new questions about ben carson's story of getting a west point scholarship. have his campaign scrambling and pushing back. this is "special report." good evening and welcome to washington, i'm brett baier, the presidential candidate who gets the highest marks for honesty and integrity in the 2016 presidential field is now under attack. the uproar comes as ben carson receives intense media scrutiny to accompany his recent surge in the polls. fox news media analysts and host of fox's "media buzz" howard

kurtz has the night's top story. >> ben carson who has been denouncing the media for digging into his inspirational life story has acknowledged a mistake. carson's campaign told politico today that he was not accepted at west point in 1969. in fact he didn't even apply. contradicting what he wrote in his autobiography, gifted hands. carson's campaign says the late general william westmoreland, the u.s. command anywhere vietnam did urge the young rotc student to consider west point. but in the end, carson did not seek admission. carson's campaign dismissed the entire story as an outright lie. but in his book he writes i was offered a full scholarship to west point. the military academy. does not charge those who are accepted. carson offered this explanation today. to bill o'reilly. >> you were never formally offered any kind of accommodation at west point, is that correct? >> right. i was just told that it would be very easy for me. >> so that should have been a little clearer on page 57 of your book, correct? >> i guess you could, it could

have been more clarified. i. >> the dispute erupted hours after carson pushing back against a cnn story in his teenaged days, told fox's megyn kelly, he changed the identity as well as the name of a person he sid he tried to stab. it was not a friend he now says, but a family member. >> this is simply an attempt to smear and to deflect the argument to something else. the person that i tried to stab, you know, i talked to today. said works they want to be revealed. they were not anxious to be revealed. and it was a close relative of mine. >> cnn had interviewed some of carson's old friends and neighbor who is recalled him as a quiet young boy. which in no way proves the violent incidents didn't occur. and that triggered a contentious interview this morning. >> as you know, cnn has been trying to find people who were involved in these incidents or

witnessed these. they've tried to find jerry. >> and tell me what makes you think that you're going to find those specific people? this is a bunch of lies. that's what it is, a bunch of lies. attempting you know to say that i'm lying about my history. >> politico has now greatly softened its dramatic headline from carson admits fabricating west point scholarship. to carson's claim of west point scholarship but never applied. and donald trump retweeting someone else's words and linking to the politico piece, is carson hallucinating? now lying about west point. but jeb bush, with neil cavuto defended carson by saying, i trust him, i believe it. i don't believe politico. brett? >> howard, more later with the panel. we now know what the line-up will look like for the next presidential debates tuesday on the fox business network. and the campaigns, are reacting. chief political correspondent carl cameron has the scorecard tonight.

>> a setback for chris christie and mike huckabee, neither will appear in next tuesday's primetime debate after coming up short of the percentage needed in the polls to qualify. christie filed his papers to appear on the first primary ballot in new hampshire and argued it's not debate organizers who decide elections, it's voters. >> which isn't a student council election, you don't announce on monday and vote on friday and whoever has the most friends wins. campaigns matter. the voters of new hampshire and the caucusgoers in iowa play a huge role in winnowing the field and they're the ones who will winnow the field. not anybody else. >> donald trump, who has loudly complained last three debates had too many candidates, changed his tune. saying i think it would be a good idea to include christie and huckabee in the debate. the fox business debate will have eight instead of ten candidates, front-runners trump and ben carson will be center stage flanked by senators marco rubio and ted cruz battling for third.

jeb bush, carly fiorina, john kasich and rand paul round out the second tier. the second debate will include christie, huckabee, jindal and santorum. left out are graham, josh pataki, and gilmore. who did not register in the last four national polls to qualify. >> i feel even worse, for the people that didn't even make the second debate. you know, lindsey graham and other who is are working hard. >> hard work lifted carly fiorina out of the second tier after the first debate and she's been a primetime debater ever since. returning to "the view," she tweaked her hosts for a double standard for joking about her looks. >> how will you get a thicker skin to accept some of the humorous things that will be said about you? >> well, hey, if you meant your comment about my face being demented in a halloween mask as humorous, so be it. i guess you misinterpreted donald trump's comments about my face and thought those weren't humorous.

>> no no no. >> cross-talk on theview sounds a lot like the last debate. after the fourth one in milwaukee on tuesday, there will be eight more before the end of march. by that time more than half of the country will have cast its primary and caucus votes. you can see the fox business debate tuesday at 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. go to the web address listed on the graphic to find out how to find or get fox business in your area. if you don't have it. get it. well it could be another setback tonight for hillary clinton's presidential campaign. it appears clinton signed an agreement promising not to do what she may have done. with her personal email accounts. and server. senior political correspondent mike emmanuel is here with the intriguing details tonight. good evening. >> congressional sources say the significance of this paperwork is that it is a legal binding document and the person signing it has accepted the obligation to protect our national secrets. the sensitive information nondisclosure agreement was signed by secretary of state

hillary clinton in january 2009, right after taking office. in the document clinton signed it, says quote i've been advised that the unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized retention or negligent handling of sci, sensitive compartmented information by me could cause irreparable image to the united states to be used to advantage by a foreign nation. the agreement says quote i understand it is my responsibility to consult with appropriate management authorities in the department in order to insure that i know whether information or material within my knowledge or control that i have reason to believe might be sci. clinton, the democratic front-runner, has for president, has faced months of questions about her handling of classified information. most recently in front of the benghazi select committee during a marathon 11-hour session. a clinton official is pushing back. noting a politico report out today saying the director of national intelligence has overruled the intelligence inspector-general who had initially said two emails in clinton's account contained

top-secret information. at the state department, spokesman john kirby said the fight over classification is ongoing. >> we don't believe that they should be classified at that level. and that we again made our case pretty strongly about both of them. but as far as we know here at the state department, there's been no final decision made by the intel community on that. >> still, congressional sources say that document would be evidence a government official was familiar with the legal and regulatory requirements to protect classified information and potentially face repercussions if there was a failure to do so. brett? >> mike, thanks. the u.s. supreme court will hear another case challenging part of the president's health care law. the justices have agreed to listen to arguments from faith-based groups against the measure's mandatory contraception coverage. the list of challengers includes the little sisters of the poor, nun who is run more than two dozen nursing homes for impoverished seniors. this will be the fourth

obamacare related case for the high court. after being on political life support for months, if not years, today the plug was pulled on the keystone xl pipeline. president obama administered last rites for the controversial energy and jobs project, at least in this administration. correspondent kevin corke has the story from the white house tonight. >> it was an abrupt ending for a seven years-long review. that had become the flashpoint in the debate over climate change. >> the state department has decided that the keystone xl pipeline would not serve the national interests of the united states. i agree with that decision. >> the decision to scuttle the keystone xl pipeline comes days after the applicant, transcanada, asked the u.s. state department to pause its review which had been ongoing since september 2008. >> this pipeline would neither be a silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some. nor be express lane to climate

disaster proclaimed by others. >> the keystone xl pipeline would have been more than 1100 miles long and delivered 800,000 barrels of oil from canada to the gulf coast daily. the president said the project didn't serve the national interest and would not have lowered gas prices which have already been falling and would have produced relatively few jobs. the rejection is just the latest in a series of actions the white house has taken on climate change. ahead of december's major climate summit in paris from aggressive new regulations to cut carbon pollution from the nation's power plants to stronger fuel economy standards. and increases in green and renewable energy production nationwide. but on capitol hill, some critics accuse the president of choosing politics over people. house speaker paul ryan said quote this decision isn't surprising, but it is sickening. saying of the president, he's rejecting the will of the american people and the bipartisan majority of the congress. in a statement transcanada, the company behind the effort said today's rejection was proof that

rhetoric won out over reason. calling it a damaging blow to jobs. the economy, and the environment on both sides of the border. meanwhile, the president also announced that he spoke with newly elected canadian prime minister justin trudeau about the state department's recommendation. while admitting disappointment, trudeau said the u.s./canada relationship is much bigger than any one project. >> brett, backers of the program simply point out that despite today's decision, it's not necessarily dead. they point out the fact that if a republican for example is elected here to the white house in 2016, transcanada could simply renew its application with the state department, and then see how it goes. and there is no one out there who thinks next time out, brett, it will take seven years to figure out. >> kevin corke live on the north lawn. let's get more reaction to the president's decision today. john hoben is republican senator from north dakota. senator, thanks for being here. your reaction to this today? >> well look, it's no surprise. but he made the political decision. the american people

overwhelmingly support this project. rather than deciding for energy, for the american people, you know, he made the political decision and the winner is opec. this is the kind of decision that you know, prevents us from building the energy infrastructure we need, producing more energy here at home. so we go back to relying on energy from places like the middle east. >> the company was going to pull back the project. and then this decision happened. officially. >> yeah. >> how do you think that broke down? >> the whole thing was very odd. we talked to the company. we talked to obviously the canadian government. and the state department had contacted transcanada and said you know, will you withdraw the project? this was like, withdraw the application. this was like last friday. company said no. so the state department said well how about if you pause it and put out a press release you're willing to do that. which the company agreed to do. they do that on monday, tuesday, josh earnest says no, we're not going to pause the project and

then they get a letter rejecting the request for the pause or suspension. and today the president comes out and declines the project. again, all political. not following the law or the regulation as they're supposed to do. >> for the people, who say listen, this isn't good for the environment, this wasn't the right plan. this you know, they argue all kinds of points about this. despite what the state department report had said over several years. what do you say to that? >> they need to read the environmental impact statement this was a seven-year process. and the comments the president made today, actually are contradicted by the state department report and the environmental impact statement which says no significant environmental impact. and so again, you know ironically now, this oil is going to, it's still going to be produced in canada. and up in our part of the country, montana, north dakota. but it's moving by rail rather than by pipe and you actually have higher greenhouse gas

emissions, that versus building the pipeline. >> here's another element, the president talked about today. specifically addressing congress. take a listen. >> okay. >> the pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy. so if congress is serious about wanting to create jobs, this was not the way to do it. if they want to do it, what we should be doing is passing a bipartisan infrastructure plan that in the short-term could create more than 30 times as many jobs per year as the pipeline would. >> your response, senator? >> so that's what i'm saying. his comments are directly contradicted by the state department report and the environmental impact statement. look, this pipeline is part of building the energy infrastructure we need, so we can produce energy in this country and become energy secure or energy independent. but you need the pipelines, the transmission lines, the road and the rail to move that energy from where it's produced to

where it's consumed. so he turns this project down now when prices are low, like i say, great news for opec. because after a while when prices start going back up, they're back in the driver's seat and we haven't made the investments that we need to make to become energy self-sufficient. think about if you're a company or a ceo and you're contemplating investing the hundreds of millions or billions into building infrastructure and you have this kind of arbitrary process. >> we've talked about, covered keystone for a long time. there are a lot of other pipelines in our country. do you think that this, if a republican president gets elected that this is one of the first things that happens? >> sure. no question. if we get a republican president in office this will be approved. we have the support in congress to do it. the challenge is going to be whether we can get enough votes to override his veto. we're at 63, we need four more in the senate, they're close in the house. or whether we can attach it to other legislation.

to get something done sooner or in the event that we have a democrat president. >> are you going to try that? >> oh sure, absolutely. but again this is about -- and this will be certainly an issue in the presidential campaign. are we going to produce the energy in this country and build the energy infrastructure we need to move it safely and efficiently? or are we going to continue to rely on energy from the middle east? that's the question. and you know what the american people want, they want to produce the energy here at home and work with our closest ally, canada. >> senator, thanks for being here. >> appreciate it. up next, as the investigation into the russian airliner disaster continues, you may feel some of the effects when you fly, we'll explain. first, here's what some of our fox affiliates around the country are covering tonight. fox 31, denver with a huge sectioning scandal at a southern colorado high school. officials say several students exchanged hundreds of nude photos of themselves. police are investigating. the school has canceled saturday's football ganl. fox 16 until little rock, arkansas, with a deadly bus

crash on interstate 40. a vehicle carrying migrant workers from michigan to texas ran off a highway and hit a bridge. six people were killed, six others injured. and this is a live look at miami from our fox affiliate, wsvn. the big story there tonight, man overboard, the coast guard is searching for a cruise ship passenger who reportedly jumped from the seventh deck into a lifeboat and fell into the ocean. it's not known why the 35-year-old man from brazil jumped from the royal caribbean "oasis of the seas" as it sailed near the bahamas. that's tonight's live look outside the beltway.

you might experience some changes at the airport because of last weekend's russian airline disaster. that is just one of the responses continuing to evolve tonight as more information strengthens suspicion. that the plane was blown out of the sky. on purpose. senior foreign affairs correspondent greg palcott tracks the investigation from london. >> more indicators are pointing to a bomb as the cause of the russian player crash. the latest coming from french media. with sources on the investigating team. the unconfirmed reports describe listening to the plane's black

box voice and sound recorder, hearing a sudden and brutal explosion on board the plane. they call it intentional. an attack this follows president putin suspending all russian flights to egypt until the cause of the crash is known. just yesterday his aides will describe the british terror claims as premature. terror concerns were based on the intercept of isis communications, planning an attack involving a bomb on a plane. >> the russians have concluded this was most probably a terrorist attack, and that is the consensus i would say among intelligence officials in the united states and britain. >> consensus, but not conclusion. as more victims of the crash were brought back to russia, so were parts of the plane to be analyzed. there has been no explosive residue found amid the wreckage. meanwhile at sharm el-sheikh airport where the doomed russian plane departed, there was confusion. so-called rescue flights brought some tourists out. >> it's so crowded, everyone is

pushing around. nothing is organized, nothing is structured. >> it's going to get worse, moscow has to get them 45,000 russians out. while u.s. airlines don't serve sharm el-sheikh. they go other places where trouble could happen. homeland security chief jeh johnson unveiled new measures today. >> out of an abundance of caution and mindful of that possibility, secretary johnson earlier today announced a series of interim precautionary measures that would be taken at a handful of airports in the region. >> earnest was not willing to budge on earlier statements he made about the cause of the crash. saying the u.s. still had not made a determination about what was behind the incident. terror, though, looming ever larger in the frame. brett? >> greg palcott live in london. the business administration says the u.s. economy added

271,000 jobs in october. sent the unemployment rate to a seven-year low. however there is also the fact that the labor force participation rate remains at a 38-year low. of 62.4%. the stocks were mixed today. the dow gained 47. the s&p 500 was down a point. the nasdaq was up 19. for the week the dow gained almost 1.5 percentage points, the s&p 500 was up about 1, the nasdaq finished ahead almost two. american businesses dreaming of opportunities in cuba. we'll get a report from havana. when we come back.

mexico and cuba are getting chummy tonight. their presidents met today and announced plans to cooperate in business, tourism and education. this comes as relations between the u.s. and cuba continued to evolve. tonight in the second part of our look at the opportunities and challenges in cuba. correspondent rich edison tells us from havana, how some things are changing and some are not. >> from soviet-era autos to rationing, cuba maintains many signs ralph centralized state-run economy. >> three loaves of bread. >> despite recent openness, amnesty international says civil and political rights continue to be severely restricted by cuban authorities. >> they are controlling everything. ? i tell myself. it was better. >> we were free. >> following fidel castro's seizure of power in 1959, the u.s. severed diplomatic relations with cuba and initiated a broad-based embargo.

president obama says that policy, more than a half-century old, has failed to encourage regime change and a better life for cubans. his approach? openness, granting licenses allowing some u.s. business activity in cuba. >> the most insidious policy about our policy, the sanctions were there to isolate cuba. china is one of our biggest export markets. people used to say you trade with china, it's going to be counterproductive. >> while being in the u.s. are pushing for a new approach to cuba. one senator with familial ties to the island looking to replace president obama said he would reverse this administration's actions. >> it is not in the national security interests of the united states to have an anti-american communist dictatorship 90 miles from our shores, we should not be strengthening them by providing them more sources of revenue to fund their repression. >> with that opposition, american businesses are pushing the castro regime to increase the pace of reforms, hoping to create an irreversibly stronger

u.s. relationship with cuba. american businesses want to sell more in cuba and cubans want more american products available here. for that to happen, governments in the united states and cuba are going to have to lower their defenses. if that happens, it would have a profound political effect, here in havana, and in washington. >> rich edison in havana. president obama still believes he can shut down guantanamo bay terrorist prison before he leaves office, that's the word tonight from white house press secretary josh earnest. who says that the while the president would like to work with congress, he will not rule out using executive action. >> i certainly wouldn't take it off the table, the ability of president to use whatever authority is available to him to try to move closer to accomplishing this goal. >> yesterday house republicans passed a defense authorization measure that restricts the president's ability to transfer prisoners from gitmo.

please join us tonight from 10:00 p.m. eastern. for a look behind the scenes at the presidency of george h.w. bush. it will include diary enters in the president's own words. during some of the most challenging moments of his term. this new information is part of a book out soon by pulitzer prize-winning author john meechum. in this preview we hear the president on election night, 1992. after having lost to bill clinton. >> hurt, hurt, hurt. i don't like to be a failed president. the failed presidency of george bush. i'm competitive. i don't like to see the pollsters right at the end. i don't like to see the pundits right. i don't like to see all of those

who have written me off, right. i was absolutely convinced that we would prove them wrong. but i was wrong and they were right. that hurts a lot. >> that's quite something. he's whispering, his wife is sleeping in the next room, right? >> he's whispering because he's in suite 271 of the estonian hotel on election night. quarter after midnight. barbara has gone to sleep. he can't sleep, he gets up, he goes into the living room. you saw the picture there of that room. and is dictating into this little recorder. at the worst moment of his political life. >> he reacts negatively to some of the things that happened under his son's administration. including secretary rumsfeld. >> he's very tough on rumsfeld. >> they had, they were rivals going way back to the nixon and ford years. he did not like the language of the axis of evil. he was uncomfortable with the hawkish tone of the, and the

hawkish style of the bush 43 administration. >> brit hume hosts "destiny and power" the private diaries of george herbert walker bush, tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch my full interview with john meechum on my blog. the daily bret.com. ben carson and his west point story. the gop presidential race and another visit to the c

the only way to get better is to challenge yourself, and that's what we're doing at xfinity. we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around.

after a seven year review today it became official. president obama sighing the keystone xl pipeline would not be in the national interest añ administration the decision is it's over. we're back with the panel. george? >> well, people are saying that he weighed the decision for seven years. i don't think he weighed it for 10 minutes. he decided seven years ago this wasn't going to be built and he waited for the right moment to do it it the theory is, i guess, two fold. one is that if we don't build the pipeline the tar sands in canada will not be developed. that's nonsense. the other is it's better to ship the oil from the tar sands on railroad cars than under ground in a pipeline which is nonsense on stilts. >> this is now an easy layup for every republican out there to say that what they would do if they were in the the white house, virtually all the presidential candidates came out and said that they would go forward with the pipeline. it was interesting though, reading the numbers, 35,000 temporary jobs it would have

created but only 35 permanent jobs. and i think you that the economic argument, while there was widespread public support for it, i think that stuck out for a lot of people these weren't permanent jobs. still though shows you how important the presidency is. you can control congress all day long, president obama, this is why republicans want the white house. >> senator hoban saying it's going to keep on coming up and they are going to press it even unions were pushing for this thing. >> they are not going to stop campaigning, republicans aren't going to stop making an issue out of this for a very long time. especially if we start to see greater fluctuating, the rise of oil prices and things like that and people paying more to power their homes it was pure pandering. got a sense from the veern mental groups push him in this direction. advice from john kerry,

secretary of state for making the decision. which is just, it's just sort of another example, we see it mostly with the war on terror and things like that where you have the president sort of bowing to a globalist viewpoint of these issues. and it's maddening for americans but it's how he does it. >> all right. winners and losers, george? >> the winner of the week is kevin brady, congressman from texas who takes over elected chairman of the most important committee in congress. the ways and means. the chairmanship given up by paul ryan. the loser of the week is bill o'reilly of fox news. his book on called "killing reagan" is being eviscerated by real historians and by almost everyone who worked. viewers my want to see my criticism on the segment we taped for his show tonight that is so unhinged to be highly amusing. >> so that goes to prove how much autonomy is given panelists on the winners and losers. david? >> the winner of the week is marco rubio who picked up three senate endorsements

this week and report has landed 25 new fundraising bundlers in the last week since debate performance is alternative to the trump and carson top tier. the loser is bernie sanders after summer of rallies with tens of thousands of people it's turned to the fall of hillary clinton. she looks more than ever as a likely democratic nominee. there is a poll in south carolina that has him down by 57 points. >> okay. charles? >> i'm going to start with my losers. former new york city mayor michael bloomberg and virginia governor terry mcauliff spent millions to flip the virginia senate this week on tuesday. they failed, and they were driving the issue of gun control. they pinned the entire thing on a terrible tragedy that happened down in southwest virginia. and they thought that they could make it flip -- not only flip the senate but finally win a gun fight in an election and they failed.

so i think they are the big losers. i think the winner is john boehner because he has finally gotten on his horse and ridden off into the sun set and i bet there is nobody in politics happier than john boehner right now. >> horse or a golf cart either one. panel thank you very much. that is it for the panel. stay tuned for an end of an

finally tonight, we are saying good by to a very special person who works on "specialjj@e report." jim eldridge was here from the very beginning. 18 years ago he launched this show with my mentor and friend brit hume. >> we were supposed to have a month to get it ready in january and start sometime in february of 1998. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman. >> and then monica lewenski happened. we thought let's just go ahead and start it. >> and it did. "special report" started then. we celebrated jim's hard work earlier today. over the years he has produced, written, rewrote scripts, structured rundowns generally kept the trains moving as of today on 4382 episodes of "special report" with either brit hume or myself and that is truly amazing. jim, you did it with caring, kindness, devotion and wit.

congratulations on a fantastic career and warm wishes from all a of us for an enjoyable retirement. you have more than earned it as we look live as we always did in the news room, thanks for inviting us on "sp facebook and tell us what you think about the show. that's it for tonight. they called him poppy. george herbert walker bush, 41st president of the united states. a new england aristocrat, who became a politician in the texas oil patch. he owned perhaps the most impressive resume of any man ever to win the white house. he relished the rough and tumble of politics, but steadfastly maintained a public identity of dignified restraint, even in defeat. tonight, for the first time, you will hear the private thoughts of the 41st president in his own voice, part of an