editorial report". i'm paul gigot. hunter biden was indicted in los angeles thursday on nine new federal charges with the justice department accusing the first son of willfully failing the file and pay his taxes on time. hunter's9 latest legal woes come as republicans get set to move forward with vote to formal oohize their impeachment inwiry into his father, president joe biden, next week, with speaker mike johnson calling the move a necessary step. "wall street journal" column is dan dan henninger if editorial board members kyle peterson ask kate bachelder odell. abby if lowell, hunter's attorney, says the charges are wrong, hunter's innocent, and they would never have been brought if his name weren't biden. >> well, you've got to put up a defense of some sort, don't you? and that's abby lowell's defense for hunter biden who evaded taxes for four years. isn't it kind of an irony that the biden administration is asking for a lot more money for the internal revenue service to chase people who are evading their taxes, and when gets caught in the net that exists? hunter biden. hunter -- if you -- i would urge people, read the text of of the indictment. it is a stunning document. i mean, it is really an incredible bill of particulars. and it does go into the details of how hunter was making his money and the deals with burisma and ukraine, the romanians and the chinese, the chinese companies that were paying money to him or to his counterparts, all of which he was putting in the bank and then simply declining to pay his taxes. and politically, i would say polls have been running between 60-70% that most people do not want either biden or trump to run for president. this ought to push that number about a 70%. i think it's a big political problem for joe biden. paul: kate, just on the merits here, this, of course, was not the original part of the plea bargain that was struck at fest first -- at first between the justice e department and hunterrer biden and, in fact, it only occurred after two irs whistleblowers brought a lot of information to the fore. do you think the whistle blow ors were decisive here in turning and putting the pressure on the administration and the justice department to do something? >> i think they absolutely were. mine, look -- i mean, look, that plea deal fell if apart in a courtroom, and now we're back with this 50-page indictment, 3 felonies, 6 misdemeanors, and as dan said, just an exceptional bill of particulars. spending money on hotels, girlfriends, cars, things like this. so it looks like even though it was supposed to just go away with that plea deal, obviously, the particulars are much more damning than we were original he led to believe, and the whistleblowers, i think, were a huge element of that. paul: that changed the politics of it, kyle, but let's talk about the political implications for joe biden's election campaign. dan says he thinks it's a problem. is it or will people, voters compartmentalize and say, well, that's hunter, and it's a shame, and he was a drug addict at the time which he's acknowledged,s but this has no impact on the president in. >> i think they compartmentalize the addiction issues, but the problem is that the lines are getting blurrier all the time because president biden promised the public in 2020 when he campaigned that he knew nothing about hunter's business, this was no involvement, there was no transactions. it was arm's length. and we already know that some of the things that he said then are not true. the question in my mind is how much evidence they are going to build ab the connections that are, that house investigators are trying to find and make between hunter biden and his business dealings and joe biden. mine, they've already shown that joe biden was on phone calls and went to dinner with hunter's business associates, and i think a fair question for him if we get to these 2024 debates and they're up on stage is you told the public something in 2020 that wasn't true. can you clarify, and why did you lie about that? paul: kate, now the house is moving towards an impeachment inquiry. they want to formalize the vote, i guess, this week. and my information says they may be headed to a vote on impeachment sometime in the new year and maybe a senate trial shortly thereafter, as a early as a possibly february. what about this inquiry vote? do they have the votes, and is this whole exercise a good idea? >> well, i know they're trying to get the votes, and i think that they might round them up. i think there are some political liabilities here to consider. we think about some of the more result potential members in joe biden districts, mike garcia, jen finish. [inaudible] do they want to attach their names to this when joe biden's not going to be removed from office, we know he's not going to be convicted at the trial. republicans are making the argument they need the inquire reto get more retails and get to the bottom of all this. it -- details and get to the bottom of all this. but i do think maybe it's worth being skeptical of anything where the strategy is not to remove him from office and is something lesser and more amorphous. paul: yeah, dan, briefly, the senate's never going to convict -- >> no. paul: -- an impeachment vote. so why go through the motions here on this? >> well, there's a lot of pressure inside the house republican caucus to do this. finish i think something like this hunter revelation mix it more likely and even -- makes it more likely and even plausible they can pursue an impeachment inquiry. it's a two-edged sword. joe biden's numbers have been falling in the billions, it seems unlikely he can get reelected on the bay access of what he's to been going and the question is would an impeachment inquiry create some sympathy for the president. paul: it's been known to happen. still ahead, the white house warns the u.s. is running out of time and money to help ukraine. general jack keane on what it could mean for kyiv's counteroffensive as winter sets in.li ♪be , i started a dog walking business. oh. 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(♪) (christmas music) ( ♪ ) weathertech gift cards have the power to wow everyone on your holiday list. offering a variety of american made products... weathertech! nice! like floorliners... cargo liner... seat protector... boot tray... cupfone... sink mat... pet feeding system... anti-fatigue comfortmat...and more. order the weathertech gift card instantly for the perfect gift at weathertech.com. ♪ >> if you're up on capitol hill and you believe in national security, there should be a genuine concern about what happens if you just let putin go, if you just let him have ukraine. >> american troops fighting russian troops if he moves into other parts of nato. paul: the white house warned of the consequences in ukraine and beyond with as piping's supplemental -- president biden's supplemental aid request remained stalled on capitol hill. we'll have much more with our panel, but first, let's bring in fox news senior strategic analyst and retired four-star general jack keane for a look at the stakes on the ground in ukraine as a winter begins. general, welcome. so what's the state of play in ukraine after the stalemate, i guess, in the counterto fence we've? or has russia a begun to take advantage and move in its own fencive? -- to ten we've? >> well, the fact is the weather is a major factor. it's snowing a lot, not much air flying -- drones not able to fly. the ground is full of mud, so ground operations aren't anywhere near what they should be. the russians have tried multiple offensives in the donetsk area, and they have failed miserably to do that. the ukrainians have not had much movement after they failed to, once having achieved the break through of russian lines, they were not able to break out with their armored forces to really gobble up some terrain and get to the sea. that operation failed, and that's the reality of it. they want to come back after they get more equipment and have a redo of that now know ifing a little bit how difficult it is and how to use better tactics, but they need more equipment and particularly specialized engineer equipment. so they're going to want to replay that again in the spring if they can and put it together. paul: so what are the consequences, in your view, for the war effort by ukraine if the u.s. doesn't come up with the money for additional aid? the administration says as the aid runs out, the weapons money runs out at the end of this month, what would that mean on the battlefield? >> yeah. well, look, the consequences in ukraine are severe and also regionally and strategically. i mean, first of all, hook what we got for it. -- look what we got for it. russia wants ukraine as part of their design to rebuild the russian empire and take also the former soviet states that are now in eastern europe, most of which are part of nato, or they want to weaken the trans-atlantic alliance by taking ukraine and forcing the united states and the euros the take a knee. but look what we've got for this. the ukrainians stopped them cold. they have not taken the country. the ukrainians have taken back 50 president of the -- 50% of the country that russia took last time, some of what they were able to take in the south this time. 300,000 casualties, the russians have suffered. thousands of vehicles destroyed. half of their ground combat force rendered ineffective. russia pushed back on their heels somewhat with an ability the to recover, to be sure. what a payoff for that. no blood shed by a single american soldier or a european soldier. all done by the ukrainians with american and european commitment.. -- equipment. what a positive return on the investment -- paul: but, general -- >> it's rather significant. paul: but what i keep hearing from if critics is, okay, let's say we give them $60 billion or $40 billion, whatever the specific amount is, that there's just going to be an endless war here. it's not going to end. what's your response to that? >> no. the ukrainians still have an opportunity to retake territory, and that's what this is about, liberating their territory that russia is occupying, certainly liberating their people, driving as a much of the russians as they can out and also returning to an economy that makes sense. they need access to the sea where they're in control of those ports to the south. and that's why this operation means so much to them. if we stop the funding, paul, russia's going to win. that's the reality of what'll take place. the protracted war favors them. and, look, what people have not to recognize is that if russia wins, so does china and so does iran. these countries, the three of them, operate in their own national interests, to be sure. but what we have got to recognize e these last five or six years is they're cooperating with each other, and they have all increased their aggression in the last two, three years. i believe because they perceive this administration's leadership as weak, the united states as a in decline, and the yates is somewhat vulnerable -- the united states is somewhat vulnerable if. our military isn't what it has been in the past, and they see an opportunity here. and so you can't say, well, we don't have to fund ukraine because our priority's china. no. they're all related to each other. world war ii did not start immediately, it evolved over time. it took years to become world war ii on multiple regions, multiple continents. i'm not an alarmist. i'm not suggesting that world war iii is here, but i am suggesting that these three countries are more aggressive than we've ever seen. and if we take a knee in ukraine and just walk away like we did in afghanistan, what's going to hatch? aggression is going to -- to happen? aggression is going to increase. what kind of a world do you really want to live in? do you want the oppressors setting the agenda and the strategic framework with their aggression? we've seen some evidence how that i puts us on the defense these last two to three years. is that the kind of world we want? or do we want to contain this aggression and deter further aggression? that is where we've got to be. and ukraine funding is a part of that strategic framework. it is essential. paul: all right, general jack keane, thanks for clarifying the stakes. appreciate it. when we come back, our panel weighs in on the politics of this funding fight as a republicans demand action on border security in exchange for aid to our allies. so can president biden cut a bipartisan deal before it is too late? ♪ ♪ helps save kids with cancer worldwide. you'll find our treatments and research breakthroughs everywhere, from a college freshman's room in america's west to a college graduation in america's south to a medical school in south america. ava: that can be me someday. marlo thomas: give thanks for the healthy kids in your life, and give a gift that could last a lifetime. my name is caron and i'm from brooklyn. i work for the city of new york as a police administrator. i oversee approximately 20 people and my memory just has to be sharp. i always hear people say, you know, when you get older, you know, people lose memory. i didn't want to be that person. i decided to give prevagen a try. my memory became much sharper. i remembered more! i've been taking prevagen for four years now. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. the power goes out, and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book. who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up. plus, now through december 31st, eligible xfinity rewards members can get 25% off a storm ready wifi device. ♪ >> illegal crossings into our country are at an all-time high, and my democratic colleagues are saying what do we get to secure the border. you get a safer country. paul: that was senate republicans thursday calling on democrats to get serious about negotiating a compromise that includes funding for ukraine and israel. in exchange for measures to secure the southern border. the senate voted wednesday to block $110 billion aid bill that did not include border funding, so will president biden and the democrats now come to the table and make a deal? we're back with dan dan henninger kate bachelor odell, and we're also joined by "wall street journal" columnist allysia finley. so the republicans blocked that vote, blocked the bill with a filibuster in the senate. now negotiations are back. we don't know where these are headed, but was blocking that bill the right decision, kate? >> well, i think what blocking the bill reveals is i think republicans think they've got a little bit of leverage because the president hasn't stepped up and said let's make a deal. i think what the republican ask is for, one, some changes on asylum law; two, some changes on parole, some discreet fixes on immigration that would make potentially a real difference. and i think that is why you saw them block that bill. i think it was a reality check for the white house. i think october 7th in israel put terrorism back in americans' mind, and so the politics at the border have also changed. so i think there is a natural deal to be done here that would be a bipartisan win for biden and for republicanses, and that's why i think we're seeing an outbreak of optimism that something will get done before the end of the year. paul: allyshia, this is not just about money, this is about real policy changes that the republicans want. they want to change the definition of the standard to claim asylum. what else is on the table here that they want and will it, as a kate suggests, or really make a difference in. >> so, for instance, they want not just the test that is the initial screening for asylum claim, they also want migrants to have to seek asylum in a safe third country first that they pass through -- paul: like mexico. >> exactly. most importantly, or they want some kind of restrictions on this parole authority that the biden administration has been using to release nearly millions of americans -- paul:. 1.5 million -- >> in just the last two years, and the cbo projects it'll be 4.5 million over the next decade. paul: and why won't democrats go along with that? >> because this is essentially a default that allows people to, essentially, just catch and release, and release into the u.s. so even if the asylum standard is changed, they would still be able to use these parole authorities to release more migrants into the u.s. paul: is so they really don't want to do anything about the border. that's the implication finish. >> i think that's true about a large faction of the left. paul: dan, are the republicans asking for too much here? the stakes in ukraine are huge. if this whole thing collapses, it's going to be a debacle, in my view, for ukraine, as general keane said. and then the cascading effect on china and the meddle east, i mean, u.s. credibility would be enormous. so when do, what should republicans insist on, and when should they pull back? >> well, i think they should insist on basically the two things we've been talking about, the revision of the asylum rules, and second he, the so-called parole authority which essentially they call it an emergency situation, but it is what allows these migrants to simply come straight into the with country. and those are the two things i think republicans should concentrate on. as to ukraine and israel, look, we've got an entire congress down there. people get elected to do politics. this is politics, right? at its most intense. these are big issues. and the border has become a central issue in this country. people are coming to -- joe biden put money for the border in the supplemental bill, but it was basically to send more finish hire more people to go down there to process them into the country -- paul: not to stop the anybody from coming in. >> the word has gotten out. they are growing by the thousands by the day coming across the border, and it has created a crisis in cities like chicago and new york city, democratic cities. and as allysia was suggesting it is just the democratic left that won't allow this to happen, and joe biden -- because of the left-wing pressure on him on israel and the left-wing pressure here, seems to be afraid to act. and perhaps he's the one who's putting aid to ukraine and israel at a risk. paul: kate, why do you think the president hasn't been more engaged himself on this? he campaigned in 2020 saying i'm the guy who can do these kinds of deals. >> well, right now here we are, and where are the deals, right? this is definitely what the public expected from him. i think so far he's concluded he doesn't have to end gauge, that he can roll the republicans, but we saw i think the senate vote collapsed that theory, and now he's got to get involved and get engaged. i would like so -- to see republicans include some stuff on the ukraine side of the package that forced him to make ukraine win. not just hang on through the winterer, but make more progress so we don't get reports like what jack was saying of a really tough slog. i think maybe now start to see some of that engagement, and i think quietly some democrats want it too. surely, some vulnerable senators, it's a national issue, are going to want to cut a deal on the border too, and that's why i think you might see something emerge here in the come coming weeks. paul: democrats are