especially this time of year in the holidays and how difficult this year has been for so many people to be able to have that and have your family member come home just incredible. todd: we love wringing those sights and sounds to you during this time of year. "fox & friends" stars right now. jillian: see you tomorrow. ♪ >> it really is a disgrace. it's called the covid relief bill but it has almost nothing to do with covid. will. pete: we begin with a fox news alert. president trump demanding congress send them a new covid-19 relief bill with a lot more money for direct payments for individuals. ing. katie: nancy pelosi says democrats are ready to bring the president's proposal to increase checks to a vote this week. will. griff: doug lieu zar lieu luzad. >> shock that 5500 page bill

that no one read may be filled with pork-related items. we will get to those in a moment. the president's objections here have thrown this compromise, this congressional deal up in the ira. he has tapped into concerns from some members of both parties. that this $600 payment just isn't right. it's either too much or too little. here is senator rand paul who likely won't be happy with the president's call for $2,000 relief he can whichs. >> to so-called conservatives who are quick to identify the socialism of democrats, if you vote for this spending monstrosity, you are no better. when you vote to pass out free money, you lose your soul. >> on the other hand, many democrats seem thrilled that the prospects of laundry roomer payouts. nancy pelosi on twitter writes republicans repeatedly refused to say what amount the president wanted for direct checks. at last the president has agreed to it $2,000. democrats are ready to bring

this to the floor this week by unanimous consent. let's do it. but she and other democrats will probably not be on board with the president's insistence that some pork-related items or things that he sees as pork be removed from this and there are lots of questionable items as part of this package things like $10 million for gender programs in pakistan. the groundwork for a climate security advisory council. $300 million for fisheries. now, if the president vetoes this 2 $.3 trillion deal and he hasn't said as much, but, if that were to happen, it also brings up the possibility of a possible partial government shutdown. back to you guys. will. pete: doug, thank you very much. appreciate it. a lot of activity in our nationens capital on this the christmas eve eve. griff, katie, good morning. welcome. great to have you as always. katie: good morning. pete: good morning. it is washington, d.c. seems to find a way to get busy right

about the time everyone wants to go home. maybe that's what they need to actually get something done. one of the people we talked to this morning mentioned in doug's report is senator rand paul. he'll be on our program at 8:30. we noel doesn't like a lot of the spending. what's his reaction to additional money that the president is demanding. we shall see. as we look at this, there is the full screen right there. as we look at all of in this morning, guys, it seems like a classic moment. when i saw the president's reaction it felt almost right for presidential intervention here. china is to blame. government tells you to shut down. let's get you a clean bill and deliver it. instead, as washington often does, they load it up in a mega swamp bill and you, the individual, get 600 bucks, merry christmas for your 600 pucks after all that you have been through. running through the list right now the types of things included in that bill, guys. the cover of the "new york post"

this morning sums it up nicely. stocking stiffers, millions in pork but peanuts for you. griff, did any of this surprise you? griff: not in the least bit. good morning pete, and katie. here's the deal the president will be praised by millions of americans saying hey, where were the republicans and democrats, for that matter, looking into such an ominous huge monster bill and looking out for the little guy? because clearly this is the case. i did actually dig a little bit on the math. if you go from $600 to 2,000 as the president has shocked all official washington with, it only adds 370 billion. now 370 billion is a lot of money, but in washington terms, is it really, katie? katie: not today, griff. that's for sure. especially when they are using government spending the crisis. we have seen the government spending in general doesn't have the limit anymore.

it's really interesting to see who is on the sides of this issue. you have senator josh hawley, a republican, saying the president is absolutely right to increase the amount in those checks. you have nancy pelosi saying that. the question now is whether they can actually get this done. according to chad pergram, our producer on capitol hill, they would have to essentially start over on this. it's a little bit too late to amend this bill that already has been passed out of both houses of congress and on its way to president trump's desk. also, keep in mind, that the new congress starts on january 3rd. so they would have to stay through tomorrow, which is christmas eve, as pete mentioned, and work all the way through next week on a brand new bill. and as the president mentioned, he wants some of the pork cut out. nancy pelosi is not offering that. she is simply offering to up the amount of those checks going to american families. pete: yeah, katie you are right. chuck schumer has called on the president to sign this existing bill and then we will go back and get to work. count me as one, i think, many americans who are not all that

concerned if washington is forced to start over again, miss their christmas and actually, would. they are the ones who have received pay through all of this, government la jes largesss never stopped while small businesses were shut down. we think we will all agree on that. see if we it agree on what the president. will worth spending as opposed to all the other stuff we scrolled on the screen. also something that happened, guys, joe biden had a press conference yesterday. he had assigned reporters asking questions. many of them which were not difficult, as you can expect. and as you could expect peter doocy was not called upon here from the fox news channel but he took an opportunity at the end to ask about hunter biden. here's how it went. >> mr. president-elect, do you still think that the story from the fall about your son hunter were russian disinformation as a smear campaign like you said? >> yes, yes, yes. of god love you, man.

you are a one horse pony. i tell you. will thank you, thank you. i promise, my justice department will be totally on its own making its judgments about how they should proceed. pete: it's unclear what a one horse pony is. we will work to cop firm that this morning. a classic bidenism of. but, he' is trying to be dismissive of it, answer but be dismissive. is that going to work? katie: well, it's worked so far, pet. you had the media ignore the story before the election. quite interesting that joe biden is still calling it russian disinformation when hunter biden's legal team has confirmed that there is an ongoing federal investigation from the u.s. attorney in delaware. will sing that doesn't seem to be russian misinformation. it seems to be a doj investigation. also, we have seen this media shift the narrative, right?

will a number of media outlets actually the hunter biden story is a story. >> a new development involving the justice department and president-elect joe biden's son hunter biden. >> joe biden's son hunter, revealing he is under federal investigation by the u.s. attorney's office in delaware for his taxes. >> hunter biden's admission today comes as learned the fbi has been looking into the younger biden's tax records since 2019. >> a number of incident taking place. >> hunter biden has something of a sketchy background. >> there are questions what he was doing while his father was vice president that will need to be answered. >> i don't think anyone is above the law. certainly the president it, not the president and not, you know, hunter biden. >> so pete and griff. the interesting thing about this is if you go way, way back to the obama administration, the press secretary there was asked about hunter biden's foreign

business dealings in ukraine and other places while joe biden was the vice president and whether it was a conflict of interest. was it russian disinformation then? pete: great point. katie: that's the real question, griff. griff: it's going to be interesting. because i tried to ask dr. jill biden a question about her will son hunter biden. i got chewed off. enough to you see peter getting the one horse pony line but here's the point. it there was an investigation that began 2018 into the overseas dealings in hunter biden and his tax history. so ultimately, we will find out. either that investigation will clear hunter biden or that investigation will make more problems for hunter biden. and that ultimately is a problem for now president-elect joe biden. and what's going to be fascinating is to see not only how the administration handles it, but how the media handles it. will the media simply dismiss it? we saw stephen colbert in his first interview with the bidens

say well, you know, he this are trying to make hay about this. they are not making hay. this is a real investigation that has real potential consequences. and it's going to be interesting to see, also, how this plays in social media. senator josh hawley had an interesting tweet here. he said this. is twitter going to put up a warning saying biden's claims are in dispute? that will certainly, perhaps, pull the curtain back on a double standard when it comes to social media and how they view things. but, one thing is very clear this is not going away, this investigation. and it has real potential consequences. pete: they tried to make it go away, right? they suppressed the entire story from the "new york post" before the election. now they are willing to nit it. i wish it was interesting. you have say it will be interesting to see what social media does. i wish it was going to be interesting. because it's so predictable that it's not. what josh hawley is saying here is really important. if you are going to fact check and put disputed claim on every tweet the president puts out,

but then joe biden has the audacity to walk off the stable and say yes, yes, yes, this is russian disinformation. when it's been proven that it isn't, where is the fact check? where is the question mark underneath the tweet or the statement of that? it never ever happens because they are completely in the tank. you know, griff, maybe we will get to the bottom though, i think it's the lying dog faced pony soldier that rides the one horse pony. i think it all kind of comes together when you actually put it together. maybe you will get a reporter on that one as well. griff: we will see. i was actually at the town hall in new hampshire when he issued that dog faced pony soldier line to a woman by all accounts was willing to vote for biden. listen, we are in for assuming that joe biden becomes the next president of the united states, a lot of these interesting things. one thing is for sure, santa may want to bring him an actual pony so he can separate the two. pete: we shall see and maybe we will check in with santa.

this morning we're closed. katie: the other thing too really quickly this brings up the broader issue of joe biden who he is going to pick for his attorney general. if hes to think this is russian disinformation which it's not. it's going to matter whether the by den administration decides to allow the u.s. attorney to continue his work or not. and that's been a big question in washington as we move forward to the next administration. pete: big time. maybe we will get some answers on that this morning as well. another story we are following this morning. we have been following politicians who love to make declarations about how lock down, separated you need to be while they go to hair salons or travel to mexico or meet with their imransd mother and do what they told you not to do. yet another example from mecklenburgberg county, north carolina. where the manager of that county her name is deanna dir oro. watch the whole press conference amend the statement she makes and what she admits at the end. watch. >> over this holiday season we ask that you stay home and only

be around those who you live with. >> i will be traveling by car to durham, north carolina to see some close family, small groups. >> is this what we are not supposed to be doing? >> i know who the family is. i know where they spend their time so i'm comfortable making that trip. it's two people in a household. it's not a group. it's very small number of people and i feel very confident about their safety. so if i did not feel comfortable, i would not go. >> so do you recommended that for everyone? >> i'm making a personal decision based on information that i have. and so that's the decision that i have made and i think everybody needs to do the same. pete: that's an amazing clip, guys. in one sentence to another. she says i urge you to stay at home. and i'm jumping in the carcinoma to go see family. so see you. and then at the same time, makes the same argument a lot of us have made trust people enough to use the information they have about the relationships they have to make personal choices for themselves.

katie, did they ever get the fact that they are doing what everyone else want to do while telling everybody else to stay home? katie: well, you know, that's the key part of what she said is she is comfortable with the situation that she has chosen and the people who she is going to visit are obviously comfortable with her being in the same vicinity as she will be for the holiday. but, you know, you have these government mandates that are all -- have become so cookie cutter and based in non-reality and scientific fact. it's just amazing to watch them to continue to tell everybody what they should be doing, keeping them away from their family members. you had dr. birx saying how her family has been depressed. well, everybody has been depressed. let people see them. make decisions what they are willing to do and risk and allow them to go about their business. they have the facts now about how to mitigate this. griff: damn the facts, katie as pete has incident pointed out countless times we are freedom-loving animals.

it is in our d.n.a. it is the air with which we breathe. when politicians tell us to give ours up but yet they aren't willing to do the same it doesn't sit well. here is a "wall street journal" op-ed the headline from dr. scott atlas, you remember the president's -- one of his point people on the pandemic says a pandemic of misinformation. the media politicization of covid has proved deadly puts americans' freedoms at risk. here is a little bit of what dr. atlas had to say on "the story." >> the bigger part of the essay that i wrote is really about the freedom because now we are in a world where we know -- frankly, your field is destroyed in terms of objective journalism. that's been going on for years. science has been contaminated and there is this urgent need to be political now in the scientific are journals. social media is now the arbiter of free speech. we see the universities are suppressing actively rebuking views that they don't personally agree with. and they are rebuking in

suppression of those views are the very views we need to hear. the free exchange of ideas a riffe at the truth that we need to know. so, once those things are all gone, frank arely the country is finished. griff griff that's a great point, pete. the other important aspect here is if you insult the common sense of americans, well, they just don't take too kindly to that. pete: that's exactly what it is. i have got common sense, let me make a choice. you are exactly right. scott atlas has spoken honestly about how people truly feel. and i think it's appreciated. one more topic, guys, this morning before we have to move on to some headlines. joe biden in that press conference yesterday was asked about reversing president trump's immigration policies. how quickly would he do it if he is in the white house? here's what he said, watch. >> already started discussing these issues with the president of mexico and our friends in latin, america. and the timeline is to do it so that we, in fact, make it

better, not worse. the last thing we need is to say we are going to stop immediately if the, you know, the access to asylum the way it's being run now and end up with 2 million people on our border. it's a matter of it will get done. and it will get done quickly but it's not going to be able to be done on day one. pete: guys, i wonder how much of an understanding joe biden has of that kind of admission of the policies that he would bring in and what would it do to our border whether it's day one or not, people see it as wide open and open season. now, susan rice, who would be potentially biden's incoming domestic policy adviser tweeted this in response to that press conference saying migrants and asylum seekers absolutely should not believe those in the region peddling the idea the border will suddenly be open to everyone on day one. it will not. representative ilhan omar took a different view as a member of the so-called squad tweeting a

reaction to that this is a classic bait and switch. it perpetuates trump's dehumanization of my grants and breaks a core campaign promise. democrats lose big when administrations won't fulfill their promise. i urge of the biden team to reconsider this position. katie, they want to open the border but not on day one because they know what would happen if the borders open and the far left is not happy about it. katie: yeah, look, pete, the border patrol agents that i have spoken to expect a surge. the biden team is receiving that kind of intelligence. they are understanding mexico doesn't want these caravans coming through. griff should comment on this because he was down reporting on these caravans he knows this better than anybody else. the fact is the by den team is being realistic about what this would mean for americans while the far left than will goods on the campaign trail and essentially lied to about what biden would do. griff: i have a news flash for

the incoming administration, they are on the board. i spoke yesterday and countless days before that they are already surging for a month of this election because you are now compounding it. not only do they see an opportunity for a more porous and open border, but they are suffering because of covid. their economies are hit just as hard as ours. they have fewer economic opportunities. and they see their ticket as a northbound route through a porous border now because of incoming liberal democrat president. it is already going to show signs of overwhelming. you can talk to any border patrol agent from texas to california. this story is going to start up again and become perhaps the biggest one we see this coming spring. i will have more on that coming up, pete. pete: yep. if anyone would know, griff, it would be you. so we just love having katie and griff here this morning. appreciate it. 'i will read the tease. it's perhaps the closest

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>> i do think that we need new leadership in the democratic party. >> are you ready to say pelosi and schumer need to go? >> i mean, i, i think so. we need to, to shift power. we need to make sure that we have a transition of power in the leadership of the democratic party. >> pete: we told you about

congresswoman and so-called squad member comrade cortez calling to remove nancy pelosi insisting it's time for a change and apparently she is not alone as a new poll finds a majority of voters agree with her 56% of them saying democrats should replace nancy pelosi with a new leader. here to react iowa g.o.p. congressman elect marinette miller-meeks. thank you for being with us demanding that the presidential result be accepted in had your race which is close and has been certified in your direction, she will not recognize that certification. so can you have it both ways and is nancy pelosi fit to be speaker? being. >> you can't have it both ways all opponent has instead of going through the iowa court system, filed a petition with the house committee on administration to have nancy pelosi and the democrats

overturn and disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters in iowa the best way to replace nancy pelosi is give us a majority in 2022 and we will replace nancy pelosi. right now you don't feel like inside the democrat calculation there is enough votes to overturn establishment traditional campaign money washington and go in another direction? >> well, i haven't been spending all my time in washington, d.c. except for orientation. pete: that's true. >> but i think, you know, nancy pelosi is a very savvy politician. she has been at this for a very long time. and they have to look at their leadership. but, as i said, we tried to replace nancy pelosi by getting the majority. we came very close this election cycle. and we can replace nancy pelosi in 2022 by electing a majority of republicans to take back the house. pete: now, as you said the balance in the house is close. it's still controlled by democrats. but much thinner than people anticipated.

your election, which was won by six votes, was certified in iowa. do you have a concern that once it goes to the house floor in washington in january, is there a chance they could try to see the your opponent instead and then create a big old mess? >> well, certainly. and in iowa, we have are a very good election process. of we put through legislation this past session in order to make our absentee ballot request and ballots are mailed in after a request that they were safe and that they were secure. trying to minimize voter fraud. so we had an election process on election night i won. then our 24 counties in our district had their county canvas and certified those results to the secretary of state. at that time i was ahead. then our opponent had a recount of which they really helped to drive how the recount was conducted. and in johnson county, one of our larger counties, the recount board looked it over. 61,000 absentee ballots, looked

at them, held them. so we had an extensive recount process. at the end of that recount process i was still ahead six votes. now she want to change the rules. she stunt want to abide by the rulings we had and appeal to the house. she should have gone to the iowa court. she could have gone to the iowa courts. and she said there wasn't enough time in an interview with a local media outlet here in iowa she said we had to appeal to the house committee on administration to get the results we need. and that tells you everything you need to know. that, you know, and they filed their petition and they said there were 22 ballots. certainly more than enough time for impartial neutral iowa judges to look at 22 ballots and decide what had to happen with this election. so this is a -- you know, partisan political power play, trying to get washington, d.c. and nancy pelosi one vote from california to overturn the election and the voters in iowa and disenfranchise as i said hundreds of thousands of voters.

pete: yeah. if you have can't get what you want from iowa, then go to your friends in washington, d.c. january 6th is going to be an interesting date on a lot of levels. dr. mariannette miller-meeks. thank you so much for being with us this morning. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> allegations of widespread voter fraud members of congress vowing to object to be electors and two senate runoffs all going down in georgia. we will speak with governor brian kemp. that is elks in ♪ ♪ and if you don't have insurance, it's free. plus, get 20% off your treatment plan. enjoy flexible payment options and savings when it matters most. we're here to make your smile shine bright so you can start the new year feelin' alright.

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will. katie: president trump doubling down on election as chief of staff plays a surprise visit to georgia signature audit currently underway. >> brian kemp joins us now with the latest are governor kemp, thank you for taking time. merry christmas to you. >> merry christmas, good to be with you. griff griff governor, i want to get to what are the most significant senate elections less that two weeks away and how secure it is there in the peach state. i also want to ask you first to respond to atlanta journal constitution had an op-ed said enough is enough. it is referring to the president's pressuring you, criticizing you, trying to get you to bring the legislature

back to overturn the election results there in the state. we saw reports yesterday that there is even the president considering trying to primary you in your next election. what's your reaction this morning? >> are thats would a lot in that question. but let me start with the election and the president. no one has worked harder down here in georgia to support this president's re-election than myself. i continue to support his and any candidate's legal actions post election which is what the law allows for just like your last guest was talking about. i have also got to follow the laws and constitution of this state. i'm going to do it. as far as me getting primaried, i could care less about that right now. all what we all need to do regardless of what you think is going on in georgia we have got to support david perdue and kelly loeffler. we are the red wall to stop socialism and handing the keys to biden, pelosi, schumer, aoc,

bernie and everything else. i mean, we have got to win these two races. we have the votes to do it. and people need to do just like i have been saying and the president has been saying. they need to vote for kelly and david. vote today, don't wait. the democrats are going to try to convince you that this race is over late in the race with liberal polling that's going to come out. i have been warning people against that. i was in 'an event with both david and kelly last night. the night before. he woul are are working hard. we have to make it happen. pete: governor, as you you know, most of american politics has descended on georgia and all eyes are there and right infantry so. one of those is senator lindsey graham. i believe we have a tweet that he put out about the process of signature verification there in georgia. he tweeted recently i have just been briefed about the signature verification system in georgia regarding 2020 mail-in ballots. from what i have been told sounds like they now have a credible process in place to do a signature audit. look forward to hearing the

results. griff alluded to it, governor. the president has been all over you on this, wanting a special session. wanting more done with the signature audit. has everything that can be done been done because there remains tons of skepticism about the outcome there in georgia including fulton county. >> yeah. look, i fully understand that. i have been calling on be the signature audit for the secretary of state to do that per our constitution here. he has the authority to do that. he is elected statewide just like i am. i know senator graham understands that full well as we just went through confirming three great justices to the supreme court. and i know that he, like i, wants judges that are going to follow the law and not make it. and the law in georgia is that the secretary of state has the constitutional authority. he finally ordered the signature audit. i'm glad he did. i offered to allow the georgia bureau of investigation, which is under my purview to assist in that. they did that yesterday. i know for a fact when mark

meadows was on the ground down there, and will let him speak for himful is, but i feel he was very impressed with the effort of our professional officers working with the post certified in the secretary of state's office to do the signature audit. and hopefully we will know today or perhaps in the morning what the results of that are. and that should give great confidence. pete: so the results of the signature audit, you believe, should come today or tomorrow and is there a possibility we learn of nefarious things? what's your take when people actually look at these signatures here? >> look, i'm going to let -- i have worked with the secretary of state investigators for nine years when i was secretary of state. these are professional people. they are post certified law enforcement officers. >> the georgia bureau of investigation, they have been right in line with a lot of things the trump administration has been wanting to do and that are my priority like going after street gangs, drug traffickers,

human traffickers. these are professional people. they are going to call it balls and strikes. that's what they need to do. that's what i have told them to do when i swore in the new director back in -- a little less than two years ago. i'm very confident in that process. and i will let it speak for itself whenever the rules come out. hopefully rarity today if not tomorrow. katie: governor kemp, thank you so much for being here this morning. you mentioned judges and one of the big fears is that if georgia goes blue, the senate will pack the court under chuck schumer. what are you hearing about voter turnout in the state? how are republicans too long when it comes to early voting and what can people expect for the special election when we see that the first week of january? o. >> well, these a really good question. and that's exactly what we need to be focused on. we need to be focused on supporting two really great senators david perdue and kelly loeffler. they are both outsiders and spent decades in the private sector just like the president before they have ever went to

washington. they both want to drain the swamp. we have got to send them back up there to really and i talked about this wednesday night at a big rally they had about the senate and the confirmation process and it's not just the judges. you think about some of the just radical people that joe biden is talking about putting in his cabinet, you know, the senate is the fire wall for that. regardless of what happens over the next couple of weeks with the presidential election, we have got to stay focused on these senate races. i feel like turnout is good. i feel like republicans are motivated. but for those that are skeptical, you need to really listen to what the president said on his last rally here. he said regardless of what you think, you have got to go vote for two great friends of his and friends of mine. david perdue and kelly loeffler to stop socialism, marxism, and handing the keys to pelosi, schumer, aoc and bernie griff griff governor, just finely so it's clear for anyone in georgia

who may be thinking about not voting because they fear that it's not secure and you are going to have a record turnout -- >> -- you can't do that you can't do that we cannot -- even if they feel that way, i hope they don't. but, if they do they still have to vote. we cannot sit at home. we have got to save our country. that is what david and kelly have been doing seven, eight, nine, stops a day to safe our country. that's what the president believes in. ivanka was here yesterday. are don jr. has been here. everybody is pulling in the same direction on this race we have got to reelect these two people and i believe that we will. testimony. katie: just a quick follow-on on that, governor. what specifically are you doing to make sure that the election is secure? because people have a valid reason to feel like their votes -- >> i know this is very frustrating for people in washington, d.c. that don't understand what the law and the constitution says in georgia that is the responsibility of

the secretary of state. the county elections run elections in georgia. we have a unified -- a uniform state system here, the constitutional authority lies with the secretary of state. so he needs to be the one that is assuring that. also, the county election boards, which are represented by republicans, need to be pressing their local county officials to make sure that they are doing the signature match correctly. and, look, i believe in support the campaigns whether republican, democrat or whoever to be in there watching that process, which they can do. but there is a legal process that they have to go through to sign up. that's what the georgia republican party needs to be doing. we have been promoting that for people to volunteer. all eyes are going to be on this election. it needs to be done right. and i can assure you that, you know, one of the first things i did was allow the georgia bureau of investigation to be involved in anything that the secretary of state requests of us. but he has to do that because he has the constitutional authority to do that. there is a lot of confusion over me being able to just order

those things and i do not have that authority. griff: governor brian kemp of georgia, thank you for taking time. just two days before christmas. coming to us from athens. i can't leave this interview, governor, without saying go dogs. thanks for taking time to join us. >> go dogs. merry christmas, everyone. pete: merry christmas, thank you, governor. katie: thank you, governor. well now moving to a state upnorth growing backlash after new york governor andrew cuomo congratulated himself for his handling of the coronavirus despite presiding over a state with the highest number of covid-19 deaths in the country. >> are healthy holiday and i'm going to have a great one. santa is going to be very good to me, i can tell. i worked hard this year. katie: here now ne "new york po" columnist karol markowicz. thank you for being here. you have written a lot about andrew cuomo. what is your initial reaction to his comments? >> it's just gulling.

each if you think you did a great job, you presided over a state that has the highest death rate in the nation. and, yet, you are made yourself a poster, wrote a book, and now you make these comments celebrating your success. there is people hurting. there is really a lot of new yorkers hurting. a lot of people died. a lot of people lost their businesses. people continue to lose their businesses because he is so bad at managing the state. and, yet, he celebrates himful is. it's real little kind of gross. katie: really kind of gross. that is for sure. i would agree with that. you have a new op-ed about how new york's restaurant business is being completely disseminated by cuomo's rules saying that his rules make no sense and it keeps getting worse. we have seen that in new york city alone, at least 1,000 restaurants have closed since march. explain what you are seeing there and the details of are what's going on? '. >> so governor cuomo closed indoor dining only in new york city, which has the second lowest covid positive rate in the state and second lowest

covid hospitalization rate in the state. so, if indoor dining is so dangerous, why is it only closed in new york city? because, of course it's not so dangerous. he said this himself in the press conference where he closed restaurants. he said we're only seeing 1.4% of cases spread out of restaurants. so, we have a situation where he's not following the science whatsoever. he is just making decisions that really effect people. a lot of restaurants have closed like you said. i bet many, many more with will. they are all holding on by a thread is auto to see if he will open indoor dining sometime. that's a really dire situation. i feel bad for the restaurant owners who have to deal with hearing governor cuomo celebrate himself while their businesses go under. katie: you know, it's real interesting. we have seen a unin of people, actually new york being the state where the most people have fled to other states like florida, for example. people fleeing blue state policies to go to red states. but, do you think that actually poses a problem if they don't change the way they think about

these blue state policies that have been implemented where they used to live? >> well, i have to hope that the people who left new york to go to red states have sort of more of a red philosophy. because i think part of why they are leaving is the leadership here is just so bad and so inept that they want it a different kind of situation. so i hope they don't take the policies that they left behind with them. that wouldn't make a lot of sense. but i see this all the time. i see new yorkers leaving all the time. my husband and i are lifelong new yorkers. i'm from brooklyn. he is from queens. we are never once considered leaving until this year. where we saw just how bad things could get. bad leadership doesn't matter that much in good times it. matters a lot in bad times. we have really seen that this year. katie: well, we will certainly continue to watch your coverage of governor cuomo. we will check out your op-ed today in the "new york post." thank you some for being here today. we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. katie: all right. over to jillian for some

headlines. jillian: good morning, katie. let's begin with this story. a final salute for a nort north carolina police officer killed in the line of duty. >> we have one more guardian angel watching over us. jason's juanita number 4434 is officially retired. >> hundreds of law enforcement members escorting officer jason shuping gunned down by an alleged carjacker. he had been with the department for one year. he is survived by his wife. president trump granting 20 pardons and commutations on the list his former campaign adviser george papadopoulos and attorney alex vander who was charged as part of the russian probe. the list also includes former republican congressman duncan hunter of california and chris collins of new york. a florida police department using cop car lights to spread ally with the of holiday cheer. listen to this. ♪

♪ the department says people asked to bring back the holiday treat they started last year. oh, i love that i have think i could watch that over and over again, griff. pete: that's very cool. very, very cool. the closest equivalent i had was trying to set off flares on the fourth of july in iraq to the sound of a national anthem. it was not successful but fun as we tried. katie: attempt. griff griff i would like to see video of that. pete: we don't have video. too early. split phone times. i wish. all right, dies. anthony fauci and alex azar joined the thousand of americans who have received the covid-19 vaccine. now, dr. mark seale is rolling up his sleeves and will receive his covid vaccine live on "fox &

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will. griff: welcome back. the coronavirus vaccine being distributed across the nation. with healthcare workers and nursing home residents rolling

up their slofs. sleeves. among those getting the shot our very own dr. marc siegel about to get vaccinated live right now on "fox & friends." he joins us from ny. langone medical center. good morning, dr. siegel. this is very exciting. walk us through what is about to happen. >> good morning, good morning, griff. you know, congresswoman tulsi gabbard said the other day that there should be a lion. people should stay in the line and not go out of the line. she is a celebrated military veteran as you know. and let me tell you what the line is here. here at nyu langone health, we are in cohort one. cohort one started with our emergency room workers who see covid directly. icu workers who see covid directly. you saw me interview tara easter last week who is the manager of the medical icu. and we have moved on to direct covid patients. now it's my turn. i'm in line because i see patients day to day. face to face, griff. i'm going to see them today in

the office. i'm going to see them tomorrow in the office. so i'm at the right point in the line. it's my turn. i'm incredit i can bably excited to get this vaccine. i talk to some officials from operation warp speed yesterday. it's unbelievable that it's occurred so fast. and i'm here with nurse regina who how many vaccines have you been giving out. >> so we gave out many vac seems seems more than hundreds every day. >> have you had the vaccine yet. >> not yet. i'm planning on getting it as soon as it's my turn. >> is it are you excited. >> i am extremely excited for the vaccine will it our issues. especially because we had so much covid and if a tattles during the last nightbeat months. >> what are you going to ask me? >> i'm going to ask you several questions. do you have any severe allergy or did you have any severe allergic reactions due to any allergies? >> anybody have any side effects from the vaccine that you have been giving out. >> so far everybody are is well. just the side effects which we all know, had which is normal at

after injection it's a sore arm or slight fever in the evening. but no other significant reaction. griff: speaking of slow arms, dr. siegel. >> people going right back to, would. wait for about 20 minutes here and when they leave. griff: dr. siegel, if i can jump in with you, will two quick things. roll your sleeve up and start getting you reddy. >> you got it. griff: which vaccine are you getting? is this pfizer or no concern that? what are you getting? all right, right now, dr. siegel siegel is just getting ready may have lost his i he f will v connected to that white coat the way these things are done. wait and watch. >> can i hear you. >> part of the frontline workers. dr. siegel. >> okay i got my sleeve rolled up. griff: which vaccine are you getting? >> go ahead. >> i'm getting the pfizer vaccine. we have been giving that out in the medical center here. i must say it's really, really going very smoothly. very streamlined. very organized.

we are getting alert all the time about when our time in line is i couldn't be happier about that. usingsing the vaccine in the main facility in the main hospital. start to add in moderna vaccine and other places, other hospitals and facilities. we feel that they are indistinguishable pretty much. mostly here at the are medical center we are giving the pfizer shot. griff: go ahead and get that shot in your arm and the nurse there helping give that vaccine. dr. siegel, why are you doing this live on tv? >> will many i'm doing this because i want people to know i don't have the slightest concern about this. i am going to not taking a second off from work. maybe i will have a sore arm. maybe i won't. i'm not in any way worried about this vaccine. i want to use this to protect my patients. and i want my patients out there to get this when it's their turf. everyone in the united states has to take this vaccine. it's incredibly exciting that we

have this tool to fight back can against covid-19. everyone here is excited about this. griff: hold still. it isn't going to hurt. hang on. >> doctors make the worse patients, griff, but, you know i i'm all right. she is is really great. she is really great. griff: look at that all right. dr. siegel, we have got to wrap it up and leave it there. thank you so. we are about to go to a hard break and go black. thank you for being there and thank that nurse for this important work. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> you are so welcome and be well. >> all right. i didn't have. take care. griff: coming up. more "fox & friends" and all of these guests coming up. ♪

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and a complimentary you know a lot of folks think of a potato, even an idaho potato as a side dish. but does this look like a side dish to you? ...or this? ...or these? does a side dish have a dog like this? ...or a truck like this?

or a good-looking, charismatic, spokesfarmer like me? i think we both know the answer to that. always look for the grown in idaho seal. side dish? demanding congress send him a new coronavirus relief bill with a lot more money for direct payments. pete: nancy pelosi says democrats are ready to bring the president's proposal to increase stimulus checks to $2,000 for an individual, 4,000 for a couple. this to the floor for a vote this week. katie: kristin fisher is live outside the white house with the latest. kristin? good morning? >> hey, guys, good morning. after staying out of these negotiations for months, president trump came in at the 11th hour and blew up this deal right before it was supposed to land on his desk. this is a deal that has bipartisan compromise and it was

negotiated by his administration. in particular, treasury secretary steve mnuchin. so, this now has the potential to delay help to so many americans and potentially even shut the government down next monday, since this covid-19 code relief bill was tied to that omnibus government spending bill. now, president trump made this announcement last night in a video produced by the white house and posted directly to social media. just one hour later, his own deputy press secretary or excuse me one hour earlier his own deputy press secretary was on fox business saying that the president would sign this bill because it takes care of american families. then president trump said this. >> it really is a disgrace. it's called the covid relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with covid. i'm asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000. or $4,000 for a couple.

katie: yeah, the amount of those second round stimulus checks seems to be the main sticking point for the president. he thinks $600 is simply too little money. it was democrats who for months have been burning for them to be bigger. after the video dropped house speaker nancy pelosi said this on twitter quote republicans repeatedly refused to say what amount the president wanted for direct checks. at last the president has agreed to $2,000. democrats are ready to bring this to the floor this week by unanimous consent. let's do it. so, they are trying to get an amended bill on the floor fast. but, guys, is it remains to be seen how this all plays out because, of course, so many members of congress have already left washington because they thought that this was a done deal. griff: it does remain to be seen. kristin, just a if i can follow-on question. have we gotten any reaction from secretary mnuchin at all who in good faith probably didn't see this either. >> i was repeating that soundbite over and over during my live shots of the treasury

secretary on monday saying this second round of stimulus checks would begin going out on monday. that clearly does not look likely to happen anymore. no immediate reaction from the treasury secretary just yet. griff: kristin fisher at the white house. thank you, kristin. pete: thank you, kristin. here for some more action this morning. let's bring in texas g.o.p. congressman chip roy a member of the house budget committee which congressman, thanks for being here. i guess this is a part of the budget. we know it is a $1.4 trillion omnibus bill and a $900 billion covid-19 bill. you have called the covid relief bill an embarrassment. i think a lot of people look at it and say there is all these other things in there, yet, only 6 hundred dollars for individuals who have been told for months and month and month that their life needs to be locked down because of a virus that china sent us as a christmas present. where does it go from here? 'you hear what the president want. the demands he is making, which resonate with a lot of people

that feel like the swomp got what they wanted but will regular people didn't. is there a way to deliver that and strip out some of the naunce sense? >> well, good morning, y'all. yeah, about a week ago, i joined about 1 of my freedom caucus colleagues and sent a letter to the president it suggesting that he veto this horrible legislation because we knew where this was headed. the american people, there is two obvious facts. the american people want whatever dollars that are going to go out. they want it them to stay in america and go to americans and help americans. secondly, they don't want to rack up massive amounts of debt for their children and grandchildren. this bill is an irresponsible swamp bill. this is the merger of an omnibus bill that is bloated with typical wasteful spending on top of a relief bill that has a whole lot of things in it that frankly aren't all that focused on relief and we are seeing that and people saying wait a minute, i'm getting a $600 check out of $2.3 trillion of spending while we have $28 trillion of debt and we are sending 2 $9 million to pakistan for gender studies or

if $100 million to places like sudan. fund $82 billion of additional funding for education around the country while our schools are locked down and teacher's unions are using that enrich themselves while refusing to teach our kids. i can go on and on and on. we are not supporting ice. the president's right to call b.s. on this ridiculous bill. both parties are at fault. only thing i would say it is classic democrat procedure to say okay, let's just throw another $2,000 on top of it this week. let's just go vote instead of going back and fixing the bill. the american people don't just want another check. they want us to do our job like they have to do when they sit around their kitchen table and small businesses have to do when they are trying to make ends meet and america's leadership in washington refuses to do what they have to do. katie: congressman, president trump did offer nancy pelosi $1,200 direct checks to americans back in october. and she rejected that because she was trying to hurt the

president going into the election. but, here we are now with him saying i want $2,000. nancy pelosi has agreed. what would it take now for congress to actually get this job done? what would be the process at this late hour before the next congress starts in about a week and a half? >> yeah, that's an excellent point. we have been going down be this road for a while. and speaker pelosi admitted to the american people that she played politics with this for crass political purposes in november that she refused to bring forward of the necessary legislation to help small businesses. you just said it. you had bigger checks and more support support for small businesses and she refused to bring it forward. now the vale has been lifted on the corrupts, broken spending process in washington. where people are now looking at this giant bill saying, wait a minute, i don't want all that stuff. and we are saying, you know what? this is the stuff they jam in these bills every year. this is the reason we have $28 trillion of debt. so now what we are looking at is another end of the year game. we have a continuing resolution

that will expire i think next sunday. i'm pretty sure. so we are going to have to get back to work. and go back and make sure that we are doing the work of the american people. what should not happen is the democrats play a game and put a consent bill on the floor of the house for additional dollars for americans without going back and fixing the corrupt spending bill. and making sure that we reduce it from all the wasteful spending. we need to do our job. not just write another blank check. griff griff congressman though, let me go back to when we were talking with kristin fisher and she was noting that secretary mnuchin had said in an interview that checks would go out next week. there are a lot of struggling americans to include those right there in austin, texas, who were counting on that. and certainly the point is valid. the president is making about the fact that you have got money going to pakistan and elsewhere as opposed to americans homes and businesses. but, right now, at this moment, isn't it the pragmatic smart

move to not encourage the president to veto this. to move forward and get money in americans' hands? >> well, right withing a $600 check which will have a negligible contact for most americans when they need more support and help. they needed businesses to be open. not have local governments like the mayor of austin, texas. you mentioned austin. the mayor of austin, texas flew in his private jet to to tell shut businesses down while he went down to have a fancy wedding. that's what they are doing locking down schools and businesses. that's why people are struggling. personal people want their businesses open. they want freedom. they will don't want a blank check from washington, d.c. while piling trillions of dollars of debt on kids and grand kids. it's time to do our job. we should go back to d.c. right now. we should go to washington right now and fix this bill. make sure that it's not wasting money. and make sure that we are doing the things we need to do to help the american people, opening up businesses. make sure that they get the checks that they need to make sure that small businesses are staying open.

and that we are able to help people without having wasteful spending. pete: yeah. it's such a typical play, congressman. you know you need the covid relief so you combine it with the omnibus bill. you force everyone to vote for it 6,000 pages, give them a couple hours to read it. give leadership all the power. let's the consult tantaros jam everything into it. realistically, because the democrats have said we'll throw the 2,000, we will up to it to 2,000, would he can vote now. realistically, time wise, is there a chance before the next congress to redo the process, strip out some things, add in 2,000? i know you want it. the president says he wants it. is there time on the clock? if congress really did work through the christmas and in to new years? >> well, of course there is time on the clock. given, as you just noted, that we got a 6,000 page bill given to us at 2:00 and told to vote on it at 5:00. this is all about will power. this is all about the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, whose popularity isn't exactly extraordinary. nancy pelosi ought to do her

job. we ought to call the house of representatives back. we ought to look at the legislation. we ought to fix it. we ought to make sure that it doesn't waste dollars and actually make sure we are helping the american people. meanwhile we shouldn't be sticking it to ice. we shouldn't be sticking it to defunding our police. we shouldn't b shouldn't be cono the american people don't want us to do. our borders wide open. hurts ice even as we had 6 thousand people come to our border in october. 70,000 in november. a biden administration that's promising to leave those borders wide open and not enforce the law. the american people don't want any of this garbage that they are alleged leaders in congress just gave them. they want common sense. they want to make sure we are helping american families, american businesses, congress ought to go back to washington and do its job. of course we can do it. just a matter of will power. katie: congressman, you mentioned joe biden and his immigration policy and the surge that we are seeing already at the border. let's take a listen to joe biden

and get your response on the other side. >> already started discussing these issues with the president of mexico. and our friends in latin america. and the timeline is to do it so that we, in fact, make it better, not worse. the last thing we need is to say we're going to stop immediately the will -- you know, the access to asylum the way it's being run now. and end up with 2 million people on our border. it's a matter of -- it will get done. and it will get done quickly. but it's not going to be able to be done on day one. katie: so that was joe biden at a press conference yesterday. he is already causing problems within his own party. you have democrat congresswoman many with ilhan omar tweeting that this from joe biden was a, quote. this is a classic bait and switch. it perpetuates trump's dehumanization of my grants and break as core campaign promise. democrats lose big when

administrations won't fulfill their promise. i urge the biden transition team to reconsider this position. your response? >> not surprised to hear that from my colleague about complaining about joe biden here because joe biden, we know full well, is going to kowtow to the left. he is going to kowtow to the wing of the progressive party in the end. he has campaigned on that. we are talking about undoing the necessary they procedures at our border for ice. [lost audio] hello? yeah. griff: yeah. we have still got you there. can you hear us, congressman. >> yeah, i can hear you. no, what joe biden has promised to do on his campaign is will to undo ice, having all of the necessary tools that it needs to be able to secure ourward. and, again, what are we actually seeing right now? title 2 for the health code purposes because of the virus. and our return-to-mexico policy are the two things. and you guys have had mark morgan on on your show what is

actually allowing us to hold the line and secure the border to make sure we are will protecting protecting -- using that to jam people through for profit. we need to hold the line on that. joe biden is feeling pressure from his progressive wing. and he is saying hey, you know, we can't do this all at once. that means he wants to do it eventually because he is going to give in to the progressive wing. this is what was at stake in november. this is what is at stake now. this bill, this omnibus spending bill cuts funding for ice. it's purposeful. it undermines our border patrol. it undermines ice. why are we, republicans, supporting legislation which the vast majority of republicans voted for it that would undermine our border? there are so many reasons why the president is right to be mad about this particular spending bill, the omnibus bill and covid relief bill and the border is one of those. we ought to secure our border. that's what the american people want. they want common sense out of their leaders in d.c. griff: congressman, i spent a lot of time with border patrol and with ice. i have i don't know gone the

3,000 miles honduras all the way through guatemala through mexico to our border care ran vans a couple years ago. we learned then that the driver of those caravans and the surge on our border was the signal that american politicians sent that the door was open come on in. now, it seems to me that as a congressman of a border state, you are would be concerned that we are about to sound the alarm to have numbers we haven't seen in a long time. in fact, it's important remembering that it was 2014 touring the unaccompanied minor crisis that cages, as democrats call them, were built under the obama-biden administration. ing. >> i'm glad you mentioned that. that's exactly what happened. joe biden knows that. that's why he is playing this game right now. he knows it. he was the vice president under the obama administration. he knows full well that they had to deal with the crisis of the border. they created what they then called cages, which they weren't. they were barriers to keep kids

safe. to keep families safe. the reality at the border is that cartels have operational control of it. they are harming human beings. immigrants who are seeking to come to our country which none of us begrudge. but what we want is a secure border. so that they come through the right channels, so that they stop being exploited by cartels for profit. they stop being exploited because we played games about saying our border is open and closed and open and then closed. we should have a clear signal, a secure border. have ways for people to come here appropriate little under our law and stop allowing them to be exploited. then you have a legal immigrant that come in here and sneak in here through the cartels, may end up harming american citizens. the american people are tired of this. they are also tired of the games in washington to bring us all back. the appropriation bill is flawed. it reduces isis pg funding by $400 million. stuff that we should be doing for the american people and that's what they are sick of. and the vale is being of the haded on the corruption in had

lifted on the corruption in washington. will the swamp is what the president ran against and how he should be finishing this term strong by ensuring that we are protecting those tax dollars and making sure we are using them to protect the american people instead of wasting it sending it overseas in this corrupts process. so i hope they will stand strong on that. pete: congressman, real quick, let's stay on public safety. in your home state, the city of austin is trying to move to deal fund the police. the governor is having none of it. and he tweated recently this about the attempt to defund the police in austin. he said the state will fix this. texas will pass a law this session supporting a law enforcement -- our law enforcement defunding cities that defund the police. it's surprising to see out of texas. but, is that something the governor can do and how do you hold back this defund movement which is insane? >> well, you are right, it's insane. i think most people around austin, texas, i are seeing it's insane. in my election i ended up beating my opponent about 30,000

votes after they poured some 15, $16 million in running against me. one of the main issues was defunding the police. nobody sane wants to defund the police. and governor abbott is absolutely correct to be calling on the legislature capital city of the state of texas having to do with lawlessness on its streets and increasing murder rates and up creasing crime rates. some of the highest increased rates in the nation because of an incompetent city council and incompetent mayor as i said before who flew to cabo san lucas and told us we needed to shut our businesses counsel while he is going out and having a great time. the governor is absolutely right. the american people, people of texas, people in this strict, they want secure cities. so i hope the legislature will act. we are seeing a reaction by the people of austin. it's a liberal city. the blue soup as my former boss governor perry used to call it in texas. austin residents just threw out a city council member and elected a republican on this

question alone. on the tee fund the police. my grandfather is the chief of police of a small texas town. my great great grandfather is a texas ranger. we like to have security on our streets. i'm agree that doesn't sell. the governor is absolutely right. katie: well, we love the texas rangers. that's for sure. congressman, thank you so much for your time this morning. we appreciate it. >> god bless you all. merry christmas. pete: merry christmas. katie: thank you. all right, jillian, over to you. jillian: begin your headlines with you. overnight three police officers are killed during a violent shootout in central france. the officers were responding to a domestic violence incident. the suspect was found dead after he set the house on fire. first responders rescued a woman from the roof of the burning home who was reportedly attacked. another officer was also shot but is expected to be okay. joe biden dismisses attacks against his son hunter as a russian smear campaign. the president-elect making the comment to our own peter doocy. take a listen. >> mr. president-elect, do you

still think that the story from the fall about your son hunter were russian disinformation and a smear campaign like you said? >> yes, yes, yes? god love you, man. you are a one horse pony. my justice department will will be totally on its own making its judgments about how they should proceed. jillian: biden adding he has not discussed his son's probe with any potential attorney general picks. today is bill barr's last day at the department of justice. he gives update on the probe into the origins of the russia investigation. >> before the election, as you know, i designated john durham as a special counsel because i wanted to provide him and his team with assurance that they would be able to finish their work and they are making good progress now. i expect they will be able to finish their work.

jillian: president trump giving barr and durham the power to present classified information to a grand jury in the probe. deputy attorney general jeff roseanne will become acting attorney general. and now to this. christmas came early for a military father and his reaction is priceless. watch this. >> your present is right here, dad. >> what the hell? being. >> oh my god. [laughter] [sobbing] oh my god. [laughter] jillian: the delaware dad embracing army he will soldier nicole withrow-miller after she jumped up from behind the couch. she returned home after being away for six months. i never get tired of seeing those videos. sing that elm praise and so much joy. that's great. griff: that's what it's all about. thank you, jillian. pete: absolutely. griff: meanwhile, democrats are pushing joe biden to create a secular agenda. but what about those will for religious freedoms under

president trump. cardinal timothy toll alan react coming up. and the trump hate -- it john rich says voters want to hear a different tune. he's on deck. ♪ ♪ and if you don't have insurance, it's free. plus, get 20% off your treatment plan. enjoy flexible payment options and savings when it matters most. we're here to make your smile shine bright so you can start the new year feelin' alright. call 1-800-aspendental 7 days a week or book today at aspendental.com

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♪ing. pete: the rock band food fighters becoming the latest musician signing on virginia comes alive a virtual fundraiser promoting voter participation. the event claims to be nonpartisan but food fighter's front man dave is not. he famously apologized to the world for president trump saying, quote: i'm ashamed of our president. joining me now with his reaction

is country music star john rich who is definitely not ashamed of our country or our it president. john, is this -- we know what side they are on here. is it -- does it surprise you at all? of course it doesn't. does it have an impact is the question. >> well, first of all, i'm a big fan of the foo fighters. pete: i am, too. >> incredible musician. but what's interesting and ironic with it is that american musicians are all about personal identity. making a personal statement. your art is personal. >> putting it forward. and socialism is all about the collective. it's about getting rid of personal identity or personal freedom or personal expression. so it's really ironic that any musician or any american, for that matter, would support socialism but yet they are doing so. i, on the other hand, i will not do that i will not vote for anyone who constructs the government or tries to construct government that limits what i'm capable of doing or what my kids are capable of doing.

so, i'm going to have to be against dave on this unwith. but i am a big fan of his music. pete: i am, too. it's right there on my play list next to big and rich. it's true they make fantastic music. speaking of artist, a different type of artist. i hadn't heard of them a famous tattoo artist leaving california because of the policies there. here is a, to of what was said. with all that has been taking place in california with terrible policies, tyrannical government overreach, ridiculous taxes among so much more corruption we just felt the need to plant some small town roots. so yet another -- some roots in a small town. yet another artist leaving california for all the reasons articulated to go to another state. you face similar things with creative expression there in nashville. will elected leaders ever get that their policies are pushing people out and some of their best? >> socialism sounds great, doesn't it? in the beginning.

will before it's implea melted in our state. in california a lot of liberal people out there. i'm friends with a lot of them that have called me on the side and said man, i can't live like this. i'm moving to nashville, i'm moving to texas. i'm moving to florida. again, when you talk about people supporting the two sloot senator, people running for senate in georgia. socialism sounds great until it's actually implemented and then you see what happens. it's a disaster. and people want to get out from under it as fast as they possibly can. that's why we can't support people like that. pete: you are right. we can only pray they don't bring their politics with them and they have some sort of a realization going there. my apologies to cat who is a ak. i will have to get a tootoo from her whatever town she sets up shop. that's on the will to do list. i have another forearm that's available. >> only have limited time. i want to get you sound off on your new barbecue sauce which is

perfectly named 1776. what have you got? >> well, it looks like that. so i teamed up with a great american family company red gold out of indiana. 100 percent made in the u.s.a. if you want some of it, go to redneck rivera.com shop and 1776 and send it to you. because every bite tastes like freedom, pete. that's of the way it works. god bless america every day. pete: john, what does freedom taste like in that bottle? >> man, it light your tongue up. there is no bad ingredients. no high frew toes corn syrup. all 100 percent american even the plastic bolts sourced in america and we support pat folds of honor by the way. god bless them, too. pete: never doubt you folks go to redneck rivera.com shop tab to pick up 1776. john rich, you always deliver. will. >> merry christmas, sir. thank you. pete: merry christmas. up next, some catholic schools are continuing to stay open,

including my kids' school, catholic school, despite covid-19. cardinal dolan is here with why it is important for kids to stay in the classroom. sometimes you can't even believe the lines that you are reading. of course the t. kid to stay in the classroom. he will talk about it ♪ came down the chimney ♪ about half past 3:00 ♪ left all these present ♪ will for me ♪ get fifty dollars toward your home deductible. it's a policy perk for being a farmers customer. (customer) do i have to do anything? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) hmm, that is really something. (burke) you get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. see ya. (kid) may i have a balloon, too? (burke) sure. your parents have maintained a farmers home policy for twelve consecutive months, right? ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ (burke) start with a quote at 1-800-farmers. finding the right words can be tough.n it comes to autism,

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♪ katie: president trump grabs a wave of pardons ahead of the christmas holiday including a former campaign aid and a pair of congressional republicans. todd piro is live in the newsroom with details. todd: good morning the president putting his signature on 20 pardons and commutations. on the list is george papadopoulos who pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi as part of the russia investigation. he took to twitter after learning of the president's decision writing thank you, mr. president, this means the world to me and my family. the president also par drops dutch attorney in prison for lying to investigators during the probe. and former republican representative douglas hunter and'. will 11 months in prison for

stealing campaign funds. collins sentenced to two years and two months behind bars for stock market fraud. the president using his pardon power to right what he feels a wrong done by the justice system. is he like toy grant more pardons and commutations before his last day in office. the president hearing from his allies including activist alice maria johnson while making the decision. the president commuted her sentence back in 2018. back to you. pete: todd, thank you very much. i would note, also, that blackwater contractors and you look at that story of raven 23 and how it was misconstrued against those guys, god bless the president for having the courage which a lot of other presidents wouldn't do to pardon those men. those veterans who were there defending diplomats put in an impossible situation. griff: let me add one more thing if i can pete quickly. i have been communicating some with george papadopoulos about this pardon he tells me not only appreciates the pardon he appreciates the president tee classified many documents relating to his case he believes

that's going to ultimately help him clear his name. and he points me to the durham investigation. looks very much forward to seeing how that wraps up. there could be more to that story. pete: yes, we will have more on those pardons this morning as well. but we will move on to another subject as students around the country face remote schooling and closures. catholic schools doing just the opposite. committed to doing whatever it takes to remain open. griff: here with more on their plan archbishop of new york timothy cardinal dollan, good morning to you sir and merry christmas. >> good morning, blessed christmas. delighted to be with you. how are steve and ainsley and brian? are they all right? pete: they are still sleeping, cardinal. >> good for them. i'm jealous. they usually send me over an eggnog whenever i'm on an interview. you guys didn't get the memo.

[laughter] >> it's nice to be with you pete and griff and katie. good morning and a pleased christmas. it's food to be with you. griff: good to be with you. the eggnog we sent has bourbon in it so you will be delighted when it arrives. >> well, you did get the memo. [laughter] pete: okay, good. [laughter] pete: cardinal, we have got to ask you catholic schools have remained open and you have been at the forefront of that. what's the reason for that take and how have you fought back against those who say that's unsafe, you are putting kids and teachers at risk? >> we are not getting much feed pack. the opposite is that we are getting a lot of accolades, and i'm glad. it's about time that the community recognized the gem that we have got in our beloved catholic schools. it's very important to have our kids in school. everybody is saying that this remote learning, nice try. probably the best we could do in a tough situation. it's not working that well. we have got to get our kids back in the classroom. the parents want it, the

teachers want it, the principals it. my priests want it. the community wants it. look, the experts tell us it's the safestiest, healthiest place for kids to be. i'm amazed at the scrupulous you will sanitation they are doing and the testing and everything. so it's the safest place are to the kids to be and you know what, everybody? when i was a kid thanks be to god if we got a snow day my mom was home. these days the kids don't have. where are they going to go? so we are also helping the parent and the wider community because if the kid aren't in school they can't go to work and they get more and more in to debt. it seems a no-brainer that our schools are open and successful and safe as they can be. katie: cardinal dolan looking to other schools safely. what are you doing to make sure that parents and teachers and children feel safe inside of

their schools? >> well, for one, we are doing the testing, okay? even though by the way the city isn't paying for it. even though the law says that all school kids need to be tested but we are saying this is important. we will have to dig deeper into pockets that are already depleted. the testing are -- the extensive sanitation after school every day. i visited some of these schools and to see the wipe downs and the sprays, never throw, the social distancing and the masks. and number 5 our teachers are trained to kind of coach the kids into healthy habits. not only to avoid this plague but to live healthy productive lives. this is a good occasion when the kids are particularly attentive. here's the problem though. and we do admit this. the problem is not in the schools. the problems are what's happening after school and on weekends. so we're constantly reminding our parent, look, we have done our best to keep your kids safe.

but rate now if you start running into big crowds and if you start not wearing masks and not sanitizing, it's not going to help us. so, that's kind of the challenge. but, heck, we all got that one. will. pete: cardinal dolan i want to look into next year, go forward a little bit. i want to ask you how concerned are you about we have already some democratic lawmakers wanting the incoming president biden to push are for a more populist agenda rolling back see on the screen the memo on calls on biden to pursue this secular agenda? how concerned are you that it will undo many of the gains made with regards to religious liberty? >> i am concerned. i appreciate you asking. look, we never get a perfect president. we all know that. there were very -- there were very good things that president

trump did that i applauded him for and i let him know it. there were also areas that i had pretty grave disagreements. i'm trusting that's going to be the same with president biden. is he going to do some things that we pastors are going to be able to say well-done. but is he going to da some things that scare us. you just mentioned it. i hope he is not there i hear a lot of his advisers and some of the people that he is appointing tend to want to love into this more aggressive secular world view that religion needs to be pushed to the side that religious -- that religion is very private, you know, and the american wisdom, religion is very personal but it's not private. if we can't bring our deepest convictions to the public square, the whole common good is at a loss. so, we don't need to push religion and belief and faith and conscience to the side. we need to be protecting it. which is if i understand correctly, the role of our

government. pete: yeah, you too understand correctly. it's not just the democrat secular democrats of america, it's also a free thought caucus of democrats in the house trying to push this disup entangling. reframe discourse surrounding patriotism. i think, cardinal, one of the key differences with catholic education there is a core mission. there is a shared faith. the bible, history, that everyone is motivated by and they want to open those doors that is so important that makes the ethos of those places dinner than a lot of our public schools which are shut right now or virtual. but i want to get -- you can speak to that or we want to get your christmas message as well. either one. >> all right. i couldn't have said it better. thanks for what you just said about our schools. what we say in our catholic schools is, look, faithed, are god, virtue, character, honesty, hard work, love and service of

others. the bible, prayer these are as important as math and science and reading. okay? that's a great message to the kids. if you send kids to school and say you are going to get everything you need for a good life in school, and if they never hear about god or prayer or virtue or faith, uh-oh. they are going to get the message that this isn't all that important, okay? that's the jeepous of not just catholic schools but any of the independent schools that are based in religion be just conviction as by the way all of american schools used to be. okay? pete: correct. >> christmas message, as we look ahead to the new year folks, don't forget to look in the rear view mirror. it's very often in the rear view mirror that we see god's action in our life. the year that is ending, a lot of adversity, a lot of sadness, a lot of set back and heartache. okay? but when we look back, we are also going to express gratitude

and praise to god that he got us through. and that he inspired sacrificial generous people to come through when we needed it most. we are going to see his hand there. and we are going to see his hand in 2021. that's the message of christmas. because, to borrow from our jewish neighbors, emanuel, god is with us. katie: cardinal dolan, you know, there are a lot of people having a hard time holding on to faith right now given the year that they have had. they are having a hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. what is your message to those struggling a little bit with their current situation given all of the hardships of the past year? >> sure, katie. a lot of people are saying boy, what a tough christmas this is. i'm lonely, i'm isolated, i can't be with the people that i love. and what i would say to them and i'm giving you just a little to my midnight mass homily. you know the first christmas at bethlehem? that was no parade, right? that was no marshmallow, that was tough.

you had a woman with a troubled pregnancy, just married, traveling an arduous journey to bethlehem. they had no family nearby. they didn't even have a comfortable room or professionals to help them with the birth of their child. recall will remember surrounded by animals in the middle of a cold night. that was the rosiest of christmases, okay? yet it has the message of salvation and joy. so very often in the midst of tribulation, in the midst of adversity, in the midst where we kind of realize that a lot of stuff is missing in our life, we even got people for whom people are missing because they have gone to the lord through covid, we realize that there is only one person that can fill that void, okay? and that's the lord. and if that's the -- if we hammer home that message, hallelujah. griff: cardinal dolan, i had the honor of being with you in new york last year on christmas day and hear your message and now you are giving us a little bit

of a preview of what you may be saying there we are with you. great, wonderful experience that i will never forget. but i kind of want to ask you now, as you approach your message this year, we got a little preview there, did you have to approach it differently because of what we have gone through? >> i did, griff. i did. i'm thinking, look, are midnight mask, christmas morning mass, beloved saint patrick's cathedral, i look at standing room only. i look out at beaming faces. i look at families and grandparents united and i'm thinking dollan, you are not going to see that this year. okay. first of all, you are going to see a church that is two thirds empty by necessity. we understand that we want to obey these very safe procedures. >> number two, you are going to see families that have been fractured because grand that and grand pa, brothers and sisters can't be together this year. you are going to see some people who may not be beaming with a smile as they think back at the

people who have been sick or jobs lost or people that they have handed over to eterpt. is that not the message, griff, that christmas comes at the darkest tomb of' many time of the year. you guys covered it a day or so ago shortest day, the day with the least light in the entire calendar. it's precisely then, all right, that god sent his only begotten son to bring us life, to remind us that life, goodness, are going to have the last word. not darkness and not sin and not evil. and that's the message of christmas. so, pardon me, but we need a little christmas right this very moment. it are. pete: yes, we do. timothy cardinal dolan thank you so much for your message. >> you send some more of this eggnog and i will be singing well at midnight.

okay? is will bye-bye. will. pete: merry christmas. i love it. it's always a very merry christmas for 8,000 people who just had $10 million in debt paid off. dave ramsey was behind the extraordinary gift and that story. we will bring it to you coming up next. ♪ ♪ leteth receive her king ♪ will don't worry, julie...

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katie: it's a very merry christmas for 8,000 people who just had $10 million in debt paid off. and it's all thanks to our next guest dave ramsey with ramsey solutions joins us now. good morning, dave. >> good morning, katie, merry christmas. katie: merry christmas. okay. so tell us all about why you decided to wipe away $10 million of debt for 8,000 people? >> >> well, we were trying to come up with something creative to do. we usually have this outlandishly wonderful christmas party for our 960 some odd

people on our team. and we decided to cut the budget back this year because, obviously, doing that in a traditional way wasn't going to work thisser i don't. we used some of that money to do something fun. my wife sharon and i went broke 30 years ago. we lost everything. that's how i started teaching people about money and teaching people to get out of debt. i know how it feels to have check tores call you and bother you and how the shame that goes with that and the condemnation that goes with that. and this year has been really tough for people. we have had divisiveness on the political front. on the racial front. masks are are or no mask. we have everybody in the world finding something to be angry about and arguing about. we decided instead, since god sent his son jesus to forgive our debts, our sins that we would buy $10 million worth of old medical debt and old credit card debt and old car repossession debt. can you buy that at pennies on the dollar. i didn't pay $10 million for it. we used some of our christmas budget money from the company to do that and it was 8 will thousand accounts and $10 million worth.

so our team was able to call about 8 people each and talk to them and tell them that their debt was forgiven. and it was fun. indicate at a time it wasn't just you calling or having people call into your show. you have every employee at your company involved in letting people know their good news for the holiday season. >> yeah, you know, general rolls city is fun. it's one of the most fun things you can ever do with money. even if you are giving away someone else's money it's fun. just walking up and giving somebody 3 or 400 bucks or it $10,000 is pretty if un. would he need some fun in america right now for sure. our team, since we were having a lesser christmas party their gift was that they got to make these 8 calls approximately 8 each and talk to folks on the phone and the stories and the tears and the will hallelujahs and the praise gods that came out of the other end of the phone were just amazing. and, you know, this lady right here, she just testified for

about 10 minutes on facebook over it. it was absolutely incredible. and our team got the joy of doing that. and usually with our giving, ramsey family foundation, those kind of things we stay off the radar, but we wanted to publicize this one to encourage other people into generosity this year because there is a lot of folks that need help thisser i don't. katie: as you mentioned, it's been a very difficult financial year. that continues in to the new year. what would be your advice generally for people who have had a very difficult time because they lost their job or they were in debt before the pandemic hit and now it's even worse? how do you think they should proceed into 2021? >> well e it's tough. and different situations require different actions. obviously. but, anything we can do to get income coming in, and keep the wolf away from the door, so to speak. and keep the basics done. food, shelter, clothing, transportation, if you can keep the four walls going, we call it, are you can relax and deal with master card or sallie mae later. she can sit. she can wait. but we are going to feed the kids, keep the lights on, and

that gives you a sense of peace while you rearrange yourself. and then the second thing you get out of this, same thing that happened with sharon and i when we went broke 30 years ago. never again moment. 2021 needs to be your re-set. this is i'm never going to be susceptible to anything like this ever again. i'm going to get out of debt. i'm going to build my savings, be on a plan. my spouse and i build communication. build a real life here that is not as vulnerable as we were when we were living paycheck to paycheck and buying everything in sight and just yellow yolo eight eight dave ramsey thank you so much for bringing us a good news story this morning we appreciate it. >> thank you and merry christmas. katie: merry christmas. ...

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>> katie: we begin with a fox news alert president trump demanding congress for a new coronavirus relief bill with a rot more money for direct payments. griff: that's right nancy pelosi says democrats are ready to bring the president's proposal to increased stimulus checks to a vote this week. pete: kristin fisher is live outside the white house with the latest. good morning. reporter: good morning, well as anybody on capitol hill is hoping to have a quiet christmas think again. we're now just five days away from government shutting down three days away from those federal unemployment benefits, expiring for so many americans, and the fix for all of that that congress had been negotiating for months was supposed to be landing on the

president's desk any moment now, but then, late last night or yesterday evening, president trump posted this video on social media produced by the white house and said this , about the package that his own treasury secretary had helped negotiate. president trump: it really is a disgrace. it's called the covid relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with covid. i'm asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously-low $600 to $2,000, or $4,000 for a couple. reporter: now remember, these are two separate bills that were tied together for ease of passage. one is the government funding bill which is where all the foreign spending is that president trump has a problem with. the other is the covid relief bill which contains the $600 stimulus checks. the president now wants to increase those checks to $2,000, which is the amount that some democrats have been pushing for for months. congresswoman alex andrea ocasio

cortez tweeted " let's do it" we already co- wrote the amendment for $2,000 checks glad to see the president is willing to support our legislation we can pass $2,000 checks this week if the senate gop agrees to stand down, so this puts the senate majority leader in a very tough spot. it also hurts those two republican senators who have been campaigning on this down in georgia ahead of that very critical runoff and of course, it puts the treasury secretary steven mnuchin in a tough spot because he has been negotiating this and saying that the stimulus checks be going out early next week. so, guy, a lot of questions this morning about why it took president trump this long to weigh in on what he wanted this bill to be. guys? >> katie: big questions about whether those checks will still go out kristin fisher at the white house thank you so much this morning. >> so pete, we've seen that nancy pelosi is on board with

the $2,000 check but let's not forget that she actually reject ed $1,200 checks from president trump in october, as part of an earlier package to try and hold everybody hostage ahead of the election, and now the big question is whether congress is going to be able to get this done in time as kristin mentioned we have a new congress coming in, a government shutdown , et cetera et cetera. pete: yeah let them work over christmas eve and christmas by the way good morning and happy christmas eve-eve to you both katie and griff. it's always wonderful to host with you. let's keep washington d.c. nice and busy why not and this makes a lot of sense to me, the president chiming in the way that he does. he said this is washington d.c. it's 6,000-page bill with six hours to read it. you tie covid relief whichever everyone wants to pass of course katie as you pointed out except for nancy pelosi who refused to pass a larger bill before the election for political reasons. everyone wants it now, so let's load a $1.4 trillion omnibus bill on top of it that sends hundreds of millions of dollars to foreign countries and funds things like gender programs in

pakistan and all these things that are wonderful on paper except you've got people across the country hurting, and the president has always had a sense for what average people are feeling and they look at this bill, guys, and they see it loaded up as a typical d.c. swamp bill and then they see a $600 check for me? are you kidding me? when you've been told by your government because of a virus that came from china that you need to shutdown, this is what it comes to? so whether it happens or not and griff you're the guy to break down whether it can happen or not, you're our man this morning. the president has his finger right on the pulse of average americans who don't like these, who hate these d.c. games. see d.c. getting paid no matter what and they're supposed to be happy for $600. it just doesn't add up. griff: i love pete, the way you've put it. the president in your words chiming in. look, president trump is a disruptor and he's doing it until the very end and this is certainly putting washington on notice and listen, you have two pieces here, to understand this

900 billion is the covid relief portion, 1.4 is the omnibus bill to keep the government funded and that's where all of this is and who doesn't want to stop the frivolous stuff that you saw in that long list we just sent there. there's 25 million to combat asian carp. what does that have to do with struggling americans and closed restaurants in america? absolutely nothing. in fact, congressman chip roy, congressman from texas, was on in the last hour, talking with us about how sick americans are of stuff just like this. take a listen. >> this bill was an irresponsible swamp bill. it is the merger of an omnibus bill that is bloated with typical wasteful spending on top of a relief bill that has a whole lot of things in it that frankly aren't all that focused on relief. this is what the american people are sick of. the president's right to call bs on this ridiculous bill, both parties are at fault. the american people don't just

want another check. they want us to do our job like they have to do when they sit around their kitchen table and like small businesses have to do when they're trying to make ends meet. griff: and the president's opposition is going to put fiscal conservatives like senator rand paul in a difficult position. he's coming up in just more than 25 minutes from now. we'll hear from him, because he had that speech on the senate floor where he was saying look, what the heck. why stop at a thousand. call it the 2,000 free money republican party. it's going to be interesting to see what he has to say, pete. pete: and katie, this is how it works. this $1.4 trillion omnibus bill with all this stuff in it, that never passes on its own, so what they know is they tie it to a covid bill that everyone wants, and then members are forced to vote for it after they can't read it. >> katie: they put him in a terrible position because we are in a crisis so they use a crisis as a was to get these goodies from their lobbyists and special

interest groups into the bill because we vote against it and then you're portrayed as un empathetic and non- sympathetic to what americans are going through but of course there are bigger issues at hand and the president questions it should be pointed out he did not say last night he will veto this so the timing here is really going to depend on what happens today in terms of how we move forward on this , pete. pete: absolutely. well, we'll continue to monitor that as we get developments and whether or not that veto is going to happen, whether or not republicans would vote for $2,000 additional, a lot of questions there and we will ask as you pointed out, griff a great guest on this morning in rand paul on the program just in a few moments but on another topic, joe biden had a press conference, again yesterday, and our own peter doocy in his determined way as he should as a journalist, didn't of course get a question upfront. that be , you know, that be ridiculous, so he forced to yell the question at the end, as he does, he's persistent give

him credit for it. he asked about hunter biden and investigations in a way no one else in the press has been willing to. look at this answer that joe biden gave peter doocy yesterday >> do you still think that the story about your son hunter were rightly-intentioned for a smear campaign like you said? >> yes, yes, yes, god love you, man. you're a one-horse pony i tell you. thank you. thank you. i promise you, my justice department will be totally on its own making its judgments about how they should proceed. pete: yeah, guys, add the one horse pony to the lying dog face pony soldier, and add that up. i don't know what this means but he did say was yes, yes, yes, very revealing, actually, that he still believes it's russian misinformation when look at these headlines. we know the media suppressed it before the election for obvious political reasons. they did it on social media.

they did it in print. now, after the election, they are willing to admit what was obvious before. hunter biden, a family name, aided deals with foreign tycoons , yahoo, hunter biden has been focused of a federal investigation, pbs, public broadcasting why is hunter biden the target of a federal investigation? they are just finding out about the story. hunter biden, the focus of federal investigation in pittsburgh involving u.s. attorney scott brady and fbi. you'd want to laugh if it wasn't so serious, and the amazing part of it, katie, is that he answers it at the end, yes, yes, i would never interfere with my attorney general, when ultimately speaking, he still feeds into this conspiracy this isn't real in the first place and he knows he won't be checked for it. >> katie: well first, the reason why the press is covering this is because hunter biden, himself, confirmed that there was a open u.s. attorney criminal investigation into his taxes and anybody who looked at the information that we saw in hunter's laptop back before the election is very obvious

that there maybe was an fbi investigation going on, given all the information was turned over to the fbi and now you have joe biden continuing to say he believes this is russian disinformation. well, how can hunter biden admit that there's an ongoing u.s. attorney investigation and have it also be russian disinformation? the two just don't add up, griff griff: well and i just want to take a moment to praise my colleague, peter doocy, for his tenacity. in the persistence of questions that all of my colleagues in the media should be asking, because, as you point out, katie , this investigation will either clear or potentially indict hunter biden, who will be the son of presumably the next president of the united states and of course the questions about who the attorney general is and how it's handled with his department of justice. very very important, but i thought peter has really done a fantastic job of putting it

directly to the president-elect time and time again. here is joe concha talking earlier on fox & friends earlier this morning about the same thing. listen. >> peter doocy seems to be the only one whose asking actual difficult questions in these situations, and that's a shame. he's doing what the great tim ru ssert used to do which is all he's doing is reading back, or saying back mr. biden's own words and asking him if he can still confirm that or believes what he said during the campaign , which is this is russian disinformation, and for mr. biden to then say well, you know, you're a one horse pony, and then just runoff the stage, again, he can't keep doing this forever, i would hope griff: and that's a good point, guys because what joe's saying there is in the same vein of russert back in the day you'd simply present the president-elect with what he said and the facts and i think what you will see eventually not just yet is that other members

of the press will start picking up on peter's questions and pushing them further and further to the front. pete: yeah that's why you keep asking it, and i'll tell you he's the best one horse pony soldier, out there. he's a thoroughbred of a one horse pony. may he keep it up, good for him and you're right, force other media to actually eventually cover it. one thing we covered already this morning is the president talking about his threat to veto or he wants $2,000 in direct payments instead of the crumbs to quote nancy pelosi of $600. he also, in that video last night, talked about his ongoing fight to ensure there are fair elections that the result is above dashboard also talked about a number of republican lawmakers planning to mountain electoral college challenge. here is a portion of what the president said yesterday about fair elections. president trump: one of my most solemn duties is to protect the integrity of your sacred right to vote. over the past seven weeks, we

have put fourth abundant evidence, proving how the democrats perpetrated this fraud and americans must be able to have complete faith and confidence in our elections. the fate of our democracy depends upon it. now is the time for the american people to raise their voices and demand that this injustice be immediately corrected. our elections must be fair. they must be honest, and they must be transparent, and they must be 100% free of fraud. pete: and griff, what we know is that come january 6, there will be republican congressmen attempting bring a challenge on the electoral college certification in congress un unlikely to be successful of who controlled the house, of course but you can't deny fox news has done polling on it recently that the vast majority of republican and trump supporters believe the election was not just not above dashboard, but stolen, and

feel like it hasn't properly been litigated in the courts that evidence hasn't been able to be presented the way they would like, that the clock is ticking, and as a result, they are sort of resigned to this. the president, however, is not speaking like a resigned man. he's willing to fight this all the way to the end. griff: yeah, and this may come as bad news to the president's fiercest critics but this isn't a watershed moment where we win this on january 6. this has happened in the last 20 years, and guess who did it? democrats did it and they weren't successful against an incoming republican president here is the point and that's this. if you believe in your heart of hearts as an elected member of congress that there is a fundamental legitimate reason to object, it's the same as a wedding when the priest says speak now or forever hold your peace. well guess what? you're going to see that on january 6; however, as someone who covers washington, we should point out that it takes a

sponsor, if you will, a member of the senate to also get behind this effort. right now, it's just republican members of the house. if you had a republican senator as well, it would lead then to an actual debate and vote that would get very interesting but it remains to be seen if it'll get that far. katie? >> katie: yeah, the basic concept here is free and fair elections, free of fraud. i think that if you really believe in american democracy and preserving the republic it's a pretty basic standard that we believe all elections should meet, but president trump didn't just talk about that at the white house yesterday. he also granted a wave ahead of the christmas holiday including a former campaign aid and pair of congressional republicans. fox & friends first co-host todd piro is live in the news room with those: todd: good morning, griff, katie and the president putting his signature yesterday, on the list george papadopoulos

who leaded guilty to lying to the fbi as part of the russia investigation and he took to twitter after learning of the president's decision writing thank you, mr. president, this means the world to me and my family. the president also pardoning dutch attorney alex vanderswan who was in prison to lying to investigators during the probe and duncan hunter of california and chris collins of new york are also on the list. hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison for stealing campaign funds. collins was sents ensembled to two years and two months behind bars for stock market fraud. four former government contractors known as the black water guards are also getting pardoned and they were convicted for a 2007 mass a er can in baghdad that levy dozen iraqi civilians dead and the president did what he felt was right done by the justice system and he's likely to grant more before his last day in office. the president reporting hearing from his allies while making the decisions you'll recall the president commuted her sentence back in 2018.

back to you. pete: todd thank you a lot to un pack there and the headline, we'll talk a lot about some of the political figures but for me , what the president did for those black water contractor s its been described as a massacre, what it was is the fog of a moment where they were doing their job to protect state department employees in one of the most dangerous parts of baghdad at one of the most dangerous moments. a lot of the evidence totally mischaracterized, mishandled by iraqis many of which had ties to insurgents and they were tried in a civilian court which has no connection to what it's like to be in that war. they volunteered to be there and a huge credit to the commander-in-chief there's no up side to a call other than sending a signal to our war fighters whether you're a contractor in uniform we'll have your back when you make tough calls on the battlefield much like some of the pardons he gave for other members of the military before, so kudos from my perspective, to the president for doing what he did for those black water contractor s, and griff i know there are a lot of other names on that pardon list yesterday

too. griff: there are george papadopoulos, he thanks the president and he also thanked them for declassifying documents related to him and he says pay attention to that durham report. we'll find out and by the way a lot of people to possibly include my daughters asking, is the president going to pardon the tiger king? we have no idea. we'll see he's obviously lobbying, katie? >> katie: we're all waiting to see the decision on the tiger king pardon, griff. thank you for that. the latest spending bill is being slammed for doing more to aid foreign countries than the struggling businesses right here at home. our next guest is a minnesota business owner and she'll share what she needs to get back to normal. did you know you can go to libertymutual.com to customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? really? i didn't-- aah! ok. i'm on vibrate. aaah! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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pete: america's small business owners including our next guest are outraged over that $900 billion so-called stimulus bill filled with lots of pork, like aid to pakistan, and the kennedy center, which is not even open, but not help that they desperately need. larvita mcfarquart is the owner havens' garden. we've had you on the show a couple of times talking about your stance as a business owner to stay open despite what the government is trying to do to keep you closed as you operate responsibly and help your employees and family. when you see this bill coming out of washington when you look at the headlines and the stuff that's included in there, and then you see some for the ppp program, $600 for individuals how does it make you feel? what's your reaction? >> i'm outraged, i'm appalled. i have people, friends who are leaving everything, losing their homes, losing their businesses

now, and they're giving all of this money away to other countries and i'm not really sure what they are going to do for especially small businesses when some of our mortgages are like $25,000 a month, so i don't really understand what this is supposed to do. i don't understand how this is going to help small businesses. i thought it was supposed to be for small businesses and for the american people. i don't know about you, but i don't know what $600 is going to really do for a family of four. i have four daughters so i just am appalled. pete: especially when you consider the fact, you know the president has been willing to go much higher than that. nancy pelosi rejected a deal from republicans at $1,200, double that number, months ago but that was before the election politics gets involved in why they want to deliver aid. what is your message to approximately titians that want to play these games have other priorities when business owners who just want to work, just want to be open.

>> my message is take politics out of it and do what's best for the american people. let people like me who own a small business open up. stop with all the regulations. we want to survive. we want to live. we want to work. open up america. open up our small businesses and stop putting shackles on us that we can't even make a living for our families, that we're drowning. they need to hear us and they need to hear from small businesses. they need to know that we're out here hurting. they need to understand that what their policies they are making are destroying lives. pete: this is a sincere question do you think washington d.c. has learned anything from the president's america first policy where he articulates time and time again, it's our citizens. it's our people who deserve to be first whether it's a vaccine, whether it's jobs, and now in this case, spending. why can't they seem to realize

that most americans feel like our government, our politicians, should be protecting our citizens first? >> no, i don't think they do. i would clearly say our governor doesn't hear us. we have been yelling to the mountaintops that we need to open up, that we need to work, we need to get our businesses up and running, and they're playing politics. president trump has been saying from the beginning "make america greatest and i don't understand why that be such a bad slogan. that's what americans should want is that we put our people first and then after we are taken care of we can help other people. no one is saying don't help other people as you clearly see with president trump. he's for all people but he wants americans to survive. he wants americans to survive and us to be proud of our nation and there's nothing wrong with that and we shouldn't feel ashamed of loving america, lov ing our american people and putting our american people first. pete: very well-said, larvita.

you have put a lot of leadership into this in staying open. keep us posted and god bless you this christmas. we appreciate your courage. >> can i ask everyone to go sign a petition for me at action for liberty.com. we need to get our governor to open up the businesses in minnesota. i'm not sure if you know what's going on here but he keeps stifeling us and we need to really take a stand and businesses need to be opened up and not threatened and bullied by our government. pete: you can do that and you just did and i hope people check out that petition it requires a lot of businesses coming together if it's going to happen merry christmas thank you so much. merry christmas to you. pete: you got it. chicago's da wants to clean the records of thousands of marijuana dealers, and may expun ge heroin and cocaine crimes. could this put the public at risk? rob smith sounds off on that next and senator rand paul is fuming over the latest funding bill. he's here with his concern,

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>> katie: california governor gavin newsom tapping california secretary of state alex padilla to fill vice president-elect kamala harris' seat, and this is replaced by a black woman of color, rob smith is the author of "always a soldier," and host of the rob smith is problematic podcast, love that name and he joins us now to react. so, rob, it looks like we have a little bit of in-fighting within the democratic party at this point, because the replacement for senator harris isn't exactly what they called for. >> yeah, so look. i follow a lot of far-left twitter so you don't have to, and what's very curious to me about the conversation that has been going on is that the criticism of this pick isn't about alex's record, it's not about anything that he has done it is purely about his race, and i think that right now, what you're seeing is very indicative of a lot of the in-fighting that

we're seeing on the left among democrats so you have latinos in california saying that they're the ones that made california blue and they should be represented in this seat and then african americans particularly black women that are saying well nine out of 10 of us voted for joe biden so we should have a seat at the table. it's all fairly ridiculous. it's not about anything padilla has actually done and just to give you a hypothetical. so kamala harris is the american -born biracial daughter of jam ache an and indian immigrants and what if they picked an american-born black woman to replace that seat and are we going to get complaints from people that are jam ache an and indian saying we need to be represented too so i say is that is how ridiculous the conversation is on the left. it's not about facts or not about records it is all about identity and race. >> katie: it's all about where you fall in that intersectionali ty guideline spectrum of how you're qualified , apparently, to replace a senator in the united

states senate, but speaking of identity politics, there's a new op-ed which is great in the federalist and the message and the title of it is dear democrats, stop treating black men like we're stupid or lose more votes, by gilano squires, he talks about in this op-ed about how president trump has done a great job making end road s in the black community. we saw more votes for him this time around and he feels like democrats are, again, ignoring the voices of black men and treating them like they're stupid. >> yeah, absolutely. i'm so glad you brought up that name because i read this article yesterday and tweeted about it, it's fantastic and he's absolutely right. i think what's interesting to look at is over the past election, so look, the numbers of black male voters that are voting for republicans are steadily increasing every year. we had about 18% of black men actually voting for president trump, and what we see is a trend of them towards the republican party and kind of away from the democrats and what

delano says so beautifully in this op-ed is that black men are completely being ignored and kind of like, you know, shuffled over to the kid's table when it comes to the left and how they deal with things and like i said , they are so focused on identity politics, they are missing messages of entrepreneurship, messages of capitalism, messages of building up that black men are really responding to, and that is why it's so many of us are moving to the republican party and like delano says the left continues to ignore black men and put them to the side at their own peril, because these numbers are not going down, they are only going up. >> katie: absolutely want to take you over quickly to chicago in cook county as the ag kim cox there wants to wipe records of thousands of chicago pot dealers and also she's open to expunging the records of cocaine and heroin possession. is this a good thing or a threat to the chicago community? >> it's not a good thing. i think to be clear, we're not

talking about low-level pot offenses here. we're not talking about somebody that just got caught selling a couple bags. we're talking about people that were selling very large amounts of marijuana and the dangerous part about this is that wiping that up, it kind of just, you know, shuffles it to the side and she's already talking about maybe even going for people that are selling a lot of cocaine and heroin so it's a slippery slope and it's also offensive to so many people in chicago that have been able to work themselves up legally for her to say that this is the only economy that they have in some parts of chicago is ridiculous. it's offensive, and what it really does is it disrespects the hard working people who have managed to make money and build lives and have careers without breaking the law. >> katie: excellent points, rob smith, thank you so much for your perspective this morning appreciate it. >> thank you so much. >> katie: have a good one. griff? griff: katie, thanks our next

guest lighting up the senate floor just before lawmakers voted on the $900 billion stimulus bill. senator rand paul blasted his fellow republicans as no better than socialist in his now-viral speech, watch. >> this bill is free money for everyone. maybe these new free money republicans should join the everybody gets a guaranteed income caucus to so-called conservatives who are quick to identify the socialism of democrats, if you vote for this spending you are no better. pete: with more is the republican senator from kentucky, senator rand paul. seattle merry christmas, thank you so much for being here with us. a lot of people, good morning, a lot of people loved what you had to say on the senate floor. react to the recent developments because its been exposed how much pork is in this when you tie an omnibus to an emergency bill like covid-19 everyone throws their perogatives of washington into the bill. is there a way in which if some

of that was stripped out you could support one time additional payments to individuals beyond 600 or is it both that you object to, sir? >> you know, it be great if there were actually that alternative if they said oh, we'll quit spending money on selfies to see if selfies make you happy or we'll quit spending money on the mating call of fogs but guess what they never do that. they always add it. no one ever takes away any spending and that's my big gripe it is of course festivus, so i can tell you why i'm unhappy with all these jokers but the thing is they never takeaway wasteful spending, they only add more to it and the bottom line is the only way we recover this economy is we got to open the economy up. unemployment is actually lower than it was during most of president obama's term so we really can recover but we got to get these governors out of the way of our restaurants and our bars and our menus, we got to get the economy opened up is the only way we survive this. >> katie: senator one of the most important things i think you said in that floor

speech is that congress is enabling lockdown behavior from democrats who have taken this way too far in terms of stifeling their own economies, but in the meantime, president trump, last night, said he wants $2,000 checks going out. is that something that the senate and congress can do before next week? >> you know, i saw the president's speech and we've actually included it this morning as part of our festivus celebration because he was on a rant and so am i. he was unhappy with all of the spending to pakistan and su dan, and all of these far flung places when we aren't taking care of our own. the problem is if we were to get more money to americans we would add it on top. if it were either/or it be a little bit different situation but i can tell you from experience in washington these jokers never replace spending. i've asked for it all along. i've asked look if you want to build infrastructure in our country, quit spending $50 billion a year on infrastructure in afghanistan but i never get them to bite. they'll add it on but never do

the responsible thing and exchange wasteful spending for useful spending. griff: senator i've long said that fiscal conservatives is now an exhibit at the smithsonian to go and see from the 90s because both parties are spending like drunken sailors it seems in the last decade or more, but my question to you this morning is what do we do at this very moment? pete talked about it a little bit earlier this morning about whether something could actually be done, or does what the president has done now put mitch mcconnell and republicans in a very difficult spot here at the end of the year? >> yeah, the thing is you need better people. there was only six or seven of us who opposed this but if you ask the american people, should we spend money we don't have, should we run a balanced budget? i'll bet you 75% of republicans will tell you they would rather have conservatives in washington the people in washington run as conservatives like when president obama was in power they said it was terrible the

spending and the debt and all of this , and now they're no better. i told people in my speech that it's not that the difference in parties is adam smith versus marx. it's really marx versus ingles, and i don't think they're happy to hear that but they are always talking about socialism and so am i but that bill yesterday was a bunch of socialist spending and if you voted for it you're no better than the democrats so that's the problem we have. people need to get involved in primaries and elect better people but the people in washington are bankrupting us, both parties. pete: it's hard to refute but you say there, senator when it's a 5,593-page bill that you have the six hours to attempt to read which of course means nobody reads it and leadership has all of the perogatives and their give away. you've been front and center and trying to expose this for years and you've got a festivus report which we can confirm is your favorite holiday. here is a portion of some things in there, 10 billion on botched covid-19 test tubes, lizards walking, i mean, that seems like

it has to be fake, but i don't think it is, walking on treadmill, finance a taxiway for airplanes on nantuck et island, hot tubs see if they reduce stress which we all know of course is true but i don't know why we need to study it. what shocks you the most when you go through our budget and realize how much money we're wasting? >> here is one of the worst, the national science foundation spends about 8 billion every year and william proxmeier started complaining in the early 1970s one of the first projects was back then $50,000 to study what makes you happy. well last year they spent about a million, inflation, i guess, about a million and if you take a selfie of yourself while smiling, and then you look at it later on, will that make you happy? that's the kind of stuff your governments doing, we got to bridge that's broken over the ohio river. we've wanted a new bridge for 10 years and we spent money to pakistan for gender studies, my goodness sakes, we can't build our own country because we're too busy rebuilding everybody

else's country. it's what president trump has always gotten right. it's why president trump got all these new blue collar workers because they're sick and tired of sending money shoveling it overseas and they wanted here at home but the thing is the establishment republicans i call them the big government republicans they never were on trump's side and you can tell, you know, he butts heads with them, they like the spending and they've been doling it out ever since they've been up there and i don't know how it ends until we get new people up there. pete: true, senator i'm going to try that study right now on the air and smile. griff: [laughter] pete: look at it later on the program and see if you feel better. >> katie: i'll be in a hot tub later so if you want to send me $2 million to study stress, that be great. senator paul we are dealing with a pandemic, obviously, the vaccine has been rolled out. you criticized congresswoman alex andrea ocasio-cortez for getting the vaccine ahead of our vulnerable population and she's now responded to you. do you have a response to her?

>> well the thing is that i think the most vulnerable should get this , all along i think we should have been protecting the most vulnerable. now we have a way to protect them and until everybody in the nursing home who has not got a vaccine gets one, until 80- year-old, 70-year-old, 60- year-old, 50-year-old, 40- year-old gets one, aoc should be at the end of the line waiting her turn because she's at very very low risk but we're not using any science here so for example, i've also said if you have it you should be at the end of the line. i've had it so i might be a little higher risk than aoc, but i'm a much lower risk than an 85 -year-old in a nursing home who doesn't have it yet so really what we need to do is pay attention to immunity, the thing is if you're in the nursing home and you've had it, we should give it to the other patient in the nursing home who hasn't. we have million, like 18 million people who have had it. they do not immediately need it. i'm not saying they can't take the vaccine at some point, but they really don't need to be first in line. let's get the most vulnerable done before we get to the least vulnerable. griff: and senator i'd finally just add we need our members of

congress, senators, and representatives vaccinated so they can be in washington, working here, on important legislation. i want to just leave it by putting you on the spot here. if the president does veto this legislation, will you vote to override? >> you know, the thing is is that i hope he vetoes it but the only way i would vote for any spending or any additional spending is if it came out of existing spending, so if they want to cut the $30 billion we shovel and send overseas, i'm happy to vote for that and we can discuss where we can spend it here in our country. i think there are a lot of things but giving money to people who are already working, my kids are working and don't need a check. they aren't rich but they don't need a check and most working americans don't need a check right now. it's a really foolish egg-headed left-wing socialist idea to pass out free money to people, so i part ways with the president on giving people free money. we should help those who are unemployed by extending unemployment, but we shouldn't add to unemployment. there are things we can do.

look in 2008 president obama extended unemployment and they didn't juice it up, by giving people more money not to work than they were, so we've done a lot of terrible ideas that are much worse than what we criticized president obama. president obama is now a conservative when it comes to stimulus because his unemployment, he just extended it. we didn't give cash payments back then, but the cash payments is a ridiculous terrible foolish no-good idea because you are just printing out money to give to people. why not do it all the time, give people a thousand, 1,000, why not a million and it's a terrible idea that ruins the value of our currency ultimately. pete: it's a scary world where former president obama is a fiscal conservative. senator rand paul, thank you so much. appreciate your time. griff: thank you, senator. merry christmas. pete: and happy festivus. jillian, a few additional headlines now? jillian: that's right good morning let's begin with this overnight, three police officers are killed during a violent shootout in central france. the officers were responding to a domestic violence incident.

the suspect was found dead after he set the house on fire. first responders rescued a woman from the roof of the burning home who was reportedly attacked another officer was also shot but is expected to be okay. >> video first obtained by tucker carl on tonight shows a dispute between one of the democrats rncing in georgia 's senate runoff, raphael warnock and his now ex-wife. >> the way he acted for a long time and today he crossed the line. so that is what is going on here and he's a great actor. he is phenomenonal at putting on a really good show. jillian: warnock accused him of running over her foot with his car during a heated fight back in march. she had no visible injuries and warnock was not charged in the incident. >> the navy and air force will play each other in football on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. the air force athletic director says it will be a great way to showcase future military leaders

on the solemn day. the game will be the earliest the two teams have played each other. those are your headlines i'll send it back to you. griff: that'll be a good game. pete: yeah a fitting date for sure. thank you, jillian. all right, coming up, progressives up in arms after joe biden says immigration reforms won't be done on day one more on their internal divisions , that is next. (coughing) hi susan! honey? yeah? i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad... try this new robitussin honey severe. the real honey you love... plus, the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? new robitussin honey severe. strong relief for your severe symptoms. (kids laughing) (dog barking) ♪ sanctuary music

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>> sandra: good morning, everyone two days until christmas president trump slam ming the covid-19 relief bill as a disgrace. what happens next? carlie hurt is here to weigh in. also, coming up, the latest from joe biden on his son hunter biden's overseas business dealings. what he said to our very own peter doocy that'll be coming up , ari fleshier here to react, senator marsha blackburn, pete hegseth and more join us live from america's news room, top of the hour. >> katie: while malls are being flooded with last minute shoppers some are being used as drive-through testing sites for coronavirus. griff: grady trimble from our sister network fox business is live outside the bootfield mall in schaumburg, illinois with a

first-hand look. good morning, grady. reporter: hey, good morning, griff. yeah, there's the mall right there, and then if you swing around here, you can see there's already a line at this testing site this morning. i'm going to bring in scott mcgr aughlin who helped setup this whole operation so the idea isn't exactly that people could grab a last minute gift and go get tested but that's certainly one thing people could do. >> absolutely it's all about convenience. when people are having a party, and you can't get an appointment for a couple days and you don't get results for several days after that, being able to get an appointment without qualifying same day and get your results within a couple of hours , that's what people are looking for. reporter: especially with christmas coming up people might be spending time with family they want that peace of mind if they are with them. without a doubt. at the end of the day when you can come through a five minute drive-thru experience and go to your family members without any concern that you have the disease, it's a real peace of mind. reporter: this car just wrapped up their test there. we'll let them drive-thru here,

and these are rapid tests, guys so you get your results within an hour, and you can have like we said that peace of mind on christmas day, if you're going to spend it with family. pete: there you go, grady trimbl e, thank you so much for that report we appreciate it guys, katie and griff, i was trying to take a nap yesterday. it turned out to be great timing , because the monotone cadence of the joe biden press conference was on, so it worked out great, but one portion of it that caught my ear while it was going on was him talking about immigration policies and when they might happen. here is a portion of what joe biden said. >> already started discussing these issues with the president of mexico and our friends in latin america and the timeline is to do it so that we, in fact, make it better, not worse. the last thing we need is to say we're going to stop immediately

the access to asylum the way it's being run now and end up with 2 million people on our border. it's a matter of it will get done, and it will get done quickly, but it's not going to be able to be done on day one. pete: so the question is when do you want the rush to the border? now or later? the admission if i've ever seen one, representative, griff, i'll get to you in a second as our border correspondent this is oma r saying classic bait and switch, and it breaks a core campaign promise and democrats lose big when they don't fulfill their promises and she urges them to consider the day one, griff what do you think? griff: well listen had i been taking a nap i would have gotten woken up because my phone blew up when president-elect biden made those comments. there was some 70,000 apprehended last month, that's in-crisis numbers they had 2,600 in a single day. now, you have president-elect biden talking about basically undoing all the things president trump has done, to the defunding and i.c.e. in this omnibus,

right? you are currently funded for 52000 beds. this , now cut it to 32. what's it do? it causes immediate catch and release and it causes those hon duran caravans to spin -up and come north and this is a problem for biden to walk it back now it's like okay so now you're going to delay an unmitigated border crisis bit by bit? that's not going to help anything. katie? >> katie: all right, thank you , griff for that. more fox & friends in just a minute. when it comes to autism,

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>> thank you for joining us on this christmas eve eve. download the fox news app. get it on your phone, why not? scan the qr code. thank you, katie and griff. >> president trump: it really is a disgrace. it is called the covid relief bill but it has almost nothing to do with covid. >> sandra: president trump slamming the covid relief bill calling it a disgrace. the president even hinting he may veto the entire package saying there is too much waste and that $600 for struggling americans is not enough. instead he wants to send out stimulus checks for $2,000 each. good morning, everyone. i'm sandra smith. hello, trace. >> trace: good morning, i'm trace gallagher. the president wants congress to get rid of the pork and pet projects stuffed into the bill and he has democratic support