jefferson. he didn't want to go to the capital. think of the 1893 inauguration of grover cleveland after being defeated by benjamin harrison and they have to go to the capital. they didn't like each other very much but understood the importance of the symbol to the united states. >> dana: it is a symbol to our allies and adversaries. we have a different foreign policy situation now that president trump will inherit in just about two months. >> bill: there is the motorcade as we wrap up our coverage here and hand off to our colleague harris faulkner and continuing coverage. see how long the meeting goes and watch for the tone and words once that meeting concludes. >> dana: you know what we like about these people? the they're on time. harris faulkner is next. >> harris: together this hour we have a front row seat to history.

it is happening in our nation's capital right now. soon president-elect donald trump will be at the white house for an oval office meeting with president biden. it will mark the first face-to-face between the two men since biden's disastrous debate performance june 27th before kamala harris moved up atop the ticket. the fallout played a major role in his withdrawal there the presidential race. i'm harris faulkner and you are in "the faulkner focus." republicans are on the brink of full control. white house, u.s. senate and possibly the u.s. house. it is close. earlier this morning trump huddled with house gop leaders and here he is just before that meeting. >> it's always nice to win. a lot of good friends in this room. so you know we had like historic kind of numbers. especially for the president but we won't get into that. the house did very well.

we worked with a lot of you to get you in and you helped me and you helped me, too. and my numbers were, so they say, the 129 years the most important election in 129 years. that's pretty good. >> harris: today's traditional presidential transition meeting could be an awkward one. biden and his fellow democrats are likely still hurting from their crushing defeat in last week's election. many of them have been quite emotional. biden also threw plenty of shade trump's way in recent weeks including calling his supporters garbage. you remember that moment. we have an expert lineup of analysts ready to breakdown what we see coming out of the oval office this hour. we'll begin with peter doocy on the north lawn. get us started. >> it will get started any minute. we can hear a helicopter overhead as the cars come into

the white house complex. as busy on the north side of the white house with camera crews and well-wishers for donald trump as any day since the inauguration and these people are not here for the 10:00 joe biden and jill biden career classrooms to career event. they want to see whatever they can from this meeting and officials here are telling us they know that for the last week or so donald trump has already been conducting his own form of foreign policy lite. >> so here is the the thing. he is the president-elect. every president-elect receives calls from world leaders, takes calls from world leaders and has calls from them. it is not unusual. i don't have a comment beyond that. any specifics or details is something for the trump transition to speak to. >> new detail about the traditional first lady's tea that is not happening. melania trump's office is saying she will not be attending the meeting at the white house.

her husband's return to have the trance -- in this instance receive people in the media. be disserng with your source of news. joe biden claims that he is not going to pardon hunter biden. donald trump is saying he is open to it. >> president biden says that he is not going to pardon his son, hunter. will he ask donald trump to do that? >> i don't have anything else to share about that. i won't go down a rabbit hole on this. the president have been clear when we've been asked this question. >> the white house is planning any minute to let a small group of reporters into the oval office to photograph and take video of the beginning of this meeting. any details about what happens behind closed doors we'll need one of the presidents to tell us what was going on. a quick note on the way here president biden -- president trump stopped at a hotel for a

house gop conference meeting. the print pool sent us a note that once cameras were out he said i suspect i won't be running again unless you do something he told the republican lawmakers. some other reporters who were there with the tv side of things say that was met with laughs and that it was intended as a joke, harris. >> harris: all right, peter doocy has teed it off for us. the power panel is meeting the moment of this historic day. martha maccallum, john roberts, america reports co-anchor, harold ford junior former democratic congressman. katie pavlich fox news contributor and town hall.com editor. great to see you all. we'll look at the portico now. as soon as the president-elect shows up, the action begins. once the cameras are able to be on him right now at the white house. so martha, talk with me about

really the context of this moment. >> you go back to the 2020 election. i think at that point president trump was believing that he was on the cusp of a second term. after everything that transpired on january 6th and all of what followed and all of the lawsuits and litigation and the indictments, he kept persevering and wanted to make it back to where he is about to go minutes from now. he wanted to finish the business of making america great again. that has been his motivation throughout all of this. he is an incredibly resilient political figure. no matter where people fall on the spectrum with regard to this president they set up shots getting ready for this but you have to agree across the board he is a unique, resilient political figure. this is donald trump's moment to return to the white house.

>> harris: john roberts, i'm curious to know what people are saying leading up to this moment. it has not just been a week since the election but four years since trump chose not to invite biden after the 2020 election. >> and i have to admit i'm getting nostalgic. the stake out position i don't know how many times i stood at that position waiting for officials to come out of the west wing entrance after meeting with president trump. you know, obviously people who supported trump, more than 75 million are looking forward to the next four years. i say this, that i think trump will be more effective in the next four years than he would have been had he won re-election in 2020 for the following reasons. the american public got a taste of what four years of biden was like and by and large clearly they did not like it. trump has had four years out of office to think about his first administration and what he would do differently in a second.

rather than going leaping from one term right not second term he has had a chance to think about it and why getting his cabinet out as quickly as he is and he whats a bigger to do list now than 2020. so i think to some degree, the next four years under trump will be more effective for his administration than they would have been in the previous four years. i expect, too, that you will hear democrats latch onto what he said in the gop conference meeting about this will be the last time i run for president unless you do something. referring to the 22nd amendment passed after a democrat won four terms. franklin roosevelt. i'm sure it was meant as a joke and taken as a joke in the room itself but that might give more fuel to people who think that trump will never leave office. i'm sure he will unless they change the 22nd amendment. not much danger of that in the next four years.

>> harris: bill hemmer walked on the set and we're all assembled here. you have been on for the last couple of hours and talk about the ramp up of this. the president biden and president-elect trump are now at the white house. our cameras cannot see everything as they pull into place here. >> bill: i just think about who this man is and what he has accomplished. he is a force of nature. and as a politician he is asymmetric and you never know where he is coming from and we learned that the first time around and world leaders learned that, too. i guess there is a lot of things that come to mind. two things right now. the world is a much different place and much more dangerous place than when donald trump knew it going into office in 2017. the other thing that comes to mind is i know that family members met with him two years

ago and i know they told him don't do it. and i know he said i'm going for it. and now we have this electoral landslide 24 months later that he campaigned and managed almost entirely on his own. >> harris: i will cut in for a second. we won't be able to see anything for the first few seconds but the oval office meeting between president biden who you know shortly after the election last week invited president-elect donald trump to the white house. that meeting has begun. finish your thought. >> bill: think about the campaign he ran and the polling, neck-and-neck and running around doing the rallies and he agreed to a debate on the 15th of may because he wanted to get back on the stage with joe biden and he was trying to smoke joe biden out and get on the national stage. >> harris: he did. >> bill: they did and had that debate. i know his campaign and he

thought joe biden was never going to drop out of this campaign and he did. then they had the old switch and well, he lined it up and hit all those rallies and points. he stuck to policy in this campaign. was more disciplined, i would argue, than we have ever seen him. harris, he wanted this more than even he can describe. >> harris: there were some things, though, that no one could have foreseen and two assassination attempts on a presidential candidate's life in this country at this time in our history was a lot for the nation to take. and while he may have wanted it, it became more complicated. i have been around him with the secret service offices and it is more complicated keeping him safe and that has been part of hits journey. harold, i will come to you. history being made. you have a president who beat

the man who just beat the person who biden gave up his seat for, kamala harris. i don't know if we'll ever see anything like this in the future. we certainly don't have anything to compare it to in our past. what is your party thinking at this moment? what are they looking for at this moment? you have some soul searching. i heard you talk about it. healing, rebuilding. what does this moment mean to democrats? >> first off, good morning and thanks for having me. i think the moment before i address the question. the moment is powerful said by other guests for the world to witness and digest the kind of transfer of power we do in the country. our country is really important. some of the direct and harsh things said by both campaigns about the other is a part of our tradition but the most important part of the tradition is this what we're witnessing here. i trust they are having a positive meeting. to your question, harris, democrats like any party that is

not farewell in an election, in this election here we haven't seen quite a beating with another party giving to another party in the last 40 years since ronald reagan won in 1980. soul searching and issue searching and culture searching in the democratic party about who we are. traditional aspect to this as well. >> harris: i want to be able to step in and just let everybody know and forgive me, harold. my team is giving me realtime information here. the meeting is still ongoing at this point. just to reset for people who might be just now tuning in. the president-elect was very close to being on time for starting this at 11:00 a.m. just a few minutes past that. we'll keep contact with our teams there and there may be moments that feel bumpy as my team keeps me informed of their movement. any time anybody walks toward a door or shifts we have a bevy of

reporters from all networks certainly fox is represented there as you see on the left side of your screen. harold, again, i ask for your grace as we continue to do this because this will move by quickly and we want to keep up. harold, please continue. >> you will have my grace. interrupt me whenever you wish. i think democrats have to understand that president trump won in a conventional way as well. he promised americans he would protect them against threats to democracy high gas prices, high food prices, he promised he would fix the border. he promised that he would lower taxes. these are things that president trump will be expected to deliver on. democrats will work with him when they believe it is in their best interests or best interests. the way you built this up is the right way that the beginning of the peaceful transfer of power. in the beginning as bill said so well at the outset ushering in of another way of looking at

this. john roberts point needs to be emphasized. president trump having taken four years off from being president because joe biden won, he will likely be more productive. i think that point that john made should be amplified. >> harris: harold, i don't think anybody would say this man has taken four years off. he has been basically running ever since and certainly in the last two years and keeping up with him katie pavlich. you know, you have been at some of the events and have seen the circle and entourage around him. keeping up with him is more than a full-time job. so he has got extra energy right now as he enters the second term. listening to the positivity from harold, i hope the rest of his party can hear it because not many americans right now are certain how to heal the country. what are your thoughts this morning? again, biden and trump inside the white house, oval office meeting, katie. >> i can confirm there is a transition underway, traffic in

washington, d.c. is at a stand still and there are motorcades trying to get to and fro all these meetings. d.c. is teaming with excitement and fun to see. look, both of these men have been through so much in the past just five months. you think about the fact that joe biden, who is the one who wanted this second term as president, is handing over the reins to president-elect donald trump who is now going to have a second term starting in january. biden was pushed out of this position despite the narrative that he voluntarily gave up power. he really was taken out of running for a second term and then, of course, we had the lunch yesterday with kamala harris and joe biden and questions from peter doocy whether it was awkward or not. i would say the meeting stayed between president-elect trump and joe biden is a friendly one. donald trump is somebody who is very forgiving as long as you are not running against him

doing deals against him or fighting against him. and so i'm sure he is wanting to move on. certainly given -- doing all these appointments at breakneck speed and a number of groups working to fill his government with qualified individuals to move his agenda forward and he talks about this on capitol hill today, he worked hard to get republicans under him elected so he would have this maga mandate going into his second term so they could get his agenda pushed forward quickly and without delay. now finally i would say the big question is going to be, of course, on capitol hill you have representatives, democrats who may be willing to work with him on some of these big policy issues but there is the problem of the bureaucracies talking about eliminating agencies, firing a bunch of career workers. the bureaucracy will bite back and it will be where the real work begins when it comes to his return to washington, d.c. >> harris: sounds like a future

episode of "star wars." i mean, bureaucracy is like "the empire strikes back." katie, i stay with you for a second. you mentioned the movement and people he has chosen. anybody who surprised you on the list or you are hearing as you talk with other analysts and voters was a pleasant surprise and needed to happen? just a quick take on that. >> i think we were all surprised that pete hegseth was announced last night as the secretary of defense. and looking at the way that people in d.c. react to that is an interesting pick. >> harris: we want to go inside the oval office. let's watch. >> not a very nice world but it is a nice world today and i appreciate very much a transition that is so smooth. it will be as smooth as it can get and i very much appreciate that, joe. >> you're welcome. thank you all. [shouted questions]

>> harris: so obviously this was in progress and in my studio we have a lot of networks on at the same time so i can see out of the corner of my eye this caught everybody off guard. no warning that this was going to be a live opportunity right then inside the oval office. traditional one but we weren't certain of when the private comments would give way to this public moment. we want to rerack it from the top. we do digitally capture these things so you can see it in its entirety. that's ready for us to watch for the first time together. it is short but i want you to see all of it.

>> mr. president elect and former president and donald, congratulations. and looking forward to having, like we said, a smooth transition. do everything we can to make sure you are accommodated and what you need. we'll get a chance to talk about that today. welcome back. >> thank you. politics is tough and it is in many cases not a very nice world. it is a nice world today and i appreciate very much a transition that is so smooth. it will be as smooth as it can get and i very much appreciate that, joe. >> you're welcome. thank you all. [shouted questions] >> harris: so there are a lot of things to gather in those few moments which is why it's important to see all of them.

we hadn't heard from biden we took it so quickly. you have to see the exchange between two people who really were in quite the epic political battle. not just four years ago in 2020 but fast forward up until june 27th in that debate that basically destroyed joe biden's opportunity to stay atop the ticket for the democratic party. when you hear the president-elect say politics is tough and after that is over it can be a nice world, we're in a nice world today. martha, what goes through your mind when you hear that. >> first of all, this is very short. they brought in former president trump. it appears to me the white house wanted this to be as tight a moment as humanly possible. >> harris: why do you think that? >> gracious invitation from joe biden. joe biden is a career life long politics. they couldn't be more different. donald trump spent his entire

life in business and became president and learned the ropes. joe biden has in washington since he was 28 years old. these two men while they are in the same ballpark of age light years apart in so many ways. they wanted this to be tight, harris. i don't think they wanted to give the incoming president the opportunity to take this moment over but it was a cordial moment between these two men and what america wants to see. i thought for me the most poignant moment was when biden looked at trump and said welcome back. >> harris: bill. >> quite a moment. i wrote that down as well. the fire behind them in ripping. i don't know if the meeting they are about to have will be as warm as that fire between the two men and we'll find out in moments. when he met with barack obama the meeting went 90 minutes. who is to say how long this goes? jake sullivan on sunday said we want to know what his ideas are.

i don't think donald trump is the kind of guy who wants to show his hand. he has fires to put out all over the world. some of the cabinet but the people on his team are very interesting. fox digital reported two hours ago they broke the news there will be a ukraine envoy to try to settle that matter. that will be massively complicated, by the way. >> harris: do you think it will come up as these two men talk? >> bill: that would be my guess. trump isn't the kind of guy that wants to show his hand on this. president biden wants trump to know what they are doing now. there is a great piece in the "wall street journal" this morning laying out how complicated this is to peel away the different factions whether it's putin, iran, whether it's the north koreans with upwards of ten to 15,000 troops ready to join that battle. and then you've got zelenskyy and whether or not he would take a deal. so that's massively complicated.

i think the other thing steven witkoff is a highly successful and very accomplished individual and really good friends with donald trump going back 30 years. he will be the middle east envoy. there is a possibility. this peace deal that was moving forward between the saudis and israelis that was blown up on october 7th after hamas broke through the fence and went into israel. that has a chance of coming back. that has a chance of coming back on track. if it does, that entire region has the potential to change. >> harris: that's so interesting because we have seen reports recently of jared kushner coming back into the picture a little bit. of course, the abraham accords were so monumental. one of the few areas biden didn't touch in terms of trump policy. i think he gets where we are in the world. he won't expire lack of a better

term the weapons money we're giving them and the things that go with that. actual weapons to israel. that calendar has slowed down under biden's watch. martha, your quick thought. >> secretary of state spokesperson saying we're not going to basically publicly admonish israel yet, right? we're not going to cut off the weapons supply yet. we're watching what happens. we're watching whether or not enough aid flows into gaza. the tone has shifted dramatically with the people who have been appointed. mike huckabee will be the ambassador to israel. this is a team that is very israel-strength focused. we know netanyahu and trump have had at least three conversations. the tone has completely changed. my guess former president trump loves to interact with people and loves to talk to people. i think this meeting will be beefy in that respect. but i don't think they are going

to dig a lot into the future policies. >> harris: bill made a good point. gianno, i will come to you next. trump won't show his hand. he did a bit when he was running to voters and maybe part and parcel for the support he got from the jewish community. you cannot ignore the pickup of jewish voters in this country given all the anti-semitic behaviors, riots, protests, death threats, actual violence. it has been quite the last six months to a year. so it makes sense for him to make that public during the campaign what he would do. he was going to reach out and talk with leaders before he became the president in january. just your thoughts in reporting on that. i know you were in israel not too long ago. >> yeah, i think that the appointment of mike huckabee and the appointment of him is a brilliant move.

israel loves huckabee and it will facilitate a constructive dialogue between the united states and israel. don't forget, the president vowed to end the ukraine war before he took office. we'll see what he does on that front and see what his conversations with vladimir putin might lead to. this idea of maybe ending the war in the middle east in a fairly short time period i think is one that will go over well. a friend of mine lives in beirut. she told me that all the women in lebanon are crushing over the choice of pete hegseth for defense secretary. a good looking fellow and like his military record and think he will be part of this idea of peace through strength. let me come back to the point i was making earlier that harold alluded to about the effectiveness of a trump second term. don't forget literally from the moment he took office on january 20th, 2017, he was under siege from democrats and under

siege from the media at every turn the wolves were at the door. over the past four years and i never meant to say that he was not working, because he was working every day, just out of office. over the last four years he has come to realize and identify where the traps are, where the pit fallss are in the presidency and how to avoid them. by virtue of the cabinet picks re picks we've seen so far trump learned a lot from his first administration and i think he won't be as undersiege as he would have been had he just gone immediately to the second term. >> harris: judge merchan might have something to say a about that. we thought we would get something in the case. that date moves off the calendar and waiting for november 19th to see if that conviction will stay and there will be sentencing with that. i mean, we're still -- we're still watching lawfare against this president-elect. it is an interesting spot to be

in. i will ask my team, if you would, let's recap and reshow if we can president biden, who invited president-elect donald trump inside the white house. let's watch. >> and looking forward to having, like we said, a smooth transition. do everything we can to accommodate and you get what you need. we'll talk about that today. welcome back, man. >> thank you very much. politics is tough and it is in many cases not a very nice world. it is a nice world today and i appreciate very much a transition that is so smooth. it will be as smooth as it can get and i very much appreciate that, joe. >> you're welcome. thank you all. [shouted questions] >> harris: well, martha and i gave each other a glance there. i didn't realize it was two welcomes and a welcome back.

quite a moment. i do think you're right to point out, martha, that we didn't know how this was going to go. it went fast as we have all said here. i want to thank everybody. bill and martha for being re. so many big, historic moments in the last few days we're all sharing together. >> bill: stay nimble. >> harris: we're ready to go. harold, john, katie, thank you very much and we'll be right back, stay close. with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! —uh. —here i'll take that. [cheering] ensure max protein, 30 grams protein, 1 gram sugar and a protein blend to feed muscles up to 7 hours. ♪ have you compared your medicare plan recently? with ehealth,

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27 votes from the senate's 53 republicans to take that. let's immediately check in with senior correspondent on the hill chad pergram. >> good morning. i'm told they have finished the speeches by the candidates here. i'm told john thune the republican from south dakota just wrapped up. i asked specifically to a source in the room whether or not there were to the voting yet. not yet. they think it might start in a couple of minutes. they are bow to start the vote right now. they should be voting. this will be the thing to watch. a secret ballot. 53 senators, republican senators or senators elect casting ballots. the magic number is 27. however, with three candidates if no senator gets to that outright majority, they go to a second ballot and third place finisher drops off. i'm told that it should be an advantage to john thune, the republican whip right now, to win this on a first ballot because if it goes to a second

ballot could that be a potential problem. it is generally thought on capitol hill, very hard to devine, that rick scott has the lowest number of votes between thune and cornyn. if he comes in at ten or 12 votes he would drop out. what would happen to those votes? would they go to cornyn and john thune? we've seen it in other leadership votes before. it is how -- there were three candidates in 2006 and blunt had more votes from boehner. but the votes went to boehner and became speaker of the house. very hard to read and very organic and i'm told they are three or four votes through this. so far president-elect trump has not weighed in. he was discouraged by many republican senators from

weighing in on the vote. they didn't want him to get over his skis potentially where maybe he would bet on one of these horses and somebody else would win and it could be a bad look for the incoming president. the other thing to look for is any animosity for some who pushed for the veering away from the leadership of mcconnell. john thune and cornyn have both served in the leadership and a thought upon some republicans they want a clean break away from them. rick scott probably has the closest relationship with president-elect trump and the other question that we don't have answered right now is whether or not senator vance from ohio, still a senator from ohio, would vote. he came in this morning. i asked him whether or not he would vote. he was silent. he is a senator until early next year and press his thumb on the scale in that room. >> harris: as vice president after sworn in he will be the

president of that same senate. interesting to see what he does. chad pergram, stay put and we'll check back if there is news this hour. i appreciate you. senior white house correspondent peter doocy has an important spot right now. he is on the north lawn and peter we're waiting to hear more about that meeting between president biden and president-elect donald trump. you are in the spot where everybody waits by the microphones to see if they will come out and talk to the people. what's happening? >> there are so many more microphones than usual. you would think it was already the first day of the next administration. you would think donald trump is not going to be coming back but he will be coming back in 68 days. the only way because of the layout today where the press goes in at the beginning and gets kicked out the only way we can tell the meeting is ongoing with the two presidents in the oval office is there is a marine. we're here at the biden-harris white house. on the stairs over here at the

eisenhower executive office building a group of curious staffers working for the biden-harris administration, have gathered just to try to get a glimpse of the next president. beyond that we don't have very much information other than what we all saw the two presidents sitting there next to a raging fire. somebody came and put a couple extra logs on that thing this morning just for the special guest. so we're in position. we're in position if donald trump -- it was really something because donald trump is infamous for talking for a very, very long time in those oval office pool sprays. joe biden, his host, is infamous for saying nothing and then just complaining to his guests people are shouting questions at him. donald trump was letting his host lead the way. >> harris: that would be appropriate, right? he is still the president as martha and bill and i have been

talking about on set today. this might have been a situation where the white house wanted to keep things relatively short. do you really want the incoming president-elect who biden told welcome twice, welcome back once, do you really want that person to take over the meeting and be the only thing that anybody talks about? this is a moment of competition between these two men, too. you've seen it play out as we have over the last weeks and months with kamala harris on top of the ticket. there were times it felt like these men were still talking to each other and biden went after trump supporters calling them garbage in one situation that went viral. so this is a big moment for both of them. i can understand, as martha has pointed out today, while the white house may want to leave it breathe. joe biden has made some mistakes.

his mouth tends to get him in trouble. they don't either have a problem expressing themselves. peter, thank you so much. can we take one more watch just from the beginning? okay. all right. let's watch. >> we'll take a look on the other side of this commercial break. stay close. according to your vibe. pick a base frame, a top frame, and click! use your vision insurance for exams, glasses and contacts all at america's best. han is 22 years old. he's not just a pet, he really is a part of our family. knowing that he's getting good nutrition, that's a huge relief for me and my dad. (sings) old bean piglet head yes that is your name. if you saw his piglet head

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>> harris: all right. we have had so much breaking news this hour it continues. i want to set the scene once again because this is such a big moment you can't see it enough and then there is a new layer to it we've learned about. president biden, president-elect donald trump in the oval office a little while ago. watch. >> well, mr. president elect and former president, donald, congratulations and looking forward to having a, like we said, a smooth transition. do everything we can to make sure you are accommodated and what you need and we'll get a chance to talk about some of that today. good. welcome. welcome back. >> thank you very much and

politics is tough and it is in many cases not a very nice world but it is a nice world today and i appreciate very much a transition that is so smooth. it will be as smooth as it can get and i very much appreciate that, joe. >> you're welcome. thank you all. [shouted questions] >> harris: what we're learning is a little more texture to what had preceded what we just saw. that is when they greeted at the door. normally we get this on camera. normally we have these moments on camera. maybe they will follow later this afternoon but right now we don't have them. the first lady, jill biden, joined her husband and handed president-elect trump a handwritten letter. in the letter, we understand it is a letter of readiness and all about the transition. that might be something you would think these two men would talk about in person. i want to bring back martha maccallum and bill hemmer.

bill, on first blush we don't know what we don't know. we're learning some of that. >> bill: i really think the tone and what is expressed after this meeting is important. we'll read tea leaves. inflation report came out 2 1/2 hours ago. it wasn't great, ticked up a bit more from a year ago. gas is $3.08 nationwide. drill baby drill and how it helps out the economy and inflation. a point of comment here. we'll understand it better over time. i think the secret service has its work cut out for itself in a significant way. i am almost led to believe when trump is president. talking with a couple of folks on our staff yesterday. they are younger and weren't around the first time around. when trump left walter reed recovering from covid there was something that happened in washington that i had never seen

before. there was the fox local affiliate that was the pool in a helicopter that followed donald trump from the hospital all the way back to the south lawn. then he walks up the back steps and rips off his mask and that's trump's tv production ability. that's the way he sees things. notice today that when he went to meet house republicans in that hotel, we never saw him go in, never saw him go out. i don't believe we saw him go in the white house today. why am i bringing this up? threats on his life on behalf of the iranians, everybody is watching tv around the world. it could be that the movements of this president will not be broadcast in the same way that he would like during a second term. it's an observation. i hope i'm dead wrong about it but something to ratch. >> harris: let me join your observation and a counter one for a second. what of the protection not around safety of an individual but legacy reputation and

current world affairs and domestic affairs given the not so good news in the economy that just broke two hours ago. what if it's about joe biden. he hasn't been able to handle in any stable way an important moment in quite some time and the brevity of his comments today, bill and martha, really would lead you to believe that he is not just being, you know, respectful and quite. he can be. but he makes a lot of mistakes with his mouth. those footsteps i'm thinking of the beach, thinking of delaware recently, the current president has a hard time going forward with his feet. we've seen him fall. we are on the same page, bill, in terms of is there some sort of guarding or protection with what we don't see now. i think it could be about joe biden. >> bill is right about secret

service protection and also you are exactly right about the protection that is in play for joe biden. think about the last time these two men were together june 27th on debate stage. i think even president trump was a bit blown away by what we watched unfold on that debate stage. remember, he really did not draw attention to what was happening on the debate stage except for the one time when he said i don't know what he said at the end there. i'm not sure he knows. i think you are going to see a lot of reporting post presidency what was actually going on inside the white house. the effort to cover up joe biden's true abilities to govern and i believe that we're already seeing this battle between the clintons and obama team and the biden team and the harris team, right? just buckle up because i think we'll see a real truth telling about what was really going on in that white house. >> harris: please stay with me.

we will go to a bit of breaking news now. bill, you talked about this during the commercial break. chad pergram now. the senate republican vote to choose someone to replace the leader mitch mcconnell is underway. >> that's right. the first vote is over and there was no clear winner on that first ballot. what does that mean? three candidates, john thune, john cornyn and rick scott. we're told rick scott did not make the cut. the vote getter who got the fewest ballots drops off for the second round. it goes to a second ballot. generally it was thought this race would favor john thune, the current republican whip if he were to win on that first ballot. that did not happen here. the question that i would pose at this point is whether or not those who were for rick scott, who -- do those votes go for john thune or john cornyn? there was one school of thought it might be broken you have here. we have had other leader races

where one slate of voters went to something else. that is not wrapped up. they go to a second ballot. 53 republicans voting in this leadership i election here, 53 republicans including current senators but not the senators leaving, they retired or lost and have senators elect and jd vance is voting in the leadership race as well here. he did not comment who he was supporting and president-elect trump has not weighed in. >> harris: chad, quickly, when you say that senator rick scott of florida is no longer in the mix, does that tell you anything about the breakdown of votes that these men got? >> that is why it's so hard to read here. he had kind of an anti-establishment vote. he was certainly more aligned with president-elect trump. there were some who wanted a break from the current leadership ranks. john thune is the current whip. john cornyn the former whip. some of these folks who voted for rick scott did not get along with mitch mcconnell and they

wanted to get a break from the old leadership team. you won't get that. the two candidates now are thune and cornyn. >> harris: this could speak to the issue of what's also going on in the house. we don't know how that will shake out. i would imagine a majority is something that everybody would want. i wonder if that comes into play in any way inside the senate. i don't know. we're watching it. great reporting today, chad. we're running up against a commercial break to start "outnumbered" and we'll bring you in on the next show, i'm certain, as this continues. thank you very much. i want to thank martha and bill for being here. we have had quite a front seat to history in the last week or so. i feel very blessed we get to do this together. thank you both. all right, thank you for watching "the faulkner focus." "outnumbered" after this commercial break. try olay super serum. for five powerful ingredients in one, it hydrates, improves texture and evenness,

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