first white house correspondent peter doocy starts us off live tonight from the north lawn, good evening, peter. >> good evening, bret. voicials around here want people focused on the new infrastructure law traveling to minnesota tomorrow to celebrate its passage but, instead, they are dealing with the latest reminder that this president, who promised to shut down the virus hasn't. >> it's called the omicron. >> this variant is a cause for concern not a cause for panic. >> but new travel restrictions are in place on residents of eight african countries dealing with outbreaks. >> the point of the travel -- of the restriction, to give us time to get people to get protection, to be vaccinated and get the booster. >> that's even though biden blasted trump the day he announced similar travel bans. >> this is no time for donald trump's record of hysteria, xenophobia to lead the way instead of science. >> critics see a clear flip flop. >> when president trump did this he was labeled as a racist. when president biden does it it's seemingly entirely okay. >> white house claims biden has been consistent. >> what the president was critical of was the way that the former president put out, i believe, a xenophobic tweet on how he called-what he called the coronavirus, and who he directed it at. >> state side there sun certainty about what comes next. >> dr. fauci believes that the current vaccines provide at least some protection against the new variant. >> white house says this weekend dr. fauci informed the president it will take approximately two more weeks to have more definitive information. >> are lockdowns off the table. >> yes for now. >> dr. fauci critics of his advice. >> they are really criticizing science because i represent science. >> white house schedules are unaffected. the first lady hosted a large grouch small children today. all were socially distanced and masked as the president returns to the call of expanded mask mandates. >> encourage everyone to wear mask indoors. >> shopping indoors in nantucket the president ignored his own advice. >> saw the president shopping indoors on saturday behind glass that says face covering required but his face was uncovered. why? >> the president is somebody who follows the recommendations and the advice of the dollars have, he will continue to model behavior he hopes the american people will follow not for his benefit but to save their own lives and the lives of their friends and neighbors. >> so it's gone from please wear a mask to masked or vaxxed, but be to please wear a mask to help us fight this new variant even though that is something the president clearly has a hard time doing sometimes. bret? >> bret: hey, peter, i was checking out social media today some reporters kind of raising their eyebrows about the president canceling scheduled remarks about the supply chain just 20 minutes before. >> yeah, i was all ready to go, bret. officials claim those remarks were canceled oso that could spend more time with ceos who came to visit here. but, if that's the case it's not clear why the president couldn't just reschedule the remarks for today, which they do all the time or ask the ceos to wait 10 minutes so that he could come and speak. something else that's unusual though, it was just about 20 minutes before he was set -- before they told us he wasn't going to talk until wednesday now. and, it's unusual because will if the supply chain is improving, officials here presumably want the president talking about that and not just this new variant, but no supply chain talk today. bret. >> bret: okay. peter doocy, live on the north lawn, peter, thank you. president biden's new covid travel ban getting a good deal of criticism already. south africa's president says the move is ineffective. here at home republican senator tom cotton calls it worse than useless and hypocritical. here is state department correspondent benjamin hall. >> the delta variant and thought omicron variant somewhere can't let up until the bolder is vaccinated. >> u.n. and politicians are lining up to condemn what. >> what president biden did over the weekend is a typical half measure that reflects the incompetence of this administration. >> in south africa one of the eight countries been banned on where the variant was supposed discovered the president is furious. >> these are completely unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our sovereign african countries. >> the w.h.o. meanwhile pointed out that the variant has already been discovered in most recent of the world including canada and the ban unfairly targets african countries. our current system, disincentivize countries from alerting others to threats. >> head of the u.n. said the people of africa should not be penalized for identifying and sharing crucial science and health information with the world and it is now feared that president biden's travel ban and similar ones being enacted by another of growing countries ask now ask questions later. panic. >> we are severe risk of overreacting right now especially when it comes to halting of medical procedures and medical care because of this. >> dr. ronny jackson, former white house doctor claimed it's all just politics. >> it's being motivated by all the wrong reasons. being motivated like i said for political reasons. i don't think it's coincidence we are about to go into a election year spinning this up over very little information. >> the if this variant grave concern why did it take president biden over 48 hours to implement it? that being said it, remains to be seen how serious this variant even is he said the president that it was dr. fauci who helped him decide when the ban should start. well, there are questions now about whether or not it was really need. bret? >> benjamin hall live at the state department. benjamin, thank you. joining us now former assistant health secretary add admiral bret giroir. admiral, thanks for being here. >> great done here, bret. >> bret: we don't know a lot about the strength of this variant. what can you tell us that you know or have seen so far that we can learn from these early days? >> so we do have a lot more work to do. but we are concerned but we should not be panicked. we are concerned because there are many mutations in the spike protein that could cause some problems. what kind of problems do we think? well, we know the testing will work. so our testing that we have both antigen and pcr will work against this strain. number two, it's highly unlikely that the vaccines we have especially if boosted will provide protection against omicron as they do against delta. i have concern about monoclonal antibodies. i think they're at risk of working or not working as effectively against this. tomorrow is a very big day. the merck medicine that you take by mouth that was so effective in clinical trials goes to the fda for authorization. we expect this to work exactly the same in omicron as it does in the other strains which gives us another tool to combat the virus. >> bret: you know, admiral, that there is this, i guess it's tiredness, frustration, when is this ever going to end? are we ever going to get to the end where somebody says okay, we're done with it? or is this going to be constant variant after variant fighting it like this? >> well, you know, predictions are hard as yogi berra said especially about the future. but i think the consensus and what i believe is this will be endemic meaning all the people who say we have to go zero and keep people locked down and god forbid cancel elective surgeries are just wrong. there is going to be a baseline level where there are new variants that arise and we have multiple tools. we have to learn how to use them. everyone should get vaccinated and boosted. these oral drugs are very important, again, particularly the drug tomorrow it's the first one and can be taken by everyone. there is a lot of drug interactions with the pfizer drug, still a great drug but tomorrow's drug could be taken really by almost everyone in the population. so it will be endemic, just set your expectations. we need to keep our economy. we need to stop, you know, keeping our kids out of school. we need to get people back to work. get people out of depression and all the things they have gone through, we can live with this and we're going to have to. it's going to be here as art path our existence at much lower level because of the tools, but don't expect it to go to zero. if we think it's going to go zero, you know, it's going to cause disappointment and disruption in our society. >> bret: i mean that is happening. the elective surgeries are being canceled in some places like new york state and others. already. i want to leave you with this. you worked -- go ahead. >> it's just terrible. there are only 2200 people in new york state with covid and hospitals and they have 60,000 hospital beds but they are going to cancel surgery for heart disease? that is elective unless you are having a heart attack. you know, back surgery, knee surgery, things that cause pain. i have no idea why this overreaction is occurring and i can guarantee it's going to cause more harm. >> bret: last word, you worked with dr. fauci in the trump administration. he is fighting back against criticism of him and what he said about a number of different things battles with different lawmakers and senators. he said this weekend it's easy to criticize but the really criticizing science because i represent science. i just want to get your reaction to that? >> i think the ego is really expanding beyond what i thought. tony was a good colleague when i worked with him but he has become much more political and it is a fact that the nih is institute funded gain of function research. that's a fact. it's not a rumor. it's not a lie by anyone in the senate. so why do you say that's a problem? i think he needs to stick to the area where he is most knowledgeable and that is about vaccine development. he is not knowledgeable about liberty and rights or about public health measures. if he sticks to his firm ground, he will be a good resource to the country. and that's probably all i have to say. >> bret: all right, admiral breath giroir we will follow that fda advisory committee tomorrow. >> thank you. stocks were up today the dow gained 237. the nasdaq jumped 291 today. twitter co-founder jack dorsey is stepping down as ceo of the social media platform. the company says dorsey will remain on the board until his term expires in 2022. dorsey tweeted that he is really sad yet really happy about leaving the company and that it was his decision. he says there are not many founders who would place their company over their own ego. dorsey will be replaced by current chief technology officer. we have another chapter tonight in the feud between two congresswomen. one republican who said something that even her colleagues on her side of the aisle have condemned and one democrat who is reacting to those remarks and pushing back. congressional correspondent chad pergram tells us who is involved and what's being said tonight. good evening, chad. >> good evening, bret. there was a call today between the congresswomen. it lasted about two minutes. it did not go well. >> i will continue to fearlessly put america first, never sympathizing with terrorists. unfortunately, ilhan can't say the same thing and our country is worse off for it. >> lauren boebert said she wanted a meeting but ilhan omar made it clear that would not happen. both parties tell fox there were no raised voices on the call. boebert tells fox omar hung up on her. omar's office says it was clear the call wasn't going anywhere omar says boebert doubled down on her remarks. boebert says she wants omar to apologize for anti-semitic and anti-police. she announce she'd was ending the call and hung up. this remark is what sparked the dispute. >> and and there she is ilhan omar, well, she doesn't have a backpack, we should be fine. >> bow bart also referred to omar as a member of the, quote, jihad squad on the house floor earlier this month. democratic leaders demanded the g.o.p., quote, take real action to confront racism. democrats have tinkered with trying to censor bow bart and remove her from committees. voted to strip marjorie taylor green and paul go sar of their committee assignments. >> bret: congress is back thanksgiving break a ton to do. fund the government, build back better in the senate. where are we? >> well, there is a singular must-do for this week fund the government by 1159:59 eastern on friday. this year-end rush is typical. expect a band-aid bill to avert a government shut down it will run through january. the g.o.p. is pushing for a longer bill through march raising the debt ceiling is due by december 15th and build back better maybe by christmas and, bret, the senate just blocked finishing debate on the annual defense bill. back to you. >> bret: okay. chad pergram has its covered on the hill. chad, thanks. up next trump era immigration law appears to be on its way back to the southern border despite president biden's wishes. fox 13 in seattle a round of rain over the weekend leads to severe flooding north north western washington. filled and distributed sandbags to help residents rising river waters prompted advisories after historic rain levels there actor matthew mcconaughey announces he is not running for texas governor. the actor had hinted at a future run in politics but ultimately decided making a bid against office 2022. current texas governor greg abbott filed for re-election last week. he faces competition for a third term from several republican challengers and beto o'rourke on the democratic side. this is a live look. big story enes kanter is changing his name to enes kanter freedom to celebrate becoming a u.s. citizen. the 29-year-old native of turkey has been outspoken critic of his home country. he has already expressed support forty bet continue independence and deoffense announceds chinese treatment of the uyghurs. that a live look outside the beltway from "special report." we'll be right back ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list event. xfinity rewards are our way of thanking you experience the power just for being with us. enjoy rewards like movie night specials, xfinity mobile benefits, and the chance to win tickets to see watch what happens live. hey, it's me. plus, get holiday gifts for everyone on your list with great deals on fan favorites from today. join over a million members by signing up for free on the xfinity app. our thanks. your rewards. thieves hit stores on melrose south la midtown and the valley. there sprang a security guard. >> we did have additional suspects in and behind that suspect and grabbed a number of high dollar valued purses. >> a manifestation of some really bad decisions that our leaders made. the manifestation of deciding we're going to defund the cops. >> thieves hit stores in the bay area. critics blame soft on crime poes of progressive prosecutors. >> they have effectively created a welcome wagon for criminals. >> l.a. d.a. george a gascon says being arrested is dehumiliating. less jail and bail reform. >> we have to get rid of these imposture district attorneys. if you look at the jurisdictions where this is happening in san francisco and los angeles, even had in chicago and minneapolis it's where have you these soros funded d.a.s who are really public defenders in disguise. >> boudin for one seems to be shifting with public opinion. >> the charges we filed include everything from looting, to grand theft, burglary, possession of stolen property, firearms possession. commercial burglary and more. >> in oakland police are looking for this car linked to the murder of retired police officer kevin killed by protecting a news crew reporting on a robbery. governor gavin newsom supported policies reducing felonies to misdemeanors and less prison time for nonviolent offenders, now, however, he says he has no sympathy for crooks. bret? >> bret: william la jeunesse in los angeles. thank you. priewforts are asking the u.s. supreme court to review the ruling that overturned bill cosby's sexual assault conviction. they say dangerous precedent could be set if press releases from treated as immunity agreements. cosby's lawyers have long argue that he had relied on a promise that he would never be charged when he gave damaging testimony in an accuser's civil suit in 2006. the admissions were later used against him in two criminal trials. the only written evidence of such promise is a 2005 press release from the then prosecutor who said did he not have enough evidence to arrest cosby. the u.s. supreme court takes up mississippi's that law bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. many experts see the case as a direct threat to the landmark 1973 roe v. wade ruling that declared a nationwide right to abortion. challenge could be made in the u.s. supreme court and affect that ruling. a federal judge is blocking president biden's administration from enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate on healthcare workers in 10 states. the judge says the centers for medicare and medicaid has no clear authority from congress to enact the vaccine mandate for healthcare providers to participate in government programs. receive first dose of the covid-19 vaccine by december 6th and second vote by january 4th. up next general in iran total annihilation of a jewish state as the u.s. prepares to restart nuclear talks with iran. ♪ one of its kind proven to help you live significantly longer when taken with fulvestrant, regardless of menopause. verzenio + fulvestrant is for hr+, her2-metastatic breast cancer that has progressed after hormone therapy. diarrhea is common, may be severe, or cause dehydration or infection. at the first sign, call your doctor start an anti-diarrheal and drink fluids. before taking verzenio, tell your doctor about any fever, chills, or other signs of infection. verzenio may cause low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infection that can lead to death. life-threatening lung inflammation can occur. tell your doctor about any new or worsening trouble breathing, cough, or chest pain. serious liver problems can happen. symptoms include fatigue, appetite loss, stomach pain and bleeding or bruising. blood clots that can lead to death have occurred. tell your doctor if you have pain or swelling in your arms or legs, shortness of breath, chest pain, and rapid breathing or heart rate, or if you're nursing, pregnant or plan to be. every day matters. and i want more of them. ask your doctor about everyday verzenio. (vo) for fourteen years, subaru and our retailers have been sharing the love with those who need it most. now subaru is the largest automotive donor to make-a-wish and meals on wheels. and the largest corporate donor to the aspca and national park foundation. get a new subaru during the share the love event and subaru will donate two hundred and fifty dollars to charity. . >> bret: one of former president trump's key immigration policies appears to to be on its way back to the southern border. meanwhile, it is shaping up to be a busy holiday season for the people charged with guarding that area. senior correspondent casey stegall has the story tonight from la joya, texas. >> as dawn tried permeating the cool morning fog over la joya, texas, u.s. border patrol agents worked by flashlight processing multiple groups of migrants. the majority turned themselves in after illegally crossing the border. at least two tried running. two others were picked up by local police nearby. >> we asked border patrol if they could send a unit so we wouldn't have to bring them. they couldn't. >> police and sheriff deputies don't typically enforce immigration law since it falls under federal jurisdiction; however, at least in texas, local law enforcement has been authorized to step in and help. the boots on the ground tell fox news it is not getting better any time soon. >> i don't think we're going to see any difference in anything until there is a new administration that changes it. because, as long as immigration laws stay the way they are, there is not going to be a change. >> meantime, the white house is expected to reinstate former president donald trump's remain in mexico policy. after federal judge ruled it must be put back into place. the biden administration has repeatedly tried to end the program, which requires migrants to wait outside the united states while their asylum claims are processed. >> joe biden once described the remain in mexico policy as dangerous, inhumane and goes against everything we stand for as a nation of immigrants. why is he keeping it. >> he continues to stand by exactly by those comments and statements and the secretary of homeland security put out a memorandum conveying we want to end this program but we also believe in following the law and that's exactly what we're doing. >> a source tells us there are typically 21,000 border patrol agents working out here on the frontline. however, the agency is so short-staffed right now that figure is somewhere between 17 and 18,000 agents. bret? >> bret: casey stegall along the border in texas. thanks. several left leaning student organizations at arizona state university are demanding that their administration withdraw kyle rittenhouse from the school. rittenhouse who was acquitted of killing two people and injuring another during a protest in wisconsin reportedly is an online student at asu. the groups are hosting a rally against rittenhouse wednesday. a prosecutor says ghislaine maxwell and jeffrey epstein were partners in crime against teenage girls. sex crime. accused recruiting and grooming girls for the financier to abuse. she says she is innocent. a jury has been seated in the trial of the actor accused of staging a racist homophobic attack on himself and lying to police about it the case brings up difficult issues for vice president kamala harris. this is the jussie smollett case. in a tweet she initially called reports of the attack an attempted modern day lynching. she later said she was sad, frustrated and disappointed at reports of a hoax with jussie smollett. breaking tonight, newly released records indicate cnn ache core and brother of the former governor of new york chris cuomo used his media sources to find out information about his brother's sexual assault accusers. governor andrew cuomo resigned amid sexual assault misconducts. let's get details breaking tonight from fox news media analyst host of fox news media buzz howard kurtz. good evening, howy. >> chris cuomo far more deeply involved in orchestrating the defense of his cuomo and calling other journalists to find out about the then accusers than he has acknowledged. documents show the cnn host texting on damaging control about the sexual assault allegations please let me help with the prep and accusing her of withholding information. stop hiding blank. more important, the text flatly conflict a key part of cuomo's analogy in august. >> i never made calls to the press about my brother's situation. >> that is not true and the told omarosa two or more she asked him to check his sources he reported back in the hour that no one else had heard that chris cuomo telling investigators reach out to sources other journalists to see if they had heard of anybody else coming out. when the new yorkers ronan farrow prepared to publish a story. telling story not ready for tomorrow. farrell was focusing on one accuser who had accused the governor of quizzing him. he texted if ronan has nothing better than boylen that's a great sign. he later discussed the piece. he texted a friend of his and his brother alec baldwin wanted to defend the governor about cancel culture, a strategy he did not support. the aggressive nature of chris cuomo's involvement raises the stakes for cnn which never disciplined him and had no comment today. it's one thing for journalist to join strategy calls for his brother as reported earlier. it's another to work the media on his behalf. bret? >> bret: we'll follow it, howie, thanks. up next iran returns to the nuclear negotiating table. first news from the golf world. tiger woods says he wants to play on the pga tour again. woods is recovering from major injuries sustained in an suv accident. he tells "golf digest" he would not play full time but would pick and choose his events. >> i think something that is realistic is playings the tour one day, never full time ever again. pick and choose. unfortunate reality but it's my reality. and i understand and i accept it. >> bret: as we go to break. lee elder, one of the professional golfers who paved the way for woods has died. in 1975 elder became the first black man to compete in the masters. elder won 4 pga tour events during his career. he won 8 titles on the senior tour. elder was named an hand area starter at the 2020 masters. lee elder was 87. it's a thirteen-hour flight, that's not a weekend trip. fifteen minutes until we board. oh yeah, we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app so you can quickly check the markets? 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>> bret: trey yingst in our middle east bureau. trey, thanks. up next, the panel on the omicron variant and what president biden is doing about it first, beyond our borders tonight. russia successfully test fires hypersonic cruise missile in the white sea. the defense ministry says the missile was launched from fridge get and hit its target 250 miles away. kremlin made arsenal top priority amid tensions with the west. a royal split in the caribbean as the island of barbados prepares to sever imperial ties with britain. prince charles among those attending the inauguration of president elect sandra mason she will replace queen elizabeth as the head of state there the new republic of barbados will remain a member of the british commonwealth. and if you are going to get hammered by a blizzard, it may as well happen at britain's highest altitude pub. dozens of customers have been stranded since friday at the tannehill inn 270 miles north of london. oasis cover band also stuck there has been entertaining the patrons who are said, we're told to be in good spirits. can i only imagine. just some of the other stories beyond our borders tonight. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list event. the very day the world health organization identified the new variant i took immediate steps to restrict travel from countries in southern africa. >> the hypocrisy here is amazing but it's very typical what you get from this incompetent administration. >> president has not been critical of travel restrictions. we have put those in place ourselves. we put them in place ourselves in the spring. he believes we should follow the advice of health and medical experts. that's exactly what he did in putting in place these restrictions over the weekend. >> there is no scientific justification whatsoever for keeping these restrictions in place. >> bret: president biden talking about the travel restrictions the omicron variant and how we are dealing with that obviously republicans pointing back to several different statements or tweets. one of them march 2020 from then candidate biden, a wall will not stop the coronavirus banning all travel from europe or any other part of the world will not stop it. the disease could impact every nation and any person on the planet and we need a plan to combat it. with that, let's bring in our panel, senior political analyst brit hume, jonathan swan, national political reporter for ax coast and ben domenech publisher of the federalist. brit, what do you make of this what the president said today and their plan of attack here with this new variant? >> well, it was relief to hear him say we shouldn't panic although his immediate yacht restrictions of the travel restrictions last week was a little bit panicky and the market certainly thought so. he could have gone farther and he didn't. and i'm glad he didn't. there has been a lot of slight of hand in the coverage about the advice that he got to take that action that he did take. stories implying that dr. fauci advised him to do it. dr. fauci never really said that i gainer tie he will fall in line behind it now. but it's not all clear that at this stage with the only -- with the doctor in south africa who reported this to the world having said that the cases they have seen there so far are mild, it's not all clear that the action was warranted. >> bret: yeah. >> but we will see. >> bret: let me read the quote from the doctor you referenced there reuters quoting this doctor: most of them are seeing very, very mild symptoms. none of them have admitted patients to surgeries. we have been able to treat these patients conservatively at home. this doctor, she said her experience so far is the that the variant affecting people 40 or younger. almost half of the patients with omicron symptoms she treated were not vaccinated. a lot we have not heard yet as we heard from admiral giroir earlier but there is a concern that there will be an overreaction that we won't have learned from the past delta and before that the first iterations of coronavirus. >> well, it's a very difficult moment right now because we really don't -- we are flying a little bit blind at the moment. you are talking about, you know, southern africa which has very young populations. >> we have limited data here. we just don't have huge numbers to go by. we don't really know if the vaccine, how effective they are against this new variant. we do know there are huge number of mutations which is obviously cause for concern. but there is just so much we don't know. the travel ban in and of itself is obviously going to be some kind of solution because it's already likely all around the world. biden made clear that their strategy is to be to the extent they have one is doubling down on vaccines and booster shots to try and boost immunity but, again, we just don't know yet how effective these vaccines are against this new variant. we'll probably know a lot more in two weeks, according to administration officials. >> bret: yeah. and the president pushing for the vaccination as well as the booster shots. the cdc doing the same. the other thing mentioned today was the masks and wearing masks inside. take a listen. >> i am going to encourage everyone to wear a mask when they're indoors, in a crowded circumstance like we are right now. and unless you are eating or speaking in a microphone. >> the president is somebody who follows the recommendations and the advice of the cdc. >> he was shopping in a store and on the glass outside it said face covering required and we could see him inside and his face was uncovered. >> our reasonable medical certainty and advice continues to be for people to wear masks when they're required in establishments. i don't know what this establishment was. the president obviously follows the advice of his health and medical team. >> bret: nitpicky? legitimate? ben, what do you think? >> well, first off, it's not the advice of the cdc that you need to wear masks inside if you are vaccinated. that's one point. but additionally, if joe biden was standing up there today with anthony fauci who went on television over the weekend to give an extremely partisan political interview in which he suggested that ted cruz ought to be prosecuted over january 6th and said that he represents science when he speaks, of course we know that science is always right and never wrong. one of the things that we can learn, i think, from this whole experience going back to the beginning of joe biden's campaign is that the idea that he based his whole campaign on that he would be able to shut down this virus, that the trump administration was doing horrendous job handling it and that he would make a remarkable difference if he was elected is just politically not justified and is not playing with the american people. they hear mixed messages. they hear uncertainty as jonathan was indicating about the direction we ought to go. and so things like the step that they took regarding travel play off more as theatrics than as a clear and very well-based argument for what is going to shut down the virus as opposed to lead to additional lockdowns, shut downs and more administered by governments across the nation. >> bret: here is that soundbite, brit, that bret just referenced of dr. fauci over the weekend. >> well, there are a lot of republican senators taking aim at this. >> that's okay. i'm just requesting to do my job. and i'm going to be saving lives and they are going to be lying. anybody who is looking at this carefully realizes that there's a distinct antiscience flavor to this. so if they get up and criticize science, nobody is going to know what they are talking about. but if they get up and really aim their bullets at tony fauci, well, people could recognize there is a person there, so it's easy to criticize but they are really criticizing science because i represent science. that's dangerous. >> bret: brit, what do you make of that. >> it reminds me of that same must lay that's me statement went down in history. that's a very grandiose statement on his part and one he would have been well-advised not to make. if people want to consider him the voice of science, they are free do so. when the guy starts claiming that mantel himself and starts announcing it on television i think people will be rightly skeptical. look, he has made a number of miscalculations along the way here in the early going he said the risk was low. then he said the masks were not needed. then he said the masks were needed and the list goes on and on. he represents science, the science has been all over the place on this and so has he. so, i think he was ill advised to make that comment and i think people will recognize that. >> bret: jonathan, i want to call an audible here. you have had a string of great interviews lately. most recently congresswoman rashida tlaib. where do you see where the democrats are now on capitol hill? we have got a number of things as we talked to chad pergram happening up there with the funding of the government, the debt ceiling and most importantly chuck schumer says he wants to get out build back better out of the senate by christmas. seems like a long shot. where do you see it? >> yeah, there's a lot of cards that are about to collide. and i don't -- you know, make prognostications about this stuff but it's very, very complicated you still have problems with joe march and kyrsten sinema. next year is an election year in which democrats, many of them that i talk, to believe they are staring down something close to electoral apocalypse and that obviously complicates what they're trying to do on the hill as an extra layer of complication to it. >> bret: yeah, you have got senator joe manchin, ben, northbound one, he thinks that there should be ten year policies not three year if you are going to put them. you have to fund them for the full 10 years and not hide the ball in essentially his words. and there's a number of things he is kind of dick taghts that democrats are not going to go along with. >> he has got the pen. he has got the pen. he can do whatever he wants and so can sinema. they have all the leverage because the progressives know that they can -- manchin can take this bill or leave it and the progressives want it more than they do. so they have got all the leverage. >> bret: ben, real quick? >> i just think that jonathan's analogy is correct there are a lot of cars and moving parts here. i don't see this coming together by christmas. >> bret: gentlemen, thank you very much. when we come back, the white house christmas decorations. it is that time of year. ♪ ♪ bret brolt finally tonight, getting into the christmas spirit. first jill biden unveiled. more than 100 volunteers around the country helped decorate for the season. they trimmed 41 christmas trees. hung about 6,000 feet of ribbon and more than 10,000 ornaments. the 2021 gifts from the heart theme honors covid-19 frontline workers. a gigantic ginger bread village features a school, post office, police fire and gas stations, christmas stockings for each of the biden grandchildren hang from the fireplace mantel in the state dining room. the decorations of the product of months of work by the first lady and her staff starting as far back as june. quite something to see. we thought we would give you a glimpse. tomorrow on "special report" the results of the reagan national defense survey about the u.s. military plus democrats and republicans concerned about taiwan and china. thanks for inviting us in your home. that's it for us tonight. freedom hosted this week by pete hegseth starts right now. >> pete: hey, bret, those ginger bread houses i didn't notice any gas prices on gas station. >> bret: they left that off. >> pete: i understand why. bret, thank you very much. well, good evening, america. it's 7:00 p.m. on the east coast and 6:00 p.m. in god's country which means it's time for "fox news primetime." i'm pete hegseth. while most spent the weekend relaxing family, football, freedom, faith and great food, dr. fauci and joe biden were stewing over new covid concerns. and the top dish on their menu