>> todd: fox news alert chicago citizens elected another progressive mayor. i'm todd piro. >> ashley: ashley strohmier in for carley shimkus. controversial plan on education. >> chicago just elected a progressive democrat as next mayor, brandon johnson will replace lori lightfoot after beating

johnson's team focusing -- this past year. advocating for increased taxes and social programs to combat that crime. here is what he had to say in his victory speech tuesday night. >> tonight is just the beginning, with our voices and votes we've ushered in a new chapter in the history of our city. >> to chicagoans who did not vote for me, i care about you. i value you. and i want to hear from you. >> moderate democrat valpaul vallas gained endorsement of the police union. >> i ran to bring this city together and it is clear based on the results tonight that the city is deeply divided. tonight we believe every vote should be counted, i called brandon johnson and told him i expect him to be the next mayor

of chicago. >> former mayor lori lightfoot applauding johnson's win saying, i congratulate brandon johnson on his hard-fought runoff victory. i will continue to root for the city i call home and work toward more equity and fairness. johnson will focus on issues like defunding the police. he plans to raise taxes on businesses. while crime goes up, 117 murders and the city reporting 7000 thefts of motor vehicles, up staggering 133% from last year. with newly elected progressive mayor, it could be more of the same for the windy city. >> todd: never underestimate the power of the teacher unions, they won for brandon johnson, they got what they wanted, we'll see what happened.

thank you. circuit judge janet defeating republican-backed former -- see on the state's high court. this flips the court from conservative majority, the court will be run by conservative justices for the next two years. the court will now decide on the abortion ban. >> ashley: democrat trishia cotham's move would give republicans super majority in the state legislature, major win for the gop in the swing state, cotham is expected to make a formal announcement at 9:00 a.m. this morning. >> todd: to a fox weather alert, another batch of severe weather could affect 70 million. several twisters touching down in illinois and iowa yesterday

bringing violent wind and serious damage. >> ashley: blizzard conditions later today and overnight first responders in maryland battling an eight-alarm brush fire that was fanned by heavy winds in the city. >> todd: this is a situation that seems unprecedented people in the south and midwest are getting slammed upon slammed and it is really tough. janice dean, senior meteorologist here with the forecast. >> janice:ou can see the cold front moving through ahead of it, warm, unstable air. record-setting air mass in terms of warm temperatures. tomorrow in new york city, it will be in the upper 70s. temperature change across the ohio valley. take a look at severe weather advisories and watches and warnings, parts of missouri and

illinois and couple of tornado-warned storms. tornado warning for butler, poplar bluff to illinois, southwest of carbondale, tornado-warned storm, as well. tornado watch for some areas stretching from little rock up toward mt. vernon and severe thunderstorm watch in effect until 10:00 a.m. new thunderstorm watch for portions of illinois, northern illinois to chicago, which we will update. here is the severe storm threat again for the afternoon into the overnight. for some areas, this is a cold-moving cold front and could see potential for severe threat, heavy rainfall and issue that flooding from texas to louisiana and mississippi. the cold side of this storm, the blizzard, close to three feet of snow within the past 24 hours for south dakota, wyoming,

nebraska. and we've got the snow on the ground and gusty winds. blizzard warnings are in effect. as the storm exits, snow on the ground and blowing winds, it will be impossible to travel. blizzard warnings for dakotas wisconsin and minnesota and an ice storm warning. tornado watches and warnings we'll keep you up to date. if you are in storm-warned areas, tune into fox weather and we'll give you the latest. >> ashley: former president trump is back at mar-a-lago this morning after pleading not guilty in a manhattan courtroom and he's not holding back on alvin bragg, listen. this is a persecution, not an investigation. the criminal is the district attorney for leaking grand jury information. [cheering] >> for which he should be

prosecuted. >> todd: while bragg is visit targeting an american president, he is letting violent criminals terrorize new york city. wait until you hear about the repeat offenders bragg just let off the hook. hey, man. nice pace! clearly, you're a safe driver. you could save hundreds for safe driving with liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need! [sfx: limu squawks] whoo! we gotta go again. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ we're done what about these? looks right. nooo... nooo... quick, the quicker picker upper! one sheet of bounty is all you need. and bounty is 2x more absorbent so you can use less. bounty, the quicker picker upper. hi, i'm lauren, i lost 67 pounds

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>> todd: former president trump pleading not guilty for hush money payments before the 2016 election. >> ashley: brooke singman has the details. >> brooke: former president trump pleading not guilty for hush money payments made in 2016 just weeks before the presidential election. the indictment says from august 2015 to december 2017, trump orchestrated his catch and kill scheme through series of payments concealed through months of false business entries. alvin bragg was pressed on the timing of the allegations yesterday. >> federal prosecutors decided not tow charge it, do you believe you have new evidence that led you to charge this or why now? >> as i just mentioned, we had available to the office

additional evidence that was not in the office's possession prior to my time here. we regularly do cases involving false business statement, that is the charge falsifying business records for new york state. >> brooke: federal prosecutors decided not to charge trump related to the hush money payments. trump is facing 136 years behind bars is calling this political persecution, listen. >> this is a persecution, not an investigation. it's cost hundreds of millions to defend, but our heads are held very, very high. they want to settle the case, i want no part of that. the criminal is the district attorney for leaking massive amounts of grand jury prosecuted or at a minimum, he should resign.

>> brooke: the trump campaign reveals they raised $10 million since the indictment was announced last thursday. his attorneys are confident this charge will not hold water. >> even if alvin bragg were telling the truth, it still doesn't amount to a crime there is no sec violation, that is vital. there is no reporting. most reporting violation of campaign finance law are almost always never prosecuted as felonies, they are given fines. >> brooke: kevin mccarthy accusing him of entering in the democratic process and other leading republicans want answers from bragg. >> i fully expect to see alvin bragg answering questions in front of congress as soon as we can make it happen thchl is

unacceptable. >> used federal funds in the indictment against president trump and we know this grew out of the special counsel investigation and of course that statute is a federal statute and most importantly, this is election interference. everything is on the table. >> brooke: president trump's next hearing date is scheduled for december 4, and if there is a trial, it could begin in january, the start of the 2024 presidential season. >> todd: purely coincidental, i'm sure. that is sarcasm. special counsel parker, you know indictments, you have been involved providing basis for said indictment. when you read this one, did it make any sense to you? >> i was looking for some smoking gun or something that we hadn't heard about yet and i'm very familiar with indictment,

testified before grand juries on multiple occasions and in my experience as an fbi special agents, i can tell you a case with this many holes in it, i can't imagine taking on this investigation. that is why this case was declined multiple times by the department of justice and the southern district of new york. everyone was assuming, if you bring charges against the former president trump, it better be rock solid and we were looking for that. i looked at the indictment and there were so many holes, i don't know what the underlying claim is, 34 counts based on emptiness is what it appeared to be. when you bring on a charge, it needs to be solid. i believe it was underwhelming and many across the country do, regardless of political party or

political persuasion, this does not appear to be the case everyone thought it was going to be. they have spent lots of resources. look at the city of new york, it is not the city it used to be. i lived in new york city. i visited recently, it changed drastically, for this to be a high priority i was stunned. >> ashley: to segue in to what you said, da alvin bragg, his message after trump's arraignment, listen to this. these are felony crimes in new york state, no matter who you are. we cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct. >> ashley: how nice of him to bring that up now, while his office is focusing on trump, it has been releasing the city's most violent criminals back on the street. one is 53-year-old rodney

johnson, he got multiple felony theft charges downgraded to misdemeanors just last week. is this political or does he care about new york and keeping it safe? >> i think it is pretty apparent what it is. you know what is shameful about this, it is insulting to victims of these violent crimes. i worked white-collar crime and violent crime, both types of crimes. i am not saying we should not charge and focus on white-collar crime, that is important, as well. -- -- people do not feel safe riding on the subway, walking down the street and spend the amount of reurs sos for a case from 2017 that doesn't appear to be solid, it is frankly sad and insulting to the victims of violent crimes. they deserve better. citizens of the united states of america deserve better.

those living in new york city deserve better. if that is what he's focusing on, focus on real crime that affect the safety of individuals. i promise you, people in new york are more concerned about walking out of their door and returning home safely than they are about business records that president trump may have falsified back in 2017. >> todd: i'm not worried trump is not going to beat the you know what out of me. ex-cia director michael morrell interviewed yesterday. 50 other signatories to the infamous letter saying "new york post" story is russian disinformation, you shouldn't follow this. what is the significance of morrell particularly? >> he held a high position -- -- and i appreciate that jim jordan is bringing this to the forefront and getting to the bottom of this.

we keep talking about everything is fair, equal application of the law, no one is above the law. if that is the case and they were suppressing information, that needs to be known and all individuals need to be looked at and investigating, not just people holding one political persuasion. if they were trying to suppress hunter biden laptop, that is election interference and need to get to the bottom of that. i appreciate they are bringing him in and questioning him and let's see what is happening with the morrell investigation. >> todd: he will not be the last. nicole parker, thank you. we appreciate it. hear this, oregon mother says the state is denying her adoption application because she is a christian who doesn't believe in gender modification. believe in gender modification. >> ashley: that mom is here and she will tell us how. ♪ thanks, mom. i am groot.

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>> todd: randi wngarten launching a hotline for concerns over controversial school curriculum like critical race theory and lessons on gender identity. randi weingarten is blaming republicans saying maga republicans have used schemes that drain resources from public education. as. >> ashley: oregon mother suing the state saying it rejected her application to adopt a pair of siblings because of her christian belief that gender and sex are not a choice. her faith goes against oregon policy, that say applicantses must support gender identity and gender expression of any adopted children. jessica baits is mother of five

who filed the suit. ladies, thank you for being with us this morning. >> yes, thank you for having me. jessica, i want to go to you first. tell us what is going on? is it crazy as we think? >> it is a little hard to believe, but yeah, i had successfully made it through the training and had been several

months into the process and then prior to my certification, it emphasized sexual orientation and gender training, you have to support it. i e-mailed her and told her i couldn't do that and we had a phone call and -- -- i wouldn't take a child for injections, i am told i am ineligible to adopt in the state of oregon. -- -- oregon is putting ideology and politics over children. it welcomes people from all cultural and religious backgrounds to adopt because of conviction violates first amendment temperature is wrong and hurts children who need a forever home. we hope the state of oregon will do the right thing and allow jessica to proceed with the adoption process. >> ashley: is the ophow does th?

>> well, i received the phone call toward the end of september that verbally told me we're putting the application on hold and november, i received an official denial letter that your application has been denied. >> ashley: what are you hoping comes out of this lawsuit? >> i'm hoping to be able to adopt and hoping oregon's discriminatory policies can be changed. >> ashley: have you ever heard of something like this happening? i haven't. >> unfortunately, we are seeing increasing instances of state government pushing extreme gender policy down the throat of citizens and it is disappointing that a mom like jessica has been barred to providing a home to children in need because of her religious beliefs. >> ashley: good luck on this lawsuit, i hope you get what you want out of it and hope the siblings can be adopted.

jessica and christiana, thanks so much. >> todd: preventing a -- >> ashley: this is crazy, it is out of control. president biden is laughing off the unprecedented case against donald trump, but americans have questions and even the "new york times" is fed up. >> you call january sihistoric,t was. nobody has seen this before, either. >> todd: joe concha, have you seen this before? he's on the phone finding out, he's got a lot to say about it. he's here next.

are >> todd: president biden pressing to go head-to-head with karine jean-pierre on the administration's silence. >> is he concerned at all, this could open up the possibility, set the precedent that local das

that don't like former president biden could indict him? >> i will not comment from here. >> does lack of comment mean you do not believe anything happening in new york today is one of the top issues facing the country at the moment? >> that is your assessment, not mine. we will be mindful, these are ongoing cases. >> there are 500 cases involving americans who are at risk. >> this is something all americans watch in realtime. >> you call january 6 historic, it was, none of us had seen that before. nobody has seen this before either. yoke fox news contributor joe concha joins us now, they will only comment on one, what do you make of this? >> joe: full document mode, i will not comment, i will not comment, practice makes perfect.

it is oddly inconsistent when you can comment on one ongoing investigation, but with indictment of a former president, which we talked about is unprecedented, they do not want to talk about it, i think they do not want to sdep on the story. they want trump to be the focus. when biden says anything political, it makes trump's argument this was political. sensation cnn says 76% of people think this is political. >> todd: they didn't want to talk about it, number of liberals celebrating the indictment and arraignment. watch. >> it is all happening, the gang is all here with you on a history-making afternoon. >> donald j. trump is under arrest. >> he is. >> leaving photos up for you to

take it in. >> are you sick of talking about this already? >> unprecedentsed. >> it is the super bowl. >> he's committed crimes, it is not sad, it is american justice. demonstrates we should have one law that applies to all people. >> todd: joe, your reaction. >> joe: i guess the charge against donald trump or 34, is about campaign finance violations, isn't aoc facing the same thing? if you get the wrong district attorney involved or wrong attorney general or wrong party in power, you may see this happening to democrats. we shouldn't be celebrating, when you weaponize the justice department, it can be used both ways. when folks are happy about this,

this opens up pandora's box that could lead to something that makes this country a banana republic, not the world's leading superpower, ashley. >> ashley: it is strange to think, talk about pandora's box, i think whether it goes to fruition or gets canned, i just wonder if the roles were reversed, if they would ignore the story? >> joe: it would be thrilling issue to democracy, you would not get the play this is getting and this should get a lot of play because it is unprecedented, everything involving this administration and inflation, crime, border, foreign policy will get swept under the rug because this trial isn't going to happen until

january? >> todd: insane. >> joe: iowa, think about that. like the january 6 commission took up summer of 2022, until the mid-term, it made the mid-term -- -- goal is ultimately here not to win the case, to keep it front and center in the headline to make donald trump look bad. it strengthens him in the republican party. >> todd: democrats will trot something else out to get democrats in office. this was a pushback, twitter labeling npr as state affiliated media, what is your take? >> joe: npr received $70 million in funding, they have been around since 1967. when it was created by congress, instructional, educational and cultural purposes, it is now to the left of aoc, it's journalism

is opinion presented under the guise of opinion. one example, npr last year would read the declaration of independence every july 4th and suddenly suspended doing that to talk about rights being taken away from women because of the roe v. wade decision thachl is all you need to know, they do not need funding, they are stut-run media, that is a shame, original intent was to educate people and give them news. >> todd: intent of the da's office in new york city was to prosecute crime, that is different, as well. conservative college students running in student body election on free speech and safety and guess what, they are winning. two of america's future leaders next. >> ashley: speaker mccarthy set to meet with taiwan president in

the face of china threats. cheryl casone will preview the high-stakes meeting. no secret the communist china party has eyes on taiwan. we need to make sure she knows that we stand with taiwan. hey, man. you could save hundreds for safe driving with liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance. so you only pay for what you need! whoo! we gotta go again. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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>> todd: house speaker mccarthy ignoring threats from china and going through with today's meeting with taiwan's president. >> ashley: cheryl casone is here with more. >> cheryl: good morning, kevin mccarthy confirming he will meet with the taiwanese president at ronald reagan library. tension between taiwan and china have escalated. china is calling the summit a provocation and claims taiwan is part of china. representative carlos gimenez joined me last hour. >> carlos: no secret the chinese communist party has eyes on taiwan and want to reunify taiwan to the mainland and bring them under control like they did hong kong. make sure he knows we stand with taiwan. >> cheryl: if she makes contact with house speaker mccarthy, it

will be another provocation that seriously violates the one china principle, undermines sovereignty and peace and stability in the taiwan strait. remember nancy pelosi traveled to taiwan and the chinese responded at that time with live fire military exercises, we shall see what happens today. >> todd: kudos to stanford for standing up to woke students. >> cheryl: stanford university president promising they will safeguard free speech after this viral event was caught on camera, with students heckeling judge kyrle duncan. >> your racism is showing. >> cheryl: the president of stanford, this quarter we will announce new initiatives for norms and values at stanford.

duncan, a federal judge, ambushed by the woke mob of law students and dean of diversity, equity and inclusion at that event. a lot of law students, my question would be, what exactly, what job will you get after you heckled a federal judge? just a question. >> todd: good luck heckeling a partner or judge when you are doing work, gone if that happens. thank you. ion conservatives getting electioned to student government and pushing back against growing shift on campus to call out agenda of college administrations to provide more resources to the same organizations that divide the student body and promote harm to the first amendment. newly elected campus reform correspondents join me now. dillon, how are you selling conservatism on campus to a young and very young and liberal

student body? >> thank you for having me on here. the first thing i do is i ran for a senate campaign at texas tech and you sell it by telling the student body, we want to implement safety futures and implement first amendment to be safe on campus and those two main priorities i have on my campaign got me to my spot and made a lot of liberal side come out on election day. >> todd: interesting. michael, dillon mentioned first amendment, how important are first amendment issues and basically being blocked from exercising your first amendment rights stuck out to students on campus so much so they said we're giving michael our vote? >> yeah, a perfect example, todd, last fall matt walsh came to speak on campus and students were tearing down fliers and

advertising the event. 400 protesters were outside. it shows young conservatives don't have a voice on our campus. >> todd: dillon, when i was in school, we are going to get better food in the cafeteria or keep the cafeteria open an hour later, you are looking to ensure student safety as the homicide rate has gone up 9% in 2022, typically a function for adults in the room, how do you bring conservative principles to lower that rate hopefully to zero? >> when conservative values help with that, i believe that students are first. it shouldn't have to be where organizations that separate us come first. now the thing is, we can say for example, have 10 blue light posts or signals to notify police on campus and it will not

help out when you add more of those and conservative values of people come first, with that help promote more safety features we implement on campus and promote more legislation for the students. >> todd: michael, similarly, your focus is on something the city and the people of houston and the community houston college there graduation rate at 54%, not typically something the student body takes over, how will your approach help that number rise? >> yeah, i want to take hands-on approach with our chancellor to make the university of houston a top 50 university in the nation and work with my dean to get connections with local corporations. we need to work on our grade

policy, it is very deflationary, things need work and i came in as a young conservative student and the current administration is pushing too far to the left. perfect seat for back to basic candidate. >> todd: when you see the events of yesterday, donald trump getting arraigned in new york city, do you worry because of your conservative views this liberal world will come after you and prevent you from being conservative or trying to stop you? >> sometimes i do, especially on college campus with majority of liberal student body, even on my own campus, i can't speak my own mind. i want young conservatives to know they can and should and let our voices be heard. >> todd: leave it there, best of luck, you're the future. appreciate it. case against donald trump, able to go through bragg's indictment, former president

calls a political hit job on behalf of biden and democrats. >> the only crime i've committed is to defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it. radical left lunatics want to interfere with elections by using law enforcement. >> todd: florida attorney general ashley moody here live with her reaction. >> ashley: first brian kilmeade will look at what is coming up on "fox and friends." >> brian: straight ahead in 15 minutes, world reacting to the 34 felony counts against donald trump. we have tom cotton senator from arkansas, james comer, on where they are at with the biden investigation and revelations and jim jordan on how they plan on getting alvin bragg to new york city and bret baier will take overall view, clay travis and morgan ortagus will react live and a panel on whether the

indictment changes their minds and we have new poll numbers. you have a former executive assistant to joe biden facing tough questions on classified documents found in his possession, that investigation is moving forward. yeah, there is one. and severe weather today. janice dean all over it, also we're not done yet, i don't know if we can fit it in, admiral mccraven will be here, he has a new book telling us secrets to being successful in life. that is all i got, we're out of music, please get dressed and join us innin 92. -- in nine. ♪ hey pops - what's cookin'? [laughs] ahh? mmm. ahh. and i am linda. my turn!

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♪ >> and i never thought anything like this could happen in america. never thought it could happen. the only crime that i have commitside to fearlessly defend our nation from those owho seek to destroy it.

this is 5% cushion, not an investigation. >> former president trump taking to the podium just hours after his unprecedented arrest, ripping manhattan d.a. alvin bragg for what he called the case of political persecution. >> todd: florida attorney general ashley moody here to react. a.g. moody you literally draft indictments for a living. can you find the crime here? >> no, i think president trump did a great job of laying out why alvin bragg's statement that crimes commitside a farce. trump come out and reminded everybody this is the first of so many prosecutions and civil investigations and there have been prior ones in which he has been vindicated. look at the people bringing them they are all people who campaigned on getting president trump. he wanted to stress that, again, that these are politically

motivated. you know, i think if you just look at the weakness of the indictment, when asked about it, look, these look like misdemeanors you tried stretch into felonies. you are probably trying to do that to beat the statute of limitations or create a felony where there is none, they asked bragg specifically and kudos to the reporters who did this. they said what are the crimes that you are alleging he was trying to conceal and bragg couldn't answer that or wouldn't ape that he said i don't -- you know, we don't have to say that and they said well, what could those be? we don't have to tell you. that speaks volumes. i would not be surprised and president trump mentioned this last night if there is a motion to disqualify this judge. there is some indication that his daughter had worked for kamala harris. that her firm had consulted with schiff. so, these are all things that go to whether or not this is a legitimate prosecution or

whether this is politically motivated. the president did a great job laying that out last night. >> ashley: i'm so glad you brought that out. i got hung up on that one part where the law didn't require me to tell you. you would think he want to tell us everything after all of this has been dragged out a couple weeks. a florida grand jury wrapped up a 5 month long investigation into trump administration migrant children into florida. concluded that the biden department of health and human services facilitating the forced migration sale and abuse of foreign children. and some of our fellow florida residents in some way funding and incent siding it for primarily economic reasons. the findings in this investigation, they are very troubling. >> shocking. as a mother, the circumstances and horrific threats that these children are exposed to. mayorkas, biden, this is on them

at the time we he will only knew about the middle of the night flights across the country. now a grand jury has found that these children are being encouraged to come here because of biden's policy and mayorkas and when they are, the administration rapidly processes them, they don't do much of any investigation they have been sent to live with people they don't know. they have been sold for sex. they have been abused and in some cases these people have listed strip clubs as places where they are intending to go this is indeed trafficking. there is no other word for it. and it is shocking to me that we are talking about such a flimsy case against a former president of the united states and we are not talking about a current case against this president and mayorkas for trafficking children or at least turning a blind eye to what is actually happening.

this is no longer just politicians talking about it. these are findings from a grand jury who spent months investigating. >> todd: great point new york is investigating trump over completely legal payments. we will see if your state florida there and you prosecute those responsible for the trafficking of migrant children. ashley moody. we appreciate your time. got to go. "fox & friends" begins right now. >> ashley: have a good day. ♪ >> brian: we begin with a fox news alert. former president donald trump pleading guilty -- not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifies business records. >> ainsley: charges stem from alleged hush money payments made for the 2016 election. >> steve: okay. lucas tomlinson joins us live in washington with the details. we told people that yesterday was going to be busy and today we would be the post game show so you kick things off. okay? >> sounds good. good morning, steve, ainsley and brian. all the charges relate to alleged be hush mone