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against ISIS; Colorado Springs Suspect Appear in Court via Video; Officer
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Stuart Varney, Trish Regan>
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SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I'm Shannon Bream in for Bret Baier who is on assignment tonight in New York. This is a Fox News alert.
The frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, who already has many trust issues with the American public, is dealing with problems both old and new tonight. There is word Hillary Clinton opened her secretary of state's office to a steady stream of potential donors to her campaign. And we're getting a first look tonight at the latest batch of e-mails from her private servers and addresses.
Chief White House correspondent Ed Henry is here with details. Good evening -- Ed.
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you - - Shannon.
The largest document dump, 700 pages. Most significant dispatch has 328 more e-mails that have now been deemed classified. That means a grand total of 999 classified e-mails so far despite Clinton declaring in March her server had no classified information.
Her campaign has noted the documents were not marked classified while her critics say the secretary should have known it was sensitive information. And today those critics got even more fodder.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: The release of a new batch of Hillary Clinton's e-mails come amid new questions about whether she improperly opened her office as secretary of state for meetings with labor bosses, corporate campaign donors, plus contributors to the Clinton Foundation to help pave the way for her second presidential run.
STEPHEN SPAULDING, COMMON CUASE: This is the kind of situation that you get where money is the coin of the realm. Money buys meetings. It buys returned phone calls.
HENRY: The Associated Press, after a year's-long request under the Freedom of Information Act, has finally obtained copies of Clinton's daily calendars.
PepsiCo Inc CEO Indra Nooyi had three meetings with Clinton as the soda company spent millions lobbying the federal government. And the State Department pitched the cola giant on funds for a U.S. pavilion at an expo in China. Back in 2008, Pepsi's Foundation had pledged $7.6 million in grants to two water firms as part of a program tied to the Clinton Global Initiative.
Another sign of Clinton's intersecting worlds, she met three times with American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten whose union has given up to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation. The union chief also sits on the board of a super PAC backing Clinton and Weingarten endorsed her candidacy in July.
There's no evidence of wrongdoing and a Clinton campaign spokesman noted she has turned over her e-mail and calendars to be transparent about her time as secretary while also pledging campaign finance reformer.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And we need a Supreme Court that protects the right of every citizen to vote, not the right of every corporation to buy elections.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Now the new e-mails also show in late 2012 a top Clinton aide consulted with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Dr. and Senator Bill Frist about her concussion. Aide (inaudible) has e-mailed Clinton his goal was quote, "undermine claims by Fox contributors John Bolton and Laura Ingraham who had suggested that she was faking the injury to avoid Benghazi testimony -- Shannon.
BREAM: And still many e-mails to come through.
HENRY: Still going through thousands of pages.
BREAM: Thanks -- Ed.
HENRY: Good to see you.
BREAM: Well, the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's may be holiday season to you, but every four years it is endorsement season for presidential candidates.
Ahead of the first actual voting after the first of the year, the GOP hopefuls are trying to get as many people as possible to join up with them publicly.
Correspondent Peter Doocy looks at the endorsement scorecard tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: A press conference with 100 African-American Pastors at Trump Tower was called off as word emerged they were not all ready to endorse the Republican frontrunner as advertised.
VICTOR COUZENS, INSPIRATIONAL BAPTIST CHURCH: I don't know that I will necessarily consider endorsing him. I think that's a little premature right now for me, but I'm willing to listen to see what he has to say.
DOOCY: One of the event's organizers Pastor Darrell Scott took the blame for the miscommunication. The meeting still happened and the big endorsement may still happen, too.
STEPHEN PARSON, VIRGINIA PASTOR: I talked to a number of black ministers that said they're going to vote for Trump, but they just haven't come out publicly with it because they're afraid of losing member support.
DOOCY: The sit-down came as Trump doubled down on his assertion that he watched live as large groups of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the September 11 terrorist attacks.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Many people saw it in person. I've had hundreds of phone calls to the Trump Organization saying we saw it. There was dancing in the streets.
DOOCY: And now Trump's competition across the Hudson is getting a badly needed boost because Chris Christie, who didn't even make the main stage at the last debate, is the top of the Granite State's influential union leader newspaper, endorsing him because they think, quote, "Governor Christie is right for these dangerous times. He has prosecuted terrorists and dealt admirably with major disasters.
This morning another important endorsement as Republican Congressman Darrell Issa backed Senator Marco Rubio.
REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: He's not afraid to engage on the hottest subjects and that's important.
DOOCY: Rubio is really raking in Republican support accumulating 18 congressional endorsements compared to just 11 for Senator Ted Cruz.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you say things are going great in Washington then we need to keep heading in the same basic direction just a bit around the edge --
DOOCY: But only one candidate spent thanksgiving in the Middle East, Dr. Ben Carson. Accused by rivals of being weak on foreign policy, he visited refugee camps in Jordan and the outsider has a new prescription for Syrians displaced by ISIS.
DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I had the opportunity to talk to many of the Syrian refugees and asked them, what is your supreme desire? And it was pretty uniform. They want to go back home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOOCY: We may be starting to see a new crack in the pledge the party made all candidates sign to support the eventual GOP nominee no matter who it is, because John Kasich is now refusing to say that he would support his side's nominee if it's Trump. But an RNC official told me today they are not concerned about Kasich potentially breaking that pledge -- Shannon.
BREAM: All right. Peter -- thank you.
President Obama has been invited to deliver the state of the union address to Congress on Tuesday January 12. The invitation comes from House Speaker Paul Ryan. We are now awaiting a formal acceptance.
The Obama administration is boosting the amount of ethanol and other renewable fuels in the U.S. gasoline supply. It's a victory for the ethanol industry over an unusual alliance of oil companies, environmentalists and some Republican presidential candidates. The first caucus state, Iowa, produces more ethanol than any other state.
President Obama says the climate change conference going on right now in Paris is an act of defiance to terrorism, following the deadly attacks on the French capital two weeks ago.
Correspondent Kevin Corke is traveling with the President and reports tonight from Paris.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEVIN CORKE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: In the largest ever gathering of world leaders for a summit of its kind, President Obama tried to draw a connection between countering climate change and the ongoing global war on terror.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshalling our best efforts to save it. We have come to Paris to show our resolve.
CORKE: The President, part of a group of 150 world leaders gathered for the U.N. climate summit in Paris, a city still reeling from the devastating terror attacks two weeks ago that claimed 130 lives.
Shortly after landing here Sunday night, Mr. Obama joined his French counterpart, President Francois Hollande and the mayor of Paris in honoring the victims by laying flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the concert hall where most were killed.
In the wake of the attack, security has been extremely tight, with police clashing with protesters who took to the streets in defiance of restrictions on such gatherings. Even as he met with the leaders of India and China whose countries along with the U.S. are the world's largest producers of green house gas emissions, the President continued to make the argument that climate change and terrorism go hand in hand.
OBAMA: This is a turning point. This is the moment we finally determined we would save our planet.
CORKE: The thinking goes this way. Severe environmental conditions contribute to a sense of desperation, and that, they say, fuels extremism. There's a military component as rising seas and severe storms can also alter conflict preparation and execution.
And there's the financial impact. Climate change means more heat waves, stronger hurricanes and super storms like Sandy and huge wildfires, all of which cause U.S. taxpayers billions annually.
The war on terror was among many topics discussed between the President and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The men met on the sidelines here and talked about their respective roles in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. Meanwhile, critics slammed the President's insistence that the terror war and climate change pose similar risks to national security.
CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, that's delusional. It is delusional for President Obama and Hillary Clinton and anyone else to say that climate change is our near-term, most severe security threat. It is ISIS -- period, followed closely by Iran and perhaps Russia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CORKE: Tuesday we expect another very important meeting here at the summit as presidents, Obama and Erdogan get together here to talk not just about the climate summit they're also going to talk about the war on terror. Keep in mind Turkey is a key ally in the battle against ISIS to say nothing of their NATO partnership. And it's also important to point out Shannon they're involved in a tense stand-off with the Russians following the shoot-down of that Russian aircraft that strayed into Turkish airspace -- Shannon.
BREAM: Yes, we'll talk about all of that with the panel coming up. Kevin Corke -- thank you, live from Paris.
So President Obama is holding fast to his linkage between climate change and terrorism. Senior political analyst Brit Hume is here tonight with some thoughts on that. Good evening -- Brit.
BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi -- Shannon.
Given the ghastly events of 17 days ago in Paris, it makes sense that world leaders would gather there this week. But as you heard, they're not there to discuss global terrorism but global temperatures. The incongruities only underscored by President Obama's assertion that this gathering to discuss a non-binding climate accord is a quote, "rebuke to the terrorists".
That's right, folks, the administration admits, indeed insists that whatever agreement emerges from this conference will not bind the U.S. To be sure, President Obama will doubtless continue his current efforts to drive the coal industry out of business and to discourage the use of other fossil fuels.
But that would be true with or without any Paris climate accord, which by the way, is not expected to contain any enforcement mechanism. This will be a relief to a majority of Americans who, while saying climate change is a serious matter draw that line at taking some of the principal actions proposed to combat it.
A CBS News poll this month found 60 percent opposed to paying higher taxes on gasoline and 79 percent opposed to higher taxes on electricity. So amid whatever hoopla the President and the other leaders can womp (ph) up at their Paris meeting, remember this. Their deal will not be binding, and if it were, it would have to clear the Senate, which it can't -- Shannon.
BREAM: Well Brit, this begs a lot of the same questions that we saw with the deal that the President entered into with Iran. There are some similarities.
HUME: There are. Neither is a treaty and therefore neither is binding on future presidents. In the case of the Iran deal, however, there was money up front. That is to say, money that was under sanction that would released under that deal and that Iran would benefit from right away which is one of the reasons so many people resisted the deal.
In this case, the president would like there to be some money up front for less developed countries to fight climate change, but that would require an appropriation by the Congress, and all the Republicans up there say there's no way he's going to get that. So this deal really is -- he can continue to do whatever he's doing but it's otherwise not binding.
BREAM: Yes. And some of those countries say without the money they're not getting --
HUME: Exactly right.
BREAM: All right. Brit -- good to see you always. Thank you.
HUME: Thank you -- Shannon.
Up next, the accused Colorado Springs shooter makes his first appearance in court. But first, here's what some of our Fox affiliates around the country are covering tonight.
Fox 32 in Chicago where a suspect is in custody following a threat against the University Chicago that forced the cancellation of classes today. Authorities say 21-year-old Javari Dean threatened online to kill 16 white male students or staff. They believe it was intended as retaliation following last week's video release of the shooting of Laquan McDonald shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer.
Fox 4 in Dallas where rain and flooding are blamed for eight deaths in Texas since Thursday. More than 53,000 homes and businesses remain without electricity following an ice storm in Oklahoma. Authorities in Kansas say the band of storms left six dead in that state.
And this is a live look at New York from Fox Five. One of the big stories there tonight, Amazon releases a promotional video about its proposed drone delivery service. It says the prime air system will be able to deliver packages weighing up to five pounds in under 30 minutes. Amazon's trying to get public approval but faces regulatory hurdles in U.S. and other countries.
That is tonight's live look outside the beltway from SPECIAL REPORT. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BREAM: The suspect in Friday's deadly shootings at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic made his first court appearance today.
Correspondent Will Carr is live in Colorado Springs to tell us what happened. Hello -- Will.
WILL CARR, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good evening -- Shannon. Today is the first time that we've seen Robert Lewis Dear since authorities say that he killed three people and had shot nine others on Friday at a Planned Parenthood here in Colorado Springs. From the county jail, he appeared by video in front of the judge wearing a bulletproof vest. He was planked by the same public defender who represented James Holmes.
Now there's still no official word on motive, but there are reports that he told investigators after his arrest "no more baby parts" in apparent reference to the Planned Parenthood controversies playing out on the national stage.
The judge read Dear his rights and he will appear in court again on December 9 to be formally charged. The district attorney also said that he will decide at a later date if Dear will face death penalty.
While the suspect appeared in court, a police procession drove past the jail transporting Officer Garrett Swasey's body. Swasey was shot and killed Friday along with Army veteran Ke'Arre Stewart and Jennifer Markovsky. All three were parents -- Shannon.
BREAM: Will Carr, live in Colorado Springs. Thank you -- Will.
Jury selection got under way today in the first trial in the police custody death of an African-American last spring. Correspondent Leland Vittert is in Baltimore tonight and joins us live. Good evening -- Leland.
LELAND VITTERT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good evening -- Shannon. Court broke just a few minutes ago with the judge saying tomorrow they will be back at it again for another panel of potential jurors. Each of the 80 or so called before the judge today indicated that they had heard not only of The Freddie gray case but also that very controversial $6.4 million settlement the city of Baltimore made with Freddie Gray's family.
Officer William Porter charged in this case sat stone-faced and taking notes inside court today. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter and other charges that could get him 25 years in prison. He is expected to take the stand in his own defense and call up to 25 character witnesses. His trial comes first as prosecutors want him to testify against some of his fellow five officers charged in this case.
The judge has precluded prosecutors from discussing details surrounding the arrest of Freddie Gray, but says he will allow jurors to see various videos of Gray after he was cuffed that might shed light on how he was injured. They will also take a field trip of sorts to see the actual van Gray rode in before police took him to the hospital with no fatal injuries.
Now while attention surrounding this trial had been high and obviously security is tight in light of what this case caused in terms of riots back in April, we have seen precious few protesters. It seems only a handful willing to brave the cold November rain that has set upon Baltimore tonight. Back to you.
BREAM: Leland -- thank you very much.
Bond has set for $1.5 million for the white Chicago police officer charged with murder in the death of an African-American teenager. Last week the judge said he wanted to see the video involving Officer Jason Van Dyke and 17-year-old Laquan McDonald before deciding on bond. The release of that video prompted several days of protests in Chicago.
Still ahead, trust but verify, how we decide which polls accurately show who is winning the race for the White House?
First, things just got harder for National Security Agency to access data on phone communications from both you and the bad guys.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BREAM: The U.S. embassy in Afghanistan is warning Americans of what it calls credible reports of an imminent attack in Kabul. The State Department says the threat is not specific to Americans or the embassy. It's declining to reveal the source of the threat.
The White House is making changes to the visa waiver program in response to the Paris terror attacks. The program currently allows people from 38 countries to visit the U.S. For 90 days without obtaining a visa. Homeland security will now collect more information from those travelers about past visits to certain countries. The Republicans in the House say they want to overhaul the program by year's end.
Tonight some of the people charged with protecting your safety are without a tool that they say helps French officials track down the perpetrators of the Paris terror attacks.
Chief intelligence correspondent, Catherine Herridge tells us about the end, for now at least of the NSA's phone data collection program.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CATHERINE HERRIDGE, FOX NEWS CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: New legislation forced the NSA to end its bulk collection of Americans' phone records. The post-9/11 program tracked terror suspects using so-called metadata. It captures who you're calling, the length of conversation but not the content.
After the Paris terror attacks where the suspects used encrypted communications, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee told "FOX NEWS SUNDAY" that limiting the NSA comes with a cost.
SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), NORTH CAROLINA: The United States made a real mistake when they eliminated this program where we could search foreign, known terrorists' telephone numbers to see if they had talked to anybody in the United States.
HERRIDGE: The NSA surveillance program became the poster child for government overreach in 2013 after this misleading statement to Congress.
SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?
JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: No, sir.
WYDEN: It does not.
CLAPPER: Not wittingly.
HERRIDGE: And documents leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden left no doubt the NSA was collecting on Americans. Under new rules, phone records are still gathered but now held by the phone company requiring court action for a government search of the database.
A former intelligence officer says the extra step makes disrupting plots that much harder.
MIKE BARRETT, FORMER DEFENSE DEPARTMENT INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: When you can look at the patterns of the support networks, that's where people trip up. If you don't have their entire history, then you're going to miss the fact that they were up to suspicious activities, downloading certain types of videos, maybe looking at how to build bombs.
HERRIDGE: Long-time NSA opponents say a more targeted program is the right approach, because even in Paris, investigators were struggling to determine which leads to pursue in a mountain of data.
WILLIAM BINNEY, FORMER NSA INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: They talk about overload through being done by this mass data collection, and that they call it analysis paralysis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HERRIDGE: Other bulk collection programs remain in place including one called Prism which collects Internet data but has been less controversial because it's not directly focused on domestic targets. That said, Prism is reported to be a primary source of raw intelligence for the NSA -- Shannon.
BREAM: Catherine -- thank you.
HERRIDGE: YOU'RE WELCOME: Stocks were off today. The Dow lost 79, the S&P 500 was down 10, Nasdaq fell 19.
Picking the winners and losers -- find out which presidential polls you can trust to tell you who is leading in race for the White House.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BREAM: All right. If you've ever wondered how we decide which polls to trust when reporting who's leading in the presidential race, tonight we've got your answers.
My colleague Bret Baier takes us through the process.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have Hillary Clinton in a two-way race up 11 points.
BAIER: With just over two months for the first voting in the presidential race, most people will tell you they're either tired of or confused by polls. And most will add their sick of the use of polls by all media outlets looking for a way to measure the race. We do it, too.
Here's what we do and don't use. At FOX News, we do not use online polls. We use scientific phone and cellphone-based polls with trusted methodology.
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: If you are invited to go onto a poll on line and vote for who you think won a debate or who you think the best candidate is, if you stumble upon that while you were surfing around the Internet, that isn't even a poll. That's just how many times can you get people to click a button? And candidates, and we've seen this in every cycle, try to manipulate those. They urge their supporters go there and vote.
CHRIS ANDERSON, ANDERSON ROBBINS RESEARCH: There are a lot of online polls that aren't representative. There is a lot of what we call IVR polls where it's an automated, recorded voice asking people to push a button. The gold standard is live interviewers calling people on cellphones and landlines. And there are not a whole lot of those. Most of the major networks do it. We do it.
BAIER: While we rely heavily on polls, there hasn't been a great track record when it comes to elections, especially when it comes to recent elections with conservatives. The most recent example is Kentucky. The gubernatorial race down there, the major poll is the Bluegrass poll.
Heading in, Democrat Jack Conway had 45 percent to the Republican Matt Bevins' 40 percent. But take a look what happened on Election Day. The real results, Bevin 53 percent, Conway 44 percent, not even close. And the Bluegrass poll is a respected poll in Kentucky.
DARON SHAW, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS: When you look after the fact and try to ascertain what went wrong, a lot of times you have to crack open the internals. Were there too many members of a particular group? Was there a partisan skew of turnout that wasn't captured in the poll?
STIREWALT: The assumptions about what the electorate is going to look like affects how pollsters are weighting their samples. Who they expect to see turn out to vote effects what pollsters put in on the front side. And maybe they had the wrong assumptions.
BAIER: As you know, we are inundated with polls in the presidential race, really one after the other. Here's the latest Quinnipiac poll one in Iowa. Plus or minus four percent, the margin there, with Trump in the lead, Cruz essentially tied in second over Carson in third.
Nationally you can see the ABC-"Washington Post" poll as a slightly bigger lead for Trump. But take a look at this, the margin of error plus or minus six percent. The latest FOX News poll had similar results with a slightly bigger lead for Trump, plus or minus 4.5 percent.
Now, people say, what does this mean as far as how many people are involved in these surveys, in these polls? Well, in the FOX poll it's 406 GOP primary voters. Still, again, 4.5 percent margin of error. Some may ask, why does 406 equal a fair cross-section of this race? Well, here's why.
SHAW: I don't need to drain a bowl of soup or a vat of soup to determine the temperature of the soup. All I need to do is take a spoonful. As long as that spoonful is representative of the entire pot of soup, I can get a really good impression of the flavor, the temperature, et cetera.
So what we do in polling, the key, of course, is random selection of individuals. And the more people you randomly select, the more likely you are to uncover opinions, attitudes, vote preferences that are held by lots of people.
STIREWALT: There is some evidence over time that the Republicans are underrepresented in polls. The Republicans, perhaps, are less willing than Democrats to participate in polls before Election Day. In 2014 cycle, one of the reasons for the polling debacle in so many cases was there was an assumption that the electorate would exist on the line somewhere between the 2010 Tea Party wave and the 2012 reelection of Barack Obama. As it turned out, the pollsters were wrong. They thought the electorate would look about halfway in between or maybe even a little closer to 2012. In fact the electorate looked very much like 2010 and resulted in a nine-seat pickup for the Republicans in the Senate.