>> at this very moment, negotiations underway, you can see a rare saturday session of the united states senate. lawmakers are trying to strike a deal on not only a coronavirus relief package, but also funding the government that shuts down on sunday night without it. welcome to america's news headquarters from washington. i'm leland vittert. you and i often work on the weekend, but it's rare when congress does. >> it is a rare sight. we're following it. i'm laura engle in new york. this comes as several key figures, including vice-president mike pence. surgeon general jerome adams,

mitch mcconnell and nancy pelosi received the pfizer vaccine. let's head to capitol hill and get the latest where chad is tracking the negotiations. all right, chad, what's happening in this hour. >> it's rare to have a weekend session, but it's not rare for the ritual as lawmakers race toward the end of the year. something of this magnitude takes time because the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell. >> the american people cannot feed their families or pay their bills with congress' good faith discussions. they need us to act. we need to conclude this and land this plane. >> the hold out is the republicans to rein in special lending tools used by the fed to curb economic fallout this year. the house majority leader steny

hoyer described as a putrid political effort to minimize president bidenen next year. >> senator ron johnson accused his colleagues of throwing money at the problem. i want to target relief. have we targeted relief better in the first cares act, a, we would not have spent money we didn't have, this is all borrowed money for our grandchildren's future, and target relief now. >> and the sides may be able to announce a deal today. still, this could slide into next week. laura. >> all right, chad, thank you so much. we'll be checking back with you, as the news warrants. thank you so much for that. >> the new york times survey says that more people have found the pfizer vaccine this

week. and now they're preparing to distribute a second wave next week. joining us now is the republican and mississippi governor, tate reeves. so glad to have you here. we want to first talk about the rollout distribution, we've seen that the plans for the vaccine are slightly different in every state. your state receiving 2500 doses on monday from what we understand. and we know you've got enough for each person who gets the shot, but for the second dose. some states are reporting that they worry they don't have enough for that right now. so, where does mississippi stand? do you feel like you have enough? >> thank you, laura, for having me on and a pleasure westbound with you, we received 25,000 doses and we were one of the earliest to receive those. we made the initial distribution, sending it to hospitals throughout the state and frontline workers and took

the additional step of starting the process of getting these for long-term care facilities. we know that these are treated under the age of 60 and those who have complications and comorbidities differently. we're trying to run a parallel track, with the protection workers as well as our more vulnerable adults. >> well, thank you for the updates on those numbers, too, that's great. taking a look at the numbers in your state. in terms of cases, we understand there were over 2,000 new cases and 26 new deaths reported day before yesterday. so, what are some of your biggest challenges right now as we inch closer to the end of december and more holiday gatherings? that's of course, a huge point of concern. >> no doubt, when you look the at last 10 months and that's one of the things we've talked a lot about with the people of mississippi, is that we're now going on 300 days of trying to slow the spread of the virus.

there are a lot of people who are not so encouraged about trying to continue that path, but it's critically important that we do so. prior to december 1, we did not have more than 2000 cases during any one day. during december we had the cases and approximately half of the nearly 20 days we've had so far. so there's no doubt that the virus is prevalent in our state like it is in so many states across america. so what we've tried to do is convey the risk to the people of mississippi with having large holiday gatheringings-- gatherings. and if you have larger gatherings more likely that someone there could have the virus. encourage them to wear a mask, if they're going to do something, we are a fortunate to live in the south it's 53, 54 degrees right now if you're

having a gathering in our state i hope you have a lunch or dinner that's outdoors, that you stay socially distanced because that's important. >> and as we sit here in the snow from new york. the next days and weeks are going to be important. tell us about the next phase of the rollout. 1-b. we started with 1-a those who can't socially distance themselves. emergency workers and teachers are so important. how are those workers going to be prioritized as you move forward? >> well, there's hundreds of thousands of mississippians who never missed a day of worker. they kept the grocery shelves stocked. ambulances running that are protecting us, our policemen, our firemen, and making sure

this continues. as you look at the number of vaccines, particularly with the good news that the moderna vaccine has been approved for the emergency use operation. we'll have different shipments from the pfizer vaccine and the moderna vaccine. we had 25,000 doses early this week. we could see as many as 300,000 doses total over the next two or three weeks. that's going to give us the opportunity to vaccinate a large number of mississippians. we can protect those health care workers and the adults and starting the opportunity to protect the individuals who ensured that our economy continued during these challenging times of 2020. >> all right. well, governor. we want to thank you for being here. all the best to you and your family and everybody in your state and throughout the nation as we move into this next phase. very much appreciated.

coming up tomorrow on fox news sunday, incoming white house news secretary talks to chris wallace exclusively. check your local listing for time and channel and howard kurtz looks at the coverage of the vaccine rollout tomorrow on media buzz. that's at 11 a.m. eastern. leland. neil: secretary of state mike pompeo says russia is quote, pretty clearly behind the attack on the government and mark meredith, we have yet to hear any significant response from the president. >> good afternoon, president trump weighed in on this an hour ago, and did it, where else, on twitter. the statement, we've heard from lawmakers on both side, and as well as from secretary of state mike pompeo, all places to blame on russia for the massive cyber attack. president trump going in a different direction, taking a

look at the tweet. the cyber attack is far greater than in actuality. i've been fully briefed and everything is under control. russia, russia, russia is the priority chant when anything happens and mainstream is petrified that it may be china, it may. and the president now blaming china for the potential-- potentially blaming china for the cyber hack. several departments including the department of energy responsible for the nuclear weapons system admits their system was compromised, but it didn't impact the mission. and russia denied responsibility, but lawmakers and secretary of state mike pompeo have no problem pointing fingers, listen. >> this was a very significant effort and i think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly it was the russians that engaged in this activity.

>> while the president suggests china may be responsible, that senate is not echoed on capitol hill. and dick durbin saying it's a declared of-- >> we'll determine the true damage, if we find out who has done this, there has to be sanctions, pushback, there has to be consequences. >> it's unclear what the consequences may be. president-elect biden's staff were briefed and haven't said how they would respond in january of next year. this tweet is getting attention as a breakthrough and how the president would respond to this. the and they caught the lift at the white house, and don't expect to see the president today. if there are more tweets, we'll let you know. neil: mark. thank you. with that we bring in former

cia chief of station, fox news contributing hoffman. few people understand the russian spy agencies as well as you do. boy, the gru and the svr read that tweet and they think what? >> well, vladimir putin has always been one to want some, albeit, not so plausible deniable for his spying and fascinations operations. he does that because he does at theened want us to know it was the kremlin that was responsible, but at the same time he doesn't want us to enact retributions whether it be sanctions or policy measures to hold him accountable. in this case, i think that secretary pompeo's assessment is correct, it's also worth highlighting, that secretary pompeo was the director of the cia and he knows the russia target extraordinarily well and all indications this is the fcr with advanced persistent 29,

also known as cozy bear, conducting this a. leland: when you think of this as a spying rather than a military operation, it perhaps changes things a little bit. the history of u.s.-russia spy relationship. gary powers, anna chapman, we refer in 2010, the cuban missile crisis, robert hanson and atomic spies, during the development. atom bomb and the manhattan project. where does this rank? >> this inks rah pretty high although it's hard to state definitively because forensics are ongoing. we still don't know how much information the russians vacuumed up. and they still have persistent access as tom bossert determined in a recent op-ed. make no mistake, it was an

expansive cyber attack on our infrastructure. the thing i would highlight, there's a distinguish between the nationally recognized norm of espionage and then weaponizing the espionage to conduct policy against us. those are two different things. if vladimir putin uses this information and we should expect him to. he's not going to let it sit idly by on the shelf, that's when we have to think of retribution and counter policy for what they're doing. leland: what is the language that the russians would understand? >> well, i think the language that vladimir putin understands best is sometimes you just have to wrap him on the knuckles. our special forces did that in syria when his wagner special forces irregular troops got too close and threatened kenneth particular action against our military. we need to be taking action out and over there, as the late

charles krauthammer used to like to say, detect the threats and preempt them before they're on our shores. he remember cyber on the agency before the mid terms in 2018. the that's kind of how you need to do it. when you see there's an attack that would materialize you need to find a way to disable it before, again, it visits us on our own shores and causes so much damage. nei neil:. leland: so much of your career was intelligence, meeting spies and assets in bars and getting information. your successors in moscow now have to change the way they operate? >> no, i think we always find a way to meet our human sources and i think now more than ever, so critically important. part of the forensics, collect the intelligence on how russia plans to weaponize the

intelligence that they stole, including from the national security administration or from the departments of treasure and commerce. all of that really matters and there's no question that our very dedicated and talented collectors, out on the streets and in harm's way, you know, from the former soviet union to war zones, they're out there doing that job. nothing beats having a human source, the cardinal in the kremlin or the penetration of a terrorist network to know how they plan on targeting us. >> all right. dan hoffman with us. dan, appreciate it and appreciate your time outside the wire and behind enemy lines for us, thank you. >> thanks. leland: good to see you. laura. >> and a briefing by the fbi on the suspected chinese site is raising more questions according to a top congressional republican. this as pressure mounts on house speaker pelosi to remove california democrat eric

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>> house minority leader kevin mccarthy is calling for

representative eric swalwell's removal from the house intelligence committee after house leadership received a fbi briefing on the democrat's ties to the suspected chinese spy. lucas tomlinson is live with the latest on this developing story. hi. >> hi, laura, after getting that classified briefing from the fbi, the house minority leader says he wants eric swalwell kicked off as soon as possible. >> anyone in the room with me would allow swalwell to be on the committee or continue to be on. i don't know for the briefing for leaders if they had the same information as today. if that's the case he should not be serving. >> earlier this week, swal el refused to answer questions from fox news about the nature of his relationship with the chinese spy christine fang. >> so the chinese communist

party tries to cultivate not just democratsor republicans, but anyone who might be influential in the future. they started at the local level as they did with eric swalwell. >> and earlier they cautioned about rush to judgment in these matters. >> there's no evidence whatsoever according to the fbi that christine fang was able to steal any classified information from him. so i think we have to be careful about rushing to conclusion about his guilt, we consider him innocent until proven otherwise, i don't think we should necessarily rush to punish people because the chinese are targeting it. >> and house republicans have written to nancy pelosi to remove swalwell. >> thank you for that update, leland. leland: one of those 17 republicans who signed onto the letter, georgia congressman, member of the house oversight

committee. you're asking for him to be removed, but as dan hoffman and others pointed out. so far he's not accused of wrongdoing that we know of. >> look, we've got to face the facts here. who was he having a relationship with, a chinese spy. what is the job of a chinese spy? to gather information, so this spy is coming on with a very specific purpose and they have a relationship for five years, it's pretty unbelievable for anyone to reasonably think that a relationship lasting five years with a trained chinese spy and to think that there's-- >> congressman, we use the word relationship and we've got to be specific. there's nothing other than smoke and mirrors there was any kind of improper relationship or sexual in nature or anything like that and so far we've seen no indication that even before he cut off communication with her, that he gave away any classified information or was

involved in that. so, i understand the optics look bad they obviously do, but the question remains do we have any hard evidence that there's been any wrongdoing? >> well, that's what we need to find out. that's the whole point of this. we want an investigation. we perhaps need a special counsel. listen, it wasn't just letter and him, evidently there were some people within his office that this russian spy actually had other interns and so forth involved in his office. so, this thing seemed to be pretty widespread and absolutely we need answers and that's the whole purpose. leland: my question is, do we need him off the committee before we get answers? >> absolutely. here is someone who has had a relationship with a chinese spy for five years. you're correct we don't know what was shared, but it's also true we don't know what was shared. that is the whole point and someone who had potentially risk our national security has no place on the intel

committee. leland: so, i guess-- >> to be removed until this is resolved. leland: so, this is what the wall street journal has to say, just a few weeks or month after being told by the fbi that he had been duped into conducting some sort of relationship with a communist spy, again we don't know the nature of that relationship and swalwell doesn't answer our questions about it, a young back betcher in congress was given a significant role overseeing the cia. who were the people who weighed in on the congressman's behalf when mrs. pelosi was handing out assignments and don't tell us it's classified. where do we get those answers from? >> well, i mean, we need some sort of investigation, don't we? we need answers and that's what we're asking speaker pelosi to provide. leland: what do you make of the fact that she'd been so supportive of swalwell before the fbi briefing and then on

friday no comments to the press and no-- . >> i think that swalwell is not speaking to the press. here is someone who runs to the camera at virtually every opportunity and the fact that he's now running away it. leland: i'm not asking you about swalwell. i'm asking you about what do you mean of pelosi not saying anything at the briefing. >> she didn't say anything, i've had communication with some who were there then they cannot speak to the details of what came up. leland: right. >> what did come up to me was, wow! i mean, there's a major wow factor and unquestionably the belief that he needs to immediately be removed from the intel committee. our national security is not something we can brush under the rug or play games with. we have someone who has had this relationship with a chinese spy, no friend of the united states, and for caution if nothing else, needs to be

remov removed, until we know exactly what type if any of information was shared. leland: it seems we're learning more and more about the depth and breadth of the chinese ability and willingness as an adversary. congressman, appreciate your time, thank you, sir, all the best. >> you bet. laura: as congress debates a coronavirus relief bill, the future of small business hangs in the balance in a big way. and alex is where many businesses are hoping for a deal. >> that's right, laura. many businesses are having to cut jobs ahead of the holiday. we'll take a look at the numbers after the break. alright, i brought in ensure max protein to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. [grunting noise] i'll take that. woohoo! 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. ensure max protein. with nutrients to support immune health. but with walmart's low prices,

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>> british prime minister boris johnson announcing major restrictions ahead of the holidays. >> as prime minister, it's my duty to take difficult decisions to do what is right

to protect the people of this country. it is with a very heavy heart, i must tell you, we cannot continue with christmas as plann planned. laura: now, this has just happened in the last hour, prime minister johnson ordering businesses to close in london and parts of southern england due to the spread of the coronavirus and johnson says that areas dealing with a high number of covid cases will not be able to take part in a five-day easing of restrictions on gatherings for the holiday. big news there. ♪ >> if we do our jobs, we will deliver the second largest federal stimulus in our nation's history, second only to the cares act earlier this year. it's still not as large or as comprehensive as the country needs, or as our side wants.

leland: that's senator chuck schumer, the minority leader moments ago on the senate floor where congress is hammering out a new relief bill that could be a make or break for so many small businesses on the brink. quite literally, every day we're learning about new shutdown orders across the country. alex hogan live in new york city where restaurants are shut down for everything with you takeout. hi, alex. >> hi, leland. we're seeing that 13% of small businesses are saying that they will need to layoff staff. from 9% in july and september. really showing more positions are needing to make these cuts. we know in san diego, california back and forth over a ruling there, after a ruling that stripped clubs serving food could still hospital. a judge ruled that restaurants could remain open despite governor gavin newsom's order. and yesterday an appeals court

blocked that. and new allowing dining to resume outside at 50% capacity. indoor dining is still off the table there until january 11th. a group of restaurant owners however, say that they will not follow the state's restrictions. the governor also signed a $216 million small business relief package. in new york, the city's indoor dining remains closed. governor andrew cuomo calling on lawmakers in the nation's capital for aid. >> i hope washington actually provides relief to restaurants and we're doing everything that we can. the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. it's a long tunnel, but there's a light there, there's a light there and that's a lot better than where we were. >> according to a study by the chamber of commerce, 74% of small business owners say that they need more government adistance, and 62% of small business owners say that they

think that the worst is still to come from the pandemic and about half of them say that if they do not receive any kind of financial aid, that they will not be able to stay afloat and they will need to close this time next year. leland. leland: yeah, if they can hang on even until next year. alex hogan in new york. alex, thank you. laura. >> all right, leland. for more on how businesses are being impacted this holiday season, we want to bring in market trend's advisor and fellow, at the university of san diego school of business, mitch rochelle. thanks for being here, i know you've got the finger on the pulse of what's happening here with the economy. so, first, let me just ask you, what was your take on what we heard from alex hogan's report and where we stand right now. it feels like we've been sort of riding a rollercoaster. >> yeah, laura. what we're seeing is the pace of the recovery slowing and the big reason why that's happening is exactly what alex referenced, which is the supply

side of the economy. the place where we spend our money is being shut down. and it's not just the restaurants we're shutting down, but say somebody wants to go out to a restaurant, especially in urban settings like new york, there's some store next to the restaurant that they're going to patronize, but they're not going to patronize because they're not going to the restaurant. we need, if we want this economy to recover, we need to find a way to keep the supply side of the economy opened. >> you know, as we take a look at the way consumers are responding to all of this, i know that when everything first started back in the spring, our shopping habits changed. we were all going online. we were ordering as much as we could, and maybe hoarding here and there. things have been kind of ebbing and flowing. the consumer spending habit. let's take a listen to our friend, larry kudlow. he gave a little sound bite to our sister station. let's hear him now about the

economy. >> the underlying economy is very good. you're going to roar next year, absolutely roar. by the way, apropos of nothing, i guess, if you follow profits, profits is the mother's milk of stocks and the economy. profits are booming and they're being revised up almost on a daily basis. >> that is white house chief economic advisor larry kudlow, want to get that in. so, you know, when you take a listen to what he has to say and consumer spending, what do you make of that? >> i think the consumer is pretty strong. and we're seeing it in retail sales that are strong and holiday shopping is very, very strong, but it's a big shift, that brick and mortar retailers are shuffling because people aren't going out or there are restrictions around shopping brick and mortar. everybody is shopping online and in fact, here is the smart phone prop. half of the shopping that took place cyber monday on and thanksgiving day is on mobile phones. people are shopping and the

reason why, the consumer has capacity is because they're not spending on going out to dinner and they're not spending on movie and travel and vacation, so the consumer has extra in his other her wallet. in fact, the savings rate is running about half than typical average for the safely rate. the people have the capacity, the people is they don't have the opportunity to go and do what they want to do and that's what's holding the economy back. laura: i was going to ask you about travel. monitoring what's happening with the airline industry and so many people have been wringing their hands whether they were going to travel over the summer and we saw what happened at thanksgiving, the day before thanksgiving we had a record number of people screened at tsa, that shows that people are anxious to get back on planes and want to see their families and now we're a week before christmas. so in terms of the travel industry and people spending their money that way, what do you see in the future for that? >> i think, laura, as the

vaccine rolls out. i think we're going to see people being more anxious to get out. we have cabin fever and no question about it. you saw it on thanksgiving and notwithstanding the restrictions and guidance, you're going to see people doing it around the christmas holidays next week. but i think in 2021 you're going to see more and more people out there, more normal flying on airplanes. it's going to start slowly, but i think there's tremendous pentup demand and the industry needs it and the airline is struggling, the hotel industry is struggling and i think hopefully we'll see it on the other side in 2021. >> i hope you're right. i know a lot of people do as well. thank you as always for your perspective and we'll see what the new year brings. we'll talk to you again soon. thank you. >> you bet. laura: leland. leland: small businesses have been pushing back on restrictions, as has one colorado church. the supreme court has ruled in their case against the state's

governor. we'll talk about what that means for christmas service.

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>> the high plains harvest church in colorado is going to welcome more people to sit in their pews on sunday. the supreme court ruled in their favor, from the governor's restrictions, and pastor, we appreciate you being here. i remember when you talked before, it doesn't make sense, a couple hundred people can walk into lowe's or home depot or get on an airplane and can't sit next to each other in the church. does this mean you can have as many folks as you want? >> technically, yes, but we have to abide by the restrictions of masks and

social distancing, which we've done from the beginning. we've never contested any of that, but this is a huge victory win for all churches and synagogues. i was talking to a popular radio host who is jewish, he says this is going to affect every synagogue as well. we can have more people and we are going to protect people and still love people. leland: pastor, i want to get to this point. and i'm looking here at justice kagan, who was writing the dissent in your case. when we talk hold the microphone to your face, it's rubbing on your shirt. there's no reason to think that colorado would reverse course or the harvest church would face capacity limits, and challenge could not reasonably expect to rio cur--

and 6-3 ruling. i guess the question would be, what do you make of the fact that at least according to these justices, you didn't need to have this ruling, but the supreme court wanted to give it to you anyway? >> well, it was forced into this and the argument that the lawsuit is -- the legal term is great and all, but i don't trust the pinky swear. we need to make sure that the state can't do this again and we're seeing this in the case of new york and in southern california, nevada and us, you know, we need to keep pressing forward. we've petitioned our government and the ruling-- >> pastor, i'm going to have to interrupt you, i know you can't hear it, but we're having a terrible time hearing you. sometime before the new year, we're going to work to try to get you back on here with a

little better audio. >> is that any better. leland: that's much better. we'll ask you one more question. >> okay. leland: how is this going to be-- make christmas different for you all? >> for the first time in the history of church we're going to have two christmas services. so, you know, we could pack as many people in as we wanted, but we want to abide by, you know, the distancing restrictions and protect people and frankly, you know, this is all about worshipping god. so if people aren't comfortable they're not going to come and we want people to come and worship the lord and celebrate christmas together, so, yeah, we'll have two services on christmas eve. leland: and i know you've also been visiting a lot of folks at home who aren't comfortable coming as well. pastor, we appreciate you joining us, and if there's more problems or restrictions, come back and to us about it. >> thank you, colorado misses you. leland: i think about it every

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help the world believe in holiday magic. and this year was harder than ever. and yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. it's not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. santa, santa, you're on mute! just wanted to say thanks. thanks for believing.

>> if we look across the headlines, live pictures right now of the senate floor where they are trying to reach a deal to avoid a government shutdown and then also about a trillion dollars in coronavirus relief. the house and senate passed a two-day extension on friday night to buy themselves time until sunday when we might get another vote. the university of north carolina at chapel hill has suspended three fraternities for their alleged part in a drug trafficking ring. the u.s. attorney's office says 21 people have been arrested. the organization made at least a million dollars funneling drugs across three different college campuses over the past three years. to afghanistan where five rockets hit a u.s. military base there. the attack was on bagram

airfield and the rockets fired from a vehicle. no americans were hurt in the attack and so far there's been no claims of responsibilities. laura: and a gift from the skies this christmas. on monday, stargazers could get a glimpse of the star of bethlehem. atr atron-- astronomers say it will be in the exact place as 800 years ago. fox chief religious correspondent lauren green has more. >> the night sky alliance with jupiter and saturn the closest since the early 13th century. >> what's unique about this is how super close they get to each other in the sky, where they're not a degree apart, not two degrees apart, just 1/10 of a degree apart. >> the viral buzz is that the conjunction may also be a rare glimpse of what the star of bethlehem may have looked like. >> so, in terms of phenomena

that people have used to describe that conjunctions are one idea. there are comets maybe. >> for centuries the scientists and the faithful have looked for the origins of the star that the baseball says -- where the bible says led to the place where jesus was born. the laws of planetary motion believe the star to be the con juncture, jupiter, saturn and venus. but from texas a & m, he found the position of the star, the position of the star, and what the maji said about the star. >> it was a long series of events that matthew told us about at length, but haven't been understood until recently because we couldn't recreate the skies of ancient time. >> today with computer programs using kepler's calculation,

they can rewind the clock and find the alignment of planets and constellations. however, a discrepancy over when jesus was born led starch searchers to look at 6 or 7bc, but early documents say years later. >> we should look at 3bc and everything matthew says makes sense. >> book scientists and faithful agree that the stars do tell us things. where they disagree is on what they mean. in new york, lauren green, fox news. leland: like so much in 2020, national wreath day is going to look a little different this year. the annual tradition is going virtual for the first time since it began in 1992. wreaths across america is going to host a live broadcast of the final wreath being placed on the graves of the soldiers in

the national cemetery. it was nearly canceled, but the army secretary reversed the decision and as you can see now, the wreaths are being placed. a very different way than they've been placed over the past number of years. but, laura, it sort of brings up the point of even during this time, the touch points that we all have in life, especially something like this, are so important. >> absolutely. and what a magnificent sight to see this. the mission is to remember, honor, and teach. and that is what these volunteers have been doing for years and as you said, it does look different and boy, when that got canceled, it was really a big deal, but a lot of people very glad to see what's happening there today. leland. leland: yeah, for sure and it's important to note, it's not just at arlington cemetery, but across america and overseas where so many americans are buried from the battle fields of france, through the south

pacific as well, that these wreaths are placed in a remembrance and in a moment to remember their families as well. laura: 2100 different locations around the globe. so, a really impressive effort. leland: yeah. >> all right, we've got a live look at capitol for you now where the senate is in a rare saturday session. we'll talk about one of the key players where things stand on the covid negotiations right after the break.

laura: lawmakers are working through the weekend as they try to negotiate a coronavirus relief package for millions of americans struggling to today afloat. congress passes a two-day stopgap spending bill to buy themselves more time, this as the u.s. is in the midst of yet another surge in covid infections. since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 17 million americans have contracted the virus and more than 300,000 have died. welcome to "america's news headquarters," i'm laura ingle. leland: nice to be with you at home. we're working on saturday and so is congress. lawmakers on both sides, well, they agree that folks need a little extra help during the pandemic, and they say they won't stop negotiating until they find common ground. >> the senate will be right here until an agreement is passed,

whenever that a may be. we'll just continue voting. >> we are in the pandemic because people have been at each other's throats for various reasons. we just need to spread some joy, and i think this is the best way to do the it. leland: things are changing quite literally by the moment on capitol hill, and that's where we find louisiana republican senator medical dr. bill cassidy, part of the group that's rolled out the two main proposals. senator, appreciate you being with us and taking a brief respite from working the phones. where are we exactly? >> so the majority leader, mitch mcconnell, spoke today. he sounded optimistic. they're narrowing down the numbers of issues that are really sticking points down to one or two. i do anticipate, based on what i've been told, that we will have a deal by this evening and probably vote on it some time

tomorrow. leland: we've heard for so long from a number of folks up on capitol hill, take the republican side for just a minute, but from mitch mcconnell, how important indemnifying and dealing with coronavirus lawsuits are for businesses and protecting lawsuits from liability. protecting businesses from liability. now that appears as though it may or may not be in the bull. people seem to be willing to give up so much just to get a bill. does that sort of call into question how necessary those things were? >> so we had a working group of four or five democrats, four or five republicans. the republicans advocating for that sort of liability relief for the last year when the guidelines were very unclear. but democrats really didn't want to go there. and whatever we offered, it still went too far for them in terms of liability relief. now, democrats wanted state and local aid. we linked those two together,

but nonetheless although we had a deal on state and local, we never got it on liability. at some point you've got to declare a victory and come home. and we were just -- we got what we could, we got the relief for the employers, for the employees, for the unemployed. we couldn't get liability relief. we have to work on that next congress. leland: there seems to be this riff in the senate right now over these additional checks. you've got josh hawley saying he wants $1200 checks, another round, siding with bernie sanders. hard to find two people who conceivably would be farther apart, and then your colleague ron johnson said this last night. take a listen. >> this is all borrowed money against our children's future, and we'd have more money left over for targeted relief. look at all the small businesses that didn't get loans, didn't get relief, look at the number of people who didn't do that. so congress, it's oozy to shovel money out -- easy to shovel money out, pick a number and say

let's spend that, it's more difficult to actually look at the numbers, figure out the best way to target this, and that's what doesn't happen often here in congress. leland: fair critique in. >> fair critique. look, senator sanders and senator hawley said they would oppose money going to small employers and oppose money for those who are unemployed and money going for food relief and money going for rental relief and helping landlords too because we didn't get checks. now, the checks are okay, but the folks who are really hurting are the folks who are about to lose their business and laying off folks who otherwise would be employed. i say the best stimulus which can is a paycheck. so i think there's a little bit of a different philosophy there. checks are part of the deal, or they'll be part of the deal. i think ron johnson's idea was let's take care of the folks unemployed, folks about to lose their business and, therefore,

folks about to lose their jobs. leland: when you've got josh hawley advocating for this and president trump has talked about checks as well, just sending out money to everybody, have republicans sort of lost the north star of fiscal conservativism? >> so those two do not define all of conservatives, nor all the republican party. leland: right. >> so there's always going to be diversity of opinion. now, those checks are still la story. people are going to spend that money, and that does increase sales tax revenue and keeps stores afloat, that sort of thing. i'm not arguing there's not a benefit there. but if you're talking about the folks who are greatest need, they are the folks about to lose their job because the person that owns the small business is about to go bankrupt. so if we have to choose where we help first, let's help the folks about to lose their job, about to go bankrupt -- leland: neil cavuto asked such an important question earlier of me, and i admit that the only answer i could give is it's 2020

and anything can happen, but that caveat aside, i put the same question to you which is, is there any way there's not a deal by tomorrow? are we going to be going another few days on this? >> i think there is a deal by tomorrow. leland: what would derail a deal? >> i'm sorry? two provisions that people are striving to get common ground on, compromise. leland: which would be what? >> there's a little technical, but under the cares act the federal reserve was given this ability to lend money to business. leland: right. >> we tell them as republicans that was an emergency issue. now that the emergency is resolved for the bigger businesses, we should stand that down. democrats wish to keep it. kind of a technical point, but it's a sticking point right now. leland: well, it's such an important one. you can just imagine how the markets will react on monday either way to that in terms of looking at how businesses are going to be able to survive and get more loans from the federal

government. i shouldn't say survive, but get more money from the federal government which certainly changes things. senator, we appreciate it, and we'll let you get back to work. >> thank you very much. leland: appreciate the time. laura? laura: the u.s. is adding a second coronavirus vaccine to its arsenal. the fda approving moderna's vaccine allowing the shipment of millions of doses across the nation as early as sunday. we want to bring in fox news contributor and johns hopkins university professor of public health and policy management dr. dr. marty makary. we want to ask you a couple of things. there is such hope with the fresh news of this approval of the moderna vaccine, but first, let's talk about the growing outbreak because that is so important, to really talk about these numbers. the u.s. reported its highest number of single-day deaths and hospitalizations and new infections on thursday. we know that people are going to travel for the christmas holidays like they did for

thanksgiving. so how bad do you think this could get in the coming weeks? will the warnings be enough, dr. marty? >> gosh, laura, you know, we lost one of our senior surgeons at johns hopkins to covid, and i think when you know somebody who's been hospitalized or had a close call, it really hits home. you don't want to get the infection in the last two or three months of the pandemic. we've made a lot of sacrifices as a country. we're in the final home stretch. i think people need to remember that this is still a very contagious and deadly virus. you know, we lost more americans in the last week from covid than we did from iraq, afghanistan and 9/11 combined. 1 in 50 americans got it in its peak day, yesterday, so it's still very much a threat. laura: wow. it's an important message. and now that there will be two vaccines, pfizer and noer the ma that, in the hands of health care workers giving the vaccines, what can we expect with how this will be

distributed in the next few weeks? will people be getting it in a tiered system? we know that front-line health care workers are getting it first, but when they get up to bat, so to speak, will they get a choice? or does it even matter? do you get to choose between pfizer and moderna? >> i've not seen people have the choice, you know, it's so supply-constrained. our hospital basically has a survey where we're asked how much time do we spend with potential infected patients, and then we go into a tiered system, and then there's a lot true to distribute it. i think -- can lottery to distribute it. i think most hospitals are doing a good job. every now and then we'll see a hospital president have on twitter getting the vaccine. those are not the people who should be first in line. nursing homes actually should be first. many of us in health care believe that nursing homes should be put ahead of most health care individuals. we've lost 8% of our nursing home residents in the united states from the infection. laura: you know, we've heard about the need to get the vaccine into as many arms as

possible. what percentage at this point do you think of the population should be getting the shot to be okay for herd immunity? we've been hearing that term for so long. is it as much as we have heard in the past? >> well, contrary to popular view, laura, we don't need to immunize every single person in the united states, and some people are going to choose not to have it done. i respect that decision. we should respect that decision. but the vaccine is incredibly safe. there have been zero serious, adverse events. the platform, we didn't know if it was going to work, it's 100% effective in preventing death and serious covid illness. there's discussion of using the same mrna vaccine now to create an aids vaccine. so there's a lot of enthusiasm right now. we just need to think about who is the best person to be first in line. it is not those who have had the the infection in the last year, in my opinion. there's natural immunity. about a third of the country has some natural immunity from

previous infection. they should step aside in the vaccine line. laura: dr. marty, need you to stand by for just a moment, live pictures coming in now. benjamin netanyahu receives the coronavirus vaccine, we are watching this live with you. he is the first israeli to get the vaccine which will be distributed throughout the rest of the country tomorrow. let's take a listen in. [speaking in native tongue] leland: i regret to inform you, laura, that my hebrew from my time in israel is not quite up to par. six years has been long enough for -- laura: i was going to ask you if you could help us out there. leland: yeah, with, no. as a matter of fact, i can't.

it is interesting though to see you never see politicians indoors like this wearing a polo shirt, but that now seems to be the awe tire du jour for vaccine so you can roll up your sleeve and receive the shot in the arm. this would be saturday in israel, which is note worthy. during the time converse, it'd be about 8 p.m. shabbat there will be over, so this is presume time for israeli -- prime time for us railly television. this would be the equivalent of sunday night in america in terms of how many people are watching, and that's fairly significant in terms of what this message sends. as you talk to both physicians and then also talking to media experts and others on public health, they will tell you that the reason you're seeing world leaders whether it's the prime minister or the vice president of the united states, members of congress receiving the vaccine

live is the idea of trying to build public confidence both that it's pretty easy to get and not that big of a deal, so to speak, number one. and number two, that it is also safe. israel has some sort of the same anti-vaccination groups that the united states has, so this is the best way you can of having people get it and say, all right, i'm fine. laura: it's important to pull back the curtain and let them see exactly what's happening as these people are being vaccinated. dr. marty makary is still with us, and actually, dr. marty, we were just talking about who we want to see having the vaccination now. of course, benjamin netanyahu is much different than the head of a hospital, so we want to see the leaders of the world giving us more of that confidence boosting, right in. >> look, i think it's entirely appropriate for a head of state to get it both as an example and

also because they're basically a very essential person. i think where people start to take issue is when folks who are connected, folks who are wealthy get vaccines or get antibody therapy. we saw a controversy when chris christie got the antibody therapy. he's not an elected official, but he is connected. i think people of color look at that and say there's going to be ec put bl distribution issues -- equitable distribution issues. heads of state are certainly appropriate and those who are high risk before it goes to low risk individuals. leland: doc, as you're sitting here with us, there's been a lot of talking as we noted in hebrew by doctors and other folks there talking about the vaccine. if it took this this long for everybody who's going to get it, we'd have america vaccinated somewhere around 2060. i'm guessing when they start rolling this out, you know, we can all line up and just sort of walk through like you do at cvs?

is. [laughter] >> well, most places are actually setting up a real rapid system. look, we immunize 90 million people each year with the flu shot. some places are setting up drive-by vaccination places. but, yeah, i agree, this is for public show here. this is, you know, a demonstration. leland: all right. laura: yes. we're waiting for that shot to go into the arm, but we know it's about to happen any moment. dr. march few, want to thank you for being with us here today on this very important moment, of course, as we've been reporting, the moderna vaccine approved for emergency use yesterday, and as we move forward, we'll be seeing probably more images like this with benjamin netanyahu. we will continue to follow this as we move through the afternoon. thank you so much for being with us. leland, i'll toss it back to you. leland: we are hearing more about how president-elect joe biden used the accusations regarding his son's business

dealings. hillary vaughn live in wilmington, and, hillary, we had peter doocy get the very first response from the president-elect, and now we're getting more color on it. >> reporter: leland, that's right. president-elect is weighing whether or not to hire a special counsel, joe biden is still fending off questions relating to the investigation into his son. >> i'm not concerned about any accusations made against him. it's used to get to me. i think it's kind of foul play, but look, it is what it is. he's a grown man. >> reporter: republicans in congress want the president-elect to be more up front instead the of tight-lipped. >> i think it's well past time for joe biden to have a press conference to come entirely clean about what hunter biden and jim biden and the rest of the biden family have done. >> chuck grassley and i are not going to turn a blind eye to new

evidence. it's really now in the hands of the justice department. >> reporter: who biden appoints for attorney general will take over the already-two-year investigation into hunter biden. senate democrats hope whoever biden picks will quiet any calls from conservatives for a special counsel. >> i hope that the selection of attorney general by president biden makes it clear that a person of honesty and integrity can take a fresh look at this and handle it properly. >> reporter: biden's attorney general pick is expected to be one of the last announcements he makes. well, today biden will pull out his climate team here in all mington, and it includes climate adviser, biden's pick, the former persian pa administrator under obama, gina mccarthy. she will have an office in the white house along with her own staff. congresswoman deb holland has been announced as interior secretary. normally, those positions would

not be lumped in with the climate team, but it is the case that biden is willing to use his regulatory agencies like energy and interior in order to get his aggressive climate agenda through. leland? leland: emphasis on the word regulation. real quick with, hillary, before we let you go, any idea on the strategy or logic for holding off on the attorney general announcement, announcing so many of sort of the less prestigious positions, if you will, and holding out a.g. >> reporter: well, i think there's been some disagreement among transition officials about who to pick especially with going public with the news that hunter is under investigation. there's going to be a lot more scrutiny about what biden's pick for attorney general says about that, and i think we're seeing that in some of the delay in this and some of the undecisiveness, perhaps. -- indecisiveness. leland: and who the democratic party wants as well. all right, hillary, thank you. laura? the. laura: president trump is suggesting china may be to blame

for a major cyber attack, this as his secretary of state mike pompeo points the finger at russia. mark meredith has more from the white house now. mark? >> reporter: laura, good afternoon. president trump is offering up his first comments about this cyber hack. ever since the news broke, there's been pressure mounting on the white house to respond. the white house saying the president was involved, but we have not seen the president talk about it on camera or twitter. want to show you a tweet, he said: the cyber or hack far greater than the fake news media. i have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. russia, russia, russia is the chant when anything happens. it may be china. the president indicating he believes china could be responsible even though on friday secretary of state mike pompeo put the blame on russia. he did that in a radio interview with mark levin. the secretary says the full details of the hack are likely

to remain classified, but he says private companies have also appeared to be targeted. >> this was a very significant effort, and i think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly that that it was the russians that engaged in this activity. >> reporter: this news broke, multiple government agencies including department of energy and commerce have admitted to being targeted. now lawmakers from both parties are demanding the outgoing trump administration step up u.s. cyber security. the vice chair of the senate intelligence committee mark warner writing: the solarwinds hack is a devastating breach of u.s. ns, once again shows the president and the white house are not taking this issue seriously enough. republican mitt romney also echoing those concerns. >> national security is extraordinarily vulnerable. and in this setting not to have the white house aggressively speaking out and protesting and taking punitive action is really, really quite extraordinary. >> reporter: that is the

sentiment that we've heard from some lawmakers. it's unclear if we're going to hear more pushback now that the president is placing the blame potentially on china. we also want to know what is the separation heene when you have pompeo saying russia and the president saying china, a lot of people trying to figure out what's going on behind the scenes. laura: all right, mark, thank you so much. we'll be right back. ays come here for the holidays? how did you find great-grandma's recipe? we're related to them? we're portuguese? i thought we were hungarian? grandpa, can you tell me the story again? behind every question is a story waiting to be discovered. to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. [grunting noise] i'll take that. woohoo!

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♪ ♪ leland: house minority leader kevin mccarthy wants congressman eric swalwell off the house intelligence committee. mccarthy says that an fbi briefing he attended yesterday raises more questions into the democrat's ties into a suspected chinese spy. lucas tomlinson following this for us. >> reporter: house republican leaders want to know why nancy pelosi put swalwell back on the intelligence committee back in 2015 to begin with. >> two very important questions that speaker pelosi needs to answer because she herself put him on that committee, and as you mentioned, just in his second term which is very early. often a career member of congress, most people wait years to get on that committee and have to have a lot of background in intelligence. >> reporter: earlier this week swalwell refused to answer questions from fox news about the nature of the relationship he had with a suspected chinese

spy, christine fang. senator tom cotton said everyone is at rusk of secret agents. >> the ccp tries to cultivate people at all levels, anyone who might be influential in american politics in the future. they start at the local level as was apparently the case with eric swalwell. >> reporter: earlier this week cia station chief dan hoffman cautioned against a rush to judgment. >> there's no evidence whatsoever according to the fbi that christine fang was automobile to acquire, steal any classified information from if him. >> right. >> so i think we have to be careful about rushing to conclusions about his guilty before we just consider him innocent until proven otherwise. i don't think we should be rushing to financialize people just because the chinese are targeting. >> reporter: house speaker nancy pelosi dud not comment after the briefing yesterday, the fbi has also not commented.

leland: lucas, thank you. ♪ laura: a federal judge in georgia rejecting a request by the state's two republican senators to separate the ballots of newly-registered voters. charles watson is live in atlanta with more on this one. charles, what can you tell us? >> reporter: hi, laura. the campaigns of republican senators david perdue and kelly loeffler had sought to have the ballots of newly-registered voters in georgia segregated to insure those votes were lawful. the senators' campaigns had argued in federal court that it would be against federal law for local elections offices to count what they call double votes meaning ballots that are cast in the senate runoff elections by people who lived and voted in another state during the november general election. in lynn county only 8 out of 176

newly-registered voters there had voted in another state during the general election. the senators' campaigns unsuccessfully argued that number could rise astronomically around the state specifically with thousands of new and overwhelmingly young registered voters who are likely to lean towards democrats jon ossoff and avenue ideal warnock. in a statement released friday, the georgia democratic party said, quote, this is a baseless, despicable attempt to wrongfully disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of georgia voters including members of our military serving a abroad. meanwhile, georgia republican governor and republican secretary of state continue to dispute claims of widespread vote or fraud as they try to ease skeptical voters back to the polls. >> there is so much that is misinformation out there. quite honestly, it has gotten ridiculous. this needs to stop. people need to deal with facts, and we'll give 'em to 'em. >> reporter: and, rah,

georgia's governor, brian conference, says he fully expects the two incumbent republicans to pull out a win, but no doubt this will be a dog fight to the very end. back to you. laura: charles watson live in atlanta, thank you so much. leland. leland: through the weekend health care workers across the united states are getting their first dose of the coronavirus sack soon. what one nurse who survived the virus says about getting the shot. ♪ ♪ heyyyy what's this? ah, got him. classic. your cousin. from boston. it says "bad boy" in gaelic... i think. get outta here, debbie! high five. i brought sam. boston lager. we're all friends now. and with free curbside pickup at walmart... you can get the perfect gift up until the last minute. let's end the year nailing it. ♪

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this is the israeli prime minister, benjamin in the an ya hue, getting the first injection with a vaccine in us israel. this happening just been the last several minutes -- within the last several minutes, kicking off the vaccination program in israel. he told israelis he wanted to be the first to serve as a personal example and demonstrate that the vaccine is safe and encourage everyone in israel to get it. he also said that he's received the pfizer vaccine and that israel will get millions of doses by the end of this month. like in many places around the world, the coronavirus has been a huge problem in israel. coming back here to europe and the u.k., definitely europe's leaders starting with boris johnson feeling the heat of the pandemic this week. boris johnson just appeared on television here just a little over two hours ago to announce london and much of the u.k. are again going into lockdown. the prime minister effectively

canceling or banning christmas gatherings after spending much of the last few weeks promising brits up to three households would be able to spend the holidays together. that's now over. he's changed the guidance. johnson said scientists have discovered an alarming new variant of the coronavirus making its way around the country that while apparently no more lethal than its pred e successor, appears to be 70% more contagious than what we were dealing with up to now. meanwhile, over in france president emmanuel macron, who's been diagnosed with the virus, and is facing criticism on top of that for what many create sicks were numerous slip-ups in his virus prevention regime from shaking hands with another official on camera to enjoying meals with large groups of people without warring a mask. -- wearing a mask. people have been told not to gather in groups of more than six people. big concern he may have been

infectious at an e.u. meeting last week. friday, a casually-dressed macron appeared from a presidential retreat. he's got a cough, or he's been drowsy and blamed getting covid-19 on a combination of negligence and bad luck. all of this happening against a backdrop where the death toll in france just climbed above 60,000, and there is concern more broadly right across the continent that this new wave of the coronavirus could be even worse than what europe saw back in the spring. leland? leland: yeah. those images from italy especially in the beginning of the pandemic were sering. ryan, thank you. laura? laura: and some of you may remember colorado nurse lisa merck. we tracked her story earlier in the pandemic when she caught the coronavirus and had to spend 58 days in isolation. you heard that right. after going through a pretty

extensive of private testing, lisa is back with us now, she's live for another major with update. she just got the pfizer vaccine herself less than an hour ago and, in fact, you didn't even have have time to get home, you are in your car, which is amazing, to show the immediate is city of what you're going through today. so, first, lisa, how are you feeling? i mean, how did it go? it must have been quite a moment after all the ups and downs of covid that you've been dealing with. >> thank you. it was very stressful for me. i was very nervous walking in there. i was having some anxiety and heart palpitations, but i'm very thankful that i was given the opportunity to have the vaccine and very blessed that i can help protect, you know, my community and my colleagues and my peers. yeah, i just, i feel very grateful right now. laura: are you kind of glad to, you know, check it off the list knowing that you have it after

what you've been through? one of the big parts of your journey has been how rural the areas where you live and work and how that played a big part in your testing. i can imagine that maybe at one point you might have thought maybe we're not going to get it where i live. how challenging was that for people in your area, and how challenging was it for you? >> so our county was lucky enough that we ended up getting 300 doses of the pfizer vaccine, and they rolled that out to all the health care providers and some of the staff members in the immediate clinic right now which is really great. i mean, were a rural area, so it's good that we, we're on the are list to got the vaccines as well. they started giving those on wednesday this week, so this is the last day. and i kind of waited for the last day. i was just very, very uncertain, and i was just -- i had a lot of anxiety behind it. i just thought about it a lot and decide did a lot of research and just felt like it was my

time to get the vaccine. i really, or i've been doing a lot of telemedicine. i've been very afraid to go back to work just because of reinfection and not knowing what the antibodies are doing right now. so this'll give me a great peace of mind knowing i can go back to work and start taking care of my patients and not have to worry about getting reinfected. laura: were you anxious, i mean, everybody has a different answer that we've talked to so far that has received the vaccine, were you anxious because of side effects or just for the whole experience overall? >> i think just the whole experience overall. i was super emotional when i went up there. i started tearing up, and i don't know, i just think it's just been a long ten months. it's been a long year for all of us -- laura: yeah. >> you know? my thing is i'd ratherrer get the vaccine than the virus any day, so i hope -- laura: there you go. >> -- that people trust in the science and, you know, we've

eradicated a ton of disease because of vaccines, and i know that it was kind of fast-tracked, but with we got to cut through a lot of red tape that, you know, normally we don't get to do. so if you look at panel history, you know, polio, chickenpox, the hpv virus, all that kind of stuff is going away now, and it's because of vaccines. so i trust in science, and i, you know, hope everyone else will trust in the science as well behind this. laura: well, you look great right now in that colorado sunshine. we pulled some current numbers just to give a perspective of what's happening where you are. 304,000 cases in the state, but we do see that there is some good news today. according to the state's health department website, cases are down today by over 600. so give us a sense real quick of what things are like in your state right now. >> so in our state, i know that they're decreasing because on the front lines they did cut, they dud are strict some -- did

restrict some businesses from opening again. in our county we have, like, an 11.7% rate right now, and if we did -- and with we did see a spike defendant after thanksgiving now, you know, all the college kids are coming home and other tourist destinations for skiing and hiking and being in the outdoors, so we've seen a little bit of a spike here. but it's kind of steady right now, which is great. laura: all right. >> testing in the last couple days to try to test any asymptomatic carriers. so i think we've tested over 800, and i think it's around the same number, so those tests are still pending right now. laura: well, we are rooting for you, and i'm so glad you were able to bring us this important update in your progress and for bringing us the story live from your car after just getting the vaccine literally just a few minutes ago, jumping in the car and coming on the air with us. least rah, we want to thank you so much.

congratulations on getting the vaccine. i know that's what you wanted to do today, so thank you for sharing that. we will continue to follow your story. thank you so much, have a good day. >> i appreciate it. take care. happy holidays. leland: glad to see she's doing so well. a new los angeles district attorney is drawing outrage following sweeping criminal justice reforms. how his comments to the family of a murder victim is causing outrage in los angeles. what he said next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ smooth driving pays off. ♪ with allstate, the safer you drive the more you save. ♪ you never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today.

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♪ ♪ laura: the los angeles district attorney george gascon is raising some you brows with some controversial remarks. christina coleman is live in los angeles with more on this. hi, christina. >> reporter: hi, laura. l.a. county's d.a. is changing course on his order of getting rid of all sentence enhancements, and he's apologizing for this comment he

made as he was being shouted at by a group of grief-stricken mothers of murder victims. >> my son can never speak again because he was murdered. >> reporter: so, yeah. gascon made a comment there, you know, just responding to these mothers. his office actually released a statement saying he will contact the family who was in that video to speak with them directly and hard them out. the d.a. also announced he is walking back his discussion to got rid of all sentence enhancements, so now his office will seek sentencing enhancements on hate crimes, child abuse, elder abuse, human trafficking and other crimes that meet certain criteria. sentence enhancements can administer years to prison terms for defendants like gang members, felons or people who commit hate crimes or attack police. sentence enhancement can lead to excessive prison time that discuss proportionately affects blacks and rah latinos, but his

initial move to get rid of all sentence enhancements got a ton of backlash from judges, prosecutors, crime victims and people related to them. it's also causing a major rift, apparently, in the d.a.'s office. >> everything he did is really, it rings old -- hollow. i'm not sure he even means it. i'm starting to see the only reason he he a made changes was because of all the pressure. >> reporter: other sweeping changes include not allowing prosecutors to seek cash bail starting in january and also barring prosecutors from trying juveniles as adults. laura? laura: christina coleman for us in los angeles, thank you so much. good to see you. leland. leland: quite literally as we speak negotiations continue behind me over a coronavirus relief bill and whether or not you're going to get another $1200 check. we're going to talk about what another round of stimulus will mean for small businesses and, most importantly, their

employees.

>> the checks are okay, but but the folks who really need it are the folks who are about to lose their business. leland: that's senator bill cassidy a few minutes ago

talking about how congress needs to help small businesses. our next guest is also trying to help, or he's delivered $111 million in ppp loans that have gotten him the title of bank for the forgotten from bloomberg. darren williams. good to see you, sir, we appreciate it. you're in little rock, capital of arkansas. here in the nation's capital, they're arguing about whether or not people are going to get $1200 stimulus checks or whether is this releaf bill just going to be about getting through -- reof leaf bill just going to be about getting through small business relief and enhanced unemployment benefits. is that enough? >> well, i can tell you, leland -- first of all, thanks for having me on. you know, in the heartland our people need help. small business needs help, also individuals need help with expanded unemployment benefits. we see it every day. just this past week i was on the phone with a former a paycheck participation borrower, small

business in clarksville, mississippi, and, you know, they got the first stimulus, first pay check protection check, kept their doors open, kept their employees on payroll, but now they're starting to suffer. so they called us, can we get a little relief from our loanment we put them on an interest-only payment. congress needs to act. they need to provide these resources for americans, particularly small businesses that are suffering just to keep their employees working -- leland: the point, the point's been made in the past that the ppp was sort of this emergency flood the zone kind of operation with very few rules, very few restrictions, and we've talked about this before, a number of businesses that had gotten loan are leaf that are actually doing pretty well right now and were doing pretty well. does the next round need to be more targeted so that the people who really need help get it and folks aren't getting a windfall? >> i have no problem at all with

that. we should target this money where it's most needed. one thing that congress did in the second round of funding is they carved out $10 billion for cdfis and ndis because we serve some of the smallest businesses. of the loans that we did, 94% of the loans we dud went to businesses that had 25 or fewer employees x. then we know that black and brown businesses are suffering. you know, there's a recent study from the new york fed that said half of black businesses may not make it, maw close permanently because of this pandemic. absolutely, this money can be targeted to those who most need it. leland: want to get your thought on the checks, the $1200 checks. obviously, given the economic situation in arkansas, a large part of the population got those. is another round of those needed or just wanted? >> well, i think for some people it's needed. leland: right. >> clearly, no one's going to turn down money, but for some it's clearly needed. they're having trouble paying their rent. look at the lines at food banks.

they're extremely long, so some people need those resources. leland: darin williams, ceo of southern bank corp., who would bees tirelessly -- who works tirelessly for small business folks, merry christmas to you and yours, sir. >> thank you, leland. leland: great to see you, helping so many folks. laura, i think we're going to do this again tomorrow as well. laura: yes. leland: all right. laura: 12:00 eastern. leland: the ceo of waffle house is going to join us on his thoughts of lockdowns and new restrictions, and we'll see if congress has a deal for us and perhaps a little money for you in your future. see you tomorrow. ♪ whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health.

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eric: well, that working weekend on capitol hill, lawmakers trying to hammer out a caron that virus relief bill. but standing in the way of any deal are some final hurdles that still need to be cleared. all this as the nation gets more good news on the vaccine front. the fda approving the moderna vaccine. that gives americans a new weapon in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. the first doses expected to roll out this coming week. hello, everyone, welcome to "america's news headquarters," i'm eric shawn. hi, molly. molly: delighted to be with you, eric, filling in for arthel neville. the fda