>> for six years i've been the target of the unrelenting trump attack machine shouting where's hunter. well, here's my answer. i am here. there is no fairness or decency in what these republicans are doing. they have lied over and over about every aspect of my personal and professional life. >> john: christmas break is almost upon us but it is a busy afternoon here in washington as any moment we are expecting to hear from the white house as kayleigh was pointing out, after hunter biden's shocking public statement and refusal to appear before the house oversight committee and republican lawmakers are expected to formally authorize an impeachment inquiry into president biden. so begins wednesday, hello, i'm john roberts in washington. buckle up, sandra, here we go. >> sandra: and just 12 days from christmas, can you believe that, john. this is "america reports". gop leadership has indicated they do have the votes to approve the impeachment probe with debate for the measure happening right now. proposed inquiry after months of investigation from three gop-led committees into his family's business dealings. >> john: political panel with implications for both sides of the aisle, but first team of reporters on capitol hill, david spunt latest on hunter biden defying the congressional subpoena and chad pergram starts us off on the impeachment inquiry vote. what are you hearing about the timing of this? >> the house is debating the plan to formalize the impeachment inquiry. republicans believe they will only lose 1 or 2 votes later today. house speaker mike johnson is confident. >> mr. speaker, do you think you will have all republicans to vote for this today? >> i think it's going to pass. >> republicans hope to vote to authorize an impeachment probe months ago, but lacked the votes, had the house previously blessed an impeachment inquiry it would have been on firmer ground to compel the testimony of hunter biden for a closed door deposition this morning. >> i think the house of representatives is going to pass the impeachment inquiry. and that is an important step, the impeachment power resides solely with the house of representatives. if the majority of the house says we are in official impeachment inquiry as part of our constitutional duty for oversight, it carries weight, help to get the witnesses in. >> democrats argue republicans already investigated president biden and his family and found no evidence of wrongdoing. democrats believe the gop wants to make impeachment the centerpiece of the 2024 t campaign. >> they're going to run out of this place and leave for three weeks, even though it's so important and it's so overwhelming. it's because there's no evidence on joe biden. the only thing they have uncovered is that joe biden is the father of hunter biden. that's it. >> fox is told that house investigators will not conduct depositions over the holidays. johnson did not directly answer a question about what conservatives may think if the house fails to impeach the president. back to you. >> john: chad pergram on capitol hill. thank you. sandra. >> sandra: john, and to add to the list, we are right now waiting the white house any moment now the briefing is set to begin, all of this after hunter biden skips his closed door deposition with the house oversight committee. following his fiery statement to the press outside of capitol hill slamming maga republicans and defending his father claiming president biden was not financially involved in his overseas business dealings. david spunt reporting live from capitol hill, more on that as we await the white house press briefing. david. >> david: hi, sandra. had hunter biden shown up today on capitol hill, he would have been in this room behind me right now for a closed door transcribed deposition, it would have been under oath. hunter biden did not show up today, the subpoena called for him to be here at 9:30 answering questions from republicans and democrats, instead he showed up outside of the capitol. we do have some video of an empty hearing room showing his name tag, showing the empty chair, some exhibits that were up by members of congress. but here is hunter biden outside of the capitol on the senate side this morning. >> i've chosen -- i am here to testify at a public hearing today to answer any of the committee's legitimate questions. republicans do not want an open process where americans can see their tactics. expose their baseless inquiry. or hear what i have to say. what are they afraid of? i'm here. i'm ready. >> david: james comer who issued the subpoena pointed out several times the subpoena was for a closed door deposition and he's fine with a public hearing for hunter biden to come in, publicly, sit in front of cameras, we can cover it live on tv some day but wants this closed door testimony first. >> chairman jordan and i have been very clear when we issued a lawful subpoena to the president's son that we expect him to come in and be deposed. this is a normal process in an investigation. this has been a serious credible transparent investigation from day one. published four bank memorandums, countless press conferences. this is an investigation about public corruption at the highest level. >> david: republicans say now they are going to move forward with contempt proceedings, to come out of committee to go before the full house. it could take several days or several weeks. then this issue would go if it passes the house to the u.s. attorney in washington, d.c., who was appointed by joe biden, hunter's father, also to note that both peter navarro and steve bannon, former aides to then president trump also held in contempt of congress and their cases came before the u.s. attorney as well and they were prosecuted over this matter. back to you, sdra. >> sandra: ok. david spunt live for us. thank you. john. >> john: fox news senior political analyst juan williams and executive editor of the common sense society, christopher bedford. what hunter biden said in the extraordinary public statement outside of our window literally about the impeachment inquiry. listen here. >> i was extremely irresponsible with my finances. but to suggest that is grounds for impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd. it's shameless. >> john: but chris, the impeachment inquiry is not based on hunter biden spending tens of thousands of dollars on hookers and other things, it's whether money was funneled to joe biden in exchange for political influence. >> and republicans feel like they have been making enough progress to push forward with this and have the votes it seems to do that. originally the defense the president had, i never spoke to my son about business and then the goal post got moved to i was not involved in my son's business. this morning hunter said my father was not financially involved in the business. he says no smoking gun there. republicans say they want the impeachment inquiry to go further, force subpoenas on the banks and see if the goal post will get moved yet again. and another defense, he was a spender in the depth of his addiction, and that is true. the problem he's in trouble for in california, he lied to the irs, and that was done when he was sober. that was after at least according to his record, after he was sober and according to the, what he told the irs, he was spending hundreds of thousands on business expenses. turns out he was actually spending those at the shadow marmont on prostitutes or drugs, it was not business. p.r. strategy and legal defense are at odds with each other. >> john: the definition of business expense. what do you make of the idea, juan, as you sit there and listened to chris, of this idea that he was not financially involved. is that just people parsing words or is that a significant specificity of language? >> we'll finds out, but you know, to my ears it really does not make a difference. the point is that he is standing by the idea his father was not involved in his business operations. his father did not profit from his business operations and maybe most importantly, he's not joe biden. he's not his father. so what you have here is an effort, i think, a very political effort as we go into this christmas season, and there are not going to be further depositions, a very political effort to say oh, we are impeaching joe biden going into 2024 election year and gosh, wouldn't you know it, his opponent was impeached twice and now we are impeaching biden, so it's tit for tat and we want the voters to think there is equivalent hearings based on a president trying to get support, or impeach the president based on the ideas he's involved in leading an insurrection against the american government with, oh, gee, we think there's some smoke somewhere, we have no proof, but you know, rather than dealing with ukraine or israel or any other issue we are going to spend our time playing politics. >> john: what about the notion there was no smoke. at this point maybe there's a little bit of smoke but certainly no fire that would implicate joe biden in any financial wrongdoing. there are a lot of things that potentially point in that direction, but there's no hard evidence yet. do you think an impeachment inquiry could find that evidence? >> the zelenskyy phone call is kind of the perfect example. trump was impeached for initially, tried to, turns out he was asking about potential business crimes involving the biden family that turned out to be legitimate and he was asking serious questions, and basically publicly accepted. right now there's no smoking gun actually with money transfer that we know from one of these accounts to joe biden's account. we know, however, there is the 10% for the big guy, we know he was, originally said he never talked to his son, we know he talked to his son. then said he was never involved in the business but we have him at the table with different oligarchs, and hunter talking about his father backing him up will get things done. now they need to find the bank record and they have been unable to get through it with the subpoena power. >> john: juan, quick answer if you could, breaking news, if the inquiry goes ahead and does not find the smoking gun, what are the implications? >> biggest implications, it will be in the headlines, and chris and i will be here arguing about it, and oh, people who don't like it say there is something there even though you say where is the evidence, oh, you just don't want to see the evidence. that's the political bottom line here in terms of republicans pursuing that in the course of 2024. >> john: and you gentlemen don't argue, you just have -- >> no, christmas greetings to mr. chris. >> john: thanks, guys. >> sandra: breaking news you mentioned, a live look at los angeles, anti-israel protestors have halted traffic, complete standstill on the 110 freeway there. you have to think it's middle of the morning on a workday, california highway patrol officers have arrived at the scene there, they have begun removing some of the protestors on our screen just a second ago. we are watching multiple arrests made, drivers are encouraged to exit the freeway where they can as this traffic is building up and it is stretching along that freeway for miles. we are going to bring you developments from there. this began around 9:00 a.m. local time. it is still ongoing. as you can see live on the screen, one by one, they are asking the protestors to stand up, they are cuffing them, arresting them, removing them from the highway and hopefully, john, we'll get traffic moving again shortly. >> john: the police are affecting arrests there and that is completely different than what happened, remember, when protestors blocked the road at the burning man festival and that tribal police officer came along with his truck, literally cleared the protestors out. we have seen other countries around the world, when drivers are frustrated at protestors blocking the road, they get out of their cars and they haul the protestors off the street. that doesn't happen here. but look at that traffic. ooh. >> sandra: look at the busses, kids trying to get to school. the group is called if not now los angeles, they had announced plans for the downtown protest, although the organization did not publish that they were planning on shutting down the freeway. the group called the protest to demand that all of our elected officials call for a lasting ceasefire and an end to u.s. support for israel's war on gaza. that was their mission as they set out. as it turns out, they did shut down that freeway, john. >> john: looks like traffic could get moving soon, almost all the protestors are gone and police are moving the traffic cones. we are awaiting an update from the white house after hunter biden refuses to comply with the house oversight subpoena. we are also monitoring the scene on the house floor as lawmakers begin debate on a motion to improve an impeachment inquiry into president biden. we will bring you all of the breaking developments as they unfold. >> sandra: president biden and israel not seeing eye-to-eye on the war in gaza as multiple reports indicate, israel a flooding hamas tunnels with sea water, even hostages are still believed to be held in them. retired u.s. colonel joe bacino is up next on the impact it could have on the ongoing war. >> we are going to again urge the israelis to be as careful and deliberate as possible in their target. they are trying to make an effort to be more precise but the results don't always come out that way. , car payments are getting out of control. get a newday 100 va cash out loan at lower mortgage rates to pay off those high rate car loans. i suffer with psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis. i was on a journey for a really long time to find some relief. cosentyx works for me. cosentyx helps real people get real relief from the symptoms of psoriatic arthritis or psoriasis. 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a single incident. we are learning more about what took place in northern gaza. troops from the golani brigade were ambushed by hamas fighters. back-up forces arrived, they were engaged in a firefight. concern some of the initial troops were kidnapped after they lost communication with the team but the bodies were later recovered. the fights in northern gaza come as israel shows no sign of slowing down the hunt for hamas leadership and the search for hostages. palestinian civilians among the conflict are facing increasingly difficult circumstances. like the family that tells fox news they are scared about what comes next. >> she was survived from the last airstrike yesterday. she wasn't about when shrapnel has been piercing the window. >> the 12-year-old palestinian girlaves to the camera as her father, doctor mosa, walks through the home. they have no electricity. the water is partially contaminated but it's all they have after fleeing gaza city. >> i didn't pick up anything with me. you can't pick up everything with you. just what i'm wearing, my documents, proper documents and for sure my family, the most important. >> the family of six shelters with dozens of others in the southern city of rafah, they are among more than 2 million palestinians that face a humanitarian disaster. with airstrikes nearby, he fears his family could be the next victims in the ongoing war. >> strike very close to us, it was in that street. 15 has been killed in that airstrike. >> trey: as israeli airstrikes against gaza continue, so do the rockets coming into southern and central israel. we were at a grocery store hit by shrapnel. >> john: still dangerous in israel even hamas has been decimated to the degree it has. >> sandra: thank you very much, colonel, for joining us. first your reaction to the humanitarian crisis, it is obviously getting worse there in gaza. what are your thoughts on that? >> it's getting worse, sandra, and the flooding of the tunnels is going to exacerbate this. so, gaza gets most of its water from the coastal aquifers. so now you are flooding underneath with water from the mediterranean sea, that's going to contaminate a lot of the -- that water. so potentially a lot of the remaining drinking water, which is already limited, that on top of a collapsed healthcare system, on top of the fact that many people are now homeless in gaza, homes destroyed, that on top of foot shortages. things are compounding on themselves as this thing carries out and i fear there is still months ahead of fighting. >> sandra: this while we still have hostages that need to be released. these are some of the families, they went on special report last night. listen to their words. >> i think the hostages have to be returned. this is the real humanitarian crisis. >> after 67 days we don't have time. they don't have time. >> what we are asking for now is for leadership to stand up and to do even more. >> there is a moral imperative to get them out. >> sandra: what is going to happen with the hostages, colonel? >> well, the military offensive pressures hamas towards another ceasefire, or towards some sort of arrangement, some sort of agreement with release with regard to release of the hostages. the idf has had two objectives throughout. destroy hamas, eliminate every remnant of hamas and get out the hostages. i never thought they could do the first, destroy and eliminate every aspect of hamas but they are committed to doing the second. they have got to do the second. and the military offensive is going to continue to pressure hamas until there is some sort of agreement on another release. >> sandra: colonel, the u.s.s. mason shot down the houthi uav out of yemen, it happened this morning and this was after iran's foreign minister put out a very big warning that the war in gaza could lead to what he details as a big explosion of conflicts in the middle east. this is the statement, at least every week we receive, this is iran's foreign minister, a message from the u.s. te