>> it is wednesday december thirtieth, $600 stimulus checks heading out in the mail but donald trump says that's not good enough and ascetic of a showdown with one of his most loyal allies in congress. jillian: the coronavirus strain detected in the uk has officially made it to us shores and exports worn of a post-christmas case surge. we are live with everything you need to know as more states way new lockdown measures. todd: we will tell you how most americans feel about 2020. a very interesting year comes to a close.

"fox and friends first" starts right now. good morning, you are watching "fox and friends first" on this wednesday morning. straight to a fox news alert louisiana the left -- elect luke let low died from covid-19, shocking was confirmed by his family overnight just 10 days after he tested positive for the virus, he joined us a few weeks ago. jillian: he was just 41 years old and leaves behind a wife and two young children. he's the first member of congress to die from coronavirus and is one of 7000 people to die in louisiana. he was set to be confirmed this sunday. todd: reaction pouring in overnight. >> reporter: condolences pouring in after the devastating announcement. house minority whip steve scalise tweeting devastated here

luke letlow's passing, he had a tremendous bright future. minority leader kevin mccarthy tweets our hearts break tonight as we process the news of the letlow's passing. we are praying for judy and their young children during this terrible time. this as us cases stand at 19.5 million and over 338,000 deaths. in colorado health officials confirming the first us case of a more infectious form of covid-19 first identified in the uk. governor tweeting today we discovered colorado's first case of the covid-19 variant b 117, the same variant discovered in the uk. the health and safety of coloradans is our top priority and we will monitor this case as well as all covid-19 indicators very closely. in california, record daily case counts, hard-hit la county seeing its highest numbers to date, just under 13,000 new

cases, 227 deaths tuesday alone though la county officials admit the higher numbers were do to a backlog from christmas we can, 7000 patients are hospitalized across the county. these higher case counts being posted even as the vaccine rollout is in full swing, president-elect joe biden getting his shot and taking a jab at the current administration. >> the trump administration's plan is falling behind, a few weeks ago the trump administration suggested 20 million americans could be vaccinated by the end of december. with only a few days left in december we have only vaccinated a few million so far. >> reporter: vice president-elect kamala harris rolling on her sleeve saying was painless and safe after initially saying she wouldn't take it. president-elect biden mistakenly giving harris his title when discussing her vaccination. >> i took it to instill public

confidence in the vaccine. president-elect harris took hers today for the same reason. >> reporter: overnight the uk became the first country to greenlight astrazeneca and oxford university's vaccine is the first patient inoculated there received her second shot. todd: thank you. jillian: dr. janette nesheiwat will talk about the risks of the new covid-19 stream. todd: a $600 stimulus check going in the mail today is mitch mcconnell blocks the vote for the president's plan of $2,000 payments. jillian: lucas tomlinson as republican support is growing for the stimulus. >> reporter: donald trump's treasury secretary says the second round of stimulus check start shipping out billions of americans via direct deposit last night. the bill to increase those payments to $2,000 in a roadblock. >> the president highlighted three additional issues of national significance that we

would like to see congress tackle together. the senate will begin a process to bring these priorities into focus. >> reporter: mitch mcconnell on tuesday blocking unanimous passage on the stimulus checks requested by the president. he lumped them together with two other proposals the president requested, repealing section 230, protections for big tech, forming an advisory committee to study the results of the 2020 election, democrats all those poison pills. >> leader mcconnell holds the key to unlocking this dilemma. the solution is a simple one. put both bills up for a simple up or down vote and let the chips fall where they may. >> reporter: bernie sanders doubling down on his plan to filibuster the senate vote on the massive defense bill, until they vote to increase to me was checks. >> the house did the right thing. i congratulate them and now it

is time for the senate to step up to the plate and do what the working families of this country overwhelmingly want us to do. >> reporter: both republican senate candidates in georgia want those $2,000 checks. senators graham, holly and rubio, 7 more votes are needed to break the filibuster, joining democrats who are all expected to vote for the measure, it does not seem likely to pass the 60 vote threshold. the irs says if you don't receive direct deposit by early january watch for a paper statement or debit card as paper checks will start shipping out today. jillian: georgia's republican senators say they are happy to stand with donald from to get more relief for struggling americans.

>> with the vaccine coming this is appropriate. i support what the president is doing. >> i stood by the president 100% of the time, proud to do that and i said absolutely we need to get relief to americans now. >> reporter: democrat opponent rafael warknock said voters can't release kelly left her saying she, quote, called unemployment relief counterproductive and waited nearly 9 months to take any action on additional relief while georgians lost their jobs. >> reporter: the runoff elections unless than one week away. 2.3 million people have voted. todd: molly hemingway says both parties have an uphill battle when it comes to making sure voters trust the election process. >> there are problems in georgia i worry about with people having confidence in the election. stacy abrams's sister was a judge saying the state cannot remove 4000 voters who should not be registered to vote down there. you have the case where the trump campaign had been suing, whether they think they have

trump has a good case or not -- a judge has not decided to hear that case. people are legitimately worried there is lack of confidence in these election systems. >> georgia governor's brian kemp says the state has and everything it can to ensure the integrity of next week's runoff election. >> a big transparency in the runoff election, the vote we had in georgia will be the case. the fact of the matter we have had over 2 million people who voted in this election in the early voting period. my message to people is the same when the president had when he was here the other day, people need to get out and vote for david perdue and kelly leffler to stop socialism, stop the keys to pelosi, schumer, bernie, aoc and others, we are the redwall in georgia. we have to have high turnout and

i believe people will do that. >> reporter: donald trump his to georgia january 4th to rally support for the republican candidates. todd: donald trump has reelection campaign asking the supreme court to review absentee ballots in wisconsin, revealing a ruling by the supreme court, saying -- joe biden won wisconsin by 20,000 votes. the us attorney in pennsylvania who lost about probe resigned, announcing an investigation in september into nine military ballots that were improperly open, the announcement was viewed as unusual as the case was ongoing. >> reporter: democratic executive from new york is caught on camera playing hockey with others despite covid-19 restrictions. erie county comptroller posted this video diligently, dressed in all black, skating inside the hockey rink with 14 people, this despite the fact a nearby rink

was closed due to covid-19 restrictions, he was skating alone before group began and did not break any rules. todd: the owners of the staten island bar announced declaring victory in court, the grand reopening today after successfully fighting covid-19 restrictions. the co-owner was arrested for refusing to close the public despite being shutdown. he gathered outside of our to protest the state's coronavirus restrictions and show support. mac's co. partner will join "fox and friends" in the 8 am hour. jillian: donald trump at odds with top ally mitch mcconnell for $2,000 stimulus checks. will americans be the ones who paid a price? peter morici said the boost would get the economy to pre-pandemic levels sooner. he's next. todd: antifa changing roles in portland. i will continue, the fight against fascism to starting

their own soccer league. i've got nothing. ♪ .

>> the second round of stimulus checks will be sent out today after months of failed negotiation. todd: mitch mcconnell block democrat attempts to bump the payments to $2,000 was here to break it down, peter morici. the last couple weeks we've gone back and forth, pros and cons, what is next in all this? >> reporter: i don't think we are going to get this $2,000. we will roll into the next congress and the biden administration. is would be helpful, the stimulus we have is going to help at the micro level, transit systems, state and local services, it will not give us

the left we need. this additional money would help and i am disappointed the president of the senate and the house can't come to a more reasonable conclusion that this is where we are. jillian: what is the best short-term for those who need help right now in long-term for those who are saying when is it going to be possible and is it going to be possible we see the economy get back to pre-pandemic levels? >> the best thing would be for the next stimulus bill to focus on the unemployed. sending someone a check to make 75,$000 a year who didn't do their job, got to work from home are probably better off because they are not paying for commuting. my feeling is we have neglected the unemployed in this whole episode and when we come out of this which will be the second half of this year there will be a lot of people in the wrong places and the wrong skills but a lot of sandwich shops will not

reopen if folks only go to the office 2 or 3 days a week in manhattan. those people need to be retrained and in many cases relocated. i don't know they will find opportunities in new york city, chicago, seattle and political affairs. no one will be relocating any businesses with dumpster fires and all the rest. >> we have been saying that through the course of the year. the $2,000 checks, holly, rubio, restrained bedfellows throughout, holly and sanders on this. you wonder if they are doing this for political reasons. switching gears to the topic. they expect stock market to tumble under joe biden. there are the numbers. that is pretty stark. do you agree? >> know i don't.

i want to point out, one for 10 years from now, one for next month and one for next year. generally speaking that type of forecast in the worst. i can't foresee things before the pandemic whether the gop holds the senate, the tax legislation we are going to have. over the long-term these things wash out as parties go back and forth. to focus specifically on where the market is is a bit pricey, that is because profits have been artificially depressed. what compiles the forecast of stock analysts in the granular data, these are ideological people, they say stock profits are up year-over-year in the second quarter as we come out of this by 41%. they look like a pretty good

bargain and that is pretty good bargain indeed. jillian: the this hinge on the georgia senate runoff? if you have democrats taking both feet and control the house, the senate and the white house, is this a different economic picture? >> it could be and why are they issuing these forecasts? you haven't seen the issue of forecast, i am in the habit of doing things like this. i'm waiting for next tuesday or wednesday when we get the results. in georgia, we are not going to get it until valentine's day. a congressional race is undetermined. as if the ballots are going to change. my feeling is once we get more clarity we can speak more authoritatively. for now i would point out to people the long-term outlet for the stock market is very

favorable and these forecasts of doom and gloom were based on covid-19 and covid-19 is going to go away and when it is our high tech companies will do well but what is more, there's a lot of innovation in the new spaces of the economy where consumer demand is moving and america tends to be the leader in those areas and require open internet and those aren't things china tolerates very well. if you're a chinese facebook or chinese -- you can do well inside of china. once you want to break out, the chinese government wants to take you over. we get the innovation here for that reason. todd: let's hope we can maintain that moving forward. have a great new year's eve. >> happy new year and all the best to my friends here. todd: after years of criticizing donald trump the media showing no signs of slowing down. >> he is the worst president we

have ever seen, period. >> no longer one of the worst presidents in american history but the worst. todd: what about all the progress made over the past four years, the committee to defend the president is here with what the media is missing.

todd: the national bomber's girlfriend warned police about his by making a year ago, the tennessean police visited anthony warner's home and found no evidence of a crime and forwarded information to the fbi. they found no records on water. the fed looking at the evidence that warner spend time hunting aliens and believed in lizard people.

she told fox news she is in shock after her hit song downtown was plays just before the explosion. turning to extreme weather, winter storm slamming the upper midwest, battling whiteout conditions in the morning, iowa and nebraska still forcing people to push their cars out of the snow. a 100 crashes and 120 spin outs. jillian: the media has never been plan fans of the president but as the year comes to a close they are ramping up the criticism. >> he is the worst president we have ever seen, period. was indeed truly inhumane. >> is the covid-19 death toll continues to rise, no longer just one of the worst president in american history but the worst. >> if he stopped being president.

>> in many ways he has. he has been all consumed with his efforts to overturn the election. jillian: what is the media missing? the list of his biggest achievements being ignored by the media, ted harvey, good to see you, thanks for being here. >> thank you for having me on. jillian: a lot of people don't like is tweets or tone but you can't deny certain things he has done and seems people are purposely not shining a spotlight on that, you see a list on screen, the beginning of january of 2020 the killing of general soleimani. how vital was this? >> it was huge. the foreign policy experts around the world in washington dc, trump was setting a bonfire in the middle east and cause chaos and what has actually resulted is terrorist activity

through the middle east dropped substantially to the point we have drawdowns of military forces not only in iraq but syria and across the region. probably the most important thing any president has done in the middle east over the last 20 years, the media is giving lip service to it and the president should be held up for his bold leadership in their regard. jillian: there's been a lot of peace negotiations. >> without a doubt. that will go down as donald trump's greatest success, his foreign policy in the middle east. if you look at the four peace agreement that happened in somalia, morocco, the uae, and bahrain, those are four arab countries that for the first time in his relapse history recognize israel as a sovereign state. that will have huge implications, look at the fact

that jimmy carter got a nobel peace prize for a peace agreement between israel and egypt and rightly so, the media has been completely silent on these four peace agreements and i believe trump should get a nobel peace prize for it. jillian: and naming a lot of judges and justices over the years especially 2020, ending with justice amy coney barrett. >> that is right. if you look at what trump is done, he has appointed 54 courts of appeals, 174 lower court cases and the supreme court. he's going to have an impact on the judiciary for generations to come, just because he appointed all these constitutionalist judges, won't be activist judges, looking what the text of the statute say congress passed rather than pushing their liberal agenda and this will have an impact for generations to come and i think the media

has been silent on this and i'm glad we are reporting on it. jillian: and affect every person in the country, operation warp speed and the fact the president has been able to do a lot of work to cut through red tape and make sure we had a clean, two of them, before the end of 2020. >> if you look at the democrat primary and the general election where the media and joe biden were literally marking the president when he proclaimed they would have a vaccine by the end of clear, they said no way that will happen. it is all political rhetoric going into the election and here we are with millions of vaccines being sent out around the country and the president and vice president fulfilled their main goal in protecting americans from this virus and the media is not giving the administration credit for what they accomplished with regard to

the virus. jillian: four big we could discuss. thank you for joining us. have a good new year. todd: 28 after the hour. wuhan may have had half 1 million cases, 10 times the number beijing is reporting. what is china hiding from the rest of the world? jillian: for you, gavin newsom gets a major boost, high dollar donations of the recall ever. ♪

todd: the treasury will send stimulus checks today, americans should begin receiving them in the next two weeks of objective for $600, not the 2000 the president asked for. todd: mitch mcconnell blocking a

vote despite some republican support. bernie sanders fulfilling his threat to filibuster in order to get more money. todd: joe biden writing off the threat of china just one year ago. >> come on, man there are bad folks, but they are not in competition for us. jillian: beijing will only get bolder, sentencing a journalist to prison for reporting on the coronavirus outbreak as a new study reveals wuhan may have had ten times the reported covid-19 cases. todd: gordon chang joins us now, i am shocked to find out there is gambling going on. wuhan cases, originally reported 500,000 indicated from the city.

that begs the question does joe biden have it in him to be as tough with china as he needs to be? >> i don't think so for a couple reasons. every president of china a grace period, biden comes in with an attitude which is outdated and you heard it in the clip you play but he didn't even believe china's competition for us, he believes they are not a threat. if you don't believe they are afraid you can't defend the united states and china poses the greatest threat by far because if you look at china, north korea and iran and other threats those regimes are fueled by china. jillian: will we ever find out the full truth of coronavirus in china? >> only where the communist party falls and we go into the archives but they have 87,000 cases as reported, they are saying only 4600 death. we don't know the full extent of this but one thing we know is

china reports low infections and deaths to support its proposition that it's form of governance is superior to the united states and we are in decline. i would hope joe biden would listen to the things the global time says about us because they are malicious in the extreme. todd: you worry without the us, they are going to stand up to china, we will see. china is expected to be the world's biggest economy by 2028 due to covid-19 the recent report. look at these numbers. this year 2020 economy china grew by 2%, the us trunk by 4.4%. you can do that when you inflicted of the pandemic on the world. you see this as a false beijing narrative. why? >> china, no society is going to

recover without any effective vaccine. china has two vaccines but they passed the phase 3 trials, injecting a lot of untested vaccine in people's arms. the us has two fully tested and fda approved vaccines. if we look a couple years from now we will see our society recovered fully and china will still be a ailing also those numbers beijing has been reporting for the economy, those don't correspond with underlying data. jillian: you mentioned 2028, the center for economics and business research, china first, you say no. >> no because i don't think they will have the vaccines, china's numbers are inflated. the numbers we are seeing for this year don't correspond with other official members that have been reported.

for instance china says its consumption his recovery, no it isn't. in the golden holiday of early october wuhan, the epicenter of this disease, was the most visited city in china. wuhan reported it stores revenue was down 30%. todd: you wrote the book the coming collapse with china, we will see how that jibes with the numbers on screen. gordon chang, happy new year. >> happy new year, thank you so much. jillian: the effort to recall california governor gavin newsom getting a huge boost was a consulting firm donating 50,$000, another 100,000 from a partner, congressman elect darrell isa believes he should be worried. >> it could only happen if the governor continues to go in the wrong direction. anytime, he could choose to

start empowering businesses rather than ordering them shutdown. jillian: so far they gathered 800,000 signatures of the 1.5 million they need for a recall vote. new york governor andrew cuomo threatening to take legal action against those who get the vaccine out of term saying, quote, we will not tolerate any fraud in the vaccination process. we want to send a clear signal that if you violate the law in vaccinations we will find out and you will be prosecuted. the state is only giving vaccines to frontline workers and those considered high risk at long-term care facilities. the governor is considering reactivating the javits center. todd: two officers involved initiative rhianna taylor will likely be fired, joshua james, the predetermination letters from the louisville police department following an investigation. taylor after that sparking

outrage in the city and across the country for months after she was shot to death by police in her home. officials say james violated procedure with a no knock award for her home. kentucky ag said cosgrove appeared to fire the shot and killed rhianna. jillian: minneapolis vowing to ramp up police misconduct investigations announcing a series of policy changes in the name of more accountability. city attorneys will be involved in all law enforcement contains. city officials believe bringing in outside parties will strengthen the integrity of investigations. todd: a break from arrest in portland, left-wing group announcing a newly launched soccer club. antifa fc looking for players saying all are welcome and the games are just fun. the first match is set for tonight. i went through 1000 thoughts i wanted to comment on this and came up with nothing. 2020, there you go.

jillian: alec baldwin's notorious red hot temper back in a big way. is angry defense now that the world knows she is not from spain. todd: a look at the fox news poll that provide hard evidence that everybody, 57% being everybody, hates 2020. when we come back. ♪ ♪ if i could be you and you could be me ♪ ♪ for just one hour ♪ if we could find a way to get inside each other's mind ♪

♪ walk a mile in my shoes ♪ walk a mile in my shoes ♪ ♪ well before you abuse, criticize and accuse ♪ ♪ walk a mile in my shoes

we go to danger all the time. this will allow our members to be a little less apprehensive. jillian: take a look at the first firefighter serving on the fdny get the covid-19 vaccine. members of the nypd will still have to wait. a union memo citing a delay on the state's end. overseas american soldiers stationed in asia received their first vaccine doses. todd: how the pandemic has changed hollywood.

>> i ended up at the hospital for a week and it kind of left in the same amount of time it came on. it leaves you fatigued was the main thing about it. it is going to change, things go to streaming it wasn't conceived that way but that is where it will end up. todd: the breakout star pointing out how entertainment companies like warner bros. moved to streaming services like hbo max. jillian: alec baldwin defend his wife after being slammed for faking her spanish heritage and accents. the actor posting a mark twain quote on instagram saying, quote, a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes but the harsh criticism multiplied. this comes after his wife hillary baldwin doubled down on her own defense. the boston native said she lived

in spain and her family still lives there. prince harry and megan markel ending their year by dropping their new podcast. she's after me. >> happy. >> new. >> here. [laughter] todd: the duke and duchess getting ready to ring in 2021 with help from their 9-month back top archie. they are reflecting on the past year and their hopes for the next. americans over 2020. a new fox news for showing 67% call it a bad year for your family, 78% say this year was flat-out bad for the us. jillian: we want to know what you are looking forward to in

2021 and your comments are pouring in. todd: one instagram user saying all for one america, one for all america. there were a lot of other ones that were very positive. jillian: that is not what -- there you go. 45 after the hour. this driver turned off for a rug into a driver. the business owner's nonchalant fun. todd: money on his mind, joins us with tax hints. ♪

jillian: two mega churches facing steep fines for all

impact services with the legacy church and calvary church ordered to pay $5,000 with the houses abortion were penalized after photos of huge crowds went viral. the legacy church attempted to sue new mexico's governor over there 25% capacity orders earlier this year. both churches said they asked worshipers to stay home if they were sick. hundreds rally outside the courthouse in support of a restaurant define washington state's indoor dining ban, rectum 114,$000 in fines for keeping stores open. the general manager says they are fighting for everyone's constitutional rights. >> who is it next? won't stop until they get everybody bowing to them. >> reporter: the judge delayed willing on a contempt of court charge. the owner risks more fines and possible jail time.

todd: breakfast with friends diner section. most of us can't wait to get into 2021 but there is no time to cut your tax bill before the year is over. you can make money moves right now. clocks are taking. what do we do in the next 43 hours? >> time is running short but it is never too late. 2020 is a bit of a different year as pertains to tax planning. i say that because i'm telling my clients, taxes not going down in 2021. we want to accelerate income, as opposed to the first, 2020 is not your normal years so what is

it you can do. you have your own business, ways you can accelerate income in 2020 as opposed to 21. a lot of people did well in the stock market. do you want to consider taking those gains off the table before you have capital gains tax going up. joe biden promised estate taxes going up so you want to take a look at what you can get before the end of the year as well is what can be passed down to the next generation before we have an increase in that estate tax rate. todd: the remainder of your ideas you give to great viewers, maximizes retired savings if you have time, bump up the 401(k), give to charity, transfer before taxes increase. meantime there were a lot of

winners and losers. we have been talking about winners all week, big tech, apple up 80%, amazon 79, facebook, google and a lot of other individual winners, everybody was home watching the tvs, let's focus on the losing industries that were not as fortunate. restaurants taking a hard hit, travel taking a hard hit, and small businesses. those big three, do any of them bounce back in 2021? >> let's hope so but it won't be easy. when you are talking restaurants who have taken it on the chin how are they going to reinvent themselves? how do they create innovation to get people to come back out to eat? people have to eat so let's hope they go out and do that.

as a travel industry you have to look and say what incentives will be out there to get on a plane, stay at a hotel and small businesses which have gotten crushed, let's hope the new ppp program that is part of the latest stimulus bill is going to help the process. many small businesses are generational, not just financial. there is a lot of emotion involved. do i think they could come back in 21? of course they can but it is going to be a rocky road. todd: the thing i keep coming back to is the hope that there is so much and that the man from the you couldn't go to restaurants, couldn't travel the way you wanted to, i really hope that demand is relieved in 2021. giving much-needed money to these groups. have a great new year, see you

then. jillian: a restaurant turned into a drive-through in an instant. and out of control car into the front of the fried chicken joint in massachusetts with the owners posted this video to facebook and jokes know people are delicious food was hurt. the damage pretty bad but they opened back up the next day with the help of a local contractor is a little bit of plywood. todd: impressive to open up the next day. coming up in the next hour of "fox and friends first," kamala harris rolls up her sleeve and calls the vaccine painless and safe. why the change of heart after repeatedly questioning his safety? todd: look at this lineup. dr. janette nesheiwat making an appearance on the early show and oe jones in the next hour. ♪

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to wednesday december 30th. jillian: $600 to me was checks heading out in the mail today, donald trump says that is not good enough and setting up a showdown with one of his most loyal allies in congress. todd: the first coronavirus train detected in the uk made it us shores and express warn of a post-christmas surge, more states way new lockdown

measures. ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ jillian: one music superstar's young daughter proves the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. "fox and friends first" continues. ♪ ♪ what it says in the papers ♪ todd: we have given away who that is. i shared a nice moment playing billy joel with my little ones. going through wedding songs. jillian: she was just born. todd: you know i am our planner. you are watching "fox and friends first" this wednesday morning. jillian: begin here, $600 stimulus checks going out in the mail as mitch mcconnell blocks a vote for the plan of $2,000