stalled in congress, looking around their neighborhood and saying i'm paying 24% for child care, all right? looking around their neighborhood and they are saying we have a problem at the border. there is an immigration crisis. they are looking around their neighborhood and saying the cost of groceries are too high. >> dana: look at new york. we just let all of those migrants beating up cops leave. >> i think what they're saying to their lawmakers so many problems we fixed in america and we need to invest in america more so than figuring out how we fix the world's problem. >> will: are you america first. >> no we need to invest in america. build some parks and roads. >> will: this is the philosophical underwinning of what donald trump presented to america. every single calculation most 'especially war should be through it the prison term of america first. >> richard: same as barbara lee. >> dana: that is it for us. coverage continues next. we see you monday. >> bret: good evening, welcome to washington.

i'm bret baier. president biden promised a responded to the deadly drone strike that killed three american soldiers in jordan. he promised that would happen at the time and place of his choosing the time was today just after he attended the dignified return of those bodies at dover air force base. the place syria and and iraq, tied to iranian proxy. iran was not a direct target tonight, likely won't be. but senior defense officials tell fox this is just the beginning of a series of strikes. we have fox team coverage. rich edson is at the white house looking at the presidents' day and new reaction just out from the white house. mike tobin in tel aviv with what's going on in israel and reaction from the region. and retired general jack keane here in washington has his strategic analysis of these strikes. but we begin with chief national correspondent jennifer griffin. security correspondent jennifer

griffin at the pentagon. will. >> we are told the u.s. aircraft involved in the strike tonight are out of harm's way. the president had promised earlier in the week to respond to the deaths of three american soldiers. he said he had took the decision earlier this week. u.s. central command submitted the targeting list, a campaign, i'm told, to maximize pain for the iranian proxy forces that killed u.s. troops with a suicide drone hitting their baier racks while they slept on sunday. in a state, defense secretary lloyd austin said, quote: this is the start of our response. the president has directed additional actions to hold the irgc and affiliated militias accountable for their attacks on u.s. and coalition forces. these will unfold at times and places of our choosing. we do not seek conflict in the middle east or anywhere else. but the president and i will not tolerate attacks on american forces. we will take all necessary actions to defend the united states, our forces and our

interest. u.s. airstrikes began at #:00 p.m. eastern at seven locations in iraq and syria. according to senior u.s. defense officials. two b 1 b lancer bombers launched from the united states to take part in the attacks. the super sonic warplanes can carry the largest conventional pay load. u.s. central command said in a statement that its targets included iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps force. u.s. military forces struck more than 85 targets with numerous aircraft, to include long range bombers flown from the united states. the airstrikes elm ploidz more than 125 precision emissions. the facilities that were struck included command and control operation centers, intelligence centers, rockets, missiles, unman air vehicle storage and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia

groups and irgc that attacks against forces. have ruled out striking inside iran saying they want to avoid a larger war. defense secretary austin said he asked about what was described as multi-tiered response that could last days. >> i don't think the adversaries are of a one and done mindset. they have a lot of capability. i have a lot more. and so, you know, we -- as i said earlier, we're going to do what's necessary to protect our troops and our interest. >> bret, three of the targets were inside iraq and four were inside sir we're told. pentagon officials also say for now the u.s. does not plan to strike inside yemen that, could change if the houthis step up attacks. this first round of strikes will be contained to iraq and syria, bret? >> bret: as far as jen, you had lawmakers like senator lindsey

graham and senator john cornyn saying there should be strikes inside tehran, inside iran proper. no indication that that's going to happen, right? >> absolutely. we have talked to u.s. officials that is not in the cards in this first round of strikes. and the u.s., of course, would like to avoid a broader conflict. but, again, the enemy gets a vote. and the problem is things could escalate and nobody is ruling anything or out. >> bret: last thing, jen. you say this is the beginning, and that's what they are telling us. but we don't have any sense of, you know, how long this is going to go, do we? >> i'm told it will be days, possibly weeks. but this is a campaign. it's a campaign that has been put together with targets by centcom. you saw 58 targets tonight. and they're leaving out the houthis. so if the houthis decide to escalated attacks, that's a whole -- that's a different part of the campaign. so, again, they are hoping that iran and its proxies get the

message. we're hearing some reports that one top commander of a proxy group in anbar province was killed in the strike. >> bret: okay. we will continue to follow that. jennifer griffin live at the pentagon. thank you. let's find out what is going on right now in israel. get reaction from the region. senior correspondent mike tobin is in tel aviv tonight with the latest there. good evening, mike. >> good evening, bret. despite the statement from john kirby the nfc spokesman informed before these strikes that took place. we are getting a different take from iraqi military spokesman who says the strikes inside iraq violate iraqi sovereignty and threaten to pull the region into, coat quote, dire consequences. mean time we do have sources on the ground confirming indeed the area inside iraq near al keim which is by the western border of iraq near ther isian border

across the border about 60 miles away additional strikes in the deer azir area. al adean. abu kemal logistic hubs for the iranian proxies and iranian revolutionary guard. now, despite the telegraphing of these attacks, it was not a well-kept secret. everyone in the region knew they were coming, the iranian proxies, particularly the houthis were not. packed. intercepted by air defense system. and shortly after that a short time before we came to air with this latest information about the attacks the houthis claim responsibility for firing missiles, plural, in the direction of israel. bret? >> bret: mike tobin in tel aviv. mike, thank you. let's take a closer look what about happening. we have been reporting these strikes came from multiple

platforms and there were 85 of them. it matches what we have seen, centcom putting out this statement that there have been multiple strikes on iranian proxy groups throughout syria and iraq that comes, they did not strike inside yemen, although there have been strikes there before. at least 12 strikes since january 11th. command and control operations, intelligence centers. weapon supply chain facilities is what we are hearing so far in iraq and syria. air, sea, space assets, even. if we know that the b-1 b bombs flew from the u.s., we can confirm that. that is a significant development. because, obviously, you have to plan from that either comes from south dakota over here or texas. down here. one of those two bases. they haven't said specifically. you make the trek across the world, essentially over to syria and iraq to drop these bombs.

the interesting thing about the entire situation is that you have got -- hold on one second. let's get back here. there we go. a situation where you have multiple strikes and we don't have the specifics of exactly what has been taken out. there is a criticism that some of these things were in the middle of the desert and there's not a lot of back to them. i want to bring in retired general jack keane, our analyst here at fox. general, as you look at this map and you see what the centcom put out. how do you think this is all shaping up. i mean, 85 specific targets is a lot. >> yeah. there's no doubt about it and delivery of 125 precision munitions bringing our b-1 bomber all the way from the united states because it's got precision bombs on it but got heavy duty bombs. that's a significant capability. i mean, we're in a very early

stage of this. i applaud the administration. this is going to go on for days and conduct a sustained air campaign. that's the right thing to do. and let's see what actually happens as a result of it. i do have some under lying concerns, certainly. the administration seems to be saying that they are not going to take out anything that is in iran. it's not so much that it's the irgc, so our audience understands. they fund train direct, provide intelligence to all of these proxies in the middle east. they are a key center gravity of targets. the reason you want to go to iran nees where they're. the capabilities are, the units are and that's where the leaders are they certainly have some capability out in the region here but it's limited. so those major targets, if you are going to take down the irgc capabilities are in iran. you don't have to go after civilians to do it.

a lot of it is on the coast to do it. there is navy there. there is a training center. and there is also leaders that we can deal with. my fundamental concern here is the administration expresses the view they don't want to provoke iran into a wider war. that is the same assumption they made in dealing with putin and why we provided half measures in terms of no advanced weapons. we didn't want to provoke putin into using nuclear weapons, which he was brandishing. two years into that, we know that assumption is flawed, it's not factual. and i believe this is the same issue here. >> bret: so you have, you know, these are the strikes today. but you look over, you know, since october 17th. you have 166 attacks by these proxy groups. various efforts to go hit u.s. forces at bases in the red sea from yemen, from all of these different groups. and, general. you know, the president said

time and time again "don't.""don't do it "this is a response to the three americans who have been killed. but, obviously since october 17th, there has been a lot of the activity. >> there were 80 attacks before october the 17th during the biden administration. so there has been unbelievable. when they said don't, they will did. we are not expanding the war. iran expanded a war through its problems were in northern israel. 80,000 israelis displaced. the houthi campaign disrupting 50% of the traffic through the suez canal and the red sea. that's an expansion of the war by iran and the houthis. as you suggest, i mean, my god, 165 attacks, we should have been pounding them to prevent eventual loss of life as opposed to doing something after the loss of life. >> now, as far as these groups, the iranian proxy groups, when anybody says that we can't prove that iran is behind this, you

know, you look at all of the groups around the region here, the council of foreign relations for example, 12 groups across six countries in the middle east. you have hamas and hezbollah. hezbollah being the largest with 45,000 in their ranks. but all of these little groups, is it fair to say, general, that they are not operating without the blessing or direction of the irgc and iran? >> yeah. i mean, they don't control the day-to-day tactics of these organizations. just like we don't control the day-to-day tactics of our subordinate units. are they overall in charge? are they directing, in a general sense? yes. are they arming training funding? yes. this has been a brilliant strategy of the iranians to use their proxies, bret, that exist in foreign countries against iran's principle adversaries. and that is the united states and israel, primarily.

they want to drive the united states out of the region. weaken the state of israel so much that people don't want to live there and it will dry up. that's what they are doing. and their proxies are the instruments of that. and they get away with it because we don't want to provoke iran, which is a mistake in judgment. britain britain last thing, general, we are going to see some battle assessments, damage assessment, you know, as time goes on about what exactly was struck. there was criticism early on that the early strikes real did ily didn't do anything. ammo dumps that had plenty of time for people to get away. 58 targets. 125 precision guided weapons. are we suspecting that this is going to be significant, you know, as far as what is hit? >> well, i hope the pattern here of the targets and the amount of weapons that are being used continues. and, listen, i want this to succeed. i don't want to be right that we have got a false assumption here. and iran is not going to stop.

let's hope this succeeds. after all, we have got pilots in harm's way flying these missions. we have got troops on the ground that are likely going to get some kind of a reattack. obviously, they need to be protected. so, let's see this mission to the end, and make a fundamental conclusion at the end whether this was extensive enough and do we think there is any deterrence in this capability that we're ciewght here. >> bret: just getting word from centcom that they believe that everything they will wanted to strike they struck they believe the targets they are hitting what they went after. they told us all of the aircraft, fortunately have cleared the area without incident. >> good news. >> bret: that is good news. general jack keane as always. thank you very much. as we mentioned president biden was in dover, delaware this afternoon. dover air force base, to see the arrival of the three american soldiers' bodies killed in this week's drone strike. let's get more on the

presidents' day and reaction from the white house, senior national correspondent rich edson is live on the north lawn. good evening, rich. >> good evening, bret. we are getting more reaction and response now from the white house, ffc spokesperson and coordinator john kirby says the white house believes that these attacks were successful. he says the pentagon is still going through its damage assessment, trying to figure out how much they hit, whether or not and how many militants they may have killed here. they are unsure of that number right now in the early stages of that. they say that it is not a routine strike that, they are doing so to degrade the capabilities of the iranian revolutionary guard corps in iraq and syria. they say according to john kirby that these strikes have begun tonight and they will not end tonight. president biden is back home in wilmington, delaware after attending the dignified transfer of those three american soldiers who were killed on sunday. it is that attack that led to the response that we are seeing in iraq and syria this evening. in his first and only comonts

since the strike the president says in a statement that the strikes began this afternoon at his direction and that, quote, our response began today. it will continue at times and places of our choosing. the united states does not seek conflict in the middle east or fleur else in the world. but let all those who might seek to do us harm know. this if you harm an american, we will respond. the president began his day at his delaware home before flying to dover air force base. he met with family members of the fallen soldiers ahead of the dignified transfer and then returning home. on tuesday, the president said that he had settled on a response. the white house had offered very few details beyond that officials did say the u.s. would initiate a multi-tiered response over a period of time. the administration has been under growing pressure to retaliate for the nearly 170 attacks from iran-backed militias on u.s. positions in iraq, syria and now jordan, congressional reaction is also beginning to come in. republican senator roger wicker, he is the highest ranking republican on the senate armed

services committee, he called the strikes welcomed but far too late, end quote: instead of giving the ayatollah the bloody nose that he deserves, we continue to give him a slap on the wrist. the biden administration spent nearly a week foolishly telegraphing u.s. intentions to our adversaries, giving them time to relocate and hide. house foreign affairs committee chairman michael mccaul says after a week, the strikes are long overdue and that the biden administration must be decisive. this also follows a year the administration trying to return the united states to the iran nuclear deal. they have been under criticism for republicans for that increase in iranian oil revenues. bret, back to you. >> bret: rich edson live at the white house at the north lawn. thank you. let's talk now with the chairman of the senate intelligence committee virginia democrat mark warner. senator, thanks for coming in. >> thank you, bret. >> bret: first, your over all 30,000-foot reaction to what we saw tonight and what you know about the reaction to it? >> well, i think it was appropriate for the president to

act. we're talking about seven locations over 58 targets. what will be the beginning of what i hope and will believe to be an extended campaign. that will not only go after the she a militant groups but also their iranian sponsors in the region. i do think it's really important, as some of my colleagues and others are saying, you know, let's go right into the heart of iran. i remember a very thoughtful meeting i had with president trump, when he brought us all down after the takedown of u.s. drone, and actually left us all with the impression that he was going to strike iran that day. he chose not to. >> because of the implications of a wider war. and literally took six months because he chose as the president of the united states should, the time and place to extract the most harm. answered took out general

absolutely, this was the head of the iranian quds force in baghdad. >> bret: i back the up that decision? >> i backed up that decision. again, what i would ask my colleagues to do, you know, the president is striking back seven locations, 85 plus hits, and more to come. let's see how all this plays out. and i wish our troops well in making sure that we send that message that the three american soldiers who were lost. 40 wounded in the attack in jordan cannot and will not stand. >> bret: what do you say? you heard rich's report of the criticism from people like senator wicker, house chairman foreign affairs mike mccaul, that this is too long, that criticism that it took too long from october 17th when all of these attacks started -- >> i had actually heard concerns in the last couple days there were even weather concerns. i'm not going to micromanage

when the president picks and chooses a spot to hit back. i know that there had been -- and we have actually seen some of these groups they are funded by iran. they are trained. but, you know, oftentimes they go off -- i think we see that with the houthis. i hope we will come back and hit houthis on command and control. i think we have been too reluctant to go beyond just their missile strikes. >> bret: knowing what you know, do you think some of these groups are relapsing. >> i think what you have got and partially this is because of iranians oh we didn't know the specifics we should not let the iranians off the hook. in particular in the case of the houthis, the houthi leadership, i was just in saudi arabia, jordan, israel bipartisan, senate intel trip, the one thing particular with the houthis we got. these guys think they are higher in the religion hierarchy than the leadership. the houthis we have not pushed

back enough. good we and the british are doing that 11 nations involved in that for those who say that, yes, there have been a number of these attacks against our forces, and we can relitigate whether we struck back hard enough, fast enough, i do think, for example, the leader of one of these iranian groups was taken out in the city of baghdad in a very forceful, that leader will never attack again. so, again,. >> bret: previously or tonight? >> no, a couple weeks back that you reported on as well. >> about the money funneling though. you can confirm that the funnel of money goes to these groups directly from tehran? >> there is no question that iran has a network of funding. i think it's one of the reasons we need to look more into crypto and some of the ability to hide these funds. we also have to acknowledge and this has been your reporting and others.

taking a fresh look at all of these groups. i mean, in many ways. there were leadership in israel that for a long time turned a lined eye to some of the money going to hamas. that at the end of the day did not obviously serve anything. >> bret: specifically with iran when you hear crisp from republican colleagues on the hill that the sanctions are in place but not being enforced and that's one of the reasons iran gets this influx of cash that then they can throw out to these proxy groups, what do you say? >> bret, i have never seen under bush, obama, trump, biden, an ability to cut off all the iranian funds that go to these groups. >> bret: this is secretary austin just yesterday about iran. take a listen. >> we're not at war with iran. but the houthis, i mean, their activity needs to come to a halt. and we will call upon iran to quit or to cease supplies the houthis with these advanced

conventional weapons. there are others in the world that are watching this. to see how serious we are about this. and we are serious. >> bret: every statement has the united states does not seek conflict in the middle east. does seek conflict in a wider war in iran. every statement comes out of the white house, the state department, the defense department. but the statement don't, don't do it that they said a number of times, it just didn't work. they did it. >> let's look at the houthis in a moment. you're absolutely right. even the iranians are surprised how the houthis have been disrupting traffic in the red seas that suez canal. i'm glad we and the british, 11 coalition have struck back. we have every international right in terms of keeping maritime traffic going. so i think we need to be ratchet it up against the houthis. i think we have focused way too much on their ability to launch

missiles, and not enough on command and control. and let's face it. the houthis are not very good at governing, remember, the houthis withstood the combined military effort of saudi arabia and uae for a few years. they have been able to take a punch. i think we need to increase the size and volume of that punch against the houthis. >> bret: okay. can you say the initial effort outreach to iran is essentially a nonstarter? it didn't work. and clearly they are abdicating the demise of the u.s.? >> i i'm aware notify actions in recent months, and i'm sure others will correct me, that there is any sense that, you know, in terms of restart of the iranian nuclear deal or other things. i also can tell you having just been in region, i heard of no nation that said, all right, america, did you go in and bomb inside of iran now.

and that's going to be better for a region that is enormous chaos in light of what's happened post october 7th. >> bret: where do you think this goes from here? >> listen, i pray and hope is that he would will bloody their nose. both in terms of iranian forces in region. and that we will bloody their nose in terms of the houthis, in terms of stepping back. i do think that, for example, on -- there are a lot of nation states that frankly rely on a lot of the transport and commerce that goes through the suez canal. i'm frankly disappointed as well that the chinese depend on thatses as much as any other nation in the world and they have not stepped up. i think one of the things we need to be thinking about is how we also think about the day after in terms of gaza, and that make sure that we have those sunni nations, you know, the uae, bahrain, jordan, egypt,

frankly saudi arabia. i think we have a real opportunity to move with saudi arabia. but saudi arabia is only going to move with us on a deference back in recognition of israel if there is a future for the palestinians. this is where navigating a region that has been frankly, in chaos for 80 years. since you and i have been both around this stuff. there is no simple solution. but, thinking about how we go the day after, because there may be this moment in time and what i hope and pray for, where we could have an actual alliance between those more moderate sunni nations, israel and the united states, to push back against the extremists, most she a driven leadership coming out of iran. >> bret: you think that's the solution for gaza? >> i think the solution for gaza is we have got to take out the hamas leadership, and i'm -- i'm a huge supporter of israel. we're over 100 days in. israel has only been able to knock out about a third of hamas fighters and only a third of the tunnels. there is not a solution here that also doesn't include

humanitarian aid to the minutians in gaza because my fear is if you have these numbers at 26,000 people killed, for every hamas fighter, you kill, are you creating two or three more future fighters because of this level of violence? >> bret: senator warner we appreciate you coming in on breaking news tonight. >> thank you, bret. >> bret: fair and balanced joining us now arkansas republican senator tom cotton of the senate armed services and intelligence committees. senator, welcome. your thoughts on this night as these strikes have begun? >> thank you, bret. well, first off, i want to express my admiration for our brave troops who carried out these strikes. i have little doubt that the pilots and their crews had a tackle success tonight. i think it's an open question whether this will be a strategic success by which i would set the standard for whether these attacks on americans and international shipping stops. i have serious reservations about whether it will be a

strategic success for numerous reasons. just simply put, one example, we let iran's leaders high tail it back to iran from syria and iraq. so i suspect we did not kill many key iranian leaders in these regions. joe biden also has shown no indication that he is going to reverse his failed iran policy, really 11 years of failed obama-biden iran policy of trying to apiece and conciliate and grant concessions to the ayatollahs as far as i know even after the october 7th atrocity cities: in the days i have very serious reservations about whether this will be a strategic success. we will know soon enough whether the attacks have stopped. >> senators, some of your colleagues, senator john cornyn called for attacks inside iran

maybe inside tehran. are you one of those? >> bret, we have to have a serious punishing response. i have not yet seen that response in the reporting that i have heard over the last couple hours. if you want to avoid a war with iran, the way to do that is to strike iranians and its assets hard. the way donald trump did in 2020 when he killed their terrorist mastermind qasem soleimani. the way ronald reagan did in 1988 when he sank half of iran's navy. ronald reagan was asked if we were at war with iran. he chuckled and said no, they wouldn't be that stuff. that's the way to avoid a war. the way to get into a war. >> is the hesitate distant half measures that joe biden has implemented over the last three years. >> bret: would deterrence, we talk a lot about deterrence. clearly, iran pushing these funds to iranian proxy groups was not deterred over recent

weeks. really since the beginning of october. in these attacks, more than 165 of them. how would you do it differently? how do you think a trump administration would do it differently? bret, let me say not just the 165 attacks since october 7th in attack in israel. did. secretary austin admitted last year when i questioned him at the armed services committee that there had been something like 75or 80 attacks and we only responded four times. usually blowing up empty buildings in the middle of the desert. when you couple that anemic response with tens of billions of dollars sanctions relief thought they could get away with these attacks. what president trump did and will do again is actually deter iranian e killed their terrorist mastermind he clammed down on the iranian economy they were running outs of foreign currency

reserves. iran, like most people in the middle east understand one thing, force and resolution. that's exactly the opposite of what we have had for 11 years under barack obama and joe biden. again, joe biden can reverse his policy. he can clamp down on iran's economy as well. can he stop the flow of oil. he can stop giving them sanctions relief, in addition to these strikes tonight and i hope more strikes to come. i suspect he won't do that, which means, unfortunately, these attacks are likely to continue against americans. >> bret: we're just getting some word as we are speaking here, this is coming from the ground in iraq. that three houses used as headquarters for one of these iraq militias that's backed by iran were targeted in al-qa'im as well as weapons headquarters in ash shot iraq. also a weapon store there. but iranian backed militias headquarters we again have not heard of senior officials, irgc

officials as of yet. having being targeted on this. but centcom saying of the 85 targets, they believe they hit every single one that they were going after. >> yeah, bret, as i said i have little doubt that our pilots and aircrews did excellent job executing this mission. i have reservations about the scope of the mission, it's a welcome develop though knock out weapons bunkers or headquarters houses but iran's leaders who hightailed it back to iran before these attacks happened. new houses. new weapons depots. new communication center. and again it just projects the same kind of weakness and equivocation and hesitation that president biden has done for two years in ukraine as well when we have three americans killed. welcome back today by their grieving families. dozens wounded. and president biden has been extremely, extremely open over the last five days about his desire not to have any serious

escalation. what does he call what happened last week when those americans were killed? that was escalation. the only way to stop it is to actually strike at what iran holds most dear, its key leaders and its key assets. not arab proxy groups. >> i hear you and i hear that coming from a number of centers in your party saying it needs to be a more aggressive response. but, if you look at the polls that we just went through in a couple of states, there is this sentiment inside the republican party that the u.s. should be more focused on the u.s. border here, less focused overseas. >iknow you advocate for a very strong u.s. presence and that brings peace. but, inside your party, there is a real debate about that. do you concede that? >> well, bret, i think what most republicans want is peace. and they understand the way that ronald reagan di peace through strength. we can protect our border as president trump did.

deter our adversaries abroad as president trump did at the same time. when you project weakness into the entire world you shouldn't be surprised, for instance that, russia invades ukraine. hamas commits atrocity against israel. and hamas thinks it can hit americans over and over and over again. or, for that matter that millions of illegal migrants come from all over the world knowing that you won't enforce your own border. that's what president biden has done. what president trump did, like president reagan before him. is actually deter our adversaries. strong forceful responses like killing kassem soleimani, sinking half of iranian's navy. bombing libya after they tried to till american soldiers in germany in 1986 doesn't bring war, it brings peace. >> bret: i just talked to the prime minister of qatar. he described the middle east as a tinder box. been over there a lot. you are right strength does do a lot as far as leadership there and decisions that they make. what is the strength that it would take to have tehran change what it is clearly wanting to do

in the region? another qasem soleimani attack? what would it take? >> well, bret, it takes a total reversal of president biden's iran policy. again, it's the same failed policy that barack obama pursued for 8 years, thinking somehow that you can treat this radical theocratic dictatorship as a normal nation as if some small country in western europe about which we have a trade dispute. it's not. it still chants death to america. death toe israel. every week. the way to do this is exactly what president trump did. forceful military responses, where necessary, extensive pressure campaign on iran's economy, financial flows, also through diplomacy, to force them to pull in their horns. we saw that happen when ronald reagan was president after he sank of that their navy and saw it in 2020 after the death of kassem. >> bret: as far as the threat

may tricks from matrix. do you think iran halls trickled up. you are on intel and senate armed services. what keeps you up at night? >> well, what keeps me up at night is the perception around the world that joe biden is not up to the job of doing commander-in-chief. just look at ukraine. russia invaded ukraine when barack obama was president. he invaded ukraine whenever joe biden was president. he didn't invade when donald trump was president. look at the aggressive action we have seen from china over the last three years while joe biden was president. and, again, even before the october 7th atrocity in israel, we had nearly 100 attacks on americans throughout the middle east, only four or five responses that were totally ineffective. one of the reasons we see so much war and strife and tension around the world is that the bad guys around the world understand that president biden is too weak, too hesitant to defend

american citizens and our interest and our allies. >> bret: senator tom cotton we appreciate your coming in on this breaking news night. >> thank you. ♪ >> bret: there are other headlines breaking today. a federal judge in washington has formally postponed former president trump's march trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. this comes as a key legal appeal from the trump team continues to work its way through the courts. the judge did not set a new date for that trial. a major burst in hiring took place in january. the government is now saying 353,000 jobs were added. that's roughly twice what economists had predicted. the unemployment rate remains at 3.7%. warning past jobs reports have been revised 11 out of 12. today on wall street though, strong tech earnings led to a positive day. the dow gaining 135, the s&p 500 finishing ahead 52.

those were both record highs again. the nasdaq surging 267. for the week, the dow and the 17 were up 1.5 percentage points, the nasdaq gained a little over 1. also breaking tonight, the prosecutor in charge of the election interference case against former president trump in georgia is under congressional subpoena tonight. fulton county district attorney fani willis has been accused of benefiting financially from a romantic relationship with one of her colleagues. something that she conceded did happen today. correspondent steve harrigan fills us in tonight from atlanta. >> d.a. fani willis admits to starting a personal relationship with special special prosecutor nathan wade after he was hired but claims that it did not taint the case. it marks the first time willis directly acknowledged the personal relationship with the man she hired and paid more than $650,000. and it comes in stark contrast to the claims she made after

taking office. >> i certainly will not be choosing people to date that work under me. let me just say that. >> there is a second allegation based on bank records that nathan wade used his salary to fly the two of them to vacation spots around the country. in an affidavit, wade said that sometimes he paid and sometimes willis paid, but that he never kicked back any of his salary to willis. willis calls the allegations against her a spectacle and a circus. the question now is whether this is going to be enough for the judge to quash subpoenas and cancel an evidentiary hearing he himself set for february 15th where willis and wade would be grilled about their relationship how it began and how public money was spent. it certainly won't be enough for republican critics who are circling the water. >> if the allegations are true, that she was directing money, you know, to a mayor more a paramour withoutthe proper aue

clearly was unqualified for the position, it stands to research that they might unearth other things, too. >> before his hiring to prosecute former president trump, wade practiced personal injury and family law in suburban atlanta, willis' office is now under four separate investigations from lawmakers, three here in georgia and now a federal probe initiated by congressman jim jordan, the chairman of the house judiciary committee alleges willis' office used federal money, more than $400,000 earmarked for at risk youth, instead to buy mac books, swag and travel. and fired a whistleblower who tried to call attention to it. willis says the claims are completely false and that the whistleblower was fired for cause. defense attorneys say a hearing is necessary and that the case should be dismissed. bret? >> bret: ststeve harrigan in

atlanta. there are no plans to chase several migrants he who were released without bail after assaulting two new york city police officers. it's believed those migrants are now headed for california, correspondent cb cotton is in times square tonight with the latest on this. good evening, c.b. >> bret, good evening. the nypd told us this afternoon its officers are looking for at least seven other migrants, potentially involved in this assault. meanwhile, manhattan d.a. alvin bragg also says his team continues to review surveillance video and hopes to identify others possibly involved. >> all i know is that an assault on a police officer means that you should be sitting in jail. >> today, governor kathy hochul says she's certain there should have been jail time for the migrants caught on camera kicking and stomping a pair of officers in times square over the weekend. instead, five of them were arrested, arraigned and released without cash bail. one of them even gave a middle

finger as he left the courthouse, now the nypd believes four of them got out of town to calexico, a border town in california. but officers won't be looking for them. >> they can go anywhere in the universe right now. they have to come back to court in about a month. if they don't there, will be a warrant issued for them and take it from there. >> a sixth suspect was the only one given a cash bail. his set at $15,000. hochul says she had a conversation with d.a. alvin bragg. but remains tight-lipped on the details. >> i'm not going to disclose that conversation. but i'm also rather confident there will be more charge brought. >> sources say a worker recognized some of the migrant suspects from the news and alerted the nypd saying the men used phony names to leave. >> we just don't know why bail wasn't rested. it was a bail eligible offense. it's a classic c felony, assault 2 own a police officer. that didn't mitigate the judge from stepping in and saying okay, do you want bail? i'm going to remand. so this should never have

happened whatsoever. >> manhattan d.a. alvin bragg holding a late news conference saying his office routinely prosecutes people who assault the police. but, in this case, his office has to hold the right people accountable. >> some of these migrants who are believed to have now left the state have upcoming court appearances within a month, back do you, bret. >> bret: c.b. cotton in. >> no immigration and customs enforcement confirms to fox news al-shabaab terrorist from somalia who crossed into california last march has been arrested in minneapolis. the terrorist had been released by the border patrol shortly after his crossing near san ysidro. he was ma matched to the terrort watch list and taken by ice agents in money society. that story was originally reported by the daily caller. on capitol hill, legislation to address the southern border crisis is getting hammered from both the right and the left tonight. the top democrat in the senate

is indicating debate on the measure will begin next week. senator schumer saying that senior congressional correspondent had per gram live on capitol hill with the latest. really every minute. good evening, chad. >> bret, good evening. democrats may chastise the right for trying to kill the senate's border bill but the left is just as mad. liberals do not like what they're hearing about the bill when it comes to asylum and plans to close the border. >> it wasn't a negotiation. that's the concern. didn't have a will single member at the hispanic caucus at the table. growing coalition of people who have concerns just from what's being reported. i think that combined with speaker johnson saying he is not going to put on the floor makes me think this is dead. >> many conservatives were once open to an enhanced border security package but former president trump rebuked the efforts. >> you can't do a deal. deal looking at terrible. no good for republicans. frankly any republican that signs it:

>> a cocktail from the left and the right too unite to kill the. pressure from political polls: >> we might lose some on their face. they are definitely going to lose some on their fringe. the can he do we have enough to get it done? i really think we might. >> house speaker mike johnson is as anxious as anyone to see the plan. >> the devil is in the details. we will check it out. i'm not prejudging anything. i have told them the necessary elements of hr 2 are what are required to get control of the border. >> senate negotiators promised bill text by today. but now we're told not today. again, bret? >> bret: hey, chad, on anesthetics. >> bret: we knew this was coming at some point. there were a lot of vocal people up there. we had two senators on the show tonight. going in to this, was there debate on capitol hill whether

this should. >> there has been a lot of debate over the last couple of weeks. under the constitution congress has the right to declare war, article one, section 6 of the constitution: executive branch article of the constitution. will president can pretty much go and what he wants. this is going to be a shoving match here on capitol hill. you are going to hear about this, you were hearing about this before these strikes, that's going to be amped up. >> right now no strikes inside. one would think or at least it's been called; i talk to lindsey graham republican senator from south carolina today. answered he specifically called for hitting iran's revolutionary guard and hitting their oil infrastructure. >> bret: chad pergram live on capitol hill. chad, thanks. >> with the biden administration so clearly telegraphing this to iran and the proxy groups

throughout the region, it has given them an opportunity to move their people. we're conducting strikes that ultimately will prove not only ineffective, but, in fact, give our enemy some idea of how we intend to conduct operations in the future. >> these targets were carefully selected to avoid civilian casualties and based on a clear irreputable evidence that they were connected to attacks on u.s. personnel in the region. the department of defense is in the early stages of battle damage assessment. but we believe that the strikes were successful. we do not know at this time if or how many militants may have been killed or wounded. all u.s. aircraft are now out of harm's way. >> bret: 85 targets, 125 precision munitions. let's bring in our panel about these strikes tonight. fox news chief legal correspondent, anchor of "fox news sunday" shannon bream.

byron york chief political correspondent of "the washington examiner" and susan page washington bureau chief at "u.s.a. today" and also want to bring in chief national security correspondent jennifer griffin at the pentagon. jennifer, i want to start with you. you have been gathering stuff all day. is there anything else that has transcribed over this hour? we heard general keane weigh in on the strategic significance. anything from your post there. >> i think it's interesting. we have now learned that the u.s. navy was not involved in these strikes. we know that the u.s. navy has many assets in the region, including the u.s. aircraft carrier the uss eisenhower as well as a number of destroyers. so, it's notable that this was an air force led set of strikes that struck three times at three places in iraq and four places in syria. so i think that's of note. but, again, this is just the first night. i would expect more targets and dones of more strikes tomorrow night.

>> bret: jen, i heard senator warner freelance operators in some of these proxy groups. inside the pentagon, inside intel, don't they kind of give a hat tip that everybody is sort of connected to iran? definitely funded directly. >> well, certainly funded. certainly the weapons come from iran. certainly they couldn't really operate at the level they have been operating at, without the help from iran. that being said, if you look at the houthis in yemen, they have always been a slightly unruly bunch, and the command and control and the direct command and control from iran has always been a little bit sketchy, you know, the iranians can turn these groups on. it's not so easy at times for them to turn them off. in iraq and syria. i think they have more control because they have irgc commanders who have been embedded with them on the ground. i think many of those comearnts left back to iran in these recent days as, again, we have reported that it's been telephone graphed that these strikes would be coming.

>> bret: yeah, irgc, iran's revolutionary guard corps. >> this is the statement from defense secretary austin earlier, quote: this is the start of our response. the president has directed additional actions to hold the irgc and affiliated militias accountable for their attacks on u.s. and coalition forces. these will unfold at times and places of our choosing. we do not seek in the middle east or elsewhere -- anywhere else. buff the president -- do not seek conflict in the middle east or anywhere else, but the president and i will not tolerate attacks on american forces. >> bret, i think it's also really interesting to point out that they used the bsb bomber that flew nonstop from the united states to the middle east. refueled in mid-air. there's no other country in the world that has a military that can do that. >> bret: that's very true. shannon, we knew this was coming. it's not a surprise. maybe the amount of targets are the surprise. we haven't heard all of the battle damage assessment yet. but it will be interesting to

see if this is the deterrence that they're looking for. >> all the information we gotten ahead of time signals from the administration that this would be longer. this wouldn't be a single strike or single set of strikes. this is going to be more complicated than that everything in that region is complicated because, think about iran, even over the last couple of years, how much closer their relationships with both russia and china have gotten. we saw, you know, iranian leaders visiting with putin, gripping and grinning essentially for the cameras. before that they were visiting in china as well and president xi had gone to riyadh. they had talked about all of these agreements they have together and all of the connections they have. and you have to wonder now if things heat up in that region how those relationships come to play as well. >> bret: susan, it's interesting that the middle east is quiet, as far as reaction. it's overnight now. but, i think they all saw it coming as well. strength pays defenders in the middle east. and they knew once u.s. soldiers died that there was going to be some response. >> absolutely. it changed the -- it changed the

need for a response for a more forceful response from the united states. it's a little early to assess whether this response is strong enough or not. we only had one day of it. we know there are going to be more days, maybe more weeks of this. so, we will see however the biden administration is willing to go to punish the people who were responsible for the deaths of those three americans. >> bret: we always put it through the prism of politics. we are in washington in an election year. do you think that this effects any of that? >> sure. the president has gotten low ratings on handling foreign policy. we know that from polling. his ratings for handling the middle east is pretty low. there has been some dissatisfaction, including in the democratic base how he has handled the situation between israel and hamas. and this is part of that larger conflict. >> this is a chance for this to either get worse for president biden or for him to show a forceful response that pays off

in deterrence from these attacks that american forces have been suffering in the last few months. >> bret: byron? >> i think the immediate response has been a little subdued because it's an ongoing operation. and we don't know how big it's going to be. we don't know how successful it's going to be. but, certainly, republicans have been extremely critical of the retaliation that biden has undertaken so far against the 150-plus attacks from the houthi. and it's felt they have been completely inadequate. i do think in the end it may be that republicans and democrats just have very different ideas in this situation of what constitutes appropriate retaliation. in january of 2020, when trump assassinated kassem soleimani, joe biden who was running for president then, called a hugely escalatory move and said that trump had just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinder box. and now if you talk to any

republican about this, the first thing they are going to mention is trump getting soleimani. so, biden is just not going to do something like that. i think we will still see a pretty stark political line reacting to this. >> bret: here's dan hoffman, his reflections of dealing with the irgc before. >> after a u.s. contractor was killed in baghdad in late 2019, the trump administration targeted the irgc commander, kassem soleimani at the baghdad international airport, and that restored deterrence, at least for a period of time. but this has been a challenge for us going back to the irgc directed attacks against the marine embassy barracks and beirut embassy back 40 years ago. >> bret: it's not like they have been stopped in their wish to help terrorist groups or to stir the pot in the middle east. >> you know the critics of president biden will say he ran on foreign policy. that was

going to be his big addition to the white house. he had those decades of experience. yet, the disastrous fallout of afghanistan that cost 13 american lives. that's on his record now, the left is asking is he going to be out there starting a new unwinnable war in a place that has no resolution which is the middle east, he's not going to want that on his record, either. yeah, again, we don't know what the fallout from this is going to be or how long it's going to last, susan. will he have support up on capitol hill from his own party in this? >> i think they will be mixed. democrats will be divided on this. i think republican also probably be quite critical regardless of what happens, but the administration has been pretty clear to the -- to the delight -- to the support of some and to the dismay of others that they do not want to spark a larger war in the region. they do not want to have a war with iran. the question is can you deter these iranian proxy groups without taking on iran more

directly and that may be the fundamental lesson we need to find out in the coming weeks. >> bret: okay. i think we have a statement from speaker johnson on this. yeah. here it is. and it says, unfortunately the administration waited for a week and tell graphed to the world, including to iran, the nature of our response. it goes on to say public handwringing and excessive signaling undercuts our ability to put a decisive end to the barrage of attacks endured over the past few months. that is the -- kind of the flavor of all of the criticism we heard that from mike mccaul of house foreign affairs and other republicans. tom cotton on this show. >> yeah, you are going to hear more about that. tom cotton also mentioned ronald reagan in 1988. >> bret: a couple times. >> sinking half the iranian navy in response to iranian attack on the united states. so, let's just say the speaker is not all that subdued. is he not being totally subdued.

a lot of republicans are not. and you go back to republicans who will often point out that what robert gates said about joe biden. he had been essentially wrong on every single foreign policy question the past 40 years. they are not going to approve of this. >> bret: you know what's interesting is the dynamic between, you know, republican saying it needs to be more forceful and send bigger message. needs to be the u.s. projecting in the world. at the same time that this supplemental bill that has funding for ukraine, funding for israel, funding for taiwan as well as the border situation is getting thwarted for the most part by conservatives, including former president trump. >> yeah. teased perfectly one of the guests i have on "fox news sunday." senator lindsey graham who has for months he sat right there during "fox news sunday" said months ago we should be taking out iran's infrastructure. that's what we should be doing. a lot of people thought it was very incendiary then. 150 plus attacks later, he has

got some others coming along with him on that thought. he will be with us to talk about that as he has really pushed this border deal. needs to come together. he has also pushed for wanting that money for ukraine. he says it's the best time to get leverage to get them both together. >> bret: that dichotomy is interesting. ukraine what we are dealing with now. >> republican also not be divided on criticizing joe biden for what he is doing now in this region. republicans are deeply divided about the u.s. role in the world. and you have to go only to the base of the republican party to donald trump to see reluctance to take that more muscular role that republicans, traditional republicans. >> bret: panel thank you so much for breaking news night. as mentioned earlier. president biden attended the dignified transfer of the three american soldiers killed in the drone attack that led to today's retaliatory strikes in iraq and syria. all from georgia. 46-year-old sergeant william

rivers, 24-year-old sergeant sanders. 23-year-old sergeant breonna moffett. president biden and first lady jill biden met with the families of the fallen for more than an hour ahead of that dignified transfer at the dover air force base in delaware. 41 u.s. service members were injured in that drone attack earlier this week. it's important to remember that as well. three have been transferred to landstuhl military hospital in germany. one is in critical condition tonight. but stable. 14 have not returned to duty. thanks for watching this breaking news on "special report." we have got you covered on all things about this strike and all things here in washington and around the world. thank you for inviting us into your home tonight. that's it for this "special report," fair, balanced and unafraid. "the ingraham angle" is now. >> laura: good evening, everyone. i'm laura ingraham. this is "the ingraham angle." thank you for join