tv Shepard Smith Reporting FOX News December 7, 2017 12:00pm-1:00pm PST
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>> i believe in each of you in the room is able to be a change-maker for woman. >> i'll tell you about another honoree later tonight on "the 5." i'm dana. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 at the white house where president trump is sitting down with republican and democratic congressional leaders. if they can't work out a deal, the government could shut down tomorrow night. al franken calling it quits. >> in the coming weeks, i'll be resigning as member of the united states senate. >> we'll take you to minnesota for what it looks like will happen next. plus, in the california inferno, powerful santa ana winds whipping up wild fires in the mountains of flames. they're incinerating everything in their path forcing hundreds of thousands of people to abandon their homes and race to safety. let's get to it.
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first from the fox news deck this afternoon, al franken, former rising star in the democratic party, self-proclaimed champion of women, announcing he will quit the u.s. senate in the midst of sexual misconduct allegations. already democrats are discussing options for his replacement. in a speech on the floor, the senator defended his record. he blasted republicans that faced similar allegations including roy moore and the sitting president, donald trump. senator franken says he's not finished fighting. >> today i am announcing that in the coming weeks i will be resigning as a member of the united states senate. let me be clear. i may be resigning my seat, but i'm not giving up my voice. i will continue to stand up for the things i believe in as a citizen and as an activist.
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>> shepard: at least 30 senators have called for franken to step aside. most spoke out yesterday after two more women came forward with accusations against the senator. at least eight women say franken kissed or groped them. franken says he denies the accusations and remembers others differently. he's repeatedly apologized and he said he's considering or corr operating with an ethics investigation. minnesota's governor, the democrat, mark dayton, now gets the chance to appoint somebody to replace al franken. that person will serve until a special election next year. franken is not the first senator to resign on the floor over sexual misconduct allegations. oregon's republican senator bob packwood announced his resignation in 1995. on franken, we have matt finn live in minneapolis with reaction. first, mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. mike? >> shep, good afternoon.
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it was important for senator franken to step aside saying "nothing is easy or pleasant about this but we all must recognize our workplace cultures and the way we treat each others as human beings must change." as part of his speech, franken defended his behavior. >> it gave some people false impressions that i was admitting to doing things that i haven't done. some of the allegations against me are not true. others i remember differently. >> shepard: on his way out, mike, he blasted republicans facing in some ways similar accusations. >> that's correct. he took a swipe at the senate candidate from alabama, roy moore and even president trump. >> i am leaving while a man who
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has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the oval office, and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls, campaigns for the senate with a full support of his party. >> this afternoon sarah sanders responded from the podium. >> the president addressed the comments back during the campaign. we feel strongly that the people of this country also addressed that when they elected donald trump to be president. i've addressed it several times from here and don't have anything to add. >> now republican lawmakers are asking the difference between senator franken and roy moore. >> what is the difference? you have to acknowledge that roy moore has denied these things. there's no evidence. the people in alabama apparently -- most of them agree with him.
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>> senator franken denies them, too. no, he didn't. he has pictures. are you kidding? >> there's prominent republicans on capitol hill that have worried about the impact of repeated questions like that about roy moore. >> shepard: thanks, mike. senator franken says he decided to resign because he would not effectively serve the people of minnesota in the middle of an ethics examination. matt finn live in minneapolis. matt? >> shep, on the ground here in minnesota. no big surprise when senator franken announced his resignation. many people woke up to the star tribute reporting that senator franken was expected to resign. the republican party here tells fox news that when franken's seat becomes vacant, it will be a huge opportunity to win that seat back. there were no names named but says they have a deep bench.
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>> we have a pool of great candidates in the state. so if the seat does come up and it's on the ballot in november, a number of great people would be in the consideration to help us win a senate seat on the republican side that we haven't held in a great number of years. >> the star tribute newspaper is also reporting that the governor is expected to appoints will governor tina smith as franken's replacement until a special election next year, shep. >> shepard: matt, what are democrats in minnesota saying here? >> the chair of the democratic party released a statement saying in part, senator franken made the right decision today. he has been a tireless and strong leader on behalf of minnesotians and washington. that in no way excuses his behavior. his resignation is an important part of the healing process. shep? >> matt finn live for us. thank you.
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there's breaking news now on fox news channel. a live look at the white house where president trump is meeting with congressional leaders from both sides of the political aisle. democrats and republicans need to reach a spending deal by the end of the day tomorrow to avoid a government shutdown. the senate minority leader, chuck schumer and the house minority leader nancy pelosi pulled out of the meeting last week after president trump attacked them on twitter saying he didn't think they could reach a deal. the president ended up having a photo op with their empty chairs. here's what pelosi had to say ahead of the meeting. >> we were concerned when the president started mocking the meeting and saying there would be no deal and all that. we said if you're not ready to talk, we're not ready to come. now he's made the overture for us to go. hopefully that means he's more receptive to finding a solution. >> shepard: her republican counterpart, paul ryan, is sounding optimistic that
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lawmakers will reach an agreement to keep the government funded. >> i feel good where we are. it's basic governing, keeping government going while we negotiate the finer details. >> right now lawmakers are debating a spending bill that would push back the deadline for shut down by about two weeks. so that's the process that is underway now. this is a look on the floor. we do know that the president is in the middle of this meeting. remember, when they cancelled one last week, they showed us empty seats in a staged photo opportunity. today the meeting is underway and blake burman has the news from the white house from the fox business network. hi, blake. >> hi, shepard. take two is about to get underway any minute as chuck schumer and nancy pelosi will sit down in the white house with paul ryan and mitch mcconnell. as that is about to happen, over at the house, they're debating this short-term stop gap mess sure that would fund the government through december 22. so for another couple weeks,
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just punting this a couple weeks. mcconnell called this noncontroversial and urged senators to take up this measure. the bottom line is, at this very moment, there is no deal officially in place or not the votes at the moment. so right now, the finger pointing is underway. >> if the shut-down happens as the president seems to be rooting for in his tweet earlier this year, it will fall on his shoulders. his party controls the senate, the house and the presidency. >> they may control washington but it takes democrats to be involved in the process. we hope they play by the schumer rule and not hold this bill hostage. >> what the house is debating is known as a clean sea or no strings attached on this funding bill. that's what the white house wanted. the reality is, it would allow republicans the next couple weeks to focus on tax reform and
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then take up this exercise once again at the end of the month. >> shepard: so blake, the white house wants this clean continuing resolution. what are the two sides there in the chambers want? >> so on the one hand, when this eventually becomes a bigger fight after this friday, assuming this gets passed, the white house says they want funding for the president's border wall. democrats say they want a long-term fix for daca. both sides are for dreamers. both sides dug in. nancy pelosi saying the democrats have no plans to leave washington this month if there is not a daca fix. however, republicans say this is not an immediate december issue because the deadline is in early march. shepard? >> shepard: blake burman pulling double duty. a fox urgent now. a school shooting this morning. police say two high school students are dead in the state of new mexico. it happened at aztek high school in the northwestern part of the state.
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a three-hour drive north of albuquerque. cops now confirm the shooter is also dead. no word if the suspect was a student, but earlier reports suggest a dozen people were hurd. police say nobody else was hurt. two killed plus the shooter killed. after the gun fire started, police say they got students and staff out of the building and searched every room. more updates as they come in. and more ahead on the meeting that happened right now at the white house. we're waiting to see how that goes after democratic leaders cancelled on the president over a twitter spat. can they come to an agreement to keep the government run something that's up next on the fox news deck on this thursday afternoon. great to have you in. morning on the beach was so peaceful.
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>> more on the president meeting with congressional leaders. we're about to hear from the president in just a moment. the pool talk just happened. nancy pelosi and chuck schumer, the rest of them all in a room. the white house pool will play that back in just a minute. we'll let you hear it. first, zeke miller is with us. hi, zeke. where are you now on big picture? >> big picture comes at a
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critical time. 36 hours to avert the government shutdown. now seems like they're going to pass the resolution to get us to december 22. the leaders need to hash out a longer term funding agreement and they're very far apart despite the president saying they're a unified group. on the substance, they're a long ways to go for the two parties. >> shepard: so our viewers are clear, they're going to have a short term gap stop fix so the government keeps running three days before christmas. >> yeah. >> shepard: what is thinking about that in a world where transparency is the goal? >> it's a reflection of the of course that they don't have an agreement to get done before funding runs out tomorrow night at midnight. by setting it up for december 22 before christmas makes it sort of a must-pass bill before the holidays. nobody wants the government to
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shut down and over the holiday season. that is toxic for both sides. so this is to create maximum pressure. create a crisis point for lawmakers in washington, that they have to come together because they can't have a government shut down during christmas. >> shepard: one side wants a wall, the other side wants protection for the undocumented immigrants that came into the country as children with their parents and are really kind of stuck. does one of them have to back down or one of them have to give up what they want to get anywhere or are there some other options? >> this could be one of those and not or situations. there may be room for some compromise here where every one gets a little bit -- >> shepard: so a small wall and a few dacas? >> potentially like that or a full daca with a wall and some other immigration fixes associated with that that are popular. you know, it's very difficult
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nor both parties to make this work because the president has been out there about his immigration priorities. he's had a very clear line about the red line of where he wants to be. for the democrats, there's not an appetite to work with the president on anything. it's just the immigration piece. and then there's defense spending on top of that. they're far apart on that. >> shepard: they're as far apart as 180 on the wall. the democrats, which i suppose could change their mind, they say no way, no wall while we're here. they're in lock step on that. is there any sense that any democrats have moved on that position? >> no, not right now. but again, they're in a room right now. chuck and nancy and the president in the past have come up with an understanding.
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whether or not it lasts -- but are they prepared to come to an agreement here. democrats know that they want daca, they have to give something to get something from the president. this president has made a deal ma making persona for so long. >> shepard: very interesting. is there a group pushing for a new resolution? is there a subset on either side that is saying hey, how about we try this? >> there is certainly some grumbling along those lines. right now a lot of these discussions are taking place at the leadership level, particularly with the short term measure for tomorrow and then even for a couple weeks from now, this is happening mostly at the leadership level with schumer, pelosi and mcconnell and ryan and the white house. whether others get brought in, a third party or a moderate proposal that emerges from capitol hill, we haven't seen much evidence from that. >> shepard: the tape is in the
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deck. they'll play it out for just a moment. if we can take zeke there. for those of you concerned that the white house has been painted blue. don't fear. although this baby blue is a nice color. it's not appropriate for a house named white. my understanding of this is, there's a hitch in the video get-along there in the washington swamp. the blue is on the picture, not at the white house, which to many here is comforting. i wonder -- there's clearly a show down set up with democrats and republicans with democratic senators almost on mass coming forward to say al franken has to go and al franken mentioning the similar trouble with the republicans facing. how do you see that sort of unfolding in the days ahead? >> the white house, sarah sanders got that question earlier and ducked it, side-stepped it. they've been trying -- the white house has been -- republicans in general have been trying not to
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engage on this, even though there's a difference in how the two parties are responding to the troubling allegations about their own. it's one of those things as a country everybody is wrestling with it. but washington still has a lot of reckoning to do there. >> shepard: i've been told zeke miller outside the white house or blue house, not sure how that happens. we're 25 second away from playback of this tape. this is a way to come up with some way to keep the government open and move forward. the democrats cancelled on him last time after the president said he didn't see a deal coming. now they're in the oval office together. you'll see the president and vice president and -- here they are. >> thanks very much. we're all here as a friendly well-unified group. it's a well-knit together group of people.
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we hope to make great progress for our country. i think that will happen. we appreciate it very much. chuck, nancy, do you want to say anything? chuck? >> well, we hope we can come to an agreement. funding the government is extremely important. helping our soldiers is extremely important and helping average citizens is very important. we're here in the spirit of let's get it done. >> thank you, mr. president, for this opportunity. we are here to make progress. we have some important issues that we share with you. you have described the opioid crisis in our country. we want to address that, help our veterans, children, health insurance. all things that have bipartisan support in the congress. >> thank you. mitch? >> mr. president, we're here to reach a bipartisan agreement to finish out the year. glad you invited us. happy to be here. >> thank you very much.
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paul? >> glad we're here to resume conversations. >> i like it. anything else? >> i'm grateful for the leaders of both political parties. this is a time of great opportunity in this country. we're seeing growth at home but we have many challenges abroad and facing the american people. i'm more confident than ever, mr. president, with your leadership and with the good faith of all the people in this room that before this christmas we'll produce real results for the american people that will make america stronger and more prosperous. >> thanks very much. i thought that with what's going on in the world, i would bring our great military genius/person along and maybe general mattis could say a couple words. >> i'm honored to be here with the leaders from the hill, sir. the number 1 priority for our country is to make certain we
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protect this constitution and our way of life and we've had great bipartisan support. i'm confident we will walk out of this with more. >> thank you very much. thanks. thank you. thank you. >> shepard: multiple questions about al franken and sexual harassment and a bunch of thank yous. zeke miller is back with us from the blue house. zeke, we're all here together to get something done bipartisan cooperation. but no real indication yet of where one side might be giving and the other side might be loosening. >> yeah, that's right, shep. i'm sorry for breaking your camera here.
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you know, that was all the rosy talk of leaders that are about to go into a meeting and start to haggle out and negotiate a real solution. we don't really know who is prepared to give what, who is prepared to accept what and where are they going to end up, if they end up anywhere. if they can find an agreement here. congress the past year has had -- the past five years have found new ways to be dysfunctional. can they find a new way to get to the white house, maybe. they have to be the christmas deadline and setting themselves up for this crisis point. we don't know the details or the outlines even of what they might be willing to come together on and get done by the end of the year. >> shepard: the questions at the end sort of news from the future, i guess. >> yeah, that's right. we'll know by after this meeting, get read-outs from both sides.
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there will be someone saying what they were offered, what they were given, the tone in the room. right now it's cumbaya moment. wove seen that before. they don't really last once the cameras leave the room. now the hard work begins. we'll find out more the next couple weeks. >> shepard: will we get a read-out on what really happened or what will we get? >> they'll say -- if you want to keep a secret in washington, get a dog. we always get some read-outs from both sides. they don't really say a ton but congressional aides, people have been briefed on the meetings and do provide sort of a more candid assessment of the conversations with the president and the other leaders. i expect we'll get some of that in the next couple hours once the meeting raps up. >> shepard: zeke, thank you. a broadcast engineer from disney
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and abc says it's a light temperature thing. >> bingo. >> shepard: wild fire alert. it's horrible in southern california. five major wild fires there overtaking neighborhoods and forcing 200,000 people to leave their homes today. emergency crews had to shut down a major highway as flames jumped the lanes. this is the 101 ventura county 60 miles north and west of los angeles. teams closed a dozen miles of the 101 and have since reopened it. jonathan hunt was in the area earlier. >> we're in the hills of ventura county. firefighters are trying to prevent the flames that are burning here from jumping these roads. so they've been setting backfires. the intensity of the flame quite extraordinary. you can see the firefighters backing off now away from it. this is an intense firefight.
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it's likely to go on for at least another 24 hours. >> shepard: the flames so intense, they singed jonathan's forehead. take a look at 70 miles north and west of l.a. this is the thomas fire that we've heard about. we're told it burned close to 100,000 acres and 5% contained. the santa ana winds pushed the flames closer to santa barbara. we're also washing the scurvall fire that is near bel air. in this photo, a mansion on a hill spared from the flames but everything around it scorched. will carr is live for us. will? >> shep, this is a volatile situation. flames have raced down the hillside. they hit this area that had a
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lot of truck storage. you can see the flames here. you can feel it. the smoke is thick. tough to breathe at points. when you walk across here, just beyond me, it's a pacific coast highway. beyond that are a number of beach homes. throughout the course of the day -- i don't know if you just heard, that was a propane tank just exploding. throughout the day, firefighters have been racing along with flames along this part of pch doing everything they can to make sure that these homes aren't touched by these flames, shep. obviously quite a dangerous situation. this is really a dangerous game of wham'emall. we've seen the fierce santa ana winds and they push the flames down the road. you can get more hot spots continuing to pop up just like
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this. this has been a very fluid situation over the past 30 minutes to about an hour, shep. the firefighters really trying to do everything they can to save this community, shep. >> shepard: will carr on the front lines for us. we're getting to the dangerous part of the day now. it about noon-30 in los angeles. the santa anas are at their peak. they could get hurricane wind force. the firefighters say they have no capacity to fight the flames when the winds are that strong. imagine gusts to 100 miles an hour. at one point the fires were spreading at the read of a football field per second. rick reichmuth keeping watch over the winds. how is it looking? >> not good. a sustained winds of 60 miles an hour, gusting over 80. probably see that higher today. these are just the readings. that isn't where it's the strongest. and throughout the afternoon and
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evening, it's going to get worse. you'll notice elevated fire danger stretching across arizona and the colorado river valley and throughout southern california. it's very dry. there's no humidity at all anywhere across the southwest. certainly in california. the offshore winds, pulling dry air in. we'll see winds again up to 80 miles an hour throughout the day -- throughout the remaining of the day and overnight tonight. it will subside a little bit tomorrow, shepard. we see a bit of a better trend, better meaning slightly less winds for friday, saturday and sunday. another round of stronger winds comes in monday. here across the southern california today, extreme fire weather. think about the population that is there. shep, take a look at this. this is the precipitation for the next seven days all across the west. nothing going. we don't expect to see any precipitation even in the pacific northwest. so high pressure here, keeping
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it dry and unfortunately the winds will be back by monday afternoon we get a little break after today. >> shepard: rick reichmuth, thank you. the head of the fbi testifying on capitol hill days after the president lashed out at him and the head of the fbi is responding to the president's criticism. we'll have a live report with catherine herridge at the bottom of the hour headlines with lea gabrielle. that's next.
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originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. >> i'm lea gabrielle with a fox report. more of today's headlines. north korean officials say war with the u.s. inevitable. it comes as hundreds of americans in south korean war planes carry out joint military exercises in the region. north korean officials are calling the drills rehearsal for nuclear war. a judge sentencing ex-cop michael flagler to prison. cell phone video show the white
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police officer shooting walter scott as he ran away. flagler claims he thought scott grabbed his taser. take a look at this. cops say a man flashed a laser at a police helicopter in tampa. the crew landed and arrested the suspect themselves. the pilot told the reporter that the laser blinded him a few seconds. you can get five years in prison for doing that. the news continues with shep after this. patrick woke up with back pain. but he has work to do. so he took aleve.
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>> shepard: 24 minutes before the hour now. the fbi director christopher wray defending the agency from the president's twitter attacks saying there's no finer institution. the president tweeted over the weekend that the reputation of the agent is in tatters. the director said they're working their tails about to protect americans from terrorism
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and violence. >> men and women that face the darkest do it with dedication and honesty. i'm humbled and inspired to be back in public service working alongside them. >> shepard: the president's latest criticism comes after michael flynn lied to the fbi and after the word got out that robert mueller removed from his team a counter intelligence agent. catherine herridge is live on capitol hill with more. catherine? >> shep, the hearing wrapped up just a few minutes ago after five hours of testimony that divided along political lines. >> it's absolutely unacceptable for fbi employees to permit their own political ideas to contaminate any investigation, even the appearance of impropriety will devastate the
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fbi's reputation. >> i predict the attacks will grow louder and more brazen as the special council does his work and the walls close in around the president becomes more apparent. >> there were a lot of questions today about agent strozk. this is the agent that changed some of the language in the statement that exonerated hillary clinton. he changed the language from grossly negligent to extremely careless. that is important because gross negligence is a standard for criminal prosecution. >> would it be accurate to say that a senior fbi official change the wording of the director's statement to ensure that secretary clinton was not liable under the espionage act? >> i think it would not be appropriate for me to speculate about what the inspector general will or will not find. >> he gets kicked off for a text
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message that is anti-trump. if he kicked off of mueller team that was anti-trump, i don't think there would be anybody left. there has to be something more here. >> director wray said he's waiting for the completion of the inspector general's report and that is expected sometime in january. >> shepard: so those are the republicans. the democrats took a different approach to their questioning. >> they sure did. the democrats focused on mr. wray's relationship with the president. they asked him whether mr. trump had ever requested that he go outside the chain of command. director wray said that never happened. they also wanted to know if he had been asked for an oath of loyalty like the fired fbi director james comey. >> has president trump ever asked you for loyalty? >> i have never been asked by president to take any loyalty
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oath. my loyalty is to the constitution. >> and at one point, there was a real sense of visible frustration by the democrats because the republicans were just hitting a single note today, which was the allegations of bias at the fbi, whether it was the russian probe or the clinton e-mail case. they didn't expand the conversation about the special counsel's investigation. >> we have sat here for almost two hours and have heard nary a word from my republican colleagues about russian interference in our election and based on the talking points we've heard, they sound so eerily similar coming from the president of the united states. >> you know, in a typical hearing like this, an oversight hearing, we hear more about terrorism. there were just a couple of nuggets today from director
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wray. he confirmed that the bureau still has well over 1,000 active isis investigations in all 50 states, shep. >> shepard: catherine herridge on capitol hill. thank you. now to john bussey, associate editor for the "wall street journal." their parent company and our parent company share common ownership. he's also a fox news contributor. so we're playing off the fbi is in tatters here today. >> no, and director wray says the fbi is doing their job and doing it well. remember, president trump lauded wray, very positive of him. what is this really about? you cannot see what kind of transpired today without thinking about russia. this tatters comment happened
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shortly after the man that he hired to be the national security counsel to the president, michael flynn, pleads guilty to lying to the fbi. this is a man -- >> shepard: but it's the fbi's fault. >> right. not too long after manafort ran his campaign is indicted on money laundering, another man that president trump hired, a couple days before the fbi begins looking around deutsche bank and looking at banking records of people who have done business with the trump organization. so it feels that this is heavily informed by the russia investigation, which is putting pressure on the president. >> shepard: and no questions about the russian investigation from the republicans. not surprisingly. >> i think that's right. anybody watching the testimony today, you saw it fall along political lines. the republicans were trying to hammer on the points that the president is making and the democrats were saying wait a second. even this guy that tweeted or
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texted this message that was critical of trump that has now been removed from his position within the mueller camp, you're allowed to say your own political views in private or in public as far as the fbi rules are concerned. mueller went to extra step to boot him off of the group that is investigating whether or not there was collusion between the trump campaign and russia during the election. booted him off to make sure there was not even an appearance of fire. >> shepard: which led the congressman saying there must be something out there. has to be something. >> so you saw washington be washington today pretty much. >> shepard: washington is very good at being washington. doesn't matter who is in power. i guess the group under siege is programming its followers to believe the ones doing the accusing are the ones that are the bad guys? and its from what our crew reads on twitter, it appears to be working quite efficiently. >> and it's not something that we haven't seen from the white
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house before, right? he's denigrating the reputation of the fbi as the fbi gets through the special counsel and then denigrating the press who has been critical of the white house as well. >> shepard: it all works. we'll be right back. and with panera catering, there's more to go around. panera. food as it should be.
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...respiratory tract infection and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take... ...and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ask your dermatologist about otezla today. otezla. show more of you. >> shepard: voters head to the polls in alabama in five days to elect a new u.s. senator. more polls show the race between the republican roy moore and doug jones is very tight. moore has denied accusations of sexual misconduct including with
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woman who said they were teens and he was in his 30s. today officials from the moore campaign are accusing a pro-jones political action committee of voter intimidation. they say the group is running ads that tell people their votes are public record so everybody will know if they supported roy moore. a moore campaign aide says they're prepared to go to court to stop the ad. jonathan serrie is live in birmingham. what do we know about the group and these ads? >> yeah, the group is called highway 31. a political action committee that is not directly affiliated with the jones campaign but is taking strong stands against roy moore. the moore campaign taking issue with several ads, one in particular which they say represents voter intimidation. listen. >> in one add on youtube, highway 31 threatened voters "your vote is public record and your community will know whether or not you helped stop judge roy
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moore." >> alabama secretary of state john merrill assures voters the secret ballots are just that, secret ballots. le said that he had concerns about the ad and brought them directly to highway 31, but got nowhere. so then he went to google which he says has now removed the ads from youtube and other digital platforms. as for the democrat in this race, doug jones, he's reaching out to women, talking about the issue of sexual harassment that is making both national headlines as well as headlines in this alabama senate race. he praised the women coming forward and reporting abuse. >> so alabama, this is our time to say we are part of that movement. we're not going to lag behind like we did so many other of the social movements in this country. >> shep, jones mentioned the latest issue of "time" magazine which features some of the women
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at their people of the year. back to you. >> shepard: jonathan serrie live for us. there's word that gop leaders may back down as republicans blasted part of their tax plan, cutting deductions for state and local taxes. gerri willis will be here with a look at that in just a minute. it's christmas season and down in the d.c. at the children's medical center in washington, they're getting ready for santa's arrival and the first lady who will read to them. let's listen. ♪ ♪
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♪ that one daddy! it's beautiful. i'm the world's greatest douglas fir. i'm the perfect shape. i'm the perfect color. my scent- like making love to a lumberjack. but halfway home, my twine gets loose. and your cut-rate insurance might not pay for this. so get allstate. where you can save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. mayhem is everywhere. so get an allstate agent. are you in good hands? ♪ this holiday, the real gift isn't what's inside the box. it's what's inside the person who opens it.
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>> shepard: as lawmakers in the house and senate work on a final version of the republican tax plan, one of the major sticking points has been deductions for state and local taxes. for those that pay them. the fox business network's gerri willis is here. you hearing new details out of the negotiations? >> i am. you might like them if you pay these taxes. we're talking about increasing the allowable deductions.
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we know that both houses now agree on a $10,000 deduction for property taxes. they may add on an additional deduction for state income taxes, which would make lots of people very happy. >> shepard: how much? >> we don't know the answer to that question yet. >> shepard: we'll know when we know. >> that's what my sources are telling me. the way they would pay for this is by bumping up corporate tax rates from 20% to 22%. >> and which people would be affected? >> this is a surprise. oh, it's new york, new jersey and california. it's a lot of states. it's those states and texas. you think of that as a low tax. they have big-time property taxes. people get a benefit of $14,000 with a deduction. they wouldn't get if this they kept this house bill. so what am i going to say here? 10% to 15% reductions in real estate values in tax. that's what they're talking
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about. pennsylvania here at risk. many states have taxes. you know, i have never been to a state where people don't complain about their property taxes. that's for sure. >> shepard: that's a good one to complain about. >> i want to show you numbers on new york, this is astonishing. we got information on how much property values would go down in the state here. 14% by 2019. imagine that. that's a huge hit. and in new york city we're hearing that 2 to 4% of hiring households would leave so they wouldn't have to pay the tax. so big impacts. really across the country we're starting -- >> shepard: are you ready for the holidays? shopping done? >> heck know. >> shepard: the first lady is going to offer some christmas wishes so why not listen in at the children's hospital there. neil cavuto follows the celebrating. stay with us.
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>> neil: yes, virginia, there is a santa claus. for winter olympics a few weeks later, we're not so sure. i'm neil cavuto. fox on top of a winter olympics that seems to be getting diceyer by the hour. you heard already how the russians were kicked out of the olympics in south korea. then you heard reports that the nhl wasn't sending any of its premier professional players. then you heard rumors without so many big names there, other countries might not want to be there. then you heard nikki haley about the possibility of not going ourselves. add it up, you have growing concerns that
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