>> reporter: leland, the christ tabernacle church behind me is only about three miles

from the shooting site. this is a tragedy that has sent shock waves through this entire community. officer ramos was a 14-year member of this church, he was an usher, he was well known, and he was loved. preparations now underway for the wake that will begin at 2:00. off in the distance out of camera frame, a large screen television monitor is being set up, and floral arrangements have already started to arrive. at 7:00 this evening a memorial service is slated to take place, and then tomorrow at this very same location there will be the funeral. yesterday a member of officer ramos' family visited the makeshift memorial there. they talked to some of the officers who have been standing vigil. officer ramos leaves behind a wife and two children. it is expected that as many as 25,000 police officers from around the country and canada are going to attend services. one of them is detective jason,

which riparti from texas. >> to stand up with all the new york city officers and officers from around the country and to show our support. >> reporter: this is a time of not only mourning for the nypd, but also caution. threats against police continue. not far from where i am standing, police a short time ago searched a home, and in it they found weapons and bulletproof vests. they were following up a tip that a man was overheard on a telephone making threats against police. 38-year-old elvin -- [inaudible] has now been charged with felony weapons possession as well as aggravated harassment. he is now being held in lieu of half a million dollars' bail. and lastly, leland, no word yet

on the funeral for the other fallen officer, wenjian liu. his relatives will be arriving from china, and some of the logistics have delayed making those arrangements. leland: tragic all around. david lee miller live in queens, we'll check back. molly: president obama marking the end of more than a decade of combat operations in afghanistan with a christmas visit to marines at a base in hawaii thanking them for their sacrifices. peter doocy joins us live from washington. >> reporter: this is the last time many more than servicemen and women will be deployed to afghanistan and away from their families during the holidays because once 2015 gets here, the pentagon is leaving behind just north of 10,000 u.s. troops, and they are not sticking around more combat missions. their job will be to get the afghan security forces up to speed so they can protect their own turf. >> this is an important year. we've been in continuous war now

for almost 13 years, over 13 years, and next week we will be ending our combat mission. afghanistan has a chance to rebuild its own country. we are safer. it's not going to be a source of terrorist attacks again. >> reporter: the president's remarks were very well received. in fact, the christmas day crowd at that marine base in hawaii erupted with a lot hooah when he was all done. and while christmas provided a cheerful reaction, there's still a lot the american military has to consider. there's isis in syria and iraq, kidnapping and beheading westerners and trying to inspire lone wolves, and the taliban is still active. in fact, just two weeks ago taliban militants in pakistan assaulted a school there killing more than 100 young students. the president wasn't the only one sharing christmas with service members.

the vice president, joe biden, was actually just outside d.c. at walter reed where he greeted injured american heros and the doctors and nurses treating them senator john mccain was in kabul where he met with americans stationed in afghanistan. he also held meetings with key afghan officials. molly? >> the peter. thank you. >> we oh our troops a debt of grad taughted thank you very much. >> jeb bush is putting making moves to put his 2016 presidential campaign in order. he cut ties with businesses including a company that profited from obamacare. carl cameron is live with washington what is next. carl? >> reporter: hi, leland. jeb bush accelerated campaign cycle for everybody. into the only cut his ties with tenet healthcare, a big hospital concern with 80 hospitals in 14

states and urgent claire clinics but cut his contacts with barclays, the big brittish bank. he has done a number of things to get things going. he is making it very clear he is seriously considering he is making a run for president. he announced a exploratory committee. that put tremendous pressure on all his potential rivals. they will compete for money jeb bush can create. the bush donor base has been in making best part of last 20 years with three presidencies. his father had one term. george w. bush of course had two. there are number of things he is doing to make a claim for that, making his correspondence as governor of florida transparent. he will release 250,000 emails. that will give lots of people tremendous amounts of material to scrutinize. including emails from voters who suggested when he was governor he was not conservative enough. by touting his transparency like this what mr. bush does is put a lot of pressure on

chris christie who is governor of new jersey. had great year as republican governor association. has been enboing up on foreign policy, building a big presidential portfolio. still waiting for feds to end investigation of so-called george washington "bridgegate" scandal. when you combine mr. bush and christie, establishment candidates with rest of former and current governors. there are a record nine of them who are looking at running for governor. that is astonishing number. it raises questions about all the speculation about mitt romney getting in. with this many current and former governors in the race, there is very real possibility that mitt romney, who leads most of the polls will ultimately decide not to get n he said he wouldn't. but he hasn't exactly closed-door. his advisors are pushing hard for him as you know, leland. for governors, jeb bush and chris christie is making a lot of noise. chris christie will go to a cattle call for presidential candidates in iowa. what it is called the freedom

forum. christie accepted along with ted cruz, rick perry, mike huckabee and rick santorum. in less than a month we'll have a first gathering of would-be presidents for 2016 leland. >> the chess match begins. carl cameron in washington covering it all. thanks, carl. >> as usual the presidential race expected to come down to a battle for key swing states. shift in voter demographics could shake things up. jonah goldberg, senior editor at "national review" and fox news contributor. lynn sweet, washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun-times." thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> we heard a great interview with carl cameron. he went through a is are of all candidates we'll possibly seeing. people start to jump in the next six months or so once 2015 gets here. who do you think will jump in? when they do, who has the best chance at this point in time, lynn? >> i think mitt romney is one who will not jump in. i know what carl just said and i agree with him.

to the degree that mitt romney implied he will get in if the field is cleared and you saw those names. no one will back down just to give somebody a free shot. so i think the ones who are maybe marginal are not even going to be dissuaded because, as we all know. running for president gives you a platform that you otherwise would not have. leah: >> absolutely, jonah your thoughts? >> agree with lynn. i think mitt romney will not get n jeb makes much more difficult for him to get in. he will soak up a lot of establishment donor money. a fresher face than mitt romney which is the best thing you can say about jeb in terms of the fresh face department. ted cruz is obviously going to get in. i think, what could be happening we'll actually see, what you sort of standard model for a lost presidential elections on the republican side, a lot of the sort of conservative base guys dividing up the base o

the establishment guy, basically having a much clearer path. so we'll see jeb soak up a lot of that money. probably chasing marco rubio out. chasing out mitt romney who i didn't think would really get in anyway. maybe chris christie will be less, less able to keep going because he will not have the money. jeb might actually take this thing. and that will cause real dismay and talk of a revolt on the republican right. >> no matter who actually jumps into this race they will gather a team around them and that team will look at the map and where they can pick up all the votes they need. shifting demographics in this country, that is one of the big things we've been following. which side, the democrats or the republicans, stand to gain from shifting demographics. where is it the most challenging, lynn? >> i think most challenging remains florida because you have, you have a very diverse hispanic population. it is, it has many political aspects to it along, the i-4

corridor in the middle of state that runs from the gulf to the ocean. it is a wonderfully complex, polly ethnic state. i think that is always the place to watch. while demographics may shift they're always shifting in a way sometimes makes for it less predictable. having said that, i think the remarkable thing is that the swing states in 2016 looks like they will be pretty much the swing states that we've had in the last three elections. >> jonah, your thoughts on the map? >> yeah. it is true if the republicans don't win florida, and the democrats hold the same states they have held since 1992, republicans lose. republicans have to win florida or steal some other states from the democratic coalition. the demographics thing has been a little overdone. one of the most interesting things that came out of the 2014 midterms that barack obama has overseen massive flight of the white working class away from

the democratic party. and if the democrats can't win a sufficient chunk of the white working class, in 2016, it doesn't matter if they win large numbers of hispanics and large numbers of african-americans. this is still a largely white electorate in this country and if you don't have the white working class in the democratic column to significant extent, there are a lot of states you just can't win. be interesting to see come 2016 if obama is still unpopular, if people don't feel like the economy is going great, you could see the election go to republicans just on those ground alone. >> thank you so much. jonah goldberg, lynn sweet for joining us here today. we appreciate your insight. >> thank you. >> court documents are shedding new light on the veterans affairs scandal. now, claims that senior officials in washington new year's ago about major issues at the phoenix va hospital. plus this.

[shouting] >> city leaders are begging for calm after a fatal police shooting sparked new riots just miles from ferguson, missouri, as well as other parts of the country. the mayor of berkeley, missouri, joins us with his message.

molly: we call it the day after christmas. much of the rest of the world call it boxing day where shoppers hit the stores in herds. retailers bring in millions in

boxing day frenzies in u.k. and australia. they are hoping to score that major post-christmas bargain. in prague, dozens of swimmers celebrating the day braving freezing waters. >> of course you feel cold. everybody but, you can live it and afterwards, say 30 minutes after you get out of the water, the blood begins to circulate in the body and it is very positive feeling. >> well, you know, some swimmers they're racing for nearly a thousand feet in that water. they train ad year long for this competition. i don't know, you do what you want the day after christmas i suppose. leland: new and disturbing developments are coming in about the crisis at the department of veterans affairs about who knew what when. court documents show senior officials found out as early as

2009 about dangerous delays in treatment and even falsified waiting lists at the phoenix va hospital. doug mckelway live in washington with new information. what it means, doug. >> leland, what makes it so significant, it contradicts the narrative that people at highest levels of the va were unaware of the waiting list problems before they surfaced in the press. also suggests that the problems at troubled phoenix va hospital predated the tenure of director sharon hellman. she was dismissed from her job last month and is now suing to get it back. "the new york times" cites sworn statements of susan bowers who oversaw dozens of va facilities in the western u.s. she said even before sharon hellman was appointed to her job as director in phoenix an audit showed that they did not put patients on electronic waiting list and was there for out of compliance. bowers said there was no such list in phoenix even while hellman's predecessor certified the hospital was in compliance. according to the times bowers's

sworn statement said she was pressured by her bosses in washington to report the hospital was in compliance after she report it was not. bowers statement also said she briefed va secretary eric shinseki often about the patient backlog but the problems went unaddressed because she was told to there was no money to lease more space to handle the back locks. the times also reports that an administrative law judge found this week, it was quote, more likely than not at least some senior agency leaders were aware or should have been of nationwide problems getting veterans scheduled for timely appointments. in a partial vindication of hellman, the judge, his name is steven mish found that the va didn't provide enough evidence that hellman should have been fired over conditions at phoenix. the judge upheld her firing anyway on the ground she received favors from a health care industry consultant. leland, back to you. >> stunning as this continues to develop. doug mckelway live in

washington. thanks, doug. >> another possible hack attack on christmas morning stopping kid from playing their brand new pray stations and xboxs. we have a report on this. dangers journalists face in war zones. what one new report is revealing.

leland: new report shows journal system becoming increasingly dangerous overseas especially in the middle east. according to a media advocacy group at least 60 journalists have been killed this year alone, including americans james foley, steven sotloff. isis terrorists beheaded both of them and put them online. joining us judith miller, pulitzer-prize-winning investigative author and fox news contributor.

and. judith, i want to start with you, in the sense that for so long, journalists were considered independent observers. both sides of any conflict more or less agreed that journalists were off limits. if something bad happened that was the risk but they weren't targeted. when did journalists came from being off limits and independent to being fair game in the sides of the conflict. >> that began with the rise of islamic fundamentalism in the middle east. when we saw the beheading of danny pearl. i've been covering it for about three decades, the rule was, terrorists wanted a lot of people watching and not a lot of people dead and that journalists were useful because as you pointed out, we delivered the message. both of those assumptions and rules of the game changed after danny pearl. after nine eleven, think i once you were working in an area where there were taliban or us lame mick militants you had to assume they would consider a

picture of you being behead ad far more persuasive warning to americans in the west than anything that you might write. so the landscape has totally changed. it is so much more dangerous now for journalists. in some countries they should be considered no-go zones for americans like syria. leland: concept of denied environments. peter, i i want to talk to you. you spent so much time in the middle east reporting on these issues taking a lot of personal risks get in there. when you hear judith talk about denied environments, places like syria, the only place journalists turn to is youtube, activities on the ground to report messages. no way to vet the information, that kind of thing. tell me about challenges for getting the story right when you can't be there. >> i certainly would say that journalists do use youtube or social media to report on these kind of no-go zones. i think that can lead to a lot of potential inaccuracy or

mistakes because you can't verify the information. so if you're covering a story like syria today you're limited to the border regions in the cities where you can contact refugees or activists, people coming in or out but certainly does create a substantial amount of difficulty because you're not there to able to go in and verify. so you do have opportunities to talk to people first-hand and kind of cross-check with what they're saying. if you can't get into the actual country you're reporting on, it imposes considerable limitations on the quality and caliber of reporting you can do. i don't think that means things will be inaccurate. you just might not be able to go as in depth as you would, were you there, actually witnessing the events that you're trying to report on. >> judith, you witnessed such a sea change in journalism when you talked about 30 years ago at your time with some news

organizations. is cost cutting to blame for this? no longer companies have bureaus in the countries? there is not damascus bureau of "the new york times" or with sj. there is so much reliance on freelancers and stringers who save money. james foley was saving money. at an internet cafe, rather than his own uplink, those kind of things? >> absolutely. this also plays a factor. terrorist insurance and body armor and protection if you're buying it yourself. journalist, especially young journalists always want to get the story and always want to be the first. that leads them, especially those less experienced to take risks no one should be taking anymore in these areas. i think, leland for me, there is a question that is raised on part of the news organizations that send meese people out or use their material. and that is, are we encouraging kind of reckless behavior? because at this point if you're operating and trying to report from a place like syria, you're

taking a real, real risk and, i know that we've talked about how difficult it toys verify the stories that you're getting but there comes a point where you just have to say it is not safe and not only won't i go, i won't use material that puts fellow journalists in danger. we had one quarter of journalists killed were international reporters. and a lot of them were young -- leland: excellent point. to your point, only has to be one mistake, one wrong move and that's it. the stakes have become so high. two people who know that well, judith miller and also tom peter. appreciate you both joining us. thanks. >> thank you, leland. leland: molly? molly: another black teenager shot by police in a missouri town a few miles from ferguson, but the mayor of berkeley berke, missouri says the case of is not like the shooting of michael brown. we'll talk to him next.

twitter in the sights of sony. why the entertainment giant is threatening to sue the social media site. two weeks later. look, credit karma-- are you talking to websites again? this website says "free credit scores." oh, credit karma! yeah it's actually free. look, you don't have to put in your credit card information. whew! credit karma. really. free.

molly: right now a quick look what's still to come in this hour of "happening now." long lines this weekend as sony pictures decide to release the interview despite threats from north korea. sony is taking twitter to task. we'll tell you why. this is 10th anniversary of at tsunami that killed a quarter of a million people. how they are honoring them today. leland. leland: well, santa came early for the markets on christmas eve, as the dow jumped further into record territory closing above 18,000. the question does the holiday cheer continue with the markets reopening today. let's take a look. the big board is up about 40

points. the dow at 18,070. we'll keep an on the markets throughout the day as they develop. molly? molly: emotional beachside memorials and religious services are being held across asia to remember more than a quarter of a million people killed by the tsunami 10 years ago today. the indian ocean tsunami is one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. moments of silence held across the region. the disaster was triggered by an under water earthquake that struck a dozen countries, taking out entire coastal communities and tourist-filled beaches. leland: we're now learning that three south korean work remembers dead from inhaling toxic gas at a nuclear plant construction site. the state-run plant was on high alert after hackers claimed they could disabe the plant's control systems. a spokesperson says there is no reason to link the accident to those threats. the victims were working at the plant when they lost consciousness. they later died at a hospital.

the company right now is working to determine exactly what caused the accident inside. although with the current moment they suspect a leak. protests and mourning going on in berkeley, missouri, following the police shooting of a black teenager who authorities say was armed with a gun. the majority of protests there were peaceful. some gathered though, for a candlelight vigil what they called excessive use by force. police say in this case the 18-year-old victim pointed a gun at an officer and berkeley's mayor is taking a firm stance saying this shooting case does not compare with ferguson or the eric garner case in new york. mayor hoskins joins us by phone. we appreciate it, mr. mayor, taking time with us. a tense time in your city. what is your message to folks who obviously there based on the protests are pretty angry. >> i agree. first of all thanks for having me. my message to the community, we are in a process of reviewing,

investigating, the incident and when we have a complete, thorough, investigation, we will provide that information, to the residents. i came to have a news conference monday, about 10:00. >> very quickly after this incident though, you held a press conference that was very different than what we've heard from the mayor in ferguson, or for that matter the mayor here in new york, mayor de blasio. you said we don't have a major crime in this city. this is unique. you pointed out much of your police force is african-american in this town. you said that you were not only praying for the young man who died in this but for the police officer as well. why, what is the difference between your message than you think the rest of the country that seems so angry in terms of activists about police shootings? >> i think major difference is we jumped to the conclusion and our perception becomes real. we point to the police that they're always at fault. in this instance, my review of

the videotape indicates that the officer was justified. my position is that very clear distinction between ferguson and new york is, we must support the right of the police officer anytime he is justified. leland: mayor hoskins, we're seeing video of your city of scuffles at a gas station there. there are dozens of police officers trying to hold the line. protesters are come in trying to attack police officers. it has to be scary, saw explosion, looked like fireworks. got to be scary with a mayor, any moment you have a police shooting not only tragedy to deal with but threat of violence coming after it. >> i agree with. that unfortunate when an incident of this nature occurs, there are some naysayers out

there that continue to provide the wrong information to incite the crowd. that is what occurred out there. before even analyzing, what was the real reason that police officer had to take that young man's life. leland: mayor, what is your message to folks in new york and folks obviously in st. louis who are angry and folks taken to the streets? obviously some of them advocated violence. some of them advocated change. do you think cities like yours, cities like ferguson have a real problem with police and overpolicing? or is this something these are isolated incidents and most police-involved shootings are like incidents in your city that are justified no. >> i will just talk about my city because i'm not totally familiar with new york or even ferguson. in our city we're very diverse in our police department. because of that diversity, they

are very sensitive to the various resident, black or white. i think one of the major accomplishments can occur in a city is to have diversity in your police department where not only the residents but the policemen, black, white, hispanics are communicating with each other. therefore they're extremely sensitive. i think that is, the city of berkeley is fortunate to have diversity in our police department we can work together with all aspects of society. leland: i would add, sir, they are fortunate to have you as their mayor. mayor theodore hoskins of berkeley, missouri. we wish you peace in your city. >> i appreciate the opportunity to convey our position and to y'all, have a happy new year. leland: you too, sir, thank you. >> bye-bye. leland: molly? molly: russia's economy rocked by international sanctions and the lowest oil price since 2009. so what is this guy going to do

about it and what could it mean for your saveings? our foreign policy analysts weigh in. the punches keep on coming for sony of the entertainment giant facing another potential hack and more legal troubles. the latest details next. with contour detect technology that flexes in 8 directions for the perfect shave at any angle. go to philips.com/new to save up to $40. innovation and you. philips norelco.

molly: check out what is ahead on "outnumbered" at the top of the hour. ladies. >> good to see you, molly line. thank you very much. hillary clinton is making a move to the left to win over democrats and gain support from

liberals. all this as massachusetts senator elizabeth warren is creeping up as a party favorite. will hillary clinton be able to drum up the support she needs if she makes a bid for 2016? >> folks crowding movie theaters christmas day to get a first look at the controversial movie "the interview" of the was it a blockbuster hit or a complete mess. >> have you seen it? >> i haven't seen it yet but i plan to. >> a little crude but very funny. >> looking forward to it. >> a new report raising some eyebrows how a driver with no experience was allowed to drive in a presidential motorcade. how does that happen? >> that is amazing. our #oneluckyguy. "outnumbered" at the top of the hour. a lot of first-timers today. >> jedediah, harris, thank you so much. >> see ya. leland: speaking of that movie "the interview," learning about another possible cyberattack against sony. some users of sony's online playstation store and microsoft's xbox site are saying they had problems logging in on

christmas day. a hacking group, calling itself, lizard squad, is claiming responsibility. meantime the entertainment giant who released the movie "the interview" in some theaters and online, well, they're reporting record sales and as you can see, sold out audiences. adam housley is live in los angeles with the details. adam? >> reporter: leland, originally when this movie was going to come out before all the hacking scandal and chaos that ensued in hollywood the last three or four weeks, 3,000 theaters nationwide were going to show it. because of movie pulled and put back on and all different things happened, 300 mostly art house theaters brought the move any have. this is mostly about online streaming for sony. a lot of people who never streamed but decided they would stream the movie or show north korea or whoever they can't control what americans watch and what they see. numbers came out so far, some estimated 3, $4 million. you're talking about only 331

theaters and streaming. sony just has released this morning numbers they say is just more than a million dollars they made from the interview. every theater we know of had lines and sold out. online ad issues, xbox and sony's online cites. there is no connection this happened from the same hackers or hacking group but there were threats out there and warnings to people that would stream, a lot for the first time, to take care and to watch, because a lot of other hackers would be waiting in the wings to go after people and cites that may not have the proper protections in place. if you talk to people on the street and in the theater last night, whether they were planning on seeing the movie last night, they all had one thing in common. they were going to see this movie to show others that americans can't be told what to do, watch or listen. take a listen. >> okay, it is about the assassination of a foreign leader but, in america we don't

fear laughing at our leaders. >> can not allow dictators or fundamentalists tell us what media we consume and how we want to express ourselves. >> reporter: again this is a big test case for sony and for the industry in general. the movie itself of course deals with the assassination of the north korean leader but it is a test case because it wasn't planned to be released this way. it kind of gives maybe hollywood an idea, at least industry insiders believe where the whole streaming sits. a lot of people in the last year or two stream television shows. it is very popular to do that. movies streaming still aren't at a level yet i think a lot of studios would like. this gives them idea of first-run movie that comes out and see how it did and how the infrastructure would handle it. xbox and playstation had some issues with some problems yesterday with their gaming sites. not sure if those were actually tied to the group responsible for hacking into sony pictures

but something looked into. leland, overall, if you might imagine, watched any of your feeds, facebook, twitter, what you happened to be on, a lot of people i know had no plans watching movie or they would show their computer screen with it teed up yesterday to watch it to snub their nose whoever decided to try to shut down an american studio. leland? leland: the law of unintended consequences. looked like somebody kind of poked the bear, sleeping bear. >> a little bit. leland: adam housley in los angeles. thank you, sir. molly: more on the embattled entertainment giant. sony is cracking down on twitter, threatening to sue the social media company if it does not block users who post information stolen by the hackers. a lawyer for sony saying the hacked information includes intellectual property and secrets. weighing in, we have a former prosecutor and peter owed dem who is a criminal defense attorney. thank you both for being here. >> good morning. >> pleasure to be here. molly: no doubt this information was hacked, it was stolen, it

was disseminated but is reproduction of that information via twitter users is that actually he will legal, courtney? >> absolutely. no different than driving a stolen vehicle. you may have not stolen a vehicle but driving it is a crime. we can not allow people to disseminate information they have stolen. that is wrong. twitter has user agreements that preclude them from doing such activity. they will not allow to say inciteful things. pornography is not included on user agreement. they do have rules and regulation. this is no different. i'm surprised twitter would even want to get into a debate about it because it's a non-issue. they can't disseminate the information period. molly: peter, what do you think? according to the twitter website, people send more than 500 million tweets a day. if they're disseminating that information is it illegal? >> look i acompletely agree with courtney. they are complicit. they are parties to a crime.

this is stolen information. twitter provide forum, provide opportunity and more importantly reap profit from what their customers do. they are absolutely responsible so i think they will be held responsible. molly: interesting the twitter website says the mission is to give everyone power and ideas to share information instantly without barriers. is there a free speech issue? people wail say i'm seeing "the interview," i'm standing up for free speech. >> absolutely not. free speech is important and part of our american democracy but it has its limits. this is beyond that limit. this is private information harmful to real people and they should be stopped. this is not a free speech issue. molly: courtney, your thoughts on this, the free speech issue here? >> they don't have any free speech rights. that information was stolen, period. the privacy rights to the victims of the sony cyberattack including their employees trumps any sort of rights that the twitter would have for disseparate nating this

information. they just don't have a leg to stand on legally. molly: quickly here, the letter that goes out, do you think sony's go is really to see a lawsuit or just to get twitter to do something? where do you think this is headed, peter? >> what sony is trying to do is stop the collateral damage from its breach. remember sony is the one that left this information on the front porch for these hackers to get. so sony's trying to minimize its own damages, plain and simple. they hired one of the best lawyers in the business, david boies, to do it. molly: courtney, your final thoughts here? >> i agree. they have to in terms of a civil lawsuit mitigate any damages and going after people like twitter that are allowing people to disseminate the stolen information would mitigate that damage. that is what they're doing. it is a tactical legal decision. molly: courtney peters, thank you for the insight, that ising interesting. there are a lot of people on twitter for sure and i'm sure they find your thoughts interesting. thanks. >> pleasure to be here. leland: for many reasons the russian economy is facing

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turkey club. the fastest pencil sharpener. the fastest elevator. the fastest speed dial. the fastest office plant. so why wouldn't i choose the fastest wifi? i would. switch to comcast business and get the fastest wifi with the most coverage. comcast business. built for business. leland: russia's economy continues to collapse on itself as the government scrambles to stablize the ruble. its value fell 4% today after a five-day rally. the currency is now valued at 54 rubles to every dollar, making it one of the worst performing currencies this year. now officials are introducing drastic measures to support it. joining us a fellow with the foreign policy initiative. james, oil at $55 a barrel. russia's economy is one-trick economy. the ruble is crashing in a way

pens against the dollar we've never seen. how bad is this situation for vladmir putin? >> i think it is quite bad. he can't control the price of oil. that is part of the global economist. only so much one oil producing country can do. only way out to political solution. ease the sanctions placed on him by e.u. and united states over ukraine. leland: that is the other driving fa factor, the sanctions. he is doubling down and blaming the united states and west for these problems. he is saying i'm not going to do anything. appealing to russian nationalism. does that work and for how long? >> it could work fors his domestic support base but i l i don't see how it helps the russian economy. on the other hand russian people are prepared to endure sorts of hardships. if you look in their history, there is a lot of pride standing up to perceived foreign aggressors and enemies. that is what he is tells them for years. leland: james carville is fame must for saying it is the economy stupid, in the 1992

campaign. does economy over come nationalling aism or does nationalism overcome bad feelings in their pocketbooks? >> james carville maxim more appropriate for western political democracies wouldn't apply for countries like russia where there are not alternatives. leland: there is not free elections. not free speech or the ability to go out and protest. >> right, right. leland: the chinese symbol of crisis is written as two. combination of opportunity and danger, takes sense. this is clearly a crisis. is the u.s. administration doing enough number one, to protect against the danger that comes having a strong man and collapsing economy? at the same time take advantage of opportunity of having a strong man's whose economy is in collapse? >> 1% of our trade is with russia. how to see how the economic crisis in russia will affect american economic pocketbooks. i'm worried about the

repercussions, putin acting irrationally, maybe not invasion or similar to something he did this crimea. certainly there is security concern with collapsing rush share, we know ukraine for its parliament sake at least, how strong they are is big question, made some moves to think about they want to join nato. something russia is not happy about. >> they want to join nato. that is very long off in the future. don't see it anytime soon. members of nato have to support a new country coming in, and no way at this point ukraine will be past that hurdle. leland: conceivably if they do pass the hurdle. could be one ever first times nato is challenged. you have russian troops there. >> on their territory. leland: speaking of russian economy. we learned vodka prices being capped by vladmir putin. they're up 30%. shows how desire dire the situation is right now if they're stablizing the price. james, appreciate you being here. molly? molly: a you new chapter in the

"harry potter" saga. the christmas gift that author j.k. rowling gave her fans. >> dark times can bring people together. >> take my hand.

molly: harry potter fans, rejoice. j.k. rowling giving a story for christmas. in more than a week her web site has released one new scene from the book "harry potter and the laugh-blood prince," leading up to the story about harry

potter's nemesis. the character's upbringing and where he ends up. leland: it is amazing how much of an industry she has created from that one book. molly: shul. and always -- absolutely. and always nice for the back story. leland: "outnumbered" starts right now. ♪ ♪ >> and this is "outnumbered." i'm harris faulkner. here today, jedediah bee la, nicole petallides of the fox business network, julie roginsky, former political adviser to frank lautenberg, and a fox news contributor. today's *oneluckyguy, a friend of hers, as a matter of fact, and he is outnumbered." normally you guys are on opposite sides of the political aisle -- >> we're buddies. >> we have a block on hillary clinton coming up. this could get feisty in here, i don't know. [laughter] >> feisty friends. >> that's true.

in real life, we're actually very good friends. >> thank you, thank you, thank you. >> merry christmas to you as well. >> to you and everybody as well. >> the nypd is now dealing with death threats. the city's finest are on high alert and at the same time in mourning, well, all the country is mourning their loss, all this following the assassinations of police officers rafael ramos and wen wenjian liu. officer ramos being remembered at a wake today in queens. his funeral is set for tomorrow. arrangements for liu have yet to be announced, we'll report them when they are. and with protests still going on in new york city, the nypd is monitoring, as i mentioned, an uptick in threats against police. several arrests already made including one man. he was reportedly heard saying he's going to kill another officer. and demonstrations against police violence are going on across the nation. this was the scene in oakland, california, last night. windows smashe