>> laura: with god, all things are possible. i couldn't have said what reagan said better myself so everybody, just have a merry christmas, a happy new year. shannon bream an >> the fate of a coronavirus relief package is in jeopardy >> the fate of coronavirus relief package in jeopardy after house republicans object to increasing direct payments. extreme weather blows and the east as americans prepare to for a christmas and speaking of christmas how some are spinning typical christmas cheer and in a typical year. this is special report. good evening. welcome to washington and merry christmas eve. i am mike emanuel, donald trump spending christmas eve at mara lago is the status of the next round of covid-19 relief remains in limbo, stimulus checks for

millions of americans on hold. house republicans voting against the president's demand to increase payments to most americans from $600 to 2000 and since the package is tied to a massive government spending bill a veto could trigger a shutdown. the president is spending the holiday in west palm beach amid a stimulus stalemate. >> reporter: we still do not know whether the president will or will not sign at $900 billion stimulus package, the bill that congress already approved, the president is not happy about this, lawmakers are trying to other disaster with millions of americans wondering if they are going to get a check or not. >> reporter: house democrats tried but failed to approve the

latest demand to increase the amount of money some americans would get indirect stimulus payment. >> the american people need to know with certainty that democrats are trying to get them higher stimulus payments. this is christmas eve. >> house republicans are not on board giving lawmakers scrambling to figure out if and when emergency checks will go out. >> republicans in congress and the white house can't agree on what they want. >> this week the house and senate approved the $900 billion stimulus package that would send $600 directly to some americans. tuesday the president released a video complaining it is not enough. >> i'm asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple. >> the president says he is upset the stimulus is tied to a $1.4 trillion spending package which includes billions of dollars in foreign aid. some republicans say it is a fight worth having. >> i appreciate republican standing firm and hope we can

eliminate the waste, fraud and abuse in the budget. >> the government faces a potential shutdown next week if the president and congress don't make a deal. >> in his holy season we thank god for his infinite love. >> in his christmas message the president praised americans but made no mention of the 26 people he part tuesday night. the list includes some notable names, paul manafort was the trump campaign chairman in 2016 sentenced to 7 years in prison for bank fraud tied to the mueller probe was manafort reacting in a tweet writing, quote, mister president, my family and i humbly thank you for the presidential pardon you bestowed on me, words cannot fully convey how grateful we are. roger stone, the president's longtime political confidant was also partly. his sentence was artie commuted this year, had been convicted of lying to congress and witness tampering. >> they wanted me to bear false witness against the president and i refused to do so. that is what this charge is about from the beginning. >> also on the pardon list

charles kushner, the father of the president's son-in-law jared kushner, he was convicted of tax evasion and witness tampering tied to a family scandal. within hours of the pardon list being released there was outrage from lawmakers including nebraska gop senator ben sass who in one sentence statement wrote, quote, this is rotten to the core. we are still waiting to see if the president may issue more pardons. as for congress on monday the house is working to override the president's veto of the national defense authorization act. the house speaker says the house will be working on whether to increase stimulants payments with a roll call vote with payments the president says he wants. mike: mark meredith starting is often west palm beach, many thanks. stocks were up today, the dow gained 70, the s&p rose 13,

nasdaq jumped 34. a massive russian cyber attack allowing hackers to spend months mining federal government networks and private company systems across the globe is proving to have larger than expected implications and a new warning from the federal government. >> reporter: a christmas eve warning for local governments across the country, not even a week after cybersecurity officials announced a widespread digital intrusion into several federal agencies those same officials warned local municipalities may also be victims. cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency warned it is tracking a significant cyber incident, hacking enterprise networks across federal, state and local governments. last week authorities announced hackers infiltrated solar winds, a company that provides software for public and private organizations. after diving into the parts of

commerce and energy. fema county, arizona's computer systems were in the hackers crosshairs the county officials say no compromising data was stolen. solar winds says 18,000 of its customers received a software update that included dangerous malware. >> they have the ability, networks in which they maintained persistent control to do the proverbial bomb dropped if they wanted to go that route. >> crowd stray, cyber security company announced it was contacted by microsoft as a potential victim. the company says it was not impacted. >> it will take us weeks to discover the full extent of what has been taken and months to remediate. >> lawmakers in washington are calling for an investigation into the origins of the hack. mike pompeo and former attorney general william barr blame russia as the president shifted blame to china in a tweet. cyberexpert say the current and future presidents must work together to prevent another outbreak. >> this is going to be a very

long response process. it is not let's just have a meeting in the oval office or meeting in this room. >> reporter: experts are paying close attention to hospital systems from the largest cities to the smallest towns to keep patient information safe especially in the middle of this deadly pandemic. mike: president-elect biden spent christmas eve in wilmington, delaware. sources tell fox news there are ongoing discussions whether a special counsel should take over the hunter biden tax investigation after william barr rebuffed donald trump's request before he resigned, this as president-elect biden is managing pressure from interest groups as he fills out the last posts in his cabinet. jackie heinrich live in wilmington, good evening. how likely is it a special counsel is named? >> acting attorney general jeffrey rosen refused to say

whether he would appoint a special counsel and his predecessor william barr said it wasn't necessary but two high-level justice department officials say the door is not shut on that decision and some believe it is warranted citing special counsel statute, one source saying a president-elect coming in where his appointed attorneys will be investigating his son his textbook conflict. >> his business associates and business activity were flagged by banks, not a right-wing group. i want somebody to look at all the overseas activity hunter biden compromised foreign-policy of president biden and the guy in delaware doesn't have that mandate. >> reporter: the us attorney overseeing hunter biden's case is a trump appointee but insiders say it is unlikely biden will fireplace him because he could create the appearance of interference. president-elect has found to keep his finger off the scale

including attorney general. >> mister biden was expected to announce his pick for attorney general almost two weeks. are we any closer? >> reporter: no. biden said on tuesday there's no obvious choice in his mind, in part because age, gender and racial diversity is such a debate in these cabinet pics and pressure from interest groups is weighing on his choice for labor secretary, sources tell me boston it mayor marty walsh is being strongly considered, supporting a number of union heads and democrat see him as a pastor supporting donald trump. walls have long-standing relationship with biden who presided over his second inauguration in 2018 but the congressional black caucus said the post is critically important for black communities and the asian-pacific caucus appointed him to appoint an aip nominee to any remaining cabinet spot. the congressional hispanic caucus is making a push. one source told me it is not

just race but biden is factoring in but also diversity of experiences and viewpoints. final decision for labor secretary has not been made. >> thanks a lot. with the high-stakes senate runoffs in georgia less than two weeks away donald trump's veto of the defense spending bill and growing uncertainty surrounding him signing the covid-19 stimulus package could have a big impact on those races. >> reporter: democrats rafael wornoh ck and runoffs of donating food to a charity. they received an unexpected gift from the president and his rebuke of l lawmakers for being too stingy on stimulus checks. >> donald trump is it ever erratic at all over the place but on this point tonight he is

right. $600 is a joke. they should send $2,000 checks to the american people right now because people are hurting. >> reporter: republican senator kelly leffler since she will consider larger checks if the money is redirected from wasteful spending in other areas but democrats are criticizing leffler and fellow georgia senator david purdue for their continued silence on whether they will vote to override donald trump's veto of the annual defense spending. a party spokesperson says senator leffler must choose. will see both donald trump or block critical funding for georgia servicemembers and military facilities. more than 2 million georgians have already cast early ballots in the runoffs. the voting rights group founded by stacy abrams has filed a federal lawsuit to block a conservative texas watchdog from challenging the eligibility of more than 364,000 georgia voters saying it amounts to widespread and well-publicized attempts at voter suppression and intimidation. with nearly half $1 billion invested in the georgia senate runoffs the new york times

reports the campaigns are buying advertising in out-of-state projects markets that overlap even a few georgia counties. these tight races every voter matters. mike: a winter storm in nebraska claimed three lives in the national weather service predict a wide range of hazardous weather on the way for much of the east this christmas. chief meteorologist rick wright joins us with what we can expect. >> reporter: and critical storm,. across the northern plains, the air has settled in, this air is not going to go anywhere quickly. the northeastern nebraska, where the heaviest of the blizzard was to the east coast, these temperatures, we had a massive record-breaking storm, four feet in some spots, now we have temperatures in the 50s and very heavy rain falling with the storm.

we will talk about rapid 0 melt and a lot of trees going down, roofs collapsing, basements flooded and rivers and streams on the roads. the southern side of the storm nonsevere but storms moving across northern florida, georgia into the carolinas, snow turning into snow and severe weather in front of that, the outer banks looking at a few tornadoes the next couple hours and heavy rain into the northeast, a lot of areas have snow on the ground. that rain might total in a few spots 2 to 4 inches of rain and behind it the snow. those are winter storm warnings in effect, four to tweet inches of snow by the time this is done. one last thing we are watching from the storm is incredible winds, tonight during the overnight hours we might see winds gusting 50-70 miles an hour in new york city, pretty significant power outages for people waking up on christmas morning. mike: much of that sound like another good reason to stay

home. thanks a lot. despite warnings to stay home millions of americans are flying the friendly skies this christmas week. according to the tsa, 5 million people pass through airport security checkpoints between friday and tuesday alone and even more getting their cars. garrett tenney is at chicago's o'hare airport with more. >> americans are heading home for the holidays, nearly 85 million people are expected to travel over the next week and a half according to aaa. the vast majority are in crowded airports to drive to their destination despite public health officials urging folks to stay home state report record numbers of hospitalizations due to the coronavirus. >> this type of travel is risky. i'm afraid that if in fact we see this happen we will have a search the is superimposed on a difficult situation we are already in.

so it could be a very difficult january coming up if these things happen. >> reporter: a lot of folks we spoke to acknowledged they are taking a risk by traveling but say for them being reunited with family is worth it. >> tension in the air, a little bit of risk involved and hoping for the best. i felt i needed to be with who i can be before i lose too many more. >> we are scared of covid-19 during our daily lives. this is something i have to do just to see my family. >> reporter: travel is down 40%, holiday travel expected to drop by 29% compared to last year, 3 quarters of americans stay home for the holidays according to aaa. >> reporter: >> just like thanksgiving people are doing a wait and see approach, deciding at the last minute. people may have travel plans they may cancel and stay home because of the rising covid-19 cases. >> reporter: those who travel

over the holidays the cdc recommend getting tested before and after your trip including the number of people you interact with and quarantining for 7 days when you get back home. >> reporter: thanks a lot. still ahead creative ways to be social during the pandemic and an alarming trends on the southern border, agents don't see it stopping anytime soon. we will explain. the holidays are a time for giving. to your friends... your family... to your teachers. in that spirit of giving,

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♪ is us forces launched an airstrike in somalia damaging out darlings compound sending several fighters fleeing. us african command said it points to the fairies activity that currently assesses knows billions were injured or killed as a result of this operation. the united states military continues to move its forces out of the war-torn country. distressing trend from the southern border, the number of children illegally crossing without their parents is on the rise is why is the increase occurring even with the backdrop of this pandemic? >> in between the fences. >> should be alarming to anyone, and unaccompanied child crossing international border by themselves.

>> reporter: a surge of unaccompanied children has border agents on alert. >> children and minors being trafficked and more romantic locations, the west area of south texas. >> era smuggler crosses the border near brownsville was four children all underage 7. when agents approach he abandons the kids and goes back to mexico, confused, wet and shivering the children huddle until the border patrol arrives. >> the other day we had a 3-year-old children with a phone number written on her leg and some information written on her t-shirt and to me that is just a recipe for disaster. >> reporter: the phone numbers make it easy for us officials to contact parents or relatives already here. unaccompanied children crossing the border jumped from 25 a day in april to 150 a day now. dhs officials say 35% of the kids test positive for covid-19.

>> i'm worried for my coworkers, my family, my friends and migrants. >> reporter: why the increase? floods in the pandemic. the election of joe biden and a judge's recent ruling that unlike families or adults the us cannot return unaccompanied children over the border. the resulting surge threatens to overwhelm a limited number of available beds. >> we don't want to keep them in our custody longer than we have to. our facilities are not equipped for that. >> reporter: agents a verizon unaccompanied children will continue despite the pandemic. incoming president biden says he will keep order restrictions in place. in los angeles, fox news. mike: an unusual christmas with positivity, what fox affiliates are covering tonight. fox 5 in san diego. evacuation orders went into effect at camp pendleton as a wildfire grew to 3000 acres, 7000 residents affected by the

mandate in this area between san diego and los angeles. that fires 35% contains. fox 5 in new york, amid a surge in shootings in the empire state, 9000 new yorkers applied for gun permits this year, more than three times the number of applicants at the same time last year. however last year nearly 70% of applications were approved ridiculous than 14% being granted. this is a live look at tampa bay, the big story tonight, dicey weather moving in. florida will experience unusually low temperatures with a chance of falling iguanas. the phenomenon occurs when temperatures drop below 40 degrees making the cold-blooded reptiles in mobile which can cause them to fall from their tree perch, that is a live look outside the beltway from special report, we will be right back. ♪ ♪ if you should ever fall i

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♪ >> mike: december is regularly one of t >> december is one of the highest grossing months for restaurants but this irregular year has just to be a costly challenge and would most impersonal holiday parties canceled uncertainty among the industry is rising.

richardson breaks it down tonight. >> reporter: the industry is in a difficult place. >> reporter: this is usually a time of year party plaintiff like heidi hiller make a significant share of their income. this year those large, profitable holiday parties are off. >> we are not only rebuilding but we are going to be rebuilding after an economic collapse. >> reporter: more than half of companies are giving up hosting a holiday party this year, the highest rate since challenger, gray and christmas began the survey in 2004. 44% of businesses canceled parties because of covid-19, 5% say they dropped their parties to cut costs on top of local governments suspending in person dining. >> december is the second highest grossing months for the restaurant industry so we are seeing shutdowns at the worst time. >> reporter: the national

restaurant association said it surveyed restaurants, two of three restaurants say they expect more furloughs and layoffs over the next week humans and restaurants and say selling virtual party packages and take out still leave them short. >> you tried to come up with other ideas like doing virtual things, catering to offices, but to be candid there is no replacing the lost business. >> reporter: health officials are warning americans to avoid unnecessary travel during the holidays and there is concern about the impact of a year of social isolation. >> whether it is not seeing family are not seeing friends there is a real void for many individuals in terms of where they feel connected and who they feel connected to and who they feel supported by. >> reporter: doctors say americans should still try to connect with others at a distance however possible. whether it is video calls, volunteering, dropping off food or holiday light displays, just letting others know you're thinking of them.

>> christmas eve is looking different not only at home but all across the globe. even though you may be celebrity differently, and senior foreign affairs correspondent amy, reports there are signs of hope. >> reporter: no midnight mass, the pope celebrated at 7:30 p.m. in st. peter's, as two cardinals test positive for covid-19. one is quite sick. the pope has tried hard to keep spirits as bright as can be. as an early christmas gift he told vatican staffers nobody would lose their job because of the pandemic. no such promises on the street of italy where businesses have been hard-hit. christmas carolers try to bring cheer to the shopping district just before it goes into another lockdown for much of the holiday season and this church turned into a homeless shelter.

>> reporter: >> translator: covid-19 has brought anyone to their knees which i don't wish everyone to be on the street. i have never stepped on the street, but during the past two months i have been sleeping on the street. >> reporter: everything feels different. the vatican postmodernist nativity scene drew grumbles from the more traditional. it's astronaut figurine a nod to the lunar landing that happened at the time the vintage set was created, a symbol of progress. of thousands-year-old monastery in florence, the abbott points to progress that he a lot of congregation tonight unlike easter when it was band. the message of christmas, so simple yet strong. >> this is the message of hope and peace. >> reporter: the abbott says hope can have a concrete manifestation in the vaccines that are finally on the way. mike: up next the coronavirus

relief package could be in jeopardy, the panel joins me to discuss but a pakistani court is ordering the release of the man convicted in the 2002 murder of daniel pearl. the court also returned life sentences for three accomplices. pearls working in pakistan in 2002 investigating al qaeda networks, four men kidnapped him from karachi and brutally killed him days later. european union and united kingdom reached a post brexit free trade deal days before the uk is scheduled to finalize the parts are, the deal should of hurt the economic break between the two sides if no deal was achieved. thousands of vietnamese potbelly pigs squealing their way across puerto rico as the island struggles to contain them. the non-native species are reproducing at such an alarming rate the us territories here

declared a health emergency and officials start eradicating them. other stories tonight, we will be right back. or ten... then easily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. that means... world domination! or just the west side. run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks.

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♪ >> i am asking congress to >> i am asking congress to increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 per couple. >> house republicans rejected the unanimous consent request blocking the increase sought by democrats and by donald trump. the american people need to know with certainty that democrats are trying to get them higher stimulus payments. >> was the perfect? know but it was a down payment on getting relief to the people of this country. when the president, when we thought we could give people hope doesn't give a damn about people, he threw kerosene on a

fire and is now threatening to veto this bill. >> reporter: the democratic leadership tried to give him what he wants, increase the amount of direct payments from $600 to 2000. house republicans blocked it making for interesting politics these days. let's bring in our panel, a writer for the washington post, republican strategist lisa booth and jason riley, wall street journal columnist and senior fellow at the manhattan institute. where are we? >> we are in a bit of a bind. referring to your earlier segments what is going on in georgia, the president is giving a lot of political a to the democrats and making life difficult for perdue and leffler, the republican senators trying to hang on to those seats. they voted for that defense bill

initially earlier this week that the president vetoed and now they are in position of having to stick to their guns or cross the president and similar with the corona relief bill, white house negotiators, steve mnuchin negotiated with $600 amount, republicans were on board and now the president wants to take the position of democrats in georgia running for those seats which will give democrats control of the senate. he's putting republican control of the senate in jeopardy. among other things with these last-minute demands. >> the way the sausage is made on capitol hill will you come to the end of the year into a government funding package that was scheduled to go through the end of next september and they want to do covid-19 relief so they threw them together and we wait to see if the president will sign it or veto it.

>> there is an important distinction to be made, donald trump raised the threat that is asking congress to address the issue and asking congressional - he's not saying he's going to veto it but it is an important distinction to be made in trying to add the additional pressure to congress. we have things like unemployment benefits that are set to expire which adds pressure to the president potentially going ahead and signing this thing but you cannot look at the last few months, look what congress has done and not say it is irreparably broken. if you look at the heels act in july put forward by mcconnell it looks similar to that $900 billion deal, no reason this couldn't have all been addressed back in july and we know the reason was because nancy pelosi is essentially was

withholding that and trying to prevent donald trump from getting a win before the election which in turn really hurts the american people further. look at the facts we are dealing with, an ominous bill just days away from a potential government shutdown or the fact that congress only got a few hours to read a 6000 page bill, the second-largest stimulus bill in american history on monday before signing it so all of this if you look at it collectively it is an indictment of the brokenness of congress and mismanagement from congress and a pox on everyone's house essentially. >> the president putting his allies in an awkward spot on capitol hill. >> kevin mccarthy was in excruciating position when nancy pelosi with a big grin on her face it sure, let's go for $2,000 for the middle class. the president's for it all of a sudden. i think to his credit, mccarthy and the republicans in the house to the right thing which was not

to endorse this. it is bad policy because it will give a lot of -- will hold up a bill that has a lot of benefits in it for the unemployed, workers and service industry, workers in the airline industry for the sake of the next thousand dollars or so for families that make twice the median income who probably in the scheme of things should not be first in line for free government money at this point. no good deed goes unpunished, mccarthy tried to save face by drawing attention to the foreign aid complaints but once again the republicans on the hill, the president are crossways. >> we look ahead to early next week, there's going to be the override vote on the national defense authorization act, and a huge piece of legislation putting republicans in an awkward spot.

>> this is going to be a replay of this week republicans are going to be in an awkward spot. i share some of the president's disagreements with both bills. i don't -- my problems are a little different than the president's, the problem with the bill is not the payments families aren't big enough, what families really need is to get back to work, no government check can replicate with the economic engine of the united states will do once we put our foot on the gas. to the extent these payments discourage people from returning to work. unemployment benefit at ons that pay people more to stay home rather go back to work, they could be doing more harm to the economy in the long run. it is not a perfect bill.

it has its flaws, but too small is not the problem. >> we have plenty more to talk about next panel but your thoughts on the override vote that comes up early next week. >> sort of the veto because both in the house and senate, they likely have numbers to override it so he gets to veto it, raise concerns about section 230, gives the middle finger to big tech which actively worked against him, worked to help joe biden in the last election knowing congress likely has the numbers to override it. >> final thoughts, 2 seconds left. >> the president is going to be overridden but the bottom line is this totally unnecessary. the president and his team negotiated this bill with the hill, they had plenty of time to make these objections before and now unnecessarily, gratuitously,

he is creating 45 days of chaos with the possibility we will get nothing at the end of it. >> donald trump issues high profile pardon politics with the panel next.

♪ >> we are very happy. i have an enormous debt happy. i have an enormous debt of gratitude to god almighty for

giving the president the strength and courage that my prosecution was politically motivated witchhunt and my trial was a soviet style show trial in which the judge denied is any line of defense in which the judge we now know his exculpatory evidence. todd: donald trump's pardon of roger stone and other trump campaign associates and members of congress made heads explode at m s nbc. >> rich white cooks of america, your time has come. >> it is as fundamentally corrupt as a pardon gets. >> can and not be brought up on charges after he leaves office? >> back with our panel, lisa, jason and chuck. your thoughts? >> i think this is one of those issues that inside the beltway people care a lot about but i don't think people outside the beltway really care.

donald trump is not the first president to use his powers to pardon unsavory characters into roger stone's point some of these prosecutions were somewhat politically motivated. everyone knows in dc a fair violation, people don't comply with it. how many people would actually be guilty of the department of justice equally applied the law against people working on behalf of foreign governments. even if you look at the time span 1966-2015 the doj only brought 7 criminal cases so going after him on that was completely unequally applied versus others and underscores political motivation in my mind. >> senator ben says not happy with the latest round of pardon saying, quote, this is rotten to the core. your thoughts?

>> i agree with lisa. there is a strong argument that paul manafort and roger stone, to get them to flip on the president in the russia investigation which itself turned out to be a big much of do about nothing but we know that donald trump is a transactional politician, he rewards loyalty, he values it very highly and i think that was what was going on here. in terms of jared kushner's father, bill clinton can pardon his brother, i guess donald trump can pardon the father of his son-in-law. obama and clinton pardoned to mister terrorists or commuted sentences and people who had been convicted. congressman who have been convicted of sexually attacking

a child and soliciting kiddie porn, the exploding heads at m s nbc should keep that in mind. >> the office of the president has wide-ranging pardon powers, your thoughts? >> it is absolute, unreviewable, the founders wanted it that way and by their nature people convicted of serious crimes are not usually very savory people. what you look for is a process going into this that is somewhat aboveboard and transparent that reflects real remorse and rehabilitation on the part of the people getting the pardons. the interesting thing here is on charles kushner it doesn't feel like that. it feels like an insider deal. chris christie has been very eloquent, donald trump's former supporter, about how bad what charles kushner did was and the pardoning of blackwater agents from overseas on charges where they killed civilians in baghdad and expressed no remorse for

that including one in prison for life, that sends a terrible signal that is much worse than the studies involving roger stone and the rest. >> one pardon, a former maryland police officer, listen to her. >> this means the world to me, this means the world to my family to receive this pardon from donald trump, this restores my faith a bit in the justice system, it gives me some nice closure. one of the best christmas gift i could have ever hoped for. >> we are running short on time, your thoughts, more pardons to come? >> we will see. we also see this could be a story of redemption. we look at individuals like alice johnson, the justice

system isn't always fair. we will see more of these pardons moving forward but i don't think people outside the beltway are going to care too much. >> 15 seconds, your thoughts. >> nice to see a police officer get pardoned. these days they have been coming under a lot of attack of late so a lot of good can be done there. >> final thought looking ahead to more pardons. >> i think there are more to come. >> with respect to that police officer as i read it she was convicted of sicking her dog viciously on a civilian. interesting to know more about that case that donald trump is trying to send a message about how he feels about the police and rewarding law enforcement who had been supportive of him in the campaign. >> panelist, thanks for doing this on christmas eve. merry christmas to you all. when we come back, a special christmas message from your

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♪ >> mike: finally tonig differently on this christmas eve it is time for a yearly holiday tradition from my friend and colleague bret baer and his beautiful family. >> reporter: merry christmas and happy new year, we do this every year, we've done it since these kids were babies, wanted to bring family and even in this tough year figure out a way to do this and wish you a merry christmas. >> i wish everyone good health, great christmas and happy new year. >> wishing everyone great memories with their families, blessed christmas and healthy 2021. >> i wish everybody a great christmas and happy new year. >> let's put 2020 behind us, keep it fair, balanced and unafraid.

mike: thank god paul is doing well after his open heart surgery. thank you for inviting us into your home, that is it for special report, merry christmas to all of you who are celebrating. i am mike emanuel in washington, the stories next with a special unknown valor. good night. >> welcome to a special edition of tucker carlson. merry christmas. if you are spending the final days of 2020 with the ones you love congratulations. that wasn't easy. a lot of powerful people trying to force you to remain cut off with your family, sad, solitary and dependent on the state, they told you you had to be alone because of the coronavirus but it is more than that, something about christmas drives a certain bureaucrat completely nuts and it is only unregulated joy,