country back to lockdowns. this is as he stared down at christmas holiday that is starting to look and feel a lot like last year when the pandemic peaked, despite being nearly two years in americans are still waiting in long lines, even paying out of pocket to get simple covid tests. president biden is about to announce his plan to fight the new covid surgeon fox news has landed includes more federal testing sites, more funding for at-home tests, military aid for overwhelmed hospitals, and the deployment of additional fema response teams. >> mike: complete covered head. janette nesheiwat and robert redfield will join us. jonathan serrie standing by with the latest on the omicron surge, but first to the white house and peter doocy. hello, peter. >> hello, mike. officials here have gone for morning that unvaccinated americans could lose their jobs to warning that unvaccinated americans could lose their lives. >> for those who choose to remain unvaccinated, he will issue a stark warning and make clear unvaccinated individuals will continue to drive hospitalizations and deaths. >> that sounds harsh, especially when compared to the latest comment from the vice president. >> is it the fault of the unvaccinated? >> i don't think this is a moment to talk about fault. it is no one's fault that this virus hit our shores or hit the world. >> more than five months after the president teased we were closer than ever to the end of covid, the new plan is kind of more of the same. a thousand military doctors and nurses ready to deploy to overwhelmed hospitals, making covid vaccines more available, and then to mail 500,000 at-home covid tests to american citizens for free. that problem comes at thousands of americans are waiting hours in long lines in the cold, hoping to get swabbed at overwhelmed testing facilities. something though i have so far hasn't expressed much outrage over. >> there 20,000 free testing sites across the country. and we are going to continue to build on that. the president will talk about that. >> with today's announcement from the president, he tries to stop the spread again with a new set of measures that gets us even further away from this summer's guidance, which was vaxxed or masked. >> many thanks. gillian? >> gillian: to the cdc says omicron accounts for 73% of all new u.s. covert cases and the state of texas is reporting the first american deaths linked to the new variant. jonathan serrie joins us from atlanta. hi, jonathan. >> hi, gillian. the omicron variant has been confirmed in every u.s. state with the exception of oklahoma and south dakota, and texas has confirmed the first omicron-related death. it's a man in his 50s in the houston area. officials say he was unvaccinated and had underlying health problems. listen. >> of course we are going to have hospitalizations. tragically deaths like what we see now. but the evidence shows that, for those vaccinated, and with the booster, it is much less likely. >> concerns over the omicron variant and a surge in cases have prompted the nba, and nhl to postpone games. they canceled the rockettes christmas shows. "saturday night live" is performing without a studio audience, and the city of los angeles has canceled in-person new year's eve celebrations. also sources tell fox 5 new york that the covid surge will likely lead to reduced capacity and mandatory masking at the new year's eve ball drop in times square. today the city and nasty $100 incentive for everyone getting a booster shot before the end of the year. >> this will be by far the biggest booster incentive program in the united states of america, and i want to see new yorkers respond. >> new york city schools have pledged to remain open with safety protocols in place, but the new by school district of mount vernon has announced starting wednesday it'll go back to 100% virtual learning. gillian and mike, back to you. >> gillian: a lot of moving parts. jonathan serrie in atlanta, thank you. >> mike: the biden administration and senator joe manchin have been clashing publicly since manchin announced he would not support the president's massive social spending plan, but behind the scenes things may the plaintiff and lee. fox news confirmed the president spoke with manchin sunday night, signaling negotiations on the bill could resume next year, but after the manchin dust-up and news of another house democrat retiring, is it possible far-left dems are pushing moderates out of the party? let's bring an wall street journalist columnist and fox news contributor james freeman. welcome. >> thanks, mike. good to be here. >> mike: if they're going to resume talks in the new year, does that mean a likely slimmed down build back better plan, and doesn't that risk further angering progressives? >> it does. i think what mr. biden needs to do if you want to save his presidency and give democrats a chance to thrive in next year's elections, he needs to anger progressives. that's exactly what he needs to do. he has governed from the left, even though he beat bernie sanders in the primary, even though voters and his party made it clear they did not want the socialist revolution. he has really tried to govern from the left, embrace much of the sanders agenda, and he's got to reject it. >> mike: at least 22 has democrats are retiring. they have been coming out one after another. that typically means that they believe their party is about to lose power. once you have been chairman of the committee, you don't want to go back to being in the minority. but is also possible that some of these people are leaving because they feel they are being forced to vote on the far-let's plan that doesn't represent their districts? >> that is certainly the likely case. he mentioned the elevated number of retirements. it's a little weird for politicians, being a chair of the committee is kind of fun. you get a lot of power, why did they want to leave? to your point, i think really disturbing for democrats is the announcement of a retirement from someone like representative stephanie murphy. she is in a swing district in florida, she is a younger sort of rising star in the party. she says she wants to spend more time with her family and perhaps that is the case, but you look at that kind of retirement and it suggests that it has become very difficult for a swing district democrat to thrive in a party where the demand is for this kind of massive government plan that comment really unrelated to the big issue facing the country, which is inflation. >> mike: back to senator manchin and the attacks coming from progressives. he seems to enjoy the fight to a certain degree, sticking to his guns. "the new york post" today cover, and absolute classic. "they insulted and harassed me but i am not budging on bad bill." should the democrats be careful about pushing him too if argument we have seen party switches before, james. >> i think they just ran the experiment on whether you could bully him and get him to vote or agree to support this big plan that he views as a really disastrous, inflationary, creating unsustainable entitlements. i would hope that maybe the president who, in his previous political life, when he was working in the obama administration, was actually fairly adept at negotiating compromise on capitol hill. for whatever reason, as president, mr. biden has really rejected that. he has allowed the bernie sanders wing of the party, largely, to craft policy. that may have something to do with the staff at the white house. but i think mr. biden needs to look at the message of the last year, look at polls. all the polls are showing independents want him to govern from the center, not from the left. i think that's really the manchin message, as well. >> mike: the new fox business poll that came out last night, there was a number in particular that caught my eye. seven in ten saying it's been a bad year for the country. that's got to make democrats who are in power, who are on the ballot next year, quite nervous, no? >> yeah, and it's a strange result when you consider the economy is growing, there are plentiful jobs, jobs for everyone who wants them, but one of the big sectors that has got everyone concerned, that is causing pain everywhere, is inflation. joe manchin said, look, this big spending bill is going to make it worse. i think a lot of democrats tried to warn president biden last spring that the extra $2 trillion covid bill was exactly the wrong medicine after the country and the economy were already rebounding. it was basically discouraging people from working, pumping more money into the demand side of the economy. it was really an inflation generator. i think manchin correctly viewed build back better as more of the same. that's the issue where you see the pessimism across polls, across viewpoints, and it is the fact that, when you mess with the currency of a country, you are messing with everybody. we all see those higher prices, and it's not just the cost of it, it's all the planning that people have to go into to figure out how to manage when prices are so volatile. >> mike: james freeman from "the wall street journal," thanks so much for your time. so, gillian, the national republican campaign committee predicts more democrats will be heading for the exits. they may be thinking it over and over the christmas holidays, but certainly an interesting time looking ahead to midterms next year. >> gillian: if fund-raising is anything to hang our hats on here, mike, we learned overnight that so far this year the rnc has brought in it i think over a million dollars more than the dnc. >> mike: follow the money. >> gillian: coming up next, a harvard professor standing trial today on allegations that he had ties to the chinese communist party. the charges are brought as part of the justice department effort to crack down on chinese espionage. we've got general jack keane on tap, he will weigh in on that case and the chinese threat. >> mike: plus, a recent arrest in arizona of two agents described as a potential terrorist. how biden's border crisis opens up concerns for u.s. national security. arizona attorney general joins us soon with how his state is handling this case. speak what you open it up to its human trafficking, criminals, and terrorism. how many of that 400,000 didn't get arrested and they are terrorists? superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance. ow! i'm ok! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ only in theaters december 17th. veteran homeowners, need a financial boost? ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ the newday 100 va loan lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value and take out up to $60,000 or more. give them a call. veteran homeowners- with home values at all-time highs and rates at near all-time lows now's the time to do more with your home equity. veterans are calling newday at a record pace to take advantage of the newday 100 va loan. you can borrow up to 100% of your home's value to upgrade the kitchen, add a pool for the grandkids, or have the security of cash in the bank. with an average cash out amount of $60,000, you can do more. where's mom? she said she would be home in time for the show. don't worry, sweetie. she promised she'd be here for it. ooh! nice shot! thanks! glad we have xfinity, with wifi speed faster than a gig! me too! woah, look! mom is on tv! she's amazing! (cheers) xfinity brought us together, after all! power your whole home this holiday with wifi speeds faster than a gig. click, call, or visit a store today. sing 2 ♪ ♪ >> mike: cook county state attorney kim foxx being referred for ethics violations after she allegedly engaged in substantial pieces of aggression in her handling of the jussie smollett case. the report says foxx provided misleading statements when she initially dropped charges against the disgraced actor, but the state declined to press criminal charges against her. earlier this month, jussie smollett was convicted on five disorderly conduct charges for staging a fake hate crime against himself. that was quite a case. obviously got widespread attention, also devoted a whole lot of resources to investigating a celebrity facing an alleged hate crime that didn't pan out, gillian. >> gillian: yeah, so not only did kim foxx allegedly live better to medications but jussie smollett sister, she violated her professional ethics code, we are learning now, according to legal experts, when she offered smollett's sister legal advice. she said something to the tune of, it is important your brother remains consistent throughout this trial. we've got to leave it there for now, mike, but more later. harvard university now, a professor, charles lieber, in court today facing charges that he lied to the united states about his ties to the chinese government program. prosecutors are saying lieber is paid tens of thousands of dollars per month for collaborating with a chinese university with ties to the government. his case is of major concern to u.s. national security as china is now looking, of course, to become the global leader in technology. let's bring in retired four-star general jack keane to talk about this threat from china. general, it's great to have you. this program under which the professor was here is called the thousand talents plan. it's probably one of the biggest threats to national security that most americans have never heard of before. the chinese government uses it to do all kinds of nefarious things, right? >> there is no doubt about that. it also has an association with the wuhan laboratory, where he was paying $158,000 a year. what we are observing here has been going on for a number of years. one of the most significant and comprehensive penetrations of the united states, and our technology and our intelligence in our history. it exceeds what was going on with the soviet union for 40 years. christopher wray, the director of the fbi, said in the summer of 2020 that he is opening up a new counterintelligence case file on average every ten hours, just dealing with the attempt by the chinese communist party to penetrate the united states. certainly research laboratories and academia are fertile territory for agents to penetrate and gain collaboration with our scientists and professors. about 25 cases are going through the system. nine have pled guilty. six charges have been dropped. ten other are pending. as this case is one of them, and it's on trial right now, the technology transfer, so everyone understands the scale of this, on average it is north of $200 billion per year. when you factor in that this has been going on for 20 years, this is the most significant wealth transfer in history from one country to another, and it is all revolving around technology. >> gillian: said there is the technological aspect of this. you say it goes back decades. but there is also the espionage angle, putting technology aside for a second. china has been using this program for a few decades now to infiltrate american academia, not necessarily as a way to get academics but as a way to build networks inside of the united states so they can parlay any kind of information they want. >> there's no doubt about it. it's a very constant to my company program, and certainly espionage is part of that. they are undermining united states democracy and they look for those opportunities, also to enhance china. they have significant numbers of agents that are involved in this activity, and it is absolutely a job won for the fbi and the counterintelligence business, given the scale of what has taken place. but it shows the malfeasance of what we are dealing with. president xi is the most aggressive and most maligned leader that china has had since mao zedong, and clearly he has stated time and time again that he wants to replace the united states as the world's global leader and change the international order. one of the ways he wants to achieve that is certainly to achieve technology domination over the united states. something that they have capabilities themselves to do their own research and do their own creativity and innovation. but they steal most of it. that is the reality of it. they are also seeking political, economic, and military domination, as well. these programs are all connected to each other. >> gillian: sorry to interrupt you, i want to make sure i ask you real quick if you are surprised that china is doing this on the cheap, as well. $50,000 a month might be a lot of money to normal folks, but $50,000 a month to extract directly from an american, some of the most useful and certainly valuable technological information out there circulating at u.s. universities is really not much money. >> no, it's not. and full disclosure, dealing with this case, this professor is being charged with not disclosing their relationship and the amount of money that he was receiving from them, and lying about it to the federal agents. he is not being charged with espionage himself and the transfer of intelligence or technology directly to china. we certainly should have that upfront so our audience understands that. >> gillian: all right, general. thanks so much for joining us today. we really appreciate it. great to talk to you it always. >> great talking to you, gillian. made christmas. >> gillian: made christmas to you, too. my? >> mike: nearly two years after the pandemic hit, americans waiting in line to get covid tests. why is this still happening? dr. janette nesheiwat will join us next. straight ahead. ♪ ♪ >> and technical operations, we provide a service. it is our job to let the producers get their vision onto the screen. we don't ever want to compromise that. one of the most challenging requests, we had to run cable up 44 flights on 9/11 to get connectivity to the roof, and we did it. we did it quickly. but i remember being on the roof. we actually saw the second tower collapse. at the time it was very intense, but we all knew we had a job to do, so we couldn't sit there and watch. we had to get to work. i am only as good as the people that work with me. i could honestly say, we have the best people in the business. ♪ ♪ veteran homeowners- you made a smart move when you bought your home. now make another one and turn your equity into cash. with the newday 100 va loan you can take out up to $60,000 or more. veteran homeowners- with home values at all-time highs and rates at near all-time lows now's the time to do more with your home equity. veterans are calling newday at a record pace to take advantage of the newday 100 va loan. you can borrow up to 100% of your home's value to upgrade the kitchen, add a pool for the grandkids, or have the security of cash in the bank. with an average cash out amount of $60,000, you can do more. ♪ you've got to try a little kindness ♪ ♪ yes, show a little kindness ♪ ♪ just shine your light for everyone to see ♪ ♪ and if you try a little kindness ♪ >> mike: we are standing by for president biden's new plan to fight the surge of the omicron variant. the white house saying his speech will be about lockdowns but rather a plan to increase testing, support overwhelmed hospitals, and boost vaccinations. but nearly two years into this pandemic, why are tests still hard to get? let's bring in fox news contributor and family and emergency medicine doctor, janette nesheiwat. dr. janette, welcome. >> hey, mike. how are you? >> mike: looking at the president's plan, he's talking about more federal testing sites, more funding for at-home tests, military aid for hospitals, additional fema response teams. and that in your view, does that help, doctor? speak of it certainly helps, especially in some parts of thes coming like here in new york city, and ohio, and michigan. the problem is, mike, it is past due. the key to managing an outbreak successfully is preparation and being proactive and anticipating the needs of the community. not scrounging and scrabbling for tests and vaccines when you're already in the middle of an outbreak. he's going to announce later today these extra efforts to help fight coronavirus, but we need to be prepared and we really dropped the ball, not being prepared for this current outbreak. omicron is spreading like wildfire, and we have the tools to fight it, it's just a matter of having them in alignment and being able to deploy the tools in a timely manner. >> mike: let's play this clip from dr. anthony fauci today. >> we are going to hopefully quickly catch up with that curve, and having a plan with the defense reduction act of getting anywhere from 200 million ? 500 million tests per month, creating a website we can order it and have it delivered for your home. >> mike: are you asking why more tests and therapeutics have not been available to this point, doctor? >> absolutely. two years and, there's no reason for my patients to have to wait hours to get tested, and a long time to get results for pcr tests. the cdc, our governor, we need to have vaccine sites open now, we need to have more testing availability now, especially this far along in the pandemic. mailing out a home test where you get it into-3 weeks is unacceptable. we need it now, and it needs to be, again, free and easily accessible, as well as our vaccines. >> mike: we are showing our viewers americans waiting in long lines in the cold to get the cover tests. obviously if you are showing up for one of those tests it's because you're not feeling well. standing out in the cold for a long period of time is certainly not a great idea, and i'm no doctor. doctor, your experience in dealing with this new omicron variant, what are you seeing in terms of patients, how sick are they? >> fortunately, mike, since many americans have had at least one or two doses of the vaccine, i am lucky that i am only seeing symptoms like fever, sore throat, sometimes coughing, chest pain, shortness of breath. i have only had to hospitalize one patient recently. but the majority of my patients that have tested positive, they haven't had their third dose, so the key is to get that third dose, because it'll bump up your protection to about 75%. remember, we had about 95 protection against delta and the other variants, so we see less effectiveness with our vaccines and, for example, our therapeutics when it comes to omicron, the getting the third dose will definitely give you more protection, especially against symptomatic disease and hospitalization, severe complications. >> mike: there has been quite a reaction to the surge of new cases. professional sports rearranging schedules, canceling some games, college sports, as well. the rockettes christmas shows have been canceled, the jingle ball concert in miami canceled, no studio audience for saturday night live, the in-person los angeles new year's eve celebrations canceled, and others may be on the way. your thoughts on those actions, doctor? >> i certainly don't think we should cancel new year's eve, especially here in new york city. it is outdoors. risk of transmission of covid outdoors is extremely low. i don't think i have ever had a patient who has told me they picked it up outdoors. most people who are going to the new year's celebration, for example, they are required to be vaccinated. so i don't think we should have any shutdowns or any cancellations. i understand having to postpone a game or a show because the actual cast members or the sports players are sick, and you don't have replacements, but i think we all need to continue enjoying our daily lives, just take those common-sense precautionary measures of wearing a mask in public indoor settings, getting your vaccine, getting your third dose, and if you think you have been exposed, get tested. if you know that you have covid, you will know to take precautions to isolate, quarantine for ten days, so you don't spread to others. >> mike: do you recommend that folks cancel traveling over the holiday period and? a lot of our kids are off school, thinking about going somewhere to see family that we have not seen for a long time. should be cancel, postpone, delay those trips? >> i don't think we should cancel them. i think we should take precaution, no your risk, make sure you are vaccinated, make sure you have your booster, get tested before leaving to whoever you are going. you can get tested upon arrival if you had to take that extra step in being safe to protect yourself. and to protect others. taking all the necessary steps of masking, testing, vaccination, that is all we can do at this point. i think we need to continue with our lives and enjoy the holidays. >> mike: dr. janette, so great having you. merry christmas. >> merry christmas, mike. >> mike: gillian? >> gillian: queen elizabeth is scrapping her annual christmas plans for a second year in the row. the monarch is no longer traveling east to her sandringham estate following the rise and cozy cases across the u.k. she's trying to remain at windsor castle as cases in her nation surged by more than 50% in just a leak. she is now facing her first christmas without her husband, the beloved prince philip. he passed away in april. mike, i really feel for the queen. it's her first christmas without her husband. now she's not going to be able to have her sandringham celebration, which is by all accounts her favorite holiday tradition. at her age, 95 i think he is, you can't count on future christmases. >> mike: that's a great point. i guess advanced age, her doctors are probably saying take it easy, but some of the surge blow over. but you are absolutely right, you don't take christmas for granted when you are 95 years old. >> gillian: she did have a couple health issues earlier in the year, too, now that i'm thinking about it. >> mike: all right, >> mike: jurors in ghislaine maxwell's trial reviewing the testimony of several women who claimed to have been abused by her ex-boyfriend, jeffrey epstein. a live report live report on where deliberation stands at this hour. >> gillian: plus, baking is at the southern border. new worries now about terrorism, as agents find someone they call a potential terrorist as the man slipped across the border near yuma. we've got arizona's attorney general joining us next. ♪ ♪ i may have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. or psoriatic arthritis. but we are so much more. we're team players and artists. designers and do-it-yourselfers. parents and friends. if joint pain is getting in the way of who you are, it's time to talk to your doctor about enbrel. enbrel helps relieve joint pain, and helps stop permanent joint damage. plus enbrel helps skin get clearer in psoriatic arthritis. ask your doctor about enbrel, so you can get back to your true self. play ball! enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. tell your doctor if you've been someplace where fungal infections are common. or if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding or paleness. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. visit enbrel.com to see how your joint damage could progress. enbrel. eligible patients may pay as little as $5 per month. with age comes more... get more with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .05% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkles results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin. 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(crowd) business! >> mike: the estate of jeffrey epstein's ex-girlfriend, ghislaine maxwell, in the hands of a jury after closing arguments yesterday and more than two weeks of testimony. if convicted on all counts, she could face up to 70 years in prison. bryan llenas' life outside federal court new york city. bryan? >> mike, good afternoon. this jury has been deliberating now for about five and a half hours. they started yesterday and continue this morning at 9:00 a.m. they sent a note this morning to judge allison nathan asking for the full transcripts of the testimonies of three of the four accusers against ghislaine maxwell. maxwell faces potentially spending the rest of her life in jail. she is jeffrey epstein's former girlfriend and alleged partner in crime. the 59-year-old faces six sex trafficking charges, accused of recruiting and grooming multiple minors from 1994-2004 to be sexually abused by the convicted sex offender jeffrey epstein. this case hinges on whether or not the jurors believed maxwell facilitated the sexual abuse of two of those accusers that are testifying under pseudonyms jane and caroline. both accusers claim maxwell recruited and groomed them when they were both 14 years old to give sexualized massages to epstein who sexually assaulted them dozens of times. they also claimed maxwell participated in the abuse, touching their breasts and taking part in orgies, preying on kids. the defense argued maxwell is being portrayed as, "cruella de vil, and "the devil wears prada" all rolled up into one," without knowing that she was musing anyone. they claim she is a scapegoat for epstein's crimes after he killed himself in a federal jail here in new york in 2019. they poked holes in the testimony of these accusers, really about inconsistencies in the details of their testimonies. maxwell chose not to take the stand in this case, mike. she stood up and told the judge, "the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt, so there is no reason for me to testify." we will see if they reach a verdict today. mike? >> mike: we will see what the impact is on the jury. gillian? >> gillian: u.s. border patrol agents have now arrested a man they described as a "potential terrorist." this after he illegally crossed the southern border with mexico. the unidentified 21-year-old saudi arabian man was nabbed near yuma, arizona, on thursday. he was wearing a volunteer ems jacket from a town in upstate new york. arizona's attorney general mark bernadette joins us on this case now. thank you for your time today. we hear a lot about human traffickers, drug dealers, and the threat that they pose at the border. but this case raises a new set of questions here. how weary do you think we need to be about terrorists and would-be terrorists? >> gillian, thank you for having me on. we should all be very, very worried. at one point, we felt that the biden administration is trying to abolish i.c.e., but now it's clear they want to abolish the entire southern border. as a result you not only have the cartel flooding drugs into our country at record amounts, but now you have people on watch lists. looks like this from middle eastern countries coming into this country, and we have to worry that they mean us harm. i will tell you, in august, i had actually written a letter, because we know there has been a record amount of payings to the terrorist database as a result f people being apprehended. they are not being frank at the american people and telling us about the record amount of drugs flowing into this country, the record amount of busts we have at the attorney general's office, and they are not telling us about the number of people with possible links to terrorism or people from middle eastern countries that are illegally coming into this country. that is dangerous for all of us regardless of where he lives. >> gillian: very few details are publicly available right now about this guy. he is from saudi arabia. we know he was suspicious to authorities because he had certain connections, maybe even communications with yemeni suspects. what do you read into this? they are labeling him a potential terrorist, right? what does that actually mean? what does it tell you? >> as a former gang prosecutor and federal prosecutor, i don't want to be an alarmist, but it should tell you that the situation is out of control, and the hardworking brave men and women of law enforcement are worried. they are worried that we have a record amount of people illegally entering this country. you have tens of thousands of got-oh eights, people trying to evade detection, and coming in camouflage, in the dead of night for our deserts here in arizona and places like texas. now you have people trying to sneak through either on terror watch lists from middle eastern countries that have been known to help would be involved in terrorist activities. it should concern everyone. remember, gillian, everyone is talking about the pandemic. your previous guests talked about the pandemic facing this country. we have dealt for that for the last year and half. i'm telling you right now, the man-made epidemic is the record amount of sentinel, teen deaths, people dying of drug overdoses, the violence coming into our city, and now terrorists that mean us harm coming to this country. shame on the biden administration and shame on his enablers like chuck schumer and cartel kelly here in arizona allowing this to happen. men and women, kids are going to die. >> gillian: they say they apprehended 173,000 people along the border in november, that is more than double the same month last year. isn't there something, though, sort of reassuring about the fact that they plucked this needle out of the haystack and out of 173,000 people able to apprehend this person they think had ties to terrorists? >> what keeps me up at night is not the people we are apprehending, it's the people we aren't apprehending. it's the tens of thousands of got-oh eights, people wearing camouflage or black and carpet on their feet evading detection. the people we are not catching. the bottom line, as a result of the failed policies, we are seeing millions of people flooding this country illegally. amongst those millions of people, inevitably, there are hardened criminals and potential terrorists coming into our country, and all of us are going to pay the cost. not just tomorrow, not just next month, but for a generation as a result of what the biden administration and the enablers in u.s. congress like chuck schumer, nancy pelosi, and cartel kelly, as a result of what they are doing, people -- men, women, and children -- are going to die in this country. >> gillian: got to leave it there. mark brnovich, thanks so much for your time. mike? >> mike: gillian, "the new york times" is under fire for a column praising wendy weingarten. declaring the chief a champion of the opening schools despite her past efforts to keep them closed. charlie hurt will join us on that. ♪ ♪ >> gillian: plus, senate democrats reportedly ready now to take a hard line with senator joe manchin after he sidelined president biden's massive social spending plan. but could the strategy backfired on the democrats? bill mcgurn says probably, and he joins us next. >> all of joe biden's policies have been appeasing the radical left. well, joe manchin never signed up for that program. actually, most americans didn't, either. ♪ ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance so they only pay for what they need. (gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th earn about covid-19,. liberty. liberty. ♪ the more questions we have. the biggest question now, what's next? what will covid bring in six months, a year? if you're feeling anxious about the future, you're not alone. calhope offers free covid-19 emotional support. call 833-317-4673, or live chat at calhope.org today. ♪ ♪ >> we are waiting for that to come out. if you see a tail wagging coming out of the briefing room coming on the something bad will happen. >> gillian: that was white house press secretary jen psaki that news of a new white house pet would only come essentially when the white house press team wanted to distract america from a very bad news day. so now we are learning that the first family has a new puppy, meat commander. he's awfully cute. he's a german shepherd given to the president as a birthday gift from his brother and sister-in-law. the other rescue dog named major is going to be re-hummed with family friends after a whole handful of biting incidents at the white house. first lady jill biden said a cat will also join the family in january, so 1600 pennsylvania is going to be mighty crowded. nothing distracts like a good dog news story, especially if there is a puppy video involved. just ask instagram, i think that's how they ended up with 2 billion users. >> mike: absolutely. my dog, jeter, is more popular than i am. i am reminded president truman's quote, if you want a friend in washington, get a dog. [laughter] >> gillian: it holds true. >> mike: we are keeping an eye on the courthouse in minneapolis as deliberations continue for a second day in the kim potter trial. officer potter was charged with first and second-degree manslaughter for killing and shooting 20-year-old daunte wright last april during a traffic stop. stop. get ten he has followed this from the very beginning and his lives in a very chilly minneapolis with the latest. hello, garrett. >> hey, mike. good afternoon to you. the jury is coming up around nine hours of deliberation and so far they have only had one question, and that was to ask for the date when kim potter interviewed with a psychologist. one of the defense witnesses, dr. lawrence miller, testified that police officers can mistakenly draw their guns instead of their tasers in high stress situations, citing a somewhat disputed theory referred to as "action error." that is important because much of this case boils down to how the jury ultimately interprets potter's mistake. in their closing arguments, the defense said a mistake is no reason to send someone to prison. >> everybody makes mistakes. nobody is perfect, ladies and gentlemen. this lady here made a mistake, and my gosh, a mistake is not a crime. it just isn't. it just isn't, in our freedom-loving country, that we are going to put you in jail for mistake. >> prosecutors argue potter is responsible for her mistake, though, because they say she ignored years of training and experience when she pulled her weapon on daunte wright. >> even the decision to use a taser was not a wide one. it goes to show that she made a series of bad choices that lead to her shooting and killing daunte wright. it goes to her disregard of all the risks. >> in their deliberations, the jury of six men and six women, who are mostly white, will be able to actually hold, feel, and handled kim potter's taser and her weapon to be able to feel the difference between the two themselves as they review all of the evidence in this case and decide whether to convict or acquit the former brooklyn center police officer. mike? >> mike: very interesting. garrett tenney live in minneapolis. garrett, many thanks. >> gillian: we are awaiting a major address from president biden on his administration's plan for handling the omicron variant, so what should his message to the american people be? we've got former cdc director dr. robert redfield on tap to join us next. plus, they've got columnists bill mcgurn and charlie hurt, and more coming up in the next hour. stick with us. ♪ ♪ >> man: what's my safelite story? my truck...is my livelihood. so when my windshield cracked... the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me... with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ veteran homeowners, need a financial boost? the newday 100 va loan lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value and take out up to $60,000 or more. give them a call. veteran homeowners- with home values at all-time highs and rates at near all-time lows now's the time to do more with your home equity. veterans are calling newday at a record pace to take advantage of the newday 100 va loan. you can borrow up to 100% of your home's value to upgrade the kitchen, add a pool for the grandkids, or have the security of cash in the bank. with an average cash out amount of $60,000, you can do more. ♪ ♪ >> gillian: this is a fox news alert to begin a brand-new hour. it just a moment, president biden will announce his plan for the country to fight the latest covid to surge as the omicron variant sweeps the nation. good afternoon from washington. i am gillian turner in for sandra smith today. hi, mike. >> mike: and i'm mike emanuel in for john roberts. he will announce a multistep approach including easier access for testing and more aid for hospitals that can be overwhelmed. the white house says it will not be a speech about lockdowns. >> gillian: americans are waiting in line for hours to get tested right now. many are concerned this christmas is starting to look a lot like last christmas. >> mike: former cdc director robert redfield moments away is what you need to know. and issues over testing. >> gillian: first we go direct to the white house where jacqui heinrich is standing by. hi, jacqui. >> hey there, gillian. we're waiting for the briefing and public health officials are watching omicron case is double every 2-3 days. they now make up nearly three quarters of cases in the u.s. the president is adding new steps to his mentor covid plan including a thousand military medical personnel deploying to overwhelmed hospitals in january february. fema is also sending teams to six states right now. critical supplies like masks and ventilators are being prepositioned across the country and federal testing sites are coming back to cities like new york where people are waiting in long lines for hours to get tested. for the first time, the white house is sending free rapid tests to anyone who wants one at home. the only problem is they won't get here until january, and that's not in time for holiday gatherings. so it begs the question, would we be in a different position now if the administration had done this a couple lisa go when jen psaki was first asked about it and said this? >> why not just make them free and give them out and have them available everywhere? >> should be just and went to every american? >> maybe. >> then what happens if every american has one test? how much does that cost and what happens after that? >> all i know is of the countries seem to be making them available in greater quantities for less money. >> jen psaki said the reasons other countries have been able to get tests out more quickly and for less money is because they don't have to go through te fda process that american tests do. why that approval process has not been streamlined, and also why the white house hasn't put as much focus on therapeutics as they have on vaccines, is feeling a lot of the criticism they are facing right now. gillian? >> gillian: jacqui heinrich from the white house, thank you. mike? >> mike: gillian, good luck getting tested depending where you live. hillary vaughn live at a testing center in arlington, virginia. what are you finding? >> hi, mike. thousands of people around the country are braving the winter cold today. high wait times and long lines, waiting to get covid tested so they can feel safe gathering with their family for the holidays. take a look at this line where you were at the site here in arlington, virginia. it is wrapped around the block since this morning. there has been such a high demand over the past few days. several locations have run out of tests today. the arlington public library ran out of covid tests about an hour after opening. they said they won't be able to get any new shipments until after the new year, but wait times are not just here but around the country. from florida to new york, where yesterday some people reported waiting several hours in the cold outside just to get a test. >> yeah, that's like a day's work. >> a few minutes earlier the line was all the way around the block, and we were going to get in line to ride it out, and they run out by the time we got in line. >> it's frustrating there's not more accessibility. >> you can make an appointment when they fill up you can't do anything. >> omicron, they didn't really anticipate all the testing. >> we probably wouldn't have been tested. because they are all vaccinated. >> mike, the cdc says the safest way to gather with family and extended family over the holidays is to get tested before hand to make sure you're not positive, but it doesn't seem like the federal government really prepared for people actually doing just that. pretty much everyone we talked to in line throughout the morning is here just to get tested in case, but not because they had contact or any other issue just as a precaution. >> mike: thank you very much. gillian? >> gillian: let's bring in former cdc director dr. robert redfield. thanks for joining us this afternoon. i wanted to ask you off the bat that president biden, but falling on hillary's reporting, i've got to ask you why the united states is lagging so far behind, especially western european countries, when it comes to testing. why aren't tests now widely and cheaply available to americans? >> that's a really important question and a really important situation that has to be corrected. they are two years into this and i think one of the challenges is people talk about how many tests we are doing. i don't think people sat back and said how many tests do we need. i'm glad to see the president is going to encourage more testing with half a billion tests he's talking about bringing online and i heard dr. fauci say per month. i estimate the nation needs probably on the order of a billion tests per month in order to have the testing we need. testing is not just a clinical tool, but testing is really one of the most important public health tools we have right now. it is regularly repetitive testing of people at risk for infection so we can identify the silent a symptomatic infected individual and pull them out of the transmission pool. we have not applied that effectively today. >> mike: dr. redfield, there is a great deal of emphasis on the surge in cases come of it is that an appropriate metric when some have two or three shots? should we be looking at some other metric like perhaps i see you fatalities? >> it's very important, there are two different issues. obviously one is, as an infectious disease physician, to try to control the pandemic and infection. but the consequences which are so significant to us are what you said, hospitalizations and death. the threat we had at the beginning of the pandemic, when new york city's hospitals were really going under, even some of our military ships updated take care of patients, currently the stress on our health system is real. obviously you heard the president will announce more search teams to go help with it. so that's the critical issue grade you can get enough increase in hospitalizations that are pushed up by covid, that it makes the overall hospital system not function effectively. there are a number of hospitals right now that are in what we call stress situations that may have to go into crisis care. that really is the big issue, hospitalizations and death, but controlling infections is also important because you never know where that person who gets infected is going to then pass on that infection. you don't know which a vulnerable individual may be the next in line. >> gillian: we are going to hear, dr. redfield, from the president directly. they are going to make this announcement from the white house. any minute now. what do you think is the most important thing for the president to say? what would you most like to hear from him today? >> you know, gillian, there are four things i think are important for him to do. one is -- and he will do this, i'm sure -- is to reemphasize to the american public that vaccines do work. it's important that each of us take responsibility to get vaccinated and to maintain our vaccine status and that we are likely to require not only a third shot, but i anticipate with omicron that we will need to potentially have a fourth shot. i would prefer the president not put blame on the unvaccinated. as a physician, i know i've had challenges over my medical career as an internist in motivating patients to take care of themselves. not to smoke, to control their diabetes, to exercise. i think the way that is to enter in an effective dialogue with them as opposed to blaming them for the medical condition they suffer. instead of asking the american public it to do their job to help those of us who haven't been vaccinated, to encourage us to get vaccinated as opposed to passing blame. secondly, it is really to expand testing. we have to realize that testing is one of the most critical public health tools that we have. regular, repetitive, once or twice a week testing, people that are at high risk for infection. i particularly think in our schools k-12 we should be testing kids once or twice a week and removing the infected person, an approach that is our strategy of identifying knowledge of infection rather than these generic strategies. let's just assume everybody's infected, let's assume everybody has to do this. no, let's go down and use the tools we have and diagnose. >> gillian: sorry to interrupt you. i want to pick up on a point that it was a moment ago. he said you think the omicron variant is going to require a fourth shot of boosters further down the road. talk to us about that. that seems like news to me. >> gillian, if you take blood from a vaccinated individual like myself i do ask that blood to neutralize the omicron variant, it is now about 40-50 times less able than it could from the previous variant we had. the power of each neutralizing antibody is highly diminished. when we came and said we needed to boost at around six months, is what the general consensus was in population for the previous variant, it is very likely in my mind that the omicron variant is going to test the vaccine is going to lose its power quicker than it did for the previous variant. maybe lose its power i four months or three months. i think we should be had of this curve, not behind it. i think we were very late in recommending boosters as a nation. i know he pushed much earlier in our nursing home in maryland, but we need to be ahead of this. it's no longer working and hundreds of thousands of people. because of the relative weakness of the vaccine antibodies against this virus, as i said, 40-50 times less potent, i anticipate particularly vulnerable are going to need to be boosted earlier, probably closer to three or four months than six months in the future. we will see what the data holds and i think we need to be aggressive. >> mike: dr. redfield, a lot of folks reacting to the headlines feel like, "here we are again, it feels like march 2020." let's give them some good news. we are far beyond march 2020. a lot of people have gotten vaccines, we learned a lot more about the disease. isn't there cause for hope? this may be a difficult time, but we are in a better place than we were a year and a half ago, right? >> that should probably be the message. it's not the message of a winter of death. it is a message that we are going to begin to get back into life as it was, in a safe and responsible way. we have one tool, and the third point i was going to make is the third tool so important for the president to push, like we did for a corporation works paid for vaccines for operation web speed, we need to develop antivirals, redo the ones that are not effective. we have seen merck and pfizer with the first ones. but this virus is very susceptible for targeted drug development, and if to make it the same parody we saw in the trump administration to get the vaccines out in seven months. we need to get antivirals out and put a real push on it. and that will change. we have a virus less likely to put most people in the hospital, but we also now have medicine that you can take that is highly effective in either preventing you from getting infected and the first place, or if you get infected, keeping you from getting sick enough to feel symptomatic or have to go to the hospital. i think it the power of science is enormous here, and we shoulde very optimistic. but it is going to take, i think, a very concentrated effort to accelerate the debt element of these antivirals. >> gillian: the biden administration is following cdc guidance here that says you can get a booster shot, that you are eligible if you have your second vaccine shot in six months or longer ago. right connect we now know that in europe, a lot of countries, folks are getting booster shots in as little as three months. if the president's priority is getting everyone the maximum amount possible, why aren't we loosening the guidelines, whatever you want to call it connect decreasing the timeline and allowing americans to get a booster within three months? there was something like 50 million americans who had their second shot less than six months ago, but maybe they would go tomorrow and get the booster if they could. >> gillian, i agree with you. i think particularly now that we have the omicron variant there should not be rigidness about this. five months, that you need to wait. we should basically really encourage people to get the booster injection. i have told you about my prediction, that the omicron variant is going to require earlier boosters than the delta variant. and we should be moving in that direction. there are two approaches that public health takes. there is the one that tells you what you saw, that you have to wait to see it to tell you what you saw and then do something about it. the other approach is to use the knowledge that we have two be able to see what's coming and try to intervene. i'm going to argue that i see what is coming, that these vaccines are going to wane quicker. we should lean toward earlier feared injections and potentially fourth injections. the people who are highly vulnerable -- people in nursing homes, people with significant comorbidities -- i think it is sad when you see these people who sort of want to go get vaccinated and they are told, you've got to wait another six weeks. the reality is some of those people in those six weeks potentially could have a significant negative consequence. >> mike: dr. robert redfield, former cdc director. thank you so much for your service on behalf of public health and thanks for your time today. >> thank you guys very much. god bless. >> gillian: thank you. >> mike: fascinating stuff. a fourth shot potentially to deal with omicron? >> gillian: i haven't heard that anywhere else before, mike. i'm trying to absorb the news, kind of surprised. i'm waiting on my booster myself. it's been hard to schedule one here in the district. i don't know about another states, but you got to wait sometimes two weeks to get an appointment, so as nice at is is to think about a fourth mister, it's going take a long time to get the third shot. >> mike: i got my booster last friday. let's head to the white house. jen psaki stepping up ahead of the president's speech. let's listen in. >> secretary psaki: will make sure you have plenty of times to get set for the presence or marks. he is running a little bit late today so we will let you know an update. >> reporter: first off, have -- [inaudible] >> secretary psaki: he is asymptomatic. i spent several hours with him this morning and he is feeling great and you will see him at the speech shortly. report back the second question is, the 500 million test kits that are being given in january, is that going to be -- how are you guys going to work to get -- [inaudible] especially as omicron's crest-ag. >> secretary psaki: with the president is announcing today, everyone should see, he's building on the last couple of months. over the last couple of months we have quadrupled our testing capacity. i will talk about that in a moment. it's not related to your question, that would have been very impressive. we have quadrupled over the last few months our testing capacity and some have asked -- and let me clarify, too -- the tests that we are just repeating this month to community health centers and rural health centers, this is in addition to those 50 million tests being distributed. the 20,000 sites that are already up and running, this is in addition to that, that the president is announcing today. so i reference that, colleen, because it's important for the american people to hear and understand we are going to continue to build. the 500 million test kits that will begin be available in january is significant, the largest purchase we have sent to date, building on what we have done to date, in an effort to make testing more free, accessible, to people across the country. to go ahead. >> reporter: drill down on the specs of this, if you will. when can americans expect to see these tests? where they coming from, how many can a family or person order it once? is this website going to be able to sustain all these people who want to get on and get these tests? >> secretary psaki: to answer your last question, yes, that is our expectation and we are preparing for that. we will have more information as it is available, including with the website looks like. we will make the website available as soon as these tests are available. they will start to be available in january. in terms of the numbers that different families can order, we are working through all those very important details right now. >> dr. fauci said in a matter of a couple of weeks that we could start to see a decline as omicron. is this batch going to make a difference in the surge we are seeing right now are they coming too late for this? >> secretary psaki: the president's objective here has been to build on steps he has taken over the last couple of months. again, quadrupling testing capacity, making it more available in more communities, opening more testing sites across the country, and directing our efforts and our resources toward the parts of the country where they need help the most. i know part of the announcement today is opening additional testing sites. we have additional testing sites up and running in new york city, and we will have more up and running by the end of this week. additional testing sites will come online next week, in the states are coordinating with to determine logistics, scale, and timing, until it can be finalized. part of the efforts now is to make assessments about where additional testing sites will be needed. we had teams out on the ground to make that assessment, with governors, state leaders, local health officials who are experiencing or anticipate experience and spikes. that's a testing center component where people can go and get them in person. again, this is building on the testing capacity we have already built up to date in january. >> reporter: last question, you are still thinking about all around the country. at the end of 2021, as we close out this year, i still have to ask, when can every american who wants a test get one? because they can't get one today. >> secretary psaki: as i noted, one step we are taking is surging capacity and opening these testing sites in parts of the country where they have been hardest hit. new york city is one of them, and those testing sites will be up and running in new york city by the end of this week. we will continue to surge capacity and open additional testing sites in other parts of the country, and that is something that can happen very rapidly and our team is ready to deploy those resources. there are still 20,000 sites across the country where people can go. there are still 50 million tests that we are disturbing to rural community health centers, and we are doing this as quickly as possible. 500 million tests in january is the largest order we have ever made to date, and we are going to do it as quickly as we can, but they won't be available until january. >> reporter: where they coming from, these 500 million tests? >> secretary psaki: it's the test approved by the fda. >> reporter: is there a hold and getting those? >> secretary psaki: the final approvals just went through in november, so that has been part of our ability to expand our capacity. in addition to using the defense production act and our investment in $3 billion to do that. >> reporter: the ten-day isolation. matt, is that something that is an active consideration? >> secretary psaki: i know dr. fauci spoke to that briefly. that would be a decision made by health and medical experts in the cdc so i would certainly point you to them. we are always assessing and looking at different steps that can be taken. >> reporter: is the president satisfied at the speed of which all of this is happening? it was nearly four weeks go over thanksgiving vacation in nantucket when he first talked about the omicron variant. we have known christmas obviously is coming for a long time, and yet these sites will not be set up until the end of this week, which is christmas. is he satisfied at the speed at which this is all happening? >> secretary psaki: the president's promise to the american people, jess, is to constantly re-examine and improve our covid response, including testing and testing access, and always look for a way to do better. the announcement today is an effort to do exactly that. we have taken a number of steps over the past several months, and his view is that we need to do more and do it as ambitiously and aggressively as possible. his announcement today is a reflection of that, and it should be seen as his own assessment that we should be doing more. >> reporter: a couple weeks ago you said here at the podium, when there was a discussion about sending tests to people's homes, he said, "should we just send them to every american?" as you have reflected on the change in omicron here, have you reflected on your tone and that answer? >> secretary psaki: well, jeff, i will say there's not a day that goes by that i don't leave this podium and wish i would have said something with greater context or more precision, or additional information. that day there was a lot of good questioning on testing, and during that briefing i conveyed a lot of information about our expansion of testing about the 50 million tests that we were making available, but the 20,000 free testing sites. should i have included that additional context again and that answer? yes. going back, i wish i would have done that. to be clear, so people have accurate information about how it works out there -- which i know is your objective as well as mine -- we are making tests free and accessible without the rest of them going to waste in the homes of people who do not want them. so people will go to a website, which we will again put out there in january when the information is available, and they will be able to request three tests. that is something that is a reflection of the president's commitment to continue re-examining and improving our covid response, including as it relates to testing. go ahead. >> reporter: another on testing, because why not? there's more to ask here and i don't think we've had answers yet. is there any sense of whether you will be able to guarantee that, from the moment ordered online, how long one will have to wait to receive them? are you going to be relying on fedex, ups, amazon, the postal service to help distribute these? >> secretary psaki: again, really good questions, and be of course want people to be able to rapidly receive the tests. people have certainty to know they can get a test, that they can feel safe going to their workplace, seeing their family members, sending their kids to school. that is the objective. the details of how it will be distributed in the mechanisms will be coming soon. >> reporter: is there any answer about a possible supplemental? i realized there is an over dominant governors are flexed with cash, but is there anything -- [inaudible] >> secretary psaki: you know from covering congress that there's always an open line of communication with members and leadership about what may be needed, and we are always having that conversation. right now, we want to have the resources to get people vaccinated, to make those available, and part of what you'll hear the president conveyed today is how important it is for individuals to make the choice to take that step to protect themselves. >> reporter: we are nearing the end of the year, and in the spirit of the holidays, presidents will often announce pardons and/or commutations. should we anticipate anybody in 2021? >> secretary psaki: i don't have anything to preview at this time. i would rate a rate that the president has every intention of using his clemency power and there is reporting accurate about nonviolent drug offenders, but i don't have anything to update you on at this point in time. go ahead. >> thank you. these 500 million tests are not getting to people in time for the holidays, and i know you said you wish you had rephrased your december 6th answer, but it seems to discount come at the time -- which is only two weeks ago -- the idea of sending tests to americans at home. what made you guys shift gears? when did that happen, and is any sort of lack of urgency in doing that soon are costing us now? >> secretary psaki: i think it's important -- and i appreciate you asking the question, for people at home to understand, this has all been a building process. that includes the approval of tests. there are now eight available as of november. that's important because we needed enough tests to be able to tap into and get the supply. it includes quadrupling -- not including the president's speech today, quadrupling the testing capacity over the course of the last couple months. it includes the 50 million tests that we made available to rural community health centers and community health centers, all components i talked about exactly on that day in the briefing. if anything, it's a lesson to me to always include the context and make sure to use every opportunity of questions you all ask to do exactly that. today with the president is announcing -- and this is again to jeff's question anti-ours as well, to be clear, we are not sending a test to every single home in the country. we are providing another opportunity and ability for people to go on a website and request a test of their preference, to get the test to their home. not everybody will do that, but we need people who want to do that, who want to get tested and request tests that way, to have that ability. >> reporter: there is a new push for testing, and it's a big component of the strategy this winter, but is there any concern that there hasn't been enough focus also on therapeutics, given that you have vaccines in other parts of the world that don't offer any protection against omicron? we are lucky in the u.s. that pfizer and moderna do. but this is a virus spreading in all parts of the world. in just three weeks if the predominant strain. >> secretary psaki: you're absolutely right, jacqui. the virus does not see borders. and obviously fighting the virus and getting it under control is going to require getting it under control globally. part of what our objective is, the effort from the u.s. government is to continue to be the global supplier of vaccine doses, and also a range of materials needed to produce vaccines, to treat people who are sick. that is certainly a part of our objective. >> reporter: will there be a greater push to produce therapeutics? something like a pill that is supposed to come out, and get that out with as much urgency as we had for the vaccine? >> secretary psaki: we will of course be focused on that, but i think it's important for people to know the best way to protect yourself is to get vaccinated and get boosted, and that is the most effective step that any person living in the united states or around the world can take. that is what our priority is on. >> reporter: real quick, one last question. he had said back in -- i think it was june, that we would hear pet news on a day that is a tough newsday. it >> secretary psaki: it was a lame joke! [laughter] speak a bit weird about major being re-homed, a new puppy, and a white house this is the way dominic was begun for the white house connect [laughter] >> secretary psaki: believe it or not, jacqui, i don't have time in my schedule to coordinate with the pet folks. but the pet was a present from the president's brother. i met the pet this morning, commander. we can call him by his name. he is very adorable. he's going to bring joy to the president and the first family and to all of us, probably, as well. and i think it was noted by the first lady's team, we can expect to meet the cat, a she, as i've learned, in january. go ahead. >> reporter: here in the district -- and we are seeing similar numbers -- >> mike: a sampling of the question in today's white house briefing. jacqui heinrich, our colleague, asking questions there. a lot of questions about the updated strategy with covid-19. why more testing was not available by now and won't be available in large measure until after the new year, after people would like to spend time with their loved ones. we expect president biden to make his formal announcement in the minutes ahead. gillian can expiate quite a pivot from the throes of the global pandemic for the president's plans for new pets. kind of interesting to see the briefing take that turn this afternoon, mike. [laughs] to a fox news alert now, senate democrats are set to hold a virtual emergency meeting tonight as the spending agenda is left on life support. it comes as democrats are valuing to playing hardball is senator manchin after he posed a spending bill. it's unclear if he will attend. let's bring in "wall street journal" editorial board member and fox news contributor bill mccarron. bill, there's a bit of a catch-22 for democrats here, right? if they go forward trying to do something with build back better next year, they face the prospect of a very public death knell. if they don't push it forward, it is essentially an admission that one senator from the president's own party has derailed his entire domestic agenda. >> yeah, look, they overreach clearly in this. joe biden came in with a narrow majority and thought he was going to be fdr, and he is looking like jimmy carter. however, i think that their calculation for something this big and massive, the entitlements, the changes in taxing, all the green wish list that was in there, i think they were right that if they were ever going to get that through, they had to rush it through before people looked too closely at it. that's what you didn't, in the senate, go through committees or any of the other things joe manchin wanted. i'm not sure a piecemeal approach, one, would get the progressive approval when their appetite was for something much bigger. and two, i'm not sure it's going to be supported by other democrats, so i don't really see it going anywhere. look, the main point is, they might be beating up on joe manchin, but joe manchin has all the cards. he is the 50th vote in a tie senate. if they alienate him, a lot of stuff they want to do won't get done. >> gillian: sale, on the manchin front, it does seem like things took a turn towards the personal very quickly. >> [laughs] >> gillian: he said -- i want to get his quote. he said that "build back better was mcdaris mischaracterized bythe white hoy thought they could beat him into submission. does it shock you, bill, to hear that politicians in washington by threatening violence upon one another? >> [laughs] it doesn't shock me. remember, joe biden campaigned against his democratic rivals to the presidential nomination on the grounds that he had the most experience in washington. and that is 36 years in the senate, that meant that he could get things done. that seems to have been thrown overboard as he let bernie sanders and aoc drive the agenda. they are just alienating people, and i am surprised they have made it this personal, especially -- we are only two year one of the biden presidency. if he alienates joe manchin now and they lose control of the senate come next november, things are going to look very different. >> gillian: what about on the flip side? what is manchin's teacher in the democratic party looking like? less than a year income he's already not in the president's d graces anymore. does that make them any less effective in terms of his own constituents? >> no, he is in the seat, he's in the 50th vote. they can huff and puff all they want but they can't blow him down. he is also representing west virginia fairly ably. he is twice as popular as joe biden in a recent pullback in west virginia, and build back better is rejected by three quarters of west virginians. again, it makes very little sense. i don't see joe manchin coming a republican. i think he feels this is a democrat -- possibly an independent, but i think he says, "this is who i am, who my father was, who my father was, why should i change when they have changed the label?" so maybe an independent if they do drive him out. which, again, it would be a huge second mistake for the democrats. >> gillian: interesting. bill mccarron, "wall street journal," " thank you. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> mike: "the new york times" getting called out going out of its way to -- the times claim she's gone out of her way throughout the pandemic to keep kids in the classroom. charlie hurt has a few thoughts on that. he is here next to a in. ♪ ♪ ♪♪ fresh flavors... classic dishes... ♪♪ and a new seat at the table. ♪♪ veteran homeowners- you deserve more. more cash, more savings, and more financial and a new seat at the table. peace of mind. newday can help you get it with the newday 100 va cash out loan. it lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value: up to $60,000 or more. and veterans are saving an average of $615 every month. with more ways to help more veteran families, no bank, no lender, no one knows veterans like newday usa. (kate) this holiday, verizon has the deal that gets better and better and better. get iphone 13 pro, on us, when you trade in your old or damaged phone. (kate) better? (guy) better. (kate) hey. (kate) and up to $1,000 when you switch. (carolers) ♪better♪ (kate) because everyone deserves better. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hey, tam-tam! i was thinking maybe... your mom's car? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ merry christmas, dad. with age comes more... get more with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .05% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkles results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin. ♪ ♪ >> gillian: fox news alert, president biden will address the nation in moments. he's planning to lay out his new agenda to fight the winter covid surge. we expect the president to make a major announcement as well about testing. we are going to take to their lives as soon as the president starts. >> mike: "the new york times" taking heat for changing a headline not once but twice on a calm that portrays randi weingarten a champion of school openings. the original headlines, "can this woman save american public education cannot" then it will become, "what will it take to get schools back to normal?" was finally settling on, "we desperately need schools to get back to normal." but they basically ran a defense for a person who repeatedly moved to the goalposts "those who fault weingarten for close schools misunderstand the roles she's played over the last 20 months. rather than championing shutdowns, she spent most of her energy both in public and behind the scenes trying to get schools open." let's bring in charlie hurt, fox news contributor and "washington times" opinion editor. you are a newspaperman, explained to me the gushing coverage. >> [laughs] >> yeah, it's pretty incredible, even by "new york times" standards. this is a remarkable deaf. i don't remember thinking any farther than last month as to the question, can randi weingarten save public education? you asked voters in the reliably democratic state of virginia and they will give the answer. the answer is no. they are done with the shutdowns, they are done with these democratic policies of putting the interests of unionized teachers ahead of students. they want to get kids back to school. >> mike: is a father of two, it felt to me that the teachers union leadership is dragging its feet trying to avoid going back into the classroom, basically saying there was not enough money for ppe, and it seemed like constantly moving the goalposts. your assessment? >> yeah, no, i think that's a great point, and certainly what a lot of people, a lot of parents, were feeling. and going back to -- >> mike: okay, charlie, sorry we have to wrap for breaking news. he is the president. >> president biden: i promised when i got elected i would give it to you straight from the shoulder. the good come of the bad, the truth. as we head into christmas weekend, i want to answer questions about the rising number of covid cases, covid-19 cases. i want to start by acknowledging how tired, worried, and frustrated i know you are. i know how you are feeling. for many of you, this could be the first or even the second christmas. we are looking across the table, there will be an empty kitchen chair there. tens of millions have gotten sick. we have all experienced this in our lives. while covid has been a tough adversary, we have shown that we are tougher. tougher because we have the power of science and vaccines that prevent illness and save lives, and tougher because of our resolve. let me answer some questions and lay out the steps the vice president and i are taking to prepare for the rising number of cases experts tell us we can expect in the weeks ahead. first, how concerned should you be about omicron, which is now the dominant variant in this country that happened so quickly? the answer is straightforward. if you are not fully vaccinated, you have good reason to be concerned. you are at a high risk of getting sick. if you get sick, you are likely to spread it to others, including friends and family. and the unvaccinated have a significantly higher risk of ending up in the hospital or even dying. almost everyone who has died from covid-19 in the past many months has been unvaccinated. unvaccinated. if you are among the majority of americans who are fully vaccinated, and especially if you've gotten the booster shot, that third shot, you have much less reason to worry. you have a high degree of protection against severe illness. because omicron spreads so easily, we will see some fully vaccinated people get covid, potentially in large numbers. they will be positive cases in every office, even here in the white house among the vaccinated from omicron. but these cases are highly unlikely to leave you with serious illness. vaccinated people who get covid may get ill, but they are protected from severe illness and death. that's why you should still remain vigilant. according to our doctors, even if you are fully vaccinated, you should wear a mask when indoors in public settings. wearing a mask provides extra protection for you and those around you. i know some americans are wondering if you can safely celebrate the holidays with your family and friends. the answer is yes, you can. if you and those you celebrate with our vaccinated, particularly if you have gotten your booster shot. if you are vaccinated, and follow the precautions that we all know well, you should feel comfortable celebrating christmas and the holidays as you planned it. you know you've done the right thing. you can enjoy the holiday season. thanks to the progress on vaccinations this fall, we have gone from nearly 90 million adults in july who had not even started their vaccination process to fewer than 40 million today. still too many, but down from 90 to 40. all these people who have not been vaccinated, you have an obligation to yourselves, to your family. quite frankly, i know i'm going to get criticized for this, to your country. get vaccinated right now. it is free, it is convenient. i promise you, it saves lives. and i honest to god believe it is your patriotic duty. another question folks are asking is, what can you do to make yourself and your family feel safer and be safer? the answer is simple. get your booster shot. where a wear a mask.unfortunately stillf millions of people who are eligible for the booster shot who have not yet gotten it. they've gotten the first two shots, but not the booster. folks, the booster shots are free and widely available. over 60 million americans, including 62% of eligible seniors, are most will only build group are most vulnerable group, have gotten the booster shots. i got my booster shot as soon as they were available. foreign president trump and asked announced that he got his booster shot, one of the few things he and i agreed on. people with mr. schatz booster shots are highly effective. join us. if it's been six months or more since her second shot, you can get yours today. if it's been six months or more since your second shot. another question folks are asking, are we going back to march 2020? not this last march 2021, but march 2020, when the pandemic first hit? that's what i keep getting asked. the answer is absolutely no. no. there are three big differences between then and now. number one, the first one, more than 200 million americans have been fully vaccinated. in march, 2020, no one was fully vaccinated. what that means is today a case of covid-19 for a fully vaccinated and boosted person will most likely mean no symptoms, or mild ones similar to common respiratory viruses. over 200 million americans share the peace of mind they did not have in march of 2020. they are protected from hospitalization and protected from death. the second point, we've prepared today for what's coming. in march of 2020, we were not ready. today we have stockpiled enough gowns, masks, and ventilators to deal with the surge of hospitalizations among the unvaccinated. today we are ready. as i will explain in a few minutes, we are going to be reinforcing our hospitals, helping them. number three, we know a lot more today than we did back in march of 2020. for example, last year we thought the only way to keep children safe was to close our schools. today we know more and we have more resources to keep those schools open. you can get 5 to 11-year-old vaccinated. we didn't have that until last month. today we don't have to shut down schools because of a case of covid-19. now if a student test positive, other students can take a test and stay in the classroom if they are not infected, rather than closing the whole school or having to quarantine. we can keep our k-12 schools open. that's exactly what we should be doing. so, folks, let me summarize. we should all be concerned about omicron, but not panicked. if you are fully vaccinated, and especially if you've got your booster shot, you are highly protected. if you are unvaccinated, you are at a higher risk of coming severely ill from covid-19, getting hospitalized, and even dying. the best thing to do is get fully vaccinated and get your booster shot. and, no, this is not march of 2020. 200 million people are fully vaccinated. we are prepared. we know more. we just have to stay focused. that's where we stand. now, let me tell you about the additional steps i am ordering today to take on what is coming. i know you've heard a lot of this in the news already this morning. three weeks ago i laid out a covid-19 action plan for this winter. the preparedness for this moment. today we are making the plan even stronger. first, we are setting up our vaccination and booster efforts. we are stepping it up significantly. in the past two weeks we have seen the highest vaccination rates since last spring, and we aren't as vaccinated a country as we should be, though. that's why we have added 10,000 new vaccination sites on top of the 80,000 sites that already were in place. and even more will open january. there are some parts of this country where people are very eager to get their booster boos, where it's harder to get an appointment. [coughing] excuse me. starting this week i will deploy hundreds more sites to get this in people's arms. i had ordered fema, the federal emergency management agency, to stand up new pop-up vaccination clinics all across the country, where you can get that booster shot. we'll -- [coughing] excuse me. we will open up sites in washington state and new mexico. as recently as cases have increased. today i am directing fema to stand up new sites in areas where there is high demand. these steps are going to help us add more and more booster appointments, just over the next few weeks. i also want to say a word to parents. if your children are not vaccinated, please get them vaccinated. if you are a parent, and understandably you have waited to see how the first shots went with other kids before getting your own kid vaccinated, you can stop waiting. 6 million children in our country ages 5-11 are vaccinated. get your children protected today, now. for those parents out there who have a child that is too young to be vaccinated, under the age of 5, i know this can still be a scary time. but one thing you can and must do, while we await vaccines for children under 5, get yourself fully vaccinated and boosted. as well as those around you. your children, your caregivers, your siblings. it is critical to mask up in public indoor places. we know that our youngest children have only really been impacted by serious covid-19 cases, but they can be further protected if they are surrounded by vaccinated people. again, for folks who are not vaccinated, you may think you're putting on the yourself at risk, but it's your choice. your choice is not just a choice about you. it affects other people. you are putting other people at risk. your loved ones, your friends, neighbors, strangers you run into. and your choice can be the difference between life or death. the longer the virus is around, the more likely variants form, and they may be deadlier than the ones that have come before. let me say again and again and again, please, get vaccinated. it is the only responsible thing to do. those who are not vaccinated are causing hospitals to overrun, to become overrun again. i just spoke to the governor of new york. every covid-19 hospital patient means someone with a heart attack, cancer, or other serious illness may not get that bad and life-saving care they need in a hospital. look, let me give it to you straight again -- omicron is serious, potentially deadly business for unvaccinated people. let me be clear. thanks to the prior administration and our scientific community, america was one of the first countries to get the vaccine. thanks to my administration and the hard work of americans, we led a roll-out and made america among the world leaders in getting shots in arms. but uptake slowed this summer, as taxing resistance among some hardened. look, the unvaccinated are responsible for their own choices, but those choices have been fueled by dangerous misinformation on cable tv and social media. you know, these companies and personalities are making money by peddling lies and allowing this information that can kill their own customers and their own supporters. it's wrong. it's in moral. i call these purveyors of lies and miss information to stop it. stop it now. one of the other things we know has to be done is more testing. as omicron spreads easily, especially among the unvaccinated, it is critically important we know who is infected. that means we need more testing, and on that score we are now where we should be. yes, we have over 20,000 free testing sites. yes, we have used the defense production act and spent $3 billion to greatly expand the number of at-home tests available for purchase online, and at your local pharmacy. and yes, we made sure insurance covers the pcr test you get in the hospital or at your doctor visits. but starting next month, private insurance will also cover at-home testing, so you can order a test online and get reimbursed. we are providing access to free at-home test for people who may not have insurance, as well. but it's not enough. we have to do more, we have to do better, and we will. starting this week, the federal government will set up emergency testing sites in areas that need additional testing capacity. before christmas, the first several of these federal testing sites will be up and running in new york city, with many more to come. this free testing is going to help reduce the waiting lines, the time you have to stand there, and sometimes it's an hour or more. we are going to continue to add federal testing sites where needed, so that if you want an immediate test, they will be a place you can go get it. we also need to do better with at-home testing. so i am announcing today that the federal government will purchase one half billion -- that's not million, billion with a b -- additional at-home rapid test with delivery starting in january. we will begin testing americans for free, and we will have websites where you can get them delivered to your home. we have arranged for it to be easier for you to find free covid testing sites near you on google. just enter "covid test near me," into the google search bar, and you can find a number of different locations nearby where you can get tested. we are continuing to use the defense production act, as we did earlier this month, to make sure we are producing as many tests as quickly as possible. bottom line, this is a lot better than it was. we are taking even more steps to make it easy to get tested and get tested for free. next, we are preparing hospitals for what's coming. those 40 unvaccinated adults have a good chance of getting covid-19, and some of you will get very sick. that'll mean hospitals are going to get extremely stressed, extremely stretched again, both in terms of equipment, as well as personnel to care for those who get sick. that is why my administration has stockpiled and prepositioned millions of gallons, gloves, masks, and ventilators. it's called the ppp. we are ready to send them to any state that needs more. additionally i have directed the pentagon to mobilize an additional 1,000 troops to be deployed to help staff local hospitals and expand capacity. that's 1,000 military doctors, nurses, and medics. i have already started moving medical teams. they've already landed in wisconsin and indiana this week. this is on top of 300 federal medical personnel now on the ground, having deployed since we learned about omicron. look, while we know staffing is the biggest need for hospitals, some may need more beds, as well. we are prepared. i have directed fema to activate the national response center and begin deploying teams now to provide additional hospital beds. we will begin to construct emergency capacities near hospitals, in parking garages and nearby buildings, to be ready if needed. and the federal government is paying for all of this, period. all of it. further, fema will deploy hundreds of ambulances and ems crews so if one hospital fills up, we can transport patients to hospitals elsewhere. this week we'll see dozens of ambulances to new york and maine because covid is spreading rapidly to help transport patients. our doctors and nurses and hospital staff have gone above and beyond. the strain and the stress is real. i mean it, it's real. we'll have their backs though. we have to let them know we have their backs. finally, we're making sure that covid-19 no longer closes business or schools. last week, the federal court upheld our vaccination or test rule. employers with 100 or more employees have to protect their workers with the requireme