>> loved being here, felt we could connect more and bond. >> reporter: now there are plans for both the families, they say they have a lot of things to do. >> i love ending like that, great seeing you, happy holidays. "happening now" begins right now. goodbye. >> new signs of a deep rift in the republican party over spot for mitt romney. recovering from thanksgiving dinner. laura:president-elect trump met with mitt romney and is considering tapping him to be secretary of state but allies of mister trump are worried about a

potential romney pick, trying to steal the president-elect what another candidate, rudy giuliani. gary joins us from washington with the latest on this. >> reporter: we have been watching the trump transition team play out this weekend. they have been public with their concerns. the internal tug-of-war began last week after donald trump met with mitt romney and walked away so impressed he put his former political rival at the top of his list for secretary of state, that set off the alarm bells for some folks in the transition team, one of the most valuable trades of the trump organization, a big reason one faction of the transition team is pushing for rudy giuliani as secretary of state, he was an extremely loyal and vocal supporter of mister trump throughout the campaign, mitt romney was actively campaigning and speaking against mister trump all the way until the

election. in a nationally televised speech called him a fraud, said he posed a fundamental threat to american democracy, not the kind of thing the boss wants to hear from a potential employee. there is some talk within the transition team of trying to smooth over the previous statements by having an issue of public apology of some sort. even then it is not clear that would be enough for the anti-romney crowd to get on board. the third in the transition team that doesn't like rudy giuliani or romney, they want him to search for someone else. there are a couple other divisions that could be announced in the next few days. we are hearing wilbur ross will be nominated secretary of commerce, lieutenant general matus as secretary of defense and on monday we got word mister trump will meet with wisconsin

sheriff david clark. laura: thanks for the live report. leland: it is beginning to look a lot like christmas. life pictures at the white house. michelle obama getting ready to welcome the white house christmas tree. the whispering pines tree farm in northeast wisconsin. it will end up being when all is said and done. you can see them inspecting the tree before it heads into the white house. this is the main christmas tree we will see throughout the next month or so. all sorts of pictures of the president and first lady, various folks with what will be the one massive 3, to present the tree with the first lady,

the owners of whispering pines, you can see them talking about the tree. an amazing journey from northern wisconsin to the white house. laura: here it is for this final moment with the obamas. >> the tree was hand-picked by the white house chief usher, and go across the country, the first lady. sonny bowe, the first lady, folks heading back into the white house. laura: can they stay and decorate you >> they stay for hot chocolate

and stuff like that. to clean up the pine needles as they go in, it is a not difficult operation. now we pause for thanksgiving, post-thanksgiving, we get back to the top story, in the gop regarding mitt romney. and sarah westwood, white house correspondent, nice to see you. the last time we had this was 2008. with barack obama coming in. i don't remember this rift for the potential top nominee.

>> contenders shy away from the media, being selected by saying something stupid. we are seeing some people in the camp of trump world that one loyal to be the number one trade, signaling they would not be satisfied with the selection of mitt romney. you can see on the other side of the coin rudy giuliani lobbying publicly for the position. a lot more public airing of grievances than we would normally expect to see in a transition but it is a high-stakes decision, unique situation because donald trump's own party was lined up against him. the pool of contenders is a little smaller than another republican president would have right now. leland: the phone briefing with sean spicer and the kelly and

conway tweet about mitt romney, she talked about how it would be possible to have a secretary state who didn't travel the world as much and stayed closer like henry kissinger did, their response to that tweet was, quote, a lot of intrigue is overblown at this stage of picking a cabinet and president-elect trump meeting with many candidates who share his vision was one has to wonder who shares his vision within his camp, you brought up rudy giuliani, his public lobby, we have never seen an example of that from the wall street journal or. i have traveled in the last 13 years as much as hillary did in the years she was secretary of state. my knowledge of foreign-policy as good or better than anybody they are talking to. i won't ask you to issue a verdict on the veracity of that statement but on the unusualness we talked about, someone publicly coming out and

lobbying, having surrogates as newt gingrich did to lobby for rudy giuliani. >> a unique situation. rudy to gilani has traveled extensively with private security consulting firm he found that after leaving the mayor's office, but not something we would expect to see for the position of secretary of state, one of the most prestigious positions trump has to hand out. the selection of mitt romney could anger a lot of his supporters who were boosted by the fact donald trump went after mitt romney during the primaries and the general election and of mitt romney is a signal of the failures of the republican party in the past and the cabinet needs to reflect the republican party looks different than it did in 2012. leland: we are focusing on rudy giuliani versus mitt romney but think of a lot of other names,

whether it is bob corker, senate foreign relations committee, and all of a sudden the public kerfuffle between rudy giuliani and mitt romney leaves open the possibility of a contenders coming up? >> absolutely. there is a third faction to keep looking at contenders, many good people out there donald trump could select. ending the conflict of rudy giuliani versus mitt romney, if you take a third choice that could be a way, so many choices you can't go wrong. a lot of names you mentioned but he needs to pick someone he is comfortable allowing to be the public face of his foreign-policy and that has to be in sync with him on a lot of issues to project trump's worldview around the world. leland: so many names in so little time. and across the urgent wires,

trump team says no cabinet level announced this until after the weekend, whoever they are talking to are taking their time to deliver, thanks. laura: and american military member fighting isis killed in northern syria after suffering injuries from an ied blast, the first american battle casualty in syria since the us joined the fight against isis. richardson has the latest from washington. >> the explosion happened in syria, 30 mile drive from the turkish border, 35 miles northwest of rocca. the self-proclaimed isis capital. further information about the attack, releasing those details. defense secretary ash carter says it is a painful reminder of the dangers our men and uniform face around the world, keep

family, friends and teammates in your thoughts and prayers. this thanksgiving i hope you will join me in expressing thanks to dedicated troops to selflessly protect us. president obama authorized 3 hundredths that of operations forces waiting the islamic state in syria, the military says it deployed those forces in syria, october 2015, the democratic forces, us backed alliance in kurdish and arab groups trying to isolate and capture rocca. the pentagon says eight us service members have been killed in action in the fight against isis since operation inherent resolved again in 2014. this is us backed forces continue their offensive to capture mosul. laura: thanks for that report. leland: black friday it is, three quarters of americans starting holiday shopping in one way or another today. we say this every year, black

friday can get chaotic, these shoppers gathering for items at a walmart store in georgia while many people hit the walls and big box stores offering door buster deals and others deciding to stay home, eat leftovers and check out the online special instead which is smart. he is outside in new york, don't you wish you could be in your office clicking around online shopping? >> i do. it is not that patchy, a lot of shoppers say we come to the stores because it is tradition. we do most of our shopping online, that is the story. wheels and deals from retailers, more than earlier actually traditional black friday. most people getting their shopping done online and these

brick and mortar stores in malls and around the country are trying to compete against the amazons of the world which is why they are offering these deals online. >> compared to years past this isn't black friday. the deal go on regardless. i expect them to look like this. >> a lot of prices they were offering before thanksgiving are the same as last week, pre-black friday sale. >> not that bad, that is the busiest one. that was 10 minutes ago. >> reporter: shoppers are getting smarter and online shopping on pace to reach $2 million on thanksgiving day, 60% from last year. at midnight, thanksgiving day the retail giants is the increased online merchandise by 50% this year, forget fibermonday, they are offering fiberweek and target offering

early dates, the strongest sho thanksgiving and black friday started on wednesday night. all meet black friday deals thanksgiving night starting earlier and the national retail federation says black friday is changing and they are used to that change and are going to do that but is not going away. retailers know that. they look at the sales on black friday. leland: you have no excuse if you don't have christmas list done. thanks, go to online shop on your ipad. laura: hopefully you get deals out there. president-elect trump getting access to daily intelligence briefings but us officials say he is taking advantage of two of them. the next guest, how typical that may be, other retailers elected

around the briefings, the mother of two found safe after missing three weeks ago. and in connection with disappearance and that and more on "happening now". g new cars. you're smart. you already knew that. but it's also great for finding the perfect used car. you'll see what a fair price is, and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. now you're even smarter. this is truecar.

>> fox confirming president-elect trump, taking advantage of classified intelligence briefings, since winning the election two weeks ago. mike pence received the president's daily brief almost every day. us officials say each president-elect post-intelligencer dates differently. how typical is mister trump's strategy? the washington bureau chief, tammy bruce, radio talkshow host and fox news contributor. a lot to get to hear. as a refresher these briefings are made available to newly elected presidents well before

the inauguration day for understanding of foreign developments. mister trump's level of national security experience going into this job many are curious about taking full advantage of the briefing. let's start with you. >> if you are going to talk to foreign leaders which he is doing, the campaign he talked to, the leaders of lochte of, panama, slovakia and sweden, if you are talking about foreign-policy it would seem you have no background in the military, one of the things about these briefings are tailored to the person who is getting them. i don't know what the right number is. it doesn't seem enough. laura: when you look at the historical perspective obama, even in a deep died braving,

george w. bush, bill clinton, november 13th, in 1992, that is the first one. some will take them later. >> and taking the brief, president obama according to the government accountability office participated in 42% of the personal daily briefing. it is the same with the president-elect. he may be going somewhere for the daily briefing telling them what is going on as you mentioned, the vice president-elect is doing that but doesn't mean mister trump is not being briefed or advised or

isn't reading about the nature of what is happening on a day-to-day basis. we have to keep that in mind but the media, this is the issue, wouldn't suggest that. they wouldn't inc. about he is getting a package, just not being talked at by a particular official. he is also bringing in a businessman's approach to this dynamic about delegating, someone is there on a daily basis for the vice president-elect and he is getting briefed or getting the information in a form where he will read it when it is convenient. this is where for the media, the american people think he is just off playing golf somewhere. nothing could be further from the truth and they are finding what they hear from the media might not be the most accurate these days. laura: your take as we move forward, we could be hearing more. >> the media writ large has been doing a lot of very routine coverage which i respectfully disagree. we have almost, there is a

camera on every meeting trump had with people throughout the last weekend. laura: got to leave it there, so sorry, thanks for joining us today, be right back. what's the best way to get two servings of veggies? v8 or a fancy juice store?

ready, go! hi, juice universe? one large rutabaga, with eggplant... done! that's not fair. glad i had a v8. the original way to fuel your day.

>> missing mother of 2 found several weeks after she had been abducted. the california mom disappearing going earlier this month am a will car has more on this. >> we do know sherry is telling authorities she was abducted

three weeks ago and the letter go free far from home yesterday, 140 miles from where she was last seen in northern california. look at the shots for the county sheriff. >> has been reunited with her family, boundless restraints, was able to help a passing motorist notifying law enforcement. >> she was last seen november 2nd after she went for a morning jog, investigators found strands of her hair, self-funded earphones a mile and a half from her home, there has been no sign as to what happened until yesterday when she was found safely, was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for injuries, she told law enforcement she was abducted by two hispanic women in a dark suv, they had a handgun, they are looking for those suspect. a lot of unanswered questions,

an open investigation, we do know her husband rushed to be high her side, he believes she was abducted from the beginning. >> bring her home. bring her home. bring her home. bring her home safe. there is a $50,000 reward. bring her home. >> reporter: a private group offered that we were. family and friends darted a separate go fund me page which raised $49,000. it is unclear at this point where the money will go. she is found and his home safely. laura: thanks for the update. leland: florence henderson, best known for playing carol brady on the brady bunch has died at 82. ♪ here's the story ♪ of a lovely lady

♪ bringing up three very lovely girls ♪ leland: henderson got her start on a broadway stage in the 1950s starring in musicals like oklahoma and the sound of music, she went on to become the first woman to guest host the tonight show, filled in with johnny carson. in 1969 she became one of america's most beloved tv moms on the brady bunch. >> every once in a while there will be a very sweet tv show people gravitate to and i think the brady bunch shows about love and fun and entertainment. i am proud to be a part of that time. leland: more recently henderson won more new fans on dancing with the stars. her publicist said she died of heart failure in los angeles last night, she was 82 years old

but with so many memories. laura: she was always a good start was when i did radio in california we had a talk show when she called in and sang happy birthday on the spot for know -- >> talents all through the spectrum. laura: she will be missed. protests on chicago's magnificent mile as black lives matter demonstrators try to disrupt black friday shoppers to bring attention to their cause. live in chicago next. the protests could hurt chicago shopping, business appears to be coming. don't forget small business saturday and cybermonday, busy weekend for christmas shoppers. a look at how markets are responding. >> a little tired, got a good deal for my grandmother. she needs a new bikini.

laura: protesters are descending on magnificent mile shopping district on michigan avenue. a life look at the area. for a second straight year black lives matter and other groups plan to disrupt black friday shoppers to call attention to what they say is the city's in action over the fatal police

shooting of a black teen two years ago. mike tobin joins us live from the magnificent mile in chicago where things are busy behind you. how is it going? >> crowds are picking up out here. this is the area around the historic water tower and all they predicted thousands we have hundred, 200 attending this demonstration organized by a group calling themselves the chicago alliance against racism and political repression so you have those numbers turning out. there are snipers on the rooftop and you can see the police out here. these guys are commanders and what we have seen in the area are packs of police officers, different places along michigan avenue or the magnificent mile where the police are staging, this demonstration follows the black friday protest of last year and that was in response to the police shooting of luck one mcdonald and the video that police and prosecutors sat on the video to get the mayor through the election.

this is a response to that and they want to create the police accountability council to monitor the actions of the police. the primary focus, you have to pile on with all the different causes that show up at every demonstration. we are seeing that happen. the big question today, will it impact retail shopping. we saw last year did impact retail shopping. if you look around michigan avenue you see people are out shopping, milling about, however casual conversation with people around the city of chicago knowing this is going to happen today say they are not coming anywhere near this area. it is likely we will see an impact on the shopping. laura: mike tobin, we will keep an eye on your live shot throughout the day. leland: they shut down a few stores last year, we will see if that happened again. across the country black friday is in swing and determined shoppers are out to find the

very best deals, that is good news for businesses. right now speaking of businesses, stocks up 54 points, the tao it 19,137, the dow closed at a record high on wednesday and it will likely head even higher, 3 quarters of americans expected to hit the malls and we will see if there's another record high being marked. nice to see you. happy day after thanksgiving. does this have an effect on consumer confidence? tao at an all-time high, we see this massive rally since the election. consumers say i won't by one v. >> one or two tvs it is an enormous affected consumer confidence and business confidence, more money in your bank account. a lot of small businesses putting it in the stock market, other than real estate -- >> you don't get a great return. >> they csn to go up and they

but invest more and hire more people and buy more equipment. it has an enormous impact making it a little richer. >> a huge part of the stock market rally in the broader sense has been the small-cap stocks some of which may or may not be impacted on small business saturday. think about these smaller chains that are trying to get that down-home authentic feel. >> it is the honeymoon effect of the postelection. a lot of people must feel the same way, so much relief the election is over, no matter who won, now that trump is the president-elect, when i talk to my clients, readers of the washington post and business owners around the country, the business sentiment has turned a lot over the past couple weeks, just more positive. >> there is an optimism, markets hate uncertainty, now there is certainty one direction or another. >> there is certainty and uncertainty.

a lot of things trump is proposing like lower taxes on businesses but at the same time how does he pay for that. leland: how would he pay for entitlement reform? interestingly enough when you talk about in certainty the president-elect is targeting individual businesses, he has been in talks with carrier corporation, closing its plant in indianapolis moving 2000 jobs to mexico. mister trump campaigned against allowing companies to do that and trying to make good on that. i am working hard even on thanksgiving trying to get carrier ac company to stay in the us, making progress, will know soon. carrier responded on twitter on thanksgiving, carrier has had discussions about the incoming administration, look forward to working together, nothing to announce at this time was unprecedented in the sense of the president calling out an

american company but aside from persuasion what can he do? >> pass a law that levies a tax -- what can he do? he can do a lot, he can build public sentiment around him. there are a lot of people in this country, not just employees but companies, midsize smaller companies looking not just for free trade but fair trade. leland: are we entering a slippery slope of the president-elect, calling out individual companies, says carrier is terrible, by this air-conditioner, that is dangerous. >> i don't know if he is saying that. he is trying to bolster what his campaign promise is, make america first, keep companies here. one.of the people and make us more competitive for bigger and smaller companies and if you're a small company trying to compete against a carrier corporation it could be cheaper in mexico and makes you more

uncompetitive. he is getting that message out. not a lot he can do about it right now. >> it goes to mexico, the law is changed, we will come back, not a lot of options. >> he is showing he is working on thanksgiving day and that brings more points to the public. leland: good to see you. >> two trains collide, dozens of people reportedly killed, 100 hurt, what went wrong. isis carrying out a deadly attack in iraq, who they were targeting.

i'm only in my 60's. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses.

the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, it could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call now to request your free decision guide. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. see why millions of people have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. don't wait. call now.

laura: 6 debt and 90 others heard after two trains collided, according to state run tv it happened in subzero temperatures when a passenger train hit another train parked at the station east of tehran. four victims were railway employees who were on board those two trains. leland: new information on and isis car bomb in iraq, 73 died when the bomb tore through a gas station south of baghdad. this is what is left, dozens of others injured. isis has claimed response ability for the attack, the target was a bus carrying irani and children. iraq officials say they were heading home after celebrating a religious holiday. laura: more violence in the middle east, us military member killed in syria, victim of an isis roadside bomb believed to be the first american battle casualties since the us got involved in the syrian civil war. for more on this, reserve intelligence officer with the office of naval intelligence and senior fellow on the program on

national security at the foreign policy research institute. thank you for being here today, such sad news this thanksgiving holiday. you had) serving in support of these operations so what do you think about how these operations are being handled right now? >> this first of all is devastating news and i can only imagine what friends and family of the servicemember must be feeling. my thoughts and prayers are with them. this is what is happening in iraq, really going to be the model how combat operations are going forward. a small force primarily supporting indigenous troops, the iraqis and iraqis are the ones deploying tens of thousands of soldiers, and smaller, much smaller. e tactics, the thought of it,

the way going forward. >> you have such great knowledge of this, the broader war on terror, what more should we do as we go forward? >> we have to be careful with clearly success in iraq. the iraqi army takes back the country with the support of the us but a series of different games, the problem with syria if you don't have this unifying army. the russians don't care if they are bombing aleppo, getting rid of isis will be difficult, different simply because people have to push them out will be people who occupy the land once they leave. who do you want to replace isis? very open-ended question? do we want bashar al-assad or the turks? it is a very open-ended question. has a lot less to do with isis and more the geopolitical thing of who do we want to control

this land? a different question going forward with the trump administration, there's an opportunity to shift in terms of the focus, tattered terrorism will be a huge thing, the military has to shift, going back to focusing on periodicals, high end russia. very excited about potential pics the president-elect has put forward and one of my favorites is townsend, and when we talk about counterterrorism, iraq, very much isis doesn't want to carry out an attack here. having good people at dhs, so important for security. i'm very hopeful we will get the right people. laura: what about the american people? how will the american people go when we get into 2017 and when the new administration takes over?

>> hard to believe it has been 16 years and we often forget afghanistan, we are actively involved, the american people are tired and the president-elect's strategy of saying no more nationbuilding is the right one, which is what we do in iraq, large presence on the ground in support of the indigenous population. i think the american people don't want to see us hold land, that is where constant slow roll of casualties occur, that is a change to announce we won't do nationbuilding but it is a bold move and something we carry forward and a way to get out of this quagmire we have seen in

afghanistan and iraq. i am hopeful of that and the american people feel that. >> happy thanksgiving weekend to you and thanks for being with us today. >> 3 quarters of americans plan to do some type of holiday shopping online or perhaps at the mall. the hottest items of the season, how much a shopper is expected to spend. big update on american business. plus -- >> connect more. >> i was just embarrassed, sent a picture to a total stranger. >> and called the local news station with a text message mistake leads to an unexpected thanksgiving vacation and cameras were there to record it. the touching update on what has become an unlikely friendship. ♪ ♪ this holiday, the real gift isn't what's inside the box...

it's what's inside the person who opens it. give your loved ones ancestrydna, the simple dna test that can tell them where they came from -by revealing their ethnic mix. you'll save 30%-and they'll have a new story to tell. order now at ancestrydna.com. offer ends monday.

more about deals to consumers sometimes at a loss for retailers. over the holiday weekend the average shopper, $400 in stores or online, foxbusiness network, thrill sequels to the gallery mall in white plains joins us live. how busy are things? >> reporter: foot traffic is light but we are getting that report throughout the country. that is something the major retailer is dealing with, stocks are down today but overall, 137

million people shopping this week, thanksgiving morning all the way to sunday evening, $20 billion, that is the estimate we have right now, what we believe will be spent into sunday night. a lot of shoppers got out early this morning to get the deals, ones that i'm getting in early, listen to this. >> if we went early enough we would beat the crowd. >> reporter: it is about electronic, flatscreen televisions, tablets 20% off of a general discount you will see, different places. and toys are big seller. i found this for you. i was thinking a lamborghini for you. ilove you, i got -- my other deals, back to you. this -- these are the deals, you are going to get good deals,

these are emoji's, pillows and slippers, fancy light sneakers over here under $50. that is the discount for things like shoes, $100 and under. the point is they are trying to get people into the mall. it is a challenge, everyone is trying to beat amazon. that is tough but if you come to a mall today you will get a really great thing. it might be worth it. leland: we will think about whether it is worth it as we see the folks behind you. laura: highlight the light up kicks. millions of folks are boycotting black friday sort of. they are joining the campaign opt outside. the department of interior, the idea is rather than fight crowds at the mall, join the great outdoors, quote, a hike is the

perfect cure for thanksgiving overeating. the idea, by sporting goods companies, more than 500 different groups are getting in on the fun of a hike to the mall. leland: it is not just retailers. something from amtrak's black friday sale, airlines, everybody has a black friday deal and the next hour of "happening now," we get an hour off and we will tell you the latest details on president-elect's transition to the white house. laura: deadly black friday shooting outside a shopping mall happening in new jersey. that is ahead in the second hour of "happening now". glad forceflex. extra strong to avoid rips and tears. be happy, it's glad.

we'll play something besides video games. every day is a gift especially for people with heart failure. but today there's entresto®- a breakthrough medicine that can help make more tomorrows possible. tomorrow, i want to see teddy bait his first hook. in the largest heart failure study ever, entresto® was proven to help more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading heart failure medicine. women who are pregnant must not take entresto®. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto® with an ace inhibitor or or aliskiren. if you've had angioedema while taking an ace or arb medicine, don't take entresto®. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high potassium in your blood. tomorrow, i'm gonna step out

with my favorite girl. ask your heart doctor about entresto®. and help make the gift of tomorrow possible. love or like? naughty or nice? calm or bright? but at bedtime... ...why settle for this? enter sleep number. don't miss the ultimate sleep number week, going on now. sleepiq technology tells you how you slept and what adjustments you can make. she likes the bed soft. he's more hardcore. so your sleep goes from good to great to wow! give the gift of amazing sleep. only at a sleep number store, right now save 50% on the ultimate limited edition bed. hurry, ends soon! learn more at sleepnumber.com know better sleep with sleep number.

>> an update to a story you heard here on "happening now," the grandmother who accidentally asked a stranger to thanksgiving dinner, making good on her invitation. she sent a text message about

thanksgiving day plans to the wrong number. the 17-year-old responded and yesterday ate dinner with the family, jamal saying there are plans in the works for den. to meet his family. leland: all right. "outnumbered" is next. we'll see you in an hour. >> this is a fox news alert on new additions to president-elect donald trump's white house team as more staff announcements could come at any time. we'll keep you posted on that. this is "outnumbered." i'm kennedy, and here today is dagen mcdowell of the fox business network, julie roginsky, and national review reporter katherine timpf on the couch, and the luckiest guy of all, the political editor for townhall.com, it's guy benson, and he's outnumbered. welcome back to the couch. >> i am so thankful, one might say, to be here. kennedy: are you full of turkey and ready to wrestle -- >> i am so happy i f