>> day two of the new congress and still no speaker of the house. >> my hand is starting to cramp. >> after three tries, kevin mccarthy hoping to gain more votes. >> there is a point where you go from negotiation to a hostage situation. >> bryan kohberger will be heading back to idaho to face murder charges for the killings of medicine, kaylee, ethan, and xana. speefifteen family speaking out. >> the buffalo bills say damar hamlin's condition is improving after monday night's

game. although he is still sedated in critical condition. >> there trying to get him to breathe on his own so they are taking it day by day. >> the florida keys seeing a massive surge. migrant encounters are up over 400%. >> that's when people are going to come. >> deep pool of siloam and israel will be fully open to the public for the first time in 2,000 years. it's a cherished site where jesus healed a blind man. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> brian: why couldn't elton john sing this alone? is it his song? >> ainsley: his songs are already hits, and he brought in a fairly newcomer, who is very popular for the younger generation. >> brian: then why not write a new song and do it with a

newcomer? >> steve: he recycled, brian. >> ainsley: because it's easier! [laughs] that's the bottom line. it's easier and people like the song. >> brian: sit at the piano, get a notebook, start making g clefs, and write new music. >> ainsley: he had his final tour. >> brian: but you never lose that creativity that creates the magic. >> steve: it's brilliant. he also did the one with britney spears and those are two of the biggest songs in the last few years. people would say that we are retreads because we are on the couch. >> brian: brand-new stuff. we don't come up and say, "let's do yesterday's show." "put the prompter with tuesday's stuff." you've got me on that one. >> ainsley: let's bring in dua lipa and let her sing while we are reading. >> brian: the biggest story that is underreported today, i wore new shoes and i have not walked enough. my shoes are not bending.

so i am walking like >> ainsley: from the adams family, like herman munster. >> ainsley: show us that she was. >> brian: there is no band. >> ainsley: is this the black version of the brown ones you normally wear? >> ai>> brian: yeah. >> ainsley: they are pretty. how much did it take for you to work in the brown ones? >> brian: almost instant. these are issues that should have been on display and don't want to be worn. they don't want me -- they want me to buy the shoes. i think someone bought me them for christmas to display. that's a problem. i've got to get to the bottom of it. >> ainsley: you need to start walking to work from long island and break them in. >> steve: we started with "cold, cold heart" and wound up with "stiff, stiff shoes." >> ainsley: you can put them on display in your six square-foot closet with all your lights. >> brian: it's 5,000.

it's day two of the new congress and there is still no speaker of the house. >> ainsley: republicans are going to try again today. as leader mccarthy says he's not going to back down despite hitting a wall of resistance in a series of field notes. >> steve: peter doocy, who sat with me in the front row of the elton john concert where we heard elton do that song -- >> brian: alone, though. without dua lipa. steel and it was my birthday present. he did sing -- >> it's hard to remember the concert. i think i was breaking in a pair of new shoes. [laughter] >> ainsley: are breaking in a six-pack. is that why you don't remember? i'm just kidding. >> they had beer there, just one at a time. we found the beer cart. here in d.c. come the big scuttlebutt , if you look at the vote count, mccarthy's the 10-1 favorite ams but it's just not enough. late last night he told a group of reporters, "i think we will find a way to get there and this is a healthy debate that may not

happen on the daily want it, but it's going to happen." the leading vote-get her on the first day of the republican house was a democrat, hakeem jeffries. but neither jeffries or mccarthy got a majority with support growing only for jim jordan. >> the differences we may have, the differences between joyce and jordan, or biggs and bacon, they pale in comparison to the differences between us and the left, which now unfortunately controls the other party. so we had better come together. and i think kevin mccarthy is the right guy to lead us. >> jordan says he doesn't want the job of speaker, but the conservative lawmakers holding things up don't care. >> our candidate is jim jordan. he may not want it right now, but george washington didn't want to be president. he did what was right for his country. we have the numbers. sorry, jim jordan, we are going to make you do what's right for

the country. we love you. >> if you needed more proof democrats are living this republican chaos, look at democrat ted lieu bring popcorn to the floor. there's not much horsetrading going on right now and much negotiating behind the scenes. it seems like people who are anti-mccarthy are not going to be satisfied unless they are able to stop him from ascending to speaker. back to you. >> steve: before you go, i'm looking at a media blog, and the lead story is about "fox & friends" and this disaster for the republicans with the speaker. but the third story is yesterday at the white house, the briefing room cracked up as you joked that you're going to name your daughter after joe biden? >> well, i wished her happy new year and she said, "i thought you're going to ask if you could name your baby karine." and i said, "what about josefina after joe biden?"

>> ainsley: this is the birth month? that's the headline! >> it is the birth month. now i have to name the baby after the president, and every time i see here and going to say, "what are you doing at the southern border?" [laughter] "get back to me!" >> brian: and she will keep walking right to college. >> ainsley: if she's anything like her namesake, you don't have to worry about that. she's not going to the southern border. >> steve: thank you, peter. by the way, one of my other children, sally, rode in about the elton john song. dua lipa is elton john's next-door neighbor and they wrote the song during the covid lockdown. >> ainsley: my friend diane said, "we love the remakes of the songs." if you are a pandora user you can go to -- it is the elton john and dua lipa remakes, and that channel is so good. we played it at the beach. i highly recommend it. >> brian: 7 minutes after the hour, on to something different.

we still don't have a speaker but we have a former speaker on the show who cannot understand what's going on with a small percentage of the caucus who wouldn't budge yesterday. made this prediction about today. >> we didn't get the vote yesterday to repeal the 87,000 irs agents. we didn't get the announcement by mccarthy that they would be hearings on the border. democrats would be forced to go and look at the disaster. we did not get the kind of steps forward in organizing the china select committee to look at what the chinese are doing. just remember, these blackmailers aren't just blackmailing the republican party, they are blackmailing the whole country. if you look at who donated and who campaigned on who helped, kevin did more than all 20 of them combined to create the majority. they have a leader who helped with seats in 2020 when the rest of the party was going down. he helped win axes in 2022. he has crisscrossed the country in 49 states in the last cycle.

he's raised hundreds of millions of dollars. in fact, if you look at how much he helped raise for some of these blackmailings, it's embarrassing. >> steve: according to punch bowl, apparently kevin mccarthy's emissaries, other members of congress, met with the blackmailers last night. the question people have is what's going happen today. what's going happen today as they are going to gavel in at noon, and there has got to be progress made. if there is no progress, rather than risk another vote, they will probably adjourn this afternoon and take it up later today or tomorrow. punch bowl did the math. mccarthy has got to, because there are 20 holdouts right now -- he has got to flip 11 from nos tss and then he has to get the other nine to simply vote present. so they don't take a vote against them, they just vote present. but the key is he has to flip

those 11. >> ainsley: what is the end game for these few that are the holdouts? >> steve: the hard-liners? >> brian: they have some specifics. speak to they do, but he said if they don't like the job he does that he agrees to a motion to vacate. >> brian: vinod beals wants it. the guy they keep picking says he won't take it, the former president said he had some good conversations last night and it's grea time for the great republican party to close out, send nancy pelosi home. so maybe he has been working the phone. you know he has picked kevin mccarthy. >> ainsley: they wanted some of these things investigated democrats have done, and the other entities of the government have done. they elect these republicans, and even on day one, when they are supposed to get a speaker and start working on some of these issues, everything is delayed. if this draws out for days and days, possibly weeks, that just makes america frustrated, because we elected them to go in and get the job done. instead, they can't even choose a speaker. they can't even unite.

>> brian: maybe they will reach across the aisle and do some type of coalition thing. >> ainsley: yeah, right. >> brian: no one is budging. no one budge for four hours last night, and it's not hard-core income of the things they want. they want a special select committee to look in the fbi and other law enforcement agencies. that seems to be minor. the freedom caucus wants to be able to pick, i guess, certain committees to be on. i'm not sure if there was controversy on committees that they wanted to be on. they need to ask for chairmanship, though. generally, chip roy came out and said $31 trillion in debt, kevin mccarthy part of the leadership that gave it to this, why would we put them back in again? >> steve: stay tuned. we'll see what happens. the gavel goes down at noon today. meanwhile, in the first hour of "fox & friends" we spoke to c.j. pierce, and you know him from prager u. until recently, he was a junior

at the university of alabama. you know what? he was sick of what they were trying to indoctrinate him with, and so this is an op-ed he has written in "the new york post" that says, "why i'm leaving college and choosing education over indoctrination." one of the things he said was "i no longer have any interest in paying to be told my blackness is a disability and all white people are evil, and when asked about my pronouns, what they are. at least in my opinion it should be as clear as day." here is c.j. watch this. speak of the college industrial complex is real, and their fellow stomach force-fed society that they need college more than they need us. that's why they act with such impede any nec universities like stanford saying the word "american" is harmful language, that "grandfather" is racist. they are divorced from reality because they believe we won't leave if we get enough. but we should leave. why would you pay tens of

thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, just have your children reject the values you gave them to love america and to not be a victim? i think it's obviously a bad investment, and you can make almost ten times that being a welder and have a lot less debt. >> steve: so in three semesters left he has dropped out. >> ainsley: i'm surprised that university of alabama. you would expect it of berkeley or stanford. >> steve: he said it's more conservative than a lot of places but there are certain professors pushing an agenda. he'd rather have an education then and indoctrination. >> ainsley: a lot of these liberal schools need some conservative groups on campus so they have that support. they need to be open to all ideas, and that's true education. >> brian: one of the people i know very well who is in college right now had their first day of school yesterday, and they said, "this is an economics course, i'm very left wing." why would they even say that?

isn't dollars and cents -- shouldn't you be presenting all sides? one school of economic thought, this is another. steel and economics numbers. numbers should not be political. just saying. i think that students, if they are conservative, that student is going to have to shut up for the semester, otherwise -- >> ainsley: is that student conservative? >> brian: you know what? [laughs] >> ainsley: okay, we'll move on. it's too personal. lets report on what's happening in regina. we interviewed the lieutenant governor virginia. she was wanting them to get involved in investigating the fairfax county school, thomas jefferson high school for science and technology. we have gone down there a lot to interview parents with what's happening in fairfax and loudoun county, and they are telling me this school is so hard to get into, it accepts a very talented kids, very smart children, especially with the science and technology aspect.

many of those kids are national merit scholarship eligible. many of them find out in september pay but instead, the school chose to let those who are commanded students to find out in mid-november. so when the parents found out, they were like, "wait a minute, why did you wait so long to tell our children?" and they are fuming about this. allegedly one of the presidents called the principal, they don't answer, so they call the directors of student services, and he admitted over the phone, "we did this because --" according to this mom, "we did this because we didn't want to hurt any of the other children's feelings." >> steve: winsome sears was on our program yesterday talking about it. here's the governor of the commonwealth of virginia talking about the same topic. >> this is a reality. after eight years of liberal progressive democrat leadership in eight years of school boards not being held accountable, we are holding them accountable. it's as if they thought i might go away, tucker, but i'm not going away. i'm going to make sure we stand up for parents' rights and make

sure our parents are engaged in their children's lives fully. when we see a problem, we will go to work and routed out immediately. >> steve: good. let's see what they do. >> ainsley: i know we've got to get the headlines. if they find out in september, many of our applying to colleges, so that looks really good on a resume. if they find out after they've submitted their college applications, then they lost out on that. >> brian: it's evil. actually, you have the latest news. >> ashley: we will start with an update on buffalo bills safety damar hamlin. he is still in critical condition after going to cardiac arrest monday night's game against the bengals. his family released a statement thanking fans for the outpouring of support. a girlfriend may set up for his charity has now raised more than $6 million. that includes a $10,000 donation from the tampa bay buccaneers quarterback, tom brady, who is also offering his prayers.

kaylee goncalves' parents make it clear what they would like to see what happened to the man suspected of murdering her daughter. they say he deserves the ultimate punishment. >> considering that this person went in there that night with the intent to kill and showed no mercy, unprovoked, and killed our daughter, her best friend, and their two friends, we are glad that we live in the state of idaho with the death penalty. >> ashley: yesterday in pennsylvania, kohberger facing a judge for the first time and agreeing to be extradited back to idaho. the 28-year-old mouthed the words "i love you" to his family as he was escorted out of the courtroom. we are also learning more about a failed attack on a military base housing u.s. troops in northeast syria. two rockets targeted coalition forces early this morning. officials say no one was hurt and there was no damage to the facility. the pentagon says syrian democratic forces later found a third unfired rocket. no one has claimed

responsibility for the attack. this attack unfolding on the 3-year anniversary of the u.s. drone strike that killed top iranian shadow general qassem soleimani in baghdad. meanwhile, a combined spending of $5,000 per year on robot replacements for employees. white castle spends $3,000 a month on automated machines that flip burgers and 100 different locations. meanwhile, the robot who whips up tortilla chips that one tripoli location in california, all of that machine also cost $3,000 per month to operate, it is still cheaper than paying a full-time employee. not a fan of replacing real workers with robots, guys. >> steve: unless it's the robot that sweeps up your house. that one's okay. >> ashley: [laughs] yeah. >> ainsley: i like when there's both. if you are at cvs and have some ladies and men behind the cash register and two or three options over here if you want to

do it yourself. like the grocery store. you on the check out. okay. >> ainsley: it's a different type of robot, but... >> steve: ashley, thank you very much. oftentimes that lane is much faster. >> ainsley: i know! >> steve: 8:18 here in new york city. the world set to mourn the passing of pope benedict xvi at his funeral tomorrow. among those in rome, timothy cardinal dolan, who will join us live next. ♪ ♪ at red land cotton. our traditions are grown and sewn right here in our hometown of moulton, alabama. from our heirloom inspired sheets to our super absorbent bath towels, to our 100% cotton quilts. every single piece is made right here in america. we believe in keeping our heritage 100% american made. enjoy our farm to home products and receive [coughing] hi, susan. honey. yeah.

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♪ ♪ >> steve: it is 2:23 this afternoon in rome where pope emeritus benedict the 16th is lying in state at the vatican ahead of a funeral at st. peter's square tomorrow.

>> brian: around 65,000 mourners have already paid their respects and many more expected at tomorrow's service. >> ainsley: among those traveling over to rome, archbishop of new york, timothy cardinal dolan. good morning to you. >> hi, everybody. it's nice to be with you, steve and breanna and ainsley. i wish you here with me. i just finished some good pasta. but you made me hungry with that white castle segment. i'll have to go back and look at that one. >> steve: absolutely. thank you very much. i know you've got a connection to benedict. we've got a picture of you with the pope, but i also believe he appointed you cardinal? >> he did. what we got, steve, 2009 he appointed me archbishop of new york in 2012 he made me a cardinal. i am honored, but some believe

in the infallibility of the pope. [laughter] that we do have made a decision like that. but those our cherished moments in ilife and got me kind of close to him. i can't claim to be part of the inner circle or anything, but i guess being archbishop of new york and a cardinal and those three years i was president of the conference, that was during his pontificate. so i did get to spend some quiet time with him and some good conversations that i will never forget. personally, it is a moment of loss. i thought, when pope francis -- remember, last wednesday, he invited the world to be in prayer for pope benedict, who was dying. he used a beautiful word. he said pope benedict has "sustained" the church with his prayer, with his solitude, with his example, with his theological depth. he sustained the church, even as

a retired pontiff. i thought, bingo, that says it. there has been a sustenance they are, presence that i think we miss already. >> ainsley: why do you think he was so beloved? >> you know, because he was the real thing, and he was a beautiful combination, ainsley, of two things that very often clash. with him, they did not. he was a towering intellect. there was a part of him that was kind of bookworm-ish. he can be very cerebral, maybe a temptation to be kind of an intellectual ivory tower. there is the one side in which i rejoice because of his intellectual wattage. on the other hand, he was a man of simplicity and warmth and approachability. i have commented, too, when people ask me, what do you remember most about him? it was his ability to listen

intensely at the privileged moments that i had with him prie didn't do the talking. he would ask me. he said, "tell me about this. explain to me about this. can you help me understand this better, or that better?" he was very, very interested in listening. the bible tells us, of course, you can't be a good teacher if you are not first a good listener. you've got to be a disciple before you are a teacher. he was that. he brought those things together. and i think that is something that is very rare and that we are going to miss more and more. >> brian: we had two popes, a retired pope and pope francis, and the rumor is that pope francis is considering retiring, too. until you get to the vatican city and talk to the people in charge, you don't really know. you could do that. do you get the sense that pope francis is really considering doing what pope benedict did and stepping aside? >> well, i do get one impression

that that is not frequently i can say this, that the vatican seems to be more organized and better working than the united states congress. [laughter] anyway, that is something we can comment on. i don't get that impression, brian. i get the impression that pope francis is a very realistic man, he has that humility and that sense of the biblical understanding of service, that is not about prestige, not about an office, it's not about power or authority. it's an ability to serve. if he ever felt he was unable to serve, i think he would be liberated enough to make that decision. i don't think it's going to come. pope francis, the people that are close to him, saying that, as pope francis himself often jokes, "from the waist up, i'm in great shape." and he is. there doesn't seem to be any impediment to his thinking, to

his governance, to his presence. it's very difficult for him to stand, it's very difficult for him to walk. in fact, tomorrow, watch the funeral. even though he has it, he'll be off to the side, because there will be a cardinal actually at the altar. pope francis will preside at the mass, the funeral mass, that he's unable to do that. still, he is functioning well. i think he enjoys being pope. i wouldn't anticipate him retiring in the future. although, yeah, it is a possibility. in one of the contributions that pope benedict has made is to say that that extraordinary possibility can go off, can occur in a very sane, prudent, peaceful way. >> brian: when argentina wins the world cup, it might be good to go out on top. >> [laughs]

>> brian: but he will ultimately not do it around soccer. >> steve: cardinal, thank you very much for joining us. >> i ain't retiring when the mets during the world series. >> brian: you'll be in forever, then. >> ainsley: enjoy the pasta and the burrata! >> steve: you are in rome while you're here in the united states waiting for the white puffs of smoke out of the chimney at the u.s. congress. >> yes, yes. and it's not my cigar smoke, all right? >> brian: go get 'em, cardinal. coming up, damar hamlin remains in critical condition but his family says he appears to be improving. clay travis reacts next to the sports world railing behind the buffalo bills safety. ♪ ♪ c but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain,

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>> steve: the family of buffalo bills safety damar hamlin revealed he is trending upwards after collapsing during monday night's game against the cincinnati bengals. he remains in critical condition in the icu and support for him stretches far and wide including nearly $6 million in donations to a gofundme originally set up to benefit hamlin's mother's toy drive. clay travis, according to damar's uncle, apparently damar

had to be resuscitated twice, once on the field and once at the hospital when he arrived at the hospital. so he was in much more dire condition than anybody thought. we all thought the worst possible was happening, and it looks like it was at that time. >> yes, and certainly, as you reference, over $6 million in charity dollars raised for damar hamlin's charity to give kids who are underprivileged the ability to have presents. steve, over 202,000 individual donors, which i think speaks to how much the story has connected across the american sports landscape and beyond. but yes, hopefully he is going to be okay. it appears he is trending in a good direction. and then the question, as you mentioned, will become, what happened to him exactly? what needs to occur, if anything? was this a totally freakish

incident where, as we have seen sometime in the past, the kid happens to get hit in the chest at the exact right time with a baseball or hockey puck like we have seen happen in the nhl? if so, is anything that could be done to help ensure this is even less likely than it already has been? this was a devastating moment for sports fans, for nfl players, for coaches, for administrators. everyone sitting down watching this game between the bangles and the bills that went from entertainment to life or death situation in an instant, and i guess the other update here is that the nfl has announced that this game is not going to be rescheduled this week. so they are moving on without playing it. that leaves some uncertainty as to what might happen, but the games will go on starting on saturday night here in about three days, and we'll see what kind of reaction we get going forward. >> steve: there is nothing scheduled so far in week 18

won't be changed. i've heard some suggest, call it a tie. it was not a thoroughly game. these two teams were vying for number one. >> i think that the difficult decision the nfl will have to grapple with going forward. i think they have three options, basically. they can call it a tie, which would give each team the 1 at the end. they can make it a no contest, not give a tie at all, or try to adjust leader in the season the schedule to push back some of the dates and see whether they can get this game played. as you mentioned, it is a very significant one in terms of who is going to finish first overall in the afc. if the bills don't play, and the kansas city chiefs were to win this weekend, then the chiefs will be the number 1 seed as opposed to the bills. if they beat cincinnati, they could be the number 1 seed. that means the number 1 seed

doesn't have to play in week one in the nfl, and obviously that is a very significant benefit towards winning a super bowl. >> steve: let's see what the nfl decides on. clay travis, thank you very much. check out his website. he's the founder, outkick.com. coming up, fox weather alert. a historic storm set to slander than california. janice dean checking that threat, and shall be with us. they are sandbagging in san francisco. kevin mccarthy still fighting to become house speaker. harold ford jr., den dominates, and mercedes schlapp join usnd ahead, coming up next on a "fox & friends." at newdayusa that's what we're doing. we put our arm around the veterans. when i think of the veteran out there that needs to refi his home, he may want to purchase, we can help them and provide that financial solution for them and their families. it's a great rewarding feeling. everybody in the company, they have that deference and that respect and that love for the veteran that makes this company so unique.

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♪ ♪ >> brian: in a little more than three hours, the house will reconvene and try again to elect a speaker, after kevin mccarthy failed to secure 218 votes, three times. late last night, "i think we will find our way to get there, and this is a healthy debate. it might not happen on the day we want it, but it's going to

happen." doing is not to talk about how healthy the debate was, cohost of "the five" and former congress and harold ford jr. editor at large and fox news contributor, ben domenech, as well as cpac foundation senior fellow and former white house director of strategic munication, mercedes schlapp. we will start with you. is this healthy debate? >> i've got to tell you, it's a painful debate to watch from the outside. but this is something that i wish would have happened a while back, where you would have these behind closed doors deals that are being made before we end up in this kind of mess we are seeing right now in display on the house floor. i think democrats are relishing this moment. it shows the power of the house freedom caucus and how they want to have a say in this process, and they obviously not pleased with kevin mccarthy and wants an alternative.

supporting jim jordan. with that being said, while jim jordan is gaining momentum, it would be interesting to see if jordan could even gather the votes of moderates. and jim jordan, quite frankly, wants to say as chairman of the judiciary committee. that's where he's been focusing his efforts. so the question will become, will steve scalise arise from this as a potential speaker? will there be a deal cut? and president trump has weighed in on still endorsing mccarthy. will that make a difference in terms of the votes come this noon? >> brian: you have an instinct for tv, because we have post that just came out. he says it's now time for all oh great republican house members to vote for kevin. do not turn a great triumph into a giant and embarrassing defeat. it's time to celebrate. you deserve it. kevin mccarthy will do a great job, maybe even a great job. he also said he made some calls

last night. ben, will that help? >> i certainly don't think it hurts at all to have reiterate this. but, as we have learned from "the hunt for red october," the hard part about playing chicken is knowing when to flinch. this is a situation where one side is going to be flinching. whether it's this group that is stuck together and seems to be motivated just as much by personal animosity toward kevin mccarthy has any of the rule changes, to mercedes' point, there was this behind the scenes deal. a lot of deals that were cut with the house freedom caucus members who object mccarthy rules on vacating the chair, on the makeup of certain committees, but then you have this 11th hour demand, including chip really, for particular committee spots overwhelming the decisions of the steering committee within the congress, and that was just a bridge too far from mccarthy. and this erupted into this very

personally animosity-filled meeting that we had yesterday on capitol hill. this all spilled out into the open. democrats do these things behind the scenes, republicans do it in front of the cameras, and this is why this is going on the way it is right now. it may turn out to be embarrassing, but ultimately, for the average american, i don't think they see much of a difference between kevin mccarthy's leadership and steve scalise's leadership in terms of being speaker. i don't know that this is going to be situation that anybody is going to flinch anytime soon. >> brian: harold, there's a report out that he dispatched patrick henry, garrett graves, fitzpatrick, and french hill out to speak to some of the 19-20 holdouts. no progress was made, but they did meet for several hours. so how is this game playing out in your mind from the democratic perspective? >> first off, good morning, and happy new year again. i'm a democrat, not one necessarily taking any delight in this. i wish my party had won a majority.

this is a process i went through when i was in congress. i never had a chance to vote for speaker, republicans were in charge when i was in office. i think some of the 20 republicans, congressional republicans, voting against mccarthy, they have to understand that the pettiness and personal grievance has to be subordinated to the professionalism and exercising of power in a responsible way. we don't live in an autocracy, we live in a constitutional republic. which means, in that body, if you're not part of the majority or you can't figure out a way to get to the majority, you don't just take your ball and go home. i think allies and adversaries alike are probably watching this with some dismay, disappointment, and maybe even a few in delight. i hope they're able to get to an agreement today. if they can't find an agreement with republicans, maybe this is an opportunity to reach out to some democrats that might want to partner for the good of the country. remember, the speaker is a constitutional officer. he or she is second in line by the president. right now we have no one second in line, and in fact, our

legislative branch of government is paralyzed because congress can't go into session. >> brian: lightning round, how does this end, how many rounds? mercedes, we'll start with you. >> it looks like at least the fifth or sixth round at the rate we are going right now. >> brian: ben? >> i think it'll go even farther, and i don't think kevin mccarthy is going back down. >> brian: i will put this to you, harold. if kevin mccarthy does not back down, rather than bow out, do you think he would reach across? >> i don't know. but i think -- i think this will be done today. i think steve scalise and elise stefanik and perhaps another in leadership, particularly those two, a lot of responsibility would fall on them today if they can get an agreement. this is two days a majority was elected to the congress back in november. that should have been hashed out. if you can't do that before two days, i think responsible members of the republican party even outside of congress will continue to come forward and say "get this done."

>> brian: we'll see if their plan is to get democrats to help them out, and at what price. it doesn't seem like anyone is close to kevin mccarthy, although it does look like it's personal. and steve scalise promised nothing. thanks, guys. fascinating debate. we've never been here before. thanks for the insight. now to a fox weather alert. preparations underway in san francisco as potentially life threatening storm expected to soak the region today. the system expected to intensify into a bomb cyclone. the bay area could get up to 8 inches of rain. janice dean, everything i said was correct, right? >> yes, absolutely. this is a big deal and i'm concerned for the folks in california, not just the bay area. bomb cyclone just means a really strong storm that continues to intensify as it moves inland, and we have already received close to 10 inches of rain around the tahoe area and we are anticipating over a foot of rain in the next seven days, especially for the san francisco area. but you have to look at

los angeles, as well. southern california is going to get in on this. and we have high wind warnings. on that moisture is going to stream in the end, and it just has no place to go. the bay area is going to flood, it's going to be extensive, and it could be potentially deadly. the other big story we are following is the severe storm front through parts of the southeast of toward the midatmid-atlantic. it's extremely warm in the northeast, so we have all your latest details. over to you, my friend. >> brian: thanks so much, janice. the white house yet again dodging fox news questions about hunter biden and whether the president knew about his son's business dealings. we might soon get to the bottom of this. fox news contributor douglas murray is here to weigh in. first, let's check in with dana perino for what's coming up on her show with bill. >> dana: thank you, brian paid chaos on the hill, as brian was talking about with his panel. can the g.o.p. get its act together today and elect a speaker? the republican agenda is on the back burner until they do. we will tell you what to expect. the latest on the quadruple

murder suspect. when will he get to idaho to face justice? nancy grace will be here. plus, an update on damar hamlin's condition and the dangerous storm bearing down on california. california. we hey, will see you at 9:. so you only pay for what you need! whoo! we gotta go again. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty liberty liberty♪ ♪liberty♪ postmenopausal women with hr+ her2- metastatic breast cancer are living longer with kisqali. so, long live family time. long live dreams. and long live you. kisqali is a pill proven to help women live longer when taken with an aromatase inhibitor. and kisqali helps preserve quality of life. so you're not just living, you're living well. kisqali can cause lung problems or an abnormal heartbeat which can lead to death. it can cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in severe infections. avoid grapefruit during treatment. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms,

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congressman adam schiff pressured the platform to suspend accounts that the democrats didn't like. schiff's office reportedly contacting twitter in 2020 hoping it would take action regarding alleged harassment from users. this includes "new york post" journalist paul sperry, writer matt taibi reporting even twitter declined requests at the time. sperry was later suspended. florida governor ron desantis sworn in for his second term is today during his inauguration s, the republican touting his future plans for the sunshine state, calling it a citadel of freedom. desantis made no mention of a possible 2024 presidential run, but his wife seemed to channel former first lady jackie kennedy in a mint green gown paired with white gloves. as your headlines, guys. >> steve: it was indeed inauguration deus today. >> ainsley: she's bringing back the gloves. my grandmother used to weigh the gloves. >> brian: anthony fauci would

be happy. he's again shaking. >> and ashley, thank you very much. the white house still dodging questions on whether the president knew anything about hunter biden's business dea dealings. >> republican majority coming in. the house oversight committee is laying out their new investigations. they claim to have evidence that joe biden lied to the american people about his involvement in his family business schemes. did he? because we have a white house counsel, my colleagues , who are going to deal with this. i would point to them. house republicans promised that fighting inflation during the midterms was going to be the number one priority. instead, what they are doing is an investigation of the president and his family. >> brian: this as house republicans are set to ramp up their probe. >> ainsley: fox news contributor douglas murray is here to react. douglas, your reaction? >> first of all, i think this is going to be an annual thing. the story will drag and drag. there are so many people who want this and it's never going

anywhere. >> brian: it's a 4-year investigation. >> we are going to see its anniversary every year, it predicts. we have known for four years the situation with the president's brother and son, hunter, making $5 million from one chinese energy conglomerate. we have seen it, it's not hard to chase up as a story. "the new york post" chased it up, a few of the media did. most, of course, wanted to ignore it. but this doesn't take one year, it certainly doesn't take four years. there are so many aspects of the story by now that you realize there are vested interests in basically stopping at getting anywhere. look at what's come out from the twitter files, from matt taibi, about the fbi agent working inside twitter. his name was james baker, he was working there even after the point that elon musk took over twitter, trying to filter the information that went between elon musk and the new owner of twitter, and matt taibbi, the journals revealing what the fbi was trying to cover up.

i mean, this is just cover up on an unbelievable scaled. he was responsible? maybe we'll find out one day. >> steve: right, and right now it sounds like the u.s. attorney for delaware is the person who's going to decide whether or not there are charges. but he ultimately works for the attorney general, who is part of joe biden's administration. >> right, exactly. i hate to use the term "corruption," but it really is deeply corrupt, what we see in the story. everyone knows that in politics there are people around, make a bit of money, get a bit near the trough, all that sort of thing. that is what has happened with the hunter biden story. the president continues to claim, the white house spokesperson continues to claim, that this has nothing to do with the president. and why would he notice that his son and his brother just have millions and millions of dollars coming in from ukrainian energy companies and chinese energy companies? why would he even noticed that? why, over dinner, would even raise that with them? how did they become so rich all

of all of a sudden, guys? we are meant to believe this. i think this is an insult to the american public. there is no way we can believe this. of course the emails we have had now for four years, the information that has come out in the latest twitter files, all of this is stuff that should be in the hands of the prosecutor. >> brian: what you don't have is someone in ukraine, a chinese official, to come out and say, "yeah, this is the deal we did that we are not talking about." do you think republicans will have those names, and will the fbi had the whistle-blowers show their faces? >> the thing is, so much of the story has been able to be chased up from 40 years ago when this was first broken. we know the names of the people who they are contacting in ukraine and burisma. we could have found this out a long time ago. it's high time we did. the american public deserve to know, and, frankly, we need to know that corruption at this level doesn't go unpunished. >> ainsley: a lot of republicans voted for the men and women in the house, and they

can't even find a speaker. they are wasting so much time. if this goes weeks and weeks, that's weeks without answers to this investigation. >> steve: douglas, thank you very much for joining us in the new year. >> great to see you. >> steve: that's going to do it. man, this was a busy show today. >> ainsley: lots of news. >> brian: with nine seconds left, i just urge you to go to the radio. >> ainsley: get dressed, stay within yourself. >> bill: gridlock out of the gate. a stand-off for the speaker's gavel derailing day one of the new congress. the republican majority is mired in disagreement and day two begins as we say good morning. i'm bill hemmer. >> dana: i thought groundhogs day was february 2nd. but here we are. we'll see where it goes. we have all the information you'll need. what is typically a day of pomp and circumstance when the house failed to elect a speaker three times.