Right now. Consists of three people. The governor, attorney general and secretary of state john merrill. Theyre beginning to certify the results from the special election earlier this month. What had happened is republican roy moore filed a lastminute complaint with the Alabama Circuit Court to intervene and delay the certification based on new allegations of voter fraud and calling for a new special election. But just moments ago, montgomery circuit judge Johnny Harwick denied the order. That means that doug jones by the end of this hour will likely be headed to washington where he will be sworn in by Vice President pence on january 3 next week. Secretary merrills office spoke with me several times today as i tried to understand why this was occurring. Just a quick primer in Alabama State law. You have 48 hours after certification to petition for a recount. There were no circumstances, so moore did this lastminute effort. However, secretary of state merrills office, jon, told me they have reviewed all allegations of voter fraud and found there were no instances of that. Now, Moores Campaign issued a Statement Today saying that alabama will suffer irreparable harm if Election Results are certified without preserving and investigating all the evidence of potential fraud. I can tell you in talking with merrills office, they see that as an affront to the election integrity, if you will, of alabama. They have prosecuted six people for these sorts of things. But we also have Jones Campaign weighing in. The spokesman, sam coleman, saying this is just a desperate attempt by roy moore to subvert the will of the people. It will not succeed. The election is over. Its time to move on. So there you have it all, jon. That meeting is going on. Takes about 30 minutes. They have the formality of the pledge of allegiance, invocation and the reading of the explanation of the certification for an election like this. Then those three members, the governor, the attorney general and the secretary of state, will sign those results. They will become official and there will be nothing left to do in alabama. It then comes to washington. This election means that republicans in the senate will only have one vote to spare in that slim margin, jon. Were watching live pictures from montgomery as the state Certification Board gets ready to certify the Election Results. One of the things that the Moore Campaign charged in their challenge to the certification was the turnout was higher than expected. Is that any great surprise . I mean national attention, International Attention was paid to this race. Thats right. Got a lot of attention. The allegations in the 80page complaint that i read this morning is there were a lot of alleged out of town people because the numbers were so large. But again, secretary of state merrills Office Finding no indication of that being true. The court, its interesting that they ruled just moments before this certification meeting began, jon, because there was no onus, no determination, that the court had to rule and certainly the secretary of States Office wasnt going to stop unless that court intervened. I talked to one political consultant, if you will, that said they felt that moores attempt was really more of allaying of the ground for perhaps future claims that jones was in some way not legitimately elected to somewhat muddle the process. But again, Moores Campaign not telling me anything to that effect. So theyre taking the pledge of allegiance as they get ready to certify the votes. Talking about the certification, griff. 20,000 votes. That is well beyond the margin that would have demanded an automatic recount, right . Thats right. To narrow that down, you would have had to in some way make the case that some of those the majority of the 20,000 were not legitimate voters. In the 80 pages i read, certainly did not meet that standard in any form. This meeting were watching, by the way, takes about merrills office tells me it takes 30 to 40 minutes tops. Essentially, its a formality again. Were watching it. Its not that anything will happen now in the next 30 minutes, half an hour or so. They would essentially just sign it. Its sort of like when the president signs a piece of legislation that has been voted by both sides of the senate and the house. Its just a signature but they add some formalities to it. Thats what you see going on right now. It looks like some signatures. So perhaps theyre moving things quicker to hurry up and get this out of the alabama hands and into the washington hands. Its my understanding under the alabama law, the Moore Campaign can petition for a recount within 48 hours of this certification based on everything they have done so far. We can certainly expect to see that, i would think. Griff jenkins, thank you. Later this hour, we will speak to alabama secretary of state john merrill to discuss the proceedings today certifying the election of doug jones to the United States senate. The irs issue as clarification as homeowners rush to prepare property taxes before the end of the year. Gerri willis reporting from the fox business network. What is going on here, gerri . Anybody know . This is a headscratcher. Were trying to figure it out. And many people going to the tax assessors office, particularly in the blue states with high taxes. One tax administrator has to say this. Listen. This started off as a slow drip and turned into a trickle and then a stream and now a river. We did not anticipate the numbers that have showed up tuesday and then today much less. But its im amazed. So the good news as you mentioned, the irs has put out a statement not completely clear but heres what they say. A prepayment of anticipated Real Property taxes that have not been assessed. Thats the important word there, prior to 2018, are not deductible in 2017. So thats the irs, jon, on what you can expect here. So who determines whether and when a property has been assessed . Thats a local government. Its about the locality. Whoever is sending you the bill, those are the folks that can say whether the tax bill has been assessed or not. You have to reach out to find out. Ill warn people here. Ive been talking to my accountant. Theyre warning against overpaying. If you overpay, you could tip yourself into the alternative minimum tax, which is higher taxes again. Bottom line, talk to your accountant, whoever does your taxes, talk to the local Government Authority to find out whether you can prepare and how you can prepay. Jon . Gerri willis, fox business network. Thank you. Art laffer was an economic adviser for president reagan. Any time the government gets into picking losers and winners, you get into things like, this art, people in the high tax states now rushing to get their taxes prepaid, state and local taxes, because they wont be deductible to the same extent. You cant make this stuff up, can you . Its amazing. And the irs is not being particularly clear about what is deductible and what isnt. They want their money. Theyre saying its not deductible. Is what theyre saying. They want their money badly. I want to keep mine, too. What can i say . Its a fight to the end. New yorks governor is trying to make it possible for people to prepare as many of their state taxes as possible. Partly opens up brings money into the state coffers but partly also a snub at President Trump. This just goes to show you by the way, state and local taxes should not be deducted at a federal level. They should be payable there and so this type of nonsense doesnt make any sense whatsoever for the good government. Its just a tax loop hole that youre trying to get around. Unfortunately, they have set it up this way. The tax codes are so complicated that theyre all sorts of these things going on, jon. Yeah, even cpas in the business of knowing the tax law, theyre scratching their heads trying to figure out what is deductible and what isnt. Have you ever talked to don rumsfeld on this . He writes an idea to the irs every year. I have no idea if this tax return is correct but heres what i think it might be. Its a clever letter he writes every year. Its so true. Look at this last tax bill. 1,000 pages. For what . Cutting the corporate rate from 35 to 21 . Go figure. No. If you read them, those 1,000 pages are full of nasty and nice things. All sorts of stuff in there. Youre in the business of well, predictions, i guess. You know, people like to make predictions. What do you predict as a result of this Tax Reform Act . Ill put my swami hat on. What i want to assure you, im far better predicting the path than the future. That having been said, i think this tax bill will have an amazing effect on the u. S. Economy. I expect to see a lot of strong growth and i think the growth will build up the next couple years. The one that is most important here is i really believe tax revenues will increase as a result of the Corporate Tax rate reduction in this bill, and i think this will lead to prosperity and better budget. So you dont buy the idea that were going to blow a 1. 5 trillion hole thats the silliest thing ive heard in my life. These guys that do that, they have no idea how accountants and corporate people work. When you cut tax rates, jon, they stop sheltering as much income. A lot less tax evasion. Companies will move back to the u. S. None of these have anything to do with economic growth, which theyre good at. This type of stuff, the behavior responses, i dont get. That is enough to way offset the Corporate Tax rate reduction. Effective tax rates will drop by a lot less than the statutory rates. A lot of the polls, you can decide whether or not you believe them, they suggest 30 of the American People were on board with the idea of this tax reform. Do you think that number will change when people start seeing their paychecks . Oh, sure. When they stop seeing the negative press on it. Theres not been a democrat that hasnt said its armageddon, the end of the world. Even the republicans were saying oh, this is a bad provision. All of that stuff makes voters upset. Frankly, so they have a negative view of this. But once the storm clears, once the dust settles, i think youll see people like the growth. Theyll like their tax bills being much smaller than they have been and theyll like the prosperity. Im excited about this. If you look at it from a political standpoint, id rather be on this side of the fence than the other side going into the 2018 election. Happy new year to you, art. Thank you, jon. Thank you. Pleasure. Trying to bring north korea in line. Tough talk from the secretary of state on kim jonguns nuclear efforts. And alabama secretary of state will join us after the meeting that is underway right now to certify doug jones, the winner the Alabama State senate race after a lastsecond legal challenge by roy moore is rejected. Jon a fox news alert. Alabama officials have certified doug jones as the winner for the special election for the u. S. Senate. This comes after a judge rejected a lastminute lawsuit from republican roy moore alleging election fraud. Jones will be the first democratic senator representing alabama since 1992. Well, President Trump is slamming china after u. S. Satellites spotted chinese ships transferring oil to north korea. The president tweeting, caught red handed, disappointed that china is allowing oil to go to north korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the north korean problem if this continues to happen. Retired u. S. Navy admiral robert natter is head of u. S. Fleet forces command. Admiral, are you surprised that the chinese were apparently saying that they would enforce the blockade but not doing so . Not really. I think they have done some positive things to restrict the flow of resources out of korea and the flow of money into north korea. This is a obviously not a positive step, but in large respect, russia and to a greater extent china have been working on tightening the restraints on north korea. Jon but president xi assured. Trump that he would crack down on the north. Is this something that president xi might not have been aware of . That somehow underlings in the Chinese Government were allowing this to happen . Its possible. Theres no way the United States of america can track all of our merchant ship activities 24 hours a day. We dont have a lock on what is going on in the international trade. I just dont know whether this was known to the Chinese Government leadership or not. The bottom line is, we have to continue working with china to tighten down on the constraints with north korea. Jon the secretary of state wrote an oped in the New York Times saying theres time for diplomacy still. He writes we hope this International Isolation will pressure the regime into serious negotiations on the abandonment of their nuclear and Ballistic Missile programs. A door to dialogue remains open, but weve made it clear the regime must earn its way back to the negotiating table until denuclearization occurs, the pressure will continue. This regime has thumbed its nose at every treaty, every obligation in the past. Is there really a chance for talks to get north korea to abandon its Nuclear Program . I think so, as long as we continue working with the chinese and the russians and to tighten down on them. Theres still room for hurtful sanctions on north korea. We had stronger sanctions against iran. Certainly negotiations in these sorts of sanctions are much better than armed conflict. Arent there indications that russia has actually been helping north korea with its Nuclear Program . Well, they certainly are. I would argue that some of those on the part of the russian government but a large part of them were on the part of unemployed scientists and engineers at the end of the cold war who were the elite of the Russian Society and as the cold war wound down, they were unemployed. Some is government, some independent actors. Thanks, admiral natter. We appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Jon frigid temperatures covering much of the United States. Rick reichmuth joins us to tell us how cold we will be as we head towards new years eve. Plus, a deadly terror attack rocked afghanistan as isis suicide bombers targeted a Cultural Center in kabul leaving 40 people dead. Take a look at this. Watch your foot watch your foot watch your foot, dude jon dramatic body cam footage of teens being rescued from a car. Did theyd get them out in time . Officers just like us, every Milwaukee Police district station, even across the country, they would to the same thing. Whoooo. Going somewhere . Heres some advice. Tripadvisor now searches more. Than 200 booking sites to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30 . Trust this birds words. Tripadvisor. For mom, jon theyre called the nick squad. The two Police Officers got to this scene just in the nick of time. The cops both named nick pulled two unconscious teens out of a burning car in milwaukee. It hit a utility pole. The temperature in the Single Digits at the time. The officers are being hailed as heros. One said theres no better feeling than to helping save someones life. Extreme weather alert on the bitter cold sweeping across much of the country with temperatures plunging to record lows and windchills, they make it feel even colder. Snow a problem. Check out this satellite image over the great lakes after parts of the area got pounded with almost six feet of snow. Chief meteorologist Rick Reichmuth joins us with more. Rick . That looked like ice on the picture there. Jon sure did. Thats good. When the lake freezes over, you dont get the lakeeffect snow. So all of your snow is frontloaded in the season in winter around the great lakes. Thats what were experiencing right now. The cold air is certainly in place here again across a lot of the north, meaning north into canada. A lot of it is coming down across the u. S. Warmer here in the southern half of the u. S. Right now that will change. The cold air will be back. We just have the surges of cold air that will continue to come down over the next number of days. Temperatures very cold. Minus 4 in minot. Minus 27 windchill, minus 9 in madison, wisconsin. In the south, we have the frontal boundary here bringing showers. We have a chance for snow across parts of the south. Another clipper system diving across the northern plains. That will mean more lakeeffect snow coming in by tomorrow, by saturday and sunday in pleases like erie that have seen 65 inches of snow. Temperatures remaining very cold. A High Temperature in fargo of minus 17 on saturday. Sunday, minus 10. Notice these areas here across parts of the deep south getting below freezing. Coldest temperature at midnight on new years eve was 1 degree. That was in 1917. 100 years ago was the coldest ever. 100 years later, the second coldest ever. Were about to welcome a million or so people to times square to watch the ball drop. It will be chilly. It will be dangerous. What happens with new years eve, people have to get there for security reasons and they have to stand in these pins for hours and hours. Pens, i should say. That is when youre standing in that cold, you need so many layers on and keep your body moving to keep the energy going. You have to have stuff to eat to keep the body going to stay warm. Were talking about potential for hypothermia, frostbite. A lot of Dangerous Things going on across times square. I wouldnt be out there anyway, but certainly this is one where i say stay away, if you can. Jon you have been warned. Yeah. Jon isis claims responsibility for bombings in afghanistan that killed 40 people. The Suicide Attack left dozens more injured. Many seriously burned. In what the afghan president called a crime against humanity. Greg palkot live in london. What do we know about this attack, greg . We know it was an extremely nasty event and isis was behind it. It happened as you noted as a shiite muslim Cultural Center in afghanistan, in its capitol of kabul. A suicide bomber walked into the center of a gathering there, leaving a scene of death and destruction. There were other explosions around the outside. The latest, 41 killed, 84 wounded. That included students, women and children. Shiite targets increasingly have been hit by the sunni extremist. Iran is also a target of isis. Isis in afghanistan start add couple years ago. As its received in other places of the world like iraq and syria, it is growing there. That and the taliban makes for a very dangerous mix for the u. S. And its allies there, jon. Jon so what has been the u. S. s response . We understand the white house, President Trump has been apprised of this event. We heard from the u. S. Embassy. They called the attack horrific. They pledge the continuing support of the United States. While the United States is there supposedly in a backup role, in a training role, the Trump Administration is in fact doubling down on afghanistan, raising its troop levels to Something Like 14,000. Special forces have been in involved in about 2,500 operations, many against isis. A lot of air strikes, this times as many this year as last. Again, isis the target. Isis, taliban for a dangerous mix. Its a 16year war, john. Back to you. Greg palkot live from london. Thank you. We talked about it a minute ago. Gearing up for new years eve and the big celebration in new yorks times square where it is going to be very, very cold. Were live with the party preparations. Plus, President Trump closing in on his first full year in office. So how did he do . Our panel will talk about trumps successes and failures up next. Jon with new years eve around the corner, preparations are underway for the times square celebrations in new york city. Security is a top concern as hundreds of thousands gather to watch the ball drop on what will be a bittery cold night. Bryan llenas is in times square. Bryan, new york city has seen a couple of terror attacks this year. What is the Police Department doing to get ready for this one . Hi, john. The nypd commissioner and the mayor, bill de blasio are speaking right now updating people on security. They expect to be one of the safest places in the world if not the safest place to enjoy new years eve. He said this year will have extraordinary security, more than in recent years. Take a listen to the commissioner. No direct Credible Threats to new york city, times square or our new years eve events generally. Youll see a Stronger Police presence than weve seen in recent years. That strong Police Presence is going to look like this. People are going to be able to start coming in here come mid afternoon. Theyll start closing down roads and adding concrete barriers. Theyll use the sand trucks to prevent vehicular attacks starting at 11 00 a. M. The commissioner says they can start seeing people in here seems like earlier and earlier every year. People out here for six, ten, 12 hours. Armed police will be in all the hotels surrounding new yorks times square given what happened in las vegas and the worst mass shooting october 1. There will be vapor wake dogs and 1 million plus people will be checked twice at a checkpoint coming in times square and when theyre put in their holding pens where they will be the remainder of the night. No bathrooms and no way to get inside. Thats how some people want to experience new years eve. In terms of preparation, we had good riddance day. People began ripping out their worst memories, writing them down on paper as preparations continue here for the big night on sunday. Jon . Jon rick, im sorry. Bryan llenas, stay warm. Looks tough. Thank you. Jon President Trump keeping a low profile today after yesterdays visit to a florida fire station. He maps out his 2018 agenda. Rich edson live in West Palm Beach florida. Rich . Good afternoon, jon. President just returned to maralargo. He spent the last couple days on the golf course. Soon the focus will be on 2018. The legislative agenda. The white house says the president will be meeting with paul ryan, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell at camp david the first week in january. The white house is expected to push a infrastructure proposal, a Campaign Promise for the 2016 election that the president would like to fulfill. Its unclear how much Congressional Republican support will be, in particular to spend hundreds of billions on infrastructure and how much local funding will be involved. On top of that, democrats say theyre willing to work with republicans in the white house on infrastructure. What is unclear there, how Many Democrats want to work with the president , which is a Midterm Election year. Congress still has routine business to take care of. The government is funded to the middle or latter part of january. So to keep the full government operating, congress has to address that and has to address other issues like the debt ceiling and the president on top of all of that has asked congress to fill a couple of other requirements like immigration and the dreamers. Those that were brought to the country illegally as children. The president is phasing out obama era protections for them and wants congress to deal with that, jon. Jon and he also wants to deal with healthcare . Thats right. Healthcare on top of that. The president has tweeted that he wants democrats and republicans to work on healthcare. There was a healthcare provision in the tax law that the president just signed. Eliminates the individual mandate in obamacare. Its that requirement that says nearly every american must have health insurance. Analysts say that will further destabilize the individual healthcare markets that were set up as part of obamacare. You have lawmakers working on that as part of a longer, bigger deal. Mitch mcconnell says that they will probably move on to other things. Jon thanks, rich. For more on all of this, Kevin Sheridan is a republican strategist and former spokesman for the romneyryan campaign and the rnc. Leslie marshall is a syndicated talk show host. Thanks for being with us. Kevin, to you first. After the failure to repeal obamacare by the republicancontrolled house and senate, a lot of people said they wouldnt get tax renorm done. It was too big a lift. They managed to do it. Does that give the president and the Republican Team momentum going into 2018 . Yeah. Historic tax reform. Gives them momentum. When you look back on 2017, the narrative the entire year was republicans cant shoot straight and they end up the year with historic tax reform, 3. 3 gdp that we havent seen in years and judges. So you have an actual legislative and, you know, executive accomplishment record here. If he goes into 2018, if they can get on the same page, if they can agree to tackle infrastructure or as paul ryan wants to do, entitlements, they have to keep pushing. You know, the 2018 elections are coming fast and not looking good in terms of the polling numbers. Theyll have to run on their record at this time. Jon what about democrats . Do they see any Common Ground with the president or will it continue to be mostly opposition . I think despite the fact that speaker mcconnell said that he wanted im sorry, Senate Majority leader mcconnell said he wants democrats to help Going Forward, you cant say you cant come to the first party but come to the second. Democrats were not included in the Decision Making with regard to tax reform and any of the legislation that the republicans have put forth. So the people Want Congress to Work Together to get things done. Thats what left and right. We vote these officials in the house and the senate to do that for us. I dont think thats going to happen, jon. As a democrat, that only helps Going Forward. The republicans are pushing forth their agenda. If you look at the polls, its not the peoples agenda and certainly doesnt benefit the people that put them over the top and put trump into the white house, which is the White Working Class voter. Theyre behind him but that will change especially if they look to tackle entitlements next. I want to read from the wall street journal. Ari fleischer wrote this. The tax cuts just enacted prove President Trump and the republicans can govern. Next up could be immigration reform. A major infrastructure package and perhaps welfare reform being tough and hitting opponents is part of the political gain. The lesson of the First Quarter is that avoiding penalties is just as important. Mr. Trump is capable of scoring more points. It wont happen if he doesnt show more mental discipline on the field. The title of that piece, too many flags in trumps First Quarter. Does that analogy, that football analo analogy, work for you, kevin . It does. Ari is spot on there. The opposition to donald trump has note been largely his agenda. His agenda is fairly mainstream. Conservative mostly agenda. The opposition to him is just a hatred for him that is not all his doing, but there are some simple things that he could do to make it better. That would be to go back to the play he ran at the end of the 2016 campaign where he stopped tweeting for three weeks. His poll numbers went from 40 to 41 to 45 . He got close enough to knock Hillary Clinton off in a very close race. So if he just goes back if he could just control the twitter im not saying dont tweet at all. Its an effective tool. If he could on the it down, not get in fights with cable hosts and celebrities, tone it down, the numbers would go up. Jon leslie, what would be your advice for the president . I would agree with that somewhat. You have to stop being so bombastic and start acting president ial. Right now, Violent Crime is up in the United States. Attacks on minority groups like muslims are up. We are at the brink of war with a mad man in north korea. The tweeting is irresponsible and could put americans at risk. If one of the things he needs to do that he said he was going to do, jon, and the facts show that, he hasnt united us. Thats something that is hard, left to right for any lead tore do but thats what he or any leader should do. He hasnt united his party. The Republican Party is in disarray in a sense. He has not united this nation. That is something that he would need to do doing forward. Sorry if i sound like a pest mist. I dont think he will succeeds. Jon its been less than a year. Thanks. A final decision coming down moments ago as alabama officially certifies doug jones as the winner of the special senate election. Well speak with the man in charge of certifying the election, doug jones just ahead. Plus, the effort to rebuild wine country after a series of wild fires devastate that part of california. Im Rick Leventhal on the fox news deck. Were getting a glimpse into the chaotic moments when the train came off the tracks. Well play the dramatic 911 calls for you. That and more coming up when i fill in on Shepard Smith reporting. Jon thousands of homes in the California Wine country destroyed after fires tore through napa and sonoma counties. Most of the wineries were not damaged. You might not know it based on the media coverage. Adam housley is live right now. How has it been out there since the fires . Yeah, jon. You dont want to discount the fact that 9,000 structures were lost and 42 lives. But tourism is so intertwined in the economy, you dont want to have a second tragedy. People want to keep their jobs. Take a look at to my left here, this is a winery that used to be here. It was here 35 years. Its a lot. Its been cleared. Progress is Going Forward here. Take a look at this compared to october 9 when one of seven fires roared through destroying 9,000 structures. Costs in the billions. The coverage has a lot of people staying away from wine country when theres more than 600 wineries with no problems at all. Take a look at how important it is for people to come back. Most people are very surprised. Theyre expecting to see charred areas, burned areas. Theres few and far between. We know were going to rebuild and we know it will be a nice building again. Yeah, jon. Normally the tasting rooms are packed. Now might be best time to come. Jon thanks, adam. Sounds like good advice. The results are in, and doug jones will be sworn in to the senate next week. Up next, well talk with the man in charge of certifying alabamas Election Results. You always pay your insurance on time. Tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. The certification was completed at 1 10 p. M. This afternoon. Im alabama officials today certifying doug jones as the winner of this months special senate election. This comes after a judge rejected a challenge by republican roy moore claiming election fraud. Joining us now, the man in charge of certifying the Election Results, alabama secretary of state, john merrill. Secretary state merrill, thank you. Thanks for having me as your guest. Jon does this mean its over . Are there any other challenges or possibilities that roy moore could win this seat . Theres certainly things that judge moore could do to advance a challenge. He could ask for a recounts, which would require him to complete paperwork within a timed period. He also would have to put up a bond to indicate they had the money to put up that challenge. Theres obviously other Court Challenges that he could file if he chose to. I dont know what judge moore and his team would do in this particular instance, but i do know that we have followed Alabama State law and performed the certification as required by the code and the constitution of alabama to certify doug jones as the winner. Judge moores side has said there was massive voter fraud evident. Did you find any evidence of that . Look, jon, people are entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts. By the time i got here today, we had 118 instances of irregularities that had occurred in this election. We have adjudicated 85 of those, which means that 33 are still outstanding. Two complaints have come from outside the state of alabama. The other 31 have come from alabama residents. We will investigate each and every one of those as we have the others that have been introduced to us and we will followthrough until they have been all properly adjudicated. Jon what about the military ballots and provisional ballots . Yes, sir. All of those were counted on the 19th of december. One week after the election as prescribed by Alabama State law. We had 500 or so military ballots that were counted. We had around 5,000 provisional ballots that were processed and added to those numbers. They were assigned to the location in the local precinct where they would have been counted if they were received and properly validated. Jon one of the things the Moore Campaign pointed to as evidence of irregularities here is that the turnout was way higher than expected. Does that give you pause in any way . No, jon, because of the people like you and the other networks that compete against you. Youve been down here with us over six weeks every day. Youve been covering the election and promoting the election. We never had this type of Media Exposure in the history of alabama on any election. Since we were the only game in town, you were here every day. So everybody in the state of alabama knew there was an election on whether they wanted to participate or not. Jon so you can tell the folks of alabama that their votes have been heard and recorded in a fair way. You got that right, my friend. Thats what we want people to know, their votes have been counted and the election process in the state of alabama has integrity, incredibility which is what they expect and what we are providing. Jon you mentioned the Moore Campaign could ask for a recount. They have 48 hours to do that. Any indications theyre planning on do that . We have not been notified yet of their intention to do that. Theres a prescribed mechanism for that to occur. If they choose to go that direction, well work with them as we would anybody that wants to pursue that path. Jon john merrill, the secretary of state of alabama. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me as a guest. Jon well be back on the daily briefing. Jon a woman gives birth in the middle of a grocery store. Surveillance cameras caught the woman stumbling to the ground. Thats when volunteers stepped in, helping the woman deliver the baby even before paramedics aarrived. I started to hear her screaming. Its like what is happening . The cook says oh, my gosh, shes having the baby. I run. I see the baby coming up. I told the cook, bring my the scissors. From where . I dont know. Just bring me the scissors. I thought that i had to cut the cord. Mom and her baby are doing well. Thats it for the daily briefing. Thanks for joining us. Im john scott. Rick new year, new agenda. Republican congressional leaders agreeing to meet with President Trump to stake out a plan for 2018. From the white house, some mixed signals on healthcare. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson is defending the Foreign Policy effortses of the last year. Ahead what he said the trump team has accomplished. Also, this is as cold as it gets in some ports. Record lows, freezing a lot of folks in the north and the northeast. Dont look for warmer weather any time soon. Plus, terrifying moments when a train flew off the tracks. Emergency calls showing how people reacted in the seconds after the crash