Transcripts For FOXNEWSW The Journal Editorial Report 202012

Military raising taxes, trampling on our values. Paul lets bring in carl rope, served as Senior Advisor to president george w. Bush and is heading up a republican fundraising effort for those two georgia traces. To those races stand right now . There are two new polls showing the hogans modestly 1. 2 in one poll for both republican candidates and available one point lead and threepoint lead but its going to be very tight. Big turnout, we are all trying to define what happens. Can i go through some of the numbers with you . Paul yes. Absentee mailing, which the democrats screamed the republicans in november, 480,000 people have voted thus far in the runoff. Comparable numbers this many days before the november election was 649,000. 168,000 people have voted by mail thus far that voted in the general election, thats about 25 less. Thats bad news for the democrats. The population is about 20 plus, 22 them. It was 24 at this time in the fall so there are fewer voters voting by mail compared to fall and slightly less democrat. And its slowing down. Thursdays totals, they will have fridays numbers until later in the day, 6264 voted on thursday by mail so the numbers are slowing down. On the other hand, republicans barely one the in person voting that began monday and started out behind because the first day of voting for the november election was columbus day so a lot of Rural Counties declared holiday and pulls on sunday in atlanta, a big effort to get out the black vote monday. Same thing happened this time with regard to the polls on sunday. 638,000 people voted in the runoff thus far versus 573,000 at this time in the november election so 11 more. This is what the replicants did better, its sixpoint democrat compared to sixpoint democrat four days in in the early vote. Whats interesting is wednesday was to. Democrat, thursday was 0. 5 democrat. I bet friday and saturday numbers show replicants taking the lead. The numbers are growing. 154,000 voted thursday. This is where republicans start, they won it narrowly but it seems to be so far good news. Slightly less democrat, thus f far, we will know better after this weekend with republicans appearing to do well in the early voting that a lot more people are turning out to vote early. Paul it to close to plaistow, either way but lets focus on the messaging because thats the message, Vice President this week making it all about the senate. Joe biden from protecting you from a or b or c. The governor, secretary of state saint its corrupt. The messages, go and vote, save the senate. On the other hand, your vote may not count because of the corrupt system and its broken. Thats a mixed message. That is a mixed message but id say it in a slightly different way. Where they end up is the rally, the days afterwards, to the trump voters, turn out and vote and such numbers they cant take it away because its a slightly different message and attacks on the governor and secretary of state, i think people have dialed that in in their calculation. The interesting thing is there are two groups of voters republicans need to worry about. Low propensity trump voters and atlanta swing voters. Coming out for donald trump in november, are they going to come out in january . In atlanta, you have a lot of suburbanites who said i sort of like what trump has done but i dont like how he handles himself. Some will sit it out or im going to vote for biden. Senator perdue runs ahead of President Trump and many of those atlanta suburbs. The interesting thing to me, the same issue appeals to both of them. We have to have a Republican Senate to act as a governor on a restraint, a break if you will on what nancy lucy, and joe biden want to do in that argument appeals to both of those universes so we will likely see big turnout and weve seen it in georgia where the president wins and north georg georgia, big turnout in these early voting and even more replicants voting by mail so so far, so good i wish it was more in sync but it is what it is. Paul the suburban vote around atlanta seems to be, that is the reason donald trump lost the state it seems to me. Getting those back is crucial. Obviously turnout in other parts of the state, getting the swing voters back, are they going to care about what is happening in congress on the covid stimulus . I think particularly not in the suburbs, a passage of a covid relief bill will be a positive measure. Even if they are doing well and suburbs, they know their state is hurting and in need of this assistance. I think it will help. Can i talk about one more number . You may have seen voter registrations. Paul quickly. 76000 voters registered since the election. Only about 2670 voted. 3. 5 turnout, right now statewide turnout is at 15 so the new group which is young and never voted before is not turning out very good. Paul thanks, karl. Talk to you soon. When we come back as attorney general william barr which pairs to leave the Justice Department, he took time to talk to kim strassel. He revealed the future of the durham probe and federal investigation into hunter biden, next. Wedding day, huh boys . Been there, done that. Twice your cousin. From boston. Karen, im just gonna say what everyone here is thinking. You look smokin. Total smokeshow. And they never did find his finger. They had to close the pool for like an hour. I brought a date. Names sam. Dig in. Love is like boston lager. Rich, complex and its over too soon. Right, chrissy . Oh my god. Attorney general william barr announcing this week he will step down from his post, capping his second stint as a nations top Law Enforcement official and as he prepares to leave the Justice Department this coming week, kim strassel sat down with the eternal attorney general for an interview with topics including the latest on special counsel john durhams investigation into the origins of the russia probe and republican criticism over his handling of the hunter biden investigation. Kim, you got 90 minutes with the ag this week and people can read your accounts of it online but please tell us, i think everyone is dying to hear, what is the news on this . Kim i think the news there, i should say quickly that this is what the ag learned prior to elevating him to special counsel because the special counsel was a little more independent, you dont just share everything all the time but what barr said prior to that, i think the biggest news is what john durham has ruled out. Specifically, there was a lot of suspicion that may be the fbi was spying on the Trump Campaign prior to the official beginning of the probe in july 2016. There was concern that maybe the cia foreign intelligence was also involved earlier than that and it appeared to be not the case. Also, the cia appeared to stay in his lane and thats one thing the attorney general related. The durham probe, what that means is its very focused instead on the official fbi investigation, people at the top who are running it after the july 2016 start date and also he said certain outside private actors, he did not sort of say anything more about that, i wont give any names but that doesnt tell us a lot about who sort of is in the target here. Paul the private actors, we will name anybody could be people who supplied information, could be false information to the fbi . And i guess, is that exempt when he mentions focusing on the top official, does that include the fbi, top officials of the fbi at the time . Kim it would seem to because one of the things he did mention several times throughout the interview is that it appears there was a small but willful group at the fbi who somewhat abused their powers. I think its hard not to assume that that is the Leadership Back then at the time of the fbi whether its call me, jim comey or Andrew Mccabe or some of these agents that we know who are running this. I think what he was stressing, the vast majority of these people at the fbi are very good at their jobs and do this, it seems to be a case of leadership really abusing fbi powers. Paul i guess one question in some cases in the white house, why it took so long. The attorney general shed some light on that . Kim absolutely. One of the things he stress is that it turns out durham, a big part of this was looking at the fbi and surveillance powers, abuse of those tools. Durham had to wait until Michael Michael horwitz finished his own investigation and didnt actually get a hold of any of that in those documents until december when horwitz finally finished his report. Then boom, right after that, covid and lockdowns. The country didnt have any grand juries for six months. That meant john durham, no one said anything about it but it meant durham couldnt even use leverage of threatening to get a subpoena from a grand jury to bring in any witnesses to voluntarily come in. That certainly delayed things as well. Paul will there be a Durham Report . Good the next attorney general squelch it . Kim absolutely the Durham Report, that is one of the things the special counsel required a special counsel to give a report to the ag so there will be a report. Barr was very optimistic that just the circumstances in public pressure would mean the report would have to come public. Paul lets turn to the hunter biden investigation, theres an investigation into his taxes and perhaps more. Will they be a special counsel named in the hunter biden case. Kim i have no idea. I hope not just because we have that long history of bob mueller, longer history of special counsel and they rarely ever and well. I have no idea whether or not hes going to name special counsel for hunter biden but we certainly dont have this with them. Paul okay, what is his response to the criticism that the news about the hunter biden investigation criminal probe after the election when the people and justice knew about it before and should have disclosed it . Kim well, that didnt happen. Bill barr didnt apologize for keeping it quiet. He pointed out there is a longstanding rule at the department of justice that you dont take these investigations, you dont make them public about highprofile officials in a run up to an election. You dont really do it ever. He couldnt imagine a scenario where you would be presented a dilemma if you had evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of a very serious crime against a candidate, that does not seem to have been the situation in this case. He further said there is good reason for that rule, it exists to protect against the department of justice bureaucr bureaucrat, politicizing the department with an investigation and pointed out they are just to in effect an election. Paul fascinating stuff. You can read all online. When we come back, joe bidens diversity candidate. President elect touting his pics as a series of first, what the choices say about priorities in office and will they satisfy his parties left side . Compared to my predecessors Kamala Harris Biden Cabinet is first among the cabinets of all the first it represents. Every year, we set out to do one thing help the world believe in holiday magic. And this year was harder than ever. And yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. Its not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. Santa, santa, youre on mute just wanted to say thanks. Thanks for believing. The first woman lead the Intelligence Committee and the first latino leading hhs is confirmed, the first africanamerican held in the Defense Department and well over 200 years. If confirmed, the first asianamerican, first woman of color to serve in this position. First ever gay nominee to lead the cabinet department. The first ever woman to hold Alexander Hamiltons position as treasury secretary. Paul joe biden counting as years of first as he rolled out his cabinet. The president elect diversity a key consideration in his pics that so far include janet yellen as the first female treasury secretary. The first black defense chief, xavier becerra, the first hispanic head of health and Human Services in the first openly gay cabinet secretary. Leading the Transportation Department this week. We are back with kim strassel and columnist, dan, edit editorial page editor. Dan henninger and kyle peterson. Dan, he wrote this week the diversity cabinet of joe biden, what did you mean by that . What lessons do you glean from it . Dan what i meant was what we just heard from the president elect joe biden, a whole series of first, as he called it, the press has been dutifully appending the first, the names of all these people. Identity politics. There was a time years back when it was called the spoil system pushing out power and factions inside your own party but we are talking here about the presidency of the United States and i think it at least raises the question of whether an Incoming Party president should be attempting to have the most effective government possible or whether the presidency has simply become a vessel through which we pass people into positions of power based on who and what they are. That clearly seems to be what is going on here. A caricature of the idea of diversity or identity politics. I suppose if youre republican well, if he doesnt put the absolutely best people in these roles, the government will be performing as effectively as it could, that is good for republicans. But youre beginning to hear around the margins some complaints among members of the democratic left, they wanted heavier hitters in these positions, this is their moment, they want effective people, not simply people to hold a place card in the roster of identity politics. Paul kyle, what is fascinating to me, usually when you pick the president pick cabinet members, the focus has been what do they think . The in the center, the have particular experience . Here, it is just who they are and maybe somebody list a little bit of experience but nobody ever asked, what are their views . Kyle it has gotten biden into some awkward places. Leading into this, he said will have the first woman to lead the Intelligence Committee. Right before that, his talking the challenges america faces, counterterrorism, he said that, he said we cant face these challenges with old ways of thinking, for example, im going to nominate the first woman to lead the Intelligence Committee and im not against recognizing the nominee but it struck me as odd he suggested there would be specifically male and female ways to think about counterterrorism policy. Paul kim, one of the other things that seems to be emerging here in the cabinet is everybody seems to be, it seems to be the one single dominant issue that a lot of these departments why dont you elaborate . Kim you see it not just in the positions being created, we see biden creating of lyme envoy, john kerry and hes got a climate thats going to be Gina Mccarthy but as you said, what youre seeing across these departments are officials who have made priorities on climate that said the most pressing issue in the world an existential crisis, it seems very clear as they go into those departments, whether the Agriculture Department or interior department, climate is going to be the driving force. He asked why this seems to be one of the ways in which joe biden will try to continue to progressives, thats obviously one of their top priorities, one of Bernie Sanders priority but its very worrisome if that is the lines for which every american policy is going to be developed because it will be very intrusive. Paul one of the issues that might be raised is whether joe biden is giving the appearance that if you lobby hard, you can push him, move him. Im thinking of michelle, the favorite, going to be defense secretary for a while and some africanamerican supporters spoke up and said we want and africanamerican, and they got lloyd austin. Theres a lot of pushing back and forth and i wonder if biden, maybe sending a signal of weakness here. If he is, and i think he is indeed, that spells trouble for his residency. There are people inside the democratic party, liberals who would say identity politics, absolutely. We are at a time in history where people have to be put in these positions of authority because they have, in their mind, have been discriminated against for over 400 years and they are not apologizing for it. Thats been clear during the biden process that these factions, black americans, asians, hispanics, all have their own interests and they will fight with one another to get those interests and that ultimately could damage the larger goal, any larger goals joe biden may have in his presidency. Youre suggesting it isnt clear at all what joe bidens larger goals are now the he has arrived at the prize of the american presidency. Paul thank you all. Still ahead, u. S. Wrapped up the vaccine rollout the first shots administered this week, has the approval process moving faster. The most vulnerable get immunized. Who i have the same dimples as her. Yeah. The same placements and everything. Unbelievable. Or psoriatic arthritis, Little Things can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats differently. For psoriasis, 75 clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. For psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. Looking to save money this look at allstate. N . Drivers who switched saved, averaged 718 dollars. Saving is easy when youre in good hands. Call a local agent, or 1800allstate for a quote today. Healthcare workers in longterm care facilities are among the Senior Advisor<\/a> to president george w. Bush and is heading up a republican fundraising effort for those two georgia traces. To those races stand right now . There are two new polls showing the hogans modestly 1. 2 in one poll for both republican candidates and available one point lead and threepoint lead but its going to be very tight. Big turnout, we are all trying to define what happens. Can i go through some of the numbers with you . Paul yes. Absentee mailing, which the democrats screamed the republicans in november, 480,000 people have voted thus far in the runoff. Comparable numbers this many days before the november election was 649,000. 168,000 people have voted by mail thus far that voted in the general election, thats about 25 less. Thats bad news for the democrats. The population is about 20 plus, 22 them. It was 24 at this time in the fall so there are fewer voters voting by mail compared to fall and slightly less democrat. And its slowing down. Thursdays totals, they will have fridays numbers until later in the day, 6264 voted on thursday by mail so the numbers are slowing down. On the other hand, republicans barely one the in person voting that began monday and started out behind because the first day of voting for the november election was columbus day so a lot of Rural Counties<\/a> declared holiday and pulls on sunday in atlanta, a big effort to get out the black vote monday. Same thing happened this time with regard to the polls on sunday. 638,000 people voted in the runoff thus far versus 573,000 at this time in the november election so 11 more. This is what the replicants did better, its sixpoint democrat compared to sixpoint democrat four days in in the early vote. Whats interesting is wednesday was to. Democrat, thursday was 0. 5 democrat. I bet friday and saturday numbers show replicants taking the lead. The numbers are growing. 154,000 voted thursday. This is where republicans start, they won it narrowly but it seems to be so far good news. Slightly less democrat, thus f far, we will know better after this weekend with republicans appearing to do well in the early voting that a lot more people are turning out to vote early. Paul it to close to plaistow, either way but lets focus on the messaging because thats the message, Vice President<\/a> this week making it all about the senate. Joe biden from protecting you from a or b or c. The governor, secretary of state saint its corrupt. The messages, go and vote, save the senate. On the other hand, your vote may not count because of the corrupt system and its broken. Thats a mixed message. That is a mixed message but id say it in a slightly different way. Where they end up is the rally, the days afterwards, to the trump voters, turn out and vote and such numbers they cant take it away because its a slightly different message and attacks on the governor and secretary of state, i think people have dialed that in in their calculation. The interesting thing is there are two groups of voters republicans need to worry about. Low propensity trump voters and atlanta swing voters. Coming out for donald trump in november, are they going to come out in january . In atlanta, you have a lot of suburbanites who said i sort of like what trump has done but i dont like how he handles himself. Some will sit it out or im going to vote for biden. Senator perdue runs ahead of President Trump<\/a> and many of those atlanta suburbs. The interesting thing to me, the same issue appeals to both of them. We have to have a Republican Senate<\/a> to act as a governor on a restraint, a break if you will on what nancy lucy, and joe biden want to do in that argument appeals to both of those universes so we will likely see big turnout and weve seen it in georgia where the president wins and north georg georgia, big turnout in these early voting and even more replicants voting by mail so so far, so good i wish it was more in sync but it is what it is. Paul the suburban vote around atlanta seems to be, that is the reason donald trump lost the state it seems to me. Getting those back is crucial. Obviously turnout in other parts of the state, getting the swing voters back, are they going to care about what is happening in congress on the covid stimulus . I think particularly not in the suburbs, a passage of a covid relief bill will be a positive measure. Even if they are doing well and suburbs, they know their state is hurting and in need of this assistance. I think it will help. Can i talk about one more number . You may have seen voter registrations. Paul quickly. 76000 voters registered since the election. Only about 2670 voted. 3. 5 turnout, right now statewide turnout is at 15 so the new group which is young and never voted before is not turning out very good. Paul thanks, karl. Talk to you soon. When we come back as attorney general william barr which pairs to leave the Justice Department<\/a>, he took time to talk to kim strassel. He revealed the future of the durham probe and federal investigation into hunter biden, next. Wedding day, huh boys . Been there, done that. Twice your cousin. From boston. Karen, im just gonna say what everyone here is thinking. You look smokin. Total smokeshow. And they never did find his finger. They had to close the pool for like an hour. I brought a date. Names sam. Dig in. Love is like boston lager. Rich, complex and its over too soon. Right, chrissy . Oh my god. Attorney general william barr announcing this week he will step down from his post, capping his second stint as a nations top Law Enforcement<\/a> official and as he prepares to leave the Justice Department<\/a> this coming week, kim strassel sat down with the eternal attorney general for an interview with topics including the latest on special counsel john durhams investigation into the origins of the russia probe and republican criticism over his handling of the hunter biden investigation. Kim, you got 90 minutes with the ag this week and people can read your accounts of it online but please tell us, i think everyone is dying to hear, what is the news on this . Kim i think the news there, i should say quickly that this is what the ag learned prior to elevating him to special counsel because the special counsel was a little more independent, you dont just share everything all the time but what barr said prior to that, i think the biggest news is what john durham has ruled out. Specifically, there was a lot of suspicion that may be the fbi was spying on the Trump Campaign<\/a> prior to the official beginning of the probe in july 2016. There was concern that maybe the cia foreign intelligence was also involved earlier than that and it appeared to be not the case. Also, the cia appeared to stay in his lane and thats one thing the attorney general related. The durham probe, what that means is its very focused instead on the official fbi investigation, people at the top who are running it after the july 2016 start date and also he said certain outside private actors, he did not sort of say anything more about that, i wont give any names but that doesnt tell us a lot about who sort of is in the target here. Paul the private actors, we will name anybody could be people who supplied information, could be false information to the fbi . And i guess, is that exempt when he mentions focusing on the top official, does that include the fbi, top officials of the fbi at the time . Kim it would seem to because one of the things he did mention several times throughout the interview is that it appears there was a small but willful group at the fbi who somewhat abused their powers. I think its hard not to assume that that is the Leadership Back<\/a> then at the time of the fbi whether its call me, jim comey or Andrew Mccabe<\/a> or some of these agents that we know who are running this. I think what he was stressing, the vast majority of these people at the fbi are very good at their jobs and do this, it seems to be a case of leadership really abusing fbi powers. Paul i guess one question in some cases in the white house, why it took so long. The attorney general shed some light on that . Kim absolutely. One of the things he stress is that it turns out durham, a big part of this was looking at the fbi and surveillance powers, abuse of those tools. Durham had to wait until Michael Michael<\/a> horwitz finished his own investigation and didnt actually get a hold of any of that in those documents until december when horwitz finally finished his report. Then boom, right after that, covid and lockdowns. The country didnt have any grand juries for six months. That meant john durham, no one said anything about it but it meant durham couldnt even use leverage of threatening to get a subpoena from a grand jury to bring in any witnesses to voluntarily come in. That certainly delayed things as well. Paul will there be a Durham Report<\/a> . Good the next attorney general squelch it . Kim absolutely the Durham Report<\/a>, that is one of the things the special counsel required a special counsel to give a report to the ag so there will be a report. Barr was very optimistic that just the circumstances in public pressure would mean the report would have to come public. Paul lets turn to the hunter biden investigation, theres an investigation into his taxes and perhaps more. Will they be a special counsel named in the hunter biden case. Kim i have no idea. I hope not just because we have that long history of bob mueller, longer history of special counsel and they rarely ever and well. I have no idea whether or not hes going to name special counsel for hunter biden but we certainly dont have this with them. Paul okay, what is his response to the criticism that the news about the hunter biden investigation criminal probe after the election when the people and justice knew about it before and should have disclosed it . Kim well, that didnt happen. Bill barr didnt apologize for keeping it quiet. He pointed out there is a longstanding rule at the department of justice that you dont take these investigations, you dont make them public about highprofile officials in a run up to an election. You dont really do it ever. He couldnt imagine a scenario where you would be presented a dilemma if you had evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of a very serious crime against a candidate, that does not seem to have been the situation in this case. He further said there is good reason for that rule, it exists to protect against the department of justice bureaucr bureaucrat, politicizing the department with an investigation and pointed out they are just to in effect an election. Paul fascinating stuff. You can read all online. When we come back, joe bidens diversity candidate. President elect touting his pics as a series of first, what the choices say about priorities in office and will they satisfy his parties left side . Compared to my predecessors Kamala Harris<\/a> Biden Cabinet<\/a> is first among the cabinets of all the first it represents. Every year, we set out to do one thing help the world believe in holiday magic. And this year was harder than ever. And yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. Its not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. Santa, santa, youre on mute just wanted to say thanks. Thanks for believing. The first woman lead the Intelligence Committee<\/a> and the first latino leading hhs is confirmed, the first africanamerican held in the Defense Department<\/a> and well over 200 years. If confirmed, the first asianamerican, first woman of color to serve in this position. First ever gay nominee to lead the cabinet department. The first ever woman to hold Alexander Hamiltons<\/a> position as treasury secretary. Paul joe biden counting as years of first as he rolled out his cabinet. The president elect diversity a key consideration in his pics that so far include janet yellen as the first female treasury secretary. The first black defense chief, xavier becerra, the first hispanic head of health and Human Services<\/a> in the first openly gay cabinet secretary. Leading the Transportation Department<\/a> this week. We are back with kim strassel and columnist, dan, edit editorial page editor. Dan henninger and kyle peterson. Dan, he wrote this week the diversity cabinet of joe biden, what did you mean by that . What lessons do you glean from it . Dan what i meant was what we just heard from the president elect joe biden, a whole series of first, as he called it, the press has been dutifully appending the first, the names of all these people. Identity politics. There was a time years back when it was called the spoil system pushing out power and factions inside your own party but we are talking here about the presidency of the United States<\/a> and i think it at least raises the question of whether an Incoming Party<\/a> president should be attempting to have the most effective government possible or whether the presidency has simply become a vessel through which we pass people into positions of power based on who and what they are. That clearly seems to be what is going on here. A caricature of the idea of diversity or identity politics. I suppose if youre republican well, if he doesnt put the absolutely best people in these roles, the government will be performing as effectively as it could, that is good for republicans. But youre beginning to hear around the margins some complaints among members of the democratic left, they wanted heavier hitters in these positions, this is their moment, they want effective people, not simply people to hold a place card in the roster of identity politics. Paul kyle, what is fascinating to me, usually when you pick the president pick cabinet members, the focus has been what do they think . The in the center, the have particular experience . Here, it is just who they are and maybe somebody list a little bit of experience but nobody ever asked, what are their views . Kyle it has gotten biden into some awkward places. Leading into this, he said will have the first woman to lead the Intelligence Committee<\/a>. Right before that, his talking the challenges america faces, counterterrorism, he said that, he said we cant face these challenges with old ways of thinking, for example, im going to nominate the first woman to lead the Intelligence Committee<\/a> and im not against recognizing the nominee but it struck me as odd he suggested there would be specifically male and female ways to think about counterterrorism policy. Paul kim, one of the other things that seems to be emerging here in the cabinet is everybody seems to be, it seems to be the one single dominant issue that a lot of these departments why dont you elaborate . Kim you see it not just in the positions being created, we see biden creating of lyme envoy, john kerry and hes got a climate thats going to be Gina Mccarthy<\/a> but as you said, what youre seeing across these departments are officials who have made priorities on climate that said the most pressing issue in the world an existential crisis, it seems very clear as they go into those departments, whether the Agriculture Department<\/a> or interior department, climate is going to be the driving force. He asked why this seems to be one of the ways in which joe biden will try to continue to progressives, thats obviously one of their top priorities, one of Bernie Sanders<\/a> priority but its very worrisome if that is the lines for which every american policy is going to be developed because it will be very intrusive. Paul one of the issues that might be raised is whether joe biden is giving the appearance that if you lobby hard, you can push him, move him. Im thinking of michelle, the favorite, going to be defense secretary for a while and some africanamerican supporters spoke up and said we want and africanamerican, and they got lloyd austin. Theres a lot of pushing back and forth and i wonder if biden, maybe sending a signal of weakness here. If he is, and i think he is indeed, that spells trouble for his residency. There are people inside the democratic party, liberals who would say identity politics, absolutely. We are at a time in history where people have to be put in these positions of authority because they have, in their mind, have been discriminated against for over 400 years and they are not apologizing for it. Thats been clear during the biden process that these factions, black americans, asians, hispanics, all have their own interests and they will fight with one another to get those interests and that ultimately could damage the larger goal, any larger goals joe biden may have in his presidency. Youre suggesting it isnt clear at all what joe bidens larger goals are now the he has arrived at the prize of the american presidency. Paul thank you all. Still ahead, u. S. Wrapped up the vaccine rollout the first shots administered this week, has the approval process moving faster. The most vulnerable get immunized. Who i have the same dimples as her. Yeah. The same placements and everything. Unbelievable. Or psoriatic arthritis, Little Things<\/a> can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats differently. For psoriasis, 75 clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. For psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. Looking to save money this look at allstate. N . Drivers who switched saved, averaged 718 dollars. Saving is easy when youre in good hands. Call a local agent, or 1800allstate for a quote today. Healthcare workers in longterm care facilities are among the First Americans<\/a> to get immunized against the coronavirus this week. After the food and drug administration. Pfizers covid19 vaccines for emergency use. The Trump Administration<\/a> says it hopes to vaccinate as many as 24 Million People<\/a> by mid january when Vice President<\/a> mike pence the job friday in washington. All this as modernas covid19 vaccine becomes the second to get the fdas greenlight for emergency use. Lets bring in jenkins, he writes for the wall street journal. Holman, welcome. This vaccines approved and seemingly record time but he wrote this week they might have been able to do this faster, what should the fda have done differently . We been wrestling with this problem of risk and reward for a long time and in this case, these messenger rna vaccines from pfizer and moderna, they were literally designed on the genetic sequence of this coronavirus back in january. We spent almost 12 months trying to assure ourselves that these drugs are safe and do the trick in protecting people against covered. Thats a lot of time spent learning what we have learned, theyve gotten them out faster, weve saved a lot of lives and trillions of dollars in cost to the economy. Paul why did it take so long if weve had that kind of confidence early on . It didnt take a long time by traditional Drug Development<\/a> standards but we used the traditional highly regulated and extremely risk, doubleblind trials with a placebo and we took a long time to get that going with 30,000 volunteers. One way was simply getting volunteers and thousands of volunteers to do this, take the vaccination and deliberately expose to the buyers to show whether it worked. We also would have gotten some safety data from that limited trial, the chinese and russians have done, i dont usually use them as a role model but rolling out to volunteers and collect safety data even as you get the vaccine into the marketplace. Paul how much of the risk is related to the history here im thinking about the swine flu vaccine in particular, which did have some really adverse consequences for some people who took it. As you know, politicians just dont like to get the blame as i think general for board did in the swine flu case for the side effects. Thats exactly right. We have these, youre not going to get blamed as long as you dont depart from them. If youre willing to accept additional risk, you have to be willing to get a punch in the nose if things go wrong but in this case, because of the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the meantime and trillions of dollars damaged under the economy, it obviously would have paid us to accept more risk but the safest thing to do is to say we are going to stick with the procedures and therefore no one can blame us for not doing so. Paul baltimore self this time because you have the vaccine politicized with Kamala Harris<\/a> and andrew cuomo, the governor of new york saying i dont trust a trump vaccine even though it wasnt a trump vaccine. Its pfizer and moderna. That was a terrible mistake but then also told politicians the risk they took if they push the vaccine out there, even if this vaccine goes wrong in some cases, they always say we followed procedures. If you didnt have that protection, umbrella against then you really would have taken a beating against opportunistic politicians on the other side. Paul okay, as these rollout, how do you see the timing playing out here of when we can stop lockdowns and have enough immunity across the population to get back to, not normal life but at least seminormal life . They are vaccinating old people and people at high risk first, we can still have a lot of covids of people are willing to put up with more mild cases of covid and transmission, we can get back to a normal very quickly because we will have at least have spared a lot of death by vaccinating the most vulnerable but it will still be out there along young and middleaged folks. That is the big question. The other fact that we havent looked hard at, tens of millions of americans now have been infected by covered but we dont know who they are or how many how much immunity they have. That will play a big role in whether this is more or less quickly. Paul quickly, what you think of bill gates saying you still have to wait until going into 2022 to end the lockdowns . Well, that is bizarre judgment, avoiding covid is worth any cost at all. The cost to the economy and lives, not getting schooling. If we can make covid flulike for most people and protect those most at risk for death, then we can still have it running rampant in society. We cant vaccinate everyone overnight. That would be better than avoiding every cost to the economy. Paul that sounds better to me, too. Thank you. Still ahead, the Supreme Court<\/a> strikes another boom to religious liberty, in favor of groups in new jersey and colorado challenging coronavirus restrictions on church gatherings. The Supreme Court<\/a> this week signing with religious groups and colorado and new jersey, arguing limits on the number of people allowed at Worship Services<\/a> violated their First Amendment<\/a> rights. This weeks rulings on the latest of the string of decisions by the High Court Taking<\/a> aim at coronavirus restrictions on religious gathering. The High Court Ruled<\/a> last month that new York Governor Andrew Cuomo<\/a> had unfairly held houses of worship to a stricter standard than other essential services and businesses. We are back with dan henninger, kim strassel and kyle peterson. Kyle, its been a slow build here across several cases and now the court seems to be speaking pretty solidly in favor of religious free exercise. Whats the significance of the colorado and new york cases . Kyle it shows the new york case you just mentioned is being applied. Thats what the court is not doing, the court is saying what we just set in new york, go back to new york and apply that. Just as Amy Coney Barrett<\/a> on the bench, some of these cases went the other direction with chief Justice John Roberts<\/a> as the swing vote but the new york case was very strong, Governor Cuomo<\/a> has limited churches to ten or 25 people depending on who, no matter how big a church. Some 1200 people. I think it strikes a lot of people as not reasonable to limit them ten. Paul dan, this has had i think a cellular taylor deterrent effect on some governors to impw restrictions. Dan yes, it has. Governors have been exercising their authority in extraordinary ways through this pandemic without much pushback on the public or their legislatures this week as well, in washington d. C. , the mayor pulled back the restrictions on churches onto the threat of a lawsuit from the archdiocese of washington. She ruled they could have services of the 25 or maximum 200 and50 people and that is a good example of these political officials deciding the Supreme Court<\/a>, citing the First Amendment<\/a> religious liberties made a strong statement that if you try to restrict them, youre going to run them should lawsuits be filed like this. Paul kim, the court did step back from intervening in the case in kentucky refusing to overturn a kentucky governors water that had closed religious and public schools, the same. They basically argued that well, because the order is close to expiring, we dont think this is right now. Justice alito and gorsuch descended from that, what you make of that rule . Kim i think what the ruling says was trying to make a distinction, and i sympathize, what you saw and the other decisions weve been talking about is the fact that we are pointing out that this is a First Amendment<\/a> right, religious pretty theres a reason the founders made it that there are certain special protections for certain things in the country. Speech, religious liberty for instance and they didnt seem to think it necessarily merited that level of protection for schools, or simply wasnt relevant because it set to expire in just a few days but i think this is the court in a way, making distinctions between different groups, not thrilled by the religious liberty because too often religious is treated at secondclass citizens and they seem to be reminding people that they are in heightened protections. Paul kyle, do you think the key here is Amy Coney Barrett<\/a>, because it is interesting, alito and gorsuch and thomas have always been on behalf of the free exercise. Justice roberts, i guess less so. Hes no longer the swing vote on the court. Kyle that is huge. The pandemic is no longer new, thats what gorsuch said in the new york case, he said maybe the pandemic went on break during the early part about the constitution went on break during the early part of the pandemic but we cant let it be a sabbatical and now we are essentially going into second year of these kind of lockdowns. I think there is also a more assertiveness on some of the court because of that. Paul dan, turning to the lockdowns reemerging, the 3000 deaths a day, terrible toll, but there still seems to be a pushback against many of these restrictions. What lessons have we learned across this pandemic about the lockdowns . Dan one of the lessons weve learned is that it is difficult for political authorities under these circumstances to make a balancing judgment between economic destruction and the needs of public health. The religious liberty cases are wonderful but there have been many other lawsuits such as governor in illinois by businesses or what they regard as taking, the close down, the shutdowns, basically taking their income, those have been a lot less successful because its difficult to push cases through the court as the lockdown orders arise and fall with the limits on executive authority is an issue thats been tested here and not really resolved but those limits at the moment, seem to have no real barrier to them other than people going out into the street like restaurants in new york and times square this week and simply protesting their livelihoods are being destroyed by executive orders. Paul thank you all. When we come back, the great california exodus. Billionaires and businesses are fleeing golden state and where they are headed. Does your vitamin c last twentyfour hours . Only natures bounty does. New immune twentyfour hour plus has longer lasting vitamin c. Plus, herbal and other immune superstars. Only from natures bounty. From california continuing with last week announcing its relocated headquarters to austin, texas. This move came days after Tesla Ceo Elon<\/a> musk announced he be moving from los angeles to austin. On the heels of other tech giants including packard clean california for the lone star state. Kim, weve been writing about the exodus of many people from california, middle class in particular whats accelerating this among the rich . Kim i think its covid. Look, we had a consulting report earlier this year, this is, this has been a trend for a wild. 660 companies have moved 765 facilities out of california over the years of 2018 and 2019. What covid has done is reminded everyone you can work pretty much anywhere, there are lots of places that are just better environments where youre not hit with giant taxes and all of them as management in california. Its accelerating this trend. Paul kyle, 3 marginal tax rate, there is a bill on the california legislation, 16. 8 and the wealth tax on people that would carry over for ten years you decided to leave the state. [laughter] thats an incentive to get out fast. Kyle right, i think there are questions about whether california should really do that, whether it will be constitutional but elon musk reportedly now the second richest man in the world and now no doubt that in mind when moving his residence to texas, theres a lot of that going on in the past ten years about california losing nearly 700,000 people from california left and moved to texas. Paul thats an astonishing figure. Dan, when ever we run one of these stories in the journal, we always get quite a number of letters from tech people in texas or arizona, utah, colorado or wherever, they say please stop. Dont come to texas, satan california. Dont bring your liberal politics here, we are doing fine. You come and vote your values and bring your progressive politics and what happens, you will turn us into california. How realistic is that . Is a threat. Look at georgia and the president ial voting has gone there but places like texas, florida, tennessee, a bit of a built in blockage. In california, it is simply too easy to raise taxes and do it through public referendums and people seem to vote tax incomes. People say its much more difficult in texas, florida and tennessee to do that sort of thing through the legislature which is much more difficult. I think thats one reason, anticipating higher taxes in places like california, new yo york, these companies are going to states like texas and florida. Paul kim, i think one lesson here, i wonder if you agree, the dangers of having a oneparty government, the California Republican<\/a> party essentially collapsed, a real minority in the state and you have the vetoproof majority in the democrats in sacramento so all the debates placed between the left and far left and theres no check on any of the most extreme, very little check on the most extreme positions. Kim and i would add to that that they are taking it from the other powerful forces in the state, in particular unions and trial lawyers and thats why theres no debate, you see no one apologizing for this. Gavin newsom and the governor waiting it off and hes like theyll be back or big deal, well, they will be sorry when all those other people began talking about folks expecting to pay taxes, they are the ones leaving in this will have profound effects on government and budgets as well. Paul public union governance. We have to take one more break. When we come back, hits and misses of the week. Time now for hits and misses of the week. Kim, first deal. Kim this is amiss to senator angus, pressuring streaming Services Like<\/a> netflix and disney to offer their Services Free<\/a> during the holidays claiming it will encourage americans to sit at home rather than visit their loved ones and spread covid. Fact one, people have been watching a lot more streaming services during the lockdown. Fact two, thats no relevance or in any way stop the spread of the virus. Democrats, lets be honest, would love to get companies everything for free, no matter what it does to the economy. Paul all right. Kyle. Kyle a hit to alexander in a week of heated congressional debates, republican, 80yearold ray hogan sat down at a piano in the atrium of Senate Office<\/a> building and played christmas carols, hark the herald angels sing, the crowd gathered and then the democrat tim kaine came out with the harmonica and the two of them did a duet ago telling on the mountain. Just a little bit of Christmas Spirit<\/a> in a town not known for that sort of thing. Senator alexander is retiring in january, a nice way for him to leave town. Paul dan. Dan fasten your seatbelt, folks. Im about to give a hit to representative alexandria ocasiocortez. Thats right, aoc. A podcast this week, she said she thought it was time for nancy pelosi to step aside and give the Younger Generation<\/a> shot at the top. I agree with that whether its the presidency, senate or house of representatives. The school of thought aoc would like to get out of the house and move up to the senate in which case Chuck Schumer<\/a>, call your fundraisers. Paul yep, she be challenging Chuck Schumer<\/a> in 2020 2022 in a primary. Remember, if you have your own hit or miss, be sure to tweak it to us. Thanks to my panel. Thanks to all of you for watching. Hope to see you right here next week. It may be saturday but for once, congress is working. A rare weekend session. Finishing up a coronavirus aid bill that fda bill has approved a second vaccine for emergency use. That means millions of doses could be on their way to americans within days. Hello, welcome to americas news headquarters. I am eric shaw. 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