>> i felt as though we had a very good discussion. >> dana: fox news alert. after two days and six failed votes the house remains without a speaker but republican leader kevin mccarthy says he is optimistic after closed door talks. welcome to a new hour of "america's newsroom," i'm dana perino. >> bill: i'm bill hemmer. i think flock's question would be a good segment on "the five." >> dana: are you producing "the five" now? meghan, bill has an idea. you are probably right. we're probably doing that story today. good idea. >> bill: thank you for humoring me. lawmakers set for another long day. two hours they'll wheel and deal. 20 hard line conservatives remain opposed to mccarthy's bid. he needs to flip 12 to stand a chance at the gavel when the house reconvenes today. >> dana: jim banks, one of the 20 no votes suggests a deal could soon be at hand.

>> we'll have another vote at noon. you'll see some progress. i think there is light at the end of the tunnel. if that happens, hopefully that progress snowballs and members who are holding out feel pressure in their districts or from others to unify with the party and do the right thing and elect a speaker so we can work on the issues that matter. >> bill: brand-new hour begins now. david spunt has the duties in d.c. >> hi. two hours until the house is back in session. a lot of people think it may be a safe bet we won't see a speaker elected at least right away. members elect will vote for the seventh time on the speaker of the house issue. kevin mccarthy hopes the needle moves in miss -- his direction. mccarthy ended his day with 201 yesterday. they voted for byron donald, a two year congressman from southwest florida, naples.

this group some call the gop rebels led by matt gaetz, scott perry and lauren boebert. here she is last night. >> isn't it time for you to pack it in and your side to pack it in considering he has over 200 and you have 20? >> sean, i understand the frustration. i promise you. >> i'm not frustrated. you didn't answer my question. i'm not frustrated. >> people are still voting with kevin mccarthy who are very supportive of what we're doing. >> no indication that mccarthy will cave when pulling his name out of consideration for speaker. we spoke to him last night. >> i felt as though we had a very good discussion. i think what you should be able to do that vote, the discussions are going well. >> now dana and bill, here is where mccarthy appears to be caving. he is poised to allow a one-member motion to vacate.

one member could trigger a no-confidence vote at any time to get him out of the speaker's office. before he wanted at least five. the freedom caucus wants two seats on the house rules committee and representative ralph norman wants term limits. three terms at two years a pop. also reportedly up for negotiation to help get mccarthy in. >> bill: david spunt, appreciate that. >> dana: let's bring in colorado republican congressman elect buck. the headline this morning. who is crazy enough to be a republican speaker? and a little tongue in cheek there. people look at this and think it seems like an impossible job. what do you expect to happen two hours from now? >> i think it's the worst job in america and i don't know who would want it. you have to juggle ten different interest groups in a conference. i think what's going to happen in two hours either we're going to adjourn again and continue

negotiations or a deal has been reached. the outline of the deal as just mentioned, i think mccarthy is willing to go there. i don't know if the 20 holding out are willing to go there. >> bill: i want to go back to sean's interview with the colorado congresswoman boebert who barely won her re-election battle. it was hot and went on for ten minutes. another sample from last night. >> well he needs 218 and does not have 218. >> neither do you. >> i have seen the broken trust. i have seen the lack of accountability. what we are getting phone calls saying that we need to stop this, kevin does not have the votes for speaker, period. >> bill: this went on, sir. hannity's point is that why do 10% of the caucus hold up the entire operation when you have big issues to get to is what the american people voted for in november. >> i think there are a number of reasons. first, there are a group of people, 5, 6, 7 people who don't

like kevin mccarthy who have had issues with him and they won't vote for him. another group of people want certain policy or procedure issues. you add that together with a small majority and you end up with this stalemate. i think what has to happen is either kevin has to reach an agreement with these folks at some point early today, or we need to move on and try to find a consensus candidate those 5 or 6 can agree to but in a small majority, a group of 20 can control. >> dana: let me ask you something. so we understand from a couple of different sources that the kevin mccarthy camp believes they have made progress overknifed with some sort of agreement. maybe it's not enough but do you have any insight into that? can you tell us if it would get you maybe halfway towards the goal of getting to those ten out of 20? >> i think that's a great point. there is an agreement. i think it's a reasonable agreement and i think what's holding it up right now is there is a blood oath between the 20

that they won't move until they are all ready to move. even though 9, 10, 11 may agree to this compromise that's been reached, i don't think they will all move until they are all ready to move. >> bill: you said something a moment ago. mulvaney said it on another network describing this personality issue that the 20 have with mccarthy. is it really just personality or is it on some measure of conservative principles? >> there are some that are basically conservative principles. they want to have a term limit vote and balanced budget vote. others have just had kevin mccarthy's pac play in their primary and they are very mad about the fact that he has tried to stop conservatives from winning and coming to congress. >> dana: let me ask you about the term limit. is that for the congress to decide or for the people who elect the congress to decide? there are some places that might

want to have term limits, other constituents might not want to have that. is it just for chairmanships or would this be for any congress person? >> it would be for members of the house. it is ridiculous. the senate won't pass it. the president isn't going to sign it. it doesn't make much difference. more of a messaging bill i assume. i am not one of the people demanding it but one of the messaging bills that some of the members want to put forward. >> dana: messaging bills is one of those things you go back over the last several years where republicans say that there is not enough fight but what you just pointed out the senate will never pass that. you can have a messaging bill and say it until you're red in the face if it doesn't make a difference you are wasting the american people's time. not you, but this fight is something that is a little pointless and maybe it can get solved today. does it get solved today or do you vote into the weekend? >> i think we probably vote into the weekend. even if we had a solution today,

it would take a period of time to get those votes to occur. but i think one of the points that this group of 20 makes, a valid point, this place has been broken. we have been spending too much money. we need to make change. if it takes us a few days to make change it is worth it if in the long run in the next year, year and a half we're able to show the american people we have better policies as a result. >> dana: that would be something. >> bill: that's the point they would make, too. ken buck, thank you for coming on. we'll watch at noon eastern. the rest of the america, mitch mcconnell was traveling with the president in the state of kentucky. open a new bridge, maybe 5, 6, 7 years from now and he said this about how washington is working. >> if you look at the political alignment of everyone involved in this, it is the government working together to solve a major problem at a time when the country needs to see examples like this of coming together and getting an outcome. >> bill: he is talking about is the infrastructure bill that

passed with bipartisan support. meanwhile he got all these issues on the table. >> dana: so many. you have president biden who is being hammered by republicans for the past couple years on the border crisis. biden's border crisis. today the president will give a speech about that. the "new york post" says this is the real crisis. we'll find out what the president has to say today. earlier we had rich lowry on and he says the president announcing he will go see the border a check the box exercise so when he announces for re-election he can say he was at the border. >> bill: if that point was valid by ken buck nobody will remember. >> dana: all the ads will be cut and run in 2024 about the chaos. i highly doubt that. i don't think people will remember or want to relive it. >> bill: we'll get reaction from bret in 20 minutes. stand by. >> this is not a master

criminal. he is in custody barely six weeks after a major quadruple homicide with a complex crime scene. that's lightning and great police work. >> bill: that was last hour. bryan kohberger now behind bars in idaho awaiting a scheduled court appearance today. 28 years old. arrived in pullman, washington earlier today after being extradited from the state of pennsylvania. more about his demeanor in custody and new details on two traffic stops during the cross-country drive in mid-december with his father. ted williams joins us from moscow, idaho. what are you learning? >> yes. 28-year-old university of washington ph.d. student bryan kohberger sits in a jail cell in a jail right over my shoulder where he will formally go before a judge and be charged in the

stabbing death of the four university of idaho students. kohberger in early december got as far as his home in pennsylvania, and he was formally arrested there last friday. he waived extradition and he was flown back here to moscow, idaho last night. the citizens of moscow, idaho, lined the streets of this town waiting for kohberger as he came back into this town. what we're waiting for today is the charging documents to be released. once those charging documents are released, we'll know more about what took place. back to you, bill. >> bill: thank you, ted. waiting on that new news and information from idaho throughout the day clearly.

thank you on scene in idaho. >> dana: as we await further updates on damar hamlin's recovery the nfl is navigating a path forward. will this change football? we'll ask former quarterback boomer -- >> the mandate he is handing down to allstate universities. >> dana: the journal list behind the twitter files sharing new insights what he has learned during his deep dive into government censorship. >> they had an internal guidance. significant. where they said publicly we'll only remove content at our sole discretion. privately we'll conduct cyber operations as a foreign state actor.

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>> dana: less than two hours from another vote to see who will be speaker.

want to correct one thing. in the last segment we said congressman jim banks voted against mccarthy. that is not correct. he voted for mccarthy every vote and we regret the error and make sure everybody knows that. also more big changes are coming to twitter. the company says it will lift its ban on political ads in the coming weeks as elon musk continues his makeover of the social media platform. gillian turner has details for us. >> it is a big move. it will allow elected officials and candidates and political groups to promote themselves across the platform. twitter's safety account said it will align the company's ad policy with that of tv and other media outlets. they tweet we believe caused-base advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics. today we're relaxing the ads policy for cause-based ads in the u.s. and expand political advertising we permit in the

coming weeks. that same account did not offer an exact date on which the ads will once again begin running. this is the latest move in a series of moves made by elon musk to undo policies put in place by twitter's former ceo and loosen the rules about the type of content the platform allows. jack dorsey had said this about his decision to ban political ads on twitter globally back in 2019. we believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. internet advertising is incredible powerful and effective for commercial advertisers that power brings significant risks to politics where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions. this move aligns twitter with some of the other major social media companies like meta 's facebook and youtube. tiktok does not allow political ads. all eyes on elon musk to see what he has to say. >> dana: tiktok loves political

propaganda. >> they do. >> i think we can say pretty conclusively after looking at tens of thousands of emails over the course of these weeks that the government was in the censorship business in a huge way. that's i think provable now. and not just one agency. >> bill: that is matt taibbi last night with tucker, the journalist behind the twitter files saying the feds worked hand in glove with the social network to censor american voices. want to bring in kennedy. the interview was interesting. i encourage you to check it out. it is online right now. he said people think it's about partisanship. it's about censorship. go to the sound bite number one. >> it's not a partisan story. this is a story about the architecture of the intelligence community and law enforcement getting its hands on speech and on the ability of people to

communicate with one another through platforms like twitter and facebook. they're doing this in a very profound way. much more serious than i thought at the beginning of this story. >> bill: he saw -- thousands of emails. i think he said 10,000 emails last night. what do you make of it? >> dana: he is right and why more people should be mindful of this. if we make it a left/right story people on the left will be dismissive of it thinking there are actors within federal law enforcement who are working to help them. that's not necessarily the case. there are individuals working at the f.b.i., the cia, dhs, some of the agencies we know about and they were trying to get people at twitter, executives to squash certain accounts and hide others and hide certain tweets and make sure things weren't trending at their behest. they were trying to compel executives at twitter to do this. that's incredibly problematic.

the f.b.i., c.i.a. and dhs people aren't necessarily on your side. the government should not be working to squash things that they find to be inconvenient. when they do it under the umbrella this is russian disinformation without offering any proof. that's all you have to say and then all of a sudden you can other people turn them into the enemy and squash conversations where people are merely asking questions. >> dana: i always think jack dorsey is getting off easy. he was the ceo and somebody who could have protected some of these people. all the requests being made. even internally it feels very heavy handed. jack dorsey was nowhere to be found. an absentee landlord. >> he would walk five miles each way to and from work and drink saltwater and lemon juice. what we should have known is that he was leading these conversations out to twitter followers and the people who have these accounts and not the

heavy handed problematic unconstitutional relationship that was developing between people in the federal government and people at twitter. >> bill: bottom line is the government agencies went to twitter with a list of individuals or companies and the company did what the government asked them to do. who knows what was happening at facebook et al as we go on and on and maybe when we solve the speaker i shall you've in the house, we can get some answers. another topic, ron desantis wants to know who is spending money on dei in florida. the statement. this letter is a request for information from the department of education, the state university system regarding the expenditure of state resources on programs an issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory. he wants to know is how much money have you spent on these programs. >> that's fair. you can audit the programs and audit these universities. my worry is i don't want the state telling universities what

to teach. that's why there are a lot of people when they talk about school choice they talk about getting government out of schools. there may be a lot of parents who want to send their kids to school where all they teach is critical race theory. i don't happen to be one of those parents. i would like my daughters to learn how to think critically. i think that is something that is grossly lacking not only in academia by primary and secondary schools as well and one of the great casualties. we should always be skeptical of government involvement in education and every other realm. >> dana: come back to see us again. happy new year. >> are you going to the border >> president biden: that's my intention. >> dana: president biden appearing to take a new approach on the border as his administration faces criticism from both sides of the aisles. new details on his first visit to the southern border as president. what's behind the sudden 180?

bret baier joins us. a bomb cyclone bringing rain and wind to california. that's next.

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diego to the mountains of lake tahoe. and as you can see it is dropping a lot of rain and very blustery winds. hard enough to get a canopy off a gas station. two fuel pumps damaged. luckily no one was hurt. a toddler was killed after a tree fell on their house and the weather is blamed for the death of a 19-year-old woman involved in a car accident. the storm hit during the evening commute and lasted hours. turning creeks to rivers and stranding cars in standing water and causing widespread power outages. 175,000 customers are still in the dark. the bomb cyclone really packed a punch. here in this county gusts were 85 miles-per-hour. this deluge comes after another

bad storm. residents did their best to prepare stocking up on emergency supplies and provisions. mandatory evacuation orders are in effect in parts of the state which got four inches of rain. the snow pack is getting a much needed boost. the governor has declared a state of emergency as residents brace for more storms that could drop another 15 inches before things clear up at the end of the month. >> bill: here in the east it's warm. claudia, thank you in mill valley. for the latest, download the fox weather app. do it now on your phone for free. >> dana: better late than never. president biden satisfies intends to visit the southern border during a trip to mexico next week delivering a speech on border security in the next hour. some are wondering if the new

focus on the migrant crisis is part of a potential 2024 re-election bid. stands to reason. special report anchor bret baier joins us now. what do you think of that, bret? >> good morning. i think it's probably part of the calculation. definitely political. if you have california governor gavin newsom going to the border and doing a video saying democrats need to pay attention to this issue, newsom said he won't run against biden, at least not yet. but it is a political issue that ahead of the election i think the white house thought was too radioactive for the president to deal with head on. now you have republicans in the chaos of electing a speaker on capitol hill and in that vacuum it seems like the white house has chosen this is the time to deal with an issue that republicans have said has been way, way long for the administration to deal with. the speech will be interesting. i think they will do some executive action moves that may speed up deportations.

>> bill: looking at a note here, bret. i don't know if it's the case. want to curb illegal crossings by those from cuba, nicaragua and possibly haiti. is that true? if so, why those three countries? >> well, that's interesting. there is a lot of other countries involved in coming across that border. i think they've targeted those because of a specifics of the countries they're dealing with. they will talk about title 42 being used to turn around and turn people back immediately. the dhs secretary is expected to brief reporters at 12 noon. and we hear that there may be some stipulation that if you are caught, turned around and deported, that you can't come back into the country or try for five years. that would be an interesting added element of things. i think taking on the issue for people who haven't been paying attention to this, that the administration had kind of not

talked about it at all, in this vacuum of power on capitol hill is an interesting political move. >> bill: see what they say about that. we all know we've had national policy different from cuba and h haitian and other immigrants. >> dana: pete buttigieg is on special report. he is willing to do that. there has been some reporting recently that came to fox news digital saying that secretary buttigieg travel woes keeping piling up. he and his husband took a private jet. people should be furious. i don't know how much you'll get into that tonight. so many issues going on. an interview to watch, bret. >> i have think we'll touch on that. the controversy there is not the actual delegation to europe.

it was for the infact us games on military aircraft. we can't get answers whether his husband's travel was paid for. family travel was a big thing that previous administrations have resigned over. there are questions there to ask. but also the holiday travel, the fallout from it and what the infrastructure schedule is going forward. >> dana: they said there would be consequences to the airlines for problems for southwest. curious as to what could it be and what can they do? >> right. and what's the penalty and what result does the administration have in answering questions about setting up these guidelines, the faa and others? there are people in our staff that traveled, they still don't have their luggage. they need to get that figured out. >> bill: we don't want to give away too much before the interview tonight. we'll see you around noon to see

if we get a speaker today or whether it goes into the weekend. we're all watching. >> dana: thank you. >> bill: we have breaking news out of cincinnati. physicians caring for the buffalo bills safety damar hamlin, university of cincinnati medical center. per the physicians, damar has shown remarkable improvement over the past 24 hours. while still critically ill, he has demonstrated he appears to be neurologically intact. his lungs continue to heel -- heal. we are grateful for the love and support we have received from the official account from the team. so damar hamlin over the past 36 hours, i argue, the reporting has been his condition is improving by the day. if that continues, we could have a pretty good story coming out of university hospital in clifton in cincinnati, ohio. stand by.

we'll talk to man who knows the issue better than anyone. former quarterback boomer is in studio next. studio next. i discovered prevagen. i started taking it and after a period of time, my memory improved. it was a game-changer for me. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

>> bill: we've got breaking news now. buffalo bills official twitter line sent out a tweet their safety, damar hamlin, is neurologically intact. apparently his condition is improving. all very good news. he is far from being out of the woods. former nfl quarterback boomer esiason. he played with the bengals and a great host. >> great news and i'm sure the buffalo bills players who were zoomed into the locker room by damar's father yesterday as he was bringing them up to speed on

his condition, this has got to be great news for all of us. especially his teammates there in buffalo. >> bill: we'll keep our fingers crossed. news continues to be good. we have a ton of questions here. how is the nfl going to work this out from a measure of fairness across the league? >> almost impossible. we are in uncharted waters. the commissioner has powers. the afc by virtue of saying it's a no contest, played one less game of everybody else will look at winning percentage on the afc side to decide who gets the number one seed. that's important. that's the bye seed. they get the week off going into the playoffs as we transition into the reality of how we react to this now from a league's perspective. i think the nfl will do the smart thing and have been in consultation with all the teams and owners that are involved in this particular situation.

the league is bigger than the individual team regardless of how the fans feel. most of these owners will do what the league is asking them to do. i think the commissioner will probably say no contest and we'll go by winning percentage. if kansas city wins the game on saturday at las vegas we would get the number one seed because the best winning percentage no matter what the bengals and bills do on sunday. >> dana: i was curious what you think how quickly the medical staff got to hamlin. and their skills and ability to bring him back and to get him to this point where we can make this news today. >> amazing. if you follow dr. ciao on twitter, explain to people how protected the players are when the game is going on and what goes into player safety. we came a long way. we're more aware about player safety and what's going on on the field and happy to see

growth in that area. one of the things we were fighting for as players back in the early 80s when we went on strike was player safety issues and longevity and long-term disability benefits and things of that nature. a lot of those things have come through the player and owners. the medical staff in cincinnati was amazing. over 20 doctors available to every team every game. local trauma centers are on call just because they know there is a game going on in their city, which is why damar hamlin was taken to the university of cincinnati medical center. one of the top trauma centers in the country. he was at the best place in time for what happened to him unfortunately to get the best care and one of the reasons why he is up and neurologically intact which is really important for all of us. >> bill: i have a great story someday about boomer during the strike days. >> don't tell her that story. >> bill: i'll save it for later. you think about the circumstances now, people

looking at this from the outside you are saying football is a tough sport. >> it is, right? >> bill: you knew the dangers there on the field. yesterday you were on the radio suggesting that cops and firefighters lose their brothers all the time and they get back out there. >> they are built differently than we are. whether you are in the military, fireman, policeman, whatever, you do for a living and you will be put in danger, you know there is a chance that somebody or yourself could either be injured or killed in the line of duty. it takes a special person to be in that world. we as athletes are special people, too. we put ourselves at risk in the sport we love and play. but we also have a responsibility to our families, to the contracts that we sign, and to the business of football. so i would like to think while there are heavy hearts and we can certainly think about two different things at one time and always think about damar and i think about damar now as he wakes up and see what his

gofundme charity page looks like and what the nfl fans across the country have done for his young man and what he has done to bring us all together in a case of sadness, but now this is triumph and he has a long way to go, we know that. think about this for a minute. if the bills win the super bowl and he is sitting there with a lombardi trophy holding it because the team won the games for him it's an amazing story that could be written here. i look at the positive side. i think about all the great things that have come out of this for all of us as human beings, especially given the circumstances of our politics these days. this could be an amazing story. >> bill: it's a great image. >> dana: honor to have you. you've known bill for a long time and an honor to meet you and how great you were here when we got the good news. >> i have a love of vashe --

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take to the skies before the policy took effect. not just the u.s. imposing restrictions, canada, france, italy and spain are among those who require testing for travelers from china. the world health organization says china is underrepresenting the number of covid hospitalizations and deaths. they reported only five covid deaths on tuesday there are reports of hospitals and morgues overwhelmed. the state department spokesman blames china for a lack of transparency. >> this approach is based on the best medical advice that emanates from the cdc and ipeer organizations. >> compounding covid worries a new variant is spreading. the last week of december the new variant accounted for more than 3/4 of all new cases in the northeast. the health experts, dana, say

this variant is soon expected to affect the entire country. back to you. >> dana: thank you. >> bill: so we are only moments away from president biden's border security remarks. 11:00 a.m. eastern time scheduled from d.c. as arizona's makeshift shipping container wall gets broken down by order of the feds. now that county is seeing more than a 10% increase in border encounters compared to a year ago. you expected that, right? jonathan line says it's an invitation for cartels to walk right through. you are in yuma county there. what's the message you get from washington when you are trying to prevent something from happening that you know is illegal and then d.c. comes in and says you must stop? >> well, like the president said, there are things more important to him than the border crisis. we are standing in one of those areas where the containers have been removed. this is one of the most trafficked areas where we have seen significant amount of

narcotics and human smuggling coming across. and now it is just the message from d.c. is the border is open, people are walking across, and you are welcome to come. we are very concerned about the message that this sends. the cartels are in actual control of the border. the feds are doing nothing other than processing people faster as they come across. we're concerned about what it does to our hospital, what it does to our emergency responders and the overall impact that it has on our small communities, specifically we are an agricultural production community, we are 93% of the winter leafy greens are grown and shipped and a military community that borders the mexican border. the military is concerned about the amount of traffic that they see coming across during live exercises. overall very concerned with what is happening here in yuma,

arizona. >> dana: ever since my aunt patty sue served as the mayor. that's the toughest job in government. closest to the citizens. a way to be innovative. not like you are flush with cash. you are waiting for the federal government to do its job. for the last several weeks the white house has been saying anyone who suggests that the border is open is actually signaling to the cartels and doing its work for them. how do you feel about that and what do you hope president biden learns if he does, in fact, finally visit the border for the first time? >> i would like him to acknowledge we have a challenge here on the border. i would like him to come to yuma, arizona and see what we have. the thousand plus people coming across on a weekly basis. it took governor ducey waiting several months after secretary mayokas made a commitment to us to fill these gaps and they didn't do it. he stepped up, took arizona resources to provide safety and security here along the border.

the president must acknowledge this is his crisis. the numbers of people coming across are exponentially greater we've seen under any other administration. >> bill: thank you for your time. i don't know what it is behind you. is that a part of the border wall that wasn't finished? what is that? >> no, that's the morales dam where people walk across. we have had a large release of water so the numbers have been down the last two days. border patrol expects it to surge once the river recedes a little bit. >> bill: i was talking about on both sides of you there looks like a door is open. >> that's the yuma gap. that's where everybody just walks across. >> dana: this is incredible. thank you for joining us today. we appreciate you. you have so much on your plate. >> bill: thank you, sir. on a lighter note. i got a little something here.

>> dana: there is an incredible moment off the coast of southern california. passengers on this boat witnessed a whale give birth and her calf and showing him off right there. coming up to the boat saying hello and they watched it take its first breath. isn't that amazing? >> bill: your moment of zen. >> dana: chance of a lifetime. good to be with you. harris faulkner is up next. here she is. >> harris: we begin with a fox news alert. republican house speaker nominee kevin mccarthy has lost six times and we're ready to cover the next round of voting as they try to fill the top seat in the house. democrats not even trying to hide or contain their glee over the gop infighting. i'm harris faulkner and you are in "the faulkner focus." kevin mccarthy did not just lose in multiple rounds of voting among his own political party, he ended up losing even more support, additional people picking up speed. mccarthy now