jillian: and the ugly, photographer going viral nor using an old fashioned camera at impeachable news conference. peek poking fun. well known photo journalist who spent five decades covering the news have. a good day. rob: bi. >> we begin with a fox news alert. here we go, president trump rips democrats for declaring war on democracy. ahead of today's historic impeachment vote. ainsley: wrote a letter to nancy pelosi. comes after a marathon on capitol hill setting all the groundwork for what's to come together. steve: i think we know what's going to happen today. that's why we have dispatched griff jenkins to statuary hall in the capital to break it all down. three hours from now all get together in the big resume and it starts. griff: that's right, steve, ainsley, brian, good morning. history in just three hours feet from where i'm standing. now we have rule impeach

third sitting president in history. closed rule. no amendments. six hours of debate. equally divided between the two sides. it's going to take us late into the evening, perhaps some time after 6:00 we might see the actual historical vote. there won't be just one there will be two votes. because there is two articles of impeachment. abuse of power, obstruction of congress. when they were getting this rule boy did things get heated. watch. this what's up is down and down suspect. more alice in wonderland than house of representatives. there will be a day of reckoning, what you do here and how we have trashed the process in getting here will live on. and it will affect everything that we have come for. >> ahead of this vote we saw a scathing letter from president trump sent directly to speaker pelosi comparing this impeachment to the salem witch trials. he writes: it is an illegal partisan attempted coup. he says to her, quote. have you cheapened the importance of the very ugly word impeachment. pelosi down playing the

letter writing her own letter to her fellow lawmakers imploring them if we do not act we will be derelict in our duty concluding in america no one is above the law. here is a spoiler alert. she needs 216 vote. she is well within that reach. we talked a lot this week about those 31 vulnerable democrats. some 28 are going to vote for impeachment. that means perhaps at the end of this day they will vote to send it to the senate where the trial, if it's any indication between the two leaders, majority leader and minority leader, it is going to be really fiery. watch this exchange. >> i'm not an impartial juror. this is a political process. it's not anything judicial about it. >> it's clear that senator mcconnell wants to use the senate to help participate in a cover-up. >> now, save some popcorn for the very end of your evening because about the same time that this vote will take place history will be made. president trump will be taking the stage in battle creek, michigan. and i bet he has got a lot to say about it.

guys? steve: do you think? ainsley: con fras what bill clinton did in 1998. he stayed under the radar. the president is out there, going to a rally. he is going to be moving ahead. steve: griff, thank you very much. three hours from right now. griff is talking about that letter that the president sent, the six pager to nancy pelosi. apparently it was written by steven miller. and eric eulin legislative affairs director from the white house. apparently they didn't want the white house lawyers to look at it until the very end. and then the lawyers did and they said you know what? are there are a couple passages here that could be a problem nonetheless, he sent it. ainsley: in that letter he said your candidate lost the election. have you never recovered. you are the one interfering with the election and he called her selfish. steve: it was like a written form of one of his rally he is. brian: no one could say that you couldn't hear his voice in it. a couple other things yesterday as you just saw in griff's report. the senate is going to get this in january, at which

time you already saw both sides taking sides. mitch mcconnell said no trial no, witnesses we are going. senator schumer says there is going to be some witnesses even though he doesn't have the power to do it. what he is trying to do rattle some of those in tough states like cory gardner. susan collins, lisa murkowski and make them side with him and say hey for my election future, for my constituents, maybe i need to see some of those trump officials. , however, on the other side. doug jones would get in a lot of trouble in alabama if he doesn't side with mitch mcconnell. steve: right. brian: as well as some other republicans. joe manchin for example, has indicated he doesn't see much case here. steve: it's not only the president's political future at stake today. it's also members of congress it. is historic though. we thought we would try to frame it so you understand what is happening today and what has happened in the past. ainsley: i woke up this morning and i thought gosh no matter what if you agree with it or not it is historical. look back at the history of

impeachment. 11 two rest lewises have led to impeachment by the house johnson and clinton both were acquitted by the senate. which we expect to happen in this case, too. five u.s. presidents serving since nixon have been targeted by house impeachment resolution us. brian: republicans said i can't support you after what we just saw. mean whalmeanwhile when it comeo impeachment house has impeached 179, 15 federal judges. in terms of people overall. 1 senator, one cabinet member. two presidents. the senate has conducted 16 full impeachment trials. so, this is going to happen today. the other thing is, just keep in mind. the goal posts have been moved. when you stuart impeachment, the goal is to get the other side to buy. in suddenly the big story is county democrats keep their team together and now that they did, say maybe two jeff van drew and the michigan congressman, people think that's a big deal. no, nancy pelosi failed.

failed to convince the other side that she had a valid argument. and if you watched the arguments yesterday, they won over -- no republicans biting their lip. they don't see merit in this. steve: listen, sounds like behind the scenes because there are a number of red state democrats who are worried about next november, not right now, not today, they are worried about their re-election, that is why behind the scenes nancy pelosi essentially has been saying look, i know you are squishy on this whole impeachment thing, you are worried about your future. but i will give you a win if you vote for impeachment, i will then bring up usmca and you will have a win. and that is what they are doing in the face of declining poll numbers, which rush limbaugh detailed yesterday on his program. watch this. >> cnn poll support for impeaching and removing trump has dropped 9 net points since last month. now, 45-47 against. support for impeaching trump

has even dropped among democrats from 90% to 77%. this is a direct reflection on adam schiff and jerry nadler. by the way, the ig report has totally exposed nadler as a full-fledged 100 percent liar. steve: speaking of the ig report, it was the ig report that the presiding fisa judge rosemary collier was talking about when she sent a blistering order to the department of justice and the fbi and essentially she is giving them until january the 10th to report what the fbi and the department of justice is doing to clean up their act because when she looked at the ig report, she saw the fbi officials falsified documents, put their thumb on the scale all against the president of the united states, it's not supposed to be like that, she says it has got to be

fixed and got to be fixed now. ainsley: this is what she wrote in that four-page order. frequency fbi personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession. and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case calls into question whether information contained in other fbi applications is reliable. brian: think about what this says this. came across around 4:00. i thought to myself i couldn't get on and say anything. carter page, for example, i said okay, how does he feel? understood. >> how does the president feel? understood. i never thought to myself how does the judge feeling? they got handed documents that you trust the fbi honest with documents verified haven't left anything out. you haven't switched on the question of is -- does carter page help the cia? they wrote no. the answer was yes. all the steele information verified. it wasn't. so, if i'm the judge and i get that and i go okay, this is fine, i'm going to sign off on this.

their name is on that. then it's totally false. presidency hamstrung that you all of a sudden i say to myself do you think it's just carter page and this fisa warrant? what about the other 98% that get verified? if i'm these judges i want this thing turned on its head today. steve: brian, 100 percent great point. here's the thing, if you are a judge you expect the fbi and the department of justice when they give you something it's true. in this case it was not. and that's what -- the way it looks. michael horowitz and the inspector general report said, you know, there was no evidence -- they could not find anybody admit political bias in it. but, come on, it just smells bad. ainsley: we have had so many individuals on that have said they blame the agents who gave them the false information. the judges, yes, they approve because they trust their sources. steve: you have got to. ainsley: they trust the fbi agents. even though the majority are amazing and field offices are great we support them.

some of these bad apples falsifying information and handing them to the judges. we don't even know who these judges were. now we know who this lady is come out so appalled by the information she received. brian: politics aside, it means a lot. francey hakes former doj official says this about the uniqueness of this moment. >> completely destroys the democrats' argument that there was anything partisan at all in the complaint that president trump and president trump's supporters and the republican party were making early on, talking about this fisa warrant against carter page and talking about being spied upon while people are trying to make much of the fact that president trump said his wires were tapped it. looks like maybe trump tower wasn't actually tapped but you had confidential human sources run by the fbi against three different members of the trump campaign including one against whom not a single criminal allegation had been made. no one is even talking about that.

steve: that's right. the letter from judge collyer is the first public evidence that fisa judges believe they were deceived by the department of justice. this is such a gigantic story. obviously it led bret baier's report last night if you were watching. what about the other newscasts? when you take a look, we have looked at it, and abc, cbs, nbc, not one second about that story. given they all did three minutes or better regarding impeachment, which is a big story, but how could they not do the fisa story? how could they not tell america hey, it looks to the fisa judges like the fbi and the department of justice did something fishy. ainsley: a huge story and they didn't include it in their coverage. brian: between 95 and 98% of all fisa warrants are accepted verified and given the green light. another thing that james comey said was wrong. extremely tough to get a fisa warrant. i trusted in the process, and i was wrong.

he apologized. he trusted of the process. they all get green lighted. how many others are just full of falsities? maybe none but maybe a lot. steve: green lights until now maybe red light or amber light if the fbi wanted to gte something past the fisa judge sign at the bottom. ainsley: you expect washington, capitol hill to be so partisan and so political. not the fbi. brian: jillian you have already worked an hour but can you tell us more? jillian: can i do that. a couple more stories. we begin with this, fbi agents going door-to-door in search of a missing texas mom and newborn daughter. they are talking to neighbors and checking surveillance video. police don't have any people of interest but heidi's parents say the mother of two would never leave on her own. she would have never left her son behind. >> whoever took her was a -- they had to know that she

was a fighter. >> until this is done, until she is home. >> broussard's fiancee reported them missing on thursday. hundreds say a final goodbye to the police detective killed in the jersey city attack. [bagpipes] detective joseph seals honored by a sea of blue. the father of five was one of four victims killed in the shooting. hits young son saluting his father. look at this, wearing his police hat. seal's wife in tears holding the folded american flag that draped his casket. the attack has been labeled domestic terrorism. both shooters were killed. attorney michael avenatti pleads not guilty to extortion. federal prosecutors claim he threatened to go public with information that nike improperly paid athletes if the sneaker company didn't pay him $25 million. his trial is set to begin next month.

the disgraced attorney is also accused of stealing from several former clients. and how about this? president trump giving an early christmas present to federal employees. the president signs an executive order granting most workers the day off on christmas eve. extra vacation time is typically not given when christmas falls on a wednesday but this year they have it. back to you. steve: the christmas miracle. an extra day. ainsley: new york and new jersey giving the green light for illegal immigrants to get their drivers licenses and our next guest is a new york state lawmaker says this is foolish in a post 9/11 world. ( ♪ )

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♪ [cheers] steve: that's reaction a couple days ago in new jersey as illegal immigrants got the green light to get drivers licenses in new jersey. supporters celebrating in the state assembly after the bill passed both chambers. this as illegals in new york line up to apply for licenses after its own law went into effect in new york state on monday. homeland security warning the law puts law-abiding citizen in danger. joining us right now is republican new york state assembly woman and congressional candidate nicole. good morning to you. >> good morning. steve: we saw the celebration there obviously

they feel this is a great thing for them. what do you think about this law where it's much easier for people who are in the country illegally to get drivers licenses? >> sure. well, look, while president trump is doing everything he can to secure our borders, to keep us safe to stem the tied of illegal immigration we have liberal states like new york, like new jersey doing everything they can to incentivize illegal immigration. just this year alone they passed free college for illegal immigrants. reduced the sentencing for misdemeanors. that way wouldn't trigger deportation cooperation. and now the driver's license bill which has many flaws and is very dangerous, i think, for the public as a whole. steve: this is a sanctuary state, sanctuary city in a sanctuary state. one of the things about green light though is the way it was written. we were talking to the acting secretary of homeland security yesterday. and he told us that the way it is right now, if the federal government wants to contact the dmv and say hey, can you give us some

information about this person, they will say no. >> not only will they say no, in new york, they are actually going to require our dmv employees to participate in aiding and abetting illegal immigrants notifying the license holder if federal law enforcement is looking for them. they are released by a sanctuary city. they have a conviction and now federal agents are looking for them to have them removed from the country. this actually says have you got to give them a heads up that federal law enforcement is looking for you and protect you. that to me is the most difficult part of this law to understand. steve: right. >> in addition to that new york state association of county clerks is saying they can't verify the documentation of foreign documents that were being used allows for expired foreign documents to be used flies in the face of the 9/11 commission report which we know terrorists used fraudulent documents to obtain legitimate government i.d. here in the united states. steve: things unverified you say to get the documentation

to get a driver's license here. >> that is one of the biggest things we brought up during the debate. not only that they tried to pass a subsequent law that would have automatically registered everyone who applied for a license to vote with the requirement that they just opt out if they are ineligible to put the burden on the individual to opt out if we had to. we stopped that by the way. steve: do you feel this law actually makes people less safe in new york and new jersey? >> well, i think it does. we don't really know who we are giving these ids to. particularly if you have the new york association of county clerks themselves saying they don't have the ability, the tools to verify that the documents that are being provided are genuine. additionally require that they destroy the documents. as you know they wanted to shield illegal immigrants, even those who have been convicted of crimes from the trump administration who is trying to remove criminal aliens from our nation. steve: all right. nicole malliotakis. >> nicole for ny.com.

thank you. steve: seven democrats will take the debate stage in l.a. tomorrow. some will have to leave the campaign trail if there is a trial in the senate. tomi lahren on that coming up next ♪ ♪ (music) if you have moderate to severe psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop.

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and a drumroll, please. yeah! tonight is a magical night. where anything is possible. it's party time. woo! here we go. ha, ha. now for the icing on the cake! come, we're about to begin.

>> here are quick headlines for you. county declares emergency but stalls on take immediate action. iis a gnome that using horse stables as temporary housing. wants to address the after supreme court refused to hear a case protecting homeless people sleeping in public. east coast jersey city joining a lawsuit against new york's homeless program. cities in the garden state

fired up after learning new york spends millions of dollars to send homeless counties to other parts of the country. jersey's city mayor says that de blasio the mayor here in new york is not working on a solution but instead, quote ant abro be a bre indicating responsibility. >> a deal was struck end ago labor union dispute that put the debate in jeopardy on a college campus. >> but if the house votes to impeach today, then come january 5th, those five senators running for president will likely not be on the campaign trail. they will be in d.c. serving as a jury in president trump's impeachment trial. >> and our next guest says they only have themselves to blame. here to explain is fox nation host tomi lahren. hey, tomi. >> good to see you guys. >> good to see you, too. explain this for us. >> well, they absolutely did this to themselves. again, i'm going to be at the debate tomorrow night and in los angeles as well. i'm really excited about

that to see all these candidates up close and personal. beyond that every time that they are on tv, ever time they get a chance to talk to the american people, things go horribly wrong for these candidates. keep in mind the democratic party, the dnc has really tried to put their candidates really burn them off to the side. that's why we have had this whole impeachment witch-hunt. they don't want to talk about their socialist candidates. they don't want to talk about joe biden. now, they are going to be front and center even in their impeachment witch-hunt. this really came back to bite them in the butt and going to backfire horribly on the democrats. steve: when you think about it, tomi, you know, it's a done deal. the impeachment is going to pass the house sometime late this afternoon or early this evening. that's going to happen. people know the president will be impeached. but, at the same time, fast forward a couple weeks into january when they start the trial, everybody knows that the impeachment is going to fail in the senate. the president will not be removed from office. and then you see those five u.s. senators who want to be

president wasting people's time doing something that is completely futile because he will not be removed. >> democrats know this is all they have. why would they do this knowing it's going to backfire. why would they do this knowing their poll numbers showing. why would they do this showing poll numbers showing donald trump beating their candidates? simple. best thing they have. they don't have policy or records to run on. they don't have a future to run on and they have already kind of accepted that their candidates are going to lose. now they are just going all in on impeachment. hoping something happens as we know from the last three and a half years, nothing is going to happen. but they are just, you know, going to have to cut their losses and get ready for donald trump's re-election. brian: two things. number one, these candidates don't want to talk with impeachment on the trail and neither do the people and number two, they cannot get attention as long as there is impeachment the number

one story. normally we would have a pregame show and talking about the candidates. tulsi gabbard needs a million dollars to continue past the holidays talking about all the story lines which helps their cause. instead this is after thought until you, of course, cover it, tomi. then it will be front and center. it's an after thought. it used to be the forefront of everyone's minds, especially with a sitting president on the other party and there is no drama on the republican president. ainsley: wonder if this goes on in the senate for a long time. they say it's not going to though. brian: i think it's a lose lose for everybody. steve: by the way, catch her show, no interruption on fox nation. and because fox nation is celebrating one year in business, 35% off fox nation when using the promo code celebrate until december 25th when a lot of people will be celebrating. tomi, thank you. ainsley: come up, was lower love lynn really in charge of the college admission scandal in what new documents have revealed. steve: i have got to see that a big year on "fox & friends" live diner outside

to live studio audience going to take a look back at 2019 next ♪ ♪

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relief and remission you may have gingivitis. when you brush, and the clock could be ticking towards bad breath, receding gums, and possibly... tooth loss. help turn back the clock on gingivitis with parodontax. leave bleeding gums behind. parodontax. ainsley: we're back with a fox news alert. manhunt intensifies for a 14-year-old expected of murdering college student tessa majors. >> teen they are looking for might have a bite mark on his hand after that surveillance video shown in court but not handed out to the press. shows tessa majors fighting off her attackers in a new york city park. one of three teenage suspects in the college student's murder. he has been on the run since

reportedly jumping out of a car as an adult drove him to meet with police he changed his mind. dodging authorities appears in court. surveillance video of the attack was shown during the hearing but not release to the public. detective testified the footage shows the 13-year-old standing 10 feet away while the other two teenagers stand him to death. the boy is not accused of stabbing the college student. enough to hold him in custody on murder and robbery charges. third teenager released for lack of evidence. several new safety measures being added to the new york city park up in the northern part of manhattan including secy guard booths staffed 24/7 shuttle run longer into the evening. scary story. talking 14 years old these are kids. steve: apparently crime has risen 82% in one year in that park. rob: yeah there is a lots of

stats. the mayor's office they know how to play with the numbers to make it look better than it really is a lot of people say it's not as good as it seems here in new york city. ainsley: she it to climb those stairs to try to get some help. rob: she had just gotten there semester at barnard. ainsley: reminds me of meg ryan. rob: so cute. >> new court documents claim actress lori loughlin in charge of her family's scheme to get her daughters into usc. they also claim the actress told kids to improve their grades while simultaneously working with the mastermind behind the college scandal. loughlin and her husband accused of paying $500,000 get their kids admitted as fake sports recruits. they pleaded not guilty. trial starts in january. a burglar caught on camera trying to rob a gas station. just take a look at this. you can see the masked man pepper spray an employee, as

soon as they enter the shop in russia. moments later the employee runs and the robber accidentally sprays himself in face. still on the run. and this story is incredible. boy gets an early christmas surprise when his missing dog finally returns home. watch this. carter crying happy tears as you can sees a pug piper jumps right into his arms. the dog ran away before thanksgiving leaving the boy heart breaking. he just turned up at animal shelter in new york. can you see why this reunion is going viral. steve: that the is best gift. a boy and his dog. ainsley: reunited. steve: indeed. ainsley: feels so good. steve: this has been a very

big year for news but also been a very big year for "fox & friends." we have had a lot of big firsts and fun celebrating. brian: i'm going to say take a look. steve: live from studio f it's "fox & friends" the world's number one cable morning show. brian: 2019 should be a big year for everybody. ainsley: we have a big show this morning. where is janice dean when i need her? here i come. brian: jillian mele will join us now. jillian: stop what you are doing and check it out. steve: that sounds real. we are going to have a wedding. ainsley: great guests coming up. ainsley: the lady who used to sit right here. our dear friend elisabeth hasselbeck. >> when you walk into this place it feels like home.

>> i always pretended not to like you but i do like you. brian: it sells albums. >> god bless you guys. brian: she is wrapping up her own segment. good, i have got to go. ainsley: we are done now? >> bye. >> i plan on winning the nomination for my party. >> we can create a lot of wealth. the question is who is going to see that wealth. >> i think it's important to defeat frurp donald trump that's why i'm running for president. >> like donald trump said let's make america great. >> president is going to be live on "fox & friends." mr. trump, good morning to you. >> good morning. they are doing a lot of good things. a lot of things turning out of to be very good for our country. ♪

>> the morning of the new hampshire primary we did our very first diner segment. chris christie come in. the future president of the united states come in. and today in exactly the same spot there is the great griff jenkins. >> we have gone to seemingly hundreds of diners. this is the first time we have ever brought in a fully functional diner to "fox & friends." [cheers] steve: doing something we have never done before, "fox & friends" is going to have a live studio audience. ainsley: are you guys excited to be here for "fox & friends" live? steve: picked a great day to come to new york city we have great program. brian: does this remind you of your old show. >> absolutely. brian: somebody throw a chair. >> best morning show of all of cable news. these guys are amazing. >> best doggone audience i have ever seen on any show. >> today is veterans day. we have a room full of veterans. god bless you. thank you so much ♪ i'm proud to be an

american ♪ where at least i know i'm free steve: we will witness a naturalization ceremony of 12 men and women who served our nation. >> congratulations welcome to america. >> how long have you dreamed of this day? >> my entire life. >> we are here for the patriot awards. >> tonight we honor the real heroes. [cheers and applause] ♪ the u.s.a. >> now it's time to quick off our summer concert series ♪ the ones who didn't make it back home ♪ yeah, yeah ♪ when the world is spinning out of control ♪ i may not know what love is ♪ but i know what love ain't. >> you going to kiss me or not. ♪ the devil went to georgia he is looking for a soul to steal

♪ ♪ >> i can't dance for anything. steve: brian tried out for the jets cheer squad. remember that? brian: no. ainsley: we sent dooce out on the loose. steve: which president is principle author of the declaration of independence? >> thomas jefferson? steve: you get the thomas jefferson. [cheers] steve: are we on camera right now? >> yes. [cell phone ringing] >> live tv it happens sometimes. brian: i have got to go. steve: we just saw a partial show shutdown brand new coffee i took one sip, put it by my heal. ainsley: streaming behind the sofa down there in the cable. if we go off air it's

because brian's coffee. steve: we need to give him a sippy cup. brian: thank you very much. one of these ties if i don't tie it exactly right the lower part ghost past the other part. [laughter] steve: viewer sent in email use the ty like a pocket square. pete: listen i hear of the cool kids are doing it. ainsley: this is our job, it's so amazing. >> we are so blessed and blessed to work together. steve: thank you so much for joining us. "fox & friends" the world's cable morning news show thanks to folks like you. brian brian we still have three seconds left. steve: no we don't. ainsley: see you tomorrow. steve: i won't remark that when i cut your nec necktie off i did not ask first. i thought afterwards i hope that does not have great significance to him. ainsley: turned out to be a

big thing. brian: we should back to it. a lot of people don't have the pocket square. janice: please note i got everyone here on the curvey couch one of those coffee mugs that does not spill. brian: right. steve: metallic sippy cup. take it anywhere, it will not spill. brian: janice, you did a great job getting those crowds out there every single day. ains. ains january not me. ainsley: we have more people than ever. brian: had you to get cash out of your pocket and pay them to be there. janice: that's why i'm broke. steve: thanks to you, we have had a great year. here is to another one that starts. janice: 2020 election year. brian: let me tell you what's next. nancy pelospresident trump says nancy pelosi and the democrats are destroying democracy. steve: catch special coverage of today's vote it starts at 8:45. starts two hours from right now right here on this

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♪ brian: fox news alert. ahead of today's historic impeachment vote president trump blasting democrats for declaring war on democracy in a blistering 6 page letter nancy pelosi president slams impeachment as illegal partisan attempted coup calling the articles of impeachment completely disingenuous, matterless and baseless adding it is a terrible thing you are doing you will have to live with it, not i. in response, nancy pelosi firing back this way. >> ridiculous. >> you have no reaction? why not? >> i haven't fully read it. i have seen the essence of it though and it's really sick. >> here to react house republican conference chair congresswoman liz cheney. always great to see you congresswoman. is it really sick, the six-page letter? >> you know, i think, brian, what is absolutely heart breaking and disgraceful is

what the democrats are doing. they have absolutely stacked the deck in this entire process. they have abused their power. they have abused the rules. they have abused the law. they have denied due process to the president. they have told witnesses not to answer republican questions. they have conducted this whole thing in secret. despite all of that they have absolutely failed to prove their case. and they are now in a situation where they are bringing articles of impeachment to the floor and saying that we should impeach the president based on the assumption of some impeachable behavior. the constitution absolutely does not say that if you don't like the president, if you disagree with his policies, that you can impeach him because you are assuming that he has done something wrong. it's a sad day. it's a tragic day. and i think the democrats have got to understand that the danger that that they are creating here and damage they are doing to the constitution and to the republic. brian: first time there has ever been an impeachment cut on party lines. is that significant? >> it's hugely significant. i mean, have you had liberal

constitutional law professors like jonathan turley make clear that this is baptionly a situation in which it's the thingest case for impeachment in history speakers pelosi herself as said. you do not go bipartisan and evidence is overwhelming. we have had every single leading democrat at some point even beginning before the president was sworn into office. we now saw yesterday congressman raskin on videotape saying they were going to vote to impeach the president before he was even sworn into office. what they have done here is clearly abdicate their duty. brian: if we think this is going to end, forget it. democrat in the white house, republicans load forebear. my hope is never become this trivial again. see what happens. because the president is certainly not taking it lying down. thank you so much. >> thank you, brian. brian: when are you deciding

if you are going to run for senate. >> i will make an announcement at the beginning of the year. brian: it will be. >> i will let you know, brian. brian: promise? >> it do promise. brian: thank you so much. tough decision. she is in leadership in the house. hour is plays heartland. kristi noem says they are talking all about real issues. not this. like the economy. she joins us next. brian: can you make the music louder? ♪ ♪ ♪ (music building) experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. sign and drive off in a new lincoln

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ainsley: president trump calling the impeachment inquiry a disgrace as the house readies for a vote this morning. but, the country remains divided on impeachment. the latest polling shows a 5

point move against it in just the past month. look at that so, how is impeachment playing in the heartland? joining us now is south dakota governor kristi noem. good morning to you, governor. >> good morning, ainsley. ainsley: what are voters in the heartland saying? >> people are talking about impeachment but i'm finding two things. either it makes them sad. they recognize that we are something in our country we have somewhere we have never been before. they hate watching it. the second thing is they make a joke about it which, for me, is really unfortunate. because this is a serious thing that is going on in our country. it's the first time we have had a partisan impeachment of a president. and it is certainly not something that we should be laughing about. i think there is a cast of characterizations in all of this that is unveiling a little interesting story line for our country. ainsley: yeah. i mean, governor, when you look at that poll we just showed you, the cnn poll, at the end of november, 50%

supported impeachment -- 43 did not. now, a month later. 45% support impeachment and 47% do not. is this going to backfire on the democrats? >> i think we are already seeing it backfire on them and people are seeing that these are all unfounded impeachment facts that they brought forward. there's nothing there of substance that people can look at and point to of why we should be going through these proceedings. they really want to be talking about things that effect their every day lives. here in south dakota and across the midwest and heartland they want to talk about these trade agreements. they want to talk about opportunities that they have to feed the world and to save their family farms. so, that's what i think is frustrating for them is they turn on their national news and all they hear about is the circus going on in washington, d.c. it doesn't reflect anything that's going on in their lives. ainsley: your voters remind me of the voters where i grew up in south carolina. heartland, midwest, southerners, their priorities are different than the folks here in new york and california. when i see the president on

the campaign trail and he is at these rallies you are the elite because the job numbers are so good. you hear sean hannity say i'm proud to be a smell j walmart shopper and deplorable. weave said that when we had our live audience and they cheered. they said they are proud to have those titles as well. is that what the folks in your area feel? is that how they feel? >> absolutely. these people get up every day. they work hard with their family members. they know that what they do keeps this country going. they turn on the tv and a lot of them when they talk to me they say can you even believe it? i can't. i spent several years in d.c. working for them. it looks like a very wise decision to be are up for governor and be in south dakota all the time now. i can't imagine being a part of this and watching it. honestly for me it breaks our heart because i can't believe our country has come to this. ainsley: a lot of people feel that way especially christmas time. thank you so much, governor. >> thank you, ainsley. ainsley: thank you.

merry christmas. congressman doug collins and john ratcliffe and white house press secretary stephanie grisham and kevin mccarthy. all here live.

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steve: it is 7:00 in washington, d.c. we start this day with a fox news alert. president trump ripping democrats for declaring war on democracy in a letter ahead of today's historic impeachment vote. brian: comes after a marathon session on capitol hill. probably had it on mute yesterday. steve: i would like to keep it on mute. ainsley: griff jenkins is live from statuary hall to break it all down for us. good morning,. griff: griff don't mute this report. you need it. it's been 85 days since the impeachment inquiry began. speaker pelosi launch it. now we have the rule that will govern this history happening in just two hours. let me tell you about the rule. it's a closed rule. means there is going to be no amendments offered. there is going to be six hours of debate time

allotted equally divided amongst the two sides. it's going to take us deep into the afternoon because they are going to do a little bit of parliamentary stuff at the beginning. so some time after 6:00 p.m. we expect the historic vote two distinct votes one for abuse of power and the other for obstruction of congress. in that house meeting yesterday it got very heated. >> the president and mr. collins could have called any of the witnesses who appeared any of the 17 sworn witnesses. >> any of your -- i'm sorry. >> not yours or mine. these are american citizens. >> these are the. >> they are not council employees. >> we can't speak over one another the stenographer can barely keep up with us because we all speak so fast. >> president trump sending a scathing six page letter to speaker pelosi comparing what's happening to the salem witch trials describing it as an illegal partisan and attempted coup he writes to pelosi quote have you cheapened the

importance of the very ugly word impeachment. pelosi writing her own letter not to the president but rather to her colleagues about the vote today imploring them if we do not act, we will be derelict in our duty, concluding in america no one is above the law. spoiler alert, she needs 216 votes to pass the articles of impeachment. she is well within that margin. we talked about 31 vulnerable democrats. 28 of them are on board to vote for impeachment. and we expect by the end of the day it will be voted to be sent onto the senate where we will get a trial in january. although already you have majority leader mitch mcconnell and minority leader chuck schumer at loggerheads. they have a set a time to talk and come up with how that debate will go. they are not getting along well if there is any indication. where will president trump be? he will be on a rally stage in battle creek, michigan and there is no doubt he will have a lot to say about it. guys? steve: no kidding. split screen impeachment here and rally there.

brian: can you ask them to quiet down i'm speaking. i heard there is just five democratic congress people who are in trump won districts have not made up their mind yet. is that the number you have griff that's not the number i have. there is a little bit of a breakdown between when -- case of one member, a freshman jared golden, is he going to vote for the abuse of power. buff against obstruction of congress. it's going to break down a little bit. at the end of the day, she needs at least 14 to get there and she is well over that un. in we have 28 going to vote in some form for impeachment today. buff, you know, listen, it's the most consequential vote any member will take likely in their lifetime. we could see change. brian: not one republican will vote for it which is historic. ainsley: 233 democrats in the house. they only need 216. they will definitely get their votes. steve: republicans are expecting two to three

defections from the democrats. five to six tops. which we predicted earlier in the week. also, as griff just said, the next stop it's going to pass tonight. articles of impeachment will pass. they will then be handed to the senate. according to "the washington post." apparently the president and his legal team are already lining up the plan is going they are going to line up three hours to defend the president of the united states. pat cipollone is going -- it is believed at this point in time, give the opening statement and then they will have a couple of other lawyers. they apparently have reached out to alan dershowitz to defend the president on the floor of the u.s. senate. ainsley: is he a democrat. >> unclear whether he will accept the job and some question jay sekulow could offer up the summary. it is unclear if he will do that nonetheless the white house already thinking toward the senate. ainsley: today is december 18th. like it or not today the president will be impeached by the house.

brian: bring in collins. spoke so much yesterday. leaned on heavily for hours. the president said good marks and reviews on the letter sent to pelosi. she is the worse no. wonder people like her crying chuck have been a mess for so long. >> what we are seeing today is a culmination of the democrats' obsession of impeaching this president has come. to say it's been sad. along the way they trashed rules in the house, trashed decorum and trashed everything. because they had one purpose and one purpose only to undo the election of 2016 when their own candidate failed miserably own policies have never been accepted by the american people. this is all about an election in 2020. don't believe me listen to the words yesterday. they are infatuate you had with impeaching this president and impeachment is the only way they feel they can do it. steve: and they will. they will impeach the president on two articles one of them would be on destruction of congress because he did not offer up witnesses and documents. that has happened pretty much in every administration of our lifetime. so if they impeach this president over that isn't that a preview of coming

attractions every other time? >> oh, it is. i mean, last night a question was asked where do we move forward from here. they so lowered the bar you don't have to jump to get over for impeachment. this obstruction of congress charge democrats like adam schiff and speaker pelosi and jerry nadler acting like petulant children. sitting in the middle of the floor screaming and kicking their feet because they didn't get what they want. documents and all the things they asked for because they wanted to get at the president. they had no intention of doing a true investigation. they simply wanted to get at the president. at the end of the day, we can't form any crimes. we are going to do a vegas abuse of power. while we are in it throw in obstruction of congress because we didn't get our way. ainsley: congressman, you look at impeachment. two have led to impeachment by the house. johnson and clinton but both were acquitted by the senate. this will be written about in the history books. your grand children one day will be learning that president trump was one of these presidents that was impeached by the house. and likely will be acquitted

by the senate. how does that make you feel? >> it's sad. i mean, here's a gentleman who came to the white house, whether you like him or not and the democrats obviously do not. whether you disagree with his policies or not, all they had was never to let him have an easy breath. impeach him. started the day after he was elected and the day after he was sworn. in even this year as they got the opportunity as majority to impeach him that's all they wanted to do. this president came to washington and said i'm going to clean up washington and help people. gave tax cuts. made our military strong. they are mad at him because he actually did what he said he would do. that's the part that bothers me the most. his i have will record we are in some of the best times we have ever had while the democratic party is looking out for elections. brian continue to to get to vindicated does he have to get to the bottom of what happened in 2016 ukraine election? would you encourage him to keep sending rudy giuliani back there to get to the bottom of all of this. >> at this moment what the president needs to do let mr. durham who is doing his work. the ig report was scathing about the ca cabals at the fbi

and the department of justice. we he will get to that boat. see the president fight for himself and fight nor this country. put forward policies like prescription drugs and trade policies. this is what makes this president stand out. he is amazing at it. the rest of us are going to fight to keep the democrats at bay. they have no message and no hope for 2020 equities sentsdz to try to impeach this president. that's what we need to focus on. steve: congressman collins this really started on day one. remember before the president's inauguration, i think i saw a news story, 60, 70 members of congress, democrats, were not going to go to the president impeachment -- rather inauguration. >> they will be at the impeachment. steve: would not go to his inauguration because they said at that point he was not a legitimately elected president of the united states because of the russia interference. so on day one they were all in. >> it has been since day one. they didn't want to go to the inauguration. look, their candidate

failed. when their candidate failed they had nothing else to do except try to impugn the integrity of this one. what history is going to write about this how the democrats have went from day one to impugn the electoral vote of 63 million americans. also how they went across the seas and started of trashing mr. zelensky when they couldn't form the pressure part of this whole impeachment part pressure on mr. zelensky to do something unfavorable. they started attacking his character. democrats show no shame. they will attack anyone if it doesn't fit their narrative that this president needs to be impeached. ainsley: what did you think about the fisa court the chief judge she wrote a four page order. she is really furious with the way this all happened that they were mislead and she wants reform to happen. she set a deadline for reform to be january. will someone be held accountable? will these agents who gave false information to the fisa court, will they be held accountable? >> i believe. so most of them don't work anymore at the department of justice. ainsley: do you know who they are? >> i think -- i'm going to start with mr. comey. mr. comey signed off on these.

and he can go on and make an apology tour all he wants. he is the most unsympathetic character in this process because he was at the very center of this with the rest of the cabal, page, strzok. i'm glad mr. barr did speak out. they were the oned abused in this whole process. that's where it started before this whole thing started. brian: you have been behind closed doors with the president and jim jordan as well. they spent a lot of quality time. could you describe the president's demeanor? obviously is he really ticked off. ainsley: this has to bother him. >> wouldn't you be ticked off three years in a presidency you have won tried to undermine you every step and not give you a chance and basically lie but on many occasions. what i noticed about the president he has a calm just look toward the future. he knows what is happening. he is passionate about the fact that he has been wrongly treated. that's who this president is, he speaks his mingeted

at the same point in time doing what he was elected to do. never have a conversation without him that he doesn't talk about what he wants to do for the people of america. when you see that that's his passion. not only fight against the injustice the democrats are doing but fight for the people who actually elected him. steve: you know, mr. collins, the voting sequence, they will vote on the articles of impeachment. then, essentially they are going to vote for usmca. which seems a little suspicious given the fact that it sat there in the house for over a year. nancy pelosi could have brought it up at any time. has she been using that as a little sweetener to get folks on the democratic side to get folks to go ahead and vote for impeachment. >> i believe. so she is using everything she possibly can more arm-twisting going on behind the scenes than you can imagine. one day they want to slap the president and tear down democracy and next day basic delay a trade deal that's been done for ear year. almost like they couldn't leave up here with just the impeachment. they are smart enough politically to know they can't leave that as the last taste in their mouth before

christmas. do usmca tomorrow. american people are not fooled. they see the sham that's going on. brian: mitch mcconnell said i'm going to wait for january to vote on it. for the same reason. although they could d do it the same day. steve: he is the world's worst president but at the same time somebody we can work with. ainsley: brian loses the bet. he bet us a dollar each that usmca would pass before christmas. not going to happen. brian: the thing is i'm going to need an arbiter technically it did pass. steve: passed congress. >> brian, if you need an attorney, can i step in here. we can argue. this. [laughter] steve: you're busy. >> i got work to do. steve: you have a big day ahead of you. congressman, thank you so much. ainsley: god bless you. merry christmas. he used to be a pastor in georgia. brian: he should bless us. ainsley: we need it. steve: jillian, a very busy day. jillian: it is. can you give me your money. brian: trust you with my

money. jillian: good morning to you. get you caught up on some of the stories we are following. well known architect is killed by falling debris on a sidewalk right near times square. erika tissueman was hit in the head after something fell off a 17-story building in new york city. the building owners new it was crumbling. cited in april for maintenance violation. podesta danger. should have been corrected immediately. susan collins launched her re-election bid and was expected to be a closely watched race. republican from maine has held her seat for nearly 24 years. so far four democrats have announced a bid for collins' seat. targeting her for voting for supreme court justice brett kavanaugh. now to a fox news alert. fiat, chrysler joining forces to become the fourth largest automaker in the world. 50 billion-dollar deal is expected to be finalized in a little more than a year. the new company doesn't have

a name yet. management says it will focus on electric cars and self-driving technology. he may look and seem like a tough guy. it turns out of the rock is a big softy. actor and wrestler dwayne johnson celebrating his daughter jazzy's fourth birthday by posting this sweet picture online writing quote i can't promise i will be here for the rest of your life but you have my word i will love and take care of you for the rest of mine. a look at your headlines. ainsley: i follow him. he looks like such a good dad. tea parties with her. huge sits in little chairs. brian: i have a very similar build to him. i tell people all the time i'm rock. i can't wrestle. steve: kant tell the difference between the two of you. brian: he has tattoos. steve: new sheriff in town taking on the most dangerous jails in the country. new star of 60 days in joins us next. >> the jail is rated to hold

865 inmates. currently over a thousand. the officer to inmate ratio is one officer who 110 inmates. this jail is really broken. ( ♪ )

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♪ >> the jail is rated to hold

865 inmates. currently we are over a thousand. the officer to inmate ratio is one officer who 110 inmates. this jail is really broken. i believe we need 60 days more than any other jail in america. so i'm putting 7 civilians into the detention center and we look forward to the skill set and perspective that each brings to the table to help clean our jail up. ainsley: new season of 60 days in follows seven innocent people who go undercover as prisoners to help clean up one of the worse facilities the series has ever seen. alabama's at way county detention center and newly elected sheriff joins us now. >> good morning. ainsley: newly elected there were a lot of problems in this jail. you went in learned a lot and cleaned it up. >> that's right. ainsley: tell me what you found. >> obviously we knew it had a lot of physical 212 broken locks. a lot of the windows damaged from the outside of the billing. the cameras hadn't worked in some two or three years.

there hadn't been a shakedown at the facility two or three years. those things were learned after taking office. of course there was a renovation project underway $16.9 million. since that time after the participants were first put in, probably within a couple of months the door locks were fixed the windows were repaired. the security cameras over 300 were up and running and going. we learned a lot of ways that inmates were getting contraband and different things into the facility. we were able to enhance our training and see where we were a little short on that end of the stick. we got $150,000 body scanner a huge improvement to the jail. the retention, when i came there they were hiring an average -- 97 correctional officers that work there. there were on average of 20 a month being hired. the last couple of months after being in office 10 months. after given a three step raise also needed for the correctional officers the recidivism is a lot better retention and now averaging instead of 20 a month about three a month. we actually have a full

staff right now. things are moving up and truthfully, even though taking on this show and seeing the bad, it's become like pull the bed sheets back. you know there is a lot of bad there one of the things i campaigned about was transparency, being able to see and show what's there. be open about it and we have been able to make a lot of corrections. ainsley: this is season six the show is successful. doing well. 60 days in. if you want to watch it. january 2nd, 10:00 a.m. on a and m. seven simials. and and e. seven civilians go in and help you clean up the jail. god bless you. >> thank you. ainsley: turning back on jeff van drew as he prepares to join the republican party. here with a message for the dems. that's coming up next. ♪ back to life ♪ back to reality ♪

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ainsley: we are back with a fox news alert. ahead of today's historic impeachment vote president trump blasting democrats for declaring war on democracy. steve: in a blistering 6-page letter to nancy pelosi, he wrote: you have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word impeachment. you are the ones subverting america's democracy. you are the ones obstructing justice. you are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our republic for your own selfish personal, political and partisan gain, the president wrote. brian: "fox & friends weekend" co-host pete hegseth joins us now to talk about what happens today and what that letter was meant to do. six pages long. pete: people should read it. as strong of an indictment understanding of this entire process what this president has gone through.

here is what the president is missing big time. they think they are impeaching president trump. that's what they think. the reality is 63 million other americans and the 304 electoral votes that they got, they feel like the democrats, when they gavel in today, are trying to impeach them. they are trying to nullify them and their vote. that's what this -- this is what the democrats have missed. they have made it all about obsession of donald trump who crashed their party. it was millions of americans who crashed it. you talk about today in this vote. yeah, that's going to happen. but the powerful split screen of today will be nancy pelosi gaveling in with her trump derangement syndrome elite caucus there. they are thinking they are going after president trump. he goes to michigan and holds a merry christmas rally with 10s of thousands of people. there will be more people that couldn't get inside in michigan than any of the democrat candidates running for president right now could ever muster at an event themselves. steve: you know, you make a good point. for the people who live in districts where there is a member of congress who is going to vote for the president's impeachment, and

if that person watching their member of congress, if they voted for donald trump for president in 2016, they are looking at their member of congress saying well, why is that person going to undo my vote? >> why are they not representative of me? there are a lot of fair-minded people in this country. we are divided politically. there are people who want to look at the evidence. they have had aens challenge. they know they have been trying to impeach this president. you went through this entire tourism mall impeachment process and they accepted back and said impeachment is a really big word. i should look at the evidence and get a sense whether or not the president did something i don't like. steve: what did the transcript show. >> instead it showed nothing. it has literally been an impeachment about nothing. people are smart enough to see that. that's why the polls are cutting in the other direction. this letter, i mean, when the president lays it out an election nullification scheme that's precisely what it is on page 3 he goes through everything that they have actually done. it's too long to read in this segment. i would hijack the whole thing, 7 million jobs. rebuild military.

historic tax cuts. judges. all the things, space force, killing isis. nafta, withdraw of the iran deal. paris climate accord, jerusalem, israel, all of it. you can't read it in enough time to talk about what he has done. democrats have done nothing but impeach. that's because they think you are dumb. american people think they are dumb enough to think they can nullify your vote. there may be an asterisk next to this president. that's what you will hear from the left putting asterisk on his presidency. double asterisk. first president impeached by the house. ever to be reelected by the people which is the biggest nullification of that process you can get. brian: real quick jeff van drew switching party. he lost his staff. republicans are helping him get a new office evidently. is he going to make it official. ainsley: democrats ejected him. the blue dog democrats. they rescinded his membership indefinitely. >> made the mistake of speaking truth. y'all are insane. do you know who is leading this process? it's not nancy pelosi.

it's the far left so-called squad. anti-american socialists who want to tear down our country have forced democrats into this process which they now all embrace in this insane group think that they think is good for them. he looked around and said i'm not seeing the evidence here. ainsley: he also looked around and said i represent the people. they put me in office. they don't want this president impeached. he is in a trump district. >> yeah. ainsley: is he listening to his voters. >> it takes courage. your staff is leaving you party is leaving you. we will see. >> thank you very much. we appreciate it. brian: james comey admits he made a mistake about the russia probe. i will stop now. >> i was wrong. i was overconfident in the procedures that the fbi and justice had built over 20 years. brian: fisa court says apology not accepted. the unprecedented public response to the 17 errors and more coming your way. steve: plus, take a look at this. the white house is deck the halls with boughs of christmas. you can bring one of the decorations to your house.

we have this year's white house christmas ornament live in our studio coming up next ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ go tell it on the mountain ♪ over the hills and everywhere ♪ your school. your job. your dreams. your problems. (indistinct shouting) but at the y, we create opportunities for everyone, no matter who you are or where you're from. for a better us, donate to your local y today.

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(dog barking) ♪ (music building) experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first month's payment. steve: welcome back. big historic day down in washington, d.c. impeachment not the only story. let's bring in brett tollman former u.s. attorney for utah. clerked for a fisa court judge and helped draft the expansion of the fisa court authority chief counsel over crime and terrorism in the senate. bret joins us today from salt lake city. bret, what do you make of the fact that the supervising fisa judge really yesterday threw the book at the fbi and the department of justice?

hey, you guys broke a bunch of rules and i'm going to give you until january 10th to clean up your act. >> you know, it is unprecedented but it's also alarming. because these are judges that are accustomed to not really being known or, you know, identified. let alone coming out publicly and embracing an agency that they are not approving of their conduct. this was something for those of us that have been around the fisa court. it sent chills up and down our spine as rerealize how serious and the gravity of and the intensity with which they this is being approached on the inside. this is really the story right now in washington, d.c. brian: think about this application. on the application this fbi attorney took information that carter page worked for the cia and wrote he didn't work for the cia. they used the steele report as something verified and authentic when they knew about it.

in the big picture, does every single one of these fisa applications have to be revisited? how much others did they lie about to get the 98% rubber stamp of approval. >> my first thought was exactly that. you hit it. and that is how many other cases do we not know what the agents presented and do we now have confidence, more confidence? keep in mind, agents have bias. they begin with some level of bias because they think the target they are after has done something wrong. but, this was bias that was so bad. that they were willing to make up facts, doctor facts, mislead to a court that has expanded its power over the last two decades. i mean, this court -- keep in mind, one of the things they can do, for example, if i search -- if i authorized a severine of your home and we took something from your home, within seven days, i have to give you notice that we took that from your home. this court, however, if

asked by the agents and justified, can indefinitely delay telling you that they searched your records or your home. that's power. brian: that's a lot of power. ainsley: andy mccabe was on another network weighing in on this. former fbi deputy director. he is horrified by. this listen. >> everyone in the fbi, anyone who reads that report is shocked and horrified by what they have seen in the recitation of the 17 errors. the ig pointed out in his report that he found no evidence that those misrepresentations were intentional. nevertheless, they are unbelievably serious. >> the biggest mistake you made. >> the process that was in place essentially left so much responsibility on the lowest level of fbi agents and supervisors, once those mistakes are baked in they become many, many hard for the layers of oversight to uncover. steve: once the mistakes are baked in. that's an article.

ainsley: does he take responsibility? steve: i don't think so. but ultimately don't you think what andy mccabe is saying right there is -- blame somebody else. >> yes. this is consistent. it looks like he and jim comey at least coordinated their response to this. let's face it, this is not a situation where you receive an application for a search warrant. you reviewed it and you said oh, it looks like they did what they're supposed to in putting this information together. they have to independently verify through the transcripts, the recordings, the evidence, they have to sign off as though they are the agent. so let's stop blaming the lower levels on this. let's accept responsibility. and it's not sloppiness. this is misrepresentation that were driven by hatred of a target you are investigating at the highest level of the fbi. brian: it's inexcusable. for him just to say well, the lower level fbi. couple of things, 17 errors. one of which is you get the

steel dossier in september and in october you had a month to research it. and you knew right away it was sensationalistic and unverifiable and the next month you use it and don't -- you also don't say that it's been supplied and paid for by the opposing candidate. if i'm a fisa judge i'm even angrier than this woman was yesterday. it's just inexcusable. they shouldn't have launched the whole investigation. >> they shouldn't have launched it. and keep in mind comey is the one who drives to get mueller appointed as a special prosecutor. it's not just outrageous. most powerful system we in this country i'm offended by what occurred. ainsley: they tarnished their reputation, unfortunately. steve: bret, before did you go big vote on impeachment today. the president will be impeached and it goes to the senate. your thoughts? >> well, i am following it closely. i was in the senate.

i understand -- it's unbelievable that we're now hearing from senators, democratic senators that we need a very full and robust review of all the evidence and we need witnesses. it seems like they forgot a few days ago. the clinton impeachment took almost 1500 days. we are 85 days in this. who feels in 85 days we have gotten to the bottom of what occurred? brian: nobody. steve: brett tollman we thank you very much for joining us live from salt lake city with analysis. brian: instead of the bottom go to the top where jillian mele is poised to give us the news. jillian: good morning to you. two brothers charged with murder accused of beating a man to death at his wedding reception. police say ronny and jose ramirez crashed the party in southern california and began fighting with joe malgosa when they were asked to leave. his family as can you imagine was heart broken. >> such a great guy with a great heart. this is supposed to be the

happiest day of their lives. we were planning on celebrating all week long. ainsley: he leaves behind his new wife and a daughter. verizon customers, listen up, the phone company is reportedly experiencing nationwide outages this morning. according to watchdog group down detector is happening in new york and los angeles across much of the midwest. customers claim they are unable to make calls or send text messages. verdicts has not commented. michigan suing walgreen's and three major drug makers for fueling the opioid crisis. the state is average iting company under drug dealer law which allows the government and people to sue drug dealers for causing harm to buyers. michigan is the 49th state to file some kind of legal action against drug companies. nebraska is the only state that has not. and this will make your day. a little boy breaks down in tears, celebrating his very last chemo treatment.

>> good job, baby. three years. jillian: that's 9-year-old oklahoma boy diagnosed with leukemia in 2016. after three years, he is finally cancer-free. steven says he is a champion and we agree. congrats to him. steve: that gets you. ainsley: it does. look at all those pills. bless his heart. so young. he is kicking its tail. good job, steven. we love you. we are just hours away from the historic impeachment vote in the house. congressman john ratcliffe met with the president last night and he joins us live next. steve: be sure you catch special coverage of today's vote. starts just an hour from right now right here on this channel. if your glasses aren't perfect, we'll fix them.

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visionworks. see the difference. steve: this is a fox news alert. ahead of the vote in the house a group of republican lawmakers met with the president last night at the white house. what did they talk about? i think we have a pretty good idea but let's ask him. john ratcliffe was there. he joins us right now from d.c. john, good morning to you. >> good morning, steve. how are you? steve: so, without tipping your whole hand, what did the president say last night? >> i don't talk about what i talk to the president about. steve: generally? >> generally, as you might expect as this unfortunately proceeds to the senate, there has to be a lot of discussion about strategy over in the trial in the senate and i think he wanted to talk to a lot of people that have been involved in this impeachment inquiry from the beginning. steve: sure. >> i was one of them and happy to give my thoughts on strategy going forward.

steve: yeah. you know, what's interesting is today on the house floor we are going to hear a bunch of democrats saying the evidence is absolutely clear the president broke all these rules. but then what happens in the senate? >> then what happens in the senate, as everyone is hearing is, they need more evidence and testimony. you are right, steve. one after another today. democrats are going to get up and say the facts are undisputed. you have everything you need to impeach the president at the same time chuck schumer is over there saying we need more evidence and testimony in the trial in the senate. so do you duplicitous and steve: nancy pelosi is a smart politician but she probably ultimately doesn't want to be held in this vote but being held hostage by somebody, isn't she? >> absolutely. all of the democrats right now are being held hostage by this deranged socialist mob that has been obsessed with, you know, getting rid of donald trump for the last three years.

unfortunately the american people is paying the price for it. motivating her decision to move forward with something she said wouldn't move forward unless it was bipartisan, overwhelming and clear. it's none of those things. steve: it looks -- i was talking to a member of congress yesterday on your side he said awfully coincidence at the same time usmca sitting on her desk for year is going to get passed and sure looks she used that as a sweetener to get red state democrats to get on board. >> she did. i know from discussions i have had with some democratic colleagues she had to do it. look, their numbers are tanking the president is doing well and these moderate democrats in these swing districts are terrified. and so she had to put snawk

now to support impeachment. steve: how many democrats do you think will defect. >> fewer than i thought. i was hoping there would be more courage than there is going to be. they are all scared of this socialist mob. they know they won't survive a primary. a democratic primary if they don't support impeachment. they are just trying to survive today and they will worry about the general election in november. the american people will have the opportunity to impeach all of them come next november. steve: that's one way of thinking of it. john, i was talking to a lady who stopped me at the grocery store yesterday. and she said hey, so the president is going to be removed tomorrow by the house? and i said no, that's not exactly how it works. they are going to say he should be removed and then it moves to a trial. what's your message to people who are confused about what they are seeing? you shouldn't be confused about the fact that we are impeaching a president today where there has been no crime alleged and there is no victim.

how there is going to be a senate trial where there is no crime and no victim. i think that's why it's going to a short trial over in the senate. >> all right. let's see what happens. john ratcliffe. >> you bet. steve: thank you very much. >> thank you, steve. steve: 11 minutes now before the top of the hour you know brian kilmeade loves his dog rocky and apollo. is he taking them on a christmas mission to meet santa claus. home for the holidays coming up next. (male announcer) blow your wish list wide open at bass pro shops and cabela's. for a limited time, club members can get special financing for 12 months on in-store purhcases of $500 or more. visit your nearest bass pro shops or cabela's for details on this exclusive offer. here hold this. follow that spud. [ tires screech ]

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♪ steve: well, it's crimes time and we are going home for the holidays. ainsley: first stop, long island, new york where brian got some very special members of his family christmas ready. brian: really? watch. ♪

brian: i'm about to try to save 2019 kilmeade christmas. i'm in a little bit of a bind. it's december, i have no christmas picture, so i need a plan b. what i did was i borrowed this dodge durango srt, big enough and strong enough and secure enough. the type of vehicle that i could use to bring the most famous, the most well-known the most liked kilmeade's there are. you guys have known rocky apollo since they were puppies. we asked viewers to come up with a name. meet our newest edition to the family. this is rocky kilmeade. this is rocky's brother. another great pie pyrenees. i want you to meet apollo. >> a little bigger and harder to handle. are you ready to be featured on the kilmeade christmas card and kilmeade mvps for 2019? let's go, guys.

♪ >> it looks like we need a christmas picture and i think i found the right place. >> ho ho ho. merry christmas. >> so santa, are you ready for two special dogs? >> absolutely. >> look, we have a special surprise. rocky this is for you. apollo this is for you. ready for a christmas picture. now the hard part. getting them there. come on, pal. not you apollo. we just got to get him facing the other direction. this will be fun. okay, don't move. stay, stay. not you. rock, come here. sandy, aim moving? apollo. got rocky. anyone seen rocky? brian: oh, i remember trying to take pictures with little babies. i will take the babies.

they listen better. sorry, a apollo this year, naughty. rock good news. nice or nicer but you are both going to do okay on christmas. santa, are you ready? santa, am i blocking you? [laughter] 3, 2, all right. kilmeade christmas 2019. the best we can do. it's been a struggle but i think we are ready. ♪ >> smile, y'all. >> christmas 2019, kilmeade, look straight ahead. 1, 2, 3. steve: look at that. brian: harder and harder to get the kids together for christmas picture. dogs have listen but they don't have to pay attention. steve: thanks for pet smart for help with christmas cards. they have santa at all their stores this weekend from noon to 4:00 to get a free

photo with your pet as well. brian: unbelievably patient and samantha did a great job. ainsley: that was really cute. steve: coming up tomorrow, she will share how she and hayden get ready for christmas by decorating their christmas trees with friends. ainsley: later in the week steve is going to share some of his favorite christmas memories. >> look at that family correspondent at age 3. that's a lawyer running down the street. who knew? >> brian, question, do you need a lint brush for christmas? brian: do they shed? i go oh, yeah. that's one thing we didn't research well. do they shed? oh my goodness they shed. steve: they have been great dogs. ainsley: beautiful dogs. steve: america loves them. ainsley: america named them. house minority leader kevin mccarthy and white house press secretary both here live in the next hour. stephanie grisham ♪ on or about ♪

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for a better us, donate to your local y today. ainsley: right to a fox news alert president trump rips democrats for declaring war on democracy, ahead of today's historic impeachment vote. >> steve: it comes after a marathon session on capitol hill where they set the ground work and wrote the rule for today. >> brian: griff jenkins is live and he watched it all yesterday and he's on capitol hill again today to break it all down what to expect. hey, griff. griff: a historical day, 21 years ago to the date president clinton was about to be impeached on december 19, but with president trump, we know exactly what's going through his mind. he tweeted just minutes ago, he says can you believe that i will be impeached today by the radical left, do-nothing democrats and i did nothing wrong. a terrible thing. read the transcripts this should

never happen to another president again, say a prayer! and it will begin soon. here at 9:00 just an hour and the house got it let me tell you what happens, that means there's no amendments offered there will be six hours of debate equally divided between republicans and democrats and it's going to go perhaps all the way between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. for that historic vote and there will be two, one for abuse of power and one for obstruction of congress but when they were having that hearing yesterday, boy did it get heated , watch. >> the president and mr. collins called any of the witnesses who appeared any of the 17 sworn witnesses. any of them. >> i'm sorry. >> it's not yours or mine. these are american citizens. >> we can't speak over one another, because the stenographer can barely keep us with us because we all start so fast. griff: ahead of today's vote president trump has sent a letter to speaker pelosi compar

ing this impeachment to the salem witch trials, calling it illegal partisan and attempt ed coo, and saying directly to her, "you have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word impeachment." meanwhile, pelosi is writing to her fellow lawmakers before the vote saying that if we do not act, we will be in our duty, including in america no one is above the law. now here is the deal. it's pretty much a spoiler alert in case you weren't paying attention, pelosi needs 216 votes and she's well within that margin and there was 31 democrat s they were looked at as being vulnerable and 28 are on board voting for impeachment and it'll be interesting to see what happens at the end of the day we expect it to be sent to the senate where already that senate trial we expect in january is going to be very partisan and down party lines as well because majority leader mcconnell and minority leader schumer are already at eachothers throats by the way save popcorn for the end of your day because around the same time when we get that historical two votes on articles

of impeachment the president will be in battle creek, michigan at a rally on stage and have a lot to say about it guys. >> brian: that's when the next election will be decided places like michigan and wisconsin and pennsylvania. all right, griff, thanks. ainsley: that's the difference in bill clinton and this president. i was reading an article saying it's such a contrast to what he did in 1998 because he stayed behind the scenes and wasn't out in public and our president is saying do what you want to do un washington i'm going to the people and i'll have a rally. >> steve: as we saw that back and forth between the two congressmen where they were writing the rule yesterday once again they have stacked the deck against the republicans but i don't think i've seen somebody else say hey, let's not argue because the stenographer can't keep up with us! little crazy. nonetheless, it is a historic day and you will see the coverage, we've got starting in about 45 minutes but to put it into perspective, what does the impeachment mean in the united states? well so far, 11 u.s. presidents

have faced impeachment resolution. two resolutions have led to impeachment by the house, president johnson, and president clinton, but and this is the key , both were acquitted by the senate. so there have been impeachments but they have never removed the president. ainsley: five u.s. presidents since serving nixon have been targeted by house impeachment resolutions. >> brian: i'll say keep in mind this is the first partisan one so more facts that presidents aren't the only people impeached, house has impeached 19 people, one senator , one cabinet member, two presidents and senate has conducted 16 full impeachment trials and we're about to see it again and then everything is going to shift when we're back here in 2020, it's going to be front and center, senator mitch mcconnell at which time he said yesterday, no witnesses, senator schumer said i need witnesses, secretary of state chief of staff i need john bolton at which time mitch mcconnell said did you hear me i said no

witnesses. it's going to come down to the most vulnerable senators in the senate and how they want, what senator susan collins wants, what corey gardner wants, what thom tillis wants. >> steve: sure but in the house the democrats got everything they wanted and now over in the senate they have been watching and it's like they got everything they wanted. they were able to keep the republicans from asking for the witnesses they wanted, you know the whistleblower and everybody else couldn't do that. now the shoe is on the other foot, and chuck schumer is getting a taste of exactly what nancy pelosi vetted out to the republicans he's not getting what he wanted. in fact yesterday mitch mcconnell said of mr. assume after, he suggested he did not understand the constitution. mitch said this is a political process, there is not anything judicial about it. i'm not impartial about this at all. >> brian: he let it be known. ainsley: congressman doug collins from georgia says democrats are mad because president trump promised what he

said had ewould do. >> what we're seeing is a culmination of the democrats obsession with the impeachment of the president has come to and it's sad because along the way they've trashed rules in the house and everything because they had one purpose and one purpose only, to undo the election of 2016 when their own candidate failed miserably and their own policies have never been accepted by the american people. >> this obstruction of congress change democrats like adam schiff and speaker pelosi and jerry nadler acting like children but this president came to washington and said i'm going to clean it up and help people, he gave tax cuts and made our military strong and they are mad at him because he did what he said he would do. >> steve: the president's press secretary will be joining us 20 minutes from right now on this very historic day. but this is not the only story. bret baier last night led with another and that is the fisa court bites back. ainsley: the chief judge on the fisa court strongly criticizing the fbi. she wrote a four-page order and her name is judge rosemary colli er, normally we don't know whether they are they

like to stay private but they approve so much people are questioning how this surveiling carter page, how it was approved , why did the fisa court approve that when so much information after they found this 17 omisions or inaccuracies and she's furious. she says we were mislead. >> brian: they have until january 10 to show how they clean up their act. michael horowitz will be in front of the homeland security committee in the house today talking more about his report but the inspector general found 17 errors. now, former u.s. attorney for the utah clerk for a fisa court judge and he was beside himself and knew how unprecedented it was for a judge to come out and express outrage about what information she got that led to the green lighting of a warrant on a u.s. citizen, much of which was flat out wrong. listen. >> is unprecedented but it's also alarming because these are judges that are accustomed to not really being known, or, you know, identified, let alone coming out publicly, and

embracing an agency that they are not approving of their conduct. this is something for those of us that have been around the fisa court. it sent chills up and down our spinas we realize how serious and the gravity of and the intensity with which this is being approached on the inside. >> steve: the gravity of it is the way it looks after we had seen the michael horowitz ig report that came out last week, it looks like the fbi mislead the fisa courts to get the warrant to spy on carter page, so they could get inside the trump campaign. and there was also exculpatory evidence which would have essentially said hey, he didn't do anything wrong. they had it, they sat on it this is a gigantic story and it is so damming and so when you look at the amount of coverage and i mentioned at the beginning, it was the lead story with bret baier last night here on the fox

news channel. when you look at abc, cbs, and nbc do you know how much time they spent on it? take a look at the screen left. they spent zero seconds covering it. now, they did cover the impeachment for north of three minutes, six minutes, over on cbs. impeachment is a gigantic story but the fact that the fisa judges think that the department of justice and the fbi deceived them and they gave them a wakeup call you got until january 10 to tell us you're going to fix this and never do this again that is a big story that you didn't see on the other channels. >> brian: i wonder how many fbi agents will fall on their sword, if any, by saying it was only me, on my own, that didn't report the full story to carter page. it was me on my own that supplied that fisa warrant application and didn't say that the christopher steele stuff was not verified. it was me on my own that took a month and said this is all true, and didn't and bruce ohr was the one who looked at this and said

that the steele dossier was paid for by the clinton team, and the dnc, and they didn't tell a judge, you might look at that and go do you know what? i can't verify some of this stuff. you can't verify some of the stuff and it was paid for by the opposing party. ainsley: let me look at this, you want to surveil some guy who works for president trump or at the time candidate trump, who paid for this? his opponent? oh. >> steve: here is the thing, brian to your point. there are names afixed to all of this. john durham is putting all the puzzle pieces together. well, who told you to do that? who told you that that was going to be legal? why did you do that? how high does it go? ainsley: if they had been accurate, we wouldn't be talking about this today. because the fisa court never would have approved this. >> brian: well had hillary clinton won we wouldn't be talking about it either. ainsley: true too. >> brian: anyway we'll keep you posted on that. 8:10 in new york city and we have a fox news alert. >> good morning an update to a story we continue to follow.

a manhunt intensifies for a 14- year-old suspected of murder ing a college student. police say the new york city teen may have a bite mark on his hand. surveillance video shows majors fighting off her attackers. the footage was shown in court but not released to the public. a 13-year-old boy is in custody on murder and robbery charges. a third teen was released last week over lack of evidence. >> fbi agents going door-to-door in search of a missing texas mom and her newborn daughter talking to neighbors and checking surveillance video at heidi brus ard's apartment complex in austin. police don't have any people of interest but heidi's parents say the mother of two would never leave on her own. >> she would have never left her son behind. >> whoever took heidi, they had to notice she was a fighter. >> until this is done, until she's home. >> her fiancee reported them missing on thursday.

>> and a new number of teens vaping marijuana doubles in just one year. according to the national institutes of health, 14% of high school seniors vaped pot in the last month. the rise comes despite an up-tick in deadly vaping-related illnesses. the same study shows teen drinking is on the decline. 52% of high school seniors said they drank alcohol in the past year. that's down 8% from 2018. >> one week from christmas, and someone in the buckeye state just won a ton of bucks. one lucky mega millions ticket worth $372 million just sold in ohio. if the winner takes the cash option they will walk away with about 252 million before taxes. the lucky numbers are 22, 30, 53 , 55, 56, and a mega ball of 16. a lot of money. right at christmas too. ainsley: yes. someone's quitting their job. >> steve: if they know. it might just be in somebody's

glove compartment right now. >> brian: meanwhile, 12 minutes after the hour as democrats prepare for today's historic impeachment vote the president is off to rally voters in michigan. well the democrats impeachment session back fire or help them? we'll ask joey jones next. >> steve: plus be sure to catch special coverage of today's impeachment vote starts half an hour from right now right here on this channel. so what did you get her?

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>> brian: well as folks in that building prepare historic impeachment votes later today, president trump will be far away from capitol hill, gearing up for a merry christmas rally in the battle state of michigan. thousands of those swing state voters expected to attend, as the recent poll shows the majority of them oppose impeachment. >> brian: fox news contributor joey jones joins us to weigh in on it. you know, donald trump went to washington d.c. to drain the swamp and today the swamp bites back. >> [laughter] yeah and at least that's what they think they are doing. i think that well the democrats

have consistently failed to understand is you can't beat donald trump by continuing to prove to the american people he's exactly who they voted for. this is a new york city real estate mogul who is a bull dog against the swamp or at least that's what he's told them and he's going to work right up to the line of the grey area and just kind of exist there and do things he needs to do to get things donald i just don't think the american people are swayed by that at all. >> steve: do you get the politics of it? nancy pelosi, she made it very clear. other democrats did over the last year or so, its got to be bipartisan, and here we are, we're about to have this big vote, if bipartisan at all, it's in opposition to impeachment, so why is she doing it? >> well there's something that's different from every other impeachment and it's not who is in office, it's this thing right here. this opportunity to be influenced by thousands of people, and their opinions, in realtime. and so from the time they started this process of impeachment until now, we have polls out, we have people writing op-eds and putting their opinions online influencing each other and where the american people have brought it is

probably not where nancy pelosi wanted it to go and so i think that's the thing the democrats can't understand that maybe no one could really in 2019, since its been quite a time since we've done this, is that simply, two things. one, joe biden is inherently attached to this so if you impeach donald trump for asking for something on the call people have to know what he asked for and number two, you're just proving to the american people that donald trump is not the swamp and he's going to go out and work in the grey area and get something done for himself and for the country and people expect that. might not make it right or wrong but that's what they expect. >> steve: people in the battleground state of michigan are going to see the president tonight. he's in battle creek, i do believe. one of the congresswoman we were curious to see whether or not she will vote up or down on impeachment on monday she announced at a town hall, her name is alyssa slotkin, she's a democrat and announced she's going to vote for the impeachment, and a lot of the people there didn't like that idea. watch this. >> [chanting]

>> keep trump, keep slotkin. >> well i'm thrilled to see such a great turnout today. let's please -- >> steve: okay so she said she had to vote her conscious and that's why later today she's going to vote for the impeachment of the president. >> yeah, i think that someone was bringing it up earlier today that perhaps this is a trade from nancy pelosi to go ahead and push through usmca and say well if you go ahead and vote for impeachment we'll get this donald i'll give you something to go home and campaign for it. i just don't think it's going to work i really don't. >> steve: fast forward to november of 2020 what do you think people are going to remember about this particular congress? are they going to remember that usmca was passed in the last six minutes or that they impeached the president for the third time in history? >> they will remember their finances from october 2020 and that's what people are looking for. i think that we heavily underestimate just how difficult

the 2000s were on the people in this country. i lived in georgia that makes pretty much all the carpet in the world and now it's blowing up. it's doing really well. ten years ago, walmarts were shutting down that's how bad it was, and people don't soon forget that. i mean, i remember going into christmas thinking okay who are the least amount of people i need to buy for and i was in the marine corps we don't get paid a lot, but that's how my entire family felt so i think that president trump has a winning ticket and this is only going to help the "i'm a victim" just like it is with the media and help him out. >> steve: thank you very much joey for joining us. >> absolutely, thank you. >> steve: meanwhile in about 40 minutes the house meets ahead of the big impeachment vote, but president trump is not backing down, slamming speaker pelosi for cheapening the impeachment process. house minority leader kevin m joins us live, next. ♪

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come, we're about to begin. >> steve: fox news alert a live look at capitol hill where in less than an hour 35 minutes from right now the house will meet ahead of its historic impeachment vote later today. ainsley: in a blistering letter to nancy pelosi yesterday the president writes you have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word impeachment. you were the ones subverting america's democracy. you were the ones obstructing justice. you were the ones bringing pain and suffering to our republic for your own selfish personal political and partisan gain. >> brian: joining us right now is minority leader kevin mccarthy to discuss this. nancy pelosi called the letter really sick. what's your reaction? >> well i think a lot of that letter is things other people have said. if you just listen to the hearings, jonathan turley, a democrat constitutional scholar, who did not vote for the president said if they move forward the only abuse of power

would be from the democrats, that they are cheapening impeachment, and the real fear that you have here going forward that this will be the new norm of congress, what alexander hamilton warned us all about that a political party would capture this, just to use it for their own political gain, not about the rule of law. >> steve: congressman, 20 years from now how will history remember what's about to happen? >> well i think they will just brush this aside maybe a future congress would expunge this vote because it is the weakest impeachment in american history, and the sad part you have to go back and look at this. the speaker admits for the last two and a half years she's been trying to impeach this president yesterday, we just had a fisa judge go after the fbi for what they went and spied on this president while he was running for office, and remember, where this impeachment comes from? the intel committee, adam schiff , who actually defended the fisa court, defended what they had done the fbi, had lied about having proof, had lied

about meeting the whistleblower, so those democrats who vote for today, what will we learn about six months from now? probably from a year from now they will have a short career in congress because they would not uphold the rule of law. ainsley: it has to bother the president. have you talked to him about it? what does he say? >> i was with him just yesterday down in the white house. anybody else this would be traumatic for them. i've never seen a man so strong of everything else that he's working on walking out, talking to individuals inside the oval office going down to a party, flying to a rally today. he is focused on what the american people need, but it's the strength of who he is. that's why we have a strong economy. that's why we will come out of this. that's why when you look at this at the end of the day, everything that speaker promised the democrat the poll numbers are lower, they are divided, republicans are united our conference will be stronger there's will be smaller and the presidents approval rating is higher than its ever been. >> brian: i read that trump

2020 campaign put $6.5 million into the battleground states and districts that had flipped in 2018. what has the house done to try to get the house back? what have the republican house members donald you done to try to get the house back? do you have a strategy with the impeachment? >> well one number you have to remember, 19. it only takes 19 seats for republicans to win the majority. >> brian: don't you have 19 retirements too? >> we have retirements and if you average the number of retirements we have and you look at their district, there are 23. how big did president trump win those districts by? we have more people recruited today running than we did in 2,010 at this time. we have more women running as republicans than at any other time in the history of america, more veterans. we are stronger today than we've ever been in this process. we are more united and i will tell you when it comes next month, we probably won't need 19 we probably only need 18. >> but you watch with the democrats their poll numbers dropping in every battleground

state and what do the democrats say? when the senate rejects this for the simple fact on its facts they will try to impeach the president again, so if the american public wants to continue to go down this road of just investigation, or they want to put america first and actually work with this president, they are going to change the majority inside this congress. >> every day we work on this. >> steve: i'm confused because later today we're going to see it all on tv this morning is you're going to have democrat after democrat say that the evidence is crystal clear. this president obstructed justice, and rather congress, and abused the presidential powers, but at the same time, chuck schumer is saying we need more witnesses because we don't have enough evidence here, so i'm confused which is it? >> chuck schumer just goes by just a statement, admits that this process has failed, that this process has no facts for the idea of going forward and he's arguing exactly against what the democrats say here. remember what the speaker said in march, that it's so divisive

to have impeachment. it has to be overwhelming, compelling, and bipartisan. even by the speaker's own criteria they have not met one of those requirements. >> thanks so much. ainsley: thank you. our coverage continues as the house convenes in about 30 minutes at 9:00 ahead of today's impeachment vote. white house press secretary stephanie grisham will join us after the break. ( ♪ )

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>> brian: we're back with a fox news alert with a live look at capitol hill where in less than a half hour the house will hold a historic impeachment vote ainsley: president trump ripping democrats for declaring war on democracy ahead of the debate. >> steve: griff jenkins is live from the capitol. now griffin the past, we've seen all of the action in committee rooms, which are in other buildings. now, they are in the big room, the house of representatives. griff: that's right they are

interviewing a few feet away from me in the house gallery and we're learning just now that the person that will preside over this won't be speaker pelosi she is designated a colorado congresswoman, diana deget, a very senior member of congress a lieutenant of speaker pelosi to preside over most of the debate and she's calling it a sad moment but she considers it an honor to do so and this of course going forward because they passed that rule in the heated rules committee yesterday and here is what's going to happen. here is what the rule says it's a closed rule meaning there's no amendments, six hours of debate equally divided between republicans and democrats and it's going to go fairly long. we expect the actual historical vote to take place between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. and there will be two because of the two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. now, ahead of today's impeachment votes, president trump sent a scathing letter to speaker pelosi in which he compares the impeachment to the salem witch trials describing it as an illegal partisan and attempted coo, and saying

directly to speaker pelosi, "you have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word impeachment." speaker pelosi by the way responding by sending a letter to her members saying that if we do not act today, we will be in our duty concluding america no one is above the law. now here is the spoiler alert if you're just waking up it's going to pass. she needs 216 votes to get there and she is well within that margin. we looked at some 31 vulnerable democrats but at least 28 of them are on board. she has 233 democrats in congress, and at the end of the day it'll be voted on and pass likely and go to the senate, for a trial in january, already, you have majority leader mitch mcconnell and minority leader chuck schumer at eachothers throats so we expect what's going to be a partisan vote today to head over to the senate for more partisan bickering and by the way at the very end of the day, you can tune into watch president trump in battle creek, michigan on the rally stage, and it'll be quite a contrast between the president responding to being impeached in michigan and of course, the lawmakers

just leaving this historic day of votes guys? >> thank you very much with the breaking news that it will not be nancy pelosi presiding over over the proceedings today. it will be colorado congresswoman diana deget. that is brand new news. >> brian: meanwhile, stephanie grisham, press secretary and white house communications director busy as usual joins us for a few minutes. i know you're watching this you saw the presidents an and read the presidents six-page letter yesterday. why was it front for him to write that, stephanie? >> well he put it at the end. it was very important to him that he put it down in writing so that it would be safe for future generations. i mean, today is a very very sad day for this country, and history is not going to look kindly on these democrats led by the likes of pelosi, schiff, nadler and schumer. this is a sad day and he wanted to make sure that he put down exactly what they're doing. a president is about to be impeached for partisan political reasons and that alone. >> steve: stephanie i'm

confused. politicians are smart. they always want to win, but we know that the democrats ultimately will not win, because the president will not be removed from office, so why is nancy pelosi pushing this thing? >> i think that she's being held hostage by a very very radical group within the democratic party, and i think that she was pressured to do so. she overplayed her hand and now she has to see it through. i think that she would have been called out by that party, that group in her party and i think she had to go forward with it. ainsley: do you know if she was ever concerned this might back fire? did they ever have those discussions? >> i mean, i think that absolutely its backfiring already if you've seen the polls americans are not interested in this. americans know that this president is working for them. we've got the results to prove it when you consider the economy , usmca, military, jobs. the work he's doing on behalf of the veterans. he is such a focused president i must tell you that while he's frustrated as evidenced by that letter yesterday, he is also so

focused and he is leading our white house, and keeping us calm and telling us that's okay, we're going to move forward, we're focused this is going to take us through to 2020. >> steve: but what i don't understand is the president is doing that moving forward obviously meeting with the guatemala leader yesterday, he's got a busy agenda with the trade deals that he's cut but i also see that he said in the letter, its been hard on his family. i was surprised by that. can you shed some light on that? >> absolutely. this family, this entire trump family, when you look at the president, the first lady, jared , ivanka, eric, laura and they are so focused and love this country and all of them have been working on behalf of this country. the president as you know he does, mrs. trump with the work she's been doing, ivanka works very hard in the white house, and eric, laura, and don working very hard outside the white house and he get raked over the coals every single day, yet they as the president, they stay

focused and they continue to work, but it can't be easy for them. again, they are working so hard, they didn't ask for this. they were wildly successful families before this started and yet they continue to do this because they love this country. >> steve: stephanie there's an item in the washington post today that says the white house knows that it's a done deal. he's going to get impeached by the house today so you're looking forward to the senate, it's one of the reasons why mike pence went up to capitol hill yesterday, kellyanne is going to go up there today, but it says that apparently you're looking at having three attorneys defend ing the president in the senate trial. patsy peloni mentioned as somebody that would give the opening speech on the president 's behalf, alan dershowitz is mentioned, jay sek elow is mentioned but sort of could you just, tell us whether or not plans are being made for the president's representation in the senate trial? >> certainly plans are being made. i'm not going to get ahead of the legal strategy just yet.

i don't want to tip our hand but plans are being made and i think that right now we have to or the president is weighing especially what is best for the country. if we go into a long trial is that what's good for the country we're not sure yet so we'll see what happens but he will be represented very very well and at the end of the day he did nothing wrong, and that is all that really matters. ainsley: stephanie it was unprecedented yesterday when we all read this letter, the fisa court, chief judge, strongly criticizing the fbi. we didn't even know who these fisa court judges were, but she's furious. she's saying that she's mad because they were provided false information, information was withheld, they are contradictions, they were unsupported and her name is judge rosemary collier. here is a little bit of the letter she wrote or the order. the frequency with which representations made by fbi personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case calls into question whether information contained in other

fbi applications is reliable. and stephanie we watched the other networks, abc, nbc, and cbs not one second of their coverage on that and it's a big story. >> that doesn't surprise me, sadly. and that is a huge story and i'm glad that that judge is furious. everybody should be furious. actually the media should be furious. they were lied to as well. all of those networks relied on the fact that all of this stuff, this dossier was true. all of these networks in ones particular cable channel really relied on that for years. they were lied to as well. people should be furious including the media and they should be covering it and they should be apologizing to this country and to the president because i do believe that is what kickstarted this entire impeachment sham. >> steve: the president said listen i know it's because of the impeachments there that's why the usmca is finally going to get passed after just a year sitting on nancy pelosi's desk and one thing she has said to her democratic colleagues is

that we ate the presidents luncheon this and senator said i was dealt out with robert lighthizer at the end so republicans didn't have the final say so does nancy pelosi eat the presidents luncheon the usmca? >> nancy pelosi is using the president's good work to be able to get democrats to vote for this impeachment sham. plain and simple that's all there is to it and i saw your breaking news that she's not going to preside over today. i think that she's seeing poll ing. i think that she's seeing that her face is being associated with this is a very bad idea so she's put fourth this poor congresswoman from colorado who should be worried about her face being associated with this. >> before you go stephanie could you give us a preview of the tone of what the president is going to say tonight at his merry christmas rally up in michigan? >> i think he will definitely talk about the success of his administration, and i'm sure we'll be hearing about what his thoughts are on today's events. >> steve: i think we kind of have a pretty good idea. we saw the letter yesterday.

stephanie we thank you very much for joining us from our bureau on capitol hill. you know, so she just alluded to the fact that nancy pelosi will not be presiding over the impeachment proceedings. it will be diana deget, according to griff jenkins down at at the hall and it is interesting why would nancy pelosi not want to be in all those images when such a historic vote is taken? ainsley: 9:00 a.m. the house convenes, 9:30 they debate the rules and later, mid-day or late morning, they are going to debate the articles of impeachment and then they will vote early evening we're being told about abuse of power and obstruction of congress. >> brian: some will vote yes on one, no on the other and we'll see and they will look to cover their own political hide in the end but there's not any republicans voting for it, that we could say for sure and then we'll find out whose going to be joining the senate. ainsley: no republican will break ranks 216 votes are needed to impeach, there are 233 democrats in the house.

>> steve: so it is a very very big day of history, and you will see it all right here on the fox news channel. we're going to turn things over to that crew right now. >> thank you, guys minutes away now the u.s. house of representatives will kickoff a historic and highly partisan day in washington. there will be hours of debate, culminating in a vote, expected to make president donald trump only the third american president to be impeached. good morning, everybody, 8:45 starting a bit earlier today. i'm bill hemmer live in new york and julie welcome back. >> yes, it's good to be back. we are told lawmakers will be hitting the ground running this morning holding a debate on the rules basically it's a debate on the debate if you will before turning the retention to six hours of debate on the two articles of impeachment. >> bill: standing by is mark meadows in a moment live in washington, bret baier, chris wallace in d.c. as well, ken starr and andy mccarthy have

legal analyst throughout the morning. >> we'll start with chief congressional correspondent mike emmanuel so set the stage for us >> julie, bill good morning to you. what's striking is the speed of this impeachment from the start until today. this all started with a july 25 phone call between president trump and ukraine's president. on august 12, a whistleblower came forward. then on september 24, speaker nancy pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry going forward to look into that phone call, so when you consider the average congressional recess throughout the course of the fall this has really happened at warp speed. here we are a week before christmas day and house lawmakers are considering articles of impeachment against president trump for abuse of power and on instruction of congress. the other striking thing is the solidarity on both sides. the vast majority of house democrats lining up behind their leader, house speaker nancy pelosi. the magic number is 216 votes, and at last count it appears

they have about 218. we will see when it gets to the floor. on the other side republicans are unified behind the suspending president trump. they've been showing no indication that any republicans are going to vote for this impeachment process. a number of republican lawmakers i run into last night and this morning appear to be in pretty foul moods so expect a lot of the floor debate to get fights it. they have been feeling a little helpless. when they have the session after 9:00 a.m. eastern there will be a debate about the par pammers" of the debate, and then six hours of spirited floor debate leading to those votes on the house floor. julie, bill? >> mike emmanuel thank you. >> quickly now republican congressman mark meadows, sir good morning to you. you woke up this morning and thought about what the history about to unfold? >> well, i mean, obviously, it's a historic day, but this is like twice baked potatoes. we're just getting another dose

of what we've already consumed in a different format, and so today will be six hours of very contentious debate, but what we do know, bill, is this. that ultimately, the speaker said that this had to be a bipartisan effort. it's not. they said that the whole process was going to be fair. it wasn't. and at the end of the day, they said that they would look at all the evidence and they have not and so when we see that, you're going to have an interesting side screen today. this afternoon, late this afternoon, we're going to be voting and every democrat here in washington d.c. with the exception of just three or four, will be voting for impeachment and the president will be doing a rally in michigan, so you'll see support from those across america for the president and once again, washington d.c. and the democrats will be disconnected from what the american people actually want. >> at 7:00 eastern battle creek michigan later tonight.

earlier this month, house republicans sent a letter and some of the wording used, you will use every parliament after it tool available to you in committee and on the house floor , and well now it goes to the house floor what is the strategy for today, sir? can you dump the works? can you delay it? you know that they have the votes to go forward at 218-plus. >> well, we know that right now , they're saying they have the votes, no one seems to deny that. its been like a locker room for the democrats. they get in there and they are patting each other on the back, but the interesting thing for some of my democrat freshmen, this will be the only significant vote they ever take, because they will be going home after that, when the november ballots come in, but here is, but there are some items that we can do from a parliamentary procedure standpoint. i think you'll see that early, and often, and -- >> well i think that we believe this is such a partisan event,

that in the chamber, which is just a few feet from me, that we shouldn't be having this impeachment vote because it is nothing more than a 2020 election scheme and so we believe that we ought to adjourn , go home, let's do something that's important for the american people and make sure that we're actually lowering prescription drug prices, fixing our roads and bridges. you know if they spent half the effort on that, that they have on impeachment, we would actually have made real progress >> sir one last question here, republicans have made a big deal over the last couple of weeks about these 31 house democrats who won in trump districts. the greater majority appear ready to vote for impeachment, if not for both articles, one or the other. maybe you get 2, 4, perhaps half a dozen at the most democrats. is that a pretty fair ballpark figure do you think right now? >> yeah, well bill you're spot on once again. i think that that's what you get but here is what they are not

telling their democrat freshman. they are saying oh, we're going to give you all the money in the world. we're going to come in and defend you, don't worry about it stick with the team. well for me my team is back home in north carolina. they have forgotten where their team is, they think that it's here in d.c., they will find out in november. >> mark meadows thank you for your time, sir we're about nine minutes away. the republican from north carolina. thank you. >> thank you. >> julie? >> for more let's bring in bret baier, and chris wallace, anchor of fox news sunday, thank you both, so brett i'm going to start with you to make it clear this is not the vote on the two articles this is basically debate on the debate. so the rules will be set if you will. tell us about the rules that we're going to be watching them debate. >> well basically, set the debate guidelines. you heard mark meadows say the republicans plan parliamentary moves and efforts to adjourn this at the very beginning and that is just going to delay what we know is going to be kind of baked in the cake, this vote at the end of the day. we just don't know how long it

will take. you're likely going to lose as you heard there, two, three, maybe four democrats who vote against this, but for the most part it is a partisan up and down vote. it's important to take 30,000 feet here. this is a historic day no matter what you think of the president. after this day, we will never talk about the 45th president of the united states the same way again. president trump will always now be one of three presidents in the history of the united states of america who has been impeached by the house of representatives. again, no matter what you think about him, history books will change. the next battle will be in the senate. there's a lot of focus on the moderate republicans and how they will vote on procedures and how a senate trial may go. what's not being talked about a lot is that there are moderate republicans, i'm sorry moderate democrats, there's a lot of talk about the moderate republicans, joe manchin and west virginia impeachment doesn't sit well in west virginia. arizona, doug jones in alabama,

impeachments upside down there. so, there's a lot of surprises yet to come about how the senate will play out, but today is about history, and it's pretty much baked in the cake. >> it's baked in the cake. they've got the votes however there are, chris, two democrats that have voted no, or that they plan on voting no that's common collin peterson and jeff van drew and there is also undecided , i'm undecided on how i'm going to vote tulsi gabbard. i guess some of these democrats are still waiting to get more information. collin peterson said he will vote no unless they come up with something between now and wednesday. what is it that these undecided do think have most issue with when it comes to voting yes on this? >> well, i think there are two questions and this is what the republicans have raised all along, julie. one is did the president do something wrong, and even if he did something wrong, even if the call wasn't perfect, and the actions before and after the

call does it rise to the extraordinary level you want to impeach the president for it as opposed to something else and remove a president less than a year before the next election, i can't imagine that any of them are going to get new information between now and when they vote maybe 8, 10, 12 hours from now, it hasn't just been said by everyone that those two members you specifically mentioned jeff van drew and collin peterson when it was about a month ago they actually did the formal vote, authorizing the impeachment inquiry, and those were the two who broke with party. all republicans voted against the impeachment inquiry, all democrats voted for the impeachment inquiry, except those two, van drew, and peterson, so we'll have what will be interesting we expect both of them to vote no today. the question is will any others break. i just want to say something quickly about the rule and it's particularly interesting to me

because the first job i had in washington, 40 years ago was covering the house of representatives and the reason they have a rule, there are over 430 members of the house, and you can't just bring a debate to the floor, and let everybody talk as much as they want. business would never get done, so the rules committee, basically, sets the rules of the road and there are two key parts to the rule that will be the subject of the debate for the first hour of the day. one is that it's a closed rule and what that means is no one can bring up an amendment. nobody can say well in the article of impeachment instead of saying he did something wrong , let's say he didn't do something wrong. nobody can do that. they all have to vote up or down on what the articles of impeachment are and the other is is that they a lot a period of time and in this case it's six hours and it's fascinating because what will happen is that the house judiciary chairman, jerry nadler, will be at the democratic desk and doug collins , the top republican in the judiciary committee will be at the republican desk, and they will set their time and say i

recognize so and so for one minute and he gets one minute to talk about his time ends and say i'll give somebody else two or three minutes so you'll get a little bit of an education on how the house operates it's entertaining and interesting and as suggested in this particular case, it's very historic. >> brett just to make clear they don't have to vote yes on both articles if one goes through he is impeached by the house? >> exactly and that's exactly right and it goes over to the senate they do have the votes and the democrats have could am out as bill mentioned earlier some 28 of them, one of them, congressman golden from maine, said he was voting yes on one article, and no on the other, an interesting split split, but they do have the votes to move it forward to the senate trial. >> bret baier, chris wallace, and we'll be back to you, we appreciate it. >> let's bring in ken starr and andy mccarthy, gentlemen good morning to both of you, ken

starr the former independent counsel from 21 years ago and in fact ken, 21 years ago tomorrow bill clinton was impeached in the house. you were there then, front and center and your reflections today as we get ready for this moment? >> in contrast to the clinton impeachment, the evidentiary record, the record here is subject to interpretation. what donald trump president mean and was it really inviting interference with our election? so it's a matter of interpretation who were the witnesses? let's go through the witnesses it really was not a strong case. i think jonathan turley put it very well, two weeks ago. the professor from george washington said this will be the thinest evidentiary record in the history of presidential impeachments. the second and final point is the democrats are really searching for a rationale, a conceptual framework, and they finally came up, thanks to another professor, largely, i

know there had been conversation about it but that's abuse of power, not bribery or other identifiable crimes, which has always been the case. not that it has to be the case, abuse of power is okay, if they see fit, but what constituted the abuse of power? and there again, i think the evidence is quite weak. >> if you were right about all that, ken, in 1998 you had two days of debate on the floor of the house and you had millions of millions of americans watching across the coast. i think your answer is not so much a legal one but a political answer. if you are right, how then do the american people interpret the proceedings today going forward? >> well, i think they will interpret it as the p word as being used constantly. it's partisan. unless nancy pelosi, at the last minute, can get a few republican s to come on board on one or another of the articles of impeachment, this will go down as the most partisan

impeachment in the history of the republicans. people weren't voting the democrats weren't voting in favor of the clinton impeachment thirty-one, there is that number , democrats voted in favor of the impeachment inquiry. they didn't vote in favor of the articles but here is the point. the partisanship critique really does fit here. the glove fits. this is partisan, and in an election year, and so i think that's why people are doing their christmas and holiday shopping and not paying a lot of attention to this. >> ken starr in dallas, stand by, andy mccarthy here in new york your reflections now today. >> bill you know i have a different take on it from ken.

>> yes, president trump will in the history books after today from here on out be remembered as one of the few presidents in history who are impeached. but i think history also has to be looked at in terms of what does this mean for the history of the united states? i don't think the president for long is going to be one of the handful of presidents who is impeached because if this is the new standard, every president here on out is impeachable.