Eye on the senates endoftheyear legislative business. Good evening, david. Senators have a lot of work to do but not much time to do it. Two major funding bills sitting in limbo tonight and those senators hope to come to an agreement before the new senate is sworn in on sunday. Lets talk about covid19 relief. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell on the floor just hours ago announced he will move forward with a covid relief package that includes 2,000 direct payments, but theres a catch. Involving the president s wish list. Mcconnell says to get the 2,000 checks, democrats must also repeal section 230 of the Communications Decency act which protects Big Tech Companies who censor speech online. President trump says Companies Like twitter and facebook unfairly censor republican perspectives and have been for years. The majority leader also wants a bipartisan study examining the integrity and security of the 2020 president ial election. The senate is not going to split apart the three issues President Trump linked together just because democrats are afraid to address two of them. Democrats called the Election Integrity in section 230 parts of the package poison pills. They want a straight upward up n vote. The house passed a measure that would give 2,000 direct payments to the American People. Passed the house bill now. Who is holding up the distribution to the American People . Mitch mcconnell in the Senate Republicans. Mcconnell says the house bill isnt likely to make it through the senate with a majority of republicans say increasing payments from 600 to 2,000 would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Money we dont have. Money that we are borrowing from our kids future. I think we need to target that more. Some republicans are in favor of the 2,000 number on the president s wish list. Also sitting in the senates lap, the opportunity to override the president s veto of the National Defense authorization act, the annual bill to fund the military. The president vetoed the bill over legacy would rename military bases currently named for confederate war leaders. Mcconnell, a trumpet ally on any given day, plans to override the president s veto along with the majority of other republicans. Senator Bernie Sanders wants to stall the ndaa vote and bring up the covid relief checks without the president ial wish list. A senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell snapped back and said the ndaa remains a top priority of the United States senate. Bret. Bret again we will hear from senator sanders here on special report in just a minute. David, thank you. Less than one week away from those two Senate Runoff elections crucial in georgia and the nearly two months since the president ial election we have seen a Record Number of dollars and surrogates boring into the peach state. We have Team Coverage night. Correspondent Steve Harrigan is on the ground in atlanta tracking the latest irrelevance but first correspondent peter doocy is taking a look at the big picture live from washington, georgia. Leaving computer. Good evening, bret and now that were on the ground in georgia we are noticing that people can get a lot closer to the candidates than we have gotten use to on these president ial campaign beats during the pandemic. One thing hasnt changed. That is the long shadow cast over this election by President Trump. We are going to keep fighting. Democrats are moving on. Donald trump is leaving a georgia voter sent donald trump packing. Four Georgia Senate candidates and two arguments. The republicans Kelly Loeffler and david purdue. Two of the most liberal candidates. And Raphael Warnock and jon ossoff. We are running against the bonnie and clyde of corruption. If ossoff wins he will be the youngest u. S. Senator in 40 years. You talked in your speech about health and jobs and justice for all. Why not talk more about your experience, your relevant expanse of being the best person to deliver on those things . Ive made my career fighting injustice. Exposing war crimes and corruption. I run a business thats exposed terrorism. That business is a documentary film company. Ossoff is managing help from political heavyweights. You can send jon ossoff to the senate to beat this virus and rebuild our economy. To make sure that everybody can afford health care. And to carry the torch john lewis passed to us. The latest obama ad only mention ossoff, not reverent Raphael Warnock. Warnocks exwife accused him f running over her foot with a car but he was never charged and counselors have a camp he used to run within accused of abusing minors. Have to make sure georgians know exactly who he is in his own words. As dangerous policies and dangerous candidates. And its a dangerous path. Any concern that the allegations of wrongdoing against reverent warnock could possibly be a drag on the democratic ticket . None whatsoever. A warnock and a ossoff win would give democrats control of the senate but with six days to go, warnock is off the campaign trail. No Public Events today, no Public Events tomorrow, next public event scheduled friday. Bret. Bret peter doocy in georgia. Thanks. New numbers and new developments tonight just six days out from those Senate Runoffs. Correspondent Steve Harrigan brings us the latest on both races from atlanta. Some of the 2. 5 million early votes are already being sorted and scanned ahead of election day where two runoffs will determine which Party Controls the senate. Nearly 800 million has been spent, most of it on tv ads that run nonstop. President elect biden comes to atlanta monday to campaign. Vice president elect harris to savannah sunday where there are concerns the early democratic vote has been legging. Republican Party Leaders are concerned charges of voter fraud could depress republican turnout. Northwest georgia with a ge g. O. Can hold the event a shows the lowest numbers of early voting. President trump tweeted about brian kemp, nobody can be this stupid. Tweeting brian kemp should resign from office. Hes an obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won georgia big. Further controversy after a federal judge ordered two counties to restore 4,000 voters to the rules after questions were raised about the accuracy of residential addresses. An attorney for the Democratic Party tweeted in a blow to g. O. P. Voter suppression, a federal court joins georgia counties from removing 4,000 voters from registration lists. Republicans noted that the judge, lisa abrams gardner, the sister of former democratic candidate for governor, stacey abrams. What they say is another example of election corruption. How can your sister pretend to be a judge will be neutral . Its another example of why its been the most corrupt elections in my lifetime. The president returns to georgia monday for a rally in which he is likely to criticize the voting process in georgia as corrupt and encourage georgians to vote. Bret Steve Harrigan in atlanta. Modest gains on the nexttolast day of the year on wall street as investors look to the new year with optimism for an improving economic outlook. The dow is up 74. S p 500 gained 5. Nasdaq added 20. Missouri senator josh hawley is throwing his support behind the president s fight to challenge the results of last months election. Senator hawley now saying that he will object to the Electoral College certification process one week from today. January 6. Correspondent rich edson has that story west palm beach. Republican senator josh hawley says millions of voters concerned about Election Integrity deserve to be heard. I will object on january 6th on their behalf. With that tweet, President Trump will secure a debate and vote in the house and senate challenging the election results. Democrats control the house and several senate wiccans including majority leader mcconnell have acknowledged president elect joe biden is the winner. Hawleys maneuver likely only delays bidens Electoral College certification. I have no doubt that next wednesday, week from from today, joe biden will be confirmed by the acceptance of the votes of the Electoral College. Vice president mike pence will preside over next week congressional session counting the electoral votes. Some Congressional Republicans are pushing a legal effort to give pence the authority to get trump electors. Vacationing at maralago, the president is reserving his commentary for twitter, responding to criticism about his ministrations Vaccine Distribution putting the responsibility on state governments tweeting get moving. And calling a wall street journal editorial very boring and incoherent. After the conservative opinion section accused President Trump of always putting his personal interests above nearly everything else. Adding republicans are paying the political price. Mr. Trump lost his reluctant bid to joe biden i now he may cost republicans the senate, citing ththe president s demand more thn triple the 600 covid relief payments to 2,000. The cost of nearly half trillion dollars and dividing Congressional Republicans. The Treasury Department says the irs has begun sending out those 600 payments and the president tweets repeatedly and daily for congress to raise that to 2,000. Bret. Bret rich, thank you. Senator josh hawley will be on with will cain and for martha. Were still waiting news on the nominee of a new attorney general by by the president elect tonight. Jacqui heinrich is live live in wilmington, delaware, with the latest. Good evening. Good evening, bret. 20 days until inauguration the president elect has not announced his pick for attorney general and reporters have asked what is holding up his decision. Transition officials didnt directly answer whether biden is waiting for the results of the georgia runoff. Bidens previously said its not a factor and his team claimed he has a full plate with covid and National Security meetings, telling us to expect more cabinet announcements next week. Bidens longtime ally, senator chris coons, making his preference known. Im hoping that he will choose my colleague, doug jones. There are a number of very capable and talented folks he is seriously considering. Hes assembled an amazing team for his cabinet, a team thats experienced and ready to Work Together on day one. The transition is brushing off news that republican senator josh hawley plans to object to bidens win when congress certifies the Electoral College vote on january 6 but they are taken more seriously what they called sergeant from Political Leadership of the department of defense and office of management and budget saying it will likely delay bidens first budget release. Moderate democrats in congress are asking biden for classified bipartisan briefings over the recent russian cyber attacks. Its one area for transitions as they have gone full visibility from the Trump Administration. Fox has learned that the pentagon civilian leadership order to stop on meetings with ththe biden transition December December 18. Claims from chris miller that the Outgoing Team has cooperated appropriately. Hes wrong. We are looking at a substantial number of very specific, important requests for information that they are not responding to. Make no mistake. The lack of cooperation has realworld implications. Most concerning way as it relates to our National Security. Transition also announced biden will issue a memo on inauguration day, stopping any midnight regulations enacted by the Trump Administration that havent yet taken effect. Bret. Bret thank you. Coming up, senator Bernie Sanders and President Trump have little in common but both have voiced support for the increase in stimulus checks to 2,000. We will talk about that with one of them in just a bit. Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests while sending the bare minimum to the American People who need it. Do we turn our backs on struggling, working families or do we respond to their pain . Sanctuary music kids laughing upbeat tempo sanctuary music its the final days of the wish list sales event sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. 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Plus, no interest until january 2024. Ends monday. Bret breaking tonight, the fate of the house approved 2,000 individual relief payments remains unresolved in the senate. Lets bring in one of the first lawmakers to back the bigger checks, but president is also pushing for that as well. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. Senator, welcome back to special report. Thank you very much and happy new year to you. Bret happy new year to you, sir. Youve called President Trump a racist, a sexist, xenophobic, religious bigot, demagogue, a liar. Now you say hes a visionary when it comes to 2,000 i didnt say visionary. No, i didnt. I think President Trump is the most dangerous president in the history of our country but he happens to be right on this issue. I think he is correct in saying that we are living in a terrible terrible economic moment for tens of millions of workingclass families. We fought very hard to get the 600 direct payments. Trump is right in saying its not enough. We need to go to 2,000. I didnt say he was a visionary. He is right on this. Bret obviously speaker pelosi, senator Chuck Schumer, treasury secretary debated this with Republican Leadership for a long time. They cut a deal for the 600 stimulus check. Did they just waste their time and cut a lousy deal . Look. When you look at a deal, you have to look at it within the context of the problems that we face. Bret, as i think most americans know we are living in a terrible unprecedented moment when millions of folks have lost their jobs and their income. Tens of millions of people are facing eviction. We are looking at a record level of hunger in america. In the midst of this terrible pandemic youve got 90 Million People who are uninsured or underinsured and cant afford to go to a doctor. You have people accumulating more and more in debt. You have shoplifting with families, people trying to get food to feed their kids. In this particular moment i think we need bold action and i think providing a 2,000 check to every workingclass adult is the right thing to do. Bret theres a lot of people, senator, republicans and democrats who feel the way you do that this is an extenuating circumstance but on the flip side there some who feel like 600 is going to get the job done right now and they feel like 463 billion added to the debt at this moment is not the right thing after this funding bill. What do you say to them . I thought and helped lead the fight for direct payments and i wanted more. We got 600 and that will help a lot of people but bret, i was on the floor of the senate today reading stories that came to my office from all over the country. We are talking about moms trying to feed their kids. We are talking about people worried about being thrown out on the street because they are faced with eviction. Weve got a really serious problem. 600 bucks, as President Trump has said, its just not enough. Not going to do it. The debt is a serious issue and youre right, we are talking about a whole lot of money.