>> fox news alert. as noon eastern has come and gone, the deadline is here for election returns to be submitted in florida. and now it's up to florida's secretary of state to determine if a formal recount will happen. >> but floridians want a say. the days leading up to the deadline across the state with voters on both sides of the aisle going head to head outside of election facilities. leland: it's hard to know how this ends anytime soon. noon eastern here in washington, as it is in florida as well. i'm leland vittert. >> i'm gillian turner, sorry,

leland, getting ahead of the gun there. let's go to doug mcelway on the ground in florida, are you pitching in? >> i hear you fine, gillian. things are getting tense here the supervisor of elections officer. inside 50 yards from where we now stand is where the canvassing of provisional votes is happening now with brenda snipes and two other election officials in there. you can see a police presence hanging out outside the door. there's a further police presence closer to the crowd out here in the cordoned off area and beyond the cordoned off area are the supporters of mr. desantis, mr. scott, president trump, and standing off against stand of andrew gillum. things are fairly calm and the crowd is larger and tempers more heated and wouldn't be surprised if things further escalate, but i haven't seen anything

deinvolve into fisticuffs or anything of that sort. and this might cool tempers, but if people are armed they have a little more confidence in their ultimate power. so i'll see where things head from here. a lot of shouting matches and getting in your face. that's the extent of it. inside the board is where the canvassing is happening and controversy continues, even at this hour. 20 discarded illegal ballots found among the certified provisional ballots according to the miami herald just last night and election lawyers for governor rick scott are vigorously protesting inside there. i just spoke to a man by the name of william sheerer, an attorney for governor rick scott who says brenda snipes, the broward county supervisor of elections here she's always thes last to close the door so the rats can get inside. that's a direct quote from him and he says, also, she's also

inco incompete incompetent, but it's intentional incompetence. and the votes were supposed to be certified. they're still coming in and he wants to know and expressed very, very loudly to the election officials, why do the ballots keep coming in? and meanwhile, outside here, you can see people continuing to stand off, all very calm and peaceful right now. if it changes in any way, shape, or form we'll get back to you, gillian, back to you. >> thanks for that, doug. leland. leland: all right. back to doug, as news warrants. here with more insight, former deputy assistant to president george w. bush, brad blakeman. before he was at the white house he was down in florida. this has got to feel like deja vu all over again. >> i've got the shakes just watching what's going on there. it was typical what happened when we were down there. we had people protesting outside. it's a three-pronged effort.

one is the recount itself if there is one, i'm sure there will be a mechanical. the other is fighting in the courts if necessary. and we've already seen that and the other is pr. aum though voting has ended, the campaign has not. not until there's a winner. leland: interestingly enough, these guys, now on both sides, the democrats and republicans in florida are stealing some of the tactics you used back in 2000. this a sign from 2000. >> although joe lieberman is a friend, we'd become friends after this. we wanted to take the recount, because we needed to show this was a rigged deal in 2000 and they were actually trying to steal the election and we were running into the same problems now as then. leland: does it feel the same? >> lack of transparency not letting people to come in to witness. all of a sudden ballots appear from nowhere, and not having accurate counts. leland: and ballots mixed in. and these are live pictures as

the protests continue. one of the things that was interesting, we've seen rick scott being vocal, ala george bush. ron desantis, has gone to ground. he loved being on every possible television show he could and now you can't get a hold of him. >> i think he's letting scott be the face of this. for the reasons you stated. scott has more to lose than desantis looks likes and then nelson who can't be found either and he's never been shy to the media and he's pulling a gore. letting them fight his battle. if you want to win, you to have object on top of it not letting others speak for you. leland: andrew gillum high school a press conference and coverage of that from our reporters on the ground. our reporter there was talking

about the crowds getting pretty rowdy in a way that really didn't happen in 2000. there were protests, but you guys went to joe stone crab afterward. >> it was more theater than anything else. as a matter of fact, democrats didn't show up. republicans did things, we took things out of their play book. we assumed assumed they would show up en masse and they never did. and the republicans did civil disobedience we were not known for, but effective. leland: prediction? >> prediction, the numbers aren't there historically for a recount of this magnitude. i'm talking about in votes, to have an overturning of the election. remember, bush was only ahead by 537 votes and they couldn't manage to overturn that. leland: there is this feeling among republicans that somehow, in broward county, or palm beach, they are going to back up semis of newly found ballots and suddenly it's going to tip the scales of the election. is that more stoking the fire of

these crowds than realistic? >> it's not realistic because you know, the net they have to have means they have to have 50 or 60,000 votes materialize in the macro. it's not-- it should not happen. if it does happen then there's something terribly terribly wrong. leland: if it does happen they'll call you down. >> i'm ready. leland: as we said earlier it's nicer to have this happening in florida than in montana. >> no question. hawaii would be nice. leland: hawaii would be nice. they seem to have this problem though in florida. is there something about florida? we heard in 2000, never again. allegedly they learned the lesson. >> it's incompetence, i'll tell you out of 67 counties in florida why does it always come down to broward and palm beach county? why can't it be on republican votes they screw up? it seems always the same problem in the same jurisdictions. leland: that goes back to 1960 when old man kennedy was quoted as saying i'm not going to pay for a landslide, don't buy more

votes than you absolutely need? and while we're watching the pictures, one of the question marks has been the intermixing of ballots and these reports that ballots that were deemed valid and votes that were provisional and questioned had been intermixed. once they'd been intermixed, you can't unmix them. >> no, and that's the problem. you have either fraud or incompetence. leland: or willful incompetence that turns into fraud. >> the elected commissioner has been rebuked for destroying ballots, misprinting ballots and we know in this election cycle she's failed in reporting. there's something terribly wrong and up to the governor, whoever that turns out to be, and the u.s. senator to get it right. leland: to the point about the election supervisor down there, she held a press conference in which answers were very difficult to come by. we'll see if there's another one in the coming days. >> a pleasure.

leland: brad, thank you very much. good to see you. gillian. >> thanks. there are other high stakes races that remain at this hour. and garrett tenney how those are counted. >> arizona senate race is one of the most important in the balance of power on capitol hill. on election night, the republican had a slight lead over the democrat. and now counting the votes, there was a 20,000 lead. 15 counties until wednesday to address problems with ballots and that came after allegations the democrats were trying to steal the election because the state's two largest counties tend to have more democrat voters allow issues with mail-in ballots to be fixed up to five days after the election while most rural counties tend to lean republican doesn't allow that, here is a g.o.p. before the settlement settling the case. >> in a rural county if you submitted your early ballot by mail and they couldn't match the

signature on outside of your ballot to your voter file you have no chance to fix that. in a liberal or democratic county they're letting you show up to the county reporters office correct your signature long after voting has stopped. i want to be cleared with that, your fine with any rule as long as it's applied to all the voters across the state uniformly. >> even with this agreement, the secretary of state's office says only around 10,000 ballots will be affected. the campaign manager andrew piatt said today's data our expectations, as the ballots are county she'll be elected to the u.s. senate. and brian kemp has started transition into the office. he leads stacy abrams. and they argue there are enough

ballots out there. ballots post marked by election day and received by friday must be accepted. and our team will continue to take legal action as necessary, until ever eligible vote is counted and on thursday kemp defended his decision to move ahead with his transition. >> we thought it was going to be closer to 22,000 so the number is actually lower on the number of provisional ballots. even if she got 1 #00% of those votes. we still win with a 50% plus one vote majority. actually it's much more than that, so we're moving forward with the transition. >> of course, doug mcelway has been talking about the florida races in florida and the congressional races. we'll keep a close eye on those over the weekend and weeks ahead. >> thanks, garrett. leland: up here in washington,

president trump says acting attorney general matthew whitaker will oversee the mueller special counsel investigation despite, shall we say, some pushback from democrats on that. ellison barber is here with that. pushback might be taking it lightly. >> the democrats say that he needs to recuse himself because, well, they say there are comments he made about the special counsel's investigation previously that make him or put him in a position where they think he should not be in this role. the president says he did not talk to the acting ag about the mueller probe. reporters on friday, he doesn't know mr. whitaker, but in october he told fox news that he did. >> i can tell you that matt whitaker is a great guy. i know matt whitaker. >> i don't know matt whitaker. matt whitaker worked for jeff sessions and always extremely highly thought of and he still is. >> the president tweeted yesterday evening that whitaker is highly respected former u.s. attorney from iowa.

he was chosen, the president writes by jeff sessions to be his chief of staff. i did not know mr. whitaker, like-wise as chief. i did not mr. whitaker except primarily as he traveled with ag sessions. no social contact. he will make an outstanding acting attorney general. democrats say the president is trying to influence the russia probe. >> i think the latter is primary to interfere with the timing of the mueller investigation. >> he got rid of him because he wanted to throw a monkey wrench into mueller's efforts. we're not going to let it hap n happen. we have got to act with the urgency of now. >> the top democrat in the senate, chuck schumer, sent a letter to the president questioning the legality of

whitaker's appointment and whitaker's qualifications. according to trade records he was on the advisory board of a florida company fined $26 million by the ftc. and president trump said they go after all his appointees. >> you can't be appointed attorney general while you're acting attorney general. >> and i want to bring in eric beach. thank you for being with us. the president appointed this interim attorney general, matthew whitaker. it's clear he's got it in for the mueller investigation. >> who does not have a preconceived notion of the mueller investigation. lindsey graham made conversations and jeff sessions, i've never seen democrats endorse him-- >> and that's exactly why the former attorney general jeff sessions recused himself. >> sure, but, i mean, had he

known that this investigation was going to go into the light that it did, you know, i think we should know whether or not he would have recused himself. this investigation started out about collusion and it really segued into a much larger investigation about things that have nothing to do with collusion, that's the problem. when matthew whitaker was talking about was collusion. there hasn't been a leak or anything discussing that, that aspect of this investigation. >> i think the mueller team would argue the president's finances, his family's finances are well within the scope of the investigation because that will have a huge bearing on what is found or not found when it comes to interactions the campaign had with russia. >> what does it have to do with matthew whitaker talking about what this investigation started as and what it became and how it became politicized. that's what his comments were all about. i think this is the right choice and look, it's okay for us to question the mueller investigation. there have been leaks. you know, there's not, you know,

a purity that goes into the process. we've heard many different about this investigation. one thing we have not heard about is collusion, there's no evidence of it at this point in time, and that has to be questioned throughout the process. >> eric, do you think the president kind of fumbled the ball a little bit when he said, you know, first on october 11th that he knew matthew whitaker and then just yesterday he didn't know him? that seems kind of like my colleague leland here would call an unforced error. >> look, i don't know the extent of their relationship. what i do know is this has been a frustrating process for the president and anyone that you put into that position would have a conflict of interest. whether it would be lindsey graham or anybody else, because of their comments about this investigation. so, the idea that the democrats are rallying around jeff sessions, which they've never done before, is a little bit of a hypocritical stance in my opinion. >> it's interesting you say they're rallying around him.

it seems that kind of par for the course with this information, you know, somebody's in and it's all, you know, everybody's throwing rocks at them and the second that they're out, they become a hero. we saw that with james comey, right? >> that's right. you know, and also james comey, who now, you know, people are-- the department of justice did an investigation on his e-mails whether or not he was a using a server and what was the reason. again, when james comey came out he became political. look, everyone knows that there are enemies within, you know, the establishment that are anti-trump forces and that's okay. but it's okay for the president to say we want an attorney general that is going to oversee this process. if we had, now, rod rosenstein in that process, he also made comments, maybe they were accurate or inaccurate, but when he also made comments about this process, but, so, again, i think the president has a right to say, we want this process to have a conclusion, and if matthew whitaker is his choice to oversee it, then so be it.

>> eric, i want to ask you about florida before i let you go real quick. >> sure. >> florida the state is no stranger to recounts, but what's happening there with the senate race this weekend seems awfully special. what do you think? >> well, look, i mean, broward county has a history of problems. our group is going to certainly discuss those problems the next several weeks and your former guest brad blakeman was correct there's a public component to it and we need to vote for every vote and a uniform process. the problem with florida they pick and choose winners per county. that's not the right way to do it and all we heard was about influencing elections, the russians do it. at some point in time we need to look at our house and we need to manage our election processes better state by state, but it needs to be a uniform process. >> eric, it seems like there's a danger of folks in florida not learning lessons, hard lessons.

we'll have you back soon. >> thanks. >> tune in tomorrow at 11 a.m. with media buzz. talking to ari fleischer and fox news sunday our own chris wallace will talk to counsellor to the president kellyanne conway. check your local listings for time and channel there. leland: a fox news alert. live pictures as thousands of firefighters are battling california wildfires that have claimed lives and countless homes. 9 a.m. pacific. 9:19 and our jeff paul is on the ground as the fight continues. hi, jeff. >> hi, leland. yeah, the fire doubling in size overnight and why firefighters are worrying it could get worse in the coming days coming up. leland: jeff, as house democrats prepare to take the gavel as the

majority party. the fight to be the next speaker, and will nancy pelosi come out op top? and the president is in paris the end of world war i and a meeting with french president macron and live to paris, with day two how his trip is going. for strength and energy! whoo-hoo! great-tasting ensure. with nine grams of protein and twenty-six vitamins and minerals. ensure. now up to 30 grams of protein for strength and energy! smile dad. i take medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol. but they might not be enough to protect my heart. adding bayer aspirin can further reduce the risk of another heart attack. because my second chance matters. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen.

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>> the neighbor's house was burning and then within five to ten minutes it was coming and you know, what do you do? i was walking back here and it came, it was huge, huge. >> over the hill here? >> right here, huge. a massive wall of fire. so i just grabbed the hose and started spraying down the barn. gillian: devastating wildfires in california have forced hundred of thousands of evacuations and at least nine people are now dead. jeff paul is on the ground at the southern end of the state where two of the fires are quickly spreading. jeff, what are you seeing? . the woolsey fire now doubling in size from estimates last night. 70,000 acres and it's only growing. we're seeing a lot of structures in the area including many homes and businesses destroyed by that fire as the smoke and flames move through the canyons all the way up to the beaches here in

malibu. we're also learning that authorities are investigating the death of two people in the area that could be related to the wildfire. about a quarter of a million people now evacuated from this fire and when some of those folks are returning home, they are finding the worst possible scenario. >> it was all gone in a matter of 15 minutes is like our whole life just changed in a flash. you know? we never expected all of this to happen, you know, and all of a sudden, like we have nothing now, it's all gone. so it hurts. >> now, the wind gusts yesterday, very strong estimated around 40 to 50 miles per hour and today a much different story which is good news for firefighters as they try to get some containment at the moment. zero containment of this fire and they're worried in the next few days, maybe sunday, that those strong winds could return so firefighters out here not only worried about, but now trying to get people evacuated,

but also worried about the coming days. gillian. gillian: jeff, it looks like the smoke is encroaching ever closer to you. stay safe out there. thanks for that report. >> what is your level of confidence that you'll be the speaker of the house. >> total. >> 100%? >> 100%. i feel confident where i am and encouraged and overwhelming support of my caucus that goes to the floor. >> nancy pelosi is confident, but are the rest of democrats all that confident or happy if she becomes speaker? >> and joining us now is jeff ehrlich and a radio talk show host. robert, we come to know how much you can't wait for the return of nancy pelosi for return as speaker? >> one thing we saw, midterm elections and we saw cortez, beto o'rourke, we saw gillum. young, energetic people who are

pushing the party forward and your reward for turning out in record numbers we're going to hand the reins back to nancy pelosi and going back to the bush years? what we need to do is follow the pulse of the party. follow people who are pushing the party forward and bring in new blood, new energy, transition these to other individuals in an advisory role, raise money, set an agenda and let the new people push the party into 2020. leland: there's no question that nancy pelosi can raise money, a lot of it in her career nearly half a billion dollars, perhaps more, a number of new voices that robert talked about coming into the democratic party said they're not going to vote for nancy pelosi as speaker, part of their flat form. hayes in connecticut, 5, michigan 13, michigan 11, abigail spanberger. allred, the list goes on and on and the problem for the democrats who want to vote

against her, you can't beat somebody with nobody. >> that's exactly right. and i think that that's going to be an issue. i've always been, you know, i agree with robert, you know, most of what he's saying, especially about willing new blood in there, but for me, i'm a supporter of tim ryan, have been. i think we need somebody who's got a little bit more experience like tim does, already in the house, knows the players and how things work rather than just the people who are, you know, fully just coming up and entering the house, like ocasio-cortez and we need to support them and folks from the midwest and out there and a lot of people you listed are in colorado, michigan or in these states and show that the center can hold for the party. unfortunately, tim isn't prepared to run again this time and he said yesterday that he, you know, isn't voting for pelosi, but we have no other options now. leland: she may not be liked, but pretty feared. you have to wonder how the gentleman from oklahoma got to his decision. the gentleman from ohio i should

say. and robert the list of 12 who said they're going to vote against pelosi and to jessica's point as well. those were all center of the road people. the people that you mentioned, cortez, gillum, et cetera, are all far left progressives. which way does the new leadership of the democratic party need to break? >> well, the new leadership is going to have to find a way to stick together, both wings. party. there's a centrist wing and the part that both groups support. because pelosi is such a divisive figure, if you look at georgia six, during the dismaysal-- all that was was negative ads pushing pelosi into the district. this year when we had a runner against handle without pelosi on her, we thought would be able to beat-- without that same baggage--

going into 2020, arizona, texas, florida and georgia, in wisconsin are all going to be in play for democrats based on the results of the midterms. and why mess up that momentum by going backwards. leland: as you note, robert, there are some-- a few people in america who have lower favorables than nancy pelosi. republicans tied her to a lot of senate candidates as well with a certain degree of success there, especially in missouri. all right, robert, jessica, appreciate both of you guys, we'll have you back once the democrats have a voted on this. >> all right, thanks so much. leland: thanks so much. should be before january. gillian. gillian: after the break, president trump spending the weekend in paris with emanuel macron. our chief white house correspondent john roberts is with them and he's got the scoop on the real story behind the tweets. >> gillian, good evening to you from paris where president trump is taking part in ceremonies to commemorate the 100th anniversary of world war i and having a bit of a disagreement with france's president. we'll have that for you when we

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>> welcome back. the french president says he wants a european military force to protect the continent. meanwhile, fox news alert now, going to take you out to california where there is a briefing going on about the wildfires that continue to burn out of control. >> chairman of the board of the ventura county board of supervisors, mr. peter foy. >> thank you, everyone for being here this morning. as we continue to move through this fire, i do want to thank everyone who's participated, as i had the opportunity to tour last night. talking with some of the officers who have come from 60, 70 miles away to help protect, i just want to say thank you to all the agencies that have come

to help this community. it's a very difficult time we're going through with the number of homes, and people out of their homes. we just ask that any of you, any of the public that can help your neighbors, please do that. this is a difficult time for all of us and as we, you know, a lot of those closures are going to continue as the winds are going come back up in the next couple of days. it's important to keep together and fot first responders and those who come from far away, thank you for what you're doing, it's just less than a year from the thomas fire. the same thing happening again here, you know, on the east side of the county and parts of l.a. county. difficult, difficult for this community, but we are a strong community. we come together and as representing the board of supervisors here in ventura county and the county staff, the ceo, i just want to say thank you and we will continue to do all we can to make sure our citizens work with the l.a.

city, l.a. county to help make it a good community, and continue this support. so thank you for what you're doing. >> if anybody has any questions, we are going to go ahead and take them as we go. >> questions. >> you want to do it afterward. my apologies. leland: the briefing wrapping up in in thousand oaks, california as the fires out way to the beach. jeff paul on the ground, on the ground in paris, france is our own john roberts travelling with president trump. ahead of the trip there, the french president said that he wanted a military force staffed by the europeans and president trump responded that n.a.t.o. should first pay get their fair share from the french. it would be hard to imagine the

trip getting worse after that diplomatic beginning, john. >> well, you know, leland, sometimes you say things and they're taken in one context and when you sit down with somebody, it turns out that they might have been in a different context and that may, indeed, what happened here. don't forget, the french president's popularity ratings have been plummeting in the last few months. his approval rating now stands at 29%. a lot of people in the united states suggesting that president trump spt isn't very popular, when the french president is not popular as well. the president had most of the schedule canceled today because of the weather, very dark and forboding in paris. he was supposed to go to the cemetery northeast of the city, but his helicopter was grounded because of the weather. the chief of staff, and the joint general chief of staffs joe dunford filled in for the president, taking cars a little more than an hour northeast of

the city to the cemetery they made a wreath in honor americans resting there. the first thing on the president's meeting was the bilateral meeting with president macron. the president seemed to anger the president on a talk show that the europe needed a true european army, we need to protect our severals from russia china and even the united states. and before he landed, the president tweeted, president macron of france suggested europe builds its own army to protect itself from the u.s. and russia and china, very insulting, but perhaps europe should first pay its fair share of n.a.t.o. and not affronted by what president macron said as he was in his twitter. listen here. >> we're getting along from the

standpoint of fairness and i want it to be fair. we want to help europe, but it has to be fair. right now the burden sharing has been largely on the united states, as the president will say, and he understands that. >> it's unfair to have the europe security to date being assured just by the united states and we need a much better and that's why we need more european defense, and the ber den, and to protect us -- one of the states of the united states, doesn't ask france or germany or another government of europe to finance it. >> so in that bilateral meeting the french president basically saying we shouldn't have to rely on the united states to provide for our defense, but in earlier interviews, macron suggested that europe can no longer rely on the united states to come to its aid. by the time the meeting and lunch was over, everything seemed back the way it was between the two leaders,

handshakes, hugs and kisses all around and that being the first ladies, not macron and trump. the president tonight has dinner north of use here and a lot of leaders will be there, vladimir putin, we understand will not be here until tomorrow for the official ceremonies, commemorating the 100 anniversary of the end of world war i. and likely that the president will only see them, but they plan an extended sit-down buenos aires. leland: john, thank you. enjoy paris. gillian? ichl . gillian: you're looking at a live shot from paris, where the president and french president macron will have a dinner. we will have more on the president's trip after the

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visit comes amid plans by the president emanuel macron for a european defense force. and from the democracy's center counsellor, john hannah, thank you for joining me. one of the things the french president said this european military force would hedge against adversaries around the globe, cited specifically china, russia and the united states. that kind of sounds like crazytown to me. >> certainly if that's what he said-- and there's a debate what he was talking about, that was perhaps cyber security aspect, and private hack,trying to hack european governments. gillian: maybe it's not a sign of the apocalypse. >> it's not a sign of the apocalypse, but the broader context since the president's elected. talked about n.a.t.o. being

obsolete and the european force and slapped tariffs on european countries and the yur -- europeans, saying we can't rely as on the past. >> the ten countries that signed on to preliminarily be supportive of the plan. i think we've got it for viewers here, these are some of our closest europe-- do we have the full screen? these are some of our closest and holdest allies in the world, countries like denmark, france, germany, portugal, spain, the u.k. i mean, does that alarm you to hear that they would potentially, you know, be up for this also? meaning it's not just coming from france because president macron has a beef with president trump right now. this is a broader sentiment among these countries? >> listen, the europeans and the eu have been talking about building a defense arm for a long time. the question is, is it going to

be actually supplementary to the transatlantic alliance, to n.a.t.o. and building its capabilities or somehow be in competition with n.a.t.o.? if the latter is the case, then we've got a real serious problem and i think there's some danger of that, given the kind of background of antagonizing and tensions we have in u.s. and european relations right now. i think it's going to take cooler heads to prevail here and focus on n.a.t.o., which in reality has been the major arm of transatlantic security for more than 70 years. and i think it will be in the future. the europeans are having a hard enough time making the necessary contributions to n.a.t.o. it's going to be almost impossible for them on their own to build a serious defense capability to take on things like the russians and terrorism. gillian: so we saw the german ambassador earlier today on fox news channel with neil cavuto,

pushing back and saying germany, the german people, the country does contribute 2% gdp and we're stand-up citizens and nice to see someone from the trump administration standing for the allies. leland: president trump officially denying asylum to people who cross the border illegally. so what does the president's executive order mean for the u.s. troops preparing as the migrant caravan heads north? your insurance rates skyrocket after a scratch so small

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to learn more call or go online today for your free decision guide. oh, and happy birthday... or retirement... in advance. >> and a fox news alert at the broward county, florida elections supervisor's office where election officials say a recount is officially happening in that state's midterm election. that would cover the governor and at least the senate race as well. we'll listen in for a minute. >> thank you very much. and perhaps by listening to a minute we meant a couple of seconds. just to recap where we're at here, obviously, there's been a lot of controversy in broward county, live pictures outside there. these appear to be andrew gillum supporters who are there. there's been a lot of discussion in terms of allegations of

ballots mysteriously being found in broward county. this is one of the most democratically heavy areas of southeast florida, gillian, and we saw counterprotesters and accusations of everything from gross incompetence of the elections board there to allegations of outright fraud as it exists there and discussions about ballots that were valid being mixed in with ballots that were perhaps questionable and now counting all of them. the big question, big picture is whether this is going to make a bit of difference in either of the races. the closest of the major races being the senate race down there. rick scott, the sitting governor, leading bill nelson, the senator there by 14,000 plus votes. so experts say while a recount is going to happen, historically probably won't make that much of a difference. >> this is a machine recount, a machine vote recount, so then once this commences, whenever that is, whether it takes days

or weeks, probably not weeks, days, you know, then we'll have to dig into the next possible step is do they go to a by hand recount? and you know, this could be, not to be apocalyptic about this, this could be sort of in the works, this could be turning forward for quite some time now. used to this setup that we're looking up here with democrats and republicans, all kinds of floridians coming face-to-face outside of these election facilities. leland: in the vein of the 2000 recount, that went for 30-plus days in terms of this picture going on and the guys with the magnifying glasses. whether we get to that point or not, still to be determined. interesting that this announcement came from the broward county election offices because conceivably it's the secretary of state's office that would order a recount. the deadline was noon eastern for the counties to begin to put

in all of their tallies and then it would be the secretary of state who orders a recount statewide, whether or not that has happened yesterday, and whether or not broward sort of put the cart before the horse or before the order, the recount before the order, yet to be seen. we have crews on the ground who will be working on that question. gillian: and are all the votes now counted? because that's unconfirmed i think at this point, too, lots of things to keep our eyes on over here. we've got much more ahead on the deadly california wildfires and claude clauda is standing by with a live report for you coming up next. >> that's right, an entire community here incinerated in a matter of minutes, a the death toll climbs to nine. i'll have an update on the fire after this break. great-tasting ensure. with nine grams of protein and twenty-six vitamins and minerals. ensure. now up to 30 grams of protein

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and back pain made it hard to sleep and get up on time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid, plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. i'm back. aleve pm for a better am. gillian: broward county and florida officially nodes a machine recount for the tight midterm elections there. the leadup to today's deadline marked with protests from testimonies and republicans claiming voter fraud and depression. doug mcelway has all the details. since we talked to you about an hour ago, looks like there's been some real movement, right? >> reporter: we're going to see the recount happen, that's for sure. the secretary of state just announced that. i think these people are not aware of it behind me but i think most of them would approve of that decision because they want to see the accurate count

done here. especially given the fact that the hit parade of election irregularities continues under brenda snipes, the broward county supervisor of elections. a citizen this morning alerted the broward county sheriff's office to the presence of election equipment in two locked boxes marked provisional ballot boxes at the tamarack lakes community center nearby. it prompted marco rubio to tweet maybe the box has supplies in it but if it has at least a single vote, it should have been handled in accordance with the law. it has been very energetic, a lot of anger here, a lot of people getting in each other's faces and shouting, a lot of colorful language, tremendous anger but no violence, no violence that we have seen thus far. which estimate that there are probably about 500 supporters, gillum people, maybe 250

conservative republicans here, not surprising, given the fact that this is broward county where the registered democrats outnumnumber republicans by a two-one margin. brenda snipes, despite a history of what critics call incompetence and others call willing incompetence, the most severe critics, she has remained on the job since the early 2000s. she was reelected to office in 2008 to a four-year term, another time in 2012 and yet again in 2016. her supporters like her. much of the state of florida does not. her future remains in doubt. some are now calling for her dismissal. it would be up to the governor, rick scott, to do that and he's in an untenable situation, given the fact that he has a tremendously vested interest in the outcome of all this. look for her to remain on the job despite the controversy

surrounding around here. that's it from outside the broward county supervisor of elections office, back to you. gillian: thanks for that. seems like in light of the machine recount now, those crowds are going to be there for quite some time. stay safe out there. >> reporter: that's right. gillian: the wildfires in california have killed at least nine people and are now the most destructive wildfires in the state's entire history. we're lin line on the ground frm the town of paradise. it's been completely leveled in a matter of hours. claudia could you wednesday cowe deserted town of paradise. tell us about what you're seeing. >> reporter: you can get a good idea from the backdrop behind me. we're in the heart of paradise. it really does look more like hell. on the main drag, every single business just about has burned to the ground. you talk about the numbers, 6,700 homes and buildings wiped out. that makes the camp fire, this

fire, the most destructive in california history and for those who are in the thick of it, an absolutely terrifying experience. people had to drive through the flames to escape. bubut at least nine people did t make it. most of the victims were found in or around cars. 35 people are listed as missing and officials say the death toll could rise. more than 50,000 evacuees have no idea when they'll be allowed to come back and see what's left. one firefighter told me the fire moved so fast, there was little anyone could do. >> we got up here about 4:00 p.m., 1600 hours, we were outmatched by the fire. we got up here, pretty perilous conditions, i'll say. fire conditions and behavior that's been unmatched in my almost 30 years of fire service career. >> reporter: paradise was known for its active retirement

community and tourism industry. now some are saying the town's 150-year run is over. reports this morning that the downed power line may have sparked the fire, that is part of the ongoing investigation. but president trump is holding forestry officials accountable, tweeting there's no reason for the deadly, massive, costly fires in california. billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of mismanagement of the forests. the fire has grown to 100,000 acres and is 20% contained. calmer winds are on tap for today. that should provide a critical window for a massive air assault. crews are hopeful they can boost containment numbers and get a line around the fire, get the upper hand before strong gusty winds return this evening. gillian: thanks for that. the dry weather and high winds have made fighting the blazes for difficult for fire cruise.

adam klaus is standing by with a look at how the weather is impacting the firefight. >> it hasn't been good. today might be our only real gap in the weather for there to be at least a chance. rain isn't going to be there but the winds are backing down. here's what we're looking like on satellite and radar, completely clear. if you were hoping for rain for that region, it's not going to happen. we're under high fire danger, running from l.a. to central california. northern california, where we've seen repeated forest fires, continues to be under the high fire danger across the entire region. from san francisco, stretching all the way to the northern california forest. there continues to be limited rainfall here. this is our drought monitor. you see plenty of areas, pretty much all the areas affected by some moderate drought across the region. that continues with no rain in sight. the big story is the wind. it was so windy the last several

days. today is the one day where that isn't the case. these are our forecasted wind gusts as of right now. any winds of 15 miles an hour, so no winds that strong currently. it stays that way throughout the day today but as you start to get into the afternoon and evening, there's the time stamp in the corner, the winds begin to pick up overnight tonight. they really begin to explode as you get into sunday. so those windy conditions that can really drive those flames, unfortunately those are going to be back as we get into tonight, as we get into sunday. looking at our future cast, the one thing they desperately need would be a little bit of rain, it's been bone dry. high pressure is keeping the rain away. i've run you here sunday into monday and guys there isn't any moisture on the horizon. it looks like the gap is going to be today and the winds return for tomorrow. gillian: thanks for that. we'll be standing by. and soon to be the minority

party in the house, republicans will vote wednesday for their new leader. speaker paul ryan is set to retire. joining me now, former communications director for newt gingrich's presidential campaign and co-author of new book to save america, it's joe de santis. thank you for being here. it's tough times for house republicans. it's been eight years since you guys were governing in the minority. what's the vibe right now inside wha? what are you guys thinking? >> it hasn't been that long. the last time the republicans lost the majority was 2006. they got it back in 2010. so there's i think a pretty innate sense that they can get it back again very soon. and so i think that kevin mccarthy, from what i understand has the votes to be the leader and he's a pretty good pick for a couple reasons. he raised a fair amount of

money, $60 million, and republicans are really going to have to step up their fund raising. they got buried this election cycle, the last month of the campaign, by a slew of ads and a ton of money. i believe that the democrats raised 30% more money than the republicans which is pretty remarkable, considering that the republicans control the presidency in both houses, congress, up until now. gillian: when you guys are doing post game analysis, is that the inside thinking that it's due to those ads? >> it's part of it. i also think that health care was critical. it was ironic, in 2010 health care won arguably the republicans the house majority and this time it lost them the house majority. the fox news voter analysis said that health care was the top issue among voters and democrats won that group 3-1.

now, imagine if they had fought that to a draw, 50/50. suddenly all those very close races that were-that are still in recounts right now, 1%, 1.5%, those flip back over to republicans, a very different election. republicans really have to think about how they're going to rebrand themselves in health care over the next 18 to 24 months. gillian: i think finding some common ground or at least some more moderate ground maybe. i mean, it's sort of undeniable that the party's moving -- this cycle has moved in a little bit more of a trump-centric direction. you guys lost a bunch of moderates, i think fair to say. what's the plan there? how are you going to build these kinds of bridges and coalitions going forward over the next two years? >> well, again going back to health care, it's remarkable. the trump administration actually has a very good story to tell on health care. after their big bill in the senate lost by one vote, they took a much more sequential step

by step, one at a time type approach to reform. they made changes in the way that drugs are approved, to get them out faster. they made changes to medicare to save seniors money. there are all sorts of little things they started doing. a record number of generic drugs were approved. gillian: the prescription pricing measures that the president has been promoting lately. >> yeah. and there was a bill that passed both houses of congress and overwhelmingly, that removed a gag clause that prevented pharmacists from telling you can actually pay less for this if you partner with cash. for some reason that mess and didn't get through. which say starting with -- i would say that starting with the state of the union, a good portion should be saying this is what we've done already on health and this is how we're going to continue moving forward and draw a real contrast between common sense step by step smart reforms, based on what works in the public and private sector,

versus a giant bill that invariably gets bogged down. obamacare barely passed. it was unpopular. when you start masking these things together, all you're doing is piling up enemies to the bill because somebody will find something they don't like in it and people have a tendency -- the interest groups have a tendency to fight against things 10 times harder than they do for things. so small little things they should do, i'll give you a couple -- gillian: we only have 10 seconds left. i want to ask you yes or no questions. no one wants to talk about the "i" word but is there a game plan on your side of the aisle for if the house brings impeachment proceedings? are you thinking about it or are you kind of trying to not deal with that now? >> if they want to bring impeachment proceedings we should let them. i think the american people would be so turned off by the notion that they would almost certainly get punished in 2020.

gillian: joe de de santis, thak you for joining us. thank you. leland: protesters on the ground in broward county as the recount begins. will it be 2000 deja vu. and on our borders, the troops are there. our political panel breaks down president trump's new push to prevent asylum seekers in the united states. and presiden president trump's g attorney general already under fire. will he have to recuse himself from the mueller investigation?

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leland: there is a little bit of talk in washington about bipartisanship. take a look in florida and in georgia. no such luck. republicans and democrats quite literally screaming at each other as the recounts begin in broward county. with that, we bring in ross kaminski, radio talk show host out of denver, colorado, heard worldwide on the internet. you're in the home of government, we've been talking about it for months, 68 square miles surrounded by reality.

how does it feel? >> i grew up around here. i'm used to it. i'm kind of immune. leland: it's gotten worse, hasn't it. >> it's gotten a lot worse. leland: we look at what's happening in florida. we look at these pictures. how does this play across the rest of the country in. >> one of the main things for ordinary civilians, i think it hurts your faith in the system. it's potentially a bigger issue than who wins, who loses. republicans will have the majority in the senate no matter what. it makes people think can i trust whether my vote is counted. i think it's a big deal. leland: that's something both sides agree is sacred. it always seems to be in democratic cities that we have the biggest questions on the validity of votes, whether chicago or broward county. brenda snipes, who is the head of the board of elections in broward county, she has been accused in the past of destroying ballots, the court found she did that illegally in 2016. now big questions about finding mysteriously numbers of ballots.

have the republicans now found a new foil for their attacks on democrats? >> they have. but picking on one person in the short-term even if she deserves it, it's hard to say if that's going to be your answer. they need to win and they need to make sure the process just seems like it's done honestly and legally. they'll make her the bad guy or the bad gal for a while. if they end up losing, it will be way more than about her. leland: in florida you see rick scott declared victory. ron de santis spoke on election night but now we're moving forward from that. he's sort of gone to ground here. as we look towards 2020, though, you've got a couple of big names who have come out of this, regardless of what happens in florida. you've got andrew gillum, either he's going to be governor of florida or democrats will have felt like the election was stolen from them. beto o'rourke, another democratic name who came way closer than anyone thought he would. and then on the right you've got john james from michigan. >> to me, what we're looking at

here i think is people tend to forget that the word election means to make a choice. we just look at one person and it's going to end up who's this, who is that? not just looking at gillum or beto or just trump. it will be whoever the matchups are. i think the reason that some of those very liberal candidates didn't win is because they are too liberal and i don't think they're great candidates nationwide, actually. leland: certainly they didn't play -- the people who were extraordinarily progressive in some sort of demographic districts that looked much like the united states, they didn't play very well. last question for you. big picture sense in terms of where this goes of the recount of florida, is this as devias 2000 or -- divisive as 2000 or are we past that? >> i think people that are into politics, the governor's race is the key. the senate, it won't change the

majority. the governor's race and how it gets into redistricting, that's a big deal. leland: the margin that de santis is up is significantly larger than the margin for rick scott. a recount would have to drastically change things in order to change the governor's race. gillian: democrats are all for ma chew whitaker to recuse himself. president trump says whitaker will oversee the mueller probe. allison barber has the latest. >> reporter: the top democrat in the senate sent a letter to the president questioning the legality of whitaker's appointment. a letter was sent, asking for materials to be preserved in part because the committees plan to investigate sessions' debar churr. democrats say president trump asked jeff sessions to step down because of president is trying to undermine the special council's russia investigation and they say the man trump named

as sessions' temporary replacement, matt whitaker, has made too many problematic comments about the russia probe to oversee it. >> i could see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and the attorney general doesn't fire bob mueller but he reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. >> reporter: democrats want a recusal. the president says this sort of thing always happens to his appointees. >> this only comes up because anybody that works for me, they do a number on them. but matt whitaker is a very smart man. he is a very respected man in the law enforcement community, very respected, at the top of the line. >> reporter: he also told reporters on friday he doesn't know mr. whitaker but in october he told fox news that he did. >> i can tell you, matt whitaker's a great guy. i knows matt whitaker. >> i don't know matt whitaker. matt whitaker worked for jeff

sessions. he was extremely highly thought of and still is. >> reporter: reporters asked the president if you discussed the mueller probe with mr. whitaker. president trump said he did not speak to matt whitaker about it and he once again said he did not know him. gillian: leland? leland: with that we bring former deputy assistant general bob degrees coul. driscoll. democrats say matt whitaker has to recuse himself. he doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want, does he? >> all of this is a side show whether he does anything to stop mueller. nobody will care about recusal or not recusal, if he doesn't stop bob mueller from trying to do this job. leland: there were discussion that's whitaker put forth an idea of starvin star starving m. >> he had floated that i think before he was in the department. i don't know if that's still the

view now. that's certainly an option that could be taken is obviously the attorney general controls the funding within the department. he could move that around. i suspect this is washington, the minute he did that, that would leak and there would be more pressure on the circus. leland: whitaker is controversial both because of the way the appointment was done, we'll put that aside for a second, constitutional lawyers will disagree on that. but he's controversial just in his own right not because of mule e. not because of trump, just because of his back story. is that the way democrats will get to him? >> i think they'll try. i generally don't agree with that kind of attack. i think that the law is different than politics. he ran for office and he's been politically active. he said lots of things but that doesn't necessarily mean that's how he would run the department or that's how he ran his life as u.s. attorney. leland: is business background is questionable. >> i think that's the biggest lurking problem is ties to the wall street journal story

yesterday about an active investigation. if that pans out, i think that's tough to overcome, just perception-wise. whether he's completely innocent or not, i have no idea whether he is. leland: where does this go? he serves at the pleasure of the president. he does not require senate confirmation. how long can one be acting attorney general? >> under the vacancies act i think he can go 210 days. leland: that's a long time. >> i think the longer he stays the more likely it will be a challenge to the process underwhich he is appointed. i think it's a nonfrivolous legal question about whether or not the appointment is valid. that could bthat could an issue. i think the president will name someone pretty quickly, name a successor and try to get a confirmation hearing going to take that issue off the table. leland: no question the attorney general is one of the most important jobs in washington. we've known that going all the way back to when robert kennedy had the job for his brother.

surprised by how quickly whitaker has ascended to that job in washington? >> not necessarily. i think it's consistent with the way trump has run his administration which is it's very much a top-down thing. he promised to bring in outsiders and kind of that's what he's doing. i think a lot of people in washington feel comfortable with people who have more of a pedigree within washington. leland: sessions certainly did. >> and whitaker does not. he was the u.s. attorney in iowa. he is a well respected lawyer. people that i know a that know him say he's a good guy. leland: this discussion of the attorney general and the recount in florida, do either of them have anything to do with each other and then we'll transition to florida. >> the recount in florida is a state level issue. it doesn't involve voting rights in the civil rights sense that would give the department jurisdiction. leland: where is the intersection now in florida between the recount that we see happening, which is essentially the executive branch of the secretary of state's branch in

florida, and the legal challenges we're seeing from rick scott and also coming from democrat as well. >> well, the challenge -- scott won his first couple challenges and they're process challenges. it's clear that broward just blew off the law that required them to report every 45 minutes. leland: is there any penalties for that? we hear about brenda snipes, she broke the law before, et cetera. she's still there. >> well, ironically scott is the one who had the power to remove her and didn't. but the problem is those are process questions and generally what happens is secretaries of state hand out penalties of training and other things. they don't affect the vote count usually. it diminishes confidence in the vote count that happens if there hasn't been trans perso parent . >> maria: -- trans parent cia -- transparency. >> the margin is big enough if they were to recount now, generally historically recounts only move it a couple hundred votes either way so it should be safe for governor scott.

leland: we had brad blakeman on who ran the recount effort for george bush in florida. he said there's not the margin there to be concerned about. >> the errors go both way and they generally cancel each other out. leland: thanks very much. good to he see you. >> thanks for having me. gillian: still ahead, thousands of u.s. troops are stationed along the u.s. southern border. president trump says they're there to prepare for the arrival of the migrant caravan from mexico and hon did your hondura. we'll tell you where those troops are now holding drills. and still waiting on the final tally in the arizona senate race. we're take a look at the latest vote counts for kyrsten sinema and martha mcsally. a once-in-five hundred year storm

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some towns like paradise are destroyed from the blaze, burned all the way through. officials in southern california confirm that two people have been killed in the fires in the south. the firefighters are battling the flames but those dry conditions and the winds have made it almost impossible to get an upper hand. gillian: a teen center in thousand oaks being used by wildfire evacuees is the first one used earlier in the week by first responders when they were responding to the bar shooting in thousand oaks. authorities are trying to gather information from the suspected home and car to better understand what prompted the bar shooting that killed 12 people including one police sergeant in l.a. authorities believe the shooter fatally shot hi himself after tt attack. leland: thousands of u.s. troops now await the migrant caravan of moving towards the

border. president trump saying the migrants in the caravan will not be granted asylum if they cross the border illegally. that executive order coming out. border arrests have also hit record numbers ahead of the caravan's arrival. agents report making 50,000 arrests in october, a new high. gillian: president trump says asylum seekers approach the u.s. border in a caravan through mexico will not find itself in the united states. now president trump's new acting attorney general, m matthew whitaker says he supports that call. here to weigh in our political panel of pros. gentlemen, my political pros, i'm so happy to have you back. thanks for being with me. >> thank you. gillian: david, the first question to you. critics of this new asylum policy a that the white house put out this week say this is an asylum ban and it's illegal.

what do you say to those critics. >> it's actions in line with the president's stated goal of knowing who is coming into this country and making sure we follow the rule of law and making sure that our communities are kept safe. so it's completely in line with his stated goals and while we are just days away from the midterm elections, the first thing democrats would do to put the ones they just got elected in suburban districts in the biggest danger is to push for open borders which they campaigned on and not have funding in the next budget bill for more border security. gillian: all right. so point taken. but doug, people will also say that this is not just about this one asylum policy. it's about the broader rhetoric here. it's about the broader outlook. things the president has said in the past about mexicans and

muslims and countries, it's an anti-foreigner position that this is part of and that's the real problem. >> to me the real problem is something else, gillian, which is the absence of a bipartisan immigration plan to deal with both border security, a pathway to citizenship for those here, but so that we can do that not based on the president's executive orders, constitutional or not, but based on the will of the congress, especially after the presumptive speaker, nancy pelosi, the president all said they want to work together. let's put immigration at the top of the list so we're not doing things in a piecemeal way, we're not doing them with rhetorical excess. we're doing them logically, programmatically and for the long-term future. gillian: so david, bipartisanship and all of -- working on a bipartisan immigration plan, that's all great. but the president seemed to come to the conclusion in the 11th

hour before the election that immigration, illegal immigration was the issue. we could argue if he focused on that more than the economy. i think he did. but looking back now, do you think that was the right call? >> there's no question, even among suburban voters, that a secure border and safe communities is extremely important. and i may slightly disagree with your premise. the president did talk about -- if you looked at the rallies that he did, a record numb before the election, he did talk about the economy. gillian: he pulled an ad or two didn't he focusing on the economy? >> there were no shortages of ads during the campaign season. pick the topic. there were ads about them. whether those were from the president or from other groups. but there's much talk about the humaneness of this policy. what is inhumane is allowing countries to continue to take advantage of their citizens that

they feel they need to march from their country toss the uniteies to theunited states. what we ought to be doing is putting economic pressures to bring real reform to south american countries so migrants don't feel the need they have to leave there to be able to provide their families and come here. this is as much an economic issue as it is anything else. gillian: so very quickly, doug, to david's point, what is so inhumane, what is so terrible about asking people to -- foreigner to come into the country through legal points of entry? >> i don't think there's anything wrong with that. i'm for border sciewmplet i suggested we need to resolve hopefully in a way that's more permanent. i think when you separate families, when you tell people we're going to change our asylum policy on an executive order of potentially questionable constitutional merit, i think that that is wrong, inhumane, bad policy,ed bad politics, and if you look at the suburban vote

as you suggested, gillian, it certainly hurts the president, not helps him and in cities the same. gillian: gentlemen, we've got to leave it there. but thank you for your time on this saturday. david avella and doug shoen, we'll talk to you soon. leland: 1:38. broward county, florida, the protests continue as the recount begins. how long could it go? building a better bank starts with looking at something old, and saying, "really?" so capital one is building something completely new. capital one cafes. inviting places with people here to help you, not sell you. and savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. because that's how it should be. you can open one from right here or anywhere in 5 minutes. seriously, 5 minutes... this is banking reimagined. what's in your wallet?

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we are pleased to report that excluding overseas ballots, which may be legally received up to 10 days after the election, all of the ballots cast have been processed and the results have been transmitted to tallahassee within the required time frame. leland: broward county officials say they are ready for a recount if the florida secretary of state orders one. that being in the governor's and

the senate races down there that we're watching most closely. florida is one of several states where the midterm election results are still too close to call. with that we bring in john f. ordiy. we'll get to arizona and georgia in a minute. seems almost certain we'll have a recount in florida. >> if you're below a half a percentage point with a machine recount, -- leland: we could have magnifying glasses and all sorts of fun. the woman from broward county decided not to come talk to us. she seemed almost giddy that they tabulated all of the ballots that have come in. >> i think they've had delays. some of them are natural because there are a lot of ballots out there by absentee that arrive late on election day. they weren't good about being transparent about it. that's where the courts stepped

in, saying you have to update people almost real-time as to what's out there. it causes people to wonder what's going on. leland: when you're hearing at least from republican politicians, rick scott, matt geist, they're saying broward is looking to steal the election. fair to say at the very least it's incompetence. >> i think we've improved a lot since florida 2000. there's been a lot of improvements in the system. it's a complicated system. the fact that they couldn't put out regular reports about where their ballots are, that's something that we need to worry about. leland: you watch a lot of elections. this seems particularly offensive in the way they handled things, correct? >> i think they could have been more forthcoming. they could have been more willing to say hey, let's open up and show you what's going on behind the hood. there are things that are going to come in late. leland: when you think about the fact that how their lack of transparency, the fact this woman's been dinged for destroying ballots when she

wasn't supposed to, it raises a lot of questions beyond just not being trans. >> transparent.>> i think they e followed the law. leland: that's standard, right? >> the court said you have to do that, you have to show us what's there. thrill with be things that are delayed. we understand that. if you don't give an accounting of it, it raises questions for people. leland: the tightest of the races is rick scott, bill nelson, about 14, 5 right now, 14,500 votes. as with we head to the secretary of state and whether they order a recount or not, it's unusual to think a recount will change 14,000 votes, right? >> once we get to a certified count, the counts don't change by more than 100, a couple hundred. unless there's some sort of court challenge which could rule out a category of ballots, we're unlikely to see those numbers change very much. leland: seems like the same rule applies in georgia, arizona, who knows. they're hundreds of thousands of ballots away from the first count being done. >> in georgia, it's unlikely to

change. in arizona there's votes that could change one way or the other lother. leland: thanks, john. gillian: coming up, one veteran saw his comrades in arms living on the streets after serving the nation. he decided to give them a helping hand and we're going to tell you what he did coming up next. alright, i brought in ensure max protein... ...to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. [grunting noise] i'll take that. 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. ensure max protein. in two great flavors.

gillian: one former marine who himself struggled with pts and depression after leaving the military has recovered and now dedicating his life to helping other veterans. he discovered that small initiatives could have huge impacts on the quality of veterans' lives. jackie heinrick has more on this new campaign. >> reporter: for at the time vans struggling to reen reintege into society, homelessness is always a threat. one marine took matters into his own hands and began a program to provide basic necessities for dignity and for health. >> came back to pack another bag? >> reporter: warm socks, soap and other personal items, packed by volunteers as part of a mission to provide homeless

veterans with the basic necessarnecessities. it's the brainchild of a marine who had a chance encounter that changed his life. >> i was going to the new port naval base for help. i was driving there during the winter. i saw a guy that had a sign, homeless vet, please help me out. i went back to the hotel, got some stuff and gave it to him. that was really it. >> reporter: after seeing the impact that one donation made, brett and his partner decided to expand. they set up backpacks for life, a nonprofit that helps homeless veterans with housing, job placement and, yes, backpacks filled with toiletries. >> this is their mobile home when they're homeless. we decided to get a backpack, fill it with supplies, toiletries and resources and give it out to veterans out there so we can be that shoulder and that hand to get them going and back into society. >> reporter: after receiving feedback from vet rants, they decided to design and sell their own. it has things like a lock, a safety whistle, even a sleeping

pad to help prevent hypothermia. >> i want them to know helped change my life forever. >> reporter: for every backpack sold online one is donated to a homeless veteran. some veterans are even getting jobs making these new bags. gillian: jackie, thanks for that. leland: after the break, she may be known for diamonds but one classic car owned by marilyn monroe is up for auction. we'll tell you how much it's expected to net. ♪ may be quite continental but diamonds are a girl's best friend. ♪ i kiss may be grand

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new fixodent ultra-max hold gives you the strongest hold ever to lock your dentures. so now you can eat tough food without worry. fixodent and forget it. leland: a fox news alert as we take a live look outside of the broward county election headquarters. the a a.p. news flash that the secretaries of state of florida has ordered a recount in the governor's race and the senate race, the a.p. calling this unprecedented. it's not just a recount there of broward county that has had so many issues and charges of voter fraud and voter incompetence, but also a recount of every ballot now in the state of florida. as you can see there, ron de santis leading in the governor's race by a fairly large margin, that's about 32,000 votes, much

tighter in the senate race where it is now down to about 14, now 13,000 ballots between rick scott and bill nelson. gillian: that's right. the florida secretary of state, ken detner, ordered the recount just a little while ago. he determined that unofficial results in both races fell within that margin that by law triggers this recount. it will be a machine recount. from there we'll see whether this goes to a by hand recount. as we discussed earlier, leland, this is an issue that could be undecided, undetermined for days to come. leland: it could be days, it could be weeks. the way it works, you have the machine recount that recounts all the tabulation. if it then goes to a hand recount in the case of it being less than a quarter point difference between the two candidates, which right now is what is happening in the senate race, then by hand every county

has to determine what the machines couldn't. if the machine says i can't figure out about one ballot, then it goes to the county board of elections to figure that out. and that's where we go back to 2000 to the magnifying glasses and the discussions of hanging chad and voter intent. that ended with a court order in 2000. gillian: after five weeks. we hope this time around there's a conclusion much sooner. there's a smaller number of votes than there are in a presidential election. that's one thing floridians have going for them now as they wait this. leland: the difference between bush and gore was about 500 votes. right now, we're at about 13,000 in the closest election. so rick scott and bill nelson. so it conceivably is harder with the machine recount and hand recount, if it were at 10,000 votes or 5,000 votes, election

officials and experts will tell us the chance of bill nelson conceding or if it's flitched to rick scott, it's a lot higher rather than dragging things out with lawsuits. so far, neither side backing down. gillian: we'll track all of this overnight. we'll be back tomorrow. leland: the news continues from new york. at the start of the fox news alert, on the growing draw dray ma over the midterms. welcome to america's news he'd quarters. i'm eric shawn. arthel: i'm arrest they'll no vile. florida's -- neville. doug mcelway has the latest. >> reporter: the official announcement coming down moments ago from the florida secretary of state. there will be a recount of the governor's race and the senate race. that while two election observers sent here by the florida department of elections told the miami herald