? >> well, the reality is, it's within of those things where you

outlaw something or say we're going to control the ceiling by passing a law, the fact of the matter is, after every debt crisis spending happens to just go up again because to get the debt ceiling raised you have to give goodies to various members of congress and the senate. so yes, get rid of the thing and get to the true things which trump is doing with doge and others and that is the spending, excessive regulations and i hope the first they do out of the box in addition to good executive orders or rescinding bad executive orders is proposing a big fat tax cut. the sooner they get that done so the economy starts to really move in a positive way, the better off for the administration and more importantly better off for the american people and the world. one of the things we saw with ronald reagan with the success of his policies is other countries quickly imitated him especially on massive tax cuts. 50 countries within a few years of reagan's tax cuts imitated those tax rate cuts so it would be good for the world so i'm hopeful they do those right things and i think donald trump

intends to do so. ashley: all right. feeling very optimistic now based on that, steve forbes. thank so much, sir, merry christmas to you and your families. >> merry christmas to you and yours, thank you. ashley: now this. donald trump has named steven miran to leave the council of economic add viesers, trump shared the announcement on truth social. he wrote steve will work with the rest of the economic team to deliver a great economic boom that lifts up all americans. he served in the treasury department do you knows trump'st term. let's get back to the markets. a little mixed this morning on a week that is traditionally light in trading with the dow off as we see 250 points, s&p down slightly, nasdaq up slightly but guess what, all is well. mike murphy is here for the entire hour, a glutton for bunnishment.

you say now is a good time to sell the losers. like what? >> good morning, ashley. so if you have anything in your portfolio that has not worked this year, because not everything goes up, it's been a great year for the market but you know if you are able to take anything out of the portfolio that hasn't performed well, you sell it and it's tax harvesting so you can take that loss now and then you can look in 31 days to purchase that same company again or immediately purchase an etf or something that would get you the same exposure. if you have something that's down, you can make a move to try to make it profitable longer term. ashley: very good. got to talk to you about bitcoin, just had the worst week since the election. what do you say to your clients or people who want to invest in crypto right now? >> you know, people get very emotional when it comes to crypto orbit coin really bitcy

specifically. anyone who is making money with it, great. i'm happy for them. i don't own it currently. i never have owned it. i think if there's an opportunity there, if you see it as a long-term investment by all means put your money in there. i think there's other places where i can understand the investment better but for anyone else who is in there, be aware that it's very volatile but best of luck in it. ashley: good luck to you. very quickly, santa rally, mike, are we going to see one here? >> i think we will. historically, the back half of december is a very strong time for the market so a little volatility today but i expect we close higher over the course of the next two weeks than where we are right now. ashley: i feel good. thank you, mike and thanks again for being here for the whole hour. going to move on to this. the starbucks workers union expanding strikes across nine states now. matt fin joins me from burbank, california. matt, what exactly are these workers asking for?

>> reporter: well, they are asking for higher wages and company paid healthcare and this morning if you head to your local starbucks you might find it's closed like this one here in burbank, california. you can see some of the employees who are picketing outside of this location. there is a sign on the front door that says this store is closed, on the inside we can see boxes of merchandise stacking up. we have been talking to these employees who are striking and also customers showing up to this location who realize they're note going to getting their caffeine fix at this store today. the strike has now spread all across the country. the starbucks union represents more than 10,000 employees, the baristas say they're striking because of unpredictable schedules and unfair pay. they're demanding $20 an hour and company paid healthcare. starbucks says the baristas demand are unsustainable. the coffee makers say they

consider themselves partners in the multi billion dollar starbucks company and they deserve better. >> our hope is that they will come back to the bargaining table and they will give us liveable wages so that we can afford to pay our rent, we can afford our groceries, we can afford to live. >> reporter: and these starbucks strikeers tell me that they are striking in the midst of the holiday season because it is considered the busiest time for starbucks and they want starbucks and its cost noser beo be paying attention to. they're organizing a strike today at 1:00 p.m. today, a larger gathering than what you're seeing and you can expect to see starbucks picketers across the country today. back to you. ashley: timing is everything. matt fin in burbank, my old stomping ground. thank you. appreciate it. big news out of the retail world. the container store filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. they're blaming years of

declining sales but say stores will remain open. this comes days after party city filed for bankruptcy. all those stores will be closed by february. mike murphy, come back into this. do you think more retailers are in trouble? >> i don't, ashley. i think this is a story of two retailers that kind of lost the customer and either weren't managed properly or just amazon or online shopping really replaced the customers going into their stores so i think although these two stores are unfortunate and people will lose money and people will lose jobs, there are other retailers out there that are kil killing it because i think the american consumer is spending money still. i think the big story here is the have and the have-notes and for an investment you want to be in the haves, the ones continuing to take market share and increase profitability. ashley: very good. thank you very much. coming up, incoming border czar tom homan says he's angry about

the migrant crisis and he's ready to get back to work. >> from january 20th, the greatest president in my lifetime is going to walk in the oval office and take this country back. a secure border saves lives. it isn't rocket science. ashley: it isn't rocket science. but now the biden administration could be throwing a wrench into trump's border plans. we'll explain that. plus, donald trump threatening to take back control of the panama canal. he says america is being ripped off. we'll have that story next. ♪ panama. ♪ panama. ♪ panama. ♪ panama. ♪ (♪) (♪)

what took you so long? i'm sorry, there was a long line at the thai place. you get the sauce i like? of course! you're the man! i wish. the future isn't scary. not investing in it is. nasdaq-100 innovators. one etf. before investing, carefully read and consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco.com i need to get me a new phone. you need to trade-in that busted up phone and get you a brand new iphone 16 pro at t-mobile. it's on them. families save 20% every month. what a deal! new and existing customers, trade in your busted old phone, and we'll give you a new iphone 16 pro with apple intelligence on us. to go further, you need to be ready for what's down the road. as energy demand continues to rise, we're harnessing breakthrough innovations

to increase production in the u.s. gulf of mexico. our latest deepwater development, anchor, produces previously inaccessible oil and natural gas, allowing us to deliver the energy we all need today so everyone can follow their own road. that's energy in progress.

it's our son, he is always up in our business. it's the verizon 5g home internet i got us. oh... he used to be a competitive gamer but with the higher lag, he can't keep up with his squad. so now we're his “squad”. what are kevin's plans for the fall? he's going to college. out of state, yeah. -yeah in the fall. change of plans, i've decided to stay local. oh excellent! oh that's great! why would i ever leave this? -aw! we will do anything to get him gaming again. you and kevin need to fix this internet situation. heard my name! i swear to god, kevin! -we told you to wait in the car. everyone in my old squad has xfinity. less lag, better gaming! i'm gonna need to charge you for three people.

ashley: donald trump is threatening to retake control of the panama canal. he says he doesn't want it falling into the wrong hands. jacqui heinrich is following this story today. jack. kiwhat is trump's beef.>> press the us is being ripped off. it does remain one of the world's most critical pieces of infrastructure and trump suggested that the u.s. should get preferential treatment in the fees that are charged for passage or else. >> you've got to treat us fairly and they haven't treated us fairly. if the principles both moral and legal of this magnanimous screes gesture of giving are not followed we will demand that the panama canal be returned to the united states of america in

full, quickly and without question. >> reporter: panama's president said tariffs are not set on a whim and rejected trump's threat and saying as president i want to express that every square meter of the panama canal and adjacent area belong to panama and will continue, the sovereignty of the country is not negotiable. trump replied we'll see about that. in another post about selecting ken harry to serve as ambassador to denmark which owns greenland trump suggested the u.s. would seek control of the territory, writing for purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world, the united states of america feels the ownership and control of greenland is an absolute necessity. ken will do a wonderful job in representing the interests of the united states. greenland's prime minister responded, grinl greenland is h, we are not for sale and will

never be for sale. trump announced putin is seeking a meeting with him after trump's team told nato allies he would keep armingin so long as european countries bump nato funding to 5% of their gdp. ashley. ashley: so many issues, so little time. jackie, thank you very much. great stuff. new york congressman mike lawler joins me now. congressman, i want to talk if we can about the stop gap funding bill. it keeps the lights on in washington through mid-march, we know that. buys time. but what didn't make the cut from the original plan? >> well, there are a few issues including a healthcare funding fix for 9/11 first responders that i and my fellow new york republican colleagues fought to get in there to support our first responders. pvm reform which is critical. it's something that frankly has broad bipartisan support and has

been worked on extensively throughout this congress so that's going to be a key priority when we get back in january to try and get that across the finish line. but look, at the end of the day, we had a responsibility to keep the government open and funded. we have to get our appropriations work done in a more orderly and timely fashion. senate democrats under chuck schumer passed exactly zero appropriations bills this year and so when we get back, we're going to have a lot of work to do, in addition to reconciliation, dealing with the border, dealing with extending key provisions of the tax cuts and jobs act, as well as obviously the international crisis that joe biden and kamala harris are leaving on donald trump's doorstep. so there's a lot of work to do in january and shutting the government down in these final two weeks would have been a

disaster heading into the new administration. ashley: got it. i want to get back to the war in ukraine as well if we can. donald trump says putin wants to meet, quote, as soon as possible. trump of course wants to end the war but do you think he can get that done? >> look, i think it's very telling that during donald trump's presidency, vladimir putin did not make any incursions into ukraine. he did so during the presidencies of barack obama and joe biden. in large part because of their weakness and ineptitude. i think president trump obviously had a very strong foreign policy that frankly put world leaders on edge for good reason. he was willing to strike when necessary but also was not going to stand idly by as the united states was taken advantage of, especially when it came to shared defenses in europe, for

instance. so i think there's a lot of work ahead. i think when president trump comes back in, our adversaries including putin, the ayatollah and president xi are on notice. i think they're going to want to come to the negotiating table and ultimately that may prove to be a good thing. but let's be clear. vladimir putin is no friend of ours. his invasion of ukraine has long and lasting consequences including in other parts of eastern europe. and the unholy alliance between china, russia and iran has sought to destabilize the u.s. and the free world and so i know president trump will be very firm with him if and when they do speak and meet but there needs to be obviously consequence here and ultimately this conflict needs to come to an end. it's in nobody's interest for this to continue at all. ashley: very true. we'll have to leave it right

there but congressman mike lawler, thank you, sir, for joining us on this christmas eve eve. we do appreciate it. all right. >> thank you, merry christmas. ashley: merry christmas to you too. china says that the u.s. is, quote, playing with fire after its latest round of military aid for taiwan. papresident biden approved $571 million defense package on saturday, meant to help taiwan defend itself from attacks. china though calls the u.s. aid, quote, a dangerous move. staying on china, commerce secretary gina raimondo saying trying to restrict beijing's chip manufacturing is a fool's aaerrand. she says the only way to win is to stay ahead of china and just simply out-innovate them. there you have i mike murphy e you know, look, is raimondo

right, the only way to beat china is to stay ahead of them because don't they steal everything from us anyway. >> i think one important thing for people to remember is people say you want to play nice. well, china's not playing nice towards us so to realize first of all we are in a very consequential battle with china. so i like the idea that trump takes of taking the fight to them, rather than sit back, let them send balloons over the united states or steal our intellectual property and then have no consequences for it. so we're not trying to start a world war. but we do have to stand up for ourselves and be tough with china. ashley: are you still -- with regard to the chip makers, we always think of nvidia. what's your outlook on that stock? >> so i love nvidia on this recent pullback. it came all the way down to below 130. the demand is still huge. the profits are still huge and

growing. so whether it goes back above 15 $150 a share this week or next week or next month, it's going back up there so i think there's a lot of upside for nvidia from here. ashley: very good. mike, thank you very much. let's take a quick check of the markets. the dow has been down since the opening bell and has gained a little momentum on the down but we were down 300 points at one point. still down half a percent on the dow. the s&p essentially flat and the nasdaq up a third of a percent. can we turn it around and get this santa rally going? well, you have to stick with fox business through the day to see if that happens. let's take a look at if we can the god bless america etf. its ticker symbol y'all which i absolutely love. it's a southern thing. it was made for, quote, god fearing, flag waving conservatives. it's down just half a percent. the etf up 33% this year, beating the s&p which is up

about 26%. god bless america, up 33% for the year. not too shabby. do you buy into these political etfs, 36% up for the year, it's pretty good. >> it is pretty good. i buy into what's behind the etf. i support what they're doing. i don't invest in the etf. when it comes to my money or other people's money that i'm investing for, i want to have the basket of across the board the 500 largest companies so i support it but i'm not supporting it with my own money, unfortunately. ashley: very good. all right. thank you, mike. coming up, donald trump has an unlikely cheerleader on capitol hill. a democrat. >> if you're rooting against the president, you're rooting against the nation. so country first. i've been warning people like you've got to chill out, you know.

like the constant freak-out, it's not helpful. ashley: yeah, don't freak out. sounds like a lot of common sense to me. we'll have jason rants' take on that. by the way, nearly every federal inmate on death row just had their life spared by president biden. he commuted the sentences of 37 people, so now only three inmates still face the death penalty. we're going to tell you why they weren't included coming up.

(man) what if all i do for my type 2 diabetes isn't enough? or what if... (vo) once-weekly mounjaro could help? mounjaro helps your body regulate blood sugar and mounjaro can help decrease how much food you eat. 3 out of 4 people reached an a1c of less than 7%. plus people taking mounjaro lost up to 25 pounds. don't take mounjaro if you're allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or vision changes.

serious side effects may include inflamed pancreas and gallbladder problems. taking mounjaro with sulfonylurea or insulin may raise your low blood sugar risk. tell your doctor if you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. (man) i can do diabetes differently with mounjaro. (vo) ask your doctor about once-weekly mounjaro.

how easy is it to play the lottery with jackpocket? step one grab your phone. step two download jackpocket and start ordering tickets for your favorite state lottery game. step three let the good times roll. jackpocket is so easy to use from home or on the go, and there have been over $500m in total prizes won. so now the easiest way to enjoy the lottery is right in your pocket. jackpocket. download america's number one lottery app today. is a bitcoin etf the same as owning bitcoin directly? while bitcoin etfs might offer a familiar face, they lack the true ownership and flexibility of directly investing in bitcoin. with itrustcapital you can buy and sell real bitcoin 24/ 7 with the tax advantages of an ira.

real bitcoin means no middleman, no restricted stock market hours. choose the path of direct bitcoin investment with itrustcapital because access equals opportunity. invest in bitcoin at itrustcapital.com today. ♪ here comes santa claus, here comes santa claus. ♪ right down santa claus lane. ♪ he doesn't care if you're rich or poor. ashley: that's not the chipmunks song, otherwise alvin has suddenly been on steroids or something. you're taking a look at the all american christmas tree. isn't it beautiful? right here, fox headquarters in new york city. come on down and of course see for yourself. snap a photo in front of the tree and e-mail it to us. you may see yourself on the show tomorrow. that would be wonderful. get down there, take a selfie. let's get a check on the

markets. mike murphy is with me for the whole hour. he's got stock picks for us. mike, let's begin with uber. >> let's do it. so we've talked about this one extensively. but i think this recent pullback, i had to bring it up for people. so it was up at $87 a share, pulled back on competition news after posting extremely strong earnings so down here, 60, $61. i feel like there's not too many easy ones but this one i think for people watching sets up kind of easy for me going into next year. ashley: all right. what about zoom? it was massively popular during covid but do you still like this one or not? >> i do. i think zoom reminds me of uber a few years ago. there have a big user base and they're figuring out different ways to monetize the user base and i think they're really onto something. i think they have a lot of different levers they're going to be able to pull to increase their earnings per share for 2025. so yes, it pulled back a lot

from covid and there's a long way to go to the upside to get back to those levels but i think here under 100, you can watch this trade into the low 1 helps next year. ashley: -- 100s next you're. ashley: we got it on tape. we can play it back when it does. mike, thank you very much. now this, president biden just commuted the sentences of almost all of the federal inmates on death row. alexandria huff is at the white house this morning. do we know why he did this? >> reporter: well, the president said he was guided by his conscience but consider that of the names on the list it includes a man who killed a 12-year-old girl after making that girl watch as he killed her mother, a man that killed and raped two young girls, 8 and 9 years old. the president says he grieves with the victims families on the list but he added in good conscience i cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that i halted. nicole malliotakis responded,

instead of death row the monsters will rot in jail at taxpayers expense. exempt from the downgraded sentences, that would be boston marathon bomber, dzhokhar tsarnaev, dylann roof and robert bowers. the names included over 11500, , prompting several democrats to sound off. >> i have no doubt there were some righteous pardons in the group. but there were a number that make no sense at all. >> reporter: kids for cash judge was convicted of receiving kickbacks. one mother whose son died by suicide tells fox news she was shock and hurt that the sentence was commuted by the president. >> joe biden came here and campaigned multiple, multiple times that he was joe scranton,

he was one of us. he knew of our struggles and he cared about our community and our kids and our families. and that is just absolutely not true. he is not one of us. >> reporter: now, in the latest round of death penalty pardons, we heard back from team trump on this. they called the decision by president biden abhospitaller abhorrent,saying the rule of lan return to the white house. ashley: alexandria, thank you very much. now this. the biden administration is reportedly considering expanding protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants whose legal status is set to expire early next year. former acting i.c.e. director ronald vitiello joins me now. thanks for being here. how could this complicate donald trump's transportation plans? >> well, it's going to hinder what the american public perceives as legal status versus

nonlegal status. the biden administration has presided over the worst border surge in the history of the country, probably the history of the world and so them now going out and giving work permits or temporary protective status or pardons in the case of these commuted sentences, it's just more lawlessness. it's more of a lack of transparency and trying to confuse and put barriers in the way of a new administration that's going to come in and secure the border, start the deportation process, and bring order and rule of law back to our immigration system. ashley: ron, i want you to listen to this. dhs secretary alejandro mayorkas says that executive border action could have happened sooner but politics got in the way. listen to this. >> there was tremendous pressure to maintain the workings of tie title 42 which we did. we asked for police departmental

funding that was desperately needed for the administration of the broken immigration system work much better. we were denied. we had known that irresponsible politics would have killed what was clearly a meritorious effort and meritorious result, perhaps we would have taken executive action more rapidly. ashley: ron, what do you make of that? >> i see that as disassembling. he presided over the worst border crisis we've ever seen. he's trying to blame everybody but the administration, the politics, we have a bill going forward. it's trying to obfuscate the fact that they made terrible decisions about what policies are elaborated at our southwest border, what happens in the interior of the country. he talks about title 42 like it was an idea they came up with. it's in instituted by the trump administration. the first thing the administration tried to do was end it.

some courts kept them in a box to continue to use title 42 to expel people to protect us from the pandemic when we knew little about transmission and the kinds of people that were coming in and so this is just them papering over all of the mistakes that they purposefully made. this isn't something that they had a choice to make and they made the wrong choice. they purposefully destroyed the control levels that they inherited on the southwest border. they continued to do that until five months out from the election and tried to paper over what was actually going on. ashley: ron vitiello, telling it as it is. ron, thank you so much for joining us. always appreciate it. coming up, one texas lawmaker hasn't voted on the house floor since july. apparently, she's checked into an assisted living facility. we'll have that report from washington. neanear 5.6 million people passd through tsa checkpoints this weekend. we have the christmas travel forecast, next.

♪

(music playing) learning is hard work. hard work requires character. learning begins in faith, it must move upward toward the highest thing, unseen at the beginning. god and freedom is essential to learning, it's principles must be studied and defended. learning, character, faith, and freedom, these are the inseparable purposes of hillsdale college. need a last minute gift idea? get the weathertech gift card! for laser measured floorliners,

cargo liner, pet feeding system or the new garage wall protector. get your gift card instantly at wt.com

♪ ashley: well, santa seems to be traveling very well there. of course, it is a big holiday travel day today, christmas eve eve and so far around 1500 flights have been delayed, 35 flights have been canceled. let's get to brooke taylor who is at the dallas/fort worth international airport. how's travel going in texas? >> reporter: well, ashley, here in texas at dallas/fort worth things have been pretty quiet surprisingly. earlier this morning when we got here we saw long lines, up to 30 minute wait time. right now, people are getting

through security in less than 10 minutes so great news for travelers here. still, the people that i spoke to getting here about two to three hours before their flights because as they say, it is better to play it safe than sorry. if you notice your flights were a little more expensive this year than previous years, you are not alone. triple a booking data shows that flights are 4% more expensive this holiday season compared to last year. triple a projecting 119 million people are going to travel this holiday, 7.8 million people flying and the majority, 107 million hitting the roads. and while no major storms, rain and winter weather could slow down, those in the northeast already saw some snow over the weekend, causing a trickle down effect when it comes to those delays. but you know, it is the holiday. travelers were in the holiday spirit, trying to stay positive. >> long, long.

where we were staying, over 2 hours from the airport and then we got here and found out our trip was delayed so now we won't get back until after 1:00 probably. >> coming from fort lauderdale was not as bad as i anticipated but there was a lot going on and it didn't help that we were running a little behind because of delays but we're here. it was a great vacation. >> reporter: and we just checked flight aware right before we were going on air so at last check there are 35 cancellations here in the u.s. and 1600 delays. i could tell you that number keeps going up since we've been checking it throughout the morning so something to keep in mind. when it comes to the airports having the worst issues, that will be boston, jfk, chicago and atlanta. ashley. ashley: the usual suspects. brooke, thank you very much. brooke taylor in dallas. you know what, the trouble doesn't end at the airports. amtrak was forced to suspend service in the busy northeast corridor on sunday.

trains couldn't run between new york and philadelphia because of an issue with downed power lines. we're told service has resumed but amtrak says to still expect significant delays today. oh, joy. all right. let's take a look at the stocks. on the dow we get a sense of where the markets are, a lot more red than green. the dow off though 137 points. nvidia and united health at the top, walmart, coca-cola, at the bottom. the dow has been down as much as 300 points, now it's down just a third of a percent. now this. donald trump is shutting down rumors about elon musk's power in washington. >> you know, they're on a new kick, all the different hoaxes and the new one is president trump has ceded the presidency to elon musk. no, no. that's not happening. ashley: that's not happening.

jason merantz calls that a lacey strategy to try to tear apart the two men and says it will never work. the house ethics committee just released the gaetz ethics report. chad pergram will take us through it, next. ♪ to go further, you need to be ready for what's down the road. as energy demand continues to rise, we're harnessing breakthrough innovations to increase production in the u.s. gulf of mexico. our latest deepwater development, anchor, produces previously inaccessible oil and natural gas, allowing us to deliver the energy we all need today so everyone can follow their own road. that's energy in progress.

[children playing] hey guys, come on! time to eat. time to eat. i don't want this. i want corndogs! [children chanting] corndogs! corndogs! corndogs! ♪ i need another corndog! dexcom g7 sends your glucose numbers to your phone and watch, so you can always see where you're heading without fingersticks. dexcom g7 is the most accurate cgm, so you can manage your diabetes with confidence. ♪

ashley: the house ethics committee has released the gaetz ethics report. chad pergram on capitol hill this morning. all right, chad, what does it say. >> reporter: ashley, good morning. the ethics committee claims there is, quote, substantial evidence that ga gaetz violated house rules, was involved in prostitution, statutory rape and the use of illicit drugs. it says that gate gaetz had sexh multiple women at a florida party in 2017 and paid them as prostitutes and had sex with then a 17-year-old girl. the report says the victim received $400 from gaetz. the committee says the woman did not tell gaetz her age. she was about to become a senior in high school. gaetz is suing to block the release of the report. his effort for an injunction says information in the report is, quote, false.

it adds that gaetz's reputation would be immediate, severe and irreversible. some gaetz allies criticized the ethics committee. >> it's a report. it is not a court of law. i think it's vindictive in nature. i just don't see what the point in all this is. a couple of old timers are going to cackle about it. this has not been proven. this is just a report. >> reporter: house speaker mike johnson o opposed releasing the report since gaetz is no longer a member. they rejected two democratic motions to force the release of the report. >> the fact that we have to ask whether the republicans will support making public allegations of sexual impropriety by somebody who is trying to be the highest law enforcement officer in the country speaks volumes of the republican party. >> reporter: gaetz for wrong doing earlier this year, gaetz

admits to what he calls embarrassing behavior, he says he partied and womanized too much and later reformed himself. gates was president-elect trump's first pick for attorney general. ashley. ashley: thank you very much. appreciate that. now this, 81-year-old congresswoman kaye granger hasn't cast a vote on the house floor since july, apparently she's moved into an assisted living facility. jason rants joins me now. jason, does this not beg the question that we need some kind of cognitive test for older politicians? >> look, i don't know if you need a test or can actually impose a test. i think the voters probably would say you should be. i think at the end of this, it's about communication. it's about making sure that your constituents actually know your health and unfort notely you can't real -- unfortunately you can't really force folks in congress to be honest about this kind of thing and then you hear a story like this that object obviouslycomes with consequence.

we should have a better conversation nationally about age limitations, at least from e folks from running but we can say we're not going to support someone over the age of whatever that age may be. although at the same time, i also understand not everyone is the same. someone who is 84 years old might be more cognitively able than someone who is 65 years old so i do think that we have to just make better decisions as voters and i hope people actually take that up. ashley: yeah. all right. next one for you, jason. democrat senator john fetterman sticking up for donald trump. he says, quote, if you're rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation. i think that's very true. you think some democrats actually want to cause a rift between trump and his team like elon musk but you think they're under-estimating him, right? >> absolutely. i think it is obvious what it is

they're doing by using the line president elon musk or the shadow president. you've seen it scripted over and over and over again for the last several days, this is intentional. this is to get under donald trump's skin, to create that rift, to say elon musk is getting credit for something that the president is doing and i think that if it wasn't so transparent, perhaps it would maybe work but at the end, whenever single democrat on television and in social media for the most part are using the exact same language, it is insultingly transparent. everyone knows exactly what it is they're doing. so i can't see donald trump falling for this and kudos to the rare democrat like john fetterman who is basically saying no, i'm growing go along with this. i'll be con critical when i neeo be but i'm not just going to oppose everyone simply because it's donald trump who is making the choice and i'm not going to choose not to meet them for the exact same reason. so i've been so pleasantly surprised by senator fetterman,

i have to say. ashley: yeah, he's been very broad-minded. jason, thank you so much, sir merrychristmas to you. now it's time for the monday trivia question. what was the most watched christmas movie on tv and streaming in 2023? was it the grinch? home alone, the santa claus or elf? the answer when we return. since 2019, john deere has invested more than $2 billion in our american factories. today, we're nearly 30,000 u.s. employees strong. in more than 60 u.s. based facilities, across 16 states, we couldn't be more proud to play our part in supporting americans who work the land and build a better tomorrow. ♪

nothing runs like a deere™.

>> before the break we asked what was the most watched christmas movie last year, bring it home. >> last year i'm going to go with number one, the grinch. ashley: i'm going with elf i think it was huge in 2023. instead of telling you let's show you. >> tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m., santa is coming to town. >> santa. oh my god. santa is here. i know him. ashley: it is elf. david asman it is yours. take it away. >> i didn't mind being preempted by elf. you could've gone