>> well, christmas is coming if you're interested. get fox gear and a 15% discount at shop.foxnews.com. >> sandra: a newly uncovered email from a tax attorney to president-elect joe biden's son saying hunter biden failed to report approximately $400,000 in income he collected while serving on the board of that ukrainian energy company burisma. the memo from 2017, one of multiple new emails obtained by fox news detailing inaccuracies in hunter's income. attorney general bill barr has resigned raising new questions now about what happens to federal investigations already in motion including the probe into hunter biden's taxes. good morning, everyone, i'm sandra smith. it is tuesday.

good morning, trace. >> trace: good morning, i'm trace gallagher. as for barr sources say president trump was irritated with his a.g. for not disclosing the justice department's investigation into hunter biden during the campaign. as well as his acknowledgement that the d.o.j. found no widespread voter fraud. publicly barr appears to be leaving on good terms. team fox coverage. jonathan turley standing by with analysis. we begin with kristin fisher live at the white house. good morning to you. will barr's resignation impact tin vest gaition into hunter biden? >> it will continue under the new acting attorney general who is the current deputy attorney general jeff rosen. when he takes over on december 23. remember, he is only going to be on the job for about a month. biden's new attorney general is going to be inheriting this investigation into the president-elect's son, which is why biden's pick for a.g. is going to be so widely

scrutinized especially when you have all the new information coming out. fox obtained this emailed but can't quite authenticate from hunter's former business partner that he didn't disclose $400,000 in income from burisma, the ukraine national gas company where he sat on the board. last week hunter biden confirmed he is now under federal investigation for his tax affairs and financial dealings overseas. the fact that attorney general bill barr did not make that investigation public before the election is part of the reason that the president and his allies were upset with him. they also didn't like a durham report into the origins of the russia probe was not ready before election day and the statement that the department of justice hadn't seen evidence of widespread voter fraud. the two ended things on relatively good terms with the president tweeting last night just had a very nice meeting

with attorney again ball bill barr at the without. he has done an outstanding job. as per letter he will be leaving just before christmas the spend the holidays with his family. a much smoother exit for bill barr than the one that jeff sessions received. trace. >> trace: kristin fisher live at the white house. >> sandra: for more on this let's bring in jonathan turley, fox news contributor and law professor. why leave so close to the end of this administration, bill barr? >> well, frankly it seems like a gratuitous move by the president. he is clearly miffed at attorney general barr for saying there was not systemic voting fraud and miffed at when him for not disclosing the existence of these investigations. but what barr did was require under department of justice practices and policies. it would have been unethical for him to pull a comey.

that's really what was being asked of him. he would have had to do exactly what james comey did and the president criticized comey for. before he was fired. but what barr did was to follow these procedures. you are not allowed to disclose an ongoing investigation particularly when no one has been charged. it is unfair to target subjects but you aren't supposed to make those types of announcements before an election. there were two overriding longstanding policies that barr complied with. >> sandra: now we wonder jeffrey rosen the time left for this administration, what do we know about him and what might happen in the remaining weeks of the trump administration? >> he is very respected. he has a history in business, antitrust, corporate work. he was at kirk land ellis, a major firm. held various government positions. this is not casting aspersions

upon rosen, he has been pulled into this. but, you know, in the end i think barr went out like a good soldier. he thanked the president, touted all their accomplishments. but really this is about as applicable as a separation -- the president spent weeks trashing bill barr and then suddenly said he needs to spend more time with his family which is sort of a d.c. euphemism that you sleep with the fishes. >> sandra: matt whitaker was on fox news last night and said this about special counsel zbloo. only in certain circumstances where the regular process can't handle an investigation. certainly an investigation into a president's child could meet those standards. it can be an unguided, uncontrollable missile but in the hunter biden case it could protect the u.s. attorney and

members of his team from being fired without cause. >> sandra: so we're left wondering what this looks like, this transition and what happens with some of these already open investigations. and should there be a special counsel appointed particularly when it comes to hunter biden's tax affairs? >> it's not very special with everyone is a special counsel. we're running out of lawyers in the city, it seems, that either have been or may be special counsel >> sandra: that will never happen. >> but the fact is that we don't need a special counsel. what we do need is for joe biden to say he is not going to remove the u.s. attorney in delaware and let him complete his work. we already have a special counsel in place with john durham looking at the russia investigation. so we don't need to have a special counsel but whitaker is stating the truth about one aspect. we're still learning more about this matter. there are emails on the laptop

that do appear to contradict president-elect biden and his statements in the pavement >> sandra: here is tucker carlson on that last night. >> if you are going to restore democracy, the rest of us have a right to know exactly where the money came from. what did they do for it? what effect is it going to have on the country going forward? in a democracy, that's a very basic request. there is nothing democratic about ignoring the question. in fact, it confirms what's obvious. they don't plan to govern this as a democracy but instead as an oligarchy. >> sandra: he is getting one question from fox news and peter doocy about hunter's overseas business dealings and so far joe biden is not answering that question. will americans eventually get answers? will there be transparency into this issue? >> well, that's the question. we had this news blackout on this story which is really one of the most extraordinary

periods of american journalism. this is where integrity and independence of the media was really lost. they were in the band for biden on this one. i don't see how you could read it any other way. these questions have to be answered and they are serious and deal directly with joe biden. >> sandra: will we get answers? how do you do it? >> well, i think that the question is whether the public will accept this news blackout. it is hard to keep that going when you have more evidence coming to the surface. >> sandra: we'll see. jonathan turley, great to see you this morning. thank you. >> our governor's priorities are all screwed up. he has totally destroyed us and that's his agenda. that's what it looks like. >> the owner of a new york city diner venting her frustration as the city faces a possibility of another full shutdown following new warnings of

restrictions from governor cuomo and mayor bill deblasio as new york city restaurant owners can only serve food outdoors. mayor deblasio facing criticism for asking people who can work remotely as much as possible. >> i call it the pajama class. order their food at home and get paid from their job that they get to sit on their couch and do. it's the small businesses, restaurants and all other small businesses and everything else that won't survive this. >> trace: david lee miller is live in new york city. good morning to you. how likely is the shutdown? >> well, it's governor cuomo who has final say. he has a shutdown could be just weeks away. if that happens it is not just the restaurants, trace, but all non-essential businesses could be forced to close because of the virus. governor says the state is now using a new metric that is based on predicting hospital

capacity. >> red zone happens if there is an increase in cases and hospitalizations in any region and that hospital capacity would reach 90% in three weeks. >> it looks like much of the city is going to have to shut down not because of covid but because of the weather. nor'easter is now heading this way. tomorrow afternoon the city says all outdoor dining must stop. chairs and tables removed our secured. the big question for many is what will happen to the ventilated outdoor structures that many restaurants have built in order to survive. as of now the city is not asking for those structures to be removed but if the forecast calls for a foot of snow or more they will be asked to be taken down. regardless of the snow, trace, restaurants and all businesses here in new york city face a very difficult future for the next several weeks, if not

months. >> speaking of governor cuomo. what's the latest on the sexual allegations against him? >> in the words of the governor, quoting him now, simply not true. the governor was asked about a series of tweets during his news conference from a woman named boylan. she has tweeted yes, new york governor cuomo harassed me for years. many saw it and watched. the governor yesterday denied the allegation. >> i fought for and i believe a woman has the right to come forward and express her opinion. and express issues and concerns that she has. but it's just not true. >> boylan has tweeted she has no interest in talking to journalists about her allegations and made her accusations after cuomo was mentioned as a possible candidate for attorney general. personal memos obtained by the

associated press say she resigned from cuomo's administration when there were complaints against her for belittling other women. >> trace: it appears few in the media are taking the allegations against governor cuomo seriously. do some democrats get a pass from the #metoo movement? we'll way in during the next hour. >> sandra: healthcare workers rolling up their sleeves to receive first doses of the covid-19 vaccine. how the vaccination effort could turn the tide in the battle against the coronavirus. plus growing calls now for investigations into china after congressman eric swalwell's involvement with one of its suspected spies comes to light. why some in the media are down playing the threat and how the f.b.i. may need to step in when we return.

>> for the last four years all we've heard about is russia. but here we have china has snuck in, the democrats have covered it up and media has covered it up. [ engine rumbling ] ♪ [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] ♪ uh, you know there's a 30-minute limit, right? tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

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>> sandra: lucas tomlinson. what response from the f.b.i. so far on this? >> republicans on the committee want a briefing from the f.b.i. as soon as possible waiting for a response. they want to get a full briefing about chinese efforts for espionage operations here writing in a letter, quote, we must insure members of congress remain uncompromised from the attempts of adversaries to plunder classified intelligence and influence american leadership. congressman swalwell said there was no wrongdoing and the f.b.i. hasn't charged him with a crime. the f.b.i. says it opened a new counter intelligence case against china every 10 hours. of the 5,000 counter

intelligence cases half involve the chinese. a database of chinese communist party members has been leaked showing the relationship to american companies. to be clear senior u.s. intelligence officials say the espionage on capitol hill both goes ways. chinese are trying to spy on republicans and democrats in order to gain influence inside the country. >> sandra: we'll keep watching it. lucas, thank you. >> trace: for more on the growing threat from china let's bring in congressman jim banks and also an outspoken critic of china and their growing ability to spy on us. good of you to join us. we appreciate it. because of the leaks we now know there are thousands of chinese operatives that have infiltrated companies like boeing and pfizer and even volkswagen. we don't know how compromised congress might be which is why house oversight sent a letter to f.b.i. director wray that reads going forward understanding the scope of the chinese communist party's whole

operation is critical to combating and preventing any future attempts to undermine our u.s. government institutions. congressman, do you think the f.b.i. has a handle on how deep this goes? >> well, trace, there are a lot of directions. you talk about imagine or corporations in america coerced by the chinese communist party. we've seen professional sports teams, nba, figures in hollywood. the difference between all of them and eric swalwell is eric swalwell is a member of congress privy to highly classified intelligence that he is regularly briefed on by the house intelligence committee. i served on the armed services committee for four years and i've sat through classified briefings after classified briefing to learn more about the china threat and what they're trying to do to america to dominate us economically and militarily. the reason even though the story is several days old, the

reason it's still a highly relevant story to the american people is that house democrats still have not done anything about it. let me tell you if kevin mccarthy was speaker of the house he would have removed any republican if this happened to them but the fact that speaker pelosi has yet to remove eric swalwell from the house intelligence committee tells us one of two things. either she too is compromised or secondly, that she needs eric swalwell's vote to badly for speaker of the house she can't alienate him. >> trace: you have this recurring theme lawmakers don't know how compromised they are. eric swalwell did know back in 2015, wouldn't you raise the alarm bells about china instead of going on and on about the phony russian collusion narrative? >> that's the thing about eric swalwell as we've heard him for four years beat up on the

president over the russian collusion hoax. now we find out that all along even before president trump came to office he was compromised by the chinese communist party and a chinese spy. we don't know how far it goes. does it include other members of congress? that's why the f.b.i. needs to continue to do their work. i've been briefed by the f.b.i. by the way, i guarantee many other members of congress have been briefed by the f.b.i. about susceptibility to foreign influences like this one. it is not like this is a new concept or idea to members of congress. we're well aware that adversaries would like to compromise us and get us on the hook and share with them information that could be useful for their country. it is time -- long past time for nancy pelosi to put country over her political party and remove eric swalwell from the house intelligence committee. >> trace: i've got to go. member of the house armed services committee how concerned are you about the threat china poses?

>> it's the biggest threat we face. the greatest threat that america faces today. the fact that the democrats won't even participate in a bipartisan effort that kevin mccarthy put together on the china task force tells you that the democrat party is the pro china party and the republican party is the party trying to do something about it. >> trace: jim banks, thank you for coming on this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> sandra: hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses making their way across the country in day two of operation vaccination. how two states are preparing to distribute their shots today. plus reverend warnock facing backlash for remarks he made years ago and it is not the first time why newt gingrich said warnock is the -- >> they don't want to be taken by hollywood, new york, chuck schumer. we're fighting for conservative

and american values here trying to make sure we support our police, our military, open up our economy, get back to work.

>> trace: day two. first round of vaccinations across the u.s. and hundreds more hospitals are preparing to receive and distribute doses with healthcare workers on the front lines rolling up their sleeves. senior correspondent laura ingle live for us in nyu winthrop hospital in new york. what is happening where you are today?

>> good morning, praise, once the trucks of vaccines arrives here nyu langone hospital known as winthrop the medical staff will start the steps they have been rehearsing for the last few months getting the vaccines off of those trucks, getting them into the freezers, thawing out the first batch and starting to vaccinate the first of the front line healthcare workers. also this morning we've got action in new jersey. the garden state getting its turn as a front line healthcare worker at new jersey university hospital received the first vaccine in the state. governor phil murphy was standing by after he toured the hospital covid clinic. the hospital's president tweeted the hospital is completely booked for healthcare worker vaccination appointments with over 100 appointments in 16 hour per day schedules set for next week adding, quote, very encouraging. the pfizer vaccine, which requires two doses, cannot come fast enough as the nation records record highs of cases

and deaths. new hampshire healthcare workers just began receiving their vaccines at elliott hospital in a state that has recorded nearly 10,000 covid cases in the month of december alone. we're only halfway through. we're expecting to see those vaccines arrive here at the hospital within the hour. this is a hospital which has treated nearly 2500 covid patients since the pandemic began. trace. >> trace: hospital has done yeoman's work. we all witnessed history yesterday as a new york city critical care nurse became the first american to receive the covid vaccine. sandra lindsay joins us next hour to talk about that history-making moment and life on the front lines coming up. >> sandra: meanwhile controversial conference reverend warnock made in 2017 are coming to light. the georgia democratic senate candidate blasting u.s. senators who supported president trump's 2017 tax cuts. warnock calling them quote

gangsters and thugs who aim to kill children. our next guest wrote a new op-ed about that electing warnock is a key step toward reaching schumer's goal of totally changing america. newt gingrich joins us now. good morning to you. we're remembering -- we do remember that moment. your piece how radical is raphael warnock? look at georgia senate candidates record. in your piece you highlight that moment by chuck schumer saying when georgia senate race ended in inconclusively november 3 democratic senator chuck schumer gloated first we take change and then we change america. what is your warning with this piece? >> first of all he said it pretty clearly. they want to take georgia and then they want to change the whole did kun -- country. warnock and ossoff with perfect candidates to do just that.

both radicals. i think warnock is more radical. as i said, he is the most radical major party candidate for the senate i think ever in american history. the quote you just gave is one more example. he is not just against tax cuts but he compares the senators who voted for a tax cut in 2017 with king herod killing children. you can't serve in the military and serve god and describes the police as thugs and gang members and they're a danger to children. he is so pro-abortion that some two dozen african-american pastors have called on him publicly to back off of his position because it's so pro-abortion. you go through all of warnock's things. without getting into his theology and the people he admires who believe deeply in an anti-white theology. skipping all that, just on the normal political side he was i think rank as the most radical candidate ever nominated by a

major party to the u.s. senate. >> sandra: really important that we put his own words that you just paraphrased up on the screen. this is december 2017 when you referenced herod. while others were sleeping members of the united states senate launched an evil attack on the most vulnerable people in america. herod is on the loose a cynical politician willing to kill children and kill the children's health program in order to preserve his own wealth and his own power. mr. speaker when you look back at the benefits of those tax cuts that president trump implemented, that policy went into effect 2018. this is market watch had the largest benefit for low and middle income earners. that's according to market watch analysis of i.r.s. data. taxpayers making between 40,000 and 50,000 a year had the largest fall in tax liability of 14 1/2% drop, mr. speaker. >> the sad thing is with somebody like warnock who is an

african-american pastor, you would have thought that having the lowest black unemployment in all of american history would have been seen as a good thing. having a substantial rise in take home pay for the lowest level of workers would have been seen as a good thing. of course, you reported another thing, everybody thought donald trump was crazy and "the new york times" and nbc news attacked him for saying we could have a vaccine this year. well, now we're reporting one of the great triumphs of a combination of american science, american entrepreneurial companies in a way that people literally thought six months ago was impossible. people like warnock i'm always surprised they reject reality, describe their fantasies and frankly how will you unify the country if you have someone who

did tax cuts like king herod. here at the christmas season maybe very inappropriate to have cited herod and compared it to senators that voted for a tax cut for people. >> sandra: with so much on the line in georgia, early voting underway. how do these new comments coming to light affect the race? >> i think the more people realize that warnock is this radical, the more trouble he is in and with ossoff they have a similar effect. the most recent poll shows kelly loeffler ahead of warnock by three or four points. i think it will get bigger when people realize this guy has a set of values you wouldn't want to see in the u.s. senate. >> sandra: pleasure to have you this morning, thank you. >> trace: with the investigation into his son's tax affairs coming to light, many observers are asking whether president-elect biden's justice department will be able

to fairly handle the case. plus looks like even santa has a bit of a side gig. the bizarre scene that landed two undercover cops on the nice list next. ♪ he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake ♪ ♪ you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout: ♪ over four hundred national parks protected. in fact, subaru and our retailers will have proudly donated over two hundred million dollars to national and hometown charities through the subaru share the love event. (vo) get 0% for 63 months and subaru will donate 250 dollars to charity.

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action knabing two suspects. the third man got away in a stolen s.u.v. that was later abandoned. >> sandra: federal investigation into joe biden's son hunter sparking a lot of debate over how the president-elect yet to be named attorney general will handle this case and whether it will be a fair investigation. let's bring in bill mcgurn from the washington journal. i should say the president-elect the incoming president how this will be handled. a fair question. what will happen under the biden administration with this ongoing investigation, bill? >> well, we don't know. what is happening now people are calling for a special counsel. the law says that you can have a special counsel in a serious criminal investigation. we're to let the department of justice keep the investigation would raise conflict of interest or some extraordinary circumstance.

hard to get to a more glaring contrast of interest than a biden justice department investigating joe biden's son about conduct that may implicate the president himself. but even with all that some of us just don't like special counsels and we think there are other ways to resolve this. >> sandra: and i say is it a fair question? people are left wondering will this be treated fairly under a biden administration? can it be investigated fairly? >> well, that is why people are saying we need a special counsel but i think there is an interim step. the problem that people like me have with a special counsel is that we think that the independence from the attorney general and the president is unconstitutional and it is not quite as glaring as the independent counsel but it raises some of the questions about that. so we never like to see it. that doesn't mean that it can't be investigated. an easy solution, if joe biden

doesn't want a special counsel hanging over his administration from day one is to announce that he is keeping on the trump-appointed attorneys who are now conducting the investigation. he will keep them on and let them finish, let them go on until they're finished. it would also be part of his pledge to look past party labels to come together for the good of the american people. i think it would spare him a special counsel and it would guarantee to the american people the investigation we know we need. >> sandra: it's a fair point and one that rand paul has backed up as well saying that why not just keep him on as that investigation continues? i want to move on to the latest piece that has gotten a lot of attention. it was a response to the "wall street journal" piece on dr. jill biden. against an op-ed on joe biden's use of doctor, of course, as we know now claiming that it was a

sexist attack on her saying that this would not be done of a man suggested the biden camp. my guess is that the biden team concluded it was a chance to use the big gun of identity politics to send a message to critics as it prepares to take power. there is nothing like playing the race or gender card to stifle criticism. the less version of donald trump's enemy of the people tweets. what do you think about that, bill? >> well, i totally agree with paul. i was astounded by the reaction to this. look, this is not a new argument. it has been around for decades. when i was an undergraduate i heard some professors say that they would never consider using doctor in their titles because they weren't m.d.s. there is nothing new about this and nothing applicable to either sex. i think joseph epstein would say the same thing about a man. i agree with paul. i think it's telling the overreaction to this and i

think that jill biden is open and fair game. she is the sitting president's wife and she says she is going to be involved in education policy. i think she is subject to fair comment. >> sandra: both sides are debating that. the biden team has made clear where they stand on the issue. i don't think that's over. we'll see where that story goes next. great to have you this morning, thank you. >> thanks, sandra. >> trace: coming up california governor newsom under pressure for his response to the pandemic. the consequences one group is now saying he should face. >> that was the last straw. people saw it for themselves exactly what he was doing and how he was conducting himself and people said we've had it. liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's one that'll really take you back. wow! what'd you get, ryan? it's customized home insurance from liberty mutual!

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>> trace: campaign to recall california governor newsom is gaining momentum due to his coronavirus response. the criticism extends to the hypocrisy he showed when he attended an indoor dinner party and accused of pandering to big business when he ordered many small businesses closed while allowing big box stores to stay open. we are joined by rand eye. you have 82,000 signatures and need 1.5 million to get it on the ballot. momentum, you have it. you said that in the beginning. you know recalls are a long shot especially a democratic governor in a deep blue state. what makes this any different? >> what makes it different is gavin newsom himself. he is his own worst enemy and every day he does something more that puts him deeper and

deeper into controversy and he has become a problem here in california. he shut down the fifth largest economy in the world for the last nine months and every single person out there in california should be outraged by that. we're being held hostage in our own homes and he is out with multi-million dollar lobbyists and pay to play people to go ahead and have private dinners in wineries in northern california. it is an outrage while we get stuck at home. >> trace: we see the pictures of him dining at the french laundry a while back. what's the bigger hypocrisy, randy? him dining there, violating his own restrictions or saying for nine months repeatedly that he was only following the science and then shutting down restaurants acknowledging that he has no science to follow? >> trace, it is all of the above. there is not one particular reason why everybody is

interested in getting gavin newsom out as governor. it is a combination of his own missteps and it's all about him and his record and how he has been just an absolute disaster of a governor for the past year and a half. people have had it. >> trace: even on the left, you're right. this is a cnn op-ed writes his handling of the coronavirus is already leading some people to speculate that it might well be the crown jewel in his resume when he inevitably ran for president. eight months later his political fortunes have dipped drastically. that said, randy, you need money and you need support and do you have both of those? >> we have support and like i said we have 828,000 people who have gone to recall gavin 2020.com. of course we need money. we need the $20 and $50 donations and yes, there are a

lot of people who want to become governor of california. this is their opportunity to step up and say listen, i'm going to invest in this recall not only my time, my energy, my effort but put a few dollars here as well. most of our contributions are from just the average working person not only here in california but throughout the country who are sick and tired of being preached to every single day in a camera by a governor who is completely out of touch with reality. it's a combination of a lot of things. >> trace: last time this happened in california in 2003 gray davis was recalled. arnold was the governor and others have signed onto the recall campaign. thank you for coming on, sir. >> thank you, trace. >> sandra: as the details of the hunter biden tax investigation come to light a newly uncovered email suggesting the feds may be on to something and now growing

calls for a special prosecutor into the matter and promises from inside the biden transition team of d.o.j. independence. will that happen? we'll have the latest from washington just ahead.

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since you're heading off to dad... i just got a zerowater. but we've always used brita. it's two stage-filter... doesn't compare to zerowater's 5-stage. this meter shows how much stuff, or dissolved solids, gets left behind. our tap water is 220. brita? 110... seriously? but zerowater- let me guess. zero? yup, that's how i know it is the purest-tasting water. i need to find the receipt for that. oh yeah, you do. >> trace: welcome back. pharmacies are stepping up to do their part pledging to give access to the vaccine to the most high risk groups including the ill dearly and healthcare workers. with us to discuss how the

roll-out will work is rina shah from walgreens. a monumental task. how do you prioritize which long-term care facilities are first and how do you get to the rural areas, the ones that are -- i know you are focusing on 75 miles within walgreens. what happens to the people in the rural nursing homes? >> thank you for having me. this is a monumental task and we have the entire organization working to help our communities get back to the new version of normal and a year from now. the first thing is the long-term care facilities efforts we've been planning this for the last i would say 6 to 8 months. so there has been a lot of effort going around the entire country to understand exactly where these facilities are and how we can continue to reach them. with our presence with 9,000 -- over 9,000 locations across the country we believe we have

access to the majority of the locations that are there. all the way from alaska to puerto rico to hawaii and as you mentioned the rural communities need us the most. that's where our pharmacists are. we're pretty confident that we'll be able to reach all the facilities out there. if there are any exceptions we're managing that situation by situation just to make sure that every resident that is available gets the vaccine. >> trace: what about logistics? do you have a deep freezer you need? do you have the syringess and all the stuff that you need right now to get this thing rolling and rolling fast? >> we have been providing immunizations for over a decade now. our pharmacists have been actually -- we've been part of h1n1 when that hit. since then we've continued to build upon our foundation and just this past flu season we've been able to immunize millions of patients. so because of that, we have the foundational supplies of gloves and face shields and all of the

different protective equipment that we need to insure that our patients and team members are safe. in addition to that is what you said, which is the ultracold freezers and dry ice. over the past couple of months we've been working with our partners the supply chain to insure we had the necessary equipment to manage the storage and handling of that pfizer product and so we do have select locations across the country equipped to manage that vaccine and to insure that vaccine is kept stored. >> trace: some are skeptical the former president of the california association of long-term care says the following quoting here the federal government sort of handling the distribution of these vaccines to cvs and walgreens was not well thought out and we're anticipating a lot of chaos in the process. i have about 20 seconds. what do you say to him? >> we have a long history in providing flu vaccinations and pneumonia vaccinations to long-term care facilities across the country.

we have administered over 150,000 clinics and so we're really confident in our capabilities. we're working closely with every state to make sure we're helping to manage through all those nuances. we're confident to support this as we go through the pandemic. >> trace: we're supporting you. best of luck in this effort. it is going to be monumental. thank you. >> thank you so much. >> sandra: top of a brand-new hour. growing concerns the criminal investigation into hunter biden's business dealings could be swept under the rug after his father takes office. now growing calls for a special counsel to avoid any hint of political interference into that investigation. good morning, i'm sandra smith. brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." hi, trace. >> trace: good morning to you again. good morning, i'm trace gallagher. the federal investigation into hunter biden's overseas business and tax affairs leaving president-elect biden in a tough spot. "the new york times" say the investigation is likely to hang

over biden as he takes office. the "wall street journal"'s bill mcgurn saying a special counsel is warranted by arguing it's a bad idea. >> easy solution if nobody doesn't want a special counsel hanging over his administration from day one is to announce that he is keeping on the trump-appointed attorneys who are now conducting the investigation. he will keep them on and let them finish. >> sandra: mike emanuel live in washington kicking this hour off. good morning. >> good morning. as biden prepares to take office he is plagued by his son and family business dealings. our colleague asked biden about his son's investigation and he ignored it. >> congratulations, appreciate it. >> hunter biden acknowledged he is under investigation for his tax affairs. one of the congressmen

investigating him talked about his concerns this morning. >> this isn't going away. it was a mess before the election. it is a bigger mess under a biden administration. i hope that the u.s. attorney in delaware will conduct a serious investigation. my concern is that it might be the investigation we saw under the hillary clinton email scandal. not to uncover the truth leading to proper cougs and conviction. more investigation to cover up the truth and lead to exoneration. >> fox news obtained a 2017 email of hunter requesting that keys be made for his office mates listing his dad, jill biden and uncle jim biden for office space he planned to share with the chairman of a chinese energy company and some suggest a special counsel should be needed to investigate. a key biden ally insists the president-elect will want an independent justice department. >> we should trust that attorney general nominated by

joe biden will restore the rule of law to how the department of justice works and will be an attorney general following the constitution for the american people, not a personal attorney for the president. >> there is great anticipation about who biden will nominate to lead his justice department. >> sandra: it seems it is coming down to that, whether or not it can be fairly investigated under a biden d.o.j. what else are we hearing on that as far as concerns from members of congress? i know rand paul also has been speaking out on this, mike. >> absolutely. there is a great deal of concern that anybody who works for president-elect biden when family members are being investigated will allow an investigation to go forward in a fair way. so you've got a lot of members saying special counsel. you have others suggesting that this will be a central issue whenever that attorney general nominee goes through the confirmation process. a lot of grilling about that. how will you handle this? lots of questions to answered.

>> sandra: all big and important questions. >> trace: joe biden is calling for unity after the electoral college voted to make him the next president. >> this battle for the soul of america, democracy prevailed. we the people voted. faith in our institutions held. the integrity of our elections remains intact. now it's time to turn the page as we've done throughout our history. to unite, to heal. >> trace: he said the will of the people and democracy prevailed. >> sandra: tucker carlson responding to biden's remarks on his show last night. watch. >> in america politicians don't take power, the people grant it to them. but it turns out the people granting that power don't get answers. why isn't joe biden willing to answer even basic questions about his son's foreign business dealings? the ones where he had luck rative arrangements, very

lucrative arrangements with companies tied to communist china. possibly because joe biden himself was directly involved in those deals and has been lying about them. >> sandra: our next guest say u.s. intelligence officials calling it russian disinformation should face consequences. what about accountability for some of those who did claim that? >> it's s -- we all know the media likes to run away from any kind of accountability. they certainly did over the past several years in all the stories they got wrong about this administration, about its connections with russia and the like. and i think in this case we had so many prominent people come forward in the reaction to the "new york post" story about hunter biden and say that this was russian misinformation including half a dozen former heads of the most powerful intelligence entity in the world including john brennan

and c.i.a. all signing on that it was russia misinformation and contributing to really a crackdown not just on the "new york post" story that was advanced by facebook and twitter but also by other members of the media who criticized anyone who touched the story including fox. these leaders are trusted with a lot of different things. when they come on and said i have the highest clearance of all. i have had a biggest job in intelligence and say to the american people this is russian misinformation people who are going along with it aren't just sharing a story that's bad or wrong, but they're engaging in a traitorous act and one that should be shut down by big tech. they're doing something that is totally inappropriate and there should be consequences for them. they shouldn't be able to go out on book tours, to go to events, to speak in public and to go on all of these different networks without asking basic questions about why they made such a claim that has turned out to be totally false. >> sandra: interesting.

we had jonathan turley on at the top of the last hour and i asked him what changes with this? how do you dig deeper into a story that the media is not willing to touch? he said the media has to change its way on this and he believes eventually as more revelations come to light that will happen. here is ian prior on hunter biden. listen. >> $400,000 is a lot of money. he didn't report income, that's a crime. two, what did he do to earn that money? how much influence did he peddle? these are questions we need to know. >> sandra: when do we see that change from the media? right now it appears there is one question coming from fox news as we saw in the latest news conference about this. >> i don't think you can anticipate that the media is going to cover themselves in glory. they would rather pretend like this is something that they can just ignore. no questions coming from the people that joe biden chose to call on about this in any context. but i think there is something

interesting there about what ian prior was making reference to, the $400,000 not being reported. what was really going on there? $400,000 is a lot of money but something indicative of maybe what we know from those different emails that we've seen. hunter biden was very much trying to avoid trying to make the necessary filings, the legal filings you have to make when you're representing a foreign entity or one closely tied to another government. he talked about this openly within the emails. clearly it was something he was trying to avoid doing. why? it would raise different questions, questions that would extend not just to him but obviously to his father as well. >> sandra: really important questions. now with with the resignation of a.g. barr, what does it mean for an investigation like this? >> i think that we have to be monitoring this very closely. the attorney general obviously has been criticized by the president and by others as well. a lot of voters are frustrated with the fact they didn't know or have the confirmation about

these investigations in a timely manner. at the same time i think i understand the attorney general's decision given he didn't want to go down the james comey route politicizing this in the days leading up to an election. but i think we have to make sure that any kind of investigation that's proceeding all long these lines. multiple ones, is allowed to continue. allowed to go to fruition. we need to know more about what has gone on here. i think frankly i would have -- >> sandra: that's how ben domenech signs off. fades to black as it goes. our thanks to ben this morning. >> trace: when he has said enough he has said enough. as millions of americans are set to receive the covid-19 vaccination the u.s. government wants to be able to share information on recipients saying it's critical in the response to the pandemic. a federal database raising concerns over privacy. mark meredith is live in washington good morning to you.

how concerned should people be? >> the government doesn't think there is much reason for concern. others aren't so sure. the state and local governments face a huge task of trying to track their progress. when americans go to get vaccinated they will get a physical vaccination card. but also the state and federal officials will be relying to collect electronic data on who is being immunizeed and when. the head of the american immunization registry association americans can rest assured material like social security numbers, private medical data from past years won't be widely collected. >> the systems have been developed. we have excluded a number of features that would make it more inclusive of certain conditions so like h.i.v. status or something that might make a candidate for more

immunizations but we don't want that information for those reasons. >> cdc faced questions and others about the safety of its data that's being requested whether or not the data could be used against some people. privacy experts we checked with say it makes sense for people to want to limit what data is collected and stored. >> i think that data, once it is out there, can never come back and why i'm one of these people very strongly supporting collecting and utilizing the minimum amount of data to accomplish a specific process and nothing more. >> that's the government. there are still so many questions about what travel will look like, events will look like in 2021. whether or not you have to present a pass on your mobile device to get into something like that. private companies are working on those apps to show people proof of vaccination. what kind of data will be stored? will it be safe? that's a question that still has yet to be answered. trace. >> trace: a lot of unknowns.

the world is changing. thank you. coming up later this hour the first person in america to get the vaccine joins us live. why nurse sandra lindsay says it was so important to get it and how she is feeling today. >> sandra: looking forward to talking with her. new york governor andrew cuomo accused of sexual harassment by a former staffer. not much has been said about it in the mainstream media. some are calling a double standard around the #metoo movement. the growing controversy surrounding congressman eric swalwell and a chinese spy. how the chinese government could be targeting other american politicians and this may be just the tip of the iceberg. >> the silence is deafening right now on the swalwell scandal where you had a chinese spy actually have some kind of relationship with him. a lot of people are asking what was the relationship? how long back does it go? low ve

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>> trace: an update on congressman eric swalwell's chinese spy controversies shining a light on china's efforts to target america's politicians. our next guest spent decades in the intelligence community and he writes ambitious and

experienced attention seeking politicians are like marks for mafia loan sharks. at some point a payment has to be made and the interest on the loan is ugly. eric swalwell had an ugly payment this week. his carelessness with a chinese intelligence operative looks more substantive than the russian collusion unicorn he insisted was real. kevin brock, deputy director of the national counter terrorism center and former assistant f.b.i. worker. you point out the hypocrisy of eric swalwell pushing the phony russian collusion narrative for years and ignoring the fact he was actually compromised by a chinese spy for all intents and purposes. why is that important? >> well, actually i think we can be thankful to congressman swalwell for some of his misadventures. the media is focusing on the hypocrisy and deserves to be

focused on. i pointed this out in my op-ed. he is one small piece of a larger mosaic that now is getting some needed attention. we in this country at our own peril ignore the intentions of the chinese communist party and their desire in their own words be the preeminent power in the world. they are becoming very, very aggressive, trace, and becoming much more sophisticated than they were 20 years ago when i was working and managing chinese counter intelligence cases for the f.b.i. they are deploying their greatest national resource, the number of people that they have, who now have to report under chinese law passed in 2017 they have to report all of their interactions with foreign

governments and businesses and provide that intelligence to the chinese communist party. they are a formidable adversary and becoming very sophisticated. >> trace: why are they getting in so prevalently? what are they after specifically, do you know what they're after? or are they after a a lot of things. >> they're after -- that type of information that will help the country advance economically, and militarily so that they can dominate the region and dominate the world economy. these are not my words. they are their own words. so they are actively trying to obtain information that gives them a competitive advantage in the world. we know they steal our intellectual property and research. they do that through direct espionage leveraging the internet and through the tens of thousands of students and

academics they send to our country every year. you can draw -- there is a straight line correlation between the rise of the chinese economy in the mid 90s to the advent of the internet. they do not have to spend money on research and development. they acquire that technology illicitly and use it competitively against us. and that's how they have been able to advance their economy so rapidly over the last 20, 25 years. >> trace: i have to ask you are you surprised at the lack of coverage by "the new york times" and the major networks? want to put up "the new york times" here. they won the pulitzer for covering russia collusion. they haven't covered this story at all with eric swalwell. cbs zero minutes, abc, 2 minutes 15 second. msnbc0 minutes and cnn3 minutes and 17 seconds.

>> go ahead. you asked me if i'm surprised. i don't think any american is surprised by that. we are all used to journalistic activism right now and you have some media that is pro-democrat, some media pro-republican and how people divide their attention and consume their news now. it is not a surprise this has happened. it is a danger and something we need to be aware of. our politicians at all levels of government, even down to the state level and city levels are being targeted by chinese intelligence operations. and as we see with the swalwell situation and they aren't afraid to bundle money to contribute to campaign and insert interns into offices. all with the decided purpose of gaining access and influence over our political system. and when you have a congressman who sits on a sensitive intelligence committee that is alarming. but it may not be isolated and

we have to be aware of that. >> trace: what i find fascinating you write they are also watching the way we handle the coronavirus. why? >> you broke up, i'm sorry. >> trace: i'm asking why you said in your op-ed they're also watching the way we handle the coronavirus. i'm wondering why. >> yeah. i think this is an important point. the coronavirus has had a tremendous impact on our society, on our physical health, we're spending a lot of money combating this and making people whole. it has created divisions within the country. americans are chafing at lockdowns. this is the type of disruptive discord that the chinese intelligence agencies are very interested in seeing and fomenting, and so if they are not paying attention to how

we're handling our response to something like a coronavirus, then they are derelict in their duties. they should be paying attention and looking for ways to exploit that. we have sensitive and aware of that duplicity in this regard. china is not our friend. we derive a lot of benefit in having them as a trading partner and there is good effect to having the chinese economy in the world, but not at the expense of certain things that we're paying for right now. we have to be very, very cautious. they are decidedly not acting in our best interests. >> trace: last hour we talked to congressman jim banks from indiana and he said this. i want to get your response. listen. >> we've seen professional sports teams, nba, we've seen figures in hollywood, the difference between all of them and eric swalwell is that eric

swalwell is a member of congress privy to highly classified intelligence that he is regularly briefed on by the house intelligence committee. >> trace: i only have a few seconds. your thoughts on what the congressman said. >> i think it's important anybody who sits on an intelligence committee is subject to the same type of counter intelligence scrutiny that those of us who held top secret clearances in the government. they should be subject to periodic polygraphs and we can assure ourselves that the extra level of insurance those we're entrusting our secrets to are held accountable. >> sandra: this just in. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell speaking on the senate floor moments ago and for the first time since the election congratulating president-elect joe biden and vice president elect kamala

harris saying the electoral college has spoken. his words from the senate floor on the other side of the break. meanwhile new details emerging in the massive cyberattack on u.s. government agency computers. what we are now learning in that investigation. plus a jamaican born nurse in new york gets the first to get the coronavirus vaccine. you saw it live on this program yesterday. sandra lindsay will join us next with how she is feeling after receiving that first shot yesterday. veterans, record low mortgage rates

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the electoral college has spoken. >> i want to congratulate president joe biden. no stranger to the senate. he has devoted himself to public service for many years. i also want to congratulate the vice president elect our colleague from california, senator harris. >> trace: mcconnell congratulating the vice president elect and the president to be joe biden just a short time ago. sandra. >> sandra: thank you, trace. sandra lindsay a registered nurse in new york made history yesterday becoming the first person in the u.s. to get the vaccine just over 24 hours ago you will remember this moment happened live during our program yesterday. lindsay is a healthcare worker at the long island jewish medical center and featured on the cover of the "new york post" this morning. she joins us now. thank you for joining us, sandra. how did it feel to be the headline and the key photo on the cover of the "new york post" this morning? >> thank you very much for

having me. it is surreal. but i'm happy to be representing healthcare workers and nurses all across the world. >> sandra: god bless you. i know this was part of you wanting to send a message that it is safe to get the vaccine. why was it so important for you to sit in that chair and be the first in the nation to get that shot? >> because i know that people have a lot of apprehension and fear about taking the vaccine. and my message to them is not to be afraid because the alternative is far worse. i've seen too much pain, too much suffering, too many people that passed away as a result of covid-19 and so i stand by the science, i believe in science, i trust science, and i don't trust covid-19. so it was important for me and

especially, you know, to send a message to the minority community, hispanic, latinos, blacks who are usually grossly affected but still have mistrust based on history. >> sandra: part of the public fear is that this will hurt, that you will get sick from the shot, develop symptoms like covid. how are you feeling this morning after receiving the first dose? >> i am feeling great. my temperature this morning was 98.1. no muscle weakness, no muscle pain. arm soreness on a scale of 1 to 10 is a 1. i feel great. >> sandra: wow. really something to hear you say that and so important for all of us to hear you say that. so you await the second dose. how much do you believe this will eventually change our way of life considering you've been on the front lines. you've seen how bad and how evil this virus can be. >> so my hope is that, you

know, more people will take the vaccine because it doesn't help if a large population of people don't take the vaccine. and that we'll see less suffering, less pain, less deaths, and only when we get -- when the science dictates that we should take our mask off and stop practicing social distancing, that's when we should stop but we should continue the fight, the finish line is near. the light is brighter at the end of the tunnel, but we have to do our part and we need to band together to put this pandemic to rest once and for all. >> sandra: the light at the end of the tunnel is so important. i want to put this up quick before i let you go. this is your brother, garfield lindsay. so proud of my younger sister for stepping up and taking the covid-19 vaccine like a champ. witnessed firsthand too many deaths and leading by example to do what's necessary to beat this virus.

first in the u.s., i think so, so proud. fair of all of us to say. thank you for doing it and taking the first vaccine and sending your message of hope to us this morning. thank you. >> thank you. >> sandra: be well. >> trace: she is a great example. officials in orange county, california fighting a court order aimed at cutting the county's jail population by 50% because of the pandemic. william la jeunesse live for us in los angeles. william, good morning to you. what's the county going to do? >> the county will meet this afternoon and plan to appeal because the sheriff says almost 200 inmates this judge wants released are in for murder, attempted murder or child molestation. the controversy is going on around the country led by governors in new jersey. 2200 inmates in a single day last month released. 1300 maryland, 8,000 california. what's different about orange county, trace, is a judge acting in this lawsuit filed by

the aclu ordered the release. the sheriff, da say not going to happen. 40% of inmates released early commit new crimes and the jail already released 1400 because of covid. letting more go they say would put the public at risk according to the sheriff. aclu says that jail is unsafe. socially distancing nearly impossible. medical care limited and vulnerable inmates those with diabetes and underlying conditions are forced to share air with the general population. outbreaks hard to control. last monday they had zero cases, by friday they had 138, 416 by yesterday. unlike a prison, of course, a jail is a revolving door. because of that six states inmates will be among the first to receive the pfizer vaccine. trace, back to you. >> trace: we'll stay updated on this story. live in l.a. thank you. >> sandra: major news outlets rallying around jill biden

after a snarky write-up after four years of not so friendly coverage of melania trump. is the media playing favorites with these two? ♪ irresistibly smooth chocolate. to put the world on pause. lindor. made to melt you. by the lindt master chocolatier.

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i got real relief with cosentyx. watch me! feel real relief. ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. >> trace: new york governor andrew cuomo denying allegations of sexual harassment by a former staffer. the story broke over the weekend but not much coverage with the major news outlets. lindsey boylan hasn't produced any evidence and says she has no interest in talking to reporters. the governor is flatly denying the allegations. >> i heard about the tweet and what it said about comments that i had made and it's not true. >> trace: joe concha is a media and politics columnist and fox news contributor. in fairness this woman hasn't given any evidence. not put forth very much at all,

joe. you look back at the kavanaugh hearing and you had cnn and michael avenatti come on every night saying that brett kavanaugh was a gang rapist with zero evidence to support this. i want to put this up on the screen and let you go. evening newscast on sexual harassment allegations, zero minutes, abc, zero minutes nbc and zero minutes for cbs. your thoughts. >> isn't that amazing these newscasts that get 25 million viewers when you combine all their audiences decided not to cover this? cnn not touching this story as well. again this is the same news organization that didn't go near the hunter biden story before the election. they seem to make editorial decisions based on and that's what they cover and don't cover based on party affiliation. but let's say this was a prominent conservative. let's say a governor ron desantis was accused of sexual harassment. do you think abc, cbs, nbc

wouldn't cover that wall-to-wall? that's a rhetorical question. this has been a bad stretch for andrew cuomo. he sold out before the election in the vaccine telling george stephanopolous saying i think it will be a skeptical american public taking the vaccine and they should be. can you imagine that? 110 million americans have said they aren't going to take this vaccine or have doubts with it showing 1/3 of americans. you can't have herd immunity when you have leading politicians casting doubt on its safeness. another ploy to score chief political points. >> trace: now joe biden will take it. now i want to talk about the treatment of melania trump versus jill biden. here is joy behar. watch. >> first of all don't call her kiddo. she is not somebody you met on tinder. she is the next first lady of the united states.

i think we've been respectful to melania and we'll be respectful to jill. >> your thoughts on this? >> that's fascinating. look, joy behar told cnn not too long ago. melania trump's parents are -- she was a model. now she is the first lady. "washington post" a couple weeks ago has this as the headline. people are making bets on whether melania trump will divorce donald trump. is melania trump looking forward to getting rid of president trump? is it another fantasy trump critics are projecting on a first lady. they imagine his wife despise him. two reporters on that story. that's all you have to know about the treatment of melania trump. treated the worst of any first

lady we've seen. thank you. >> sandra: up next we're going to speak to a restaurant owner who has some choice words for politicians as new york's governor warns of yet another potential shutdown. rates have dropped even lower.e and now you can save $3000 a year. veterans can shortcut the process with newday's va streamline refi. there's no appraisal, no income verification, and not a single dollar out of pocket. rates are at the lowest they've been in our lifetimes. one call can save you $3000 a year. ú?pvintroducing the new sleep number 360 smart bed... now temperature balancing, so you can sleep better together. and now, save up to $700 on new sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, 0% interest for 48 months on all smart beds. only for a limited time.

♪ i'll be home for christmas ♪ if only in my dreams ♪

- [narrator] as many of the nation's most trusted hospitals, we all know this. the science has not changed. masks slow the spread of covid-19. every one of our healthcare professionals is asking you to do one very simple thing.

let's keep it up. let's mask up. (solemn orchestral music ends)

>> sandra: small businesses under siege as political decisions are hurting entire neighborhoods in some areas. now some business owners are wondering if the decision two years ago to convince amazon to drop plans for a massive new headquarters in new york could have been a game changer during this pandemic. the owner of a restaurant in long island city joins us now. thank you for joining us this

morning. you're speaking not just on behalf of yourself but other business owners who agree with you. what is your thinking on this? >> yes, good morning. how are you? thank you. it's about small business in general that we're losing a lot of -- we're just really holding on to a string at the moment. the problem is that someone like amazon would have brought business to the area. especially not just here for long island city but surrounding new york. small business right now we're at a difficult point, as you know. >> sandra: absolutely. there are warnings that another full shutdown could be coming according to the new york city mayor and the governor of the state of new york. >> we've already started. restaurants are closed. we're closed now. as of today we're closed. amazon -- people were so opposed to it from the very beginning but these politicians were not understanding it was about keeping business running and not about them.

>> sandra: i suppose what you see with businesses now they are fleeing these areas now that many people can work from home and they are heading to warmer climates, heading to areas that feel safer to them. where they think their families can have a better life. >> we had an exodus from new york. 375,000 people have left new york city, right? and what do our local politicians? fighting with each other doing to keep people in new york and keep people working. >> sandra: why do you think this decision was made? >> i think that it had a lot to do with the way that the politicians were just using it as a platform for themselves. they never thought about the constituents. they never thought about the people they work for. people like myself, working people. from the very beginning it was all about statements made politically. okay, i did say what i said

about aoc. i think that they never understood what the importance was for business. for instance, right now if we had amazon, there is nothing going on in that area. no development whatsoever. the workers would be going to the local stores, they would be helping the local economy in some way. if you look at other places where amazon is, they help stimulate the neighborhoods and the communities. where the local politicians did not. we have to look at the whole picture here. everyone is looking at just the tax or what not but they didn't look at the economy and how it would have changed and sustained. not just this community, all of manhattan. >> sandra: it is tough times for all of you. our heart goes out to you. our best to you as you try to weather this storm and get through this. hopefully now with a vaccine coming. >> what are we going to do? even with the vaccine coming the stimulus, they won't give us the stimulus right now because they want to hold onto

it. there has to be a point in which we all work and we work together and really help the people who need it. not just the small businesses, but the lower income locally really need some help. thank you for having me on. >> sandra: we would love to follow up with you. thank you for telling your story this morning. appreciate that. >> thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> trace: the republican on the house intelligence committee demanding congressman eric swalwell give up his seat on the panel over the china spy controversy and suggesting others in the committee may have been targeted. congressman chris stewart joins us on that coming up.

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or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. >> trace: president trump tlifrg on when his promise to have an fda approved covid vaccine by the end of the year. now one news outlet is being mocked for saying he could not make it happen. nbc news getting flak over this article in may. the headline reads, experts say trump needs a miracle to be right about a vaccine coming this year. buck sexton had it just right on this nbc fact checked. he said fact checking predictions isn't a fact check. the fraud that nbc news knew that and did not care. they have to admit trump is a miracle worker now, carley. your thoughts. >> to be honest president trump and the experts who doubted his timeline are both right.

the president said we would have a vaccine before the end of the year and thankfully we do. i would call that nothing short of a miracle. this is a story that the media and the fact check tweet went viral and some hum dinger sound bites mocking the president for having an optimistic timeline. the reason it's going viral. it shows the media's smug and dismissive attitude towards anything the president says. obviously he was talking to experts who were updating him on the vaccine timeline. some members of the media accused him of lying to benefit his reelection campaign. >> trace: we have to go back and note that joe biden said you can't trust a vaccine under this president. that was before the election. now vaccine is good, roll your sleeves up and get it in. cuomo exactly right. msnbc steve schmidt said i would bet my left arm that donald trump can't spell

vaccine let alone make a prediction about when we're likely to see one. it just kind of goes on and on and on, carley. >> you know, president trump sometimes just can't do -- he can do no right. if he said back in may we would have a vaccine by 2021 or 2022 as some experts were saying there would be articles written about him accusing him of having no faith in the medical community. a few months ago he was asked if he would be willing to be the first person to take the vaccine and he said yeah, i would, the drum up confidence. i would also be accused of stealing a vaccine selfishly from someone who needs it the most. the president can't do anything right in the eyes of those who dislike him. >> trace: he came out and got a lot of flak and criticism for being optimistic about the coronavirus and pandemic and trying to be optimistic about the vaccine and he was right this time around. >> whether or not you are a

trump critic or trump supporter we can be happy he was right about this one. >> trace: thank you. >> sandra: fox news alert now calls for action on capitol hill over congressman eric swalwell and his links to a suspected chinese spy. his republican colleagues demanding answers from the f.b.i. saying others in washington may have been compromised. welcome back to "america's newsroom," i'm sandra smith. >> trace: i'm trace gallagher. swalwell ignoring calls to give up his seat on the house intelligence committee and refusing to detail his relationship with the suspected spy. house republicans are calling on the f.b.i. to brief lawmakers. here is kevin brock, former f.b.i. assistant intelligence director on "america's newsroom" earlier. >> our politicians at all levels of government, even down to the state level and city levels are being targeted by

chinese intelligence operations with the purpose of gaining access and influence over our political system. >> trace: lucas tomlinson live at the pentagon with more. good morning. >> some republicans want eric swalwell kicked off the intelligence committee. earlier in your program banks said china's activities go beyond capitol hill. >> we've seen professional sports teams, the nba, we've seen figures in hollywood. the difference between all of them and eric swalwell is that eric swalwell is a member of congress privy to intelligence he is briefed on by the house intelligence committee. >> six republicans have written the f.b.i. demanding a full briefing about china's spying operations inside the u.s. eric swalwell wasn't mentioned by name. we must insure members of commerce remain -- congressman

swalwell denied any wrongdoing and fully cooperated with authorities at the time. f.b.i. has not charged him with anything related to this matter. the f.b.i. says it opened new counter intelligence cases every 10 hours. half involve the chinese of all cases. the database of chinese communist party members has been leaked showing their close relationship to some american companies. a chinese business woman last year was convicted of trespassing in mar-a-lago carrying electronic equipment. she made it past five secret service agents before being nabbed. china's goal is to spy on both republicans and democrats in order to steal valuable secrets. >> trace: thank you, lucas. >> sandra: for more on this let's bring in congressman chris stewart. republican from utah serving on the house intelligence

committee. great to have you here this morning. a lot of questions. do you believe that others were targeted like swalwell? >> well, certainly they were. we know members of congress especially those who serve in very sensitive positions are targeted. >> sandra: you know that? >> i'm sorry? >> sandra: you know that? >> for sure we do. that's just a matter of course that we know that from our own experience and from briefings. it shouldn't surprise anyone. we know the chinese communist party is targeting businesses, members of the congress and the administration. that shouldn't surprise anyone. >> sandra: is there any other light you can shed on that as to who has been targeted and how that has been brought to light? are any of them currently serving in intelligence roles? >> well, look, again i'm just going to say i think all of us need to make the presumption we would be targeted and where mr. swalwell failed so poorly in this. that is the context of this

relationship with this person. she wasn't just a girl down the street he grew up with. she was a chinese student. she had just barely come to the united states. she was so aggressive in developing relationships with politicians. she helped him raise money. for heaven sakes, how does a college student have the capacity to help a member of congress raise money? all sorts of red flags on this that i think any one of us would have said this doesn't make sense to me. i think that's the primary failure here. we start with the presumption that china is going to target us and try to exploit and develop relationships with us and then you look at the common sense environment we're in and say does this person raise red flags? she certainly did. i think that's where mr. swalwell has some questions that he has to answer. >> sandra: we continue to have lawmakers and current intelligence officials and past tell us just how important and severe the threat that china poses to this country is. so i'm confused, congressman,

when in one breath we have brad wenstrup from the intel committee on this program and in the next moment we go to nancy pelosi live saying that all lawmakers, republican and democrat, were briefed when this was revealed, when this was discovered years ago. brad wenstrup said that didn't happen. which is it? were lawmakers briefed that this occurred? >> promise you we were not. the gang of eight, a select group of lawmakers, may have been. i don't know the answer to that question. but the congress and the body as a whole were not. nor were the members of the intelligence committee. we had no idea. but again, f.b.i. and others have said 1,000 times to members of congress be careful. you will be targeted. and i think this is just a moment for the american people to realize just how aggressive china is in trying to collect and to spy on america. by the way, a good example came

out just yesterday where we had this leak where there is tens of thousands of members of the chinese communist party that embedded themselves in western governments in ngos, businesses, some of the biggest businesses and banks in the world. tens of thousands of them are members of the chinese communist party. to be a member of the party is only a very small percentage of chinese citizens who are. 5 or 6% of chinese citizens are actually members of the chinese comeist party. it is very hard to become a member. they take an oath and pledge to the party and if any of those individuals are in your bank or in your business, if they're working for you or in your government you should be incredibly concerned about that. i think that's a great example of how pervasive and aggressive they are in collecting information. they don't view the united states as a friend. they view us as an adversary. >> sandra: it is one thing for you and i to discuss about others being targeted. another if there were other

lawmakers who knew about this and kept it secret. do you believe that that happened? >> yeah, well, you are going to have to ask ms. pelosi that and some others. i think she had a responsibility knowing what she apparently knew. mr. swalwell said leadership knew about that. so she had a responsibility to take action on that and to get some information. to get answers to these questions. mr. swalwell, what was the relationship like? was it a romantic relationship? how was it that she helped you raise money and we now know other chinese citizens were donating to your campaign? how did she find out she was under investigation and why did she suddenly leave the country? there are all sorts of questions that pelosi or anyone in leadership who knew this information had the responsibility to ask. >> sandra: she is invited to come on this program any time she wants. are you a member of the intelligence committee and hit on the house intel committee. can you demand answers from the speaker? >> it turns out there is not

much anyone can demand from ms. pelosi that she is willing to concede to sometimes. we can certainly request this and we can put pressure on but ms. pelosi is the speaker of the house and she runs the house the way she sees fit and if you disagree with her on much of that. the f.b.i. is another question and they can't ignore our demands or requests like ms. pelosi can and why many of us are saying come in and talk to us and share with us what you knew and what other members of congress in leadership and ms. pelosi knew. >> is that going to happen? will there be a briefing? >> yeah, i'm -- >> sandra: we lost the congressman. we appreciate the time he was able to give us this morning as we continue to move forward with that. whether or not lawmakers will demand and congressman i'll bring you back in if you're still with us. my final question to you sir would be does eric swalwell need to be removed from that

committee while you dig further into this? >> i think he should be removed while we investigate. he absolutely has questions to answer that he has refused to answer at this point. he can't just remain silent and put out a two sentence press statement and not say anything more and expect to come in and sit with us on the committee while we continue to look at sensitive information. one of the two has to happen. he either has to recuse himself from the committee or he has to come in and answer questions. >> sandra: has he said what his intention is? have you spoken with him? >> he has made it very clear. he has been very mute on this and made as i said one or two press statements and refused to talk to anyone beyond that. >> sandra: okay. congressman, appreciate your time this morning. thank you. >> thank you, sandra. >> trace: president trump is praising his outgoing attorney general william barr set to leave his post before christmas. it comes as some reports claims

he was privately furious over word that barr knew about the hunter biden investigations but didn't reveal their existence before the election. kristin fisher live with more on this. >> good morning, trace. in addition to the investigation into hunter biden, the president and his allies had also grown frustrated with bill barr's handling of the durham investigation into the origins of the russia probe way back in 2016. they wanted that report out before election day and then there was bill barr's statement that the department of justice had not seen any evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. but despite that friction, the two ended things at least publicly on relatively good terms with the president tweeting last night just had a very nice meeting with attorney general bill barr at the white house. our relationship has been a very good one. done an outstanding job. he will be leaving just before christmas to spend the holidays with his family. so now the investigation into

hunter biden will continue under the deputy attorney general jeff rosen when he takes over in an acting capacity on december 23. but he will only be on the job for about a month. biden's attorney general will inherit this investigation into the president-elect's son which is why his pick for a.g. is going to be so widely scrutinized especially when you have the new information coming out like an email that fox obtained from hunter's former business partner in 2017 saying that he did not disclose on his tax returns $400,000 in income from burisma, the ukrainian national gas company that he was on the board of. of course, last week hunter biden confirmed he is under federal investigation for his tax affairs and financial dealings overseas. as for president trump, he has nothing on the calendar today but vice president mike pence is going to be on his way to indiana. he will be touring a biotech

company checking out their vaccine production line. they're helping out with operation warp speed. he will be holding a round table on operation warp speed, trace and he certainly has a lot of good news to talk about on that front. trace. >> trace: indeed he does. kristin, thank you. >> sandra: joe biden and his message of unity not here slamming president trump for challenging the results of the election. why the president-elect might be hurting himself by attacking his predecessor. claims of sexism against the "wall street journal" continue to pour in after an op-ed writer urged jill biden to drop her doctor title. after four years of silence about attacks on people on the right, is the media showing its bias again? >> in 2015 "the new york times" was three times as likely to use doctor in referring to jill biden than ben carson who is a noted and prestigious neurosurgeon.

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just wanted to say thanks. thanks for believing. >> trace: incoming president biden called for unity after the electoral college vote to make the election results official but didn't extend an olive branch to his biggest political rival but took several shots of president trump over his actions since the voting ended.

>> respecting the will of the people is at the heart of our democracy. even when we find those results hard to accept, it is my sincere hope we never again see anyone subjected to the kind of threats and abuse we saw in this election. it is simply unconscionable. >> trace: now joining us karl rove, fox news contributor and former deputy chief of staff. biden wants the country to unite but he didn't go out of his way to win over the 74 million people who voted for his opponent. >> not at all. referred to the president as extreme. said he refused to respect the will of the people, the rule of law and honor the constitution. he called the president's efforts in court and unprecedented assault and our democracy and turned around and said it's time to unite. turn to page to heal. bad tone, bad mistake. i just -- there is a pugnaciousness to joe biden when it comes out it ain't very attractive. >> trace: it is interesting.

i want to give you a different example of the tones here. you've got the co-founder of the democratic coalition who wrote president-elect biden is crushing his speech right now ripping trump's assault on democracy hard but also a strong call for unity, awesome. then you go on to debbie lesko who said watch joe biden's speech tonight. if his goal was to unite the country he failed miserably. he took jabs at donald trump and congressional republicans, gop house and said we need to unite. you have one side saying it was pitch perfect. the other saying it was tone deaf. we're still stuck. >> over my shoulder is the texas state capitol. following the 2020 election george w. bush after the supreme court decision gave a speech here. upbeat and positive and optimistic. he applauded his opponent. what if he had gotten up in

front of that audience, nationwide televised address and attacked al gore for having ignored the state laws of florida and its requirement of a statewide recount and instead tried to overturn the vote total in florida by an illegal recount in three counties that would take spoiled ballots and try to divine the intention of unknown voters. it was slapped down by the united states supreme court in a 7-2 decision in which even liberals like david souter and steven breyer joined. what if george w. bush had done that that night and castigated al gore and said it was time to unite. it wouldn't have meant any fewer protestors at his inaugural or fewer democrats who called him illegitimate. it would have absolutely set the wrong tone and i think joe biden did it last night again. >> trace: i want to get your thoughts on this. hillary clinton calling to

abolish the electoral college. i believe we should abolish the electoral college and have our president win by the popular vote. >> that would be a guarantee of chaos. we would end up having multiple candidates for president. not two. lose the stability the electoral college granted us. it won't happen. the states won't allow it. go talk to north dakota, south dakota, utah, alabama, all the medium-size states in the country, smaller states and they won't go for it. forget it. loser. >> trace: we'll end on that word. karl rove, good to see you, sir. thank you. >> happy holidays and merry christmas. >> sandra: the "wall street journal" facing continued criticism after running an op-ed calling for jill biden to drop the doctor from her name. supporters bashing the piece as sexist but some asking where

was the complaining when the trump family were attacked. is there a double standard at play, robby? good morning. >> good morning. there is no question that there is a double standard. the press sort of liberal comedians attacked people like sarah huckabee sanders and really mocking unpleasant terms which it is the role somewhat of the press to have this independent mindset and to hold the powerful accountable and sometimes in kind of nasty language and characterizations. this op-ed was much more mild than that. i guess you could say it takes a condescending tone but really the broader issue it addresses we don't need to credential and inflate everyone having -- being a doctor, having an education not quite a same as being a medical doctor. i think it's fine to make that point generally. also for the media, for the press to have this mindset that they should be kind of

unrelentingly critical of the people in power, of the government. that's what the function of the press is supposed to occupy. and there is no question that many in the mainstream media having had that role for the last four years are going into defense mode to defend the incoming administration. >> sandra: "wall street journal" defended its stance in that piece. meanwhile here was tucker carlson teeing off on it last night. >> this is friday -- they pointed out dr. joe biden isn't a real doctor. she won't be treating high blood pressure. >> sandra: that was tucker's take on it last night, robby. it does bring up a good point of looking at how the first lady today melania trump is treated by the media and her family compared to how now we're seeing this coordinated response when it came to this

wall street piece on dr. jill biden and the attack back. it did feel like they were ready. >> it is a switch from attack mode to defense mode. of course, this is to be expected from biden's staffers from campaign people, from political operatives. no surprise there. that's fine. they can and should defend jill biden. the interesting thing is to watch so many in the media, the liberal media, mainstream media go along with it and provide cover for them. they really do a lot of them see their role as sort of allies in this fight on behalf of the bidens, which is really frightening. all the more important for independent journalists and conservatives and libertarians to be very critical and investigating the administration because we can't count on the mainstream media to do that same job it was doing for the last four years. >> sandra: robby, good to have

you this morning. thank you. >> thank you. >> trace: new york city has just banned indoor dining again. now outdoor dining will have to stop at least temporarily as a major snowstorm barrels toward the northeast. with things get any worse for small businesses? a live report on that straight ahead. it appears some democrats fears over the safety of a vaccine developed under president trump were unfounded. will they admit they were wrong? tom bevan from real clear politics will weigh in on that. >> back in may when the president set the goal of finding a vaccine by the end of this year, his timeline was literally dismissed by people who assumed they knew better. research shows people remember commercials with nostalgia.

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>> sandra: top headlines bottom of the hour. more than 150 business owners in minnesota say they will defy shutdown orders if the governor decides to extend them when

they expire tomorrow. risking fines and jail time if they stay open. >> trace: the government is blaming iran for the death of robinson. he vanished from a resort island off the iranian course. >> sandra: the president of mexico joining vladimir putin in congratulating joe biden on his election after the electoral college made the results official. download the fox news app, scan the qr code or go to foxnews.com/app. this is developing right now. this is a live look at time square, mid town new york where restaurant owners are protesting the latest shutdown on indoor dining in this city. governor cuomo announcing the new restrictions yesterday. that pause in outdoor dining will start tomorrow due to a snowstorm set to hit the city. the one-two punch comes as

lawmakers warn a full shutdown may be in the near future. not sitting well with many of those business owners. >> our governor's priorities are all screwed up. he has totally destroyed us and that's his agenda. that's what it looks like. that his agenda is to destroy us so he can recreate a new new york the way he wants it. >> sandra: we're live in new york city david lee. you saw the group that's together in time square there protesting the shutdown orders and now a storm is on the way. what does that mean for these struggling restaurant owners? >> it is very bad news. the restaurants are going to have to do what they perhaps fear the most. that is halt at least temporarily outside dining. you can see behind me some of the temporary structures. it was only a day ago that all indoor dining was halted and

the end temporarily of outdoor dining will cause further economic devastation to an industry that is already hurt. tomorrow afternoon the city says all outdoor dining is going to have to stop. the time 2:00 p.m. chairs and tables must be removed or security. mayor bill deblasio said the city will try to allow temporary structures to stand. although the final decision will be made by governor andrew cuomo, a shutdown of all non-essential businesses in the weeks ahead is all but certain. citing a second wave of the virus. >> i think unfortunately -- i don't say it with anything but sorrow. i think it is needed. we'll need to do some kind of shutdown in the weeks ahead. something that resembles the pause we were in in the spring. >> as you mentioned moments ago at this hour a rally is taking place in new york city's time square. it is a restaurant and

hospitality workers demonstrating and calling on financial aid for their industries and marching to the governors office. some are questioning why indoor dining had to be shut down despite the fact that tracing data shows that less than 1 1/2% of covid spread comes from bars and restaurants. the majority of the spread according to the state's own statistics is from private gatherings. back to you. >> sandra: amazing those pictures, live pictures happening in time square right now david lee of the restaurant owners fighting for their survival as they endure another shutdown in this city. we'll keep watching that. david lee, thank you. >> we're witnessing something many in the media predicted would never happen on president trump's watch as the first covid vaccines go out to front line workers nationwide. it's a feat the mainstream media cast doubt on for months with some outlets suggesting a vaccine produced in record time

couldn't be trusted. tom bevan is the editor for real clear politics. good to see you, by the way. mitch mcconnell said they dismissed the president's timeline on the covid vaccine and now when it looked like it may be a reality it went from dismissal to it won't work. joe biden said who would trust a vaccine under this president? now you have former presidents and joe biden can't wait to roll up their sleeves. it seems disingenuous. >> it was. it was a political issue and football happened in the middle of a presidential election campaign and so it is unfortunate that it was politicized the way it was. but that is how it went down and the democrats were in a real tough position pre-election and you saw kamala harris and vice presidential debate say i don't trust donald trump at all. i won't listen to him. i'll listen to fauci and the scientists.

so low and behold the election happens and now democrats are gung-ho to take the vaccine and republicans are the ones who are less enthusiastic about taking the vaccine. >> trace: i want to play this media montage of where they were and we'll get your response on where they are. watch. >> many health experts aren't so sure it's achievable. >> coronavirus vaccine could come out this year, happy talk that he is doing about a vaccine. >> another day of potus in wonderland here. >> trace: can't be done. do you think anybody would throw out an attaboy here or there, tom? >> i haven't seen many actually. hardly any coming from those who dismissed it. look, there was a basis for some skepticism as i mentioned, this was done in record tie. it is a miracle, astonishing how quickly this vaccine was produced. that's credit to the private

sector but also credit to trump and operation warp speed for cutting the red tape that allowed it to happen in record time. i think some of that skepticism was warranted. you had democrats saying this is just absolute happy talk. it was politicized unfortunately and there haven't been many, if any, who have come forward and said the trump administration did an excellent job in getting this vaccine to market here in record time. >> trace: do you think people are looking differently at the optimism? when the president got in a lot of heat for saying he was optimistic about this vaccine trying to put on a happy face while people were dying and the same thing with the vaccine. we have to be optimistic and make people think it will happen on the horizon. do you think there is a fine line where maybe this was good optimism to be pushing toward the american people? >> absolutely. it was one of the contrasts during the campaign. trump was trying to say vaccine is coming. we'll turn the corner and get

our lives back to normal and joe biden was saying effectively we're in a for a long, dark winter. while we're in the middle of a surge of cases across the country and increase in deaths, we do have a real optimistic -- the images of the nurse getting the first vaccine, images of the trucks rolling out across the country delivering the vaccines now to all 50 states is very hopeful an optimistic and giving americans real encouragement and inspiration here that, you know, we will be turning the corner and getting back to normal here in the coming months. >> trace: we had that nurse on just moments ago and she was exceptional. tom bevan, always good to see you. thanks. >> sandra: this just in. a live look in the city of chicago on the west side, the first vaccine is about to be administered to a healthcare worker there. of course, cook county, lake county, they all got different distributions of the pfizer

vaccine. this will be the first dose administered in that city. we're watching that four. the mayor lori lightfoot is there as well. the government begins collecting your vaccination records. what they can do once you give them your personal information. >> i think people are very hesitant where the data is going and rightly so. that's one of the big interests that we have is insuring that data is protected. veterans who refi now can save three thousand dollars a year. with newday's va streamline refi, there's no income verification, no appraisal and no out of pocket costs. one call can save you $3000 a year. $3000! that's a big deal.

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>> trace: as millions of americans prepare to be vaccinated in the weeks ahead there are growing privacy concerns about what kind of records the government plans to keep and who will have access to your medical data. mark meredith is live with more on this in washington mark. >> trace, good morning to you. for months the focus has been on developing a vaccine but now that one has been approved and likely more coming in the weeks ahead now the focus for states

and local health departments will be tracking the roll-out as this vaccine gets out there to the general public. over the next several months as people go to get vaccine you will get a physical vaccine record card listing your name, date of birth and what covid vaccine you got and when. that is just the physical card in all of this. there is electronic information that will be shared by states and local health departments with the cdc. the trump administration insists that they are collecting the minimal amount of data it needs and very private information like social security numbers and past medical history is not going to be collected. >> i think any time people release information or data out there it is important to know where it is going and how it is going to be used. i don't think this is any exception. i think the key piece this information is going to be used to lock across the u.s. what is our uptake look like in terms of vaccine coverage?

>> in the months ahead and lockdowns hopefully lift. airlines may require proof of vaccination to get on a plane. there is a travel pass a digital health passport that will allow people to prove they are safe to travel. >> the apps that will allow for a laboratory to provide the information of testing or vaccination and ultimately be able to give it to the customer to share with whoever they wish to share it with. >> privacy experts say there is still a lot unknown about where this information will be stored. is it in a cloud, on your device? and who will have access to it? the new reality we're all facing here as the vaccine gets underway. >> trace: all good questions. mark meredith live in d.c. thank you. >> sandra: let's bring in gale trotter, host of the conservative podcast the gale trotter show. i want to turn attention to

live pictures. the mayor of the city of chicago as you saw on your screen for a split moment there. this is the moment in chicago where residents there, healthcare workers at a hospital there are receiving their first doses of the pfizer vaccine. it arrived there yesterday morning and these are the first doses in the city being administered. operation vaccination is underway, gail, when we give the information that they are asking for when we get vaccinated what will be done with that information? we can put it up on the screen as name, sex, date of birth, address, race, ethnicity. what do we know how that information will be used? >> this is a great miracle and the trump administration deserves a tremendous amount of credit that we are when everyone else said we wouldn't be here by the end of the year.

sharing this information about vaccination raises serious privacy concerns and most americans are concerned about the use of their vaccination information by politicians and bureaucrats and we see daily that wanna be totalitarian politicians impose restrictions that they're unwilling to follow themselves. here is an example they'll collect information and we know that there are serious issues about how that information is going to be used and what it -- the security of the information so that it is not leaked. we cherish our freedom. we deplore abuses of power. most americans are right. it is not surprising that they're skeptical about how this very private healthcare decision information is going to be used by the government. >> sandra: meanwhile we know that to get back to a somewhat normal way of life, many of us, majority of the population will have to get vaccinated doctors say. i'll ask you about that in a

moment. here is a doctor at duke university saying there is reason to be concerned because of what we've seen in the past with vaccinations. listen. >> i think we have plenty of examples private sector, public sector, local foreign governments and places that used data in ways we couldn't have predicted that we weren't happy about. so i don't think vaccination for covid should be something that we -- >> sandra: we know that we want to get back to that normal way of life and prance it means giving up data to have a passport to travel or whatever it is that they come up with, right? so there could be a good use but to his warning it could be used in a bad way. >> right. the effort to limit the data is critical here. many of your other guests talked about that trying to have the least amount of data that is given to the government because as we've seen, the politicians are continuing to enforce these restrictions. you have the coverage of new

york dining and americans are reacting against this. it has to do with people's livelihoods. while we all want americans to be protected we need to be concerned about the greater privacy issues and make sure that those possibilities are foreclosed by having a smart system of limiting the information that's collected to almost as little as possible. >> sandra: we'll see what happens with that. great to have you on this morning. thank you. >> trace: the georgia senate candidate warnock haunted by links to the radical left. the comments from his past now coming to light. that's next. this holiday at t-mobile, get an iphone 12 with 5g, on us, on every plan! and if you're 55 and up,

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>> trace: raphael warnock facing backlash over comments he made praising the nation of islam. steve harrigan live in atlanta with the very latest. steve. seeking these two senate runoff races set for january 5th are growing increasingly bitter, as many as $500 million is going to be spent on tv ads and tv ads are increasingly negative. raphael warnock, the democrat, is getting a lot of attention, a lot of heat. some comments he made in 2013 about the nation of islam getting some attention. the quote from warnock "and so we needed the witness of the nation of islam and a real sense when to put a fire under us and keep us honest about the meaning of the proclamation coming from our pulpits." his opponent, republican senator kelly loeffler, getting some criticism as well for an online photograph imposing with a white supremacist neo-nazi after one of her recent rallies.

the loeffler campaign disavowed the photo and said that there was no way they could know that the man in the photo was a neo-nazi. in person early voting for these races started yesterday, it turned out was huge. first aid turnouts of passing the first day of the general election turnout. >> trace: steve harrigan, live in atlanta, thanks. speak to a controversial new program in washington state, why taxpayers are being forced to pay restitution to crime victims and so criminals themselves. attention veterans with va loans.

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speak to a first in the nation program in seattle were taxpayers will play or go pay restitution to victims instead of criminals. dan springer in seattle. good morning. >> good morning. we think we migh be the first os kind in the world. this goal is to divert criminal prosecutions from the legal system. mostly nonviolent criminals, felons in most cases, don't get saddled with a record and the debt that comes with a owing restitution. to accomplish that and comply with state law, the county decided to have taxpayers foot the bill. officials believe they will need $500,000 a year to compensate victims of juvenile and adult criminals. councilmember reagan dunn voted against the restorative justice measure and had this to say

about his callings. >> they believe that this person committing these crimes, in some cases violent crimes, that that person is the victim. when you look at it like that, you can turn everything in law and justice on its head. it's a horrible way to look at the world. >> among the crimes that now can be diverted to the community justice program are two class b felonies, assault two and robbery two. this at a time when crime in seattle is going way up. >> sandra: dan springer in seattle, thank you. >> trace: a couple quick notes we should point out, live look at the white house. kayleigh mcenany, white house press secretary, will hold a briefing at 1:00 p.m., about an hour and a minute from now. those have become rare birds. sp2 will be watching for that. meanwhile hundreds of restaurant workers rallying in times square. take a look.

they are not happy with the latest shutdown, no more indoor dining as of today. a live look in chicago. the first vaccines administered there on the west side at loretto hospital. those doctors talking about this being a day of hope. >> trace: good to see you, sandra. "outnumbered" starts now. >> we began with the aid of fox news alert. we are awaiting the white house press briefing to begin within the hour. the briefing comes fewer than 24 hours since the resignation of attorney general bill barr. barr is set to leave office a week from now. a growing number of republicans including reportedly president trump are pushing for him to appoint a special counsel. to protect the federal investigation into joe biden's son's overseas business dealin dealings. the president frustrated that william barr kept the hunter biden probe private in the months leading up to the