maria: welcome back. good wednesday morning everybody. thanks so much for joining us this morning many i'm maria i'm maria bartiromo. it is wednesday, january 8, 7:02 on the east coast. let's kick it off with the hot topic of the hour. incoming officials planning to offer extended tax deductions at mar-a-lago meetings in exchange for salt republicans to fall in line with trump's agenda including a tax bill likely coming later this year. lawmakers have told me this is the debate right now, the salt lawmakers want an assurance that they will get the salt deduction cap lifted in exchange for their vote for the border money. they want $100 billion in border money. politico writes this, one proposal being discussed would allow married couples to deduct $20,000 of state and local taxes from federal income taxes. under current law married couples can deduct $10,000.

republican lawmakers in high tax states have been holding out for a potential move like this. with a razor thin house majority they have influence. lindsey graham told me this weekend he's against the salt deduction, though. watch. >> as we negotiate tax cuts, they're tax cutting people and i'm one of them that won't vote for border until they get all their taxes. i'm not a big fan of the salt deduction. i live in south carolina where we have low taxes. why should people in south carolina subsidize california and new york tax policy? you'll have a hard time with me on that. maria: but house speaker mike johnson also told me that that's the whole reason to do one big reconciliation bill to get everybody on board. watch this. >> there's a fear that without getting all of the elements in one place, you could lose some membersing right? there are some members that have priorities in taxes, they want the salt deduction back in place, those new york lawmakers. do you lose those lawmakers on

the border if the tax issues are not in that one bill. >> that's the benefit of doing it all together because no one's going to love every element of a large package like that. but there will be enough elements in there to pull everyone along. they'll be able to jut at this t getting all of their preferences because there will be important pieces to that one piece of legislation. i think keeping it together is how we'll get it done. maria: the tax discussions are part of a broad set of meetings the president-elect is holding in florida this weekend. we'll see what comes out of this. i think one of the big issues is the $100 billion they need for the border. they need to get everybody on board. they do not have the luxury of affording one or two or three or four people to say no, i'm not on board. they can only lose one vote. that's what they did, they lost one, what was it, thomas massey did not vote for mike johnson.

mike johnson still won in the first round. that said, they can't afford to lose anymore votes. they've got to get salt lawmakers on board with the $1,100,0100 billion for the bor. >> we have been funding illegal immigration. we'll see more resources whether it's healthcare, education, more money going back to our communities but the number one thing that lawmakers need to realize today is they promised us economic security and that means a massive tax overhaul. i think looking at the salt deduction and increasing to it a certain amount, maybe that's on the table. but at the end of the day, president trump is going to negotiate this. he wants one big deal. maria: there's two things, salt and the debt ceiling. a lot of republicans say i can't raise the debt ceiling, can't vote for that. that's where you have these couple days in mar-a-lago this weekend hopefully we'll get

answers there. with just 12 days until his return to the white house, president trump is also laying out his america first foreign policy vision. fox news' nate foye is live in west palm beach with the latest there. nate, good morning to you. >> reporter: hey, maria. good morning. so as you were talking about the president-elect going to washington, d.c. and he'll meet with senate republicans to discuss advancing his domestic priorities through congress, yesterday at mar-a-lago he had an international focus specifically with acquiring, he wants to acquire greenland and the panama canal and he would not rule out using american military force to make that happen. >> we need greenland for national security purposes. look, panama canal is vital to our country. it's being operated by china. china. and we gave the panama canal to panama. we didn't give it to china and they've abused it. they've abused that gift. >> reporter: so as trump floats the idea of buying greenland,

donald trump junior and several trump representatives landed there for a personal visit yesterday. meanwhile at mar-a-lago trump elaborated on a possible merger with our neighbors to the north, he said he would use economic force but not military force to bring the united states and canada together. >> you get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like and it would also be much better for national security. we're spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it. we're spending hundred of billions a year to take care of canada. we lose in trade deficits. >> reporter: canadian prime minister justin trudeau posted on x just a day after announcing his resignation, quote, there isn't a snow ball's chance in hell that canada would become part of the united states. trump threatened tariffs on canada and mexico if they don't make trained immigration concessions. he also said if mexico doesn't tighten up its border he'll

rename the gulf of mexico the gulf of america. he looked toward the middle east and the war between israel and hamas, he said if hamas doesn't release the hostages by the time he takes office, quote, all hell will break loose in the middle east. maria. maria: and they're apparently negotiating a deal right now for the hostages, nate. thank you. nate foye this morning in west palm beach. your reaction. >> this is art of the deal through and through, part of the genius of trump is you really don't know what he's going to do. if anything, he's getting leverage, he counting his chips before he has to cash them in. that might be nato, it might be with tariffs with china. maria: he's got everybody on the run, he's got everybody thinking, he's talking about greenland, the panama canal. >> america is flexing again. maria: it's amazing to me the last four years was void of all of this. >> completely. well, i think in the case of mre than the bite. maria: it's true.

i agree with you. >> but then again, he could bite and that's the leverage that gets. maria: and that's the question. they don't know where he's going. he's unpredictable to lots of world leaders. >> i think the goal's always the same, it's going to be global security. he's expanded that, he's looking at greenland strategically. there's rare minerals that could help us. we could have that area for us to extr strategically protectins against china. panama spent billions in infrastructure. they're setting up shop in panama and we're paying the tariffs. maria: let's take a short break. we've got the word on wall street right after this. stay with us. check in time is 3:00

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thank you for joining the conversation. adam, i want to kick things off with you with the sel selloff we been seeing and the change in sentiment in the market ever since the federal reserve's hawkish cut in december, markets have been rocky and yesterday we saw another selloff with the nasdaq down 375 and dow down 178. big tech brought things lower, nvidia was down 6% at the close, the single largest day decline after four months after failing to meet investors high expectations over the new chip lineup at the ces show, looking to spread a.i. through robotics, automated factories, self driving vehicles. the stock is up this morning. you say any dip in nvidia is a buyable situation. >> absolutely. you better believe it. there were three declines for nvidia last year of anywhere from 20 to 30%. each time people said it's all over, boy, look at this, down 30%. no, that was a gift to buy more.

each of those dips the stock recovered and went to new highs. i think we'll continue to see that. nvidia is an amazing company. it's at the center, enabling the a.i. revolution. compute, that concept, compute is the single biggest theme in my portfolio. i have more semiconductor stocks than any other group and nvidia is my largest position and it's very important for people to understand that it's no longer an expensive company. there was a time it was very expensive. because earnings have been growing 75 to 100% all of a sudden now have a stock trading at somewhere between 30 and 35 times earnings with that same growth so it's arguably cheap. you could buy the s&p 500 and you can pay 23 times earnings for 10% growth or you can buy nvidia call it 33 times earnings and get 75% growth. arguably it's cheap. maria: the stock it as 140 and change, how much higher can it go? >> let's say they earn $4 this

year. you say okay, it's trading 35 times earnings. what if they earn $5 next year and $6 the year after that and you keep running these numbers and you go out there and that's my job to try to run the numbers and see what i think they can earnnd you get into 200s very easily. they've got a new pc coming out that will be an a.i. pc, it will cost $3,000. isn't that amazing. maria: a.i. is real. a.i. is real, block chain is real and this a.i. startup anthropic is in advanced talks to raise $2 billion. venture capitalists invested 97 billion last year in funding for a.i. startups. president-elect trump unveiled $20 billion in foreign investment to build new data centers in the united states and ryan, i want to get your take on this data centers. i spoke with zimmerman advertising chairman and founder back in june and he too was really bullish on these data

centers. watch this. >> when you look at a.i. today and you look at cloud storage and data centers and you also look at crypto mining and data centers it's pulling a lot of our energy. we should have these data centers that are popping up which is 2600 as you said in america have to have corresponding land to data centers to put out solar panels to actually run and solar fields to run those data centers. they can't produce enough kill low watt hours to power them so it doesn't put a strain on the actual grid which will put a strain on the consumer. maria: so this is an investment that is needed in data centers. i mean, what trump announced yesterday and this 20 billion toward data centers, this is exactly what this economy needs because of the pressure from a.i. >> well, you're right. the appetite is insatiable.

i'm a bit of a skeptic. you say maybe is our appetite getting too large for the demand. we talked about anthropic it's worth triple what it was a year ago. open a.i. is worth 150 billion, the same as pfizer and it makes no money. maria: do you use chatgpt? >> i do. what do i pay for it? very little. maria: that's a good point. >> the only one that's really making money is nvidia because they're providing -- maria: how do you use chatgpt. >> i do a lot of copy for marketing. maria: you cut and paste, put it in there, make it sound better. >> make it sound like click bait. things like that. it is amazing. for a podcast, if i write a description for it, i put it in there. it's useful technology. i argue, every company will be an a.i. company, like back when the tech bubble burst, every

company became a tech company. at this point they're overvalued. that was a massive bubble. i wish i put my money elsewhere. i think that's the biggest mistake investors make. maria: would you sell nvidia today. that's the question, right? >> if i want to win the war not the battle, i think short-term it will go higher. i think longer term it's probably overvalued here. >> what if earnings go from $4.20 this year to $5.50 next year, that's impressive growth. i think it might be more than that. >> what if earnings fall off a cliff and demand starts to wane. maria: why would earnings fall off a cliff. >> we're not seeing technology using this. maria: this is what makes the market, guys. you're a buyer, yours a seller. ryan, great to see you. adam, you're with us all morning. we're grateful for that quick break and we want to get you to the wildfires in california. an awful story. los angeles county is under mass

evacuations this morning, three wildfires with tearing through the area, leaving thousands of acres scorched. all three fires are zero percent contained at this hour. a week ago there was nothing. dire warnings have been issued with officials saying there's an immediate threat to life in several towns. dozens of homes and businesses are believed to have already been destroyed by the flames. the wildfires expected to be the costliest in u.s. history. cheryl casone now looking at the economic impact of these fires, cheryl. >> right, maria. this is something that our own william longiness reported in the last hour and this will be likely the costliest wildfire we've ever seen and history gives us a sense of what this will mean. billions of dollars. take a look at some of the data from the insurance institute of america. the camp fire, 2018, that was a $10 billion loss. the tubs fire, 2017, 8.7 billion. the woolsey fire, 2.8 billion.

there's a new regulation that california introduced last week. it's not into effect yet but it's about homeowners' insurance and renters insurance. a lot of these big companies, state farm and all state don't want to do coverage they in california anymore because of high fire prone areas. make it was $1,200 for an annual cost for a homeowner, now it's $5,000. a lot of the insurance companies don't want to offer wildfire coverage to homeowners, that's one thing. there's a political story that's under. dagenway right now.richard g grx that we're not talking about the fact that karen bass, the mayor of la, she's a goner right now, these in africa right now. that's one issue. and the lack of leadership from governor newsom. people are wondering where he is to lead through this. the fires are zero percent

contained. where are the elected leaders in california, that's a big online conversation that's happening right now. maria: i feel there's been more wildfires in the last year than nonormal. >> in the last five years. maria: in the last year, fires where you wouldn't expect them. remember the fires in brooklyn. >> here in the new york area. oh, yeah, yeah, that was very recent, because of the dry conditions. we were seeing prospect park, you had -- there was concern -- we didn't have fireworks on new year's eve in central park because they're worried about the dry conditions in central park, absolutely. maria: thank you for covering the cost of all of this as well, cheryl. thank you for that. we are going to continue following obviously the wildfires and the impact. stay with us. we'll be right back. [sofi mnemonic]

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[rock and roll music playing] xfinity. made for gaming. rewards members, get early access to an ea sports fc25 kit. visit xfinity.com/rewards. maria: welcome back. president-elect trump meeting with republican senators today in d.c. to discuss the reconciliation strategy, trump still keeps his options open on the best way to implement his agenda. watch this. >> well, i like one big, beautiful bill. i always have, i always will. if two is more certain, it does go quicker. you can do the immigration quicker.

i don't want to see a default. i never talked about spending more money necessarily. all i want to see is no default. but debt ceiling, it's not about raising a lot of money. it's really about extending it. i want to see an extension. maria: politico is reporting that incoming trump administration officials are planning to offer expanded state and local tax deductions at mar-a-lago meetings this weekend in exchange for those salt republicans to fall in line with trump's policy agenda including a sweeping tax bill likely coming later this year and raising the debt ceiling as well as raising 1 $100 billion for border security is what i have been reporting. joining us now, florida congresswoman maria salazar. good to see you. thank you for being here. do you have a preference on how to execute president trump's agenda? >> well, i have no preference. i just know and we, the gop conference know that we have to deliver to the american people and that's what we have been doing. i assure you, during the

weekend, the whole of these two days or these three days of this week, i assure you mike johnson is concentrating on making sure everyone is taken care of meaning every member says what their preferences are so when we put the package together, whether it's one or two, it goes through the house immediately and gets to the senate. we understand -- maria: are you prepared to support raising the debt ceiling. >> yes. we've got to pay our debts like the president said. i'm not ready to spend more. those are two different things. we've got to pay our debts and but at the same time we need to have a process to reduce spending which is at the end what's going to make sure that we are not -- that we don't increase $33 trillion that we owe right now so we know very well that that's -- we've got to pay our debts. maria: let me get your take on the business yesterday. the house passed the laken riley act. this bill requires federal

immigration authorities to detain illegal immigrants who were arrested for theft and allows states to sue the department of homeland security for crimes committed by illegal migrants, the bill named after laken riley, who was murdered by an illegal while jogging. john fetterman co-sponsored the senate version of his bill. he called out fellow democrats for not backing it. >> it shouldn't be controversial to have a secure border and the numbers are out of control and you could be pro-immigration, but we need a secure border and here we are now. when you have hundreds of thousands of people in our nation here illegally with criminal records and some actively engaging in crime, well, then they all have to go and i'm not sure why that would be controversial to anybody. maria: congresswoman, what's your reaction to 159 democrat colleagues of yours voting against the laken riley bill? >> well, because they are just not living in reality and i never thought that i was going

to agree with senator fetterman. of course, if you're an illegal and you're a criminal you have to go. starting with tren de aragua and i agree that it should have never occurred that this nurse, she should have never died and why? because we have to understand that right now 8 million people came in because of the biden policies of opening up that border, 2 million got aways, probably this guy the one who killed laken is one of them. i'm sorry. he was paid, his humanitarian flight to atlanta by taxpayers' money. this has to end. i'm one of the representatives of the hispanics. we do not want illegals that commit crimes. we want illegals to help with the economy and that's another topic but right now this is a fantastic law that needs to be put in the books and implemented. maria: it's amazing you had muchback on it. i understand you met with

venezuela's opposition leader. many world leaders believe he won the election in venezuela. as you know, venezuela's president is planning to be sworn in this week. what did you discuss and what do you think happened? >> what you're reporting right now is a national security issue for this country. venezuela was our ally for decades. they owned the largest reserves of oil in the world. they are exporting the treen. tren de aragua. this is a national security issue that maduro has to go. there has to be a regime change and maduro knows it because there's a new sheriff in town that will be taking power a few days from now and trump will deal with maduro because the maduro regime signed a document called the barbados agreement that said if he lost the elections and he lost the elections in favor of that guy that you saw on television which is the president-elect so maduro

has to go. the tren de aragua has to be kicked back and they need to take those prisoners and on top of that, if we don't dough what i'm telling you, maria, 2 million venezuelans are going to be knocking on our door because they have said it, that if maduro stays they're coming to the united states. it's a national security issue. maria: so what did the opposition leader say to you yesterday? maduro's about to be sworn in. >> well, maria, the united states needs to speak up and that is why we are counting on president trump. trump was the first person four years ago who declared the other president-elect to be the legitimate president of venezuela. he was the one who imposed the harshest sanctions on venezuelan oil. right now, venezuela is earning $500 million a month from chevron. i understand that we need to take care of our companies but national security comes first. we cannot give oxygen to anyone

who is sending tren de aragua to the country and is creating the havoc that we have on the southern border. maria: i like the focus from president trump on national security. you know, this is -- this should have been a priority for the last four years. congresswoman, it's good to see you. thanks very much. we'll keep following your work, of course, maria salazar. stay with us. we'll be right back.

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know. the thing we have, we have oil and gas more than anybody in the world. we're going to have more of it too. but they took away 625 million acres of offshore drilling. nobody else does that. i'm going to have it revoked on day one. maria: the white house writing in a statement this, pop has presidentbiden has determined ts and harms that would result from drilling in these areas outweigh the fossil fuel potential. they call the decision a, quote, strategic error, not driven by science or voter mandate but political motives. let's talk about it with did national ocean industry president. he advances businesses and professionals interests of the members and the industry. you don't agree with what the white house said yesterday that

the impact of drilling in those areas has -- is higher, is a bigger impact than the resource that it would give us for oil and gas? >> absolutely not. we've been in the gulf of mexico for 75 plus years and we've proven we can co-exist and balance the need for environmental protection with energy security as well as with our national security. president trump on day one hopefully will come in and reverse this. we have risen as a country to a position of energy leadership throughout the world. we are energy strong. we are energy dominant but that's been eroded over the past four years with the restrictive policies of the biden administration particularly for the offshore region where the offshore energy production we have provides a substantial amount of our energy that flows to the u.s. american consumer. maria: now, there were reports yesterday that the way that president biden has done this would mean that this ban would make it difficult for president trump to reverse it because he's

going to need congressional approval. so what do you think? how difficult will it be for the incoming trump administration to reverse this? president trump says he's going to reverse it on day one. >> well, there's some questions around that but i believe president trump can move in with his own executive order on day one and reverse it. the courts will then have to weigh in to determine whether or not that's valid. we had one district court that said you can't do it. it's not consistent clue testify and final. we -- conclusive and final. we think the statute allows him to do i when you look at what president biden has done, we believe that has legal questions around it, he's basically nullifying the statute. it requires expeditious development of energy resources at the continental shelf. how can you do that when the resources are taken off the table. we're looking at this from a legal perspective. i think there could be lawsuits against what biden has done. i hope president trump reverses it and works with congress because congress can be a back stop to make sure we have ample

future opportunities for investment in u.s. projects in the future. maria: you would think that just from executive orders over rule making that president trump could make a dent in this. any administration can either help an industry thrive or kill the industry all together with rules and regulations and that's pretty much what the biden administration was doing over the last four years, socking so many rules and regulations around the energy sector as part of its so-called climate change agenda. would that be enough, though, for president trump to tap into the capacity of america? >> yeah, we're producing almost record levels in the gulf of mexico today, nearly 2 million barrels. it would be much higher i believe if we had better policies over the last four years. we employ over 400,000 workers in high paying jobs but we've been there for a long time. we need to look at new areas. i think with president trump working with a republican congress, there's going to be ways to reconciliation to direct leasing in new areas so we can

maintain and secure our energy leadership. this decision by president biden just projects weakness on a global scale. it also projects uncertainty in u.s. laws and regulatory regime around u.s. energy projects. we want to draw investment here because these are multibillion dollar projects that need to find a home and if there's uncertainty here in the u.s., it could flow to other parts of the world and we could do it here the best when it comes to environmental protection and offshore production in the u.s. is the lowest carbon intensity per barrel out of any country and any area you can produce it. let's do it here. maria: what are the broader implications of this drilling ban on national security, on the economy? you're right, the oil markets, this is a global market. >> the global market demands 100 million barrels a day. that's been rising. there's projections it's going to decrease. we have not seen that we need to make sure we are in a position here in the u.s. to be able to rely on our own country to secure those energy supplies and the offshore is an area where we

have the best companies deploying the best technologies. we're in thousands of feet of water drilling thousands of feet below the subsea in order to tap into those resources and bring that energy to market for the american consumer so we have reliable, affordable supplies of energy. however, we need to make sure we're looking at and discovering resources in all of our outer coucontinental shelf areas. these are long-term decisions with long-term lead times the companies have to make. if they can't do it here, it goes to other parts of the world. maria: trump considering an executive order to protect gas stoves and heaters. the biden administration tried to phase out the gas heaters and stoves as part of their climate change aje agenda. here's what trump said about it yesterday. watch. >> he wants all gas heaters out of your homes and apartments, he wants them to be replaced by essentially electric heaters. i don't know what it is with electric. this guy loves electric.

gas heater is much less expensive, the heat is much better. he wants them all removed quickly. these people are crazy. maria: eric, your reaction? >> these decisions are inflationary and president trump wants to address inflation more than anything, he wants to bring costs down. if you're limiting commodities like oil and gas, restricting supplies, it's inflation anily. inflationary.my grandmother live was 99, great italian cook, she loved her gas stove. she had a great life using a gas stove to make sure we were fed well. i think if you look at what the chefs have said, they want gas stoves. it's the best way to cook. let's make sure americans have choice and can pick what they want. gas is good. let's rock with gas. maria: i love that. how beautiful to mention your mother, 99 years young.

god bless her. we were talking about that. my mother's 92 and your grandmother is 94. >> yes. maria: i love it. >> it's amazing. >> my grand mother is 99 in i love it. eric, thank you. great conversation. we appreciate your time. thank you, sir. quick break and then who will go down as the worst president in american history. >> biden. maria: what do you? think? we'll get the latest poll on what americans are thinking. los angeles county is under mass evacuation this morning. wildfires are tearing through the areas. we've got anup an update on thee active wildfires after the break. you're watching "mornings with maria." stay with us. ♪ [sofi mnemonic] can a personal loan unlock your ambitions? oh yeah. take a swing at your kitchen reno... we meant that literally.

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lock in let's go. rated e for everyone. [rock and roll music playing] xfinity. made for gaming. rewards members, get early access to an ea sports fc25 kit. visit xfinity.com/rewards. maria: welcome back. a major bank ordering employees to return to the offers. cheryl casone with details now. >> that's right, maria. jp morgan chase may be ending hybrid work for good, considering a mandate that would order all employees back to the office five days aweek. it would affect back office staff who currently only work in office three days a week. jamie dimon is citing productivity and team dynamics.

companies continue to re-evaluate these remote work policies. president-elect trump's legal troubles continuing this week, a new york judge has denied his request to delay sentencing in the hush money case that remains scheduled for january 10, 10 days before inauguration. president-elect trump has maintained his innocence in the case, repeatedly railed against it as an example of law fare promoted by the democrats as a federal judge in florida temporarily blocked the release of jack smith's final report on trump citing legal challenges. the biden administration is pushing a last minute move to slash nicotine levels in cigarettes, effectively bans most of the products we have on the market right now. experts are saying these proposals would open the door to more smuggling by mexican cartels and chinese counterfeiters as well as russian crime groups. critics say the plan was rushed without input from law enforcement or health experts and could end up increasing

smoking, not reducing it. the fda says the rule is under review right now. president biden is likely going to be remembered as the second worst president in american history. that's according to a new gallup poll. the only president with a worse overall rating than biden is richard nixon. 37% of americans regard biden as a below average president. 17% say he will be remembered as a poor leader. 6% responded that history will remember biden as an outstanding president. this morning, maria, katherine writes this in the washington post. the legacy of bidenomics, maybe not much at all. one of the things, 7.5 billion was allocated for ev charging stations, 44 stations have been built nationwide. 44. and then he had a $42 billion expansion of broadband internet

service. not one household in the country has been connected and afghanistan and all the other issues of this president. maria: i was going to say, there's a lot more than that in terms of what's behind this gauge of who is the worst president. what do you think? >> i'm not surprised. every single household told us that when they voted for president trump. there was a massive rejection of not only biden but democrats across the board because of immigration and the economy. they never listened to the average american and they lost because of that. maria: they had their idea controllings about t -- ideologs about the climate change agenda. they went overboard on covid spending. they didn't focus on what was most important and that was immigration and inflation. >> i think mr. biden will go down as one of the worst presidents ever. a failed one term president due to inflation here at home and weakness abroad. >> i know we talk about this a lot but i don't think it is talked about enough in the

media. i think he also holds the title of the greatest political coverup in american history, his cognitive decline is unacceptable not just for joe biden but his family. jill biden is culpable in this as well. maria: don't forget the corruption. >> the corruption, his family. maria: money accepted from adversaries according to the oversight committee. >> i will say this. i think that's a big point she makes at the end about the coverup, and the mainstream media. i think americans should not forget that they covered for him. what we saw with our own eyes, the american people, and the mainstream media in this country covered it up and didn't report it for a good three years. maria: we knew it here. los angeles county is under a mass evacuation order this morning, there are three wildfires tearing through the pacific palisades leaving thousands of acres scorchedded. dozens of homes have been destroyed all right. fox weather meteorologist britta merwin with an update. >> what started yesterday continued throughout the

overnight. we have massive wildfires burning out-of-control fueled by the strongest winds that southern california has faced in over 10 years. we had a peak wind gust of 99 miles per hour, up in the mountains, north of downtown los angeles. those are hurricane force winds. we've b been bringing live imags all morning long, the pacific coast highway is on fire and it continues to burn to the north and to the south. we are at the peak strength of the powerful winds that are fueling the wildfires. we are expecting the winds to drop this afternoon but unfortunately even with that drop we will still have wind gusts between 20 and 40 miles per hour, there is zero containment on all three of these major wildfires that we are tracking in southern california. the relative humidity critical part of this, that will be dropping as we go into the afternoon. we'll see improvements with the winds, the relative humidity will not improve. again, this is probably one of the scariest situations they've seen in southern california in

well over 10 years. the powerful storm that is creating the strong winds is turning into a winter storm so as we go to thursday and friday we'll be talking about snow and ice for folks that live across the south. dallas this morning going under a winter storm warning. maria. maria: britta, thanks very much. britta merwin. we'll keep watching all of that. stay with us. we'll be right back with a big hour. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. at harbor freight, we do business differently from the other guys. we design and test our own tools

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maria: good wednesday morning thank you so much for joining us this morning. i am maria bartiromo, wednesday, january 8, it is -- 7:59 on the east coast president-elect trump refusing to rule out taking greenland or panama canal by military force during sweeping press conference yesterday. >> we need them for economic security, the panama canal was built for our military. i am not going to commit out the that now, it might be that you will have to do something. look. the panama canal is vital to our country. it is being operated by china. china. >> we need greenland nor national security i have been told that a long time people don't even know if denmark has legal right to but if they do