chad pergram is following the latest on capitol hill. we'll get expert analysis from chris stirewalt on what tax reform means for the trump agenda and the country. the fbi's number two gets a closed-door grilling on capitol hill. ed henry investigates what happened today with andrew mccabe as g.o.p. criticism of him mounts. a stern warning to the world before the united nations weighs in on the trump administration's jerusalem move. it won't be forgotten. former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. john bolton is here to preview thursday's showdown at the u.n. hello and welcome to "fox news @ night." i am shannon bream in washington. new tonight on tax reform, the united states and it is moments away from a vote that many even in president trump's own party often doubted what happened by christmas. yet here we are in the final moments of a debate on tax reform, bill the democrats claim would punish the middle-class at the expense of the rich. republicans say it will cut taxes for the vast majority of americans and ignite the u.s. economy. the hou

david: chad pergram, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me.issa: day of rage turns deadly as violence spreads across the middle east. the u.n. security council is meeting to discuss the increasingly tense situation. is north korea feeling a change of heart? it may be ready to negotiate as the u.s. and its allies grapple with the nuclear standoff. gordon change is next to break it all down. ♪ well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman? hey, ian. you know, at td ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until you're comfortable. i could be up for that. that's taking options trading from wall st. to main st. hey guys, wanna play some pool? eh, i'm not really a pool guy. what's the hesitation? it's just complicated. step-by-step options trading support from td ameritrade david: we have breaking stock news. pepsico will transfer stock listing from the new york stock exchange to the nasdaq. the move is going to be effective on december 19th after the market close. the

chad pergram, we think you always for your great work. you are a general and a lion, if you will come of congress for us here at fox news. we appreciate you. >> thank you, kelly. >> god bless you and merry christmas to you, by the way. >> merry christmas and happy hanukkah. >> december 20th, 2017, as 1 one senator product, we've been able to create relief, increase pay wages, increase jobs, and make our businesses more competitive throughout the world. we have taken the worst tax code in the world and turned it into a great opportunity. that's with the senate is saying tonight on the g.o.p. having passed this historic bill, calling it a historic night and for all of you, you have been watching special live coverage of the senate tax reform vote that took place here tonight. we at fox news have been fortunate enough to bring it to you and having chad pergram weigh in on it. again, we can only say a lot of gratitude to him. again, as he talked about, the american people will have to be sold on this as the senate and the house and the presid

fox news senior producer for capitol hill, chad pergram, live on capitol hill with the latest. ad. it looks like they're getting this done. >> reporter: well, it seems like a fait accompli. we knew the house of representatives seemed to have the votes, and they're going to have a vote on tuesday. and then it goes to the senate. there there's a little more of a question. they'll start debate on tuesday and probably try to finish this on wednesday. the reason we think that this is a fait accompli is that we got news this afternoon there bob corker, the republican senator from tennessee -- you might remember a couple of weeks ago he was the only republican no on the bill, and he said at the time i will not vote for any bill that could contribute even a penny to the deficit. even in his statement today saying he was going to be a yes, he said, you know, this still may explode the deficit. the republicans will concede that this could add $1.5 trillion in deficit spending, but he says this is a generational opportunity. i know you've been a naysayer about house speaker paul ryan. he i

we now bring in chad pergram. it is a fun historic day. sometimes boring, every day on the hill, but today, it is a day you really want to talk to someone like chad pergram. what do you know? >> right now, they are on the boat series. the first vote of this boat series, and coming up in the next two, 25, the actual vote on tax reform. when they move the similar bill to the house of representatives, in mid-november, the publicans lost on their own. i'm told the boat count will be -- they may lose a few on this, it will be passed by the house of representatives. they'll move to the senate. ten hours of debate, 5 per side, and we do not expect them to take all that time. they could have a final vote on the tax bill late, 9:30, 10:00, and then the house and senate will be in alignment. they would have passed both versions, same version, and then it goes to president trump to sign. this is a big day on capitol hill. this is something that republicans have pushed for four long time time to do something the house speaker paul ryan has pushed for

chad pergram on what happens now. chad?> the house of representatives are going to consider this bill midday tomorrow. they shouldn't have a problem passing it. and then it goes over to the senate, where they will start the debate late tomorrow afternoon. they are ten hours total of debate. we do not expect them to use it all appeared five hours for the democrats, five are for the republicans. we expect the republicans it to yield that, and a possibility the senate could pass the bill late tomorrow night if not, it would be on wednesday. they just got a boost here in the past half hour. mike lee, republican senator from utah indicated he will support the bill. he wanted to go through all 500 plus pages and make sure he understood everything that is presented. he will be a "yes." now they turn to the other two wild cards. susan collins of maine and also jeff blake a arizona. they were yeses on the bill and late november. there was only one republican ney, bob corker of tennessee, but he signaled that he will be a "yes." repu

chad pergram has a breakdown from capitol hill for us tonight.et's start this by saying, how did they get wrap this up so quickly? speak of us was a big pond. january is the new december. december was supposed to be this big month and capitol hill, the past tax reform but had other big things to do, dealing with daca, aggressing the domestic surveillance program, pfizer, and keeping the government open, may be some extra money for the military. i did not happen. they just did the minimum, catholic government open, and sent everybody home. christmas in washington, it's often said that this decision was made by the most powerful people in washington. not the members of congress, but their spouses. it was the spouses who wanted their friends and family home to do the honeydew projects, trim the tree, finish christmas shopping. that means it will be a very busy january. true that they will be able to fund the government, a very testy house republican conference meeting last night in the capital. a few minutes after the celebration on white house at t

so let's bring in chad pergram, fox news senior producer on capitol hill. e most vulnerable. merry christmas, chad. >> merry christmas. thanks for having me. >> one of the things you want to look at is the generic ballot. it favors democrats by 13 points. that's staggering. we've had the big landslide elections in 2008. certainly when republicans won control in the house in a huge landslide, we were around 7 to 8 points. 13 points is a lot. how can republicans screw this up? the field in the senate should favor republicans. but mitch mcconnell, the majority leader, is very concerned about the types of candidates that republicans might be nominating. roy moore in alabama is a case study in that. listen to what mitch mcconnell had to say about the types of candidates that could be on the ballot this year for republicans. >> want to nominate people that can win. because often -- i've said this fairly often, people that win elections create policy and others go home. go to another line of work. so yeah, we're going to be supporting people that can actually win.

no one knows more about the ins and out of all this, than chad pergram. capitol hill senior producer. he had to move mountains to get in front of a camera. we appreciate that chad. >> anytime. david: this is right before christmas. all this will plop in our laps once again, just three days before christmas? >> very possible. the congressional democratic and republican leadership just came back from the white house. meeting with president trump negotiating what they want on the next spending bill. talk to a lot of democrats, wait a minute, if you can keep the government open, dot bill you want on the 22nd great, if you can't that is a problem. we'll be there for but you need to put democratic priorities like fix for daca, so on, so forth. this bill, did pass with democratic support. looking vote total here. there were 14 democrats who voted yesterday on this bill. 235-193. so nancy pelosi did not hold the line which was threat earlier today. david: i'm going to simplify it tremendously. i would put it down to two spending issues. you have daca which the de

go to fox news's capitol hill senior producer chad pergram will give us reaction from those inside of the halls of power. what are you hearing, chad? reporter: very interesting you talk to democrats you hear one thing. you talk to republicans hear something else. mark warner had a lot to say. richard burr, chair of the intelligence committee. we pursued him earlier from north carolina. he didn't comment. said i have nothing for you, kind of walked away. mark warner, the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee, he had a lot to say. >> seems to deny this is not a major issue is donald trump. i just kind of wonder why. >> warner pointed out he thought it was interesting that michael flynn pleaded guilty to only one charge. you can't make this story up. he found it rather incredible. republicans see quite differently. listen to what pete king the former chair of the house intelligence committee, republican from new york, what he had to say. >> unfortunate general flynn served his country well. obviously what he did there as wrong. i don't see this going any further. i don't see

and i keep hearing producer who are so faint that i had no idea we are going to chad pergram. vice president pence will be breaking a tie if need be. fox news senior producer for fox news, chad pergrom. >> we are about 3 1/2 hours away from the vote in the senate. this will pass. we don't know the position of jeff flake, the senator from arizona. he voted yes a couple:weeks ago. with 99 senators voting. john mccain is absent. they don't expect vice president pence to have to break the tie. even though this has to go back to the house of representatives tomorrow, they have passed this bill no matter what. you may have heard chanting and roaring. there are a lot of protesters in the capital protesting against the tax bill. there were several arrests and we might have some arrests later tonight when they go to that vote about 11:30. lou: how long before the vote did you say? >> we are thinking around 11:30. i am told they are booked for speakers on the floor until 11:00. close to 11:30 they will start the second part of the vote. the time nusmght s. senate is not swift. they allot

it it's a do or die agenda item for the trump administration and for more on where we are now, chad pergraml hill. chad? >> good evening they are a couple of hours away, laura from actually voting on this bill. what we are looking at right now in senate language is called the voter roma. this is a series of votes that sometimes takes hours. just role call vote after "roll call" vote after "roll call" vote as they get closer to a final vote on this probably 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning on capitol hill. we are expecting this to pass. we believe they have 51 yeas on the republican side of the aisle. bob corker the republican senator from tennessee appears to be the only no. and vice president pence is going to come to the capitol here in the next couple of hours. his vote is not expected to break a tie. you know, the vice president in his capacity as president of the senate can only vote if there is a tie. i'm told that he just wants to come to preside over the senate when they presumably pass this sometime after midnight, laura. >> laura: okay, chad. thanks so much for that update. and, when w

let's get more from senior capitol hill producer chad pergram. what's the first thing they need to get done? >> from the government. deadline is january 19. senate returns on january 3. that means there is 11 calendar days defunded. the issues they had fun of the government right before christmas, they have not doused those claims. nothing is resolved. they don't have much turning radius. they have to do with cost-sharing reduction. these are the extra help they were giving the poor that president trump cut for health care. csrs. it's something that's very popular in the senate, bipartisan support, not so much in the house. the other thing is disaster funding. $81 billion package that moved through the house of representatives right before they went on recess. it did not move through the senate. they need to fix that in the senate and send it back to the house. this deals with wildfires in california, hurricanes. >> doug: all the talk about the deficit increasing. >> people are saying we are back to this crisis again. charlie dent, republican con

now let's go to chad pergram on capitol hill, our producer what next, chad? >> what next?senate. there's about a 75% chance later tonight the senate will pass this. the president will sign it. the big fight is between now and december 22. there were 14 democrats that voted for this bill today. we thought the democrats might hold the line according to nancy pelosi. they still want daca. republicans want border spending, maybe a wall. had they not passed this tonight, they would have been in a world of hurt. december 22 will be the bigger challenge, neil. >> neil: what is the magic to that day? >> say again. >> neil: the magic to the 22nd. >> the magic is that it's right before christmas. this is what mark meadows said if you do a bill that goes right before christmas, they're going to dump all sorts of other things in the bill we don't like. if we go to december 30th, it's better. it's a random date besides the fact that it's a couple days before christmas and everybody wants to get out of dodge and get home to the family and finish the christmas shopping and almost willing

it it's a do or die agenda item for the trump administration and for more on where we are now, chad pergram producer joins us from capitol hill. chad? >> good evening they are a couple of hours away, laura from actually voting on this bill. what we are looking at right now in senate language is called the voter roma. this is a series of votes that sometimes takes hours. just role call vote after "roll call" vote after "roll call" vote as they get closer to a final vote on this probably 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning on capitol hill. we are expecting this to pass. we believe they have 51 yeas on the republican side of the aisle. bob corker the republican senator from tennessee appears to be the only no. and vice president pence is going to come to the capitol here in the next couple of hours. his vote is not expected to break a tie. you know, the vice president in his capacity as president of the senate can only vote if there is a tie. i'm told that he just wants to come to preside over the senate when they presumably pass this sometime after midnight, laura. >> laura: okay, chad. thanks so muc

according to chad pergram, there's little agreement right now over how to fund the government. mike emanuel is live for us on capitol hill. let's begin with taxes. who are the senators that we're watching closely here? >> trace, we caught up with senator marco rubio that says he wants to do more on the child tax credit. here's rubio moments ago. >> consistently throughout this process, i outlined the refundable part for the child tax credit. it's only $1,100. a lot of people making $25,000 working cannot utilize as much of the credit as they need. >> two others on the fence, mike lee, like rubio is pushing to do more on the child tax credit. and bob corker was a no on the senate plan but he says he will make up his mind when he sees the final product. no surprise the speaker of the house and he disagree on the bill. >> in addition to the course that this relief gives people a simpler system and a fairer tax code, that is what this accomplishes. >> it's a monumental con job. they're not getting away with it as you can see the american people are paying attention. they know. they

let's to chad pergram. how are you?ep. >> shepard: they lost about a dozen republicans. you see the states and you know why. >> this is better than november. 13 nos on the november vote. one switch this time. tom mcclintock, a republican from california. look at most of the no votes. darrell issa from california. most of them are moderate republicans from high tax states. that tells the story. before i went on the air, they brought the house bill over to the senate. it's a big piece of legislation, about 500 pages. they're voting now on what we call the motion to proceed to the bill, this is where you have to vote to start the debate. that shouldn't be a problem. once they finish that vote, the senate is into ten hours of the bill. this is not to be filibustered. this is all under budget reconciliation, which are new to filibusters. there's a chance it could come back to the house if there's a point of order that violates the rules and that point of order is sustained. otherwise, this should pass the senate tonight. we'

we have chad pergram senior producer on capitol hill. what have you heard? >> we heard this gossip for months around here. here is the thing t will only get worse for paul ryan after they pass tax reform. he talked about getting tax reform done now for years. he was chairman of the ways and means committee. this was his life long goal. it looks like they should be able to pass this sometime next year. here is the problem, it only gets worse for paul ryan. a couple hours after that they have to pass a government funding bill. in order to keep the government open they have to put a lot of things for democrats that republican will not like. not what have you done for me lately but what have you done for this hour? 2018 he is in a swing district in a swing state. he carried by that direct only 55% when he was mitt romney's vice-presidential candidate in 2012. it favors republicans by five points. he carried it by 65% last time around. but there is a lot of barnacles here. i couple years ago i talked with trent lott, former senate majority leader. you get into le

capitol hill senior producer chad pergram is in middle of action. what is the latest on the vote? >> the absolute latest we pretty much know what the vote count will be. we don't know whether they vote later tonight or perhaps after midnight. the reason we know the vote count here in the past ten minutes we have gotten a statement from bob corker, republican of tennessee. he is the last holdout. he will be a no vote. i will read you statement off my phone here. this is yet another tough vote. i'm disappointed. i wanted to get to yes, past tense, but he couldn't. he said he called the president united states and told him his position and so we're thinking wee have a 51-49 vote sometime later tonight. someone who was able to get to yes is jeff flake. once we saw jeff flake, the republican senator from arizona was in the yea column we pretty much knew they could pass this even with a tie with mike pence the vice president, breaking that tie. senator flake indicated that he got some as shunses they would address daca later on. he was concerned about deficit reduction, exploding debt w

a plan to keep the government running past tomorrow and our senior producer for capitol hill, chad pergram, says they could be in for a long night. let's go live to peter doocy. what are the big sticking points right now with this, peter? >> the biggest one might be that the package reauthorizes fisa, a way that the law enforcement can spy on people. senator rand paul already threatening a filibuster is there is any serious discussion about a long-term extension of that provision. less controversial that we're seeing, funding for the children's health insurance program and a little bit more money for the military. >> my understanding is the how will pass or likely to pass, certainly going to vote on, a measure that will keep the government funding and extend spending for a number of weeks. has a bump on the defense side, which we badly need for missile defense and repairing damaged ships. it's actually urgent. >> the senate is able to make changes for the house if the house can send something over. as of right now, the senate is not expected to make those changes. trace? >> trace: and the

we just got a note from chad pergram, senior producer for fox news, he says jeff flake, bob corker, mike lee, all three still undecided on this bill. what do you think, how does this play out? >> ultimately marco rubio, jeff flake and mike lee will be a yes. i don't think they will be the last person standing putting up a blockade on this. ashley: would you want to be? >> i don't think they will. i think child tax credit actually the way it is structured is bad public policy but nevertheless they did coalesce and behind that, support it, expand it. but the ones who watch are corker, collins and mccain. ashley: yes. >> only can lose two as we talked about. ultimately i think it happens. by the time you get to the end of the day tuesday, perhaps wednesday, it will have passed. but hours later the funding of government will be the issue. ashley: appropriations. >> euphoric high will being tax reform passing will be demolished within hours to fund the government. ashley: get to that in a minute. get back to marco rubio. suddenly this red line from him came out of nowhere. were you surprised?

let's bring in the man of the hour, chad pergram, following the details, all things related to capitolcularly the senate and house. what can you tell us about this historic moment for the senate in g.o.p.? >> this is in fact a big win for president trump. they stumbled badly in the summer and spring to repeal and replace obamacare. they could never quite get there but don't forget there is a major provision in this bill that gets rid of the individual mandate, the requirement that you have to purchase health insurance under obamacare. that is a major provision of this bill. it was included in the senate package. it was not of the original house package. here's the lay of the land. they passed this bill tonight, 51-48. it was a party-line vote. there was one absence, john mccain, the republican from arizona. the only boat we weren't sure about, kelly, going into the roll call, was jeff flake, the republican from arizona. he was aghast when they vote in november. there was some concern about whether or not he had gotten the assurances he needed on daca. he said we need to address this in

. >> chad pergram talked a lot about this, government shutdown deadline being next friday. so then congress, you know, supposed to go on their regular christmas recess after that. say the government, it is not out of the question it would shut down that is thornier issue getting votes for tax cuts. do they come back to work on that the week after, by that point, day after christmas, the result in alabama would probably be certified. doug jones could theoretically be sworn in, which would take to your point one vote off the margin the republicans have 51-49, instead of 52-48. neil: part of the complication of tax cut would be help republicans beg legislative victory and wind at their back and they feel it. what if they don't? big tax cuts historically gone to votes with minority the americans liking them. at least going into them. they appreciated them after the fact. ronald reagan's but this might not be felt by november. >> one obvious way the big personal deduction. it will simplify tax code for many people. they have itemized options. neil: but you don't take that deduct

to fox news capitol hill producer chad pergram. what do they do in that event? >> here is what happens next couple days. they have to finish the bill text. they didn't do that in the conference meeting yesterday. that is facade. this is offstage. i'm told tomorrow there will be conference call with house republicans. they will walk them through the bill. that decision will be made whether the house bows first or senate goes first. usually you have the body that asks for the conference committee, in this case the house of representatives, they're the one that goes first, excuse me, they defer to the other body. the house asked for the conference. the senate would go first but it is not a hard and fast rule. what could happen though, they're concerned about the health of mccain, suffering from mccain issues with cancer treatment, cochran hasn't been there in a while from mississippi. the problem could they be there late at night for another vote-a-rama. where the senate votes for hours and hours. the senate has to go through what is called the byrd bath. they thro

let's bring in fox news's chad pergram. chad, we assume, by all accounts that he will resign. question is, what happens next? >> well what you do when you resign, if that in fact what happens, you resign to the secretary of the senate. in this case the secretary for the minority as well, and you resign to the governor. the governor would have to declare this seat vacant. then minnesota, the governor would have to determine if there will be a special election or appoint someone. keep in mind how critical this is right now when they're trying to move this tax reform conference committee sometime before christmas. remember that vote is right on the edge when the senate approves that bill in the wee hours of saturday morning. the vote was 51-49. of course we have the special election in couple days in alabama. that could change the calculus as well. but the bottom line is right now nobody truly knows how this is going to go. several sources with whom i have spoken says it appears that is the direction things will go but we don't really know. we had lawmakers under a cloud of scand

we have chad pergram with the latest on capitol hill. >> how are you? neil: very good. >> the house has started final debate on the tweaked version of the senate bill. they had to pull things out to match budgetary rules in the senate before we passed it in the wee hours of the morning. the house had to be in alignment. when they made the changes the house bill and senate bill did not sync up. we will have in 20 minutes, what will be the final, final vote for the tax bill. then it will be shipped to the white house. the question is when president trump will sign it. neil: i was asking you the question, when? i always think these things can be like closing on your house that you buy, if you don't wrap up quickly something could very, very, very wrong. i spoke to senators yesterday, chad, if we had our druthers we would sign this fast. >> here is the problem there. is a rule on the hill called capitol hill that is budgetary, paygo, pay as you go. that is important term. if they sign the bill this calendar year, they need waivers to run the deficits worked

pete: we hear reporting now from our own chad pergram the bill has moved in rubio's directions insideand it is, i believe, locked. it's not close to locked, which means the house and the senate have come to a complete deal for the exact same language because that's what's required for those bills to then go back to the house and senate and vote on that exact bill. you know what i haven't heard a lot about is whether the individual mandate is included in there or not. steve: it is. ainsley: if you don't want to be a part of obamacare, you don't have to be and you are not going to be penalized. steve: one thing did i read this morning the president, when he was campaigning, he was talking about how he would like to get rid of the johnson amendment. and the johnson amendment keeps churches and religious folks from essentially talking politics from the pulpit. there had been some suggestion they would get rid of that with this. but, at the 11th hour they have decided you know what? even though he wants it, it's going to cause much trouble. ainsley: excuse me. i have to talk. pete: you lik

but, congress has a lot to do when they come back as our chad pergram says that the new december is januaryuse they have got to tackle a permanent budget. they have got to tackle immigration, healthcare, and 81 billion-dollar disaster aid bill that was separated from this stop gap bill. it didn't pass the senate. so they have got to do that urgently when they get back. but, as you mentioned, the crowning legislative chiefment for this congress and administration tax reform is done. the president is probably going to sign it some time around 10:00 a.m. that's the tick tock not exactly sure. there has been speculation he would wait until january. let me address that it was to avoid these automatic spending cuts. the issue was this pay as you go budgetary rule that would have triggered automatic cuts to medicare and other programs. but that was included, a waiver of that was included in the stop gap. so, we'll see what happens, guys. it's going to be, i guess as the president says, a big present of tax cuts. ainsley: we are expecting him to sign it today because if he said he is going to deliv

chad pergram tweeted that out and added something more sinister. why did he cancel? be, you know, why email is the best/worst form of communication. what happened was the fbi had planned to have two witnesses testify. one on the 12th and one on the 19th. when they sent the email to the committee, they flipped the two witnesses. and so mccabe was supposed to testify on the 19th. they told the committee the 12th the alleged handler was supposed to testify on the 12th but they told the committee the 19th. we are trying to sort that out right now. the fbi sincerely regrets the error, obviously. steve: so a scheduling problem. >> huge scheduling problem in this case u. steve: unbelievable. all right. well, people are talking about t sara, thank you very much for joining us today from the department of justifiable. ainsley: thanks, sarah. still ahead. more on that within wanna be pt authority terrorist. steve: you thought safe spaces were bad, right? wait until you hear this. one college campus is using care bears to calm down stressed students. ainsley: that's good. we ha