nation." and please join us when our trumpet sounds again next "sunday morning." ♪ i am margaret brennan in washington. this week on "face the nati wit when it comes to the economy. how do they look at the cloudy forecast for next year? the race to get as much done as possible before the year is over is on. will vladimir putin bend to new overtures to end russia's war in ukraine and return u.s. prisoners? with continuing protests in iran and new challenges when it comes to china, we will talk to the biden administration's top democrat, antony blinken.

a surge in holiday shopping and a drop in gas prices -- >> the americans are working. the economy is growing. wages are rising faster than inflation. >> but there have been big layoffs in media and the tech sector. the fed is likely to raise late month. we will talk with bank of america, ceo. and we'll talk to mike turner, the presumptive intelligence committee chair, and the new number three democrat, california congressman, pete aguilar. finally that last senate seat will be decided on a tuesday runoff in georgia. we will tell you what is at stake and check in with the obama administration's attorney general, eric holder. that's all just ahead on "face the nation." ♪

good morning. welcome to "face the nation." we have a lot to get to, but we want to jump in with our first guest, antony blinken. >> good to be with you. >> i want to start with breakig news overnight in iran, and they have abolished the morality police after months of protests over the death of mahsa amini. does this stop the protests that have been raging? >> this is up to the iranian people. it's about them. it's not about us and what we have seen since the killing of mahsa amini has been extraordinary, where women have

been saying what they want to say and wearing what they want to wear, and the regime is responding to the protests and that could be an amazing thing, and it's what about the iranian people think, because it's about them. >> in china, the covid lockdown policies have died out in the recent days. is that because the state police stopped them or they had an affect? >> we have seen apparently some of the easing of the covid restrictions in the recent days and it's hard to speak to that. there, again, we have been standing up to the principle, that people should make their concerns known and vent their frustrations. >> and there was a speech on friday where it was said, i think war is potentially possible because xi jinping now has absolute control in china. you're about to go to china.

do you agree with that assessment? >> we are in an intense competition with china, and there's nothing wrong with competition itself as long as it's fair and on a level playing field, and we are working with many around the world, and the president has a strong determination to ensure the competition does not veer into conflict, and that's why he spent time with xi jinping at the g20, and making sure that we are talking and communicating and making clear what we are about and what our intents are and what we are doing. that's vitally important. >> but war is potentially possible, is what she said? >> the determination we have is to make sure the competition does not veer into conflict. the world expect us to responsibly manage the relationship with china and this is what i hear from countries around the world and it's what president biden is doing,

standing up to our interests and values, and advancing them and making sure we are keeping the contacts and dialogue open. >> president biden says he has no plans to speak with vladimir putin but he would h, if there s an indication he wanted to end the war. mike milley said there could be a window for diplomacy. you are the top diplomat. do you think there's value in trying to start talks? >> there's always value in diplomacy if the parties in question, and in this case, russia, are actually interested in meaningful diplomacy. what we have seen recently is the contrary. even president zelenskyy from ukraine, came from the g20 countries and put out a proposal onow t move forward for peace, and vladimir putin doubled down on everything he was doing, and mobilizing forces

ande, h is turning iceire and fire on ukraine and trying to turn off the lights and the heat and the electricity. that's what's going on. until and unless putin demonstrates he is interested in meaningful diplomacy, it's unlikely to go anywhere. >> the biden administration did put something on the table when it came to a prisoner swap, and that was two weeks ago, and you said russia has a failure to seriously seriously negotiate. has that changed? >> we did put a proposal on the table many months ago and since then we have been engaged repeatedly in any way we can to try and advance that and look to see if there are different

permutations to see if we can get our people home, brittney griner and paul whelan. we are engaged in that on a regular basis and it's my determination we bring our people home and will not stop until we do. >> the talks are active and ongoing as the white house said, and that suggests you think there's some reason to believe they are serious now as you said they were not serious a few weeks ago? >> as they said, the proof is in the pudding, and if the engagements we have had, if that will produce a result, and we have been actively engaged over these many months to try and move things forward. >> the offer was to release the merchant of death, and there are

two americans there, brittney griner and paul whelan, and he has been in captivity since 2018. russia wants a one-on-one swap. how do you decide which american you leave behind stphaor? >> my determination is one way or another, as long as it takes to get people home. my efforts, the efforts of the entire administration are to bring both of them home. >> to bring them both home, but russia wants a one for one swap. >> again, i will not get into the details of where we are. >> that's what russia media is reporting. >> russian media reports a lot every day that i would not take at face value. >> that's not what russia has told you? >> again, i will not get into the details with you. the other side gets a vote in

this, and it's not just what we want but what we are prepared to do. it's something we are working on almost every day. >> i know their families would love them home by christmas, and also before i let you go, i want to ask about israel. benjamin netanyahu is on trial for corruption but right now is trying to piece together an alliance to form a government and if he does he will become prime minister again. i know you know this. he has been allying fireshat spewed anti-arab and anti-hate and anti-gay. doesn't this make up really jeopardize your intention to have peace in the region? >> we have worked and will continue to work with israeli governments of any kind just as

israeli governments have worked with american administrations of every kind. we are determined to do that going forward. our focus is less on personalities and more on policies. the important thing is what policies does the government pursue. the government or incoming government knows our views on a number of these issues but we have a commitment to israel's security and that's not going to change. >> the extreme right-wing government as it has been described being put together does complicate your relationship, because then you have to spend time about not canceling gay pride parades and deportable people, and that's not what you want to focus on, is settling peace, a two-state solution which is being thi we >> you are not concerned about this? >> we will focus on what the government does, and as we have

with every past israeli government and as israeli has worked with every u.s. administration, we will work together. >> thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you. we turn to ohio congressman, mike turner, the top of the house committee. >> it's good to be here. >> the national director of intelligence said russia is perhaps struggling to keep up with the munitions its using in ukraine, and the secretary of state didn't really give hope for diplomacy at this moment. given what you know, when will this war end? >> well, the one thing we know is that the gains that ukraine is making are real, they are real on the battlefield and real in the support that they have around the world with democracies and the united nations in condemning the aggression by russia. but ukraine has to be the one to

decide if and when and how negotiations are entered into. right now they are battling in their country and losing lives for democracy, and president zelenskyy says openly he understands he's the front lines for the democracy and fighting an authoritarian regime, and russia has to re-evaluate how they look at this conflict and how putin looks at what he is -- >> you agree with the administration on this? >> i agree, absolutely, that this is something where -- this is a war of aggression that russia needs to re-evaluate and withdrawal from ukraine. >> you said because you are poised to run the intelligence chicago siof -- committee, and this going to be an area whereas you promised you can take politics out of it and work across the aisle, and what does that mean?

>> we went on a bipartisan trip to deliver to president zelenskyy that there's bipartisan support for ukraine. there's a number of issues we will work on in a bipartisan basis, and how do we make certain get the weapon systems they need? how do we hold together this world alliance we have where the world is condemning what russia is doing, and the expansion of nato, and we are looking at sweden and finland joining nato, which is the opposite of what putin wanted and he sees the expansion with two valuable partners joining nato. >> i want to show extraordinary video that the pentagon unveiled this week, the first nuclear stealth aircraft in more than 30 years, and it's a deterrent for

china. how concerned are you about the base of beijing's development? >> very concerned. they are releasing and declassifying information about what china is doing. they are expanding their nuclear weapons, and this plane is incredibly important. we began the process of working on this plane, and it gives us an additional balance because it's an additional delivery vehicle and a way to combat what china is doing. >> to drop nuclear weapons? >> to cause people not to drop nuclear weapons. >> it's a deterrent? >> yes, it's so people understand the cost is just too great. when china is exspappanding the nuclear weapons, and if we don't respond, they believe they will hold us at bay and at risk

because you have a leader of a nuclear power that might make that miscalculation and costs many lives. >> in your new role will you be asking the director of intelligence for a wrbriefing a damage of what the former president -- >> it's already happened. i just talked to the director of national intelligence, and one issue we have discussed is that prior to the mar-a-lago raid, no one in the intelligence community or in the national security community was engaged at all by the fbi to request an assessment to what the risk of the documents that had been surrendered at mar-a-lago and what was missing. this is just the fbi and the

archivists, which is a basically glorified librarian coming together and deciding to raid mar-a-lago -- >> you are not downplaying taking classified information -- >> that will be one of the questions we have. the director of national intelligence indicated they have conducted their risk assessment and they are prepared to give both of our committees in the senate and the house a tati. >> do you have a sense of when or what the scale of the damage is? >> we just had a meeting with the director, both senator warner and myself, and adam schiff, and as they look how we get everybody scheduled together, and those that have done the assessment, they will have to come forward and give us what do they see and what do they have and perceive the threat that may or may not have existed from some of the documents. >> it may seem like a basic

question, and all elected leaders swear to uphold the constitution. calling for a suspension, is that -- >> it's not consistent with the oath we all take. >> so yesterday the frontrunner for the republican nomination, the standard bear for your party, and we know he lost the 2020 election and continues to claim he did not. a massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules and ar articles found in the constitution, and should he say this -- >> you know, first of all, i disagree with the statement that trump has made. trump has made 1,000 statements in which i disagree. there's a political process that has to go forward --

>> auconstitutional concern conservatives -- >> exactly. >> you do get to pick the questions, but i do get to pick my answer. >> i am tryingto get you to answer the question i am asking. >> there is a process that has to go forward before anybody is the candidate for the party -- >> do you condemn him saying something like this. >> absolutely. and in answering your question, people are going to take into consideration a statement like this as they evaluate a candidate. >> i have to ask you about the other statement and the people he has been spending time with, a neo-nazi named nick fuentes came to have dinner with the president alongside with kanye west who praised hitler. >> yeah, everybody is nauseated

and disgusted that anybody would make statements like that or anybody would engage in a conversation with somebody making -- >> so having classified documents at the same place they are having dinner that were not necessarily securely held, and they are government records that should be in government property, and all those things together are a problem. >> as you know, the fbi raided his home and there are no documents there, and -- >> but it's fair to say you don't know who he is having dinner with at that home. >> i believe voters are smart and will take those things into consideration in a political process. >> congressman, thank you for coming me on and answering questions. we will be back in just one minute, so stay with us. with type 2 diabetes you have up to 4 times greater risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. even at your a1c goal, you're still at risk

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over in georgia between incumbent raphael warnock and herschel walker. democrats will control the senate but that 51st seat, if warnock wins, will give them more power when it comes to building committee, and it means potentially fewer headaches for senators that we saw in the single-senator holdouts we saw in the last two years. >> on this sec football champion weekend, herschel walker is hoping to follow the bulldog's win over lsu with a victory of his own on tuesday. >> we have weak leaders in washington. i say enough is enough. now what we got to do is get out and vote. >> georgia won the sec championship by 20 points, and the election will not be near

that. the state has been bombarded with campaign ads and out-of-town visitors. >> for the state, herschel walker. >> one president that did return to georgia, barack obama. >> mr. walker has been talking about issues that are of great importance to the people of georgia. like whether it's better to be a vampire or a werewolf. this is a debate that i must confess i once had myself. when i was seven. >> here's what the former president was talking about. >> i want to tell you something i found out, a werewolf could kill a vampire, did you know that? i didn't want to be a werewolf anywhere, i wanted to be a --

>> there was tax records indicating his primary home is in texas and not georgia. >> what we are seeing is a disturbing pattern from herschel walker. all of these women can't be lying. >> voters here in georgia had about a week of early voting. that's now ended. more than 1.8 million ballots have been casts, and that's abut a quarter of active voters. in just two days we will find re will be a special georgia runoff edition of red and blue on our cbs streaming network starting at 9:00 p.m. on tuesday. we'll be right back.

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as you go into the minority, you have less experienced leadership. what does that mean because this is going to be a knife fight for the next two years with republicans? >> it's not lost on me the significance of being in this chair at this moment with jeffies and clark, but we will be benefiting from the leadership of jim clyburn at the leadership table, and nancy pelosi and will be members -- >> we will talk substance in a moment. stay tuned. we have to pay the bills with these commercials. back in a moment. ♪♪

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