thank you for being here. martha maccallum great interview. thank you very much. >> martha: fox news alert. we start things off. the biden impeachment push is pushing forward at the inquiry level. the house passed this resolution yesterday to formalize and inquiry into the questions that have been around for a long time looking to prove whether the president benefited financially from his family's foreign business dealings with china, with ukraine. welcome everybody. good morning to "the faulkner focus." i'm martha maccallum in today for harris. so this vote last night passed on a straight party line. the chairs of the judiciary and oversight committees stressed party unity. watch. >> the house has now spoken. i think pretty loudly and clearly with every single republican voting to move into the impeachment inquiry of the constitutional duty to do oversight >> the message sent today is loud and clear. >> martha: it means a litany of biden family members, business associates, d.o.j. officials and more will have to speak with them. the white house is on defense this morning calling this claim and the probe saying that it is all based on lies. >> these house republicans don't seem to be serious people. this is really frightening behavior and unserious behavior. >> they are storming aheaved with this impeachment stunt anyway to please the far right base and play politics. it really cheapens what is a historically gave constitutional remedy of last resort. >> martha: an earlier poll shows that nearly half of voters say that they support an official impeachment inquiry. that includes nearly a quarter of self--identified democrats who say they have concerned. 45% of independents, 78 republicans. house foreign affairs committee chair michael mccaul will weigh in. first to senior congressional correspondent chad pergram. >> martha, good morning. the difference is that moderate gop members who represent battleground districts were willing to vote yes, they resisted an impeachment inquiry for months, but no more. >> we have 30 shell companies and specific transactions coming in. suspicious activity reports coming from over a dozen of them from different banks. we've got indictments coming into hunter whose only business is selling his dad's name. we've got specific checks being handed between family members. >> this likely means the impeachment inquiry drifts into 2024. democrats are watching. they believe impeachment is a stunt to help former president trump and tarnish president biden in an election year. >> the house republican impeachment inquiry is the definition of unserious, the house should be looking at the sen ate now for an example how both sides can work together in a meaningful way to pass serious legislation to improve the lives of the american people. >> schumer ducked a question by fox earlier this week on how he would handle articles of impeachment if sent to the senate from the house. at this hour house impeachment investigators are hearing from lesley wolf, a former d.o.j. official who republicans believe put the kibosh on the hunter biden investigation. >> 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 income was coming into hunter biden why they left the statute of limitation lapse for those years. when you get into burisma. the energy company that paid hunter biden so much money. >> he served on the burisma board. jordan believes wolf let the statute of limitations expire before prosecutors could address burisma. >> martha: see where it goes. michael mccaul. house foreign affairs committee chairman and homeland security committee member. congressman, thank you for being with us. you heard senator chuck schumer say it's an unserious effort by republicans. they see it as political. what do you say to him? >> look, i was a federal prosecutor, public integrity section, worked on the china investigation, money coming in from china to shell corporations to the clinton campaign to influence policy. this is nothing knew on behalf of foreign governments. i think it's very serious. you have $24 million as part of the hunter biden enterprise and at first some of this was income, they weren't paying taxes, now they're saying it is loans. the fact of the matter is the reason why we're doing an inquiry and had a vote on it is because the white house counsel said they would not cooperate with our oversight iestigation until we had a formal official vote on the house floor. so we took the white house counsel's advice, we had a vote and we got the majority. now we'll proceed. that gives our subpoenas congressional subpoenas more authorities in the courts if challenged by the biden administration, which we know they will. >> martha: when you hear democrats say look, there is nothing that links anything to the president of the united states here. given your background as an investigator, prosecutor, tell me a little bit about what you think does draw a connection between these two things and just keep that hat on, right? when you look at the actual evidence that links it to president biden, what do you see that you think makes this road worth going down? >> well, the thing for me in my prior position raises a big flag is that the president -- now president, then vice president said there is a firewall between his office and the hunter biden businesses, the shell corporations. now we have found in these seven-count indictment in california for tax evasion against hunter biden that the pseudonym texts and emails from then vice president joe biden were going to the accounts and business manager for hunter biden's shell corporations. this is extremely important. it was cited by the department of justice in their indictment in california. this tells me that -- they will not turn these emails and texts over to the congress. this is what we want to know. what conversations were made? we're not pre-judging the matter. we want all the facts and evidence to come in. but we can't do that until we do what -- did what the white house counsel asked us to do and that was to have an official vote on the matter? >> we know the obama administration had concerns that hunter biden was going with his dad on these trips to china and ukraine and seeking business deals at the same time. there is evidence that they were not happy about any of this and that they wanted it to stop but that because he had just lost his son, beau they decided not to ruffle feathers. over 150 suspicious activity reports that banks filed. they are not, you know, we'll assume for the purposes here they are not politically motivated in going through things and saying this doesn't smell right. 150 times in terms of these transactions into all these shell companies. that's what put up the red flags here. but yesterday hunter biden came to capitol hill sort of. he came to the sidewalk and he held his own press -- news sort of opening statement is what i called it yesterday of his case and he walked away from, snubbed the congressional subpoena that he was given just hours before he was supposed to appear. so republicans were not happy about that, oversight chair comer already prepping a contempt charge for him. congressman chip roy didn't hold back when i spoke to him about this yesterday. watch this. >> hunter biden is basically an ongoing domino fall of stupid decisions and stupid statements saying his dad wasn't involved in financial dealings. we'll see if that's true. that's a big tell to me. we all know that his dad was involved in enriching hunter. we know that foreign entities were sending millions of dollars to them. we have had to do the work the department of justice refuses to do. >> martha: what was he getting paid to do? he was paid for introductions. in the speech yesterday. they thought he would show up and answer questions he tore into republicans, chairman and said that they were taking the light of his dad's love and presenting it as darkness. the white house and president biden himself not exactly open to questions about any of this. watch. >> the president was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say. they are proud of him. continuing to rebuild his life. they're proud of their son. >> is the president okay with his son defying a congressional subpoena? >> i'm not going to get into specifics on that. >> mr. president, should your son have defied the subpoena? >> martha: these are the questions the president has dodged for years since the campaign back in 2020. the "nework post" cover this morning with this sort of classic "new york post" style has this headline. mr. grift goes to washington, congressman. what is going to happen to hunter biden now? >> i think he is in deep trouble not only the gun charge in d.c. but the seven counts of tax evasion now against him are very serious. for those you say it is a political exercise. no, it's very serious. why didn't the special counsel at that time, why did he give him a sweetheart deal and why didn't he charge him with the seven tax evasion charges? we know there is enough predication to open up a special counsel investigation into this. so i don't understand why this is so -- they think this is so politicized. i guess the back drop of congress. we have article one constitutional responsibility here. 150 suspicious activity reports, the bank examiner said hey, this is income you are not reporting this. and you are not paying taxes. so the classic thing i saw in my tenure was when you have income and you don't report it, there is a reason why because the income is coming from illegal proceeds and you don't want to report it for tax purposes. that's why they've gone back to saying no, this is a loan repayment. remember, the 400,000 coming from the chinese energy company and then the big guy gets to cut a check for 10%, which is what they said for 40,000, what is that all about? i think we have the right to know this. what about these fake pseudonym texts and emails from joe biden to the accountant for the shell companies? >> martha: it is one thing if you want to hide your identity on an email if you are a famous person but doing it several hundred times who is the business manager with your son when you claim you don't have any knowledge of their businesses. thank you very much. good to see you. the house taking action on campus anti-semitism. making a big statement about it. they passed a measure that condemns the presidents of mit, harvard and upenn for their testimony last week. the issue planted a wedge between democrats who supported it and democrats who did not. >> i think it's an important vote. i think the idea that you had presidents from some of our most esteemed universities come in front of congress in a time where i thought they would make it better. they made it worse. when you are calling for the killing of anybody what's the context? >> torching boston's mayor. no apology for a holiday party that they sent the invitation to white officials and then rescinded them. sorry, we didn't mean to include you. this is only for people of color this party. joe concha has a lot to say about this one and he is up next. my a1c was up here; now, it's down with rybelsus®. his a1c? it's down with rybelsus®. my doctor told me rybelsus® lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill and that people taking rybelsus® lost more weight. i got to my a1c goal and lost some weight too. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and d dical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. gallbladder problems may occur. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blblod sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. need to get your a1c down? 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(inspirational music) we're traveling all across america talking to people about their hearts. - how's the heart? - good. - you sure? - i think so. how do you know? let me show you something. put two fingers right on those pads. look at that. that's your heart. that is pretty awesome. with kardiamobile, you can take a medical grade ekg in just 30 seconds from anywhere. kardiamobile is proven to detect atrial fibrillation, one of the leading causes of stroke. for a limited time, kardiamobile is available for just $74. hurry, these prices won't last. get kardiamobile today at kardia.com or amazon. >> martha: so critics taking a hard line on the boston mayor michelle wu for what they call a divisive move on her part. the mayor's office accidentally sent an invite for a holiday party to everybody on their leadership list. but the party, it turns out, is only for minority members who are on the city council. minutes later, all white counselors had their party invitations rescinded. molly line in boston with more on this. hi, molly. >> hi, martha. this is a disinviting debacle, you could say. the city's first asian american and female mayor in the city of boston holiday party was held for elected of coloreds group. the invite went out to the white city councilors, too. they promptly sent a follow up email apologizing for the prior email regarding the holiday party. i did send it to everyone by accident. i apologize if my email may have offended or came across as so. frank baker, among the seven white council members called the exclusion divisive but hold the herald to offend me you will have to do more than not invite me to a party. the mayor said it was a mistake and defended the party that was held at a city-owned event space. >> we celebrate all kinds of connection and identity and culture and heritage in the city. just yesterday we hosted our official city hall hanukkah celebration. we have had tree lightings and we bring in -- we want to be a city where everyone's identity is embraced. >> mayor wu has noted there are several other holiday parties. that the entire city council and other elected officials are all invited to. >> martha: thank you very much. joe concha, fox news contributor and columnist for the messenger. it strikes me when she says we want everyone to be included. then why can't you invite all the white council members, too, to this celebration of people of different backgrounds? >> we want to be in a city where everyone's identity is embraced. everyone except for the white city council members make up half the council. the irony alert. under these social segregation rules of mayor wu, her own husband would be banned from attending this party. at last check he is a white guy named connor. could you imagine a white mayor of a major city saying we are going to have -- you know where i'm going with this, right? >> martha: it would never happen. >> the media reaction would be outraged. but we're not seeing any news coverage of this even by the "boston globe."enter not even reporting what mayor wood said. a complete blackout. other networks that scream race many, they aren't covering this. she will get away with this. segregation in any form is wrong in 2023. >> martha: we have it on campuses, certain clubs. it's been around a long time where you have orcss that are for people of certain backgrounds or religions. i think of like the catholic or jewish group at campuses. as a mayor you want to spread the message it is not about what makes us different from each other, it is what makes us all bostonians, what makes us care about our city. we really need to rewind this whole practice because it is just getting worse and worse in terms of dividing people. >> that's right. we saw this in chicago when lori light foot was mayor and said at one point i will only do interviews with journalists that are black or brown. how does that bring people together? we are in a time more divided since the 1960s and this is the sort of thing that's happening here. the irony is also that mayor wu only apologized for sending out the invite to the wrong people. apparently rock bottom has a basement at this point. >> martha: she could have said we'll celebrate the individuals from all different backgrounds. we want everyone to be there to celebrate their success. she could have used it as that moment. please come. this accident was a good thing. and we want everyone to come to this event. so on this topic house democrats are split on this resolution that condemned anti-semitism on college campuses and also called for the resignation of presidents of harvard and m.i.t. 84 democrats including hakeem jeffries joined virtually all republicans to vote for this resolution. 125 demomovoted against it, they claim the measure does nothing to protect jews and call it outrageous to demand that private citizens resign. the education department expanded its probe into campus anti-semitism and investigating six more schools including stanford and ucla for the practices they carry out. republican congresswoman stefanik is calling for action and told the "new york post" we must defend the rot in america's higher -- defund the rot in america's higher education, harvard gets hundreds of millions in federal money as well as tax breaks. in the face of all the outrage harvard president gay lit the p candle on the menorah last night. joe, what do you think about this? >> kudos hakeem jeffries house minority leader. he went to a pro-israel huge rally in washington. he attended and spoke. senators like john fetterman have been pro-israel bucking many in their party, right? i wrote a piece for the messenger talking about how harvard was once revered. the kind of place you send your kid there you get a bumper sticker three seconds later. now it is a toxic brand for what we're seeing. the crimson, the student newspaper there, they did a survey of college professors and asked them how do you deem yourself in terms of political leanings or ideology. 97% answered somewhat or very liberal. less than 2% conservative. you could remove all the university presidents you want. the rot here in terms of no diversity of thought is the fact that all these professor are so profoundly liberal if we had a 50/50 balance, or 60/40 it is an exchange of ideas that shouldn't should be getting. instead it's a 1--way street. >> martha: a lot of employers say we don't want this education for the people we're hiring. we want them to come from a background scholarly debated indication learning all kinds of different things and tough and ideas have been