our blake berman has the latest. blake: there's not widespread of shutdown but the legislation is not in place at this moment to avoid it either. thursday afternoon the house of representatives overwhelming passed a bill to fund the government through april 28th and members jetted out of town for break. however, the senate has yet to do the same. democratic senators, joe and brown as they want to secure longer-term fix for pension more minors. it bill has to be passed by midnight. it's possible a weekend showdown as democrats try to resolve their issue. despite funding the government, the funding for flint water crisis and retired general names mattis to become the next defense secretary. thank you in new york. nicole: all right, blake berman, thank you. lauren: former u.s. senator died yesterday in ohio, he made history back in 1962. he was the oldest person in space on board the space shuttle discoof ri. that was back in 1998. he was 77 year's old. he went onto turn four terms at democratic senator from the buckeye

we get more now from blake berman. k you tour, first of its kind in mot earn politics and kicked off in ohio and had a little bit of everything. mr. trump who was nominated cabinet member couldn't hold back yet another major pick. transition aides had viewed that noo ' re major selections could come this week but the president elect announced secretary of defense selection. retired central command leader ma his and he did so with flair. we are going to appoint mad dog mattis. as our secretary of defense. [cheers and applause] >> but we are not announcing it till monday, so don't tell anybody. brick blake in cincinnati mr. trump view to go bring the country together while continue to go -- continuing to lambass the media. >> there's no way that donald trump can break the blue wall, right? we didn't break it, we chattered that sucker, we chattered it. man. [cheers and applause] that poor wall is busted up. blake: more of the stops are expected in the upcoming weeks. back to you in new york. nicole: that was a lot of fun.

nicole: blake berman, thank you peer >> the present election is history, but argued about results ase head into the heart of the holiday season. if fox news poll released last night, 51% say they had arguments with friends or family about the election. voters remain divided with 77% say the country as a family breaking apart. 18% say the u.s. is a type family emerging stronger stronger from challenging times. trade to senate democratic leader chuck schumer is cleaning house in the media department. the new york democrats have fired nearly everyone in the video team. the aides saying senate democrats need to refocus their message and sharper videos and more creative content will help then do exactly that. several of those let go before the holidays had worked in the upper chamber where more than two decades. the u.s. population grew at its lowest rate since the great depression last year. a rising death from a slowdown in person a slight drop in immigration numbers contributed to a .7 increase to a population in america of 323 million. that is the smallest going back to 1936. the figu

the fox business network's blake berman with more on this. >> reporter: accord 0ing to the "washington post" the cia shared several determination wiz u.s. senators in a closed-door briefing. among them, that wikileaks got it itself -- its next czech it to the russian government. the goal, help elect donald trump to become the next president of the united states. however, that paper also reports in a separate meeting with house members, the fbi's findings were not as clear. rather, those agents were, quote, ambiguous, earlier this afternoon the white house press secretary would not comment on the intelligence but said the ties between mr. trump, some members of his campaign, and russia were publicly apparent. >> he called on russia to hack his opponents. he called on russia to hack secretary clinton. so he certainly had a pretty good sense of whose side this activity was coming down on. >> reporter: a bipartisan group of members on the hill are calling for a congressional review, and earlier today, ernest said it's unlike he the entirety of the russia-relited material becomes declassifi

the fox business network blake berman is live in d.c. >> hi, shepard. you probably saw the president-elect reiterate to chris wallace that he'll try to, quote, impose a major tax on company that is leave the country and sell back to the united states. mr. trump has said that number could be as high as 35%. however, experts we have spoken to, like derek scissors of the american enterprise institute, says the president can enact this but can't cite specific companies. >> that is why we're getting him to talk about carrier and visiting and negotiating with companies. because that authority doesn't really exist. >> reporter: mr. trump has said he wants free but fair trade. critics say signaling out specific companies engages in picking winners and losers. >> what kind of legal problems could be faced, blake? >> reporter: should a company be singled out by a tax for the president for leaving and selling back into the u.s., experts say it is likely that company would sue and then you get into quite possibly an ed immediate junction with years after that. one

we get from blake berman. e: transition of the top staff moving into the white house has been cemented. sean spicer has been i have vaited to the white house press secretary. at the rnc spicer was the right hand to reince priebus who been the incoming white house chief of staff. thursday the president elect unveiled kellyanne conway to the incoming counselor to the president. maria: she has four creamed. he got creamed on twitter. >> i would say to inch, not one because i don't want him to be creamed. i would say that i don't play golf and i don't have a misstress so i have a lot time that the other men don't. blake: she initially passed on the white house press secretary job. lauren: trump also took to twitter and called for an expansion of the u.s. nuclear arsenal. this is what he tweeted. united states must greatly strengthened and expand nuclear capability until such time till the world comes to its senses regarding nukes, this comments after vladimir putin saying that russia need today strengthened the mil

blake berman has been covering it all. we sent blake to harrisburg, pennsylvania. not exactly a warm place to be. fun you, blake, you would think they would sent you to florida. you could have made the case. reince priebus had comments on this and he said things are going to go very smoothly. with that what's supposed to be a big hour, has that been the case, have things gone smoothly? >> connell, to miami and most specifically the south beach can confirm that it is not warm here in harrisburg, pennsylvania, that is for certain. yeah, they can expect things to go pretty smoothly here and it's already gone that way. in pennsylvania harrisburg behind, lunch hour when 20 electors, republicans, remember the state went red back in november, walked into the state house and deliberated, not really deliberated but talked amongst themselves, had a discussion about an hour or so, all 20 of those votes going to president-elect donald trump, there was no wavering whatsoever. listen. >> we were all solid for trump. there was no wavering between our state chairman and vice chair

blake berman is at the site for the event. hell us feel the electricity there. reporter: this almost feels like a campaign-type event. but take a look at the sign there. it says usa thank you tour 2016. this is the president-elect thank you tour. you can see the folks in the stands wearing their trump hats, bringing their trump gear. we'll dip in for a live interview. linda and alex. we have been talking with them. you are a trump supporter be you felt the field to be here. why? >> i wanted to be heren to support trump in his post-election celebration. reporter: what do you make of him setting something up like this after the election. >> i think it's great. i'm glad he's thinking outside the box. reporter: you brought your 13-year-old grandson. what do you want to hear out of the president-elect tonight? >> i want to hear, it's pretty keel's doing the thank you tour after the election, and i kinds of want to hear how much work's been putting in on everything. reporter: as you see from these two wearing their trump hats and strum geerm. charles: it looks like yo

have democratic state senator from ohio and american majority ryan, first let's go straight to blake berman in pennsylvania from the latest on the electoral vote. hey, black -- blake. blake: electors have congresswoman and gone, they met during the noon hour. met for about an hour or so, there were 20 of them as republicans went state back in november and all 20 unofficially going down the party line casting electoral college vote for the president elect donald trump. i spoke with one elector afterwards who told me they came what they did and they did their job, before then, though, it was quite the scene out here at the pennsylvania state house steps as there were hundreds of protestors for several hours, probably about three hours or so before these electors even walked in here, they were hillary clinton -- they are hillary clinton supporters clearly unhappy with the way thicks went in november, we spoke to a couple of them. they spoke to the popular vote victory and russian meddling as one of the reasons that were out here to protest hoping electors would flip votes. this was one woman's

the fox business network's blake berman is live in washington with more. >> reporter: the top democrathe senate foreign relations committee, trying to get rex tellerson to hand over the last few years of took concerns. carden says hi concerns about the ceo never having to make public disclosures before. he said, quit, mr. tillerson was actively engaged with many foreign governments that could become relevant. the senate has a responsibility to review all relevant documents during the confirmation process. tillerson has led the largest publicly traded oil company and developed a close relationship to putin. >> but he has started the differ closure process? >> reporter: bob corker chairs the committee and says tillerson has already felled out husband questionnaire and will soon provide his financial disclosure form. however in response to carden cork issue said that conclusion for tax returns simply just isn't part of the standard confirmation process for the committee. corker writing: furthermore, prior to his confirmation hearing he he'll go the same ethics and fbi check as previous se

i want to bring in to the conversation our own blake berman who is standing by in cincinnati, ohio whereng to be a big thank you rally in ohio tonight. we were just saying, blake, how important this is for him. it's important for him and it's important for voters and it's important to the process because it's going to put a little bit of pressure on anybody who might try and stand in the way. blake: and this is somewhat unprecedented, trish, at least for modern american politics. think about it. here we are here. it is december, november is gone. we are here in southwest ohio. i think you see the line over my shoulder there. this is about to start this thank you tour in about four hours from now. you might think it's late october or early november and the rally was going to get underway. this is a thank you tour. the president elect, mr. trump will be here tonight about four hours from now, 7:30, he will be joined by his running mate, the vice president-elect mike pence and they will take the stage and basically say as the title suggests, thank you for electing him as the president of th