her family, feeling good. that's good news. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that is it for this "special report." fair balanced and still unafraid. "the story" hosted by martha maccallum starts right now. hey, martha. >> martha: hey, bret. good evening to you, and good evening. this is "the story." breaking tonight, hunter biden is not the only member of the biden family whose business deals or investigation from the doj. political reporting federal agents in pennsylvania are conducting criminal probe into a business deal that has ties to jim biden, you see here with his brother. tony bobulinski said that jim bh hunter to ensure business deals in china comes all of this before the election, those who did dig in, "the new york post" on fox news, were mocked or stonewalled. here is our reporter outside of jim biden's home back in october. >> why did you involve joe biden

in your china deal? why did you end hunter biden one joe biden to meet with tony b? i wanted to ask you about the china deal. >> please stop bothering me. >> martha: so, what did joe biden know, and why are we only hearing about some of these investigations now? what about the claims rudy giuliani has been making for months? >> texts, emails, and photos that demonstrate crimes committed by the biden crime family. >> martha: rudy was dismissed as falling for russian disinformation, the same argument that we've been hearing the last four years. >> just as i've said to the president, with him, all roads lead to putin. >> martha: all along, it appears it was not russia working its way into the halls of congress, it was china. right under the noses of the speaker of the house and the chair of the house intel

committee, who of course is adam schiff. ron johnson, republican chairman of the house homeland security committee, is here in a moment, but first, trey gowdy, fox news contributor and author of "it doesn't hurt to ask." trey, good to have you here tonight. your thoughts, now we are learning that jim biden is under a criminal probe in western pennsylvania, with regard to a hospital business deal there. how serious is that? >> well, it is potentially very serious. martha, you put your finger on it. think about all of the things we read and saw in the weeks leading up to the election. we saw donald trump's tax returns in "the new york times." we saw that eric trump was being deposed by the attorney general. ivanka trump's business dealings, jared kushner's business dealings, all of that is fair game. now think about how many leaks "the new york times" has gotten about ongoing investigations, and not a word about hunter biden or any member of the biden family, and for those

who did write about it, for those who did investigate it, the social media platforms punish you if you try to disseminate that information, so just think back to that op-ed written by "the new york times." "donald trump is the greatest threat to america since the evil access, the axis of evil, since hitler and japan, that is what "the new york times" said. if you believe that it, of course you are not going to do anything that hurts his opponent, and i think that explains why you saw nothing leading up to the election. >> martha: so, you bring up a number of great points there. one of them is why we didn't learn about this, and one of the things that has been put out there by someone who is familiar with this case related to the department of justice said it was in deference to the upcoming election. with that right or wrong, in your mind? >> no, unless you know something i don't know, hunter biden is not on the ballot. neither are any of biden's brothers. so, i mean, eric trump --

eric trump being deposed by the new york attorney general was done right before the election. so, if it's fair to do it to a member of trump's family, then why the investigative blackout? i mean, i don't know any counsel or prosecutors that just hit the pause button. you're not supposed to week, i'll say that. but "the new york times" always gets leaks from the doj and fbi when it involves republicans, but in this case, that either didn't ask, or they didn't run with it when they got it. >> martha: it is my understanding it wasn't ever paused, but it was covert, meaning the people involved were not aware of it yet, and then they waited until after the election for it to become overt, where they contact the people involved and they contact the lawyers of the people involved. you know, if that decision was made, to stay out of the way of the election, do you think that was wrong?

>> of course it was wrong. i mean, the american people are smart enough to decide -- first of all, we know you are presumed innocent. second of all, we don't attribute shortcomings of kids to their parents. but you know, martha, i just read in the last week about a pardon investigation. that there certain people in the president's orbit were being investigated for pardon improprieties. they are entitled to an confidentiality too, they? why are we reading about that in "the new york times"? because the fbi and doj decide when to leak and when not to leak. this has been going on since 2018, and you need to tell me "t know about it or didn't ask abot it? i think the reality is they just didn't write about it. they knew about it, but they didn't want him to win, and the best way to hurt him is, number one, print his tax returns, which is a crime also, by the way, and to cover up for his family. >> martha: there was a very concerted effort on the part of the media to squash the story anyway possible.

this is the cover of "the new york post." it says "censored, facebook and twitter boxed post expose and hunter biden filed." with the southern district of new york looking at hunter biden point securities fraud. here is the -- watch this. >> this was a policy around distribution of materials. we did not want twitter to be a distribution point for hacked materials. >> we try not to be arbiters of what is true ourselves, but we have partnered with fact-checkers around the world to help assess that, to prevent misinformation. >> martha: okay. trey gowdy, final thought on that before i let you go? >> it's just laughable. they disseminate false information all the time, and think about all the classified information that you can

retweet. that is a crime, by the way. nothing in "the new york post" was a crime, so if they have a standard, none of us knows what it is. >> martha: trey gowdy, thank you very much. good to see you tonight, trey. >> yes, ma'am. >> martha: now we turn to the active role the senate has taken on the story, led by ron johnson, chairman of the homeland security committee. published an 80-plus page report on hunter biden and burisma several months back and he joins me now. senator johnson, good to have you here tonight. your thoughts -- is what you are learning now, included in the intelligence that you had when you wrote the report? or is this above and beyond th that? >> well, obviously we did not know the fbi or justice department was conducting an investigation, but i think it is all part and parcel of the transactions we revealed. the very troubling ones that the mainstream media completely dismissed, completely ignored. but you know, martha, when you take a look at the types of people at hunter biden, and now we know from tony bobulinski that joe biden knew about these

folks, as well, cefc, $5 million to hunter biden directly, another $6 million to rob walker, who claimed to be a surrogate for the biden family, this is a company, the chairman had ties to the communist party of china. the people's liberation army. and this company that had $33 million of income in 2013 just went proof, and the chairman just disappeared. these are the people that hunter biden and the bidens had foreign financial entitlements with. what else, what other connections that it have to china? we may only see just really looking at the tip of the iceberg. >> martha: some people listen to that want to know why there was not a more forceful subpoena process, why were they brought in front of congress or your committee before the election? >> well, again, subpoenas are only as good as people are willing to honor them, and congress has very little input or power to actually enforce them, so we were first trying

just to uncover and dig up the information. that was difficult enough within these agencies, and so, we issued the report. we are not prosecutors. we are not here to determine whether something is legal or illegal. we are here to gain information. quite honestly, i needed support from my committee to get subpoenas, there is no way i would have gotten a subpoena for hunter biden. >> martha: i think some people look at that and wonder, you know, how effective, it is even possible to be on capitol hill, with regard to investigation. we know as you say, the department of justice was looking into it. so what happens now is the big question, and here's what your colleague senator tom cotton said should happen now. watch. >> there needs to be a special counsel and we need to dig into it. speak of these investigations span multiple jurisdictions, and if joe biden becomes president, than all of those prosecutors are in mind to be fired next month. if there are ever circumstances that create a conflict of interest and call for a special counsel, i think the circumstances are present here.

>> martha: so, that seems pretty clear. but you have said earlier today that you do not think there should be a special counsel called in this investigation. why not, senator? >> i said i am not a real fan of special councils, and i will give these prosecutors benefit of the doubt for the time being, but i am highly concerned. look, we did the investigation into the investigation of the hillary clinton email scandal, which was an investigation not to uncover the truth leading to prosecutions and convictions, prosecution to cover up the truth and exonerate -- i want to make sure that is not the case in terms of hunter biden, as well. but i think the vice president has all kinds of legal jeopardy here. if it's a true investigation, they are going to start opening up all of these financial transactions. we saw the emails with a big guy gets 10% of one particular deal, where hunter is complaining about having to always include his father -- >> martha: while exactly. >> this is very troubling. but that is -- >> martha: senator --

>> and the press and media ignored it, had an enormous impact -- >> martha: we didn't ignore it, but this is the problem, and as tom cotton lays out, this is exactly the situation where you need a special counsel. you are saying, oh, gee, i hope they don't treat it the way they treated the hillary clinton email scandal, but many people are still waiting for accountability and that story. isn't this a good moment to say let's protect it from the incoming president because he, his son is involved in it, his brother is involved in it, so wouldn't it be the perfect situation -- i know you don't like special councils, but wouldn't this be the right time for that, given all the circumstances? >> it might be time to call a special counsel, as well, i'm just not real fond, i'm not real fond of the special counsel law. >> martha: okay, senator ron johnson, thank you, sir, good to have you here tonight. my next guest says the media's dismissal of this story in the weeks leading up to the election may have changed the outcome of the race. take a listen to some of that

coverage. >> charges so heinous i'm not even going to say them. >> talking about the bidens personal progra corruption. most of those charges unverified. >> a smear on joe biden comes from the kremlin. >> peddling baseless conspiracy theories about joe biden and his son. >> it is so obviously a russian operation. so obviously a story treated by the trump campaign. >> martha: these people so obviously didn't know what was going on because they were in the middle of a federal investigation at the time. joining me now was joe concha, media and senior analyst for "the hill." and lisa boothe, both fox news contributors. great to have you here this evening from as well. and guy benson, too. hi, everybody. >> hey, martha. >> martha: joe, let me start with you, from a media perspective. it is really unconscionable when you look back, given the fact we now know there were not only federal investigation, fdny, southern district of new york, a

very serious investigation, and southern pennsylvania. what do all of those people we just heard from basing that on, what were they talking about? >> what they were talking about was their own opinions, not following the facts. they said the story couldn't be verified because it is hard to verify something when you don't try to verify it as a journalist or news organization in the first place. let me give you some headlines, martha, from october. cnn: "the anatomy of "the new york post"'s dubious hunter biden story." "washington post": the truth behind the hunter biden nonscandal. "new york times": inside the white house secret last-ditch effort to change the narrative and the election. this thing was dismissed outright before anybody actually pursue the story, so a couple of things to look for here. when will joe biden actually speak about this? putting out a statement, not good enough, and his conferences that he has done where he only answers questions seemingly about president trump, he is going to have to answer for this now in his own words, because he said there was no wrongdoing and he had no conversations with his son about his business dealings,

despite flying god knows how many hours on the same plane over to places like china, who was the attorney general b, dana perino brought this up before, great question, are we getting another eric holder? the president's wingmen? or loretta lynch? or who are we going to have here to carry out this federal investigation? but i think the big tile is who is going to book tony bobulinski from another news organization r "the new york post," in terms of doing an interview? because if anybody is really serious about pursuing this story and peeling the onion off, i want to hear from hunter biden's business associate, who only spoke to tucker carlson just a couple months ago, maybe a couple of other outlets, and seemed very credible at the time. let's see who pursues that interview, because that is a big key right now. >> martha: a lot of media organizations starting to cover their tracks here and you also have to really continue to remind people of what twitter and facebook did. what right did they have to slap a ban on "the new york post" story that broke the story, about the laptop at that point, you know, i mean, who are they to do that? and lisa boothe, do you believe

there was any impact on people's ability to assess the election fairly? >> well, of course, because that information wasn't out there, because the media make sure of it. we are at a really dangerous place, i believe, because you have the media almost in its entirety, along with the left, pushing the same narratives. then you have big tech along and censoring any opposing voices, so how does that leave room for the truth? where we are now is we potentially have a president that hasn't been vetted. joe biden was not vetted by the media. you have someone, despite the fact he was in office for something like 47 years, he abandoned most of his core beliefs along the campaign trail, abandon his moderate beliefs in favor of a progressive agenda and surrounded himself with progressives, yet he wasn't vetted. also, we potentially have a president who was entangled in this mess of his family, entangled with these business

dealings, potentially illegal, with foreign entities and foreign governments, because some of your previous guests have pointed out, joe biden was mentioned in some of these emails as the big guy and getting cuts of some of these deals. tony bobulinski said that he met with joe biden on a couple of occasions about a business deal with china, so that puts him in a precarious position, particularly when you look at foreign policy moving forward and the position being compromised by some of these foreign governments. >> martha: and we know we have a lot to fear from china, and we are learning more about it every single day, in fact. guy, this is a moment from the "60 minutes" interview president trump did with leslie stahl. watch this. >> when i watch him walk out of a store and he's walking with an ice cream, and the question the media asks him, "what kind of ice cream, what flavor ice can do you have postal? and he is in the midst of a scandal. >> he's not. he's not. no. >> martha: i mean, "no, he's

not in the midst of a scandal." and you know, there were going longer pieces about this that "60 minutes" cut out of the whole interview, they didn't even play that part. what do you think of all of th that? >> well, martha, i think it is worse than what we said in the segment on the medias behalf and much of the mainstream press. they not only decided collectively this was not a story, something we were not to discuss in any serious manner. you mentioned big tech. i remember trying to just tweet the link out and you couldn't do it, which was sort of astonishing. they all want to step further, in many cases, where the biden campaign came out and said this is russian disinformation, he played the clip of nancy pelosi at the top of the show. democrats, the biden campaign, and the media come all settled instantly on the same talking point about russia, and had absolutely no basis for it in actual fact. and yet it was repeated, swallowed whole by the press, repeated ad nauseam him, and to

your point about the media's job here, it actually goes back to president trump's complaint about the ice cream sundae and the types of questions that are asked of joe biden, if the press wants to try to prove just a little bit that they're going to try to attempt and attempt to hold joe biden accountable and ask tough questions, pointed questions, joe biden is on the record and multiple presidential debates in front of tens of millions of people claiming there was nothing to the story whatsoever. hunter made no money from china, he said that. he famously told our colleague peter doocy had no knowledge whatsoever of any of these business dealings. they are provably false things that the president-elect has said on this very topic, and i would be very curious to see if our brethren in the press was really hold his feet to the fire, or are they now embarrassed, because they dismissed this story, to try to help get him elected, so they will go through the motions a little bit, and then let it drop? i know where i would bet my money right now, but it's a very

sad state of affairs. >> martha: and the truth is, these are ongoing investigations. if there is nothing there, there is nothing there, and it doesn't hurt to ask when it is your job to ask. thank you very much. guy, joe concha, lisa boothe, great to see you all. >> you bet. >> have a good night. >> martha: you too. how long will nancy pelosi continue to make excuses for congressman eric swalwell? a growing number of his colleagues want removed from the house intelligence committee. it's a big deal. after being compromised by this chinese spy named fang fang. republican congresswoman elise stefanik, who now sits on the house house intel committee, she is up next. ♪ >> i don't have any concerns about mr. swalwell. and that was made known to the members of congress, it was over. that was the end back. ♪ utual.com to customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? really? i didn't-- aah! ok. i'm on vibrate. aaah!

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>> martha: tonight, pressure mounting to remove california congressman eric swalwell from the intelligence committee after the story broke that he allowed a suspected chinese spy into his campaign and fund-raising. she has since fled the country, back home to china, but fox news reporting revealed that until yesterday, she was still "friends" on facebook with swalwell's father and brother. in fact, swalwell's father liked a picture she posted in march of this year. march of 2020. boast of those friendships have died since that story broke, though. during the i was congresswoman elise stefanik, a member of the house intelligence committee, on the same committee with eric swalwell. thank you for being here. >> good to be with you, martha. >> martha: do you believe he should be removed from the

committee? that is what representative mccarthy, leader mccarthy says. >> 100% he should be removed from the committee, stepped down from the house committee on intelligence. not only is it disturbing for any member of congress to be compromised by the chinese communist party, but particularly if you are a member of congress who sits on the select committee and has oversight over our intelligence agencies, that gets highly classified briefings, especially when it comes to adversaries like china, like russia, eric swalwell is compromised and he needs to step down. speaker pelosi has tried to brush this under the rug. this issue is not going away. there are more questions that need to be answered. not only should he step down, he needs to be appear before the ethics committee. >> martha: do you believe nancy pelosi should have briefed the gang of eight and made sure leadership was well aware of what was going on? she says there was no problem with eric swalwell, he did nothing wrong, and no reason to alert anyone. >> i mean, this is one of the most concerning peace of news since i have been in office, to.

we are talking about the chinese communist party official that infiltrated a member of congress' campaign, that fund raised money for him, that also placed staff members and interns into his official office. >> martha: right. >> that is very disturbing. speaker pelosi absently should have briefed the gang of eight, and i know that leader mccarthy is going to demand answers for this. i also want to know, when was speaker pelosi made aware of this? she needs to come clean with her colleagues and the american people. why she didn't share this and why she didn't demand eric swalwell stepped down from the committee. >> martha: given what we now know about how this all worked, and as you say, she placed an intern in one of his offices, she was filing for his finances, at least had an acquaintance friendship with members of his family, and here's what he said about spying back in 2019 with regard to russia. watch this. >> stated plainly, the president's son met with a

russian spy. we now have the best evidence of that in our minority report we put out, going all over the world and running into dana rohrabacher, a sign of a spy, someone who tries to create a coincidence encounter, now she was working at the behest of the russian government. >> martha: aha, so that's how it works, congresswoman stefanik. that's how it works. >> it is the height of hypocrisy, and what is truly disturbing and very irony, eric swalwell was the trader of these accusations and russia hoax, take his words and replace the word "russia" with "chinese communist party" and president trump with eric swalwell, and the accusations he was lobbing that weren't based in fact are in fact true about his coordination with the chinese communist party assets in the united states.

he owes his colleagues answers, he owes his constituents answers, and he should step down from house intelligence committee. >> martha: we know this woman had, the reporting is she had two physical relationships with the people that she was also getting to know. here in the united states, his office has refused to answer that, we have no information is that is the case. more digging to come. congresswoman, great to see you tonight. elise stefanik from new york. now to tonight's other huge story. the covid-19 vaccine has now been approved by the fda advisory panel for use in the united states following a vote on sunday, the full fda is expected to follow the panel's recommendation within days, and could even have it tonight or tomorrow. it's an amazing achievement for operation warp speed, which was originated by the trump administration. two big questions tonight, right? one is practical and one is

political. how do you get it, now that it is almost out there. and will abide in team take credit for the trump-driven vaccine which came in record time? joining me now, dr. francis collins, director of the institute of health and a member of the coronavirus task force. i know you will be primarily interested in my first question, which is what happens now, how long will it take before the files -- we have seen it in canada and in the u.k. it's going into people arms! so what is going on, and when do we get it? >> real soon. so, the advisory committee did vote 17-4, with one abstention, to approve pfizer's vaccine for covid-19. that is an advisory committee. it goes to the fda, and they will decide, probably very soon, whether to accept that recommendation. the warp speed team is ready to start distributing this vaccine to the states, and every state has already made a plan about how they would make this

allocated based upon what the priorities are. so what are the priorities? because we don't have enough doses for everybody right now, so the initial priorities are for health care providers, if they are on the front lines, and also people very vulnerable, residents of nursing homes and assisted living's. those will be the people first in line. as doses get generated in the coming months, gradually we will work through people come starting with the highest risk and essentiall eventually to ev, hopefully by the summer, -- >> martha: so who makes that decision? if you're in your upper 80s, for example, like someone i know very well and love, my dad, and you are in physically good health, when do those people get in line? to they call their doctor, do they go to cds, how do they get it? >> so it is the cdc's immunization practice committee that makes these priority decisions. everybody should watch for those, and they will be working through them over the course of the coming weeks.

it will certainly be the case that elderly people, who we know are at high risk, my father-in-law is 98 and he is at home. he is not in a nursing home, so he won't be in this first line, but i hope you will get there pretty soon. we will see those folks getting prioritized very soon after that. and also, people who have chronic illnesses and who are not necessarily the elderly, but who we know are at higher risk for severe disease. >> martha: when you say very soon and very soon, do you mean -- today is thursday -- do you mean we might see shots injected on monday? is that reasonable? >> it's entirely possible. i don't want to preempt the fda. they will need to look at the comments that were made today by this advisory committee, but i think it is quite reasonable. and let me say, that is not the only vaccine come of course. there will be another meeting of the same group next week where they consider the moderna vaccine. let me say, martha, there are four other vaccines in the midst of running trials. we want all of them to succeed because then they will have even more doses, so people are interested in taking part in

those trials, it's not too late. combat covid dot hhs.gov is the place to go to find out if you want to join up. we need you. >> martha: dr. collins, thank you, great to see you tonight. so, coming up, the city of minneapolis has now delivered on its promise to defund the police. shootings have doubled, carjackings are up more than 300%. haven't heard about those since the '80s, right? and more than 100 police officers have quit their jobs. my next guests are minneapolis natives who say someone will pay, and we are going to talk to them in a moment. burgess owens on the new leaked audio of joe biden talking about defunding the police. ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> martha: so after a month-long campaign to dismantle the police force sparked by this tweet from minneapolis counsel -- council president, excuse me, lisa bender. remember back in june? she wrote, "yes, we are going to dismantle the minneapolis police department and replace it with a transformative new model of public safety." the council now agreed to slash nearly $8 million from the police budget and focus instead on violence prevention. as crime runs rampant through the city. gunshot victims have doubled in minneapolis this year. carjackings are surging. 331% since 2019. and homicides are up 73%. so here is how the debate unfolded among city officials and local residents. watch this. >> in my experience, more police do not equal safer communities. >> police to prevent crime, police do provide safety.

>> still operates to this day to criminalize black people in the name of protecting white women, and i will not allow you to keep doing this in my name. >> martha: so come in moments, congressman elect burgess oh one, also reacts to the leaked audio of joe biden talking about the defund the police movement, but first -- citizens who are suing their city over the lack . you are a former council member, yourself, what do you make on what is going on on your formal counsel? >> well, the citizens of minneapolis have been very concerned about both the murder of george floyd and the violence that has risen up after that, so both the police killing and the violence after that. we are concerned about both, and we want to have a both ends solution. both get the police force

corrected and fixed so that we have decent, just, fair policing, and to have enough police officers acting right who are going to police and our communities to a level that will keep us safe. now, the argument has been broken up too much into an either or situation. either defund the police or have protection. >> martha: sounds like a very logical goal to want your city to achieve, and it seems achievable, but you look, jonathan jonathan come at these crime statistics, and they are soaring in minneapolis in the week of everything that has unraveled since the death of george floyd. >> it has. i mean, i myself, i have two bullet holes in my house. one that was 6 inches from my front door, and one that was roughly a foot or so from going into my daughter's bedroom window. so, we have skin in the game here, and our city loa counsel s

heard from us, and a number of us have come to the city council, to the mayor, with this lawsuit saying you are not doing with the law says you were going to do, and that is have enough police officers to protect us on the streets. this both and approach is doable. it is doable. and we expect both. we expect a police force that is just, that treats all people with dignity and respect, regardless of the color of skin, and we expect that in numbers, that will prevent crime, that will allow for safety. the safety of our neighbors and our children. this is an adequate expectation of any citizen of any city. >> martha: in any city, yeah, you are absolutely right. so, don, what is the impact on the community of businesses and stores -- obviously we are in the middle of covid-19, which is another hammer on everybody, i

can't imagine businesses and people want to move to minneapolis at this point? >> right. the atmosphere is very challenging. you know, very blighted. discouraged business people. one of the challenges is lake street, where a lot of the looting took place, is a largely immigrant community, and somebody says that immigrants take about nine years to begin to fully engage, so when you are talking about city council meetings, making calls to your councilmember, the immigrant community is typically going to be somewhat challenged in that way, and that is why part of the reasons why the city council was kind of deluded as to what the will of the community was. in addition, the rest of the community was not as organized

as the protesting, advocacy community, but slowly, we did get organized, and actually, the changes in the budget were almost like moving cards around, because even though $8 million or so was taken out of the budget, 11 million, $11.4 million was added back in in the reserve fund for the chief to get $5 million for overtime and $6.7 million to recruit classes. so, the will of the community prevailed. those adjustments were made. >> martha: thank you, gentlemen. thank you. joining me now's u.s. representative elect, former nfl player burgess owens. burgess, good to have you here. i remember seeing an interview with lisa bender, the head of that city council, in the city of minneapolis, were now over a hundred police officers have

left the force. they don't want to be any part of the force anymore. and she said the expectation that when you call 911 and the police would come to your aid was just sort of smacked of white privilege, that that was not something that should be expected, or that most people have the privilege of being able to expect. what do you make of all this tonight, burgess? >> first of all, statements like that is a total lack of common sense. what we have to understand of what has happening right now, the hard left, they are very good at being empathy free. they use misery as a political tool. i watched it happen 60 years in my community, 1960s, 50-60% of my community were middle-class because 40% of them were business owners. we are now down to 3.8% of business owners. it is flipped around. i want everybody to understand what we are looking at across our country, not just in minneapolis, but across our country.

we have the hard left trying to destroy our middle class by attacking small business owners. it makes no sense, the things they are doing right now. there is no science behind the lockdowns. what americans want very simply as freedom and security. what they want for us is riots and lockdowns. they are two totally different ways of going at it. one is the american way, and the other is the weight of the hard left. we need to understand what we're up against. >> martha: speaking of this movement, which definitely had an impact on the election, here is joe biden recognizing that in this audio that was leaked today. let's listen in and i will get your thoughts on it on the other side. >> they have already labeled us as being "defund the police." anything we put forward in terms of the organizational structure to change policing, which i promise you will occur, promise you, just think to yourself and give me advice whether we should do that before january 5th because that's how they beat the living hell out of us across the country, saying that we are

talking about defunding the police. we are not. we are talking about holding them accountable. >> martha: what do you think about that, sir? >> that's how they like to change the narrative. don't believe your lying years. they want to defund the police. it was not the g.o.p. that did them in, it was the american people. the reason why we have 14 seats and they lose a house seat is because the american people dri. we don't like what democrats are giving us. at the end of the day, just understand, we've seen in minneapolis, what they're trying to do across our country. misery as a political strategy for the left. understand that. look at every single blue city they run. misery, illiteracy, anger, riots, murder, is always democratic cities. we don't want that for our country, my friends. let's wake up and make sure we turn against this dark, dark advance of socialism. >> martha: congressman elect

burgess owens from utah, good to see you tonight. so, president trump tweeting this, "19 states are fighting for us, almost unheard of. when we come back, details on the texas-led fight to take his election case to the united states supreme court. plus, rush limbaugh's biggest fear of the next stage of our divided nation. >> i actually think that we are trending toward secession. ♪ wedding day, huh boys? been there, done that. twice your cousin. from boston. karen, i'm just gonna say what everyone here is thinking. you look smokin. total smokeshow. and they never did find his finger. they had to close the pool for like an hour. ♪ i brought a date. name's sam. dig in. love is like boston lager. rich, complex and it's over too soon. right, chrissy? oh my god. ♪

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♪ >> martha: breaking tonight, more than 100 house republicans are throwing their support behind president trump and the texas lawsuit asking the supreme court to overturn election results in several key battleground states.

white house correspondent kevin corke has the breaking developments tonight on this. hi, kevin. >> good evening, martha. 196 republican house members, so with 106 of them signing on to the amicus brief, that is a little more than half come around 54%. still, this last dish hail mary effort has frankly divided republicans on capitol hill, including the texas congressional delegation come itself. a top republican on the powerful appropriations committee has been telling the president for some time he should move on, while congressman geoffroy, also of texas, voiced his concern about the suit on twitter, opting not to sign on. ditto for heavy hitters kevin mccarthy and liz cheney. they haven't sign on, either. although for mccarthy, he says this. "the president has a right for every legal challenge to be heard. he has the right to go the supreme court with that." that suit, as you know, brought by texas attorney general ken paxton aims to block electors in

pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, and georgia from certifying the biting victory. paxton also alleges the states mail-in voting efforts during the pandemic were unconstitutional and attorneys general from 18 other red states have joined in that lawsuit. now, to be clear here, and i want to make sure i point this out for you, martha, critics of this case often suggest that simply violates the principle of federalism and frankly could set a dangerous precedent by having one state asking federal courts to police the voting procedures in another state, and just a button it up with this example, in his brief, pennsylvania state attorney general josh schapiro, he is a democrat, he called the trump suit "a seditious abuse of the judicial process. one that will play out for the entire nation to see very soon." >> martha: indeed it will. a lot of interest in questions. michigan lawmakers doubling down on controversial comments

targeting trump supporters. >> this is just a warning to you trumpers. be careful. walk lightly. we ain't playing with you. enough of the shenanigans. enough is enough. and for those of you who are soldiers, you know how to do it. do it right. be in order. make them pay. >> martha: michigan state rep cynthia johnson immediately faced backlash for those comments. within hours, she was stripped of her committee seats, and late tonight, she took to twitter again to say this. >> i'm good. i'm okay. i'm not worried. i'm not going into -- i'm not going underground, i'm not changing my [bleep] phone number, i ain't doing none of that! mind you, i never called anybody

their names, of course, unless they are liars or dumb [bleep]. >> martha: so, i mean, that is just one example of the anchor and the division, that is may be becoming even worse since the election. 50% of republicans believe the election was fraudulent, a large number of people unsatisfied with the outcome and democrats are outraged, 75 million americans voted for the republican. moving from blue states to red states, crashes on which were founded on freedom and build on systemic racism. the country used to have shared vision over all of what it meant to be american. even rush limbaugh warning that he thinks we might be headed in a dangerous direction. and actual separation of the states. >> i actually think that we are trending toward secession. can't go on this way. there cannot be a peaceful coexistence of two completely

different theories of life, theories of government, theories of how we manage our affairs. we can't be in this dire of conflict. without something giving somewhere along the way. >> martha: that is a profound and challenging statement for our nation right now. joining me now, brian kilmeade, cohost of "fox & friends" and geraldo rivera, fox news correspondent at large. gentlemen, grateful to have you both with us. i have been hearing and reading things about this possibility lately that it is not like it used to be, that there isn't sort of a vision of what the country stands for, that everybody can sign onto, even when they have different feelings about the way things should be done. but secession, geraldo? do you think that is a possibility? >> i think talk of secession is treason, martha. i want to be very clear. rush limbaugh is a powerhouse broadcaster. he is one in a zillion, once in

a generation, but that talk is reckless and irresponsible. that michigan lawmakers should be impeached. we are one nation, indivisible. i had a laugh, rush goes on to say that people where he has have no idea what people in new york are thinking, they are so different they are like a different species. half of new york lives in florida where rush limbaugh lives. let's get over it. it's preposterous. i live in ohio, a red state. strongly supported president trump, but also pro-gun control, pro-immigration reform, pro-choice. i think leaders who accentuate the differences and exacerbat exacerbate -- are themselves responsible. >> martha: that is a strong charge, and it is, as i said, a discussion that is being had in a lot of places. the claremont institute recently called the separation, nobody wo be the case. i'm sure rush does not want

secession to be where the country is headed, but brian, we are in a place where people are moving to neighborhoods where people think like them. they are leaving california to move their businesses. to texas for tax reasons, other reasons, cultural reasons. where do we go from here? >> number one, we can get along, and proof of that is geraldo lives with erica, who voted -- [laughter] so, you are proof that there is a better day straight ahead. >> thank you. >> number two -- you know that is a fact. you are on wikipedia, geraldo, so i was looking into your background. we all should fundamentally understand how our country started. he never thought we were perfect. we did not need the 1619 project with everyone poking holes in right now that is not part of the particular. 1976, we had roots and that

didn't make america look great. no one in my lifetime ever said those were the good old days, they were terrible. that doesn't mean america is awful. it means america fought a war to be better. in the 1960s, the unrest, we got better. i just think in the big picture, i saw a stat that blew me away. in 1960s with all of the division, parents were asked if you would be upset if your kid married somebody who was in support of the other party. only 5% for both parties. now, over 50% would be upset if you came home and said, "mom, she's perfect, but bad news, she is a democrat." now, everything would be crazy. once compromise starts, and i believe it will start if the republicans can hold the senate, and if joe biden finds a way -- if he becomes president -- if they hold the senate, they have to compromise even to get somebody confirmed. in the beginning, the deal start to get made and everybody goes, wow, they got a better deal, and i know, they got a better deal, i think the temperature will go down. >> martha: that statistic was

stunning. when i was growing up i didn't know definitely how each of my family members were voting or how the neighbors were voting. it's not like that anymore, geraldo, in this country, and i think that is significant. people who voted for joe biden, a lot of them, oh, it's going to calm things down and chaos will go away. so far, we are not seeing that. >> well, my dad was there a republican, my mother a democrat, so there was precedent to my marriage with erica. i think we will get through this. i was on the streets, 1968-1969. cities were burning to the ground. things were so tense. they were like a war day. this too shall pass, and i think biden will do fine with that republican senate, and you know, a house divided i think will be fine. >> martha: good to see you both. thank you very much, gentleman. >> you too martha. >> martha: a brand-new "untold story" podcast is available at

foxnews.com. i talk to a 100-year-old world war ii veteran, james smith, about his time serving as a member of the battalion. that is our story tonight. we thank you so much for being here, look forward to seeing you tomorrow night. thanks, everybody, good night. ♪ >> tucker: good evening, and welcome to cohen. october surprise, you have heard that term. it is political slang for a damaging new story that appears in the final days of the campaign. this year, we had one, one of the biggest october surprise is for "the new york post," the oldest daily newspaper in this country, published a trove of documents showing members of joe biden's family have been selling access to the and former vice president to a number of foreign governments, including the communist government of china. now, that is a blockbuster. but the rest of the media decided to kill it before you could read it.