Trump vows to join Texas lawsuit to halt Electoral College vote

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President Trump vows to join Texas lawsuit to halt Electoral College vote

State AG asks Supreme Court to block votes from electors in four states; John Roberts reports.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report" December 9, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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

Breaking tonight, several major stories increasing scrutiny on a Democratic
congressman from California who had a relationship with a woman now
suspected of being a Chinese spy. President-elect Joe Biden running into
considerable resistance on some of his cabinet selections, we'll tell you
who and why.

But we begin with breaking news with Biden's son Hunter under investigation
by the U.S. Attorney in Delaware for "tax issues", an investigation that
has been ongoing since 2018. And we are learning new information just in
the past few minutes. Correspondent Peter Doocy is in Wilmington, Delaware
with the very, very latest. Good evening, Peter.

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Good evening,
Bret. And the brand new information just a few minutes old is a well
government -- a well-placed government sources telling Fox News that Joe
Biden is not the subject of any grand jury investigation right now. But
that Hunter Biden is a subject/target of a grand jury investigation.

Target meaning in this way that somebody is -- that there's a high
likelihood that somebody committed a crime, a subject being somebody that
law enforcement just does not know yet. Hunter Biden told us late this
afternoon that he found out yesterday the feds are investigating him but
that is not when this probe started. They had been looking into his tax
affairs since 2008.

Biden -- Joe Biden his dad, the president-elect has long dismissed
questions that have arose -- that have arisen about Hunter Biden as a smear
campaign and he has always stood by his side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm proud of them.

DOOCY (voice over): And he claims not to know much about his son's affairs.

DOOCY: How many times have you ever spoken to your son about his overseas
business dealings?

BIDEN: I've never spoken to my son about his overseas business.

DOOCY: In his announcement that he's under investigation over his taxes,
Hunter Biden says, I take this matter very seriously. But I'm confident
that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate
that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately including with the
benefit of professional tax advisers.

There's also turbulence ahead for four of Biden's cabinet selections,
including Lloyd Austin.

BIDEN: This is not a post he sought, but I sought him.

DOOCY: The president-elect pick to run the Pentagon is trying to make a
very important distinction.

GEN. LLOYD AUSTIN (RET.), DEFENSE SECRETARY NOMINEE: When I concluded my
military service four years ago, I hung up my uniform for the last time and
went from being General Lloyd Austin to Lloyd Austin.

DOOCY: The vice president-elect still called him:

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES:
General Lloyd Austin. General Austin, General Austin, General Austin.

DOOCY: That's what the transition is trying to avoid because Defense
Secretaries must have been civilians for seven years.

BIDEN: I believe in the importance of civilian control of the military.

DOOCY: Austin's been out four years and needs a waiver from Congress to
serve and Democrats are wary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will support General Austin but I will not support
the waiver.

DOOCY: Two other Cabinet nominees are facing questions about a
controversial commutation, former U.S. attorney and DHS pick Alejandro
Mayorkas.

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, DHS SECRETARY NOMINEE: It is the honor of a lifetime.

DOOCY: And former congressman and HHS nominee, Xavier Becerra.

XAVIER BECERRA, HHS SECRETARY NOMINEE: I am honored and excited to join
your team.

DOOCY: Both urged the Clinton White House to commute the sentence of a
cocaine trafficker with a politically involved father and Clinton did. A
district judge involved tells the Washington Post it was outrageous.

Then, there are questions about Biden's pick to run HUD Marcia Fudge and
her connection to Lance Mason who murdered his wife. Before that, Mason did
time on a domestic abuse charge and had Fudge advocating for him from the
outside. In a letter to a judge that said in part, I can only hope that you
see in Lance what I and others see.

PETE BUTTIEGIEG, AMBASSADOR TO CHINA CANDIDATE: A strategic competitor like
China

Biden likes a former mayor as U.S. ambassador to China Pete Buttiegieg
according to a report in Axios. Less than a year after Biden publicly
questioned Buttiegieg's foreign policy jobs.

BIDEN: This guy's not a Barack Obama. Barack Obama had been a United States
senator of a really large state. Barack Obama had laid out a clear vision
what he thought the international society should look like and what the
order should be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY (on camera): I just spoke to somebody at the Justice Department who
explained that it is their policy not to select timing of investigative
steps or of charges in a way that could affect an election or give one
candidate or another an advantage or a disadvantage. That is likely why the
U.S. Attorney's office in Delaware waited until now to signal to Hunter
Biden that they are investigating him, Bret.

BAIER: Do we have any information, details about the tax allegations,
whether it's tax fraud or what particularly they're looking at in the grand
jury?

DOOCY: We don't yet and as you remember, throughout the course of the
campaign, President Trump and his allies really focused heavily on Hunter
Biden's involvement with a Ukrainian energy company Burisma that paid him a
hefty salary for several months despite his lack of experience in the
energy industry.

There have also been questions about Hunter Biden's connection to a Chinese
energy company. He did a magazine interview last year where he talks about
a Chinese businessman who gave him a diamond. There were conflicts or there
were questions about how much the diamond actually cost and whether taxes
were paid properly.

We don't know if these things that we already know about are involved in
these charges or if it is something else or sorry, not charges in its
investigation or if it's something else, Bret.

BAIER: OK, Peter, thank you for the clarification as well. Panel coming up
on this too.

Now, to a story with all the salacious elements power, sex, international
intrigue, California Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell insists he has
done nothing wrong. And he's cooperating with authorities about his
relationship with a woman accused of being a Chinese spy. Chief
congressional correspondent Mike Emanuel has details tonight on this. Good
evening, Mike.

MIKE EMANUEL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on
camera): Bret, good evening, a major critic of President Trump during
impeachment is now under intense scrutiny after revelations he had close
ties with an alleged Chinese spy before being elected and even after to
Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): I was shocked. You know, just over six years
ago, I was told about this individual.

EMANUEL (voice over): Yet, Fox News has learned today Congressman Eric
Swalwell's father and brother are still Facebook friends with an alleged
Chinese spy. Axios was first to report Swalwell as part of a group of
Northern California Democrats targeted by a Chinese national named Fang
Fang or Christine Fang.

She's suspected of being an operative for China's Ministry of State
Security. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says it was never
Russia and the Republicans, it was the Democrats and China. Swalwell
suggests this leaking out is payback.

SWALWELL: This is a country where people who criticize the president are
going to have law enforcement information weaponized against them. And
that's not a country that any of us want to live in.

EMANUEL: Swalwell insists he cooperated fully and did nothing wrong.

SWALWELL: I'm grateful that our FBI back in 2015 reached out to me. They
showed great professionalism in seeking to learn.

EMANUEL: South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham noted a double
standard on Twitter. Democrats get defensive briefings when there are
concerns about foreign influence, but when it came to President real Donald
Trump, they used a counterintelligence investigation to spy on his
campaign.

After this revelation, leading House Republicans say Swalwell should have
never been put on the Intelligence Committee.

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): It looks like Representative Swalwell was
identified, cultivated and potentially funded by Chinese communist spy and
that this happened before he came to Congress once he got to Congress.
There are real questions about whether or not Speaker Pelosi knew this when
she put him on the House Intel Committee.

EMANUEL: Swalwell says House leadership was aware of this issue and still
assigned him to Intelligence. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spokesman
responded, the Speaker has full confidence in Congressmen Swalwell service
in the Congress and on the Intelligence Committee.

In a video recently uploaded and then removed from Chinese social media, a
Chinese professor spoke openly about Beijing's past efforts to infiltrate
the U.S.

DI DONGSHENG, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, RENMIN UNIVERSITY OF CHINA (through
translator): No matter what kind of crises, we fix everything in two
months, it's just because we have people at the top. At the top of
America's core inner circle of power and influence. We have our old
friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL (on camera): In terms of fallout, Florida Republican Senator Rick
Scott is calling on Pelosi to remove Swalwell from the House Intelligence
panel. And Texas Republican Congressman Lance Gooden is demanding a ban on
Chinese nationals serving as interns in U.S. congressional offices, Bret.

BAIER: More on this with the panel as well. Mike, thanks.

Meantime, President Trump's team is joining legal action brought by one of
his allies trying to keep the electoral college from officially casting
votes. Here's Chief White House correspondent John Roberts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice
over): With the electors set to vote on who the next president will be in
just five days, President Trump is pinning his hopes on a Supreme Court
case filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

KEN PAXTON, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS: These elections in other states
where state law was not followed as required by the Constitution affects my
voters because these are national election.

ROBERTS: Paxton is asking the Supreme Court to block electors from voting
in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia, claiming those states
moves to massively expand mail-in voting broke the law.

PAXTON: That election, we can't go back and fix it, but we can say OK,
let's transfer this to the legislature, which used to do this in other
states and let them to decide the outcome of the election. That would be a
valid constitutional situation.

ROBERTS: President Trump gave the petition a big thumbs up tweeting, we
will be intervening in the Texas plus many other states case. This is the
big one. Our country needs a victory.

Some supporters of the president question the wisdom of him jumping into
the case, feeling it would be better if the president left it to the
states. Arkansas among 17 states joining Texas.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announcing I have determined that I will
support the motion by the state of Texas in all legally appropriate
manners. The integrity of our elections is a critical part of our nation
and must be upheld.

No word on whether the Supreme Court will take up the case, but it has
asked the defendant states for a response by 3:00 p.m. Thursday.

The Texas case falls on the heels of a loss in the Supreme Court for
Congressman Mike Kelly and congressional candidate Sean Parnell. The court
denied Kelly and Parnell an injunction to block further certification of
the vote in Pennsylvania. The two say, they're not done yet.

REP. MIKE KELLY (R-PA): We were not granted a temporary injunctive relief.
It does not mean that our lawsuit does not go forward. It means that the
temporary injunction relief, that part has been taken away and it's going
to allow the state to move forward with appointing their electors but by no
way is this over.

ROBERTS: 27 Republican members of Congress sent a letter to President Trump
urging him to direct Attorney General Bill Barr to appoint a special
prosecutor to get to the bottom of how the election unfolded.

In the letter, the lawmakers saying Americans deserve a definite resolution
and the legitimate questions of voter fraud remain unanswered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS (on camera): And as far as how long this could go on, we seem to
see a new deadline which is further off in the future that have been
thought that the deadline would be Monday when the electors vote. But one
of the president's top attorneys Jenna Ellis set out a release yesterday
saying that the next hard deadline is January the sixth when Congress votes
to certify the elector's votes.

But then she said ultimately the final deadline is January 20th, so we
could be in this for a while to come in, Bret.

BAIER: That will be something. John Roberts live in the North Lawn. John,
thanks.

The House meantime has approved an interim spending bill to avert a
government shutdown this weekend, the vote 343 to 67. This bill funds the
government until midnight December 18th. The measure now goes to the Senate
then to the president.

Congressional Democrats are dismissing two Republican sponsored Coronavirus
relief plans so far. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's has a proposal
from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin does not do enough to help the
unemployed.

A team of bipartisan senators has released details of their bill. It
includes an extra $300 a week covering four months of unemployment aid,
$160 billion for state and local governments and 300 billion for the
Paycheck Protection Program.

Stocks were off today, the Dow lost 105, the S&P 500 fell 29, the NASDAQ
dropped 244.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SWALWELL: Just over six years ago, I was told about this individual. And
then I offered to help, and I did help. I was thanked by the FBI for my
help and that person is no longer in the country.

BAIER: How much is China doing? How much is China spying in the U.S.?

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, DIRECTOR, FBI: Bret, there's no country that presents a
broader, more comprehensive threat to America's innovation, to our economic
security and to our Democratic ideas than China does.

The FBI is opening a new counterintelligence investigation that ties back
to China every 10 hours. And that's just sort of the tip of the iceberg.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER (on camera): The FBI director talked to me there at the end of June
said it again in July, as we have this Eric Swalwell story, we want to talk
about Hunter Biden as well. Let's bring in our panel. Early Byron York,
chief political correspondent of the Washington Examiner. Jonathan Swan,
national political reporter for Axios and Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal
columnist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Let's just start there, Axios broke this story, Jonathan with the exclusive
suspected Chinese spy targeted California Democrats. And part of Swalwell's
defense has been that he says it leaked by the Trump -- the either the
president or his allies. It's just -- it's interesting that that's the
pushback here to this story. It's happening after the election.

JONATHAN SWAN, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: I mean, it's reasonable.
I mean, it'd be inappropriate for me to talk about my colleague sourcing
but just use your common sense. Even Swalwell acknowledges that he first
found out Axios was on this in 2019. I know my colleague, his timelines
wrong. He says July 2019, it's not July but she's been working on this for
more than a year.

So, just anyone who has any parsing, understanding of how Trump world
works, do we really think that they put out some opposition research and
then patiently wait a year beyond an election for the -- for the very well
respected China correspondent to report it out in a nuanced fashion? I
mean, give me a break. It's -- it completely absurd.

The story is really important. It shows how the Chinese Communist Party
operates inside this country. It shows how they infiltrate our local
politics, how they identify young -- in some cases, soft targets. People
who don't have a lot of staff around them, who don't have experience, who
don't actually understand the tactics of the Chinese Communist Party, and
then they follow them up.

And they follow them, in some cases, in Eric Swalwell's case, he has become
a very, very powerful important member of Congress with access to the
nation's top secret. So, it's a very important story just to understand how
China is operating. And as you showed in that interview, right now in this
country.

BAIER: Yes. I want to play this sound bite from the House minority leader
Kevin McCarthy. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): This is only the tip of the iceberg. Because
remember what we're hearing, these are Chinese spies that go down to the
level of a mayor. They court and help a city council member become a
congressman.

This congressman now gets on the Intel committee. They are only selected
from the Intel committee by the leaders of their party, meaning, Nancy
Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi is one of the gang of eight along with myself.

Did Nancy Pelosi know this had transpired when she put him on the
committee? Why is he still on the Intel committee? Let known why is he
still a member of Congress?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Yes, Byron, the question is how far does this go? Who else is
affected? And you look at in the context of the Russia investigation and
all that has been said and done about that.

BYRON YORK, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it was happening. As late
as 2015, which is the year before Democrats started making a very, very big
deal of Russia and the Trump campaign at the time, going through 2016, '17,
'18, looking with suspicion on any contacts of any Trump figures with
Russians.

And we heard earlier in the program, Eric Swalwell complained about law
enforcement being weaponized against him. Well, welcome to Washington. This
is what is happened, and I would not be surprised to see more Republicans,
not just Kevin McCarthy, calling to find out more about this, because their
feelings are still very raw from the whole Russian thing, in which there
was a long investigation into alleged collusion that didn't establish that
it ever even happened. So, you're going to see more about this.

BAIER: I want to -- I want to turn to the Hunter Biden situation. And we're
just getting more breaking news and it's happening just before this show
started. Telling our own Brooke Singman that two sources familiar with the
investigation tell Fox News, the investigation being run out of the U.S.
Attorney's Office in Delaware into Hunter Biden's "tax affairs" includes
looking at that laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden.

Fox News first reported in October that the FBI subpoenaed a laptop and
hard drive reportedly belonging to Hunter Biden in connection with a money-
laundering investigation in late 2019.

One document obtained by Fox was a subpoena sent to the owner of the laptop
repair shop to testify before U.S. district court, December 9th, 2019 goes
on to say, we first reported that the FBI was in possession of that laptop.

So, we're not only seeing here, Jason, the tax investigation, a grand jury
tied to a target subject of Hunter Biden, but also now that the laptop is
part of this. And that it was now overt, not just to covert part of the FBI
investigation.

JASON RILEY, COLUMNIST, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Right, and of course there are
a lot of news organizations that didn't want to look at any of this prior
to the election. They thought it might help Donald Trump in the election if
they did that. So, they avoided the story.

And, you know, I can understand Trump supporters looking at this and being
infuriated by it. Perhaps, there's something there with regard to Hunter's
business dealings in the Ukraine or in China. We don't know yet. But we do
know that there's a very clear double standard here when it comes to
looking at these matters, depending on which party you're a member of when
it comes to the press's attention.

So, we don't know if it would have affected the election. But I can
understand why a lot of Trump supporters right now are furious that this is
only being looked into at this point.

BAIER: You know, Jonathan, quickly, the -- we saw in the Durham case that
the attorney general putting a special prosecutor label just to protect
perhaps what's going to continue in that investigation. This one,
potentially, he could do the same thing as you're getting ready for January
20th.

SWAN: Well, this will be the first test of, of what Joe Biden has said he
will do with his justice department. Joe Biden has pledged that he will
keep his justice department at arm's length that he will not intervene.

Well, it doesn't get much more of an ultimate test than your own son being
investigated by federal law enforcement for business dealings with China or
in tax affairs.

So, how Joe Biden handles that investigation will be a really crucial test
of how he's going to operate with his justice department.

BAIER: OK. All this breaking just before the show, we're digesting it all,
we'll bring it to you as we get more details. Panel, we'll see a little bit
later in the show.

A tale of one city and two states. We'll see how one town has to operate
under two different sets of rules coming up for the coronavirus pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One side's wide open, another side's closed. So, I don't
know how that is going to benefit anyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Tonight, we continue our exclusive reporting from Afghanistan, as
American troops prepare for a significant drawdown there from what has been
this country's longest war. Correspondent Benjamin Hall tells us from
Kabul, not everyone is happy the troops are leaving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN HALL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over):
The drawdown is underway. After almost 20 years, bases are being closed and
troops are heading home. It's believed that just two large bases and
several satellite ones will remain for the 2,500 soldiers who stay.

But on the ground, the situation is getting worse. The Taliban are
launching more attacks, taking more ground, and thousands have fled their
homes. For these people, a peace deal seems a long way off.

HALL (on camera): This man says that children are dying here. They've got
no food; they've got no heating. But that is still better than the war and
the fighting they've fled, and that, that fighting is worse now than it has
been in a long time. He's asked the Americans to stay in Afghanistan until
they can bring peace.

HALL (voice over): The rise in violence is thought to be a tactic by the
Taliban to gain leverage in negotiations. Secretary Pompeo says the peace
deal is at risk.

MIKE POMPEO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: And I made clear to them
that the violence levels can't continue while these negotiations go on. It
won't work. And so, we've asked all of them to stand back and indeed stand
down.

HALL: The Afghan Army have been trained by the U.S. and conduct all ground
missions and 96 percent of air missions themselves. But it's not thought
they can stand up to the Taliban alone.

The U.S. will continue air support, funding, and training, all in
accordance with the deal they made with the Taliban. And about 6,500 NATO
troops remain. But for America, this, their longest war is winding down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HALL (on camera): The Afghan war has cost almost 2-1/2 thousand American
lives and almost a trillion dollars. $138 billion of that has been spent on
relief and reconstruction. Being out here now, it is --

BAIER: It was Benjamin Hall in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Meantime, you saw that picture there. It's a high-altitude test by a
SpaceX's Starship rocket resulting in an explosion today. The prototype
taking off from the company's Texas launch site, blowing up on its return
landing -- exploding.

The ship was supposed to reach about 41,000 feet, but its main goal was to
test several individual components. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had earlier given
the launch only a one in three chance of success.

On the first try, he tweeted afterwards, "Fuel header tank pressure was low
during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high and RUD," which
means Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly. "But we got all the data we needed.
Congrats SpaceX team."

So, is breaking up the right thing to do? Government lawyers say Facebook
has been using its dominant position to crush its rivals and harming you
and your family in the process. We'll tell you about that and how they're
doing it a bit later.

Up next, our series on the coronavirus vaccination continues with the
politics of the pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying politics played no role
in the vaccine's development.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS
DISEASES: If the United States Food and Drug Administration says that a
vaccine is safe and effective, I can promise you that I will take that
vaccine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER:  British regulators are warning people who have a history of
allergic reactions against taking the coronavirus vaccine. At least so far
investigators are looking into two adverse reactions occurring on the
country's first day of its vaccination program.

Meantime, Canadian health regulators have approved Pfizer's vaccine. They
say 249,000 doses will arrive this month and be administered within days.

We continue our weeklong series on the vaccine tonight with the politics of
the pandemic, specifically has the approval process been safe, and if it
has, who gets the credit? Correspondent David Spunt has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, (D) NEW YORK:  We trust the drug companies. What the
American people don't trust is President Trump.

DAVID SPUNT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  In 2020, science and politics are one
in the same. Millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will likely be
administered in just days. But the political fight over a vaccine started
even before COVID blanketed the country.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'd love to see if we
could do it prior to the end of the year.

SPUNT:  Through spring, summer, and fall, scientists worked on vaccines in
labs across the globe. At the same time, the 2020 presidential campaign met
at the intersection of science and politics.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, (D-CA) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:  I would trust the
word of public health experts and scientists, but not Donald Trump.

SPUNT:  The next day, standing outside the main entrance to the White
House, the president mixed the two.

TRUMP:  We're going to have a vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very
special date. You know what date I'm talking about.

SPUNT:  The vaccine never made it before Election Day.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT-ELECT:  We're for a vaccine, but I don't trust it
at all, nor do you. I know you don't.

SPUNT:  Dr. Anthony Fauci says vaccine safety under President Trump was not
compromised.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS
DISEASES:  This is a safe and efficacious vaccine.

SPUNT:  But safety isn't the only concern for some Americans. A Catholic
bishop in California caught Pfizer's attention by calling out the company
over concerns it used aborted human tissue. In a statement, Pfizer pushed
back, telling FOX News, "This is a synthetically-design vaccine and does
not contain any animal or human material." A source close to Bishop Joseph
Brennan says that information was enough to change his mind.

Public health officials are focused on addressing political doubt,
religious objections, and safety concerns because they say the more people
get vaccinated, the sooner the country achieves herd immunity.

FAUCI:  The estimate is that you'll need about 70 percent, maybe 75 percent
of the people in the country vaccinating to get that umbrella of heard
delivery that will get us really on the road very close to being normal.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SPUNT (on camera):  To help with public confidence, former presidents Jimmy
Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and President Trump
have all said, Bret, they are ready to roll up their sleeves. Bret?

BAIER:  David, thank you.

Tonight, we are taking you to a town on the border of Tennessee and
Virginia that is trying to balance two different sets of state regulations
dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. Correspondent Mark Meredith shows us
from Bristol, Virginia.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MARK MEREDITH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  From above, Bristol looks like one
city, but look closely and you'll see the state lines separating Tennessee
and Virginia runs right through downtown, forcing Bristol businesses to
comply with different health restrictions depending on what side of the
street they're on.

LEN COOK, CHAMPION STRIKING AND FITNESS OWNER:  It is a little challenging
as a business owner for sure.

MEREDITH:  Len Cook owns Champion Striking and Fitness in Bristol,
Virginia. His gym remains open for now.

COOK:  If you are doing any classes that involve close contact with a
person, we require a mask.

MEREDITH:  But as COVID cases surge in the commonwealth, he knows it's
possible that more restrictions could be in place.

COOK:  It would be aggravating to see one side like literally across the
street being able to do anything and us being closed, because that is not
going to help at all.

MEREDITH:  Last month, Virginia placed new limits on in person gatherings
and alcohol sales, a decision impacting event spaces, including Bristol's
new boutique Sessions Hotel.

CATRINA MULLINS, SESSIONS HOTEL GENERAL MANAGER:  It's very disappointing.
A lot of holiday parties, of course, have postponed. We are still looking
at getting wedding for next year. We've had quite a few inquiries.

MEREDITH:  Sullivan County, which encompasses Bristol, Tennessee, so far
has not enacted the same restrictions. Virginia's governor calls the split
a health hazard.

GOV. RALPH NORTHAM, (D-VA):  In our border communities, people routinely
cross state lines to work, shop, and visit their families. What happens in
these other states affects us.

MEREDITH:  Bristol businesses appear to be taking the divide in stride.
Beth Rhinehart is the president of Bristol's Chamber of Commerce.

BETH RHINEHART, BRISTOL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:  A lot of business leaders
step up to do things, to have very frank conversations through PSAs and
other things to encourage people. Be responsible for yourself, for your
family.

MEREDITH:  But some Virginia businesses also fear they will eventually lose
customers to Tennessee if more restrictions are added in the weeks ahead.
Still, Bristol's leaders insist the city's fate is note split, instead tied
together as one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  When one side loses business, everybody loses
business.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MEREDITH (on camera):  Residents tell us they would like to see officials
from Virginia and Tennessee work together on a unified plan for battling
the virus. And help may be needed now more than ever. The local hospital
system reported today it found more than 4,400 new cases of coronavirus
last week alone, a 25 percent jump from the week prior. Bret?

BAIER:  Mark Meredith live on the border between Virginia and Tennessee.
Mark, thanks.

A tough day for Facebook as the social media giant becomes the target of
several major antitrust lawsuits. We'll explain.

First, here's what some of our FOX affiliates around the country are
covering tonight. FOX 12 in Portland as Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler says
he is authorizing police to use all lawful means in ending an illegal
occupation at a home in the city. Protesters have rallied at the private
north Portland residence for months to demonstrate against the eviction of
a black and indigenous family.

And this is a live look at Orlando from our affiliate FOX 35 there. One of
the big stories there tonight, Vice President Mike Pence says the Cape
Canaveral Air Force station is being renamed Cape Canaveral Space Force
station. Today, the vice president led what will likely be his final
meeting of the National Space Council.

That is tonight's live look outside the beltway from SPECIAL REPORT. We'll
be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER:  A pair of major antitrust lawsuits against Facebook is feeding
speculation tonight that the social media giant could be broken up.
Correspondent Gillian Turner is here to tell us what this all means. Good
evening, Gillian.

GILLIAN TURNER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  Good evening, Bret. So, two hotly
anticipated antitrust lawsuits in the tech world were filed today against
Facebook. Sources are telling FOX News tonight, this could ultimately lead
to the court's breaking up Facebook, the first time for a major U.S.
company like this in decades.

Now, one of those suits is filed by the FTC, the other by 48 states
attorneys general, both alleging major violations of antitrust laws.
Facebook illegally maintains monopoly power by deploying a buy or by
strategy that thwarts competition harms both users and advertisers.

Now, the lawsuits from the states focuses on what they view as Facebook's
go to move, which is identifying small but potentially rival social media
apps and buying them out. Take a listen to New York's attorney general
earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LETITIA JAMES, (D) NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL:  Billions were thrown at
smaller companies in an effort to get them to sell. The two most glaring
examples of this unlawful scheme were Instagram and WhatsApp.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TURNER (on camera):  Also alleges Facebook sometimes threatened potential
rivals in order to get them to agree to buy outs. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LETITIA JAMES, (D) NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL:  They also sent a clear
message to the industry. Don't step on Facebook's turf or, as one industry
executive put it, you will face the wrath of Mark.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TURNER (on camera):  Mark Zuckerberg himself shot down similar accusations
just two weeks ago. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK ZUCKERBERG, FACEBOOK CEO:  I don't think we or anyone else viewed
Instagram as a competitor, as a large multipurpose social platform. In
fact, people at the time kind of mocked our acquisition because they
thought that we dramatically spent more money than we should have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TURNER (on camera):  Tonight, Facebook tells FOX News in response to these
lawsuits, "This is revisionist history. Antitrust laws exist to protect
consumers and promote innovation, not to punish successful businesses." So
after months of marathon hearings on Capitol Hill, threats from lawmakers
of reining in and regulating big tech, it does seem like at least Facebook
is now finally facing a reckoning, it's just coming through the courts,
Bret, rather than through Congress, as we all expected. Bret?

BAIER:  That's one to follow. Gillian, thank you.

YouTube says today it will start removing content that it says falsely
alleges widespread fraud changed the outcome of the presidential election.
That is a change to its hands-off stance on videos making similar claims.

Google, meantime says it is lifting its political ad ban tomorrow. That ban
was put in place ahead of last month's elections. Obviously, the only
election pending, January 5th, the runoffs in Georgia. We'll follow them.

More with the panel next. Brand-new info on the Hunter Biden tax probe,
plus the case of the Democratic congressman and the Chinese spy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER:  That video from November 7th, Hunter Biden embracing his father,
Joe. This on a day that we learn and he learned that he is under
investigation, federal investigation. Hunter Biden putting out a statement,
saying "I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. attorney's
office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are
investigating my tax affairs. I take this very seriously, but I am
confident that a professional, objective review of these matters will
demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including
with the benefits of professional tax advisors."

The transition putting out a statement, "President-elect Biden is deeply
proud of his son who has fought through difficult challenges, including the
vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger."

But as this night has progressed, we are learning more and more details,
that in fact this investigation goes back to 2018. In fact, there is a
grand jury involved and that Hunter Biden is a subject or target of that.
In fact, that there has been, according to two different sources, a look at
the laptop, the Hunter Biden laptop that had been a focus of several
reports, and also of money transferred from foreign nations, including
China.

We are back with our panel, Byron York, chief political correspondent for
the "Washington Examiner," Jonathan Swan, national political reporter for
"Axios," and Jason Riley, "Wall Street Journal" columnist and senior fellow
at the Manhattan Institute. Byron, your thoughts as this story comes out
and we learn more. We are getting that this is now the overt stage of this
investigation, but the covert stage, sources are saying, never really
stopped from 2018.

BRYON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "WASHINGTON EXAMINER":  Right,
and it was going on even as Democrats were really yelling for Republicans
to stay away from Hunter Biden. Remember, a year ago, as the move to
impeach the president was heating up in the House, a lot of Republicans
wanted to look into Hunter Biden's business affairs. And the word they got
from Democrats was absolutely no way.

In the end, this is not hugely surprising in the sense that it often
happens this way, when someone makes a large amount of money from
mysterious sources overseas, you look at whether they paid taxes on all of
it. That is certainly what happened to Paul Manafort in the Mueller
investigation, and it has happened to a lot of people who have had these
windfalls from overseas governments.

BAIER:  Jonathan, you mentioned this earlier, in a real test for the
President-elect on January 20th, be the president as his DOJ likely
continues this. Here is Joe Biden, the candidate from November, 2019,
talking about he would run a DOJ and investigations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT-ELECT:  I would not dictate who should be
prosecuted or who should be exonerated. Follow the law. Let the Justice
Department make the judgment as to whether or not someone should be
prosecuted, period.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  That's what he set on the debate stage. Obviously, it's his son.

JONATHAN SWAN, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, "AXIOS":  Well, and this also
means it puts more pressure on the question of who he appoints as his
attorney general. Does he appoint someone who can plausibly be thought of
as independent, or does he appoint someone who is much more political,
someone who is much personally close to him, someone that people would not
necessarily trust would be able to keep such a thing at arm's length.

So again, it's really going to be -- the test doesn't become more profound
than your own son being investigated. And he has laid down this marker
very, very clearly as one of the things that distinguish him from President
Trump.

BAIER:  Jason, there will be a lot of loud frustration from Trump
supporters that this is coming out the first week, second week of December,
and not the first week of November or the last of October.

JASON RILEY, "WALL STREET JOURNAL" COLUMNIST:  Definitely, Bret. When I
think about this and the arguments made that Byron alluded to, the staying
away from Hunter Biden, often the Democrats would say, yes, maybe he was
trading on the family name to cut deals in areas where he really had no
expertise. Maybe it was unseemly, but there is nothing illegal about it.

And now we learn that, in fact, the federal prosecutors are looking into
this, making him a target of the investigation. Now, of course we don't
know if Joe Biden is involved in any of this. He has said he has not
discussed his business dealings, his son's business dealings with him. But
we'll see. But yes, the hypocrisy of what has gone on here and the way that
the president's own family members and children and so forth have been
relentlessly investigated by the media, who at the same time wanted to take
a very kid glove treatment with respect to the Biden clan, it's all being
exposed right now. So yes, Trump supporters are going to be very
frustrated.

BAIER:  Yes, quickly, Byron, obviously we have all the texts that we
covered before the election. The big man in the back and forth that Hunter
Biden talked about getting money. We are told by sources that Joe Biden is
not a subject or target so far in this investigation. But he's starting an
administration with this that is going to have to be covered.

YORK:  Absolutely. And there is a big media angle to this because
apparently the laptop, information from the laptop is involved in this
investigation. And remember, so many news organizations suppressed reports
of this laptop for the weeks leading up to the election. And now it looks
like it's going to play a serious role in a serious investigation.

BAIER:  OK, we'll follow all of it. Panel, thanks for hopping on the
breaking news tonight.

When we come back, the joy of giving and getting.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER:  Finally tonight, the season of giving. First Lady Melania Trump
promoting the annual Toys for Tots drive. The charity hosted by the U.S.
Marine Corps Reserve collects toys for children in need. The first lady
chatted with children before helping them sort toys and make Christmas
cards.

Speaking of toys, four-year-old Michael was surprised to find Santa at his
door with a big present. After his first visit with Santa ended in tears
from being told he could not have a toy gun, a mall in Illinois apologized,
sending another jolly old Saint Nick to his home with a brand-new Nerf gun.
So, there you go. Home delivery.

END

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