scott macfarlane has the story. >> reporter: georgia congresswoman marjorie taylor greene posted thisn responding after she was targeted by a bomb threat, the latest in a series of threats triggering police responses against her and other members of congress. >> this is the trend that we're seeing. these people are getting threatened in their homes. their families are being threatened. >> reporter: testimony from the u.s. capitol police reveals there have been at least 50 so-called swatting attacks on members of congress in just the past month, incidents in which someone makes a false claim of a bomb or a mass shooting at the home of a public official. >> you've got a bunch of law enforcement officers that are pounding on a door, kicking in a door and it's a recipe for chaos and a recipe for somebody innocent to get hurt or killed. >> reporter: that number you reported, 50 or so, is that a striking number to you? >> in a one-month period, yes. which means we had multiple cases a day. and, again, these are -- these are recurring all over the country. and so, yeah, it certainly got our

it will happen this year. >> scott macfarlane?long before the next election some people will be departing washington voluntarily. this is a challenging environment to be an elected official. they're getting thousands of threats a year on their lives, on their families. the travel is exhausting, and we're coming into a relatively polarizing moment with trump coming back into office. you're going to see a lot of retirements in odd number years including 2025. >> i think that's one of the reasons you're going to see justice alito step down. >> one of the other things we do in the year end correspondents table is dig in what was undercovered or underreported. jan? >> undercovered, underreported would be, to me, joe biden's obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable. >> at the presidential debate. >> unquestioned. and it's starting to emerge now that his advisers kind of managed his limitations, it's been reported in "the wall street journal," for four years, and yet he insisted he could run for president. we should have more for

scott macfarlane, thank you.e new strategies to prevent your holiday deliveries from ending up in the hands of porch pirates. that's next. cuts and a sprained wrist, but norah, who will resume his duties. >> norah: glad to see him on his feet. scott macfarlane, thank you. some new strategies to prevent your holiday deliveries from ending up in the hands of porch pirates. that's next. rapidly—leading to irreversible vision loss. now there's something you can do to... ♪ ( slow. it. down.) ♪ ♪ ( get it goin' slower.)♪ ask your doctor about izervay. ♪ (i. zer. vay.) ♪ ♪ ( gets ga goin' slower.) ♪ izervay is an eye injection. don't take it if you have an infection or active swelling in or around your eye. izervay can cause eye infection, retinal detachment, or increased risk of wet amd. izervay may temporarily increase eye pressure. do not drive or use machinery until vision has recovered after an eye injection or exam. izervay is proven to slow ga progression, which may help preserve vision longer. ♪ ( i. zer. vay.)

cbs's scott macfarlane has more on this. the. >> reporter: kash patel arrived to see if he could win a job that's already filled. president-elect donald trump wants patel to lead the 35,000 person fbi and wants to push out current director chris wray, who trump nominated in 2017 and who was supposed to hold the job until 2027. trump soured on wray for the 2022 raid of mar-a-lago and for the fbi's handling of january 6th cases. >> any thoughts about whether to continue probing the january 6th investigation? patel is a trump loyalist who pushed trump's claims of 2020 election fraud. he received a boost from chuck grassley who will chair the senate judiciary committee and urged wray to move on. patel's visit comes a day after trump revealed he wants to pardon january 6th defendants immediately upon taking office. >> we're going to look at individual cases. >> reporter: everyone? >> yes. but i'm going to be acting very quickly. >> reporter: he said the u.s. house members who investigated january 6th should be locked up. donald t

cbs's scott macfarlane reports. >> is there anything that would convince you to stand down from this nomination at all? >> reporter: former fox news host pete hegseth, a fourth day of door to door visits with senators who will decide his fate. >> do you think you're picking up momentum or losing momentum. >> reporter: hegseth denied allegations he committed sexual assault, struggled with alcohol and mismanaged two nonprofits, but a source close to the trump transition team said time is running out. >> do you think you can convince joni ernst? >> -- on the issue of alcohol? >> we had great conversations about who i am and what i believe and the man i am today. i'm a different man than i was years ago. and that's a redemption story that i think a lot of americans appreciate. >> reporter: after republican joni ernst's conversation with hegseth, she notably did not offer her endorsement. >> the vetting will continue. i am certain through the next month or so. >> reporter: meanwhile, two of trump's most famous and polarizing billionaire backers came to the capitol. elon musk with his chil

scott macfarlane, cbs news, the capitol. >>> later today, pope francis will inaugurate the 2025 holyr noun as the jubilee. at the start of christmas eve mass, the pope will open the holy door at st. peter's basilica which will stay open throughout the year. it will allow the 32 million pilgrims expected to journey to rome to pass through. pope francis says the jubilee year is an opportunity to rediscover joy. >>> coming up, an explosion sends a boat flying through the air at a busy florida marina, and how some stray animals are finding a home for the holidays. (♪♪) from celebration moments... ...to joyride moments. your moments are worth protecting against rsv. rsv is a highly contagious virus if you're 60 or older with certain chronic conditions, you're at higher risk of being hospitalized from rsv. and there are no prescription rsv treatments. you know how to protect against covid and flu. so ask your pharmacist or doctor about scheduling pfizer's rsv vaccine, too. because moments like these matter. jordan's sore nose let out a fiery sneeze, so dad grabbed puffs plus lotion to soot

cbs's scott macfarlane has been covering this from the very beginning. right, scott, let's explain this. what is tiktok saying? >> scott: another legal challenge is coming. they say they are going to go dark in the u.s. january 19th unless the supreme court intervenes and changes things. the company is a behemoth, an estimated 170 million american users, but congress passed a law requiring tiktok's sale, worried the app's owner has ties to the chinese communist party and concerns it could put americans' data at risk. tiktok challenged, arguing the ban violates the first amendment for its american users and businesses that need the platform, but the appeals court ruled today the national security concerns justify the law. norah, tiktok expected to appeal and pushback that january 19th deadline, and they are waiting for what happens the next day january 20th, when trump, who opposes a ban, comes to office. >> norah: those national security concerns about tiktok a big deal. all right, scott macfarlane thank you so much. the killing of unitedhealthcare ceo br

joining us, chief legal correspondent jan crawford, congressional correspondent scott macfarlane, chiefcorrespondent, robert costa, caitlin huey-burns, and ed o'keefe. it's great to have you all with us. scott, i want to start with you. . new congress will be sworn in this week. what position does mike johnson, the current speaker of the house, find himself in seeking re-election to that position? >> it's a tenuous position. it has the prospect and promise of having high drama friday when they begin the new congress, january 3rd by choosing the new speaker, one of the most un underappreciated and underreported issues of the election, was this incredibly narrow margin. republicans preserved it in the u.s. house, even more narrow than the one that gridlocked them over the past two years, and of course, the first order of business is choosing a speaker. republicans have just one or two votes to spare on anything. that has the possibility of paralyzing things, and we saw two years ago,gilligan's island. it was supposed to be a three-hour vote, and it had so many characters, not including th

hurricane helene wiped out the federal flood business and in some homes, and as cbs's scott macfarlaneonths before moving to replenish it. >> look, they are taking the whole house. >> reporter: amy french watched her home wash away. >> you never think that you would watch your house just float down the road. >> reporter: historic floods from the mountains, pulverized damascus at the tennessee state line after hurricane helene. >> i grabbed my granddaughter and her diaper bag was on my back and i ran. >> reporter: ralph wilson's diner was gutted and shattered. >> the scary part are the people going to come back? >> reporter: for so many business and homeowners here, the rebuilding is slow and because of delays in washington it's slower than it's supposed to be. did it surprise you that they said we can't give you the money? >> i had heard rumors that they were out of money, but i did not understand i guess the magnitude of it. >> reporter: cbs news has learned that wilson is one of tens of thousands of people who applied for a u.s. business administration disaster zone after helene but

>> jericka: scott macfarlane on capitol hill, thank you.less than a month to go in his term, president biden has granted executive clemency to nearly all federal death row inmates, 37 out of 40. the move reduces their sentences to life without the possibility of parole. it also makes them immune to president-elect donald trump's promise to resume federal executions. cbs's ed o'keefe has more tonight, including the prisoners who did not get clemency. >> reporter: he once wrote legislation expanding the federal death penalty. >> i am not mr. soft on crime. i'm the guy that put these death penalties in this bill. >> reporter: but four years ago then-candidate joe biden campaigned to end it. and as president, he paused federal executions. >> one of the reasons i'm against capital punishment is you know, we have confirmed at least 195 cases since 1972 that the person who was convicted and about to be put to death was innocent. >> reporter: tonight, three men remain on death row. robert bowers, sentenced last year for killing 11 at the tree of li

cbs's scott macfarlane reports from the hill. >> reporter: is there anything that would convince youstand down from this nomination at all? former fox news host pete hegseth, a fourth day of door-to-door visits with senators who will decide his fate. do you think you're picking up momentum or losing momentum? hegseth has denied allegations he committed sexual assault struggled with alcohol, and mismanaged two nonprofits, but a source close to the trump transition team said time is running out. pressed you on the issue of alcohol? >> no, we have had great conversations about who i am and what i believe and, frankly, the man i am today. i'm a different man than i was years ago. and that's a redemption story that i think a lot of americans appreciate. >> reporter: but after republican joni ernst's conversation with hegseth, she today notably did not offer her endorsement. >> the vetting will continue i am certain, through the next month or so. >> reporter: meanwhile, two of trump's famous and most polarizing backers came to the capitol. elon musk, with his child on his shoulders, and vi

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cbs's scott macfarlane has the latest from capitol hill. >> reporter: matt gaetz, who just weeks agoalleged to have violated florida's statutory rape law. the u.s. house ethics committee, which first launched an investigation of gaetz three years ago, has issued a 42-page report of its findings, alleging they found evidence gaetz paid a 17-year-old girl who'd just completed her junior year in high school $400 for sex in 2017 and made payments of more than $90,000 to 12 different women, likely for sexual activity and drug use. the report says women testified sexual encounters were consensual. one woman told the panel the use of drugs at parties with gaetz may have impaired her ability to know what was going on. gaetz has denied all of the allegations. >> the person doesn't exist. i have not had a relationship with a 17-year-old. that is totally false. >> reporter: maryland's glenn ivey is one of five democrats on the evenly divided ten-person ethics committee. >> well, i think from an ethics standpoint clearly everything we talk about in this report is over the line. >> reporter: the

. >> reporter: democratic committee member glenn ivey told cbs news' scott macfarlane the panel had documentationgations. >> the text messages corroborated that, as did the bank and financial transactions that we were able to uncover, too. >> reporter: the report lists payments totaling more than $90,000 to 12 different women between 2017 and 2020 and alleges the money was likely connected to sexual activity and drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy. gaetz, a strong trump ally, was the president-elect's first choice for attorney general. gaetz has denied any improper conduct and is not facing any criminal charges. >> thank you for having my back. i will never stop fighting for you. >> reporter: gaetz who resigned from congress in november and withdrew as trump's a.g. pick spoke to the conservative group turning point usa in phoenix sunday. on monday he filed a lawsuit in a bid to stop the report's release, arguing he is now a private citizen and not subject to the committee's jurisdiction. the committee released its report a short time later. >> well, the committee which is split evenly between re

for more on this, i spoke earlier to scott macfarlane — congressional corresponent for cbs news.ncers that aligned with doctor donald trump. —— donald trump's year, elon musk the billionaire. the long—time trump ally, one time republican primary candidate. who are saying things that run counter to the beliefs of donald trump's elected allies, those in the us congress, those in state offices. and what really caused this first profound fracture was a set of social media posts by ramaswamy arguing that companies may be better positioned and better acclimated to attract foreign workers through the immigration process instead of using us workers. he made a series of cultural arguments what he thinks people from other nations would be better situated for us companies than those who live in the us because of the cultural dynamics at play among other things. that runs so very counter to what donald trump's political allies in elected office are arguing, that it should be america first, that american workers should be championed, lionised and prioritised. you already have a butting of hea

let's speak to scott macfarlane, who covers congress for cbs news. thanks forjoining us, scott.p base, just bring us up—to—date on how we got here more specifically in terms of whether mr musk was involved. just give us a little bit more of the background to. this all felt inevitable, _ of the background to. this all felt inevitable, and _ of the background to. this all felt inevitable, and there - of the background to. this allj felt inevitable, and there was going to be some fracture at some point among the sphere of influencers who are aligned with donald trump. you had these outside of a nongovernmental, unelected, forceful voices in donald trump's year, elon musk, the billionaire, the vic ramaswamy, the long—time trump ally and one—time republican primary candidate —— vivek ramaswamy. who are saying things that may run counter to the beliefs of donald trump is make elected allies, those in congress of those in—state offices, and what really caused this first profound fracture was a set of social media posts by ramaswamy arguing that companies may be better positioned and be

scott macfarlane reports. >> look.porter: amy french watched her home wash away. >> you never think you'll watch your house just float down the road. >> reporter: historic floods from the mountains pulverized damascus, virginia near the tennessee state line after hurricane helene. >> i grabbed my granddaughter and her diaper bag was already on my back. >> and took off. >> and i ran. >> it was underwater. >> reporter: ralph wilson's diner was gutted and shuttered. >> the scary part is our -- the people going to come back? >> reporter: for so many businesses and homeowners here the rebuilding is slow. but because of delays in washington it is slower than it's supposed to be. >> did it surprise you that they said we can't give you the money? >> i'd heard rumors that they were out of money, but i just didn't understand i guess the magnitude of it. >> reporter: cbs muse has learned wilson is one of tens of thousands of people who've applied for u.s. small business administration disaster loans after helene but who were told

. >> reporter: scott macfarlane, alexandria, virginia. this is our story i was born with idiopathic infantile scoliosis. i've had 17 surgeries. i was born missing my lower right foot. i was born ten weeks early without my left arm. i have osteogenesis imperfecta. i've broken over 70 bones in my lifetime. with my polio, i have tough days and my pain just pops out out of nowhere. there's nothing to be afraid of because all the doctors are all so nice. most people think, oh, it's the medical side of things at shriners hospital. but for me, it's a confidence that i've gotten. when somebody sees these commercials. there'll be a phone number on the screen and all they have to do is call and make a donation to help kids like me. thanks to a generous donor, every dollar you give will go three times as far to help more kids. when you join with us. we'll send you one of these adorable blankets as a thank you and a reminder of all the abilities you are helping make possible. we have so much to celebrate this time of year. please call or go to lovesh