game pep talk worked. jedediah: i'm off to eat breakfast which my husband is cooking and i'm very excited about. pete: we're on the same wavelength will, my kid's game is in the second half so i'm with you. neil: all right, are you ready for the vaccine, or should i say vaccines, the president and markets confirming there could be a couple down the pike right now and better than a half a dozen other companies are very close to getting something out, maybe in the weeks at the latest , months ahead. this as a battle is brewing between the white house and the governor of new york, over how that first vaccine gets into new yorkers hands. the back and forth on that let's just say enough to make you sick but for now, promising developments on the vaccine front that had buyers going like crazy. you probably didn't realize this but in the middle of all of this vaccine dust-up, the markets were hitting new

highs, the s&p and the highest its ever been, the russel 2,000 the highest its ever been the dow with a quarter of a percent of the highest it has ever been what the heck is going on here happy weekend everybody so glad to have you i'm neil cavuto, this is cavuto live we are on tall of all of those developments also the count that goes on in georgia and a host of other states whether that can change the complexion of this race and bring it closer to the president 's liking, anyone's guess but we do know they are going to be busy in washington arguing today on behalf of the president of the united states planning a major rally that kicks off in a couple of hours on behalf of the president and all he's done for the country and saying that the fight should, indeed, continue. so let's get right first to what's happening on the vaccine development here, and more importantly, the dust-up between the governor of new york and the president of the united states, as to who it gets to and how quickly, david spunt. >> neil, good morning from the white house, president trump at the white house this morning continuing to embrace this

alternate reality that he either won the race or the election was rigged in his words, posted numerous times on twitter, continues to push that narrative twitter has labeled many of those tweets as misinformation but yesterday, we saw the president for the first time in eight days making statements. this is the longest we have not seen him for eight days he came out in the rose garden in front of supporters and medical experts to speak about operation warp speed, something his administration began pushing last spring. the good news, neil, president trump says vaccines will be available to the masses by april just about anybody that wants one the president said will be able to get one, while talking about the vaccine though as you mentioned he singled out new york governor andrew cuomo. listen here. president trump: he doesn't trust the fact that it's this white house, this administration, so we won't be delivering it to new york until we have authorization to do so, and that pains me to say that. this is a very successful, amazing vaccine at 90% and more,

but so the governor, governor cuomo, will have to let us know when he's ready for it. >> he tries to bully people, he tries to bully governors, he uses government as a retaliatory tool, and as you know, new yorkers are not going to get bullied, and i stand up for new yorkers, and i'm not going to let a bully push new yorkers around. >> the trump adminitration continues to block a transition to the incoming biden team, former white house chief of staff and four star marine general john kelly out with a harsh statement that says the president putting the country in danger because he's not allowing president-elect biden to receive classified briefings, so biden can hit the ground running. now as far as lawsuits are concerned the trump campaign dropped a lawsuit in arizona as you know fox news was the first to call that several weeks ago, actually on election night, for then-vice president biden now president-elect biden meanwhile, everything goes on here in washington, even if president trump does not concede

or will not concede as i walked in today i could see the reviewing stand for the inauguration that's where biden and his family will stand, so things go on this happens every four years regardless but as of now president trump no plans on conceding anytime soon still, neil? neil: you know, david, the governor of new york was critical of the trump rolfe rollout plan for the vaccine that's what he's standing behind and the president went to far to say we won't make the vaccine available until you have a better idea what you want to do. are they close to any agreement on this? would the president really then say all right, you don't like my rollout plan, i'll roll it out to the other governors who want to have it. >> well you know it all depends on timing, leticia james the attorney general for the state of new york, says that if for some reason, the vaccine be rolling out in what she called the "twilight" of the trump adminitration, really the next two months, she said that they will sue, new york will sue to make sure they get the vaccine, but ultimately,

when you heard the timeline from president trump yesterday, he said for many seniors hopefully in december as we get into the winter months but for the most part it will be april when then at that point, president biden as we will be calling him will be here at the white house but all indications are new york plans to sue if president trump really does try and hold back this vaccine. neil: all right we'll watch it closely david, thank you very much we have reached out to governor cuomo we have not heard back and we want the right and proper skinny on this we don't know the president isn't denying the vaccine to new yorkers just saying that if the governor is suspicious of the rollout plan essentially why bother? but the back and forth on this continues, as does the back and forth on the count that goes on in now a smaller number of battleground states, who knew that georgia be one of them, the hand recount continuing there, jonathan siri with the latest from a very foggy, misty atlanta. what's the latest, my friend? >> hi, neil well they are conducting the retally of

ballots underway, right now i'm in fulton county, in the city of atlanta. this is the largest county in georgia and they actually moved the tally from the original place where they originally were counting absentee ballots just so that there could be more social distancing, where at the georgia world congress center and the tallying that you see taking place behind me is taking place in all of georgia's 159 counties and by the end of wednesday, every vote cast for president in this state must be counted by hand. state election officials say they did not order the audit because of political pressure, but to instill confidence in the accuracy of georgia's new voting machines and even with the added potential for human error, they expect the hand tally to produce a similar result to the original machine count in the presidential race. the audit does not affect georgia's two very-close senate races in which republican incumbents kelly loeffler and

david purdue are heading into january run offs against democratic challenges florida senators rick scott and marco rubio have already been campaign ing in the peach state for fellow republicans and the purdue campaign launched a new ad links his opponent to national democrats. take a look. >> you heard him, chuck schumer is trying to use georgia to take the senate majority and radically change america. >> bolstered by president-elect joe biden's narrow lead in this once solidly-red state democrats raphael warnock is hoping to turn georgia's two senate seats blue as well, both would have to win for their party, to regain control of the senate. >> in order for the incoming presidential administration to be able to lead us out of this pandemic, and invest in economic recovery we need to win these two senate races. >> and so georgia is rising up in this moment and i believe that they will show up, because

they know that come january 5, health care access is on the balll >> with the balance of power in place, spending by both parties on these two campaigns is estimated to be at least 200 million, but more likely, approaching 500 million, neil, back to you. neil: just incredible jonathan s errie, thank you very much to make your point very very clear democrats would have to take both of these races , they would 50/50 senate in that event of course the tie breaker would go to kamala harris, sitting as the size president, president of the senate that would make it a democratic senate assuming that joe biden takes office on january 20. we've got kristin hauhn a democratic strategist, a republican fundraiser, noel i think the bigger story is the battle going on here, period , and the president behind the 8 ball on the vote we are getting in other news

organizations have called georgia for joe biden. we're holding off on that but the fact of the matter is, it was not expected to be this way. i'm just wondering for those trying to raise money for these respective races, has it become problematic for republicans? >> a little bit, and you know, the donors are already fatigued because they were pushed to the max to the limit with this very tight presidential race already, and trying to maintain the senate, so now, they're doing a second round of fundraising. you've got georgia united victory which is focusing on, you know, voter turnout which is a very very important that's the whole ballgame and then you've got u.s. senate on their super pack, you've got so many things going on to maintain and keep hold on the senate it's the most important focus to every republican that i have spoken with, because they know

that when and if joe biden gets into office, that the only hope that they have into blocking any of the new and radical policies as they see it, is to maintain that hold on the senate so when your reporter was announcing 200 maybe $500 million in this state for this race, this is absolutely phenomenonal. it is unbelievable that we're going to have to dump that amount of cash in this state but it's so important. neil: you know, kristin haun, i'm just wondering it is an up hill leap to take both races the democrats to take both races the split won't do it as you know but the argument has always been that with the split government or the senate and republican hands joe biden assumes a white house, is going to be very hard for him to pass along some of the things he wants to do including tax increases, a lot more covid- related spending and the like, so does this stymie and in that event does it actually check mate him or does

he want that and prefer this type of approach because he wouldn't have to bow to some of the more extreme progressives in the party? what do you think? >> i think it's a really interesting dynamic that's going ton right now. i don't think anything is going to be easy even if the democrats and i do think we have an up hill battle but even if the democrats did take those two georgia senate seats, or even if we didn't take those two georgia senate seats it's going to be difficult to get anything passed, so i do think with the divided government, i've said this before, and maybe i'm being overly optimistic, but you have to have people coming together republicans and democrats have to come to the table when the democrats or the republicans hold, the presidency in both chambers and congress it's really easy to point the finger, and blame the other party for everything. if there's a split government, it might be more difficult to get things done, but people have to come together. there's no one party in control and sometimes that is the better

way forward. neil: you know, noel, this rally that's supposed to kickoff at noon is beginning to start or the crowds are beginning to gather in washington. they call it stop-the-steal referring to the counting of votes and they think that the president is getting the shorter end of the stick on that, but does that appearance of holding off acknowledging joe biden as the president-elect, unless you can prove widespread fraud and abuse that turned tens of thousands of votes joe biden 's way, does that hurt the president? does that hurt the call to unite the country or is this just seen as what happens after a very hotly-contested election? >> well, you know, you can look at it both ways and you make two very good points. it depends on which lens you're looking through. if you are a ride or die so to speak trump supporter, then this type of rally to show support when you think that joe

biden and the democrats have stolen the race, this is a rally cry for you and this is showing support to your president. if you are the general grey elephant republican, george bush , mitt romney, the establishment rnc republican , you're looking at these rallies as , you know, please stop and let's concede, and let's go forward and let's focus on all eyes on georgia and holding the senate and let's go on and in fact if trump did concede, he could also announce that he was going to go ahead and look at 2024 so you know, it just depends, neil on which lens that you are looking through on whether or not this rally is productive or not productive. neil: all right, ladies i want to thank you both very much sorry to truncate this a little bit for breaking news and we'll keep an eye on this rally that's

forming also on new developments on the covid front we have half a dozen states now that are looking at implementing pretty severe restrictions they aren't at lockdown levels but a couple of them are pretty close. whose doing what and how does that affect you? and yes, even your thanksgiving plans, after this. our retirement plan with voya gives us confidence... ...so we can spend a bit today, knowing we're prepared for tomorrow. wow, do you think you overdid it maybe? overdid what? well planned, well invested, well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement.

neil: all right, ten days in a row we've had over 100,000 new coronavirus cases, and in fact three days in a row of record after record after record that's why half a dozen states are looking at taking new restrictive measures including the governor of north dakota who seriously is considering a mass- mandate while at the same time we're learning from some of the joe biden coronavirus task force members that maybe something in the four to six week mass-mandate and lockdown measures should at least be considered. where are we going on all this first with charles watson in atlanta, on what's happening with these spikes and why.

charles? >> good morning, neil. with 10.7 confirmed cases in the u.s. and more expected as infections grow larger, we're starting to see officials move toward tightening restrictions. it started with chicago, that city reinstating a stay-at-home advisory in response to surging coronavirus infections. the advisory starts monday and is expected to last at least 30 days. mayor laurie lightfoot urging folks not to leave their homes for anything other than essential needs, the city is also advising people not to have visitors in their homes, and to avoid non-essential travel including for the upcoming thanksgiving holiday. >> if we do not step up and do the things that we know actually work, to protect ourselves, to protect our families, to protect people in our network, protect our colleagues, by the end of this year, we will lose at least

a thousand more lives. >> on friday, new mexico and oregon followed that with statewide near-lockdown restrictions that will last for at least two weeks. other states seeing a rise in cases such as new york having gone as far as a full lockdown, but are imposing restrictions. governor andrew cuomo ordering gyms, bars and restaurants to close by 10 p.m. and new york cities seven-day rolling average is sitting at about 2.83% if that number rises to 3%, neil, mayor deblasio says the city will shutdown schools as soon as monday. neil? neil: incredible then what do those parents do, charles thank you very much. charles watson in atlanta on all of that so a lot of states very very busy already contemplating measures that could come the closest we've seen to lockdown since the spring. let's get the read from dr. ra j at the nyu langone school of medicine associate professor there, doctor great to have you

back what do you make of the states, mayors, all looking at measures that will sort of rollback some form of restrictions. what do you think of that and more that will likely follow? >> well, i think these are not decisions that are made lightly and they're being considered for a very good reason, and the fact that we are definitely seeing an upswing in the cases of covid through many parts in fact most parts of the country, and you know, it's sort of easy to dismiss these things as an over reaction if you personally haven't been affected by covid or anyone in your near circle but there are many people who have, i had a patient this week who told me she lost three relatives to covid and she's absolutely terrified to commute to work every day which she is doing because she's been told she has to, so, if we do need to take very strict measure s again, and even go close to a lockdown or even a lockdown for a few week, if that means that longer-term people will actually be able to go out more and have more of an economic opportunity as well, it may be worth it.

you know, in europe they are taking this approach in many countries of closing down for a few weeks in hopes that they can knock it out at least temporarily so they can open again later maybe in time for the holidays, so i want to really encourage people to nobody wants a lockdown, i certainly don't want it again, but if it's going to happen it's happening for a very legitimate reason. neil: doctor, some have advocated limiting crowd sizes at thanksgiving, you know, communicate with grandma, you know, via face time that sort of thing. others want to eat outside which might be fine if you're in the southern states or the southwest, maybe not so fine in new york where it's often snowing around that time of year, but what do you make of that kind of keep the gathering small if you're going to have gatherings at all. >> i think it's very good advice, and i think you really need to think about the fact that this is as horrible as it is, a temporary situation.

hopefully by next year, we won't have to worry about this by next thanksgiving but we want all of our loved ones to be around next thanksgiving so it's one day of the year this year that you may have to forego your traditional thanksgiving. yes the grandparents are already so isolated and missing their grandchildren and their loved ones, but if you assess the situation and you're dealing with elderly people or people who are at higher-risk, is it really worth it putting them at risk for that one day when hopefully by next year, you can do it the regular way. neil: doctor, well-said just depends how much you really care for your relatives i guess. >> [laughter] neil: doctor, thank you, be very well be safe in the meantime we're keeping a look at the crowds building up for this rally on behalf of donald trump. more after this. ♪ we made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. when a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa

neil: all right, well they are expecting a big rally i don't know if they expected this big crowds forming for something still 90 minutes away in the nations capitol they are calling it a stop-the-steal rally on behalf of president trump, saying that what's going on in these states where the counting and recounting votes or stop counting votes, isn't fair to him, isn't fair to the american people, and they insist that donald trump won this election, and it's not for some of the controversies, he'd be on his way to getting inaugurated on the 20th of january and of course that is not the case right now. there are many that would disagree with that that its rigged but the fight goes on. we have ben hudley, the u.s. election assistance chairman, mr. chairman, thank you for taking the time. these folks are arguing that this election is being stolen from donald trump. is it your sense, and privy to the data that you are, that it

is, it's being stolen from him? >> absolutely not, neil. thanks for having me, but that is completely contrary to anything we've seen, any facts that have been presented, any evidence. the reality is this was the most secure election we've ever had and one of the most well-run elections we've ever had and the real story that we should be talking about is the great work of the state and local election administrators in running this election across the country these people are public servants and professionals and this is what they do, and they get an amazing job running this election against all the odds during this pandemic, putting their own personal health and safety on the line to make sure that americans were able to vote, that the american people's voices were heard, and at the end of the day, that is our democracy and we have to respect the will of the american people. neil: chairman, the president appointed you, i'm sure hearing your words he might be a little disappointed in what he's hear ing from you. what would you tell him?

>> well, i don't know that we have time to go into exactly the nuance of how all of that works, there's some pretty intense civics involved, but i'm happy to at another time. what i will say is this. who appointed me? what party i am doesn't matter this is about facts this is about truth this is about respecting our democracy, respecting our elections, and focusing on what has really occurred. the american people made their voice heard, and when we spread conspiracy theories and we don't back that up with facts it has an impact. you know, you can look back at the pew research center did research back around labor day to see the impact on americans of what they're hearing and consuming. they looked at how or what the media people watched impacted their attitudes toward mail-in absentee ballot and was fraud a problem. 52% of fox viewers thought it was.

3% of npr listeners didn't so it's important that everywhere, we as a americans, come together and talk about the truth and that that is this election was well-run maybe the best election we've ever had as far as how it was administered particularly in spite of the challenges, we need to give credit to the public servants that ran this election, respect them, respect their integrity, and let the process, the final certification of the ballots play out, let people do their jobs without being threatened or harassed, and we need to respect the will of the voters. neil: so with these states still in the feud and the count that goes on and these folks who are gathering do you think it's incumbent upon the president to interrupt them and say already, eventually, not today, i've lost fairly and squarely and joe biden is going to be the next president of the united states. >> as someone whose watched elections for a long time, the margins are not close here, neil. again, as we said all along,

election night results are un official. there is work that needs to be donald processes and procedures set out in state law each state goes through those processes. part of the reason it takes a long time is there are safeguard s in place to make sure that there is nothing wrong, that there is integrity of the process and there is accuracy of the process and when you talk to state and local election official, republicans, democrat all around the country, they have confidence in this process, they know it worked they know they ran an amazing election this year and it's an important part of our democracy to recognize that, acknowledge that, and focus on the facts and the truth of the matter, and that's all you can really say about this. neil: all ready, mr. chairman, the u.s. election assistance commission chairman, i'm not sure if any of those folks in washington would like what he just said but he said it. the election is what it is, we'll have more after this. when i started cobra kai,

the lack of control over my business made me a little intense. but now quickbooks helps me get paid, manage cash flow, and run payroll. and now i'm back on top... with koala kai. save over 30 hours a month with intuit quickbooks. neil: all right, still counting votes in atlanta, georgia, all but giving up is the fight in pennsylvania, that's where you'll find our bryan llenas in philadelphia with the latest there right after him we're getting to pennsylvania senator bob casey but brian where do things stand in this count right now, in the keystone state, if anywhere? >> yeah, so a few thousand ballots are left but on the legal front, neil i think we need to concentrate on just a

couple of points here. the trump campaign is continuing to make their case that there have been technical election code violations in court they've been making this case and they haven't been making a case that there's been widespread voter fraud and on the front of election code violations, they suffered a string of losses in court yesterday. a judge here in philadelphia while rejected the trump campaign's attempt to toss out some 8,300 mail ballots over what they called detects effects and the judge cited with the philadelphia board of elections that these ballots had only minor technical errors and should point some voters forgot to put their signatures or printed addresses or write in the date and then a federal appeals court rejected the trump campaign's effort to block more than 9,300 mail in ballots that were postmarked by election day but arrived in the three days after and the trump campaign is epidemic whoing the u.s. supreme court will take up the case regarding pen's three-day mail ballot extension deadline and in montgomery county a judge reject ed the trump campaign's effort to toss out 592 mail

ballots over voters failing to fill out some information on the outer envelopes. now, next week is the trump campaign's biggest lawsuit to- date. it is in an attempt to convince a federal judge here in pennsylvania that the mail voting system in the commonwealth is unconstitutional because it created an unfair and unequal two-tier voting system that lacked transparency. >> what we're seeking in the lawsuit is to have the secretary of state from prematurely certifying the results before we can get a handle on where the vote tallies are and where we have a right to an automatic recount. >> pennsylvania's results are certified on november 23, and it has already decided there will not be an automatic recount, take a look at this statement. secretary kathy bookvar determined she will not be ordering a recount of the election returns in the

counties as no statewide candidate was defeated by one- half of 1% or less of the votes cast and now biden is currently leading trump by 63,000 votes, or .9% and the lead is growing as mail ballots are still being counted. the trump campaign did get a win in court this week, a judge agreeing to toss out a small number of tail ballots with missing proof of identification but these were already separated and not a part of the official count anyway and one last thing, neil a high powered law firm named porter, write, morris and arthur abruptly stopped representing the trump campaign in pennsylvania and the trump campaign says this is a law firm that has "buckled" under the pressure of leftist mobs and cancel culture. this law firm has reportedly had some internal strife about whether or not they should actually be supporting these efforts. neil? neil: bryan llenas, thank you very much, my friend i want to go to pennsylvania senator bob casey, democrat. senator very good to have you

here. i'm wondering how this battle back and fourth on the states, senator, and the counts and all of that is affecting or could affect what's going on in this georgia run off race, two run off races. what do you think? >> well, neil i think the georgia elections on january 5 k stand on their own. the result, the presidential race is going to be certified soon, as your correspondent indicated and the pennsylvania results will be certified on the 23rd, but of course, there's a lot at stake in gathering gary cohen race is because if our side is able to win both it'll be a 50/50 tie and we would then have a majority, because of the vice president, so, that's a significant fight and it's going to be weeks of battle, but i think our side has a really strong foundation now that joe biden was declared the winner in georgia. neil: you know, we have not called that race in georgia

ourselves, others have not but you're quite right. he leads in all these various counts but having said that, senator, i am curious about what joe biden wants, you two know each other obviously very well, i'm just curious as to what you make of what happens, if you don't take the senate, that you lose both of these seats and that is democrats, or you split , which again, would wouldn't be good. some argue that joe biden actually prefers that right now because he doesn't want to cave to some of the progressives in your party many of whom are demanding that you get bernie sanders in there, labor secretary, elizabeth warren as treasury secretary and he doesn't want to go that route. what do you think of that? >> well neil, i think that it certainly, democratic senators and president-elect biden want a democratic senate i don't think there's any question about that. now, he hasn't told me that but that's i know him well enough to say that but i think if it

doesn't go in our direction, and if it is a continuation of the republican majority, we're going to have to get a lot done. the two biggest crisis in the lives of most people are what you've been covering this morning, the virus, this raging virus which is hitting a record number of cases every day, here in pennsylvania, the cases are way up. we've set daily records as well. we got more than 9,200 people dead in our state, and so it's raging everywhere, north and south, east and west so that challenge is in front of us and there's, it's a challenge both parties must confront, and then the jobs crisis, the economic crisis. we got more than half a million people out of work in september, 518,000, so, we need a job strategy as well and i think that's true of both party, so, we're all going to have to work together on these two crisis. i would not want to be a senator whose standing in the way of dealing with those two crisis. neil: let me ask you about that. you are, senator, right now in

pennsylvania very influential one and we heard from the president-elect's healthcare task force, who raised the possibility of a four to six week lockdown. joe biden himself, has not endorsed that nor has he reject ed it. how do you feel about that, a four to six week lockdown mandated by the federal government. >> well neil i don't think that's likely to happen, number one. number two is the reason i can say that is because we know a lot more about the virus than we did before, even though the case numbers are higher than they were in april in a lot of places and it is raging, we know a lot more about how to deal with it. look, if tens of millions of more americans were wearing mask s, that alone would turn this in the right direction, so, i think that -- neil: do you think a mask mandate is in order, senator? the governor of north dakota is kicking that around but go ahead >> personally, i think that's going to be necessary in some

places but it shouldn't require a mandate. if you're a patriotic american, you care about your neighbor, the person next to you, and you care about your own health of someone in your household, you should wear a mask and the good news is most people are wearing masks, and they understand how valuable that is to turning this in the right direction, but i think we know a lot more about how to control this virus, but we need a strategy on testing, there's still not nearly enough testing. we got to get faster results on testing. we need more personal protective equipment, all of this is playing out in large measure in nursing home, neil. you know that more than 91,000 people have died in nursing homes when you add up the residents who died and the workers. we got to turn that in the right direction and i think we can. neil: all right, senator bob casey very good, thank you very very much, continued good health, be safe. in the meantime here, to the

senator's point we have seen an escalation in cases better than 180,000, the third day in a row that we seen a record 10 days of over 100,000 new cases. that is already caused an enormous split between the white house and the governor of new york over getting a vaccine to address that. when and how, and whose behind it, after this.

neil: all right, a little earlier the presidential motorcade driving by some of these protesters gathering in washington we're told of the goal is upwards of 1 million or more of them, they caught sight of the president driving by, and they call it a stop-the- steal rally referring to the count that's going on right now, where most officially people have come to the conclusion joe biden is going to be the next president of the united states, they think it's a steal. they think it's wrong, and they're letting the world and

indeed the president know about it, and the president supporting their efforts right now, he in fact has said this is being taken from him and that a number of questionable things have been happening in the count in some states and a lot of discoveries that anything would not due process, including a lot of rigged ballots and fraudulent activity that he hopes to bring up in legal arguments that have occurred in one state occurred in another state maybe the slowed delay or out right stop the certification of electoral votes being awarded in those states, so we'll watch this one closely. in the meantime watching closely another battle between the president and the governor of new york on a vaccine and maybe other vaccines and their rollout. we have more from new york city reporter: well it appears, neil that governor cuomo is on damage control duty right now trying to smooth over what has become kind of a big confusing mess for millions of new yorkers let's talk about this for a second. it comes after president trump threatens to withhold a potential vaccine from the state

of new york, blaming the governor for refusing to distribute a vaccine until his own panel of experts deem it safe. the governor jumped on tv last night to explain to new yorkers and the white house why he would not delay distribution. >> we're not going to redo the tests that the fda did, but we do have a scientific panel that will review the protocol that the fda went through, but there will be no delay. as soon as they get us, the drug , we will, we are ready to distribute it. reporter: and this all comes as new york city is headed for a very grim winter mayor bill deblasio warning hundreds of thousands of parents here to get ready for a possible shutdown of in-person learning as early as monday, neil. new york city's infection rate inching closer to that 3% threshold, the threshold to close classrooms, governor cuomo now urging the mayor and the

school district to reopen quickly suggesting they also factor in the schools infection rate along with the cities infection rate, meantime, cuomo showing less mercy to bars, restaurants and gyms under a mutate wide curfew these establishments must close at 10:00 only carryout allowed after 10 p.m., the states infection rate currently hovering at 2.6 and governor cuomo says contact tracing here shows coronavirus cases are spreading primarily from bars and restaurants and parties and if the curfew doesn't work to slow the spread he's going to turn the valve even more, restaurant owners, as you know, fear that means a total shutdown and the death of even more establishments and cuomo by the way, neil is having an emergency summit this weekend with the other governors of those northeastern neighboring states to make sure that they're on the same page as all of these policies so we don't have folks from new york sort of like getting in their car and going over the border to do whatever they want to do in those other

states. neil? neil: all right, thank you very very much and again, just to be clear about cuomo's position he was critical of the president's rollout plan and did say not so fast, to that rollout plan, now he seems to be backtracking a little bit that if the virus vaccine were to come out to get into new yorkers hands very quickly so we're trying to get to the bottom of this , we have calls out to the governor none of which have been returned but hope springs eternal so in the meantime, hope springs eternal from markets that are very optimistic about the whole vaccine thing, we had the dow within just a spitting distance of a record, the s&p at a record, with the russel 2,000, a broad representation of the broader market itself had a record, what could bring these stocks down? maybe a lockdown? after this. want to brain better? unlike ordinary memory supplements- neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration.

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neil: all right, they're calling it stop the steal, these protesters in washington argue on behalf of president trump that the election is being taken from him, it's a video a few minutes ago, his motorcade passing them and he's getting a lot of reaction from them and cheers. i do wonder the effect of all of this if it link lingers much longer on the markets of course hitting records left and right and we've had adam lashinsky, rebecca, whatever your views on politics here, and i respect them all, i'm just wondering if this view that the election is being stolen from the president lingers and the president maintains that posture, even if he were to concede to joe biden, can that be constructed for the markets? they've been doing just fine in the interim i guess but your thoughts? >> yeah, i think, neil, that obviously the markets are initially bullied that biden we

expected a biden victory from the beginning and obviously election night or the next day i should say obviously looked like a biden victory so the markets have done well obviously this week it's a big pfizer vaccine news that's really given us a win there, but , you know, i do think that, you know, it's hard for me, neil to become a believer in math, so i don't like uncertainty as a market observer i don't like uncertainty but as a lawyer, i want to make sure that people don't feel like they're just being brushed aside and they are being actually looked at and we have to look at the statistics too and the math of the vote counts and so people are looking at the statistics saying is this actually probably likely, is there mathematical possibilities here which there are, it looks like, and so i just think that the market wants stability, either way, there is certainly things that are helpful with the trump presidency and a biden presidency in different sectors but we definitely need stability so as soon as we can get resolution clarity, the better.

neil: adam what do you think, if he never concedes if he never says look, joe biden won fair and square. >> yeah, i mean, i'm not sure what rebecca meant by statistics the statistics are completely clear here. i think the market differentiate s between a genuine constitutional crisis on the one hand, neil, and the sort of existential issue of some segment of the population believing that a president biden isn't legitimate. that's deeply unfortunate and troubling but probably not damaging to the economy or the market the way a genuine constitutional crisis be , and president trump leaving office without conceding, on its own, i don't think would generate a constitutional crisis. neil: all right final word i wish we had more time guys we are following these developments and the counts that are going on in a number of states as to whether this election was indeed stolen from the president, most who have been following the numbers and crunching the

numbers say it does not appear to be the case. these crowds and there could be a big number of them when all is said and done, clearly disagree, stay with us, you are watching fox. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it ... usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa

>> all right. the closer it looks that joe biden is going to survive the various counts and recounts going on, but it's not going down well on the right side of your screen with a number of trump protesters and protesters on his behalf, they say it was stolen and the rally formally kicks off in an hour from now and they're envisioning up to a million people there. meantime the biden team continues with transition plans and even though they're not getting some security briefings they say that joe biden should be getting at this stage of the

game. hillary vaughan at rehoeboth beach in delaware. >> we were with the transition team and they say that the president-elect swerved a little time off. he's at his beach house. and he was going for a bike ride earlier today for about an hour and he also is scheduled to meet with transition advisors today, but on his bike ride, biden told the press pool that he will announce that he's closer to making a-- to making a decision about who will be on his cabinet. >> are you any closer to making a cabinet decision? >> yes. [applause] >> go, joe! >> while the president-elect tries to decide who will be part of his inner circle, progressives are encouraging him to pack his cabinet with progressives, but they aren't stopping there. the progressive change institute, a group aligned with senator warren sent a 400-name

list of recommendations to biden's transition team for positions throughout his administration, extending far beyond his cabinet. the sunrise movement also released their wish list for cabinet picks. and squad leader rashida tlaib, and senator warren as treasury secretary. but the short list for treasury secretary and senator warren's name isn't and janet yellin's is. and lou braynard and roger ferguson. during then, president-elect biden promised to bring normal back to the white house. and what does it look like. under a biden-harris administration daily white house press briefings are going to make a comeback. neil. neil: well, that will be interesting to see. all right, hillary vaughan,

thank you very, very much on that. in the meantime, back to those donald trump supporters and they are legion. they're not fans of everyone, assuming joe biden is the next president of the united states and making clear in a large rally in the nation's capital, a million plus strong we're told when all is said and done, the crowds are significant now and it's not supposed to kick off for another hour. rich edson. >> good morning, neil. this is the scene all over the country and throughout the campaign, a trip cal trump rally ongoing although it's different for downtown d.c. we don't get this type of trump support since the inauguration in 2017. several pro-trump groups are planning to meet. women for trump, million maga march and stop the steal are expected to gather today and have been gathering for the last several hours. the trump motorcade and the president did drive through and lapped the crowd of supporters a short while before he headed out to virginia to golf.

yesterday the president floated stopping by here in a tweet and it was a tweet that twitter flagged for the president and including the disputed claim that the election was rigged. they're chanting, four more years, stop the steal despite what the president and campaign are pushing of widespread vote are fraud and you spoke to the commission appointed by the president, who said it was the most secure election we've had. and yesterday judges ruled against in michigan and pennsylvania. and they're monitoring social media for the protests and demonstrations. there is some chatter online about counter-protesters coming down here today. we haven't seen too many of them, and we've got a few folks with biden masks on. largely, it's been entirely peaceful throughout the day, both sides thus far. and you probably look at biden supporters down here and the district of columbia did go 92%

for the former vice-president in the eelection a few weeks ago. back to you. neil: all right. rich edson, thank you very, very much. a lot of the supporters of donald trump are saying, let the count go on. there's no harm letting the count go on so you find this election year unlike 20 years ago in the bush-gore chad controversy, republicans were the ones saying let the count happen. the democrats are the ones saying enough already. and the mirror opposite of what we had 20 years ago. take a look. >> regardless of who you support in this election, the end of the day, we want america to be united. regardless of how this outcome is, we want to be able to trust the election. >> it's very important for the legitimacy of the president that the president be selected by the rule of law, not by political bodies. >> the way we resolve division, even when you don't get your way in an election, is to count

every legal ballot. >> there have been a series of efforts, many of which have been struck down by the florida courts to block tabulation of these votes and we need to continue to fight to get all the votes counted. neil: all right. so that was then, this is now, rolls reversed then versus now. it is what it is. but i do want to get tom dupuis's thoughts on this, the former deputy assistant general, very smart legal mind. thanks for coming in on a saturday. you're a real pro. this back and forth what's legitimate or not. obviously you see things through the political prism and it's not surprising the democrats say the count is find where it is and the republicans saying the same thing they said 20 years ago and i'm wondering how that influences these counts that continue and recounts that will build? how does it weigh on that? or does it? >> well, i think, neil, what

we're seeing here is maybe election law 101, which is to say that the candidate that is behind in the vote counting wants to keep the counting going, whereas the candidate that's ahead basically says we're all done here. and looks, i think at this point it would take a miracle of major proportions for any of these recounts to wind up having an effect on the outcome of the election. i think the challenge for the president's camp is number one, he's down by substantial deficits in these states and although history will show that recounts can move a few thousand votes or a few hundred votes, if there's not many instances that they move votes on the scale that the president needs in order to prevail. he needs to prevail not just in one state, but multiple states. neil: the process going on, an uphill battle, i get that. but there does come a count the president concedes the elegal, legally he's not obligated to

do that. but legally he's obligated to leave the white house if that were the case. what is the effect on other issues here. the president never concedes the election, the impact that it would have? i'm wondering because we've had plenty of presidents who didn't talk to each other when the old guy going out and new one coming in, herbert hoover and fdr barely exchanged a word and must have been a long drive from the white house to the capitol for the swearing in for fdr. there's precedence, but another step, hey, that guy is sworn in and did it illegally. >> that's a great point, neil. i can see at least two consequences. one the more the president speaks about widespread fraud and especially if as we haven't seen any evidence of it yet, the risk is you ultimately undermine the american people's faith in the integrity of the process and sanctity of election if there's not an evidentiary basis for making

arguments that our whole system a fraud, rigged and fraudulent, there's a cost on the american people. i think more narrowly, the transition at some point presumably, the president needs to authorize the formal mechanics. transition process to go into place, this is something done through an agency called general services administration, that basically gives the incoming administration access to evidence, access to current government officials, access to money, to physical facilities, it's really mechanics you need to ensure when the new administration comes in, they're ready to hit the ground running. >> but that hasn't happened yet. the gsa has not granted that yet. i'm wondering is there a legal, even a constitutional obligation for her to do so? >> yeah, the legal standard is a little vague. it basically says when the administrator of the gsa determines that there's an ascertainable winner then the transition process begins.

you're right, so far she hasn't made that authorization and as a result what we've soon the biden team trying to do work-around, to talk with people informally and talking with world leaders, and to be sure that they have the access to the information they need, begin staffing up and getting ready to come in and take over on the 20th of january. neil: leaving aside the he is st stet-- aesthetics of this, is there is requirement for the outgoing president to come in, if joe biden is sworn in january 20th, doesn't want to see it, wants to go to florida and call it a day. is there any obligation, we're used to that in modern times. it's not a given. what do you think? >> i don't think it's a requirement. it's hard tore for me to see a

court ordering. and tradition, the president would respect tradition and what predecessors have done, it seems to me in the interest of unity and reassuring the american people that there will be a transition, this is a smooth process that we have new leadership in place, it would be important for the president physically to be there at the inauguration. neil: all right. we'll watch it closely, tom dupree. we shall see, my friend. thank you very much. >> thank you. neil: this is a week the president fired his defense secretary, did so via tweet. the president also got rid of his former va secretary. i don't know if it was by tweet, but he might offer some thoughts on the message this is all sending after this. a live bookkeeper is helping customize quickbooks for me. okay, you're all set up. thanks! that was my business gi, this one's casual. get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks.

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>> all right. no cussing on the two very different campaigns right now ahead of january 20th, donald

trump still wants it to be him reinaugurated as president of the united states. although it looks like it's going to be joe biden with the transition team. it's a busy week for the president even though we didn't see much of him aside from his vaccine announcement from the rose garden yesterday. yesterday we did see him busy firing the secretary and same with the cia director. whether that's by tweet is anyone's guest. and shokin, former secretary, i'm not for sure. secretary. how were you informed were you let go? >> you're absolutely right, i was fired by tweet. and when i entered public service, i didn't know that it was possible, but now days it's becoming a little more common. neil: when you went to the office or tried to go to the office and on your way to the office and you found out you don't have an office. yeah, that's right. i had spoken to the president,

we had a very good call talking about the business that was before the department of veterans affairs and a couple of hours later, i had just gotten home and i was actually speaking to my wife on the phone and she said to me, oh, my goodness, i just got a tweet from the president and it looks like you've been let go. and so, not much warning, but, you know, this is becoming more common. you know, i think it's happened to a large number of people at this point and it certainly has set a new precedent for public service. neil: then again, and when i'm eventually let go, i hope that never happens, mr. secretary, i just think my key won't work. ne they change the key or making it inoperable. ap the president didn't waste a second dumping the defense secretary, and views on the president's using security forces and all at the time at

the protest, never sat well with the president and the timing told the cia director could be next. what do you make of this house cleaning with a presidency that might be limited to the next seven or eight weeks? >> neil, all of us who go into public service understand that we serve at the pleasure of the president and none of us expect that these jobs are easy. they're not supposed to be easy, but i am concerned about the constant turnover and the way that public servants are let go. the most important thing, the job of government is to assure the safety of its people and that does require a continuity of leadership and a consistency in the way that we operate. and certainly, you know, i was part of the transition between the obama administration and the trump administration. neil: right, right. >> assuring that there is appropriate continuity of government is one of the key issues that we have to do to

ensure the safety of people and i don't think many people recognize how vulnerable a time this transition can be and so, i'm concerned about the con standpoint turnover of people and the inability to recognize why this transition time is so important so that we have cooperation between the outgoing administration and the incoming administration. neil: well, they're not sharing intelligence information with joe biden yet. that might change. i'm not aware of the protocol, secretary. the gsa leader has to write off on it, she has not yet done that. so joe biden can't get access to the type of information as president-elect that he should. does that worry you? >> it does worry me. the process that the gsa has to do is called ascertainment. that begins the process. you have to remember everybody in their agencies have been

hard at work with the transition plans. there's a reason why it's legally required, when you transition in january, 4,000 people political appointees who have been leading their agencies, leave at noon and takes a while to get 4,000 new political appointees back into these agencies to leave. 1250 of them of course require confirmation by the u.s. senate. so, this just doesn't happen overnight and so the transition period is actually critical and essential to the continuity of government. and it's why it's so important when you do this in the agency, like the one that i've led, with over 400,000 employees, a budget of 210 billion dollars, that just doesn't happen overnight. it actually takes a lot of work and a lot of time to transition appropriate appropriately. neil: you know, secretary we don't know what's in the president's head and his

thinking on washington today arguing that he should keep up the fight, don't steal the election from the president. but there will eventually come a math moment where you just look at the numbers and you acknowledge that it's not working out. you put up a good fight, et cetera. do you think the president will come to that? do you think that he will graciously concede the race to joe biden when that moment comes? and do you think he'll go to the inauguration for his successor? >> neil, i think when you have an election that was this divisive, it's important that people on both sides, whoever won this election, have the chance to make sure that they believe it's a fair election, but i do believe it's essential to unify this country and to put the country above individual's interests to start bringing that together and it is clear that, you know, one candidate has reached 270 electoral votes and by our constitution, that means that there is going to be a new administration and so, i

certainly hope that the president recognizes and puts the country's interests first and begins to start working towards a transition. neil: do you think he will do that? you know him very well. do you think he will do that? >> i do believe that the president's going to do that because i believe that this president loves this country and i believe he's going to understand that's the best thing to do, to put the country first. neil: secretary david shulkin, thank you very, very much for your hard work on the behalf of the nation, and veterans approved 100 to that post. and tax hikes, whether you're looking at a divided senate or not. that might complicate it, but it does it, you sure hear what the numbers look like after this.

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>> all right. the rally is being planned in washington d.c. stop the steal. trump supporters are convinced that a travesty is being unleashed on the president of the united states. and the motorcade stopped by to wave to them and point out and they caught sight of him and cheering for him. they're hoping for a million or so to gather in the nation a's capitol. i can't count that, i don't know. everything is peaceful and calm. there is that. i'm sure it's a matter of time before protesters to those protesters come out, but so far, all, pretty cool and in the meantime, joe biden on january 20th and what he's

planning. it depends on the makeup of the senate. if he has his way he wants to raise corporate taxes and the fact that he wants to raise the top rate and some states are pushing up their top rates and you can see those listening at home, that brings it to over 6 2% in california, not that far away in illinois. the read on that when you add state, local, federal taxes, so many of the rich are paying so much to the federal government. we have walter back with him. and rebecca, of course, a lot of those rich folks are hoping at least on the federal level joe biden is stymied by the republican senate, but what do you make of that? as it stand now, in a lot of high tax states, they're going to be higher still on the rich. >> yeah, neil, if you thought that there was an exodus from

the blue states when trump passed the limit on $10,000 for property taxes, if joe biden goes back to-- talking about taxpayers over 400,000, he wants to raise the taxes back and when you combine that with the high tax areas that you just met, which will only be strapped further for cash with a coronavirus shutdown, these high earners are looking over 60% when combined the federal and state tax. and that's a real dis disincente for people to work. and it sounds like a lot to the average american, 400,000. if you live in new york city, you know, neil, the difference of living in the midwest versus a big state or big city, there's a huge difference. so i think it's a huge disincentive and it's going to create a lot of shifting of what people are going to do and where they're going to live and it's not going to be good for the blue states that are so heavily taxed. neil: now, a number of people

in those blue states, adam, have moved to safer tax confines, regardless what happens at the federal level. i'm just wondering, play this process out then over the next four years. i know a lot depends on the makeup of the senate, i get that. what do you think? >> well, as someone who lives in california, i can certainly relate to this and in watching it carefully, first of all, nothing's going to happen until 2022, so this is-- this is the great debate of 2021, assuming that -- assuming that the democrats have power in the senate. if they don't, not much of this is going to happen. it's important to point out the 60% figures, neil, we're talking about are the statutory rates not the effective rates. the effective rates would be significantly lower. that said, there's no doubt this shines a spotlight on these several states that we're talking about, that already have very high tax rates. that's where the pressure is going to be. i just want to say one more thing, which is that the vast

majority of rich people, if you will, neil, who are in the middle of their careers, are not going anywhere. they make a lot of money in these states for a reason because they're good environments for them to make money. i think we tend to focus a little too much at the margins on these arguments, in these arguments. neil: we might, but rebecca, the fact of the matter is, we talk about things that might not take effect for a couple of years to adam's point. but in new jersey where i'm from, a lot of surtaxes are approved by the governor and retroactive to 2020. whether everyone is going to pay that rate to the rich, i think adam was wise to point it out. but it's happening in these states and i'm wondering if that's going to make them just financially unattractive, that a lot of the money that these states thought they would raise ends up being a wash. we've seen that in the past in illinois with their surtax and

a movement that failed again at the polls and other taxes that failed in california. those are overwhelmingly rejected by average folks who would not have been affected by this, what do you think? >> you know, it's funny, neil, everyone wants to take everyone's money until they realize it's coming from them and they have to pay the tax. i see this as a huge issue in the georgia senate runoff in january because they're going to be sort of the last governmental stop to a straight blue, blue house, blue senate, blue presidency. if that's the case there's not any back stops or protections from whatever tax policies the democrats decide they want and it's certainly going to make the high tax states that have high tax burdens because more services and whatever higher cost of living. the fact is with the coronavirus and with everybody realizing that you know what? a lot of these jobs can be performed remotely, states don't have as much leverage as they used to have to keep somebody in that job. a lot of people are working virtually from home and they

can do that anyone and can do that from a florida, texas, tennessee, you know, all the nine states that don't have income tax at all. i think they're gog see a migration, depending on the tax policy. people move with their feet and do it all the time. neil: and the republicans and democrats are creative coming up with new revenue not so much trying to save revenue or watching spending and i'm just wondering whether that will just continue. no matter what happens on the federal front. these states that face record, new jersey is a good example of that and continue doing this on their merry old way and trying to come up with ways to get it into the till, but not replacing the money leaving the till. what do you think? >> no question, whether we're talking about administrators or legislators, nobody's particularly good at cutting expenses. that said, we have very real

expenses, as rebecca pointed out, you know, very clearly, especially with result to the pandemic. i mean, and this is the great existential debate. we've had an anti-tax environment in california for decades and yet, taxes have continued to go up and services have gone down. the public education system in california is a mess largely as a result of prop 13 in the late 1970's that put a ceiling on property taxes. we're going to keep fighting about this for a long time, neil. neil: you have a shot to overturn that, too. thank you both very, very much. a good read of what's going on right now. ins a battle royale, right? the battle royale paving the way for a president-elect biden. the protesters in washington might not like the reality, but a number of republicans and democrats are saying it is the reality. including a former republican senator who says that joe biden is due the treatment of a president-elect, intelligence

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>> there should be a preparation given to the biden team, should he be the winner, not if he's going to be the winner, but making sure he's going to be prepared on day one.

that's what the transition process should allow to have happen. neil: that was andy card, president bush's former chief of staff. co-wrote an article with john podesto who served with bill clinton saying enough is enough, a smooth transition for joe biden for no other reason he should be prepared january 20th and have plenty of time for transition that is not being afforded him now, including intelligence briefings and the like that are very important to have. no doubt my next guest agrees. jeff lake the former arizona senator who supported joe biden in this effort. senator, thank you for doing so. good to have you on a saturday. good to be here. >> senator, you know, i mean, republicans and democrats are increasingly calling at the very least, no matter what the president thinks of this race and whether it was fair to him, that joe biden is owed the intelligence briefings, that it's important, that a delay in getting to them back in 2000

with the bush-gore recount might have left us vulnerable to what happened eight months later, of course on 9/11. do you agree with that? >> i agree that it's important. i can't speculate as to whether that would have made a difference at 9/11, but it's just the right thing to do. i think responsible administrations will make sure that the responsibility outgoing administrations make sure that that happens. i hope it does and i expect that it will in the coming weeks. it's been, you know, a long haul to get here, but i assume that by next week most will agree. neil: i know you had a very tempestuous relationship with the president and i'm wondering now though how he will comport himself, if his options run out. do you think that he will graciously concede the election to joe biden and will attend the inauguration of joe biden?

>> i don't know. all indications are that he's going to ride this out. i'm not sure what he's going to do, but i think the rest of us need to realize that this now says more about us and how we handle it than it does about the president, but i can't-- i would think by the time the inauguration rolls around that he'll be there, but who knows. who knows. neil: i had. senator, indications he's sort of paving the way for a 2024 run that would be certainly historically unusual. grover cleveland did that and only two term nonconcurrent term presidents. i remember covering that election, but -- no, joking there -- what do you think of that and the likelihood of that? >> you know, i don't think that the president is going to have an out-sized influence. he'll have an influence going forward, but once you lose the

trappings of office and the levers of power and in particular trumpism relies on a certain amount of swagger that you lose when you lose an election, and so i just can't see-- i mean, some people are thinking that he's going to be the 900-pound gorilla that will determine every senate race and house race in the next four years, i don't see that. i see some influence, the fact there are rallies around the country indicate that, but that's hard to maintain when you lose, like i side, the trappings of office and levers of power. neil: and indeed in grover cleveland's case he won the popular vote and he could argue that he was robbed in battling for a third time for office. and i'm not quoting you here, in the party here, that he could decide on its next

nominee and that the trumpism isn't dead and all including showing up and watching him today to express the support and legal fight to continue. what do you make of the influence the supporters will have on the party? . well, he will have influence, no doubt. the fact that these rallies are going on. a lot of people attending them. he had a lot of support, he got 72 million votes, but having said that, you know, trumpism, it's more of an attitude, really. it's-- relies a lot on grievance politics and depending where both of the parties that are governing, that are in the senate and in the house and in the white house, depending how republicans and democrats comport themselves and move forward, if they do, you know, reach towards the center, then i think people will kind of tire of the old politics that we experience right now and they'll go more back to their regular lives and so i think

that to see politics as kind of entertainment as we've seen it over the pass little while, particularly during covid when sports were down for a while and everything else, it was politics that we all turned to, but i think that will fade. i hope it does. as a conservative i want politics to be steady and civil and boring and that would be nice. neil: senator, your name has been mentioned often times in a potential biden cabinet. would you be interested in a role? . i don't expect that to happen, obviously. i love this country. i will serve in whatever way i can. i don't expect that to happen. neil: you know there have been precedence, chuck hagel for one with president obama so it's not unthinkable. >> it happens more often than not. whether i would be chosen, that's what i question.

neil: senator flake, thank you for taking the time. we appreciate it, sir. >> glad to be on. neil: jeff flake, the beautiful state of arizona, the former senator there. we're following, meanwhile, other developments here, including i told you about the pentagon shake-up, the president tweeted out that he'd fired his defense secretary. could other heads roll? after this.

>> all right. the transition of the defense department. the acting defense secretary after mark esper was fired via tweet, sent out a missive saying it's time to bring our troops home, referring to the middle east and high time that we recognize the end of war after war after war, the last part i'm sort of paraphrasing. joining us now on the pentagon shake-up, what are you hearing,

lucas? >> when mark esper left earlier, his staff went with him and the new acting defense chief chris miller. we're waiting for more changes. 1 a.m. and the new message to the forces, chris miller said even though the u.s. is on the verge of defeating al-qaeda, he wants the war to end very soon writing quote, ending wars requir requires compromise and partnership. we gave it our all and now it's time to go home. president trump released esper two days before veterans day. 3,000 troops are still in iraq, 4500 in afghanistan. new defense chief spearheaded the invasion of afghanistan with the troops. as a battalion commander and special forces he took part in the iraq invasion two years later. some have raised eyebrows among

defense hawks, the retired, and they chaired this to the cavalry in the 1930's. and wants to shut down the u.s. embassy in cable as well. the new leadership has something else in common, they're defense hawks and hawks who might favor a strike on nuclear sites before january 20th. the u.s. military has 60,000 troops in the region well within range of some of iran's 9,000 ballistic missiles, neil. neil: all right. lucas tomlinson, i appreciate it. in the meantime there's a law and order issue alive and well. a funding of the police department issue, still very much a very big issue. in minneapolis, a creative way around the whole defunding movement, by keeping the funding alive after this. , [crowd chanting]

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>> all right. defund the police movements alive and well right now, but they're not getting the same reaction or push that they used to. in minneapolis, for example, they're looking for a half million dollar plan that would bring an outside officers to help deal with violent crime, something my next guest was ahead of when he was last year, consistently here talking about this. one of my favorite guests because he doesn't care about taking sides on this issue, just looks after the safety of folks. james craig, the police chief of the beautiful city of detroit. thank you for being on on a saturday no less. >> thank you, neil, always a pleasure going on your show. neil: let me ask you what you make about this.

someone must have been here on your prior visits when you talked about easier said than done, cut police and assume everything is hunky-dory. and this is appears minneapolis' way around this is to go outside for officers. i may be miss misinterpreting this. >> and minneapolis not just defunding, they wanted to dismantle the police department and actually they did it. when you think about the number of officers who are out right now. who are leaving that organization, and the main reason is because they don't feel supported, minneapolis is not the only city. we can talk about new york, i've talked to my former colleagues out in los angeles who are just disenchanted and so minneapolis now turns around and wants to bring in these outside police assets, a half a million dollars, so they are

not defunding, but they're realizing and find out, you're bringing in the sheriff's department and transit police who have no real connection to that municipality and they're not going to be able to control it so the police department was damaged, they should have tried to fix it and support the good men and women of that organization to raise morale. it would have been a very different outcome. i do applaud the chief because he's trying to stop the bleeding now and certainly, the same council folks that were calling for dismantling now want crime to go down. it's just madness. neil: but i am curious, i mean, there are a lot of people now, they're not expanding their police department. so many are retiring or want to retire early and that's the case where i am in the new york city area. and you're fighting that and the number of police departments, even in your fine neck of the woods that are dealing with a spike of covid

cases that go way beyond the police departments and cities and states as well. a lot of potential cops are even saying i don't want to be involved in any of this. what do you tell them? >> well, you know -- well, fortunately, we're still actively recruiting. i just graduated a class of 33 yesterday. and our pipeline is healthy, but i will say this is not the profession that many are seeking. with everything that's going on, the anti-police rhetoric and some of these municipalities where police officers don't feel supported, the one thing i hear from my colleagues across the country, they appreciate me standing up. we're seeing police officers who left detroit police department for higher paying police jobs are now starting to come home, neil. they want to come back because of one thing, they want the support, and so what's not happening when we look at minneapolis and many of the other cities who are, you know,

talking about dismantling, defunding, who are you folks talking to? i've got to tell you, neil, who is talking to the community? when i talk to detroiters, they want to fund the police department and i was reading an article about minneapolis, many of the community in minneapolis feel the same way, but some of these folks getting into these seats of leadership, and they just latch on to something that just is-- it just makes no sense, neil, not at all. neil: well, there must be some way of saying in minneapolis are ready to blink or are blinking in reaction to what you said. we'll follow it closely. james craig, the detroit police chief. thank you for your service to your city and your men and women, trying to just keep them safe. what it comes down to. we can politicize this all we want, it's about keeping people safer and looking after you. that's what the politics things comes down to, left or right,

protesting election outcome or supporting that outcome, we are free to express that. we are not free to take it to the next level where it gets violent or worse. so far on that front, so good. fox continues.

>> live pictures right now as we look to the 14th street side of the white house in washington d.c. they call this freedom plaza, where a number of pro-trump groups are marching through the capital. they're going to head to the washington mall, the monument and supreme court in support of president trump. we understand that there are some counter-protester groups that are out as well today, although we don't have a live picture of them quite now. noon eastern here from washington, i'm leland vittert. nice to be with you, and with you, gillian. and they promised a big crowd yesterday. gillian: that's a big crowd. leland: tou