some agreement on. we had darrell issa on of california to tell us a little bit. we will officially see that roll out minutes away. the president within the next hour will talk his last words about tax reform before they vote potentially. i'm harris. here's dana. ♪ >> dana: a fox news alert. we have a major break through in tax reform on a jam-packed day on capitol hill. house and senate republicans meeting in conference right now to finalize tax package while senate democrats are celebrating a big victory in alabama. members of both party just finished grilling the deputy attorney general will the russia investigation. hello, everyone. i'm dana perino and this is the daily briefing. ♪ ♪ one hour from now president trump will deliver what aids aides are calling a closing argument on tax reform. here's what he just said about corporate tax rates. >> we're going to see where it ends up. but i certainly i would. it's at 35 right now. so if it got down to 21, i would certainly be -- i

would be thrilled. we haven't set that final figure yet. but, certainly 21 is a very great difference. >> dana: chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. what are the expectations regardinregarding with this fax reform package. set around 21% down from 35%. the top individual rate just above 37%. and mortgage interest deduction around $700,000 for new mortgages. this hour, the members of the tax reform conference committee made up of senators and house members are discussing the compromise they have been hammering out. the house ways and means chairman says this is historic day for the american people. he addressed some of the complaints about tax reform. >> it's interesting because we seem to get hit by all sides. some say tax relief for the wealthy. others say no, there is tax increases for the wealthy. i guess my point is wait for the final bill. we really -- i know for the

state the salt states where the local governments just hammer families, we know, we want to do more. >> there is a great sense of urgency. republicans hope to vote on that tax reform package next week ahead of their self-imposed christmas deadline. dana? >> dana: what is the play from democrats after last night's senate race in alabama? >> well, dana, they did not waste any time in calling for a pause on this tax reform push until the new alabama senator can be seated to his position. >> it would be wrong for senate republicans to jam through this tax bill without giving the newly elected senator from alabama the opportunity to cast his vote. >> moments ago the house democratic leader called this tax reform conference committee a total charade. >> this is really a disgrace. and so you can find out more about what's in the tax bill by listening to their

friends, their lobbyists on casey because they know before the american people know and certainly before members of congress. >> once jones is seated in the united states senate it's a 51-49 split. even tighter. dana? >> dana: all right, mike. thank you so much. we are about to learn a lot more about the bill from a key capitol hill player. speaker of the house paul ryan will join me soon to talk about the negotiations and all the latest. let's break it down with chris stirewalt, my podcast mate and the fox news podcast politics guru. you are a podcast guru as well. >> we are not really podcast giewr crews. >> dana: when i set mate. co-host? >> we are accidental podcast gurus. >> dana: that's right. that's why everybody should listen. we pulled up mitch mcconnell in 2010 when there was a special election in massachusetts. >> scott brown. >> dana: scott brown wins. it was all about obamacare at the time. schumer just said that the republicans all to slow their roll on tax reform

until doug jones can get seated. listen to what mitch mcconnell said back then. >> i think brown's election means the end of the healthcare proposal as currently constituted that the democrats are trying to jam through that they did jam through the senate thanks to the cornhusker kick back and louisiana purchase and the other tactics that they employed. >> dana: you could almost search and replacement statements and they would be the same. >> right. and that's exactly by the way what the democrats did. harry reid was their leader at the time. that's exactly what they did. they did jam obamacare through. even after voters in massachusetts had pretty clearly repudiated the idea of obamacare. remember, they already had romney care. they were pretty content there were big problems with the bill. they had to use a really shady legislative move around by the way interestingly we now treat as just normal. this is how gross precedent gets set. this is how you lose your republic. sorry. the democrats set a standard for passing obamacare which was by hook or by crook

after special election any standard and do it on this budget recollection mumbo jumbo. now it's we will do everything on that base. that's the way you can govern a country. if the democrats think that the republicans are going to do any different to them, than they did to the republicans in 2010, come on. >> dana: there's no way. >> that's ridiculous. >> dana: this and any other issues including junction. take to you alabama. last night we had the special election. the result is that the democrat won for the first time in 25 years in alabama. take a look at the fox news voter analysis here. jones strength african-americans voting 87 points for him. underaged voters i'm sorry -- that would be quite a story. voters under the age of 45, 26 points for jones and women overall plus 12 for him. >> interesting when you look at women in those -- in our fox news voter analysis, it isn't women. it's it african-american women. jones won with white women

overall. now he didn't do as well as a typical republican would be in alabama. but, african-american women 98%, i believe, 97% and came out with real intensity. their share of the electorate was up substantially. this is what republicans need to be concerned about overall. look, this alabama race ain't nothing. >> dana: it's a one off. >> it's a one off. have you bad nominees. you can lose even safe seats. it's pretty straightforward. that's about as far as that goes. there is a larger lesson here. democrats are angry. they are fired up and going to the polls. >> dana: take a look at this. the monmouth poll about a generic ballot. i will have you explain what the generic ballot is basically voters are saying that for next year's midterm election they favor a democrat in their district by 51%. why is that such a big number? >> so, normally we would expect to see that this far out at 6 points, 7 points. democrats traditionally have an edge in the generic ballot there are more democrats in america than there are republicans but

republicans vote at higher propensity. generally the republicans can make up a couple few points when it comes to generic ballot and do fine plus the way the districts are drawn, ta da ta da ta da. when you get out to a number like 15 points, then you start to seat wave building. what we saw in virginia, we saw to a certain degree with turnout in alabama last night, what we're seeing among democrats is they have had it. and they are ready to go. that's why republicans want to pass this tax cut so desperately because what they have got to do now is try to make the election not about donald trump. they have got to make it about. >> dana: results. >> and keeping conservatives together. keeping conservatives together. keeping the base co-hered around policy ideas rather than the personality in the president. >> dana: hope after that bill gets passed his popularity improves if people do see money in paycheck. >> or if the economy gets bing, bang, booming. >> dana: it's on their way. >> it's been good for a year and republicans want to claim their part of the pie. >> dana: thanks for being

here. see you in an hour when we do that podcast. it's called "i will tell what you" scroll down click on logo and see wide variety of options for downloading the podcast. you can be a part of the conversation, too. the house judiciary committee hearing and looking into accusations of bias on the special counsel's team. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein testified at length before the oversight hearing this morning and chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge joins us now. catherine? >> well, dana, right now we are on a break, and we expect the hearing to resume in the next 10 to 15 minutes. it was really dominated by these text messages that were first obtained by fox news last night. theist are the texts that were sent by this fbi agent peter strzok to an fbi lawyer, lisa page who at that time was also his lover. there is one text in particular that really has the attention of congressional investigators. it was sent in august of 2016 and in the exchange between them, peter strzok

says "we can't take that risk. it's like an insurance policy." and investigators want to know whether there was any kind of coordination or conspiracy to hurt then candidate donald trump. so you take those texts and you kipple them with campaign contributions to the dnc and hillary clinton, and the republican said that there really is a bias problem. let's listen. >> so it steams to me have you two things can you do. you can disband the mueller special prosecutor and do what we have all called for appoint a special counsel to look into this, to look into peter strzok, bruce ohr. >> our inspector is doing review that's how we found that message. >> have you given that answer 15 times. let me ask you this, are you concerned, this is what a lot of americans are believing right now and i certainly do that the comey fbi and the obama justice department worked with one campaign to go after the other campaign. >> what we heard

consistently from the deputy attorney general is that this agent, peter strzok was fired by special counsel robert mueller from the russia team and it happened in the summer as soon as they became aware of these anti-trump text messages. and this morning, some democrats really backed up the fbi agent saying the messages were not that extraordinary because he was simply expressing what a lot of americans feel about cap democrat trump. candidate trump. >> nor is there anything wrong with fbi agents expressing private political views by private text message. the especially permit that kind of communication. peter strzok did not say anything about donald trump that the majority of americans weren't also thinking at the same time. >> democrats also pointed out that members of the justice department and the fbi have made political contributions in the past themselves and they have made those contributions to republicans and no one at this point is accusing them of bias, dana. >> dana: all right,

catherine, thank you for following that. >> you are welcome. >> dana: we will keep in touch with you. steve bannon taking a beating from the g.o.p. after roy moore falls short in alabama. but, is bannon really to blame? we'll ask our panel. plus, we are learning who will replace al franken in the senate hot minnesota governor just appointed and what franken is saying about it. ♪ ♪ they appear out of nowhere. my secret visitors. appearing next to me in plain sight. hallucinations and delusions. these are the unknown parts of living with parkinson's disease. what stories they tell. but for my ears only.

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day deign some republicans now blaming steve bannon for the loss of the alabama senate seat after the former white house chief strategist broke with the g.o.p. and backed roy moore over luther strange. new york congressman pete king tweeting, quote: after alabama disaster, g.o.p. must do right thing and dump steve bane none. his act is tired, and morally vacuous. if we are to make america

great again for all americans, bannon must go and go now. jessica tarlov is a fellow at. former chief of staff to you mitch mcconnell. josh, let me start with you. because steve bannon as you can imagine through a spokesperson saying that mcconnell and shelby and republicans like that are the ones to blame for this. i guess that probably doesn't come as a surprise to you. what would you say? >> well, you know, look, if steve bannon is not on chuck schumer or nancy pelosi's payroll yet, he certainly ought to be. because he is the most effective democratic strategist to date. i don't think there is a democrat in the world who thought they could compete in a republican plus 25 state like alabama but sure enough, they hadn't had the opportunity with steve bannon yet. here we are. look, steve bannon endorsed against president trump's candidate and senator luther strange. he picked a fairly flawed candidate before all of the allegations came out in the "the washington post" about

alleged sexual impropriety with minors. listen to what we are talking about here, an alleged pedophile as republican nominee for the u.s. senate. i mean, this guy has absolutely no qualifications to try to compete at this level. i mean, he showed up at home plate with a football helmet and a baseball. >> and a horse. >> it makes absolutely no sense of what he is trying to accomplish here. and he set the republican party back at least one seat in the process. >> dana: , jessica, i wanted to ask you about the democrats. until "the washington post" came out, i imagine that the dnc and other democrats did not think that they had any hope of actually winning there. what was -- what were the democrats able to do to turn on the grassroots and actually get people to the polls so that you had -- it's a narrow win but certainly historic one, the first in 25 years. >> actually a lot due to the naacp that had the best downthe ground operation there to make sure they were mobilizing the black community as you were talking about with chris earlier. this victory was delivered

to us by black women. they voted 98%, black men 94%, i think it was. there is a lot of discussion about that tom perez has been on twitter today and his statement commending black women contribution to this win as well as virginia as well. i think there will be some thinking to the whole oh we lost 2016 because of the white working class vote. and focus on what our base looks like now as compared to what a bernie sanders said that our base was. but the naacp certainly a lot of money that was coming in from out of state. you and i talked a few weeks ago about the importance of figures like chuck schumer and nancy pelosi staying away from alabama. but we saw corey booker was good for alabama. charles barclay was tremendous. i wish they had showed up maybe a week earlier but i think it really comes down to that. >> dana: it's interesting. let me read to you a quote from steven loft. he says this is a brutal reminder that candidate quality matters regardless of where you are running, not only did steve bannon cost us a critical senate seat in one of the most

republican seats in the country but he also dragged the president of the united states into his fiasco and steven law is with the senate leadership fund. do you think that going forward that president trump might ask steve bannon, you know, to take a backseat and let this play out the way that he needs it to? >> yeah. i mean, i don't think he should take his calls. steve bannon wasn't terribly productive when he was in the white house. i mean, basically, as long as steve bannon was in the white house, the whole west wing operated like episode of gossip girl. all he talked about who is up, who is down. who is making fun of who inside the west wing. the second he left and a new regime came in. they have straightened out entirely and serving president trump the way he deserves to be served. now you see he comes in on the political side and destroys all that and throws a seat away in the process. look, i would distance myself extremely quickly. the entire party and certainly president trump is a part of that. >> also assuming that president trump has any control over steve bannon at this point. i mean, he is out there.

he is doing what he wants. just wanted to add to josh's initial point. >> dana: then i have got to run. >> >> thanks, dana. >> dana: more on that stunning night in alabama. why is chuck schumer talking to capitol hill police? we'll tell you. ♪ ♪

>> dana: with the results of the alabama senate race in, political analysts are speculating about what the doug jones victory means for the mid terms next year. national journal politics editor josh tweeted today here is the political map in 2018 that turned up in alabama. one super charged d turnout. 2 huge suburban exurban swing to r's. 3 depressed r turnout. civil war only worsening, cat 4 hurricane tore g.o.p. let's talk about that with the author of that tweet

josh cros. monmouth came out with poll with generic ballot showing 51% of americans polled in that poll say they prefer a democrat as their representative. so, does that figure in to your forecast for 2018? >> yeah. this is looking very treacherous for republicans and the biggest exfactor is that republicans just aren't showing up to the polls. a lot of people who are really enthusiastic about president trump aren't going to the polls in alabama. they didn't show up in virginia. all these local elections the republicans aren't showing to vote. and that's an ominous sign because i think republicans could hold down their losses. if the democratic base is really angry, the resistance really wants to show up and protest donald trump, they could make some gains in the house and in the senate. but it wouldn't be enough to take over both houses of congress. but if you combine that democratic turnout with republican apathy, that is a toxic mix. that's how democrats could have a huge landslide in

2018. >> dana: something like if tax reform does pass as it looks like it's going to, can that turn around that kind of apathy that you are talking about. >> it certainly can help. republicans right now aren't really sure of why they should show up at the polls. you have this really divisive split between steve bannon and mitch mcconnell, between donald trump and congressional leaders, which is really confusing a whole lot of republican voters on what the party stands for. so, yeah, tax reform is an issue that unites both sides of the republican party. and it certainly is going to be an issue that a lot of candidates are going to be campaigning on. but, when you are down 15 points in that generic ballot that you were talking about. >> dana: at this point. >> that's a huge hole that's going to be hard to overcome. >> dana: we will show a map here. have you some races that you think are of concern for republicans and democrats. walk us through that. >> yeah. i mean, democrats in the senate have a very tall task. even now that alabama is in their corner. they have basically need to win a bunch of seats. they need to hold their seats in trump friendly

states like missouri, north dakota. indiana. these are states that still like president trump, president trump has a high approval rating and where democrats are still very vulnerable despite the tough political environment. democrats need to win over these republican friendly states. >> dana: okay. >> they also need to pick up seats in arizona and nevada, which are winnable but they are still -- arizona is a pretty republican friendly state. it hasn't elected a democrat to the senate in a couple decades. nevada is a state that's a pure toss-up on the map. democrats can now win the senate majority. there is a pathway for them to do so. it's not particularly easy. >> dana: yeah. it's kind of a difficult path. it's a lot of twists and turns. josh kraushaar, thank you so much for being here today. >> thank you. >> dana: the fed making a move and the markets are reacting. what impact will it have on your bottom line. the political fallout from alabama. why it's not only republicans who may need to make some changes. we will get reaction from senator chris van hollen

when he joins me live moments from now ♪ ♪

♪ >> dana: a fox news alert. and a live look at the house senate conference committee as they hammer out the details of the final version of the tax reform bill. we'll keep monitoring that for you. and we have the speaker in just a few minutes. that's after the big night in alabama and doug jones' upset victory should not only be seen as a wake-up call for republicans but for democrats as well. the senator elect seems to realize that.

>> we have work to do. we have work to do in this state to build those bridges within this state the. to reach across with those that didn't vote for us to try to find that common ground. i'm pledging to do that tonight. >> dana: joining me now is senator chris van hollen senato.i imagine you were celebrating last night. do you think the democrats and you yourself have hit upon a formula that could get to you a 2018 come back or was alabama gist a one off because of the allegations because of the allegations against roy moore? >> dana, i think it was more than just a run off. obviously there were special circumstances there. if you take what happened in alabama with this big upset where you had a big, big turnout among traditional democratic constituencies but coupled with a lot of crossover republican voters, who voted for doug jones, and you look what happened last november, in this past november in virginia and

other places, and clearly you're seeing a trend and a lot of momentum for candidates who are going to focus on kitchen table issues, which is what doug jones did. he talked about economic issues. he said we should not support a tax plan that's a big give away to corporations. paid for by folks in the middle class. he talked last night, of course, about funding the children's health insurance program. so i think if a candidate focuses on those bred and butter issues that every family cares about there is clearly a path forward and successful one. >> dana: we have been talking a little bit on the show about the turnout and certainly last night in alabama there was a large turnout of african-american voters. 579,000 or about almost 29%. and i wondered if you could listen to this from charles barkley who was there campaigning and what he said after the win. >> democrats and i told mr. jones, this and i love doug, they have taken the black vote and the poor vote for granted for a long time.

it's time for them to get off their ass and start making life better for black folk and people who are poor. they have always had our vote and they have abused our votes, but this is a wake-up call for democrats to do better for black people and poor white people. >> dana: how would you respond to that senator? >> so i do think democrats need to do a much better job of engaging on a regular basis with the african-american community and the pressing issues faced by this community which are shared, of course by so many americans. i mean, these issues of making sure your kids get a really good education. making sure that people have health security. retirement security. and a chance to make it in the united states there is no doubt that sometimes democrats look at their traditional constituencies at simply get out the vote time rather than engaging with these communities and other communities, with everybody on a regular basis

u this is not an either/or for the democratic party. some people have this false choice do we need to engage more with traditional did democratic constituencies or go after voters who switched from obama to trump? and the relates is we have to be the party for everybody and we can't take anybody for granted. >> dana: i want to ask you this one other topic. governor dayton of minnesota announced today that the lieutenant governor tina smith is going to replace your soon to be former colleague senator al franken in the senate. also happened object same day that senator schumer we just talked about had to call the capital police for a false allegation that was basically shopped around to reporters. got to try to get to the bottom of that do you think that the senate needs to have some sort of allowance for some due process in case any of these allegations are false? >> so, we definitely should have due process. i'm not familiar with the specific issue you just raised about that today.

>> dana: um. >> wit but, look, every case obviously has its own fact pattern. but, it is important to have an ethics committee process that the public has faith in. >> dana: yeah. >> right now, because it takes place behind closed doors. you know, people don't think that the truth will always come out. it's important to look at ways we can restore confidence in that process because we do need to make sure that we have due process. and at the same time, we need to make sure people are held accountable. >> dana: um-huh. >> for bad behavior and bad conduct and trying to make sure we have a system that again, does all those things is important. i would say getting back to alabama, that this was a victory for integrity and dignity and pure decency over a candidate who was very divisive and much more focused on issues that divide us than on those

kitchen table issues, the economic issues that bring us together. that's why doug jones did so well in not only winning over traditional democrats but getting those crossover voters. >> dana: right. >> he was very focused on those kind of kitchen table issues. >> dana: i know y'all worked very hard. thanks for come on today that's senator chris van hollen. >> good to be with you. >> dana: fox news alert. the fed raising benchmark interest rate for the third time this year boosting it by a quarter of a point to 1.5%. the markets now reacting to the news. fox business network nicole petalides is live at the new york stock exchange. how are traders interpreting this move. >> overall they are thinking it's good news. ultimately it means that the fed thinks that the economy and everything that goes with it are strong enough to move this rate a quarter of a point to the upside. of course, everybody loves cheap money. everybody as you interpret this at home you are going to see over the next year or so mortgage rates go up,

student loans, car loans, those rates will be moving higher but to a more normal level. don't forget near record lows. they raised a quarter point to that range of 1.25, 1.5. g.d.p. estimates good news on the economy. those were moved higher to 2.5%. the inflation forecast relatively not much inflation. that stayed relatively low. and the unemployment rate is expected to drop even further. so those are some great signs there. big picture though, as we take a look at all of this the traders are still feeling optimistic. in fact, bank of america, the s&p 500 is at 266 now. they think it's going to 3,000 next year. everybody city thinking the markets will continue. the tax plan goes through. we did have a little bit of selling as we got the news that it's going to be moving forward. big picture people are feeling optimistic and the fed will continue to raise rates, probably three times next year if everything stays the way it is. back to you. >> dana: always love having you nicole. thanks so much.

the man accused of an attempted suicide bombing in the new york city subway just the other day facing a federal judge right now. akayed ullah is in video conference from his hospital bed. he has been there since monday when police say he partially detonated a homemade pipe bomb in a tunnel near times square. rick leventhal is in new york city. rick? >> as we speak we believe ullah is being formally presented with those five terrorism charges presented against him not in a courtroom but at bellevue hospital with the judge joining him in his guarded room via live video conference. ullah still hospitalized after the bomb fizzled didn't detonate as planned. he told authorities he wanted to blow as many up as possible punishing for isis overseas. he waived his miranda rights after arrest and told them he began watching isis videos three years ago 2014 three years after admitted into the u.s. thanks to

family chain migration after his uncle won visa lottery and got his mother and siblings into the u.s. before turning 21. ullah told investigators he reserved online how to build a bomb and built it in brooklyn apartment two to three weeks ago. then he set it up in podesta passageway port authority busy monday morning to try to maximize casualties. the investigation isn't over. the focus is on who else may have helped and known or might be plotting to pick up where ullah left off. >> our investigation is ongoing. we do not stop because we have an individual who is charged. our initial and ongoing priority is to always identify other potential operatives and address other potential threats. >> ullah has a wife and child in bangladesh. she has been interviewed by authorities there according to the associated press and said during his last visit ullah talked to her about a local radical muslim cleric but not about his plan to kill people in new york city. >> dana: thanks for staying

on this story. we appreciate it big day on capitol hill as lawmakers talking tax reform and some new comments about using taxpayer funds for sexual harassment settlements. speaker of the house paul ryan joins us live to talk those topics and how a democratic victory in alabama could foreshadow a tough time for the g.o.p. in 2018. ♪ ♪

>> shepard: everybody, shepard smith on the fox news desk. president trump set to give what the white house closed his closing argue 789 for the g.o.p. tax plan. that's as we get word that republican leaders have reached a deal, a tentative deal on taxes. but democrats say republicans should hold off until the newly elected senator from alabama gets to washington. we'll have the president live for you somewhere around the top of the hour on shepard smith reporting. we'll see you then. >> dana: a fox news alert, tax reform center stage right now as the house senate conference committee is meeting to discuss reconciling the two republican tax bills. president trump also set to

weigh in at the top of the hour with a statement on that plan. we now bring in one of the key figures in the tax debate, speaker of the house paul ryan. this is a once in a generation opportunity. i know you have worked on tax reform for most of your career. are you satisfied with what the conference committee is coming to agreement on? >> i'm very happy about this, dana. i couldn't be more happy. this is bigger than the reagan '86 tax reform which is the year i got my drivers license. so this is really important for the american economy for making our businesses competitive in the global economy and giving middle class taxpayers, you know, a break. so we are very excited about this. our negotiators have been working on this all along. they have come together. now they are going through the process of, you know, dotting the i and crossing the t and making sure all of the numbers work and all the stuff you need to do to bring a bill into final tip top shape to get going. we are very happy where we are. like i said, we launched the framework of this tax reform at the beginning of this process. after listening to members from both house and the senate.

working with the administration. and then we passed the bill out of the house. pass the bill out of the senate. very similar bills. so, getting these things to sync up wasn't all that difficult because they sore close to begin with that's where we're and very excited. our goal was get it done by christmas all along. get it done by christmas so we start the new year with a new tax code so we can get this economy growing and give families relief. that's where we're and really happy about that. >> dana: the democrats have stuck to their guns and complained that the bill only helps the rich. giving away too much to corporations. and that the middle class really is not getting the relief that it needs. i know that you would despite dispute that. and you can do that here. i also wonder if you think that people will actually start to see something different in their paychecks as soon as the turn of the year. >> yeah. i do. first of all, to cut through all the clutter and find out what the bill actually will do and does, go to fair and simple dot g.o.p., that is our website. we will continually update that as information is coming out. dana, what we expect to happen is withholding tables

will change means that workers in 2018 will see more money in their paychecks because the tax code is going to be taking less money out of their paychecks in the first place. so withholding will change. that is why we are working hand in glove with the administration to make sure that is reflected so people aren't overpaying their taxes in 2018 and we get the withholding to change to reflect this tax cut so that people actually see immediate increase in their paychecks and business also have an immediate incentive to work, save, and invest and hire more people. by having expensing kick in immediately, that encourages businesses to invest in their people, invest in their factories, invest in their equipment. that happens right away as haswell. we expect this will help the higher take home pay and bigger paychecks and more stream lined simplified system. >> dana: are you concerned at all about the unpopularity of the bill. 52%. >> i'm really not everybody says this because results speak for themselves. look, you've got this big debate up here. have you pundits and the

national media and all the distortions so you have a confused public. but the results are going to speak for themselves. look, ronald reagan's tax reform, the polling right before they passed that, 18% of the people in the country thought they were going to benefit from it. 18%. so, that was before the reagan tax reform. so. >> dana: you have a good point. >> this is what happens when you are going through this process. >> dana: as you end the year of 2017, there has been a lot of criticism from people like steve bannon, or other populists who say that the establishment, so-called establishment is not carrying out president trump's agenda. not doing enough. but, i think that you would probably disagree with that if you look at how many bills have you actually passed out of the house. >> can you put the chart up? because i can't see what you are doing on tv. >> dana: i have a chart. this is the one i think it says to me you have passed 462 bills. >> that's right. that's right. >> dana: to date. >> what that tells you at this stage of the trump presidency. basically in the first year of the trump presidency, the house of representatives has passed more bills in donald

trump's first year than what happened in obama's first year, bush's first year, the other bush's first year, clinton's first year. so this house of representatives has set a record for passing the trump agenda, our mutually shared agenda. the house of representatives 462 bills, more than anybody else in either bush, bush, clinton or obama. >> dana: will you get credit for that though if they don't pass the senate? that's the other challenge that we have. and it is a different system over there. but. >> it is. >> dana: will people give the house of representatives credit for these -- for passage if it also doesn't pass the senate? >> here is my issue. 363 of those 462 bills are still sitting in the senate. now, that's really frustrating for house members. in fairness to the senate, there are two things that they have that we don't. they have the responsibility to pass the president's personnel. about 1400 people. ambassadors, the judges, the cabinet members. so they have got a process a lot of people.

that takes a lot of time. then they have these filibuster rules which really bother us in the house and that slows things down over there but when they are done with the people. we expect them to move the trump personnel pretty much through the system fairly quickly. they have a lot more time in 2018 to spend on legislating. less people more legislating. we expect to pick up the pace. >> dana: if the tax bill gets through you will get three things, tax reform, individual mandate repeal. >> that's right. >> dana: and drilling in anwr which i think i worked on when i was with the republican -- >> -- working for scott mckin miss. >> dana: you don't remember scott. >> of course i do. >> dana: talking about this monmouth poll come out not favoring republicans 589 all. 51% of registered voters favor a democrat in their district. 36% favor the republican. i know you can make up some of that ground with some of the results. are you concerned about a wave in 2018. >> no. if we do our job and keep our word and make good on our promises we will be just fine. that's what we're in the

middle of doing. >> dana: all right. house speaker paul ryan thanks for joining us today. we will keep in touch with you as the bill goes through the process. >> thank you, dana. >> dana: update on the southern thomas fire in california why recent gains could be short-lived. ♪

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thomas fire in southern california.

but warning that fierce winds are threatening to undo that pro-progress. the flames have now scorched 400 square miles. it is the fifth biggest wildfire in california's history. will carr is reporting live from monda.>> fire crews are cay optimistic as this fire continues to burn in the hillside behind me. as you mentioned, it's already in the record books, but it needs to burn about 40,000 more acres to become the largest wildfire in california's history. it's already burned 240,000 acres, destroyed more than 900 homes and buildings. and spread smoke across this region. check out this time laps video showing the plume billowing up into the sky. air quality is terrible across this area. that's a real concern for residents. >> my wife and i are, you know, living moment by moment. >> my mom had a lung transplant four years ago. and so she has a compromised -- she has

pulmonary fibrosis. i'm so concerned. we just left her house just to see what the conditions are like and it's really bad. >> what these fire degrees really need is some rain. unfortunately there is none in the forecast. even if there was that would bring potential for mud slides which would be a double edge sword for residents that have been through so much. >> dana: just asking there b. those residents, do you have any sense when they're going to be able to come back home? >> not at this point. like i said, the fire crews are cautiously optimistic. but if the santa ana winds, which have pushed these fires over the past week picked up, they can turn on a dime and then you would have tens of thousands of homes in the way of those flames. so a lot of people still under evacuation. a lot of people simply left this area just to get away from the smoke. >> dana: just looking at the pictures. it's amazing. will, thank you so much for being on the story. president trump set to talk tax reform at the top of the hour. fox news will have that for

you live as soon as the president steps to the podium. ♪ ♪ a to replace that spoiled food. and we really appreciated that we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life.

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is >> welcome back to "the daily briefing." president trump will take the podium at the top of the hour. he will make a speech. they're calling it his closing argument on tax reform. the was is on the cusp of saying he has a major legislative achievement in his first year and it's on tax reform. that would include a top tax rate of 37% if the new conference committee report is correct. top rate would be 37%. corporate tax rate,21%. up one percentage point from where the president wanted it and no corporate amt. there's the vice president, mike pence, who is joining the president on his closing argument for tax reform. stay here. we'll bring it live.

i'm dana perino. here's shep. >> shepard: and good afternoon from fox news in new york. i'm shepard smith. on fox television stations and news stations. a live like at the winter wonderland where we're set to hear from the president about his final push for the gop tax plan. we've just gotten word that house and senate leaders have reached a tentative deal for the biggest proposed changes to the tax code in decades. they say it's an agreement in principle and that lawmakers are still making changes behind closed doors. we don't know about everything. we're learning some information about the agreement. the corporate tax rate is expected to go t