thanks to my panel and all of you for watching. i am paul gigot. happy new year. we hope to see you here next week. ♪ ♪ >> associated press reports federal investigators have identified a person of interest in connection with the christmas morning explosion in nashville. multiple reporters are on the ground working to confirm just that. meantime, this is the scene in tennessee, a suburb about 10 miles southeast of nashville where the fbi, atf and local police are rating a home, searching for clues as to what happened. hello, welcome to america's news headquarters. i am laura. hi, eric. >> thank you for joining us. we are looking at live pictures

of atf and other federal officials apparently at that home outside nashville. as you know, the explosion sent at least three people to the hospital and caused major damage to dozens of buildings the heart of the downtown area of nashville. authorities don't yet released a motive and they have not said may be behind not only the explosion but recorded message blaring from that rv morning it would explode in minutes. the rv parked right next to the large red brick at&t telephone transmission center building. cell phones, land lines affected by the blast and six national police officers on the early morning of christmas, they ran to evacuate people and being hailed as heroes with action for doing what they did to save lives. live in nashville with the latest. reporter: fbi confirming it has

a number of potential agents looking into right now in connection to that rv explosion but they wouldn't name any individuals at this time. >> 500 investigator please we are following up with so there are a number of individuals we are looking at. we are not prepared to identify any single individual. reporter: the special agent in charge, doug, possible activity in a residential neighborhood in antioch to see reportedly tied to a person of interest. as for the site of the explosion, authorities say it's a complex expansive scene but they are confident they will get to the bottom of it. >> a giant jigsaw puzzle created by a bomb throwing evidence across multiple city blocks. reporter: police say the bomb

squad is on the scene and there's no reason to believe additional expose of devices are positioned in the city. this is of course following a massive rv explosion around 6:30 a.m. christmas morning. authorities say what set off intentionally, the surveillance video, you hear a message from the rv, warning people to evacuate the area. >> if you can hear this message, evacuate now. if you can hear this message, evacuate now. reporter: as you see, moments later it expose into a ball of flames. the force of the blast causing damage to at least 41 buildings in the area and injuring two officers rushing in to save lives. the fbi says they are working around the clock to get to the bottom of this. they say they should be able to turn over part or maybe all of

the scene to the city of nashville in the next day or so. they are asking folks who live in the area to be patient and avoid it until the curfew is up sunday evening. eric: that recording is so bizarre. charles, thank you. laura. laura: , former prosecutor and assistant u.s. attorney joining us from nashville and also a partner at llp. let's get your perspective. we know this investigation is moving fast but now we are seeing a possible search of a home nearby. if this is a lead that pans out, if you're an investigator on the scene right now, what are you looking for in that house? >> the first question is, did anyone leave the rv after it was parked? we haven't seen the description, we have not seen video of

surveillance of someone walking away. i think that would probably tell us the present who did this was still in the rv when it exploded. that changes everything you do after the fact. now you go to a location associated with the rv which is what they report, it suggests you are looking why happen or what led to this happening. bomb supplies and things like that. laura: would been following this story so closely. it's incredible to get these live cameras looking at investigators going into this home. we see all the agencies there. they say they've received 500 leads at this time. how do you narrow down those leads? what is your take on the warning message, too? right before the bomb detonated, it seems like law enforcement agrees that was very unusual and sounded like a woman. >> first, what you're looking for, if you're an investigator, the first thing is to neutralize the threat and find this person and arrest them.

or determine they have been killed in the attack. the first thing is to make sure the community is safe. in respect to the warning, that is absolutely unusual. it goes back to 60s terrorism in the state and more recently, the united kingdom with provisional ira to provide warnings before attacks. it's not that we have seen in recent years in the u.s. as for the actual recording itself, it was likely a recording done by a speech software, the computer pronounces the text that you type out, it could have been that. it's certainly to get people away from the scene which is an unusual thing to do if you blow up a city block. laura: absolutely. the hour and time and placement of where the rv was, a very busy street. we have reports of human remains found at the scene so how do investigators determine if the remains resided inside the rv?

the investigators talk about how it's a jigsaw puzzle that literally exploded, there's evidence everywhere. how do you determine that? >> the fbi has very good forensic investigators so you can't just take a body part and identify it to a person, you need someone to match against. one may be looking for is hair and a comb or a brush or some sort of dna they can test for this person who might be a suspect of interest they may believe was in the rv and test it against what they found on the scene. if they can, they can determine if it's the individuals body part. it's a gruesome task but it will help them pieced together what happened. laura: one of the other parts i want to ask you about was reports of gunfire before the running message was heard from the rv. i spoke to a woman who lived on the block and she said she heard gunfire but not the message and she said i thought it was the storm and then some kind of explosion with electricity.

that's when people really started to get up and start moving. what does that tell you? >> i think one question we haven't seen reports of any forensic evidence of gunshots actually happening. you'd expect to see bullet holes or shells. that may be hard to find in the debris but it should be there. it may be consistent with the unusual warning to get people's attention and get them out of bed exactly like this woman and get them away from the scene. laura: now that you bring that up, maybe it was a recording of gunfire. who knows? will find out from investigators as they move through this. thank you for being with us today. appreciate it. eric. ♪ eric: president trump says he's praying for those who were injured at the explosion and expressing gratitude for those police officers and rescue crews responding so swiftly to the scene. the president was briefed on the blast. he's in florida spending the holiday there.

the president reaction and his plans. hello. reporter: afternoon. tennessee's government asked president trump for emergency assistance to help nashville in the wake of friday's explosion. we are waiting to see how the white house may respond to that request, no word back on that but friday the president said he was briefed and offered support to law enforcement as well as those who were injured. we've not seen president trump on camera since he arrived at his resort wednesday evening. so many questions answered about how the president may decide to respond to this investigation or any update on federal assistance. state lawmakers in tennessee say they need all the help they can get. >> what i would entail is bring up resources from the federal level to help with the investigation and ultimately to probably help with repairs the businesses and homes damaged in the area.

it is very important, i saw a tweet coming across about the same time you did and i apply these to see he's taking that step. eric: we will continue to watch that and we are waiting to see whether or not the president will sign or veto the $900 billion stimulus bill both parties agreed to. a deal is negotiated by the set treasury secretary. the president is demanding more money to be put in for direct diminished payments that would go out to the american people based on their income. he's tweeting including this, i simply want to get our great people $2000 rather than merely $600 now in the bill. also selling billions of dollars in port. the president talking about this, the amount of money being spent in foreign aid tied to the $1.4 trillion larger stimulus bill but the question is the timing because the government faces another potential shutdown next week. there are benefits expiring,

election moratorium set to last as well so if a deal is not worked out, democrats and other lawmakers are warning there could be dire consequences the resident is not detailing yet what he wants to do. he's leading up to congress to see how they will react. eric: i'll have a report on the coronavirus relief bill in a moment. thanks. laura. laura: joe biden has also been briefed on the investigation the national explosion as he continues on his cabinet picks and growing pressure to focus on diversity. hi, jackie. reporter: the transition issued a brief statement in response to the explosion yesterday that reads and part, president-elect biden has been briefed on the explosion in tennessee, president-elect and doctor biden saying first responders working on the incident, which those injured a speedy recovery. there are no public events this weekend but the president-elect is a statement urging president trump to sign the covid relief

to passed by congress to retain unemployment benefits for about 10 million americans and also resources for small businesses while extending government funding for vital services like the military biden wrote, it's the day after christmas and billions of families don't know if they can meet make meant meet because of president trump's futile to sign the bill approved by congress with overwhelming bipartisan majority. application of response body has devastating consequences. transition is also at work fitting potential nominees as biden is remaining three cabinet post. pressuring bidens representation in yesterday black leaders including majority team clyburn told the new york times biden needs to depart and resist appeasing republicans or else abandon the platform he ran on. reverend isaac junior said biden owes us and we have not forgotten. the transition spokesman defended bidens and pension to defend what he brought during

the election addressing inequities americans have base for generations while reaching across the aisle to get it done i was there statement yesterday but the pressure continues as the remaining posts are remained to be filled. laura: thank you so much for that report. eric. ♪ eric: millions of americans stand to lose extra pandemic unemployment benefits. benefits expiring tonight. the fate of the new coronavirus relief in government funding bill remains in the book right now. president trump wants congress to increase direct payments from $600 to $2000 in cuts on spending. if he refuses to sign, it could be know coronavirus they'd the coronavirus shutdown. reporter: these are tough times and every dollar counts so many

american families right now. 14 million already struggling, americans are about to lose $300 extra a week. all because of what's going on in washington. the president demanding changes to that $900 billion bipartisan coronavirus package, the package would have extended those expanded federal on of limit benefits through march but the president does not sign this tonight, which he's not expected to, then to pandemic programs will expire midnight tonight. this impacts 7.3 million workers enrolled in the pandemic unemployment assistance program and 4.6 million repeating pandemic emergency compensation. of those 4.6, half, more than half can still collect the safe extended benefits with cast strapped states. they may have to pay half which will be tough for them. basically leading a ton of americans high and dry.

>> i've talked to so many people who are plain scared. just talk about what's going to happen with unemployment today but being evicted during the holidays, families struggling to put food on the table. people are desperate. reporter: the house is expected to take up the bill monday and expect to pass an amendment to the direct payment. the senate reconvenes tuesday, it's just not clear what the senate plans to do with an amendment bill. eric: thank you. laura. laura: we are closely watching the situation. fbi and atf rating the home of a person of interest shocking for clues in the christmas morning explosion in downtown nashville.

we will keep you updated. we are getting first reports of a severe allergic reaction to the moderna coronavirus vaccine. details on what you need to know before getting the vaccine. coming up.

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in connection with the horrible explosion in downtown explosion in downtown nashville. the suburbs 10 miles south of nashville, members of the atf, alcohol tobacco firearms, fbi and police are there searching a home they believe is associated with that person. the feds have gone over 500 tips on this blast. the senate rush -- damaged dozens of homes and businesses nearby. it parked in second street in nashville parked right next to a massive moving red brick at&t transmission building which is caused a lot of speculation about a potential motive for this but officials have not confirmed anything. the nashville mayor said he's very proud of the city's response. >> this is our national best stepping forward to help us solve this crime.

emts, firemen and police officers have been so heroic this last two days. we still have a curfew initial and will until tomorrow afternoon, it's an active crime scene. eric: authorities try to rectify possible human remains found at the site. if the remains, tissue, match the person at the house that the officials are now out. they are watching the situation closely and if they announced new developments on who this person is confirm that or if the rv was parked behind the house at some time, we will certainly bring you any development as they want. ♪ los angeles county scientists are investigating whether a new more infectious strain of the

coronavirus is behind the dramatic cases across so cal. last week in south africa. rosina coleman is live in los angeles with more on this. hi, christina. reporter: right now scientists are checking to see if the new strain has reached the state as covered infectious continue to sort across california. public health director said in an interview with the l.a. times yesterday the counties labs have started gene sequencing on virus samples here but it will take at least a week before we know for sure. there's no evidence to suggest the new strain from britain is more daring. california became the first state to record more than 2 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic started. more than 19000 covid patients currently are hospitalized statewide and over 4000 are in

intensive care. >> california is in crisis mode and the health systems. breaking record we do not want to break number of patients on ventilators, number of patients in icu. sadly, the number of mortalities we are witnessing. reporter: l.a. county, the state's most populous county reported 148 deaths is received, that breaks the record we set wednesday with 145 fatalities. health officials say one person now dies every ten minutes in l.a. county from covid-19. icu availability is at 0% statewide hospitals running low on oxygen supplies as er units fill up. people are getting vaccinated, health officials are urging people not to the their guard down and keep wearing masks and

social distancing. they fear holiday travel and gatherings will slow the crisis. laura: the numbers are so alarming. thank you for staying on top of it. there. eric: meanwhile, a doctor in boston received the moderna covid vaccine reportedly suffered a severe allergic reaction to that and used in epipen. such reactions have been extremely rare. they think they know why, it's called a comp held called polyethylene glycol, pg pg which is in both vaccines. it's and other vaccines as well. emergency medicine and fox news medical contributor, great to see you. tell us about this peg, should people worry about getting reactions to the shop? >> you should not worry. peg, this is a really common

substance used in skincare products and creams and used to help treat consultations, it is a common product used all the time. it was also used in the shaping as well. it's very rare for to cause an allergic reaction. anaphylactic allergic reaction meeting you can have facial swelling, throat and swell and trouble breathing. you could have a rash it could be life-threatening but important to understand it is rare. we've administered over 1 million vaccines into patients so far in this country and less than ten, about six who have had an allergic reaction and they are all doing well so understand what's in the vaccine itself, but the products and in greetings are. if you know your allergic to any of the, then hold off on getting the vaccine. if you had any severe allergic reaction to any vaccine in the

past, off on the vaccine as well but don't worry because it does not preclude you from getting covid vaccine and that is the beauty of medicine, we have other vaccines manufactured differently so moderna and pfizer may not be right for you but was got johnson & johnson, novavax, astrazeneca and others manufactured differently you may be a candidate for. so until you can get your vaccine, talk to your doctor about it, continue mitigation efforts of wearing your mask. >> that is great to know especially if you have this allergy. members are extremely rare, just six people have apparently had a reaction. 272,000 doses and atoms has basically said not to worry but if you do have a little reactions, here's what he says. >> every medication after can be

called an allergic reaction. dozens of people every day have this so we need to help understand this is normal. the numbers are for any vaccination. eric: the doctor in boston apparently has a shellfish reaction, he's got to carry one of these, and epipen. if you're watching right now and have to carry and epipen whether it's dust or mice or hornets or bees or whatever your allergic to, if you carry one, should you obviously tell your doctor that you need to know before you take one of the vaccines? >> absolutely. it's important to inform your doctor of any allergy you may have whether it's mild or seve severe. when you go to get your coronavirus vaccine, you will be given the vaccine by someone is prepared and the facility will be well equipped to treat you in the rare current you might have

an allergic reaction so if you, you will be treated safely and get the epinephrine if you need it and you will be given other medicines, benadryl or steroids if needed. wherever you get your vaccine they will monitor you at least 30 minutes if you have a history of severe allergic reaction, if you carry and epipen. if you don't, you'll just be moderate 15 minutes but for the majority of the americans, the benefit outweighs the risk. the vaccine saves thousands of lives every year and less than 2% of the population worldwide suffer from severe anaphylactic reaction. the vaccines are our ticket to get out of this pandemic sooner than later. eric: absolutely that's the ca case. always good to see you and thank you. take care. ♪ laura: curfew remains in effect in nashville as the fbi looks into within 500 leads in the

christmas day bombing. next, chilling video from the rv clearing out a countdown before it exploded. former cia chief, dan hoffman on what he makes of all of this and what investigation is headed next. ♪

investigators continue to come through rubble covering multiple blocks in downtown nashville. checking out more than 500 that have come in yesterday morning's explosion. an rv detonated after blaring a recorded warning that it would explode minutes. david has more including the chilling video on the rv. reporter: fbi special agent in charge says the bureau has yielded 500 tips about this crime. right now, fbi and atf farm techs are on the scene. they been there all day problem assisting the scene and they

will be there for the foreseeable future. authorities seen in nashville at a press conference this afternoon made it clear there no other threat at this time you put in the city of nashville can feel safe. authorities have zeroed in on this rv is the catalyst for the explosion who owned it, drove it, read it with explosives, all part of the investigation led by the fbi. >> a giant jigsaw puzzle created by a bomb during evidence across multiple city blocks. they got together it, catalog it, put it back together and find out the picture of the puzzle. reporter: moments before the explosion, rare morning broadcast from the rv telling people to leave the scene and announcing a detonation in 15 minutes, then 14 minutes, 13 minutes and so on. authorities say it was a countdown and music was played.

people evacuated before the explosion. >> if you can hear this message, evacuate now. >> we can't confirm individuals or anybody identified again, we have over 500 investigative leads, following up with every one of them. there are individuals we are looking at so we are not prepared to identify any single individual. >> fbi and other agencies will be on the scene in the coming days. city to under curfew according to the their love anybody has information, reach out to the national police department or fbi you can remain anonymous. laura: thank you so much. eric. eric: what we know now, one person of interest, reports say a similar rv has been in for years. now the focus of the investigation. for more, hoffman, served in russia, pakistan and a fox news

jupiter. dan, authorities say no more threats, they do not believe is a second person wanted at this moment. they are searching this house in antioch, a suburb about 10 miles or so in downtown nashville. what is your gut? >> it doesn't sound like it but you got to wait for the facts to come in and we've also seen instances of u.s. persons being radicalized online. that is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility and i'm sure once we find out who did this and committed this crime, then we will have answers to those questions. eric: we are looking with right now at home in antioch near downtown nashville. you are right on that, what are authorities on an international scale, when this happened, but kicks in to find out if there's foreign influence, foreign direction or foreign involveme

involvement. >> the first thing we do if i were still working at the cia, i would have received information to pass to my foreign liaison, foreign government, ask them whether they can dig into their sources and determine whether there's any connection whatsoever to this attack that they might know about and of course, who would cast our unilateral sources, terrorist groups as well. there are three things that stand out, clearly symbolic that took place christmas day. it's in a business district in nashville and designed to cause lots of damage but not civilian innocent casualties. across from the at&t building, it's infrastructure and in the back of my mind, i'm wondering if this would have been a disgruntled employee seeking revenge of some sort. that was the first reaction i had, frankly. eric: a lot of focus on the at&t

building it's a great street, second street, you got bb kings, blues clubs and a lot of restaurants across the street. you do have the massive brick telecommunications building. you see them in different citi cities, no windows. this was about ten stories tall, for communications equipment, transmission and self system in some areas affecting self-service. if you park it right at that spot as you can see in the left and that one video, if you park it there, it's a way to damage that building, i guess. >> it is. terrorists and a vehicle with improvised explosive device that can carry hundreds to thousands of pounds of high explosive, artillery rounds and explosive rounds, it's another thing on

state and local federal law enforcement officials are looking at in the forensics to determine what sort of explosives were used. eric: in the end, do you think, does have more of the marks of a lone wolf organization is really rare. the provisional ira has used that in the past but we've never really encountered that here. >> it's awfully aware, rare that is one person because they rely on a network of support to obtain explosives. at this time, it is too early to say whether it's a network involved and if so, whom? that's important for us to determine in the coming days and we are hearing there's no threat of a follow-up attack but my own perspective, until we catch the perpetrator and close down the network, we can't be one 100% confident they will seek to do further damage and that's why it's important, the clock is

ticking we need to make some arrests and god bless are dedicated state and local and federal law enforcement, that is what they are doing. eric: absolutely. god bless them and that's a very good part, they will get to the bottom of this. thank you. laura. laura: nashville is coming together after yesterday's explosion, having at the end of a rough year in music city. next, nashville is rallying once again.

you see fbi and atf agents there in antioch tennessee home, 10 miles from downtown nashville the bomb exploded in the rv. reports say a similar rv was

parked by someone who lives in the home for a long time but the rv drove away a few days ago and is now missing. the attack struck the popular downtown music scene of nashville, one of our countries treasured cities. joining us now, country and southern gospel singer and songwriter, or three legendary brothers. this must have struck your heart and the heart of nashville and country music. your reaction. >> thanks. what we've said about this, he looks this good, this town is resilient. maybe old-fashioned to say loving americans, that's what this town is about. we come back from floods eight or ten years ago, tornadoes last year end people are tough here and we are going to get through

this. i wish i had some answers, i live about 10 miles from antioch and used to live in antioch years ago but i don't have any answers for this. i tell people socrates did not become the father of western velocity by answering questions, he asked the questions. in that, i think somebody needs to ask those folks who want to defund the police, i want to ask those people today, who would you call if the van was parked, the rv in front of your house? who would you call it was parked in front of your place of business? would you call a social worker people say we need more, would you sell call it psychiatrist? would you call auntie pelosi x joe biden?

joe biden, hunter, a strange fan is park here, come help us. no, you call the police. men and women in blue and thank god they did what they were trying to do and they did it well. i'm grateful to them, the city of nashville is rightful to the. i asked my fellow red state, did you think this would stay away from our doorstep? was just going to be in the blue states was it just important in minneapolis and baltimore? no. it has come home to us. these people are anarchists. with all due respect, the person running for me, disgruntled employee from at&t across the street goes and buys enough explosives to blow up two city blocks? no. i believe this is the first big shots fired. it's not throwing water bottles, maybe a few cocktails, this was trying to destroy property. we are lucky nobody was down

there. my take is this is the shot fired and if we don't stand up for what we believe and go get the bad guys and make sure the other bad guys out there no, they will come to justice in this country. eric: larry, obviously authorities don't know who did this, they don't have a motive yet. suffered from international terrorism in this country from domestic terrorism. those answers will come. but in my final minute with you, let's go back to the photographs to show the law enforcement officers, i'm going to mention there names. michael suppose, amanda, james, sgt. timothy miller. your thoughts as someone in nashville, you know larry, what law enforcement has been under this past year. >> i think god for them. instead of defunding them, we

ought to refund and give them a raise. they put their lives on the line every night, don't know if they go home safe to their wives and kids and husbands god bless th them, i am grateful for them, we support them and it has come to that. we've known for a long time the dod and people know korea, the communications is going to be one of the places people strike first. i believe it happened today. people come to me and say i'm sorry. eric: all right, larry. computer is going to cut us off. it was the at&t building the rv was parked next to it. larry, thank you for what you've done for this nation and your music you and your family and your brothers. refund the police, says larry. >> bye-bye. eric: will be right back.

it laura: the holidays can be some of the happiest times and it can also be difficult especially for veterans in civilian life and that's where the nonprofit group

sempre fi and american fund is helping those heroes find purpose. next guest is someone who has personally benefited from the program. the united states marine corps and army served veteran danny figaro. thank you for being here today. >> yankee lore for the invite. i'd like to also thank fox for having a peer of mine a couple of weeks ago to talk about the fund and to talk about what it is that they are doing for the veterans and servicemembers. laura: absolutely. we are almost at the end of the show so i want to get it all in. tell me about your experience with this organization and how was able to help you. >> yeah so as you mentioned ayman army and marine corps vet. i have -- sempre fi fund has helped me in three significant ways. it's helped me with transition and i never factored in the challenges and i couldn't ask

for help. my belief system was that i had to be strong and that was a sign of weakness if i asked for help. the sempre fi fund help me pay for my bills while i was on for two months in an inpatient for two months. they also helped me most recently, had the service dog as a disabled veteran and i lost my job and with covid it was difficult to find another job. it was a guarantee that until i get that on my feet if there's an emergency to help with food they are there. laura: i want to get the pardon of returning back to civilian life. we have heard stories of people coming back from service and experiencing, sometimes it doesn't happen right away but you experienced the need for help and that's what happened to you. how did you get hooked up with them? >> i was going through a medical

board when i was active duty and i was linked -- there was a sempre fi fund and i was on the marine corps base but in time, through different means they have been there every step of the way. i would have to say also even what we are dealing with in our country right now, it's very easy that when something hits it usually is an individual effect that you feel later so it's key to find the support but also to know that you can factor in needing some assistance. laura: i've got to leave it there. we have the web site, veteran danny figueroa thank you for joining us. >> thankid you everybody. laura: that does it for us.

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it was just the right thing to do. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> tucker: good evening, welcome to a special edition of "tucker carlson tonight." merry christmas. if you're spending the final days of 2020 with the ones you love, congratulations. that wasn't easy. a lot of powerful people tried to force you to remain cut off from your family, unable to worship, sad and solitary state. they told you we had to be alone because the other coronavirus. of course, it's more than that. there's something about christmas that drives a certain sort of bureaucrat completely nuts. maybe it's all the unregulated joy. maybe the i