have kept it out of the news. >> bret: yeah. jonathan, thank you. everyone thank you, breaking news tonight. thank you for inviting us into your home tonight. that's it for this "special report," fair, balanced and unafraid. we will see you on monday. "the story" hosted by martha starts right now. ♪ ♪ >> martha: good evening, everyone, i'm martha maccallum, and this is "the story" bragging right now, we have just received word tonight of yet another federal criminal investigation into the biden family, appears to be focused specifically on hunter biden's business dealings with china and his relationship with burisma holdings in ukraine. this is now the fourth federal investigation that has been reported in recent days. reporting to "the new york times," it was launched by agents in pittsburgh at the request of attorney general william barr. thebased on information received and forwarded to them by rudy giuliani. it raises a lot of questions

about what was going on with hunter biden, with his uncle jim, and potentially their u.s. and foreign business deals. who was involved in them, what exactly were they selling? and why, in one instance, was a diamond given to hunter biden in return? so, how about this one? where did all of the money go? ended the ever compromise themselves? does china have anything that they can hold over the biden family? remember, their former associate, tony bobulinski, had all of these and similar concerns. watch this. >> i remember looking at jim biden and saying, "how are you guys getting away with this? are you concerned?" and he looked at me, and he laughed a little bit, and said, "plausible deniability." >> martha: today, president-elect joe biden had the first opportunity to clear up some of these questions. he was asked, but instead, we got this. >> did hunter biden commit a

crime? have you spoken to your son? >> i'm proud of my son. >> martha: for now, the american people would remain in the dark on this. left wondering, a, how did we get to this point? if the attorney general knew about it, should he have spoken about it before the election? we certainly heard a lot from jim comey in the wake of the clinton-trump election, i should say, and b, how would a president biden handled the situation? a case targeting members of his own family with his doj at the helm. in moments, we will get reaction to all of this from victor davis hanson later in the hour, kim strassel joins us, and gregg jarrett is here, as well, the medias handling of this throughout the course of the election. first, we start with former u.s. attorney brett tolman. brett, great to have you here tonight. >> good to see you, martha. >> martha: good to see you come too. first of all, your reaction to this new information, the new attorney general passed along

information from rudy giuliani, gave it to officials in pittsburgh to dig into this whole issue of the laptop and burisma, this came out tonight. >> yeah, it's not surprising. certainly he has an obligation once he receives evidence or information to pass it to someone who might inquire as to the legitimacy of it. that happens all the time. when i was u.s. attorney, i had from various sources, my first and initial response was to send it to investigators and to prosecutors who can bet the information and see if there's anything to it. not surprised he did that. >> martha: so, here is a clip from the interview i did with the attorney general about a year ago, december 19th, and i asked him about how he was handling everything that we were hearing about from rudy giuliani. watch this. >> are you interested in seeing the evidence that rudy giuliani has been gathering in ukraine? >> the department of justice is interested in seeing all evidence that could be relevant.

>> does the doj have plans to investigate joe biden or cloud strike for ukraine or burisma? are any of those on your radar? >> i wouldn't say one way or the other, but you shouldn't read anything into that. >> martha: so, brett, you have to take everyone back to remember what was going on at this time. there was a lot of pressure to investigate hunter biden, and the attorney general was cautious in his answer to me on that, but, you know, did we deserve, during the election, to know more about this, that there will -- we are now learning, four investigations going on to the family? >> first of all, i think it was great you had that moment. you are one of the few asking some of those tough questions. i think for his response, we can certainly see, there was some knowledge of there. there was something he was trying to be careful. they have a policy in the department of justice, not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. you hit on the issue i think is

important, and that is what we saw happen after that was stories about russia disinformation, shifty former intelligence officers indicating there was nothing here, that this was from russia. at that point, i believe the attorney general absolutely had an obligation to correct the record, to make sure that was not the case, that there was information to suggest that they at least were going to look into it, and that is okay for the american people to know that they have credible leads and potential laundering of money with the movement of money might have been illegal involving hunter biden. that should have been said. there was enough time to do that prior to things ramping up in the election. >> martha: do you believe the information that is out there so far, that suggests that joe biden is not part -- who is a subject here, should have exonerated the attorney general from his guidelines the operates

under the, you wouldn't want to release something like this so close to an election? >> yeah, this is something where the attorney general, who certainly he is old school. he was the attorney general many, many years ago, before we were in the political atmosphere that we are. this called for a different response. and i think what we are going to see now is a lot of the details coming out, and people are going to be frustrated, they are going to be upset, because let me tell you, it is not just the laptop that triggered this investigation. when you have suspicious activity reports that are being filed by financial institutions, and you have the laptop, and then you have bobulinski, you have the makings of a fairly large-scale investigation into the movement, illegal movement of money, that is involving multiple people. that is a conspiracy. >> martha: just very quickly, this is from john solomon's reporting, and email on

hunter biden's laptop that was obtained by john solomon from one of the executives at rosemont seneca says to hunter biden, 2014, you joined the burisma board and we still need to amend your 2014 returns to reflect the unreported burisma income from approximately 400,00 400,000 exo your income in 2014 was close to $1.2 million, and you see the rest of the numbers there. it is a lot of money we are talking about here, brett. what would sort of raise a lot of red flags for you there? >> well, the amount is certainly substantial. in the end, we could be surprised and this could simply be a tax evasion or failure to report income, but i'm highly doubtful that is going to be the end result of this investigation. bobulinski's information seems to be matching up with the fact that a lot of income was coming through, that hunter was at the helm, he was guiding and directing that income, and we know that china and other countries were at issue here, so

i think this might just be the tip of the iceberg, martha. >> martha: yeah. and as we said, what exactly were they being paid for? and who was receiving the money? brett tallman, great to have you with us tonight. thank you, brett. >> thank you, martha. >> martha: so, the biden transition team held a meeting today, fox news reporters are not called upon. they were not so hunter biden, instead asked questions like these. watch. >> is there anything more you can say about conversation of the outgoing administration? >> whether the pipeline should go ahead? >> when will the president-elect be getting the covid vaccine? >> martha: so, it is clear that the press admonished by biden back in october in this clip, still failing to ask these obviously now more than ever relevant questions. remember this? >> i know you would ask that. i have no response.

it is not a smear campaign. right up your alley, what you always ask. >> martha: here now, victor davis hanson, senior fellow the hoover institute and author of "the case for trump." i want to ask about the press response, but first i want to start with a question about the election. do you think that if this information had been out there, these investigations have been confirmed before the election, do you think it would have made a difference? >> i think it probably would've. there are polls suggest maybe 8-9% would've been persuaded. we have an election were 50,000 strategically located votes, not much at all, would have changed the electoral college count. i know attorney general barr did not want to put his finger on the scale, but joe biden and his team have put their fist on it, and by that, i mean they were using the silence of the doj to misrepresent the actuality of their own culpability. not only did they recruit former intelligence officers to attest that this was some crazy russian collusion, that was a complete

lie, that they repeatedly said the fact that they were not under investigation was proof of their innocence, that was deliberately misleading, and that was empowered by his silence. i think bill barr did not want to be an eric holder wing man to the president, or a loretta lynch, meet on the tarmac with someone. i think they smeared him very viciously and unfairly during the mueller investigation, but i think you should have told us, to balance reality, but very quickly, it's part of a pattern, that's very disturbing, martha, because with this government, political, media nexus, we have a lot of misrepresentations. suddenly, we were told before the election, there would be no stimulus in lives and livelihoods were in danger. after the election, it's going to sail through. suddenly, before the election on october 16th, pfizer said, you know, we were going to make a big announcement, here it is, we don't want to play politics about whether the vaccination is useful or safe. suddenly, two weeks later, six

days out from the election, "oh, it's safe, and we are going to use it, and by the way, we didn't have anything to do with operation warp speed, which was untrue." and then when you get to eric swalwell, we knew -- "we" being the government investigatory agencies -- knew he had been compromised and when you put antifa and blm that were rioting and lootig and doing this all summer and creating this landscape of chaos, and then suddenly come a week or so, they magically dissipated, and they still are, for the most part, that creates a disparate among the electorate, why were all of these things kept and what is the pattern? and the pattern is the media fused with the progressive agenda and the bureaucratic state. that sounds conspiratorial, but we did not get all the facts necessary to make -- to make the proper judgment. we didn't have enough criteria. and yet, this president may enter office with the most

ethnicallethically compromised d legally vulnerable president we have seen in our lifetime. and it is very ironic because there was an arrogance about joe biden that donald trump was the one who was guilty of collusion, when he had been the most investigated president in history, and he had never -- there wasn't even a hint that he had done anything wrong with russia the entire time this trus sitting right before all of our eyes, and we were deliberately and willfully blind. it's a disgrace, anyway, it really is. >> martha: really, i think it makes you look back at the questioning that was done and the lack of access to joe biden, the dearth of interviews that he did. it now makes it a little more clear why that might have been the case. it was not all about covid come apparently. victor davis hanson, good to have you here tonight. big news tonight, we now know the supreme court will hear a texasly challenge -- will not hear the texasly challenge to

overturn the presidential election. making news tonight, that seems to have hit the road bump. shannon bream is here with the decision. and men, congressman matt gaetz and michael waltz, who are among the more than 120 house republicans who backed that effort, we will get their reaction next. ♪ (burke) deep-sea driving, i see... (customer) something like that... (burke) well, here's something else: with your farmer's policy perk, new car replacement, you can get a new one. (customer) that is something else. (burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ honey honey? new nyquil severe honey is maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honey-licious taste. nyquil honey. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever best sleep with a cold medicine.

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>> martha: busy news night. breaking just moments ago, the supreme court has decided whether or not they will consider the last refuge of the trump campaign, a texas lawsuit that claims that the unconstitutional rule changes in the swing states, claimed they were unconstitutional, and that that robbed them of their right to a free and fair election. more than 120 house republicans

back the lawsuit. that was brought by texas attorney general ken paxton. in moments, we are going to speak with two of them, congressman matt gaetz is here with his reaction, and congressman michael waltz. but first, fox news at night anchor shannon bream with the background on the court's decision. what did we learn from the court tonight, shannon? >> martha, as most court watchers expected, they said no, to texas, you can go after georgia, pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan about how they voted. those four states pushed back saying if you take away our vote is cast by 39 million voters, you are just in franchising th them. taking away things like possibly witnesses or signatures, those f things, changing the mail in process, your water down your votes and made it possible for there to be -- and that affects texas. you have to get five of the justice does is to say they will

hear it. there was a semidissent from justice alito, saying they thought the court had to hear matters of original jurisdiction in state versus state is one of those rare ones, but for now, that's the end of the road with his texas case. he states, georgia, wisconsin, arizona, there are still life controversies there, case is proceeding, including the fact they are going to skip a step in wisconsin. the state supreme court has agreed to hear the challenge there at noon tomorrow local time, on a saturday, so it is moving expeditiously in these states. they know the clock is ticking. we're watching georgia and arizona for you, as well, mart martha. >> martha: yeah. shannon, we have a response from the biden team. the supreme court has decisive and speedily rejected the latest of donald trump and his allies attacks on the democratic process, they say, and they go on to say it's no surprise that that was the outcome that they expected. so, you know, in terms of any recourse, certifications are supposed to happen on monday.

the window is closed, correct? with the exception of the cases that you just mentioned? >> yeah, i mean, it is a very last-ditch effort for those three court battles, those three in particular that are bubbling up in the states. yeah, that elect our vote is going to be cast in just a matter of days. it is not certified until january, actually, so the trump team is continuing to argue we still have a little more daylight to argue these cases. we'll see. but the electors are set to cast votes next week and it does not look like at any point there is a core that will step in to stop those boats come and relieve the supreme court would have been the place to try to get that done, but for now, no options left. >> martha: thank you very much, shannon bream joining us this evening. also here tonight, congressman matt gaetz and congressman michael waltz of florida, who are among the more than 120 other house republicans, kevin mccarthy also joined that group today, who were backing texas-led bill.

so, bid, i should say. congressman gaetz, let's hear your reaction to read this news tonight from the supreme court. >> well, the true casualty of the court's decision is an erosion of the power of state legislators to make election laws. the principal challenge offered by texas was there were changes made in the account the state legislators, but instead were made by other officials that might not have been invested in our power, so that is deeply disappointing t to a spirit of e context here is if the state of georgia, for example, were polluting a river that was flowing into florida, the supreme court would have original jurisdiction, and our argument is that if georgia is polluting pallets, if they are polluting our election process without procedures, then the court similarly should take that up. all eyes on january 6th, i expect there will be a little debate and discourse in the congress as we go through the progress of certifying electors. we still think there is evidence

that needs to be considered. remember, this is not a case of the trump campaign failing to produce evidence. it's a failure of any court to exercise jurisdiction sufficiently to allow us to produce evidence. often times, these motions to dismiss have been granted on the sufficiency of the pleadings, not on the sufficiency of the evidence, and the people's house may be the last form available for us to make those arguments. >> martha: the no mike it appears in the face of it, congressman walt, the kind of ce supreme court would want to look at. when the legislature in pennsylvania it is designated as the body that will set the rules of an election and really sets a high bar for how to change any of the rules of the election, and then they get big footed by the state supreme court in pennsylvania, it seems as though that would be something that the supreme court, that they would want to weigh in on. why do you think that they decided not to?

>> well, justices alito and thomas said they would have heard it, but you know, this is a case, and so many in the mainstream media and the pundits and others, i guarantee you, i have not actually read the briefs, it raises clear constitutional issues. the pennsylvania supreme court overriding the pennsylvania state legislature. the georgia secretary of state entering into a kind of deal with the georgia democratic party over the state legislature. real issues on the 14th amendment, the equal protection clause, article one, all of those pieces, and yet, because congressman -- a quarter of the congress, almost half of our attorneys general, agree with those constitutional issues. we now have -- i have been called a coward, dangerous, disloyal to the constitution, you know, martha, i've served in places that don't have court systems, in africa and afghanistan and others.

we are essentially trying to settle this in the courts as al gore did, as others did. and that's the job of white, last i checked, the judiciary, the coequal branch of judge norman government, and we are lawyers trying to resolve this peacefully, but we're not seeing that from the other side. >> martha: i know the orlando sentinel pulled their endorsement of you. they said they didn't realize, they had no way of knowing that you are not committed to democracy. do you want to respond to them? >> i think multiple tours in afghanistan, africa, and others, shows my commitment. i've raised my hand to the constitution, now i am trying to further that service, serving in the republic, me and so many others that are also signed on to this, lost body parts, lost loved ones, and fought to defend, so, you know what, "orlando sentinel?" you can keep their endorsement, i don't need it. all of the bipartisan things we worked on that they endorsed i guess our tossed out when you

disagree with the mainstream media. i'm not dangerous. congressman gaetz isn't dangerous. a media that is so in the bag for the other side it has stopped reporting the news is what is dangerous for this country. >> martha: gentlemen, thank you so much. good to have you both here tonight. >> thank you. >> all right, thank you. >> martha: so now we go to tonight's other very big election story. and it is continuing, the controversy, over georgia's presidential election results, and the states upcoming senate runoff. the rnc and the georgia republican party have filed a lawsuit to limit the use of absentee ballot drop boxes across the state ahead of the january 5th election that will determine the control of the united states senate. this is where all of the focus goes at this point to georgia, and joining me now is georgia g.o.p. chairman david shafer. sir, good to have you here tonight, thank you very much. when people hear that you want to stop the drop box ballot

voting, they say that you are trying to disenfranchise voters, but there are some very specific rules surrounding these ballot boxes, and people are not really clear that they were actually followed in the presidential election, what can you tell us about that? >> they absolutely were not followed in the presidential election. look, we are trusting no one and taking no chances in this runoff election. we have recruited 4,000 absentee ballot -- i'm sorry, poll watchers, to have eyes on every part of the election process. we have even sued our own secretary of state. the georgia law provides how absentee ballots are going to be returned. they must either be personally delivered to the office or they must be mailed. these unmanned absentee ballot drop boxes violate state law, and they facilitate ballot harvesting, which is illegal under georgia law. and so, we are seeking to either eliminate them or put them under 24-hour a day live stream surveillance cameras to make sure that they are not abused as

we believe they were during the general election. >> martha: yeah, because as you say, harvesting is not permitted, so no one would be allowed to put more than one ballot into that box at a time, and if you don't have surveillance on most ballot boxes, you are not going to know the answer to what happened there. we saw what happened in fulton county during the presidential election. voting was stopped at one point. a lot of questions were raised about that. can you assure voters in georgia that if -- that there will always -- 24/7 -- v people from the republican and democrat party who do not leave the room? >> absolutely. we are, as i said come a moment ago, we are trusting no one. we have sued our own secretary of state. we have recruited the largest number of poll watchers in the history of the state. we are going to have eyes on every part of the process to avoid the kind of problems that planned our general election,

and i would encourage every republican here in georgia or to vote. the more of us who vote, the harder it will be for them to cheat, and we will be doing everything in our power to keep the cheating to a minimum. >> martha: if you don't succeed with the ballot drop boxes, you know, how -- are you concerned about what that might mean? and are you also come on the flip side concerned if you discourage people from voting that way, it could hurt your side of the equation? >> we want every lawful vote to be counted and we want every unlawful vote to be rejected, and we want the accounting to be done in the open and in a court of the law, and that is what we are fighting for. that is also not only deals with the absentee ballot drop boxes, it also deals with signature verification of absentee ballots. we had asked to come in the general election, to be able to observe that process. we were denied. we are suing to make sure we can observe that process and the

runoff election. >> martha: those are two very important lawsuits. keep us posted on how they go in the days and weeks to come until that election. david schaefer, thank you for bringing your side of the story tonight in georgia. >> thank you. >> martha: you can say goodbye to indoor dining and more cities and towns in america. the vaccine may be rolling out on monday, the same day that these businesses will be forced to close their doors. dave rubin in california, and charlie duff in michigan, up next. ♪ this year you got it done. now walmart can help check off your gift list with free curbside pickup, fast delivery from your walmart store, or gifts shipped right to your door. let's end the year celebrating. ♪ for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage.

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end of february. >> martha: sounds great, right? but we are still waiting for the emergency use to be authorized for the vaccine. calling the fda "big old slow turtle" and adding "get the vaccines out, dr. hahn, stop playing games and start saving lives." with three exclamation points. joining me now, fox news medical contributors. you say operation warp speed turned into operation turtle. what is going on. >> good evening, martha. there has been a cute couple of huge frustrations. number one, the fda does not u use -- the fda did not look at manufacturing date until the application was submitted. we had the manufacturing data for a while. should have looked at it when they got.

finally, the massive bureaucracy, the federal bureaucracy, that is, the u.s. fda. we got a sneak peek of that at the nine hour meeting of experts come over use only 30 minutes of those nine hours to be a discussion on safety. 20 minutes spent with people talking with the mute button on, overviews of the pandemic, teaching us nothing new, and twe who dissented and said they couldn't get a word in and were very frustrated. they were trying to explain that they only voted against the vaccine because of the way the question was worded, not because of the vaccine itself. >> martha: yeah. you know, there were so many rules that were changed in order to accelerate this process. it seems like one of them that would have been helpful would be to have that rolling process of review. was that ever discussed? was a rejected? >> no, look, the fda and a lot of other government agencies for that matter have not been able to pivot at a time of a health

emergency, and it's been a real tragedy, because in the three weeks that the fda has been staring at these numbers, 34,000 americans will have died. that is double the number of americans who died in iraq and afghanistan and 9/11 combined. just in the time they are staring at the numbers. now, look, it is important to do a careful review. they shouldn't cut any corners. but what are they waiting for at this point? we are in a health emergency, and to schedule a meeting three weeks out to get the application, remember, they're not interviewing volunteers or looking under a microscope, going to the factories at inspecting them, they are reading a series of results, numbers on a piece of paper, and those numbers are overwhelming. 162 infections in the placebo group. no serious adverse events. now we have that data, it is clear it should have been reviewed in 48 hours. >> martha: yeah, it is just enormously frustrating for americans to watch, they see the

u.k. and canada, thousands of people getting injections, and as soon as that happens, all of those people are no longer spreaders once they go out into the population, and then they get that second shot, and i can make such a big difference. what do you say to dispel some of the concerns that people have about, people say it gets into your dna, you know, but come from stem cells. just to dispel those myths before i let you go, doctor. >> those with natural immunity, those who are confirmed to have had natural immunity, we think that is one to three years, go to the back of the line. for people who think it is incorporated in their dna, it is not. it does not cause infertility. it was not developed with fetal stem cells. i will take the vaccine. at the same time, i respect those who don't want to take it just yet. we've got a third of the country with natural immunity. if we can get another third with the vaccine, we might be able to see some significant following. >> martha: that is an extraordinary thing you just

said. that a third of the community has natural immunity, and if you've had it, you believe you should step aside and let others go first. it's not something we have heard a lot from other doctors, so thank you for bringing that up. good to see you tonight. thank you. >> good to see you, thank you. >> martha: this monday, finally, we might be able to see the first injections of the vaccine comment at the same time, we are going to be shutting down businesses across the country, so here is e new york governor, andrew cuomo, talking about this today. watch this. >> we are going to close indoor dining in new york city on monday. outdoor dining and take-out continues. >> martha: so, in moments, the "rubin report" post dave rubin and pulitzer prize-winning journalist charlie duff of michigan and california. , two restaurateurs on the front line, sounds like a fantastic place to go.

thank you both, great to have you here. let me start with you. do you think it makes sense to shut down the indoor events and indoor dining at this point, given what we have learned so far? >> indoor, i see a point with what they are doing. outdoor, not at all. disagree 110%. there should be no reason for us to have to close outdoor dining when there have been proofed, and it's been proven, there is no data to say that the spread of covid-19 in the hospital is filling up is because of outside dining. we are not the cause of it. there is no effect of it, no one has proved even, our governor, top doctor, even said, announced it on his soon call that we are not the cause to outside dining. >> martha: so, you start your business in 2015 and said it was a dream come true to start your brewhouse, something he always wanted to do, now you are

struggling to stay open. we learned today gavin newsom's business received over a million dollars, millions of dollars, from the ppp program, when most companies averaged about 128 that i was in. what is your reaction to that story, and how are you doing with your company now? >> you know, every restaurant out there, every small business, independent operator, is somebody's dream. i am saddened to hear about all of these restaurants that are closing. to see large amounts of money be given to large organizations breaks my heart, because that is pretty much every town in america has a restaurant, family restaurant, something like that, that is independent. i'm just hoping there is going to be some sort of relief for us small, independent restaurants out there.

cross collateral with our homes, that's what worries me. >> martha: cory, tell me a little bit about what the impact has been on your business and what it is going to be like if you to shut down the outdoor dining, as you have to now? >> we did -- we had to shut outdoor dining -- sorry, dining, $25 last night. that tells you right there, we usually make thousands of dollars a night, down to $25. how my supposed to pay my staff? how are we supposed to pay, you know, our bills? it's just not for us. this has affected, closing the outside dining program has affected the single moms we hire, the single dads, it affects the bar owners that have to put all this money into a food concept. we are in quite a few other restaurants. i hear stories every day, they are calling my restaurant, and

they are pleading with me to help them, and i decided to take the charge come and we definitely need to do something, because we are all hurting. we are losing money every day. how are we supposed to pay the bills? how are we supposed to do anything when there is no proof, no data, that this is affecting the hospital stays and covid-19 which they are doing right now? >> martha: yeah, we have learned a lot, and the science is pretty clear, according to all of the top officials at the task force that outdoor dining is the safer option and that all of you all have made the adaptation to be able to do it. corian patti, good luck to you both. and hope visit your establishments when they open back up again. hopefully this vaccine will start to make a difference. great to see you guys tonight. be well. joining me now, dave rubin, host of "the rubin report" and charlie lived off, pulitzer prize-winning journalist. dave, let me start with you.

cory's business in california, you had with they said about gavin newsom's business is getting over a million dollars from the ppp program. what do you say to these restaurant owners? what goes through your mind when you listen to them? >> well, i really feel for them, and i'm not just saying it like a talking head on cable news saying it. i've been out here at the protest in l.a. i still live in l.a., i'm not quite sure why at this point because it is not even that warm out right now, but these people, they are following the american dream of taking a chance on doing something that gives you purpose and passion and a reason to live and allows you to put food on your family's plate, and all of that stuff that is so great about this country and has been great for over 200 years, and government officials, gavin newsom, who had no problem going to french laundry, one of the most expensive restaurants in the united states, with 21 other people, not social distancing, not wearing masks,

indoors, racking up a $15,000 bar bill, i am not making this stuff up, that is what he was doing two weeks ago, and then our mayor here, eric garcetti, is protesting without a mask, and then they decide to destroy businesses, absolutely destroy businesses. i think the average person is fed up. when i go to these rallies, it's not just that it is conservatives out there, or right wingers or trunk people. these are regular people who have been shocked by the system into waking up. they really had, with good reason, people want to live. we are not hamsters that are supposed to be in a little cage for everybody to look at. >> martha: charlie, the brown iron brewhouse in michigan sounds like a place that you would like to see stay open. it's just, you listen to patti, and i want to apologize to her because her shot was breaking up a bit and it was hard to hear her, but you could hear in her voice what she was going through. you see the vaccine around the corner and things continue to be closed down in a new round.

>> yeah, well, our governor likes to do it in two or three week pieces. you don't get a clear projection of what you should do for the month. we are close down until the 19th-20th, and then you are certain it's going to be through the new year. just be honest with us and do it. what i would say about small business people is taking the brunt of this when i fully believe now the government completely screwed up. this week, i went around with body collectors and took the corpses out of nursing homes. nothing has been done. all of this money that could have been injected into protecting the very old, who this is hitting, very controllable spots, we have not done. and if you want to know how long it took to plan and execute the invasion of normandy, it was seven months. we are nine months into it. we are dying on the vine, and come spring, i think it is going to be holy hell, these places aren't coming back.

>> martha: wow. i mean, you make such a great point. we have known all along that it is the older people in nursing homes, it is people who have comorbidities, these are the people we need to protect, this is where the resources should have gone. i think about the mercy ship that was off the coast, you know, in the harbor in new york city, the comfort, that nobody -- was barely used. dave, you know, we talk about the learning curve on this thi thing, and it doesn't seem to be registering. >> no, it is not registering at all. let's not forget, it was march, about nine months ago, we were told two weeks to flatten the curve. i was a long time ago. we don't even say that phrase anymore. if the lockdowns worked, well, i'm in the most locked down state of california, probably the most locked down city of los angeles. wouldn't the numbers be disappearing? wouldn't they be telling us we should be opening up now, nine months after we did gloves and

masks and the limited amount of people in stores and shut everything else down? why is it that the numbers in a place like florida, which is largely open, why aren't the covid numbers -- >> martha: good question. >> while a higher -- they should be ten times higher, right? instead, the numbers are comparable or if anything may have lower numbers, but for some reason we don't talk about that. none of this makes sense at any point. we are outsourcing our sense making to people who would love to keep us trapped at home on our dime. >> martha: charlie, dave, thank you. charlie in michigan, dave in l.a. for a little longer, i think you will follow tesla and hp and ben shapiro and everybody else, texas, let us know where you're going to move. great to see you, dave. great to see you guys. all right. they were ahead of everybody else on the hunter biden story. kim strassel and gregg jarrett

on what the rest of the media said they were crazy, so they didn't know what they are talking about, now they are all trying to play catch up. we'll be right back. ♪ nasal mist. for drug free relief that works fast. vicks sinex. instantly clear everyday congestion.

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♪ >> mr. president-elect, when did you learn about the investigation of your son, sir? >> did hunter biden commit a crime? have you spoken to your son, mr. president-elect? >> i'm proud of my son. >> martha: eventually there is going to be an answer i guess, joe biden shutting down the reporters today, just like many in the media shut down the hunter biden story so actively. less than two weeks before election day come and carry tweeted this: "why haven't you seen any posted from npr about the new york post-hunter biden story?

we don't waste our time on stories that are not really stories. we don't want to waste the listener's time or the reader's time on stories that are just pure distraction." joining me now, kim strassel, "wall street journal" editorial board member, and gregg jarrett, fox news legal analyst, and jessica tarlov, fox news contributor. great to have all of you here tonight. i think they doth protest too much, kim strassel. the vehemence with which these reporters shut this down, keep walking, there is nothing to see here. i want to just play this montage, and i would love for you to jump in after we watch this. >> charges so heinous i'm not even going to save them. >> talking about biden's personal corruption, a little bit about hunter biden. >> most of those charges unverified. >> a smear of joe biden comes from the kremlin. >> peddling baseless conspiracy theories about joe biden and his son. >> it is so obviously a russian operation. it is obviously a story that was

created by the trump campaign. >> martha: kim strassel, what do you say? >> well, look, here is the remarkable thing about this, martha. you know, every once in a while, the press can maybe get a pass for missing a story or coming late behind someone else that really got a scoop, but this one was so glaringly obvious, so right in front of them, that is even harder to understand. remember, go all the way back to the summer of 2019, there were media outlets writing about this, because this was back before they wanted joe biden to win. they didn't care if he lost the primary, so they were going after hunter biden. people and they shut it down because we went into impeachment. all of the information that came out of burisma in impeachment, that information continued all throughout the spring of this year. lists all, we had a report from senators ron johnson and chuck grassley that played out -- and we have hunters

former business partner. and they nonetheless just go on and in the face of all of the same rust and disinformation? it was one of the most disingenuous comments i have ever seen from the press corps. a press corps that at least in the beginning of this but it was a story, but put that aside because they care more about a political outcome, in the end. >> martha: kim makes a great point, gregg, because the narrative shifted when it became clear that joe biden was going to be the nominee here. that is what it really shut down hard. >> that's right. and this was not media incompetence. this was willful, martha. this was deliberate. this was the worst cover-up by the media in my lifetime, and it was not just the censorship by twitter and facebook, no, "the new york times," "washington post," cnn, msnbc, they all refused to cover the story. they kept assuring the american public there is nothing to report here, there is nothing to

investigate. jake tapper said to his audience, this story is so disgusting, i'm not going to report on it. as you point out, and p.r. saying it's a real story, it's only a distraction. it was so obvious all along to those of us who were reporting it and were mocked, ridiculed, and demeaned for doing so, that there was a criminal investigation of hunter biden. we knew that when the subpoena was issued over his laptop. subpoenas are issued by grand juries. that means there is a criminal investigation. if the mito was in total denial because they were acting not only as advocates in the election of joe biden, but as his protectors. it was irresponsible. it was shameful. it was media malpractice on steroids. >> tucker: and you know, these investigations are ongoing. they continue to carry on, the investigation, evidence gathering is continuing, so it's a story.

we covered it, "special report" covered it, also got vilified for even mentioning it in our programming. so, you know, jessica, let me ask you this, as piers morgan raises this question, can you imagine the howls of outrage if don jr. had been under federal investigation for tax fraud and nobody told the voters in the media looks the other way? try to put yourself in that reality for just a second. what would you have said if that story was buried and it wasn't reported? jessica? can you hear me okay? she froze. kim, your thoughts? >> [laughs] well, of course, it would have been an absolute outrage. this is on the double standard that we have seen all along -- and look, what i want from my respectivperspective, cover alls

aggressively and equally. if that were the case with don jr., i remember when everything started and the accusations about russian collusion came along. we at the editorial board of the journal, we at least kept our minds open to the possibility that that was -- that there was something to that. we had an unknown quantity in donald trump, and it was a little bit of a messy campaign. could there have been some contacts and nobody had really thought through? but then we continued to follow the story, and as it became clear that this is actually part of a democratic research dumped on the fbi, those of us -- we followed the story where it went. the rest of the press shutdown. and so, again, i'm not in any way advocating for a harder treatment of one side or the other based on whether or not there is a r or d next to your name. just remember you are the press corps and you need to be aggressive no matter what, and that is what has been lost the last few years. >> martha: yeah, it's a great point.

curiosity is what makes someone goes into this line of work, you should want to know what's going on with these stories and want to dig into them. that lack of curiosity reflects something that is, you know, that reflects some other kind of profession, i guess. i want to play this. this is rush limbaugh. last night, geraldo sort of went after him for talking about secession statement, and i want to play this real quick for everybody at home. >> i simply referenced what i have seen other people say about how we are incompatible as currently divided and that secession is something people are speculating about. i am not advocating it. had not advocated it, never have advocated it, and probably wouldn't. >> martha: just wanted to square the circle i'm bad and make sure we gave brush his dubai playing that. thank you, gregg jarrett, kim strassel, great to have both be with us. that is "the story" a friday,

december 11th, 2020. a lot going on. odon't miss tucker carlson's 20 by belinsky interview exclusive. ♪ >> tucker: good evening, and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." 2020 has been a tough year for a lot of americans, but especially difficult for the experts who claim they analyze data for a living. a lot of those people have been exposed for what they are: frauds. think of pulling business. : used to seem like a legitimate job. then came the november electio elections. pollsters around the country got it wrong, double digits in race after race. pretty embarrassing. but not as embarrassing as the performance of our so-called public health experts. they are supposed to be numbers people,