With his family. We start with rich edson and in a private day, on his schedule and had a light day on twitter. My fellow americans. A tweet and video message. We see the best of america and the soul of the American People. We renew the bonds of love and goodwill between our citizens and most importantly we celebrate the miracle of christmas. Earlier, President Trump claimed gratings were once admonished and he is responsible for returning those words to public acceptability. He tweeted people are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again. I am proud to have led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase. Merry christmas last evening, the president and mrs. Trump attended services at the bethesda by the sea, and episcopal church. Si they married there 12 years ago. The white house this morning he addressed matters, a briefing on a suicide bombing in afghanistans capital. International reports say the Islamic State has claimedd responsibility for the attack. Killing several victims. In august, President Trump announced the United States would again expand its military presence in afghanistan. A country thats hosted a substantial u. S. Force for more than 16 years. Yesterday the president turned to domestic matters, tweeted the tax cut reform bill, including massive alaska drilling and the repeal of the highly unpopular individual mandate, brought it all together as to what an incredible year we had. Dont let the fake news convincd you otherwise. And our insider polls are strong the external polling shows more americans disapprove of the president s job then approve. He had in his republican allies will return to washington next month with unfinished legislation addressing infrastructure, health care, budgeting, and more. We have the immigration issues that need to be dealt with now, i think the manner in which that is handled can setig the stage for Congress Working together. Or if the president wont work with us on that, its going to be tough. The ongoing special counsel investigation into collusion with the russian government and the 2016 campaign. The president has his focus on andrew mccabe. En his wife ran as a democrat. The president is saying we need to know our Civil Servants are doing an honorable thing. Its important to the American People to know what happened. Mccabes reportedlys expected to retire next march. Of questioning from committees. As for the president , he is expected to spend the rest of the week in south florida. Doug rich edson, thank you. For many in congress some of this Christmas Holiday is the calm before the political storm. When lawmakers return in january, a looming budget fight that could lead to more threats of a government shutdown. Lets get more from seniort capitol hill producer chad pergram. M. Whats the first thing they need to get done . They have to fund the government. Deadline is january 19. Senate returns on january 3. That means there is 11 calendar days defunded. The issues they had fun of the government right before christmas, they have not dousedn those claims. Nothing is resolved. E they dont have much turning radius. They have to do with costsharing reduction. These are the extra help they were getting before that President Trump cut for health care, csrs are the term. Something thats very popular in the senate, bipartisan support, but not so much in the house representatives. The other thing they have the deal with is disaster funding. 81 billion package that moves to the house are is that it is. Before they got to recess. It did not move through the senate. They need to fix that in the senate and need to send that to the house of representatives. This deals with wildfires in california, hurricanes in texas and florida, certainly in puerto rico as well. Doug with all the talk about deficits and increasing with the tax cuts. Thats when people are saying, wait a minute, we are back to this crisis here, charlie dent is a congress man from pennsylvania and he says we always have t this chaos right before they are trying to fund the government, there they go again. The reason people are reluctant to vote for that 81 billion, especially for the conservatives, they did not anticipate all this extra funding for disasters as recently as august. You put that together with money theyve already allocated, thats 132 billion. Doug turning to the specific telmex and it specifically, their republicans lost a senator prevent one of the process for any kinds of bipartisanship when they return . You have a more narrow margin, there would be more bipartisanship. Probably aar good move forward doug jones, who also thinks its democrats who face tough reelections in 2018. Jon tester of montana, Heidi Heitkamp of north dakota, joe manchin of west virginia. Its a lot Election Year in 2018 and democrats want to turn the tax vote on the republicans. They are going to hoist them on their own petard, run them in the hightech states in california we have people like dara heisel who barely survive last time, there are other republicans who voted yes per jeff denham voted yes, steve knight voted yes. Guess what . Tax reform is not always an electoral lock. In 1982, the reagan tax cuts, democrats picked up 26 seats in the house representatives after they passed the big tax reform in 1986. Democrats got control of the senate back. C republicans gave up eight seats. Doug i would think this is an advantage for the republicans, but you are saying thats not the case. Not always the case. Doug President Trump is hitting thep United Nations rigt where it hurts. In the wallet. The u. S. Has taken almost 300 million away from its annual donation to the world body which last week condemned the administrations decision to move the American Embassy in israel. Correspondent David Lee Miller has details tonight from new york. The United Nations has agreed to a budget cut packed, following negotiations with the u. S. President trump, a u. N. Critic, has repeatedly said the World Organization is mismanaged. W while the United Nations on regular budget has increased by 140 , and its staff has more than doubled since 2000, we are not seeing the results in line with this investment. You a semester nikki haleys says the u. N. Core budget of 5. 4 billion will be reduced by 285 billion. And 5 . No specifics how the money in the new budget would be saved, but in addition to the significant cost savings, we reduce the u. N. s loaded management and support functions, bolstered support for key u. S. Priorities throughout the world, and still more discipline and accountability throughout the u. S. System. The u. S. Is by far the larger computer to the u. N. Budget, paying 22 , 610 million of this year. That is more than double, the next largest conservator, japan, followed by china, germany, and france. 31 of the poorest memberr states paid 1 100th of a percent. About 28,000 a year. The budget cutting announcement follows a vote in the u. N. General assembly rejecting President Trumps decision to recognize jerusalem as israels capital. Ambassador haley underscored the lopsided contributions following the u. N. General Assembly Vote against the u. S. When we made generous contributions to thee u. N. , we also have a legitimate expectation that our goodwill is recognized and respected. When a nation is singled out for attack in this organization, that nation is disrespected. Once more, that nation is asked to pay for the privilege of being disrespected. The latest United Nations reduction is following another u. N. Budget cuts burned by the u. S. The u. N. Peacekeeping mission which has separate funding slashed its 8 billion budget by 600 million. Washington still picks up the largest portion of thehe peacekeeping tab, up to billion dollars a year. Doug . Doug David Lee Miller in new york tonight. Thank you, david beard there will be one other embassy in jerusalem. Guatemala says it will move its embassy of their the Central American nation has long had the close ties to israel for a Chinese Media claims 10,000 people died in the Tiananmen Square protests is impossible. Newly released British Government documents make that assertion based on a secret double chemic cable according to a member of the Chinese State cable. Previous evidence of those killed in the ninth and then protest have ranged in the hundreds to more than a thousan thousand. China is a big worry for the pentagon, but so are many of the usual subject. Heres Lucas Tomlinson tonight at the pentagon. The u. N. Security Council Voted to crank up sanctions on the road communist regime, the first sanction since north koreas longrange missile test last month, which flew higher and longer than any in its history. Pyongyang responded in a statement sunday. The vote was akin to war. We defined this sanctions Ran Solutions rigged up by the United States and its followers as an act ofof war. Violating peace and stability. One in a host of challenges facing u. S. Military around the world. D. As the Trump Administration approves the shipment of antitank missiles to ukraine capable of destroying russian armor, a decision met with rare bipartisanship. I support the administrations decision to provide these types of defensive weapons for the ukrainians. Its a clear message to russia that we will not allow them to continue to compromise the sovereignty of ukraine. In yemen, u. S. Militarys conduct in more air strikes in 2017ir than the last four years combined against al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and isis. Recent u. S. Intelligence estimates indicate the terror group has doubled in yemen in the last year, urging more with the state department as a civil war wages on. Its in the United States interest to see this conflict in yemen brought to a close. Al qaeda benefits, daesh benefits, iran benefits. Not good for the United States. A former senior director of the National Security council also warns old foes in syria. A a lot of people thinking about al qaeda still think of the center of gravity being on thatth afghanistan pakistan border. But i would think of the center of gravity for al qaeda really has sifted to syria at this point. This is china conducted a full operation with its Aircraft Carrier the past year. Beijing post a rt warship will overtake the United States by 2030 according to experts. China poses the greatest threat to our nation by about 2025. The head of the u. S. Pacific command has long complained about the shortage of attack submarines needed to collect intelligence on china and north korea. But if congress doesnt pass a budget next month, expect thesen shortages to continue. Doug . Doug Lucas Tomlinson at the pentagon l tonight. Thank you, lucas. Lets talk about President Trump andrew kaneon now. With us tonight is karen skinner, professor of International Relations and political silence at Carnegie Mellon university. She joins us from san francisco. Merry christmas to you, professor. Good to see you. Merry christmas to you as well and to all of yours. Lets talk about a bit about this arm sale. E. 50caliber sniper rivals is really what they are talking about her thats the decision the Administration Made to sell to ukraine, 40 million with, when you include the assessor is an admonition. Later in the week, they agreed to sell javelin antitank missiles to ukraine as well. What does this signify to you, whats the intention of the administration . Speak of the his secretary of state andec secretary of defense have wanted him along with the security and counsel many months ago and its really a a response to whats going on in the ground. The russians have pulled out of the joint russian ukrainian observation growth, and monitors are saying that a ceasefire violation happening in the last few days in staggering numbers, around 16,000 of them. The russians will not attempt to help the crisis and mack and mack. Its a violation of sovereignty. The president is responding by living up to his commitment to sovereignty of nations. Doug what are the risks of this deal . I think there are some risks in terms of russia may be escalating the conflict. If the United States really does provide antitank munitions to the ukrainians, the lethality of the ukrainian amount in any escalation, they have to calibrate what they do to what could happen to their own forces along with the separatists. The risk also includes the fact that the russians just want to come to the negotiating table. There is a United Nations, an american, and a european call for you and peacekeepers to be n place. If they follow through on what i just described, they will further isolate themselves from the international system. And perhaps thats the biggest risk of all. Doug to those who buy into the russian inclusion story, this would seem to be antithetical. The wall street journal pointed that out in an oped at the Editorial Board there when they wrote, critics of the arm sale increasing u. S. Russian attention, but those are the same people who say President Trump colluded with present putin and wants to appease him now. The way i see it, this decision, which has been supported by the National Security leadership of the trump demonstration with the president having had many months they get through means that the administration is taking on russia very firmly by the end of the year. F think also about the National Security strategy just issued a few days ago. It also fingers russia as a great power i competitor that is bent on expanding its influence around the world, one that the United States has to combat. Doug what you say this is a component of a trump agenda, Foreign Policy agenda . I think that the administration has come to really understand those around the president what America First means and what the trump doctrine means. In particular. At the core of it, and the commitment to promises around inboundro sovereignty of nation, around taking on any adversary or even allies or Strategic Partners that violate the interests of nations. Thats what ukraine is really about. Earlier this month, the secretary of state said the seniormost issue facing u. S. And russia is the situation in eastern ukraine. So the president is just making good on the commitment to helping shore up a nation thats been violated in terms of its political and territorial survival. Doug professional skinnee appreciate your perspective on this and Merry Christmas, thank you. New years day could be a lot different in california. We are going to tell you why when we come back. With advils fast relief, youll ask, what pulled muscle . What headache . Nothing works faster to make pain a distant memory. Advil liquigels and advil liquigels minis. What pain . Advil liquigels and advil liquigels minis. Ok, so with the awardwinning our customers have 24 7 access, digital id cards, they can even pay their bill beep bill has joined the call. Hey bill, were just phone hi guys, bill here. Do we have julia on the line too . k, well well just phone hey sorry. I had you muted. Well yea lets just phone so what i was thinking ok well well phone yeah lets just go ahead phone oh alright the awardwinning geico app. Download it today. I used to have more hair. I used to have more color. And. I used to have cancer. I beat it. I did. Not alone. I used to have no idea what the American Cancer Society did. Research . Yeah. But also free rides to chemo and free lodging near hospitals. I used to maybe give a little. Then i got so much back. I used to have cancer. Please give at cancer. Org. Doug we are awake doug we are just a week away from legal Recreational Marijuana in california. But not everybody in the golden state is ready. It will certainly be a marrying 2018 for Recreational Marijuana companies in florida, but the regulations are still hazy for an industry expected to bring in billions. Can youos walk into a los angels pot store and start the new year on a higher . Its absolutely not going to take place. Thats because the state of california did not finalize its regulations for the industry until midnovember. That left the citys scrambling how to figure out how and when to issue licensing. Businesses will still have to come to the department, get temporary approval to do legal adult used sales even before that takes place. In los angeles and san francisco, Companies Wont be ablend to start selling Recreational Marijuana in 2018te for a week or longer after the calendar turns. We prefer to have it by january 1st, but i think januarn target. It was a complex set of regulations that they only had a couple of months to work on ands it just takes time. They got it right. Then there is the law enforcementen side. We expect to go, you know, mine or usage expects to go up. Since marijuana can stay in the body for weeks or longer, authorities have to figure out if drivers are really under the influence. I think for most of our officers, impaired is impaired. They can see that based on their training and their experience. Five states, colorado, washington, nevada, alaska, oregon, currently allowed recreational pot sales and three more, maine, massachusetts, and california, will join in 2018. The golden state will be the biggest t by far and not shying away from bucking the Trump Administration on the other big National Issues like immigratio immigration. Its the beginning of the end of the war on marietta marijuana. Attorney general Jeff Sessions has called the drug dubious, which has led to criticism from propot groups. Doug will carr in los angeles tonight. From marijuana now to opioids, abuse of opioids is blamed for a second Straight Year of decreased Life Expectancy in the United States. Correspondent ellison barber looks at the numbers tonight. This is occurring across the country. It doesnt matter. Black, white, rich, poor for this epidemic does not discriminate. Three weeks ago when the Northern Virginia county 22 miles away from the heart of d. C. , five people died from opioid overdosing in a single week. The victims range in age from 22 to 34 years old. It was a deadly week in fairfax county, but only a small part of a much bigger drug problem. In 2016, center for Disease Control says the Life Expectancy at birth was 78. 6 years. That is down. 1 from 2015. The Life Expectancy rates dropped last year as well. Whats contributing to it is perhaps more concerning than the number in itself. Officials say drugs, opioids inu particular, or a significant factor. About 64,000 peoplee died from drug wars overdoses in 2016, 22 higher than the year before. The rate of overdose dates from synthetic opioids, doubled from 2015 to 2016. Overdose rates are categorized as Unintentional Injury in the cdcs mortality report. They are now the third leading cause of death, ranking higher than strokes, alzheimers, and only outranked by Heart Disease and cancer. Jimmy vaneks daughter was 17 when she overdosed on opioids. I miss my daughter helen every second of every day. E her husband, helens father, found the teen unconscious inun her bed the morning of a fatherdaughter dance. He is the one who called 911. She was already gone. I always asked myself, how did we go from picking jr. Rings, College Campus visits, to picking out a casket. Jean mcculley lost three sons to opiate overdoses. Her oldest to heroin. Speak my own children, i could see what path they were going down. But i never thought in a million years i would lose three. T not one, but three sons. Police Officials Say they try to educate anyone who will listen about the dangers of these drugs, but when it comes to the opioid epidemic, they say its a problem that cannot be solved with police c alone. Doug . Doug ellison barber here in d. C. Thank you, ellison. Up next, whatever happened to the people affected by the enron scandal . Heres what some fox affiliates in the country around tonight. Q13 in seattle making Holiday Travel tub in oregon and idaho. Much of that area under a Winter Weather advisory. Also making for a white and cold christmas in the northeast and midwest sections of the country tonight. Fox 35 in orlando has five people perish in a fiery Small Plane Crash happening in sunday morning near tampa. People tell me police say the cessna 350 took off despite heavy fog in the area. This is a live load from los angeles from fox 11. Big story there, strange lights in the sky have many people talking about the ufo. Turns out it was a space x rocket launching from the air force base on friday evenin evening. Thats tonights live look outside the beltway from special report. We will be right back. Needles. Essential for vinyl, but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. Because there are options. Like an unjection™. Xeljanz xr. 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Outback steakhouse. Aussie rules. And now, get a free 10 bonus card with every 50 in gift cards. Doug in tonights what ever happened to segment, the enron scandal. What happened to the employees of that Energy Company that virtually lost everything . Tonight, answers from correspondent casey stegall. Started his First Company from his collegesh dorm room. By the time and graduation rolled around, the young entrepreneur landed his first job with a Prestigious Company in texas. I came to enron. It was in and run north america. I went to their pipeline side. I was very fortunate to start and run to medications. It was a late 90s. Business appear to be booming for one of the Largest Energy companies, houstonbased enron. It started to crumble in august of 2001. They had created numerous offbalance type of entities that investors were not aware of to hide poor results from investors. Federal investigators launched a massive probe. The findings showed corporate bigwigs inflated between ones earnings by several hundred Million Dollars then ditched their own stock before it all crashed. By december of that year, enron filed for bankruptcy. Some 20,000 employees eventually lost everything. G. It was like a sledgehammero the face. What followed would be years of Legal Proceedings and trials. In 2006, kenneth lay, the companys chairman and ceo, was convicted on ten counts of conspiracy, fraud, and making false statements. Tell us how youre doing . Im fine. But he never spent a single day in jail. He died of in a heart attack two months after his trial and befoe he was ever sentence. Jeffrey skilling had also served as enron ceo. He too was convicted on nearly 20 criminal counts. I feel horrible. But thats not to say i think i did something illegal. In 2013, federal prosecutors announced they struck a deal, shaving ten years off his 24 year sentence, making him eligible for release in 2018. Enrons chief Financial Officer also served time. Andrew pastel was incarcerated for six years because of his involvement with the scandal, he got out in 2011 and now makes his rounds on the speaking circuit. He described himself, quite frankly, as the chief would pull officer for enron instead of the chief Financial Officer. More than a decade later, enron remains a top managed to persevere. I lost a fortune, but i also gained such invaluable lifelong lessons. Lessons that help them start and sell multiple businesses since enrons fault. Hes now the director of his own successful Financial Firm and runs a charity providing christmas toys to children suffering from cancer. Ashmore never sued and run. Says he would rather focus on the positive stories, all the people who took their skills and went on to do good elsewhere. Doug . Doug thank you, casey. Election officials have warmly barred Opposition LeaderAlexey Navalny running for president. Hes calling for a boycott of next years vote. The Central Election Commission decided nationally that the anticorruption crusader is not eligible to run. But Vladimir Putin will have someut opposition in the march election, if only token. Senior correspondent amy kellogg has the story. She knows she cant beat putin, but the kremlin is letting her take him on, and shes taking the most of it, stopping her heart out. Ksenia sobchak says there is a lot of economic frustration across this country. These people are quite ready to understand there is a connection between c unfair elections to my between, between crimea problems, other things. And their livelihoods. Doug a child of kremlin elite, sometimes called russias paris hilton. She once posed on the cover of playboy. Her late father was president let me put in his mentor and gave him his first break in politics. But when the putin said he would seek a third term in politics in 2011, she said enough was enough, and join the massive street protests. Sobchak call the annexation of crimea was illegal and believes russia should join the e. U. Sobchak called putin out on this thinking Alexey Navalny should be allowed to run. In the meantime, she plans to use her platform as candidate to call for greater democracy in russia. She expect the electorate to take her seriously giving her party girl passed. The most awful thing inos our world sometimes to take someone with irony is a good thing. Sometimes its better to be underestimated and win later on. Sobchak has got time and she says shes in the game for the long s haul. In moscow, amy kellogg, fox news. Doug thank you, amy. Pope francis is praying for peace but warning about the winds of war. That tops are looked tonight as the Christmas Season around the world. Heres reporter camille logan. It was, and always, a christmas message of peace. Speaking from the balcony looking over st. Peters square, pope francis has called for a two state solution. Lets ask the lord for peace for jerusalem, the holy land. Lets pray the resume and will for dialogue resumes between the party, and in the negotiated solution can be reached. In bethlehem, christians attended a morning mass. But fewer people celebrated this year, put off by clashes that followed President Trumps announcement to recognize jerusalem as israels capital. There was calm in the west bank today. The pope will be hoping his words are heeded the period in the u. K. , the queen also delivered her christmas message. In the traditional broadcast, she pays tribute to those affected by the terror attacks this year in london and manchester. She prays the people of both cities as she looks back at the time when she met some of those who were injured. I described that hospital visit as a privilege. Because the patience i met where an example to us all. Showing extraordinary bravery and resilience. Earlier in the day, the queen attended a church service. For the first time, one of the times were prince harry was seen with his fiancee, meghan markle. She curtsied for the monarch, where she is obliged to do. No such formalities for those in germany, just plenty of christmas spirit. They left the icy waters of the berlin lake with enthusiasm as they do every single Christmas Day. It will come as a relief for many that so far the Christmas Holiday has passed off peacefully. As the queen and the pope reminded us in their messages today, there are plenty of security concerns around the world. But for many, christmas is simply a day to enjoy. Doug . Doug kitty logan from london tonight. When our Christmas Day show returns, the panel will tackle President Trump versus the fbi. Being rammed by a shopping cart. Sitting in gum. And walking into a glass door. But for everyone else, theres directv. For 1 rated Customer Satisfaction over cable, switch to directv and for a limited time get a 100 reward card. Call 1800directv. Worsome can hurt. L. Others bring sheer joy. And some, you just make up along the way. In the end. Words bring us together. And just one can change your life. Im ten weeks. So when the time comes, use your words. Download the new words with friends 2 today. You wont see these folks they have businesses to run. They have passions to pursue. How do they avoid trips to the post office . Stamps. Com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. Get a 4 week trial, plus 100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. Go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. I think its critically important we respect the independence of the department of justice and the fbi. No one is above the law. Let him do his investigation without interference from the president. We put all our faith and confidence in the fbi knowing bias there. Be no hes making the pointnt that we need to make sure there is no bias. The essence of police work, the essence of our executive branch is you can make private meetings and do your work. If you want to say theres something wrong with this investigation by mr. Mueller and others, you are entitled to say that. But you have to show some evidence of bias work. Doug you were busy perhaps with less unlike last minute shopping or wrapping presents. The president busy tweeting Christmas Eve on what he believed is a compromised fbi investigation. Lets take a look at some of the series of tweets the president issued on those days. First of all, how can fbi director anjaut mccaig, the man in charge, including leaking comey of the phony Hillary Clinton investigation, be given 700,000 for wifes campaign for clinton puppets during investigation . Ti enter 90 days to go in another. Fbi james baker reassigned according to fox news. Fox news fbi, in a he was using allegedly his fbi official email accounts to promote her campaign. You obviously cannot do this. These were the people who were investigating Hillary Clinton. Lets bring in our annual now. General harper, could you being editor to the the washington fe beacon. Cahrles lane. And tom rogan. A lot of people say its not wise to be tweeting this when youre under investigation. It isnt. Although i would say its especially unwise because of the tongue it sets on sounding like a broken record for the president of the United States. Its not the kind of language a president uses in general, much less discussing a criminal investigation. The bigger problem here i think it was foreseeable. There is no authority in america given our parlor last politics, given how partisan everyone is about everything, there is no authority in america it was going to be generally accepted as capable of doing anac objecte job on this matter. Mueller seems to be the closest we have, came in with a lot of support for republicans. Now that seems to be going away in part because there is such a strong effort to discredit him on the one hand from republicans and also, i regret to say, unwisely some of the people working for him were saying things privately that suggest they have an animus against President Trump. Doug indeed where this goes beyond in many of these examples, beyond mere political leanings into political activism of an extreme sort. Looks, there is clearly evidence of that. We have text messages, we have a relationship. There is insight to that. There seems to be three possibilities here. There is either ranked corruption within fbi, which some are suggesting, or a sort of ineptness. Either the president is trying to work the refs, for there is some combination of the two. It seems to me thats the most likely outcome, rather, there are people who arent acting appropriately, but the president himself who was under investigation via the special counsel is not focusing on himself per se but plenty of people around him and hes clearly concerned it will touch him is clearly trying to work the refs in a way that makes our the outcome or may help the outcome in his case. Doug tom rogan, just an example of the kind of change are as of this tweet. I will read this tweet from ted lieu. Potus has tweeted a bit who could be called a witness against trump in the obstruction of justice case. Trumps feet is the gift that keeps on giving. Merry christmas, robert mueller. I think of it comes to it, it will be in the position of russia funny money and trumps organization for this issue, clearly mistaken. Deputy director mckay had in hindsight probably should recuse himself in terms of that connection point, in terms of money and politics. I suspect he seems to be stepping down to insulate from the pressure. I think theres a good point, the president of the United States, the exceptionalism of american democracy right back to the founders is the coequal branch of the government. The president is the chief i executive of the United States. As someone who lives in the massage of his own power and confidence does no service to the nation that he should be serving or to his own personal credibility as a leader by being quite so visceral and quite being so broadbased in his criticism of this agency. Doug how compromised is thise investigation given this political activism . Impeachment, should it come to that, is an innately political thing. Is there any records that the courts could have in an impeachment investigation . Look, the founders of this country never envisioned prosecution in the investigation by thisti kind of organization f the president. They thought that wrongdoing by the president would be taken care of in congress through the means of impeachment. We are a long way from that. I think the threat to our democracy, if there is one in all of this, there are many. One that worries me a lot is the sheer politicization of this semiclaim the stein investee of National Police we called the fbi for the bane the a partisan National Police force, that is what broun industry democracy in many countries. We are dangerously, i think, in a situation where all partisanship of all kinds is starting to creep into the fbi and organizations o like that. Doug before we leave this segment, i want to alert you of the president has tweeted again in thehe last few moments. I hope everyone, he says, is having a great christmas and its backe to work to make America Great again. Providing hundreds of christmas mealsid to the secret service at the White House Military Office and palm beach sheriffs deputies. Up next, global hot spots. Working very har working hard during that christmas, we have many things we are talking about including north korea. President trump has used every lever you can use short of starving the people north korea to death to change their behavior. A lot of things in the middle east. What we want a call for in yemen is unity among the various parties. Since my speech on afghanistan, we are making tremendous progress commence when the strides. The president s policy makes it clear that the United States does not seek a Permanent Military progress in afghanistan. I will be working very hard over the holidays. Doug underlying this Christmas Day, a day of peace is a very real threat from any number of spots across the globe, particular today. Afghanistan, there was another suicide bombing, as many as six People Killed there. Yemen, syria, ukraine, russia, the economic threat of china and where that may lead. Then you with Nuclear Threat of north korea. We are back with our panel now. Tom, im reminded of a quote from a gentleman who normally sits in that seat a couple of years ago which always stuck with me. Charles krauthammer once said the nature of abhors a vacuum and so does statecraft. The threat of war, we see it across the globe, reflect the obama demonstrations pull back from the u. S. s leadership role in the world . Also it reflects countries figuring out where President Trump stands. A good example of that would be china and north korea peer the chinese want to know is the president going to push back against their campaign in the eastern and south china sea. If he is, then there could be a potential conflict they are beyond the north korean damage, they need to know are they going to sanction them, banking institutions, on north korea . Broadly ifoo you look at the middle east, the challenge for the president coming into this new year will be what happens when i to iran and saudi arabia. They just try to kill the Saudi Crown Prince who will be the king. That could happen in the next week. What happens if the russians drop a bomb to push soldiers out . There are so many issues. I think it would be unfair to blame it wholly to president obama. Its some degree a function of the time. Theres a lot able to define 2018. Doug certainly half of america is blaming President Trump for his, well, lack of a better word, and lack of precision in his word, and aggressiveness. Its been an extraordinary year in president ial rhetoric, we talked a little bit in the last segment. In no respect, its been more extraordinary, i should say, with respect to the crises overseas like north korea in which hes tweeted personal insults at kim jong un and so forth. Im going to pick a hot spot to watch in 2018 that is perhaps not gotten as much n contentions it should but is very explosive, the situation in venezuela. Weve been reading about masturbation, basically, this Christmas Season in that countryn which sits on an oil reserve. Already sending large numbers of people over its borders to other countries in south america. It could be reaching the point where there is a critical collapse of the state and somalialike, s libya like situation. On the other side of the caribbean. Im reminded of the political piece which shows the leadership leads to has the lawry and the drug trade in this country as well. Daniel, i want to talk about the lack of preparedness of the u. S. Military focuses in on this. Length two, in some respect, due to the work of our Jennifer Griffin and lucasso tomlinson at the pentagon. We know about 70 of marine corps f18s cannot fly according to the navy, 53 of all Navy Aircraft cannot fly. About 1700 combat aircraft, controlled transport planes, helicopters, 62 of f18 hornets are out of service, andne shorte of 2,000 pilots and less than 50 of the bomber fleet b52, b1 bombers are mission ready. Pretty frightening statistics given the tension racing across the globe. That, of course, you can clearly blame on other president s. De President Trump, thats one of the cute frustrations. And congress, more people go on, but his biggest demonstrations. President trump, when he ran for office, he made a very clear he would buildp up the military, backup american words with american might. So far that has not yet come to be because you we have yet to allocate the funds coming at the president has not yet made this a top priority and i think you should. Worried about north korea. I think no place until we see more immediate threat to global and nuclear war as there. They could happen, we get an increase in tension where we have the olympics. Should be a lot of americans we already have american serving there which will be much more immediate attention, much more attention, much more ability for north koreans to have the fireworks show, if you well. And you wonder where the administration is going what they are going to do if something were to happen and how they mighthi neutralize or pacia that regime. Doug you cannot eliminate china from this as well. There is evidence that north korea still is exporting coal to china against the sanctions and china is exporting to north korea oil. I think one interesting thing is to draw a synergy point between our focus on the fbi and china, foreign adversities. People one of the key jobs of the fbis counterintelligence, stopping spies from stealing our secrets and technologies. Doug when we come back, some final thoughts and the speed 26 family gratings. The struggles of pretaping, especially with children. Please do not do the action, honestly. I will have a real problem. Are we going . Is that good . P why dont you just do bloopers this year. Will you stop. Do this, do that . We just did it. It gets harder every year. It should get easier here we go. Take 27. Ready . Take 30. Okay. Can we do this for real . Ive got a show to prepare for. I know. Im sorry. Its painful. Thank you. Okay. Here we go. [giggling] i have boys, yes. Ed muscle . What headache . Nothing works faster to make pain a distant memory. Advil liquigels and advil liquigels minis. What pain . Advil liquigels and advil liquigels minis. Big australia is back. Our biggest sirloin. Our biggest bloom. Our biggest entrees ever. Outback steakhouse. Aussie rules. And now, get a free 10 bonus card with every 50 in gift cards. Doug finally tonight, as is the end of year tradition here, a quick christmas message from the baier family. Bret Merry Christmas from my family to yours. Weve done this every year. Really for many, many years when they were crawling on the table, the whole bit. Paul is now 10. Rs amy, i wont tell you. Daniel is 7, as you can tell. Daniel, what was your favorite thing of 2017 . My hockey team, we won seven games. It was awesome bret okay. A big hockey guy, daniel is. Paul, looking forward, 2018 . Being with my family over the holidays and just being with my family is, like, a really big part. Bret i agree. Hes also a big golfer. Amy. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmashe and a happy and healthy 2018. Bret healthy is a great thing. And 2018, we would like you to make it fair, balanced, and unafraid. Happy new years and Merry Christmas for all, and all a good night [laughter] doug they got it done. I dont know what take that was, 28, 30 . That does it for us tonight. A very Merry Christmas to you at home and thank you for watching, im doug mckelway. Good night from washington. On jon welcome to a special hour of an american journey. Im jon scott. We are on ellis island, gateway to the American Dream for so many millions of immigrants. A just a stones throw from here you can see the beacon of freedom america offers the rest of the world, the statue of liberty. And just a bit to the northeast, the brooklyn bridge. It took 14 years and 600 men to build that magnificent structure connecting brooklyn to manhattan. At least two dozen workers died in the effort. The bridge spans new yorks east river, which played anrs Important Role in the american revolution