can't use the term big guy, can't talk about political figure number one. we want to ask her questions about all that and maybe most importantly why the investigation decided to let the tax years 2014, 2015 when the bulk of the burisma new mexico was coming to hunter biden, why they let the statute of limitations lapse for those years. >> dana: one day after the house authorized an impeachment inquiry into president biden jim jordan has a lot of questions for lesley wolf. a former federal prosecutor from delaware. they claim wolf obstructed the tax crimes investigation into hunter biden blocking the f.b.i. from even looking into his father, joe biden, who at the time was running for president. welcome to a brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." i'm dana perino. good morning. >> bill: good morning. jordan gave us a lot of information. a bit of a road maybe, i think. i'm bill hemmer, good morning. the former assistant u.s. attorney lesley wolf will appear today under subpoena for a closed door deposition after she had previously refused to voluntary request over the summer. republicans say she has unique knowledge into the investigation of hunter biden. whistleblowers claim she deviated from standard protocol to give hunter prefer -- first we go to chad pergram watching everything move on capitol hill. let's begin a new hour. good morning. >> in particular house investigators will ask her about why the statute of limitations was allowed to expire as it pertains to issues with burisma, the emergency firm in ukraine hunter biden served on the burisma board. >> fundamental facts here. fact number one, hunter biden gets put on the board. fact two not qualified to be on the board of the energy company. he said so himself. fact number three, the executives at burisma asked hunter biden weigh in with your father and help us with the pressure we're under from the prosecutor. key fact four is joe biden goes to ukraine three days after he gets that request and conditions the funding of ukraine. >> wolf appears today in her personal capacity. for months the gop struggled to line up the votes to initiate the impeachment inquiry. they accused the administration of stonewalling with witnesses and documents. it seemed to convince moderate gop members to vote yes on green lighting the probe. >> we voted tonight to allow for the investigation to continue. this was a vote to authorize the investigation formally because the white house has taken the position that it was an informal inquiry and they didn't need to comply. >> the change of heart comes just ahead of an election year. some democrats suggest another factor is at play, which is also tied to 2024. >> i think it's trump. trump working behind the scenes. trump's people working behind the scenes calling members and say you better be with us. >> unclear when or if there will ever be a vote to actually impeach the president, a failure to do that could inflame the right. bill. >> bill: chad pergram with that on the hill. president biden now one of six u.s. presidents in the history of america to face an impeachment inquiry in the house. he is calling it a baseless political stunt. jacque heinrich has that end of the story at the white house on the north lawn. good morning. >> good morning to you, bill. a number of congressional republicans defended their votes for this impeachment inquiry saying that the white house forced them into this position by denying them access to material that they wanted to probe. the white house counsel's office says this entire investigation is baseless. >> they've gotten 100,000 pages of documents. they have interviewed witnesses for 40 hours and guess what? they have come up with not a single shred of evidence of any wrongdoing of any kind by president biden. they are storming ahead with the impeachment stunt to please the far right base and play politics. it really cheapens what is a historically grave constitutional remedy of last resort. >> president biden issued a rare statement on all this saying i wake up every day focused on the issues facing the american people. real issues that impact their lives and the strength and security of our country and the world. unfortunately house republicans are not joining me instead of doing anything to help make americans' lives better they are focused on attacking me and wasting time on the baseless political stunt that even republicans in congress admit it is not supported by facts. officials here are refusing to get into specifics including whether the president believes that hunter was justified in ignore congressional subpoenas precipitating the inquiry being formalized. >> does he believe that subpoenas -- >> i will have you speak to the white house counsel on this. i'm just not going to speak to that. >> hunter said yesterday his father was not financially involved in any of his business dealings and that his financial misconduct was a result of his addiction. also hunter accused the committee chairmen of engaging in what he called unprecedented political interference. >> bill: jacque heinrich from the white house. dana. >> dana: our next guest is jonathan turley. don't believe democrats' myths, there is clear evidence to investigate president biden. one more piece of sound from jim jordan from last hour. >> you have a politician who does certain things, those actions benefit his family financial and an effort to cover it up and conceal. that's the way david weiss and lesley wolf handled the investigation. if you go back to the start it's hunter biden's involvement with burisma. >> dana: jonathan turley as you have had a chance to digest everything that happened yesterday. lesley wolf behind closed doors right now. what's going on? >> things are going poorly, i think, for the biden team. this was not a great week. the impeachment inquiry isn't that, an inquiry, an effort to confirm the facts. the democrats voted to stop further questions even though half of americans support the inquiry. 70% of americans believe the president has acted illegally or unethically. so these questions do have to be answered. now, whether they will be answered by wolf is a very good question. she may still be operating under instructions from the department of justice as to what she can discuss about the handling of this case. the glaring issue remains, the fact that the department of justice allowed these early felonies to expire. the whistleblowers have said they had a deal on the table which would have allowed that statute of limitations to be extended. for some inexplicable reason weiss allowed it to expire. i pride myself on being able to share both sides of a legal issue. i can't imagine the rationale for allowing felonies to expire in the middle of an investigation. maybe she can because i can't think of one. >> bill: fair answer. let's talk about donald trump now. the special counsel jack smith is trying to fast track this with the u.s. security. john ryu out of stanford writes the doj's latest ploy to get biden reelected. get trump in the supreme court. answer this in the following way. does the court feel pressure -- feel the pressure of time? because there is a request to get answers from the trump team before december 20th. do they feel that, sir? >> well, bill, that's the operative question. what comes out of the filing of the special counsel is the sense of urgency that we need to try trump before the election. the court might not have the same sense of urgency. even if trump was convicted, it wouldn't affect his eligibility to stand for election or to serve as president. the court normally prefers to have court of appeals weigh in on these questions particularly novel questions like this one. so the court could ultimately say we want to hear from the d.c. circuit. we don't want to leapfrog over the process and we'll stick with regular order and that may mean that you will have to move that trial back some. the district court has already stayed further proceedings on the district court. smith may lose that march trial date. but he clearly is doggedly fighting to try to get this thing done before the election. >> dana: why would he put his thumb on the scale on that? to me it makes him look like he has a stake in trying to get this done before the election rather than just being the special prosecutor, the one handling all of these things. the "washington post" had a good piece and they explained this is an unusual situation for someone in the court system to be so concerned about getting something done before an election. >> yeah, it is. in fact, the d.o.j. policy has been to avoid trials and filings before elections. this sort of flips the script. and so, you know, there are a number of reasons why you might want to do this. one is you believe the voters should know if they have someone who is going to be convicted of a felony. the other possibility is that he is aware that if trump wins, he could self-pardon. he doesn't have to wait for a trial. so smith might never see a jury in the case. also the new attorney general could scuttle the case. so there may be an existential threat as viewed by the special counsel for his prosecution that we really need to stick the lalag before this election. >> dana: all right, jonathan turley, we're underway. lesley wolf. >> bill: get on the pommel horse and stick the landing for us, will you? >> thank you. >> bill: thank you, professor. >> i see this every night at hanukkah, we bless the candles every night and we pray for our children to come home. >> bill: just have no idea what these families are going through. the families of hostages held by hamas, americans praying for a safe return. what they told president biden during their meeting at the white house just yesterday. >> dana: russia's president putin discussing talks to release americans held behind bars? >> the biden administration considering new border restrictions threatening to remove migrants caught entering the u.s. illegally. will they get a deal done with republicans and will it make a difference? >> would you admit that the border policy, the biden policy so far has not worked? >> what i will say is we have known for decades -- for decades that the immigration system is broken. newday 100 va loan lets you take out an average of $70,000 to pay off your car loan pay off your credit cards and pay yourself cash. type 2 diabetes? 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(♪) >> dana: overwhelmed border agents. new video showing thousands of migrants waiting to catch trains to the u.s. the biden administration warning most will be removed. last year only a small fraction of illegal border crossers were deported. griff jenkins has a latest from eagle pass, texas. >> good morning, dana. i'm just getting numbers across the entire southwest border. more than 9,000 encounters. there are nine sectors across the southwest borders. five of the nine had more than 1,000 en scanters. agents are getting overwhelmed from california, arizona to texas. let's go to the train video, though. fox getting that from our sources. it is the route migrants have been using to get to eagle pass. those migrants there, tens of thousands, waiting to get on trains already full should be here later tonight into tomorrow. this as we're already getting a group arriving here now. we can show you some drone footage, though, as we've been catching these large groups, dana. remember when we used to talk about a group of 5200? these groups are upwards of 500, 600, some 800 in one group yesterday. the one you are looking at now over 1,000. in the week i've been here, dana, nearly 15,000 migrants illegally crossing. in the area of the known gotaways as they see them but don't apprehend them more than 1100. we talked to a mexican journalist who gave us insight of the migrants and what they say on the mexican side before they cross into the u.s. he has an interesting term for what he says is driving all this, dana. listen here. >> i call it the selfie factor. as soon as they cross they take a selfie and communicating with relatives back home saying i'm here in the u.s. encouraging more of them to come regardless of what they see in the news that migrants are in the streets like in chicago or new york. >> so they cross, dana, take a selfie, send it back to family or others, put it on social media and drives more to come. we hear a lot about deportations on capitol hill. in fiscal year 2022, 72,177 deported to over 150 countries. yet in physical year 2022, 2 million, 378,000, 944 arrivals, that's only 3%, 97% were not deported. send it back to you. >> dana: they get court dates and wait. remarkable. thank you, griff. >> bill: the families of american hostages held by hamas meeting president biden one-on-one in person yesterday at the white house. the father of israeli american hostage pleading for the president to, quote, get a deal done. >> we feel that the united states as the leader of the free world, there are different players that can be doing more. the u.s. maybe can pressure a bit more, specifically egypt, qatar. >> you put the blame on hamas, obviously. >> for sure. >> bill: bret had them all together yesterday. the plea comes as israeli officials cancel a trip to qatar to talk about a second hostage release deal. we have had many of them on our program. mr. chen included and dead set trying to locate his son. so far unsuccessful. your heart goes out to all those people sitting there brave enough to have the courage to say bring my kid back. >> dana: indeed. they are stalwart in their efforts, right? they know they have to keep up the steady pressure and publicity so they don't get forgotten. we have more to come on this. >> bill: these are americans now. all of them. and we await word on their fate by the day. 21 past now. here we go. >> president biden: i have had conversations with netanyahu and i want to make sure that we don't forget what we're doing here. but i think that we have made it clear to the israelis and they are aware that the in-- the safety of innocent palestinians is still of great concern. >> dana: the rift between president biden and benjamin netanyahu on full display as the white house pushes israel to be more precise with its military operations in gaza. just got these new images from israel where jake sullivan is meeting with netanyahu and other top leaders today. american global strategies chairman and former national security advisor robert o'brien joins me now. listen to job kirby yesterday at the white house briefing asked more about this rift. >> the president in that same fundraiser said that israel needs to make a change to its government. what exactly did he mean by that? did he mean netanyahu mass to get out? >> the president realizes is a powerful, vibrant democracy. any change in the government will have to be determined by the israeli people. >> dana: the diplomatic adage to criticize in public even if you have to have tough conversations with your allies. what's going on here? >> israel is the same level of support ukraine is getting. i wish the president would treat netanyahu like he does zelenskyy. israel is our oldest ally in the middle east. we recognized them in 1948. conducting a war against a terrorist organization worse than isis. the most brutal terrorist organization we've seen in history. commit genocide against the jewish people and the israelis are trying to survive during this hanukkah season by defeating their adversary and need to be with them 100%. the president is under tremendous pressure from the far left wing of the party, progressives who are pro-palestinian. that's not what the american people are. but that's the pressure on the president. >> dana: there was a report this morning in "politico" that now that you bring that up that kamala harris, the vice president, has urging president biden to be more i guess concerned about or speak more about what's happening to the people of gaza. do you think that will have an impact on the policy? >> i hope not. i hope we're stalwart with the democratic friends in israel. the idea we would lecture israel how to do war. they follow the law of war. they are trying to avoid palestinian civilian casualties but it is hamas that's using these palestinian civilians as human shields. we have to put the blame squarely on hamas for taking american hostages and for their atrocities against israel and eliminate hamas and be with them 100%. i hope that is the message they take to jerusalem. >> dana: wanted to ask you about this. president putin gives an hour-long address every year. it goes on and on and talk about all the things happening from his point of view. he did bring up two americans that are being held, we believe, unjustly by russia. listen to him here. >> we are in communications with american partners on that and the dialogue is ongoing. it is not an easy one. i will not speak about the details now but overall, i think we are speaking the language we both understand. >> dana: so he is referring to evan gershkovitch, the "wall street journal" reporter being held and paul whelan, american businessman being held since 2018. last week it was reported that the biden administration made an offer to putin in order to have an exchange and that putin rejected that. do we know anything more about that? and at this point, if there is at least communication, should we have some hope that this is going to get solved soon? >> well, vladimir putin has come up with shine owe new diplomatic toy. he takes a high-profile hostage that will generate political support in the u.s. and put pressure on the biden administration and they cave and give them some huge concession. unfortunately some of this negotiation to get our hostages home like evan or paul whalen home is conducted in public and never a good way to conduct negotiation. recall, dana, this happened with britteny griner, the russians wanted victor back desperately. we wouldn't turn him back because he was an arms merchant and lord of war. yet the biden administration they would give him back and putin said we don't want him and made him come back with even more. the bidens are trying to negotiate in public. putin is rejecting it publicly and using that as leverage to gain more concessions. he has found a tool that works and using it to change our policy and leverage the united states and we have to figure out a way to push back and find out what is important to him that will deter him from taking future american hostages. >> dana: do you think they'll be home before christmas? >> i sure hope so. nothing worse than working with the families and you have the israeli families and our heart goes out the to the -- we want them all home before christmas so they can celebrate the holidays with their loved ones and hanukkah for the israeli families. we're almost at the end of hanukkah. >> dana: thank you. >> bill: now did a former prosecutor run interference for president biden? that's the key question at this hour. she is being questioned on the hill as we speak and two whistleblowers who went public about her case will join us next right here. plus oprah talks about her battle with weight quite often. she is candid about it, too. now she has made some surprisingly candid comments that folks are paying attention to in a moment. ♪ (bobby) my store and my design business? we're exploding. but my old internet, was not letting me run the show. so, we switched to verizon business internet. they have business grade internet, nationwide. 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here we go. she was the assistant u.s. attorney in delaware served with the special prosecutor david weiss. my next guests say she deviated from property call to give special treatment to hunter biden and in effect joe biden. joseph ziegler, gary shapley, join me now. good morning to both of you. we have spoken in the past. i don't know how you feel about yesterday but we're about to find out. let's talk about the evidence. joseph, you first, number one, guys, an email august of 2020 apparently. a few months away from the election. from lesley wolf to i.r.s. investigators, the sub line is political figure one is president biden. this is what it reads. focus on fara evidence only. there should be nothing about political figure one in here, end quote. joseph, is that a smoking gun or is that just one of several pieces of evidence? where is the context do you believe for that email? >> yeah, so that email i think is super important because it is a one-off example in writing of the constant concern following investigative leads that might lead to joe biden. and what i would like to say to that is the f.b.i. agents who draft evidence the affidavit, they believed they had sufficient evidence probable cause to support including political figure one in that affidavit. you look at what that related to. burisma, access to joe biden and access to the administration. there was ample evidence that was included in that affidavit that included supporting political figure one. it has a waterfall effect on the investigation. the emails we're searching for might not come through to the team. it has a down the road effect of not following normal leads we should be following. >> bill: do you think she'll answer that question today? will she explain it? >> i hope they ask her. i hope she responds and then yeah, i hope they ask her. they need to. >> they hope. maybe you do hope in the end. gary, here is what i want to know from you. this is hunter biden on our program yesterday when he defied that subpoena. >> let me state as clearly as i can. my father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of burisma, not in my partnership with a chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home or abroad and certainly not as an artist. >> bill: what did you think of that comment and how you read it now? >> well, it is just part of the shifting story from d.o.j. and the biden family attorneys where at the beginning it was i've never talked to my son about business. that has been proven false by evidence and testimony we provided. then it moved to he is not in business with him and now we're into he is not financially connected to the businesses. so you don't have to be financially connected to a business in order to be a part of that business and what president biden was basically doing through hunter biden was allowing hunter biden to get these deals where there is no discernible actual product being proud produced. it is a peddling of the biden business. >> bill: can republicans prove all that? >> >> it's up to their investigation. they have to conduct the investigation they want to conduct. prove what they prove. >> bill: so you aren't sure about that question? >> the republicans they are conducting an investigation in congress and they are the ones that will be able to interview the individuals they want to interview. look at the evidence they want to look at and ultimately they decide. i don't decide. there is ample evidence that shows that president biden was involved in hunter biden's businesses in oh some way, shape or form. as i said in my testimony the former senator, vice president, president. when he is involved in the business he is not forming mission statements and working on excel spreadsheets. him sitting at a business meeting at a lunch having water is all that hunter biden needed to use that influence to the gain of the biden family. >> bill: i understand your answer there. eric trump was with jesse last night. >> any advice for hunter before we leave? >> go testify. do what they made us do. go testify. >> bill: they did. last comment, joseph. on whether or not hunter biden does testify. >> yeah, so, i mean, just like gary and i did, we came forward in front of the committees. we did closed-door depositions to start and we provided ample evidence to support our whistleblower claims. at the end of the day that's why gary and i came forward was to shine a light on some of the darkest corners of d.o.j. that they are not treating taxpayers the same. it should cause a concern to every single american out there. that we're not treating people the same. that's what we need to come to. >> bill: joseph ziegler and gary shapley. we'll speak again. >> bill: the one thing jordan was most curious about is why you allow the statute of limitations to expire going back to 2014 and 2015. >> dana: the thing is lesley wolf might not have put a lot in writing. she put enough in writing there is a little trail and that's what i think thosese two gentlen were saying. they saw it all the time. this is the one place that was definitely there in black and white. want to show you this on capitol hill the house is voting on the defense bill. this has to be passed every year, a big deal. included is a fisa renewal. the foreign intelligence surveillance act. it is often controversial but at the end of the day intelligence and law enforcement communities say they need it. 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>> we don't need throwaway resolutions, we need effective solutions. >> the bipartisan sponsors of the bill disagree. >> i think it's an important vote. >> their testimony was the most morally bankrupt testimony in the history of the united states congress. >> harvard continues to stand by its president claudine gay who lit a menorah at a hanukkah ceremony on campus last night amid the anti-semitism controversy and allegations she has plagiarized a dozen times, that she denies. m.i.t.'s president, who is jewish, a letter signed by hundreds of jewish alumni and allies was sent to m.i.t.'s governing board calling her testimony disastrous and also criticized the board for offering its full support for her even though, she is the only one of the three presidents to not issue an apology or clarification after her testimony. >> dana: thank you for being on top of that story all week. >> bill: we have seen menorahs being vandalized in america and around the world. in one instance a menorah in oakland was dismantled and thrown into a lake. the california a.g. responded saying hate crimes have become too common. >> the answer to hate is love. the answer to despair is hope. we're here as a community not just the jewish community. >> bill: gillian turner with more from the state department. hello and good morning. >> good morning to you, bill. hanukkah is also known as the festival of lights. this year rampant anti-semitism is really threatening that spirit. they are seeing -- we're seeing in the u.s. a whole spate of menorah vandalism as you just mentioned. not just here, though, also overseas. take a look at this. in connecticut outside yale university officials say vandals scaled a menorah and planted a palestinian flag on top. listen. >> it is a deeply painful, painful thing to see. it evokes thousands of years of trauma and pain for the jewish community. >> this potential crime and most important every one of you who have come out, because your being here sends a message. we will not tolerate hate in america. >> brooklyn, new york, one rabbi tells us the nypd hate crimes unit is investigating vandalism of two menorahs at his congregation. >> we are a beautiful, diverse community. since october 7th the streets of new york, the streets of brooklyn are different. we're experiencing real anti-semitism, anyone who denies it is an anti-semite themselves. >> in a synagogue there was a menorah vandalized on the first night of hanukkah and look at this. menorah vandalism in lakewood, illinois. >> you should know that you actually made us stronger. make sure there will be a menorah here this hanukkah. >> the state department is battling anti-semitism abroad. look at this incident in the polish parliament a few days ago. a member of parliament using a fire extinguisher to snuff out a lit menorah. the good news is that menorah was relit just before we came to air a few moments ago. the reality, bill, though is if the state department was going to try to now condemn every act of anti-semitism we're seeing during this jewish holiday season, there wouldn't be anybody else left in the building. any state officials to do anything else. back to you. >> bill: gillian, thank you so much. follow it from the state department. gillian turner, thank you for that. >> dana: holiday special focusing on the true meaning of christmas and the greatest story ever told. we'll talk to some of the people on the screen and behind the scenes to find out why this show is resonating with people around the world. veteran homeowners need cash but worried you can't get a home loan because of your credit? 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(♪) >> five loaves of bread and two fish. what is this for so many? two fish and five barley loaves. thank you. >> chosen is a crowd funded tv series about jesus and his disciple and releasing its third christmas special in theaters now nationwide through sunday. joining us is the vice president of content, kathryn and act or noah james who plays andrew. it is wonderful to have you here. your show is a phenomenon. how big has it gotten? especially since all this activity since october 7th attacks in israel, also getting attention there. >> yes, it is not the biggest show in the world, it is definitely not the biggest. it is built outside the hollywood system. >> bill: you were telling us earlier how you convinced folks and said this is a sure-fire winner, get on it. what did you see that led you to think there would be success? >> years ago i was head of faith and family content at mgm. it came across my desk. i said this will take over the world. you have to acquire it. i worked in this kind of bridge between faith content and mainstream content for the last 20 years. so it was the first time i had seen this story told with such grit, humanity and authenticity. >> bill: wow. a pretty good eye. >> dana: is that why you decided to join it? what did it mean to you to be part of something outside of the mainstream but also still so huge? >> what's funny is when we started we didn't know whether we would finish the first season. we did the first half of the first season and said goodbye to everyone. said goodbye to the cast and crew and hoped we would see each other again. we had grown to be such a nice family. then, you know, we came back for the end of season one and then during the pandemic it really started to take off giving hope into a lot of people's lives. then we came back and here we are. >> one more question to kathryn. how do you view the importance of this work given the events of the middle east and the world that we have seen? and really not just to israel and gaza, but the anti-semitism that we've seen pop up everywhere in places that i think a lot of people didn't think about? >> i'm jewish. i come from a jewish background and coming into the show i didn't know what to expect. i felt like i was coming in from the outside and welcomed with open arms. i met so many people that i maybe just wouldn't be a part of my community otherwise. this show really is very jewish in its roots. it shows what jewish people were going through 2,000 years ago and we can make that connection to today. >> dana: talk about the special people can see this weekend? >> the christmas special has an extraordinary performance but bringing together the shepherd, the pilot episode of the chosen with the messengers, the birth story of jesus told from the perspective of mary and joseph and there is a brand-new feature. >> dana: where else can you find it? >> it will be on cw starting december 18th and app at the same time. >> dana: you said some of the biggest growth is in brazil and india. >> yes. a grassroots efforts in brazil. our brazilian market has overtaken the domestic market which is extraordinary. >> dana: did you have the hair before the show? >> some version of it. >> bill: happy hanukkah. thank you for being here