they make so money off crazy female murderers. >> and female gambling addicts. >> i should be called the bob beckel dating network. >> don't forget to dvr this show. see you back here tomorrow. the other nuclear option. the president strikes a deal with iran. but even some of his democratic allies fear it could blow up in his face. this is "special report." good evening. i'm bret baier. it's difficult to find anyone outside the white house who has many good things to say tonight about an agreement easing sanctions on iran in exchange for a short pause in its nuclear program. but there are plenty of naysayers, even in the president's own political

corner. james rosen tells us from the white house who is for it and why so many are against it. >> reporter: during a west coast speech on immigration, president obama defended the nuclear deal the u.s. and its allies made over the weekend with iran. >> tough talk and bluster may be the easy thing to do politically, but it's not the right thing for our security. >> reporter: under terms finalized saturday in seven-nation talks, iran has agreed for six months to enrich uranium only to the 5% level or lower to dilute its spoke pile of 20% enriched uranium, and to allow for daily inspections at nuclear plants. >> the three paths iran has to a bomb, all of those are stopped in their tracks. >> reporter: an estimated $6 billion in sanctions will be

lifted. in iran, the mullas claim their right to enrich has been cullified. >> we would have to define what the nature of the program is. so we get to decide whether iran has put in place sufficient c constrai constraints. >> the u.s. has to take a position and get into the deal that iran has no need for enriched uranium. they have no need for this, and it's better for them, and more economical and quite feasible if there is a deal to go out and buy the enriched uranium they need. >> reporter: senator bob menendez agreed to hold off on new sanctions for six months but added this agreement did not proportionately reduce iran's nuclear program for the relief it is receiving. and senator charles schumer showed to push for new sangions next week. >> i think this is a marginal

their ment. activity in place and it continues the major sanctions in place. >> we've seen previous administrations make the same mistake as this one, which is to be too gullible, to not negotiate hard enough, and to take a deal in which we have not precluded the capacity to develop nuclear weapons. >> reporter: that was the main complaint from israel, where the israeli prime minister called this a historical mistake and dispatched his national security adviser to washington. arab allies like saudi arabia are expressing concern that the u.s. is edging away from its traditional allies in that part of the world. and one of those allies, oman, hosted talks with the u.s. and

iranians dating back to last march. the price of oil dropped below $94 a barrel today. crude futures fell 75 cents to close at $94.09. the iran deal did not include the release of an american pastor. his wife says her husband's freedom is no longer a priority for the u.s. government. he went to iran to help build an orphanage. he was arrested on national security charges. an administration spokesman says the iran talks focused exclusively on iran issues. ben rhodes said today the issue of the pastor and other americans being held has been raised with the iranians. opponents of president obama's health care overhaul are taking their show on the road. today, one of the point men in the gop effort to scrap obama care was engaged in field research in georgia.

carl cameron reports he found a fertile field of criticism. >> reporter: with lawmakers mac home, the oversight committee held a field hearing. what they heard and shared in georgia was not pretty. >> 900,000 californians, 130,000 kentuckyians, and nearly 400,000 georgians have received cancellation notices. >> reporter: nationwide, 5 million individual policies have been canceled, and employer based cancellations could be many times that. add the higher premiums and the launch failure and public confidence has plummeted. in rural areas, there's fear and resentment. >> as a result of obama care, they are devastating. in georgia, three rural hospitals have shut down and 15 more may be closing their doors. >> reporter: witnesses were either opposed to or worried

about obama care. this 28-year-old has a wife and 2-year-old. under obama care he'll pay 65% more and get less coverage. >> when you tell the leader of the free world tell you something, you would like to think his words have truth, meaning and honesty. i don't believe this to be the case. >> parts of the affordable care act slated for implementation in 2014 will bring great change, with real people affected and others receiving great benefit. i know it's too premature to know the full impact. >> reporter: congressional democrats boycotted the hearing. and have warned the white house they want fixes fast. republicans let the statistics speak for themselves. >> in georgia, there are 11 insurers in the individual market place. but under obama care, there will only be five.

that's a 55% decrease in insurance competition. and in new hampshire and west virginia, there will only be one market insurer left under obama care. >> reporter: obama care appears biased towarding urban dwellers who may pay more but could have as many as a dozen options. in rural areas, there may only be one option. president obama calls those 5 million cancellations of individual health care policies a mistake and misunderstanding. his critics call it an outright lie and deception. jim angle tells us the administration knew millions more policies would be canceled but said the opposite. >> reporter: the president may be doing a lot more apologizing because almost 80 million policies from small and large employers are likely to be canceled along with individual policies because they don't meet the requirements of obama care.

>> at least half of people on employer plans will lose it by 2014. >> approximately 78 million americans with employer sponsored insurance would lose their existing coverage due to the affordable care act. >> reporter: even more of the 157 million employer policies are set to be canceled next year, according to projections, the administration made back in july 2010, making clear that officials knew the impact of obama care three years ago. in fact, its mid range estimate is by the end of 2014, 76% of plans would be canceled. and 63% in all. some official estimates were even higher. while jay carney and others conceded only about 5% of the market would be canceled,

officials knew the number would be far greater. >> there's a number of employer provided plans that will lose their policies as well. that's tens of millions of people. >> reporter: why? because obama care dictates each plan must cover essentials. >> things like maternity care, acupuncture. >> reporter: some plans have been canceled and employers are getting sticker shock at the new higher prices under obama care. >> it does not meet the minimum standards stipulated. due to this one change, premiums are scheduled to increase by 52.3% in january 2014. >> the old perhaps being canceled are cheaper than the new plans that are obama care compliant. >> reporter: a new wave of ca

cancellations will emerge just as we approach the 2014 elections. and it will be impossible for the administration to escape blame since it predicted those cancellations three years ago. >> jim, thank you. the number of americans signing contracts to buy homes was down by 0.6% in october, the fifth straight monthly decline, and the lowest measure since last december. another day, another record close for the dow. it dwayned eight today. the s&p 500 was down two. the nasdaq up three. up next, what president obama is doing out west. but first, here's what some of our fox affiliates across the country are covering. ktvu in oakland with how a retir retir retired marine saved the life of a woman. and in new york, the latest on the search for an alleged gunman

at yale university. someone called police and said his roommate was on his way to shoot people at the school. so far no one has been found. this is a live look at dallas from fox 4. the big story there tonight, the metroplex dodged a big storm overnight, but still has residual travel delays at dfw all day. the storm could potentially wreak havoc for thanksgiving travelers. we're watching it. we'll be right back.

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[ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. president obama's in california tonight. and that means fund-raising. and lots of it. the president is also trying to get badly needed moral support from the rich and famous as he

fends off disrupters within his own party. >> reporter: president obama is rallying his base by fund-raising on the west coast and talking immigration reform in san francisco. at one point, a heckler on the stage called on the president to craft an executive order to stop deportation. [ inaudible ] >> if in fact i could solve all these problems without passing laws in congress, then i would do so. >> reporter: the president's poll numbers have plummeted after the rough rollout of obama care, with disapproval of his job performance hitting 55% of recent polls. a top adviser said mr. obama was not able to attend the 150 anniversary commemoration of the gettysburg address because of the health care website. >> even as we're getting this darn website up to speed, and it's getting better. >> reporter: tomorrow he'll visit hollywood. >> so many things of his watch go unintended to, except for fund raising and extreme

ideology. >> reporter: last night, the pd said, i'm not a particularly idealogical perp, but there are some things i feel passionately about. part of energizing the base is finding unity with some of the democrats in the senate. massachusetts senator elizabeth warren, who was elected last year, is a prime example of this new wave of feistier democrat. >> i'm confident david can beat goliath on too big to fail. >> look, i realize this sort of wishful thinking might appeal to the uninitiated newcomers in the democratic conference who have

served zero days in the minority, but the rest of you guys in the conference should know better. >> reporter: the white house likes blaming the tea party. but now there's a wing of the democratic party which has shown a willingness to take on its elders, which is most likely to challenge the president on the west. >> mike, thank you. last week we told you the changes of the senate rules on presidential nominations, the so-called nuclear option, would have major implications with courts. good evening. >> reporter: one of the biggest ramifications of the decision by senate democrats to lower the threshold for voting through presidential nominees is how the d.c. circuit court will be impacted. that court is one of the critical checks on presidential power and federal regulations. the president has nominated three potential judges who will now basically be fast tracked,

including professor nina pillard. >> degrees from yale and harvard, worked at the solicitor general's office, argued nine cases in the supreme court, briefed numerous others. two years in the office of legal counsel at the justice department. >> reporter: but critics say there's no reason for the president to insist these nominees be approved as quickly as possible. across the country, there are four federal courts so lacking in judges there are "judicial emergencies," and the d.c. circuit court is not one of them. skeptics say pillard is out of the main stream. >> she's probably the most extreme judge that has been nominated for this court, possibly for any court in the

country. she seems to view everything from the radical feminist perspective. >> reporter: senate democrats are expected to vote on all three nominations to the d.c. circuit when they return in december. this court has ruled on epa reg rations, the president's use of recess appointments and the hhs contraception mandate. >> listening to those reports, what do you make of the democrat's latest maneuvers and what do you think their long play is? do you have a question for the panel about it? let me know on facebook and twitter. we may never know why the newtown elementary shooter killed 20 first graders and six educators and mother before kilg himself. the report said lanza had

significant mental health issues but unknown if those were related to the killings. next up, brett hume with his thoughts on the real reason for the nuclear option. and later, afghanistan's president trips up just about everyone with his latest decision about american troops.

before the break, we told you how president obama may be able to stack the deck essentially on judicial appointments. now that senate confirmation rules have changed. tonight, brit hume tells us that was the idea all along. good evening, brit. >> in invoking the so-called nuclear option to do away with presidential nominations, the

reason they did it is simple. it was all about the judges, and those who sit on the federal appeals court here in washington. it is the most important appeals court in the land. members are often leading candidates to ascend to the supreme court itself. democrats count on liberals on that court, one to back the regulations on the private sector, and the other is to protect the legal rights such as abortion that the supreme court discovered in the constitution during the heyday of jurisprudence. these regulations and rights are vulnerable politically in a nation where only 20% of people describe themselves as liberal. plus, with judges with lifetime appointments are crucial to the democrat's cause. which is why despite the light workload of that court here in washington, they are so determined to fill vacancies while they still control the

until last week, they lacked the veto proof majority to confirm obama nominees. blowing up the filibuster rule took care of that. >> how do you think this translates to 2014, the election here? >> i doubt people will be voting on this issue. but it does tell you something about it. if the democrats were confident that they would still hold the senate in 2014, they wouldn't have done this and do it now and get it done before they lost their majority or became more vulnerable to a filibuster. i think they're worried about 2014 and thought we better do it now and fill as many of these appeals court vacancies as we can. because if we don't, the republicans will and our agenda will be in great difficulty. house republican conference chairwoman cathy mcmorris rogers

of washington state is the first congresswoman to give birth three times while in office. brin catherine was born sunday morning. we're told mother and child are doing very well. congratulations. using beethoven to fight dilly dallying under under. and afghanistan goes back to the future to punish a crime as hold as the hills. a global grapevine is next.

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now some fresh pickings from the political grapevine. afghanistan may be planning to bring back public stoning as punishment for adultery. the new draft penal code would resurrect the practice that was abandoned a dozen years ago when the taliban was ousted from power. the draft gives a punishment of 100 lashes for the unmarried having sex outside of marriage. and for those who are married, stoning. the afghan ministry of justice says the measure is being considered by a working group that is revamping the country's. as the mercury drops, here's a story that may make your blood boil. a group of federal officials is getting away from the cold weather in style, on your tax dollars. "the washington times" says the u.s. coral reef task force chose a beachfront hotel on st. croix as their base on a mission to

study coral reefs. the beachfront resort, which appeared in an episode of "the bachelor," reportedly has a lush government course and rooms that start at over $300 a night. federal officials claim the on scene experience about caribbean coral reefs is important to the mission of conservation. u.s. coral reef task force was created by an executive order in 1998. the group, with members from a number of federal agencies, meets twice a year. as for this trip, the group insists they cut a deal on room and board. finally, a cultured solution to loitering. young people, courtesy of a mcdonald's in australia, a restaurant has started playing classical music and opera late at night. media reports say so far the results have been positive. the store's operations manager says fewer young people are hanging around late at night. social media is not sold on the

idea with some locals claiming the muse sick a little too loud. but others say it might just bring a bit of class to the area. now back to afghanistan. another curveball from president hamid karzai and pushback from susan rice, which all could impact whether any u.s. troops will stay in afghanistan after 2014. national security correspondent jennifer griffin reports tonight from the pentagon. >> reporter: national security adviser susan rice told president hamid karzai if he did not sign a security agreement promptly, the u.s. would have no choice but to pull all u.s. and nato troops out by the end of 2014. karzai rebuffed 2500 tribal elders who debated for four days. the group agreed the afghan leader should sign a deal. karzai indicated he would not

sign the agreement before he steps down as president in april, but he will try to squeeze more concessions from the americans. >> translator: we will fix the agreement and continue our negotiations on it with america. >> reporter: he demanded a release from afghan prisoners from guantanamo bay. some experts say karzai is trying to separate himself from past afghan leaders. >> that has influenced him to make it seem like he's intransigent, that he's willing to stand up to the foreigners. >> reporter: failure to sign the security agreement could mean that afghanistan loses $8 billion in aid. and in pakistan, the government ignored pleas from u.s. officials to facilitate the release of the doctor who assisted the u.s. government

prior to the bin laden raid. pakistan has now leveled murder charges against him. >> it's unacceptable, and these trumped up charges that relate to a case a long time ago where i think he operated on a young boy who had appendicitis. this looks to be a penalty imposed upon him because of cooperation in going after bin laden. >> reporter: the new charges came on the eve of a hearing to retry the doctor's case, and lessen his sentence. when he was last in washington, pakistan's prime minister promised lawmakers he would help. >> jennifer, thank you. the u.n. announced the first peace talks between the syrian opposition and the assad government. they're scheduled for january in geneva. s more than 100,000 people have died in the three-year civil war

in syria. it's monday. if you have not participated in the poll, take a moment and go to our home page and your chance to sit on the panel, provide instant feedback and access the pulse on your smartphone or tablet. dissecting the iran deal. we'll talk about it with the fox all-stars. steve hayes, charles krauthammer when we come back.

huge challenges remain, but we cannot close the door on diplomacy, and we cannot rule out peaceful solutions of the world's problems. we cannot commit ourselves to an endless cycle of conflict. tough talk and bluster may be the easy thing to do politically, but it's not the right thing for our security. >> israel will be safer, the

region will be safer. iran's 20% uranium will be destroyed. therefore, they are safer. >> we have just rewarded very bad and dangerous behavior. think about what this agreement does. it says you can continue to enrich, that's what the iranians believe. and they have made no changes, no changes in the development of their nuclear weapon program. i can tell you that with a high degree of certainty. >> fallout to the deal with iran. how much time does it buy? what does it really do? join the panel if you would on bing right now. let's bring in our panel. steve hayes, mara, and charles krauthammer. your thoughts? >> it's hard to watch the president and secretary of state and not think how they cannot be embarrassed by this deal. think about this, for half a dozen times, the security council has passed resolutions

which said iran has to stop all enrichment. otherwise, there will be no change in the sanctions. no relief. which means six times china and russia, not exactly hardliners on iran, have signed onto this. and what is the result of this agreement? iran retains the right to enrich. it continues to enrich during the six months. it is promised a time deal in which we're going to work out the details of its enrichment. and remember, enrichment is the dam against all proliferation. once a country anywhere can start to enrich, there is no containing its nuclear capacity. so it undermines the idea of nop proliferation and grants iran a right it's been lusting for, for a decade. that's why there was so much jubilation in tehran over this.

second, sanctions have really caused the country to hurt. what happens on sanctions? there will be a huge infusion of cash, which can reduce the inflation, alleviate the shortages. already, the currency jumped 3% as a result of this agreement. this is a huge relief for the iranians. and it can only increase over time. what do we get in return? i just heard the secretary of state say, we're going to get a destruction of the 20% uranium. that is untrue. the 20% enriched uranium is going to be turned into an oxide so it's inoperative. that process is chemically reversible, which means iran holds on to 20% uranium and can turn it into active stuff any time it wants. this is a sham from beginning to end. the worst deal since munich. >> okay.

strong words to follow. mara? >> look, it might turn out to be all of those things, but we don't know yet. there's six months that they're going to try to get an actual deal. in the meantime, congress says they want to tee up stronger sanctions. the president is asking them to hold off. but congress is standing by to be the tough cop. the only reason iran was at the table in the first place is because the sanctions hurt them. the jubilation was not that they're going to continue building a bomb, it was ordinary people thinking that finally the sanctions are going to be lifted. >> think about what that means, though. if this stage is being set for another deal down the road, and that's what the administration is claiming, it's in effect saying, we're offering you these concessions now. if you don't do what you want, we're going to offer you more

concessions down the road. what reason would iran think anything tougher is in the offing? beyond that, it takes no account of who we're dealing with. you hear administration folks and others say, we deliberately wrote out of this discussion anything other than the nuclear file. so we're not taking into account this is the world's foremost state sponsor of terror and the human rights abuses, we're not taking into account the public statements about what iran wants to do with respect to israel. all of those things, they're setting aside because it keeps them from doing this nuclear deal. so they're just saying we're not going to take into account any of that and strike a deal with a

partner that's been shown again and again that they're not serious about this. >> it stops the most sensitive and dangerous kind of enrichment, 20% enrichment, the fastest path to a bomb. that's stopped. the stockpile of 20% goes down to zero. the 3.5% enrichment, that stockpile can't grow any bigger. the key thing is the three paths iran has to a bomb, 20% enrichment, 3.5 with advanced sep centrifuges and this plutonium reactor is stopped. >> that's just not so. in fact, in negotiations we were talking about a couple of years

ago, they were speaking about removing the highly enriched uranium and putting it in france or russia. there's no removal. secondly, on plutonium plant, which is a finger in the eye. it has no other purpose than creating a second path to create a bomb. there is nothing in there of dismantling it. why have a heavy water reactor if not to produce a bomb? there is no talk of dismantling. the only element in the deal is that it can't inject the fuel rods, which wouldn't have been done until the very end any way. it stopped absolutely nothing. this is a program, this is an agreement that has not taken away a single instrument, has not shut down the plants that create the machines that enrich uranium. there is nothing that reduces, disables or inactivates its

infrastructure. and we call this a way to stop them from acquiring the bomb? it's a farce. it's the west blessing iran as a threshold nuclear state, always on the verge a month or two away from a breakout and becoming a nuclear state. >> president obama spoke to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. it was described a lot different by the white house than israeli officials. israeli officials saying -- >> as we take a look at just some of these polls, mara, real quickly, iran's sanctions, congress will disregard deal and

add sanctions. true, 59% of the people saying congress will step in and add sanctions. 41% saying no. and on the politics, president obama wanted a deal with iran for political reasons, 97% said true, 3% false. congress, there's a big question here. there are a lot of democrats, including chuck schumer and others raising points here. >> i think the question is, if congress passes tougher sanctions, will they keep them in abeyance for six months? so iran understands if you don't agree to a tougher deal, this is what is in store for you. more of the same, if not worse. that is what would have to be teed up in congress. in terms of the american people thinking the president did it for political reasons, that is a reflection of the general poor state of his approval ratings. that's going to color anything else he asks the american people to trust him on.

next upba tries to shore up his base out west. . . #

. the last few months you have seen a lot of headlines about gridlock and partisan bickering and too often one house in congress has chosen courses of action that have harmed our businesses or our economy or our workers or they want to refight old political battles around create jobs and grow the economy and strengthen the middle class. >> president obama out west. quote, i am not a particular ideological person.

what about this trip and this effort where the administration stands? >> i think the president launched this trip and is doing this to campaign because he has nothing else to do. he doesn't know what else to do. his policies are collapsing around him and the president knows how to give a campaign. the challenge will be a difficulty for him. you saw it in the evidence of the clip that we just played. even he doesn't believe it anymore. he's going through the motions, complaining about congress, these guys are blocking and everything. we have seen the president deliver that speech with tremendous passion. he's not even doing that anymore. i think if he doesn't do it, it's going to be hard to

convince supporters. >> as you mentioned, this new poll out, cnn orc is upside down and trust worthy as well. >> all along, president obama, even when his approval ratings bounced around up and down, he had strong personal attributes, people liked him, trusted him. those have changed since the obama care rollout. i think that is hurting him. it's much harder to repair those internal qualities, are you a strong leader, are you honest and trust worthy, than to just get your approval ratings back up. >> a stat that i don't think we have focused on, the administration itself made this prediction back in 2010, that essentially the estimate by the end of 2014 would be that

employer plans would 76% of them, would be -- all employers would be cancelled, 63% in all. 63% of all employers, this is 157 million employer policies those are just astronomical numbers. >> and really in obama's defense, remember what he said a week ago when he was trying to undo the cancellations, he said, well, we didn't really know this was going to happen, but it was a result of poor crafting of the law. now in fact what it was is it was a result of the fundmental principal of the law, and -- like eric cantor in the meeting that they had in january 2010 on

camera, what they knew which was the principle of a plan was you subsidized the uninsured by kicking people off their plans who have them and like them and making them pay excessively for stuff they don't need, like patient services, that i don't really need now, perhaps i did 30 years ago, but i don't now. you pay extra and you then subs di subsidize the uninsured. >> and those are all things that are yet to come. >> we will continue to follow this, it's an amazing stat and jim will continue to dig into that. that's it for the panel, but stay tuned, the photographer who defense headfirst into his assignment, plus all the results.

democrats agreed less than republicans and independents with charles when he said that the u.s. should not allow

iranian enrichment at any level. all parties disagreed with charles and the iranian deal is just the first step, the administration's argument. high agreement with men and women with steve when he said the president is going out west because he has nothing else to do total number of votes tonight, 300,000. finally tonight, an elk from the great smoky mountains national park became a youtube sensation after head butting a photographer. here's a different angle of the encounter. >> you can tell me the elk doesn't like it, so he kind of head butts the guy, but the guy doesn't panic, he puts his equipment down, he just walks away from the elk. he looks at the camera, look at this. watch what he does. he's deleting the pictures, he's

deleting the pictures of himself. it's amazing. >> that's it for this special report, fair, balanced and unafraid. greta goes on the record riling now. healthcare.gov strikes again. >> obama care was a mistake. i don't think obama care has failed. >> the more we hear about the technical problems concerning the website, the more it looks as if it's going to take quite a while and this website will never be quite right. >> we don't care if the website gets up and running, it's just going to prove to be an invitation to find out more problems as to obama care as a whole. >> the next ticking time bomb,