paul: welcome to the journal editorial report. president biden celebrated his 81st birthday as concern grows among democrats that the incumbent president could lose to donald trump in a 2024 rematch. nbc news survey finds biden trailing the former president in a general election matchup for the first time in that poll as his support among younger voters plummet in what could be a warning sign the key group is peeling away amid the israel/hamas war and doubts about his age. the string of bad polling news for the president. karine jean-pierre says the white house is not worried. >> no alarm happening behind the scenes and i'm not going to comment on everybody who has something to say. our perspective is it is not about age. it is about the president's experience which i would put the president's stamina and wisdom and ability to get this done on behalf of the american people against anyone. paul: let's bring in fox news contributor karl rove. the white house press secretary can't say anything else, can she? you were in that hot house for a why all but what do you think about these polls? a year out a lot can change, a lot will change but how seriously should be be taking it? >> there's going to be a run on plastic sheets for christmas present among leaders of the democratic party because there's a reason, these numbers are terrible. not only are the normal difficulties a president tends to get into whether it is reagan in 1983 or george w. bush in 2003 or 1993 with bill clinton or 1995 with bill clinton, these are numbers that go to the heart of people's ability to see president biden as the president. two thirds of the american people think he lacks the stamina and mental acuity to be perfective in the oval office and recorders of americans the keys do. all to be president including 69% of democrats and those numbers are not going to get better, they are going to get worse. paul: one of the complications for republicans is some of the challengers to donald trump want to make the argument that donald trump is a loser, not electable. these polls show trump is beating biden by less than some of the others in these polls but that removes or makes it harder to make that argument that trump can't win. >> the electability argument is not enough against donald trump but it is clear the republicans would be advantaged if they had somebody new. one pole where trump was ahead by two, desantis was up by four. biden, nikki haley, 8 and a generic republican up by 16. there is a fundamental problem president biden has. donald trump and president biden may be two sides of the same coin. they may be the only person to be nominated by their party who could lose to the other guy. it is clear whichever party figures out they put a fresh face in the contest they have a leg up in the election, we will see if anybody is smart enough to pick up on. paul: nikki haley is gaining in the polls, clear second in new hampshire and south carolina, and tied in one paul with desantis for second to trump in iowa. what her chances of kind of becoming the clear alternative to trump, and does she have to knock out desantis in iowa? >> he doesn't have to knock out desantis, she needs to be a strong second in iowa. it's a disk different description of the challenger. let's look at scenarios from iowa. the first one is trump wins, 50% of the vote. it is problematic from then on. he is pulling it in the i will poll at 43 out of 43, 29 of the 43 say my mind is made up for trump and 14 say i am for trump but open to voting for somebody else. more likely as trump comes in first but under, with a strong second, if somebody comes out of the pack and emerges as a strong second as gary hart did in 1984 on the democratic side then we have a horse race. i think that is the most likely outcome. we could have trump first but way under 50 and two strong second place finishers, desantis and haley doing well, 20s each, trump had of them but in the high 30s. this i don't think happens if he loses iowa out right but it is problematic for the former president if he doesn't have a win in iowa that has him above 50% because he's going around the country saying in his e-mails and speeches and public pronouncements, i am way ahead by 60 points, no, you're in the high 50s in national polls but that's not where he is in iowa or new hampshire. he's raising expectations rather than lowering them. paul: desantis and is invested a lot in iowa. if haley beats him in iowa doesn't he have to consider that he should maybe drop out, because he's not doing that well in iowa or south carolina. >> new hampshire and south carolina. absolutely right. iowa is do or die, he's putting a lot of effort there. he has governor kim reynolds, he won the support of the leader of the evangelical community and if he comes in third in iowa, it's problematic, doesn't get better for him in the next context. paul: is there pafford chris christie? >> he' s not playing in iowa. he's playing in new hampshire where he is running third. the message i'm against trump helped him in new hampshire because new hampshire allows independents to vote in the republican primary and they will use the opportunity to express their displeasure with the former president. it is a longshot and it will be tough. he has been out articulate the bait are doing well in new hampshire but there are two problems. he's not anywhere in iowa. doesn't necessarily mean anything when it comes to new hampshire. john mccain, i remember painfully him winning in new hampshire by 19 points. that could happen for chris. it becomes problematic. second of all, something has to happen to blunt nikki haley in new hampshire. it can't be chris. he blunted marco rubio but it would be problematic for him if he tries in new hampshire. has to be desantis or trump who takes down haley. paul: when we come back, ahead of his anticipated debate, florida governor ron desantis on fox, critics accusing gavin newsom running a shadow presidential campaign against president biden. what the california governor is up to next. unlike some others, it supports 7 brain health indicators, including mental alertness from one serving. to help keep me sharp. try new neuriva ultra. think bigger. 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truly believe i'm here because of 23andme. republican republican and so just overwhelmingly against him. and yet newsom, i don't think, wants to challenge joe biden directly and risk the wrath of the party. if, perchance joe biden were to see this through to november of next year. and i just personally do not see how that's possible. but nonetheless, if he did, i think gavin newsom would want to make himself available for years from now. so how so. how so how so. how so. how so. he game at the moment. but after. after all, no one is talking about any other of the other democratic alternatives out there than gavin newsom. and if somehow biden stumbles, he's there to make himself the default choice at the moment. alicia, you follow california politics closely. newsom isn't really super popular, even in california, is he? i mean, he's his poll numbers aren't aren't fabulous. no and in fact, if you look at one of the latest polls, it shows the where biden runs against the newsom in a primary. biden actually leads about 52% to 20. newsom has a lot of liabilities out in california in which voters hold him responsible for the high energy costs. gas prices are about $2 higher than they are in florida. electricity prices are about twice as high. you have unemployment, which has actually been increasing in california despite being pretty strong nationwide. and unemployment is 4.8. california florida, 2.8. again, the homeless ness, it's out of control. crime has been rising again. that's another contrast to the little imagine ron desantis will try to make during the debate. he has a pretty bad record and to be honest, some of the california's problems precede him, but he is definitely not helped fix them. kim let's talk about that desantis newsom showdown in alicia just laid out the potential attack lines for ron desantis against the california record. but what are the risks for desantis? because i mean, i thought at this stage desantis has to do something to change the dynamics in the presidential race. and why not take on gavin newsom if he does? well he maybe get a boost, but what what are the risks for desantis? yeah, i mean, the upsides are incredibly obvious. he's been on a fairly crowded debate stage within the gop primary this is going to be a one on one in front of an audience of people who want to listen to this. and he's got the better of the issues. the risk here, though, is that he stumbles himself. the risk is that gavin newsom, who, by the way, we might not like his policies, he's pretty good up on a stage. he can certainly he's got a bit of a silver tongue. he could embarrass desantis. he could also, you know, highlight some of the things that potentially are causing desantis more problems in his own primary situation. so, i mean, i think the biggest issue for him is this would be an unforced error, meaning it's not something he has to do to engage in the primary. but if he if he handles it well, it could give him a boost. but, dan, just let me get back to your point about biden. i guess my question is, with the poll numbers so bad with his with his age and so on, why would he feel so compelled to run for a second term? well i think he feels because he's spent his entire career trying to make it to the presidency and he's got it. and it's the golden ring. and it's hard for him to give it up. but there are so many people around him that were telling him that he should could rest on the laurels of what he has achieved. and what is going on in the world, and that if he goes forward and is defeated by donald trump, that will remain his legacy. and it is up to somebody around joe biden close to him to try to make that clear to him before it's too late to turn back. yeah, he can join hillary clinton as the candidate who lost to donald trump. all right. when we come back, as anti-israel protests continue on campuses across the country, some are calling for greater federal regulation of america's colleges and universities. so greater federal regulation of america's colleges and universities. is that the answer? we will ask our panel next. sleep more deeply. and wake up rejuvenated. purple mattresses exclusive gel flex grid draws away heat. relives pressure and instantly adapts. sleep better live purple. right now save up to $900 dollars off mattress sets during purple's black friday sale. visit purple.com or a store near you today. this is your season to smile -- to raise a toast and gather together, to wrap up the fun and round up the gang. .. with an epic anniversary savings event. right now, new patients without insurance get a free full exam and x-rays. plus, everyone can get 20% off their treatment plan. but hurry, because while the season won't last, the memories you make together will. aspen dental. book today. about two years ago, i realized that jade was overweight. i wish i would have introduced the fresh food a lot sooner. after farmer's dog, she's a much healthier weight. she's 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verizon or t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. face consequences. the department of education is investigating cornell, university of pennsylvania after receiving complaints about incidents of anti-semitism and in some cases islamphobia. group of republican lawmakers led by senator tim scott has introduced legislation that would rescind federal money for colleges that authorize or facilitate events that promote anti-semitic activities on campus. we are back with our panel. this is in many ways, liberals mugged by reality. stunned to see these protests on campus. it's fine if they are demonstrating against donald trump, suddenly, israel, defending hamas, what do you make of the idea of rescinding federal money? >> i would not be against rescinding federal money. money is one of the only things these universities understand. they are under pressure from big donors from i leave -- ivy league schools saying they will withhold their donations and that is what a college president does, raise money. that would have any effect. i would like to add as well that these liberals have been mugged by reality but they have been mugged pretty hard. there's an opportunity here to try to begin to turn around the problem of free speech on campuses. this goes back ten years. wasn't just anti-semitism. and schools across the country. now there's a chance to put pressure on to try to get something resembling real free-speech on these campuses. that means entertaining a range of ideological opinions, hiring more professors who simply do not come from the far left but represent the center or even conservative opinion. there's a chance and we should keep the pressure on. paul: you follow security and exchange commission, former chairman arthur levin came out on our pages and said we see an sec like agency to regulate colleges and universities and how they are governed. what do you make of that idea? >> it's a horrible idea. he was fcc chairman at the time, fraud scandals in congress, ended up passing sarbanes-oxley act which imposed new regulations on public companies and had an intended consequences including deterring companies from going public. i don't think that is what we want for a special department for bureaucracy to oversee colleges. we have a department of education which can handle civil rights investigations if there is anti-semitism on campus. however, i would support some kind of legislation that would hold colleges accountable for student loans that are prepaid. that the pressing problem and the federal government does have something at stake in that. paul: i think we need a new agency but that means probably you are going to have to put pressure from trustees who are supposed to be running institutions on college presidents and faculties to tolerate freedom of speech and is that -- donors put pressure. would that be your solution? >> absolutely. i would 20 it with something to do with government. all these people calling for greater federal role. we need to get the federal government out of these universities, not just defunding certain projects but get them out of student loans, get them out of giving money to higher education because it is essentially let's these universities and colleges have insulation against the kind of pressure that you are talking about. they are dependent on donors. put them in a situation way -- they have to compete without the backstop of federal dollars and taxpayer funds and make sure they are more receptive to those donors and we definitely need to be pushing when they were alumni, donors, to work with these universities and particularly hires and future employers of the students to start exerting some pressure on places to become foundations where kids are actually taught something and learn something rather than these\facilities they are now. paul: michael bloomberg suggested schools, the chicago view that the school sponsor critics and debate that should not be a participant itself in those debates. what do you think? >> that's a good idea. most of the left wing ideas wafting through the universities if they would have a more neutral role on these campuses that would go a long way towards restoring some sort of balance in the university systems. paul: joe manchin fuels a presidential run and anxiety among democrats as growing number of americans say they are open to 1/3 party. we talk to no labels founding chairman julie urman after the break. you may think your eyes will be bulging forever. like a never-ending curse that can't be broken. but even if you've been told it's too late, treating your thyroid eye disease may still be possible. and a new day is within sight. learn how you could give your eyes a fresh start at stilltreatted.com. paul: facing a likely choice between donald trump or joe biden in the 24 president teresa growing number of americans are open to an alternative. 63% of adults in gallup's governance poll say they agree with the statement republican and democratic parties do such a poor job representing the american people that 1/3 major parties needed. that is up 7 percentage points from last year and the highest since gallup first asked the question two decades ago. let's ask joe lieberman, founding chairman of the third-party group know labels. great to see you. thanks for coming in again. let me first ask you about those poll numbers for the president. what do. how worried should your fellow democrats be ? well they should be worried. and, of course, we've had prominent democrats like david axelrod saying exactly that. actually urging the president not to run again. i must say, from the no labels perspective, because from the beginning when from the know labels perspective, from the beginning when we talked about running a bipartisan unity ticket, democrats, particularly on the left, said we were some sort of front group for donald trump. the aim of this was to take votes from biden and elect trump. right now if you look at the polling get, it's not a bipartisan unity ticket that will reelect trump. it is president biden himself because donald trump is leading nationally and significantly leading in five of the six major swing states which were recently polled. we are only going to do this if we think we have a reasonable chance to win. we are confident from everything we see now that we do and that we are not going to be spoilers. it is a unique moment in american history. paul: you said that you are not going to be spoilers but what signals are you going to look for? what evidence are you going to look for? you know the history of third parties. six months or nine months before the election if the public is in a sour mood but close to the fall they crater. very rarely do they do that well. what are you looking for to say we can do it this time? >> that the history. to go back to a winning third-party ticket in america you have to go back to 1860, a great leader named abraham lincoln. the country was divided than. we may be just as divided today. the other encouragement is the last successful third-party candidate was ross perot 1992. in june 1992 he was ahead of president bush and governor clinton and then for reasons that were inexplicable, he left the race and began to act a little bit weird. he still got 19% of the vote. look at the numbers. almost 50% of the american people when asked identify themselves as independents which means i'm not a democrat or a republican, republicans are in the 20s. as you said, you ask, how about a race between trump and biden, 60%, 70% say% say don't make me do that again. we think we have a chance. when the two tickets are clear it looks like we'll be trump and biden. after the supertuesday primaries in march, tickets will be set. trump and biden call we will be doing a lot of polling, focus groups, meditating and praying to make the right decision whether we should offer these ballot lines we are getting across america to a bipartisan unity ticket. it is a chance to win. paul: who do you pick and who do you make your presidential nominee? robert kennedy junior is already saying he will run as a third-party candidate. would you entertain him as a know labels nominee? >> we don't think his record is consistent with hours, nor on the other side, cornell west. there was an interesting polling usa today which tested trump, biden, cornell west, and robert f kennedy junior, and kennedy took votes from trump, west took votes from biden. the point there is it depends who the candidates are, who they take votes from. that is the challenge. great to see on the gallup poll that 63% of the american people say we need 1/3 party, they want 1/3 choice, the partisan nonsense to stop, they want the extremes of both parties, the middle of america, what the government should do, 63% doesn't have names attached. that would be the big decision. do we have a plausible chance for bipartisan unity ticket to win, and who are the strongest candidates. we are focused on that, to hone in on candidates at the beginning of 2024. paul: thanks for coming in. still the coming biden tax increase. if the embattled president, with many provisions of the republican tax cuts and jobs act set to expire in 2025. with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms. but just ok isn't ok. and i was done settling. if you still have symptoms after a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq is different and may help. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that can rapidly relieve joint pain, stiffness, and swelling in ra and psa. relieve fatigue for some... and stop joint damage. and in psa, can leave skin clear or almost clear. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin; heart attack, stroke, and gi tears occurred. people 50 and older with a heart disease risk factor have an increased risk of death. serious allergic reactions can occur. tell 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up? >> the tax form cut individual tax rate across the board for lower earners and higher earners, 39.6 to 37%. all these what expire in addition to higher standard deduction which disproportionately benefit lower earners. what they are now saying is if you want to extend middle-class tax cuts, we require increase in other taxes, they fell from 30 one%, that was made permanent by the reform. the wealth tax bandying around the last couple years, attacks on unrealized income, they are still taxed in appreciation of their assets? paul: you are talking a couple trillion dollars of tax increases, those tax cuts expire in political leverage. they would say there are middle-class tax cuts but only if we double down on tax increases, would think it is somehow republican voters. how is that going to play politically? >> at enormous cost because they want to go over, ratchet back up, the things they go after. depends how republicans handle this. tax benefits are overall good for the economy up and down the different brackets, they also need to get into the other things that are the goal of raising these rates, democrats will talk about these tax cuts but their ambition is to use revenue they could gain holding those tax cuts hostage to rollback into other liberal priorities like the expansion of the earned income tax credit for lower income earners. you expect them to talk about making the child tax credit refundable, for those who don't currently pay taxes. that is one of the bigger ambitions. those programs are extremely expensive. it is going to be up to republicans to point out this is about creating more revenue for transfer payments. paul: to put a final point and that, traditionally the share of federal spending share of the national economy has been 21% historically. they want to keep it up at 24 or 25 that means they get a lot more revenue. what i can't see is how you get that revenue out of the rich. there are not enough rich in america. you have to go to the middle class but they want a bigger federal government quarterly of the national economy at least. >> precisely the point. the tax foundation notes that democrats are targeting the top 5%. they pay 62% of all income taxes. one thing the authors said in the article is the current tax cuts are what they call unpaid for tax cuts. there was a time we talked about unpaid for tax cuts, talking about spending cuts to try to pay for them. there's nothing in that article about cutting spending as you suggest. there their word for it is obligations the government has to meet. they do at the bottom of it note the rising cost of healthcare which suggests taxes are increased to pay for obamacare, medicare and medicaid which suggests it would send us in the direction of canada or the united kingdom. they are underfunded and failing. what they are proposing is attacks bridge to nowhere. spending does not go down but taxes simply get ratcheted up. there is no alternative than to go after the middle class eventually. paul: when we come back, as the cold weatheraches, new warning from the nation's power grid regulator. half of the country could face blackouts this winter, next. there's something going around the gordon home. good thing gertrude found delsym. now what's going around is 12-hour cough relief. and the giggles. the family that takes delsym together, feels better together. i was on a work trip when the pulmonary embolism happened. but because i have 23andme, i was aware of that gene. that saved my life. ♪ i'm gonna hold you forever... ♪ ♪ i'll be there... ♪ ♪ you don't... ♪ ♪ you don't have to worry... ♪ paul: with winter weather in part of the united states this thanksgiving, the nation's power grade regulator has issued a new warning, big part of the country could see blackouts in the coming months. in its annual winter assessment, the north american electric reliability corporation says that much of the central and eastern united states is at an elevated risk of power failure due to combination increased demand, generation shortfalls and potential fuel delivery challenges in the event of major storms or prolonged cold snaps. you have been covering this very closely over the years. tell listeners about this group and how credible it is. >> reporter: they are in charge of keeping a light on across the us. they oversee part of the canadian power grid. they oversee standards for the country for different power grids. in this report, they predict there's going to be a power outage during this winter, just a matter of where and when. there were power outages in the southeast and the mid-atlantic states and the irony is those were places thought not to be as vulnerable. they could be more vulnerable this year for the reasons you state. there is increased demand so more manufacturing, and coal plants shutting down, it was reliable during the winters. paul: when i was a reporter way back when in pakistan and india, that was doesn't happen in the united states. now it does. what is the root cause of the new vulnerability in the electric grid? >> the mismatch between green goals and green reality, the idea has been the climate people are upfront about it, eventually, generation from nuclear, gas, coal, fossil fuels is going to be replaced by solar and wind power. the problem is the solar and wind power hasn't arrived, to replace the power plants that have been closing down. president biden and democrats made clear, fossil fuel production, the key elements, that in april, the environmental protection agency issued strict new rules about greenhouse gas emissions and the industry, the power industry is responding to directives but wind projects are being canceled off the atlantic coast because the economics have turned against them. we are facing the possibility the grid will be underserved by electricity from nuclear, coal, and gas. paul: all the subsidies and the inflation reduction act, the goal of which is to basically try to lower the cost of wind and solar and renewables to outcompete gas, nuclear, and coal. so they will be phased out. this is in many ways a liberal labor policy. >> its government's fault. look at this report and see a lot of technical terms about supply and demand but it is blame joe biden because a lot of the problems we are talking about here are new evs sucking up a lot of electricity that might be going to keeping the lights on. the administration pushing to peremptorily and forcibly shut certain sources of power generation replacing them with some of those less consistent sources, permitting delays and this massive distortion in the market brought on by the department of energy, $400 billion of money for loans and grants pushing certain forms of energy and throwing them into the market that are not necessarily the things that are needed at the moment to keep the grid and our power generation functioning. paul: is there any political recognition that we are headed to big trouble and consumers if they are dealing with the blackouts could be very angry about it? >> in new york they announced they would extend the life of gas plants that are basically ramped up when the sun goes down with the wind starts blowing to backup the grid. they are forced to shut down but they are extending them because they realize they need to keep the lights on and they realize there's a tremendous publish back lash as electricity with reliability declines. you see that in california which is one of the reasons they faced the recall a couple years ago. paul: we have to take one more break. hit and misses of the week. we need to scale with customer demand... ...in real time. 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[sfx: cards shuffling] this holiday, weathertech gift cards are perfect for people to pick exactly what they want. laser measured floorliners that fit your vehicle precisely. keep your seats safe from messes with the child car seat protector. sinkmat protects under your sink. there's even something for our furry friends with the pet feeding system. order the weathertech gift card instantly for the holidays at weathertech.com ♪ ♪ paul: time now for hits and misses of the week. kim, first to you. >> a miss to the liberals on wisconsin's state supreme court. wisconsin's legislative maps have been in place for more than a year now, they were extensively fought over, and yet when janet ran for the state supreme court this year, she all but promised if she won and there were a liberal majority, that they would retake up the case and make the maps friendlier to democrats. sure enough, upon winning they agreed to a case. this week they heard the oral arguments. paul, this is the kind of naked part anship that the undermines faith in courts, and it was a pity to see it happen this week. paul: allyshia. >> two new reports show that u.s. carbon emissions are set to fall by 3% this year despite an increasing economy, and the reason isn't electric vehicles or green energy, it's because natural gas is simply replacing coal power. and you wouldn't know it from listening to the left, but the u.s. is actually leading the world in carbon emissions reductions. paul: all right, thank you. dan. >> a big hit, literally, to the rockefeller center christmas tree. the lighting of this year's tree is coming this wednesday, and assuming that new york city's full-time protesters don't show up to disrupt it, it should be a really wonderful event. this year's tee an 80-foot-high norway spruce. you know, we have a lot of tumult and tragedy in the world right now and many of our own cities are very unsettled, and so this christmas tree is a tradition that dates back to 1933, and it's very welcome to see it returning at this time, this year. paul: and let's hope those protesters do stay away. all right. and remember, if you have your own hit or miss, be sure to tweet it to us@jer on fnc. that's it for this week's show. thanks to my panel and especially thanks to all of you for watching. i'm paul gigot. hope to see you right here next week. ♪ ♪ arthel: breaking news, israel says the effort is currently underway to free