>> john: brand-new at 2:00, another unattended consequence going soft on crime. bail reform laws like criminals walk out of jail, some blue state democrats are walking out on their own party. >> sandra: elected leader in new york city served just a year before deciding it is time to ditch the d. he's with us live to explain what happened to make him so ashamed to be a democrat that he is now joined the gop. >> john: imagine that.

"america reports" rolls into a second hour. i'm john roberts in washington. >> sandra: i'm sandra smith in new york. we'll talk to the new republican city councilman why democrats have gone too far to keep him on board in their party. but kick off the new hour with this fox news alert. >> john: it's a growing threat with potential to hit hard in any american household, potential to put your family in the hospital, not only ruin the holidays. >> sandra: viruses kicking into high gear, highly contagious, as millions will open their homes for friends and family for the christmas holiday family. >> john: just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, it's a triple threat of rsv, the flu and also covid. centers for disease control reporting 44 states have either very high or high levels of flu

activity. >> sandra: walensky is encouraging people t bring back the mask and even wear those masks indoors, and potential sign that more mandates could be possible, do not wait for the cdc to take official action before taking action on their own. >> john: one big question, how helpful is wearing a mask at all. alex dives into a new study from princeton university that attempts to answer that question. >> sandra: bryan. >> flu hospitalizations, earliest and hardest hitting flu season since at least 2010. just started and does not normally peak until february, but according to the cdc, flu infections have led to 8.7 million illness, just as many as last year, 78,000

hospitalizations, eight times as many as last year. and so far, at least 4500 deaths. if we lay it on a map, on october 8th, only three states had high or very high flu rates. last month it spread to half the country, and now every state has high or very high flu rates except for new hampshire, vermont, michigan, and alaska. the triple demic of flu, rsv, and covid-19 is straining hospitals. covid-19 hospitalizations are up 19%, and rsv which has surged among children is starting to plateau. but hospital are restricting visitors and trying to add more beds in preparation for more sickness following family gatherings later this month. the cdc in a teleconference yesterday urged people to get their flu and covid-19 booster shots. >> we all have booster fatigue. but understand, you could get really, really sick this year and ruin your holiday

celebrations if you don't get vaccinated. on a good note, the flu vaccine seems to be a good match. >> one in four have gotten the flu vaccine. cdc is encouraging people to wear mask, particularly with public transportation. >> sandra: and the flu shot efficacy rate is higher than last year. it will provide a little more protection. thank you very much. >> john: the study on masking that you've been waiting patiently for, alexandria is live in washington, what are researchers finding out? >> well, they found out something they called surprising, and this really is interesting. we all know somebody who said hey, when i stayed at my home and wore the mask in 2020 i did not get sick with anything, i'm going to keep wearing out.

they wanted to find out if there was value to it. in the short-term, mask wearing may stop the spread of some diseases but after that, that effect goes away. rachel baker wrote this, strong reunction deductions in rsv and other things during the pandemic may not last if the measures are implemented long-term. we took it to the national academy of medicine, not involved in this study but helped us break it down. >> the study shows that distancing and other interventions do help slow the spread, but it's only partially effective against low transmission viruses like flu, and when you get to the highly contagious viruses like rsv and covid, it just postpones the inevitable. >> he says it did not account for the immune system being negatively impacted by the constant use of masks, which he feels is an issue and added what

we really need is research into which kinds of masks are actually effective. especially if the mandates are returning. researchers at princeton concluded their study finding the most powerful tool in fighting covid-19 or the flu long-term is of course vaccination. john. >> john: alex, thanks. >> sandra: health officials warning a measles outbreak in central ohio could last for months, as cases continue to rise. columbus public health confirming nearly 60 cases of the measles, almost all of the confirmed cases have been in children who never had the measles vaccine. including a few who were too young to get it. the spread traced back to schools and daycares, the cdc continues to recommend all children receive two doses of the measles vaccine. the measles, pumps and rubella vaccine, that is. john, you know, i think it's that time of year, after we just came out of the pandemic, a lot of people might choose to go back to the mask, even some who

might not be in favor of mandating it, but you know, you go to the pharmacy and you might put it on because you see other sick people around. i see a lot more folks that are putting masks on at public transportation and certainly have the right to do that. >> john: the critical thing you just said is having come out of the pandemic, didn't -- weren't we just in all of this? for the last two and a half years, and now we are back in it again, not only with covid, but with respiratory virus and the flu as well, the kids were telling me today that half their class, half their school is out with something. >> sandra: a lot of it. >> john: crazy. masks again. now this. >> i want to get people out to vote, right now it's a good time for people to vote, have their voices heard and their vote counted. >> we are leaving it all on the field, but i got a feeling that the people of georgia are going to get this right and we are

going to get this done one more time. thanks, everybody. >> republican herschel walker and democrat rafael warnock to get out and vote, all about turnout. and the georgia senate run-off, stands as the gop last opportunity to flip a senate seat and keep the senate deadlocked after falling short in several battleground races last month. ronna mcdaniel, who was the rnc chair woman, how do you see it shaping up? >> i was with herschel walker yesterday, campaigned with him quite a bit, he's working so hard. he's everywhere across the state. i think there's a couple factors. 1, 200,000 people voted for brian kemp but not walker, they voted for warnock. why are they voting for republicans statewide but not for our candidate and we need them to get out and challenge their mind. we won 8 of 9 statewide races in

georgia. kemp won by 1%, this time 7.5%, so republicans had a great time in georgia, but we need 1.5 million to turn out so herschel can win this. the>> john: looks like democrats dominated the early vote, record numbers in georgia. can you get enough people out today to flip the equation? >> i'll say one of the things with the early vote. the rural counties did not have enough centers open, they just didn't, and that's a funding issue, so fulton county had 24 centers, a lot of the rural areas did not have enough centers open, did not have the money, and so today a lot of voters are going to vote in person because they couldn't during the five day early voting period. >> speaking of votes, rnc members had apparently 107 votes for you to be back as chair woman, unless something crazy happens, that means pretty much have a lock on it.

but you are challenged by lee zeldin, who of course ran for governor in new york state and harmy dylan as well. zeldin will announce tomorrow whether he will challenge you, may appear moot based on the letter. but what bill, rnc delegate from new jersey said about your current chairmanship, and sorry for having an uncomfortable conversation, but he said i'm tired of losing. number one job of the rnc chair is to win, we didn't do well in 2022, don't do well in 2020, you have to fire the manager when the ball club does not win. >> i think that's an unfair assessment of what the rnc has done. we did turn out 4 million more voters. the community centers, a change i have instituted in black and hispanic communities, you look at some candidates, change agents in the party, the rnc builds the road and the cars drive on it. we don't pick the cars, the voters do.

you need both to get to your destination, you need a strong campaign and consultants, i think the rnc has built an incredible road, how do you explain 4 million more voters in this election and also did take back the house. >> john: so to your point you build the road, up don't pick the cars. did you get the cars that you wanted? >> the voters chose the cars, and i know all the candidates, and i'm not going to candidate bash. this is about moving forward but i will say this. the amount of ticket splitting in this election where one candidate won statewide, new hampshire, wisconsin, arizona, georgia, why did you vote for this republican and not the other? in every single battleground state a republican won, and the rnc turned out the vote, why did they vote for one and not the other, and that's the sweet spot, and republicans not voting for republicans is a key issue. we saw in arizona with kari lake. we have to start coming

together, guys. the democrats are worse. let's stop bashing each other. we will only win as a united party in 2024. >> john: the vote goes as expected, what will you do differently in 2024 than in 2022 in terms of getting the cars you want on the track you built. >> i think changes we have made since i've been chair, especially the first two years, we had the white house the first four, voter registration, community centers, outreach, election integrity. >> john: the democrats are masters at collecting ballots. >> we did that, too, in california. listen, we just flipped duterte because we did ballot harvesting. montana, ballot harvesting. a lot of miscommunication, dobbs was a big factor, the youth vote, we are not on tiktok. >> mollie hemingway said the

democrats beat us in terms of ballots. >> i don't know if i agree with that. you look at seats we lost, and the duterte win, we perfected ballot harvesting. doing it in the states where it's legal. some states it's not legal and the rnc will not do it. if it's against the law i'm not going do that. but we need the voters to vote early, i have said this over and over again, many in 2020 saying don't vote by mail, vote early and we have to stop that and understand that if democrats are getting ballots in for a month, we can't expect to get it all done in one day. you would not feed your family in one day of harvesting, we have to do the whole month like they are. >> john: you have to change the paradigm. great to see you. see how the vote turns out. >> vote.gop. i'm thinking about georgia. thanks, john. >> john: it's going to be a

squeaker tonight, i think both the democrats and the republicans have that same assessment, it just depends on whether or not republicans can get enough people out day of voting, sandra, to make the difference. >> sandra: no doubt, in walker's case, the polling shows it's a very close race, but the early voting tells a story as well, john. and that looks like it benefits warnock as far as what we have seen so far. but, here we go. election day, we'll be watching throughout the day. >> john: we will see how long the coat tails brian kemp really has. >> sandra: republican lawmakers warning that taxpayers could have to flip the bill for research they say may have unleashed covid-19 sparking the global catastrophe that we all just lived firsthand. now, they are urging the administration to bring an end to it in a live report on that. >> john: the irs cracking down on your side hustle. how they have been looking at venmo, paypal and other third party apps.

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three years and then the national institutes of health banned federal funding for this gain of function research, 2017 lifted the ban and replaced it with standards designed to minimize biosafety risks. now several republican senators say that's not enough. so they have written to the white house office of science and technology policy requesting the government reinstate the ban, and that quote, we are extremely troubled of the noncompliance at nih and the alarming reports about failure to properly oversee domestic and foreign-based dangerous research projects, enforce grant requirements or research risk assessments of studies. senators say it has the potential for a dangerous scenario. >> any time there could be an incident or a lab leak, questionable release of information, that is very, very

concerning to us. >> the senators also cite reports from october of a boston university study where scientists combined two covid strains and infected mice with it. it killed 80% of them. they say it was not gain of science research and the national institute of health claims it has never funded research to increase the viruses transmissibility or lethality for humans, although some say it's not accurate. >> john: should we even do this at all, why make a virus more deadly, it's so they can research treatments, but i've read enough novels and enough dustin hoffman movies to know what can happen. >> scientists making that case, too. sandra. >> sandra: president biden has said all along people earning less than $400,000 a year were

safe from tax hikes. the white house repeatedly sustained that close to 90,000 new hires at the irs will not mean the middle class is targeted. so the irs is raising a lot of questions with its crackdown on payments using apps like venmo for amounts that are not even high enough to buy you a new iphone. hillary vaughn is on capitol hill for us. gop lawmakers are saying this would target low and middle income americans. >> yeah, and it would. these are new reporting requirements, not new taxes, but you could be paying more in taxes because of these new requirements. any payments that you are making over apps like venmo, paypal, zell, the irs wants to know wherever you get over $600. reported for a tax form, it's a

big burden for people who use these apps to get paid for projects and work on the side. >> promised the tax bill would only go after the super rich, $600, they are targeting you and me and anyone online payments. >> because of a new rule in president biden's american rescue plan that changed the reporting requirement from previous $20,000 total in gross income from these apps that needed to be reported to just $600. now some democrats on capitol hill are having buyer's remorse and want to change the rule retroactively. >> i don't agree with it. a lot of people are going to receive a 1099k for money which is really not taxable income. so say that you actually got a taylor swift ticket somehow, miraculously, and say you actually resold it because you could not attend a concert so you actually experienced a loss. and that happens repeatedly when

people sell used stuff or preowned stuff. >> now, sandra, if you were already using one of these apps to conduct your business, it's likely you were already reporting this information, so really this impacts average americans that were using these apps to make a little extra cash on the side. sandra. >> sandra: very, very interesting stuff. hillary vaughn on that for us. john, it targets the very people the biden administration says they are going to leave alone, looks like. >> john: appreciate the point that the congressman was making there, but as i pointed out to him when we did the interview, if you bought a taylor swift ticket at face value and you resold it, there's no way you are going to lose money on that. >> sandra: i mean, that's unbelievable. did you get in on that, by the way, any taylor swift tickets? >> john: i did not, i saw taylor swift back in the day in atlanta at the phillips arena when she opened for keith urban. she opened for keith urban. >> sandra: way back then.

>> john: it was a great concert, too. biden administration sending hundreds of millions of dollars to ukraine, but now we are learning they refit them so ukraine cannot fit them with missiles to hit russia. >> sandra: a new york city councilman is dumping his party and joining the gop. he says it's the party that has actually left him, not the other way around. we'll ask him about his new move when he joins us live next.

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in the next decade, putting it on pace to rival the u.s. and prevent us from intervening in taiwan. china's scathing response comes as xi jinping sets off on a major diplomatic trip to saudi arabia to strengthen ties with oil producers. the saudis say they will sign a strategic partnership with xi. >> sandra: north korea is firing artillery rounds into waters off the coast of south korea as tension escalates between the neighbors. u.s. officials say the dictator has fired off a record number of missile tests this year, including a missile last month that forced u.s. airmen to take cover at a base in japan. the biden administration standing by the north korea policy calling it effective and prudent, john. >> john: now to the war in ukraine, sandra, the wall street journal releasing a bombshell report the pentagon has been secreting altering the rocket

launchers it has given ukraine so they cannot be used to strike deep into russian territory. implicit acknowledgment the white house does not trust ukraine's military to act responsibly in the conflict. rebecca grant, national security and military analyst. so these modifications, story exclusive to the wall street journal, would seem to be designed to reduce the risk of a wider war with russia and to give the russians some confidence that the united states is not providing ukraine with the weapons because here is what the russian foreign ministry said. if washington decides to supply longer range missiles to kyiv, crossing a red line and would become a direct party to the conflict. >> i think there's a frustration with the constraints on military aid, no air power, but himars is an army truck, it can go five

miles, 300 miles, trying to make sure russia does not think mait will be attacking and then drawing in russian forces but leaves open the question of getting ukraine the best weapons to make the war go faster. >> john: the way that they would be able to reach further in, that system goes 50 miles, but the attack'ems, it can go 50 miles. >> it depends on the shell, and the targeting. a lot of different options. what ukraine needs and uses most, the shorter range attacks. only going tens of miles with the systems to attack the russian troop concentrations. >> critics say this modification that the u.s. has made of the himars systems gives russia a free hand to strike deep into ukraine with no re ciprocation.

>> russia has sanctuary, and ukraine has attacked a few times with helicopters and the bridge and are they going to attack targets in crimea. but remember, also drones. ukraine has a lot of options. 99% of what they are after is russian military forces in ukraine. >> john: but they have been driving the russians crazy with the drone attacks in recent days, they don't need long range artillery missiles to do this. >> well deserved. looks like it was a drone attack that damaged a couple of russia's bombers, the ones that launch the missiles into ukraine and i was glad to see that. russia is getting a free pass to launch brutal attacks on the energy grid and the civilian infrastructure. >> john: the ukrainians have been quite inventive to strike back, the truck bomb on the

bridge, and oil depot as well. >> and the u.s. and allies are helping with a lot of intelligence and a lot of it is highly classified, very important to ukraine's attacks on russian forces in ukraine. >> john: the same time everybody is talking about ukraine, some republicans senators are concerned we are taking our eye off the bigger ball, what china might do with taiwan. senator josh hawley saying in part, u.s. arms transfers to ukraine are impeding our ability to stop a war in asia, dire ramifications for national security and economic security and freedom of action. we must not let this happen. do you agree taiwan is more

important than ukraine? >> i agree, we have to get the arms to taiwan, fighters, drones, etc. and mostly the shorter ones to ukraine. we have to supply both taiwan and ukraine to deter. >> john: all right, see if we go ahead and do that, things are slow walked when it comes to taiwan at this point. rebecca, always great to get your analysis, thank you. >> sandra: nypd will hold a news conference after a suspected killer turned himself in for shootings that left two dead and another hurt. he has a dozen prior arrests, we are now learning, just one of many countless examples we have seen of criminals with long rap sheets striking over and over again. violent crime in the city has democrats across new york state struggling in the midterm elections and today, exactly one month later, democrats here are still seeing losses. but it's no longer just voters lashing out with ballots. now it's a name that was once on

the ballot and wants his d behind his name in the dumpster. he says the left's soft on crime policies are the breaking point. thank you very much for joining us. so -- >> thank you. >> is it official, have you made the switch? >> it's official, i switched yesterday, switched republican. >> you were born and raised in belarus, why new york politics? >> very proud american, admired this country like i always say the story i came with no english, no money and now i'm living my american dream and new york city councilman. i was democrat more than 20 years. the last several years, especially in the last few months, like more and more i've seen policies that were detrimental to public safety in new york city, especially in south and brooklyn, and brooklyn

communities and november 8th, a very strong message and several assembly districts, strong democrats voted for republicans. because they believe the democratic party does not care about their safety. >> sandra: too many scenes like this one, a man brutally beat with a bat walking down the street, blind sided by this stranger. it's just chilling what is happening in new york city right now. i'm sure if you've been here in america 30 years, new york 20, a democrat 20 years here in new york, you've seen a lot of this happening. the crime statistics tell the story, sir. total violent crime in new york city up 25%, this is just year over year. robberies up nearly 30%, burglaries you have 35%, murder rate up 12%. just year to date what is happening right now. and i know the soft on crime policies that many say is leading to that is why you are switching parties.

>> it's a major reason for me. when i visit in the district, i see criminals arrested over and over again, many times for various crimes, and doing their job, arresting criminals, and then legislation, by liberal judges or by district attorneys who don't believe in enforcing the law. he believes in the criminals. looks like -- >> sandra: it's brutal when you see the attacks over and over again. to switch parties, you felt like you could not get it done as a democrat, or not enough votes as a democrat. do you not believe there are enough in the party getting your message, what is leading to crime like this in the big cities? >> in brooklyn, more and more people i was knocking doors that i was a democrat, when i supported democratic candidates, people ask me, why, ari, you are

so pro law enforcement, pro public safety, why are you not switching to republican party, and even this year, so many communities in south and brooklyn, russian speaking communities, and others, started to vote for republicans in droves. >> sandra: new york governor kathy hochul, she's accusing lee zeldin who obviously ran for office to take the job away from her, is accusing zeldin of "trying to scare people for months." overstate's crime woes. accusing him of scaring people as if this is not really happening. that's the governor of the state. >> that's exactly what i am talking about. it's like living in a different reality, the main reason why i switched parties. i feel the democratic party is making new york city less safe. even policy, and statements by

elected officials, and saying crime is a joke -- >> sandra: how does it feel to be a republican now? >> i'm very excited. most of my constituents who contacted me also very excited. >> sandra: great to meet you and have you here on set, and councilman, we will catch back up with you soon. thank you, sir. >> john: the head of one of america's biggest banks sounding the alarm on the biden administration's green energy agenda. says ukraine has taught us we are just not ready right now to get rid of oil and gas. democratic congresswoman debbie dingle is here to respond to all of that. she's on stand-by and she's coming up next.

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at choosechangeca.org. promising to leap forward on their green energy agenda, 1 wall street ceo says not so fast. the world is not ready for eliminating fossil fuels. >> lesson wasn't learned from ukraine, we need cheap, reliable, safe, secure energy of which 80% come from oil and gas and that number is going to be very high for 10 to 20 years. >> sandra: michigan democratic congresswoman debbie dingle. good to see you. what did you think of that?

because i would not really consider jamie dimon a staunch republican but a signal like wake up, we can't think we can just say good-bye to fossil fuels today and things will be dandy. >> so i have a great deal of respect for him but i actually jamie dimon's words are why we must -- it's not going to go overnight, that's the truth, but why we are so dependent on foreign countries for an energy supply, why saudi arabia has so much control over the world that we need to eliminate, minimize our dependence upon foreign oil, and develop alternative sources of fuel. if you look at the auto industry, it's not going to be overnight. but all of the companies, both, all the domestic companies and most foreign companies are now building electric vehicles, planning for down the road so we

develop alternative sources of energy. we need winds, we need solar, hydrogen and other alternatives so we are not dependent on oil and gas and by the way, last i heard, the provides of oil went up a lot. the price of gasoline went up a lot because of what was happening. we want to decrease our dependence, it won't happen overnight but need to do that for many reasons. >> sandra: the point needs to be made a lot of what you just said, a lot of fossil fuels go into the making of the manufacturing, and it has been to be done in china in some cases relying on china to move as quickly as we are trying to do in that direction. real quickly, last thing from jamie dimon on oil companies. >> we support all the big oil companies. by the way the ones that will pay for the transition to reduce

co2. >> sandra: they are doing the best job. such a different message from the administration sort of the continuous demonization of the bill oil companies in this country. >> i've met with many ceos of the oil conditions, exploring alternative methods of energy as well about you your comment about china. nobody knows better than i do we are way dependent on minerals, and eliminate the dependency, invent, create, lithium, etc., to do this. the so nobody said it was going to be overnight but global climate is real and anybody that does not know it's real and also a national security issue. i will respectfully disagree with jamie dimon on this, agree it's not done overnight but need it to be the 10, 20 year plan. >> sandra: the message has to get to some of the democrats

mandating like california mandating electric vehicles before the transition is ready to your point. finally, on the border, i want to ask you about marsha blackburn, your republican colleague joined us top of the last hour on the president saying he's visited the border and then making an excuse why he doesn't need to go there, listen. >> the president owes it to the american people. he owes it to the border patrol, he owes it to the citizens of arizona to go there and see firsthand what is going on and he refuses to do it. >> sandra: i was asking her to respond to the president, taking a question from peter doocy a short time ago, why are you going to a border state, mr. president, and not visiting the border. why not? >> well, i think the president is fully aware of the problems that we have at the border as

you know, he is stepping up and making i think very important personnel changes. i think that addressing the border has got to be a number one priority for all of us and it gets too political up here, and i hope that it's one of the things that we can somehow in a bipartisan way actually address in the next congress, and i mean, it gets very political on both sides and the president knows the problem has to be addressed, i think it's why he knows the current director has resigned under pressure and you are seeing the president change personnel and he knows it's got to be a priority for the next two years. >> sandra: congresswoman, would you like to see him visit the border. >> i don't care if he visits the border or not. he doesn't need to visit to know we have a problem. sometimes we fixate on little issues. you think the president doesn't know we have a problem at the border and what the issues are,

i know he does. >> sandra: but not seeing it firsthand is a little issue? >> i think he knows it's got to be addressed. he's gotten the reports, seen the photos. so, i mean -- at some point he may or may not go but he knows what has to be fixed and you have seen him begin that process. >> sandra: ok, congresswoman really, really appreciate your time. thanks for joining us today. >> john: you want to make sure you stay tuned for "the story" coming up with martha, alexis mcadams, in moscow, idaho covering the grisly murders of the four students, had an interview with the chief of police and he had some having things to tell her. we'll be right back with "america reports" of a this. 's . if you need cash, call newday. you can borrow up to 100% of your home's value. veterans get more at newday usa.

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>> john: here's a great sug sugg suggestion. take a break of working 9:00 to 5:00 and go to pigeon forge. you can stay in dolly parton's tour bus. what is this about? >> she put this bus here so fans can stay in dolly's own bed. they can tumble out, pour themselves a cup of ambition. that cup will cost you $10,000 for two nights. goes to a good cause. tell me what does that money go towards? >> the net proceeds of every stay goes to dolly parton's imagination library, which has gifted more than 200 million books to kids all over the world. >> she used this bus for 15 years. she doesn't like to fly or stay in hotels. she lived here.

she said this is her favorite home. what are her couple of things? >> really anything she did in the last few years, she probably wrote on this bus. >> thanks. follow me quickly before we go. one of the cool things about dolly, she didn't need a lot of travelers but needed closet space. she converted bunk beds to her personal closet. this can be yours for $10,000. >> john: and the wigs to boot. let's book our state. >> sandra: great to be with you, john. i'm sandra smith. >> john: i'm john roberts. "the story" with martha starts right now. martha? >> martha: hello. good afternoon, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. this is "the story." we have two stories that have breaking developments at this hours. we'll have a exclusive interview with james frye, the moscow police chief. this is the firs