doesn't turn into a nightmare this holiday season. it's flu season, make sure you know how to call out sick properly. >> you left us three seconds. >> have a great weekend, everybody. >> enjoy it all. bill: bring that dog home, rudy. new information on who is behind the hack attack that has sony pictures in a mad dash to circle the wagons. the felt bi pointing to north korea, but intelligence officials say could go well beyond that. i'm bill hemmer. on friday in "america's newsroom." "america's newsroom." it is friday, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. president obama hops aboard air force one for a 17-day vacation in hawaii there is work to be done first. we should get tough questions from the president on north korea, cuba and much more. bill: leland vittert live with

the response there. adam housley live in l.a. with the fallout. byron york here with analysis on all of this. let's start with leland. what is the white house's response on the cyberattack? >> reporter: so far they're saying a lot from the past couple days in the white house but largely sitting on their hands despite what is reported conclusive evidence north korea is behind this. this put this movie, known as "the interview," at the center of what the white house calls a major national security matter. still though, they are pulling their punches. >> before we start to publicly speculating about a response it's appropriate that we allow the investigation to move forward. sophisticated actors, when they carry out actions like this, are often times, but not always, but often seeking to provoke a response from the united states of america. they may believe a response from

us in one fashion or another would be advantageous to them. >> reporter: we have also learned from senior officials here, that there was members of the united states delegation that have watched this movie at the behest of sownany, the rough cut, if you will, that included the ending which was successful assassination of the character there, kim jong-un and approved it. we're also hearing that we're a few hours away of course, from this presidential news conference and the big question on this going forward, martha, does he come out swinging against north korea and bense this cyberattack or does he continue his usually cautious response to things like this? martha: a fairly cautious response with the interview on abc the other night. we'll see how strong he comes out. how does this play into the broader foreign policy, leland? >> reporter: not well for the administration. alarm bells were ringing a long time about threats from the united states economy when it

comes from a cyberattack and how a country like north korea could have disproportional effect on the united states by launching a cyberattack. this came from senator john mccain, saying in part, the need for sony pictures to make that decision, to pull the movie, ultimately arose from the administration's continuing failure to satisfactoryily address use of cyber weapons by our nation's enemies. important to note while the united states often uses its expertise even in private government situation, for example to protect the power grid from cyber attacks, those kinds of things, martha, movie studios are not on that list of protected entities. martha: will test how well and how ready, how well-prepared we are for anything like this on larger scale. leland, thank you very much. bill: so the president will take many questions a few hours from now. byron york, chief washington correspondent for the examiner and good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: what would be your first

question? >> my first question would actually be about cuba and you know the united states as part of this deal freed at least one person who was convicted of conspiracy to murder in the 1996 cuban government shootdown of a small plane that had a number of anti-castro activists. my question, what is the president's message to the families those killed by the cuban government and now being set free. bill: what about north korea? what should he say? what can he say? >> we'll really be watching that very closely because think about, what do we really know about the involvement or noninvolvement of the government of north korea in this? we don't know a lot. whatever comes from the president's mouth will be the state of u.s. knowledge about this so we'll looking for two things. one, what do u.s. officials actually know about the involvement of north korea or as leland suggested, maybe other countries as well. and the bigger question is, okay, if it has been done by

another country, what are we going to do about it? i think that is where the president's cautious nature is going to kick in. i don't really expect him to say anything definitive about that. bill: in 30 minutes you will hear a well-known hacker been on our show many times. he is an insider and what he says the scarce evid has been made public makes him rather dubious north korea is even involved in this thing. >> that is entirely possible. a number of people have asked whether north korea is sophisticated enough to do that? the flip side of that, there are people in the united states, who independent, actors who, are sophisticated enough to do something like this. so we just don't know. that's why, really something coming from the president's mouth will be taken as the definitive position of the u.s. government. so we need to hear from him what the government thinks happened here. bill: byron, thanks. we'll be awaiting and watching that. appreciate it. out of washington today. >> thank you, bill. martha: if they really know what happened here. that is one of the big

questions. what would you ask the president at home? send us a tweet @marthamaccallum, @billhemmer. what is on your mind. if you had opportunity to ask the president a question before he goes on vacation what would it be? bill: when he comes back he will have a republican majority in the house and senate. maybe you start there. how will he work with the republicans with newfound power. do that for us. martha: meantime, actor george clooney and bashing sony, much of hollywood, calling them cowards for backing down this face of this massive cyberattack. clooney circulate ad petition to other hollywood power players urging them to back sony in this and not pull this film and he said he couldn't get one person to sign the petition. he calls this a big blow to the first amendment and the fallout could change how hollywood works going forward. adam housley with us, live in los angeles with the latest on this good morning, adam.

>> reporter: yeah, martha. this all came out in an interview in deadline hollywood what clooney did about this petition. went around for a week before he said nobody signed it. he bashes hollywood and people not signing on to back sony. he bashes media but does not question the administration giving them an excuse saying new territory. apparently only new territory for administration. by backing down this will open the door for any group that would threaten freedom of expression. hopes hackers are brought to justice, until they are, everybody will now stand in fear. we need to stand together. the pascal rudin email exchange of president ball was used as weapon of fear which kept people from defending pascal and sony. he also says in part, quote, we have a new paradigm a new reality. we'll have to come to real terms with it all the way down the line. this was a dumb comedy about to come out, with the first amendment usual not in the protecting jefferson, but usually protecting a guy burning

a flag or doing something stupid. this is stupid comedy. this is not just sony but all of us. meantime our cameras were on the red carpet last night like they are every night in hollywood and other actors are starting to fall in line. we were have the the "people" awards and other actors spoke out echoing some of the thoughts from george clooney. take a listen. >> i think it sucks that people would have to -- succumb to anyone who tape rises or really someone into doing something they don't want to do. >> reporter: meantime a couple other sony employees filed a lawsuit. they join several others about the massive security breach saying sony kept information should have been destroyed once they left. one more note, we're talking to our sources about this of the as you know there are a number of high-tech specialists on the west coast the government uses. they have been saying from the beginning they still believe there is major inside element here. north korea may not be the one completely involved here, bill.

i know you have someone coming up later in the hour talking about this. this is what we're hearing from the sources that continue to investigate this as we move forward. back to you in new york. martha: adam, thank you very much. bill: another fox news alert now. the u.s. military apparently dealing a major blow to isis, killing three of its leaders during airstrikes over northern iraq. john huddy watching from the middle east bureau. john, who are these targets? >> reporter: bill, as mentioned up with was a top deputy to abu bakir al-baghdadi and one is the top commander of isis in iraq. a big blow to the major players. let me bring you up to speed. u.s. officials say airstrikes between december 3rd and december 9th. killed a man who was head of isis military operations in iraq and a key deputy to al bag buddy as i mentioned and in late november, another airstrike

killed a midlevel commander. isis's so-called quote, governor in mosul, iraq. according to officials, mosul, iraq, was second largest city captured by isis militants in late june and has been a major battleground since then, bill. bill: john huddy, thanks for that. more details on this later with general jack keane. thank you, john. here's martha. martha: the government is broken, that is what 2/3 of americans believe. we'll talk to karl rove. find out what is broken and how to fix it. it is a tall order. bill: also the white house fence jumper cause ad chain reaction of skepticism for the secret service. a new panel releasing its findings. what they say the agency need to do to make sure the president, the commander-in-chief stays safe. martha: huge story here. sony caving to threats by canceling the release of the movie, "the interview." is this the first shot in a war

threatening free speech? >> will they hack and will theytores you to close down? this is the beginning of a cyber war that can go on indefinitely and can really place our first amendment in danger. the ♪ just look at those two. happy. in love. and saving so much money on their car insurance by switching to geico... well, just look at this setting.

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you don't need to think about the energy that makes our lives possible. because we do. we're exxonmobil and powering the world responsibly is our job. because boiling an egg... isn't as simple as just boiling an egg. life takes energy. energy lives here. martha: police in australia investigating a truly horrific case. a 20-year-old relative

discovering the dead bodies of eight children all stabbed in the chest. they range from 18 months to 15 years old. the mother is now hospitalized. she also suffered stab wounds but police will not say yet if they believe that she was involved in anyway. >> the system is not working. that is what the american people say across the board. latest fox polls, finds 65% of the americans in 2014 say that the government is broken. karl rove, former white house senior visor to president bush and karl, good morning to you in austin. in the poll they found democrats were not happy, republicans were not happy, and tea party voters the numbers were off the charts, karl. what does that tell you? >> that is what the election indicated to us. first of all the american people want president obama stopped. they want to stop his excesses, they want to rein him in. rein in spending and rein in the

growth of washington but they also want congress to work. they want them to focus on big important things, jobs, economy number one. want them to focus on bad things in obamacare both parties can fix between now and the time a new president is elected. they want congress to operate and focus on things they consider important. that is good news in many respects, republicans particularly in the house have been focusing on things american people care about, jobs, economy, making more opportunity and prosperity available and getting a lot of democrat votes in that process. so if republicans come back at the beginning of the year we're likely to see a slew of bills come out of the house of representatives with bigby partisan majority, and head to the senate where they never got a vote before. that will probably do something to help change public perception. bill: if that is the case the next number may influence that. disapproval of congress right now is at 80%.

quickly, two other points here. will a republican majority change that number? >> well, i think that is going to be the big test. they have the materials there to do that. 130 democrats voted with republicans on a republican bill to stop junk lawsuits in patent cases. important to high-tech. 53 democrats voted to make it permanent that small business could immediately expense purchases of software and equipment. that is a good thing. 62 democrats voted in the house with republicans to make the research and development tax credit permanent. 32 and 36 democrats voted to make i had easier to invest in small business, ban taxes on internet access, government more transparent in rule making, stop epa regulating streams, ponds and ditches as navigable waters. bill: on keystone, look at this, 68% support it. two questions on this. is this mcconnell's first act in the senate? and remember, he said in late

october that he would repeal obamacare with a simple majority vote in the senate based on the rules and how they changed under harry reid. do you think he will do that? >> well, on the first one, keystone, he is likely to do that. he said that in recent days he will bring it up early. there are 63 senators, 63 in the united states senate who voted for keystone xl pipeline or recent campaign said they were in favor of it, new members. that is likely to be brought up early. that is not the end of the energy agenda. there are 19 democrats in the house who voted for keystone xl. 17 democrats voted with republicans to make certain no future administration can slow play a project like keystone. 28 democrats voted with republicans to expand exploration in the guff. 46 to expand natural gas exports and 26 to expand infrastructure for transmission of natural gas. all of these show that the republicans and democrats can

come together for a big, robust agenda on energy. mcconnell is smart to start with keystone. bill: you need four more votes to make it veto proof. we'll see if there are out in january. >> at least 6 picks i get it, 63 but on obamacare do you expect a simple majority vote to repeal it? >> this is using the process called reconciliation. i think the republicans are likely to try and do this. the president will obviously veto it. this will take until april or may. before you can use reconciliation the house and senate have to pass their budget resolutions. there have to be other things that happen before you can have a repeal vote that simply uses reconciliation. that is how they passed the affordable care act in the first place. if you used reconciliation to pass it you can repeal it. likely take a couple of months to set it up. because you have to pass a budget resolution in the house and budget resolution in the senate. take a couple other steps before

you can have the vote. bill: very intriguing to watch. merry christmas, karl. see you soon out of austin, texas. martha. martha: very interesting things going on in the democratic party. a new push to get elizabeth warren to run for president. why 300 former obama staffers signed a petition for elizabeth warren. what is going on here? who is driving the bus? we'll talk about that. bill: the boston bombing suspect is in court, see what happens when his supporters square off against protesters outside. i'm an idaho potato farmer and our big idaho potato truck is still missing. so my buddy here is going to help me find it. here we go. woo who, woah, woah, woah. it's out there somewhere spreading the word about america's favorite potatoes: heart healthy idaho potatoes and the american heart association's

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tsarnaev pleaded not guilty with charges related to the attack that killed 3 and injured more than 160 at the marathon. confronting protesters questioning whether or not there was proof whether he was responsible. that survivor waving his prosthetic leg, telling them, that is the proof right there, if convicted tsarnaev could face the death penalty in that case. martha: in a scathing new report on the secret service says the agency is quote, starved for leadership. this follows a series of high-profile, nerve-racking security downfalls at the white house. the pentagon agreed we'll need a bigger fence. doug mckelway live in washington with what else they found. doug some recommendations have been made before, but not really adopted after those decisions were made, right? >> reporter: that's right, martha. some made as far as back as warren commission following the assassination of president kennedy. may be a condition how insular

the agency is and how badly it is in need of new leadership. one tangible recommendation is being made. calls for a new, taller fence in front of the white house. two weeks ago, construction workers replacing the old fence bordering lafayette park with a new feet but does not appear to be any taller. pranksters and mentally ill are able to climb the fence causing the secret service to make split-second decisions to shoot. omar gonzalezs, who was deemed mentally fit to stand trial made it deep into the white house carrying a knife. homeland security secretary jeh johnson ordered the review and agreed with the findings. >> in my judgment the panel's recommendations are astute, thorough and fair. fundamental change is needed at the secret service though they do a remarkable job of

protecting the president and first family and other national leaders. >> reporter: others are calling for a congressionally appointed panel to conduct a top-down review, martha. martha: is that going to happen? is congress doing an investigation? >> reporter: they are. the house will conduct a full investigation they claim in the new year. looking at whether the department of homeland security which began overseeing secret service after 9/11 is the right agency to oversee the service because many of the embarassments occurred under the new structure. martha: thanks, doug. bill: a lot of attention this past year. jumping a fence and there is camera there. does not look good. martha: that state of affairs, bigger fence, more barricades and all over manhattan after 9/11. says something about the society we live in. bill: new developments in the ongoing battle over the washington redskins team name and the mascot. the fcc is about to say whether it thinks the name should stay

or go and what do you think about that? martha: north korean hack attack revealing a weak streak in hollywood? why some call sony's cave-in a blow to our first amendment rights. >> they knew this was going on for the last three or four weeks. they should have pushed the date back until late january or february and by that time, they might have found out where the threats were coming from. and they wouldn't have disturbed the christmas season. and the l. wow! [ narrator ] on a mission to get richard to his campbell's chunky soup. it's new chunky beer-n-cheese with beef and bacon soup. i love it. and mama loves you. ♪ if you're suffering from constipation or irregularity, powders may take days to work. for gentle overnight relief, try dulcolax laxative tablets. ducolax provides gentle overnight relief, unlike miralax that can take up to 3 days. dulcolax, for relief you can count on.

bill: let you know if president obama will hold end of year news conference today before heading out to hawaii for his 17-day vacation with first family. expected to answer questions not only on the sony cyberattack but move to try to normalize relations with cuba, scheduled for 1:30 eastern time. certainly we'll have live coverage for you on that. martha: the obama administration treating the cyberattack on sony

as quote, a legitimate national security matter they say but some in hollywood are calling it an attack on our first amendment rights. actor george clooney tried circulating petition among hollywood power brokers to generate support, support sony, let them release the movie, don't back down from the hackers, he said not standings up opens the door to more possible attraction for other companies, for other entities across this country. says quote, we are not going to give in to a ransom as we watched one group be completely vilified. nobody stood up, nobody took that stand. now i say this is a situation where we're going to have to come to terms with, a new paradigm, a new way of handling our business. is he on to something? juan williams, political analyst and mary catherine ham, hotair.com and fooks news contributor. welcome to both of you. it is shocking, juan, that george clooney seems to be a

singular voice saying what he is saying. >> we noticed this, martha, everybody else in hollywood seems to run away. they're like big chickens. i don't get it, clooney is exactly right. you can not have a third party censoring your movies. this remind me of the radical islamists say, you can't caricature the prophet mohammed. you can't make documentaries about abuse of muslim women by these extremists like the taliban. why would we now, we run those documentaries. we saw that is the fact and now you can't run a satirical movie? that is north korea bullying. i think clooney is exactly right. martha: it's a great point there was a great editorial in the "wall street journal," yesterday, just a small item, that basically said, oh, yeah, hollywood where they make movies about people like karen silkwood and whistle-blowers and standing up to the big enemy and not being afraid. man did they run quickly on this one. what do you think is really behind it, mary catherine?

>> yeah, i mean you don't need the government to censor you if you're going to do it yourself at drop of a hat. george clooney is exactly right and i think it is horrifying he went around hollywood, one of the most who powerful people in hollywood and couldn't get anyone to sign on to the thing is frightening. these people routinely pats themselves on the back for moral courage when they take rogue liberal stand and uncontroversial and have no consequences. if you have a chance to stand up for something do it because in the future, north korea, and any other rogue regime will feel like they have veto power over your movie choices. >> so true. >> i can not believe people are not willing to stand up for it. martha: other companies sort of, already just pulling the rug out of other projects. they're running scared in a big way. i think it sort of touches on another thing here. because although there was suggestion of a 9/11 attack, of violence which of course nobody wants to see happen in any movie theater across this country.

however all of our intelligence agencies and homeland security said, we don't have any signs of any credible attack. when they tell us that generally about things. we go about our lives and live our lives as planned. the president said, in a not particularly forceful way, i suggest you go to the movies. but i think this is all about people's other lives. their email life. their salaries. the things that they are really concerned about where they live, juan and i think this tells us a lot where our true sensitive, hot spot lies these days. >> yes. so you had people i might say you know how they ran away when it comes to george clooney's resolution. they also then, also when it came to the internal stuff that was revealed from sony, which as you point out, martha, may be the real cache of information here, all the kind of negative comments about obama, about each other, about movie stars, poor salary for female movie stars, that is when everybody, including oprah winfrey and all

the a-listers, said, gee, the news media shouldn't report that stuff. that is a violation. you know what? that is not the bilge issue here. the big issue is censorship. i hope the obama administration takes it serious as a threat to us, to our economy, the banking industry, insurance industry, everybody else getting hacked and has retaliation against north korea. martha: i will be interested to hear what the president says at the news conference. he has a shot at it coming up 1:00 eastern time to really say to the companies, don't be scared. don't back down. get out there to do what you're supposed to do. even if it's a dumb movie sort of a slapstick come different i think george clooney made another good point with this, mary catherine. these are the fights you end up fighting. dershowitz said the same thing. they're not necessarily sort of supreme court-worthy issues that get fought over when it comes to this but you have to protect people's right to speech. >> you don't give up because it's a dumb movie.

we're a country that prizes our dumb movies. that's what we're in art about, right? i think these companies should have backing of american government when it is an attack from foreign entity like this. i hope the president is forceful bit today. this is just frightening that we're backing down over something like this. by the way, since hollywood is too chicken to sign a petition. i have a petition. find it at mk hammer, my twitter handle. there is a link to it. get them to release this movie because it will, dominoes will continue to fall. more movies will be censored. it is not good. martha: you're absolutely right. juan, tell me what you would like to hear from the president when he comes out here on this. >> he has to be clear what he means by proportional response. that is the rhetoric we're hearing from the white house, i say rhetoric with some consideration because i would like him to make it real as opposed to theoretical. not always the case whatever response is going to be, that they're going to use is going to

be visible to us in the public but i feel the need to see something that i can hold on to here because this has such consequence for a major american industry and for our culture i think. so, you know, there is fear that the chinese might be involved. you never know if the iranians are involved here, martha. so could be that you're stepping into what could be a huge nest if you will. i understand. that i think there has to be a clear signal that the united states does not allow major industries to be beaten up in this way. it is a bad, bad signal to me. martha: alan dershowitz suggested, what about banding together? all film distribution companies, hollywood entities as well, we'll all releasing movie. put it out somewhere. we're share the blame and all in it together. just put it out there. >> should be a no-brainer, right? i think you're right, martha, this is about the emails and george clooney even said going around these ill-advised obama

jokes, people were afraid of being aligned with the people made the jokes. unwilling to stand up against terrorists because of stupid obama jokes. this is really horrible precedent. martha: the that email and about president obama and movies he watches poisoned well. everybody wanted to put her at big arm's length and not touch it. brilliant piece of manueverring on their part. >> really bad news. martha: merry christmas. >> watching this story 25 miles west, southwest of new york city. a s.w.a.t. team rushing into an apartment complex. this is springfield, new jersey. the helicopter there was just told to move back. so there is movement clearly on the ground. we'll see whether or not this can be resolved. not a whole lot of information coming in. unless we can figure out the s.w.a.t. van behind the trees and what it is up to, we'll pass that information. now the fcc shootings down an attempt to keep the name washington redskins off the airwaves? after some people signed a petition seeking to block the team's radio station from

getting its license renewed, claiming it was broadcasting indecent content by repeatedly using the word redskins. however the fcc says that the team's name does not fall under the lawful definition of profanity. many native-american groups contract name to be racial slur. their opinion has not changed. team owner dan snyder vows not to change. he will keep the name even under mounting pressure. i thought they would lose this battle. the more this goes on the chance they have a chance of keeping it as long as they want. martha: from the backbone of redskins team and fan, fell it is traditional and a lot of native-american groups are supportive of the team as well. stuck to their guns. we'll see if it works. >> big question, this sony hack we've been talking very passionately about this morning, do we know where it came from? was it north korea? why our next guest says it is

probably not from the rogue regime directly. so who does he think is behind it. bill: he has very interesting things. commander taken out by us air strikes. where are we now in the battle against isis? >> iraqi security forces must be capable force, one that can restore iraq's sovereign borders. retake territory from day everybody and secure daesh and secure the iraqi people.

martha: troubling new report out there, blaming the federal government is not fully prepared to handle nuclear attack on large-scale or large-scale natural disaster. the audit claims that the government lacks effective coordination and some cases years away making sure there are enough shelters and medical supplies if such a thing were to happen. the report criticizes fema, that the agency is not staying on top of planning efforts even in the wake of superstorm sandy. not good news.

>> this is wake-up call. if they can wreak that kind of havoc in the entertainment industry, then you've got to worry that where else their reach is how much of a wake-up call is it really? that is arizona republican jeff flake on the sony's not releasing the movie. north korean leader kim jong-un is assassinated at end of the movie. that is strengthens the hackers fueling more attacks in the future. fbi is trying to find out who is behind it. my next guest is dubious about all that i just said. he is a computer security expert, certified ethical hacker and computer forensic investigator. vinnie, good to have you back on our program. good morning to you there in saint luis. >> thank you. bill: take it point by point. you think the connection between north korea and sony is dubious at best. why? >> at best. the only, remote shred of

evidence exists at this point the malware used within, that was associated with the sony attack was calling back to an ip address in north korea. now the problem with this evidence is that, the malware wasn't unique to the sony job. the malware was actually recycled and purchased somewhere else. so it is very possible this call back to a north korean ip address was something already in the script. i mean we really have no way of knowing. bill: just to be clear on this and "wall street journal" is reporting that, a single link was traced back to north korea. how many links could there be in something like this? >> right. i mean, it's impossible to say. there could be a number of sort of call home signals. but i mean the point is, for something like this there is really no reason for a piece of malware to call home. i mean intent is to steal and distribute. the pieces don't, they just don't add up. i mean so to look at really, to sort of grind into where this

piece of malware, where this virus came from, i mean it is very obvious it wasn't specific to this job and so -- bill: why are they, are you talking about hundreds of links or thousands or even more than that? givegive me a sense of. >> to be honest it varies per piece of malware. for something like this there shouldn't have been any. possible it was even used for something else all together. bill: why are they blaming north korea? what makes sense to you, vinnie? >> i think that in the event that this turns out to be, either a disgruntled employee or inside job, there is so much attention around this right now, they need, somebody needs to point the finger at somebody else. so it is easy to point the finger at north korea and say, this is an attack because of the movie but, realistically, if i was, if i was the person, you know committing this crime, it wouldn't take anything for me to write a note, put it out there, get everybody completely freaked out about it.

all of sudden attention is on north korea and away from the real criminal. bill: to pull this off, you mentioned an insider. would it have to be inside job, someone who truly understands the system? >> there are so much volume of information that came from sony, that it would, be almost impossible for this to occur completely from the outside. we're talking about emails, financial records, passwords, password keys. there is so much of it. somebody knew exactly what to get and where to get it. bill: this could be someone ticked off at company for any number of reasons? maybe the movie had something to do with it, maybe it did not at all? >> right. if this was me perpetrating attack i would look for the best possible scapegoat and in this case, people suspected north korea from the beginning for whatever reason. even a few weeks ago the fbi came out and said there is no credible link to north korea at all. they seem to be changing their tune i think the movie was

canceled and there was so much heat and need to point the finger quickly. bill: vinnie, one more question on personal level, should we worry about our own company email? should we worry about our bank accounts? do you think this is that significant that we've gone to a new level of hacking on this story? >> you know, it's, we definitely gone to a new level of data breach. but, you know, we actually learned just a few days ago that there is fbi hacker informant named sabu, who came out and said sony had vulnerabilities present for six years and never did anything to fix them. unfortunately a lot of companies are falling down this path, they have the mentality this will not happen to me and i can put it off. so from that perspective there is absolutely something to worry about. companies need to wise up. bill: we're out of time. thank you. we'll bring you back. vinnie troya out of st. louis. thank you very much.

appreciate it. martha: very interesting stuff. all right, so some big-time obama supporters urging massachusetts senator elizabeth warren to get in, get into this race for 2016. so will she do it? and is the obama machine trying to keep hillary out of the race? we're going to talk about that coming up. plus we have this beautiful midtown day. look at that right around the corner from us, beautiful ornaments piled up in christmas display. what they say everybody, time to come on home. ♪ bill: sing it. ♪ vo: you get used to pet odors in your car.

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jo checks are now rolling in as a number of obama supporters try to lure elizabeth warn ren challenging hillary clinton in 2016. she so far said she will not do. liberal group, democracy now, spending a quarter of a million dollars to get warren in the race. doug schoen, former advisor to president bill clinton and fox news contributor joins us now. this is getting very interesting. >> oh, yes it is, martha. martha: because obviously hillary clinton appears to believe that, you know, this is her right. that she has the right to have the nomination of her party but president obama spoked to people at moveon.org, that sported him in the beginning are supporting elizabeth warren. >> they apparently are and putting up a million dollars behind their own effort. i find it particularly telling that 300 former obama staffers signed an open letter

encouraging elizabeth warren to run. i have been in the white house. i know how these things work. hard for me that the president or valerie jarrett didn't get a chance to pass on it before the public announcement was made. martha: you think they made effort to speak to the president or valerie jarrett as you put it, we'll backing elizabeth warren 100% of the way. we're not going with hillary clinton despite the president has said tacitly and explicitly that he thinks hillary would make a good president. >> there has been a long history of animosity between both clintons and both obamas. klein reported on it in his book. there is evidence everywhere. i don't know what he believes but i do know this. if the president didn't want the 300 former staffers to sign an open letter he could have shut it down in a nanosecond and martha, he didn't. martha: he didn't. >> not at all. not at all. martha: very interesting. >> it is. martha: so he is allowing the

big fund-raising arms not to put their money towards hillary? >> right. he has done nothing through his surrogates to discourage it. when elizabeth warren herself has been asked, she says i'm not running for president. they then ask her would you discourage these groups, democracy for america, moveon.org? and she says, i'm not running for president. and they say, well is that ever? >> she says i'm not running for president. as obama said in 2007, when tim russert asked him, that was then. this is now. she could turn on a dime. given the events of last week, martha, i would make the argument she is inching in the direction of throwing her hat in the ring. martha: certainly looks like it. >> it does. martha: as you could say, take me off the website. don't, steer ire money toward hillary clinton. don't steer it toward me. she is clearly not saying that. look at numbers. she has a long haul if she wants to take a run at this and cause some problems for hillary clinton who is currently

at 62% among self-identified democrats. warren at 12%. but as i remember, around the same time, president obama was about in the same position. >> yes he was. there is something else. she has a compelling message. she has a message to rein in the banks. she has a message to deal with income inequality and she could and certainly her supporters already do, make the case that hillary is the senator, the secretary from goldman sachs. martha: well, yeah. that is going to be their argument. she has the new car smell. >> yes, she does. i take that as, again, tacit encouragement of her to run, absolutely, martha. martha: we love intrigue behind all these stories. thank you for sharing it with us, doug, thank you very much. >> thank you, martha. >> could be a very interesting day today. president obama facing reporters this afternoon. the sony hack, cuba. executive outreach and overreach. what would you ask the president? that's what we're asking today. did you see epic farewell to

stephen colbert? whoa, check it out. >> thanks for taking some of your rapidly dwindling time on earth to be with me. i've been sitting here two minutes or 200 years. i can't tell difference anymore.

♪ ♪ martha: fox news alert, as the u.s. finds compelling evidence that someone helped north korea launch the cyber warfare attack against sony pictures, the sophisticated nature of the cyber assault which forced sony to cancel the release of a comedy pointing to several north korean allies united in mutual animosity against america, all of whom have a lot of experience in cyber warfare and who have been working on it for some time. brand new hour of "america's newsroom," i'm martha maccallum. bill: and i'm bill hemmer. the hackers leaving tracks leading back to several hostile nations, or so we are told. north korea, china, iran, russia. team fox coverage this hour, chris stirewalt on the

implications for the white house. but we begin with catherine herridge in washington and the latest on this cyber attack is what, catherine? good morning. >> reporter: well, thank you, bill, and good morning. the obama administration is still weighing its response to the cyber attack on sony with a member of the house homeland security committee who oversees cyber investigations telling "fox & friends" that the u.s. has to find the right balance. >> one of the key things you have is a discussion of proportionality and the recognition that any kind of acts have potential to escalate. and you also need to appreciate what's the motives behind a place like north korea? how much credibility do we give them in the world if we overreact? >> reporter: an intelligence source also tells fox news that the evidence does not point to north korea as the sole entity responsible for the attack, but rather, a main player with support from an outside party. outside party is really code for either iran, russia or china, bill. bill: what are we learning about the attack and how it worked,

catherine? what are those details? >> reporter: well, the forensic evidence suggests the final stage of the attack was launched outside north korea's borders, "the new york times" reports a hotel and university were used. this is called in intelligence circles a cutout and creates some plausible deniability. yesterday the president of the homeland security secretary told people the administration wasn't ready to name names. >> the u.s. government is taking this attack very seriously. it's an attack on a company, its employees and, frankly, the freedoms we enjoy in this country. >> reporter: fox news was told that u.s. security firms were first notified monday by the u.s. government that they plan to publicly blame north korea, but this is completely inconsistent with past practice where the u.s. government has chosen to work behind the scenes to have some sort of response to an event like -- bill: that's interesting. wonder why that is? >> reporter: they have not come out because there's certainly a disconnect between what the security firms happened

and at least the government leaks that it was north korea solely responsible. bill: thank you, catherine. catherine herridge in washington. be. martha: as you know, president obama's going to hold a news conference shortly before departing on his 17-day vacation in hawaii which is his tradition with his family, and there are a lot of issues that the president will no doubt be asked about at this news conference. and the bombshell agreement with cuba this week, also the cyber attack against sony and what the real white house response is going to be. chris stirewalt joins me now, so no doubt, i think you're going to hear a lot of questions today about the white house's response which has been very tepid so far in terms of what they really think should happen with this sony situation, chris. >> well, for a president and an administration that have highly prized and long prietzed as a political operation the desire the control messages and dominate news cycles even in 15 or 20-minute increments, really

trying to stay ahead of the game, for these folks and for the president himself the fact that this sony hack and north korea's activities have come to dominate the discussion in a week the president was hoping, i think, for a pivot to his new policy vis-a-vis the castro regime in cuba, i think that it's going to complicate his bid to get out of town a little bit. martha: yeah. you know, i think so far he has not had a very strong response to it. he said, you know, basically he still thinks everybody should go to the movies, but he has not called on these companies to band together to fight this, and it potentially opens the door to a lot more of these situations and also raises the question, chris, how well prepared are we? how well prepared is the government? you hear about the nsa being in sort of everybody's computer, which they would deny, but if they are, they sure don't seem to know what's going on here. >> well, certainly part of the reason is probably that the insufficiency of our capabilities to deal with and respond to these kinds of things in this brave new world, that's

probably a big part of it. another big part of it, though, would seem to be this: so the united states when it comes to how to deal with the castro brothers, when it comes to how to deal with bashar al assad in syria, when it comes to dealing with vladimir putin, the preference has tended to be to deescalate, to lay back for this president. the idea of confronting and coming out and saying what the president's critics say he should to nay which is we are -- to north korea which is we are not going to let any tin horn dictators dictate anything to the president, -- to the united states, and the president would tweet it out with his feet up watching this movie while he was doing it. that's what the critics want, but it's not the administration's policy. martha: they could say it's any of these bad actors or any hackers here at home. we don't back down to this stuff, we stand for free speech, and it's as simple as that. give me the other highlights

that you think, in terms of cuba what do you think the questions are going to be? >> well, the president, i'm sure, has crafted -- i'm sure his communications office has carefully crafted a list of reporters on whom to call, and they'd better be calling on some ed henry if they want some really good questions. [laughter] but that having been said -- martha: he'll probably just stand up and ask one anyway, knowing ed. [laughter] >> exactly. they're going to run the gamut. i expect we think of these press conferences as sort of taking the trash to the curb, right? there's a lot of stuff the president needs to address. he needs to get on the record with things that are uncomfortable and not suitable for touchy-feely interviews with "people" magazine. he's got to get some stuff out on the record. remember, escalating war in iraq, continuing war in afghanistan, ongoing troubles as it relates to russia and all of those things. the president needs to get on the record with those things. he also very much needs to talk about what's going on with health care, the economy and all of those things.

so you are going to see a rapid fire, this laundry list of issues that the president's going to go through. but the big bomb, i will guarantee you, outside of foreign policy will relate to immigration and what he says and what the questions are. martha: merry christmas. bill: ed henry just tweeted that stirewalt was right, he should be called on. [laughter] bill: seven minutes past. speaking of cuba now, new reaction to the stunning shift in american foreign policy there. people living under dictatorship for 350 years face -- 50 years. critics are slamming the president for basically giving away the store, they say. all these negotiations with rau wiewl castro. >> this president has to be the worst negotiator we've ever had, and he has betrayed -- betrayed -- those cubans that have worked so hard and have sacrificed so much for the freedom and liberty of the island. bill: steve harrigan's live in

havana, cuba. >> reporter: bill, one of the mysteries so far between this agreement is the role, if any, played by fidel castro. the last time he was actually seen in public was almost a year ago here in havana. he was visibly frail and walking with a cane. the longtime opponent of any reconciliation with the u.s. really is a question now because there's been no reaction from fidel either publicly or in print. so speculation again beginning to buzz that the 88-year-old may be incapacitated. in the meantime, as cubans continue to celebrate the move towards reconciliation with the u.s., we are learning more about one of the key chips in the deal. the 52-year-old cuban spy was released for three cuban spies. according to u.s. intelligence officials, this was the man who wrote the codes for cuban spies in the u.s. he showed the how the cubans were communicating with that haa through ham radio codes. he's been called one of the most valuable assets. his family here says he's disappeared from prison, they

don't know where he is, but they hope he's safe. back to you. bill: watching history unfold in havana, cuba. martha? martha: so will a thawing relationship with cuba mean the convicted cop killer hiding in havana will now come back and face the rest of her prison term? the victim's family would like to know the answer to that question. >> there wasn't any doubt in the jury's mind, there wasn't any doubt in the judge's mind, and there's definitely not any doubt in law enforcement's mind. >> new jersey state police will not give up on catching her. martha: big story in all of this. former nypd police commissioner is here with his take on the chances of that happening. bill: also a devastating fire ripping through an apartment building during the heart of rush hour. where this happened. martha: and the white presidents using executive action far less than his predecessors. coming under new scrutiny, is the number actually far higher

and does it matter what you call it? >> i'm slightly confused. you said executive orders are quite sweeping. doesn't that make the point "usa today" was trying to make that no matter what you call it, it's kind of misleading people about how often he's using executive action? it's the purple pill, the #1 prescribed acid blocking brand, available without a prescription for frequent heartburn. get complete protection. nexium level protection™

hello... i'm an idaho potato farmer and our big idaho potato truck is still missing. so my buddy here is going to help me find it. here we go. woo who, woah, woah, woah. it's out there somewhere spreading the word about america's favorite potatoes: heart healthy idaho potatoes and the american heart association's go red for women campaign. if you see it i hope you'll let us know. always look for the grown in idaho seal. bill: firefighters in new york city battling a massive blaze during a peak rush hour out of this apartment building in queens. the smoke causing a nearby subway station to be evacuated

which also created delays for the commute. more than 160 firefighters respond. no injuries and no immediate word of cause for that blaze. ♪ ♪ martha: so a new chapter in u.s. registrations with cuba -- relations with cuba raising hopes of closing an old wound. authorities are still hopeful that havana will extradite convicted police killer joanne chesimard. in 1973 she gunned down westerner forester in cold blood during a traffic stop, and she was sentenced by a jury to life in this prison for that murder. but she escaped. in 1979. and fled to cuba. her fugitive status landing her on the fbi's most wanted terrorist list, she's first woman on that list, and she is on that list today. her presence in cuba was hardly kept under wraps, fidel castro stuck up for her in 2005 calling washington's portrayal of her as

a terrorist, quote, an infamous lie. so all these years later, will forester's family finally get the justice that they seek in the killer of their family member? bernard carak is a former commissioner of the new york police department, and he joins me now. it seems to me if you've got somebody on a most wanted, the fbi's most wanted terrorist list, that you would have wanted to discuss that as part of any deal to normalize relations with cuba, but there's no sign that that happened, is there? >> well, we haven't heard about it. when things like this go on, there's a lot that you won't hear, a lot of back door discussion cans. but i would hope -- discussions. but i would hope that the state department, that the fbi, that the justice department was counseling the president, talking to the president when he was making these decisions. because chesimard's not the only one. you have willie morales, the mommer -- bomber that bombed a number of facilities in new york city, you have charlie hill who killed a trooper in, i think, new mexico, state trooper.

and there's a bunch of fugitives that are hiding out there. but you have some really violent, violent people that fled there, have been there for decades, and they have to come back here to serve their time. martha: and no doubt the families of these victims have been asking for a long time for these people to be extradited. you know, what's the response? has this administration ever given them any feedback on what their feeling is about her case in particular? >> nothing that we know of. we have tried for years, rick fuentes, who's the state police superintendent today, he actually worked on case 30 years ago. trying to get her out of cuba. you know, hopefully there's going to be so much pressure put on the cuban government that she has to come back here. my fear is that she knows this is coming. all of them, they know this is

coming. if cuba opens up, i know a whole bunch of state troopers from new jersey that'll volunteer to go grab her. so, you know, my fear is she tries to go somewhere else in the meantime, you know, to get away from this. martha: you mentioned a case of susan rosenberg who was pardoned by bill clinton, and a lot of people felt that that was an unjust decision. is there concern that any of these people would be pardoned given what they have already been convicted of? >> there's a lot of rhetoric on social media right now that chesimard and some of these others should be pardoned and just leave them alone. one, she murdered a new jersey state trooper in cold blood, she shot another. she was involved in the shooting of another. she escaped from a new jersey state prison. she's been on the lam for more than 30 years. okay, she should be held accountable for her crime.

and brought back here. i would, i would find it horrific if the administration pardoned her. i don't think the president would do that. i i -- martha: you would>> i would hop. martha: in the meantime, i guess everybody should make their feelings known about this case, because it is -- the window has opened for the possibility of these people being returned and serving out, in her case, the rest of her term which she was sentenced to by a jury. so we hope that everybody makes their feelings known on this, and we'll see where we get. bernie kerik, thank you very much. bill: congratulations on your book too, thank you, bernie. it's being called a big blow to isis, taking out some of the terror group's top leaders while an american general says it will be three years before isis can be advantage wished. general jack keane next on that. plus, this -- ♪ ♪ >> star-studded good-bye for

stephen colbert. can you spot all the famous faces that showed up in this thing? when we come back. ♪ ♪ [cheers and applause]

♪ ♪ bill: is this a turning point in the battle against isis? the pentagon saying u.s. airstrikes have killed several top terror leaders in iraq over the past three weeks including the right-hand man of isis. a defense official also saying u.s. and coalition partners have carried out 1300 airstrikes between iraq and syria in this operation. >> we're seeing initial successes in this fight. my assessment is that we're transitioning to the defense and attempting to hold what they currently have. >> that is lieutenant general

james terry, and my next guest knows him well. jack keane, fox news military analyst. how are you, general? good morning to you. >> good morning to you, bill. bill: are we getting better? is it a question of time? >> yeah, we are getting better. general jim terry, as you said, he's really an outstanding officer. he's knotts over-- he's not overstating the case. isis has not taken new territory in weeks and, in fact, we have retaken some territory ourselves. isis is still attacking in iraq, to be sure, and this week they're attacking in three different places, mostly in anbar province and also in baji, but they have not taken territory. so as a result of that, the airstrikes have had some significant impact here. the other thing that's enabled us to retake territory, bill, is the isf, but that's in name only. the isf that's retaken territory is actually the shia militia that were trained and influenced

by iran and actually some of their advisers are on the ground with them. that is not good news in terms of iran's influence inside iraq. bill: a lot of people predicted that, too, as you know. is there a big difference between battling isis in iraq as opposed to taking them on in syria, general? >> yeah, there really is. in both cases we have weak hands in terms of indigenous forces. in syria it's most pronounced because it's the free syrian army, and the free syrian army not only has to deal with isis, but it's being shellacked by assad's regime. mostly its air power which is pounding it. and the fact that we will not take on on the regime as our allies in the region are urging us to do -- that is turkey, saudi arabia, united emirates and qatar as well as jordan all want us to take on assad regime's military power. we have made a policy decision not to do that and to fight isis

only. i think that has been a bad decision. its has long-term strategic -- it has long-term strategic implications making the fight in syria much more challenging as a result of it. because the forces that we're trying to assist are being killed every day. bill: you also mentioned general terry here. he says it's going to take at least three years or longer to defeat isis. did you agree with that assessment? and if it's taking three years plus, what does that group look like then? >> well, i agree with the assessment, but i don't think it has to take three years. the reason the general's accurate is because we're applying the minimal amount of assistance to the iraqi security forces, and we've got to reconstitute the visions that were collapsed. we're not providing the amount of advisers to do that, we're not putting advisers with the companies and battalions, and we're just beginning to do

something about the sunni tribes. even when we stand up the capability, i don't believe it's anywhere near what we could be providing. so this is a weak happened in iraq -- weak hand in iraq on the ground indigenous forces, and we could make that considerably stronger if we put more resources into mening them. i'm not -- into helping them. i'm not talking about ground combat troops. bill: that's a commander in chief decision though, general. >> it is. terry is ex ex-- all he's doings telling you this is what i can do with the resources that i've been given, and those resource decisions are made in the white house, not in the pentagon. in the past the way we run military operations is that guys in the pentagon and in the field decide what the resources are that are required. in this case the white house made those decisions. bill: general, thank you for your time. jack keane there in washington. appreciate it. >> good talking to you, bill. bill: you too. martha? martha: some critics blasting the latest white house shift in foreign policy as it considers a response to the sony hack attack. >> what they've just done on cuba, among other things, it's a

weak presidency, and i think those that have the cyber capability will use it. this is a serious threat given our dependence on the internet. we have got to do more both defensively and offensively. martha: this time the target was a movie studio. so what are the options to keep this kind of thing from getting elsewhere? bill: and this is a live look at times square, christmas time in the city. ♪ ♪ martha: get out there is -- get out there and enjoy it. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ martha: fox news alert, president obama getting ready to face reporters in his end of the year news conference. the president will likely face questions on everything from the sony hack attack to the cuba

agreement to tensions with russia and also how he plans to deal with the republican-controlled congress that he's going to come back to work with. then tonight the president will head the hawaii with his family as he always does for a 17-day vacation which sounds lovely. bill: sure does. go golfing. the white house working to come up with an appropriate response as it investigates this cyber attack targeting sony pictures. ambassador john bolton talking about the options with greta "on the record" here. >> if we can conclude it was north korea, we need to put them back on the list of state sponsors of terror, and we need to put all the economic sanctions back in place. if you treat this simply as an inconvenience, other countries will conclude that they can attack and get away with it. and particularly with this administration what they've just done on cuba, among other things, it's a weak presidency, and i think those that have the cyber capability will use it. bill: we're going to hear more about this today. gillian turner now, the former white house national security

council staff member serving under president bush and a fox news contributor. i how are you? good morning to you, gillian. you say cyber time -- your words now -- is the foremost threat to american well being. wow. how? >> well, what i mean by that is that really the face of contemporary terrorist organizations are cyber criminals. they are, you know, organizations whether in the private or public sector overseas of our adversaries that, you know, target us in ways like the sony attack that we saw yesterday. bill: so sony has a problem on its hands, and it's been documented now that they knew they had issues and did not do anything about it. where are you on that? >> yeah. i mean, by all accounts it seems that sony is an example of a company that, you know, whose cybersecurity protocols are very weak. they needed an overhaul. so i'm sort of hopeful that this will serve as a reminder, as a

cautionary tale to other companies that it's time to really take cybersecurity seriously as a threat. bill: but it's sony that pulled the film. the government didn't pull the film. and who knows the real reason why. some believe they were just trying to protect themselves from more e-mails going public because it has hindered their business significantly, gillian. >> yeah. and i would argue that's sonys sort of foremost -- soakny's sort of -- sony's sort of foremost interest here. their interest is to protect their financial assets as well as their financial interests. and, you know, it's really not sony's job to step in and take on cyber terrorists and, you know, institute protection for american citizens in movie theaters. i think that here we really need the u.s. government to step in and help manage the response. if something like this happens in the future -- which it will -- you know, these private sector corporations are not left out, you know, to float around in the wind.

bill: that's an interesting point, but how would the public sector work with the private sector on this? >> well, i -- my premise here is that robust private/public sector cooperation is really needed to face down this threat. ideally what would happen in a situation like this is the u.s. government intelligence community would gather intelligence warning of a pending attack such as this one, they would in turn share this information with the administration, and then the government would in turn share that with sony or whichever company is the target of the attack so they could work together to design and implement an appropriate deterrent, whether that's development of malware or some other mechanism. bill: then maybe we hear some of that on the president. quickly, did you think this is really north korea? i mean, what's your gut tell you? >> personally, my gut tells me it is, indeed, north korea. but we're hearing from some cyber experts this morning

saying that, you know, precisely identifying these sort of cyber fingerprints is a very difficult thing to do, and it takes some time. the administration feels confident that they have the -- all the information that they need in order to, you know, identify north korea as the source. but at the end of day, the difficulty there is you have to determine exactly whose hand struck the keyboard at very precise moments in time, and that's difficult. bill: and "the wall street journal" says there is one link in all of this, just one that trails back to north korea. so more on this. gillian turner, thank you for your time out of washington today. appreciate it. >> thanks, bill. ♪ ♪ martha: a new twist in the immigration debate. republicans say the obama administration is now trying to fast track citizenship for about eight million people. why? they say to try and create instant democratic voters. or at least that is the allegation. that kind of allegation's been around some time when it comes to the idea of immigration and who would turn into voters for

which party. william la jeunesse is live from our west coast newsroom with more on this today. hey, william. >> reporter: martha, almost 20 years after the clinton administration tried to register a million new democratic voters, some without documents or background check, republicans fear it's happening again to impact the next election. >> it must be clear from the outset that there is a pathway to citizenship. >> reporter: the obamastration d plans to turn legal immigrants -- those with green cards -- into u.s. citizens, for the first time letting them pay filing fees by credit card and reducing or even completely waiving the cost. >> to bring them into the full fold of society, make sure that they are assimilating, learning english, learning their civics and becoming u.s. citizens is good for us as a country. >> reporter: some conservatives see another agenda. >> they're using our money for political means to their 2016 path to victory in their minds. >> reporter: a media campaign will promote english learning in ten states home to 75% of all

legal immigrants and 239 electoral votes, nearly enough to claim the presidency. >> the goal is to naturalize as many as they can with the idea of registering them to vote with the hope that they're going to vote democratic as they did in the 1996 election. >> reporter: in '96 congress uncovered an effort by the clinton administration to increase democratic turnout by registering new citizens who were rushed through the process with incomplete files and no background checks. today a majority of eligible immigrants are from latin america and asia. in 2012 70% of hispanics voted democratic, 60% among asians. >> if republican candidates want asian, latino voters to come to them, they have to compete for them. >> reporter: obama officials argue the new americans program is an economic winner for all, but politically republicans fear the program, martha, will turn red states to blue. back to you.

martha: william, thank you. ♪ ♪ bill: so stephen colbert signing off on a final episode of "the colbert report," using a word that he pretty much invented. [laughter] >> truthiness is all those things people say i did -- running for president, safing the olympics, the rally to restore sanity and/or fear and/or cat stevens career -- [laughter] none of that was really me. you, the nation, did all of that. i just got paid for it. [laughter] from the beginning of my show, it was my goal to live up to name of this network, influence central. [laughter] and if all we achieved over the last nine years was to come into your home each night and help you make a difficult day a little bit better, man, what a waste. laugh. [applause] nation, i want you to know if i had to do it all again, if i

could do it with you, i would do it the same. [cheers and applause] martha: colbert bidding farewell to his audience by singing "we'll meet again," joined by colleague jon stewart. ♪ we'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when -- [cheers and applause] bill: randy newman on piano, right? martha: yep. bill: no low key affair to go out on. martha: the who's who of celebrities from politics, willie nelson, katie couric and even the cookie monster showed up for that whole thing. ♪ just like you always do. ♪ -- the dark clouds far away. bill: nicely done.

next up, the late show on cbs when he takes over for david letterman. it'll be very interesting. martha: going to be very interesting. bill: the late night war's going to come back in a -- martha: what are woe going to do without steven out there poking fun at us all the time? one of my favorite lines at the end he goes, "that was fun." that was a fun nine years and a lot of creativity, and we look forward to -- bill: i wonder what he sounds like when he's not in character. i guess we'll have to -- martha: yeah. you'll seement i think it's going to be very similar but very different at the same time. so we're looking forward to it. congratulations to stephen. we look forward to the late night show coming up as well. so you turn to your doctor for medical advice, now new questions about tv's dr. oz and what he's telling everybody to do. bill: also president obama making record use of executive power to enact major change. so does it make any difference whether you call it an order or a memorandum? ed henry? >> executive orders, therefore,

are more sweeping and often more impactful. >> but in the case of immigration, which you would acknowledge was pretty seeping, it was a -- sweeping, it was a presidential memorandum, not an executive order. >> that's correct. >> reporter: so by your definition, i'm slightly confused. [ man ] i remember when i wouldn't give a little cut a second thought. ♪ when i didn't worry about the hepatitis c in my blood. ♪ when i didn't think twice about where i left my razor. [ male announcer ] hep c is a serious disease. take action now. go to hepc.com or call 1-844-444-hepc to find out how you and your doctor can take the next step towards a cure. because the answers you need, may be closer than they appear. ♪

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bill: more information right now on what's happening here. a federal law enforcement official telling fox news the fbi will release a statement today blaming north korea for that cyber attack against sony pictures right before president obama begins his press conference, that's 1:30 eastern time. the statement will not call out china for the alleged role that it had in helping the north korean government carry out the attack. so expect that in about three hours' time here on fox. ♪ ♪ martha: some critics have been blasting president obama's record of using executive actions, many of them leading to legal challenges. the white house claiming the president really doesn't issue that many executive orders, but

what about something called presidential memorandums? listen to this. >> there is an important difference between executive orders and presidential memorandums. >> reporter: what do you see as that distinction? big picture, what is the difference? >> generally speaking, presidential memorandums are associated with more technical issues and are often directives that are related to a subset of agencies. executive orders, therefore, are more sweeping and often more impactful. >> reporter: but in the case of immigration, which you would acknowledge was pretty sweeping, it was a presidential memorandum, not an executive order. >> that's correct. >> reporter: so by your definition, i'm slightly confused. doesn't that make the point that "usa today" was trying to make, no matter what you call it, he was kind of misleading people about how often he's using can >> no, the president's predecessors hav issued for more exfive orders -- executive orders than the president has.

martha: guy penson, julie roginsky, both are fox news contribute canners. you know, you look at that, it's like what difference does it make, but the point is, julie, the president has been very outspoken about the fact that he has not done a lot more executive orders than the oh presidents -- other presidents, but when you add up the numbers including memoranda, it's all the same things, correct? >> it's nonsense. listen, i appreciate josh earnest's very value grant attempt to draw a -- valiant attempt to draw a distinction, but the reality is he has used more presidential memoranda, and out really is the same thing. you could argue about whether both sides of the aisle have used, bush really took a lot of advantage of the so-called signing statements that he made. essentially using them as a line item veto. look, any president, i don't care if they're republican or

democrat, is going to push their authority as much as they can to get as much done as they possibly can. by the way, i don't necessarily agree with it, but that's what -- martha: yeah. that's what they do. >> they do. and what we heard from josh earnest is just heavy duty parsing. they're playing the semantics game. the question is about power. frankly, i don't really care if they're playing a numbers game. what is more important to examine is the legality and the propriety and the impact of these executive actions. and i think we should look at a quote from barack obama himself as a candidate in 2008. i wrote it down so i got it correct. he said: the biggest problems we're facing right now have to do with george bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through congress. that's not them ran do -- memoranda, action, whatever, that's power, and it's clear -- martha: i think that is, julie, what people have found offensive in some ways. and that's that the president ran on this platform of being very transparent, of being open,

offing being a different kind of change and hope presidency where things weren't going to be done in a circumventing way around the people and the law to get things done. >> are you telling me, shockingly, absolute power corrupts absolutely? [laughter] as i said, yes, guy's absolutely right. the president also campaigned very strongly against the so-called use of the signing statements that i alluded to earlier that george bush really took advantage of. and then, of course, he -- martha: does that disappoint you? >> it doesn't because i'm not naive. i've never dunk the kool-aid and believe -- drunk the kool-aid and ever believe that -- martha: could ever make change. >> it's not even that. when you're beginning that kind of authority, that kind of power, you're going to push the limits of it, i don't care who you are. martha: they do use this argument, guy, well, we had to, right? we wanted to do things for the american people, and the republicans wouldn't let us do that. i mean, that could have been josh's answer.

he could have been like, yeah, we do things for different categories, but the truth is that the president has tried to do as much as he could to move forward with the agenda that -- >> right. the had-to excuse. i had jokingly referred to the getting stuff done clause of the constitution which doesn't exist. the american people have elected a government that is divideed. it'll be even more divided come january, and i think for the president to prove forward with this immigration plan but to do it in such a way that he himself repeatedly said he couldn't do, that's a question i hope he's asked today at 1:30 whether by ed henry or anyone else sitting there. please, ask the question of the president, read his own quotes, i cannot do this, it's not appropriate, i don't have the authority. and now he's done it. why? what changed? martha: we'll see. thank you, julie, guy. >> merry christmas. martha: you too. we'll see you soon. have a great one. will: 11 minutes before the author. eric shawn's in for jon scott.

eric: hi, bill and martha. president obama will be holding hiss first presidential news conference since the day after the democrats' sing stinging defeat in the midterms. expected to be asked about everything from immigration to cuba and north korea, the sony hacking to the end of open enrollment you should obamacare. we will, of course, have fox news team coverage and in-depth analysis, and we'll have that news conference for you live in a few hours there now. bill: eric, thank you. see you top of the hour. new signs of life on mars, earthlings. new evidence from the red planet, but what does it mean? ♪ ♪

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built for business. ♪ ♪ bill: we made the is studio look really important for our next guest. is there life on mars? the curiosity rover has detected these organic molecules in the red planet's soil, but we're wondering what it means. corey powell from discover magazine is here to answer that. how are you, sir? the big news is what, what did it find? >> curiosity found methane gas on mars, it's basically swamp mars. where it came from is the big question. methane gas can come from -- bill: cows? >> it can definitely come from cows. it can come from geoare thermal activity -- yee yo thermal --

geothermal activity. i wish i could tell you we know it's life. bill: because it is, what, it's organic, right? >> it's an organic molecule. we don't know yet where it comes from. we're trying to figure this out using a remote-controlled robot, so it's a difficult thing. finding the meth their tell -- methane tells you there's something going on there. bill: organic does not necessarily mean this is alive, right? >> exactly. methane gas is something that shouldn't be there, so the fact that it's there tells you something act you have is happening -- active is happening. that's the next thing we want to figure out. bill: how do you figure that out? >> well, this is a kind of methane gas that life on earth makes, and there's another, there's a european mission coming in 2018 and another mars rover coming in 2020. they're going to have much more sophisticated instruments that are going to try to give you the answers so it can come back and say, yes, we found life, which is what you want to hear.

bill: cut to the chase, life or not? >> and, you know, it's frustrating to have to say maybe. right now we're getting closer. like i said, we're trying to do remote science in a very difficult way. if you could bring a sample back home, that's the ultimate goal, bring some mars samples back home, then you can get an answer. and maybe there will be people on mars and definitely life on mars. bill: elon musk is all over that. thank you, corey. we've got all the stuff out here for you today. >> it's like being on mars. [laughter] bill: sometimes we do feel that way, don't we, martha? martha: quite often, actually. it's being called the first cyber war america has been in, so what is president obama's response to the hacking that has brought sony to a standstill? the president expected to face questions on that at a big news conference that happens before he heads off for the holidays. we're also expected to hear more about the deal renewing relations with cue da. -- cuba. coming up when we come back.

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bill: so. martha: here we are. bill: with eight seconds to go. have a great weekend. martha: have a wonderful weekend. get all the shopping done over the weekend. stick around. the president coming up at 1:00. bye, everybody. heather: we're starting out with a fox news alert. we're waiting for president obama's year-end news conference and one big question. will the white house take a harder line against north korea? after of the cyberattack targeted sony pictures? welcome to "happening now." i'm heather nauert in for jenna lee. eric: good morning, heather. goodgood morning, everyone, i'm eric shawn in for jon scott. the president will take questions two hours from now at 1:30 p.m. in the white house before leaves for a two-week vacation in hawaii. the last time he held a full-fledged news conference, was after the u.s. voters gave a defeat to the democratic pty