what america is feeling in the first fox news polls since donald trump won the election. this is "special report." good evening and welcome to washington. i'm bret baier. americans have not yet made up their minds about what to think of president-elect donald trump. that is the takeaway from our brand new fox polls, our first survey since trump upset hillary clinton to win the white house. 59% say they are hopeful following the election but 31% believe donald trump's presidency will be one of the worst in history. the president-elect appears to be closing in on some of the empty spaces in his cabinet

tonight, and he is coming off a summit with some of the people who were his strongest detractors during the campaign. senior national correspondent john roberts is outside trump tower again tonight. good evening, john. >> bret, good evening to you. it was the highest profile summit yet at trump tower, which is directly behind this bus behind me, and also the highest dollars. donald trump played host to high-tech billionaires, most of whom actively campaigned against him in the election. >> well, i just want to thank everybody. >> reporter: it was a crowd that just weeks ago had been openly hostile to donald trump. amazon founder jeff bezos who during the campaign claimed trump was eroding the democratic process. apple ceo tim cook who raised millions for hillary clinton. facebook coo sheryl sandberg also backed hillary clinton, as did tesla and spacex founder, elon musk. today trump urged them all to put political differences aside and focus on growing the economy, point out tech stocks have been doing pretty well

since he won the election. >> you're doing well right now and i'm very honored by the bounce. they're all talking about the bounce, so right now everybody has to like me at least a little bit. >> there was no comment on that from the ceos who all refused to talk to the press on their way out. curiously act from the summit, twitter. a transition source saying, quote, they aren't big enough. donald trump is getting closer to filling out his cabinet. this morning making official his pick of former texas governor rick perry to head up energy. perry, a strong pro opponent of fossil fuels, is drawing fire from the left. perry was also heavily invested in renewable energy sources while governor. with ryan zinke expected to be named secretary of the interior, that leaves only agriculture and veterans affairs open. filling those slots is proving problematic. transition sources tell fox news trump wants north dakota democratic senator heidi hide camp for agriculture but because she would likely be replaced by a republican, democrats have put on a full-court press urging her

to say no. also in the running is south dakota republican congresswoman christey noe. while she said she'd prefer to stay in congress, she might have a kdifficult time declining. trump has promised to revamp the structure and culture of the va. that will require a unique candidate. despite the delay, trump remains well ahead of most of his recent predecessors in naming his cabinet. on the latest stop in his thank you tour in wisconsin last night, donald trump publicly buried the hatchet with house speaker paul ryan. the two finally appearing on stage together. and when trump supporters booed ryan. the president-elect leapt to his defense, albeit with a caveat. >> you know, honestly, he's like a fine wine. every day goes by, i get to appreciate his genius more and more. now, if he ever goes against me, i'm not going to say that, okay.

he's a great guy. >> reporter: another issue that's rising on donald trump's radar, democrats insist government rules prohibit him from maintaining an ownership in his brand new washington hotel at the old post office. they say when he becomes president, he'll have to divest himself of that signature property. transition officials said today that donald trump will address all of that when he outlines his plans to separate himself from his businesses at a press conference that should likely happen sometime in early january. bret. >> a fine wine. john roberts outside trump tower. john, thank you. the obama administration is trying to reinforce its scientific or ideological firewall around the finding that global warming exists and is man made. the president's outgoing interior secretary today had one last call to arms to the true believers and concern about the president-elect's administration coming in.

we have the story tonight from the white house. >> reporter: speak up, that's the word from interior secretary sally jewell, imploring sciences to confront climate change deniers, especially if president-elect donald trump tries to sideline climate research. >> make your voices heard and make them relevant to the people that you're talking to. we have a president-elect who likes to win. we cannot win without good science. >> reporter: jewell, the top steward for public lands said the warning was in response to the president-elect himself who has since tempered his skepticism but on a number of occasions called climate change a hoax. >> i think it's a big scam for a lot of people to make a lot of money. in the meantime, china is eating our lunch because they don't partake in all of the rules and regulations that we do. >> reporter: critics have expressed concern that the trump administration will be more protective of the interests of big energy than the environment, noting that his choices to run state, energy and the environmental protection agency

all have ties to oil producing states. scott pruitt has even questioned climate change itself. >> i think the president's view is that policy making should be guided by science and that the policy makers should be listening to scientists, both inside the government and outside the government. >> reporter: adding to the white house's concerns, reports pie the president-elect's team for the names of the energy department staff and contractors who worked on the obama administration's efforts to reduce carbon emissions, a survey since disavowed by the trump transition team. >> there should be real apprehension across the country that clean energy revolution, our efficiency revolution, our fight for clean airan water are going to be under assault from the minute he takes the oath of office. >> reporter: by the way, bret, the person that sent out that survey has since been properly counselled. it's also important to point out that they're expected to take a very fresh look at a number of obama administration policies as far as the energy environment is

concerned, including the paris climate accord and keystone and dakota access pipelines. in the process they may open up a number of frontiers for energy development and finally change eight years of accepting climate change as science fact instead of something that should be up for debate. >> kevin, thank you. yahoo! says it believes hackers stole data from more than one billion user accounts in august of 2013. billion with a b. the company says it is different from a breach than the one it disclosed in september when it said 500 million accounts were exposed. yahoo! says the information stolen may include names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and security questions and answers. the company believes bank account information and payment card data were not affected. the federal reserve today raised its key interest rate by a quarter point. it's the first such move in a year. fed chair janet yellen says it is due to an improving economy. >> modest increase in the

federal funds rate is appropriate in light of the solid progress we have seen toward our goals of maximum employment and 2% inflation. we continue to expect that the evolution of the economy will warrant only gradual increases in the federal funds rate over time. >> stocks declined on the news that the fed may make three more rate hikes next year. the dow dropped 119, the s&p 500 was off 18, the nasdaq fell 27. now joining us from our sister network, fox business network's melissa francis. so why did the rate hike or the talk of more rate hikes spook the market today? >> yeah, it was really about that idea of janet yellen saying that we might be raising rates three more times in the year. investors had expected the federal reserve to say that maybe it would be two more times, but, you know, i would caution investors out there, they promised a number of rate hikes within a year in the past and they haven't followed

through, so it's certainly not certain that it's going to happen. >> what does it mean for the average person? a lot of people hear the fed did this, the fed did that. what does it mean to people sitting at home? >> well, if you have credit card debt, that's usually very much affected by this. that's where you see these interest rates really translate. if you have a home mortgage that's adjustable, you're thinking about going out and getting a mortgage, it should impact that. but about a year ago the federal reserve raised rates and actually mortgages went down and investors and homeowners had one more time to go out there and refinance, although a lot of people think this time we will really see it reflected through all interest rates, mainly because she's very much promised to follow through. >> you know, i've heard it explained it's pumping money into the market and at some point they have to turn off the spigot. why now? why is just the second time they have raised the rates since 2006? >> there's a lot of different theories about that. many people think that they're

all late to the game on this one, that they should have raised the rates a while ago. she said herself that she thinks she feels like the economy has gotten stronger, that the consumer is feeling better, that we've seen employment at a higher rate, the economy can finally handle it. some people though and they even asked this at the news conference afterwards, does this have more to do with donald trump. she said that some policy makers may be looking at that and thinking about the fact that he's promised to lower taxes and spend a lot on defense, and this is preemptive and that the economy would heat up in light of that and could really start growing and maybe she wants to rein things in before we see that growth. she herself said, though, that they're operating under a cloud of uncertainty at the moment since they don't know for sure what donald trump is going to do, but this could be a little bit of a trump effect in there. >> all right, melissa. we'll see if we get to 20k this week. thank you. >> we'll see, yeah. venezuelans are trying to

deposit or spend currency that is about to become worthless. embattled president nicholas maduro said he was taking the most commonly used bill out of circulation. venezuela is in a long economic crisis. we've reported on it before. struggling with the world's highest inflation. people have been lining up outside banks since tuesday morning. we'll continue to follow the situation there. there is considerable confusion tonight about whether the on again, off again truce in aleppo, syria, is on again. late this afternoon syrian rebels said it was, but cease-fires like this have come and gone before without much success. tonight correspondent rich edison is at the white house looking at where we are right now in the war in syria. a warning here, though, some of the images in this report may be disturbing. >> reporter: this is what cease-fire agreements look like this aleppo, syria.

>> translator: look how they killed my child. why, my brother, why. >> reporter: these buses were to evacuate civilians and rebels. instead they're empty. they had agreed to allow them to evacuate aleppo, returning control of the city to ba shaush -- bashar al assad. syrian forces have returned bombing aleppo as they capture more of the city. >> symbolically it means a study they have struggled to besiege and encircle and take for years is finally theirs. >> reporter: the united nations says pro-government forces have killed dozens of civilians. there are dozens of suicides. in more than five years of fighting, hundreds of thousands of syrians are dead, killed as several nations, rebel groups and terrorist organizations converged on this country. in 2011, it began with hope. syria joined the arab spring. citizens mobilizing to overthrow

their oppressive governments. assad responded with a violent crackdown. the country fell into civil war with terrorist groups joining the fight to secure syrian territory of its own. that summer the obama administration declared assad must step aside. a year later, this threat. >> a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. >> reporter: another year later, assad's forces killed 1400 using sarin gas. obama decided to walk back from his threat and pursue diplomacy with assad's ally, russia. that diplomacy has turned to disgust. >> the idea that you would target a playground and bomb kids, hoping that you would then convince people to give up because you had killed their kids? what kind of a sick mind comes up with a strategy like that? and what kind of civilized country is going to support those tactics? but that's what russia has done. >> reporter: and now questions of whether the administration should have engaged further in

syria, beyond air strikes against isis. >> there has never been a recognition that civilian population protection is at the heart, at the heart of avoiding and fighting extremism. our failure to protect the syrian population is i think the biggest policy failure we did. >> reporter: syria will be a question for the trump administration, as it will now decide whether and how to engage russia and continued u.s. involvement in syria. >> rich, thank you. the marine corps is grounding its fleet of mv-22 osprey aircraft in japan following a crash off the coast of japan earlier this week. it happened while the tilt rotor plane was conducting a nighttime midair refueling operation. the five crew members aboard the plane were all rescued. it is the eighth crash incident involving marine aircraft this year. a new theory tonight on how russian hackers allegedly got into the hillary clinton campaign e-mail system.

"the daily mail" reports a typo in an e-mail from one of clinton's top aides may have been responsible for opening a digital door. meantime the house intelligence committee abruptly circled thursday's briefing on the alleged russian election hacks. fox news is told that the intel agencies, the cia, fbi, nsa, odni all refused to provide briefers, which is unusual given that this is the most senior committee with jurisdiction. the russian scandal has put the spotlight on our country's aging i.t. infrastructure and not just the equipment. you might be shocked to learn just how many of the men and women charged with keeping our government's computers safe and effective are among the country's oldest workers. peter doocy tells us more tonight. >> reporter: during the presidential campaign season, there was a lot of talk about who should have his or her finger on the button that controls the nation's nuclear arsenal. it turns out that nuclear arsenal is partly coordinated

using an 8-inch floppy disk. >> where do you buy a floppy disk? i can't imagine what the price is now. and so that's the big threat is this slow, grinding, lower quality, higher cost set of services. >> reporter: the cost of caring for such ancient equipment is now so high the feds don't have much money left over for anything else. among the biggest spenders on i.t., hhs at $13 billion a year, dhs at more than $6 billion a year and the va at nearly $4.5 billion a year. >> the federal government spends almost $90 billion a year on information technology and almost 80% of that is spent on operations and maintenance, servicing systems that may be over 50 years old. >> reporter: the workforce is aging too. there are more federal i.t. employees over 60 than there are under 30. at hud, 23% of i.t. workers are

over 60. at the national science foundation 18%, and at labor, 17%, which could become a problem whenever they decide to leave. >> there are a lot of folks that are retirement eligible that will be leaving in the near term. the real question is are we going to be able to attract the best talent to come in to fill those places and bluntly to do things differently than we've been doing in the past. >> cost isn't the only concern as the government tries to get top talent to work for them. the nation's cyber infrastructure remains exposed to hackers. >> we need about 30,000 to thwart the worst kind of attack on this country. we've only got about a thousand. >> reporter: experts are waiting to see how the next president addresses the aging i.t. infrastructure, but private sector companies don't have to wait for anything, like ibm action whose ceo says the company is trying to adjust to changes in tech by hiring thousands of what she calls new collar workers who don't necessarily even need college degrees.

>> peter, thank you. up next, why some people are worried a president donald trump has interesting communication plans. first, here's what some of our fox news affiliates around the country are covering tonight. fox carolina in greenville as lawyers for the man accused of killing nine black parishioners at a south carolina church rest their case without calling any witnesses. earlier a judge ruled they could not present evidence about dylann roof's mental health. closing arguments are planned for tomorrow. fox 8 in high point, north carolina, with the firing of a wake forest university football announcer accused of giving sensitive information to the team's opponents. tommy el rod is a former player for the school and was also a coach for 11 seasons. he was not retained when the current coach took over. this is a live look from our affiliate in san francisco, fox 2. one of the big stories there tonight, uber puts some of their self-driving cars into service there. it's an expansion of the pilot

program that started in pittsburgh in september. an uber employee is still behind the wheel to take over in case there's a problem here. customers can opt out if they prefer a human driver. would you? that's tonight's live look outside the beltway from "special report." we'll be right back. generosity is its own form of power.

you can handle being a mom for half an hour.

i'm in all the way. is that understood? i don't know what she's up to, but it's not good. can't the world be my noodles and butter? get your mind out of the gutter. mornings are for coffee and contemplation. that was a really profound observation. you got a mean case of the detox blues. don't start a war you know you're going to lose. finally you can now find all of netflix in the same place as all your other entertainment. on xfinity x1. tonight we continue our series on the first 100 days of the donald trump presidency. with one of his signature campaign rallying points. early and often the republican nominee took aim at president obama's legacy nuclear deal with iran. but trump also hinted he would not just tear up that deal, so now the question is what will the new president do about the nuclear deal and is there room for a detente with iran beyond

the deal? chief washington correspondent james rosen reports. >> reporter: born in iran, an accomplished lecturer and the author of three books in he sees some prospects under the next president for improved relations between washington and his ancestral persian homeland. >> if nothing else, mr. trump, he does represent american pragmatism. he will cut deals. he will sit down with friend and foe and try to come up with the best deals. >> reporter: in the years since the iranian regime -- the united states along with five other nations implemented a deal, including huge infusions of cash. at the same time iran's military has harassed the u.s. military.

ramped up ballistic missile testing, intervened to prop up the assad regime in syria, continued funding hamas and hezbollah and reaffirmed undying hostility to the nation it calls the great satan. most analysts believe in his first 100 days in office the next president will make swift demonstration to his changing the relationship. the nuclear chord at the heart, never having been ratified by congress, is at once the easiest thing to change and the most far reaching. as a candidate, donald trump criticized it bitterly. >> this is one of the worst deals ever made by any country in history. the deal with iran will lead to nuclear problems. all they have to do is sit back ten years and they don't have to do much and they're going to get nuclear. >> reporter: but he has also signalled he doesn't intend to walk away from the deal. to ri deal. i've taken over some bad contracts. i would police that contract so

tough that they don't have a chance, as bad as the contract is, i will be so tough on that contract. >> reporter: the secretary of state who negotiated the iran deal hinting ehintinged to repo brussels that president obama in attempting to persuade his successor not to scrap the deal thought there was some headway. >> there were aspects of it that were constructive and positive and worthwhile and maybe should be held onto. >> reporter: iranes president has warned tehran will not allow mr. trump to weaken or abandon the deal. the state department acknowledged iran has no such power. >> they cannot prevent any party from walking away. the counter argument is why would anyone walk away because it's effective. >> reporter: outside of the nuclear deal, it is the raging civil war and humanitarian catastrophe in syria that may offer the new president

coordination with iran. the president-elect has vowed to work with the kremlin to resolve that conflict. alan parsa for one says mr. trump may recognize a bit of himself in his adversaries in iran. >> iranians have shown themselves to be rather pragmatic in many, many areaare and as mr. trump has said they're good deal makers too. >> reporter: even if he intends to quiet things down between the u.s. and iran, mr. trump will soon find his hand forced by events. members of congress have proposed close to three dozen sanctions bills and the new president will have to issue new waivers for the nuclear deal to continue, if of course mr. trump is of a mind to keep it. >> james, thank you. our 15-part series looking ahead to the first 100 days of the trump presidency continues tomorrow with the president-elect's plans for tax cuts and simplification of the tax code. if you miss any of the reports,

you can check them all out on foxnews.com/specialreport. president trump's critics have something new to worry about tonight. it involves the decades-old effort to spread democracy to other nations through the media. howard kurtz is here tonight with some big changes for agency lgs su -- agencies such as the voice of america. >> reporter: politico says that trump will take over an office that could turn into an unfetterred propaganda arm, a kind of trump tv that could only peddle trump approved content. trump could name the editor of breitbart news or another alt-right propagandaist to control how the u.s. is represented to the rest of the world. we're talking about naming a single chief executive to oversee the voa, radio-free europe on the other agencies that are currently battling such forces as isis propaganda and

russian cyber hacking. >> haven't they been around for decades? >> yes, but a new law is eliminating the broadcasting board of governors, it's been widely criticized add ineffective and replace it with a single ceo. that change was supported by president obama's administration, president's chairman at the board of governors, the top democrat on the house foreign affairs committee among others. the senate, by the way, could approve or reject that anybody trump nominated. i spoke to the committee chairman, ed royce, and i asked him about the furor. >> i think that's hysteria. as a matter of fact, there's very clear laws in place here in this legislation that put in a firewall in terms of journalistic independence. so in fact what's driving this is opposition from the bureaucracy itself. >> meanwhile, bret, hillary clinton herself as secretary of state testified that the broadcasting board of governors was practically defunct in terms

of being able to sell a message to the world. congressman royce introduced this legislation last year, virtually no news coverage. only since trump's election have news organizations seized on it, suggesting, possibly, a double standard. >> howie, thank you. the election of donald trump has many in the united nations worried about big changes in the u.s. attitude toward that organization. president-elect trump has made no secret of his disdain for the u.n. and the global group has just sworn in a new secretary general who is promising what he calls management reform. senior correspondent eric shawn looks at that situation tonight. >> the united nations is not a friend of democracy. it's not a friend to freedom. it's not a friend even to the united states of america. >> reporter: donald trump clearly no fan of the united nations. the president-elect's views are at odds with the world body on a variety of pressing issues, from its support of the iran nuclear

deal, climate change initiatives and resettling refugees. >> the overwhelming feeling among most members was that barack obama was their kind of u.s. president, so i think it will be a different reception. but i think the whole point of the idea of making america great again is to reassert ourselves, especially in bodies like the united nations. >> reporter: former u.n. ambassador john bolden who has talked to mr. trump about joining the administration predicts the president-elect will take a hard stance at the u.n. he says the almost $3 billion american taxpayers paid this year alone, the most of any nation, could be cut. >> i think a good, hard look at the u.n. budget is long overdue. i wouldn't be at all surprised if a president trump once in office does pay particular attention to it. >> it's total insanity. >> reporter: that was the undiplomatic opinion of mr. trump a decade ago when we sat down to discuss the multi

billion dollar renovation. he testified about it to congress and accused the u.n. of overspending. >> it is either the most corrupt thing going on in the world, which is saying something, or it's one of the most incompetent things i've ever seen. >> reporter: mr. trump has tapped republican south carolina governor nikki haley as his choice for juu.n. ambassador. >> i think there's a lot of day-to-day issues that she doesn't know about. the problem that nikki haley is going to face is that many of the other countries' delegates are people that have been there for a very long time, like her counterpart from russia has been there for ten years. >> reporter: a possible preview of what governor haley could face came in a september speech by the u.n. commissioner for human rights. he compared the rhetoric from mr. trump and others that he called populist, demagogues and clever cheats to the propaganda of isis. some breaking news now. the house intelligence committee chairman is not happy at all that the intelligence agencies

have refused to provide anybody for that committee hearing on alleged russian hacking. devon nunez replacing a statement. it is unacceptable that the intelligence community directors would not fulfill the house intelligence committee's request to be briefed tomorrow on the cyber attacks that occurred during the presidential campaign. the legislative branch is constitutionally vested with oversight responsibility of executive branch's agencies which are obligated to comply with our requests. the committee is deeply concerned that intrance jents in sharing intelligence with congress can enable the manipulation for political purposes. we will talk about more of this with the panel in just a moment. many of you are hopeful and optimistic, some of you are scared. we will talk about all of the fox news polls as well, since donald trump won the election, and that breaking news about the intelligence agencies giving the stiff arm to the house intelligence committee when the panel joins me after a break.

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did we have our hair on fire that hacking took place? no. i mean that's what happens. if he can discredit the integrity of what we do here in the voting process and electing folks, he is winning. >> we have the president-elect of the united states publicly condemning the intelligence services on which he will have to rely as president. if i'm running that covert action, i'm putting it in the win column. >> it's quite possible that the republican party has been exploited and donald trump himself might have been exploited over the years by russian intelligence. >> so a lot of talk about the alleged hacking and what it meant for the election, as the breaking news we just brought to you, that the intel agencies are not providing any briefers to the house intelligence committee and the chairman, devon nunez,

being very upset about that. this is new fox news polls coming out on this issue. russia's attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election helped donald trump and there you see all voters 32%, hillary clinton 1%, no effect 59%. of course clinton voters a much different take on all of that. donald trump's dealings with china and russia. here you see the breakdown in the fox poll. too accommodating to russia, 50%. too confrontational with china, 43%. interesting findings there. finally overall, the opinion of donald trump as it stands now, according to our latest polls, favorable, unfavorable, 47-51. you can see a big jump as far as where it stood at the beginning of november at election time. let's bring in our panel. steve hayes, senior writer for the weekly had is it. maura elison of national public radio and guy benson, political editor at townhall.com, charles

hurt, political columnist for "the washington times." steve, first of all, congratulations. you have a new title. >> i do have a new title. >> and said title is? >> editor in chief of the weekly standard. >> thank you very much, we will put that up. congratulations. the thoughts about the nunez development and the fact that the intel agencies are not providing briefings to what he wanted a hearing on this russian hacking. >> pretty extraordinary that they would deny briefings. from what i understand it was a denial of the requested briefings rather than just not being responsive. they have said no, they're not going to provide the briefing. you know, the statement that you read from devon nunez, he's not someone who is prone to anger. that was steaming anger coming from him, especially the suggestion that this could be the politiciization of intelligence. i think the context that you've seen in the minds of many republicans, including on the oversight committees.

over the years, particularly at the cia throughout the obama administration. if you look back at the kind of intelligence products that the cia was providing to the president, it was consistent with what the president wanted to be true, particularly with respect to al qaeda, isis, the war on terror. so they were providing intelligence product that was fit to match what the president's ideological conclusions. the concern is that that's what's taking place again here. i think if the cia or people at the cia are going to be leaking these kinds of accusations, they have an obligation to go before the congressional oversight committees and explain themselves. now, having said all of that, these are very serious claims. i think there are some people who are defending the trump administration or conservatives who aren't being serious enough about the potential russian intervention in the u.s. election. >> okay, maura, so here you have this story, "the washington post" does it first, that the cia believes that the russians

hacked in order to help donald trump. you have clearly some intel agencies that are not on the same page when it comes to this. >> right. >> now, nunez is trying to figure this out and he calls this committee hearing and gets the heisman award from the intel agencies, we're not going. now, how are the electors who are asking for intel briefings to feel confident about -- >> that to me is inexplicable. put aside the dissention about the motive. there is one thing that is almost unanimous, which is that russia accounted hacked. russia wanted to sow doubts among americans about their own electoral process. that's a real cyber attack and it's really serious. that's something that donald trump, so far the only prominent american that we know of, who has completely rejected that finding that russia hacked. as a matter of fact, he said it could have been a 400-pound guy

sitting somewhere. lindsey graham said it might have been a 400-pound guy but it was a 400-pound russian guy. i don't know why they didn't brief. there are going to be hearings on this. they briefed them in october. they briefed congress in october. >> they briefed november 17th. here is the director of national intelligence, clapper. >> as far as the wikileaks connection, the evidence there is not as strong and we don't have good insight into the sequencing of the releases or when the data may have been provided. >> is he off script there, guy? what's going on? >> who knows. anyone's guess is as good as mine. i think that there has to be an answer here from the intelligence community. when you're brought forward and congress asks to hear from you and the relevant oversight committee wants to hear, there's a lot of noise out there, there's a lot of allegations flying back and forth, the

motives are unclear, differences in opinion among various agencies, when congress asks you to show up and explain yourself on some level and you say no, the american people have to ask the question, i don't care if you're a republican or democrat, why on earth can they say that. not just why are they saying it, why can they say that. at some point they need to show up and answer questions. >> meanwhile the white house, josh earnest from the podium is getting a little more aggressive when it comes to this topic. >> a whole lot more. i think that's a very important thing to remember. obviously the accusations are very serious. if russia attempted or succeeded in any way to sort of interfere with our american elections, that's a very serious issue and we need to get to the bottom of it without fear of favor of any politician. but on the other hand, you do have a sitting president right now who should be overseeing all of this and he's not doing much to help add clarity to all of it. i can't help but get the feeling

that he himself has contributed to the politicization of intelligence. >> how will history judge donald trump's presidency. you see the breakdown, one of the greatest, 11%, above average, one of the worst 31%. describe the election outcome feelings. 59% say hopeful, 50% said relieved. i think a lot of people covering the election. maura, what do you finding striking about these poll numbers? >> i'm not sure what i make about the outcome, maybe it just means that it's over. that's subject to interpretation. but what i find striking is just the basic favorable/unfavorable. donald trump's favorable is now about his ballot. it should be higher. when you compare him to past presidents at this time, usually you get a bounce after you win. >> you usually don't have as much negative coverage either.

>> that's true, but usually you don't win in such a stunning way. this was a real upset. and you'd think that he'd get a bounce from that. but he didn't. so that's one thing that i think is really interesting. but it has been trending up, so we'll see if that trend continues. >> i think he did bounce. the only thing is he bounced -- >> those people are above their ballots. >> there was never going to be a big honeymoon period for the next president, regardless of who won, because these were unpopular people. the number -- bret, you mentioned, 59% of americans saying they're hopeful moving forward after the election. to me that's an opportunity for donald trump. this has been a very nasty cycle with a lot of strong feelings on all sides, acrimony, bitterness, and yet hopeful is the number one answer from the american people. if he can capture some of that and move forward, he can maybe gain some more political capital, to your point. and the other one, 68% of americans believe donald trump will repeal obamacare, that has to be a priority. >> jobs, jobs, jobs, he said in

the speech in wisconsin, steve, and today he met at trump tower with the tech community, a summit in which he said we'll do anything that you need, give me a call or give somebody in my administration a call if you have any issues. >> yeah, he said there wasn't a strict chain of command. call in and we'll take care of you. look, he's made very clear that he wants jobs to be a priority. one of the things that we've seen him do early in his pre-presidential period is the pr of jobs. and whether you're talking about carrier, whether you're talking about meetings like this, this is showing america, americans are going to go home and see it on their news, watch shows like this and say donald trump is doing something about jobs. you know, part of the reason he won was because of the things that he said about the economy. showing that he's making progress, that he's actually checked in, tuned in to what people's priorities and concerns are, as guy says he could take advantage of that hopefulness. next up, the obama

administration takes one final shot at global warming skeptics.

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>> this is an intellectual curiosity expedition. we're really trying to come up with the best solutions to the american people. >> this appeared to be a witch-hunt. they are sending a message that they want those officials to be looked at, punished or discarded when it comes to policy. >> policy making should be guided by science policymakers should be looking at science inside and outside the government. >> i would hope that wield still not be having to make the case that climate change is real and that humans have contributed to it. >> we want to see sound

science. we have seen a lot of the science absolutely start running amuck. >> the interior secretary for the obama administration sally jewel. did you all know who the interior secretary was? be honest. that's why when you talk about all these choices in months from now we will all be asking those questions about the trump administration. she was asking a final push to imploring scientists to confront so-called climate change deniers. this after the trump transition team asked the energy department's e.p.a. staff to see who was working on the efforts to reduce carbon emissions. we're back with our panel. charlie, about this push. >> it's not a shocking argument to say that a lot of this climate change stuff has become something of a religion on the left. and it's a religion within the e.p.a. and the energy department. and i think that, you know, obviously, the cabinet are

doing their best to kind of frighten voters about this request for the names and the work of some of these people. but, you know, when trump said i think this is a scam for a lot of people to make a lot of money. in the meantime china is eating our lunch. he said that before the election. and he won the election. and people knew exactly where he stood on this people should give the donald trump some room to make good on his promises. >> in the environment community though, mara, the trump nomination so far, the scott pruitt for e.p.a. administrator and rick perry for energy secretary they frankly scare people. >> they do. the environmental community takes him at his word. he doesn't believe co 2 emissions have anything to do with global warning emissions at all.

and scott pruitt seems to aagree with him. i don't know about rick perry on that particular question it sounds like if that's the case, even though donald trump has also sent conflicting signals he says he has an open mind. i think at some point you have to either decide to accept the 99% consensus of scientists that man contributes to it or not and the paris climate accord and what he wants to do. i think you can still be for all the above energy policy and also want to do something about global warming. >> is there a nuances position in between that you want to do something but you don't want it to kill american businesses? >> yeah. and that's a policy disagreement. i think everyone should be in favor of political noninterference when it comes to science. but the problem that i have is that this often is attacked as a phenomenon that only occurs in one direction. it's those right wing denialist who are minting thingmintmanipulating things. when the left does it do it

pretty frequently when it fits their agenda whether on pipelines or things like that. i would commend to our viewers a really good "wall street journal" op-ed earlier this month by a scientist by the university of colorado it was entitled my unhappy life as a climate haiherheretic. he believes in the carbon tax and supports that remedy for the problem that he sees. his one heresy was he doesn't believe that climate change contributes to an increase in severe weather events. and for that sin, that thought crime based on evidence that he saw, he has been shunned and shamed and, in fact, called out by the obama white house. so this does happen on both ends. and let's not pretend otherwise. >> right. let's be clear, steve, that the left for all the talk about being open and transparent and free-thinking and lots of thoughts out there, this is strict. if you are not this way

100 percent, you are out in the cold, pardon the pun. >> that's exactly right. what it does is have the effect of foreclosing debate. if it's the case that the science is so clear and that anybody who denied or even raises questions would be immediately exposed as an idiot, they should welcome the debate. too often what they do is they use these names, the denialist to foreclose the debate. that's exactly the wrong thing to do. you see it from the left quite a bit. that said, the trump administration, i think, shouldn't have sent this questionnaire. they were smart to disavow it because it looks there like they are trying to foreclose debate. >> his talk about this. the president-elect has evolved from candidate to president-elect. take a listen. >> i think it's a big scam for a lot of people to make a lot of money. in the meantime, china is eating our lunch because they don't partake in all of the rules and regulations that we do. >> where are you on the environment? >> i'm still open-minded.

nobody really knows. >> so people jumped on him after he said the open-minded thing. but then he turned around and invited al gore and leo decaprio into trump tower to talk to him and everything and then picked rick perry. that doesn't mean he isn't -- pt pruitt. >> bill gates has people pulling their hair out that he said. this. >> in the same way that president kennedy talked about the space mission and got the country behind that, i think that whether it's education or stopping epidemics, there can be a very upbeat message that his administration is going to organize things, get rid of regular go tore barriers and have american leadership through innovation. >> reference jfk there. >> he has a big fund on this. he is starting big, big investments into energy innovation. >> that is it for the panel.

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>> finally tonight, a lot of tech talk today but what about texts? one late night show sharing some of the viewers' piggest text sales. >> after a snow storm i meant to text my boss hey ryan i'm afraid i won't miss it in today.

instead i texted hey ryan i'm afraid. are you near your phone they replied okay text me when you are. replied to my dad odk i said i don't know then why are you use tsmght my phone auto corrected god. god says we are 42 minutes away. my dad texted my sister once saying football playing spider. sorry i thought you were google. >> i didn't get that one. >> g.p.s. to god. thanks for inviting us into your home. fair, balanced and unafraid. i can hear the doors. so that means "tucker carlson tonight" is getting ready for his show. starts right now next door. >> it is thursday december 15th rt. this is a fox news alertd. tensions boiling over as the cia refuses to brief congress on evidence of russian hacking for the 2016 election.

>> this violates all protocols and it's almost as if people in the intelligence community are carrying out a disinfo campaign against the president of the united states. >> the president doesn't need a hearing, it is already blaming donald trump. >> the muslim teen says she was attacked by trump supporters who tried to snatch her hijab lied about the whole thing. >> 1 billion yahoo accounts attacked. the information at risk and what you need to do to stay safe. "fox & friends first" starts right now. ♪>> it's 5:00.

the lights are always shining bright right there. good morning. you are watching "fox & friends first" on this once morning. -- wednesday morning. >> i am heather childers. t this is a fox news alert. a p brand new twist in the alleged russia election hacking. new claims vladmir putin was directly involved and donald trump knew all about it. >> outrage is boiling over after an intelligence briefing is canceled. >> good morning, peter. >> the house intelligence committee had to cancel a behind the closed doors meeting about russian interference because nobody from the cia wanted to brief members. this as trump advisors are accusing intelligence of spinning this to score points. >> you had a briefing and no