Senate to vote to override President Trump's veto of NDAA

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Senate to vote to override President Trump's veto of NDAA

Fox News correspondent Mike Emanuel has the latest on 'Special Report'

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report" December 29, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR (on camera): Hi, Lawrence. Thank you. Good
evening. Welcome to Washington. I'm Bret Baier.

Breaking tonight, the Senate majority leader is granting the president's
wish introducing new legislation in the closing days of the 116th Congress.
The move ties the $2,000 stimulus checks to a repeal of liability
protections for tech companies. It also includes a closer look at election
fraud.

However, the majority leader is standing firm on funding for the military
supporting the National Defense Authorization Act that the president
vetoed.

Chief Congressional Correspondent Mike Emanuel is following the latest
developments. He joins us now with the breaking details. Good evening,
Mike.

MIKE EMANUEL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on
camera): Bret, good evening to you. You have the Senate Majority Leader
offering new legislation to address three of President Trump's key
priorities. Those $2,000 checks also repeal of Section 230 protections for
big tech and an advisory committee that would study the 2020 election and
make recommendations to Congress on improving security, integrity and
administration of federal elections.

Democrats are calling those poison pills and want to vote on just the
$2,000 checks. McConnell was vague today about timing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Those are the three important subjects the
president has linked together. This week, the Senate will begin a process
to bring these three priorities into focus.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): With no intervening action or debate.

EMANUEL (voice over): The Senate Democratic Leader tried to force a vote
today on the $2,000 stimulus checks, but McConnell objected.

SCHUMER: We should not adjourn until the Senate holds a vote on both
measures, the NDAA veto override and the House bill to provide $2,000
checks for the American people.

EMANUEL: Then Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tried to force the stimulus
vote today and he was blocked too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there objection to the request for modification?

MCCONNELL: I object.

EMANUEL: Sanders had threatened to keep senators in session through the New
Year's holiday to address stimulus.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Working families need help now, not next year,
but right now.

EMANUEL: Senate GOP leadership is hoping to vote as soon as tomorrow to
override President Trump's veto of the $740-billion National Defense
Authorization Act, but that could be delayed by frustrated Democrats.

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): My Republican colleagues seem more interested in
funding defense than in funding the defenseless, and that's what this
debate is all about.

EMANUEL: Democrats are hoping the political calendar might help with the
critical Georgia runoffs which will decide the balance of power in the
Senate and a desire for those senators to be out on the campaign trail.

SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA): I'm delighted to support the president in this
2000 it's really a $1,400 increment over what we've already done. And I
think with the vaccine coming, I think this is absolutely appropriate. So,
I fully support what the president is doing right now.

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): I stood by the President 100 percent of the
time. I'm proud to do that. And I've said absolutely, we need to get relief
to Americans now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL (on camera): Right now, it's not clear if the new McConnell bill
would have 60 votes in favor. The same is true with the $2,000 checks by
themselves. Five Republicans are on the record in favor of the checks. They
need 12 to reach the critical 60 yes votes, Bret.

BAIER: Mike, thank you. More on this with the panel.

President Trump did not hold any public events today. But as he often does,
he was happy to share his thoughts on Twitter even targeting some fellow
Democrats and Republicans. Correspondent Rich Edson has details from West
Palm Beach, Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICH EDSON, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Two bills several
controversial issues and a president pushing divided Republicans from a
thousand miles away. Tweeting: "Weak and tired Republican leadership will
allow the bad defense bill to pass. A disgraceful act of cowardice and
total submission by weak people to big tech. Negotiate a better bill or get
better leaders, now. Senate should not approve NDAA until fixed."

President Trump wants Congress to repeal an unrelated law that gives tech
companies legal protections. He also wants Congress to remove provisions in
the National Defense Authorization Act that would scrub Confederate names
from military installations and limit the president's authority to withdraw
certain troops abroad.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): These are things that the president believes we
should address, and that members of the Congress and the new administration
believe we should address. We will address them. And we have an opportunity
to do that. But we should not try to do that on this bill.

EDSON: The president is also keeping up the pressure on Republicans to
approve a House measure to more than triple COVID relief checks to $2,000
repeatedly tweeting messages like, "$600 is not enough."

The issue has split Republicans between those who want to support the
president and those who say they're concerned about adding nearly a half
trillion dollars to the national debt.

REP. MO BROOKS (R-AL): They've got a $27 trillion debt, its money we don't
have.

EDSON: This week, the president must also decide whether to continue
suspending visas for various categories of foreign workers to enter the
United States.

In June, the president halted certain work visas, citing concerns about the
economic effects of a worldwide pandemic. That suspension expires Thursday.
Conservative groups advocating greater limits on immigration are urging the
president to extend the order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EDSON (on camera): And business groups are urging the administration to
allow those groups of workers back into the country, though if the
president does extend this executive order and continues to ban those
workers. He may push this issue off to the next administration.

President-Elect Joe Biden is promising to reverse much of the Trump
administration's immigration agenda, Bret.

BAIER: Rich Edson in West Palm Beach. Rich, thanks.

Down day on Wall Street today after setting record highs on Monday, the Dow
losing 68 today, the S&P 500 dropped eight. The NASDAQ finished down 49.

President-Elect Biden said today he anticipates that COVID cases will spike
in January and deaths will rise in February. The Vice President-Elect and
her husband joined millions of Americans getting the COVID vaccine today.
Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich joins us from Wilmington with the latest.
Good evening, Jacqui.

JACQUI HEINRICH, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Good evening,
Bret. The President-Elect delivered a blunt warning, deaths and cases are
going to get worse before they get better and brighter days may not come
until March.

He also said the Trump administration has fallen short on its goals for
vaccinations, both of which have been acknowledged by the Trump
administration's Coronavirus Task Force.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: With only a few days left
in December, we've only vaccinated a few million so far. In the pace of
vaccine, the vaccination program is moving now as if -- if it continues to
move as it is now, it's going to take years, not months to vaccinate the
American people.

HEINRICH (voice over): Biden pledged to authorize the Defense Production
Act to boost production of PPE and vaccine material. A promise he made
throughout his campaign.

President Trump has also used the wartime law to boost pandemic response.

Biden also primed Congress for a COVID action package he'll propose early
next year seeking more funding. He needed to open the majority of K-8
schools within his first 100 days and to facilitate a massive vaccination
campaign including with mobile testing sites in hard to reach communities.

Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris received her first shot today and Biden
again pledged the vaccine will be delivered free and equitably and called
an Americans to wear a mask in the meantime, praising Chris Christie for
encouraging mask wearing and urging President Trump to do so as well.

BIDEN: I give former Governor Chris Christie credit. He and I have
disagreed on a number of things. But I'm thankful he's now encouraging
people to do the right thing.

I hope that President Trump will listen to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEINRICH (on camera): The Trump administration's vaccination effort
Operation Warp Speed is one area the Biden team is encountering
obstruction, a source is telling me tonight. This comes after Biden warned
yesterday his team's being sidelined by political leadership at the
Department of Defense and Office of Management and Budget.

I'm told Biden's team couldn't get a meeting with the DOD for the last 11
days. Pentagon officials denying dozens of requests and critical blind
spots include Operation Warp Speed, the budget and also cybersecurity,
Bret.

BAIER: Jacqui Heinrich in Wilmington. Jacqui, thank you.

As the transition continues, the Trump campaign continues to fight the
election asking the U.S. Supreme Court now to take up the challenge over
50,000 Wisconsin absentee ballots that the Wisconsin Supreme Court allowed.
Lead attorney Rudy Giuliani wants the consideration to occur before the
January 6th congressional review of the electoral college votes.

The court has so far declined to fast track the separate Supreme Court
appeal filed December 20th by the Trump campaign in the Pennsylvania
election challenge.

We now know more about the actions of the suicide bomber in the days
leading up to the Christmas attack and the moment itself. Senior
Correspondent Mike Tobin is in Nashville where the police have just
released video of what the officers saw and heard at the blast site.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay clear of the vehicle.

MIKE TOBIN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The ominous
message blares from Anthony Warner's recreational vehicle as Officer
Michael Sipos body cam documents the rapid evacuation of downtown
Nashville.

After the blast, glass tickles to the pavement. Officers run to the danger,
assist those who are close to the blast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you guys OK? (INAUDIBLE) Where's your car?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, go to your car.

TOBIN: Warner had allegedly hinted to a neighbor he was about to do
something big.

RICK LAUDE, ANTHONY QUINN WARNER'S NEIGHBOR: He smiled, and he said, yes.
I'm going to be famous. Nashville and the world is never going to forget
me.

TOBIN: There were no red flags, nothing but a pot charge four decades old
to put him on the police radar. Investigators from the FBI, ATF and the
Criminal Investigation Division of the Tennessee Highway Patrol comb
through the debris of the blast to find enough pieces of the R.V. to
produce an intact vehicle identification number. That led them to the name
of Anthony Warner.

Report say he had been giving items away, transferred his house to a
California woman in November for no money. Warner had given away another
car telling the recipient he had cancer.

In that car, investigators found a hat and glove and match the DNA on those
items to Tony Warner.

In a year when all retailers struggle Nashville businesses were hit with
one more unexpected difficulty. After opening in 2019, Peter Gameel's
dessert shop endured a tornado in March then COVID. He had planned a party
Christmas Day hoping to celebrate a new chapter.

PETER GAMEEL, CO-OWNER, BARTELLA DESSERT SHOP: We are in ground zero. We
just got a direct hit. We can't even recognize our store anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TOBIN (on camera): Metro Nashville police say processing of evidence at the
crime scene will take place through tomorrow, then public works comes in to
clean up. And test structural integrity of the buildings, see if it's safe
for people to return, Bret.

BAIER: Mike Tobin live in Nashville. Mike, thank you.

The U.S. Transportation Department said today that positive train control
technology is now in operation on all required railroad sections ahead of
the December 31st deadline set by Congress. The speed control technology is
in place on more than 57,000 miles of track.

The NTSB says that could have prevented accidents like the 2015 Amtrak
crash that killed eight people, injuring more than 150 in Philadelphia.

The Colorado State Laboratory has confirmed the first case of the
coronavirus strain discovered in the United Kingdom that scientists warn is
significantly more contagious.

The individual is a male in his 20s with no travel history, Pfizer and
BioNTech are confident their vaccine will work against this strain but say
studies are needed to be sure.

Vaccines meantime continue to be given around the world but there's concern
over who's getting the shots and who's not and how fast all of that is
happening. Correspondent Bryan Llenas has all the pandemic news from
Brooklyn, New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYAN LLENAS, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As vaccinations
continue, New York State is cracking down on vaccine fraud. Attorney
General Letitia James launching an investigation in some ParCare Community
Health Network over allegations that committed fraud in obtaining and
wrongfully distributing 2,300 vaccine doses to its clinics in Brooklyn and
administering 850 shots to the general public, ignoring state rules
specifying that the first round of vaccines go to frontline health care
workers and long term care residents.

Now, the clinic could face falsifying business record charges for allegedly
misrepresenting itself in order to receive vaccines through the state of
New York.

DR. HOWARD ZUCKER, NEW YORK STATE HEALTH COMMISSIONER: We provided them the
vaccine because they fraudulently filled out a form that said that they
were a qualified health center that was incorrect.

LLENAS: ParCare denies wrongdoing, providing this packing slip to Fox News
showing they received the vaccines legally through New York's Department of
Health.

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order making vaccine fraud
punishable by a million dollar fine, loss of state licenses and even
potentially prosecuting patients.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): If you received the vaccine, and you knew you
weren't supposed to receive the vaccine, and that was a fraudulent act by
you.

LLENAS: This as the U.S. Treasury warns financial institutions nationwide
to stay alert to COVID-19 vaccine related scams and cyber attacks.

So far, more than 2.1 million vaccine shots have been administered and
almost 11-1/2 million have been distributed, well short of the 20 million
vaccine doses promised.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS
DISEASES: We certainly are not at the numbers that we want it to be at the
end of December.

I believe that as we get into January, we are going to see an increase in
the momentum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LLENAS (on camera): And despite vaccine delays, certain members of
Congress, their staffs, two members per -- most of the staffs will have
been moved to the front of the vaccination line while police officers
working for the NYPD are still waiting for their first vaccine shots, Bret.

BAIER: Bryan Llenas in Brooklyn. Bryan, thanks.

The CDC says seasonal influenza activity in the U.S. remains significantly
lower than usual for this time of year. Nationwide one-tenth of one percent
of those specimens tested were positive for influenza last week.

We have a chart here showing from the CDC that this year's visit reports
for flu symptoms in the red triangles at the bottom. The visits are much
lower than at least six of the previous flu seasons.

One possible reason for the dramatic drop in cases, according to health
officials, is the measures taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus
could also be slowing the spread of the flu which is transmitted the same
way.

Up next, voters approve the measure. Now, many say they have been duped as
inmates convicted of crimes like indecent exposure and child pornography
could now be eligible for early parole.

And later, why a Georgia senate rally this week is now facing questions
over double standards in the cancel culture era.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see two black people?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No! I'm not letting him walk away with my phone!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: New York City prosecutors are investigating this confrontation at a
hotel, Jazz musician Keyon Harrold, says a woman grabbed and tackled his
14-year-old son in the lobby she accused him of stealing her phone.

Harrold says the hotel told him the phone was returned by an Uber driver
shortly afterward.

The California Supreme Court says inmates convicted of nonviolent sex
crimes cannot be denied a chance at early parole consideration. National
correspondent William La Jeunesse looks at the ruling and the response from
Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM LA JEUNESSE, FOX NEWS NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Out of
office but not the news, in 2016, former California Governor Jerry Brown
bankrolled Prop 57, offering non-violent inmates' early parole.

Sex offenders, Brown, claimed did not qualify.

CHARLES CHUNG, LAWYER, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, CALIFORNIA: His decision to
exclude registered sex offenders was also informed by the promises made by
Governor Brown.

LA JEUNESSE: Now, the state Supreme Court says otherwise. The proposition
provides no indications of the voters intended to exclude from parole
consideration an inmate's sex offenses when the inmate was convicted of a
nonviolent felony.

JIM PATTERSON, MEMBER, CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY: There's nothing
nonviolent about piping, there's nothing nonviolent about raping an
unconscious individual. There is nonviolent about the possession of child
pornography.

LA JEUNESSE: Voters experts say may have been duped.

KIM NALDER, PROFESSOR, SACRAMENTO STATE UNIVERSITY: The arguments in favor
and the arguments against are by proponents and opponents, and they are not
vetted for accuracy necessarily. And so, it's possible that there is
something that could be exaggerated or misleading.

LA JEUNESSE: Prop 57 was one of several efforts to reduce prison
overcrowding. Attorney say the ruling means up to 20,000 inmates could be
released early, largely because only state law defines violent felonies,
Prop 57 did not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are some examples of nonviolent felonies?

DREW SODERBORG, CALIFORNIA STATE ANALYST: So, one thing that we noted is
that the measure doesn't define nonviolent felony.

LA JEUNESSE: So, voters only knew what they were told or a single paragraph
in the voter guide, something experts at this symposium for inform voters
found funny.

NALDER: Where is that list posted?

SODERBORG: That list is in a section of the penal code. At Section 667.5 be
maybe? I don't know how helpful that is for you.

NALDER: Lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LA JEUNESSE (on camera): It's now up to the state corrections department to
determine which inmates are eligible for a hearing in early release.
Officials put the number between four in 5,000. Bret.

BAIER: A fine print. William, thank you.

The Justice Department says it will not bring federal criminal charges
against two Cleveland police officers involved in the 2014 killing of a 12-
year-old, Tamir Rice. They said the quality of the video of the shooting
was too poor for prosecutors to conclusively establish what happened.

To bring federal civil rights charges, the Justice Department must prove
the officer willfully broke the law rather than a mistake, negligence, or
bad judgment. Prosecutors concluded the evidence was insufficient to prove
beyond the reasonable doubt the officers violated Tamir Rice's
constitutional rights.

Up next, we look at the Georgia senate runoffs one week before Election Day
and how cancel-culture may be impacting that race.

First, here is what's some of our Fox affiliates around the country are
covering tonight.

Fox 25 in Boston, where a statue of Abraham Lincoln with a freed slave
kneeling at his feet has been removed from its perch in downtown Boston.
Workers remove the emancipation memorial this morning from a park where it
had stood since 1879.

In June, the mayor acknowledge the statue made residents and visitors alike
uncomfortable. And city officials agreed to the removal after a bitter
debate.

Fox 31 in Denver, where the heat is coming back on for thousands of
residents in Aspen after police say there was an attack on three natural
gas sites as temperatures are forecast to fall near two degrees there.

Police say, earth first, was found written on a pipe at a natural gas
pumping station near the ski resort town.

And this is a live look at Miami from FOX 7, our affiliate down there. The
big story there tonight, the Boeing 737 MAX back in the air for commercial
flights today after being grounded for 20 months after two fatal crashes in
five months. American Airlines' first flight took off from Miami, landing
safely in New York.

That's tonight's live look "OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY" from SPECIAL REPORT. We
will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Georgia's Republican secretary of state just putting out the
statement, saying the presidential election results have been confirmed in
Georgia for a third time after a hand recount, then, a machine recount
requested by the Trump campaign. Today, a signature match audit in Cobb
County finished found no fraudulent absentee ballots. That coming in just a
few minutes ago.

One week from tonight, America will be watching Georgia decide which party
will control the U.S. Senate. We'll be broadcasting from Atlanta starting
Sunday. Candidates, political ads, volunteers, are already all over
Georgia, and so is controversy.

Correspondent Steve Harrigan is following the race from Atlanta.

STEVE HARRIGAN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Early voting
in Georgia's two runoffs is running at about three-quarters of the pace of
the general election. So far, 2.3 million people have voted candidate Jon
Ossoff says the reason, a strong ground game.

JON OSSOFF (D), SENATORIAL CANDIDATE, GEORGIA: We have called more than 5
million Georgia voters in recent weeks. We are knocking on tens of
thousands of doors per day.

HARRIGAN: Airwaves in Georgia are so saturated with political ads; the
campaigns are buying an unprecedented amount of time in neighboring Alabama
and Florida. Some voters are overwhelmed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I definitely voted for you and Warnock but it's just,
I'm a little nervous just because of all this negative talk.

HARRIGAN: Democratic candidate Reverend Raphael Warnock is drawing much of
the heat. The Washington Free Beacon reported that counselors at a camp run
by Warnock in Maryland in 2002 poured urine on a 12-year-old camper, who
said his family sued and received the settlement. His opponent, Kelly
Loeffler, says the incident should disqualify Warnock.

LOEFFLER: This is disgusting, it's disqualifying, and Georgians deserve
answers.

HARRIGAN: Warnock was arrested by police for interference when he insisted
counselors have attorneys present. The charges were dropped. A federal
judge in Georgia on Monday ordered two counties to reverse the decision to
removed 4,000 voters from the rolls due to U.S. Postal Service change of
address records.

The judge is the sister of Stacey Abrams, a former Democratic candidate for
governor who has led voter registration efforts in Georgia. The judge
declined the request to recuse herself.

Georgia's Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger called the
ruling a "direct attack" on Georgia law. He's also vowed to crack down on
line warming, where a political groups give away food or drinks or small
gifts to people in line to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIGAN (on camera):  Some party leaders have expressed concern that the
fight over the legitimacy of votes in the general election may lead to some
Republicans not voting in the runoff elections. Bret?

BAIER:  Steve, thank you. We should point out the president just tweeted
he's like to see the signature verification in Fulton County, Georgia, the
process, according to him, going very slowly.

The Georgia runoffs have had a bit of everything, including how a question
over a double standard when it comes to cancel culture. Correspondent
Leland Vittert explains.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

LELAND VITTERT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  When the rapper BRS Kash headlined
a get out the vote event for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, he edited the
lyrics of his song "Throat Baby" to "Vote Baby." The real lyrics, as heard
on the music video, are far too vulgar for this program, as are many of his
past tweets about women, police officers, and sex. "Is it an accident or
rape, lol" wrote Kash in a screenshot of this 2012 treat.

"This is who Georgia Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff had headlined
their event today. Will they denounce this disgusting individual?" wrote
Nathan Brand of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Ossoff and Warnock have ignored repeated requests from FOX News, as has BRS
Kash. Somehow Kash has avoided the fate of so many with old tweets or
comments. But 18-year-old Mimi Groves hasn't. This weekend, "The New York
Times" chronicled the plight of a Virginia cheerleader who had her world
upended by something she said four years ago. In 2016 Mimi Groves recorded
a three-second video in which he used a racial slur. In late 2019 fellow
high school student Jimmy Galligan saw the clip online. In the middle of
this year after George Floyd's death, Galligan posted the video, and Mimi
became the center of a national social media firestorm. Quickly, the
University of Tennessee's cheerleading team canceled Groves' roster slot,
and she withdrew from the university. That was back in June. The timing of
Saturday's "New York Times" coverage doesn't make sense to FOX News
contributor Joe Concha.

JOE CONCHA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  How is this now a story if that video
was released in June and all of this happen six, seven months ago, why are
we talking about it now if you're "The New York Times"? Instead they're
lionizing cancel culture, and this now puts it on a national stage.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VITTERT:  For her part, Mimi Groves says she will spend the rest of her
life trying to explain that she's more than that three-second video
recorded at 15-years-old. Many are asking if Mr. Kash, the rapper, will
face the same type of scrutiny for his tweets. Bret?

BAIER:  Leland, thank you.

Up next, the action or inaction on Capitol Hill and how that's impacting
the Georgia Senate runoffs. The panel joins us.

First, beyond our borders tonight. A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Croatia
today, killing at least seven people, the earthquake destroying buildings,
sending panicked people fleeing into rubble covered streets in the town
southeast of the capital. It's the second significant earthquake this week
to hit that country.

Argentina's Senate is preparing to vote on a measure that would make the
country the first big country in predominantly Catholic Latin America to
allow abortion on demand. The bill, which has already passed the
Argentinian lower house, would allow for abortions up until the 14th week
of pregnancy.

And in Peru, the Association of Shamans and Healers asked mother earth for
the pandemic to end and world leaders be cleansed so they can make wise
decisions. The yearend ritual gathered shamans and healers who predict
better times ahead in the new year. Thank God for that.

Just some of the other stories beyond our borders tonight. We'll be right
back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MAJORITY LEADER:  The president highlighted
three additional issues of national significance he would like to see
Congress tackle together. This week the Senate will begin a process to
bring these three priorities into focus.

CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) SENATE MINORITY LEADER:  The solution is a simple one.
Put both bills up for a simple up or down vote, and then let the chips fall
where they may. I believe both measures will pass, as they should. But
Leader McConnell must allow the Senate to vote on both pieces of
legislation, the defense bill and the $2,000 checks, before we go home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Is their objection to the modification?

MCCONNELL:  I object.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Objection is heard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  The Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell today saying he's going
to wrap things together, the president's priorities here. And what do we
mean in that way? Remember, the $2,000 check, there's already a $600
stimulus that's going out and the treasury secretary says it could hit bank
accounts tonight, definitely within this week. To make that $2,000, then to
put in Section 230 protection, and that is dealing with tech companies and
protecting them, and election integrity also part of this piece of
legislation that would look at election fraud and concerns the president
has.

Now, it seems highly unlikely that that's all going to come together in the
Senate. And you heard the objection to just voting on the $2,000.

Let's bring in our panel, we'll straighten it all out, Tom Bevan, Real
Clear Politics co-founder and president, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at
"The Federalist," and Steve Hayes, editor of "The Dispatch."

Steve, this is one way, the Senate majority leader could say I'm going to
put it all out there, but I'm going to wrap these things together. Not
likely the Democrats are going to go for that.

STEVE HAYES, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  I think that's right. It's a
complicated matter because you have Republicans supporting some of it, you
have Democrats supporting other parts of it. I you look at what Mitch
McConnell is doing, he's sort of cleverly adding poison pills to this
legislation that track exactly with what President Trump said he wanted
when he decided to sign the big relief package and omnibus.

I think what's important here is the context. This is not really a policy
fight. This is much more about Republicans having to respond to a temper
tantrum from the president who is trying to steal an election, basically.
If you look at what President Trump is saying, this is about Donald Trump.
This is not about the future of the country. This is not about the future
of the Republican Party. It's not even really about COVID relief. If relief
were so urgent, one suspects that the president would've made this happen
months and months ago.

It's important to remember that his Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was
at the center of the negotiations. He was on phone calls with members of
the House of Representatives, Republicans, urging them to vote for the $600
relief a week ago. And now the president is calling for this $2,000 relief,
which complicates virtually everything Republicans in the Senate want to
do, and certainly complicates the Georgia specials.

BAIER:  Mollie?

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE FEDERALIST":  I think these are
actually policy issues in play. Senator McConnell has grouped them
together. He claimed that Trump grouped them together, but of course Trump
had tied the defense authorization with Section 230 repeal. That's the
issue where big tech is afforded all sorts of regulatory protections even
as they engage in tyrannical behavior against online speech and censoring
open, free, and fair discussion of important election issues.

These are actually important policy issues. Whether big tech is allowed to
completely behave this way against conservative speech is a policy issue.
Whether you believe in the conservative populism where after the government
has shuttered all these businesses and destroyed a chance for a family to
make any money this year, whether they should get a $2,000 compensation is
a policy issue. Whether you care about election integrity is a policy
issue.

And so even though Mitch McConnell seems to be doing this to kill the
chance of any of these things actually happening, it also provides a chance
for a marker to be laid down where people can say where they stand on these
issues as well as on that defense authorization, which is one of the big
sticky points there is whether presidents can at any point end some of
these wars that were started by previous administrations, or whether never
ending war will have to just continue into perpetuity. That's an important
policy issue as well.

BAIER:  It seems like the veto will be overturned. We'll see what that
votes comes down. But when you talk about politics and the Georgia Senate
races now just a week away, the $2,000 stimulus check, take a listen, and
there are the races. Take a listen to Senators Loeffler and Perdue on this
issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DAVID PERDUE, (R-GA):  I am delighted to support the president in his
$2,000, it's really a $1,400 increment over what we've already done. It's
the right thing to do for people in Georgia.

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA):  I've stood by the president 100 percent of the
time. I'm proud to do that. And I have said absolutely we need to get
relief to Americans now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  Tom, they were quick to point that out today.

TOM BEVAN, REAL CLEAR POLITICS CO-FOUNDER:  Yes. Perdue and Loeffler, they
are reading the tea leaves. They are going to stand with Donald Trump. They
need to stand with Donald Trump because they need his voters to turn out
for them on January 5th. And he's going to go down there January 4th and
make the case not only for the $2,000 but also for these two Senate
candidates. And so they were quick to jump on board with this proposal
because obviously it's in their best interests.

BAIER:  And speaking of the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act,
here's Senators Cornyn and Markey on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN, (R-TX):  We will address them, and we have an opportunity
to do that. But we should not try to do that on this bill and risks the
loss of this important piece of legislation now in its 60th year of
adoption.

SEN ED MARKEY, (D-MA):  My Republican colleagues seem more interested in
funding defense than in funding the defenseless. In this moment of national
crisis, we are able to afford spending three quarters of a trillion dollars
on a bloated defense budget, but we can't give hungry and suffering
Americans $2,000?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  So Steve, the politics of this are tough in Georgia, too, on the
veto override.

HAYES:  Yes, they sure are. I think Tom is right. It's definitely the case
that David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler don't want to be seen as contradicting
the president. They are the ones who have their political fates potentially
tied to him in just a matter of a few days.

I think what you've seen from other Republicans, though, is an increasing
willingness to distance themselves from Donald Trump as it becomes clearer
and clearer that he's not going to be the one who is controlling the
future, their immediate future, their immediate political future. I think
we'll see some last gasps of those who are clinging to the president on
January 6th, the day after these special elections in Georgia. But you have
seen with the willingness of Republicans to break with the president on the
override of the NDAA and I think on the checks that he's not in control of
the party the way, certainly the way that he was before November 3rd.

BAIER:  But I would say, Mollie, the Senate majority leader is acting like
he's at least listening to the president, whether he brings that forward to
success or not. What about the politics in Georgia when it comes to the
president? He is going to Dalton where Republicans have not seen the early
vote total they expected in that specific area.

HEMINGWAY:  Yes, it is true that many Republican voters very much like
President Trump and they were excited to vote for him. He got 74 million
votes nationwide. And without him being on the ballot, it's very important
that he be able to get those people who were inclined to vote for him to
vote for these Republicans who are up.

It's going to be a close race, though. It was already close when it was
done in November. So I expect it to be close when it happens in a few days,
when the vote happens. But those Trump voters who might not be particularly
fond of a Republican Party that seems to care about things differently than
what Donald Trump has brought into the party, that will be the challenge,
and that's why it's so important that he go down there, and also why those
Republican voters see that the future of this conservative populism is
through a Republican Senate. So if Democrats control both chambers and the
presidency, that makes it very difficult to advance this popular
conservatism.

BAIER:  Let's dig into that Georgia runoff in just a minute. More with the
panel on that after a quick break. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK, (D) GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE:  Come January 5th, the
people of Georgia are coming to get their seats back.

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA):  Raphael Warnock in Jon Ossoff, they would be a
rubber-stamp for Chuck Schumer's radical agenda to reshape this country
into something unrecognizable.

JON OSSOFF, (D) GEORGIA CANDIDATE FOR SENATE:  We have better and bigger
things to discuss the David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. We have the power to
write the next chapter in American history.

SEN. DAVID PERDUE, (R-GA) SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE:  The eyes of
the world are on us right now. We know what's at stake here. We're going to
hold this line against this radical socialist agenda and make sure that the
road to socialism does not come through the state of Georgia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  One week, Georgia will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.
We're back with the panel. There haven't been many polls down there, Tom,
in Georgia, and to be honest we have been a little snake-bitten by polls,
so we've been not focusing too much on polls. But that's kind of your job.
Give us a sense of where this race is as we head one week away.

BEVAN:  I will say Trafalgar Group just came out with polls today, in fact,
showing, and they took a poll two weeks ago, and they showed that two weeks
ago they had David Perdue up two points, now they have Ossoff up two
points. Two weeks ago they had Kelly Loeffler up six points. Now they have
her down one point. So a move in the Democrats direction in both of these
races according to Trafalgar, who has been a Trump friendly pollster,
Republican pollster over time. So it does look like the Democrats have a
bit of momentum here with just a week left.

And as you mentioned, Republicans are worried they are not getting the
early vote turn out. They're going to need big turnout on Election Day, on
January 5th, and that's going to be Trump's job when he goes down there is
to energize those voters and really get them to the polls on January 5th.

BAIER:  Mollie, how big a challenge do you think that is? Obviously the
president is focused not on January 5th as much as January 6th, where he
says there's going to be a congressional effort to overturn what he feels
was an election stolen, and he has talked a lot about that on twitter and
elsewhere. What about this visit and how much time he'll spend actually
getting people out to the polls on the Senate?

HEMINGWAY:  Right. This is not his first visit to Georgia, the one coming
up. He'd already been down there to gin up excitement there. And that's why
he's the person that people need to be down there because he is the only
person who can make people enthusiastic about it.

There are problems in Georgia, though, that I worry about with people
having confidence in the election. You mentioned earlier in this show about
Stacey Abrams' sister, who is a judge, saying that the state cannot remove
4,000 voters who should not be registered to vote down there. You have the
case where the Trump campaign had been suing in Fulton County, what
everyone, whether they think Trump has a good case or not, agrees is the
strongest of his cases, and a judge still has not even decided to hear that
case.

And so I think people are legitimately worried that there is a lack of
confidence in these election systems and that getting people excited to go
out and vote when they are still worried about some of that might be a
challenge for people.

BAIER:  Some of these Democrats, Steve, are saying, listen, there won't be
this sweeping change. There are still votes that you don't know about, like
Joe Manchin in West Virginia. Is he going to vote to go with some of the
more progressive or radical programs, filibuster killing, et cetera. We've
had him on the show. But Republicans are saying, Steve, how can you trust
all of that to one guy? What about that pitch about sweeping transitional
change if Chuck Schumer takes over in the Senate?

HAYES:  Yes, I think that's the Republicans most effective argument by far
is to say we need a Republican majority to keep Joe Biden from having
control of Congress. You want somebody to put a brake on what Joe Biden has
said he wants to do. I think that's a very effective case, particularly an
effective case in a place like Georgia that has been red.

But I think Donald Trump does complicate that case. For the reasons that
Mollie suggests, I think the president going around and floating these
conspiracy theories that the elections were stolen does seed in some
voters' minds this doubt about whether it's even worth it to show up and
vote. And so I think that's a complication.

If you look at the swing away from President Trump from some military
voters, there was a "Wall Street Journal" story today saying that they were
moving away from the president. His veto of the NDAA complicates that
matters I think as well.

BAIER:  We'll watch it. As I said, we are heading to Atlanta, start
broadcasting on Sunday. Panel, thank you very much.

When we come back, the brighter side of things caught on video.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER:  Finally tonight, some major milestones. We talked a lot about
Georgia lately. Here is a story that didn't involve politics down there. on
Christmas Day, Georgia firefighter Buddy Sloan proposed to his girlfriend
Kristina. Fellow firefighters recorded the special moment as Kristina said
yes. I don't think the backing up of the fire truck was planned, but
congratulations for that.

And it was a special moment for the five-year-old Jase Black who was
finally able to ring the bell at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in
Florida. After more than a year of chemotherapy there, hospital staff
cheering as he rang the bell, dancing his way out of the hospital. Way to
go, Jase.

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for the SPECIAL
REPORT. Fair, balanced and unafraid. "THE STORY," guest hosted by my
friend, Shannon Bream starts right now.

Hi, Shannon.

END

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