asking the supreme court to immediately step in to decide whether former president trump has immunity from prosecution, relating to his actions seeking to overturn the 2020 election. >> sandra: remains to be seen whether the highest bench will choose to take the case, but the move appears to be an attempt by smith to keep the march trial back on track and block the former president from delaying the trial in the federal appeals court. >> john: let's go to david spunt, breaking details for us. david. >> david: sandra, you are right. jack smith, special counsel, does not want to see any delays in this case. he wants this trial to begin and finish before the election. right now he's asking the nine justices, remember, a body that tries to stay away from politics, he's asking them to essentially enter the nerve center of the 2024 presidential election making an emergency appeal to the high court asking the justices to rule that donald trump is not immune from prosecution. he petitioned the court in the last hour asking for a quick decision. federal judge overseeing the case ruled donald trump is not immune from prosecution, said he does not get out of jail free pass because he was president. trump's attorney says he is immune from prosecution because shortly before on january 6th and shortly after he was president of the united states and is protected by presidential immunity, at least during that time. asked an appeals court to review that issue. what jack smith has just done, sandra and john, gone above the heads of the appeals court and asking the supreme court directly to get involved. read from part of this document, he says yet the respondent has asserted the constitution affords him absolute immunity from prosecution. the constitution text, structure and history lend no support to that novel claim. as of now as you mentioned, the trial is scheduled to begin march 4th, jury selection, one day before super tuesday and smith wants the answer fast so the trial can start and finish before next november. there is no oral argument scheduled in this matter but i suspect we will be hearing something from the court coming up fairly soon because he asked -- he has asked for this to be decided and heard and decided on an expedited basis. john, sandra. >> john: busy primary season in so many different ways. david, thank you. >> we have gone from having the demand for safe spaces and the misuse of your pronoun political violence, to now it's totally ok to have a call for genocide on campuses. >> jewish students are terrified on the campus. barricaded into rooms. >> the universities are cesspools for left wing political activism. >> important to recognize antisemitism is happening and growing on college campuses. >> john: lawmakers from both sides of the aisle calling out the rampant antisemitism on america's college campuses. president biden is staying silent about it, even after u-penn president magill was forced out after a fire storm last week. >> sandra: sandra smith in new york. "america reports," all eyes are on the presidents of harvard and mit after they failed to commit calls for the genocide of jews of the hearing on antisemitism. >> john: behind closed doors to decide the fate of claudine gay. >> sandra: and whether americans are waking up to the crisis on college campuses. let's get first to bryan llenas, is harvard's faculty standing by president gay? >> it appears they are, sandra. nearly half of harvard's faculty, 700 members have signed on to a letter obtained by fox news urging the harvard corporation to not fire its president, claudine gay, for failing to unequivocally say the genocide of jews violates the code of conduct. reads we the under signed faculty urge you to defend the independence of the university and resist odds, including calls for the removal of claudine gay. they are meeting a second day. trucks with video billboards were seen on campus calling for the firing of gay. the only rabbi on the antisemitism task force resigned over gay's testimony and the antisemitism protests allowed on campus under her leadership. >> i would quote that harvard professor herself, danielle allen, said there's a difference between free speech and climate of intimidation and this has created intimidation when students cannot study, they are afraid, they don't want to go to their classroom, that's not any more a question of free speech, not at a university. >> bryan: bill ackman said in a letter on x knowing what we know now, would harvard consider claudine gay for the position, the answer is definitively no, the board's decision on president gay could not be more straightforward. liz magill resigned on yesterday, she will remain a tenured professor and mit board says their president has full and unreserved support. we'll see. >> sandra: a huge story, thank you. john. >> john: let's bring in byron york, chief political respondent and fox news contributor. more than 500 faculty are trying to save claudine gay, it's a very short letter, short, sweet, succinct, we the under signed faculty urge you in the strongest possible terms to defend the independence of the university and resist political pressures at adds of academic freedom, including the removal of claudine gay. it cannot proceed if it's dictated by outside forces. you think she survives or not? >> she may do that. i think we are at a time this has become intensely politicized. this happened at a congressional hearing and the person who questioned the presidents was representative elise stefanik, republican representative, very associated with president trump, and to the degree, the degree to which this becomes a political question that is if which firing the president of harvard or mit you are doing what republicans want, i think heavily democratic campuses would be in favor of keeping those officials. >> john: that perspective is reflected in what a well-known law professor at harvard said both in response to the testimony and then in regard to the potential firing, he wrote in regard to the testimony, that it was hesitant, formulative, and pervasive. but in an email to the "new york times" said having publicly voiced disapproval of and how gay handled stefanik's questions, i wanted to distance myself to the unwise and dangerous calls for her resignation. but you've already got the u-penn president forced to resign. why not gay as well? >> well, the university of pennsylvania president, her -- the video she made apologizing looked like a hostage video, looked like she was very, very stricken by what had happened and clearly president gay seems to be in a different position. she has apologized for the way she handled the question, but clearly she has a lot of support here. and it has become, this whole thing has become entangled not just antisemitism and free speech but the thing that undermined the presidents, they cited the need for free speech protections for people calling for intifada against israel, while the same time restrict free speech protections for somebody who wants to come on campus and, for example, say there are two sexes and only two sexes. you don't get free speech protection if you say that. you might be making people uncomfortable. so, that was the thing that actually just killed them that they were hypocritical about this, and speech that could be called anti-semitic, they protected that but anti-woke, they wanted to suppress it. >> john: claudine gay may have another problem, some say she plaguerized her ph.d. thesis. and i asked a senior member to look at the below allegations against president gay. the faculty member found them to be credible. ackman is no slouch, he's a big player, a big donor to harvard, got a big voice. >> he appears to be very, very dedicated to getting rid of claudine gay. i think there will be questions about the alleged plaguerism stuff, she was citing a person's work and mentioned, he said this, and then she lifted from what he said without putting quotes, although she attributed to him. i don't know if it's an open and shut case. >> john: we'll see. thank you for kicking this off. sandra. l>> sandra: we are waiting possible legal action from hunter biden's defense team after he was indicted on criminal charges in california. accused of dodging more than a million dollars in federal taxes. jonathan hunt is on this live in los angeles. when is he going to show up at court, jonathan, what are we hearing about this right now? >> sort answer, sandra, don't know when he's going to show up at the federal court in los angeles for that appearance, initial appearance to face the nine tax-related charges, including three felonies. following that indictment in which he was accused of paying for strippers, drugs, luxury hotels, and cars, with money that should have been going to the irs. now, special counsel david weiss painted a vivid picture of hunter biden's lifestyle, including from 2016 to 2019 withdrawing $1.6 million in cash from various banks. spending $683,000 on "payments" various women, and 188,000 on adult entertainment. hunter biden is also facing federal charges over a gun purchase in 2018, charges his legal team is trying to get dismissed in delaware today and he's being pressured by republicans in congress to show up this week for a deposition related to a potential house impeachment action against his father, president biden. so it's a busy week for hunter biden's legal team if they do indeed also head here for a court appearance. and of course, the attorneys argue with regard to the tax case, that hunter biden ultimately did pay all his taxes, that he's just like many of us, millions of americans who habitually pay late. >> a lot of americans have to file their taxes and when they are late or mistake or something to be done, the irs and the government does is they ask questions, they ask for back-up, they bring civil actions. what they don't do is take a two-count misdemeanor in june and turn it into a nine-count, 56-page indictment in december. >> abbe lowell also argues if his client's last name was not biden, the charges would not have been brought. >> sandra: john. >> john: awaiting the state department press briefing as israel's offensive on the gaza strip rages on. life coverage as soon as it kicks off. >> sandra: we will indeed. dozens of iranian proxy attacks on bases in the middle east. and firing drones on ships in the red sea. don't go anywhere. >> you don't have to be following foreign policy and national security closely to come to the conclusion that we aren't doing nearly enough here. it is absolutely insufficient. and things to do. that's why you choose glucerna to help manage blood sugar response. uniquely designed with carbsteady. glucerna. bring on the day! feeling ughh from a backed up gut? miralax works naturally with the water in your body to help you go... ...free your gut. and your mood will follow. for 8 grams of fiber, try new mirafiber gummies. there's challenges, and i love overcoming challenges. ♪ when better money habits® content first started coming out, it expanded what i could do for special olympics athletes with developmental needs. thousands of bank of america employees like scott spend countless hours volunteering to teach people how to reach their financial goals. it felt good. it felt like i could take on the whole world. >> sandra: capitol hill police say 49 pro-palestinian protestors were arrested this morning for their demonstration with two being charged with resisting arrest. the incident taking place in the hart senate office building earlier where it is illegal to hold a protest. john. >> john: not to mention scaling the piece of art. any minute now the state department will hold a briefing on the israel-hamas war. live coverage of that as soon as it kicks off. israel's military launched hundreds of strikes on hamas targets in gaza as prime minister benjamin netanyahu says it's the beginning of the end for the terrorist group. we have team coverage for you. mike pompeo will join us to break down recent attacks on u.s. forces by iranian proxies. but first, trey yingst is live in southern israel. what are you seeing in terms of israeli ground offensive there now? >> john, good afternoon. i want to start with breaking news, fox news has learned israel's chief of staff and the head of the shinbet security agency visited gaza strip, they were in gaza's second largest city of khan younis, alongside israeli forces getting a firsthand look at the operations inside gaza. it comes as the idf pushes deeper into the stripped. focused on the jabalia neighborhood in the northern part of gaza, the defense minister said they are close to completely dismantling the top hamas brigade there. close quarters combat. infantry brigade, 931 batallion. they say hamas fighters had prepared for an ambush but were thwarted. 140 israeli soldiers have been killed, and israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has this warning for hamas. >> in recent days dozens of hamas terrorists have been surrendering to our forces. they are laying down their weapons and handing themselves over to our heroic fighters. it will take more time. the war is in full swing but this is the beginning of the end of hamas. i say to hamas terrorists, it is over. don't die for sinwar. surrender now. >> he's talking about yahya sinwar the head of hamas inside gaza, and the southern front, a lot of activity on the border with lebanon, the chief of staff who today was in gaza, was visiting with troops in the north getting a look at the situation there. israeli media reports israel has issued a warning to hezbollah telling them to find a diplomatic solution to remove their forces from israel's northern border or face further military action. a lot of activity across both fronts. the international focus remains on gaza where there are still 137 people being held hostage. john. >> john: sinwar in hiding ever since october 7th, trey, thank you. >> sandra: american forces shot down two more drones fired by iran-backed houthi rebel, 87 attacks since the middle of october as the rebel group vows to attack any ships heading to or from israel in the red sea. what should the u.s. do about the growing threat? fox news contributor, mike pompeo, served as secretary of state under the trump administration. thank you for being here. what should be done right now to limit the number of attacks that happened after today? >> it's actually pretty straightforward. the first thing the administration needs to do, acknowledge, whether it's the houthi, lebanon, iran-funded and they want to discount it's being run by the ayatollah in tehran. even though there was a ceasefire in gaza, children, sisters of americans under threat, whether the soldiers in iraq or in syria, the iranians, not the proxies, but iranians were attacking them. you can't stop them by stopping drones from hitting the ships or thwarting artillery in syria. you have to have real costs on the iranian regime. we did it by crushing soleimani, maximizing the pressure we put on iran. our friends in the region are counting on us, not just the israelis, but the gulf arab states are counting on it, too. if the houthis and hezbollah are not eliminated, they will continue to build the ring of fire, iranian campaign. >> sandra: jack keane was on our air earlier, he suggested this should be our approach based on what's happening today. listen. >> we have to go on offense. and we have to escalate. we have to take the risk to escalate to gain some dominance, not just over the houthis, but over iran who is using all of their proxies in the region to do what? to weaken israel. >> sandra: do you agree with that, we need to escalate? >> that's what i was trying to say. you can't just shoot drones out of the air that are attacking you, rescue ships at sea that have been taken. you have to impose costs, go on offense. you have to demonstrate to them the cost of their continued agitation, threats they have on americans, not only in theater, but americans threatened in europe, and here in the homeland, if you allow the ayatollah to sit in tehran, or the leader of iran, think nothing will cost them they will continue at this and put american lives at risk, israeli lives at risk and lives of people throughout the middle east at greater risk as well. >> sandra: interesting. well, general keane in that same interview went on to suggest perhaps why the biden administration is not acting or reacting more forcefully. listen. >> this administration has got to finds the spine. they think if they do escalate and take this aggressive military action that it could lead to war with iran. but the 43 years of history in dealing with iran suggest that's not the case. >> sandra: if that is indeed the reason why this administration is not responding more forcefully, is that a legitimate concern? >> well, my experience for four years with respect to iran in particular, and more generally, weakness begets war. the more they see you on the back foot, the more fearful, greater risk of escalation and iranians have demonstrated in just over two months. killing 1200 israelis in a barbaric attack and then attack americans throughout the region. iranians escalate, we continue to defend and we need to make clear to the iranians we will impose costs. if you don't get back on offense, this will escalate. the administration has it exactly backwards. >> sandra: what the map looks like, 87 attacks and counting on u.s. bases in the region. this is what that looks like as of today, since october 17th. former secretary of state, mike pompeo, always appreciate your time, sir. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, sandra. bless you, have a good day. >> john: president biden closing out the day with another batch of poor approval ratings. can the campaign turn things around and who are the democrats calling in to help with their efforts? wait until you hear. we'll dig into that with the panel of kevin and matt next. >> president can have a kid that's not so good. that's not the issue. the issue is president joe biden was part of so many things hunter biden was doing. >> sandra: another headache for the president's re-election bid. how does the white house plan to navigate the political implications as hunter's legal problems grow. we will ask jonathan turley. he'll join us live next. out an f $70,000 to pay off your car loan pay off your credit cards and pay yourself cash. 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you may pay as little as $10 per prescription. >> sandra: just weeks away until the first primary contest that kicks off the race for the white house and brand-new cnn polling shows former president trump topping president biden in yet another head to head hypothetical match-up in two key swing states. and now panicked democrats are reportedly bringing in hillary clinton to boost his campaign. more on that with the panel, but first rich is live in washington. do we expect to see more of her, hillary clinton? >> we do, sandra. the former secretary of state is expected to pitch voters on a second biden term, forcefully defending the israeli policy. the former democratic presidential nominee is boosting biden with money. took in nearly a million dollars at her home at a fundraiser, "wall street journal" poll has biden following 47-43 to trump in the match-up ten months away. and cnn georgia polls who shows the voters who would not support biden or trump, the voter discontent has sped speculation about a third party run, especially from joe manchin. he has floated the idea and this weekend manchin joked at the gridiron club winter dinner, at 81 and 77, biden and trump are just too old, that they should pass the porch to a new generation. someone closer to 76, that's manchin's age. all this about a month ahead of the iowa caucuses. a new des moines register poll shows 51% of likely caucus goers would pick trump as the first choice, ron desantis 19%, nikki haley at 16. 49% in the poll say minds are made up, 46% could be persuaded to support another candidate. still, a commanding lead for the former president. >> sandra: very interesting. thank you. john. >> john: kevin walling, former biden campaign surrogate, and matt, former senior adviser to tim scott. thoughts on where we are on the election in a second, but this breaking news that jack smith, special counsel is going to the supreme court to immediately, by december 18th, get an opinion on whether donald trump is immune from prosecution in the january 6th case. >> seems unprecedented to be this tight of a timeline to compress it, in reality, aim for a conviction before the election, certainly before most of next year takes place. what i would caution democrats and anybody else from a political lens, if you want to make 2024 about january 6th, about 2020, you do so at your own peril. people are more concerned about 2024 and their pocket books than what happened in the past. >> john: he wants the march date for the trial, set to go ahead,. are you seeing this as a political move? >> i think jack smith is an incredibly skilled prosecutor, he sees where the case is headed to the march 4th trial start and the idea, he's going to anticipate that this is likely to be appealed to the supreme court, a core argument of the trump defense, immunity argument, he wants the supreme court to weigh in so it clears the air before the trial starts. >> john: does not want to go through the appeals process and the supreme court can decide whether to take up the case or leave it in the hands of the appeal court. and a new "wall street journal" poll, december 2023 in a match-up, president biden would lose to former president trump 47-43. now, we don't decide elections on a national basis, comes down to a handful of states. but matt, when you take a look at the numbers we were showing in georgia and michigan, looks like biden is not in an advantageous position. >> not at all, and it's a trend. a month and a half. >> john: we saw the nbc poll. >> and also hurts nikki haley and ron desantis, i was just in iowa not long ago. the most compelling argument to folks that like trump, i like him but worry if he can get elected again. these numbers say he can. that's the first step. the other step, you have joe biden out there trying to convince people that their lives and the economy is doing better than it is. these numbers also tell me that that's not working. you can't tell people things are better off if they don't feel it and believe it themselves. >> john: and pulling out hillary clinton to help out the president, did they forget what happened in 2016? >> this is going to be a turnout election, right. joe biden is a known figure, donald trump is a known figure. not a lot of persuadeable individuals out there, especially your point in those battleground districts. so, hillary clinton, kamala harris, individuals within my own party that are base engagement people that gin up the base, get people excited for the re-elect, will play a critical role next november. >> john: people are wondering what effect the hunter biden charges are going to have on the president, because call four number 4, remember what the president has said many times in the past about people paying their fair share of taxes. listen here. >> all i'm asking is pay your fair share. pay your fair share. the pay your fair share. >> we are doing it by making the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share. >> i'll make sure the wealthy pay their fair share. >> i think it's about paying your fair share for lord's sake. >> pay your fair share. >> john: he's saying pay your fair share, his son apparently did not, according to the charging documents. does he have a problem? >> he should have said it to hunter a few more times. i'm not sure as it stands people could base their vote on hunter biden, but it erodes his credibility and likeability. things like this erode that, and if you are him i would be worried. >> president biden to matt's point beats trump when it comes to trustworthyness. it's not about hunter biden, a private citizen who paid his taxes after the fact. >> i want to pay my taxes after the fact. >> john: wait a second, paid his taxes. >> he's paid in full. >> john: after a bit of a pause. doj -- >> many americans have done that in the history of this country. but he's a private citizen and he'll have his day in court. >> john: kevin, matt, thanks so much. sandra. >> sandra: fox news alert here, just want to alert in on jennifer griffin reporting out of the pentagon. two new attacks on u.s. bases today. that brings the total number to 90. two new attacks in iraq and syria, that brings the number to 90 now since october 17th. matt miller is taking questions at the state department during his briefing right now. he was just talking a moment ago about israeli, the israeli military trying to take out hamas leaders. let's dip in and get some of the news out of the state department. >> commit, recipients commission of or aggravate risk the recipient will commit genocide, crimes against humanity. geneva convention 1949, including attacks against civilian objects or civilians protected as such or international or human rights law. so just want to understand, given the flow of weapons, transfers to israel, is it the u.s. assessment that its weapons provided to israel are not being used in any of the situations that i've just read out loud and are described in this policy? >> i will say that our expectation of every country to whom we provide military assistance, weapons and other assistance, is that they use that assistance in full compliance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war and israel is no exception. >> right. but at the moment, you just told me your expectation, however there has been some results on the ground that we have seen. so, what is the u.s. assessment on the results it has seen on the ground. >> take it in a couple of ways. one, with respect to any specific, i get asked about a specific strike or use of arms, not able to offer assessment from the podium, i don't have all the information. with respect to the overall use of arms, we have not made any specific determination of the type that you, you know, laid out in the question, but we have said, we think there are more things that israel can do to minimize civilian harm. the secretary talked about some this weekend, we think there needs to be more predictability in the south for when humanitarian pauses can take place. there needs to be more predictability in terms of the corridors that humanitarian -- that civilians could use to get themselves out of harm's way and designated time periods when those are protected. there needs to be proper predictability so aid can come in. and with respect to the use of weapons we provide and don't provide but israel uses on its own, clear in all of our conversations, they need to comply at the highest levels of the government and continue to do so. >> just a couple more things, sorry, could you say that u.s. has a full understanding -- >> sandra: this briefing is ongoing at the state department. we are going to continue to monitor this briefing. any news from it, we will bring that to you. john. >> john: sandra, migrant crossing smashing daily records as border agents are outnumbered nearly 200-1 in the busiest sectors. national border patrol president brandon judd is here on the chaos from coast to coast. >> sandra: tens of thousands of federal workers are refusing to return to their offices in washington, d.c. so why is the government making taxpayers foot the bill for unused office space. details on one lawmakers' naughty or nice list to address the problem. urance and i saved hundreds. with the money i saved, i started a dog walking business. oh. 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(♪) >> sandra: migrants from more than 150 countries descending on the southern border happening in droves, as arizona has quickly become the epicenter of the latest surge. all happening as the biden administration says it's releasing approximately 5,000 migrants per day into the country with no end in sight. let's bring in brandon judd, national border patrol council president. what will that do to this country if we let this continue, brandon? >> we are just going to continue to see more and more people cross our borders illegally. that's the invitation that allows these cartels to go out and advertise their services. that's why so many people are coming. as long as we continue to reward people for violating our laws, they are going to continue to come. sandra, what's really frustrating to me, two years ago i told you and john we were releasing 70% of everybody we apprehended, releasing into the united states. that number has jumped up to about 85% that we are releasing into the united states. so, we are really not enforcing our laws upon anybody that crosses our borders illegally and if we continue to do that, people are going to continue to come. >> sandra: i don't know if you can see the pictures in front of you, but a live picture of lukeville, arizona, of what appears to be mostly adult men at the facility there, border patrol appears to be with them, they are being led in a line, i mean, these are massive amounts of people, i was talking to griff jenkins earlier, he was looking at one of the lines, this obviously is a processing that is happening right now. he's looking at the lines and shouted where you from, the answer was venezuela, honduras, multiple answers from people coming from many different places. you are looking at total illegal immigrants released, could top 1.8 million for the year if this current pace continues. there has been 30 border patrol arrests of people on the fbi terror watch list since 2024, the fiscal year began. this was october 1st. since october 1st, brandon. >> yeah, and what you are looking at right there of all those individuals being taken into custody, what is not being shown and what can't be shown because they don't want to be seen is we are not seeing the got-aways. when you look at what's happening right there, we are pulling our resources out of the field to deal with these individuals that are going to claim asylum. when we pull our resources out of the field, we don't have anybody to patrol. i can take anybody down to the border tomorrow and drive along the border and count the number of agents you encounter, very, very few, and it destabilizes our entire border, from san diego california to brownsville, texas. and so the cartels are very adept at what they are doing. they know what they need to do to get their higher value products across. all they have to do is flood our resources. once they do that, then the border is wide open and clear for them to traffic cocaine, methamphetamines, and criminal aliens or aliens from special interest countries. it's a very scary situation on the border today. >> sandra: we continue to look at the live images there and reminded in the tucson center, as arizona is now the epicenter of the migrant crossings and the actual surge that is taking place, it has seen hundreds of mostly male adult migrants queued up against the border fence. agents are outmanned we are told 200-1 in the field according to officials and you see it happening on the screen, lukeville, arizona. brandon, appreciate your time. always do, thank you. >> thank you, sandra. >> john: as we watch that situation, harvard and mit facing growing pressure to fire their presidents over their antisemitism testimony. meantime, some towns and festivals are saying no to public hanukkah displays. we'll have the latest on the controversy coming up. he travel. the thrill seeker. the soul searcher. and - ahoy! it's the explorer! each helping to protect their money with chase. woah, a lost card isn't keeping this thrill seeker down. lost her card, not the vibe. the soul searcher, is finding his identity, and helping to protect it. hey! oh yeah, the explorer! she's looking to dive deeper... all while chase looks out for her. because these friends have chase. alerts that help check. tools that help protect. one bank that puts you in control. chase. make more of what's yours. the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks. and it could wake at any time. think you're not at risk for shingles? it's time to wake up. because shingles could wake up in you. if you're over 50, talk to your doctor or pharmacist about shingles prevention.