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evacuation orders. firefighters are beginning to contain the palisades fire. it has scorched nearly 20,000 acres so far. now the containment there is at 6% for the palisades fire. at least 20 looters have been arrested for taking advantage of these fire victims who had to abandon their homes. residents are facing an insurance crisis. fox business' ashley webster is live from palm coast florida this morning with more on that angle. ashley. >> reporter: yeah, good morning to you, maria. look, we know that now thousands of structures have been destroyed by those wildfires leaving homeowners with nothing but charred remains. >> there's going to be an extraordinary number of claims being filed and probably from my experience, eight years as insurance commissioner, the insurance companies are going to do everything they can to low

ball and deny claims. >> reporter: well, insurance in california has been refusing to write new policies and areas considered high risk for wildfires, according to the california department of insurance, between 2020 and 2022, insurance companies declined to renew 2.8 million homeowner policies in the state. that includes 531,000 in fire ravaged la county. consumer advocates claim that has nothing to do with losing money. >> the fact of the matter is, insurance companies in california, home insurers specifically are more profitable than the nationwide average. >> reporter: but the insurance industry says inflation and the high cost of reinsurance leads to higher prices that cannot be capped. >> there are never caps on insurance costs due to the fluctuating economy. so insurance has to be able to

pay out claims. >> reporter: but those insurance premiums are getting more and more expensive as we know. under nuchal important ya new a regulations, once a fire emergency has been declared insurance companies cannot cancel insurance for those areas for a full year. california as we've been talking about this morning has the so-called fair plan. it is an insurer of last resort. the premiums for that plan are more expensive and provide significantly less coverage. in fact, they only cover a fire. they do not cover content or liability. so homeowners are forced to look for other types of insurance at the same time. maria, as these wildfires continue to rage, the fear is more insurance companies could decide to leave california and that in turn would leave fewer options and even more expensive

premiums. and if it's anything like florida and the hurricane situation, sometimes those insurance costs can be higher than the mortgage payment so it's very, very -- it's a crisis no doubt about it. maria: absolutely devastating, ashley. thank you. ashley webster on the insurance end of it. john, your reaction? >> my reaction is, you know, the cost of home ownership is going higher in these areas that are vulnerable to natural disasters. maria: sure. >> and as a result, i think this is going to put downward pressure on real estate prices in the areas as well as perhaps also reducing home sales. i mean, my goodness, even if you had enough insurance to rebuild that home in los angeles that was destroyed by the fire, could you then go out and insure that home after it has been rebuilt at a reasonable cost? probably not. maria: i mean, look, the issue is ultimately going to fall on the federal government, cheryl. i mean, it's interesting to see

the relationship that gavin newsom and president trump have had in the past. now they're going to have to work together and you're going to have to see some kind of federal aid. i'm sure that continuing resolution on march 14th is going to have to include disaster aid. i want to ask our lawmaker guest about that today, cheryl. >> absolutely. i want to pick up on something that ashley was talking about there. right now, the backup policy of last resort covers about a half a million homeowners who can't get private coverage. okay. their exposure right now is at $458 billion. that was in september. potential exposure. that fair program only has $700 million cash on hand to pay claims. all right. california is the only state that does not allow private insurance companies, state farm and all state are the two biggest in california, to incorporate the cost of reinsurance into their premiums and this is why 100,000

californians lost coverage between 2019 and 2024. state farm, they dropped 70% of their customers around the santa monica mountains, just the santa monica mountains, maria. this is what's happening in the state. there is no money. and fair is going to be done. i said that three days, two days, one day, once the claims start. maria: look at the mistakes that were made, michael, by the leadership in california. i mean, why did the fire department of los angeles decide not to do their annual testing of the fire hydrants in this area two weeks ago? okay. that's what is -- i'm reading here that the la fire department decided to blow-off the testing of the fire hydrants two weeks ago. >> this is not a new situation, unfortunately for california. years and years ago, i can remember a situation where they had the winds get up to almost

100 miles an hour. it has happened before. this is a horrible situation. but it's not like they didn't know something like this could happen. so where is the prerogative of the state government to say you must do the following steps. where the prerogative of the local governments to say are we ready? they're not. but maria, just one other thing, i think we should focus on, there's going to be a cascading impact of this disaster that is going to echo through many, many years. people have lost everything. maria: everything. >> and from their jobs to the economy. there's going to be a huge emotional impact. i think we're going to see -- this is so devastating from that perspective. this is going to really -- it's going to require a tremendous amount of help from the federal government. maria: don't forget how the mayor, karen bass, cut 17 and-a-half million dollars of funding for the fire department and then she went to donna while this started. fox corporation has made a

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maria: welcome back. time now for the word on wall street, top investors watching your money. joining me now is former gartman letter editor and university ofabakron endowment fund chairm, dennis gartman. also with is john lonski. futures indicating a mixed opening, looking at a reopening today after closing for president jimmy carter's funeral yesterday and markets are down across the board. the nasdaq is down 103, dow industrials down 89 as gold prices trade higher. gold as you have been predicting continues to rise. now at 2705.

and 10 year treasury yields are also on the rise. this is an issue. i think this could be an issue for earnings. you're talking about the 10 year at 4.69% right now, went above 4.7% yesterday. five federal reserve officials are cautioning the central bank rate cut path this year over lingering inflation fears is uncertain. the fed expected to pause the rate cutting string at the first policy meeting beginning januar. dennis, your thoughts on rates and gold in '25. >> i think first of all the yield curve has gone from an inversion to a positive slope and it's going to continue to do so as rates in the back end are worried about rising inflationary pressures over time. so i think the fed will continue to ease, allow short-term rates to decline marginally, maybe 1100to 150 basis points from he. the long end wants to see rates go higher and is seeing rates go higher. that's problematic and historically once you've got from inversion to positive slope in the yield curve that is ring

isrecessionary. that's happened many times after world war ii 2 and i think we'll see the same circumstance prevail. my own account i'm long gold and marginally short of the stock market, got marginally short a week and-a-half ago and my pro tpropensity is to add to the marginal short position today and monday. we'll see what the nonfarm payrolls number is. it's always a surprise, consensus is 155,000. but i learned over the 45 years i've been the markets that number can be revised by plus or minus 50,000 any one time so any time you hit within 50,000 you've done a good job. maria: i'm worried about the upcoming earnings season and it really has to do with this backup in rates. ever since the fed did that hawkish cut back in december, basically told us we're not so sure we're going to continue cutting rates at a big pace in 2025, markets have been troubled. and yields have been moving up. so dennis, are you worried about

the impact of this yield situation on, for example, the banks? i mean, barons mag zip magazine estimating that bank of america's losses, mostly u.s. agency securities, could widen. so we don't know what the numbers are but with this backup in yields, that could impact the earnings numbers and the guidance we're going to get from the banks next week. >> clearly the banks going to have a problem with their portfolios, no question about it. again, i've said the short rates will go lower, long rates are going to go higher and bond position that's the banks hold are going to be under water. they're under water now. they're going to be worse under water in the future so it is proproblematic and disconcertin. maria: john, let me get your take on the cost cutting moves we're expecting. the doge co-head, elon musk, told an x last night to lower expectations on how much the

department of government efficiency can really k watch r. watch this. >> we'll try for 2 trillion. that's like the best case outcome. i do think that you kind of have to have some overage. if you're trying for 2 trillion, you have a good chance of getting 1. maria: your reaction. >> good luck cutting $11 trillion from government spending. on the inflation front, i came across bad news. that is the price of oil futures this morning is up by 3%, natural gas futures higher, up by 2.8%, gasoline futures up by 2.5%. it looks as though inflation is headed higher and we need help from reduced government spending. here's a basic problem. we have right now mandatory federal spending, social security, medicare and medicaid is running at about $14.7 trillion. that's really hard to cut. on the other hand, discretionary

spending that you might be able to cut is running at just over $6 trillion, of that $3 trillion consists of defense spending. the only way you'll make progress at reining in government spending is by reducing mandatory spending and that is next to politically impossible as far as social security and healthcare spending goes. maria: as far as the economic data, we've got the jobs numbers out this morning in about an hour's time. the jobs numbers for the month of december will be out at 8:30 a.m. eastern. the expectations call for 160,000 nonfarm payrolls added to the economy for the month, the unemployment rate at 4.2%. is this pretty much priced in dennis, what do you think? >> i think it's pretty much priced in. you have to be careful, you can get plus or minus 50,000 in revisions from one month to the next. let's hope we get the consensus

of 155 to 160. that's the best thing we could get. it's also anker radic, volatile number. maria: do you agree with that. >> i agree with that. let's keep an eye on the distribution of jobs growth. is it going to be skewed towards government, healthcare and social assistance. that's not healthy. let's look to see whether or not we continue to observe a decline by full-time employment. that's very worrisome. and that tells me that whatever gain we get in terms of nonfarm payrolls could be over-stating the underlying strength of the u.s. labor market. maria: like in a couple months we'll get the revisions, oh, yeah, we revised it. oh, well. great conversation, guys. thank you. dennis, good to see you. thank you, sir. we've got a morning mover, constellation energy is up in the premarket. the energy firm agreed to acquire natural gas company cal pine for $26.6 billion, this is a cash and stock deal.

constellation is up 7 and a quarter percent on the news, the merger will combine two of the country's largest power generators aztec companies are in high demand for energy to power data centers. constellation the largest producer of nuclear power in america. the sticks up 116th in the last year. stay with us. we'll be right back with former speaker of the house, kevin mccarthy.

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>> i think that gavin is largely incompetent and i think the mayor is largely incompetent and probably both of them are just stone cold incompetent. what they've done is terrible. maria: president-elect trump ripping into california's response to the wildfires but he is not the only one blaming governor gavin newsom. watch this california mom. >> governor, i live here, governor. that was my daughter's school, governor. please tell me what you're going to do. >> literally talking to the president right now to specifically answer the question of what we can do for you and your daughter. >> can i hear your call? because i don't believe it. >> i'm sorry. there's literally -- i tried five times. that's why i'm walking around. maria: los angeles mayor karen

bass had a hard time, a difficult time answering reporter questions about her response. watch this. >> what explains this lack of preparation and rapid response? >> let me just say first and foremost my number one focus and i think the focus of all of us here with one voice is that we have to protect lives. we have to save lives. and we have to save homes. rest assured that -- ask. -->> but that did not happen. >> rest assured -- let me finish. we will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, what didn't work. maria: the new york post out with an editorial that says this. la fires showed deadly results of voting for democrats like gavin newsom and karen bass. joining me now is former california congressman and former speaker of the house, kevin mccarthy. speaker mccarthy, great to see you this morning. thanks very much for weighing in

here. you live in california. you've been the speaker of the house. you've watched and discussed the policies out of california. what is your assessment of what's taken place here? >> devastation. i mean, pure failure. gavin newsom, he's been lieutenant governor eight years, governor for six years. prior to being sworn in we had a deadly fire in paradise where 85 californians died and one in malibu. i joined president trump at the time, we flew out, spent the day with gavin who was governor-elect and jerry brown, the governor. i listened to president trump tell them they have to change their behavior. wind will come. a fire will come. but what a fire needs to continue is fuel. you need to take down the vegetation. you have to be prepared for this. other states prepare for hurricanes. you have to pro position. pro preposition.you cannot haveo and fight a fire with no water.

you cannot allow when winds are coming if you didn't prep the vegetation ahead of time. last night they sent evacuation notice to everyone in los angeles by mistake. can you image wayne that does to people? can you imagine? secondly, today we learned that two of the la county -- la county leases two super soakers from canada. one of them got hit bay private drone. that super soaker is down. the fire is so hot, when you drop the water, it's evidence eg before it hits. we have firefighters that say they have never seen i this is a war zone. i know of individuals that have missing family they haven't heard from for days and this is the compounded mismanagement of gavin newsom. people stayed behind to fight the fire because they lost homeowners' insurance because gavin newsom avoided the issue

and insurance has been leaving california. there's an elderly gentleman who sat there when he should not have been and they haven't been able to find him. maria: we're looking at some of the moves that were made recently. for example, just two weeks ago the fire department of los angeles decided to not do their annual testing of the fire hydrants. karen bass, the mayor, cut 17 and-a-half million dollars from the fire department. you know, why? here's one tweet from sarah foster, she writes we pay the highest taxes in california, our fire hydrants were empty. our vegetation was overgrown. brush was not cleared. reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. the water coming from canada they sent to the pacific ocean to save the fish? really. >> this is outrageous. maria, my father was a firefighter. he became a fire chief. i was a firefighter for three years, seasonal. one thing i will tell you. we would go around and you work

on the hydrants, you prep the hydrants and go through. that's part of the work you do. what gavin has done with the pure infrastructure, if you were a leader, there's a few items you're supposed to get done. public safety. make sure the infrastructure is there for any disaster. they have failed on both measures because gavin's priorities have been different. gavin's priorities have not been the homelessness, the crime, and now the devastation where homes are just wiped out. you see these pictures. they're horrendous. but if you were ever on the ground, it's a war zone people talk about that they've never seen. the intensity. can you imagine whether not even knowing if you could sleep in your house. you could be far from the fire but the winds are whipping through and the preparation is not there and then you get a notice you're supposed to leave 6789 this is all the work that should have been done. gavin newsom has been in office for more than 1 12 years, lieutenant governor or governor. it falls directly on him. what has he been doing running around the country. what has he been doing.

president trump has done more for california. he put an executive order in to allow more water to come to southern california. you know who fought him? gavin newsom. the voters of california papped passedprop 1 to spend tax dollao build more dams, store more water. you know who tore them down? gavin newsom. maria: unbelievable. what are they spending money on? they're spending money on drug addict kits, they've got more money for illegals. so now the question becomes who is going to help california and are we actually going to see that continuing resolution on march 14th include disaster money. the next step likely to be enactment of disaster legislation to pay for rebuilding here. is that going to be the vehicle do you think for wildfire emergency and the debt limit. we've got a report from cowen where an analyst this morning is

telling clients that the rebuilding of the infrastructure and the emergency housing and replenishing fema will have to be part of that. >> you're going to have to do something. these poor people in california should not be punished for gavin newsom. the policies have to change. i will tell you -- maria: i want to play mark davidson. >> they lost insurance because of that. maria: i want to play warren davidson. i asked him the question as well. listen to this. >> i don't see how republicans can possibly support that. i mean, we support the people that are plagued by disaster. but we have to put pressure on the california government to change course here. maria: i see. so has there been discussion already about the federal help that's coming to california and are you saying there's a little bit of pus pushback unless you e policy changes. >> i think so.

how do you do that? you don't want to send the message to families oh, we're not going to take care of you. they didn't have a problem saying that to people in western north carolina in the biden administration. and instead the biden administration said don't worry about it, we're going to take care of everything and so different response when it's out there where the hollywood elites live but when it comes to congressional funding, the idea we're going to have an open checkbook no matter how bad your policies are is crazy. maria: that's basically what you just said, kevin. what are your thoughts on that? >> well, the direction is the people should never have to hurt in this because california is more devastated because many of these people unbe knowns to themselves, they did not wrong, they lost homeowner insurance because of gavin newsom. what they need to do here is maybe direct the money through a different source but make sure the people get their money. what you need to do as well is gavin newsom has got to focus on the infrastructure. he should listen to president trump when it comes to water

policy, when it comes to vegetation, because i have been in a situation watching californians die, discussing this, and president trump was right when he told them that you've got to prepare ahead of time. wind's going to come. a fire is going to come. but the only way it progresses to be bigger and stronger if it has fuel. you've got to knock the fuel down and they weren't prepared. then when the fire came the infrastructure itself, the evacuation, the hydrants, the water for that, they were not prepared for that. and we've got the olympics coming to los angeles. what is going on? what the voters of california need to do is change the management throughout california to get real management for our state. maria: yeah. so what are your thoughts on the agenda then? a group of house republicans are traveling to mar-a-lago this weekend to discuss the reconciliation strategy. president trump is planning to meet separately with the committee chairmen and freedom caucus and gop members of the salt caucus. do you see the new york and la congressmen or lawmakers trying

to keep hostage -- keep congress hostage until they get their salt deduction lifted? is that where we are right now, kevin? >> i don't think they're going to hold anything hostage. everybody's got to make sure -- if you do not get a reconciliation done that means you don't get the tax policy done this year and taxes all go up. you find common ground and this is where the leadership of president trump is so rewarding. that he's bringing people in now, because the house has a smaller majority. this is an interesting fact. it's the first time in modern history the majority in the senate is bigger than the majority in the house. and come january 20th they're going to drop two more seats with elise stefanik and mike waltz going into the administration so it takes time to fill those seats as well but they need to get their work done. president trump knows and he's going to work every day and knows how to get the job done. that's why he's starting ahead of time and the republicans are really going to show how management has changed america. maria: do you think they should do one bill or two bills?

>> they should do one bill. if you do two, i think they're going to lose votes, it's going to get too big and there's ways to ensure getting it all done. jason smith was right o that was a big win for the ways and means chair. maria: we'll leave it there. former speaker of the house self. thank you, sir. good to see you. we'll be right back. (luke) people love how the new homes-dot-com helps them get quick answers about any property by connecting them to the actual listing agent. (agent) i'm getting great exposure. (marci) speaking of exposure, could we get him a hat? (luke) ooo, what about a beret? (vo) homes-dot-com. we've done your home work.

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maria: welcome back. well, the deadly los angeles wildfires could be the most expense ever in u.s. history with insured losses expected to exceed $20 billion according to jp morgan. but they're predicting the economic losses could rise to a staggering $57 billion. so far, here's what we know. more than 10,000 buildings have been destroyed, 10 people are dead, at least 5300 damaged

buildings in the pacific palisades neighborhood alone. state farm is california's largest insurer. it canceled 1600 homeowners policies last summer there. 72,000 across the state. the company justified the cancellations with an attempt to avoid financial failure in high risk areas, they say. several private insurers also cut coverage in the last three years, forces thousands to turn to a state backed system called california's fair plan. its president had this warning about agency finances. watch this. >> a member of the volunteer market told me if i could pick a company to reinsure you would not be the one. i agree with you. it's not -- you're right. it's a gamble, right. and we are one event away from a large assessment. there's no other way to say it. because we don't have the money on hand and we have a lot of exposure out there. maria: joining me now is licensed insurance broker,

insurance advisor, member of the new york state assembly committee on insurance, jake bloomen crants. how would assess the insurance end of this. >> thank you for having me today under these circumstances. and yes, it's a dire situation. i think that those numbers we're seeing will continue to climb, this will continue to be one of the most expensive fires we've ever seen and there will be serious repercussions. you have a situation with the fair plan that looks an awful lot like citizens in florida. it is not created or made to sustain these types of catastrophes because they're not using underwriting and they don't have to have the capital reserves that a traditional private insurer has and the state will have to bail them out as a form of welfare if they can't fix the market. maria: the state or maybe the federal aid as well, right? >> absolutely. it could come from both. i know florida continues to have to take care of the citizens

plan and it's becoming a last resort to an only resort within florida and you'll continue to see that here in california if they don't fix the way they've destroyed the market here essentially. maria: the la wildfires could also be the end of cheap homeowners' insurance in california. we've got a reuters analysis which says the pacific palisades area is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country but its insurance costs were among the most affordable in the country, cheaper than 97% of all zip codes, jake. how do these wildfires change the insurance policy coverage in california? >> absolutely. what i tell a client when they purchase a home in california is the more secluded and the more privacy you have, the more expensive your insurance will be. unfortunately when and underwriter is underwriting a home, especially in california, they look at how the municipality is handling fire mitigation efforts, what the water situation is looking like there, and those are factors

that they take into account. the reason they left the market is because of statistical probability of an event like this happen and 'ing and this is a worst case scenario. maria: michael, jump in here. >> you're also a state assemblyman here in new york. if you were an assemblyman in california and you knew their fair plan has basically gone in exposure 4 489 billion from 150 billion four years ago and they have $700 million on tap, what would you be doing from the state perspective to try to shore up the fair plan? what would you be telling your constituents? >> political rhetoric is good until it doesn't work and what you've seen here is classic talking points. the insurance companies are evil, this is about profits, this is -- no, this is underwriting. this is math. what we need to do as a state is not just create cost measures that will be increasingly

putting red tape around the insurance companies. we need to be creating competitive marketplaces that accommodate for the reinsurance issues we've seen over the past few years. we have resiliency problems in new york. we're still looking at legislative solutions a decade and a half almost later. so it's important to come up with the right solutions that will help work with the market to see if we can find ways to become more competitive and not necessarily creating a state run program that's destined to fail year over year. maria: i understand that. but business owners and individuals, they don't know where to turn. i mean, jake, what are the brick and mortar business owners need to do and what do they need to know about filing insurance claims? >> look, know your policy, read your policy. that's what i always say. if you do go to a broker, go shop your policy at multiple different carriers, don't just go to the first retail carrier that you see that sells direct to consumer. see what's out there and make

sure you have someone who is there who if you don't understand the insurance policies, read it through with them, make sure they understand whether they have the total value or they have replacement value on the policy and know your fire limits. we're seeing deduct i'lls of 50% on homes. that's a catastrophic loss for a family. maria: do people have any ability to fight back here because of these l failed policies? apparently last year governor kneesome vetoed a bill that would have allowed cal fire to retain seasonal firefighters to help with staffing shortages. the veto forced the layoff of thousands of seasonal firefighters. people left during covid as well because they were forced to get the shot and they didn't want to. there's that as well. so you've got a decline in the number of firefighters. you've got a shortage of water. you've got the funding of the fire department cut by karen bass, the mayor. people are looking at the policies now to try to

understand how we arrived here. >> you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. priorities matter. and the priorities in the budget of california for the past few years and for the city of los angeles have shown what they care about and cutting funding, cutting mitigation efforts, not paying attention to the core basics of what government should be doing when they are working for us and we see what that looks like unfortunately live here. maria: yeah. a lot of focus on dei, on transgenderism, not enough focus on putting the money where it need todd be. ed to be. thank you. >> thank you for having me. maria: thank you. fox corporation has made a $1 million donation to the red cross' call i california wildfie release efforts. you can help by visiting go.fox/redcross or scan the qr code on the screen right there. we'll be right back.

stay with us.

where ya headed? susan: where am i headed? am i just gonna take what the markets gives me? no. i can do some research. ya know, that's backed by j.p. morgan's leading strategists like us. when you want to invest with more confidence... the answer is j.p. morgan wealth management

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. time is ticking for tiktok, about the app's future. it's hanging on a supreme court battle set to kick off this morning. fox news sunday anchor and chief legal correspondent shannon breen now with d with the lates.

>> it comes down to the argument that will last at least a couple hours as the nine justices wade through the dispute. let me tell you of what tiktok is saying. they say this is about the first amendment and free speech. they say it will silence the speech, if you get rid of them, if they don't divest by january 19th, it will silence the speech of many americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, come mothers, art, and other matters of public concern. they say countless small businesses will suffer substantial and unrecoverable monetary and competitive arms. they don't want the law that had tons of bipartisan support, signed by president biden, they don't want it to go into effect january 19th but if they haven't divested by then that's a real possibility. the justice department arguing in favor of the law, has this to say to the supreme court. they say tiktok collects vast swaths of data about tens of millions of americans which the prc could use for espionage or blackmail. they say the act leaves all

speech on the platform unrestricted so long as tiktok is free from control by a foreign adversary. they say we're not impinging on anybody's free speech, you're free to keep tiktok up and running, you can't be owned by a foreign add adversary. maria: you've got a number of people who want to buy tiktok. i mean, look at the business people out there like kevin o'leary, also the former head of the dodgers who has been with us a couple of times here talk about the value of tiktok if they should own it. >> yeah, exactly, maria. they made that very public. they say listen, we'll help you solve this problem, we'll get you ownership that is away from any kind of chinese control or influence. president trump also filed a brief in this case. he said i'm not trying to get to you on the merits of the case, i'm asking for a delay. let me take over as commander in chief. i also own a social media outlet. i know what it's like. let me try to negotiate a political resolution to this and maybe that would involve some of

the potential buyers. maria: let me switch gears and talk about the sentencing expected today for president trump in this hush money case. what are your expecting? >> well, listen, judge merchan has said there's not going to be jail time, sounds like not any substantial fine but president trump lost this battle with the supreme court last night. they said listen, the sense seng can go forward. he's got underlying appeals not only for whatever sentence gets for sure but on the decision about immunity, about the underlying conviction. he feels certain he will win eventually on appeal. but for the meantime that means the sense extensioning sentencig to happen today. maria: we'll be watching your work on all of that. thanks very much. >> thanks, maria. maria: we'll see you sunday. john, your reaction. >> my reaction is trump actually has won this case in effect. i mean, the rationale behind the case was to prevent donald trump from returning to the white house but it turns out that what drove this case forward failed. it didn't happen. this was a political show trial.

everybody knows it. it's a lot of nonsense. it would have never taken place if the person being accused, donald trump, was not donald trump. maria: well, michael, it's pretty extraordinary to me that the judge would not let this go. he's going to take office in 10 days. your thoughts? >> again, it's that period on the end of this very political sentence. maria: yeah. >> if you take a look at the merits of the case, yes, a jury found him guilty. okay. so that suggests we have to deal with this. the fact the president wants to appeal this, n notwithstanding e fact we're anticipating no penalties associated with that is absolutely the right thing to do. have you to go after the basics of this court case and say was this done fairly? was the judge conflicted? all the different things that -- those questions that have not been answered have to be answered for the integrity not

just of the office but also donald trump. maria: cheryl. >> brett tollman has a great piece this morning on foxnews.com, in our opinion section. he says despite bad facts, bad evidence and bad law, president-elect donald trump convinced only four u.s. supreme court justices on thursday to grant the application. and he says this is a mockery. this is one of several cases that has been a, quote, mockery of our nation's court system. and that judge merchan is the biggest mocker in chief if you will, maria. it's really unfortunate, lawfar- politically this has backfired. the person that's having the last laugh is donald trump at the end of the day when this is all said and done. maria: and people voted. they understood that there was lawfare here. they oud they understood they g to take him down and they voted accordingly. we'll take a short break and come right back. we have a major hour coming up

and we've got a single watch on the happenings in los angeles with those wildfires. stay with us. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. we'll be right back. next week on "mornings with maria," monday former kentucky attorney general daniel cameron reveals a bombshell new report on chinese ties to america's top companies. tuesday, the ceo of cleveland-cliffs back with us on what comes next in the nippon, u.s. steel saga with trump's oval office return just days away. wednesday, can congress use one big bill to accomplish the trump agenda? house ways and means committee chairman jason schit smith willn knee. thursday, roger williams is here on how the republican majority will help struggling american business owners. friday, bank of america reports

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