Concerns about new more contagious strains of the virus and increased tension over who is next in line for the vaccine as millions of americans travel this holiday, despite health warnings. Were joined by admiral brett jirwa of the White House Coronavirus task force. Plus were going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. Well ask our sunday panels whether republicans efforts could be derailed to win a sunday majority, all right now on fox news sunday. Hello again. Happy new year from fox news in washington. A Christmas Holiday season like none other as americans isolated by covid precautions and looking for an economic boost, face more uncertainty. The president in florida after throwing a wrench into relief proceedings, in washington time is running out and tom he row shaping up to be one of the most consequential days of the congressional year. The house is scheduled to vote on the president s demand for 2,000 direct payments to some americans, although it will likely die in the republican controlled senate. The country also facing a looming shutdown in the middle of a pandemic which has killed more than 330,000 people in this country. In a moment, well speak with republican senator pat toomey of pennsylvania. First, lets bring in Mark Meredith with the latest from the president s maralago retreat in florida. Mark. Reporter mike, lawmakers from both parties are pleading with the president to sign the stimulus and funding bill, already in front of them, all in an effort to prevent a Government Shutdown and to keep pandemic assistance alive for millions of americans. This weekend, President Trump doubled down on demands congress rewrite its stimulus package, tweeting overnight, 2,000 plus 2,000 plus other family members, not 600. Remember, it was chinas fault. On christmas eve, democrats tried to amend the 900 billion bill and increase direct payments but House Republicans blocked the effort. We do not have an unanimous consent. Reporter with the stimulus and 1. 4 trillion government funding bill in limbo, democrats say the consequences of inaction could be dire. People are scared. People are desperate. Reporter on saturday, enhanced Unemployment Benefits lapsed for some americans, an Eviction Moratorium expires later this week. President elect joe biden urged the president to sign the deal, already worked out to make sure millions of americans can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. As biden weighs the final cabinet picks, President Trump is demanding congress not certify the november election when lawmakers meet for a joint session in early january. Thank you all for being here. Reporter the white house says the president is receiving constant updates on the Ongoing Investigation into the Christmas Day explosion in nashville. The fbi which is leading the investigation believes the blast was intentional. Tennessees governor is asking for federal assistance to help with the cleanup. Overnight tennessees congressional delegation sent a letter to the president urging them to support the assistance with officials saying there is so much help needed not only for the city of nashville but local business as well. Mike. Mark, thanks. Joining us from pennsylvania, republican senator pat toomey. Senator, welcome back to fox news sunday. Good morning, mike. Thanks for having me. Enhanced Unemployment Benefits ran out saturday. We could face a government shut down midnight monday night. You disagree with some of the provisions in the massive funding package. Why should the president sign it . Well, because you dont get everything you want even if youre the president of the United States. We have two legislative bodies and democrats control one, republicans the other many look, if it were just the freestanding government funding bill, i would almost certainly be voting against that. But i think the covid relief measures are really, really important and in my state as in many other states we have governors who are closing down businesses again. People are out of work. Certainly through no fault of their own. I think we need the extended Unemployment Benefits. I think we need another round of the ppp loans which are really grants to Small Businesses to keep their workforce part of their business. And times running out. So i understand the president would like to send bigger checks to everybody. I think what he ought to do is sign this bill and then make the case. Congress can pass another bill. I dont agree with 2,000 checks to people who have had no lost income whatsoever which is the vast majority of americans but the president s free to make that case. Democrats will agree with that. And see where it ends up. Weve got a bill right now that his administration helped negotiate. I think we ought to get that done. Your colleague, senator lindsey graham, suite tweeted after spending time with president real donald trump today i am convinced he is more determined than ever to increase stimulus payments to 2,000 per person and challenge section 230, big tech liability protection, both are reasonable demands. Do you worry were heading for a Government Shutdown, sir . I really dont know. I think the president has not actually explicitly said hes going to veto this bill. I take that as a hopeful sign. I think as he leaves office, he will i understand he wants to be remembered for advocating for big checks but the danger is hell be remembered for chaos and misery and erratic behavior if he allows this to expire. So i think the best thing to do as i say, sign this and then make the case for subsequent legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is going to hold a floor vote on the 2,000 stimulus item President Trump has requested, putting all House Republicans on the record. How can republicans vote against more aid when millions of americans are still unemployed through no fault of their own . Yeah, because its terribly untargetted. Right. Why would we be sending 2,000 to people with six figure income who have had no suspension, no reduction of income at all. Consider the millions of federal employees, never missed a check. Theyre not going to miss a check. Their expenses are probably somewhat diminished. Savings rate went through the roof. Why would we be sending several thousand dollars to these folks . This money isnt sitting on a shelf. Were going to print it or were going to borrow it. And i think that the aid should be much, much more targeted. It should be targeted to people who have actually lost their job. Small businesses that are actually in danger of going under. Those are very real categories. The numbers are significant. Thats where the aid should go. Not to people who have never had any loss of income. President trump pardoned former campaign aides, former gop congressman, Jared Kushners father, former blackwater security operative, senator ben saas saying, quote, this is rotten to the core. While the president certainly has the power, do you disagree with how he is using it . In some case, i do. I think the case of mike flynn, for instance, was completely legitimate to pardon him because the prosecution was an abuse of pow 0 wear. I dont think Michael Flynn ever committed a crime. But some of these other cases, i mean, my goodness we have tax fraud and bank fraud, witness tampering, obstruction of justice. But because they were close to the president , they got pardoned. This is unfortunately reminiscent of the mark rich pardon by president clinton. It is legal. It is constitutional. But i think its a misuse of the power. Some are suggesting its time to reform president ial pardon you powers. Do you agree . You know, its a good discussion to have but its a tough call. This is obviously a con constitutional power so i dont know how we would do it without amending the constitution. And i think it would be very challenging. Do you anticipate a lot more pardons before he leaves office, senator . I dont know what to anticipate. This president is often unpredictable. President trump continues disputeing the outcome of the 2020 president ial contest. Do you have concerns about it hurting republicans in georgia where those critical runoffs will decide the Senate Majority . Well, i think the president should accept the outcome of the election. He had every right to challenge these votes. He had every right to recounts and to litigate. He has done all of those things. In my state of pennsylvania, hes drawn conservative republican judges who have dismissed these cases for a lack of any credible evidence. In the case of georgia, i think the reason were going to win is we have better candidates. I think thats just an objective fact. Better candidates and people who better reflect the wishes of the people of georgia and Kelly Loeffler and david perdue, two terrific senators man. Im still cautiously optimistic about georgia. What are the stakes in georgia, in terms of whats the difference between Mitch Mcconnell and chuck schumer. If republicans hold the senate, then legislation will necessarily reflect broad compromise because both parties will have some say and Neither Party will be able to simply run off at will. If republicans were to lose both senate races in georgia, then the democrats will have complete control of the elected government and im afraid that much of that party has been taken over by this radical woke left and a very liberal agenda, openly advocating socialism, advocating for the elimination of police departments, i mean, just all kinds of crazy policies and there will be no check on those policies except whatever they choose to however they choose limit themselves and thats not very reassuring. I think for the sake of some balance and some consensus government, its really important that republicans hold onthe senate. Back to the 2020 president ial. The president s campaign asked the Supreme Court to throw out three state Supreme Court rulings on mailin ballots and asking the General Assembly be allowed to pick its own slate of electors, even if it doesnt overturn the entire election, is that argument valid . So, again, it gets complicated. The Pennsylvania StateSupreme Court sadly is a rogue court where democrats have decided to be extremely political and disregard the law. Thats a fact. And one of the examples is we have a statute that says in order to be counted, ballots have to arrive by 8 00 on election day. Its black and white. Its very easy to read. Thats what the law says. And then the pennsylvania Supreme Court came along and said well disregard that and allow votes to be counted for up to three days after that. They have no Legal Authority to do that. Its outrageous. But heres the important point, mike. Its fewer than 10,000 votes. President trump lost pennsylvania by over 80,000 votes. So even though that was a very bad decision, i think it should be overturned by the u. S. Supreme court, it wouldnt have changed the outcome of the election and thats something we have to recognize. Youre not running again in 2022 but what are your concerns looking forward about elections in your home state when at least the president s supporters think this election was a disaster. Well, i think there is some lessons we should learn. There is some changes we should make. We should overturn these completely illegal Pennsylvania StateSupreme Court rules. I for one think its perfectly okay for us to go back to the rules we had before the pandemic, where the vast majority of people voted in person. That served us for, i dont know, over 200 years, it probably still works. If you really cant make it to the polls on election day, you can get an absentee ballot but i think that would make all the sense in the world to go back to that system. Its easier to monitor, easy to verify and people would have more confidence in it. President trump waited until the final hour on wednesday to veto the National Defense authorization act which you voted in favor of, the defense bill affirmed 3 pay raises for u. S. Troops and authorizes more than 700 billion in programs and construction. Do you have the votes to override President Trumps veto . Well, i think well find out pretty soon. This legislation has been passed by Congress Every year for i think about 60 years running. Its been signed by president s. I think it does put the right priorities behind our defense policy and it passed both houses with huge overwhelming votes. But well see. Thats why you have the vote. Senator toomey, thank you. Thanks for joining us this Christmas Holiday weekend. Ill see you back on the hill. Up next, well bring in our sunday group to discuss the president s actions and the final stretch of his days in office. 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We are giving money to pakistan, we are giving money all over the world, really, and not focusing on those who need it the most here at home. Mike members of both parties in the house expressing serious frustration over the covid relief package that the president is now threatening not to sign. Its time for our sunday group. Jason riley of the wall street journal, Fox News ContributorKristin Soltis anderson and former dnc chair, donna brazile. Panel, welcome. Thank you. Mike it doesnt look like republicans are going to go along with President Trumps demand of 2,000 stimulus checks. Jason, are we heading for a Government Shutdown . I dont know if were headed for a shutdown, mike. I do think that republicans, however, feel like the president really pulled out the rug from under them at the last minute here. People dont elect republicans because democrats dont spend enough money. They elect them because they want some fiscal responsibility. And the president s own negotiator, treasury secretary steven mnuchin, thought he was negotiating in good faith for a 600 payment. I understand the president wanting to give people more money but frankly that is not i think what the country needs right now, so much as they need for businesses to reopen, for the economy to get back up to speed. And these lockdowns are the problem, not the fact that checks are supposedly too small. People need to get back to work and to the extent that some of the Unemployment Insurance relief supplements in this bill are too high, there will be a disincentive for people to go back to work if they can be paid more to not work. So we have to worry about that as well. Mike to be clear, house Speaker Nancy Pelosi initially accepted the 600 stimulus payment. Donna, did she cut a bad deal . Absolutely not. Since the spring of 2020, the speaker and democrats have been trying to give the American People relief. We know that this virus is not going to disappear overnight. And what the House Democrats along with those in the senate tried to do was to negotiate a fair deal, something that will help the American People. You know, the 300 that the federal government will provide to the states in addition to what they will receive is a lifeline to people getting back on their feet. Many of these workers who have lost their jobs, they have lost their healthcare, they are struggling to make ends meet and at a time when theyre trying to stay in their apartments or of pay their mortgage, all they want is relief. I agree with Vice President i mean, the president elect, joe biden, its an abdi case of President Trumps responsibility not to sign this bill and not to allow the government to continue to operate. Mike house lawmakers return tomorrow to start the process of trying to override President Trumps veto of the National Defense authorization. How awkward is t for the gop to clash with the president on defense and stimulus, kristin . Its putting a lot of republicans in a very tough spot because some of the president s most vocal advocates are also those who would say we need to be giving a lot of funding to our defense, we cannot be allowing this to lapse and so its putting them in a tough spot. Whats ironic, on the one hand, the president is right to complain about the fact that these bills are enormous, that thi