tv Americas News Headquarters FOX News December 19, 2020 11:00am-12:01pm PST
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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 approving emergency use
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just yesterday. finish meanwhile, congress holding that rare saturday session, but it is the holidays, to continue negotiations on a $900 billion coronavirus package. both sides saying time is of the essence. >> american families who simply cannot wait any longer for congress to conclude these discussions. every day that we delay may very well cost more small businesses their survival, cost more american workers their jobs and, yes, cost more americans their very lives. they need us to act. we need to conclude our talks, draft legislation and land this plane. >> and republicans need to make a decision. we're quickly approaching an all or nothing situation. everybody needs to make a decision about whether we're going to pass this much-needed relief or not. and about 11th hour demands and
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whether they are worth holding up the entire bill. molly: congress is busy, and that means congressional correspondent chad pergram is, of course, busy as well, live on capitol hill trying to keep an eye on all of this for us. i guess the big question really is what is the bug holdup right now, chad? >> reporter: senator pat toomey wants to limit the fed's emergency lending powers. senate minority leader chuck schumer called out toomey today. >> senator toomey's legislation is the only significant hurdle to completing an agreement. and republicans need to make a decision. we're quickly approaching an all or nothing situation. >> reporter: senate majority leader mitch mcconnell urged senators not to blow up the bill. >> there is a kind of gravitational pull here in congress where, unless we are careful, any major negotiation can easily slide into an unending catalog of disagreements. >> reporter: house speaker
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nancy i place city says the plan is to get a deal today. molly? molly: will that actually happen? will we get a deal today, or will we see things slide off into tomorrow? >> reporter: it's certainly possible, but the senate majority whip, john thune, said pelosi called the toomey issue, quote, a very significant difference, and even if they get an agreement, they won't have a vote in the house of representatives until form at the earliest -- tomorrow at the earliest, and thune suggested this could drift into next week. molly: oh. what about avoiding a government shutdown? >> reporter: government funding is all tied to reaching an agreement on the coronavirus package. they want to velcro the covid bull to a measure to fund the government. lawmakers approved a funding patch last night that runs through tomorrow night, so they're still struggling to finalize things, congress could have to approve another emergency spending bill sometime tomorrow. molly? molly: so much to watch here. chad pergram, thank you so very much. >> reporter: always.
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eric: well, for more on the fda approving a second coronavirus vaccine, what it means for us in fighting the pandemic, dr. janette nesheiwat is here, fox news medical contributor, and a family and emergency medicine doctor, and doctor, a really good one at that. [laughter] great to see you, doctor. >> thank you, eric. good to see you too. eric: sure. the moderna vaccine, another arsenal, more ammunition to fight the virus. how significant do you think this new development is? >> massively significant, eric, because what this means, this is really an extraordinary achievement. it means we're going to be able to reach and vaccinate more americans more quickly. we're going to be able to distribute this vaccine to 3,000 different areas in the united states which is triple that of pfizer, and that's because of its easier accessibility, easier storage. it'll definitely have an impact on the pandemic, but we won't see that for probable another
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two or three months, but it's certainly what we need. we need multiple vaccines on the market. we've got pfizer, we've got moderna. we're the first country to have more than one vaccine on the market, soon we're going to have johnson and johnson. the more we have, ultimately are, that means the more lives we can save. eric: you talked about the fact that the pfizer has to be 94 degrees or so below 0. they pack it in dry ice. what's the difference between that and moderna and the others? are we going to get some that are easy, that can just be on the shelf like the flu shot? >> well, hopefully soon. the johnson & johnson is going to be one dose like the flu shot, but what's fortunate about moderna's vaccine, you don't have to store it at frigid temperatures. pfizer is -70 degrees celsius, that's colder than ant ark fewty ca. you've got rural communities and hospitals where they don't have
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these fancy, expensive freezers. moderna, you only have to store it at -20 degrees celsius, so it's easier for accessibility. it can stay in a refrigerator for up to 30 days once it's theyed, so it's easier to use and ease yore -- easier to distribute. once we get the cdc to sign off on it, hopefully we'll see it if arms on tuesday, and then operation warp speed which allowed for the funding to cut the red tape to get these vaccines out on the market because as it is the right now, we're slated to have over half a million deaths projected by the ih by april of 2021. we've got to turn this around, and vaccines are going to help us with that. eric: thank goodness it's happening. it's slowly, but it is happening. there are some, though, reports
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of add verse reactions, of allergic reactions. is that something, polyearth lean gliokohl? that's something that's in shots, apparently in both pfizer and moderna. you know, if you're allergic to bees or wasps? >> so allergic reactions aren't common. most of the side effects are very, very mild or no sidefects at all, but it's always important to talk to your doctor. some of the side effects, maybe a soreness at the site of injection in your arm, sometimes a headache, sometimes a fever, sometimes body aches. if you have had this vaccine and you've had a reaction to the first one like the pfizer vaccine, then it's recommended not to get the second dose. but unless you're specifically awelerric to the advantage -- allergic to the vaccine, there's some cholesterol particles that are used to make the vaccine, the mrna substance, sucrose, if
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you're specifically allergic to these components, then you shouldn't get the vaccine. but for the majority of people, it's recommended to get the vaccine. you're going to be monitored 15 or 30 minutes after you receive the vaccine to assure you don't have side effects. moderna, they looked at age, race, e. misty, underlying medical conditions, allergies, and they found no specific safe few concerns. this is really, truly reassure ing. the risks versus the benefits far outweighses any potential risks for the majority of americans. eric: are you going to get it or have you gotten one yet? >> yes, i'm actually going to be getting the moderna vaccine here in the next few days. eric: all right, good. congratulations on that. >> yes. eric: dr. janette nesheiwat, great advice as always. of we'll follow up with you on that shot. >> sounds good. eric: good to see you. >> thank you. molly: president trump
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addressing a massive cyber attack on our government but not directly blaming russia for the hacking of several agencies. now earlier, secretary of state mike pompeo said it was pretty clear the kremlin was behind it. mark meredith is live at the white house covering all of this back and forth for us. mark. >> reporter: good afternoon, good to see you. president trump says it may be china, not russia, that is responsible for that massive cyber attack. but what's strange is what you were just talking about, secretary of state mike pompeo believing it was russia that was clearly responsible. for the last several days, we have heard or from cyber officials as well as both parties complaining that the president was not taking the hack seriously. the white house has pushed back, insisting that the president was aware. late this morning the president hut back, accusing the media of overblowing the situation. he wrote: the cyber hack is far greater in the fake news media than in actuality. i have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. russia, russia, russia is the
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priority chant when anything hammes. media petrified of discussing the possibility that it maw be china. it may in protection cease there. just yesterday secretary of state mike pompeo made it clear he feels russia is responsible, and this is what also so many cyber experts have suggested. listen to what the secretary told mark levin in a radio interview friday. >> this was a very significant effort, and i think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the russians that engaged in this activity. >> reporter: those suspicions are shared by many members of congress from both parties. illinois senator dick durbin calling it a virtual declaration of war, and wisconsin senator ron johnson says more investigation is still needed. >> we're going to have to do forensics. this could probably take some time before we really determine the true damage. but if we do and we find out for sure who's done this, there have to be sanctions. there has to be a pushback, there has to be punishment,
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there have to be consequences. >> reporter: as for president trump, nothing on his official schedule. he's been tweeting quite a bit. we're still waiting to see when he's going to get his coronavirus vaccine. molly, the vice president got his on friday. pol moll mark meredith in the full holiday spirit with the tie -- >> reporter: i try. [laughter] molly: absolutely stellar reporting. we appreciate it, thank you. eric? eric: house minority leader kevin mccarthy is doubling down on calls to remove eric swalwell from the house intelligence committee. after a closed-door fbi meeting on this yesterday, he spoke about it on swalwell's past ties to that suspected chinese spy. lucas tomlinson with more on the development here. >> reporter: hi, eric. after getting that classified briefing from the fbu e, the house minority leader said he wants eric swalwell kicked off the intelligence committee as soon as possible. >> what i learned today and anyone who was in that room with
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me would never allow swalwell to be on the intel committee or to continue to be on it. i don't know if the briefing before for leaders, if they had the same information they had today, but if that was the case, he should not be serving. >> reporter: earlier this week swalwell refused to answer questions from fox news about the nature of his relationship with with suspected chinese spy christina fang. senator tom cotton warned both members of -- members of both parties are at rusk. >> so the chinese communist party tries to cultivate meshes at all level -- americans at all levels of government. not just democrats or repalins, but anyone who might be influential in american politics in the future. they start at the hoping level, as apparently was the case with everything swalwell. >> reporter: earlier this week former cia station chief dan hoffman cautioned against a rush to judgment. >> there's no evidence whatsoever that christine fang was able to acquire, steal any
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classified information from him. so i think we have to be careful about rushing to conclusions. i don't think we should necessarily be rushing to penalize people just because the chinese are targeting. the question how did he handle it. >> reporter: house speaker nancy pelosi did not comment idea, the fbi also holding comment. eric? eric: lucas, thank you. molly? molly: the district attorney in los angeles county now doing an about face after getting criticized from victims of violent crimes for sweeping policy changes. what he's doing, that okays e next. -- that's next. ♪ if your dry eye symptoms keep coming back, inflammation in your eye might be to blame. looks like a great day for achy, burning eyes over-the-counter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. ha! these drops probably won't touch me. xiidra works differently,
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♪ ♪ eric: well, the new district attorney in los angeles county coming under a lot of controversy today. george gascon earlier planned to lessen charges and sentences against violent criminals. that idea, though, getting some serious pushback from some of his prosecutors, the police union and victims' families. gascon now saying he will allow long or prison sentences for certain crimes. all this as he has more trouble on his hands this weekend. christina coleman live in los angeles with the late on the d.a., hey, christina. >> reporter: hey, eric. well, he's changing course on
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his controversy blanket order of getting rid are of all sentence enhancements and apologizing for this comment he made as he was shouted at by a group of grief-stricken mothers of murder victims. >> it's unfortunate we have people that do not have enough -- [inaudible] >> my son can never speak again because he was murdered! >> reporter: gascon's office released a statement saying he will contact the family in that video to speak with them directly and hear them out. the d.a. is walking back his decision to get rid of all sentence enhancements, so now his office will seek sentencing enhancements in hate crimes, child abuse, elder abuse, human trafficking and other crimes that meet certain criteria. sentence enhancements can also add years to prison terms for defendants like gang members or felons who commit hate crimes or attack police. gascon warned sentence enhancements can load to excessive prison time that
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disproportionately affects black and latino defendants, but his initial move to get rid of all sentence enhancements got a ton of backlash from prosecutors, judges, crime victims and relatives. it's also causing a major rift, apparently, in the d.a.'s office. >> what just happened is everything he did is really, it rings hollow. because i'm not sure he even means it. i'm starting to see though that the only reason he made changes was because of all of the pressure. >> reporter: gascon's other sweeping changes include not allowing prosecutors to seek cash bail starting in january and also barring prosecutors from trying juveniles as adults and seeking the death penalty. eric? eric: all right, christina, thank you. molly? molly: for more on this, let's bring in former d.c. police detective ted williams. this is also a defense attorney and a fox news contribute or. ted, thank you so much for joining us. it's almost a holiday weekend
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sort of. this is the new l.a. county d.a., george gascon. he just got this job. now, he ran very openly as a progressive. he promised changes, and then he makes this rather sweeping change, cutting back on the criminal enhancements. got a lot of pushback, and he walked his own rules back. your thoughts on, you know, this is the beginning of his job. he's just getting started, and he's already gotten pushback from just about everybody coming at him from all directions. >> and i think he deserves to be came from in all directions. first of all, let me just, if i could, talk about the insensitivity of george gascon. here it was he was talking to an audience, and then a victim of a crime was out in that audience, and he had the audacity to tell that person that they did not have enough education when it came to the murder of their
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child. and in that case, it was a 20-year-old kid who had been taken out but five gang members, and he had been brutalized and murdered and then thrown over a cliff. and for this man to use education -- and you have to ask yourself what in the hell does education are to do? it appears to me to be that mr. gascon is more concerned about the rights of criminals than the rights of the victims of crime. molly: you know, i are to say as well when i heard this particular quote and he said it's unfortunate that some people do not have enough education to keep their mouths shut so welcome talk. you're right -- so we can talk. it's a shocking sentence in itself, and it really speaks to this is someone who clearly has an education, is a powerful person, a prosecutor, and to say that to someone, he wasn't even sure exactly who these people were, he claimed, and then i we find out they were victims'
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families. i absolutely understand where you're coming from. he also said he didn't understand what they were yelling at about until -- about until later, regardless, it's not how i should have reacted, and he vowed to reach out to them later on. just speaking broadly about victims, when we're talking about walking back sentencing enhancements, victims are pushing back against this, you know? they don't want to see people getting out of prison earlier than possible particularly if they've lost loved ones. >> absolutely, and rightfully -- molly: is he going to keep seeing this pushback from victims? >> well, he's definitely going to continue to see this pushback. not only from victims, but the community as a whole. look, you're or a new d.a., you're coming into the job. what you do is you have to bring the community along with you. and that community consists also of law enforcement. law enforcement officers have to go out there and protect and
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serve their community. so you need them to work with you. and this guy, gascon, seems to be working against his community, and he seems to be also working against law enforcement. and that is a bad concoction, and that means that he will not be successful in that community unless he changes his ways. molly: well, the big question now because there were law enforcement that came forward and pushed back on his changes, the victims' families but also a lot of prosecutors right there that he has to work with on a regular basis also said they didn't like some of these ideas-putting forward. as i said, he was walking some of them back, child abuse, elder assault, sex trafficking, certain financial crimes enhancements will be allowed. but is this someone who is going to be watched and thought of as being soft on crime here as he's just beginning to get to work? >> molly, he could very well be considered soft on crime are. one of the crimes that he wants to eradicate is the death penalty. and, look, i am not one of these
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people that believes that you need the death penalty in one instance, but i will say there are instances where you do need the death poemingty. penalty. there are people out there with no social redeeming qualities, and if you kill a child, if you rape somebody and kill them, these are crimes of violence. and clearly, the death penalty should be on the table, and i find it very troubling that he wants to take back and abolish the death penalty, even this prosecutor. molly: already making bug headlines, and he's warily gotten -- barely gotten started. ted williams, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your insights. we really appreciate it. >> my pleasure. molly: thank you. eric? eric: with, molly, president-elect joe biden says he has full confidence in his son hunter. why he says he's not concerned about the controversy over his foreign business dealings, but what comes next?
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2023 at the earliest. the justice department and at least 35 states suing the tech giant over its business practices alleging it manipulates search results to preserve a monopoly over competitors. the judge saying the initial scheduling timeline could change given the size and scope of all of the massive litigation. molly? ♪ molly: president-elect joe biden sticking by his son as the investigation into hunter biden's taxes and business dealings continue. biden told comedian stephen colbert on thursday that he is not concerned about the accusations made against his son. here's hillary vaughn, she is live in will mington, delaware, with all the latest on this. hillary. >> reporter: good afternoon, mollly. well, while president trump is reported arely weighing whether or not to appoint a special counsel to take a lead in this investigation into hunter biden's tax affairs, republicans in congress are divided over the idea. senator lindsey graham says it's
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a good idea to have someone outside politics looking into the investigation, but senator john cornyn says he doesn't want to see a ramp-up of special counsels who aren't accountable to anyone. while others in the senate want president-elect joe biden himself to pipe up about what he knows about his son's business. senator tom cotton telling fox news biden should hold a press conference. >> there's a lot of evidence suggesting that the biden family's been trading on joe biden's public office and name for 50 years. ing whiled you new it was going to stop if he assumes the highest office in the land? >> reporter: president-elect joe biden has spoken sparingly about the federal criminal investigation into his son's business dealings and has mostly shrugged it off saying he's not concerned, he's confident his son didn't do anything wrong. >> i am not concerned about any accusations that have been made against hum. it's used to get to me.
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i think it's kind of foul play, but look, it is what it is. he's a grown man. he is the smartest man i know, i mean, from a pure intellectual capacity, and as long as he's good, we're good. >> reporter: that investigation began two years ago but didn't become public until less than two weeks ago. so attorney general bill barr is defending his decision not to announce it before the election saying had, quote: a damn good reason, telling "the wall street journal" yesterday think about the power it would give the federal bure rock i city. -- bureaucracy. just gin up an investigation, make it public, affect every election. president-elect biden still has not announced who his attorney general will be, but he is making progress fulling out his cabinet. today he's announcing his climate team here in wilmington, delaware, and included in announcement will be former michigan governor jennifer
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granholm energy secretary and congresswoman deb holland who will be his interior secretary. molly? molly: all right. hillary vaughn, thank you for covering all of that. much of a challenge. eric? eric: molly, for more on the hunter biden investigation and what we could expect, opinion editor for the washington times joins us, charlie hurt, also a fox news contributor. charlie, joe biden's defense that he gave on stephen colbert's show, is that enough for his son? >> yeah. i have a hard time seeing that that would be enough. just to stop back and look at this, you know, who did he go to when he wanted to answer questions about very serious charges leveled against his son, you know, he didn't go to a tough reporter, he didn't go to you, he didn't go to a legitimate journalistic enterprise, he goes to an alleged comedian to sort of -- and, of course, he got what he'd been looking for, softball questions, slob oring questions. the questions were more about
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how upset are you that you're being accused of this sort of thing. but also the orr thing is, you know, it's not -- the problem here is not, you know, the questions we have are not really about hunter biden. hunter biden is, obviously, a very troubled guy and, you know, certainly fair play to ask a lot of questions about hum and everything, but that's not the real thing here. the real question here is joe biden's involvement in all of this. and that's what we need to get to the bottom of, that's what we have not gotten to the bottom of. you know, when you look across the media landscape at the number of journalists out there who are asking tough questions about this story before the election, you know, you can count on one hand the outfits that were asking those questions. shocking, the number of entities that just sort of brushed it all under the rug. you can't have a free republic, you can't have free elections if that's the way the media treats serious questions like this. eric: we're looking at the president-elect right now. he's in wilmington, delaware, announcing a climate task force,
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appointing officials to his administration on that. i mean, he has said, charlie, that he has not taken one penny from, you know, any foreign companies or, you know, he has done none of that. apparently it's all been hunter and maybe his brother involved in these type of deals. so what would you say to those that say, well, look, you know, he reportedly didn't report $400,000 in income. from burisma, you know, the company in ukraine -- >> right. eric: that's the fault of the lawyers and the tax preparers, we always hear that as the answer. what are the wider ramifications? >> yeah. i have a hard time believing, believing that it's possible that, you know, these are just tax problems. and, obviously, the tax problems are often what trip people up, and they're what investigators are left with, the only thing they can go after people are the tax questions. but again, when you read these emails and you read these texts, it's so clear that the family is trying to build an influence
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operation to curry favor with these foreign governments, and they're reaping massive amounts of money in doing it. and it's also very clear when you read these messages and the text messages and the e-mails that joe biden was a huge part, was the figure, was the central part. and hunter biden himself has acknowledged that he would never have gotten into these positions in the first place if it weren't that his father at the time hadn't been vice president and, of course, obviously as president the family stands to, you know, to gain so much more from that influence. but so i just have aal hard time imagining that, and, you know, maybe you can pore through joe biden's tax records and not find any evidence of money going directly to him. ing but especially -- and then you add to it the fact that there were clearly these arrangements between vice president joe biden and his son hunter biden where joe biden was
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clearly, if he was not receiving money directly from these entities, he was clearly receiving a huge stake of the profits or of the ownership of the larger influence enterprise. eric: well, we don't know that. we haven't seen -- are have we seen those facts? we haven't seen that exact paperwork that he was part of the corporation -- >> no. i mean, that's something we haven't seen. no, no, we haven't seen internal paperwork that, you know, official financial documents relating to the entity, but we have seen e-mails where they're clearly conspiring to do exactly that amongst themselves. but that's why you can more questions. -- ask more questions, have an investigation and look into this stuff. if there are those e-mails and texts and, again, everything i'm talking about is based on these e-mails and texts that were pertaining to the operation that hunter biden was either sending or receiving.
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they're not financial documents part of the company. but, you know, they raise enough red flags that somebody should get to those financial documents, get to those corporate documents and find out exactly what those arrangements are. and you know this, that if we were talking about -- it gets said a million times, and it's, you know, you hate to say it again, but if we were talking about the trumps and the trumps were developing a business operation around the globe based on using their political influence -- [laughter] based on their father being in the white house, there would be a lot of questions being asked about it. we we would have gotten to the bottom of it. we would have had a presidential counsel that spent tens of millions of dollars getting to the bottom of it. well, that's exactly what we have going on here with the bidens, and a stunning number of people in our business aren't asking any of those questions. eric yeah. some would say ivanka's got those trademarks in china --
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>> again -- eric: did get $5.4 million from china directly from the chinese bank, but in that a case she was a landlord. >> no, and that's a fair point. but the important thing to remember those were arrangements, you know, the trumps had business awe rangements around the world -- arrangements around the world and they have for decades. and, of course, the political career sort of had to sort of figure out a way to fit around that. this is an entirely different thing. the biden family is a political family, and they're using this political, you know, their political career as a springboard into this stuff. again, according to the emails we're reading from joe -- excuse me, from hunter biden. so that's the difference, to me. eric: and that's certainly what's under investigation, it seems, right now -- >> we hope. eric: -- especially the taxes. charlie hurt, always good to see you. thank you, charlie. >> great to see you, eric. thanks, bud. mark: molly?
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♪ ♪ molly: more than a million people casting their ballots with early voting underway in georgia this week with in a pair of senate runoff races. a full roster of nationally-known politicians are campaigning through that state for both sides. on each side with control, of course, of the senate at stake. charles watson is live in atlanta with more on all of this. charles. >> reporter: well, molly, georgia voters seem to know -- and so far voter turnout is in line with what we saw during the presidential election back in november. state officials say on average about 200,000 people a day have gone out and voted early since monday x there could be an influx of young voters this time around. according to an updated registration list obtained by the "atlanta journal-constitution", nearly 76,000 new voters have registered to cast their ballot in the january 5th senate runoff elections. the ajc reports these voters are
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overwhelmingly young with 56 president of them under 35 years old. and because young voters tend to loon blue, that could lead to a boost for jon ossoff and raphael warnock who got a big assist from the president-elect earlier this week. >> i need two senators in this state. i want to get something done. not two senators who are just going to get in the way. because, look, getting nothing done just hurts georgia. >> reporter: meanwhile, republicans are hoping to down canner any sense of a blue wave -- counter, bringing in big names like vice president mike pence and yesterday country music star travis tritt to rally gop voters to the polls for david perdue and kelly loeffler. >> you heard president trump, you heard mike pence. they came to georgia, they said you have to vote. we know that if we vote, we will
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win. if we don't win, we won't just lose, we will lose the country. >> reporter: and, molly, you can continue to expect big names to pour into georgia. today don jr. is here to campaign for the incumbent republican senators and former vice presidential candidate tim kaine here for the democrats. back to you. molly: yeah. no doubt a lot at stake there. charles watson, thank you, we appreciate it. eric? eric: well, molly, the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause economic wounds. numbers are now out that show just how damaging it has been. we'll show you next. ♪ ♪ i'm still on the road to what's next. and i'm still going for my best. even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'm on top of that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin.
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plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. what's next? getting out there. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. ask your doctor about eliquis. and if your ability to afford your medication has changed, we want to help.
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my hands are everything to me. but i was diagnosed with dupuytren's contracture. and it got to the point where things i took for granted got tougher to do. thought surgery was my only option. turns out i was wrong. so when a hand specialist told me about nonsurgical treatments, it was a total game changer. like you, my hands have a lot more to do. learn more at factsonhand.com today. ♪ molly: the economic toll on small businesses during the pandemic has been devastating.
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and new data from the government shows performing arts companies, travel agencies and bowling alleys are among those talking the biggest hit. alex hogan is live in new york city following this story with the details. alex. >> reporter: hi, or molly. those small business owners waiting on help, 74% of them say they need the government's assistance, is and 81% among minority-owned businesses. but there was some relief yesterday in jacksonville, florida. their small businesses who had not received any federal help so far in 2020 were able to apply for up to $2,000 of cares act funding from the city. in minnesota governor tim walz with also signed a $216 small business relief package. the state is easing up on strict reductions. it's now -- restrictions. it's now allowing outdoor dining to reassume at 50% capacity. indoor dining is off the table until january 11th. one group of 150 restaurant and
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bar owners are vowing to defy those orders, calling the ban illegal and unlawful. >> i just need to run my business, and if you don't want to congresswoman in, i completely understand that, but i wish they would understand me we as a well. >> reporter: job wills claims rising this past week to 885,000, much higher than expected. newly-unemployed weighing the difficult ways to cut costs. among them, skipping a visit to the dentist after losing health insurance. december is typically the busiest month of the year for dental practices as people spend their remaining health care benefits, but according to the american didn'tal association, 66% of dental practices nationwide are open but seeing fewer patients than usual. still, the offices are adding on extra costs of safety precautions. >> if practices are -- many practices have put in our-handling systems, wart treatment facilities, disinfection protocols,
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separation mr. speaker su e glass. the cost of these materials is enormous. >> reporter: so again, the vaccine being rolled out in all 50 states, but a lot of these small businesses, molly, say they might not be automobile to hold out until then. molly? molly: we've seen so many closing across the nation. alex hogan, thank you very much. eric? eric: that we have. well, it is the season for giving, and two siblings are making sure children in the hospital receive a visit from old st. nick. ♪ ♪ muck there's a feel about christmas t you've all been told -- ♪ and he spends the whole year working out of his sled. ♪ it's the little st. nick powerful relief so you can restore and recover.
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theraflu hot beats cold. and through the woods this holiday season. remember, safe drivers save 40% with allstate. saving is easy when you're in good hands. call a local agent, or 1-800-allstate for a quote today. call a local agent, 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,
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molly: a brother and sister team in oho is working through the pandemic to bring christmas cheer to children in a local hospital. tieuler and monica -- tyler and monica slater have held their annual toy drive since 2015 donating more than 45,000 toys over the years for the columbus nationwide children's hospital. joining me now, tyler and monica, founder of tyler's toy
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drive. thank you so much for joining us. i'm delighted to talk to you guys. you guys are holiday heroes. tyler, let's start with you. how did you get this done in the midst, literally, of a pandemic? >> it's been a challenging year. we've had a lot of obstacles that we've had to get around this year compared to the previous five years. covid-19's, obviously, thrown a lot of wrenches in a lot of people's to plans this year, but, you know, we've been talking about it throughout the year, and we felt heavily on our hearts that it wasn't right to get rid of the tow drive or can el the toy drive for a year. obviously, the needs of the children don't change despite the virus. so we decided that we would handle, obviously, things very differently this year than a typical year. however, we still wanted to go through with the toy drive. we had kind of the challenges of setting up safe guidelines, and we worked closely with nationwide children's to insure that we were able to do it safely, keep our donors safe,
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keep our staff safe, everybody that's involved with helping out and also, obviously, the children when they receive the gifts. molly: yeah. monica, it's been remarkable to see more than 11,000 toys this year. you guys had tremendous success in previous years, also working with the ohio virtual academy, the school. you know, this is a community effort. how does it feel now seeing that this was pulled off, a success, the christmas angels came through once again? [laughter] >> really it's a blessing. it started out, you know, tyler and i were in high school together, so, i mean, i was a senior and he was a freshman, and, you know, we really wanted to do something special. you know, nationwide touches so many lives in so many different lives, and you always hear those telethons online -- or on the radio, online and, you know, it really -- i remember listening to 'em as a kid, you know, in the car with mom or dad.
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and you'd just sit there like, wow, we've been so fortunate, so blessed to be able to be healthy, you know? we should be very thankful for our health. and that's kind of something that really followed us around, so when we were trying to pick a project or, you know, pick something, we immediately turned to the children, nation wide children's hospital. and that's kind of where our plan form lawsuited for the toy drive -- formulated -- molly: amazing to see what a success this has been yet again, and i want to thank you both for joining us, tyler and monica. thank you so much. eric? eric: monica and tyler, fantastic. we'll be back in one hour. ♪ ♪ you inspired us to make your humira experience even better... with humira citrate-free. it has the same effectiveness you know and trust, but we removed the citrate buffers, there's less liquid, and a thinner needle... with less pain immediately following injection.
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ask your doctor about humira citrate-free. and you can use your co-pay card to pay as little as $5 a month. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections,... ...including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened,... ...as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems,... ...serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common... and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections,... or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ask your doctor about humira citrate-free. the same humira you trust with less pain immediately following injection. if you can't afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help.
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welcome to the june journal editorial. early voting underway, george and the states in those january 5 runoffs could not be higher with control of the u.s. senate and the direction of american policy on the line. both vice president mike pence, president-elect joe biden traveled to the peach state this week with pens urging republicans to turn out and reminding them but losing the senate would mean. >> you got to remember, if you don't vote, they win. if you don't vote, there could be nothing
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